Don't mind me, just condensed 3 chapters of battles into one chapter by rewriting the entire thing.

3rd person POV
The plan was simple: the five couldn't beat Herobrine, so all they had to do was distract him enough to get the potion on the stone, and then they could get out of there. But as they charged towards the figure, Zip already starting to head to the side, he tapped his back foot against the ground and the podium with the stone on it sank into the wall behind it, disappearing. As their steps faltered, Herobrine grinned and charged forward himself, his two swords coming up to an offensive position.

Alex brought his bow up and fired two arrows at Herobrine in quick succession. Without any hesitation in his stride, Herobrine spun his swords and the two arrows ricocheted off and fell harmlessly to the ground. With fluid movements that almost made Zip envious, he sidestepped Tim's overhead axe stroke, striking his ribs with the hilt of one sword while deflecting Luke's sword to the side.

His other sword went to slice at the younger twin but Jade intercepted the stroke. Herobrine's leg flicked out, first at Tim behind him, then at Jade, disengaging their swords before he spun again to Luke, one sword locking with the boy's while his other swung for his neck.

By then Zip had jumped in and she caught the second sword, shoving Herobrine back. She went on the attack, trying to be as unpredictable as she could while trying to predict what Herobrine was going to do before he did it. He moved fast and his movements were controlled and Zip struggled to keep both his swords at bay.

Alex couldn't fire his bow for fear of hitting Zip but Tim had no such hesitations. He charged in, his axe sweeping for Herobrine's side. It split the air where Zip had been a moment earlier and hit Herobrine, who had only just avoided the blade in time to get nothing worse than a thin red line across his stomach. Instantly he jumped forward again, his sword going for Tim's throat until Zip caught it and flicked it away before Herobrine's fist collected her cheek. Momentarily blinded by the pain, Zip didn't see his foot coming until Herobrine's kick had thrown her away, sprawling onto the floor.

Her vision was blurred and she blinked her eyes, wobbling as she slowly stood up. Colours that she knew to be her friends darted around in front of her until they moved rapidly away. She rubbed her eyes and blinked them more, her vision clearing. Her heart rate increased and her eyes widened when she realised what had happened. Everyone was at various stages from getting up from the cold ground while Herobrine stood alone in the centre of the room, the edges of his swords slightly stained with blood and a twisted smile on his face.

"How...?" she breathed to herself. Even a master swordsman couldn't stand against five people all attacking at once for more than a minute and yet Herobrine had somehow survived for several minutes with nothing more than a thin red line across his stomach.

He saw her shocked face and must have guessed what she was thinking because his grin became a sneer. "Surprised?" he chuckled, raising one eyebrow.

"No one can survive being attacked by several people at once," Zip said slowly.

"I'm not 'normal'," Herobrine said calmly. "I've been fighting for longer than your civilisation has existed."

"Meaning...?" Luke asked hesitantly.

"Meaning that if you want to live...."

Herobrine's voice died away as his gaze became fixed on something behind Zip, to her left. His grin disappeared and he gripped his swords tighter.

"Come back to 'finish what you started' I suppose?" he growled.

Zip spun around and saw Fury coming out of a thin door that had been almost invisible in the wall. Her expression was practically murderous as she stepped out of the doorway, her gaze fixed on Herobrine. Her right hand held one of her swords and she took off her backpack with her left, leaving it on the ground before drawing her second sword and walking to Zip's side. Herobrine's eyebrows flicked up for a moment and then his smirk came back.

"Trying to be intimidating?" he asked mockingly.

"Are you feeling intimidated?" Fury shot back.

Herobrine's smirk didn't fade as he cast his eyes over the group of friends, all with their weapons raised and ready.

"It's amusing," he chuckled. "You can't kill me and you can't get to the stone without me."

"Who says we have to kill you?" Tim asked.

"What stone?" Fury whispered to Zip as Herobrine answered Tim.

"The source of the curse," Zip whispered back. "It's a stone on a podium, but it sank into the back wall over there. We need to get it out to reverse the curse."

"Brilliant," Fury muttered.

Then she sprinted forward, one sword going back while the other moved forward. The sudden footsteps alerted the white-eyed myth and he spun around in mid-sentence, his swords moving to block Fury's attack but she dodged them, rolling to the side as her swords lashed out at his feet, forcing Herobrine to jump up and back. Zip was half a second behind her, her single sword moving in precise jabs.

Luke and Jade dashed in as Fury rolled out of Herobrine's reach, both of their swords moving at the same time to strike the myth. He rapidly retreated, flicking away Zip and Jade's strikes but he hissed as Luke's sword cut his right arm.

Fury waited back, watching as Zip, Luke, Tim and Jade took turns in attacking Herobrine. She glanced behind her at the wall that the stone had disappeared into, trying to figure out how to get it back out. If it 'sank' into the wall, then there must be a door of some kind. All they had to do was open it. She saw Alex standing with an arrow loaded to his bow, eyeing the fight. Jade cried out in pain and Fury's head flicked back to the battle, seeing Jade falling to the ground with one of Herobrine's swords deep in his leg. Luke instantly dropped his sword and dragged Jade out of harm's way, leaving only Zip and Tim to defend against Herobrine. Quickly reaching a decision, Fury ran up to Alex who was shifting from foot to foot, eager to do something.

"Go and see if you can open the door," she said rapidly, pointing to the wall.

Without waiting to see if he had understood, she ran back at Herobrine who had picked up Luke's abandoned sword, her own swords creating small circles in the air until she moved them rapidly, deflecting his strike at Tim with one and thrusting with the other. Herobrine dropped to the ground, both his swords moving rapidly in a circle. Fury flipped up and backwards, landing nimbly on her feet just in time to see Herobrine's foot connect with Zip's chest, sending her stumbling away, clutching her ribs.

Instantly, Fury ran forward again, her swords humming a deadly song. Her swords clashed on his repeatedly as she fought the only way that she knew how; using every part of the sword, every part of her body, making fast, controlled movements that were as unpredictable as the weather in the forests where she had grown up. Her reactions were almost as fast as Herobrine's but she could already feel herself being tired.

Zip rose slowly as the two fought, Tim hovering close by to help Fury with the crushing blows of his axe. She could see the two becoming tired, but to her delight, Herobrine was also beginning to show signs of fatigue. She glanced to her right and saw Alex running his hands over the wall as if looking for something. Ahead of her, Luke was tying a strip of cloth from his jumper around Jade's thigh, Herobrine's bloodied sword lying on the ground beside them.

Zip dashed over to them, taking out the precious potion from her pocket as she did so. Miraculously, it was unbroken. The twins looked up as she skid to a stop beside them.

"Can you stand Jade?" she asked rapidly.

Jade nodded and as Luke helped him to stand, Zip told them "Go and help Alex, I think he's looking for a way to reach the stone. Hold this." She gave the bottle to Luke and ran back to the fight, collecting her sword from the ground where she had fallen.

"Tim, trade!" Zip said, catching one of Herobrine's swords before it added to a cut on Fury's left arm and joining the fight as Tim stepped back, his breaths coming in gasps.

The two girls attacked Herobrine like a coordinated whirlwind, fighting as if they had been training together for years. Yet they were tiring faster than Herobrine was and the fight was going south. Fury's mind was racing. Herobrine was trained to fight anything, he was much more experienced than all of them combined. She needed something different, something new. And she had just the thing.

She ducked under Herobrine's sword and stepped back, Tim taking her place. She ran to her backpack that she had cast on the floor - sheathing one of her swords as she did so - and swiftly opened the big pocket, taking out three flat pieces and clipping them together so that they formed a slightly curved shape with sharp metal-plated sides. She had only used a weapon like this a few times before and she was praying that she could use it properly now.

She sprinted back to the battle, turning backwards and throwing the weapon in the air before swinging one sword at Herobrine's side and drawing the other. As she fought, she kept an eye on her weapon as it spun in a circle around the room, slowly curving back to her. Tim's axe became lodged in the ground and he was thrown away with a fast kick from Herobrine, his chest bleeding from a large cut. Zip's returning strike was hampered by her injured chest and she followed Tim on the floor.

That left Fury, her back turned to her spinning weapon to block it from Herobrine's view, fighting for her life until, finally, flipping up and back, over the weapon as it rushed towards Herobrine, impaling itself deep into his right arm. He gave a brief grunt of pain and took several steps back, his right arm hanging limp. Fury stood panting, desperately recovering her breath while Herobrine sheathed the sword in his left hand and pulled out the curved weapon.

"What is this?" he growled, his soulless eyes fixed on Fury.

"It's called a boomerang," she replied shortly.

Herobrine narrowed his eyes at her and sheathed his other sword, grunting slightly as he moved his arm. Then he took the boomerang in both hands, snapped it in half and threw it away. Fury's eyes followed it and then she glared at Herobrine, her fists clenching tight. He grinned and drew his and Luke's swords.

"Come on then."

"Got it!"

Herobrine and Fury both looked at Jade's call and saw Luke and Alex pulling open part of the back wall, revealing the pulsing stone that sat behind it. In one of his hands, Luke held the glowing potion and he started to step towards the stone. Out of the corner of her eye, Fury saw Herobrine's hand move up and then down and a flash of blue flew from his hand, spinning directly at Luke. Jade called a warning and tried to push his brother out of the way, but his leg collapsed from underneath him and he could do nothing but watch as the scene unfolded before him in slow motion.

Luke turned around, the potion held in his hand, saw the incoming danger just as the sword struck his chest, burying itself deep inside him, killing him instantly. He dropped like a rag doll to the ground, the potion falling from his hand and into Jade's outstretched arm.

As soon as Fury realised what had happened, she launched herself at Herobrine, all fatigue forgotten. Tim and Zip, injured though they were, did the same, pressing Herobrine back as he tried to hold them off with only one sword. Jade lay where he was, staring at his brother's body, the potion cradled in his hand. He felt Alex put his hand on his shoulder, but his words were mumbled and Jade barely noticed when the normally quiet boy took the potion from his hand.

Trying to still his shaking hands, Alex uncapped the bottle, silently praying that this would work, and carefully tipped the liquid onto the colourful stone. Nothing happened. But as the last drop splattered onto the rock, the colours suddenly flickered and the stone started to crack. A large, low rumbling sound echoed through the whole room and the ground began to shake, dust falling from the ceiling. The white flames of the torches flickered and sputtered.

"The castle's collapsing!" Alex yelled, realising what was happening.

"Let's go!" Zip panted.

Alex gently picked up Jade who was still numbing with shock, staring at the sword that impaled Luke's body. He didn't acknowledge Alex's words to him but he mumbled his brother's name as Alex started to pull him away.

"We can't bring him with us, Jade," Alex said, tears in his eyes. "If we do, we'll die as well. We have to get out of here before the castle collapses on us."

Parts of the roof were beginning to fall to the ground and the rumbling grew louder and louder as the stone shattered into thousands of deadly shards. Fury caught Herobrine's sword blade and thrust her sword deep into his leg, withdrawing it with a twist. The man gave a muffled gasp of pain and his leg collapsed from under him. Tim and Zip were already running to the door with Alex pulling Jade along behind them. Fury dashed over to her backpack and slung it on her back before also sprinting to the door.

"Are you just going to leave me here to die?!" Herobrine roared after them, unable to stand.

Fury stopped and glanced back. The cuts on her arm and face stung as she looked back at the figure lying on the ground, his leg gushing blood along with his arm. She felt no remorse as she said to him "You killed my brother. I'm just returning the favour". Then she followed her friends out of the castle, shutting her last sight of the figure from her mind.

Chapters in original book: 32, 33 and 34