Читать книгу Book Three: Part 2 Herobrine’s Message - Sean Wolfe Fay - Страница 11

Although the Wither’s assault on the outer walls of Element City was nearly a week in the past, the fires continued to blaze on. There were still piles of loose stone-block rubble scattered around the perimeter of where the proud wall used to stand. The remnants of pistons and mechanisms scattered the ground, forming a barrier of rubble that served as a border to the city in its own right. Although the buildings adjacent to the wall within the city had taken some damage through the invasion and the subsequent fighting between the two armies, the outside of the wall had fared far worse.

A plain of stone and dirt blocks extended around what had once been the outer wall, expanding far out of sight until it finally connected to the untouched forest. This battlefield, blasted far below ground level by TNT cannons, still bore the scars of the fights that had raged at the wall for so long, and the four players who were now trekking through the silent plain had to avoid craters, blazing fires and arrows stuck in the ground as they continued to hike hastily away from Element City.

The four members of ELM did not speak. Since they had watched Lord Tenebris strike down their comrade and then threaten to do the same to them, they hadn’t stopped moving, running through the streets of Element City until their legs ached. They continued to walk until, at last, they reached the outer wall. Crossing the threshold of the city into the war-torn biome beyond, the four mobhunters saw no reason to stop walking. After all, they had nowhere to go. It wasn’t like they were aiming for anywhere in particular.

After trekking across hundreds of blocks of stone, the mobhunters finally reached a steep incline of dirt blocks, atop which sat the forest. Upon reaching the hill, they didn’t break stride, opting instead to make their way up the hill using the path of least resistance, occasionally punching dirt blocks out of the way.

Arachnia reached the top first, and she turned around to watch her team scale the incline behind her. One look at their faces and Arachnia knew that it was time to take a rest. She jerked her head over to a clearing a way into the forest, and without speaking, they walked over and proceeded to pull an assortment of spare blocks from their inventories to set up camp for the night. Creeper Khan placed a Netherrack block in the centre of the clearing and stretched his hand out over it. A tiny explosion erupted in midair, just grazing the block enough that it caught fire.

The four players huddled around the makeshift campfire, and Arachnia reached into her inventory, a sombre expression on her face that was reflected by the other members of ELM. She extracted four bottles, which were filled with liquid. She was a bit disappointed that water was all they had, but it was better than nothing. The bottles were distributed around the fire in silence. As soon as everybody had one, Arachnia raised her bottle into the air. The others followed, and she took a deep breath, and let it out.

“To Zomboy,” she whispered.

“To Zomboy,” Creeper Khan and Enderchick mumbled in response, and Lord Marrow gave a grave nod of the head. The four glass bottles tilted back, and within a moment, all the water had drained. With nothing left in the capsules, the four remaining members of ELM bowed their heads in respect and pitched their bottles into the fire. The items burst into flames and disappeared an instant later, sending a shower of sparks into the sky.

“I still can’t believe that he’s, like, actually gone,” Enderchick sighed, staring into the fire.

“Yeah,” Creeper Khan grunted. “I mean, the guy got under my skin like nothing else, but it’s hard to think that he’s dead.”

“Well, it’s true,” Arachnia replied, and the three other mobhunters looked up at her. “Zomboy is dead, and we’ve officially failed our biggest job ever.”

There was a moment of silence as the four mobhunters let those facts sink in, the fire crackling and blazing in the background. Finally, Creeper Khan spoke.

“So … what’re we gonna do now? We can’t stick around here. You couldn’t pay me to mess around with someone that powerful. Do we go back out into the desert?”

“Oh please, you can’t be serious,” Enderchick laughed darkly. “After losing a job that was, like, this big? We’d be total losers. There’s no way I’m going back to that dump.”

“Then there’s only one thing to do,” Arachnia replied.

“What?”

“We’re gonna capture Stan2012 ourselves.”

Enderchick and Creeper Khan stared at her, eyes wide, as if she’d gone insane. Even Lord Marrow, who was leaning against a nearby tree and examining his bow, looked up in surprise.

“Uh … scusi?” Enderchick asked softly.

“Did I stutter?” Arachnia scoffed, standing up and looking down at her accomplices.

“Oh come on, Arachnia. You can’t really—”

“Shut up!” she spat, causing Creeper Khan to growl in anger as she began to rant.

“We have put so much time and effort into finding this player. We’ve travelled all across the server. We’ve slept in caves and swamps, we’ve had to fight against some of the most skilled players in Elementia, and now we’ve lost Zomboy. Enderchick is right, there’s no way that we can show our faces in the desert with any dignity without completing this mission, but it’s become more than that. Drake sent us out on a mission, guys … and with everything that we’ve put into it, there’s no way that I’m gonna back out now.”

Arachnia’s eyes were blazing with a fiery passion, and she spoke with such earnest fervour that the other three mobhunters couldn’t help but realize that what she was saying was true.

“Now that you mention it … I was forced to sleep for, like, an entire week in a disgusting, icky, slimy suh-wamp,” Enderchick groaned, shuddering in disgust at the memory before standing up alongside her leader. “It would be, like, a total shame if all of that was for, like, nothing. I’m with ya, girl – we’ve gotta find Stan.”

“All right!” bellowed Creeper Khan, leaping onto his feet and pumping his blocky fist. “Let’s show Drake who’s in charge!”

As the three other mobhunters converged to develop a strategy for finding and capturing Stan, Lord Marrow looked towards them. He surveyed them for a moment, as they schemed away with zealous enthusiasm, bloodlust and vengeance in their voices. Then, he looked at the ground, shook his head in sadness, and went back to inspecting his bow.

“Take this!” Stan screamed, launching his fist in Sally’s direction.

Quick as a whip, she feinted to the side, causing the energy blast to hit the dirt blocks below in a massive explosion. Unfazed, Stan started throwing a blitz of rapid jabs, as Sally gracefully dodged the energy shots blasting the ground to rubble below her and started to fly directly towards Stan, weaving between his blows as she did so. Stan realized what she was doing, and summoned an axe to his hand. Sally somersaulted forwards through the air, her sword slices turning the space around her into a globe of death as she rammed into Stan. With expert skill, he manoeuvered his axe with incredible speed, blocking every sword attack she threw at him. However, he was totally unprepared when she delivered two final uppercuts, which left his stomach exposed and allowed her to combo into a kick.

The force of her foot on his stomach sent Stan tumbling backwards, causing him to hit the ground so hard that he loosened the dirt blocks around him. Aware that he was in massive pain, Stan focussed all his energy on feeling better. In an instant, he was healed, just in time to see Sally rocketing down towards him, sword outstretched and ready to deliver the final blow.

A split second before Sally’s sword could impale him, Stan teleported to the side, causing Sally’s diamond sword to plunge deep into the ground. Stan reappeared beside her, and used the brief moment of disorientation to launch a punch into her side. She flew through the air but landed safely on all fours, sliding across the dirt blocks in a trail of dust. Stan took a moment to catch his breath, and watched as her eyes, burning with determination, locked on to him for just a moment before she disappeared in midair.

The back of Stan’s neck quivered in anticipation, and he spun around to counter the sword strike that Sally had launched from behind. As the two blades ground together, sparks flying from the point of contact, Stan and Sally both teleported at the same time. The duo warped through the air again and again, each desperately trying to outdo the other, but equally matched and continuously locked together. Before long, both realized that their efforts were futile and, in one motion, they pressed into the other’s weapon, sending them flying apart. Stan and Sally teleported backwards and simply hovered in midair.

Both players were staring each other down and breathing heavily. They each had a smile on their face that was one part exhilaration, one part frustration and one part admiration.

“I gotta say, Stan, I’m impressed,” Sally panted, giving a quick laugh as she tried to catch her breath. “I’ve taught you well.”

“Well, every good student will one day surpass their master, Sal,” Stan said with a devious grin. “And you’re about to realize that right … now!”

And with that, Stan stretched out his hand and sent a volley of fireballs from his palm towards Sally. This is his grand finale? She snickered to herself as she lazily raised her hand, conjuring a wall of bedrock to block the fireballs, which proceeded to hit the blocks and dissipate. However, without warning, Sally found that more and more bedrock blocks were appearing all around her, and before she could react, she found herself totally covered, unable to breathe and nearly unable to move.

Stan lowered his hand, looked at the cube of bedrock floating in the air away from him and laughed out loud. Ha. He smirked. She can’t survive in there for long … I’ll be seeing her respawn on the ground any second now …

“I must admit, Stan,” a voice rang out inside Stan’s head, “that you managed to catch me off guard. You truly have become an operator worthy of the title. However … if I were you … I wouldn’t count your chickens before they’re … hatched!”

As she shouted, a roar rang out through the server as the sky turned black, an evil, terrifying roar that resembled the cries of the Enderman, elephant and T-Rex all rolled into one. Stan recognized the roar, and gave an involuntary shudder as he realized what was about to happen. Then, the bedrock cube exploded, blocks flying everywhere as a giant pair of black wings opened wide, propelling a giant dragon, with a black hide and a silver exoskeleton, into the air. As the Ender Dragon rose higher and higher into the sky with each beat of its mighty wings, Stan could only watch in stunned silence.

Aw, he thought to himself bitterly. Why didn’t I think of that?

Underneath the rising dragon, Sally floated in midair, her hand pointed up towards the dragon and a wide grin on her face. She turned to face Stan, and their eyes locked for a moment. Then, Sally swung her hand forwards, and the dragon took off like a jet plane, rocketing at top speed towards Stan.

Stan warped to the side, only to have the dragon make a tight U-turn and be on him again in seconds. Shocked, Stan warped again, axe raised and ready to assault the dragon, but the great black beast whipped its head to the side quicker than Stan could react, and he just barely managed to avoid a snap of its powerful jaw.

Stan was floored. This Ender Dragon was, for whatever reason, much more aggressive than the one he had fought in The End all those months ago. Stan continued to warp backwards and out of range of the dragon’s claws and teeth, sending dozens of fireballs from his hands, which peppered the dragon’s face with miniature explosions. Nonetheless, the dragon didn’t slow down, and Stan knew that it was only a matter of time before the monster landed a hit on him.

Suddenly, Stan had an idea. He warped away from the dragon (seeing Sally enjoying the show from a distance out of the corner of his eye) and, as it proceeded to speed towards him, he focussed with all his might until a giant white mob appeared in midair in front of him. Stan warped to the side as the dragon collided with the Ghast in a flurry of shrieks, wails, roars and explosions. Wasting no time, he proceeded to turn and face Sally, and reach his hand out towards her.

All at once, Sally felt herself unable to move. She focussed as hard as she could on warping away, but she couldn’t. She looked down in shock as Stan drew his hand slowly towards himself and, without warning, Sally rocketed towards him. A scream of surprise escaped her mouth as Stan dropped his axe to the ground below him and summoned a diamond sword, glowing red with enchanted heat, outstretched in his hand. Sally flew towards him, unable to do a thing about it as she collided with his sword, the blade impaling her through the chest and her body disappearing the instant the blade stuck through her back.

With his sparring match now over, Stan turned to face the dragon. The great monster was still recovering from its run-in with the Ghast, and it seemed out of sorts. Formulating a plan instantly, Stan proceeded to fly at top speed towards the dragon, sword outstretched beside him. As he flew past the dragon, the sword grazed the black hide, leaving a flaming cut on the monster’s side, causing it to cry in agony. Not checking his speed at all, Stan proceeded to warp again, right next to the dragon, and landed another blow.

Stan rocketed around the dragon like a bug, repeatedly warping around it and dragging his sword across until the Ender Dragon was completely covered in trails of flame. Sensing that the Dragon was weak enough to finish, Stan proceeded to teleport directly under the monster and, aiming skywards, he stretched his sword out in front of him and burst through the dragon’s neck swordfirst, leaving a large, gaping hole.

He took a deep breath and looked down at the dragon. The monster was frozen in midair. Stan watched as rays of light erupted from within the Ender Dragon until, finally, the monster exploded in a beautiful burst of light.

“Well done, noob,” Sally smirked, applauding Stan as he levitated downwards and landed next to Sally with the crunch of dirt block underfoot. “I admit it, I got too cocky. You fully deserve that victory.”

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Stan replied smugly, a self-indulgent smile wide on his face. “That was a good warm-up. What’ve you got to show me today?”

Sally smiled and shook her head. “There’s nothing else to show you, noob. Your training is complete.”

Stan did a double take, and then stared at Sally, mouth hanging slightly open. “Are you … are you serious?”

“Come on, noob, when am I not?” Sally replied again, conjuring a wool block beneath her and plopping down on it. “We’ve been working at it for weeks now, and I’ve finally shown you everything that I know. Ha … You know, I remember back when you really were just a noob … walking into the Adorian Village, training with me and the guys, and heading off to Element City for the first time. And look at you now. You’re an operator, Stan.”

An overwhelming feeling crashed over Stan. He didn’t know how to describe it – it wasn’t sad, but it certainly wasn’t happy, either. It was as if, in that moment, the entire weight of how far he’d come crashed down on him like an avalanche. He remembered all that he’d learned … all the people he’d come to know … all those he’d lost … and all that he had left to do.

“Sally,” Stan said, turning around to look at his teacher. “Do you … do you really think that I’m going to be able to beat Lord Tenebris?”

“You know, Stan, that’s something that’s really bothered me,” Sally spat out in annoyance. “You know who Lord Tenebris really is. And you know what he’s doing to Elementia, and thousands of other Minecraft servers, as we speak. He’s the most evil and destructive force that Minecraft has ever faced, so the least you can do is call him by his real name.”

Stan shuddered. It was true. He, along with the rest of his friends, had avoided calling Lord Tenebris by his true name. It just seemed that if they didn’t say it, they wouldn’t have to face it. They wouldn’t have to face the reality of what they were going up against, what they had to destroy. Stan took a deep breath and spoke again.

“Fine. Sally, do you think that I’m going to be able to defeat Herobrine?”

Sally looked at the grass-block ground for a moment, and then looked up at him, an earnest look in her eyes.

“Stan, do you want my one-hundred-percent honest answer?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know. I have no idea whether or not you’re going to be able to beat Herobrine. I mean … something that has the ability to steal energy from the game of Minecraft itself … to put thousands of servers at risk … just to make itself stronger? If he can do that, then I can only guess what he’s fully capable of, and I’m not sure if you’re going to be able to defeat him, even if I do somehow manage to hack operating powers onto you in Elementia.”

Stan felt like the air was being drained from his lungs, and he was forced to conjure a block below himself and sit. It hadn’t even occurred to him that he probably wouldn’t be able to get operating powers in Elementia at all … and that he was more than likely going to have to fight Herobrine without any aid, armed with only an axe. The Elementia Army had no plan to defeat Herobrine – in all their strategy talks, they had treated Herobrine like the elephant in the room. Nobody was willing to bring him up, terrified by the prospect of what he might be able to do. If Stan didn’t get operating powers … they were all doomed. And even if he did …

“But I’ll tell you one more thing, noob.” Stan turned to face Sally, who was giving him an encouraging smile.

“If I had to pick anybody in Elementia to fight Herobrine, then I’d choose you in a heartbeat.”

Stan smiled. For a while, they simply looked at each other. Nothing was said. Nothing was done. They just stared into each other’s eyes, taking in the immense respect that they shared. Before long, though, Stan stood up.

“Well, I’d better go now. The tunnellers are probably under the Adorian Village by now, and they’ll be getting ready for the attack.”

Sally nodded. “Good luck, noob. I may not be sure if you can take down Herobrine, but I have no doubt at all that you’ll be able to take back my hometown.”

Stan gave a laugh as he nodded in agreement, but then, his face hardened. Stan focussed, and once again, the words flashed in his mind.

DISCONNECT FROM SERVER?

“Yes.”

“The preparations for the attack are all ready, sir,” Sirus reported, standing in full salute and sounding official. “We’re directly underneath the main street of the Adorian Village, and we’re all ready to, you know, totally blow our way in and take out all the Noctem soldiers by surprise. Haha, they won’t know what hit them!”

“Thank you, Sirus,” Bob replied, nodding his thanks. “Please go and prepare the troops for the assault. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Sirus nodded and took off as Bob turned to his brother, who was sitting next to him alongside all the other Elementia leaders in the base of the cave. “Come on, Ben,” he said, commanding Ivanhoe to walk away from the circle. “Let’s inspect the troops. And get ready, guys, we’re gonna launch the assault as soon as Stan gets back.”

Bob and Ivanhoe walked away from the circle of players and towards a mass of troops further down the tunnel. Ben followed them. Leonidas watched them go and looked around.

This cave wasn’t a natural mine that had been expanded, like the bunker beneath Element City had been. This was a square-shaped tunnel, carved through the stone block underground by hundreds of miners, desperately digging as fast as possible to avoid the encroaching Wither that was blasting its way in, with Noctem troops not far behind. About twenty troops had stayed behind in the bunker to man the redstone traps that had been set up, and although the Noctems hadn’t followed them into the tunnel they had dug out of the cave, they hadn’t heard back from the troops either.

Leonidas, lost in his train of thought, suddenly realized that everybody was looking at something. He followed their line of vision and saw that everybody was staring at Sirus, who was conversing with the two police chiefs in his jittery fashion.

“I still can’t believe that he’s alive,” Kat said.

“I still don’t completely understand that,” Cassandrix said, turning to face Kat. “Could you please explain to me what happened to him? And why everybody finds this so amazing?”

Kat was quite pleased to find that Cassandrix was talking to her in a civil manner. Although Kat tried to be pleasant towards her, Cassandrix only returned the attitude half the time, while reverting to her snappy, unbearable personality the rest of the time. Kat was glad to see that, today at least, she was being agreeable, and answered her question.

“You see, Cassandrix, Sirus was our redstone engineer during the Battle for Elementia, when we first took down King Kev. That was back before the Mechanist joined us.”

Hearing his name, the Mechanist looked up, revealing his tired and stressed face for a moment before returning to the book he was reading.

“Anyway, a lot of players died in that battle, and he was one of them. And even though none of us saw it, one of our friends named Archie said that he saw Sirus get killed in battle. Apparently, it happened right as the battle was ending, right before the castle tower blew up, in fact. We all thought that he was dead, and according to him, he was. Yet somehow, he managed to come back.”

“I see,” Cassandrix replied, looking mystified. “But … do you have any idea how? I mean … the server’s difficulty is locked on Hardcore, and there’s no way to change it unless King Kev himself did it. And even then, he gave up his operating powers! So there’s no possible way that Sirus could have gotten back onto the server through simply respawning!”

“Yer guess be as good as any o’ ours, lass,” Commander Crunch responded solemnly, “but fer now, thar’s no way t’ know fer certain. More than likely, it had t’ do wit’ some sort o’ glitch, but fer now, we ’ave more important thin’s t’ worry about.”

There was a dark silence around the circle of leaders. They all knew that that was the understatement of the century. Nobody knew what to say. They all knew exactly what they were about to go into, and yet at the same time had no idea.

“I still can’t believe that the Noctems managed to find us,” muttered Kat.

“Why is that so surprising?” Charlie demanded defensively. “They’ve been inspecting every block of the city nonstop since they’ve broken through the wall. It’s not that surprising that they’ve managed to find us!”

“Calm down!” exclaimed Kat, shocked by Charlie’s aggressive tone. She had no idea what had come over him since they had rescued him from the prison on the Mushroom Islands, but Kat didn’t like it one bit. She had expected that by now he would be back to his normal, friendly, soft-spoken self, but if anything he had only gotten worse.

“What I meant,” Kat continued cautiously, “was that Ben and Bob have been sending spies out into the city, to see how close the Noctems were to finding us. According to the intelligence they gathered, the Noctems were doing most of their searching in the Merchant’s District, on the total opposite end of the city. If that’s true, then it makes no sense that they managed to discover us here so quickly.”

“Well, however it came about, th’ attack couldn’t ’ave come at a worse time,” Commander Crunch replied darkly. “We ’ave t’ act fast, now that th’ Noctems know where we be, ’n’ we ’ave no time t’ put together an actual invasion plan. We be forced t’ jus’ rush willy-nilly into th’ Adorian Village, ’n’ hope that this cockamamie assault wit’ no thought put into it somehow works.”

“You’re right,” growled Leonidas in disgust. “Why couldn’t the Noctems have broken in, like, just two or three days later? That would have made everythin’ so much easier!”

Suddenly, Charlie leaped to his feet, prompting all to turn towards him. He looked distressed and mortified, and it seemed as if he were on the verge of tears. For a moment, nobody moved as Charlie looked like a deer in the headlights of his friends’ concerned looks. Then Charlie turned around and marched away from the circle without a word, a sob escaping his mouth as he limped down the tunnel.

“Wha’ be his problem?” Commander Crunch asked incredulously as he turned to look at his comrades, and saw that nobody had the slightest idea what was wrong with him.

“I’ll be right back,” Leonidas said determinedly and, before anybody could stop him, he stood up and took off down the tunnel after Charlie.

“What do you want?” demanded Charlie as Leonidas caught up to him, weaving around a group of soldiers pulling on diamond armour as he went.

“I wanna know why you’re so upset, man,” Leonidas said straightly. “You’ve been totally out of it ever since we met up, and you seem like you’re upset with me. Listen, dude, I know I haven’t really known you for long, but it’s pretty obvious to me that you’ve got somethin’ going on.”

“Oh it is, is it?” Charlie spat, looking beyond outraged. “Well, thank you for noticing!”

“Charlie, listen … I know that your injury has been bothering you—”

“Shut up!” Charlie bellowed at the top of his lungs, causing all in the vicinity to turn and stare at him. “Just shut up and go away! I don’t want you to be here! Just … leave!”

And Charlie took off, hobbling down the mine as fast as he could, crawling under the nearest outcrop of rock that he could find.

Leonidas took a deep breath. Although he could feel his frustration at Charlie’s attitude boiling in his stomach, he knew that in this case, he had to be the bigger man. From what Stan had told him, Charlie was usually calm, collected and even timid. In other words, miles from what he had just witnessed. Something was very wrong, and Leonidas was going to find out what.

Slowly, he crept over to the edge of the cave, to the outside of the stone-block dimple in the wall. As he peeked into the crack, he was surprised to see that Charlie was actually crawling awkwardly out of the hole. Leonidas stepped back as Charlie grabbed on to the cave wall and pulled himself to his feet, bearing his full body weight on his good leg. He looked up at Leonidas, eyes still slightly red, but a tired, apologetic look on his face.

“Sorry,” Charlie mumbled, unable to meet Leonidas’s eyes. “Look at me, what I’ve become … screaming, throwing a fit, running away and hiding in a cave … pathetic …”

“Charlie, I know that ya don’t think highly of me,” Leonidas said hastily, unwilling to acknowledge that what Charlie had just said was true. “Maybe you’re having a hard time forgivin’ me for the things I did in the past … maybe it’s something else I did, I dunno. But trust me, man … I’m not just some idiot who’s only good for a fight, I’ve got a brain, too, and I’ve seen a lotta crap since I’ve joined Elementia. If you’re willing to talk, I wanna do what I can to help ya. So please, Charlie … can ya tell me what’s wrong?”

Charlie sighed. “I don’t have a problem with you, Leonidas … Well, I mean, I do, but it’s not a real problem. It’s totally unfair to you, and I know that …”

“Tell me.”

“It’s just … ever since you joined us, you’ve been nothing but amazing. You’ve helped us fight, you’ve talked with us, you’ve become a part of our group. Everybody loves you, and I was just really jealous of that – the fact that you’ve done terrible things in the past, but you’re one of our greatest assets now. For me, it’s exactly the opposite. I mean, look at me. I can barely walk, let alone fight, and … since I was imprisoned, I’ve really hurt our cause. And now there’s nothing I can do to fix it.”

“What’re you talking about?” exclaimed Leonidas, taken aback. “I mean … OK, man, I’m gonna level with you. Since we’ve met, ya haven’t been very helpful to us in the fightin’ department, but you’ve done other stuff! I mean, it was your idea to tunnel under the wall to get into Element City! Where’s this idea that you’ve done more bad for us than good comin’ from?”

Charlie looked Leonidas in the face. “Leonidas, can I tell you something? And if I do, do you swear you won’t tell anybody else?”

“Sure, man,” Leonidas replied, genuinely concerned now. “What is it?”

Charlie took a deep breath. There were tears streaming down his face, and his features expressed more pain and disappointment in himself than Leonidas had ever seen. There was a moment of silence, only broken by the scuffle of troops down the cave preparing for battle, as Charlie prepared to reveal his darkest secret.

“I’m the reason that the Noctem Alliance found this cave. I told Drake where the entrance was when he was torturing me on the Mushroom Islands.”

Leonidas’s jaw dropped. He looked at Charlie, hardly able to believe what he had just heard, as Charlie rambled on, sobs interspersed with his choked-up speech now.

“I didn’t want to … I held out for as long as I could, trying to endure the pain that those savages put me through in that prison. The last thing I wanted was to give them what they wanted, our secret war plans … but then they started on my legs … it was unbearable, Leonidas. They forced my legs into a pit full of silverfish and told me that the only way out was to tell them where the secret bunker was … the little monsters started to chew at my legs, gnawing away … it was too much, I had to make it stop … so I told them.

“I should’ve held out. I should’ve died, rather than tell them where the bunker was. I mean, Crunch held out fine. He just shook it off, the way I couldn’t … And now, because of me, we’re all in danger. They forced us to move before we were ready, and throw together this half-baked assault that’ll cause who knows how many of our fighters to die. And I can’t even fight on the battlefield alongside my friends to make up for my mistake.”

As Charlie finished, Leonidas stared at him. He was utterly speechless. There was no anger in the stare, no exasperation, not even shock. Only sympathy shone on Leonidas’s face as he absorbed everything that Charlie had just told him.

Charlie said nothing. He looked down at the ground again, gave a heavy sigh, and proceeded to limp away from the crack in the cave wall towards Ben and Bob, leaving Leonidas standing alone.

“Look at them all.”

“I’m sorry?” Cassandrix replied, looking up from the iron boots she was pulling on to look over at Kat, who was already armoured up with Rex sitting beside her, watching a large group of players load up their own gear. Judging by their mostly leather armor, they were lower-level players. Despite the fact that the army had distributed the armour for the battle, it had somehow occurred that the lower-level players had gotten the weaker armour (not that Kat or anyone else had time to fix this inequity).

“I can’t believe that those players are being forced into combat,” Kat replied sadly.

“They haven’t been forced!” Cassandrix replied vehemently. “Bob and Ben have made it very clear that only the soldiers are required to take part in the invasion. All others are volunteers. Those players wouldn’t be part of the invasion if they didn’t want to be.”

“Yeah, well, they might as well have been forced into it,” Kat spat in disgust. “I mean, sure, we didn’t outright say that they had to, but what would happen if we lose? What would happen to the lower-level players? What would they have to come back to? Face it, Cassandrix, those players aren’t fighting because they want to. They’re fighting because they’re afraid of what will happen if they don’t.”

“Honestly, darling,” Cassandrix laughed, rolling her eyes. Kat’s ears perked up in alarm, as they did whenever Cassandrix used the word darling. “You’re acting like putting lower-level players into combat is the worst thing in the world … as if the little brats shouldn’t have to fight, just because they’re new and inexperienced. Well, Kat, darling, I have a question for you: if they don’t fight, then however are they going to gain experience?”

There was a moment of silence as Kat stared at Cassandrix.

“Exactly,” Cassandrix continued. “You need to stop holding the hands of the lower-level players, Kat, or they’ll never learn anything for themselves. Why, I never had a group of upper-level players looking after me when I first joined Elementia – there were no upper-level players! But did that stop me from taking part in the Terramist War? No, of course not! I fought that war, and in doing so, not only did I help to establish the original Kingdom of Elementia, but I also learned the skills of Minecraft by myself!”

Cassandrix looked smugly at Kat, as if positive that there would be nothing that Kat could say that would pass over her insurmountable wall of logic. However, Kat merely returned a knowing smile.

“So, let me get this straight, Cassandrix: You took part in a war when you were a new player, and that’s how you learned to fight so well?”

“That is correct, dear.”

“OK, OK. And Cassandrix … during that war … how many times did you die, and spawn back in your warm, comfortable bed?”

“Well … to be honest, there was more than one time that I found myself dead, and respawned.”

“And if you were in that same scenario today – if you were a new player, and you took part in a war with no combat experience – what would happen to you if you died?”

There was no reply. They both knew what happened if a player was killed in Elementia today.

“Cassandrix, I have no problem with the way that you learned how to play Minecraft, and I even see where you’re coming from,” Kat said pointedly, “but the world has changed. The rules of the server are different from when you were a new player. If new players today make one wrong move, they’ll be kicked out of Elementia with no second chance, so I don’t see the harm in helping them out a bit. Just keep that in mind.”

And with that, Kat stood up and walked down the tunnel towards the makeshift armoury, Rex following behind her, leaving a speechless Cassandrix in their wake.

All throughout the night, preparations went on for the invasion of the Adorian Village. By morning, everyone was ready. All leaders, soldiers and volunteers were brimming with armour and weaponry. Charlie was staying behind in the cave, to watch over those players who didn’t have enough armour, or were too weak from hunger to fight. At the break of dawn (according to the single golden clock that somebody had managed to take into the underground with them), the fighting forces of Elementia congregated around a section of cave wall. This particular wall was covered with ladders leading up to the roof of the cave. The group of players was clustered around one specific ladder that had been designated the night before.

Before long, a cheer erupted from the crowd. President Stan was climbing the selected ladder, and when he reached the halfway point, he jumped off and onto a nearby ledge of coal ore blocks that was jutting out from the wall. He was wearing a smile ear to ear. In the night, a wonderful, unexpected surprise had befallen them, which he was happy to share with his citizens who were as of yet unaware.

“My citizens, at long last, the day that we’ve been awaiting for weeks is finally here. In a few minutes, we will burst into the Adorian Village, swarm the streets and drive the forces of the Noctem Alliance out, taking a giant leap towards returning control of Elementia to its rightful, elected rulers!”

Another round of applause and shouts of admiration erupted from the crowd.

“I cannot thank you enough for your patience, endurance and valour, my citizens. I am fully aware of how difficult your lives have been since the Noctem Alliance declared war on Elementia months ago. However, by the end of today, all our pain and toil will finally come to fruition when we raise the colours of Elementia over the Town Hall of the Adorian Village!

“Now, my citizens,” Stan continued, the roar of the crowd dying instantly as they realized he had more to say, “I have a very exciting announcement. In the middle of the night, a very special player came to us. He arrived in our cave after trekking for days across the server, avoiding Noctem forces, and taking another few days to find the entrance to our cave. He is a good friend of mine, and a loyal leader of yours. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back Councilman Jayden!”

The applause rumbled through the cave as Jayden climbed up the ladder and took his place on the ledge next to Stan. It was amazing, he thought, that so many of the people were happy to see him. Most of them hardly knew who he was, yet they were as excited to see him as Stan, Kat, Charlie and the others had been the previous night. He supposed that that was simply an added benefit of being friends with Stan.

“OK now, everybody be quiet!” Stan commanded, and the crowd immediately complied. “Councilman Jayden has agreed to join our assault as a general, even after his long journey. As such, you are to do what he says and follow his commands the same as you would myself or any of my comrades. Now, prepare to mobilize, troops. When I give the signal, swarm up the ladders, through the ground, and into the streets!”

And with that, Stan climbed up the ladder, Jayden directly below him, ascending higher and higher towards the roof of the cave and leaving the electric energy of the troops below him as he vanished into the dark belfry of the cave.