Herobrine's Message (30 page)

Nonetheless, though the conversation continued, Leonidas found himself staring at Charlie. He had tried to be polite to Charlie, to try to get around whatever it was that he was holding against Leonidas. Clearly it wasn't working, leaving Leonidas to wonder if his efforts to befriend Charlie would ever pan out.

“So what should we do?” Charlie demanded, an urgent tone in his voice. “We need to get out of this stupid cave, and we have to do it fast! The Noctem Alliance is going to bust in here any—”

“Hold on a moment,” Cassandrix cut in, her eyes lighting up and a smile crossing her face.

“What is it?” Stan asked, as the entire room turned to look at her.

“Charlie, you seem to be experienced in underground navigation,” she said slowly, and Stan could see the gears whirring in her head. “How long do you think it would take to dig a tunnel to the Adorian Village from here?”

“I don't know,” Charlie sighed, still looking crestfallen. “A couple days, maybe . . .”

“Then that's what we ought to do!” Cassandrix exclaimed. “We should dig a tunnel and invade the Adorian Village! They'll never be expecting that!”

There was a moment of silence as the idea sank in. Then, Ben spoke up.

“Cassandrix . . . that's brilliant! All of the Noctem Alliance's attention is focused on securing Element City. They'll never be prepared for an attack on the Adorian Village. And once we take control of the village, we can use the resources stored there to launch an assault on Element City!”

“Hold your horses, Ben,” Bob cut in, turning to face his brother. “I think that this is a good plan, except for one thing. The citizens that we have down here in the mine aren't all soldiers. Not only that, but being down here for so long has done a number on them. Before we reveal ourselves, we have to be sure that those who aren't able to fight have somewhere safe to go. The second we invade the Adorian Village, it's going to turn into a combat zone.”

“Well, why don't we just have them stay in the cave for now?” Kat suggested. “You just got through saying that the cave is probably gonna be safe for a while, Bob.”

“Uh . . . guys?” Charlie said slowly, sounding mortified, as if he were on the verge of divulging classified information. “I . . . um . . .
really
don't think that this cave is safe. I think that we should leave . . . like . . . as soon as physically possible.”

“What are you trying to say, Charlie?” Leonidas asked, not sure that he wanted to hear the answer.

He was cut off by an earsplitting explosion.

The blast shook the walls. Seconds later, the sounds of terrified screams started to ring through the air, followed by a second explosion. Stan leaped to his feet and dashed onto the balcony, his friends hot on his tail.

He looked wildly around the basin of the cave and saw people running around panicking but no visible signs of damage. A third explosion rattled the cave, but yet again, Stan could see no damage.

“What's going on?” he yelled to his police chiefs, struggling to make himself heard over the sound of yet another explosion.

The two brothers sputtered in confusion, trying to piece together what was happening. Suddenly, a soldier burst onto the balcony through the door. Ben whipped around to face him.

“Private! What's going on here? What's the meaning of the explosions?”

The private gulped, took a deep breath, and spoke.

“It's the Noctem Alliance, sir. They've found us, and the Wither is blasting its way in.”

A
lthough 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 ways 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 center 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 somber 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 traveled 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 fervor 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 toward 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 toward Stan, weaving between his blows as she did so. Stan realized what she was doing, and summoned an axe to his hand. Sally somersaulted forward 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 maneuvered 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 backward, causing him to hit the ground so hard that he loosened the dirt blocks around him. Aware that he was in massive pain, Stan focused all his energy on feeling better. In an instant, he was healed, just in time to see Sally rocketing down toward 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 backward 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 toward 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 a ways 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 toward 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 forward, and the dragon took off like a jet plane, rocketing at top speed toward 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 backward 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 toward him, he focused 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 toward her.

All at once, Sally felt herself unable to move. She focused as hard as she could on warping away, but she couldn't. She looked down in shock as Stan drew his hand slowly toward himself and, without warning, Sally rocketed toward 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 toward 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 toward 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 skyward, he stretched his sword out in front of him and burst through the dragon's neck swordfirst, leaving a large, gaping hole.