The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay
bucket. With the source gone, the water flowing from it quickly drained away. Wasting no time, he took his diamond pickaxe to the obsidian.
It was hard work. The sun was soon high in the sky, and the heat from the lava didn’t make it any easier for Charlie to continue hacking away at the black rock that seemed to resist all his efforts to break it. After ten minutes, the obsidian block finally broke, and Charlie snatched it before it could fall into the lava below. Charlie, relieved to have attained his first obsidian block, gritted his teeth and got to work on the second one.
Meanwhile, Kat and Stan stood poised at Charlie’s back, bows raised, ready to shoot down any attackers that ventured too close to them. It was boring, but Stan just kept the image of finally entering the Nether in mind, and he kept his poise, as did Kat.
Charlie was just collecting his ninth obsidian block when, without warning, the ground in front of Stan exploded. Stan was knocked back by the force of the blast, and he skidded along the black obsidian that Charlie had created, stopping just before the edge of the lava sea.
Kat had trained her bow on the cloud of dust and was ready to attack the first thing to rise from it, when a figure burst out of the hole in the ground. Before Kat could react, the figure threw a series of fire charges to the ground, thickening the smoke and setting the ground on fire. Kat tried to stare through the thick smoke to see who was attacking them, when an arrow flew through the smokescreen right at her.
It was too fast for her to dodge, but she ducked her head and the arrow snagged the leather of her cap, damaging the armour but leaving her unharmed. She sent arrows into the general direction of the attacker, and she was drawing another one when another figure ran out of the smoke. This was the first one whose features could clearly be seen. His blond hair was cut to his head, and he wore camo army trousers and a black tank top, with an eye patch covering one of his eyes. He held a diamond sword, and he was rushing straight towards Kat.
His attack was cut off by Stan, who had gotten up by now and swung his shovel at the player’s feet. As the attacker tripped, Stan yelled back to Charlie, who was about to help them, “We can handle this, Charlie! Finish the portal so we can get out of here!” At the same time, he sensed something to his right, and he turned and caught Kat’s eye.
“Stan, here! You need this more than I do!” she yelled, and she dodged an arrow while simultaneously throwing her sword in his direction. He responded by yelling, “Thanks!” and grabbing the sword just as the eye patch guy got back on his feet. Stan drew back and shot a couple of arrows at the player, which were effortlessly deflected, and when arrows became a futile effort he engaged the player with the sword.
Kat, meanwhile, could now see the player she was having a ranged arrow-battle with. He had dark skin and black hair, and he was wearing a leather tunic over Japanese samurai armour. The bow he was using was glowing just like hers – it had been enchanted. She had a feeling that the enchantment on a bow owned by someone who had attacked them without provocation would be considerably more evil than the Infinity enchantment on hers.
Charlie was vaguely aware of Stan’s sword flying out of his hand in his battle with Mr Tank Top, and of more and more arrows catching on Kat’s tunic in her arrow fight with Mr Samurai. He knew he had to finish the portal quickly. Charlie hastily placed the last three obsidian blocks into place atop the black obelisk and then jumped to the ground, pulling out the flint and the steel ring. He was about to light the portal when a figure burst out of the ground right behind him. He whipped around, pickaxe in hand, ready for a fight.
This player was wearing full, glowing iron armour – it was enchanted, too. The blocky black ponytail extending to her waist distinguished her as female. She didn’t attack Charlie. She didn’t even notice him. She pulled something out of her inventory: a handful of redstone dust, and a torch that was glowing electric red. Charlie stared, baffled, as she laid the dust along the ground and then touched the red end of the torch to the dust. Instantly, the dust illuminated and sent off faint red sparks.
“Contact in five!” she bellowed, and she whipped out her iron sword and sunk into a defensive stance. Kat stopped, having bent over to pick up her iron sword, as she wondered what this meant. Stan looked equally as confused, but the effect on the other three was immediate. The eye patch guy and the samurai whipped out shovels and dug holes into the ground. Charlie realized in horror what was about to happen. He ducked behind one of the obsidian pillars of the portal, screaming, “Get down! She’s about to—”
He was cut off when the world exploded.
Stan was knocked back twenty blocks as the sand beneath him exploded in a whirlwind of earth and rock. He was sent flying through the air, and he felt dizzy, becoming aware that he was spinning.
He landed on the ground, dazed, and looked into the dust cloud where the battlefield used to be. He was confused, too paralyzed by fear and injury to do anything but grab and swig one of his healing potions. Instantly, the effect of the potion kicked in. He felt alert and completely healed, and his thoughts immediately turned to the safety of his friends.
Then he saw her. Flying through the air, smoke billowing from her burning leather armour, iron sword miraculously still clasped in her hand, the body of his brave friend, propelled by the amazing force of the explosion, sailed like a graceful kite, disappearing upon plunging into the fiery depths of the lava sea.
Stan’s vision went white. He couldn’t hear. He couldn’t feel the bow in his hand. All of his senses seemed to shut down as he processed the impossible information. His body seemed to be refusing to accept what he knew to be facts. For Kat could not possibly be dead, there was no way that it would be allowed to happen …
Stan’s thoughts were refusing to connect, so his instincts took over. He grabbed his iron shovel from the ground next to him and ran towards the samurai archer who was now aiming an arrow at Charlie’s head. Charlie’s face was white, his eyes wide and his jaw slack, as he stared at the spot where Kat had made contact with the molten liquid, oblivious to his own impending doom. Stan drew back his shovel and slammed it against the archer’s head before he could fire.
The archer was knocked down to the ground, his head twisting at an odd angle. Stan could not tell if he was dead, but if not, he was definitely unconscious. Becoming aware that he was screaming in fury, Stan whipped around to face the other two. He saw the guy with the buzz cut dashing towards him, diamond sword in attack position, with the girl close behind. Both were seething with rage, their veins popping, ready to avenge their fallen friend. But the rage over Kat’s death had elevated Stan’s fighting abilities, even with a shovel. Stan’s anger rose up in him like a pot boiling over, and he was sure that he could easily take these two armoured gorillas. He was about to shoot a preemptive arrow with his bow when something behind them caught his eye.
There was a disturbance in the surface of the lava sea. A ripple, or rather a bubbling, was appearing right next to the shore. What happened next was so unbelievable that, had Stan not been there, he wouldn’t have believed that it had really happened, no matter how many eyewitness accounts he heard.
Out of the lava burst a player, surrounded by a glowing red aura, her iron sword red with the heat it had absorbed from the lava. Kat flew out onto the sand and without hesitation proceeded to thrust her sword into the back of the girl in full iron armour. The sword melted a hole through the back of the chestplate and out the front.
The look on the girl’s face changed from outrage to shock as the sword entered her body. Kat, on the other hand, looked like the embodiment of a demon as she used all her superhuman strength to fling the girl over her head, off her sword. The glowing iron body flew through the air and it entered the lava right near the edge of the stone shore.
Stan didn’t allow himself time to think about how his friend wasn’t burned to death, nor did he allow himself time to be happy. All he knew was that the one remaining fighter with the buzz cut would be upon him soon, and he would be livid that his two companions were down. He ran towards the obsidian frame, where Charlie stood in shock.
“Light the portal!” he bellowed, and he became aware that Kat was running right behind him, deflecting arrows from the buzz cut player with her sword as she did.