The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay
midair, hitting the fireball, and then he landed on the cliff below him. The projectile changed trajectory and headed on a return course to the monster that had shot it. The fireball exploded in the mob’s face, and it tumbled backwards a few feet, screaming.
“Get behind me!” yelled the player, as the monster recovered and blasted another fireball their way. Stan, Kat, and Charlie obliged and watched, amazed, as the player deflected another fireball, this time missing the monster and sending the fireball deep into the cave. Another player burst through the hole in the wall.
This player was dressed the same as the player with the sword, but he had red hair and pale skin, and he held a fishing rod in his hand. Stan watched in astonishment as the player threw the rod back and cast it, the bobber flying towards the jellyfish. The hook entered the monster’s head, and it cried out in pain again. It tried to fly away, but the redheaded player expertly maneuvered the line, dragging the mob back down. All the while the monster was still shooting fireballs, and the swordsman kept deflecting them.
“Nice cast, Bill!” yelled the swordsman as he parried another fireball to the side.
“Thanks, Ben!” the redhead cried in response as he repeatedly changed the power of the cast to keep the monster from flying out of range. “The Ghast is in optimal position! We’re ready, Bob!”
At this, yet another jumpsuit-clad player burst out of the wall, this one pale and blond. He held a glowing bow in his hand, and he fired an arrow at the monster in midair. He landed on the ground and looked back at Stan, Kat, and Charlie.
“If any of you three are archers, now’s the time! Aim for the eyes!” said the blond archer, Bob, with a manic grin on his face. Stan was a little unnerved by the grin at first glance, but he then noticed the same expression on the face of the fishing rod player, Bill, and the swordsman, Ben. They weren’t just fighting off this mob, which he had heard one of them call a Ghast – they were loving it!
Stan and Kat pulled out their bows and began shooting at the Ghast. The monster’s eyes were punctured by the dozens of arrows protruding from them, and its fireballs seemed to be shooting in a more confused pattern. One of the fireballs flew towards Kat, and she whipped out her sword and deflected it, just as Ben had been doing.
“OK you three, let up!” cried Bill, pulling back hard on the fishing pole.
Bob lowered his bow and got back against the wall, but Kat and Stan looked at Bill, confused.
“But it’s still alive!” yelled Stan.
“Yeah, why should we let up?” asked Kat.
“Because Ben loves this part!” bellowed Bill, laughing like a maniac, as he threw his full weight back against the fishing rod. The damaged Ghast lurched back down towards the ledge. It was very close to them now. Stan flinched as he felt the heat of the desperate Ghast spamming out yet another fireball.
Ben, a glint in his eyes, deflected the fireball off into the distance and ran towards the Ghast, which was now almost level with the ledge. He took a flying leap at the Ghast, his sword in his right hand, and he drove his weapon into the forehead of the giant monster. It screamed in anguish as Ben grabbed the Ghast’s face with his left hand while repeatedly thrusting his sword into the Ghast’s head. The giant mob stopped launching fireballs and started to fall apart from the repeated sword slices.
Ben pushed off the monster’s face with a white item in his hand. His sword spiralled down and landed on the ledge. He landed next to the weapon and pocketed the white item. Ben’s companions stood next to him, looking on with satisfaction as the hacked-up corpse of the Ghast fell into the lava sea below. Bob turned around.
“And that, gentlemen and lady, is how we amazing people kill Ghasts.”
And with that, the three fighters bumped their fists together in midair and yelled in unison, “YEAH!”
“OK, that was officially really impressive,” remarked Kat, still sweating from the battle with the Ghast.
“Well, we’ve had practice,” said Bob, slinging his bow over his back. “You kids have got to be more careful. Ghast fighting can be a rather unpleasant experience if you’re not good at it. It’s really easy to get blasted sky-high in this place.”
“You guys seem like you have a lot of experience here,” said Charlie. “How many times have you three been to the Nether?”
“Are you kidding? We live here, man!” Bill laughed. “And that’s not an exaggeration either. We’ve lived here ever since that backstabbing jerk King Kev banished us here.”
“And by the way,” said Ben as Stan opened his mouth in surprise. “We don’t care what you think about the King. If you have a problem with our opinion we’d be more than happy to fight you, too.” Bill and Bob nodded in agreement.
“Oh trust me,” Kat said, smirking, “I’d use a considerably more vile word to describe the King.”
“Yeah,” said Charlie. “I agree with that, and I’m sure Stan does, too. After all, he was the one who tried to kill that terrible King.”
“Wait, what?” Bob did a double take. “You tried to kill the King? Man, you got guts, noob!”
“How could you possibly still be alive?” asked Bill, amazed.
“Did you come to the Nether to hide from the King’s forces? ’Cause there’s no way that you would still be alive if you were in the Overworld,” commented Ben.
Stan looked up. “No. As a matter of fact, we’re trying to overthrow—” but he was cut off when Kat punched him in the arm.
“Shut up, you idiot!” hissed Kat. “Don’t give away too much—”
“You’re overthrowing the King?” interrupted Bob in a hushed, awed voice.
There was a moment of silence. The look on Kat’s and Charlie’s faces confirmed that Stan’s outburst was indeed true. Kat slapped her head, sure that these three players were about to reveal that they were really secret agents of the King. But then—
“Man, that is wicked awesome!” cried Bill. “It’s about time someone stood up to that pile of pig crap.”
“If we weren’t banished to this dimension with no way to get out,” said Ben, “we would have done it sooner or later.”
“Wait a minute … do you guys have a portal out of here?” asked Bob. This got the others’ ears perked up.
“Yeah! It’d be great to finally get out of this awful dimension. We’ve been here for so long …”
“Yeah … maybe the Apothecary is still around …”
“Wait, you know the Apothecary?” said Stan. “We met him back in the jungle! He’s helping us organize a rebellion with the people in the Adorian Village. How do you know him?”
“We used to work with him on the Council of Operators back in Element City,” said Ben. “We were the Chiefs of Exploration before the King associated us with some fake rebellion and threw us into this place.”
“Oh yeah! He mentioned you guys!” said Charlie, remembering their lengthy conversation with the old player. “You guys must be Bill33, Bob33 and Ben33.”
“Testify,” said Bill, raising his fishing rod and then lowering it. “Although nowadays, we go by the title of the Nether Boys.”
“Anyway, do you guys really have a portal out of here?” asked Bob. “We’ve been marooned in this blistering wasteland forever. I’d kill just to see a sheep or a cow or a tree again!”
“Well, we do have a portal,” said Kat. “But it’s broken right now. We need one obsidian block to fix it. We have the means to fix it – I have a water bucket and Charlie has his diamond pickaxe.” Charlie raised it in confirmation. “But we can’t leave here until we get some Blaze Rods. If we’re gonna pull this rebellion