The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay
was excited. He had not realized just how few Ender Pearls they still needed to collect. He started scanning the darkening horizon, and the sun had just ducked out of sight behind the distant hills when Stan spotted his first Enderman. It was holding a sand block, and upon realizing it was being watched, its jaw dropped, and it stared back and shook as if it were racked with spasms.
“I’ve got one!” yelled Stan, and the other three players rushed to defend his back. Sure enough, when the Enderman appeared behind Stan, it immediately found itself cut by two swords, an axe, and a pickaxe before it teleported away. It reappeared an instant later behind Kat, who spun backwards and decapitated it. She looked down at the tall, black corpse.
“Yes!” she exclaimed, as she scooped up a turquoise pearl from the Enderman’s body. “Ten down, two to go!”
And sure enough, the Enderman hunting was quick from there on out. With the desert plains providing minimum obstructions to their vision, they were easily able to locate two more Endermen very quickly and fought them by adopting the same strategy. Of the two, however, only one yielded an Ender Pearl.
“Yeah, that happens sometimes,” said DZ, seeing the look of outrage on Kat’s face as she found that the second Enderman had no pearls. “It’s no big deal. We’ll just kill another one.”
No sooner did DZ say that than Stan sensed a presence behind him. He spun around, ready to combat an incoming mob, but what he saw instead caught him totally off guard. Had he not been wearing an iron chestplate, Leonidas’s arrow would have impaled his heart. He gave a short shout of pain that alerted the others to the presence of his assailant.
They wasted no time in reacting. Kat and DZ hastily drew their bows and fired two arrows in Leonidas’s direction. He ducked one and the other caught in the wood of his bow. Charlie and Kat rushed in to engage Leonidas at close range, where they had their advantage. DZ, however, was otherwise occupied, as Geno had just burst out of the ground, diamond sword glinting in the moonlight. Stan pulled himself to his feet, watching as DZ and Geno, probably the two most powerful swordsmen he had ever seen, locked blades in ferocious combat.
Stan became aware of a sizzling behind him. He spun around and brought his axe down into the line of redstone dust on the ground, cutting off the electric charge that would have activated the TNT block that had somehow appeared directly behind him. He destroyed the TNT block in one punch, and he drew his axe to combat Becca, who was now rushing in to engage him.
Becca may have been the demolition expert of RAT1, but she certainly knew her way with a sword. Stan had had quite a bit of experience, and his prowess with the axe had doubled since he first learned the skill from Jayden in the Adorian Village. Yet Becca was able to fight him on an equal level. It was only by a lucky uppercut that his axe managed to knock Becca’s iron sword out of her hand and into the air.
Becca was not deterred. She immediately drew two fire charges, and with a quick flick of the wrist she was gone in a billow of black smoke. The force of the small fire knocked Stan backwards, and as he looked up he saw that there were also plumes of smoke where Leonidas and Geno had just stood. No sooner had he opened his mouth to ask where they had gone than an arrow came flying out of the smoke and embedded itself into Stan’s right forearm, which was unprotected by his armour.
Though there was pain shooting up and down his arm, Stan did not allow himself to look at the wound. Instead, he drew his bow and fired arrows into the smoke, dodging the ones that flew back out towards him, until he heard a grunt of pain that told him that he had hit his mark. Only then did Stan allow himself to yank the arrow out of his arm.
Stan ignored the throbbing pain, gritted his teeth and looked around. Becca was now engaging DZ in combat by sending fire at him with flint and steel, and Geno was fighting Kat. Stan did not see Charlie at all. The smoke in front of him had subsided enough for him to see the figure of Leonidas drawing another arrow.
Stan spun his axe around in midair to deflect the arrow, and he charged Leonidas. Leonidas fired two more arrows, but Stan simply knocked them aside with his weapon. Just as Stan was about to cut Leonidas’s bow in two with his axe, he caught the glint of something in Leonidas’s hand. Stan tried to change his course, but Leonidas had already thrown the potion bottle at Stan, and it burst on his forehead, dazing him and knocking him to the ground.
Stan felt dizzy, and the world spun around him. He was vaguely aware of wisps of grey smoke rising off his body, and found that he didn’t even have enough energy to lift himself up off the ground. Though he was aware that his axe was still clasped in his hand, Stan knew that whatever that potion was, it had dulled his nerves and reflexes. As he became aware of this, he also realized that Leonidas was pinning him to the ground with his foot, and he was yelling to Geno and Becca.
There was screaming, Stan was sure of it, and it was a girl. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Becca still fighting with DZ, and he knew that it must have been Kat who had fallen fighting Geno. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw Geno being pushed back by frantic attacks from both Rex and Charlie, clearly enraged at the state of Kat, whom Stan could not see. He knew, though, what he must do.
Leonidas was shooting arrows in Charlie’s direction, still standing on Stan. He therefore didn’t notice as Stan, with a great deal of focus to overcome the groggy effects of the potion, released his axe and fumbled around with his hand until his fingers clasped on his bow. Stan’s head was throbbing with the effort of moving, but he knew that this was the only way to save Kat. Feeling like his head was about to split open, Stan’s shaky hands notched an arrow in the bowstring, pulled back and fired.
The arrow shot straight upwards and into Leonidas’s tunic, through the leather into his chest. The wound was not deep, and Stan doubted that it would be fatal, but Leonidas still cried out in pain and surprise as he tumbled backwards off Stan’s chest.
The relief in weight helped Stan’s focus immensely. Immediately, the effects of the potion were only half as bad. Stan was now able to sit up. He saw Kat lying unconscious on the ground, and he noticed Geno turn for a moment and see his injured teammate. In the second of lost focus, Rex’s body slammed Geno in the stomach, knocking him backwards. He skidded across the ground, finally stopping when his head slammed into a nearby cactus. The thorns entered his head, and he lay limp and unmoving on the ground.
Stan heard a clang. He whipped his head around but regretted it as soon as he did, his head still aching from Leonidas’s potion. He watched Becca’s sword flying into the air. Wasting no time, she kicked DZ in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and ran. “Come on, Leo!” she cried as she sprinted off into the night.
Stan became aware that Leonidas was no longer next to him. He had gotten up and was now slinging Geno’s unconscious form over his back. He made to follow Becca, but then he stopped for a minute. He turned back to look at the players. DZ was still doubled over, and Rex was still growling in Leonidas’s direction, but Stan looked at Leonidas. There was something in his eyes, Stan suddenly realized, something that Stan couldn’t place. Was it pity? Sadness? Jealousy? Whatever it was, Stan knew it was out of place in the ruthless assassin that Leonidas was.
“Leo, run!” came Becca’s cries. DZ had gotten back to his feet now and, his face contorted in rage, had strung an arrow pointed at Leonidas. Then, with one last look at the three of them, Leonidas was gone in a burst of fire charges. DZ’s arrow flew into the fire and hit nothing but air.
In a moment, however, Stan realized that this was not true. A figure appeared from nowhere, engulfed in flames: an Enderman, DZ’s arrow sticking from its chest. Stan didn’t bother drawing a weapon. The monster was on fire, and it would die before it could reach him. Sure enough, the tall, spindly figure succumbed to death at Stan’s feet, leaving the twelfth Ender Pearl on the sand as the body evaporated.
Suddenly, Stan remembered what had happened to Kat. He ran over to her and saw that Geno’s sword had cut across her chest, just below her neck. Stan wasted no time in pulling out one of his two remaining Healing Potions and administering it to the wound. The cut instantly sealed, and Kat, though remaining asleep, gave a deep breath that Stan took to mean that she would be all right.
Stan