Sean Wolfe - The Complete Elementia Chronicles - Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message

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.

Charlie pulled out the flint and the steel ring and struck them together. Sparks flew out upon collision and then fell into the obsidian base. The sparks flew into the air, beginning to glow purple. When they reached the centre of the portal, they grew until the entire inside of the portal was glowing purple. The portal to the Nether was open.

Charlie jumped into the purple glow and disappeared, purple sparks flying through the portal. Stan threw aside all hesitancy he had about entering the new dimension, and he dived through the purple barrier. He suddenly felt like he was buried in the sand above Avery’s base once again, being squeezed from all sides. The very unpleasant sensation lasted for about three seconds, and then Stan tumbled out onto a surface that felt like dirt that was crusted over. He refilled his squeezed-empty lungs with warm, dry air.

On the other side of the portal, Geno was dragging the body of Becca out of the lava. He pulled out two illegally brewed potions from his inventory and poured them into her mouth. The flames that were burning her armour and skin immediately subsided, and she gave a weak cough. Relieved, he quickly whipped around and poured a third potion into the open mouth of Leonidas. There was a faint click, and Leonidas’s head spun around and back into place.

Geno looked up and through the portal. On the other side, he could see that all three players were punching the bottom block of the obsidian portal. Realizing what they were about to do, Geno desperately sprinted towards the portal, trying to dive through before it closed. Just as he was about to fly through, there was a crack, and the bottom obsidian block of the black frame ceased to exist. There was a flash of purple light, and the entrance to the Nether disappeared.

Geno skidded to a stop right before his momentum could carry him through the empty obsidian frame and into the lava sea. He cursed in anger, and he looked back at his companions. Leonidas was sitting up and caressing his neck. Geno knew that he would be all right. Becca, on the other hand, was still lying on the ground, her breathing shallow. Geno was worried about her, but he was sure that there would be at least one medic in the legion of the King’s army awaiting RAT1’s command in the jungle.

It was all for the best, decided Geno, as Leonidas slowly got back to his feet. Geno was confident that under his command, RAT1’s battalion of troops would ensure that Stan and his friends, now stranded in the Nether, would not make it back to the Overworld alive.

Stan’s knuckles ached from helping Charlie punch through raw obsidian. He wasn’t worried, though. His entire brain was processing two simultaneous emotions. He was breathing hard, amazed and relieved that they had managed to escape those thugs back in the Overworld.