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

“Magma cream,” he pointed out. “You use it to make Potions of Fire Resistance.”

Now that the Magma Cube was good and dead, the players turned their attention to the structure in front of them. It was composed entirely of dark crimson bricks, and there were stairs that led up to a tunnel made out of the bricks, which had torches lining the walls. The tunnel went straight into the side of another Netherrack cliff. There were no distinct architectural features of the building. In fact, Stan was surprised to see that the exterior looked very plain.

“Those torches weren’t put there naturally,” said Ben. “We put those up the last time we visited this place. If we follow them, it should lead us straight to the Blaze spawner room.”

They walked into the corridor. Stan was pleased to realize that it was slightly cooler within these brick halls. He followed the Nether Boys as they took turn after turn, following the torches. Slowly, Stan began to realize just how big the complex was. There were windows in the sides of the corridors, and more often than not there was nothing to see out of them except for Netherrack. However, now and then he could see that they were suspended over the lava sea, and a few times he saw magnificent lava falls flowing from the ceiling of the Nether and into the lava sea. Stan realized that he might well die during the fight with these monsters, so he took the time walking down the corridors to appreciate just how beautiful the landscape of Minecraft was.

After going down endless corridors and through a few rooms with staircases and small farms of some type of seed that Stan guessed was the Nether wart the Apothecary had told him about, they finally arrived at a corridor that was not lit with torches. At the end of this corridor, Stan could see a block with a yellow figure revolving within a black cage, very similar to the block that spawned Cave Spiders in the abandoned mine shaft. He knew that they had reached the Blaze spawner.

“So, what’s our strategy?” asked Charlie eagerly.

“Personally, I say we should just go in there and beat the things to death before they get a chance to attack us,” said Kat, pulling her sword from her waist.

“Not so fast, sister,” said Bill. “Those spawners can set up to three of those things on you at a time. As much fun as it would be to just charge in there and beat the Blaze Rods right out of them, I think we have to think this one through a little more. Anyone have any ideas?”

There was silence for a moment. Then much to Stan’s surprise, Charlie spoke up and said, “How about I drink my Potion of Fire Resistance and draw their fire, while Bob, Kat, and Stan shoot them down?”

“Nice thinking, bro,” said Bob. “Be careful, though. Even if you don’t catch on fire, the Blazes can still do melee attacks and the fireballs still damage you.”

Charlie agreed to be careful, and they got ready to execute their plan. Charlie gave all of his things to Kat to hold, and Ben and Bill hid behind Bob, Kat and Stan, all of whom had their arrows notched, ready to fire.

“Wait, I’m almost out of arrows,” Stan said. “Do you have any extras, Bob?”

“Sure,” he said, and he handed half his arrows to Stan.

With everything ready, Charlie swigged his fire resistance potion, and he charged into the Blaze spawner room.

Charlie could see that the room was jutting out of the side of a Netherrack mountain, and that the walls were completely composed of fences. In the centre of the room, the black cage gave off some fire particles, and the yellow figure within started spinning rapidly. Before Charlie could study the little figure any closer, a full-sized Blaze appeared right above the spawner. Charlie couldn’t help but stare. It was the most bizarre thing he had ever seen.

The head of the Blaze was a yellow cube flecked with orange, and it had beady eyes that were locked on to him. The head was on top of a column of smoke, which had a lot of yellow rods orbiting around it. The entire thing was engulfed in flames. Charlie was just getting over how zany the entire composition looked when the Blaze opened its mouth and three fireballs shot out.

Charlie rolled to the side. The three fireballs hit the walls in three great puffs of flame. The Blaze’s head rotated and fixated on Charlie again, and it rose into the air and shot out three more fireballs. Charlie dodged again, and before the Blaze could take another shot, three arrows flew out of the corridor and impaled the Blaze’s head. The blaze fell to the ground, extinguished, with only an orange stick remaining, which Charlie snatched up. He barely had time to examine the Blaze Rod when two more Blazes appeared, and six more fireballs flew towards him. One of the Blazes fell from three more arrows, but it didn’t drop a rod. The other one fell seconds later, and the rod fell to the ground. Charlie was too preoccupied with the four more Blazes in the room to pick up the rod at that moment.

Back in the corridor, the archers were shooting arrows as fast as they could, but the spawners were creating new enemies faster than they could shoot them down. Bill sat solemnly against the wall. He knew there was nothing that a fishing rod could do in such a closed-off space. Ben, on the other hand, stood rigid behind the archers, sword gripped in his hand. Like the other Nether Boys, he was a pretty easy-going guy, but if there was one thing he hated, it was to be left out of a fight.

“He must’ve collected enough rods by now! Let’s go in there and destroy the spawner!” He made to go down the corridor, but Bill pulled him back.

“No, Ben, not yet,” Bill said calmly. “You can go in there when it’s time, but right now nobody has a chance of surviving in there besides Charlie.”

“Do you see a better time on the horizon?” Ben asked in exasperation.

Indeed, back in the spawner room, Charlie did not see the fight ending well at all. There were now eight Blazes circling around the room, with the spawner creating them at a rate of two spawned for every one shot down. He had more than enough Blaze Rods to craft the twelve Blaze Powder units required. He sincerely wished that they would hurry up and direct their fire towards the spawner before the potion wore off. He had already been hit by numerous fireballs.

Charlie was momentarily distracted by a shout from down the corridor. He turned to see what it was, and in that second he was knocked to the ground by a fireball to the back of his head. Dazed, he wondered whether or not the potion was still working, when the crimson-clad figure of Ben burst into the room, turned his sword to the side, and thrust it through the bars of the cage. There was a hissing noise, and the little Blaze inside the cage ceased to exist. Ben dodged the fireballs of the remaining Blazes, and Charlie watched in awe as he took out three of the flying creatures with one well-timed sword slash, not getting hit once. The archers shot down the rest of the Blazes a moment later, and as if on cue, the red aura around Charlie’s body that distinguished him as fire-resistant evaporated, leaving him vulnerable once more.

“Well, that was fun,” he said, grinning.

Ben pumped his fist in the air and yelled at the top of his lungs, “Ye-yah!”

The six players met back in the corridor and congratulated each other on their spectacular performances against the Blaze spawner. Stan was much more excited on the way back than he had been on the way there, seeing as they were finally going to get out of the fiery new dimension.

They reached the final turn that would lead back to the Nether Boys’ house and were about to turn the corner when they heard voices from ahead.

Ben, who was in the lead, held up his rectangular hand to stop them, and he peered around the corner. An instant later, he pulled his head back around, and he fell to the floor, eyes wide, breathing quickly.