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

The arrow had sunk deep into Oob’s shoulder, and the blow to his head had left him unconscious. Stan, adrenaline heightening his intuitions, made the on-the-spot decision to use his last Potion of Healing to cure Oob. As Stan applied the blood-red potion, the arrow popped out of Oob’s shoulder, the wound instantly resealed itself and Oob’s chest gave a peaceful rise and fall. Confident that the villager would be OK, Stan burst into the brightly lit room to deal with his attacker. What he saw made his jaw drop.

He was standing in a stone brick room with pools of lava in all four corners and windows fitted with iron bars lining the walls. In the centre of the room was a stone brick staircase. A black cage block stood at the top of the stairs, but no figure revolved within it. This spawner had been disabled. Behind this black cage sat a frame of blocks unlike anything Stan had seen before. The base of these blocks appeared to be made of lunar rock, and the top had an ornate turquoise pattern. These strange blocks were arranged in a five-by-five ring with the corner blocks missing, which formed a frame, and Stan could see that through the centre of the frame was a drop into a pit of lava.

However, the feature that drew Stan’s attention most immediately were the bodies of Charlie, Kat and DZ, all lying lifeless on the ground. Kat had a considerable-sized lump on her head, DZ had a slash across his chest and Charlie had an arrow protruding from his heel. Rex lay sprawled out, feebly whimpering, on the ground beside them. Above the four bodies stood Mr A, wearing the same diamond helmet and chestplate as Stan was wearing.

Stan stared in shock. He had believed that the Griefer had perished in the sand trap. Stan noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and saw that Mr A had pulled something from his inventory: an Ender Pearl, which had not yet been crafted into an Eye of Ender. Stan supposed that Mr A believed that Ender Pearls alone would activate the portal. In the intense wave of hatred that had erupted in his stomach since he had spotted Mr A, Stan was about to attack when Mr A threw the Ender Pearl to Stan. Not knowing exactly what would happen, Stan hopped backwards and the pearl landed at his feet.

To Stan’s horror, in a burst of purple smoke the Ender Pearl was gone, and Stan was staring at a pair of legs adorned in black trousers. Stan dared himself to look up, and he saw Mr A standing right in front of him, his arm bringing the sword down across Stan’s body.

The impact of the sword, though slightly lessened by the axe that Stan managed to reflexively raise to block the attack, sent Stan tumbling backwards. He came to a stop beneath one of the iron bar walls, and Stan barely had time to raise his axe in defence when Mr A brought the sword down onto Stan again, putting his full body weight down through the sword onto the axe handle that was now pinching Stan’s neck to the ground.

Stan began to see white-and-red flashes as the axe handle drove further and further into his neck. Determined to die in defiance, Stan focused all his remaining energy into pushing the axe off him, and then he took a frenzied swing with his axe, still blinded by the lack of air, hoping desperately that he would hit something.

Miraculously, Stan heard the clang of diamond hitting diamond, and he knew that his axe blade had struck Mr A by the grunt of pain he heard. Stan used this lucky blow to buy some time to regain his vision, and when it finally returned, he saw Mr A notching an arrow and pulling back the string. Stan ducked the arrow and, rage fuelling him, used his axe to engage Mr A’s sword in battle.

The hacking and slashing was intense. Stan’s scowl was mirrored on his adversary’s face as the two battled around the ornate portal in a dance of death. Stan was aware that he was greatly outmatched, so he was absolutely astounded when, by a lucky shot, his double-uppercut combination hit Mr A’s hand, sending the sword spiralling into the air. Before Stan could follow through, the Griefer let loose a barrage of fire charges that exploded at Stan’s feet in a short series of starbursts. Stan stepped back, away from the smoke, ready for the inevitable retaliation. Moments later Mr A’s form flew through the smoke, sword back in hand, and Stan had to jump backwards onto the stairs leading to the portal in order to avoid being cleaved in half by the sword slash that cracked the stone stairs when it hit.

Mr A pressed the attack, driving Stan up the stairs, to the very edge of the portal. Stan leaned backwards to avoid the whistling blade of the Griefer’s sword, and he found that there was no ground below him, just a pit of lava. Stan kicked off the base of the portal and landed on the other side. The battle commenced, this time with a pit of lava separating Stan and Mr A. The Griefer let loose a flurry of wild stabbing attacks with his sword. Stan was able to dodge the first few, but then one of the sword jabs caught Stan in the hand and his axe flew backwards.

Stan knew that it was useless. There was no way he could turn his back on Mr A to retrieve his weapon. Energy coursing through his veins, Stan raised his arms, ready to defend his exposed face from the barrage of arrows that would find a weakness within a few shots. The first arrow glanced off his helmet, and he felt the helmet rattle his brain, making it ache incredibly. Stan prepared himself for the next arrow that could very well kill him, when he heard a savage cry of pain, and he dared to look up.

What he saw was Oob, standing on the edge of the portal, his stone hoe moving through the air as if he had just swung it. Mr A fell headfirst into the pit, and landed with a terrible, scathing splash into the pool of lava beneath the portal, spraying Stan with a wave of fire particles that bit like wasp stings.

Stan stared at Oob and then at the pit of molten fire with the Griefer struggling to survive. Slowly, Stan made the connection that the NPC had just saved his life. At the moment, however, Stan did not thank Oob but rather looked sadly into the pit of lava containing the enemy that had plagued him from his second day in Minecraft. The turbulence in the molten liquid had stopped. There was no more struggling. Mr A was no more.

“It didn’t have to be like this, Mr A,” said Stan, sorrow deeply intertwined with his words. “We could have been friends, you know. There was nothing that could have stopped us from being on the same side, the side of right. There was just the King. The players didn’t betray your friend Avery – it was the King who did that. I only wish that I could have helped you see it sooner, before it was too late.” Stan cast one last long, sad look into the lava that was now stained with the blood of his enemy, and he turned to the NPC villager.

“Oob, thank you. I would be dead without you, and I was wrong. Wherever we go, whatever we do, you are welcome to come with us and help.”

“Amen to that,” came a voice from behind them as the villager beamed.

Stan turned around. DZ was standing up, smiling at Stan and Oob. Charlie was standing behind him, looking proud, and Kat was feeding Rex some rotten flesh she had on hand. Charlie held two empty glass bottles. It seemed that he had used his last two Potions of Healing to jointly heal himself, Kat and DZ. Relief breaking across both of their faces, Stan and Oob rushed down the stone steps and met the three players and dog in a group hug. When they broke apart, Kat looked at Stan.

“I saw what happened,” she said, looking from him to Oob and back. “You two were fantastic.”

“You really were,” said Charlie, and DZ enthusiastically nodded his consent.

“I just wish that it didn’t have to end like this,” said Stan, and he glanced back towards the portal and the pit of fire beneath it, but Kat took him by the cheek and turned him away.