“Omigosh, Arachnia, I am, like, so not sleeping in this disgusting suh-wamp!” a fourth, ditzy-sounding female voice replied. “It’s all, like, soggy and stuff, and the Slimes out here leave these, like, icky puddles of goo all over the place! Ew! It’s, like, totally guh-ross.”
“Oh, get over yourself,” spat the third voice, apparently named Arachnia. “Hmm . . . you’re right about one thing, though . . . we shouldn’t camp up here—it’s way too out in the open. Come on, guys, let’s head down into that mine over there. . . . That should keep us hidden.”
And, to her horror, Kat heard a symphony of footsteps slogging their way through the grass above and getting louder and louder. Kat realized that Cassandrix had already taken off, running deeper into the mine, and Kat turned on her heel and sprinted in pursuit, Rex hot on her tail. Kat barreled down the natural stone steps of the mine like a cart on powered rails, sending a few bats flying out of her way in surprise. As the footsteps above suddenly turned into the sharp echoes of feet against stone, Kat dashed faster, finally catching up to Cassandrix, who was standing directly in front of a pool of lava. The cave had led them to a dead end.
Immediately, Kat whipped out her sword and sank into a fighting stance, praying that, whoever these people were, they were peaceful, or at the very least bad fighters. As the footsteps grew louder, another sound registered in Kat’s ears—a rhythmic tapping directly behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and realized that Cassandrix was swinging an iron pickaxe and digging a hole in the wall, just tall and wide enough for them to escape through. Feeling a combination of stupidity for forgetting this option and hope that their escape would go without a hitch, Kat glanced forward again.
“This spot looks good.” Arachnia’s voice echoed down into the cavern as the footsteps came to a halt. “Creeper Khan, would you mind making the area a bit more . . . spacious?”
“It would be my pleasure,” the enraged voice, apparently named Creeper Khan, growled back in return. Even now, when he sounded thrilled at whatever it was he was about to do, he sounded remarkably angry.
Suddenly, without warning, the booming blast of an explosion sounded throughout the cavern, deafening Kat’s unprepared ears. Another blast followed, followed by a series of rapid-fire detonations that shook the mine. Kat sprinted backward into the tiny hole that Cassandrix had created, terrified by what could be causing this horrific effect. Were these players detonating TNT? Had they run into a horde of Creepers? Or . . . and Kat shuddered as she imagined the implications . . . was it something else the player was doing?
Then, suddenly, the explosions stopped. There was no damage to any part of the cavern that Kat could see, but she wasn’t planning to stick around to find out what was really going on. She just wished that Cassandrix would dig faster.
“Omigosh, Arachnia, this is, like, so much better,” the unfocused, flighty female voice said again. “I mean, it’s still, like, totally dark and underground-y and stuff, but at least it’s not, like, the suh-wamp, or anything. . . .”
“You’re welcome,” spat out Creeper Khan in disgust.
“Okay, team,” Arachnia announced, “Let’s set up, and try to get some sleep. Tomorrow, the real hunt for President Stan begins!”
Kat, who was walking through the tunnel and nearly out of earshot of these players, spun around. Did she really just hear that? Intrigued, Kat dashed down to the end of the tunnel, poked her head out, and continued to listen.
“Hey, Arachnia, I hab a question!” the stupid-sounding voice rang out again, sounding particularly loud as it echoed around the chamber. “Ow do you know dat da President hasn’d already godden dis far?”
“Zomboy,” seethed Creeper Khan, “just SHUUUT UP!”
A small explosion rang out not too far from Kat, but she didn’t care. She was suddenly far too desperate to hear what these people had to say. Were they saying that . . . somehow . . . Stan had escaped?
“Khan, calm down!” exclaimed Arachnia in irritation. “We can’t have you lose control in here, not in such close quarters! And besides, it was a decent question. Zomboy, President Stan escaped just a few days ago. He’s probably still out in the Northwestern Ocean, hopping from island to island.”
“Oh,” Zomboy replied. “Dat bakes sense.”
“I swear,” Creeper Khan growled, glaring at Arachnia, “if you don’t find some way to make him less annoying, then I am going to use my Final Nova on all of you!”
“Don’t even joke about that!” Arachnia gasped. “I don’t want you to use it by accident. . . .”
“Oh, relax.” Creeper Khan laughed darkly. “You do realize that my Final Nova is powerful enough to level an entire city, right? Trust me, I’m not gonna use that attack unless I really, really have to.”
Suddenly, Kat felt a hand grab her shoulder and whip her around. Kat was totally caught off guard, and her hand immediately went for her sword. However, she saw that it was simply Cassandrix, staring her in the face with an incredulous expression.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Cassandrix hissed, as quietly yet incredibly urgently as possible. “We have to get out of here!”
“Shut up, I’m listening,” Kat hissed back, pushing Cassandrix to the side and trying to hear what they were saying again. However, before anything could register, Kat found herself being dragged back into the tunnel.
“Are you really that stupid?” Cassandrix whispered, her face showing pure disbelief. “They’re distracted. We have to leave now!”
Kat didn’t have time to deal with her. These players, whoever they were, were discussing vital information about Stan, and Kat had to hear it. Hoping it would buy her a few seconds, Kat gave Cassandrix a full-on shove, sending her tumbling back into the hole. Kat stuck her head back out to hear Creeper Khan’s voice.
“. . . still can’t believe that Stan managed to get out of that prison. It was so well guarded . . . or at least, that’s what I heard. What was it, didn’t some friend of his blow himself up in order to get Stan out?”
“Yeah,” Arachnia replied. “I think his name was DieZombie97 or something, one of the council members . . . killed himself by setting off the bomb that let Stan escape.”
After that, the two players continued to talk, but Kat didn’t care. She couldn’t hear them anymore. All she could hear was that one phrase, resonating in her mind over and over again . . . DieZombie97 killed himself, DieZombie97 killed himself, DieZombie97 killed himself. . . .
Stan had broken out of the prison. And DZ was dead.
Kat was having trouble processing, trouble comprehending what was being said . . . DZ, her friend who had been with them for months, for as long as they had been in Elementia . . . could he really be . . .
A hand struck Kat hard across the face, and she felt a flash of pain; her vision went white for a moment before refocusing to see Cassandrix, her face almost inhuman with fury.
“You dare to shove me, you obnoxious little brat!” Cassandrix seethed, her nostrils flaring. “I swear, if you ever do that again, I will not hesitate to . . . Oh, stop crying, you deserved it and you know it!”
“He’s dead . . . he’s dead . . . ,” Kat managed to get out between shallow, raspy breaths, tears running silently down her face. “Cassandrix . . . he’s dead. . . .”
“What are you talking about?” Cassandrix demanded, looking up into the cave in horror; Kat may have been having her breakdown quietly, but they were still in the presence of these hooligans.
“They said . . . ,” Kat managed to get out between forcing her snorts of sorrow and fury to stay in her chest, “that DZ . . . is dead. . . .”
“Kat, that doesn’t matter!” Cassandrix hissed, her eyes bulging. “We have to get out of here now.”
Kat looked up to face Cassandrix. She could not believe what she had just heard. Her eyebrows knitted, and her eyes blazed with fire as she snarled in outrage. Had Cassandrix really just had the audacity to claim that DZ’s death didn’t matter?
Cas
sandrix had crossed the line. Kat drew out her diamond sword and prepared to let out a bellow of rage. She knew nothing but an all-consuming desire to destroy Cassandrix. Kat raised her sword and was about to bear down on Cassandrix with all her fury when, all of a sudden, she felt a dull blow to the side of her neck.
Kat fell to the ground, suddenly no longer angry at Cassandrix, or sad about DZ for that matter. In fact, she wasn’t able to feel anything aside from a strange feeling of calmness spreading from her neck across her entire body. She was vaguely aware of Cassandrix falling to the ground beside her. As the world around her started to blur, Kat’s fading eyes caught the image of a player dressed as a Spider drawing back a glowing hand right before she finally passed out.
CHAPTER 5 THE RETURN OF THE VOICE
The white rectangle that was the moon shone bright in the sky, casting a cool glow down onto the ocean below. The vast expanse of water stretched out as far as the eye could see, only being dotted by a few lonely islands far off in the distance. At the surface, the ocean was totally flat, except for one living being swimming forward, creating a slight rippling around him.
Leonidas was totally exhausted. He had been swimming for days on end, through the seemingly endless brine. The few islands that he had found to rest on throughout his journey had been barren. They held no trees with which he could construct a boat, and only one of them had any food on it, a single cow that Leonidas had killed with his bare hands, desperate and starving for food (he had been so delirious with hunger that he had forgotten that he still had an iron sword on hand). The little bit of rations that he’d had when he’d left Fungarus had nearly depleted, and Leonidas had no idea when his next meal would come.
There was one particular food item, though, that Leonidas had held on to since he had left Nocturia more than a week ago. Although he knew that the golden apple would fill him, and make him feel much better as well, he refused to eat it. He was saving it for . . . a very particular occasion. It was so important that Leonidas’s mind had stopped classifying it as food, and rather as a tool. As food swam to the forefront of his mind now, he didn’t pay the golden apple in his inventory a lick of thought.
Leonidas was so exhausted, and so miserable, that he had half a mind to simply stop, to allow himself to sink underwater, and wait until his oxygen ran out and he drowned to death. However, Leonidas knew that he couldn’t do that. He had been working for the forces of evil for far too long in Elementia to leave now. He had to redeem himself before he could leave Elementia with any degree of integrity. And so, Leonidas forced himself to paddle onward, closer and closer to the Elementia mainland, praying that it would come into sight soon.
Leonidas wondered what was happening within the Noctem Alliance right now. He knew that, with Caesar dead and he himself deserting, the Noctem Alliance was short a chancellor and a general. If Leonidas had to guess, he would say that since Blackraven had officially revealed himself as a traitor to Elementia, he would take over Caesar’s role as chancellor. As for the general . . . Leonidas clenched his teeth as he realized that Drake had almost certainly taken over his position. He couldn’t wait for the day when he would finally get to face that self-righteous little brat again.
Leonidas paused for a moment to catch his breath, treading water and focusing as hard as he could on conserving energy. There was still no island in sight, and he would likely be swimming through the night until he found one. After he had caught his breath, Leonidas was about to continue swimming when he heard a faint noise behind him. He soon realized with a start that it was the sound of a wooden boat cutting through water, and it was growing louder and louder.
Leonidas glanced behind him and saw, far off in the distance, a lone boat sailing straight toward him. As he squinted at it, Leonidas could barely make out a figure, unidentifiable at this distance, clad entirely in black leather armor.
A grin crossed Leonidas’s face. It was a Noctem Alliance boat, surely out in the ocean to try to find him. Leonidas hastily took a deep breath and ducked his head underwater. He hoped that the Noctem soldier hadn’t seen him or, if they had, they would assume that he was just a squid, poking up above the water as they occasionally do.
Leonidas allowed himself to sink down to the seabed. Thankfully, it was shallow here, a mere ten blocks or so below the surface. Leonidas crouched down on the clay basin of the ocean, ready to launch himself upward. Leonidas reached into his inventory and drew out his iron sword. In this situation, he figured that it would be a better choice than his bow.
Leonidas stood absolutely silent, watching the boat, silhouetted against the moonlit surface, come closer and closer to where he was. Then, just as the boat was above him, Leonidas kicked off the clay blocks, rocketing upward toward the surface, sword outstretched in his hand. Leonidas broke the surface of the ocean and felt himself launched into the air. The player in the boat had hardly comprehended what was happening before Leonidas’s sword had struck him across the black leather chestplate, cutting it open and sending the player tumbling out of the boat and into the water.
Leonidas fell back down into the ocean with a splash and saw the player haphazardly trying to gain his bearings and figure out what was going on. Leonidas let out a breath that turned into a swarm of bubbles, realizing that he should probably kill this player. As much as he wanted to abstain from killing, he knew that leaving this Noctem soldier alive was far more dangerous than it was worth.
Leonidas returned his sword to his inventory and drew out his bow and an arrow along with it, taking aim at the player. By now, the player had gained his bearings and was staring back at Leonidas, glowing diamond sword in hand. Leonidas saw that underneath the ripped tunic, a turquoise shirt was visible, and the player’s face was pale and shocked. However, only when Leonidas looked the player in the eyes did he come to the realization of who he had just attacked. The eyes, which held the same type of gleam that was unique to every player, were horribly familiar. . . . They were the eyes of Stan2012.
Leonidas couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. This Noctem soldier he had just attacked . . . was President Stan? How was that possible? Stan had escaped? He was on his way home? And Leonidas had just attacked him?
Oh, no, thought Leonidas, his mind refusing to accept what had just happened. What did I just do?
Leonidas didn’t have too much time to think about it though. He instinctively raised his bow in a feeble block as Stan sent an axe blow directly at Leonidas’s head, sending them both careening away from each other. Leonidas was totally stuck. He knew that he couldn’t fight back against Stan, and he also knew that Stan wouldn’t be particularly keen on listening to his explanations, not that they could even speak in this underwater environment.
Leonidas felt a dull blow to his stomach as Stan’s sword connected with his black leather chestplate. Leonidas had been thinking so hard about how to avoid fighting Stan that he had forgotten that, eventually, Stan was going to counterattack. As Leonidas sunk down to the ocean floor, he noticed a trench right beside him. Desperately, he swam downward into it, well aware that Stan was following him in hot pursuit.
As Leonidas plunged deeper and deeper into the trench, he found it near impossible to see. That was the least of his worries, however; his oxygen supply had nearly run out. Leonidas aimed a punch forward, and, by some miracle, his hand struck dirt. As fast as he could, Leonidas threw punch after punch at the wall, hoping to create a tiny safe haven to utilize. Just as his breath was about to give out, Leonidas punched away the second dirt block, creating a small compartment just large enough to stand in, which Leonidas quickly dived into.
Leonidas took a deep breath and felt the air rush back into his head, his bearings quickly returning to his body. Thanking Notch for Minecraft’s broken water physics, Leonidas continued to punch into the dirt wall, eventually creating a room large enough for two people to stand and walk around in. Hopefully, if Stan was planning on making his way down to the trench to finish him off, Leonidas would be abl
e to explain what was going on.
However, Stan didn’t come down. After a while, Leonidas gave a deep breath and a sigh. He was furious with himself for making such a crucial mistake; he would have a much harder time convincing Stan that he was planning to join the Elementia Army now. Leonidas gave the wall a lurid punch of frustration before slipping out of his air pocket and rising back toward the surface, planning how he could fix the damage caused by this monumental error.
Stan was barely managing to keep himself afloat. The cut across his chest by Leonidas’s sword had torn through his armor, leaving a light cut in the center of his chest. This wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for the fact that he had then tumbled directly into the ocean, ramping up his pain to excruciating levels as the salt water seeped into the open wound. Add that to the fact that Stan had accidentally swallowed a mouthful of seawater during his plunge, and he had become so weak that it had been a struggle to pull himself back into the boat.
And that was back when he still had the boat. The struggle against Leonidas had done substantial damage to the craft, to the point where it barely floated anymore, and he couldn’t control it. He had half a mind to just leave it there in the middle of the ocean, but he knew that there was a chance Leonidas might find it and somehow use the wrecked dinghy to his advantage, so he had destroyed it. Stan now held three wood-plank blocks and two sticks in his inventory, the only remnants of the boat.
Stan quivered with fury. He couldn’t believe that Leonidas had followed him all the way out here just to ambush him. Actually, now that Stan thought about it, he realized that he shouldn’t be surprised at all. He knew that out of all the Noctem Alliance’s forces, Leonidas was the most savage, alongside Minotaurus. Leonidas had probably volunteered to hunt him down, Stan thought in disgust.
The one thing that Stan was slightly confused by was how he had managed to escape Leonidas. But, the more Stan thought, the more he realized that it was probably because Leonidas had let his blind bloodlust take over his common sense. He probably hadn’t meant to knock Stan into the water. Leonidas most likely was a terrible underwater fighter, and had fled to avoid fighting Stan while he had that disadvantage.
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