“Two seconds left,” Stan spat out in disgust.
Leonidas sighed. To be honest, he was really sick of finding himself in these situations. No matter where he went, he could never catch a break. Never once had things ever gone his way, and he had always walked in the worst place possible. He was tired of it. Maybe . . . just maybe . . . it would be worth it to just let Stan run him through, and allow all his problems to just end . . .
“Answer me, you monster!”
The shout jolted Leonidas out of his trance. His eyebrows creased, and adrenaline shot through his body. No. I’ve come too far. I’m too close to give up now. Leonidas gave a shout of fury, which Stan clearly wasn’t expecting. The distraction allowed Leonidas to raise his good arm and knock the sword to the side. He desperately searched for a plan, when his eye fell upon a turquoise orb lying in the snow.
Finally, Leonidas smirked to himself. Something goes my way.
Leonidas snatched the Ender Pearl from the ground, pitching it fastball style toward the limb of a tall spruce tree as Stan recovered. Leonidas closed his eyes, and before Stan’s sword could harm him, Leonidas felt himself be sucked through the vacuum of space and land on the cushioned, snow-covered leaves of the tree.
Leonidas paused for a moment to catch his breath as Stan looked around wildly in confusion. In the moment of peace, the adrenaline began to drain from Leonidas, and the stinging pain in his arm became more and more prevalent. Leonidas gritted his teeth and realized that now was as good a time as any to talk to Stan.
“Hey, Stan! I’m up here!”
Stan whipped around to face Leonidas, and their eyes met. Instantly, Stan’s befuddled face morphed into a scowl, and, with no words, he drew a bow.
“Don’t, Stan!” bellowed Leonidas, his heart skipping a beat. “I already said, I don’t wanna fight ya!”
“I’m not interested in anything you have to say, Leonidas!” grunted Stan as he notched an arrow and aimed at Leonidas’s heart.
“Well, fine then! Kill me! But I refuse to fight!” shot back Leonidas. Taking a deep breath and praying that it wouldn’t come back to bite him, Leonidas extracted his bow from his inventory and, before Stan could react, he pitched it down off the tree. It landed on the snow right in front of Stan’s feet. Stan stared at the weapon.
“What’re you playing at?” growled Stan, his brow creasing further as he glared back up at Leonidas.
“Nothin’,” replied Leonidas, sounding much braver than he really was. With no bow in hand, he felt almost naked, and incredibly helpless. “I just don’t want to fight you or your friends ever again.”
“What’re you talking about?” spat Stan.
“Exactly what it sounds like, Stan. I quit the Noctem Alliance already, and I wanna join you and fight for Element City.”
“Ha!” laughed Stan bitterly. “There’s no way you’re gonna lower my guard by lying . . . where’re your other guys? Are they getting ready to ambush me? Are they watching now with Invisibility Potions?” Stan’s eyes flickered around the snowy island nervously before returning to the now angry Leonidas.
“No, Stan, I’m bein’ serious! I was wrong to ever follow anythin’ the Alliance said! They’re a bunch of no-good, vile murderers with twisted ideals and horrible methods. I never believed in anythin’ they said, and now I’ve broken free and want to fight for ya!”
“Give me one good reason that I should believe you, and not shoot you right now,” Stan spat out in disgust.
“Well, how’s this?” Leonidas replied, thankful that at least one good thing had come out of the fight from a few minutes ago. “All the mobs in the game are fightin’ for the Alliance now. If I was still with the Alliance and had guys with me, how come I got attacked by the Enderman just now?”
Stan’s mouth opened for a moment, then closed. He looked confused, and Leonidas grinned, realizing that he had gotten the point across.
“Well . . . that’s . . . ,” sputtered Stan, “. . . maybe . . . that was just a rogue Enderman that you just so happened to come across! I mean, come on, Leonidas! You expect me to believe that you realized overnight that you were fighting for the most evil organization in the history of Minecraft?”
“Course not!” cried out Leonidas in indignation. “Stan, I told ya this the last time we met, and I’ll tell ya again . . . I didn’t choose the Alliance, the Alliance chose me! The only reason I ever joined those evil cretins is ’cause I had to! When I was a noob, they threatened my family and said that if I didn’t join . . .”
Suddenly, Leonidas found that he couldn’t continue. Although he was sure that he was about to win Stan over, it finally occurred to him who he was talking to. Stan was well known for being very friendly toward, and extremely protective of, the NPC villagers. If anybody would know what Leonidas so desperately needed to, it was him.
“Stan . . . the moment that I quit the Alliance,” Leonidas continued slowly, his voice trembling with emotion, “was the moment . . . when they told me they had attacked the NPC Village. I never did hear . . . what the casualties of the attack were, before I left. So . . . I’m so sorry, but I have to ask you . . . did Moganga survive?”
Stan’s eyebrows, which had been slightly raised at the sheer levels of poignant sadness in Leonidas’s voice, now shot up, and his mouth hung open. How did Leonidas know Moganga by name?
“Um . . . no, she didn’t . . .”
“Then what about Ohsow? And Leol? And Vella?” Leonidas was desperate now to hear the news that even one member of his family had survived the raid. “Stan . . . what about Mella and Blerge? What about their sons?”
Stan couldn’t believe his ears. Leonidas knew the names of the villagers? How was that possible? And Stan recognized the tone of Leonidas’s voice as strikingly . . . sincere. And . . . if that was true . . . could it possibly mean that Leonidas really . . .
Suddenly, Stan flashed back to his fight with Leonidas in the Jungle Base. During that fight, too, Leonidas had spoken with true emotion in his voice, trying to make it seem like he was an actual human being with feelings . . . right before he had sunk an arrow into Charlie. This was clearly just Leonidas playing another mind game with him. Surely there was some other explanation for how Leonidas knew the villagers’ names. Stan was about to release the string of his bow and let the arrow fly when, from the other side of the island, he caught the tone of faint whispering.
Stan whipped his head to face the source of the noise, instinctively sinking to his knees to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. As he glanced through the tall, spruce-wood tree trunks, nearly black in the midst of the night, he didn’t see anybody. Then, without warning, a dark figure emerged from behind one of the trees. Without hesitation, Stan drew an Ender Pearl from his inventory, and, praying he wouldn’t be seen, he pitched it upward into the boughs of the nearest tree. A second later, Stan found himself comfortably perched in a hollowed-out den of leaves in the top of the tree. He looked up and realized that he could see Leonidas, crouching up in another tree.
Becoming aware that somebody was staring at him, Leonidas whipped his head around, only to realize it was just Stan. The two locked eyes for a moment before Stan hastily looked away. Leonidas didn’t care. Although he truly had been emotionally invested in his own speech, he had shifted right back into hiding mode the instant that Stan had realized that there was somebody on the island. Right now, the fate of the village didn’t matter to Leonidas as much as ensuring that he and Stan gave this mysterious figure, whoever he was, the slip.
As Leonidas glanced down onto the dark snowy ground, he realized with a start that not one but three figures were walking across the island. The three of them stopped in a clearing in the trees, not too far from where Stan had been just moments ago. In the faint moonlight, Leonidas could make out the bodies of all these players.
One of them had the exact costume of a Spider, and an intrigued look on her face. The second player resembled an Enderman almost perfectly, but she had blue eyes and
a black ponytail down her back, her face seeming a bit unfocused. The final player had the body and face of a skeleton, with a mop of white hair, tinted black on top. This player’s face looked stony and stoic.
Leonidas’s heart dropped. He knew these players. He knew them well. And he knew just then how much trouble he and Stan were in.
CHAPTER 12 THE COMMON ALLY
Arachnia looked around the clearing, surveying the trees and landscape. Enderchick opened her mouth to say something, but Arachnia raised her hand, and her mouth immediately closed. Arachnia took a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing intently on something. After a moment of silence, she opened her eyes.
“Somebody’s on the island,” she whispered, looking to Enderchick and the skeleton-player, who Leonidas knew to be called Lord Marrow. “I can’t tell where, exactly . . . but they’re not going anywhere.”
Leonidas inhaled sharply, praying that Stan wouldn’t hear this and take it to mean that he should run. Nothing could be further from the truth; they both had to stay put, lest Arachnia sense them.
Back when Leonidas had been commanding troops in Nocturia, Drake had told him about some old friends of his, bounty hunters who they could hire if they ever needed any extra hands. He had told Leonidas that this team, composed of five players named Arachnia, Enderchick, Lord Marrow, Creeper Khan, and Zomboy, was known as the Elite Legion of Mobhunters, or ELM. A mobhunter, Drake had explained, was a type of hacker who took on the skin of a mob in the game, and used cheats and mods to give themselves all the abilities of the mobs they were disguised as.
Drake had pointed out that Arachnia, for example, was a mobhunter dressed as a Spider. Therefore, she had given herself the ability to poison others on contact, high agility and wall-climbing abilities, and the ability to sense when others were around if she devoted all her focus to it.
At that point, Leonidas told Drake that he’d consider hiring them if need be. Now, Leonidas hated himself for not having Drake go into more detail as to what exactly the other mobhunters of ELM were capable of. Leonidas assumed that Enderchick had some sort of teleportation ability, and Lord Marrow was most likely a skilled archer, but he still couldn’t guess exactly what these players could do. And he had no idea where Creeper Khan and Zomboy were . . .
“You know what to do, Enderchick,” whispered Arachnia. Leonidas couldn’t see Enderchick’s face, but she nodded her head and then, in a puff of purple smoke, she was gone. Leonidas’s heart sank; she was able to teleport.
Leonidas tried to keep his breathing as silent as possible as he heard the sound of teleportation go off every few seconds below him, indicating that Enderchick was clearly scouting out the island. He glanced up at Stan, in the tree directly across from him. Stan appeared to have the right idea and was crouched down, sword in hand and trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Leonidas sighed in relief, and hoped that Stan would stay that way before the mobhunters managed to find him.
Enderchick appeared back in front of Arachnia in another burst of purple smoke.
“He’s, like, not underground or anything, Arachnia,” Enderchick chirped softly, a ditzy, Valley girl tone to her voice. “All the blocks on the island still have, like, snow covering them and stuff. Also, just over behind those trees, I found this thingy.”
Enderchick reached into her inventory and pulled out a bow. As she handed it to Lord Marrow, Leonidas realized in horror that she was holding his own bow. Beyond being terrified that ELM now had evidence that somebody was indeed on the island, the feeling of helplessness that came with being unarmed crashed over Leonidas once again.
“Lord Marrow, what do you think?” Arachnia asked, as she and Enderchick turned to the skeleton-skinned mobhunter. “Has this bow been used recently?”
There was a moment of silence. Lord Marrow turned the bow over in his hand, and held it up to his eye level, examining it. Then, without a word, he turned to Arachnia, and nodded.
“All right,” Arachnia replied, a grin cracking on her face. “He’s here. Enderchick, please bring over our little friend.”
Enderchick disappeared and reappeared an instant later, holding another player by the shoulder. As Leonidas looked closer, he realized that she wasn’t holding another player; this was a Zombie villager. As he got a closer look, Leonidas wondered in horror if this could be a citizen of the NPC Village he had once called home.
“Villager, give the command,” Arachnia ordered. Leonidas was puzzled. What did that mean?
The villager gave a series of short roars, sounding vaguely similar to hacking coughs. There was a moment of silence as the three mobhunters and the Zombie stood there, and Leonidas wondered what was going on. Then, the sounds of Zombie moans, Spider hisses, and rattling bones caught Leonidas’s ear as he watched dozens of hostile mobs appear and begin to swarm between the tree trunks, clearly searching for someone.
“I still think that this is, like, a totally suh-tupid idea,” whined Enderchick, sticking her tongue out in disgust. “We could, like, totally find him ourselves, Arachnia.”
“I know that we could,” replied Arachnia, “but trust me, the mobs will find them much faster.”
Leonidas sighed, and looked down at the leaf blocks he was sitting on. If they were using the mobs to search, then he was probably safe. The only real danger would be if he looked an Enderman in the eye, so if he just kept staring down, he’d more than likely stay undetected. Leonidas gave a quick glance up at Stan, to ensure that he, too, had the same idea. Indeed, Stan was still in the same position, crouched and ready to strike if need be, keeping his gaze fixed on the mobhunters below. Leonidas was about to return to looking down when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something.
Crouching on top of another spruce tree, not too far from where Stan was, was another player. Leonidas’s heart stopped for an instant, as he feared that he was being surveyed by another mobhunter. Yet, as he got a closer look at the player’s features in the faint moonlight, Leonidas realized that this player was quite different.
The figure had dark-colored pants, and his upper body was covered by a black cloak that draped down over his head, obscuring his face. Leonidas could still see a pale mouth.
Leonidas remembered back to days ago, when the same mysterious player had appeared out of nowhere to defend him from Spyro. The Black Hood had returned.
Leonidas had no idea what to do. He had no idea why this player was following him. And he had no idea why the Black Hood continued to stare directly at him. Leonidas raised his eyebrows at the player, eyes wide, as if trying to ask, Who are you? And what do you want?
The hooded figure—the Black Hood—said nothing. Instead, he simply raised his pale hand and pointed directly above Leonidas’s head.
Leonidas glanced up behind him and immediately rolled out of the way to dodge the Spider that was dropping down from the leaves above him. The arachnid landed next to Leonidas with a clicking hiss, and Leonidas cringed, as the pain in his arm had flared up yet again from the sudden motion. He had no time to tend to his wound, though. The Spider had already hopped into the air and was about to land on Leonidas, teeth bared. Without flinching, Leonidas drew back his good hand and sunk it as hard as he could into the airborne Spider’s stomach.
On contact with Leonidas’s fist, the Spider hissed in pain and flew farther into the air. Then, to Leonidas’s dismay, the mob fell down off the tree and directly toward the mobhunters down below. Leonidas turned in a panic back to the Black Hood, wondering if the mysterious stranger could help him in any other way. But the Black Hood had vanished. And out of the corner of his eye, Leonidas saw something that made him immobile with alarm.
Stan was still in his same position in the tree, crouched and ready for action. He was staring down at the mobhunters, completely oblivious to the Spider leaping down toward him from above. Leonidas waved his hands around in desperation, trying to catch Stan’s attention. He looked up at Leonidas with a look that questioned Leonidas’s sanity, right as the Spide
r slammed into Stan’s back, and he tumbled down out of the tree, landing with a thud on the snow-covered dirt below.
The mobhunters, who had all been preoccupied with the Spider that had fallen on them, now turned on their heels to face this player who had fallen on the ground. Arachnia took a step forward and glanced down at the player in surprise before a wild grin of victory crossed her face. The Spider reared up behind her and prepared to strike, but she cut the beast in half with a diamond sword without even turning around.
“Well, well, well,” Arachnia chuckled, elation flowing through her voice. “If it isn’t the great and powerful President Stan2012 of Elementia.”
Stan, winded from the sudden fall to the ground, struggled to push himself up and look her in the eye, a pained expression on his face.
“Enderchick,” Arachnia said, looking to her black-skinned companion. Without hesitation, Enderchick disappeared in a puff of purple smoke and reappeared with her foot on Stan’s back and a wild, sadistic look in her eye as she forced him to face-plant back into the snow.
“Try anything funny, Stan,” Arachnia spoke softly, as Lord Marrow drew a bow and notched an arrow, which instantly began to swirl with strange, dark magic as he loaded it, “and we won’t hesitate to kill you.”
Stan gave a tiny grunt but no other response. He seemed totally unable to move as Enderchick ground her foot harder into his back. Arachnia raised her fist and clenched it. Before long, the fist began to swirl with blue-gray smoke. Slowly, Arachnia brought her hand lower and lower, toward the back of Stan’s head.
Then there was a roaring sound from out of nowhere. Arachnia barely had time to turn around before Leonidas’s right arm struck her across the forehead. As Leonidas landed on the ground, a sickening crunch emanating from his legs, Arachnia fell unconscious to the ground. His limp left arm struck Lord Marrow against the back of the head, sending his bow tumbling to the ground, the dark arrow flying into the night sky. Leonidas gave a scream of agony and fell to the ground as Enderchick, shocked by the sudden attack, warped away from Stan, appearing a few blocks away. As she drew her sword for self-defense, Stan leaped up onto his feet, drawing his diamond sword and surging forward to attack Enderchick.
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