Herobrine's Message

by Sean Fay Wolfe

  Finally, the bridge reached the wall. Commander Crunch spun his sword around like a helicopter, deflecting all the arrows that he could, and even then allowing some to glance off his iron chestplate or fly back into the horde of soldiers behind them. This created an opportunity for a soldier behind him to reach up and place two cobblestone blocks on the wall above Commander Crunch’s head. Instantly, the lava parted over the two blocks and was diverted to the sides, opening up a gap in the lavafall. Behind the gap were two open iron doors through which the arrows were flying.

  The second the doors were no longer covered by lava, a flow of Noctem troops started to flow out to attack Commander Crunch and his men. Sensing that now was the time to help, Stan shouted an order back to his men and sprinted toward the cobblestone bridge. As he ran across the open gravel road, the firestorm of arrows, fire charges, and TNT blocks intensified, but Stan pressed onward, knowing that all they had to do was get inside the building to escape the onslaught from above.

  Finally, they reached the bridge, and didn’t break pace as they dashed down the two-block-wide cobblestone passage. As they approached the Town Hall, Stan could see the fighting going on inside, but he could also see something that made his heart stop. There, sitting at the end of the bridge alongside the inventories of those who had been killed, lay Commander Crunch, his hand clenched to his stomach and his shattered iron chestplate beside him. Stan gestured for the rest of his men to sprint inside and join the fight, but he knelt down beside Commander Crunch.

  “Are you okay?” Stan asked desperately.

  “Aye, lad, I’ll be fine,” Commander Crunch grunted with a grimace. “‘Tis jus’ a flesh wound . . .”

  “Here, let me see it . . .”

  Commander Crunch winced as he moved his hands away from his stomach, revealing a gash that appeared to be from a sword slash. Stan’s heart started to race; they had no medical supplies on hand to heal him with.

  “Stan, go on ’n’ fight,” Commander Crunch said in a surprisingly hearty voice. “I promise ye, I’ll live. I’ve survived worse than this. I’ll jus’ stay here till ye can find me some medicine.”

  Still worried, yet also reassured by Crunch’s insanely upbeat demeanor, Stan nodded and took off into the Town Hall, leaving the wounded commander in his wake.

  The fighting in the main hallway of the Town Hall was intense. While the Noctem troops were vastly outnumbered, they were also far better equipped. Stan’s eyes locked on to one Noctem soldier who let loose a Splash Potion of Weakness, causing all five republic soldiers he was fighting to wince and fall to their knees.

  Right as the soldier was about to finish them off, Stan intervened, catching the soldier off guard and knocking his diamond pickaxe out of his hand, and sinking his diamond axe into his chest in the next swing. Stan’s soldiers, still dazed by the potion, looked up at him gratefully. Stan called another soldier from down the hall to defend them until the potion wore off.

  Stan looked around, and before long, his eyes caught sight of Kat. She was just making her way into the Town Hall, fighting off an attacking Noctem soldier as she did so. It wasn’t long before she stuck her diamond sword in the player’s chest and burst into the hall, Jayden right behind her. Stan dodged and weaved through the fights going on around him to meet up with them.

  “We’re gonna need more soldiers in here if we’re gonna overpower them!” Stan cried out.

  “We can’t get any more in right now!” Kat cried out over an explosion from somewhere above them, as Rex tackled a Noctem soldier who jumped out at her. “They’re laying down too much suppressive fire for us to get any more troops into the building!”

  “Then we’ve gotta take out those archers and TNT cannons!” Stan replied, turning around and setting his eyes on a stairway at the end of the main hall. “Come with me! You, too, Jayden!”

  Kat and Jayden nodded and followed Stan down the hall. A few Noctem troops tried to attack the three councilmen, but the trio made short work of them. As they reached the staircase, Stan turned around and saw that more and more Noctem troops were pouring out of the side doors in the hallways and joining the battle; the republic troops were getting slaughtered. Stan took a deep breath and, telling himself that shutting down the Noctems on the roof was the only way to save his people, he sprinted up the staircase, Kat, Rex, and Jayden following behind him. He turned a few corners, ignoring the doors that were next to the stairs on the way up, and before long he burst onto the roof. What he saw made his jaw drop in shock as Rex started to whimper.

  The roof of the Town Hall was covered with dead players. Fallen bodies were despawning all around, leaving piles of items in their wakes. Bows, arrows, potions, and fire charges were scattered haphazardly around the outside edges of the brick-block floor, and the brick TNT cannons sat unmanned. There were no Noctem troops at all remaining on the roof. Instead, standing in the midst of the carnage were the members of ELM. Arachnia stood staring at Stan with a wild grin on her face, while Creeper Khan and Lord Marrow stood menacingly behind her.

  Stan panicked; he hadn’t been expecting them to be here, and he knew that the three of them couldn’t take down these assassins alone. He turned around, ready to sprint back down the stairs. Just as he took his first step, there was a burst of purple smoke between him and the stairs as Enderchick appeared, an amused look on her face and a diamond sword raised. The three players and the wolf were trapped on the roof.

  Instinctively, Stan, Kat, and Jayden all drew their weapons, and stood back to back, Rex in between them, snarling. Stan was looking at Arachnia.

  “What’s going on here?” Stan demanded, glaring at Arachnia and trying not to let on how terrified he was of a four-on-three fight against these modded players. “Why are all the Noctem troops dead?”

  “Why, we killed them, of course,” Arachnia replied with a chuckle, drawing her diamond sword and examining her reflection in it nonchalantly.

  “What? Why would you—”

  “Because, Stan, we are no longer under the employment of the Noctem Alliance. You’ve managed to slip out of our grasp enough times that Lord Tenebris dismissed us.”

  She gave a sly chuckle. “Just think how foolish he’s going to feel when we capture you before he does.”

  “If you want him, you’re gonna have to go through us first!” Kat shouted, brandishing her sword, as Jayden gave a hearty nod of agreement and Rex gave an aggressive bark.

  “Well, if you insist!” Creeper Khan exclaimed as he aimed a punch in midair directly at Stan. He recognized this motion from his training with Sally, and he instantly knew what was coming.

  “Get down!” he bellowed, tackling Kat and Jayden out of the way as the ground beneath them exploded, leaving a gaping hole in the brick-block roof of the Town Hall, through which people could be seen battling below.

  “Stop that!” Arachnia yelled, whipping around to face Creeper Khan. “Stan has to be alive. You’ve got to be more careful! Leave him to me and Lord Marrow . . . Enderchick, help him take out the other two.”

  And with that, Enderchick raised her diamond sword and charged at Jayden, the closest target, while Lord Marrow drew an arrow in his bow and fired it at Stan’s heart.

  Stan leaped forward and deflected the arrow, just as Jayden locked his axe with Enderchick’s sword, while Kat and Rex turned to face Creeper Khan. The arrow fell to the ground, and Stan could see that it was smoking. His eyes widened as he realized that the arrow must have been hacked to have the effect of a Potion of Weakness; if one hit him, he would fall unconscious. He knocked another arrow to the side with his axe, then raised it yet again to counter the diamond sword that Arachnia had jabbed at him.

  Two blades clashed over and over, but Stan was surprised to see that Arachnia was hardly trying to attack him at all. Rather, she seemed to launch a quick strike, and when Stan blocked it, she would dodge his counterattack and move around until she saw another opening, not even trying to follow up. On one such strike, Stan saw that her
sword, too, was trailing gray smoke. Stan was shocked, and suddenly realized that if either Lord Marrow or Arachnia landed one hit on him, he would be knocked unconscious.

  And Lord Marrow was continuing to fire at him. It was nearly impossible to block his arrows while fighting Arachnia at the same time, and even with Stan’s legendary fighting skills, there were still too many close misses for comfort. Stan knew that it was only a matter of time before one of them got lucky, and he had to find a way to stop it.

  A risky idea popped into his head, and, not seeing any alternatives, Stan decided to go for it. The next time Arachnia emerged for a sword strike, Stan countered, but didn’t let her go. Instead, he pressed into her blade, trying to overpower her. Arachnia pressed back, clearly having the superior leverage; her blade started to slide slowly down the wood of Stan’s axe, toward his hand. From the corner of his eye, Stan saw Lord Marrow about to fire. Right as Arachnia’s blade was about to cut into his hand, Stan dropped his weapon, catching the mobhunter off guard as he slammed into her, sending her careening to the side and directly into Lord Marrow’s oncoming arrow. His projectile sunk into her shoulder blade, and she instantly slumped to the ground, unconscious.

  Stan raised his axe, preparing to finish the job, but suddenly had to hop away from more of Lord Marrow’s arrows. He had been trying to shoot Stan while avoiding Arachnia, aiming carefully, but now that Arachnia was down for the count, there was nothing to stop him from firing an almost machine-gun-like stream of arrows at Stan. He raised his axe to defend himself, but still found he had to dash around in unpredictable patterns to avoid getting hit.

  Realizing that he was getting nowhere, Lord Marrow went for a different approach. He began to fire different types of arrows, which erupted into fire the moment they touched the ground. Stan found himself cut off by the flames, and with limited space to maneuver, it was only a matter of seconds before a fiery arrow collided with his chestplate. A miniature explosion erupted directly in front of him and knocked him to the edge of the roof, his head slamming into the ground.

  In a daze, Stan could barely make out what was around him. He was only aware that his chestplate was still on fire. He could barely make out the form of Lord Marrow walking up to him, notching an arrow that was leaking gray smoke, and taking aim at a kink in his armor. Stan was in too much pain to move or do anything to stop him from firing.

  But Lord Marrow didn’t fire. Without warning, his eyes slid out of focus, and he fell forward onto the ground, unconscious with a sizable mark on the back of his head. His amazement overpowering his pain, Stan looked up to see who it was who had saved him.

  There, silhouetted against the now-rising sun, dirty and torn up, a diamond pickaxe in his hand and a giant smile on his face, stood G. He reached down to help Stan to his feet.

  “G . . . ,” Stan managed to get out, slurring his words from his pain, “What’re . . . you doing here?”

  “Oh, I was just in the neighborhood, and I figured I’d help you guys out,” G replied, his grin widening. “Well, I mean, I wasn’t just passing through . . . I kind of traveled halfway across the server to get to this particular neighborhood. Dude, you’re hurt pretty badly. Drink this, I stole it from Nocturia.”

  G produced a Potion of Healing from his inventory, which Stan graciously drank. Immediately, his head cleared, and he was able to think complete thoughts again. Aware that his chestplate was still on fire, Stan ripped it off, tossing it over the edge of the roof and into the lava moat below.

  “G, it’s awesome to see you again,” Stan said hastily, “but we can catch up in a minute. We’ve gotta take out those two over there!” He pointed over to Creeper Khan and Enderchick, who appeared to be getting the upper hand on Kat, Rex, and Jayden.

  G merely smiled even wider. “Don’t worry about it, man . . . my friends’ll take care of it.” And with that, G put his hand to his mouth and gave a loud whistle.

  Within a few seconds, the air above them was filled with Ender Pearls, tossed from the ground below. As they landed, the rooftop was flooded with players, all dressed in tattered Elementia Army uniforms and carrying stone weapons. Stan’s heart leaped, but he saved the question of where these soldiers had come from for later. He stepped forward to the center of the mass of players that was now converging around the members of ELM.

  Enderchick and Creeper Khan stood in defensive stances, looking wildly at the horde of players, as Arachnia and Lord Marrow lay unconscious behind them. Enderchick looked desperate and panicked, but Creeper Khan’s eyes were closed, a pensive look on his face. Then, he opened them, and stepped forward.

  “Stand down!” Stan yelled at them, stepping forward and raising his axe. “You’re outnumbered, and I know that all of you can’t teleport away at the same time!”

  “You’re right, President Stan,” replied Creeper Khan with no emotion whatsoever, and suddenly, he started to glow. A dim red light radiated from his skin, casting a red filter over his Creeper-like face. Enderchick stared at him for a moment, as if trying to figure out what was going on, until suddenly, her mouth fell open in horror.

  “What?” Enderchick cried. “Khan . . . you . . . you, like, can’t be serious!”

  “My mind’s made up,” he replied, not even bothering turning around to face her. “Get the others out of here, Enderchick.”

  Enderchick gave a sniffle, a tear running down her cheeks, as she grabbed the unconscious forms of Lord Marrow and Arachnia. Realizing what they were about to do, Stan yelled, “Shoot her!” and pointed at Enderchick, but it was too late. The trio disappeared in a puff of purple smoke, as the arrows cut through the violet haze and bounced off the brick blocks below.

  “What’re you doing?” Stan demanded, terrified to see that the red light now radiating from Creeper Khan was growing stronger and stronger. “Stand down right now, and we’ll spare your life.”

  “It doesn’t matter now,” Creeper Khan said, looking Stan directly in the eye. “I’ve decided that it’s time for us both to die, Stan. There’s nothing either of us can do about it now.”

  “What . . . what does that mean?” Stan demanded.

  “I’ve decided to use my Final Nova,” Creeper Khan replied in a monotone. “In twenty seconds, my body is going to explode into the biggest blast that Minecraft has ever seen. Nothing will be left of this village except a crater. The Elite Legion of Mobhunters may have been unable to take you prisoner and become rich beyond our wildest dreams, Stan, but that won’t stop me from destroying you and everything you hold most dear.”

  “Kill him!” Stan shouted in horror. A barrage of arrows flew from the crowd of people only to bounce off Creeper Khan as if he were wearing armor with Projectile Protection.

  “Nice try!” Creeper Khan said loudly, a deranged smile on his face. “Now that I’ve used my Final Nova, I can’t be killed until I explode! There’s nothing you can do to stop me!” And with that, he laughed maniacally.

  Stan stood in place, totally stunned and unsure what to do. If Khan was telling the truth, then the explosion was less than ten seconds away. The entire Adorian Village would be destroyed. There was nothing that could be done. Stan’s mind was frozen. He stood as still as a statue, completely at a loss as he tried to comprehend what was happening.

  Suddenly, Stan heard a commotion in the crowd. G stepped forward from amid the throng of people and stood opposite Creeper Khan. He had a determined look on his face, and a tear running down his cheek.

  “G!” a cry erupted from the mass of stupefied Elementia soldiers, as Jayden burst into the clearing, Kat right behind him. “What’re you doing?”

  G closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again, before saying, “I’m doing what has to be done.”

  He turned around to face his fellow councilmen, a sad smile on his face opposite the stunned confusion on theirs.

  “Jayden,” he said, turning to face his best friend, “thank you. For everything.”

  He turned his head slightly to the left,
and his eyes met Kat’s. There was a moment of silence, broken only by Creeper Khan’s ongoing laughter and the sounds of battle from below them, as the two players held each other’s gaze.

  “Kat . . . I’m sorry. I hope that you can forgive me for everything I’ve done.”

  And then, without waiting for a response, before either Jayden or Kat could ask what G meant, G turned around and drew out his diamond pickaxe. With no hesitation, he took off, sprinting at top speed toward Creeper Khan, who was still laughing like a lunatic. By the time he realized what was about to hit him, it was too late.

  G slammed into the mobhunter like a truck, his pickaxe sinking deep into Creeper Khan’s chest. The two players tumbled backward, across the roof. G was holding Creeper Khan in a bear hug to prevent his escape, and he made no attempt to stop as the pair of players plunged off the roof and over the waterfall of lava.

  “Nooooooo!” Jayden cried, finally freed from his trance as he rushed over the edge of the bridge as quickly as he could, horror etched into every square inch of his face. He reached the edge just in time to see his best friend vanish into the moat of lava below, still clutching Creeper Khan as if his life depended on it.

  Jayden found himself staring without comprehension into the lava pit for a few seconds before the explosion went off. Stan managed to grab Jayden by the back of the neck and pull him away from the edge just before he would have been burned to a crisp by the massive spray of lava that rose up out of the moat.

  The noise was deafening, and all the players on the roof found themselves knocked to the ground by the massive magnitude of Creeper Khan’s suicide attack. The ground below them shook like an earthquake, and the sounds of screaming could be heard as the supernova explosion rocked the Adorian Village to its core.

  Then, just as quickly as it had started, the tumult stopped. Stan was lying on the ground, terrified to move, and only aware of one sound—the sound of sobbing beside him. Stan dared to move his head, only to see Jayden, sprawled out on the ground, crying his eyes out. Slowly, Stan pulled himself to his knees, and then to his feet. He felt shaky, and had to work to keep his balance, but it seemed like there had been no permanent damage to him from the blast.