Herobrine's War

by Mark Cheverton

  “I have to keep going!”

  He drew on the last bit of energy. He could feel his HP dropping as his hunger became dangerously low, but he couldn’t stop now. The desert well was only eight blocks away.

  “I think I’m gonna make it,” he said aloud to the empty desert.

  Casting another glance behind, he saw there were now two ghasts; he could practically feel them breathing on his neck. He leapt up blocks of sand, getting closer and closer as more balls of flaming death streaked through the dry desert air, each one just barely missing him.

  “I’m almost there!” he said in a loud jubilant voice.

  Suddenly, a ghast with bright-red eyes rose up from the other side of the sand dune right in front of him, a booming laugh coming from his vile mouth. The monster had a vile, evil look to it as if it were born out of hate and violence.

  “Not close enough, fool!” the ghast shouted with glee.

  The monster spat a flaming ball at the villager, striking him in the shoulder and knocking him off-balance. The ghast rose high in the air and laughed.

  “I am Malacoda, the king of the ghasts,” the monster boomed. “I will be the last thing you ever see.”

  Fisher struggled to stand, feigning injury, then leapt up into the air. He landed on the edge of the desert well and dove down into the cool waters. The other ghasts fired down on the structure, their fireballs smashing into the roof and shredding it to dust.

  While underwater and holding his breath, Fisher used his pickaxe to dig through the wall of the well and create a tiny pocket of air. He could hear the other ghasts yowling in rage as they rained more balls of fire down on the structure. They hit the watery surface and were extinguished instantly. More of the deadly spheres smashed into the well, chipping away at the cobblestone overhead, the water protecting the structure underground. In his tiny pocket of air, he waited to see if the ghasts would eventually be convinced he was destroyed.

  A deafening silence filled his ears as he sat in the cool water and waited for some kind of signal that it was safe. Finally, he emerged from the well. The roof was completely obliterated, and pieces of stone and wood were strewn around the hilltop. To the east, a line of ghasts hung in the air between him and the desert village. There was no way he would ever reach Carver and the others now. Pulling out an apple, he ate it quickly, then consumed some bread until his hunger bar was full, allowing his HP to begin regenerating.

  “I can’t go to the village now, the ghasts will see me for sure,” Fisher said to the barren landscape. “But I’m not sure I want to go running through the desert in the daylight with all those monsters floating around. I’m sorry, Carver, and everyone in the desert village, but I just can’t get to you to give warning. You’re on your own.”

  Fisher sighed, uncertain and afraid. Pulling out his pickaxe and shovel, he carved out a seat in the well, and sat in the water, chest high, waiting for night to come.

  CHAPTER 4

  CLOUDS

  Herobrine stood atop the tallest of the Dragon’s Teeth, his eyes blazing a harsh white as his frustration grew. The rocky peak stood high above the few clouds nearby. The terribly clear blue sky shone down upon the virus, mocking him with its pure cerulean color.

  To the west, the sky was slowly fading to a rusty orange as a bright-red line painted the horizon. The sun was sinking below the horizon, allowing a few stars to peek down upon the Overworld from the east. Soon, the sun would disappear completely for the day, drawing a blanket of darkness across the land; it would be monster time in Minecraft. Recently, Herobrine had modified the code governing zombies and skeletons, making them impervious to the deadly rays of the sun. Now these monsters could walk about in the middle of the day without fear of bursting into flames. As far as Herobrine was concerned, that made every time monster time.

  Herobrine glanced around at his surroundings from his perch high atop Dragon’s Teeth. There were monsters milling about down below—not as many as he wanted, but he knew how to solve that problem. The real issue right now was the ghasts. The evil shadow-crafter knew these floating monsters were the key to destroying that pathetic blacksmith and taking over Minecraft once and for all. The problem was he could only infect a few of them at once with his vile hatred, and the slow pace of his progress infuriated him.

  “I am Herobrine,” the Maker yelled to the darkening sky. “I should be able to infect anything I want, as quickly as I want to!”

  But at the moment, since the sky was clear and there were no clouds nearby, that meant there were no ghasts within his reach, and this made him even angrier. His eyes grew bright with fury as he glared out at his surroundings, his rage about to boil over.

  “I am Herobrine,” he shouted. “I AM HEROBRINE!”

  Suddenly, a dark form materialized, visible out of the corner of his eye. Glancing over his shoulder, he found Erebus, the king of the Endermen, standing up higher on the mountaintop, looking down at him, his eyes glowing bright red. Around him floated a purple mist of teleportation particles that slowly dissipated.

  “Maker, what is the problem?” Erebus asked.

  “The ghasts,” Herobrine snapped, his eyes glowing bright with rage. “There are none nearby for me to transform!”

  “They only can be found in the clouds,” the Enderman said. “The sky right now is clear.”

  “I can see that, you fool,” Herobrine growled. “I don’t need you to tell me …”

  He stopped his rant as an idea suddenly slithered into his evil mind.

  “The clouds … I’ll infect the clouds.”

  “I don’t understand,” Erebus said.

  “I don’t care what you understand,” Herobrine snapped, his eyes glowing brighter.

  He turned and glared at the Enderman. The dark creature annoyed him for reasons he couldn’t be bothered to try to understand. Maybe it was his frustration, or the feeling of being powerless against this problem. Herobrine wasn’t sure; all he knew was that he didn’t want Erebus here right now. Slowly, deliberately, he reached for his sword. Instantly, the king of the Endermen teleported away in fear, materializing on the ground far below. Herobrine laughed as he glared down at his foolish minion, then turned and went back to work.

  Closing his eyes, the evil creature concentrated on his crafting powers. As he focused on his malicious code-altering skills, his hands began to glow that insipid pale-yellow color he loved so much. The sickly hue slowly crept up his arms like an infectious disease. When it reached his elbows, he plunged his hands into the peak of the rocky spire. The mountain seemed to shudder at his vile touch, but Herobrine didn’t care.

  Concentrating with all his viral skill, he made discolored clouds slowly ooze out of the mountaintop, as if the terrain were weeping in despair. The clouds, different shapes of squares and rectangles, glowed with a faint orange radiance, tiny embers dancing about the edges. Herobrine smiled. It looked like there was some kind of fire within the center of each cloud. But in addition to the orange glow, he could also see his insipid, sickly-looking yellow aura as well.

  The new, infected clouds seeped from the mountain, pushing through the air and spreading outward in all directions. Some normal clouds were approaching on the perpetual east-to-west wind. When the faintly glowing, infected clouds touched one of the normal ones, there was a tiny flash of pale-yellow light, then the pure white was replaced with a sickly-looking orange and pale yellow, glowing embers sparkling around their edges. The ghasts traveling within the normal clouds cried out in shock and fear as they were also infected, an evil look developing across their large baby-like faces.

  Herobrine watched with evil glee as his virus clouds claimed more and more of the sky; his airborne troops were growing in number right before his eyes. After the infection was complete, the newly-recruited ghasts turned their angry eyes toward the Dragon’s Teeth and floated toward him.

  “Excellent,” Herobrine mumbled. “My new slaves are arriving, just as it should be. That’s one problem solved.”
>
  The moans of a small group of zombies drifted up from the ground. Glancing down, he saw Erebus standing near the lava flow that spilled down the side of one of the rocky spires. A group of Endermen stood with him, and a small collection of zombies were clustered nearby. The total number of monsters down there was pathetic. At one time, Herobrine had possessed a massive army of monsters, hundreds and hundreds of vicious creatures willing to do his bidding, but that cowardly blacksmith had destroyed them, leaving him with only a handful of survivors.

  “We will have our revenge on you for that, Smithy,” Herobrine hissed to himself.

  Concentrating with his viral powers, the vile shadow-crafter teleported to the ground. Instantly, he appeared next to Erebus.

  “Maker, I see you solved your problem,” the Enderman king said. “That’s excellent.”

  “I don’t need, nor do I want, your approval!” Herobrine growled, his eyes glowing bright.

  “Of course you don’t, Maker,” Erebus replied, lowering his red eyes to the ground.

  “I have a task for you and your Endermen,” Herobrine said.

  “We will do as you command,” the Enderman replied.

  “Of course you will,” Herobrine sneered. “You and the other Endermen are to teleport out into all the caves and tunnels across the Overworld. You will gather more skeletons and zombies. We need a proper army that will keep the blacksmith and his villagers sufficiently distracted, so they don’t realize my real plan.”

  “It will be done,” Erebus said, his red eyes glowing bright with excitement.

  “Any monsters that refuse to volunteer shall be destroyed,” Herobrine directed.

  “Of course,” the king of the Endermen replied.

  “When we have enough monsters, we’ll begin the pursuit of the blacksmith,” Herobrine added. “If there are any villagers in our path, we’ll destroy them, if for no other reason than because they offend me. These NPCs must be taught who is the true ruler of Minecraft.”

  “There is a desert village just on the other side of the Great Chasm,” Erebus said. “Perhaps we could destroy that first?”

  “No, I have other plans for them,” Herobrine said.

  The Maker’s eyes then began to glow bright white as he thought about what would soon happen to that village. If only the blacksmith were there when it happened, he thought, then laughed a maniacal, evil laugh.

  CHAPTER 5

  SAVANNA VILLAGE

  The NPC army reached the exit of Two-sword Pass just as the sun was setting gracefully on the western horizon. Gameknight glanced up at the rosy sky and knew they would need to be extra cautious as they ran through the night. But from what he’d seen since travelling into the distant past of Minecraft, the time of the Great Zombie Invasion, zombies and skeletons curiously did not burn in the sun. That strange difference from the present day made daytime just as dangerous as the night. The User-that-is-not-a-user had a hunch it had something to do with Herobrine, somehow.

  Many of the villagers breathed a sigh of relief when they left the sandy desert behind. Half of the army had come from a village in the savanna nearby, and those warriors looked forward to being with their families again. Gameknight knew how anxious they must be to see the familiar walls and buildings of their villages; in fact, NPCs always felt safer in any village, even when it wasn’t their own. But Gameknight also knew that their party’s urge to hurry should not replace their sense of caution. There were still monsters about.

  The NPC army passed through an extreme hills biome and into a forest landscape. They ran quietly through the dense growth of trees, the branches and leaves blocking out the slowly darkening sky. Gameknight glanced skyward, still on the lookout for ghasts, but fortunately, all he could see through the open spaces of the leafy canopy were stars; the sky was clear.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, the User-that-is-not-a-user shifted his attention to their surroundings. With the overhead threat seemingly absent, he concentrated on the possibility of an ambush by the ground-dwelling monsters of the Overworld.

  “Keep your eyes peeled,” Gameknight whispered. “Pass the word, but stay as quiet as possible.”

  Fencer relayed the message, then turned back to the User-that-is-not-a-user.

  “You think there might actually be monsters out here?” Fencer asked. “We destroyed a big chunk of Herobrine’s army in that last battle near the Great Chasm. I imagine Herobrine will be hiding somewhere, licking his wounds and feeling sorry for himself.”

  “Herobrine doesn’t feel sorry for anyone,” Gameknight said. “He’s completely without pity or remorse. It makes no difference to him how many monsters were destroyed in that battle, because he doesn’t value anything other than his own evil existence. If he thinks he can hurt us with an attack, then he will definitely try.”

  Wilbur suddenly stopped and raised his nose into the air, sniffing. He glanced up at Gameknight999 and oinked quietly, his tiny black eyes narrowing.

  A clicking sound filled the air. Gameknight held a hand up into the air, then stopped and listened. The rest of the army froze where they stood, some of them quietly drawing weapons from their inventories.

  The clicking was getting louder. That could only mean one thing: spiders were approaching, and it sounded like they were coming from the southwest. Gameknight motioned for one group of archers to set up in a line, then for more of them to climb up into the trees. He then directed swordsmen to stand behind the archers.

  “Warriors, protect the archers,” Gameknight whispered as he positioned his troops.

  The spiders now sounded like a storm of crickets, their clicking flooding the air. He couldn’t see them yet, but he knew there were a lot of them.

  “Everyone get ready,” the User-that-is-not-a-user whispered. “They’re almost here.”

  “I don’t see anything,” one of the archers said. “Where are …”

  The villager stopped in mid-sentence as glowing red eyes suddenly appeared in the distance. Like a massive swarm of red fireflies, the clusters of eight glowing eyes moved closer, all bright and filled with hatred. Now the warriors could tell there were a lot of the fuzzy monsters approaching.

  “Wait until they get close,” Gameknight whispered. “We can’t let any of them get away.”

  The fuzzy black monstrosities continued forward, and Gameknight realized that they weren’t even aware of the villagers’ presence near them. But then, just as the User-that-is-not-a-user thought they might take them completely by surprise, someone dropped a sword. The blade clattered against an iron boot, making a clank that sounded like thunder in comparison to the silence of the forest. The clicking of the spiders surged in volume as the monsters charged.

  “Here they come!” Gameknight shouted, the need for silence now gone. “Wait … wait … now, FIRE!”

  The archers aimed for the clusters of red eyes, letting their arrows soar into the night and disappear into the dark forest where the spiders were gathered. Just then, a silver light bathed the landscape as the full moon finally rose above the horizon and lit the Overworld. The spiders were easily visible now. The archers fired as fast as they could, their bowstrings humming like a symphony orchestra.

  “Fencer!” Gameknight shouted.

  The NPC ran to his side.

  “Take the swordsmen on the left flank and go behind the spiders,” Gameknight explained. “I’ll take the ones on the right. We must surround the monsters. None can be allowed to escape. If they do, they will tell Herobrine our location. We don’t want that … not yet.”

  Fencer didn’t reply. He just nodded his head and ran to the warriors on the left, while Gameknight did the same on the right. As the archers kept the spiders distracted, the soldiers moved around the large group of monsters, then closed in. Pulling out their own bows, the swordsmen suddenly became archers and fired on the monsters from all sides.

  The dark fuzzy creatures realized their mistake; they were surrounded. With no hope of escape, the monsters fought ferociously.
They charged toward the archers, their mandibles clicking wildly. Wicked curved claws swiped at NPCs, trying to tear at their HP. Many of the archers dropped their bows and drew their swords for combat in close quarters. Quickly, the battle degraded from a carefully-orchestrated dance of spider and villager to a chaotic melee of hand-to-claw fighting.

  Gameknight dropped his bow and drew his two swords, then charged into the fray.

  “FOR MINECRAFT!” he yelled.

  He smashed into the spider formation, his razor-sharp blades swinging wildly. Slashing to the left and swinging to the right, the User-that-is-not-a-user, masquerading as Smithy of the Two-swords, tore into the fuzzy bodies with a fury.

  “Protect your neighbor and fight together!” Gameknight shouted as he blocked a claw from hitting a builder next to him. “Everyone push forward!”

  The NPCs advanced, pushing the spiders back, but because they were surrounded, it only drove the spiders into a tighter and tighter clump. Soon, the monsters were so close to each other it made fighting difficult for them, and even easier for the archers perched in the treetops. Pointed shafts rained down upon the fuzzy creatures like a deadly thunderstorm, causing many of the monsters to disappear quickly as the last of their HP was extinguished.

  In minutes, the last of the spiders were gone. The villagers cheered, but Gameknight held his hand up, asking for silence as he glanced around at the shadowy forest.

  “There could still be more around,” the User-that-is-not-a-user warned. “We must be careful.”

  The villagers nodded as they collected their arrows that had missed targets and were stuck in the ground or in trees.

  “Archers, out of the trees,” Gameknight said. “We need to get to the savanna village before we run across any more unpleasant surprises.”

  The army reformed, and began to travel with haste toward the distant village. As they sprinted, Fencer moved up next to Gameknight999.

  “That was a great battle,” the NPC said. “We didn’t lose anyone.”