The events of yesterday were still fresh in his mind. The sights, the sounds, everything. The reality was hard for him to believe. Had he been able to use magic his entire life? Ant sighed, continuing to gaze out of his bedroom window. Honestly, this had ever happened before. He recalled the previous day, when he had summoned that odd blast of scorching flames. It was a small blast, more of a flaming version of a spray of water, but nonetheless it was a shock.
Ant had been exploring a nearby unexplored cavern with one of his good friends, CavemanFilms. They had been mining different types of ores, such as iron, since the town they resided in had ran low on supplies. The two were beginning to head into the lower levels of the giant cavern, where they would hopefully find a few diamonds. The cold stone floor gave off a loud, echoing tap as they walked across the ground.
The two came to a massive underground ravine, the faint glow of lava coming from below. The light provided by the molten rock was enough to prevent monsters from spawning. In curiosity, Cave peered down into the ravine, carefully balancing his weight so that he wouldn't fall forwards into the fissure. The sight of a lava lake that nearly spanned the entire ravine's floor was what greeted the Minecraftian. Ant noticed his friend's bewilderment and looked in Cave's direction, down into the ravine. "I wouldn't want to fall in there if I were you," he remarked.
Cave stood up and faced the black-haired male to his right. He gave Ant a teasing look. "You sure?"
Ant nodded, a faint smile on his face, "I'm pretty sure."
The two then continued deeper into the ravine, making sure not to fall straight into the lava. They had gathered enough supplies to last the whole town a couple of weeks. There had not been many mobs, which was lucky for them. There had only been a few zombies here and there, and an occasional appearance of a creeper or skeleton. Thankfully, they would've never gotten out if Ant hadn't brought up the idea of placing a trail of torches, which he had about two stacks of with him.
They followed the path of torches without any interruptions by mobs, until the sound of a skeleton's bones rattling was heard from the path up ahead, which continued on the other side of a pile of gravel which they had climbed over earlier. The clicking noise of the skeleton was heard yet again, only this time it was followed by the noise of another skeleton walking. Now they had to fight against two skeletons, which was much harder to deal with than just one, due to the new update. Cave began to climb over the gravel pile, but Ant grabbed his arm. "What are you doing!? Those skeletons will shoot you as soon as your head gets into view!"
Cave wrestled from Ant's grip. "That's exactly what I'm trying to do! I'll distract them, and you sneak up on 'em!"
After a quick discussion, Cave's plan was set into action. Ant would move in the shadows, progressing behind the skeletal archers and then striking them from behind. Cave would distract them, allowing Ant to sneak past without detection. It was risky, but it was better than nothing. The two of them each did their part of the plan. As soon as the skeletons were within range of his sword, Ant silently unsheathed his diamond blade, careful not to give away his position. Ant slowly began moving towards the skeletal foes. When they had finally taken notice of the Minecraftian behind them, it was too late. In one swift movement, the two skeletons were beheaded, their bony heads clanking as they hit the stone ground.
Ant let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He must have been unintentionally holding his breath when he was trying to move past them without making any noise whatsoever, as to not bring attention to himself. Sheathing his sword, Ant walked over to where Cave had been firing arrows at the previously standing skeletons. The two mobs' bodies was now nothing but two small piles of bones, collasped on the stone floor. "C'mon Cave, let's get back to the surface."
Nothing much had happened from that point on, until the encounter. No, it wasn't Herobrine or something near-impossible like that. But it was an Enderman, and it just so happened that they were both off-guard. The fading light of the sunset was visible, even from their current depth. Both were exhausted, and looked forward to their return. The two Minecraftians soon found the stone staircase they had mined out, hours before. Just before they began to ascend the carved-out stone staircase, Cave decided to check behind them, just in case some mobs were following the two.
An Enderman stared back at him, eyes blazing in fury. Cave backed up nervously, worried about what the unpredictable creature might do next. A screeching sound echoed through the caverns. Ant whipped around in surprise, then spotted the Enderman in front of Cave. "Oh Notch, no..."
In a blink of an eye, the Enderman shot forward, barely giving Cave enough time to jump out of the way. Ant dashed back down the steps, quickly unsheathing his sword in the process. Meanwhile, Cave had managed to grab an iron sword from his bag, just before the Enderman could strike again. This, however, did not give him enough time to block the incoming attack. The furious creature from the End slashed its sharpened battle claws at Cave's torso. Dark red blood splattered everywhere.
The force of the Enderman's blow knocked Cave to the ground, head slamming to the cold, hard rock floor. The impact as his skull hit the stone nearly knocked him out. Ant ran at full force, charging straight into the Enderman, sword ready to stab into it. The creature directed its attention towards its attacker, allowing its previous victim time to move out of the way. Just before Ant could stab the Ender-being, it teleported behind him, narrowly avoiding the sharp blade.
Hearing the distinct sound of the teleport behind him, the Minecraftian raised his sword and turned around, nearly missing the chance to counter the mob's vicious claw swipe. He managed, with some difficulty, to hit the Enderman quite a few times. The unmistakable purple blood of an End creature stained Ant's sword. However, the Enderman wasn't the only one who was about to collaspe. The battle had taken its toll on the two, with Ant suffering from fatigue and Cave by his worsening condition.
The Enderman reappeared yet again, this time taking advantage of its opponent's fading strength. The night-black being lashed out with its battle claws, slashing Ant's left cheek, since his ability to quickly react and block had been slowed due to his growing exhaustion. The Enderman looked at its foe in anticipation, waiting for Ant's next attack. It had already figured out his battle strategy, it only needed to finish him off. Ant gazed over to the barely concious Cave, who was lying in a small pool of blood. If he didn't finish this now, both of them would die.
Observing the two beings, the Enderman could see the danger of their current situtation. However, it would not give up its life just for these two Minecraftians. It had killed many in the same exact predicament, and it did not give mercy to anyone. At least they would be able to see each other again in the Aether. But never again on the Overworld. There was no hope for them now. The Enderman tightened its hands into fists. It looks like game over for you two. Now prepare to say your last words.
The Enderman let out another screech, which was the equivalent of a war cry in the Ender language. Ant faced the Enderman, ready to strike the final blow. The intensity between the two, Minecraftian and Enderman, was immense. The Enderman charged at Ant, claws at the ready. With every last of his energy, Ant also charged, tightly gripping the leather handle of his blood-stained diamond sword with his right hand. Suddenly feeling a surge of power run through him, Ant unknowingly clenched his empty left hand even tighter, as if directing the surge to it. Only few inches away from the Enderman's long reach, he thrust his left hand in front of him and unclenched it, releasing a powerful blast of flames from the palm of his hand.
The Enderman screeched again, only this time, in pain. It had not known that one of them could use magic, which is an extremely dangerous weapon when used on others. Especially elemental magic, like what this being had used. Purple Ender blood steadily formed a pool around the creature, and the Enderman moved no more. Ant smirked in triumph before crumpling onto the ground, knocked unconcious from the sudden drain of energy.
Even with his head injury causing him to fade in and out of conciousness, Cave had witnessed the entire scene. Had Ant just summoned fire magic? Did that really just happen? A burst of pain shot through his head, interrupting Cave's thoughts. He had to get the two of them out this cave system before any more mobs could find and attack them. With some difficulty, Cave managed to use the stone wall behind him to get back on his feet. His head felt like it was spinning from the sudden change of positions.
Cave slowly moved towards his unconcious companion, careful not to injure himself any farther. With a grunt, Cave heaved Ant's limp body over his shoulder. A sharp pain was met when he did this, but it began to slightly ease as time passed. Just before they had reached the town gates (Ant became concious a bit earlier, but was still weak from the drain of energy), Cave had collapsed from total exhaustion. Ant, knowing how serious the situation was, rushed up to the gates, and called up to the guards, who today were Setosorcerer and TrueMU. "Guys! Cave fell unconcious a bit farther up the road! I could use some help getting him into town!"
The Minecraftian in the blue, metallic spacesuit nodded. "Don't worry, we're on it!"
TrueMU then jumped off of the guard tower, but was not injured due to his jetpack, which he had used in order to slow his descent. "Seto, could you tell the others?"
Seto gave him a quick nod, then ran down the staircase, into the town below. TrueMU noticed the condition that Ant was in, his skin paler than usual. What kind of things did they go through, for them to be in this kind of condition!? MU excused the thought, and continued to follow Ant down the road to where Cave lay. MU's attention was immediately drawn to the slash across Cave's torso. "You guys had an encounter with an Enderman!?"
Endermen were normally few in the area, and only a small handful actually came near the town. You see, mobs tended to avoid the group of Minecraftians, since they were well-armed against the mobs. However, that didn't stop the mobs from attacking small groups of Minecraftians in cave systems and such, they just didn't attempt attacking the well-protected town. Nonetheless, Endermen were still rare but deadly.
Ant gave a slow nod. "Yeah, and it caught us off-guard. If we had kept our guard up, that Enderman wouldn't had done so much damage..."
TrueMU looked over the two beaten Minecraftians. They looked like they had been through living Nether and back again. Suddenly, the sound of the townpeople talking amongst one another was audible. After that, everything was just a blur of color and sound. Time seemed to fly by, and the clearness of his memory almost disappeared altogether.
Lightly swinging his legs over the edge of his bed, Ant tried to make sense of what had happened down in those caverns. It still seemed impossible. Maybe I just imagined it. After all, fatigue can make you halluciate and see things that aren't there, right? The only other witness had been Cave, who was recovering from the Enderman's attack. His thoughts drifted to Cave and his current status. I guess I should check if he's awake yet... Ant's feet made a tapping noise as they hit the oak plank floor. As he walked past his desk, a small piece of white paper slipped to the ground.
Noticing the stark white paper lying on the wooden flooring, Ant lowered himself into a crouching position and picked it up. He stood back up, curiously unfolding the mysterious note. A message, written in familiar handwriting, almost exactly like his own, was on the paper. The note read:
'You didn't imagine it.'
Ant was confused. There was no one else, other than Cave, who had actually seen him cast the spell, so how could this person be so sure? Puzzled, Ant continued reading the note in his hand.
'There are secrets to your family, your true family, the ones you never knew.'
The note was beginning to creep him out. How does this person know that I never met my real parents? That I was orphaned at the age of seven? I never told anyone... Ant paused, not exactly wanting to keep reading. What does this person know that I don't?
'If you want to know the truth, head to the Dusk Mountains. I will meet you there. Bring a companion, if you must, but I must warn you, these secrets are dangerous.'
Dangerous? Concerned, yet interested, Ant read the last two sentences remaining on the note.
'I know who you are, AntVenom. There is more to your family name than you might think.'