The Iron Golems prepared a defensive line, placing a wall four blocks high, and placing themselves at the top, a line of about twenty, stretching all the way down to defend the village. The villagers, in the meantime, were smelting and creating iron swords and armor, readying for battle. Steve was already clad in full diamond, with an enchanted diamond sword, a full arsenal of arrows, and a fire enchanted bow. Still, the battle would be tough. Behind the wall, fifty more iron golems waited, the last line defense against the horde that was gathering upon the horizon. The Endermen would come first, and it would be easy to kill the zombie pigmen. However, the skeletons are ranged, the ultimate weakness of the iron golems. Steve and a few villagers had taken the time yesterday to put 20 blocks of hidden explosives in the field where the monsters would charge through. Not to forget, the spiders wouldn't need the help of the Endermen, which could now place blocks where they wanted to, when they wanted to. There were only a few advantages that the defenders had, but they were crucial to winning the battle. The main advantage was the sun. If they could hold out till morning, most of the enemies would die. However, this would be a full scale attack, and it would start immediately at dusk. In the distance, a horn sounded. As the sun slowly sank underneath the waves, the battle was about to begin.
The Iron Golems readied themselves, as a mob of skeletons and zombies charged forward as the first wave. Four towers of bowman rained down arrows upon them, but it had almost no effect on the charging mob. However, the landmines were a huge hit. Zombies went sky-high, just to be by another explosion. Some fell into holes; others hit the ground and died. Still, the majority made it past the field. They hit the wall, but nothing happened. They were unable to climb it. Those that managed to get to the top were smashed by the iron golems. Being shot from above, the skeletons retreated with the zombies, getting out of bow range. The villagers gave a ragged cheer, but soon yelled in surprise as Endermen flooded the place. Most of them came with blocks, and placed them down before teleporting away. Others kept the villagers and the iron golems busy while the others dropped their payload and escaped. The villagers, however, weren't going to be broken by this and simply broke the block. It distracted them just long enough so that a group of ten Endermen, unseen by the villagers, placed blocks in a stepping stone pattern, so now there was a stairway to the top of the wall. The landmines already activated, the horde charged forward yet again, and this time, they found a way up.
As they charged up the slope, the golems atop smashed them away, and dove into the fray just to get to that one. However, it soon turned into an enormous battle, with monsters struggling to get up, while golems in the thick of it smashed enemies left and right, getting attacked themselves. Suddenly, the sniper towers were hit the arrows, and two villagers fell out. Skeletons could be seen in the distance, firing arrows up into the sniper towers and at the walls. Steve and a number of archers mounted the top of the wall, firing at the skeletons afar, shooting about thirty of them down before they started to retreat. Suddenly, a large amount of monsters started to rout, and the villagers, thrilled, opened fire upon the retreating mob. The climbing blocks were destroyed. It was midnight. The monsters would have one more chance to attack. If they failed, it would be the end for them. Steve grabbed his sword, and climbed upon a block.
"Citizens of Zephirius! This is our final stand, but we are strong, very strong! The monsters gather for a last attack, their last attack! The last attack they will ever witness in their lives! So let us raise our sword! Let us destroy them!"
The villagers roared their approval, banging swords together, and the iron golems watched motionless expressions. Steve pointed his sword towards the wall, and the villagers climbed upon it, switching to their bows, preparing for the final attack. They waited, bows tense. Out of the darkness, a green figure approached, running as fast as it could. Steve squinted to discern the figure, and suddenly, a mini army of them were running towards them. Steve realized what they were with horror.
"CREEPERS! OPEN FIRE!"
Bows released, striking the charging creepers. Those in the front were immediately killed, but those in the back made it halfway before another round of arrows cut some of them down as well. Ten creepers were too close, about 50 meters, making about fifteen meters a second. Steve yelled for everyone to run. About ¾ of the defenders jumped down before the wall exploded and the sand collapsed. The wall that had protected them fell. Those that were in the towers were instantly killed, as the towers fell and were crushed.
"Draw swords! Draw swords! We mustn't fall!" Steve yelled over the confusion.
The villagers slowly gathered into formation, waiting for a battle to the end. Dawn was almost approaching, so only about another hour before the monsters would start to burn. However, about thirty minutes later, an attack did not come, and it was apparent that the monsters would not attack at the moment. As the sun slowly rose, an enormous, gigantic, overhang stretching about 300 blocks wide, and 100 blocks in length covered a good portion of the land, completely shielding the monsters underneath it from the sun, rain, anything. Steve stood their gaping at the structure, and knew that this battle would not last only for a night. It might even last longer than a week.
Chapter 2
Steve gathered his defense force, and looked at the ruined wall. Although they were safe at the moment, it would soon become night, and the monsters would attack again.
"Half of you, we need to start repairing the wall, and making it bigger and more reinforced! Another half of you guys start making more arrows and iron golems!"
After the villagers had breakfast, they set to work. The wall was easy to repair, and Steve managed to make a two block high obsidian wall, with only two entrances where the monsters could crowd themselves. While more iron golems and everything was under repair, Steve escaped into his study, where he looked through the ancient books of Minecraft. Finally, he rested his eyes upon a great weapon: the cannon.
From the killed creepers, gunpowder was collected. TNT was crafted, and iron golems were ready to fight. Noon came, and the defenders had lunch. Steve addressed the 1500 soldiers.
"Citizens! If we cannot defeat the monsters, then we must truly retreat. Better to escape and fight another day rather than die and never see another battle. I have 1300 boats in 60 chests at the back of the village, near the beach. It is well protected. I have 5 iron golems watching over those chests. However, if we are to fail, then 1300 of us can escape. As for the other 200…"
Everyone hung their head, knowing that the other 200 would give their lives to let the majority escape. During the afternoon, five cannons were created, and a load of TNT was ready to be fired. After the cannons, a trench was dug, and the seawater cascaded in, so that the Endermen couldn't attack from both ways. A sturdier stone wall replaced the sand one, and now the turrets were made of cobblestone, with smaller sniping areas. A fence was placed on top of the wall, so the monsters would have difficulty climbing over it. Dusk approached, and Steve took his position behind the wall, waiting with the other 1000 for the inevitable battle. Cannons were ready for fire, and now, there was going to be a relentless attack. When the sun finally set, there was a horn sounded, twice. Once again, another creeper wave surged towards the newly repaired wall, but none of them made it this time. The knockback of arrows kept them at bay until not one stood. The villagers were enlightened, but that was only the beginning. The Endermen came next, teleporting into and out of and back into the village. A battle struck out once again in the courtyard. However, the Endermen attack failed also, as the walls were reinforced with a water trench on both sides. So far, so good.
A wave of skeleton archers advanced forward, raining arrows upon the battlements. Steve and the villagers returned fire, until it developed into a full scale shootout. The skeletons took cover inside the trenches that the TNT and the creepers had blown into the ground. Arrows flashed back and forth, occasionally a villager getting hit and falling down. After about an hour of exchange, the skeletons retreated. Steve stared out onto the wall, not surprised to see it studded with hundreds of arrows. There was a fair amount of arrows in the ground in the distance. The next attack came, zombies, endermen, and spiders. Again, arrows ripped some of them apart, but the endermen managed to make a small pathway using blocks to get over the wall, and the zombies poured into it. However, Steve flipped a lever, and the redstone concealed inside the wall released a wave of angry iron golems. They smashed the zombies back, and started forcing the entire attack back, as the villagers above fired into the thick of the battle. The zombies were eventually smashed apart, until a few ragged survivors were shot down. However, the spiders didn't fall easily, and gave a fight, until reinforcements came where they finally started defeating the iron golems. When the last iron golem fell, a total of 3000 spiders killed, and 5000 zombies eradicated, the spiders pushed forward once more. Steve and the villagers drew their swords, and as the spiders ascended, they smashed them down. Amidst the confusion, another wave of creepers rushed forward, however this time, only six of them were killed before they collided and blew up the wall, however the obsidian did not fall, and all the spiders ascending the cobblestone wall were killed by the creepers. It was midnight, and the villagers were tired. They took a ten minute snack, composed of bread and three apples. Then, the hardest enemy yet made an appearance: an army of 500 zombie pigmen marched in almost perfect formation towards the village.
Steve and the villagers stared in horror as the column of zombie pigmen marched forward, with skeletons in between each line, firing up at the sniping towers and the wall.
"Force them into the narrow strait! Don't crowd yourselves! Thirty of you go up and exchange fire with the skeletons! If they retreat, fire into the zombie pigmen! They have better weapons, everyone be careful!" Steve yelled.
700 villagers waited at the front, with 20 iron golems. As the zombie pigmen broke into a run, the snipers above shot some in the front down. Still, the 493 smashed into the two narrow walkways, quickly killed by the defenders. However, more were pushing through, and soon, there was a bulge as the pigmen attempted to get through, but Steve and the villagers fought back. More villagers fell. In another hour there were only 20 pigmen left, but they took down 6 more villagers before they were killed.
No more attacks came, but the last battle was devastating enough. The ground even more pock-marked, it was even harder to rebuild the walls, and it gets harder every time. Steve had no choice but to carry out with his dangerous plan. They were going to build ten cannons ¾ of the way to the zombie camp, fire and continue firing as much TNT as they could. Their main objective was the roof, but if they could destroy some monsters too, they would. At dawn, Steve and a group of thirty villagers set out, all the equipment they would need in hand. They had 120 blocks of TNT, and they intended to use all of it. They started construction dangerously near the enemy camp, ten villagers had created temporary shooting areas and watched the area quietly, while the other 20 villagers quickly built ten cannons. At noon, the cannons were finished, and they had a quick meal before commencing the offensive.
"FIRE!" Steve yelled.
The villagers flipped switches and TNT burst out of the cannon, landing atop the stone structure. In seconds, holes appeared, burning the monsters below. More holes erupted into the structure. When most of the structure was destroyed, Steve ordered the villagers to fire into the horde itself. They rotated the cannons down, and blew open the enemies, creating holes in the ground. Next, the villagers placed down lines and lines of iron golem structures, without the pumpkin on top. When the monsters ran back deeper into the darkness, away from the light, Steve climbed on top, placing TNT in strategic areas, redstone connected them all together. He ran back on top, placing the redstone until he was back where he was. A total of 40 TNT blocks littered the top portion of the overhang. He flipped the switch and jumped down, running as behind him the world exploded, light flashed through, burning and killing hundreds upon hundreds of angry monsters. However, some of them weren't affected much, like zombie pigmen. They charged after him, a good 600 of them. The ten cannons resumed firing, but did little affect on the charging mob. The villagers set a detonation on them, and then retreated back to their iron golem structures. They ran through, placing pumpkins on all the heads until their entire store of pumpkins, TNT, redstone, iron blocks were depleted. As the first of the pigmen reached the cannons, they blew up, killing dozens. However, the rest of the pigmen charged forward, sprinting after the slow villagers, threatening their lives.
Twenty iron golems rushed forward to the defense. An enormous battle ensued, but Steve and his soldiers did not stick around to watch the fight. They rushed back to the wall, to find it rebuilt this time by a six block wall, and behind it, a taller ten block wall. Steve and his crew returned to be deemed heroes, but the last battle was yet to come. Behind the second wall loomed a 15 block wall of obsidian, where they found the obsidian Steve did not know. He called a meeting, the last meeting.
"Citizens of Zephirius, this is the last battle we will likely fight. Their structure is destroyed, and they will have to attack. Remember, our boats are still there. Take the young ones and the women first. I hope that we will not have to come to that last option. Good luck to you all. Now, before the sun sets, let us eat."
The soldiers ate a hearty meal before the sun went down, and everyone was ready for the final fight, with three walls of defense. There were only 1450 defenders now, but they felt like there were a million on their side. However, the invading force numbered more than 20x this small force. As the sun finally set, the defenders took their position as a horn now blasted three times, and dead silence followed. The next thing that happened was indefinable. The ground right in front of the first wall fell, and up came several creepers. The defenders immediately jumped down and escaped through the various iron doors before the first wall exploded. The sand immediately collapsed and from the hole where the creepers came, and from the distance, a horde charged forward. Bow released, a hail of arrows thudded and ripped apart monsters of all kind. The last of the endermen attacked and once again tried to break the bond in the village center, but the villagers rallied together, and with water, defeated the endermen till not one stood.
A few last standing endermen saved the entire monster army by placing ten steps to the top of the stone wall, before they were all killed. Before the villagers could remove the top pieces and stop the invading force, zombies, pigmen, spiders, and blazes pushed forward. They crashed upon the defenders, until there were so many that the defenders managed to kill a few hundred before they retreated. As the second wall fell, the monsters overflowed and attempted to get past the third wall, but could find no way of surpassing such an enormous structure. Defenders above openly fired into the crowd, killing hundreds upon hundreds. Creepers attempted to move forward, but were sniped down. Two hidden endermen took three pieces of unused TNT from the last attack, and, using the underground tunnel, they placed them underneath the obsidian. Above, almost all of the monsters were killed. Skeletons came forward to fire at the defenders, to keep from too many monsters being killed. Finally, the TNT was placed and two ghasts concentrated their fire at the TNT. As the TNT exploded, a hole was created beneath the obsidian, straight into the village. The monsters used this new route, catching the defenders off guard.
"Draw swords! Evacuate! Evacuate!" Steve yelled, before drawing his diamond sword and engaging the horde of monsters. Villagers on the obsidian wall started pouring lava buckets down and firing into the mob that had entered the village. Another battle struck out as women and children ran towards the beach. A ghast's fireball smashed into the obsidian wall, and four burning villagers fell down. It proceeded over the wall, ignoring all arrows fired at it. Steve watched in horror as it fired and exploded a portion of a wooden house, catching it on fire. An enormous fight had started, both sides fighting crazy, swords flashed and monsters fell. Arrows came from above; sometimes a villager would die from skeleton arrows, other times from zombies or pigmen. Spiders attacked also, climbing on top of structures and jumping on top of the defenders. It was a full scale battle for the village. Explosions rocked the area. Dispensers fired into the horde. Fire and water blasted everywhere. Yells of pain, fury, anguish, and courage echoed throughout the clash. A giant zombie approached in the horizon. Those in the towers fired at it, but it had found golden leg armor, and most of the arrows just bounced off of it.
Steve escaped underground, putting fifty dispensers and 100 iron golems to keep the horde back as he and the rest of the villagers went underneath the village, placing hundreds of TNT, strategically to blast the area, and kill the monsters above. An underground minecart escape was what they would use after detonating the area. A quick look up proved that the dispensers were out, and the monsters were battling it out with the iron golems and some snow golem turrets. Finally, the last TNT was placed. Steve sealed off the tunnel, and making sure that the minecarts still worked, they each grabbed one, Steve flipping the switch to detonate the entire place, before pushing his cart, and jumping in as it rode him away.
Above ground, the last five iron golems held ground, beating down fifteen more before two went down. Another managed to smash a spider, throw a pigman into lava, and bang a skeleton to death before getting shot multiple times. The last two retreated, buying time for the escapers at the beach, running around in circles while those in the sniping towers, approximately four in both, fired into the crowd, with plenty of arrows in large chests. Another iron golem village defender fell as the zombie pigmen horded it. They rushed towards the beach, but then, out of nowhere, the ground underneath them exploded, throwing hundreds of them into the air, some dead immediately, others dead when they hit the ground, but it was not over. Explosions continue to kill hundreds upon hundreds more, till almost all of them were dead. The smoke cleared, showing the ground completely destroyed. An enormous crater stood where once the village was. Only the two sniping towers were far out of range of the explosions to survive. However, they did not go unseen.
Five ghasts that managed to survive the blasting inferno flew up, ignoring the arrows hitting them, and blasted the first tower. Those inside had no chance to escape. As the interior of the tower burned, it then violently exploded, completely destroying it. Two ghasts fired at the second tower, but the villagers inside beat the fire charge back with their bows and instantly killed the ones responsible. They immediately climbed down the ladder as the other three opened fire and destroyed the tower. Once on ground, they sprinted across the land, now completely ruptured. They didn't make it far before they were blasted by the pursuing ghasts.
Steve quickly smashed the rails that were speeding underneath him, guaranteeing that no monsters could follow him or the villagers. It was over, it was truly over. Although the village was destroyed, countless monsters died in the process, and most of the villagers were safe, everyone was safe.