Chapter 10: Siege

Ribs was not a skeleton to cheer. Nor was it one to do much other than destroy. But the recent earthquake had made it cry out with much joy.

Inside it and all of the others, a dry voice had spoken. It was a voice that all skeletons that day had heard, a sort of echoing, ancient voice.

It had given them something they never had: hope.

It had told them of the riches that would be bestown upon their race, of the wonders that they would all be shown.

Their creator had spoken.

To think of your race as superior was one thing, but to have it undeniably confirmed… that was beyond what they had imagined.

Ribs had taken charge immediately afterwards. The voice had given them knowledge and power. These were things to be used against their most powerful enemy.

It was finally time to confront the humans.

Ayol grinned. "You haven't had really good food until you have had hot cooked chicken."

It was night, only hours after the collapse of the elevator. A single chicken had perished from the fall of a far-flung redstone repeater. It was the same chicken that Ayol was now cooking.

He smiled. After the earthquake, things had become quite hectic as he gathered the fallen blocks, but now he could actually relax after a hard day's work.

Ayol seemed satisfied for some unexplained reason. The tree was mostly unharmed. There was a nice meal of chicken cooking in the furnace. It was a warm night with a small breeze. There was a large-shafted spear sticking out of the wood next to him… WHAT?

He stumbled to his feet, wary. Where had THAT thing come from?

Ayol had already somehow managed to get all of her armor on. She growled. "I was just starting to feel good, too. Whoever threw that had better have had a good reason to."

He twitched. "There's a good reason to throw large spears?"

Ayol ignored him and went upstairs, peering out of a hole where a window pane used to be. "What in the blasted Nether is that?"

A cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He climbed the stairs in an almost resigned manner. His jaw dropped as he tried to comprehend. What the heck is… oh crap.

Ayol's mouth fell open as well. "..." Words could not even begin to describe her shock.

It was an army. Skeletons with bows stood in neat columns and rows. Large ballistae stood side by side, loaded with the same kind of spear that had crashed through her window. Catapults loaded with flaming blocks of netherrack canvassed the back. Oddly large, strangely blackened skeletons holding stone swords peppered the crowd. A group of skeletons riding spiders stood on the flanks of the archers. Many were wearing armor or carrying glowing weapons.

Ayol swore. He had to agree with her. He swore as well, and she hit him. "Don't swear. It's not polite." He was too busy staring at the army to care.

A single black skeleton walked up to the tree, wearing full steel armor and holding a gilded bow. It shouted, "Hello, pincushions!"

His mouth, having closed, fell open again. "Holy crap! It's that one guy! He… changed!"

Ayol blinked. "Uh, hi?"

Ribs nodded. "Ayol, you have been accused of crimes against the New Skeleton Empire. They are as follows: Being a hereditary enemy of our race. Killing gatherers of life-force. Destroying our great and magnificent visionary leader, the one whose face bore scars from you, with a shovel. Grinding up our bones into a powder for the sole purpose of enhancing inedible flora. Attacking without provocation. Stealing much-needed resources. And being a member of far inferior race."

Ayol could not take her eyes off of it. "What… the… Hell."

Ribs continued. "As these crimes have all been proven to a sufficient degree to the rest of us, we now pronounce sentencing upon you. We have sentenced you to be killed and reborn as one of us, to better enhance our race. And your little friend is to be ground up into a powder for the sole purpose of enhancing inedible flora."

Ayol looked at him, and he looked back at her. He managed to get a word out. "I thought… they were really dumb, even if they could talk… and this house was supposed to be completely safe. Only jockeys could climb it, or something."

She shook her head. "Any creature with arms could climb that ladder, but I just whack them back down. Those spider-riders? Those are jockeys. And they can climb up anywhere. They've only attacked in small numbers before, though… what changed?"

He shivered. "Maybe you… I don't know… killed their leader?"

Ayol face-palmed. "Killing their leader wasn't a miracle. It would take one to civilize them this much."

Ribs shouted again. "Do you have any last words for us?"

Ayol shouted back, "Be quiet! I'm trying to think of how to kill you!"

Ribs nodded. "Very well. May your femurs break in disgrace." It turned and walked back to the army.

The boy was slightly confused about Ribs' last sentence. "May your femurs… what?"

Ayol shushed him. "I need to think."

He rolled his eyes. "What, are you going to break out the shovel again?"

Ayol shushed him again. "I told you, be quiet!"

The army started advancing, and he ran to one of the large chests, opening it and withdrawing iron ingots. He brought them to the crafting table and made armor out of them. Ayol didn't object.

She turned to a different chest and pulled out Gashface's bow. She chuckled slightly, drawing strange looks from her him. "First time I get to use this, and I'm holding back an army. Help out however you can, okay?"

Ayol started picking off targets, but the ballistae and catapults all fired at once. All of a sudden, the tree was on fire and giant bolts were sticking out of everything… ironically making the tree look like a pincushion.

His mind raced. Not good at archery. Shot own foot the first time I tried… so what do I do…? What do I do?

Ayol shot another black skeleton in the face, smiling as the flame enchantment set it on fire. Another arrow appeared in her hand, the infinity enchantment working its wonders. The glow of crafting shined light on the wood in front of her, but she couldn't spare time to see what her boy was doing.

The jockeys started to climb the tree, using other nearby trees to gain as much ground as possible. She dodged three hastily shot arrows and returned by shooting the mounts, knocking them to the ground far below.

All of a sudden, arrows started flying from behind her at the army at a speed even she couldn't match. Turning, she saw a hastily constructed stone-and-redstone circuit. "What is that thing?" She had to yell; a crashing block of netherrack nearly drowned her out.

He shouted back, "Automated trap!"

It was a simple self-firing dispenser. Placed at the height it was, it could fire arrows very far. "I'm going to connect more in other directions! Don't get in front of the stream of arrows!"

Ayol didn't know how the thing worked; she couldn't bring herself to care, either. "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it! There's at least a couple hundred of them!"

A skeleton's head popped through the hole that served as an entrance to the tree. He responded by clobbering it with the closest weapon on hand: a hoe. "Seriously, got any more swords?"

"Chest! Chest! They're in my chest!"

From many blocks away, the zombies' creator watched the fight. She was slightly enthralled by the fire, but it was not enough to distract her from her ravening hunger. Her many mouths moaned at the thought of all of that life, just waiting to be devoured. So hungry… HUNGRY!

She rushed forwards, swallowing any small creature unlucky enough to get in her way.

The arrows were no longer effective. The skeletons had pulled out large, extended shields. When they marched in formation, using the shields as a wall and ceiling, the legion sustained no casualties from his automated weapons.

Ayol swore again. "Hey boy, you got any armor-piercing weapons?"

He blinked. "Have I got what? Why would I have any?"

She picked off a couple more jockeys, setting fire to nearby trees as well. "You're the redstone genius! If anyone could pull off a miracle, it'd be you!"

He was speechless for a moment. Ayol, the girl who took on seven skeletons with only a stone shovel while almost giggling, thought he could pull off a miracle?

The look he was giving her must've been incredulous, because she turned away and muttered, "Of course not. I was only imagining that the brave little engineer could save me from the bad, bad monsters."

He looked at the chests, then out of the tree. The skeletons had just reached the bottom and the jockeys had almost reached the top. "Anything to get out of here? We can't save this tree, Ayol!"

Her eyes were pained. Her first home, abandoned? She could hear the truth in his words, but still didn't like it. "Ender pearls."

He frowned. "What?"

"Ender pearls. If a person throws them, and they break, the person will be teleported to where they broke. I have some in the 'spoils of war' chest." She winced as she said the word 'war.'

He nodded. "Good. Come on. Grab everything important to you. We can't come back here."

She was very quick, grabbing nonrenewable supplies and food, taking only the most important things to put in her pockets. He did the same, taking redstone, diamonds, weapons, the enchantment table, and other, similar items. These things couldn't easily be reattained.

All of a sudden, the tree shuddered. A jockey who had successfully made it to the top of the tree fell off, both spider and skeleton growling in irritation.

The two looked at each other and spoke at the same time. "What was that?"

Peering over the side, an odd scene presented itself.

A wall of moldy flesh, constantly shifting in shape and size, had attacked the skeleton army. It had many mouths… but the mouths also shifted and morphed, disappearing and reappearing almost randomly. It was a chaotic mess that was about half the size of the army. And it was growing from each death.

Fire did nothing to it. There was no way to injure it, as it would just shift away from projectiles and blades. The only apparent harmful change was caused by it swallowing the tall, blackened skeletons. When it did that, its skin took on an unhealthy gray tinge. However, even this was not enough to stop this monster.

Immediately following the thing was an incredibly large horde of zombies. Some wore armor and carried weapons. Many were thinner than average and had large noses. There were also a proportionally small amount of miniature zombies that ran quickly ahead of the swarm.

He shook his head. "Skeletons… versus… zombies?"

Ayol gasped. "It's climbing! It's absorbing the tree!"

The flesh was now largely ignoring the fleeing undead and concentrating on the living. It swallowed and shifted its way upward.

He grabbed Ayol's hand and chucked a pearl towards the South with all of his might.

Moments later, the zombies' creator slithered to the top, only to find it empty of all life.

She ate the tree anyways.

The two stopped at the break of dawn, panting in the middle of the desert.

He stopped to observe his companion. She was bleeding and burned in various spots and looked exhausted. "Ayol, you're hurt…"

She smiled painfully. "This one's from a ballistae bolt that brushed past. This one's from an arrow that I had to pull out. This one's from a burning block of leaves… and so on."

He examined his own body, finding it to be in slightly better shape. He had mostly stayed out of the way of projectiles, although a skeleton climbing up had seen fit to give his hip a shallow injury. "How do I treat your pain? Do we even have any bandages?"

Ayol shook her head. "We treat it by talking about something else. I have some questions. First, how did the skeletons figure out how to build and organize? Second, how did brain-dead zombies learn it? Third, what in the Nether was that big… blankety… mouthy thingy? Fourth, why haven't we seen any monsters, despite travelling in darkness for most of the night?"

He couldn't concentrate on what she was saying. He grabbed her left hand, the hand he hadn't grabbed when they fled. She exclaimed very loudly and hit him in the face with her right hand. "Don't touch that!"

He recoiled quickly. Her left hand… was missing its pinky finger. "I'm… sorry."

Breathing quickly, she slowly counted to fifteen in her head. "I am too. I shouldn't be hard on you. You're just trying to help me."

He pulled out some wool, a bit of string, and the crafting table from her tree, trying to put the ingredients in order to make some sort of makeshift bandage. The string ended up fused to the outside of some compact wool. Good enough.

He tied it on her hand. She grimaced. "Keep going while talking to me, okay?"

He nodded, turning back to the crafting table. "The skeletons have rapidly been getting smarter, according to you."

She sighed. "They certainly couldn't talk just a little while ago. But whatever happened recently sped up the process by five hundred percent."

He continued. "And zombies all looked the same. But now there are different kinds."

"Right again. Before yesterday, there was no difference between one to the next. Stupid ghouls."

He tied a bandage on her arm. "That thing… seemed to almost be leading the zombies. Again, impossible with their level of intelligence."

"Yes. I already know that."

"And the monsters that wander at night didn't wander tonight."

"Is there a point here?"

He twitched as he examined the burns down one of her legs. "There was also an earthquake hours ago, which, as you said, 'doesn't ever happen around here.'"

Ayol frowned. "That's right. You think they're connected?"

He tried to chuckle, but simply couldn't. "I'd be surprised if they weren't. Okay, I'm finished. You won't bleed to death… I think."

She smiled gratefully. "Help me up…" He lifted her to her feet and she stretched, cringing at each needle of pain. "Next base to go to… the desert house. Hidden, out of the way, and monsters don't go through doors."

They might now… He walked along, keeping a concerned eye on Ayol.

The father of all monsters smirked at the watching wall. So interesting. So fascinating. So fascinatingly interesting.

A mute servant approached, baring a cup of sickeningly pink substance. "Many thanks. Give yourself a pat on the back." The skeletons. Who knew they had it in them? But of course, my beloved mouther fungus scared them away. She was always so… hungry.

He took a drink, smiling at the sweet substance that had taken years to perfect. "Perfect mixture. Much better than the last batch. I believe I've found my new head mixer."

The servant frowned. The head mixer's job was the most important. As such, the father killed all who did the job in an incompetent manner. It didn't matter how many he killed… he could always make more.

The father peered through the wall at the two humans. Yes, these two are so remarkable. So appealing. So appealingly remarkable.

Despite his wish to keep looking at them, he changed the wall's focus to be on those who had awakened his many mates. Blazes. Who would've thunk? They've been in Hell for who-knows-how long. "I wish to test your skill with the brewery, head mixer. This next mix isn't as important as the cup you just gave me, but I will still have high expectations. Make some of the dark blue stuff. If you succeed, you will get a raise. If you fail, you will not get a raise."

The servant left quickly and quietly. Hm… is this servant perfect? Is he attuned with my wishes? Attuned perfectly with my wishes? Quick and quiet is the way to go… quietly quick.

The wall's focus changed again, this time to an aerial view of the desert. The two groups are close to each other… I wonder how those two will take on my dear tigress?