Minecraft VR Chapter 13: Spark of truth
It had been a week since the new update forced us to a brand new world, one we had very little knowledge of, as with all of the new updates, the game was virtually impossible to compare to the original game, the blocky textures were used for barely anything, in favour of a more realistic look, although the texture pack used made it look similar to a cartoon, albeit a fairly realistic one. The only things that seemed to not change much were the animals and other mobs, along with buildings, the mobs were especially creepy since they now looked really out of place, but their hit-boxes were much improved since before, especially compared to pre-VR states.
The major downside was that we were in a swamp. Swamps are easily the most annoying biomes to traverse normally, but on top of that, we had the luck to spawn in one that was almost certainly more water then land, and stretched further then our frame of vision at the end of a days walk. Thankfully though, there was enough to keep us all busy, and without the usual need to find the items needed to make our equipment and housing, we had advanced to the state where i believed it was time to move to the second stage of the game, the Nether.
Once we entered the nether, we were greeted by incredibly stale air, overpowering heat, and netherrack all around us, thankfully that was as easily demolished as usual, but we were still in the nether, and this time around, we spawned in an area that was ridiculously enclosed, with most places enclosed by the terrain, and very few spots where the terrain ever exceeded our line of sight.
"what a depressing place" Kira commented at one point, all i did was nod, i was distracted, where were all the mobs? We had been exploring for at least twenty minutes, and hadn't heard anything. That bothered me, and that sixth sense that seemed to be connected to my equipment put me on edge, further warning me that something was wrong with this version of the nether.
Soon after that, we finally reached a clearing, and i found out exactly where all the mobs were. Or more accurately, i found out what they were trying to fight off.
Someone had summoned the wither, and following this worlds bad habit of making boss mobs ridiculously powerful, this wither had turned into a hydra, tripled in size, had its tail replaced by what looked like a giant, flat needle it used to scatter the mobs, all of which(outside of the wither skeletons, who were acting like the things bodyguards) were trying to take out the giant, knowing just as well as we that this hell-spawn belonged nowhere near there home. On the other hand, the wither hydras middle head, the one that should have been the only one generated, looked sad, like it knew what it was doing was against its role as a protector of the nether, but was powerless to stop itself from destroying what it originally meant to protect.
I started forwards, but Kira stopped me, placing her hand on my shoulder "are you sure you know what you're planning on doing is right?"
i turned around so i was facing her before i responded "no, but i can't stand here while a protector is turned against his land, I'm going."
she nodded "then I'm going with you, ill watch your back, so you be sure to do what you have to do."
we charged, and slowly, the creatures we usually fought against started providing us with cover fire, zombie pigmen ramming into wither skeletons even as the Blaze used their fires to pepper the enemy, allowing Liam, who had joined in from the rear at some point, to focus his shots on the skeletons who started to aim at us, as we charged at the hydra.
If anyone asked me after this how to fight a hydra, my advice would be simple: don't, your extremely likely to die, seeing as at first, your outnumbered by the ridiculous number of heads, all trying to kill you, while you try to get at its main body, without being bit, squashed, trampled on, or thrown. Needless to say, its not an easy fight, and for us, it was a nightmare, seeing as we also had a risk of getting shot.
We were on the defensive from the start, the heads feeling like hammers raining down on out blades, and the tail might as well have been a giant battering ram, even with both of us blocking, it felt like i might break a bone every second, until eventually we could roll under the tail. On occasion, we managed to strike at the hydra, but the fact was, we had to restrain ourselves, as whenever we cut one head in half, another two sprouted, within five minutes, we were fighting as many heads, one of which was facing behind the hydra, so we couldn't even get behind the damn thing anymore. After ten minutes of fighting, we got the damn thing down to about fifty percent health, which would have been good, if it wasn't at around sixty percent when we started.
"this isn't working" Kira gasped as we retreated for a moment to catch our breath, and tried to get feeling back into our arms, which were numb from being battered so often. Once again, i cursed the creator for thinking of everything.
I took the chance to survey the battlefield. We had the upper hand, with most of the enemy forces gone, but at the same time, our forces were fairly low as well, i guessed that they would only provide about seven minutes of direct fire on the hydra, and then they too, would perish.
"yeah", i responded, bringing such a small force here was a mistake. "but we needed the others to watch out for Alex."
"i hope they don't find him" she responded, her voice full of concern for our group, but she started moving again, towards the hydra that seemed to be all that mattered in the game for the two of us right now.
As i approached the hydra, i noticed that it seemed preoccupied, moving like it was already fighting, although nobody was visible, until the kid from out camp seemed to appear from the ground, shooting the hydra once with his bow, then disappearing, only visible for the second it took him to shoot.
I didn't have time to waste though, and i charged at the hydra with Kira, using the distraction provided by the kid to slash at the withers main body like i had originally planned, with Kira behind me, keeping the five heads off my back with splendid swordplay that i knew was the result of all her time training, the bounce-back from the withers tough hide was calculated to get her within stabbing range of the next head, while Liam led the mobs charge, creating a wave of creatures that soon overwhelmed the wither, whose heads slowly disintegrated as its health bar faded, until eventually, we were facing the normal wither, although its body was changed, it looked less demonic somehow, like the standard form usually seen was still just a twisted form of the withers natural form, a majestic black and blue being whose entire bearing radiated peace. Slowly, the surroundings faded, and we were standing in a nether fortress, the portal to the main world right behind us. The wither backed up one pace, and beckoned to the chest its body had been covering. Inside it was a book, along with several stacks of blaze rods, easily enough to create the eyes of ender we would need, although i suspected they were not free. Sure enough, the book notified us of the price we would be paying.
These are thanks for your attempts to free me, the guardian spirit of the Nether, from my curse, futile as it may be to do so. Do note however, that these do not come free. If it comes to pass that you must return back here, i am certain that i will be forced to rampage once more, and the next time, i will likely be forced to use the full force of my abilities, which would certainly mean your end. On top of that, any further players who enter my realm will meet with the full wrath of my true state.
On that rather depressing note, we left. I was still bristling from our encounter with the Wither, i didn't think it did us a favour, rather, I'm almost certain it was toying with us, waiting to see what we would do about it's threat. As we walked through the portal, i decided that i would come back eventually to kill the wither myself, if i didn't run into it eventually on the surface world, at which point it would be hunting, and i would kill it regardless.
Once we got home however, i started on one of my side projects instead of sleeping like the others. I sat on the ground, letting my blades natural energy soak across the landscape, searching for people who had the blood on others on their hands, and then noting each and every one, (there was actually quite a lot of this, players seemed to always want more equipment, even if their own was already strong) and processing the strength of each signal, searching for what i hoped would be the signal off either Alex or Shadow.
After i had found five signals, i began meditating for an hour or so. For myself especially, i found this important, as i needed to control my anger, so that anytime i was confronted with a scene like the village, i could hand out proper judgement, without always resorting to removing the offending party from the game. Usually nobody bothered me while i was doing this, but this time, i sensed someone nearby, they weren't moving, they were just observing, and i sensed nothing malicious from them, so i left it alone, and continued with my meditation, while making sure nothing changed with the intruder.
Eventually, the figure left, and i stood up, certain that the hour i had given myself had passed. I kept the imprint of the harshest signal i had picked up earlier in my mind, and filed it away to deal with the next day, then went to sleep.
When i went outside for the first time the next day, i spotted Kira meditating, nearly mimicking the pose i used just the night before. Once more, i thought back to the previous day, it was very possible that it was Kira who was watching me, but for what purpose? I decided to think more about it later, but as i started to walk around, she spoke
"you were meditating last night, weren't you?" her voice was calm, but i sensed another oncoming question
"yes, i responded just as deliberately.
"why? You already lead us, what more do you need?" her tone was not accusatory, not damning, only questioning
"that village, what happened there, i let my anger control me, if I'm to lead you all, i cannot let that type of thing happen again." i kept my voice even, there was no emotion in my voice, it was only a statement.
"why?" she responded, it took me a moment to notice her eyes were closed.
"these people who want me to lead them trust their lives to me, and my actions will certainly lead to the deaths of some of them, and others may chose not to fight, i need to know that i can lead all these people properly, without making decisions based on anger."
she got up slowly, then spoke "good answer, remember that determination when we fight Alex, something tells me your going to need it.
So then, with my still somewhat tired mind now totally confused, we made our way to the morning meeting, to prepare for battle with the signals i thought may have come from Alex
-end of chapter 12-