BanjoNote: Here we go. This is part 2 of 4, which means after this, I've only got to write 3 more chapters! Also, Fallen Kingdom might've been my favorite chapter back then, but this chapter is (hopefully) fast-paced and action-filled.
Also, I have tagged a sentence with a *. This is because I need to explain it at the end of chapter BanjoNote.
Let's get into it.
BanjoMano does not own Minecraft. Had this been true, I would've made this story official in the sweet Minecraft canon.
[Gimero]
Meta led me down the twisting corridors of the prison, cutting down pillagers. I pulled up beside him, holding my shield in a way that covered my entire right side. Meta kicked a pillager into a wall and smashed the hilt of his sword into the pillager's nose.
He grabbed it's fallen crossbow and loaded it. Twirling it and nearly taking his left eye out, he aimed down the hallway. "Not one for projectiles, but let's goooo-"
He took the shot at some zombies running down the hallway, and the crossbow broke apart in his hands. The arrow missed wildly, not even fazing the zombies. He shrugged quickly and attacked all of the mobs as I ran past, searching for the lead room that controlled this prison.
Meta ran up behind me and leaped straight over me, cutting a zombie down with ease. Giving me a wink, he said "Bro, let me stay ahead."
"Yeah, yeah. Where's Quan?" I asked, just realizing the scientist was missing. I looked at the cells around me, but there was only iron golems. Why were there so many irom golems?
"Dunno. He didn't appear with us into the cell." He shook a worried look away. "I'm sure he's fine! Probably chilling in a jacuzzi with a whole bunch of-"
"Where would Herobrine have a jacuzzi in the middle of a taiga?" I wondered. "Why would Herobrine even want a jacuzzi period?"
"Who doesn't want a jacuzzi?" Meta corrected me, cutting down a zombie.
I sighed. I hoped that Clodir was having a better time holding the pillagers off.
[Riley?]
We appeared at the castle on top of Zhoria, where the former Queen once sat. Herobrine pushed me back, trying to knock me off balance. I slid backwards, but I kept my footing.
"This'll be fun, tenth Crafter. I've always wanted to see how well I'd fight against some of your... talent." He spun his scythe, cutting throught the air with a whistling sound. "The ninth barely counts as a Crafter. She couldn't even get her powers under control."
"You couldn't even best the Red Ranger, pal." I brushed my hair back and gave him a teasing smile. "I bet you couldn't even touch me with that weapon. Who uses gold tools, anyways?"
"Gold?" He looked at his scythe. "I suppose you could call it that."
He charged me, swinging his weapon at my legs. I flickered backwards, just teleporting out of his reach. "You're going to have to try harder than that! C'mon, give me hundred and ten percent!"
He lunged at me, and I blinked behind him. He twisted around quickly and nearly cut into my torso, but I managed to deflect his blade with my rapier. Going on the attack, I stabbed at him, teleporting behind him when his scythe came up to knock my weapon away. I stabbed him in the back, and he swung a punch at me. Naturally, I blinked away, this time sitting on 'his' throne - the Throne of Zhoria.
"I wouldn't sit there if I were you." He growled, his white eyes glowing brighter and brighter. I smiled, lounging even further into the stone chair.
"You know, you could just walk away. Notch, I might not follow you!" I told him. "But you can see; you're hopelessly overmatched. You can't even get close to hitting me!"
"I liked you alot less when you weren't smart-mouthed." He took out the emerald and held ut to his wound. Instantly, it closed itself. "Maybe I underestimated you. No matter. I am still the scourge of Minecraftia, the greatest warri-"
"You lost to Athara."
"Would you stop bringing that up!?"
[Clodir]
I spun around, cutting down the last pillager of the twenty. Not even tired, I ran down the hallway to try and wipe out all the guards in this area. Not three steps, and I knew something was very wrong.
Loud footsteps. Every step, the entire prison shook violently, almost enough to send one off their feet. Which is exactly what happened behind me, when Gimero fell promptly on his back.
I turned around, surprised and exasperated. "What're you doing here?"
"The entire prison's just a big circle," He explained. "There is no control room. We have to open these cages manually. Which, incidentally, is what Meta's doing right now-"
"Over here, my fellow prison mates! Follow me for honorable combat! Maybe!" Meta hollered, regrouping with us. Behind him were about fifteen golems.
"That's cool and all, but the footsteps of fifteen golems don't knock people off balance." I huffed. The footsteps were growing louder, until -
"What in Notch's name is THAT!?" Gimero yelled, mirroring all of our thoughts.
Smashing bricks and destroying cells was something... not natural. It looked like a massive stone golem, with cracks of shadow lining it's entire body. When I say massive, I mean about ten blocks high, hunch backed. When it's black eyes caught us, it drew to it's full height - about seventeen blocks high - and roared, destroying all the blocks that prevented it from moving.
I turned to Gimero and told him "Run. Get out of here. Me and Meta will deal with this... thing."
"Wait, why am I dealing with it?" Meta complained. "I wanted to look for Quan! Herobrine took him somewhere!"
"What do you think Gimero is going to do?" I shot back, giving Gimero a glare that (hopefully) read You'd better do something other then run.
"Uh... yes?" Gimero said, staring at the massive stone behemoth. "You think you can take that thing down?"
"ANYTHING CAN BE DONE WITH JOSIE!" An Iron Golem roared, pushing past the rest. She swooped Gimero up in a massive iron hug. "JOSIE COVER YOU ESCAPE!"
"Oh!" Gimero weezed, all of the air leaving his body. "Missed you too - can I be put down?"
Josie dropped Gimero and slammed her would be fists together. "JOSIE CAN FIGHT STONE DUDE!"
"Something tells me otherwise," Gimero muttered, giving us a concerned look. "I'll find Quan -"
The stone golem roared, and Gimero let out a high-pitched squeal. "I'm out of here!" He quickly stated, and ran out of the underground prison. I turned back to the Golem, where Meta was keeping his attention.
"This isn't going to end well, I hope you know that?" He asked, holding his sword nervously. I gave him a smile, twirled my axes, and charged the behemoth.
[Gimero]
Every hero has their cowardly moment. But I insist that this was not an act of cowardice; rather, a tactical retreat. And if screaming was involved, you were horribly wrong. My head held high, the only sound I made was the heroic-
Alright, fine. By the time I got out, my lungs pretty much felt like cacti in my chest. But I did manage to get out, but the view outside wasn't a much more welcome sight.
Lafor was bad, sure - but Zhoria didn't have a military like Lafor. What I could only describe as guerrilla warfare was happening on the streets - every man for himself. Groups of trained warriors were fighting hordes of mobs, protecting small packets of surviving civilians. I could see some Heads laying on the ground - to which I quickly looked away. I looked up at the castle at the top of Zhoria, where Alex's vision slowly became true - from the bottom up, the stone walls were turning into obsidian.
How? Did Herobrine have some sort of command block system set up? Why would he use them for something like changing decor?
I skirted the battles, arriving at the main stairway - the one that leads all the way up. Unluckily for me, battles were being fought for control of the bridge. Weirdly enough, the bulk of our side was fought by the Theives Guild and the Black Market, making a weird scene of mobs struggling to hit acrobatic theives and brutish Market guards. As I took my first step, Jadon twirled through the air, with a trident in hand, and landed in front of me, placing a water bucket at the last moment.
"Whatcha doin'?" He asked casually, drinking a potion. I held up my frying pan and answered "Getting to the castle. Something's going on over there-"
"Cool!" He cut me off, clearly not listening. "I'm just, y'know -" He waved his trident over the scene. "Another day in Zhoria."
With that, he vaulted backwards, stabbing a skeleton's head with the trident and judo-flipping it, smashing it into bones and a single arrow. I didn't pay much attention past that and ran up the stairs as fast as I could, chowing down on some cold steak. It actually wasn't all that bad, considering.
I was reaching the top of the stairs when I was tackled in my side by an figure in a white coat. Me and my aggressor rolled down the stairs, taking no actual damage that could decrease our hearts but still - try rolling down some stairs. It isn't fun. Eventually, I took out my pickaxe and caught a step, halting our stop and causing the attacker to roll off me.
"Agh... didn't expect to roll that far. Sorry." He said, standing up. Quan, my sorta old friend - we were warming to each other - rubbed his head and helped me up.
"Wha..." I started, then shook my head. "How'd you get out?"
Quan shrugged. "Long story - we don't have time to sit and talk. I'll tell you on our way up."
He gestured up the stairs with that last sentence, and we ran up the stairs.
[Yara'lyn]
It had been a while since I'd had an actual fight that was fair. Herobrine might've been the most talentes warrior in Minecraftia, but that doesn't really help when your opponent is someone who can teleport at will.
If I was anyone else, I would've been killed almost instantly. But our deadly dance continued like a Dragon Ball Z fight. He was wise to my teleport behind him trick, so we exchanged blows, but neither of us hit each other. Which put me at a disadvantage.
I couldn't keep blinking everywhere. I would get exhausted quickly, and Herobrine would finish me off quickly. He had nothing but time, but I needed a miracle. Not like, backup. I needed an army.
And sadly, I had no army to back me up. I could maybe hope for Gimero, but how would he know I was up here? And he was literally a merchant with a frying pan. Cute wasn't going to score him any points against Herobrine.
His eyes were now glowing like beacons. His scythe was like a blur, almost fast enough to actually hit me. If I slowed down even just a bit, he would deal so much damage I probably wouldn't survive more then 3 hits.
Even my natural armor as a crafter wouldn't help me.* Sure, it might let me live just a bit longer - dealing 3 hearts instead of like 7 - but I began to stop attacking him and instead started to put my attention on not dying horribly.
I blinked to the opposite side the room from him and took a quick breather, huffing for a small period of time. Herobrine crouched lower, his scythe ready to strike, but he didn't go after me. I flicked my rapier at him. "You sure you want to continue with this?"
"Well, you're the one winded. Maybe I should be the one asking that." He retorted, not backing down. I hated when villains gave reasonable comments. He swung his scythe through the air, leaving a shadowy trail behind it.
"Cool trick. Is that a new enchantment?" I asked, trying to distract him. Rule Number Two: When in doubt, stall. Number one is: When in doubt, blow everything up with TnT. Sadly, I had no TnT.
"In a way, yes. But not available." He quickdrawed a crossbow and shot at me, but I didn't need to teleport to dodge it. Growling, he once again gripped his scythe with two hands and ran at me. I prepared to teleport, but I was too slow this time around. He slammed his shoulder into my chest and slashed his scythe upwards through my chest. Wheezing, I stumbled away from him, now on 7 hearts and having trouble breathing. He slammed his boot into my stomach, knocking me off balance.
"Pathetic. I thought you'd have more... prowess then this display." He brought his scythe down on me, stabbing me through the chest and out the other end. I coughed up blood, which wasn't a good sign. He used the scythe to lift me up and bring me towards the edge of the mountain.
Then my miracle happened. Althoug, not the army I wished for.
"Hey!" A voice yelled. "Herobrine! Drop the girl!"
Gimero and Quan clambered onto the courtyards, their wepaons of choice - a frying pan and an iron sword - at the ready. Herobrine turned from me and immediatey set his gaze on Gimero.
"Well, if it isn't the Guided." He shoved me off his blade and pointed the curved golden blade at him. "You're the entire reason I'm here."
"I am?" Gimero squeaked, hiding behind his frying pan. "Honored. Really. Can I live?"
"Absolutely not." Herobrine threw an ender pearl in front of Gimero, grabbed him, and threw him right next to me.
"Ouch." He groaned, but I had just gotten my lungs peirced and slashed. I couldn't exactly breathe, much less talk. In fact, my bubble icons for breath were slowly decreasing.*
Herobrine spared no time in grabbing Gimero's neck and holding him over the railing that dropped at least 50 blocks down, with no water in sight. I weakly raised a hand to grab Herobrine, but he stomped down on it. I definitely heard bones crack.
"Well, this was a quite... underwhelming exchange. Perhaps I don't need Redonath to do anything, if you all are this feeble."
"Didn't Athara beat you in combat?" Gimero asked, confused. Herobrine growled loudly.
"Would everyone stop bringing that up!?" He roared, and in one swift movement, dropped Gimero.
[Gimero]
Dying wasn't on my list on things I wanted to do. Certainly dying via being dropped a mile down wasn't the way I wanted to go.
But when I hit the ground, the cold embrace of death didn't wrap me in his arms. I smashed into a wooden floor, the ground under me cracking like a spider web. I looked at my health and panicked when I saw that I was at half a heart.
I stumbled to my feet, holding my spine. When I realized what I was on, I wasn't sure to panic even more or to thank Notch. Possibly both.
I stood in the middle of the deck of an Airship, something that was added in the second Update*. I felt something hit me on my back, and I turned around to see a golden apple on the ground. I picked it up, brushed it off, and looked around for who threw it.
Mavich stood up on the poop deck, holding up a stack of golden apples. "Eat up, Merchant. I've got the feeling Herobrine isn't going to be taken down by this airship, so you'd better be ready. You have armor?"
"Uh..." I took a bite of the apple and nodded, pulling out some chainmail armor I bought from a village. "I've never used it."
"That's what you're wearing? Kid, give that to me. We'll enchant that measly armor into something worthy of legends!"
"...I won't say no."
BanjoNote: Let's get our boy some armor! Gimero's been walking around with nothing but his merchant outfit - but honestly, who would attack him with such a rich attire?
Everyone. Mug the rich.
Next Chapter: Take Back The Night, Part 3! Until then, Read, Review, Favourite and Follow! And, as always, Banjo-On!
* All Crafters have natural armor that match the armor of Golden quality, blocking 44% of the damage taken. However, wearing another peice of armor overrides their natural defenses, so Crafters only wear Iron and above.
* Water isn't the only thing that can take your bubbles away. In any event in which you can't breathe - like getting your lungs shredded - your bubbles will also decrease.
* Updates 1-8 were mods. The world was originally in 1.8, and the first eight crafters instead put out mods instead of actual MC updates. The 9th Crafter was the first crafter to give one, the Combat Update.
