I woke up to the sound of a couple hundred players outside walking. Sitting up and turning around slightly, I could see that there was a swarm of players all heading towards the PVP stadium.
"Oh yeah… the training shit…" I remembered. "We have to get everyone ready"
As I got my feet out of the bed, Jamie wrapped her arms around my chest, stopping me from getting up.
"F-five more… minutes?"
"I gotta see if Charlie needs me at the are–"
Jamie tightened her grip. "Pleeeeeease?"
I let out a short sigh, laying back down. "Five minutes."
"Thank you." Jamie replied, pulling herself closer to me.
"You know Jamie, you didn't have to craft all those swords in one sitting, I could've done it."
"I wanted…" Jamie let out a loud yawn. "To give you a break."
"And now you're super tired…"
"Can't argue with that…" Jamie said, clinging onto me. Just then, there was a knock on the door.
"Who is it?"
The door opened to reveal Erik.
"Hey man, you getting up soon? Walter's wondering if your gonn—"
He took a minute to look at me and Jamie.
"Do you mind?" I asked.
"You know what… I think I should give you two some alone time…" Erik replied, winking at me and shutting the door.
"Say Mike, could you promise me something?"
"Depends on what it is…"
"When we take care of those pumpkin heads, or whatever else happens today, could we go somewhere nice, just the two of us?"
"Oh… yeah, of course." I replied. "Where were you thinking about going?"
"I dunno…" Jamie replied. "Just somewhere where we don't have to deal with the others."
I chuckled a bit. "Yeah, they kinda get on my nerves too."
"What's your plan?" Jamie asked.
"Well, I'm thinking about visiting the arena, because Charlie is probably expecting me to come there to give a speech or something, then when everyone starts training, I'll go around and handpick the best archers and a couple of swordsmen to be in front of the gate."
"And the rest will be on the inside?" Jamie asked.
"Uhuh." I replied. "I also figure we need to blast-proof the village wall, and we won't be able to cover the entire wall with obsidian, so I'm proposing we flood it with water."
"Ah, smart thinking." Jamie replied, opening her eyes halfway. "I guess I should let you go take care of that stuff."
"Alright." I said, as Jamie released her grip. Getting up, I looked towards the chest and at the diamond swords.
"I guess I should upgrade these before I g–"
"I'll do that." Jamie replied, yawning as she got up. "I can also do the potions."
"You don't have to do everything…"
"I'll see if Walter can help me with it."
"Ah, okay then." I replied, approaching Jamie.
"Don't overwork yourself, alright?" I said, wrapping my arms around her.
"Don't worry about me Mike." She replied. "Now go and pick out the archers n shit."
Opening the door and walking downstairs, Erik was in the kitchen preparing breakfast for us as Josh was at a crafting table.
"Morning fellas." I said, approaching Josh. "Hey, could you craft some buckets? We'll need them for the wall."
"Sure thing." He replied, as Walter entered the kitchen as well.
"What are the buckets for?" He asked.
"I figure we need to strengthen the village wall somehow, and Charlie surely doesn't have enough obsidian to surround the entire thing, so I figure we cover the wall with water in order to blast proof it."
"Ah." Walter replied. "By the way, Charlie's gathering everyone in the arena, he's going to be letting everyone in on the plan soon, I'm sure he'll want you there."
"I know, that's why I'm eating now so I can head out." I said, grabbing a few pork chops from the furnace.
"Is your girlfriend coming down soon?" He asked.
"Quit it." I replied.
"What? You two ARE dating, right?" Erik replied.
An awkward silence filled the room.
"I knew it." Erik replied.
"Actually, it was kind of obvious you two had something going on…" Walter replied. "I read you two like a book, I just didn't say anything."
"Well, my man… You got a taste of dat ass already?"
"Wh– No! Shut the fuck up!" I yelled, finishing my pork chops.
"Well, I'll be rooting for you when you do." Erik said as I got up and left the kitchen.
Approaching the door and preparing to leave, Walter tapped my shoulder.
"How long do you think it'll take for everyone to get ready? I don't think we have much time left."
"I'll have everyone ready by lunch time." I replied. "The wall, I don't know about, but we will definitely have the players prepped up."
"Alright, let me know if you guys need any help." Walter replied.
"Will do." I said, opening the door and stepping out the house.
Walking over to the arena, I managed to get past the crowd of players and get to the entrance. Walking into the arena, I looked around to see that the bleachers were absolutely crowded and quickly noticed…
There were more than 50 players here.
I could see Charlie in the middle of the arena on a podium, but I didn't know how to get to it from the spectator area. I figured I'd just jump over the fence.
"Hey, what's that guy doing?" I overheard as I pulled myself over the fence.
"That guy tryna get himself killed?"
Hanging over the edge, I let go of the fence and dropped down to the ground, taking a little bit of fall damage.
"Man that dude's crazy!"
Walking up to the podium where Charlie was standing, he noticed me and quickly waved for me to come up.
"You're just in time." he whispered to me, looking towards the other players sitting at the bleachers of the arena.
"Good morning everyone, and thank you to all that have shown up to this gathering, whether you're a citizen of Vilplex village, or from a neighboring village offering an extra hand." Charlie started. "Now, as you may know, we are anticipating an attack soon from the pumpkin heads."
The crowd did not react lightly to what Charlie just said.
"But, we can, and will be prepared to fight back, that is why I called you here today."
"Who's the guy next to you?" Charlie heard someone yell out from the bleachers.
"Glad you asked that. This…" Charlie pointed to me. "This is Mike. you may already know this player as the one that fought back against attackers over at Contavern village."
An applause erupted through the crowd, as a smile spread across my face.
"Now, with the aid of this player, we will be able to fight back against this next attack, so… I need everybody's undivided attention, as Mike proposes his plan to all of you." Charlie said, stepping aside.
"Floor's all yours." He whispered to me as I approached the podium.
"Hey everyone." I started. "Now… the first thing we need to do is get everybody combat ready, I don't know who's in charge of setting stuff up in this stadi–"
"Whatever you need, we'll take care of it." Charlie said.
"Okay… so, we need people on archery targets, and some others on swords. I need to see who's good at what. Those of you who lack skills in both categories will work on redstone systems like arrow launchers n shit. The best archers will be hand-picked by me, and you will be on the frontlines on the outside of the village wall. We need to make sure we do everything in our power to prevent those pumpkin heads from getting inside, let alone getting close at all."
The players in the stadium looked at each other with concern.
"What are we going to do about TNT?" I heard one ask.
"We will try our best to equip everyone on the frontlines with blast protection armor, as well as for the village wall, we will cover it with water in order to prevent a cannon attack from breaching it."
"What about medics?"
"There will be medics on the field ready to administer potions to those who need them." I replied. "Now, there isn't any time to waste, so I need some volunteers to help gather water to flood the wall with."
"How many?" Charlie asked.
"I'd say 10, give or take." I replied, as Charlie stepped up.
"We need 10 volunteers for the wall, those of you who are willing to meet me and Mike at the arena's entrance in 5 minutes. Everyone else, get down here to the field and we should have the archery targets set up soon. Thank you everyone." He announced, patting me on the back. "Aight, let's head out." Charlie said.
"Right." I said, following him off the podium.
"You have blast protection armor, right?" I asked.
"We can have that arranged." Charlie replied.
"Alright, good, because that TNT question actually does pose a threat. If they do use explosive warfare, the frontmen are basically sitting ducks."
"Yeah, that's understandable." Charlie replied as we continued walking to the entrance.
"So, what do you need the volunteers to do?"
"I need to run back to Walter's house and grab some of the buckets I asked Josh to craft, then we'll have them collect water from the nearby lake to surround the wall with." I answered. "By the way, is the wall hollow inside? I noticed that it's like 4 blocks thick."
"Sure is." Charlie replied. "Four blocks of pure cobblestone."
"Hmm. I was going to have them put some water on the inside of the wall as well, but we can't do that if it's hollow." I said.
"We can just put more water on the other side of the wall." Charlie replied. "Double trouble for the invaders."
"I sure hope we'll be prepared enough for this one." I said, looking at the rising sun. "last time, our "preparation" only worked until they pulled out their big guns."
"Big guns? What do you mean?" Charlie asked as we neared the entrance.
"They built some sort of advanced TNT cannon using… command blocks."
"Oh shit…" Charlie replied.
"Yeah. if they pull that trump card out this time, our chances of winning are very slim."
"You have to keep your hopes up man." Charlie replied. "Command blocks use redstone, and redstone can be destroyed."
"Charlie, our chances of destroying a cannon that shoots 150 TNT a second are slim to none." I replied. "I doubt we could pull it off."
"Never say never." Charlie added. As we reached the entrance, there weren't any players yet.
"Hmm. nobody's here yet." Charlie said.
"Good, that gives me time to head home and pick up the buckets." I said, already starting towards the house.
"I'll tell em to wait for you." Charlie hollered.
As I made my way back to the house, I opened the door and rushed to the kitchen and opened up a chest to look for the buckets I asked Josh to craft. Thankfully, there were exactly 10 buckets in the chest, and I snatched them, hurrying back to the door when I was stopped by Jamie.
"What are you in a rush for?" She asked.
"I have to get these buckets back to the volunteers so they can help us surround the wall with water." I replied.
"Want me to come with you?" Jamie asked. "I know the location of a nearby lake, I can lead the guys to it."
"Uh… sure!" I replied. "By the way, where is everyone else?"
"Walter's upstairs brewing up the rest of the potions, Josh is in the backyard growing nether wart, and I don't have the slightest idea where Erik is." Jamie replied.
"Huh, I'll bet he's at that potion bar again." I replied. We both laughed a bit.
"Well, it seems like you're in a hurry, so let's get going." Jamie said, rushing out the door with me.
"I think I know the lake you're talking about." I said as we were rushing back towards the arena. "Is it the one we stumbled across?"
"No, I think there's one closer than that." Jamie replied. "I believe I heard water splashes by the nether portal back when we first found it."
"Oh, that works out then, I thought we'd be walking 10 minutes there and back." I replied.
"Yeah, that wouldn't be fun." Jamie added.
As we arrived at the PVP arena, Charlie was there, accompanied by what I could only assume to be the 10 volunteers.
"Sup boss!" one of them greeted me. "So, where do we start?"
"First off…" I started, pulling out the buckets. "Each of you guys is going to need a bucket. We're going to head over to the closest water source, which is a pond in that forest. Once we all have collected water in our buckets, we'll head back here and start pouring it over the outside edge of the wall."
"How will we get up there?" one of them asked.
I turned to Charlie. "How do you get to the top of the wall?"
"There are bastions at each corner of the walls with stairways to the top." Charlie answered. "We can climb up those and out the window."
"Great. Anyways, let's head to the pond and get some water." I replied. "We should be able to get enough to create an infinite water source so we don't have to keep making return trips."
"Good thinking." one of the volunteers said. As we were making our way to the entrance, the gatekeeper opened the door for all of us.
"Good luck Mike, the village is counting on you." He said as we all walked past the opening.
"I'm sorry but I can't come with you." Charlie said. "Gotta make sure nobody kills anyone in the arena,"
"Alright." I replied "could you do me a favor and pick out 10 of the best archers on the field? Have 'em ready when I get back because I'm narrowing that pool down to 5."
"Can do." Charlie replied, making his way back into the village and towards the arena.
"Well Jamie, lead the way." I said.
As Jamie made her way into the forest, we followed close behind. Passing through the many trees, we came across the nether portal again.
"We should probably close that portal for now…" one of the players suggested. "What if someone tries to come through it?"
I pulled out my diamond pickaxe and approached the obsidian frame of the portal. "Good point." I said, as I started hacking away at one of the obsidian blocks. A little while later, the block broke, and the purple fire emitting from the middle of the portal slowly disappeared. Waiting a few seconds to make sure it was completely gone, I picked the obsidian block up and replaced it in the slot, completing the portal again.
"Alright. Onwards."
"The lake shouldn't be too far from this portal." Jamie said, veering to the right. "I believe it was somewhere around here."
"While we're at it, our miles will stock up on sugar cane, if there is any." I mentioned. "We can use the sugar to brew up some swiftness potions."
"Do we have time to though?" Jamie asked. "Those people could attack us at literally any second! They could've hit us last night!"
"Hmm." One of the volunteers butted in. "almost as if they are intentionally–"
"Giving us time to prepare?" I finished his sentence. "Yeah, that sounds like a realistic thing the enemy would do. Allow you to build up your defenses instead of hitting you when you're expecting and weak. Great ideology."
"Actually, when Contavern was invaded, you anticipated it would happen at night time, right?" Jamie asked. "Then they actually did, which allowed us time to prepare for that attack as well. I think he's onto something."
"I don't know Jamie." I replied. "Something about that makes no sense to me. Why would they legitimately be giving us time to prepare if they want to overtake us so badly?"
"The world will never know." Jamie answered.
Soon enough, we came across the small lake that Jamie was talking about.
"Aight, load your buckets up guys." I said. "When we get back, we'll make a small pool in front of the gates and use that as an infinite water source to fill in the rest of the wall."
As the players approached the lake to fill their water buckets, Jamie approached me.
"Say, I couldn't help but notice the sheer amount of players that were in the PVP arena." She whispered in my ear. "I thought this village was mid-sized."
"It is." I replied. "According to Charlie, only 50 players live here."
"50? There were WAY more than 50 players in that stadium." Jamie replied. "Where the hell is everyone else from?"
"Charlie did mention people from other neighboring villages." I replied. "I don't know anything else about it though."
"Well, that seems kinda off." Jamie replied. "Why would that many people be willing to risk their lives to fight against the most known group of griefers on the server just because you're here to help?"
"Well…" I started. "Charlies made me out to be the leader of the resistance."
"Wait…" Jamie said, raising her eyebrow like Dwayne Johnson. "Leader? Resistance?"
"Well…" I added. "I was the first player to stand up to these fuckers… and everyone else around here is starting to follow suit. It would only make sense to deem me the leader of it all."
"Mike, I thought we were just protecting the people closer to us, like Erik, and Josh, Walter… Not an entire fucking server…" Jamie said. "You can't possibly manage that! Do you have any idea how many players are in here?"
"Uh, if I had to guess, over 2,000." I answered.
"EXACTLY!" Jamie replied. "Now imagine being responsible for that many people."
"Well, imagine this." I countered. "If we can manage to get a good majority of the players in on this resistance bullshit, and let's just assume that the pumpkin head group only consists of… lets say, 250 or so members, we can take over those peeps in no time and restore order in the server, meaning we all get to return to peaceful li–"
"You're missing the point here." Jamie replied. "2 thousand players. TWO… THOUSAND. How the FUCK are you going to get even 500 of em interested in this?"
"Well, I guess I'm just going to have to try." I replied.
"You ca–"
"All done man." One of the volunteers said, approaching me with a bucket full of water, some of the other players following behind, their buckets also full. The player couldn't help but take a look at Jamie's concern in her face, as she turned to face them.
"Are we… interrupting something?" He asked politely.
"Nope." Jamie replied. "You're fine. Anyways, let's head back."
Looking at me, Jamie crossed her arms. "Well? Lead the way."
"R-right…" I said, making my way back towards the village walls.
"Don't think this conversation is over…" Jamie whispered into my ear. "You're getting a little bit too ahead of yourself with this fighting back shit."
We were tongue-tied for the rest of the walk back. Nobody said a word. As we got back to the gate, I motioned for the other players to head to one of the corners of the wall.
"Let's dig ou space here, then another one at the other corner, and same for the back. After that, we can start on placing the water on the wall itself, and if we have time left, our miles will combine the infinite water sources into a moat." I suggested.
"Alright bro! We should get the whole wall done in like a half hour."
"Sounds good. I'll leave you guys to it." I said, approaching the gate with Jamie coming beside me as the gate opened. As we walked through, she clinged onto my shoulder.
"Don't you think now's not the best time for this?" I asked.
Jamie sighed, letting go. "I'll be at the house." she said, walking ahead of me. I grabbed her hand.
"H-hey wait! I didn't mean it that wa–"
"I said, I'll be at the house." Jamie said, breaking free of my grip and continuing forward.
"Jamie?"
No response.
"Jamie!"
Before I knew it, Jamie was out of sight.
"Shit…" I thought to myself. "I just brushed her off like it was nothing… I fucked up hard."
Taking a look at the sun, it was already mid-day.
"Already behind schedule…" I said out loud. "Let's not make it worse."
I immediately rushed towards the arena.
"As soon as this next battle is over with… I need to take Jamie out somewhere… to make up for this." I thought. "I haven't really been giving her too much attention recently…"
Coming across the arena doors, I entered into the arena and glanced at the many players practicing archery, sword fighting… I even saw a few of them building walls and stairs like they were 6 year olds playing fortnite. As I was walking, I ran into Charlie.
"Hey Mike! Just the man I was looking for." He said, approaching me. "I've been waiting for you for a while, I got my eyes on some archers."
"Great." I replied. "Show them to me."
Charlie motioned for me to follow him into the sandfield, and brought me over to where people were practicing archery.
"That guy in the corner has the most bullseye hits out of everyones." Charlie said, pointing to the player on the far left. As I looked at the player closest to the corner, I glanced at the target and sure enough, the majority of the arrows were closer to the center.
"Well, I definitely want him." I said, looking towards the other players. Most of their target shots were mediocre at best, but none of the ones I was looking at were too far off from the center.
"Let's see… that one in the middle… the one next to him… that guy…"
"That makes four." Charlie said.
"Alright… I just need one more…" I replied. As I looked around, I noticed one player drawing back their bow and decided to spectate them. Crossing my arms, I watched as he closely eyed the target and shifted a bit; releasing the arrow, it landed right in the middle of the target. Looking at the other arrows, there were about 6 more in the exact same spot. I took a glance at his nametag.
"Put that Piract443 guy on the frontlines." I said, pointing to him.
"Alright, and you said you needed swordsmen too, right?" Charlie asked.
"Correct." I said, looking towards the swordsmen. At the other corner of the arena. "Unfortunately, picking swordsmen is going to be more of a chore than just looking for accuracy."
"I suppose so, yes." Charlie replied. "Sword Fighting can be a lot more advanced."
"In order to pick the best swordsmen, I need to look into their attack strategy and see which ones are most effective, and which ones the players are good at." I explained. "This could take a while, so why don't you brief these archers on what they're going to be doing while I head over to pick out the swordsmen..?"
"Alright." Charlie replied.
As I made my way over to the field, there were several players fighting each other in pairs, with one watching over them in diamond armor.
"Excuse me?" I got his attention. "What rules have you set for these people?"
"None really, the only thing we have is first to hit their opponent 5 times is the winner." he answered.
"Is this a tournament or something?" I asked.
"No." He replied. "Why?"
"I need to pick out the best ones" I replied. "That's alright, I'll keep my eyes peeled." I said, looking around the field. There were some players fighting with full diamond armor, others having a mix of iron diamond and gold, some people in full gold armor, and a few with no armor at all. Paying closer attention to the weapons, I saw a trend of mainly iron swords. Some enchanted, some heavily beat up, dull, and covered in scratches. Others had diamond swords, I couldn't help but notice there were a few swords that looked like they were just crafted this morning with how shimmering their blades were. I tried to steer away from those, and back to the ones that were in a less impressing condition. The most beat up sword I noticed was an enchanted iron sword with what was left of the mangled blade tip being bent upwards slightly. I watched as the player wielding it used it against his opponent's relatively new looking golden sword. He used the curve of his weakened blade to his advantage, allowing him to deliver some blows to the top of his golden sword, each hit digging a new scratch deep within his fresh golden sword. I realized that he was using a strategy similar to mine when it came to gold tools. He was focusing on destroying his weapon first.
Each swing he took, he intended to hit his gold blade, and almost every swing he took was accurate, slashing across the different surfaces of the enemy's golden sword. He was attacking at such a quick rate, his opponent didn't even have much time to react, and he'd sometimes be able to take advantage of that and deliver a blow to his torso.
"Who's that guy?" I asked the supervisor, pointing to the player with the mangled iron sword.
"Oh, him?" The supervisor asked. "Oh, that's Mark. Man, he doesn't go anywhere without that old beat up iron sword of his. He needs an upgrade badly."
"Upgrade? Look at him! He's decimating his opponent with what you call "old and beat up." as a matter of a fact…"
"Huh?"
"HEY! MARK!" I called out. He immediately stopped to look towards me, but that allowed his opponent to deliver a blow to his head, knocking him out.
"Oh shit…" I said, rushing towards him.
"EVERYONE TIME OUT!" The supervisor called out, following behind me. Approaching the player, I grabbed his wrist. I could feel a pulse, though it was really, really slow.
"He's still alive. Get me some food." I said.
"Aight." The supervisor said, pulling out some steak and handing it over. As I attempted to feed it to him, I could feel the pulse in his arm start to speed up a bit, and he slowly opened his eyes.
"Owww… my head…" Mark exclaimed, as he quickly realized that he was on the ground and surrounded by a bunch of other players.
"Hey man? Are you good?" I asked.
"Y-yeah." Mark responded. "I just took a little too much damage, that's all…"
"Too much… huh?"
"If you fall to half a heart's worth of HP, you pass out." The supervisor explained.
"Ah, gotcha. Well, in that case, we need to get your ass off this battlefield so you can regen a bit."
"W-what? I haven't even finished dueling that guy!" he said, pointing to the player that had just knocked him out.
"He almost killed you." I said. "I don't think you wanna finish that fight. Here." I said, outstretching my hand. "The supervisor will find you a place to rest."
As Mark grabbed my hand, I pulled him to his feet, then bent over to pick up his iron sword. Inspecting it, it looked even more damaged than it did from a distance. There was no shine on the blade at all. It was as if someone had rubbed sandpaper across the entire sword.
"So, this is your baby…" I said, handing it back to Mark.
"You can say so, yes." Mark answered. "I've been using this thing since I crafted it a few weeks back. I'm making it last."
"Good for you." I said, as the supervisor approached him. "Come on kid." He said. "Let's head to the bleachers."
"Wait…" I said, approaching the supervisor's ear.
"Keep him nearby." I whispered. "I need to have a talk with him."
"Kay." He replied.
"I'll supervise these players for the time being."
"Thanks."
And with that, the supervisor left with Mark, who was inspecting his sword for more damage.
"Kid's got determination." I said to myself, turning back towards the other players.
"Alright. I have a challenge for you guys." I announced.
"Yeah, what is it?"
"I'll beat it!"
"Wanna bet?"
"If it's a 1v1, I'll kick your ass!"
"Whoever just mentioned 1v1, you have half of it right." I said. "Whoever goes up against me, I'll give you 30 seconds to hit me. All you need to do is hit me once. I won't fight you, just defend. First five that are able to achieve that, you'll be helping me for the time being."
"Sounds easy enough."
"Is this guy kidding?"
"Well, he is the resistance leader, right?"
"Resistance? What resistance?"
"Enough!" I shouted, effectively silencing everyone. "Now… who's up first..?"
Someone approached me, wearing leather armor and carrying a stone sword.
"Really?" I thought to myself. "I appreciate your determination, but this guy doesn't stand a chance."
"Welp, your time starts…" I said, as I pulled out two iron swords and formed them into an X.
"Now."
The look of pure shock and dismay in the players face was priceless, as he quickly realized that he had basically no chance of winning, but he tried anyways, running up towards my blades and clamming his stone blade inbetween. As our swords clashed together, I tore my two iron swords apart, pushing my opponent backwards. As he came in for another attack, I quickly shifted over to the side, and the player rushed past me, falling flat on his face, as the other players busted out in laughter. As he picked himself up, he turned around and went in for another attack, which I quickly blocked with one of my iron blades. At this point, the fight was beginning to bore me, so I cut it short.
"Eh… beat it." I told the player. "Come back when you've improved your skills."
"Oh man, he didn't even finish!"
"What a wimp!"
"HEY!" I yelled. "I didn't ask for your opinions. Who's next?"
The next player willing to approach me was in a full suit of iron armor, the chestplate glowing with an enchantment. Looking at his iron sword, it was also enchanted.
"What enchantment is on your sword?" I asked. "If you don't mind telling me."
"This sword will knock you back to the server spawn." The player said, raising his sword in the sky. "Just upgraded it this morning too."
"Good for you." I said. "Also, I suggest you take that iron armor off. It's only going to slow you down."
"Yeah, no way." the player replied. "What if you try something stupid?"
"Did I pull anything stupid with the last player?" I asked. "Exactly. You don't have to take it off, but I highly recommend it."
"It's not coming off." The player replied, gripping their blade with two hands. "Start that damn timer."
"Ready when you are." I said, holding my two swords in front of me.
The player charged forward, swinging their enchanted sword high into the air and bringing it down hard towards my head.
I ducked under the swing, then interlocked my sword against his, causing him to trip and fall.
"Oldest move in the book, dumbass." I said, watching him pick himself up and grab his sword.
"Who are you callin dumbass?" he said, charging at me again. I could already see that this time he was going to try and land a hit on my knees, so as he swung low, I jumped, and the player spun in a circle like a gay ballerina, almost falling again.
"You know what, forget it." He said, tossing his sword away. "This man's got hacks." He said, slowly walking back into the crowd.
"I don't have hacks. You just suck ass." I exclaimed.
"Bullshit." I heard him holler.
"I told you that armor was just gonna slow your ass down, and you didn't listen to me. If you would've taken it off, maybe you actually would've been able to land a hit on me instead of me being able to anticipate your next attack seconds before you actually deliver it." I said.
The player turned around, taking his iron armor off. "You know what, I want a fucking rematch!"
"Be my guest." I said.
He ran towards me again, swinging his sword wildly, trying to hit me anywhere he could. I dodged every single one of them, using the same moves I had used on him earlier, but this time I was faster and more precise.
"God… your personality is just like the average high school bully stereotype." I said, picking fun at him as he missed more and more. "I'll bet you shove kids into lockers."
"Shut up." The player replied. "And stop dodging my attacks!"
"You know, you can't be half-assed about this." I said, dodging another swing. "Quit acting like a showoff and just take a decent swing at me, dammit!"
I could tell the player was slowly losing his sanity, with every swing he threw at me becoming less and less coordinated.
"I'm going to cut you down, asshole." The player said, breathing heavily.
"That's the spirit." I replied sarcastically. To my dismay, the player unexpectedly went for my head, and I dodged it with milliseconds to spare, as the blade brushed across my hair.
I stood there, shocked. Taking a moment to feel the side of my head, it was untouched.
"huh... now that-"
The player went for another surprise attack, this time hitting my torso, knocking me back a couple of blocks. as I looked at my HP bar, I had lost 4 points of health. I let him have his moment of glory with the other arena players before joining them again.
"Good fight." I said, holding my hand out and looking at his username. "Baskin-"
"Ian." The player introduced himself, shaking my hand. "Now at your service."
I patted his shoulder. "You need to work on your temper."
"Who's up next?"
–An hour later, Walter's house–
As I walked through the door, I sat down in a chair and let out a tired sigh. "Man, those players were determined…" I spoke to myself. "A little too determined."
Erik walked down the stairs. "Oh hey Mike…" He said "When did you get here?"
"Just now." I responded. "Just taking a rest for a bit, then I think I'm going to go check on the water wall."
Just then, Walter entered the room as well. "Taking a rest?" He asked.
"Yeah. a quick one." I replied.
"Alright, cool." Walter said. "Just remember, the sooner we finish this thing, the better."
"I know, I know… oh, that reminds me. Have any of you guys seen Jamie?" I asked.
"No, I haven't seen her since this morning." Erik replied. "Why?"
"I may or may not have pissed her off, and I owe her an apology." I explained.
"She's probably mad at you over all this preparation stuff you're taking care of." Walter said. "She probably wants you to spend more time with her."
"Yeah, I think it's definitely something along those lines.." I said.
"Maybe she'll come by later." Erik said. "You never know."
"Yeah, maybe." I said. "Thanks."
Just then, I got a private message. Opening up my screen, it was a message from Jamie.
"Water seal's done. I helped the guys place the water and we finished a little quicker than you had expected."
I sent a reply.
"Great job, Jamie. Thanks for your help."
"Whatever." Jamie replied back. "Hope you have everything set up on your end, because they could attack us at any second now."
"I know."
"Where are you right now?" Jamie asked.
"Walter's place. I'm with him and Erik."
"Stay there, I'm on my way."
"Speak of the devil…" I said, closing the chat. "Jamie's on her way here now."
A few minutes passed, and then Jamie came in through the door, with some netherrack in her hands.
"Sorry for the wait." She said, "Figured we could build a ring of fire around the village."
"Actually, that's a great idea." I replied. "Is that going to be enough?"
"Should be." Jamie replied. reaching into her inventory, she pulled out a potion of healing and drank it.
"You didn't get hurt, did you?" I asked her.
"Took a fall, but that was it." Jamie replied.
"I wish you would've told me you were going back into the nether... I would've gone with you." I said, taking a look at her to make sure she actually was alright.
"Yeah, well you seemed... busy." Jamie replied.
"Look, I know I haven't been putting off as much time as I should to spend with you, a–"
"Can it." Jamie interrupted me. "We can talk about it later. Right now, we need to focus on the battle. We still have plenty of time left, but I don't want to waste any of it, so let's get our asses outside and start surrounding this whole village with fire."
"Let's start with the front." I said, opening the door and walking out, as the others followed me. "It's the most important part of the village to protect."
"Agreed." Walter said. "Actually, we should just spend all the netherrack on the front."
"Kinda dumb to have ALL of our defences at the front." Erik claimed. "What if they're smarter than that and hit from the side or something like that? What if they got elytras?"
"Say, I just realized… Erik, Where the hell is Josh?" I asked.
"He's crafting." Erik answered me. "Don't ask what, I just know he's crafting."
Heading towards the gate, it was opened slowly to reveal a waterfall.
"Oh yeah… we covered the gate too, so you're gonna have to suck it up and get wet." Jamie said, walking into the waterfall.
As we followed, I turned around as I emerged from the waterfall to see the welcoming sight of the entire village wall completely covered in water.
"Take that you pumpkin bombing asshats." I said, looking at the streams flowing down from above. Taking a look at Jamie, she was completely drenched, as she moved her soaked hair out of her face.
"Alright, I'm going to split these stacks amongst you guys." Jamie said. "I have the flint and steel, so I'll light the blocks up as we go."
"Sounds like a plan." I replied.
"You got it!" Erik added.
"Cool." Walter responded.
As Jamie passed us some netherrack, we began to dig out a small moat in front of the gate, replacing the dirt blocks with netherrack. As Jamie slowly moved down the netherrack strip, she lit each block on fire.
As we were placing the blocks, I looked up at the sky. The sun was already beginning to set.
"Shit." I said, pointing to it. "We better hurry."
"Say Mike…" Walter started. "I heard you were hand-picking players for the calvary, how did that go?"
"Well, the archers were easy. I got those picked out in 2 minutes. The swordsmen though… man, I should've just left them alone and picked each out randomly than what I did."
"Which was?" Jamie asked.
"Challenge every single one of them."
Jamie threw her palm into her face. "Wow."
"In the end though, I still got my players, one with a temper shorter than a businessman in rush hour traffic on a Thursday morning, the physical embodiment of Jack Black, someone that went double down on my ass, and this one promising kid with a beat up sword."
Jamie chuckled, but quickly stopped herself, as we continued building the netherrack strip.
"Wait a sec…" Erik said. "You picked someone with a beat up sword?"
"Yeah. So basically, he had an iron sword, right… and that thing was so heavily damaged that the blade was bent in the shape of the letter C."
"Why the hell did you pick him then?" Walter asked.
"Because he took that warped blade and he took advantage of its bizarre curve." I replied. "I've never seen anything like it. If this kid can fight with a sword as mangled as that, wait till you get to see how he fights with a brand new shiny netherite one."
"How do you know he has a brand new one?" Jamie asked.
"He doesn't." I answered. "Not yet."
"What do you mean not yet?" Walter asked.
"That's the whole reason we crafted those 14 swords, to lend them to the fighters and ensure they have strong weapons to go against the attackers." I explained. "We can't expect to win if everyones using beat up iron swords, gold ones or wooden ones..."
"Doesn't gold have the same durability as wood when it comes to tools?" Erik asked.
"Believe so." Walter replied. "I only use my gold to craft armor, or clocks."
As we were finishing up the netherrack strip in front, we heard a bunch of heavy footsteps in the distance. As I turned around and looked, I couldn't see anything, but I knew what was coming.
"We need to head inside. Now." I said.
"Yeah. No kidding." Walter replied, being the first to stand up and start heading back towards the gate. As the rest of us rushed back into the village, I signaled the gatekeeper and he immediately pulled a switch, shutting the gate slowly.
"I'm heading over to Charlie to get the calvary ready, you guys take care of everyone else." I said, separating myself from the group.
I ran through the village and headed towards the arena where I last saw Charlie. Thankfully, he was just outside the door.
"Hey, where are the others?" I asked. "We need to get them armored up and outside pronto."
"Already on it." Charlie responded. "They're at the armory right now receiving full blast protection iron armor."
"Get them outside." I responded. "The Pumpkin Heads are coming."
"Got it." Charlie replied. "Will do."
"Good." I said. "Oh, and one more thing."
"Yeah?" Charlie asked.
"You have redstone fanatics here?"
"A couple." Charlie answered. "Why?"
"I want every one of them working on building TNT cannons surrounding the walls." I answered. "I want at least four of them in the front to be operational in five minutes."
"Whatever you say." Charlie replied, suiting up in enchanted iron armor. "Don't die." He said, as he made a beeline for the armory.
"I'll try my best." I answered, as I suited up as well. Pulling out my two iron swords, I inspected their shimmering blades. The one in my dominant hand glowed a dark purple as I inspected the corner of the blade. Putting away my other sword, I looked towards the sun.
"It's only natural that they'd be coming at a time like this." I thought to myself.
Holding the sword in front of me, I grabbed it with both hands and the blade ignited, the flames radiating heat spreading to my face. I pulled my other hand away from the flame, and it instantly died out.
"Huh." I said to myself. "So the fire aspect only works when I'm holding the sword with both hands."
"Now that's something I didn't know." A voice said from behind me.
Turning around, I saw Josh standing there, with two of his own enchanted iron swords.
"I thought you were crafting." I said, turning around.
"Was." Josh answered. "I couldn't help but see your dual wielding skills, so I wanted to try and train so that I could possibly become a dual wielder too."
"And I guess it worked out for you?" I said, pointing to his two shimmering blades.
"Well, I'm still working on attacks." Josh answered me. "But the dual wielding part I got quickly."
"Hey, good for you man, I'm proud." I replied. "That's a far step up from a wooden stick."
"So..." Josh started. "Ready to kick some ass?"
I took out my second sword and clashed my blades together, scraping the tip of the other sword with my enchanted one.
"I'm ready freddy." I answered.
As we both rushed for the front of the village where the entrance was, I could already hear the thundering footsteps of the incoming invaders getting louder each second.
"What enchants?" I asked, looking at Josh's swords.
"One's sharpness, the other is knockback." Josh answered. "How bout yours?"
"Left one has no enchantments. Right one has fire aspect." I responded.
"I thought you had just upgraded your diamond sword to netherite…" Josh said. "Why not use that one?"
"Jamie has it." I answered.
As we came upon the front gate, I built a pillar to the top of the village wall to see what we had to contend with. I saw the large crowd of pumpkin heads pouring out of the forest, each equipped with iron armor at worst, enchanted diamond at best. Every single one of them was wearing a pumpkin on their head, except for the frontman, who wasn't wearing headgear at all. Looking at him, he had no face. In fact, he had no facial features at all. The entire top part of his playermodel was just pure black. Looking at the weapons, each of them wielded some pretty decent ones. I saw a couple diamond swords, some bows, a handful of crossbow users, as well as one or two players with a netherite sword. Surprisingly, the frontman wasn't wielding a weapon. Looking closer, he was holding a stack of diamonds.
"What the..." I thought to myself.
"What? What's going on down there?" Josh asked.
"The leader isn't even wielding a weapon!" I answered. "He's just holding a stack of diamonds!"
Looking down at our small army behind the strip of burning netherrack, everyone was suited in full iron armor, all enchanted. The bow players were in the front, with Piract443 right smack in the middle.
Each of the swordsmen seated in the back was wielding one of the netherite swords we had crafted. Some had enchantments on them.
"How many are coming?" Josh asked as I broke my temporary pillar block by block back down to the surface.
"An entire base worth." I answered.
looking in the distance, I saw Charlie rushing towards the village wall with a few other players. Some were holding stacks of redstone dust. Others holding redstone repeaters, dispensers, and one with two big stacks of TNT.
"HURRY THOSE CANNONS UP!" I hollered at them. "THEY'RE GONNA BE COMING IN HOT!"
I watched as Charlie and the others frantically rushed to the top of the village wall and started to build the TNT cannons. I looked towards the approaching horde of masked bandits.
They were still quite a way off, but they were moving fast.
"They're not slowing down." I said.
"Are they gonna make it in time?" Josh asked.
"I hope so." I replied. Just then, Jamie, Erik, and Walter joined our side, each suited up for battle, Jamie wielding my netherite sword.
"How many of them?" Jamie asked, looking towards me.
"Tons." I answered.
"Any sign of command blocks?" Walter asked.
"None." I replied. "All just swords and bows."
"You said a few had crossbows." Josh replied. "Those could possibly be bad, especially if someone has theirs enchanted with multishot."
"The hell is tha–"
"It means their crossbow is capable of shooting multiple arrows at once." Josh interrupted Erik. "and if they're hiding a command block somewhere, they could bind a command to the arrows to spawn TNT where they land."
"Ah, but the crucial detail that you're missing with that is if they were to actually do that, it would work for our arrows too." Walter replied. "The command will bind to any arrow within render distance, not just theirs, and there is no way to change that."
"Yeah, I think they'd only do that for a surprise attack." I replied.
The thundering footsteps were ear ringing now.
"We need to get up there." I said, pointing to the top of the village wall. "Follow me."
As I ran towards one of the bastions, I rushed up the stairs. Coming up to the top, I made my way across the top of the village wall, with the others following behind me. As the invaders approached us, they stopped just short of the netherrack fire strip.
"Listen up." The blank face player stated. "Let's make this simple, easy, and non-lethal."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Walter hollered at the faceless player.
"We did not come here with the intention of killing anyone." The blank player said. I chuckled and looked at Josh. "Yeah, right…" I said.
"We have come here for the sole reason that we believe… that a player by the name of AssHunter420 resides in this village." The player explained, pulling out a stack of diamonds and throwing them in front of him. "Give him up, and you will all live. Don't, and these players behind me have been ordered to fight to the death."
"We don't know of anyone by the name of AssHunter420!" I yelled. "You're barking up the wrong tree, so just leave us alone, and we'll do the same."
"This is the closest village in vicinity to Contavern, which the player was last seen." The faceless player stated. "We will not accept lies. Give him up."
"Over my dead body." Josh yelled.
Looking below, the archers drew their bow strings back.
A crowd came up behind us riddled with players. The majority of them wielded a netherite sword, while some of the unlucky ones that couldn't get their hands on one of the 14 were stuck with iron swords or worse. I recognized one of the players I 1v1'ed earlier today in the back, still wearing his leather armor from earlier and wielding the same old damaged stone sword.
"We're gonna have to open the gate at some point." I said, looking at Walter. "The calvary alone can't hold these players back."
"Your procrastination is tiring me." The faceless player stated. "Where is he?"
"Even if he was here, you think we'd give him up to you for a stack of diamonds? What the hell are you gonna do with him anyways?" Jamie yelled. "Kill him? Enslave him?"
"What we do with the player is none of your concern." The faceless player replied. "Like I said, we will not hurt him. I don't understand why you are making it so difficult, despite this offer." He stated, pointing to the stack of diamonds hovering over the ground.
"If you want him, you're going to have to pry through us, and take him yourself." I said.
"Very well." the blank face player said, as he bent down to pick up the stack of diamonds and stashed it away in his pocket. Pulling out an enchanted diamond sword, he looked at the archers with the urge to kill in his eyes. He still had yet to put on a single piece of armor.
"Onward." The faceless player said.
I watched as the horde of pumpkin heads rushed forward towards the archers, as they began raining a shower of arrows upon them. I looked down towards the gatekeeper.
"Open the gates." I demanded.
As the gate opened, the players below us rushed forward and joined the archers, as they spread out just outside the netherrack strip. Some players jumped over and began charging towards the enemies.
Looking above us, I saw that two of the four TNT cannons were just completed. I gave Charlie and the others the thumbs up, and Charlie hit a button on one of them, dispensing blocks of glowing TNT into a pool of water, followed by a few at the end of the cannon. As the TNT in the pool exploded, it shot the TNT cluster directly towards the invaders. As the glowing blocks neared the hoard, they exploded, sending several players up into the sky, their playermodels glowing red. I saw a couple other players with no armor amongst the chaos, as their playermodels grew limp and disappeared into a puff of smoke before even landing on the ground again. As the cannon was preparing for another shot, I noticed the faceless player was pointing towards it.
I quickly realized that this was going to escalate further than I had wanted, so I jumped over the edge and into the stream of running water down the wall. The others quickly followed. As the archers continued raining arrows upon the invaders, they started firing return shots. Thankfully, few of them were able to actually connect with our allies, as some arrows hit swordsmen. As the swarm of players was nearing, the TNT cannons fired yet another round of explosives into the chaos, the blocks quickly exploding and flinging more players into the air. As Jamie and I got close together, we both charged towards the hoarde together.
As we closed in, the faceless player held their sword in front of them, grabbed it with both hands, and it lit aflame.
"Son of a bitch, he's got fire aspect too…" I blurted.
"Need the sword?" Jamie asked.
"Nope." I replied. "I got this."
"Correction: We got this." Jamie added.
The faceless player went for Jamie first, taking his blade and swinging it towards Jamie's torso. I got in the way and blocked his attack with my two iron swords.
"So we got ourselves a dual wielder huh?" The faceless player asked. "Who are you, the village leader?" He said, raising his enchanted blade above my head for another attack.
"No." I answered, as he violently swung the blade down. Forming an X with my two iron swords, his blade sunk in between them, almost pushing me down to my knees. I looked the enemy directly into his blank expressionless head.
"I'm the one you're looking for." I said.
Blue glowing eyes now appeared on his otherwise blank face, as I ripped my swords apart, throwing him back a little bit.
"And for the record…" I said, putting my two swords together to form a long blade, one end of it glowing with fire. "It's Ass BEATER 420."
The faceless player let out a cackle and charged me. I didn't bother trying to dodge, instead, I just charged straight at him as well, ready to strike him with my fiery dual blade.
He brought his sword down, as I raised mine to meet it. I heard a loud clang as the two blades met, sparks flying everywhere. The radiating heat of our two blades was enough to make us sweat. The enemy player put all his force and strength into the blade, attempting to push mine into my face, the flames getting dangerously close to my face. I turned the blade below around and pushed it into his chest, startling him enough to release his blade a little bit. I used that as my opportunity to push him back. Splitting my swords again, the flame on my right blade eradicated, and I charged the leader to attack him again before he would get the chance to pick himself back up. I was about to dig both my iron swords deep into his chest, when another player attacked me from the side. Turning, I saw someone with a crossbow pointed directly at me, and I had completely lost sight of Jamie as well. I was directly in the middle of the battlefield with none of my allies in sight.
"Jamie! Where are you?" I yelled out, only to receive no response.
The faceless player took advantage of my distraction and managed to dig his sword into a gap in my iron armor, the blade sinking into my gut. As he put his other hand on the blade, it quickly ignited inside of my armor, setting me on fire. I let out a scream as I searched my inventory in a panic for a water bucket. Finding one, I pulled it out and placed a source underneath me, putting me out. The sharp pain in my gut still remained, but the fighting was far from over. The crossbow player was about to fire another shot, when…
Boom.
A single piece of TNT exploded behind the player, sending them flying, and disappearing into the night time sky. Behind where the player used to be…
"What the…" I said, collecting the water source back into my bucket. "Kat?"
I looked up, and saw Kat standing there, holding a TNT block.
"Sorry if I'm late." She said, placing the explosive back into her inventory. "I saw the players coming and figured you would need a hand."
"Yeah. We sure do." I replied. Taking a glance behind me, the blank face player was already preparing for another attack. Turning around, I held my swords out in front of me, and his enchanted diamond sword clashed with my two blades.
"G-go!" I said in a raspy voice, battling the force of the enemy's blade. "Protect the… V-village!"
With a quick nod, she ran off, leaving me to fend for myself. I was barely holding my own against the faceless player, and I knew that if I let him get the upper hand, he would quickly finish me off with his stronger, much more durable diamond sword.
"I thought you'd be more of a challenge." The faceless player said, suddenly releasing his grip and catching me off guard again. As he dug his blade into my torso, I was knocked back several blocks and into a neighboring enemy, who's immediate reaction was to attempt to dig their stone sword into my face. Thankfully, I saw it coming, and grabbed the blade. As he attempted to push it further, I could feel the blade begin to cut into my blocky hands. I groaned in pain as the blade was coming closer and closer to my face. Gripping the blade with all my strength, I managed to throw the player over me, and he lost his grip on his stone sword, which was now covered in my blood. Taking it, I flung it at the faceless player, impaling him straight in the chest.
"W-what the–?" The player said, stumbling back.
With my two iron swords, I charged forward, and jammed them on either side of the impaled stone blade. He coughed violently, as he toppled over to the ground, stunned. Pulling the blades out of his chest, his body grew numb and limp. Turning around, I saw that all the pumpkin heads were staring at me, my blood drenched hands, and their leader, who was now on the ground, dead.
"Re…"
"Re–"
"RETREAT!" A few of them screamed, as all of the players began to rush back for the forest. Another shot from the TNT cannon rained explosives on them as they continued running, managing to injure some players on the far end of the swarm. Turning back to the faceless player, a totem of undying materialized from his chest, and his body began to glow. I quickly ran back towards the village gate, looking back to make sure he wasn't following behind me.
Rushing back towards the gate, I saw Kat still fending off the remainder of the pumpkin heads. I spotted Jamie in the distance, grabbing her arm.
"JAMIE!" I yelled, running towards her.
"MIKE!" She yelled back. "I NEED A POTION!"
As I was running towards her, I turned to see that the faceless player was now gone, the blood covered stone sword sitting in the ground where he last was. Approaching Jamie, I searched my inventory for a potion, and I pulled one out and handed it to her. "Will this do?"
"It's a healing potion. It works." Jamie answered, struggling to get the bottle open with her injured arm.
"Here, lemme get that for you." I said, grabbing the bottle. Jamie couldn't help but notice the deep cuts in both my hands.
"Oh my god…" She said, a look of worry in her face. "Your hands… their…"
"Bleeding? Yeah." I finished her sentence.
"Screw my wound…" Jamie said. "Clean up yours."
"Yours is worse." I said, handing Jamie the potion. "Plus, I have another one."
Jamie also caught a glance at the wound in my side. "You have one that could possibly be lethal." She said, pointing to it. I pulled out another potion.
"Just drink." I said, popping the cork off and chugging the bottle. Finishing it up, I could feel a sense of warmth and comfort in me, as I noticed the wounds in my hand slowly beginning to close up. As another shot fired from the TNT cannon, only one block reached the retreating enemies, while the rest landed aimlessly on vacant ground before exploding. I looked towards the cannons, waving my hand across my neck, signaling for them to shut the cannons down.
"Did we win?" Jamie asked, as her wounds were starting to heal as well. I put my arm around her shoulder.
"I guess we have." I replied.
"You two okay?" Kat hollered in the distance, approaching us.
"Wait… w-when did Kat get here?" Jamie asked.
"Just a while ago." I answered. "Where are the others?"
"Inside tending to the injured." Jamie responded.
"I have healing potions if you two need them. I know you got beat up pretty bad." Kat said, her eyes on me.
"You're a little late for that." Jamie said, waving her empty glass bottle at her. "We're good now."
"Why did you come?" I asked.
"I figure you guys would need a little extra help, especially if you're being targeted by the griefer peeps." Kat responded. "And I was right."
"Thanks for saving my ass." I said.
"Don't mention it." Kat replied, smiling. "Now, let's get you two inside."
As we each walked into the village, I looked around to see a couple dozen players on the ground, with others surrounding them, administering potions to them. A couple others weren't so fortunate, and had what I could only assume to be friends mourning them. I passed by Walter.
"How many casualties?" I asked.
"We lost five." Walter answered. "Another 3 are in a low HP-induced coma."
"Shit." I replied. "Where are they?"
"We carried them to sickbay." Walter answered, looking towards Kat. "Who's this?"
"Oh…" I said, realizing that Walter still had yet to meet her. "Walter, this is Kat. Kat, this is Walter. We ran into her on the way here from your desert temple. She dropped by to help kick some ass."
"Nice to meet you, Kat." Walter said, shaking her hand.
"You too." She replied. Just then, a few drops of rain began to fall.
"It's about time we got some damn rain." I said, looking at the clouds, as they covered the moon. "Let's get these people inside."
"I wish I could help, but I have to return to my base." Kat said. "I was in the middle of building a flying machine when I noticed the horde of pumpkin heads roaming the nearby forest."
"Okay." I replied. "Do you need one of us to come with you and make sure none of them are left lingering in the forest waiting?"
"N-no…" Kat replied. "I'll be fine."
And with that, Kat turned and left us, heading towards the gate. Looking at one of the players, they were coughing violently.
"His HP is low, he's going to fall into a coma soon." I heard one of the players say.
"Let's get this one first." I said, pointing to the player. "Grab his shoulders."