We stopped in our tracks. Looking around the village, it seemed to be normal, except for where the TNT cannon was built. Surprisingly, there were no TNT minecarts to be seen. The village was surrounded by the players, both villagers and pumpkin heads. There was a new cobblestone wall being constructed around the village.

"Are they trying to turn this place into their base?" I wondered.

"Looks like they are." Erik replied.

Most of the people working on the wall seemed to be the regular villagers, while the invaders were just watching them.

"The hell is this, slave labor?" Josh asked.

"Yes, actually." Walter replied. "I believe they're just keeping the villagers alive so they can build that wall, then they're probably going to kill them all, or force them into joining them."

"Well, I guess we need to deal with the wall too…"

"Not really." Jamie said. "It doesn't even look like it's half finished."

Taking a closer look at the wall, it was 4 blocks thick, hollow in the middle.

"I wonder what they are going to put in the middle of that wall…"

"Maybe obsidian." Walter guessed. "It's blast resistant."

"Alright, you guys remember where the house is and the ravine path, right?"

"Yeah." Erik replied.

"Alright. You, Josh, and Jamie start to head there now. Put on your stuff."

Erik and Josh put on their helmets and armor, while Jamie looked towards me.

"Mike…"

"We've been over this."

"Don't die…"

"Yeah yeah, I got Walter White with me. I'll be fine."

Jamie sighed, looking at Walter.

"Don't let anything happen to him." She said, putting on her pumpkin mask and joining Erik and Josh.

"What was that about?" Walter asked me as the others split into the forest nearby.

"I… uh…"

"You know what, never mind."

Looking around the village, the people who were working on the wall were now making their way down and into the houses for the night, while the griefers remained outside, wearing pumpkin heads and wielding a variety of weapons, ranging from stone swords, to enchanted diamond swords. As I was looking at the players, I noticed one had…

"Oh boy…" I pointed to one of the players. "That one's got a netherite sword."

"That'll be a problem." Walter replied. "Netherite is the nokia of sword material."

"On the bright side, that guy seems to be the only person to be wielding one." I pointed out, pulling out my diamond sword. "You ready?"

Walter pulled out his diamond sword. "When you are."

We started walking.

"Let's approach from behind the wall and try to fit in at first."

"Got it. Then what?"

"Distract."

"Huh?"

"Keep the pumpkin heads busy."

I upped my pace, and as we came up against the wall, we peeked across the corner to make sure nobody was looking in that direction. Going in, me and Walter stuck together as we blended in perfectly with the other griefers wearing pumpkins over their heads. I listened into their conversations.

"Man my head was cut horribly, I can barely see out of it…"

"Who's on enderman duty for the night?"

"Enderman duty… what could that possibly mean…" I thought to myself as we kept walking.

"Hey nice sword you got there! Where'd you get it from?" One of the players said, approaching me.

"Looted it." I answered.

"Damn, these villagers got some good shit, don't they!" The player replied, walking away. I glanced at Walter.

I took a closer look at the player wielding the netherite sword, he was near the unfinished wall, inspecting it. Taking a look at what used to be our house, sure enough, there was a new hole dug into the floor.

"Awesome…" I thought to myself. "Now we just need to make sure nobody is caught."

"Man, the incursion leader has a lot of plans for this place…" I overheard.

"Yeah, this is going to turn into our new base, since we didn't have to do much destruction."

"Yeah, that hole we made with the TNT cannon was filled in half a day."

Taking a look at where the first TNT shot was fired, sure enough, the crater was no longer there. The house that once stood in its way was completely gone, however.

"Evening." One of the players said, passing by.

"Oh, say could you do me a favor?"

"And that is?" Walter started, turning around and stopping.

"I was supposed to return this to the leader a while ago, but I never got around to doing it. Could you do it for me?"

The player handed Walter a shulker box.

"Where is he?" I asked.

"Oh, he's probably inspecting the cobblestone wall. He's really easy to find. That shulker is needed for tomorrow cause it's got the obsidian we're going to put in between the cobblestone."

"Got it. Thanks!" Walter said, taking the shulker box. We began making our way to the cobblestone wall. I could tell he was just as nervous as me. Approaching the wall, the guy with the netherite sword was still there.

"Yo… We have something for ya." Walter said, holding the shulker box in front of him. The guy turned around. He wasn't wearing any armor, allowing me to see part of his skin…

"You…" I immediately recognized the guy.

"Uh, throw it in the storage shed for me please." the guy responded.

"This was the same guy that killed Miles…"

As me and Walter turned around, walking away, Walter nudged my shoulder.

"Where the hell is the storage shed?" He whispered.

"I'll lead the way" I responded, leading Walter through the village trails. Once we found the storage room, we were met with an unwelcoming surprise.

There was now an iron door installed, and a redstone keycard system. Me and Walter looked at each other, clueless.

"Well, what now?" he whispered.

"Hey guys! Are you two having keycard problems or something?" A player asked, approaching us. He was holding a flint and steel.

"Actually, yeah." I replied. "Door won't open. It took my item and won't give it back."

"Hmm, that's rather odd." The player replied. "Let me have a try."

The player inserted what looked to be an end crystal into the dispenser to the left of the door and hit the button on it. As it dispensed, the door quickly opened.

"Thanks man." Walter replied, bringing the shulker box into the storage room and setting it down.

"Say, what happened to your item again? I can check the mechanism for you if it actually is stuck in there."

"Uh, okay…" Walter replied, holding the door open. As the player walked inside, he opened up the dispenser to look for the supposedly stuck item.

"Oh shit…" I thought to myself.

As the guy was looking through the dispenser, he soon realized there wasn't anything "stuck inside the system."

"Uh, well I don't know how to say this, but your item ain't in here…" The player said, closing up the dispenser. "You sure you got one?"

"Uh, yeah." Walter said.

"Did you double check your inventory? Maybe it gave it back to you and you didn't see it and picked it up without knowing."

"Hang on, let me take a look."

Walter opened his inventory to make it seem like he was looking for the item, but to my surprise, closed it and immediately stabbed the player in the chest with his sword twice, and pushed him to the floor, snatching his flint and steel, as well as his item for the lock, and shoving it into his inventory. The player was so stunned, all he could do was stare at us.

"Let's get out of here before anyone finds him." Walter suggested, opening the iron door. As I followed Walter out, the door closed and locked behind us, effectively trapping the guy in there.

We decided to make our way towards the old house. As we approached it, the hole was still there, and the door was open. I could see in the distance some other players outside of their house, but they were scared at the sight of us. Making sure there were no actual pumpkin head people nearby, I took my mask off to let them know I was on their side. Waving my hand, I motioned for them to come towards the house, and moved on to make sure the coast was clear for the other houses. Turning the corner, I could see some people walking towards the storage shed. My heart sank.

"Hey guys! It's Hank!"

"Huh?"

"Someone beat his ass up!"

"Oh shit…" I heard Walter mutter, starting to walk towards the storage shed.

"What are you doing?" I whispered.

"It will be more suspicious if we don't check it out." Walter explained. "Just don't get close enough for the guy to recognize you."

As we approached the shed, there were several people there already, in a rush to get the door open again.

"You have another set of armor…?" Walter whispered.

"Yeah." I answered.

Checking my inventory, it was a leather set. Even though it was a disadvantage, in this situation it would actually provide an advantage, as I could turn the corner and swap armor, and be almost unnoticeable.

As one of the players finally managed to get the door open, the player came out.

"Someone get this one a healing potion."

I recognized that voice. It was the herobrine guy again, this time however, he didn't have anything equipped.

"Who did this?" The guy asked, looking at his chest wound.

"I-I don't know. All I know is they stole my crystal… and one of them was wearing iron armor…"

Just as I heard that, I rummaged through my inventory to swap out my iron armor with the leather armor. The herobrine guy scoped around.

"Somebody here is an imposter…"

"Hah, among us! Sus!"

"Shut up." he interrupted. "If nobody fesses up, we're going to have a problem."

Me and Walter looked at each other.

"Hey you two…" the herobrine guy looked directly at us.

"You two see anything?"

"No sir." I quickly responded.

There was a long silence among the group.

"If nobody says nothing, I'm just gonna start assuming." The leader stated.

"It was him! He did it!" some random player in the group stated, pointing to someone next to him.

"What?"

All the nearby players looked at him in disgust.

"I didn't do shit! I've been with you guys for weeks, you all know I'm loyal to the clan…"

"What about him?" someone else pointed to another person.

"I dunno, but this guy…"

Suddenly, somebody in the group got shot by an arrow. Everyone stood back, staring at each other, while the one that got hit fell to the ground, screaming in pain. It was a poison arrow.

"What the…"

Another arrow hit a random player.

"Alright, that's it…" someone said, taking out their sword and jamming it into the archer next to him. After that, all hell broke loose.

"Huh…" Walter said, pulling his sword out and going in. I took my second sword out and followed behind him. By the time we reached the crowd, everyone was in a sword fight with each other, including the leader with the netherite sword. Everything was chaotic, people were fighting us, people were fighting each other…

Someone ambushed me from behind, landing a strike on the back of my leather chestplate, tearing it. I turned around and took a swing at him with both of my swords, knocking him back into other players. I took the opportunity to switch back to my iron armor. Looking around, I saw Walter in the distance, fighting off some people of his own. There were so many players, it was hard to keep track of all of them to anticipate attacks. There was another arrow shot into the sky, landing on the person in front of me, just as he was about to go for a swing to my face. As I was colliding swords with different players, some players were specifically aiming for the pumpkin heads in order to cut them off. I had to make sure that didn't happen. I was slowly getting overwhelmed with the amount of players that were charging at me at once, so I managed to make my way out of the crowd. Checking my health, I had 14 HP left. Taking out some food and eating it, I managed to regenerate a bit before someone from the group charged me. Looking in the distance as I blocked the guy's attack with my two swords, I could see that more and more villagers were taking the opportunity to flood into the house and head down the ravine to escape.

The player I was faced with now had an enchanted iron sword. Its blade glowing with fire. Every swing he took was just inches away from colliding with me. I managed to land a hit on his shoulder, knocking him back a few blocks, but he was closing in soon after for another swing. This time, he managed to slash me in the chest, my body erupting with fire. Through the immense pain, I remembered the bucket of water I had on me, and rushed to get it out as the guy was trying to go in for a second swing. Placing the bucket on the ground, it quickly put me out, and washed the guy away far enough for me to eat more food. My health wasn't looking good. I had a quarter of my HP left, and this guy was still going. At this rate, I actually was going to die.

Most of the players behind us had already had their masks torn off by someone, but a few remained intact. As I approached the player, I took a swing right for the head, and that was enough to break his helmet, knocking him down to the ground. I quickly took the opportunity to go and finish him off, but he was prepared, as he pulled out an identical sword, and gashed it right smack in the middle of my iron chestplate, cracking it. Once again, I was on fire. I quickly switched to my water bucket again, and the guy swam up the stream this time, nailing me in the chest again, cracking my chestplate more. Checking my HP, it was now only at 6/20.

"Shit…"

The player kicked me down to the ground as I was collecting the water source backup and prepared for another attack when…

An enchanted iron sword pierced through his chest. The player behind pushed the player over, his flaming sword toppling down along with him, then approached me with a splash potion. Tossing it on me, my health started to rapidly regenerate.

"What the…"

The player removed their helmet, revealing herself as…

"Are you okay?" It was Jamie. Immediately rushing to my feet, I took my helmet off as well.

"What the HELL are you doing here?" I yelled.

"Protecting my boyfriend…" Jamie answered. "You almost just got fucking killed!"

"I told you to stay with the other–"

"Bullshit!" Jamie interrupted, turning behind her.

"Give me the diamond sword…"

"Jamie…"

"Just do it!"

Tossing her the diamond sword, she took it, and wielding both, she charged the guy and took two swings directly into the torso, knocking him back a couple of blocks. Looking next to me, the player's flaming iron sword was still laying on the ground. Picking it up, I went towards Jamie.

"Where's Erik and Josh?"

"They're leading the rest of the villagers away from here. They'll meet us at Walter's old temple." Jamie answered, as she came up behind me and started fighting.

"You should have listened to me…"

"If I listened to you, you'd be dead."

"I want you to be safe!"

"And I want YOU to be safe too!"

The crowd of fighters didn't seem to be getting any less chaotic. I could still see Walter in the distance, about to be overtaken by a horde.

"Shit, Walter!" I yelled. "We need to get to Walter…"

"I'll take care of him." Jamie said, splitting from me. "I got my eye on you though."

"Yeah yeah, whatever…" I said, setting more of the pumpkin players on fire with the flaming blade of the iron sword.

"I'm gonna love it when I can get a diamond like this…" I thought to myself as numerous players decided to test their fate trying to go against me. I was soon able to overpower them and begin to make my way towards Walter and Jamie, when someone got in my way.

The herobrine guy.

"You…"

The herobrine guy took his mask off, holding his netherite sword high.

"Well, if it isn't the Kirito ripoff that can dual wield…" The herobrine guy commented.

"Let's go."

We charged each other, my two iron swords colliding with his single netherite sword. The shockwave the three swords created knocked both of us back slightly. I wasn't sure how much of an advantage two swords would be in this situation. As the herobrine player went in for another swing, he managed to land the swing on my leg. I yelled in pain.

"Yeah, hurts way more than your diamond sword, doesn't it…" He said, already preparing for another attack. Taking my two swords, I went for a swing at his face, but he held his netherite sword in the way and I missed. As my two swords collided, I realized that his netherite sword was already significantly damaged from fighting the other players, and he was too focused on attacking me to notice it.

As the herobrine player jammed his sword forward into my chest, knocking me back, I prepared for an attack, but instead of aiming at him, I went specifically for his sword. Each swing I threw cracked it slightly more and more, but each swing he delivered significantly depleted my health and stamina. I was almost at my breaking point. I had 4 hearts left. We both paused. Trying to gain my breath, I looked at his netherite sword. It was cracked to oblivion. I knew that it would take just one more hit for it to finally give way, but on the other note, it would also take one hit from him to kill me. Looking in my inventory real quick, I was relieved to find that I still had the totem from the arena. Hopefully though, I wouldn't need it.

The herobrine guy began to charge towards me, his sword outstretched. I held both my swords out in an X to block his attack, and sure enough, his sword collided with my two, and the shockwave spreading through completely shattered his blade, whilst knocking both of us back. The herobrine guy quickly pulled out another iron sword.

"Oh come on…" I complained, as he approached me for another swing. I dodged the attack, and went for a swing to the legs. The player stumbled back.

"Dick move man, real dick move." He said.

"It's a damn anarchy server. There's no such thing as a dick move." I said, going in for an immediate re-attack. I managed to land a hit on his chest, as he wasn't able to raise his sword to block in time. His body glowed red, as he was set on fire. Rummaging through his inventory, he tried to find a way to put himself out, but unfortunately there was none. By the time the flame had burned out, he was too stunned to fight, and collapsed on the ground. As I approached him, I held my two swords up against his chest.

"This one's for Miles, bitch."

I plunged the two swords into the herobrine guy's chest, his playermodel glowing red, then promptly disappearing, leaving behind his iron sword, an end crystal, 4 diamonds, and a golden apple. Collecting his things, I immediately ate the golden apple, and made a run for Jamie and Walter.

The rest of the pumpkin heads stopped fighting when they realized that their leader had just been killed. Everyone was now stuck in a trance, as I now approached Jamie and Walter.

"Let's get the hell out of here…" I said.