Chapter 7

Creeper, Aw Man

BanjoNote: Back to Alex and Athara! After we saw what happens to Gimero in the last two days, it's time to see what happens to Alex.

Also, the schedule is really catching up to me. From now on, I am updating in SUNDAYS, and I'm going to take a break between Arcs.

On another note, Update: Destruction has gotten over 500 views! I know that isn't much comparatively, but look, it's still more then I expected since jumping back into this story. So here's to 1'000 views, come the next Arc!

I can't wait for the next Arc. The name will be revealed at the end of this chapter!

Who owns Minecraft? Sure as hell ain't BanjoMano.

[Alex]

Athara grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards the forest to the north. I pulled my arm back and pulled out my sword and shield, running after her. Athara nonchalantly shot an arrow into the air, and it arced down on top of a pillager's head, who was guarding a roof.

I slammed my shield into a pillager's head, pushing him onto his back. Athara jumped onto a window ledge, grabbed the edge of the roof, and flipped herself over. Midair, she fired at the pillager with the arrow in his head.

I looked up at the rooftop, and remembered the massive jump I did in the tower. Bending down low, I attempted to channel the power and jump upwards. Unfortunately, I had no such luck. Muttering to myself, I placed down a dirt block and scrambled onto the roof after Athara finished off the pillager with a last well placed arrow into his gut. She raised her arm to gain the exp orbs. A small number above her head appeared and went up from 72 to 73.

"W-what the hell is that?" I asked, exhausted from the battle. I stood up and jumped go the next roof, with Athara behind me.

"What's wh- oh, above my head?" She smirked slightly. "It's my level. Did I just level up?"

I shrugged and delivered a kick to a pillager, knocking him off the roof. "I think so. How did you get so high?"

Athara fired her bow at the next roof, knocking the other pillager into a Ravager pen. We leaped off to the next roof and looked into the forest. Pillagers surrounded the roof and fired upwards at us.

Just as the arrows fell on us, I flipped over Athara with all my dexterity and raised my shield, blocking the assault. Landing with a roll and up on my knees, I looked up at the red head. "We'll need to jump over them."

Athara stuffed her bow away and without a warning leaped over the crowd with a flip. Without stopping to look back, she Bolted into the forest.

Well. I thought to myself. I put up my shield and leaped off the roof.

I managed to go over the crowd, but one managed to swing his crossbow at my foot. I lurched forward, trying to stabilize myself, and raised my shield as another hail of arrows flew by. I burst up the hill as they loaded another volley, but I had disappeared into the dark woods by that time. I heard a loud swearing, but I had another thought on my mind.

[Pete the Pillager]

I walked up behind the crowd of pillagers, my hands behind my back. They split apart in front of me, and I pondered the forest.

Turning to the crowd, I pointed to a nearby pillager. "You. Bring the Greifer to me."

The pillager gave a snort worthy of a Ravager. "We don't take orders from you. Pulos is the General."

I gave a small smile, and pulled out a crossbow. "Pulos... is dead. Along with pretty much everyone in the tower. Now..." I pointed the arrow at the shocked pillager. "Bring. Me. The. Greifer."

He nodded hurriedly and ran off. A moment later, he brought a man in black robes and a hood that covered most of his face with him. I bowed my head to him.

"Aidan_Hei, I am sorry to disappoint you, but the agreement with your leader is off with our outpost. We are pulling out of the mission."

Aidan turned his head to the forest, where the Crafter and the Human ran off. "Let me guess. The Eldest gave you another mission?"

I pulled a book and showed him the contents. "I found this the other day, lying on the floor. He wants it done as soon as possible."

Aidan looked the book over, and nodded slowly. "All seems to be in order. Looks like you're going to need to have someone get the required materials."

I shrugged and looked back at the forest. "We've got to get to work. It'll take a long time to fully finish the project."

A faint trace of a smile was seen under the hood. "Yes... we do."

[Alex]

"The fuck was that?" I asked angrily, storming up the hill behind Athara. She froze up suddenly and turned around. A look of confusion took her face over as she asked, "What was what?"

"You know exactly what happened!" I growled. "You left me behind!"

Another look went over her face - recognition - and she sighed. "Oh, that."

"Oh, that?" I walked straight up to her, face to face. Athara didn't move from the spot and looked at me in the eye.

"Yes, Crafter. That. If you can't handle yourself, then who are you to survive? I had to make sure that you were-"

I walked right past her, barely listening. Athara grabbed my wrist and spun me around. Her orange eyes seemed to smolder with flames, although I had a feeling that was just a side thing of her anger.

"Listen to me," She said coolly. "When I'm talking to you. I have more experience then you, and can safely say that you aren't going to have your Crafter powers saving your ass. Learn how to survive, because the rest of us aren't as lucky."

I pulled my hand back, but didn't try to pursue the arguement. She has made a good point. We walked on in silence, only setting camp until we were a comfortable distance from the outpost.

I pondered the crafting table, something in the back of my mind telling me that our 'camp' was missing something.

I took out Gimero's stone axe and chopped down some wood. I turned some into sticks, and went back to the 3x3 grid. I put three planks on the bottom, then sticks on either side of the second line of the grid and on the middle top. Turning to Athara, I asked "Do you have any coal?"

Surprise even to mock me, she passed me a stack. I placed one in the center, and bam. An Item popped into my inventory: [Campfire].

I placed it down in between our two 'houses', which were about as elegant as Gimero's old house. Athara gave a tiny gasp as the lines up logs created a classic campfire.

"...Well, looks like the 14th Update added more then Villages and Pillages." She smiled slightly in the fire light. "Reminds me the first time me and Sileeno tried to make a functional campfire..."

[Pete the Pillager]

Me and Aidan stood on top of the Pillager outpost tower. I looked out into the wilderness as Aidan paced around behind me, muttering "How do we do this... how do we do this...

I turned to him, exasperated. "When I said we've got to get to work, I didn't mean this second. It's practically midnight, probably past that."

Aidan spun towards me, his cloak trailing him like the Grim Reaper. "When the master says to start working, we obey his wishes. I don't care what you think. He's promised me abilities worthy of a Crafter!"

I raised my eyebrows at this detail. "You know the danger's of messing with one's code, correct?"

"SHUT U- The hell is that!?" Aidan yelled. I spun around to see what he was looking at - a pillar of smoke, rising in the sky. A campfire. I smirked and turned to Aidan. "Looks like the hunt for the 14th Crafter isn't quite over yet. We found ourselves a little mistake."

Aidan turned and swiftly ran down the stairs, but I stayed up on the top floor, looking at that pillar in the sky.

"I actually hope you survive, Alex." I whispered to myself. "It will be so... satisfying for you to see what my associates have in stock for your future."

[Alex]

"Who is Sileeno?" I asked Athara, as she stared into the fire.

"Hmm? Oh! He's my husband." She answered. Taking out a gold ingot, she showed it to me. "Since, ah, Minecraftia doesn't have any things that resemble rings, we use the next best thing - a gold ingot."

I nodded, yawning quietly. "How long have you two been married?"

Athara closed her eyes, and changed her beige pants to a black. Opening her eyes, she pondered the question. "About... 84 years? Humans live for a long time."

That word surprised me. "Humans? But... Gimero said that we're called Villagers and Crafters."

She smiled. "Well, Gimero isn't exactly the greatest to learn from, from the time I've been with him. Humans were the main peoples. We spawn every three days or so."

"Were?" I asked. Athara sighed and looked into the fire light. Shaking her head, she closed her eyes. "It's... a long story. Maybe I'll tell you tomorrow."

I rolled my left shoulder, and told her "Well, it's pretty much past midnight. We should get to bed."

Athara nodded and leaned back on her chair. "You go ahead. I'll keep watch."

Before I went to bed, I turned to her and asked, "Who was the first human?"

Athara took a deep breath. "His name was Herobrine. He... is a story for another time."

I gave a worried look at her and entered the wooden box that passed for a shelter. Crawling onto a bed she supplied for me, I passed out in a record time. It was pretty much bliss.

[Athara]

After Alex went to sleep, I stayed up to keep watch, since I wasn't so tired. Looking through the smoke, I absentmindedly played with an arrow in my hand, looking through the smoke from the campfire. Really, it did let off more smoke then a normal fire... then it hit me.

Shit!

I quickly took out my axe and broke the fire, but it had been up for an hour or so. They would've seen it a long time ago. Turning to Alex's tent, I whipped out my bow and shook her awake.

"Hmm?" She asked me sleepily. "I feel like it's only been ten minutes."

"That's because it has been!" I whispered angrily. "The campfire was nice and all, but it's sent up a smoke signal! We need to go to a different spot-"

An arrow flew straight at me, but I twirled out of the way and shot my own into the general area. A curse rang out, telling me I hit one. Alex rolled off the head and raised her shield, blocking another arrow. She pulled the shaft out.

Doing the first thing that came to mind, I gave Alex a shovel. "Dig downwards! The forest has a plethora of caves under it, there's bound to be one under us!"

Taking it, she hit rock and switched to a pickaxe. Looking up at me, she asked "You aren't coming?"

"I would if I could, but right now, some one needs to block your exit." I shot another arrow into the woods, hitting yet another pillager. To stop Alex's arguing, I shut her in darkness with a dirt block to block the pillager from entering her hole.

"Never dig straight down, they say." I muttered to myself. "Well, sometimes that's all you got."

[Alex]

Finding a cave was about as hard as finding the outpost.

Needless to say, It took about 15 blocks downward to slam into a pond underwater.

Disoriented, I managed to swim upwards and climb onto the stone floor of the sml tunnel. I coughed up water, and looked down at my soaking clothes.

Well, time for another outfit. I imagined myself in a faded gray tank top, jean shorts, and black boots. As Athara would put it, the Tomb Raider had returned. Fixing my braid, I took out my crafting table and thought deeply about light. Namely, torches.

Considering the campfire, it took me about two seconds to learn that sticks and coal was the recipe. Because Minecraftia, when I held a torch in my hand, nothing happened. Placing it on the floor, however, illuminated the cavern just fine.

I'm going to have words with whoever made this world. Still, light was existant, and I made 20 torches moving further into the cave. Consulting Gimero's map, which still had a white blob as my marker, it told me I was moving away from Lafor.

But, as the only way forward, I refused to break to the surface and continued through the cave system. The tunnel led downwards, to some sort of light. It was cut off at a drop, and I didn't want to risk jumping down. I looked for a way down the hole, and my whole body tensed.

A woman ran right past the shaft, too fast to make out any sort of defining feature. I looked up and down the walls, and saw a pathway of rocks that I could jump from. I slid down to the first outcropping, then leaped to the next rock. I dropped to the ground, and took off in the direction of the woman's path.

"Hey!" I called after her. My voice echoed down the endless tunnels. I turned the corner and managed to stop myself. In front of me, a wave of lava blocked the tunnel.

Using my dirt, I built a passageway over the liquid death. I jumped the rest of the way and rolled, coming up on my feet. I looked down a steep tunnel, where a faint yellow glow illuminated something I couldn't see. Kneeling down, I stepped onto on of the blocked that tailed the way down.

Looking up, I saw a flicker of green. I promptly raised my sword and held it towards the creature. Some sort of bright green creature fell down beside me with a sad face and started to flash white. I swung at it, but mid-swing it exploded.

I was on a steep platform.

I flew right down the tunnel, straight into the darkness. It only took a couple of seconds before the ground caught up.

BanjoNote: Well, shorter chapter then usual. I got real busy, with doctors appointments and a certain friend calling me for DnD (ahem, John)

Anyways, the Road to Pillage Arc is almost over! Next Arc is one of my favorite Arcs planned, top three easy!

Between Arcs, I may have a long break in between. Because the Road to Pillage has shorter chapters, the break between the first two arcs will be extremely short, maybe even non-existent!

I did say I was going to tell you guys the Arc name come this chapter, so here's the Name: The Broken Arc! I think it's one of the better names.

Next Chapter: Enter the Hold! Until then, Read, Review, Favourite and Follow! As always, Banjo On!