BanjoNote: Third last chapter! We'll be seeing Alex in no time at all!
I have no idea what to expect with this chapter. I'm only loosely following the guidelines I set for myself, which is either a strength or a weakness. I'm thinking from now and through the next arc, I'll go back and re-write every chapter to fit better with the story. I've already done it with The Stones of Prophecy, which turned out to be a good decision. So, throughout this week, expect a lot of updates.
But enough rattling. Let's continue Taking Back the Night.
BanjoMano does not own Minecraft. He does own BanjoShows, the greatest competition in Minecraft
[Herobrine]
"Too easy." I huffed, turning away from the cliff and leaning down in front of Yara. "Maybe you should've encouraged him to run while he had the chance. Perhaps he would have survived."
She gave me a sneer, but she couldn't say anything. I stood up and raised my scythe above her head and sighed exaggeratedly. "Really, thus was sad. None of you even come close to Athara's skill, and even she wouldn't have been able to defeat me. Not with what I have gained in the past years."
The lab coat guy – I didn't care to remember his name – took out a crossbow and fired at me, but I easily twisted out of the way. Thrusting my hand at him, I summoned upon my power and shot a wither skull at him.
It slammed into his chest, sending him sailing backwards onto his back. As he got up, I threw a pearl at him, slamming into him and knocking him down again. I gripped my scythe and slammed the blade into his chest, exploding him into various pieces of gear.
"Well," I turned to Yara. "He wasn't much, but at least I'll come out of this with another head on my belt." I placed a shulker shell down and placed his head inside. Closing it and putting the shell away, I felt the ground under me start to shake.
"What?" I growled, spinning around and taking a couple of steps back. "How- "
"Oh, Herobrine!" A female voice rang out. "It's been a while since we last talked!"
The whirring of Redstone machinery grew louder, as an airship blasted upwards. The contraption was about 50 blocks long, which meant that the wood and stone military ship sported about 15 cannons – all aimed at me. And, as the final insult, a certain blue-clad merchant stood at the railing, holding his frying pan and now wearing shimmering purple chainmail.
At the helm, Mavich stood over a set of levers. She gave me a smile and called "Do you remember me?"
"We had one talk, Mavich." I growled. "And it was only to strike a deal. This certainly was not part of the deal." I gestured to the airship. "Do you really think that this… machine can stop me?"
Gimero jumped over the rail and started to try and pick up Yara. I started towards them, but Mavich hovered a finger over a button, causing me to stop on my tracks. Her smile was slowly transforming into a crazy grin. "I haven't had the time to play with this toy. I wonder what would happen…"
Gimero managed to hoist Yara over his shoulder and started to drop her onto the ship. I decided to let him drop the Crafter, but instead of going on the ship, he turned to me.
"Oh?" I spread my arms. "Going to fight me, now that you have an airship on your side? I'm surprised you've even survived this far. I'll even make this quick." I raised my scythe and ran at him.
Gimero blinked and opened his mouth to say something, but I swung my scythe at him. At the same time, Mavich pressed a button, and I swung through empty air. Swearing loudly, I turned to the ship and readied a pearl.
"I don't think so!" Mavich called, stepping on a pressure plate and causing the ship to start to flip over. I gave her a sneer and ran at the ship, drinking a potion of leaping – my last potion. She panicked and hit another button, and the ship fired 15 blocks of TnT at me.
I leaped into the air, pulling out a fishing rod and using the lure to catch a block and fling it into the ship. I twisted at the last moment and threw a pearl – I had to summon a lot of Endermen to farm these – into the courtyard. Moments before I appeared back onto the yard, the TnT exploded, destroying a section of the ship and destroying the stonework. I landed kneeling with one of my hands in the ground, and I started to call on my Craft. Power flooded through me, as I started to give off black smoke.
Why build a mob when you can create one from scratch?
[Clodir]
The stone golem slammed his fist into the last golem other than Josie, who delivered a massive blow into the stone back of the behemoth. She then retreated to me and Meta, who were battle-worn. Meta was looking around at the piles of iron, then shaking his head.
"Man, if I had my potions, I would be able to so much more." He raised his sword, but I lowered it with my axe. He gave me an exhausted glance, and I gave him an approving one in return.
"Look, Meta. You're not built for battle like I am." I told him, but before he could protest, I continued. "You are an Enderman in build. Also, I have diamond armor. You're wearing iron. You said it yourself – you need potions in order to beat this… thing."
The thing was trading blows with Josie, who was slowly becoming more cracked. Meta nodded and said "Alright. I'll be back with some steroids and a SWAT team."
"That would be ideal, Enderman. Get moving." I patted him on the back and roared a battle cry, leaping onto the Golem's back.
Almost immediately, I grabbed its attention. I pulled out my axes and started hacking into his back, carving out chunks of stone from its back. It reared up, drawing tos full height and running backwards. I swung around its neck and barely avoided getting slammed into a wall.
I kicked off the golem and landed on my back beside Josie, who grabbed me and lifted me to my feet. The golem slammed its fists into the ground like a gorilla and roared at us, blowing my hair back.
"Shut your mouth," I growled. "Only makes me want to kill you more."
It didn't like that, as it charged me. I rolled to the left, watching it barrel past me, straight into a wall that it was now stuck in. I grabbed Josie's arm and pulled her with me towards the hole Gimero made to enter the prison. I cleared the area, but Josie was having some trouble fitting through the opening. Behind her, the stone golem had gotten out of its wall prison and was charging at her. I decided that, maybe Josie could withstand one more hit, and I dived out of the way as the stone golem absolutely destroyed that section of the mountain. Josie went flying over the rainbow, landing with a resounding THUD!
Its attention wasn't on Josie, however. It immediately turned to me. I readied my axes and roared at it, as we ran at each other.
[Gimero]
"That's not good." Mavich muttered, waving for the helmsman to take control. She ran to me, who was busy trying to make Riley drink a potion of healing.
"Drink!" I insisted, trying to get her to open her mouth. She tried to say something, but I was a bit distracted. I looked in my inventory, trying to find something that could help her, eventually eyeing a certain drink. I pulled out the potion of water breathing and gave it to her. She gave me a weak smile and accepted the drink, and I felt her chest start to go back to normal pace.
"Hey, lovebugs!" Mavich shook my shoulder. "Stop giving each other the eyes and get ready! I told you Herobrine wouldn't go down too easily!"
"What's happening?" Riley asked, pulling away from me. She stumbled over to the edge, taking a sharp breath when she reached the railing. I slowly looked over to what they were looking, and almost cried when I saw the cause of the commotion.
Herobrine, now surrounded in a tornado of shadow, was summoning a T shaped mob with three heads. The Wither started to form heads, each one a pitch-black skull. When all three heads were formed, Herobrine pointed at us and spoke.
"Destroy the Guided and the Crafter."
"Crafter?" I yelped. "Guided? I'm too young to die!"
The Wither's eyes turned bright white like a beacon, and all three heads turned to the airship. I yelped and started towards the inside of the ship, but Mavich grabbed my hood and pulled me back. "You're staying top deck, Guided. After all, you're the target."
I let out a single cry, "Why did I have to be the Guided?"
Riley took out her rapier, but she was too wounded in the chest to do anything. Mavich turned to the helmsman and shouted "Full speed! Get this ship out of Zhoria!"
"Miss!" He shouted, then proceeded to press a varied combination of inputs. The airship turned away from the castle and started to pick up speed, but the wither managed to shoot three skulls at us. Mavich pulled Riley out of the way, but I caught one in the chest, which took a heart and a half. I stumbled backwards, my hearts now black and rapidly taking damage.
Mavich threw a bucket of milk at me, which I took graciously and chugged. The wither effect disappeared, but that was maybe the least of our problems. The three-headed creature kept coming up behind us, and as far as I knew, we had no cannons on our back. And half our cannons on our left side were exploded by Herobrine.
"You have a plan to take this thing down?" I panicked at Mavich, who shrugged and replied "No! Just get it away from my property!"
Riley tapped me on the shoulder. "Healing potion."
I reached into my backpack and tossed her the potion. She took it down in one swig and coughed up blood. I started to panic a bit more, even though Riley insisted that it was her expelling the blood in her lungs. Which was so gross on so many levels that I had to use all my willpower to not throw up over the edge of the ship.
"Just… stall." Riley wheezed. "Once I'm recovered, I can take that thing down. No sweat."
Mavich nodded and took out an enchanted bow, nocking an arrow and firing it at the Wither. Its bar lost a small portion, but it continued to ignore her in favor for me. The helmsman quickly maneuvered the ship to narrowly avoid the skulls, one of them blue. They exploded a tower on District 3, decimating the top half of the building. I swallowed loudly and stepped closer to Riley.
"So… what did you mean you can take that thing down?" I asked, already having ideas for the answer.
"Notch, Gimero. I thought you were the Guided." She rolled her eyes. "Have you really not figured it out yet?"
"But… you don't look like any Crafter?" I frowned. "Well, you kind of look like…"
"Yara'lyn." She sighed. "This is my original look. My older look was for practicality. Shorter, darker hair made me a harder target to spot. I was spawned with this look." She brushed her hair dramatically. "Do you not like it?"
"I… uh… that question is a trap, isn't it?" I asked, and Yara laughed.
"Smart boy. Now, Mavich? Maybe a minute. I'm feeling my Craft coming back."
"Good, because I'm almost out of coal!" The helmsman shouted, frantically inputting commands. "Miss, I told you to bring extra coal!"
"I told you to shut up and drive, Joseph!" Mavich angrily shouted back. "No one was talking to you!"
Joseph started to say something, but then decided to just salute and start focusing on conserving our fuel. I nervously waited, gripping my frying pan as the Wither drew near.
After a moment, Yara nodded and put a hand on my shoulder. "I'll be right back. Try not to get yourself killed."
"You're telling me that?"
"You know I'll be fine." She winked. "Herobrine was a stroke of bad luck."
"Bad luck." I repeated. "Yeah, sure. Let's call it that."
With one last smile, she snapped her fingers and blinked away.
[Herobrine]
"Sir, we won't hold Zhoria for long. The... whatever you'd call them are winning."
I turned around to see Veronica standing behind me, her arms behind her back and bowing. I squinted over the city and sighed heavily. "Fine. We'll leave this city."
"Sir? Surely we can take it back?" Veronica asked, confused. I shook my head and looked over Zhoria.
"Let them win this fight. Let them gain false hope." I took out a diamond sword and stabbed it into the ground in front of me, letting it stay impaled into the stone there. "It only feeds us. Those at their highest fall the hardest. We are not fools, Veronica. We know when a cause is lost."
"I... understand." She stepped up behind me. "Is this concerning the Broken?"
"In many ways, yes." I explained. "She is the linchpin. When she falls, this petty rebellion crumbles behind her."
"How do we kill such a powerful Crafter?" She pondered, only for me to let out a single laugh in response.
"There are many ways to fall a Crafter. Follow me, and I will show you."
BanjoNote: Shorter chapter, but I like it. Especially that last part - when I get to re-writing previous Cowardice is Key chapters, I want to flesh out both Veronica and Herobrine as likeable characters. Not relatable - good villains.
Next Chapter: Taken Back the Night! Until then, Read, Review, Favourite and Follow! And, always, Banjo-On!