Chapter 5 Excavate (Bartimeus POV)
I let Feleia start doing her thing. She flew up into the sky, gaining momentum, and soon reached her zenith. She then started to fall down to the ground, picking up even more speed. Once she hit the first layer of blocks, they flew everywhere. We all ran around and picked them up, but there were too many. Feleia was creating a huge crater in the earth, and soon had reached bed rock. She then began to modulate her height, going up and down as she began to follow the first tunnel. Once she got to the end of the tunnel, a person in a modular power-suit appeared. The person flew up in the air and landed on the ground in front of us. I quickly put on my power-suit, and so did the others. Martin equipped his iron armor. We all charged the person, who reacted by shooting up into the air, avoiding the attack. I let Tom, Alex, and Papart, chase after the person. I went back to Feleia's hole to check the progress that she was making.
By this time, Feleia had uncovered the other five people in the other tunnels. They had all done the same thing as the first, and shot up into the air with the first person. I activated my jetpack, and so did Paul. Martin stayed on the ground, and Feleia sat by him for protection.
I headed for the group, which were in the heat of battle. People were attacking each other with their power gloves, and a few were battling each other with ranged attacks. One of the thieves looked at me through their helmet. This one seemed to be waiting for me. I could catch the person's eyes through the blue screen on the helmet. They were brown, and they were so powerful that I felt like I was being stared down by 100 people. The player looked like it was the leader of the group. It charged at me and yelled, revealing that the player was male. I dodged his aggressive attack, teleporting a bit to the left. I then teleported behind the guy, and smacked him until he turned around and hit me back, launching me back a few blocks.
When I was launched back, it was as if I was hitting a wall made out of slime blocks with spikes on them, and was launched straight at the attacker. I turned around to see the world border. I tensed up in fear at the sight of it, and started fleeing back towards the village. Alex, Tom, Papart, Paul, and Martin started doing the same. Martin and Paul had jumped onto Feleia's back. When the attackers saw that we were escaping, they chased after us.
Once we got above the village, I activated my parachute, and slowly descended to the ground. Feleia dropped off Paul and Martin, then flew up into the air. Tom went around to villager's houses and apartments, telling them to get out and be ready for combat. Everyone had put on their armor, and the children hid in the bunkers around the city that were implanted in case of an attack like this.
I teleported up onto Feleia's back and started to talk to her, "For once in my life, I'm scared."
"Why?" the dragon asked. "It's just six people, versus over five hundred."
"But they still have the command blocks," I said, shaking my head. "If only we had guarded them with more care."
"How do you know they still have them?" Feleia asked.
"When you ripped up the land, the command blocks weren't revealed," I replied. "That means that they still have them."
"Oh," Feleia said. All of the sudden, I was launched off of her back, and started to fall. I activated my boosters right before I hit the gravel streets below, and shot back up to see what had happened. I looked up to see the six thieves attacking Feleia with their Power Gloves. Feleia shot her dragon breath at them, but it was no use. I yelled down to my team down below, and they shot up to help. We tried to ward them off, but their gear was better, and so was their fighting. Paul was knocked in the back, his jetpack sputtering, then deactivating. It broke into metallic fragments that launched everywhere, piercing Papart's armor. The two of them started falling to the ground. I was stuck in a tough decision: save my ruler, or save my friends. I figured that if I left too, Feleia would die. The bad thing about that is that she hadn't laid an egg yet, so there would never be another Ender Dragon. Ever. But without my friends, I wouldn't be the enderman I am today.
I went for the latter, and teleported down, saving my friends. I set them both down on the ground gently, for they had both taken serious damage. Papart took off his broken armor, and thanked me. I nodded and shot back up to Alex and Tom, who were battling all six people at the same time. Feleia did what she could to help, but I could tell she was weakening. I tried to help Tom and Alex keep the people from getting to my ruler.
I seemed to be too late. Feleia was hit one last time by the leader who fought me earlier, and she shot up into the air and started to disintegrate, spewing out experience. I felt as if a part of my left my body. I felt terrible. I had failed my leader. Then, it all hit me.
My father had said that someone is not who they seem. It finally made sense as to who he was talking about. As I watched Feleia die, I realized that the leader of the thieves had control over me, because of the mob code. I had already felt a sense of urge to help him. I was trying to fight it. It was starting to overcome my senses.
The person my father was referring to was me.