Games

Ch 7: Challenge One

All of Team Crafted stands in the weird gray room where we spawned. Ty's attention is mostly focused on that budder arch, and the others are all staring apprehensively at the red door with the sign that says "CHALLENGE NUMBER ONE." I'm just watching everyone. Shh, it's not creepy. I'm being observant.

There's a puff of smoke beneath the budder arch, and then the GameMaster is standing there, glancing at all of us. "Welcome to your first challenge!" he says, grinning wickedly. "Behind that door is a long strip of nether bricks which you will have to cross in order to reach the nether stars at the other end of the room. You have only eight minutes to get there. It is a race, but the first to reach their star might not end up the winner. There are sea lanterns scattered across the room as well, and for each one you touch, a point is added to your score for this challenge. Mobs, both hostile and passive, will spawn randomly around the room, as will different items. If you die inside the Challenge Room, you will not respawn. Ready? GO!"

Everyone rushes to the door, flinging it open and sprinting inside. Well, everyone but me. I just walk casually to the door, since I'm not in any hurry. I don't want to win. I just want to survive.

I want my friends to survive, too.

"Guys!" I call out as we enter the Challenge Room. "Don't do anything too dangerous, okay? Winning isn't worth your life!"

Seto nods his agreement, but Mitch and Jerome are already running down the three-block-wide nether brick path, shoving each other playfully and laughing. Five blocks below either side of the path are several small hills of netherrack with sea lanterns at their peaks. Mitch jumps off the path onto the left side, and Jerome jumps onto the right, and they both take off toward sea lanterns. A small smile creeps onto my face at their competitiveness.

Then Magma cubes spawn in front of them both, and they shriek and dart to the side, dodging other mobs as they spawn. An iron sword spawns right on Mitch's head, and he snatches it quickly and starts stabbing at the mobs. Then a diamond axe – oh, wow, that's convenient – spawns right next to him, and he picks it up. "Jerome!" he shouts, tossing the axe to his friend.

Ian jumps on Quentin's back, shouting, "ONWARDS, MY TRUSTY FISH!" Quentin sighs in exasperation, but I catch what looks like a smile twitching at the corners of his lips as he takes off down the path with Ian on his back.

"Aw, man. No one else is animal-related, we don't have anyone to ride," Jason pouts. Then a cow spawns in front of him, and his eyes light up. "WOO!" he shouts, jumping on the cow's back and slapping its behind to make it sprint down the path with a loud 'moo.'

Ty giggles. "I guess we should get going. Everyone else is way ahead of us."

I snort. "Are you kidding? That's way too much physical exertion for me. I am not moving an inch."

Ty rolls his eyes and grabs my hand, tugging me toward the path. "Come on, Sky, let's go!"

Seto smirks at me as a light blush covers my cheeks. Then he takes off down the path, quickly jumping down to the netherrack and dashing toward a sea lantern.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" I say, finally starting to move my feet after Ty.

"Yes! Success!" he cheers, and I laugh. "Come on, let's go toward that hill on the right, and then we can just work our way toward the end of the path where the nether star is."

I nod and run after him as he heads toward the first sea lantern. He lightly taps it with his hand when we get there, whereas I kick the thing with all the anger I can muster. "Woah. Angry much?" Ty asks, eyes wide.

"It's like a therapy. When I feel like I want to strangle the GameMaster, I'll just vandalize some part of the Challenges."

He shrugs. "Hey, if it works, it works." He grabs my hand again and pulls me toward the next sea lantern. As we run, a creeper spawns in front of Ty. He jumps back in shock, but the creeper is already flashing white. Luckily, a budder sword chooses that moment to spawn right in my hand, and I immediately shove it through the creeper's head. "Heh, thanks, Sky."

"No problem," I respond, grabbing his right hand with my left and dragging him toward the next sea lantern. Five seconds later, a ghast spawns literally two feet in front of me, and my eyes widen in fear as it flies out of reach of my sword, opening its mouth to blast a fireball at me. Before it can fire, though, an arrow pierces it's forehead. The ghast screeches in pain and disappears in a puff of white smoke, and I spin around to see Ty grinning at me with a bow in his hand and five arrows sticking out of his pocket. "Uh, wow. Thanks."

"No problem," he laughs, running ahead of me toward the next sea lantern.

We manage to hit three more lanterns, laughing and joking the whole way, before Seto calls our names. "SKY! TY!" he yells. "You have twenty seconds to get to these nether stars!" Oh. Whoops. Ty and I were having so much fun, I guess we didn't realize the others had already finished.

I glance at the distance between the end of the room and Ty and I. "Eh, there's no way we'll make it in time, we might as well just stay here."

"I forgot to tell you that the entire room, save for the finishing area, will burst into flames when the countdown hits zero," the GameMaster's voice informs us.

"SNAP." I grab Ty's hand and start sprinting toward the finish, even though I'm 99% sure we won't make it.

Rather conveniently, a pig spawns in front of us at the same time that a saddle spawns in my hand. I laugh and shove the saddle onto the pig's back before pushing Ty onto the pig and getting on behind him. "Mush, Pig, mush!" The pig doesn't move. "Dang it."

A fishing rod with a carrot attached to it spawns on Ty's head. I giggle and take it down, giving it to him. "Oh, wow," Ty murmurs. "Luck is on our side." He holds the stick out in front of the pig. The pig, seeing the carrot, runs forward, getting increasingly frustrated as it fails to catch the carrot. Ty and I are nothing but a pile of laughs when we fall off the pig and into the finishing area. I catch my breath long enough to grab two nether stars and shove one into Ty's hand.

We glance at each other before doubling over in laughter again.

"Congratulations! You have all completed your first Challenge," the GameMaster says as everything in the room except for the finishing platform that Team Crafted is standing on bursts into flames. "Ty and Skybrine, you touched the most sea lanterns." Ty and I high-five, unable to do anything else since we're still consumed by laughter. "However, you finished last, in case you hadn't noticed, and that will take away from your final score for this challenge."

"Darn it," I choke out. Ty laughs harder at the sound of my voice, and then I start laughing again. The rest of the Team give us judgmental looks, and I laugh harder at the confusion in their eyes.

"Mitch and Jerome, you got the second most sea lanterns. Both of you were only one lantern behind Ty and Skybrine. You also finished first, so your scores are higher than the scores of the others. You are tied for first place." Mitch and Jerome cheer.

"Now for the tie-breaker. Choose a number between one and one-thousand. The player closest to without going over the number I have selected will win the Challenge."

"Sixty-nine!" they shout simultaneously.

The GameMaster sighs. "Fine. You are tied for first place. You each receive three points. Congratulations. Now go home."

"Home?" Jason asks.

"To the Living Quarters," the GameMaster corrects himself.

"Uh, hello? One problem," I say. "The nether brick path that leads back to the door is, uh, on fire..."

"So walk through the fire."

"That is the worst idea I have ever heard."

"Are you arguing with me again, Skybrine?"

"No!" I squeak, shrinking back. Ty squeezes my hand reassuringly.

"Then walk through the fire."

I watch as the pig that Ty and I were riding wanders off the finishing platform and into the fire.

He goes up in flames, and a few seconds later, all that's left are some cooked pork chops.

"U-Uh... O-Okay..," I say, swallowing hard. "Let's do this, then."

"You're not seriously going to try it, are you?" Ty asks, tugging on my sleeve and looking at me with wide eyes.

I shrug. "Why not? If it's the only way back... And, hey, maybe if we run quickly enough, the fire won't hurt us. You know, like when you pass your finger over a candle really quickly, and you don't even feel anything."

"The flames are mostly red and orange, anyways," Seto says, "and blue and white are the hottest colors. So... It shouldn't be too bad."

"LEZZGO!" Mitch shouts, running toward the flames.