Chapter 12: Fortress of Solitude
Finding the village base was the easy part.
The weird thing was there were no guards at the base. The nether portal wasn't even active on the inside. "Hmm…" muttered Sabrina, "I suppose they didn't come through this portal." Come to think of it, there wasn't any actual indication that the soldiers had even gotten to the island via Nether portal. At least, not initially. Pickaxe continued to walk in another direction. What looked like a structure in the distance was barely visible.
"That's the fortress," Pickaxe confirmed.
While Stan stayed behind at the base, the rest of group headed in the direction of the fortress, unsure of what else to do. If they were lucky, they could catch Victor, but it was likely he would have an army behind him. If so, then they might as well have focused on something else: the fortress' loot. Other than the chests scattered throughout the fortress, blaze rods and wither skulls could also be found here. But at what cost? The group would have to save that discussion for another time.
They had arrived.
A staircase of nether bricks led into the imposing fortress. Its long corridors and imposing towers made it seem as though the structure was alive. Alive and waiting for its next victims to consume in eternal torment. The support pillars were submerged underneath the lava. Strangely enough, no ghasts were near the vicinity. The group continued staring at the imposing obstacle before them.
No point beating around the bush, thought Pickaxe.
The group walked up the staircase into the fortress' grounds. The halls of nether brick quickly overtook them as they entered the treacherous caverns. It somehow felt more oppressive than the Nether itself. They continued to walk down the corridors, their nerves on edge. At one point, everyone jumped at the sight of a wandering zombie pigman. Said pigman just gave them a blank stare, before continuing on with its business elsewhere in the fortress.
The group sighed, and continued walking.
Somewhere down the line, Pickaxe started hearing bones click-clacking. He froze. The rest of the group turned to look at him, only to freeze up as well. The bones stopped clacking. Pickaxe took some deep breaths, suddenly carrying his pickaxe and sword. He could hear whatever was behind him clacking violently, as if rushing towards him. Right on the dot, he swiveled around, crashing his weapons into an opposing stone sword.
Pickaxe knew not to take this competitor lightly.
The fighter in question had the black skull Pickaxe had seen so many times before. He looked like a skeleton, but he was entirely black. His stone sword was darker than a usual stone sword. He was also slightly larger than a skeleton. He wasted no time preparing for a second strike, which Pickaxe was too slow to avoid. It bashed him against the wall, which he slumped down in agony.
As Margret ran over to aid him, it was Madison's turn to face the brute.
Never before in all of her years as a monster hunter had she been approached with a job dealing with the Nether. She really wished that wasn't the case, as her axes continued to clash with the black skeleton's stone sword. Finally fed up, she proceeded to cut the monster's head clean off. It fell to the floor in a puff of smoke, only leaving behind a bone, a piece of coal, and its former skull.
Madison collected the loot, and turned to face Pickaxe.
He was slowly starting to stand again, as what appeared to be a black aura made its presence slowly disperse. He looked like some of his life force had been drained out of him. He slwly rubbed the area where the black skeleton had hit him. He looked at it grimmly. "Wither skeletons…" he muttered, "They're no joke."
He took a step back before an arrow could try to pierce his ribcage.
The group turned to face a batch of both regular and wither skeletons, much to their dismay. "Are...you...KIDDING ME!?" Texik screeched. The nerve wracking atmosphere of the fortress had finally forced him to succumb under the pressure. Without warning, he brandished his flint and steel, and proceeded to set the skeletons ablaze. While it worked okay for the regular skeletons, it didn't do a thing to the wither skeletons. Pickaxe sighed, pulling out a bow and arrow to pick off the remaining skeletons.
Sarah gave Texik some food and potions to recover from the onslaught.
Once that was said and done, the sound of an exploding fireball could be heard outside. The group rushed toward the outer scene, ending up at a balcony exposed to the rest of the Nether. A monster spawner was in the center of platform, with several wither skeletons wandering around it. Pickaxe brandished his weapons for the imminent fight, when the gravity of the situation got far more complicated…
...for the monster spawner had released four new creatures.
Each creature was the same in every sense. All of them had smoke emerging from the center of their bodies. Blazing rods spiraled around them, showing no sign of stopping. Their was single concentration of a fiery core at the top, with contrasting deep green eyes. Upon seeing the group of miners, their bodies suddenly ignited into a more blazing flame. So this was the infamous blaze…
Oh, crud, Pickaxe thought to himself.
Both sides lunged towards one another, each hoping to eliminate the other. Endre immediately crossed paths with a wither skeleton, dodging one of its strikes. Unfortunately for it, Endre was carrying his shovel. Meanwhile, Madison and Jewel, were tag teaming against two of the blazes, while Sarah and Texik took care of the remaining wither skeletons. Pickaxe was kept busy by blocking the blazes fireballs. He couldn't deflect them like a ghast's.
This fight raged on for quite a while.
Reed, Sabrina, and Margret looked from a distance, only wanting to intervene if things got too dicey. Out of the corner of her eye, Margret spotted a chest within the fortress. She nudged Sabrina, who immediately understood. The two tiptoed towards the chest, eager to see its contents. Two diamonds, an iron ingot, a golden sword, and a flint and steel. Strange loot. Down the halls, the two failed to notice a small magma cube, quickly rushing to attack its new prey.
Thank goodness Reed had brought a bow.
While the two ladies had remained oblivious due to examining the loot, the fight from earlier had finally died down. The group sighed from relief, as they made their way back to the others. They were hauling blaze rods, bones, coal, and a few wither skulls as well. "Not that easy, is it?" Reed jokingly asked. Jewel gave him a playful punch to the arm. "I'm still alive, aren't I?" Pickaxe put away his loot.
"Let's keep moving," he urged.
The wandered in that fortress and all of its twists and turns for what seemed like forever. They had to fend off waves of incoming skeletons (both regular & wither), blazes, and magma cubes. The zombie pigman weren't much of a problem if you ignored them. As time went on, Pickaxe heard the sound of footsteps. He thought he was just listening to the sound of his friends footsteps, but that was revealed not to be the case when the group noticed a group of miners in front of the fortress.
A group led by a miner with a scar on each hand.