Chapter 19: Shooting Nether Star
It wasn't long before they re-encountered the Wither.
It was currently slaying a group of magma cubes. When it finished, it challenged a ghast to a duel. The Wither won. With its recent victims defeated, it simply floated around the area, nothing else to do. Endre gulped. While they were quite far away from the Wither, once they got their attention, he knew it was going to notice them. But we can't just leave it alive, he thought. From what Rosetta told them, the Wither couldn't traverse the Nether portals, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
With reluctance, he turned to Pickaxe and nodded.
Pickaxe strung a bow, and fired on the Wither. It quickly turned its attention to them, and began to approach. Keep firing, he thought, you have to bring it down to your level. He continued shooting arrows, and the wither got closer. His bow was down to its last use. He had to make it count. He strung the arrow, his focus fading from everything else. His vision went black, except for his bow, his arrow, and the Wither. Both of them made eye contact for a brief moment.
Pickaxe released his arrow.
Reality faded back into view. The Wither had been shot right between the eyes, but had now regained its wither armor. It hovered down to face the group, its white eyes glowing ominously. "Now it gets serious," Pickaxe declared, brandishing his pickaxe in his right arm. Everyone else readied their weapons. The Wither let out a spine-chilling screech. Welp, thought Texik, here goes nothing. He threw a potion in the wither's direction. It was a potion of healing.
At that, the two opposing forces charged.
The Wither began firing skulls again. Texik was wielding an iron sword enchanted with sharpness, as he cut into the creature's bones. "How you like THESE apples!" he boasted, as the Wither forgot to shoot him for whatever reason. Sarah and Rosetta continued throwing potions of healing at the creature, which was wearing it down… barely. "Endre, a little help here!" Madison yelled, currently taking on the wither with her axes.
"I'VE GOT BIGGER PROBLEMS!" he argued, running from a surprising barrage of blue skulls.
Jewel was trying to get a hit on the Wither, but rarely did so, as it also shot skulls at her. Pickaxe was playing a hit and run game. Hit, run with your shield, run back, repeat. A bit too much if you asked him. The Wither finally had enough. He released an unholy onslaught of blue and black wither skulls, causing the group to scatter.
When Pickaxe looked back, he saw firsthand the Wither's true nature.
Craters darted across the landscape in close concentration with one another. Jewel was lying in the center of the landscape, a milk bucket barely out of her reached. She was radiating black. Pickaxe and Endre were thinking the same thing: Oh no. Without think twice, Pickaxe rushed towards Jewel, as the Wither began hovering towards her. With a rather impressive jump, Pickaxe landed in front of Jewel, holding out its shield to block the Wither's attacks. With Jewel guarded, Endre followed close behind, feeding Jewel the milk. The Wither tried stubbornly through Pickaxe's shield, with no luck whatsoever.
It only got worse for it when Texik got involved.
Out of nowhere, something invisible lunged at the Wither, an iron sword in hand. While Texik knew that the Wither would notice him after this attack, he didn't care. "NOT SO TOUGH NOW, ARE YOU!?" he bellowed, continuously slashing at the Wither mercilessly, like the mad greifer he once was. Once Jewel recovered, she, Pickaxe and Endre joined the fray as well. Sarah and Rosetta had run out of potions, and were now using their weapons, Rosetta forced to use a stone sword instead of her bow.
"KEEP ATTACKING!" Endre encouraged, "IT'S ALMOST DONE FOR!"
It really didn't seem that way for the others. The Wither still fired its skulls, still managed to avoid attacks from time to time. Regardless, the group kept attacking, determined to end the creature's existence. Pickaxe had ditched his shield for his sword, and was doubling down on his offensive strategy. Of course, that still wasn't enough from keeping the group from contracting the Wither effect. Their remaining potions and milk buckets had dwindled significantly. The Wither regenerated health when it gained a direct hit.
At one point, Endre's shovel broke.
At first, he blinked, before narrowly dodging one of the Wither's attacks. Slowly but surely, the group's other weapons started to shatter, forcing them to retreat. Pickaxe was the last one standing, his enchanted diamond tools reaching their breaking points. The group looked from behind their cover with concern. None of them had brought any back ups, and they couldn't risk going back to an inactive portal. Endre grumbled to himself, wishing he could do something.
As if one cue, Pickaxe's diamond tools broke.
He grunted to himself, pulling out his shield. He couldn't wail on the Wither anymore, but he could still wear it down. With his shield in hand, he resumed his hit and run technique, instead punching the Wither when he got the chance and blocking its attacks with his shield. The rest of the group held its breath; it was only a matter of time before the shield broke, too. Something occurred to Endre. He quickly pulled out the stone sword his father had given him. He didn't notice before, but something was odd about it.
It had Smite III & Knockback I, and looked barely used; it had the name Wither Slayer.
Dad…, Endre thought, his mind at a loss for anything else. His dad had seen this coming. One of Parker's men must have plotted summoning a Wither before, probably as a last resort. Endre's thoughts were interrupted by an explosion. Pickaxe flew off into one of the craters, his shield finally broken. That blue skull had finally finished the tool off. Endre looked at Pickaxe, then back at his stone sword. No time to lose.
"PICKAXE!" he yelled, tossing the Wither Slayer in his direction.
Pickaxe caught the sword in midair, immediately understanding Endre's intentions. He could feel the power coursing through the sword. He faced the Wither with a determined expression, the Wither also preparing for a final assault. Pickaxe took a step back, preparing to charge. The Wither's armor began glowing especially bright. Without warning, he shot an armada of skulls in Pickaxe's direction.
With a newfound fury, Pickaxe charged toward the Wither.
The skulls narrowly missed him, as he bobbed and weaved between them. He finally reached the Wither, and began slashing against it over and over. He hit it on all sides, at all angles. His armor started to chip away, but he neglected to notice. He was in full on beast mode, slashing the Wither left and right. It's armor may have protected against arrows, but it had nothing on the Wither Slayer. Pickaxe continued bashing on the Wither, its ghastly screams filled with pain. He delivered on particularly strong blow…
...and the Wither fell over, withering away in a puff of smoke.
For a moment, everyone was still. Pickaxe was trying to comprehend what he had just done. He killed a Wither. He killed a boss mob. He was tempted to yell in victory towards the Nether's rooftop. But he was more intrigued by what the Wither had dropped. Granted, while it didn't make up for the sheer amount of devastation the Wither had caused, it did seem to radiate power. It was a four-tipped silver star, with green lines forming in the middle of each tip. A Nether Star.
He heard a *zrrrt* behind him.
He turned to face the enderman, in its hands a block of obsidian. He didn't know what to think at that moment, glad that his pumpkin still resided on his head. A few moments passed, the two refusing to break eye contact. The group looked away from the scene in fear of provoking the enderman. The enderman placed his obsidian block in front of Pickaxe. He looked down at the block, then back at the enderman. For a moment, Pickaxe could've sworn that it nodded. It teleported off without any warning. Awkwardly, Pickaxe picked up the Nether Star, right in front of the obsidian block the enderman had left.
He turned to face his friends; "Time to head home."