AN: Well, this Chapter has the word 'Teal' in the title, so it'll probably get twice as many views.
OVER 200 FAVS! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?
Thank you all for keeping up with this story! Holy moly, this is just unbelievable! Your devotion keeps me writing.
I feel like I really hit it out of the park with this Chapter. The humor just flowed into me. (Probably because you had two weeks to write it ya dumb-dumb.) Who said that!?
Anyway, Christmas break helps too. I intend to work, play Mario Odyssey, work, play Last of Us Multiplayer - because that's just a fun time - and maybe play this new game called Player Unknown Battlegrounds or 'pug-guh' as I prefer to call it because it annoys my friend. :P
But what am I doing talking about my life? You're here to read about Cobb's life. So please enjoy the Chapter.
I don't own Minecraft. If I did, I'd do something about keeping Net Neutrality. Otherwise, Fanfiction might fall.
Beta: Myself
Chapter 92
Blue, Magenta, Teal, and Gray
[Shallows of Cerulean Ocean]
Mark looked out across the Cerulean Ocean with a feeling of trepidation. From his position on the shore, he could just barely make out the structure of the Ocean Monument. He stood upon the wide, sandy shallows of the shore, his feet comfortably wet, as he surveyed the scene. The water got deeper and deeper as the land mass declined as a steady slope before dropping completely into the watery abyss below.
The Lieutenant sighed, wishing he was doing paperwork instead.
"So that's the Ocean Monument, huh?" Teal tittered as she raised a hand to her forehead, looking out towards the ocean. She grinned as she nudged his shoulder, pointing to the Cadboro Bridge to the South. "Makes you nostalgic, right? All those good memories on that bridge?"
Despite the context, Mark couldn't help but smile wryly. "I seem to recall most of those memories happening off the bridge." Teal smiled cheekily. "But yes, I remember them. We're not here to stroll through memory lane, though."
"Hmhmm, so serious~" Teal purred before Mark took a full step away and placed his boat down. She was about to do the same, but Mark stopped her. "What? You wanna ride tandem? Because I'd be down with that."
He shook his head. "I'm the one with the deep-sea diving gear; I'll go by myself." She opened her mouth to protest, but Mark was prepared. "What are you going to do against the Guardians underwater?"
"What are you gonna do against the Guardians with those limp—yet sexy—arms?" She shot back, giving his forearm a light squeeze.
"I don't actually have to fight them." He reasoned. "We only need a sponge. There should be a chamber full of them somewhere in there. It's just a matter of picking the right chamber."
"And if those Guardians see you first?" She asked with worry before shaking her head. "Why not just give me the diving gear? Let me go. What's the harm in that?"
He frowned. "The harm, Teal_Larkspur, is that the second I take off this gear, you'll pop on that mystical leather cap of yours, freeze me in place, and French kiss me until you run out of oxygen!"
"…What's the harm in that?"
"That." He deadpanned. "That's the harm in that. Now if you're done flirting, let's get this over with." He patted the golden deep-sea diving armor encompassing him and strapped two Potions of Water Breathing to his belt. "Be on standby with a boat, just in case I need an emergency evac." He advised the blue-haired woman just before pushing off the shore and clambering into his vessel. He sailed forward, cutting through the water as he approached the sea-green, pyramidal structure.
Teal watched, her fists clenched in worry, as Mark stopped short of the monument before drinking one of his Water Breathing Potions and dropping off the side of his vessel. His head disappeared beneath the surface and Teal waited in tense silence, praying a Guardian didn't kill her beloved.
If it did, she would raze the ocean itself.
[Cobb]
I hated the Paralysis Potion combo. Not being able to move sucked.
"Up we go." The blond-haired bounty hunter hefted me over one shoulder before tossing me out of his redstone pit-trap. I got a face full of dirt, but was helpless to wipe it away, what with me being paralyzed and all.
Even if I could move, though, his dogs were all over me. Gods, how many did he have? They were still streaming in from the trees from what I could tell.
The bounty hunter, Hunderprest, climbed up after me. He had a proud smile on his face as he rolled me onto my side. "You gave my dogs quite the chase. Take solace in knowing you were caught by the best."
"I'd rather not to have been caught." I said with a frown. "Plus, I wouldn't say you did much. It was your dogs that—"
"My dogs, my trap, my plan. Ergo, my win." He defended easily. "Though, do I detect sour grapes in your tone? Come now, you didn't think you could evade your pursuers forever, did you? Especially so close to Ringwood after the Creeper incident—"
"I'm not a cultist!" I shouted, half in exasperation. "Not an Executive either. Someone framed me."
"I'd say 'that's what they all say'," he paused, "but then that's what we say whenever they say what they all say."
"…What?"
"I don't believe you."
"Oh."
"Nor do I care, honestly." He shrugged one shoulder while tossing some meat to his dogs. They tore into it ravenously. "Emeralds are emeralds. And whoever wants you alive is willing to pay a fortune. Oh, I can see it now." His eyes sparkled with a dreamy gaze. "Diamond gear, Nitebane Enchantments, high-quality potions…" He paused when a few of the brown-collared dogs growled. "Food, of course. Can't forget about you guys, can I?" The dogs went back to eating. "And I'll still have some left over for the guild."
"But you'd be dooming an innocent man." I tried again, hoping to appeal to his humanity. "Would you truly be able to live with yourself?"
"Yes."
"…Ah."
Blood: See, this is why we kill people…
Heart: Hey, no. No! Bad blood. Very bad blood! Killing is bad.
Blood: *growl*
"Anyway, let's see how innocent you really are." Hunderprest knelt down behind me and I felt him rummage around my backpack. "I have to strip you anyway…"
"Hey! No stripping!" I protested as I desperately tried to move. But the Paralysis effect had a few more minutes left.
"Let's see…" He mumbled as he pulled stuff out of my backpack and belt. "A fishing rod…? Backlash? Odd thing to enchant. A single stick. A single stick? Really?"
"I was gonna use it for torches get off my back."
"Hmm. Ender Pearls. Lot of food. Some books. A lot of emeralds. A couple of—oh!"
He went silent and I wondered what he found.
"A couple of what?" I asked, trying to remember what else I had in my pack.
"Hmm." Hunderprest drummed his fingers on my backpack. "Well, you can forget about your feigning innocence gambit. With contraband like this, I'm gonna have to confiscate your entire Inventory. Emeralds and all."
"What!?" I exclaimed as he already began to strip my armor. "What contraband are you talking about? I'm not holding any—" A thought struck me hard and I narrowed my eyes. "You… you're just making stuff up so you have an excuse to take my Silk Touch shovel, aren't you?"
He froze. "Silk Touch shovel, you say?"
The next instant, he was rummaging back in my backpack, practically ripping apart the materials and chucking items aside before he withdrew what he was looking for.
"This catch just got twice as profitable!" He laughed, his eyes glittering with greed. "Thanks for bringing it to my attention!"
Heart: I take it back. This bounty hunter has no right taking our stuff. We should kill him.
Blood: Yessss… let the hatred flooooow through your—
Heart: Just kill him a little bit.
Blood: It's a start…
As I watched the bounty hunter gush over the shovel and his loyal dogs wag their tails in enthusiasm, I cursed him for stealing from me. Those emeralds had been obtained through that golden shovel. And that golden shovel had been given to me by Cosmic. He had no right to take it. He had no right to make up some bullcrap about me carrying contraband, just to secure my emeralds and shovel. I knew my Inventory better than anyone. Nothing in it was illegal.
He was just lying for money. Taking me to other liars for money.
"Hey, Hunderprest!" I spat. "You think you're smart, but you won't be collecting any bounty anytime soon. Nitebane is pretty far. You thinking of carrying me all the way there?" I asked contemptuously. "Good luck. I'll eat twice as much just to weigh you down."
"I do consider myself clever." Hunderprest defended, taking more of my Inventory. "And the journey to Nitebane won't be long. My dogs and I took an airship here. It's docked at a nearby village. After we depart, I expect we'll be in Nitebane in a matter of days."
Shit. That was bad. I'd never see the others again after getting whisked away to—
…Wait, the others!
"What did you do to my friends?" I asked urgently, startling the bounty hunter. "I know your dogs were chasing them. What did you do?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Alas, I know not. I had the blue-haired one and your look-alike cornered before they ender pearled away. My dogs only found you, though, and that's good enough for me. I'm not one to hunt minnows when I've already bagged a whale."
So they were alive. And he wasn't going after them. Good for them, not so good for me. "You're making a mistake, I tell you! They… Nitebane won't give you any bounty!" I invented wildly. "Just let me go and… and you can keep the shovel and emeralds. That's already a fortune by itself. Please."
"To the victor go the spoils. And I feel like spoiling myself." He answered cruelly as he lifted me up and threw me over his horse.
My backpack, belt, and armor had been completely stripped and placed in some odd, ornate, black chest with an eyeball on the front. Whenever he opened it, purple particles would spring forth, similar to the kind Endermen gave off. He kept the Silk Touch Shovel at his belt, taunting me with it. He didn't bother picking the chest back up though.
"Now, onward my hounds!" Hunderprest declared as he mounted his steed. "A wealth of emeralds and meat shall be our reward!"
His dogs all howled in agreement, running beside their master as his steed galloped into the trees.
…Relaxing jaunt from Point A to Point B? Hahaha! Nope! Just throw a Hunder and one damnations at me! Fuck you, universe! I hope you spill hot sauce on your favorite suit!
[Floyd]
"See anything?"
Lenz nodded with a hum, his tinted goggles observing a point further than my vision could reach. We were stationed atop a tall tree, surveying the forest from a decent vantage point.
"The hounds are all moving in one direction." He said. "Comparators, there are quite a few of them."
"Is Hunderprest with them?"
"Not that I can… hold on…" He leaned forward slightly, his eyes narrowing behind those goggles. "He is there… with Cobbert!"
Well, wasn't that just a kick to the face? Cobb must have had over a hundred dogs chasing him. And now that Hunderprest had him, he wasn't wasting any time delivering him out of here.
"I do not see Soul with them." Lenz shook his head. "And Cobbert is unusually still for a captive. I suspect he has been afflicted with Slowness and Weakness Potions."
"So then we're on our own." I summed up nicely, already drawing my sword. "You've fought outnumbered battles in Halstatt, right?" I asked the engineer. "Any ideas on how to outsmart these dogs?"
"As well as secure Cobbert's safety?" The engineer weighed some TNT in his hand, his mind already fast at work. "I may have some machinations in mind. And I am still an unknown as far as Hunderprest is concerned. But I need time to set everything up." He wrung his hands desperately. "It was so much easier in Halstatt when we had time, but on such short notice—"
"I can buy you time."
I watched with mild amusement as his eyebrows lifted. "You can? How?"
"You'll see." I replied enigmatically. "I can stop those dogs for a few minutes at best. You just make sure to hold up your end. Is there anything else you need?"
Lenz lifted his goggles and looked at me worryingly, no doubt guessing what my plan to stall them was. Thankfully, however, he didn't bother bringing it up. He knew we didn't have time to argue. We had to act now while Hunderprest was still within sight.
"Based on what I remember from your Inventory…" Lenz ticked off his fingers. "Your bow. Your pickaxe. The iron ore. String. Your furnace. Both Potions of Regeneration. And as many ender pearls as you can spare."
I nodded at his commands, handing over everything save two of my seven pearls which I would absolutely need to catch up to Hunderprest.
"You sure your plan will work?"
"I am sure my machinations will work." He replied, purposefully avoiding my question, before reaching into his Inventory to trade something back. Emeralds—a lot of them—along with a few books and some other items. "My Inventory would have been filled otherwise and… the emeralds might help with your stalling plan."
Yeah, he definitely knew what I had in mind. I wished I could say the same, but I had no idea what his crazy redstone head had concocted.
Maybe if I knew him better, I would know.
"Good luck." We both wished before ender pearling towards different spots. Lenz went ahead of Hunderprest's path of travel.
I went straight for Hunderprest.
[Cobb]
Just a little longer… I thought to myself as I watched the two timers on my arm tick away. The effects had almost expired and movement was already coming back to my limbs. Just a little longer and I would roll off the horse and make a desperate bid for—
"Down the hatch." Hunderprest drawled as he emptied two potions into my mouth. I was caught off guard and tried to cough it back up, but Hunderprest forced my mouth shut, making me swallow it all.
The two timers on my arm quickly reset back to full. It was even longer, in fact, because they weren't splash potions.
"Argh!" I grumbled in frustration, wishing I could kick the bounty hunter. How cruel could a guy get?
"Get used to it. There'll be more potions where that came from—" A warning bark from one of Hunderprest's dogs caused the bounty hunter to pull back on his horse. It slowed to a trot before stopping completely with all the dogs surrounding him in a defensive formation.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of blue and panicked. "Floyd! What are you—no! Get out of here! I'll be fine!"
"Yeah, I can see that." Floyd called back sarcastically from atop a tree. He must have ender pearled recently since I saw him kick an Endermite off the side where it impacted the ground and disintegrated in a puff of smoke. "Hand him over, Hunderprest."
"Well, since you asked so nicely…" The bounty hunter mocked, lifting me up by the scruff of my hoodie and jostling me. "I'll have to reply with the trite and true classic, 'if you want him, come and get him'."
[Lenz]
Time was of the essence.
My aim and far-sight proved invaluable in getting ahead of Floyd and the bounty hunter. Based on his dog pack's movements through the woods, I was able to accurately glean their route. They would pass through a patch of woods not unlike any other.
The important part was trapping it in a way that made it appear like any other.
I wracked my brain for every lesson on redstone taught at the college and laid out my Inventory on the ground. Footnotes. Facts. Lessons. Mechanics. Private advice. Experience. I drew forth on all of it in an effort to build the perfect traps.
Wooden buttons… wooden buttons would be the start. They were the simplest redstone device to craft; a plank of wood each. Having four in my possession saved me what little preparation I would have to take, but that was not the main focus of them.
Wooden buttons could be triggered by pressing them, or by hitting them with an arrow. A useful function for an archer like myself; it was practically designed to suit me.
Crafting table down, I hastily scooped up my cobblestone and Floyd's bow and added a dab of redstone to craft a [DISPENSER], giving me two. That was all I could afford without mining more cobblestone, but I could not tarry to long.
I grabbed both dispensers and surveyed the scene, looking for proper vantage points like Veronica taught me.
After a few moments, my eyes lighted on two spots concealed by leaves and forked branches. I carefully climbed up each one, triple-checking the proper angles, before placing a dispenser down. The wooden buttons were placed on the side at an angle I could see from afar with my exceptional eyesight.
Once that was done, I took out some of my precious arrows and weighed them between my hands. I only had fifty-six of them, and every shot needed to count. In the end, I settled for ten per dispenser, adding an extra one in for testing, before dropping from the trees.
With the dispenser's set up, I looked at the trees from both the side Hunderprest would come from and the side I would be waiting. The trees concealed the dispenser's well enough on Hunder's side, but on my side I could easily spot the buttons.
I proved as much by shooting each one, dead-center. The buttons did as they should, activating the dispensers and shooting arrows from both sides. I made note of the spots the arrows landed and gathered them up to conserve ammunition.
Dispenser Trap. I thought to myself. Set.
[Floyd]
I just need to stall. I thought to myself, as I hopped from treetop to treetop. His dogs tracked my movements closely, breaking off into small packs to follow while Hunderprest fired arrows at me. One of them nicked my shoulder, but I was quick to take cover behind some leaves.
"Come out, Floyd. You're only making things more tiresome for me." The bounty hunter called out. "It's time to join your Executive."
"I already told you, I'm not an Executive!" Cobb protested from atop the horse. "I have nothing to do with the Endward Cult! I mean, yeah, I may have killed their greatest enemy by mistake, but that's no reason to—"
"Quiet." Hunderprest forced Cobb's head down before aiming his bow up towards me. "You didn't just show up to hop around and hide, did you? I know you don't have any cultists waiting in ambush. My hounds haven't detected a single person nearby other than you. So I have to wonder why you would purposefully stand in my way."
"To get my friend back, what else?" I called down before realizing I had to step up my distraction. Running and hiding wouldn't keep his attention forever. He already had a thousand emerald bounty in his hands, so he wouldn't work for a two-hundred emerald one if it wasn't within reach.
I had already planned for this, though.
So, with slight hesitation, I readied my sword and jumped down to fight his dogs.
[Lenz]
"Alright. Good start. What else can I make…?" I thought aloud as my eyes roved over my remaining materials. My goggles were firmly fixed over my face and my brain was working overtime.
My eyes flashed upon Floyd's furnace. I set it down and filled it with iron ore and fuel. While that was busy cooking, I hurried over to a tree and broke it apart with Floyd's pickaxe. It was not the proper tool, sure, but I did not want to waste time and resources on an axe.
The broken logs were made into planks by the time the iron ingots were done cooking. I turned half the planks into sticks and strung them together with the planks and ingots to make [TRIPWIRE HOOKS]. My Jolin pen pal had written me about them after discovering them in a Jungle Temple. Strung together with string, the tripwires worked like pressure plates once someone or something passed over them. They would send out a signal and activate whatever was attached to it.
Like sixty-one blocks of TNT.
Figuring to save wiring up this trap for last, I began to mine out a small cavern under a layer of grass. As luck would have it, there was already an existing cavern underneath that I only had to expand upon and hook up with redstone. I settled upon making several pockets of TNT with one big pocket that would consist of the majority of explosives. The string for the tripwire was laid out furthest for the largest pocket of TNT. I only hoped that the dogs would be far ahead of Hunderprest and Cobb, otherwise the explosion would kill them.
The tripwires were hidden at the base of two trees, the string carefully spread along the forest floor. As a precaution, I held off attaching the string to the tripwire until I was absolutely ready. Tripwires and pressure plates were always dangerous work; one misstep could trigger the whole thing.
For the smaller pockets of TNT, I settled for using wooden buttons. I could trigger them from afar with my bow without having to waste more string.
It cost me every speck of TNT I had… but this was an emergency.
Tripwire traps. I nodded, confidence growing. Set.
[Floyd]
I gasped for breath right after dispatching another handful of dogs. The beasts were persistent and endless. I wished Soul was there to contribute his strength, but I was on my own.
I whipped out my iron sword and slashed at the nearest hound with Crit Aura. The white stars erupted from my blade, causing massive damage and killing it in one hit.
But there were more.
So many more.
While I was focused on the front, the dogs barked orders and three of them circled around me before diving at my exposed flank. With a creaking snap, my iron chestplate broke on their fangs, leaving me vulnerable.
I felt paws and teeth rake against my side before I lashed out on reflex, ending two more dogs. But it seemed that every time I turned, a dog would pounce in my blind spot. My Hearts were getting lower and lower and I regretted handing both of my Potions of Regeneration to Lenz. If he didn't make use of them in his plans, it would have all been for nothing!
It was when a particular ambitious dog pounced on me from behind that I fell to the ground. My sword clattered from my numb hands and I struggled to right myself. Next thing I knew, several dozen furry bodies had dog-piled me, pinning my body to the forest floor.
I struggled to free a hand, but already I noticed a set of footsteps drawing nearer. I rolled amidst the dogs, freeing one hand to frantically search my backpack for a weapon. Something to hit them with.
My fingers touched something smooth and I instantly whipped it across the nearest dog's face. It was a brown-collared dog and it caught my weapon in its teeth. Its eyes were narrowed and it was growling.
But then it abruptly changed demeanor. Its eyes went docile and its tail started wagging as it gnawed happily on the item between its teeth.
What the…?
I looked at the item in my hand and realized it was a bone.
The dog was happily gnawing on the bone, all traces of hostility gone.
…Really?
Similarly, all the other dogs had calmed down. They were still piled on top of me, but their eyes were glued to the bone in my hands.
"No! Bad dogs!" Hunderprest chastised from nearby. He wagged his finger at the hounds, but not all of them paid attention. "I'll buy you all the bones you want after we get the bounty off these two. Now stop getting distracted and—"
Hunderprest choked on his words when I whipped out all the bones in my backpack and started chucking them in random directions. It worked like a charm. All the dogs covering me scrabbled after the bones like moths drawn to flame. I kicked the stragglers off of me and finally located my fallen blade.
Hunderprest swapped out his bow for a sword and lunged at me. I brought up my blade to counter and we briefly tested our strengths against one another. We were fairly even.
"What kind of stupid name is 'Hunderprest' anyway?" I taunted as our blades scraped against one another.
"The kind you get when you're stuck in the Void for a long time, you insensitive ass!" He kicked at my leg, breaking my stance, and disengaging long enough to pull out a Splash Potion of some kind. Remembering Cobb's paralyzed state, I dove wildly to the side, avoiding the potion by a few inches. "And what about him?" He hiked a thumb towards Cobb. "Who names themselves after a vegetable? And adding a King to that? How pretentious can one be?"
"Just because I'm paralyzed doesn't mean I'm deaf!" Cobb shouted from the horse before he added, "Floyd. Kick him for me, would you?"
Instantly, my leg struck out and connected with the bounty hunter's shin. He hopped around, biting back a curse, before holding his sword out before him. "Hounds. Attack!"
I paled upon realizing that the dogs preoccupied with bones had returned their attention to me. Before I could mount any kind of defense, they all piled on top of me, sealing my movements and covering me in furry darkness.
That's all I got, Lenz.
[Lenz]
What else… what else could be useful…
I hummed in thought, thinking the situation over. From what Floyd had said, Hunderprest's dogs were organized and efficient hunters. They had a line of communications, a chain of command, and followed their master's orders to the letter.
…
But if they could not hear their master's orders…
I snapped my fingers. "Noise trap."
I gathered up some planks and redstone—I had to go back to the trees and break apart my blocks of redstone to have enough—and molded them together to make [NOTE BLOCKS]. Eight of them.
Note blocks could play sounds when hit with a redstone pulse. The note and instrument depended on how they were strung and what block they were placed on. I knew some artistic types back at the college who could compose musical masterpieces from them, but I had never gotten too deep into that level of study. At best, I could probably adjust the blocks to play a collection of discordant sounds.
A noise trap.
I looked upon the surrounding forest once more and found two suitable spots on both sides. Just like with the dispensers, the spots were obscured by low leaves and trees but would be perfectly visible from my vantage point.
I hooked up some wooden buttons for long-distance activation to a clock circuit: Repeaters and redstone strung together in a loop. Then, I attached four note blocks to each. When activated, the redstone pulse would loop and activate the note blocks again and again. Forever replaying the tones of inharmonious drivel that would have musicians hanging their heads in shame.
The noise would be ear-bleedingly bad—more so for the dogs considering their heightened sense of hearing. They would be too busy whining in distress to listen to their master's orders, let alone each other.
Combined with all the other traps, it was safe to say that the hounds were going to have a bad time. Animal Rights activists would sue me, but it was necessary to save my comrades.
Speaking of which, Floyd was probably at his limit by now. I gathered my Inventory off the ground, picked up my furnace and crafting table, carefully connected the tripwires with the length of string, and scurried up my designated vantage point.
My bow had thirty-six arrows with which I could fire. And for additional firepower, I crafted one of Floyd's ingots with one of my flint to make a flint and steel.
Everything was set. I filled up on food to replenish what had been lost working and kept my eyes glued to the string of the tripwire to make sure no pesky Mobs stepped on it and ruined everything. The three ender pearls and Floyd's Potions of Regeneration were hanging at my belt.
They are still alive. I kept telling myself, gripping my hands to stop the shaking. They have the bounty. He will keep them alive. You just need to save them.
Their fates were in my shaking hands. Most of the traps would only activate if I shot them. This was all on me. Nothing would happen without my action… except maybe the tripwire. But that was more of a last resort. I could trigger it early if need be.
"Be smart, Lenzington. Moving artillery. Moving artillery." I whispered to myself as I heard howls approaching from in front. "Show those mutts how the Gray Eagle fights."
[Cobb]
I let out an aggravated sigh as I watched the paralyzed Floyd hefted onto the horse beside me. His Inventory had been stripped and Hunderprest had placed another one of those weird black chests to deposit the items into.
He looked beside himself with glee.
"Oh, this must be my lucky day!" He gave a high-pitched laugh as he tumbled a large amount of emeralds between his fingers, courtesy of Floyd's Inventory.
Although… I thought Lenz was the one holding the emeralds…
"With this and the little extra I'm getting from blue-hair," he patted Soul's back, "I might actually be able to make early retirement." He laughed at his own joke while I just grimaced in humiliation. Was this how we were going to be beaten? Paralyzed and strapped to the back of a horse? No!
I glared at the wild-haired man. Hunderprest. He wasn't so tough. It was his dogs that were the problem. They were coordinated and cut off every possible escape route before overwhelming us with their numbers. Without them, he would be powerless to stop us.
I turned to Floyd and whispered so that the bounty hunter couldn't hear us. "Where are the others? Are they nearby?"
"Lenz is." He whispered back. "As for Soul… we got separated. Have you checked your map? He has one too, right?"
I jerked my head. "He took the map, and my Inventory, and my emeralds, and my shovel." I hissed with growing rage. "He put them in a black chest. He doesn't take it with him, though."
"Black chest…" Floyd mumbled to himself while Hunderprest mounted his steed and proceeded to continue moving through the woods. "Sounds like an Ender Chest. Like the kind they use at banks. It's basically security storage where only the person depositing the items is allowed to take them out. The Inventory of an Ender Chest is different for each person and can transfer to any other Ender Chest."
"I don't think I understand."
He rolled his eyes. "Is now really the best time to be asking these questions? Can it wait until after we're not captured?"
I opened my mouth to argue that, since we were paralyzed and without a plan, we had nothing better to do. But instead, Hunderprest interjected.
"Ender Chests have the same Inventory for a specific Crafter. For instance, if I place three Ender Chests down and stock the first one with apples, I can check the second and third one to discover they too are filled with apples. But!" He raised a finger dramatically. "If another Crafter were to check the chests, they would find them to be empty until they placed something inside. In other words, as of now, both of your Inventories are in a chest only I can access."
"Wait, so we can't just get the items ourselves?"
"Afraid not." He said without sounding sorry at all. "What's yours is mine, now."
"And…" I trailed off, much to the bounty hunter's confusion. "Aren't you going to finish with, 'what's mine is yours'?"
"Didn't I already say that?"
"No, you said what's yours is mine."
"But I never gave you permission to take my stuff."
"What—no, I… wait, you're confusing me." I tried to clutch my head, but found I couldn't with my paralyzed limbs. "What's mine is yours."
"Correct." He nodded.
"So then what's yours is mine, right?"
"No. Mine is mine. You get nothing."
Brain: Alright, but then Who's on first, What's on second, and I Don't Know's on third!
Blood: I demand aspirin…
Bladder: I got adult and baby variety. Which one you want?
Blood: …Baby, please…
After my eloquent conversation with Hunder, I turned to my fellow captive. "I think you somehow mixed up the word 'rescue' with the definition of 'getting captured'."
"Don't worry." He muttered under his breath when Hunder wasn't looking. "There's a plan."
I raised an eyebrow. "Getting captured was part of the plan?"
"I stalled for time." He hissed through his teeth. "Whatever happens next is up to Lenz."
That… worried me a little. Lenzington did well in Halstatt with his gravel trap—he even fought a couple of Griefers off. But he had time to prepare, then. A lot more than he did now. Could he really free us and take out all the dogs on his own?
"Well, if nothing else, I'm glad you two are finally working together." I said, causing Floyd's eyes to close. "No matter what, we'll find a way out of this."
"No you won't." The bounty hunter dismissed, having overheard my last words.
"Do you mind?" I shot him a look and he looked only mildly offended as he spurred his horse on faster.
Only to stop when his dogs started barking sharply.
"Whoa, hold up." He pulled back on his horse's reins so that it slowed to a trot. His dogs were feverishly sniffing the air, tilting their heads in every direction. "What do you guys smell?"
*Bark* *Bark*
"I think they smell bark." I started to smile before getting kicked in the side. "Oof!"
"Shut it." He threatened before turning his attention back to his dogs. "You smell a Crafter, don't you?" One of the brown-collared dogs barked in what I could only assume was assent. "Can you find out where? It could be that fake Cobb from before."
The dogs began to spread out to sniff the air when all of a sudden an arrow came shooting out from somewhere to the right. It barely missed Hunder's horse and instead struck a dog in the tail. It yelped in pain, causing the other dogs to growl towards the direction it had come from with raised hackles.
Hunder waved his arm towards the right. "Go check it out. Kill whoever—" He was cut off by a yelp as another arrow came from the left this time, driving into a different dog's paw.
Looking at where the arrow had come from, I was confused. Was that Lenz? How could he fire arrows from both directions?
To make matters even more confusing, two more arrows came pelting towards us from the front. Both of them struck Hunder's horse, causing it to buck wildly and dislodge all three of us in a mess of limbs.
Hunder spat out a lock of his hair and picked himself off the ground, bow at the ready. He fired off two random shots towards the front, but it was clear they wouldn't hit. He had no idea where the shooters were hiding.
"What is this…?" Hunder looked a little nervous as he pointed his bow to the left and the right. His dogs were growling and taking up defensive positions, but they still had yet to locate anyone. "How many Crafters are out there?"
His dogs barked an answer, but another arrow flew out from the right.
"What?" He questioned, taking cover from the right side by lowering himself beside his horse. "There can't be one scent; we're getting fired from three angles. Check again—AGH!" He clutched his arm when an arrow sank into it from the front, followed by two more which he narrowly evaded by crawling around his steed. "Just go after them!"
The dogs rushed into action, splitting up into four groups. One going to the front, one to the left, one to the right, and one hanging back to defend their master and his quarry.
"Floyd." I whispered to my fellow captive from our positions on the ground. "Is this really Lenz's doing?"
"Unless he somehow befriended some archers in the woods, I can't see how it could be." Floyd desperately tried to move his arms, but the paralysis was still in effect. Mine had a lower counter, but it still prevented me from moving.
Though Hunder wasn't in a position to reapply the effects.
Suddenly, a new mystery added to the tense atmosphere. From the left, a loud and annoying mix of notes started playing in a loop. Their tone went from high to low and were grating on the ears. The same thing started on the right side not five seconds later.
"The heck is that—No!" Hunder surged to his feet when he saw his dogs start to clamp down on their ears with their heads bowed low. Our distress at the sound was nothing compared to theirs. They let out piteous whines and stopped their fruitless searching just to shut the sound out. "Stop! My hounds! They can't take this noise!"
The ranks broke with only the brown-collared dogs able to stand up to the sound, and even then not by much. But things took a new turn when arrows started hitting specific spots in the crowd of dogs. A few died, but then a bunch more died when the ground suddenly exploded shortly after.
Hunder's head jarred to where the explosion had gone off. "An ambush… all dogs separate! We're surrounded! Flee into the woods! NOW!"
But his voice went unheard. The cacophony of sounds drowned out his orders and prevented his dogs from barking any themselves. More arrows flew from the front and the sides, hitting specific spots that would then explode a few seconds later. Then, from the front, I saw a spark of fire from the trees.
"Over there!" Hunder shouted, apparently having noticed it too. "Hounds, attack! ATTACK!" He shouted loudly, but his dogs didn't hear any of it.
Flaming arrows started to rein down from the front, setting dogs ablaze upon impact. The smoldering bodies scampered in blind agony trying to put themselves out and scaring more of the dogs in the process. Soon, the dogs were in frenzy panic mode, running around or covering their ears as they attempted to understand where they were being attacked from, what was going on, and what they could do to make the pain stop.
Holy shit, was this actually Lenz?
[Lenz]
"Moving artillery." I spoke to myself, aligning an arrow to the fire making short work of my hiding spot. I fired a few more into the mess of dogs, setting more and more of them ablaze and creating a nice bit of chaos. "Moving artillery…"
I also shot at the buttons on the explosives and the side dispensers, confusing the enemy to where my location was. I saw Cobbert, Floyd, and the bounty hunter below, a fair distance away from the largest trap. The bounty hunter pointed to the tree slowly burning away, but his dogs were too preoccupied with the noise to hear his orders.
And even if they did, I quickly took out an ender pearl and threw it to a different hiding spot. I took damage upon teleporting, but it was minimal compared with what I was doing to the dogs below. And if I took too much damage, I always had Floyd's Potions of Regeneration on hand.
"Keep moving…" I chanted to myself as I set a new fire and aligned my arrows up to it. "Keep attacking. Find new vantage points. Fight on your terms. Moving artillery…"
[Cobb]
"How is he doing this…?" I spoke aloud before suddenly being wrenched to my knees by a panicking Hunderprest.
"This is your doing isn't it!?" He accused. I was just about to ask him if he was a moron considering I couldn't move a muscle when he continued on. "Your cultists are doing this, aren't they!? Tell them to stop! Now!"
He jostled me slightly, but I narrowed my eyes in response. "I gave you the chance to walk away without me. Now it's up to my cultists to decide what to do with you." I was lying out my ass, but it was clear a terrified bounty hunter was much easier to defeat. "Though maybe I can convince them to spare you and your dogs if you release us now."
He gnashed his teeth and threw me back down. "Forget it! HOUNDS!" He howled so loudly that it drew every dog's eye. "Fight through the noise! Fight through the fire! And kill our attackers!" He pointed towards the burning tree where fiery projectiles were raining down. "THERE! Start there!"
His dogs howled their assent as they collected themselves and surged towards the burning tree. It was clear the amount of pain the noise was inflicting upon them, but still they marched on.
As the dogs closed in on the tree, I noticed a flash of gray hair poking through the flames, followed by an ender pearl being thrown across to another tree.
"WAIT!" Hunderprest and the dogs saw it. "Follow that pearl!"
The dogs quickly turned and followed where the pearl was thrown, but Lenz must have made a mistake. I gasped as the engineer found himself caught between the leaves of a tree. To make things worse, an Endermite spawned from his latest teleport and was slowly biting him to death.
"AHA!" Hunderprest shouted in triumph as he raised his bow and fired two quick shots. The first one missed, but the second one hit Lenz as he desperately burned away at the leaves to free himself and kill the Endermite.
It worked in part. The Endermite flailed around from the fire, and Lenz burned away the trapping leaves, only to burn himself in the process. He rolled out of the tree, frantically trying to pat himself out. All while the dogs closed in on him.
"Lenz! Run!" I called out needlessly. If it wasn't already obvious before that his life was in peril…
If only the paralysis effects would run out. There was only thirty seconds left on it.
Finally, Lenz put himself out and hobbled shakily to his feet. Seeing the incoming angry dogs, Lenz did what Lenz could never do and ran. He drank a potion of some kind, but it wasn't one of Swiftness. And he didn't run in the opposite direction of the dogs! If anything, he was running diagonally towards a different spot entirely.
"Cobbert! Floyd!" He shouted to the sky as he sprinted with all his might. "Brace yourselves!"
Brace ourselves? For what? And how could we brace ourselves if we couldn't move?
At least for five more seconds.
Lenz performed a little hop as if he was jumping over something and then threw an ender pearl into a far away tree. One of the dogs closest to him caught its foot on something for a second before another dog jumped at and bit his ankle, tripping him up. The other dogs were about to pounce when the engineer teleported away, the dog previously tearing into his ankle blinking in confusion.
Then a massive explosion ripped the ground apart.
The dogs closest to the earth-shattering blast were all consumed, dying in an instant. Blocks of primed TNT went sailing in every direction, blowing up trees and dirt and more dogs and making a mess of debris and EXP.
The explosions went on for a little bit, throwing Floyd, Hunder, and I onto our backs. A few stray dogs shared the same fate, either dying or getting injured in the process. The chaotic sounds coming from both sides cut off abruptly when the TNT shot off in every direction.
In the aftermath of the explosions, the Paralysis had left me. I could finally move my body and tested it by twitching all of my fingers. Floyd had been hit later than me, so he was still paralyzed.
Hunderprest was just staring at where his dogs had been.
"H-How… no…" He muttered to himself, eyes fixed straight ahead.
I thought about jumping him then and there, but then I noticed a moan neither mine nor Floyd's.
Zombies.
It wasn't night time, but they must have spawned from a cave or something and were drawn by the explosions. The leaves shielded them from the sun as they slowly crept towards us.
I could have gotten to my feet and fought them, but I had a better idea.
"Hey, Hunderprest." I called out, startling the bounty hunter to turn and notice the Mobs. "Your investment is about to get gobbled up. You okay with all your dogs being dead for nothing?"
"Damnit!" Hunder cursed, scowling at me for the line about his dogs but knowing I was right. He ran over and struck out against the Zombie before it could hit me.
Then I threw out a hand and grabbed his weapon before throwing all my weight at his legs. He let out a surprised shout before we both found ourselves wrestling on the ground.
"I want my Inventory back, you jerk!" I spat as I wrenched the sword to the side, both of our hands clutched tightly around it.
"You killed my dogs, you bastard!" He cried. Actually cried. His grief summoned new strength as he sank a fist into my gut.
I winced, but pulled harder at the blade, realizing he was only holding it with one hand. I felt a finger slip, then two, then three, until finally I wrenched it free.
I was rewarded by a swift kick to the face, followed by his fingers flying to my neck. "This is your fault!" He screamed, tightening his choking grip. "You did this!"
"You did it to yourself!" I choked out before slamming the handle of the sword into his face. He stumbled back and that was when Floyd pulled him completely off of me. The blue-nette was finally free of his paralysis and wasted no time showing it by throwing Hunderprest into the dirt.
The bounty hunter coughed painfully and made to stand, only to be met with the business end of a sword. I panted for breath and fixed him with a hard stare.
"Give us our Inventories back. Now."
While he looked at the sword nervously, Floyd turned around and waved over to Lenz who was moving with a slight limp. His glasses were back on and he looked banged up, but another Potion of Regeneration fixed him back to normal. He had a tired smile and nodded to Floyd.
"Plan worked." He commented needlessly. "Your distraction was much appreciated. Thank you."
"Don't mention it." Floyd reached out and the two shook hands before swapping back Inventories so that the items were back in the proper owner's hands.
"Impossible…" Hunderprest breathed out, glancing to Lenz with astonishment. "It was… it was only him? He was the attacker!?"
"Yeah, he was." Floyd slapped Lenz on the back, causing the engineer to slump to the ground, more out of nerves than exhaustion. "Oh… uh… sorry."
"But… but how?"
"Because he's a badass. That's how." I said.
I genuinely wanted to know how he did it too, but that could wait.
Hunder looked at what was left of his dogs. About fifteen of them, and they were all pretty weakened. Even still, they whined in defiance, shakily standing against the ones threatening their master. They would fight to the death if they had to.
"Call off your dogs and give us our Inventories." I repeated, pressing my blade closer to his neck. I wanted my Backlash back. He and his dogs tried to kill Lenz, and probably Soul too at one point. While I wasn't ready to forgive that, as he was now, he was harmless. And he lost enough.
I couldn't kill someone like that.
He scoffed in defiance. "And then what, hm? You'll kill me and the rest of my dogs, right? That's what you cultists do, right? No one lives, right?"
"Enough things have died today." I reasoned. "Unless you want to join them, give us back our stuff."
Please, just buy the bluff. I can't kill you after everything that happened to your dogs. I couldn't live with myself if I did.
Blood: I could live with it…
Shut it.
He shook his head. "Who's to say you won't kill me anyway? I'm only safe so long as I'm the only one who can access my Ender Chest. Kill me and you'll never get it back."
"But I'll get this back!" I snatched my golden shovel from his belt as well as the other things he took from us but kept on his person. "And this is all I need to make everything back." I couldn't kill him. I couldn't kill him. I couldn't kill him. "If I kill you, though, your remaining dogs become my dogs under the laws of ownership. They'll obey their brothers' and master's killer, and you will lose out on everything you could possibly earn from this day forward. Is that what you want? For everything to be for nothing?"
My words were having an effect on him, and he shakily directed his gaze towards his last, weakened dogs. I could tell he was thinking more for their sake than for his own. Whatever he felt for those dogs, they were precious to him.
It made me feel like a dick for what happened to most of them.
"You… you promise to let us go?" He croaked, tears welling up in his eyes.
"Yeah." I nodded, taking the sword off his neck. "I promise. You have my word."
Floyd and Lenz watched tensely as the weakened dogs got closer and closer, only for Hunderprest to stop them with a whistle.
"No more." He whispered.
Lenz went off to gather whatever redstone he could salvage from his traps while Floyd and I stood beside Hunderprest as he fished inside the Ender Chest for our stuff. His remaining fifteen dogs sat off to the side, docile, as they licked their wounds.
When we had everything back (I caught the bounty hunter trying to sneak off with a few emeralds), we poured over our map to see where Soul was. He was near Mt. Mur, heading in our direction. He could track us with his map, but he probably heard the explosions and figured it could only be us.
Lenz returned, looking upset. Apparently the final TNT he rigged up had destroyed the other redstone traps he made. With most of the structures destroyed, he could only really salvage a handful of arrows and redstone. He apparently exhausted a lot of resources to save us. There was only one thing I could think of to lighten his mood.
"You're flying an airship."
He brightened immediately, rubbing his hands together in delight at the thought of piloting his dream. I would see to it that he did. He earned it after saving our bacon.
With everything sorted, the three of us backed away from Hunderprest and his remaining dogs. I threw him a handful of emeralds and some steak as a form of apology—as a silent message that I really wished this hadn't have happened—but he didn't acknowledge it in the slightest.
I hoped we would never see him again.
After a few moments of walking, making sure Hunderprest was well behind us, Lenz went into an explanation on how he set up all the traps. It was long-winded and complex with words almost like a different language, but Floyd and I listened to every word. Floyd was even able to ask questions, entertaining the engineer's studious mind.
I kept my eyes on the map, tracking where Soul was, and smiled when I saw how close he was getting.
Then, without much surprise, the axe-wielder emerged from the trees. "Hey, you guys are all together. I was worried I'd have to run all over searching for you."
"Where the hell were you!?" I instantly shouted, my words echoing to some degree by my friends.
"Whoa, hostile." He backed off a bit before whipping out his weapon. "I was busy making a new axe." He swung the iron weapon in reply. I wasn't even aware he broke his old axe. "Felt practically naked without it."
"An axe?" Lenz asked with a hint of derision. "An axe? That is all you have been doing? This whole time—"
"I went mining too." He showed off some coal, cobblestone, and iron ingots. "I didn't have a choice. It was dark, and I had to use an Invisibility Potion to lose those dogs. I tried waiting by the mountain, but those dogs could smell me or something. So I decided to mine until daybreak." His stomach picked that moment to growl noisily and he fell to his knees. "Also, I ran out of food and couldn't catch anything. I tried eating my Entry Pass, but it was denied entry into my stomach. Please feed me."
Floyd hastily stuffed him with chicken while we went into detail about what we had to endure while he was off mining. His eyes got particularly wide when we described the chaos Lenz's traps wrought.
"Damn, he really did that? Shit. Remind me not to piss you off." He spoke to Lenz who shuffled in place, unused to the praise but feeling proud all the same. "So that bounty hunter won't be chasing us anymore?"
"I don't think he's in a position to." Floyd said. I could tell he was recalling the weary remnants of Hunder's forces. It was safe to say he wouldn't try anything.
"Which means all that's really in our way is what's been in our way from the beginning." I huffed, looking up to the towering Mt. Mur. We wasted a whole day and were exhausted. I needed sleep. They needed sleep. I just wanted to sink my face into a bed!
"Guess it's back to hunting for ender pearls." Floyd sighed, adjusting his armor. "Lenz, you can come with me, if you want."
Lenz blinked in surprise before nodding. "That sounds fine, thanks."
"Whoa, since when have you two been friendly?" Soul asked.
"Since Lenz saved our lives."
"Yeah, guess that'll do it." He nodded to himself before reaching into his backpack. "Lucky for you sorry shits, I wasn't just mining all of last night."
"…No way." I muttered in surprise at what he was holding.
Seventeen more ender pearls.
"Yeah, look in awe, losers. Your boy Soul gets shit done! Beating his own records like he beats down bad guys."
"Barring the bad guy that tried to capture us, you mean."
"…Don't ruin my moment, Lenz."
"Wha—you ruined my moment first! My redstone saved the day!"
"Let's just agree that we're all dependable Beginners." I interjected, not wanting another pointless fight that could otherwise be resolved in under sixty seconds.
"But I wanted more praise…" Lenz simpered.
"Lenz… what more do you want us to say. You saved our lives. We're here thanks to you. You're the best damn archer and engineer hybrid in the world." I steadily ramped up the praise to overblown levels. "We want to throw you a parade. We love you. We want to be you. We want to bear your children. We want to petition a National Holiday for you called 'Badass Archer Day'. You can tell me to stop at any time." I added.
Lenz rubbed his chin in thought. "…Go on."
I groaned before Soul slapped my wrist. "What, no Axe-Wielder Appreciation Day?"
For the love of sleep! "You're both awesome, alright! Christ, be a little humble."
We all laughed as we put Hunderprest and his efforts behind us…
Unaware of the next thrilling adventure at the top of Mt. Mur.
[Shallows of Cerulean Ocean]
Several minutes later, Teal was hunched over in the sandy shallows, playing imaginary tic-tac-toe by herself when she spotted a head of magenta hair breaking the water's surface.
She surged to her feet like a coiled spring. "Mark!" She sang in delight, overjoyed that her beloved was safe and sound.
And look! Mark was so happy to see her, he was screaming.
"TEEEAAAL!"
…Actually… no, yeah, no, that was actual screaming.
"THEY BROKE THE BOAT!" He shouted, louder than before as he swam wildly towards her, his sexy arms moving as fast as they could to break through the waves.
Behind him were a dozen incensed Guardians shooting laser beams at him, followed by an Elder Guardian—a super-sized Guardian with milky grey skin, spines as long as a Crafter and sharper than diamond, and an eye that could fire a mega-laser beam that could hit you with Mining Fatigue.
And none of them looked all too pleased with having their sponges stolen.
"EVAC!" Mark screamed as the Elder Guardian's beam nearly grazed him. "EVAC, TEAL! EVAC!"
Seeing her man in trouble, Teal sprung into action. She threw her boat into the water and pushed off the shallows with all her strength, propelling the vessel a good twenty feet from the shore before furiously paddling towards Mark.
The magenta-haired Lieutenant kept thrashing against the waves in his efforts to out-swim the Guardians. The diving gear was helping him move through the water, but was doing little to shield him from the damaging beams.
When one of the beams hit Mark in the side, causing him to cry out, Teal's expression darkened and she rowed with double the speed. Her boat carved through the waves like a chainsaw, her movements sharp and deliberate with strength rippling off her body.
She slowed down only when he was near. "Teal! Teal…" Mark gasped as he caught the edge of the vessel. He gasped for breath clutching the side of the boat like a lifeline, but held up what he had come for. "I got… the sponge… so let's—Teal?"
The blue-haired Lieutenant had only paused to give Mark a once over before diving into the water and swimming furiously towards her beloved's attackers. The first Guardian she faced, she punched it in the eye, sending it floundering through the air before crashing back into the sea.
"Teal! Leave them! I'm fine!" He tried to assuage her, but the woman wasn't listening. Those Mobs had hurt her man. She wouldn't be satisfied until they were all lumps of lifeless items. "Goddamnit…" Mark hoisted himself into the boat before drinking some milk to alleviate the Mining Fatigue. Then he started paddling towards his pursuers.
Teal was lost in the fighting. When one of the Guardians swam up to hit her, she dove beneath the water. The Mob was momentarily confused before the blue-haired woman emerged from below like a shark, grabbing the Mob from between its spines. It thrashed around, but Teal was quick to toss it into the air just before spiking it into the Elder Guardian like a volleyball.
"Keep your beams away from my Mark!" She shouted while backhanding another Guardian. She grabbed two more by their tails and swung them around like nunchucks before skipping them across the water.
The other Guardians swarmed the enraged Lieutenant, thinking they had a chance with their numbers and the water to freely move around in. They weren't wrong; Teal's mobility and close combat skills were hindered by constantly having to tread water.
But, as the old saying went, 'Nether hath no fury like a woman when her man is threatened.'
"Grah!" She shouted as she grappled a Guardian and repeatedly bashed its eyeball in, regardless of the spines damaging her Health. "Chase my man, will you? Well, I'll teach you better…"
"Teal, disengage!" Mark shouted as he passed the Guardians in the boat equivalent of a drive-by, tossing out Splash Potions of Harming in an effort to thin them out. "We got what we came for, so let's go!"
Teal suddenly froze, looking up from her brutal beat-down to blush and tilt her head cutely. "Oh, Mark~! Seeing you so worried about me. You'll make my heart swell with such sweet words~!"
"Take off those rose-tinted goggles you blue-haired idiot! This is NOT a romantic moment!"
"Oh, I can feel it burst~!" She clutched her chest and swooned theatrically, sinking into the water.
The Guardians dove down after her, but after a brief moment, only Teal came back up to surface. She whipped her soaked hair out of her eyes, grinning happily at Mark before she suddenly noticed a ghostly image of a Guardian flicker across her vision, followed by the draining effects of Miner's Fatigue.
She whirled around and came face to eyeball with the Elder Guardian just before it fired a point-blank yellow beam into her chest. She let out a cry of pain, her body skipping across the water from the impact. The shot had taken six Hearts out of her and she was barely able to keep her head above the water.
The Elder Guardian pressed its advantage, swimming towards the injured Lieutenant and affixing her with its gaze. It began charging its laser, the beam tracking Teal as a solid purple before slowly changing to yellow. Teal considered diving, but realized she would never out-swim the master of the seas.
Just when it was about to fire, Mark brought his boat forward, shielding Teal from the beam with his own body. At the same time, he chucked a Splash Potion of Healing II behind him to restore her Health. When the beam hit, the alchemist was knocked clear off the boat and over Teal's head before splashing into the ocean.
Teal's vision narrowed with a blackening rage as she turned to face the Elder Guardian. She swiftly swam up to Mark's boat, boarded it, and rowed towards the boss Mob with grim determination.
It charged its laser once more, but Teal was faster in the boat. She brought the vessel right alongside it before leaping out and grabbing the Mob with both hands. The eyeball kept its focus on her so that she was effectively hanging onto the thing's eyeball. Not the best way to avoid its beam.
Teal, however, was livid; her face set in a deep, displeased frown. She reared back a fist, her cruel eyes devoid of mirth, and she sank it into the beast's eyeball. Right over its pupil.
It let out a ghostly wail, flailing about in agony and extending its spines to try and dislodge the eyesore. Teal held firm, though. Through the wild thrashing, the spines spearing her hands, and the laser beam that struck her in the unprotected gut, she hung on… and drove her fist further in.
The Mob's shouts grew more agonized, its efforts to throw her off getting wilder still. It dove under the water, figuring drowning her was the best option.
Teal held her breath, hugging the Mob more tightly as she gained the leverage to drive her fist even deeper. Her fury was of one mind. For hurting Mark, she would rip this thing's eye out.
The Guardian was charging up another beam, Teal could feel it. Taking two of those could kill an unarmored Crafter, which she was. But still she refused to let go. I can kill it first. She thought to herself, sinking her fist further in. I can kill it before it fires.
So distracted was she, she failed to notice the Splash Potion of Healing thrown at her back by the recovered Mark.
The beam fired, but Teal took it in stride. She looked in surprise as Mark swam behind the Guardian and hit it with three Splash Potions. Weakness. Slowness. Poison. The Elder Guardian screamed in agony as it felt like its insides were burning up, but it stopped its wild thrashings, going limp from the Paralysis combo.
With the Mob preoccupied and Mark nearby, Teal forgot everything else and swam up to embrace him in a tender hug. Mark tried to pry her off, pointing to the Elder Guardian and then to her arm, but Teal ignored him in favor of nuzzling into his neck.
Then she started taking damage from lack of Oxygen.
Her eyes shot open and her hands flew to her throat as she freaked out. Mark, under the effects of the Respiration Enchantment of the diving gear, had the oxygen to breathe out an exasperated sigh before rummaging in his backpack for two more Splash Potions.
He smashed the first one—Water Breathing—into Teal to have her regain her calm. Her flailing subsided and her eyes relaxed once she got a few lung-fulls of air. Then she went back to hugging him as if nothing had happened. Mark leveled a far-off stare in some random direction, giving Teal her moment, before pushing her away and hitting her with the second potion—Strength.
She cocked her head in confusion, tapping her arm where the Strength tattoo was showing; silently asking him why. In response, he pointed down to the seafloor where the injured, poisoned, and paralyzed Elder Guardian now lay.
Teal grinned eagerly, nodding in understanding, before performing a loop-de-loop dive towards the weakened Mob.
To its credit, the thing extended its spines and prepped its laser, hoping to scare Teal off.
Teal smirked cruelly and cracked her knuckles.
The barrage of fists that followed ensured the Mob's last moments were agonizing. Mark stood on standby with Potions of Regeneration and Healing when Teal had to take a break from all the spine damage it cost her per strike.
But eventually, her final fist connected, slaying the master of the seas. It dropped a dry sponge, prismarine crystals, and raw fish. Teal gathered up the trophies and turned to Mark, hiking her thumb up towards the surface. Mark got the message clear enough and the duo swam up to where they left their boat.
Magenta and blue hair broke the surface with both wiping the seawater-soaked hair from their eyes.
"Well," Teal spoke in a rush of air, "that was a thing."
Mark shook his head. "That thing could have been avoided if you just—"
"If I just forgot about you getting hurt?" She finished with a quizzical expression. "Yeah, I don't think so."
"You almost died." Mark muttered under his breath.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Teal cupped a hand to her ear, leaning forward with a wide smile. "Do I hear some mutual affection there? Does Mark genuinely care for me as I do him? Because I don't remember it being my Birthday today~"
Mark scowled. "Ugh, you're impossible."
"Actually, I'm quite easy." She shrugged with a flirty smile. "If you'll have me, that is~"
Teal giggled to herself as Mark turned around to hide his blush. He chose to remain silent, though, as he struggled to clamber into the boat. Teal took it upon herself to sneak up behind him and give him a boost. And if her hands happened to grope him during the contact, then hey, they had minds of their own.
Despite the groping, Mark reached out a hand to help pull Teal into the vessel. "Guess we get to ride tandem after all." He commented before starting to row to shore.
"Isn't it romantic~?" She sighed dreamily. "What a way to end our mission…"
"Soaking wet and nearly dead. Super."
"Oh, don't be like that." She chastised with a light bop on the arm. "You were pretty heroic taking that beam for me. I would have fallen for you right then and there if I wasn't already head-over-heels." She chuckled to herself at Mark's blushing before holding up her trophy. "So what does Abyssmal want with a sponge, anyway?"
"It's not what he wants with the sponge." Mark took out his own and contemplated it for a moment. "It's what our Founder wanted with it that matters. The book he left asked for this and a Nether Star." He glanced out to the Ocean Monument growing further and further away. "Considering what we have to fight to get these items, I'm betting it's a test of some kind. See if we're truly worthy of the power he was spouting about."
"Oooh. I like the sound of that." Teal vibrated with excitement, rocking the boat. "So it's a good thing we fought that Guardian instead of just sneaking in to grab a sponge, yeah? Nothing worthier than that! We aced that challenge!"
"Hmm." Mark hummed in assent, glancing at the sponge still in Teal's possession. "Keep yours as a trophy. You never know when having an extra might come in handy." Mark sighed as he put more effort into rowing, trying to ignore Teal's fingers playing with his hair.
"Now let's just hope the other Divisions can figure out how to spawn a Wither."
Inventory (Cobb): 1 Fishing Rod {Backlash} [Knockback II, Luck of the Sea III, Unbreaking III], 1 Stone Pickaxe, 1 Stone Sword, 1 Golden Shovel [Silk Touch I, Unbreaking III], 1 Flint and Steel {Weak}, 13 Cobblestone, 14 Ender Pearls, 12 Torches, 5 Coal, 2 Oak Wood Planks, 1 Stick, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Clock, 1 Water Bucket, 4 String, 40 Steak, 64 Cooked Mutton, 55 Baked Potatoes, 1 Pumpkin, 1 Leather Tunic [Dyed Green, Unbreaking I], 1 Iron Leggings {Weak}, 1 Iron Boots, 40 Emeralds, 1 Map {Ringwood Region}, 1 Book {Advanced Mob-Slaying}, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Ringwood Entry Pass}
[EXP: 18]
Inventory (Floyd): 1 Iron Pickaxe {Weak}, 1 Iron Sword, 3 Iron Ingots, 1 Fishing Rod, 1 Furnace, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Minecart, 1 Bed, 1 Boat, 1 Potion of Fire Resistance {8:00}, 2 Flint, 8 Rotten Flesh, 6 Gunpowder, 10 Ink Sacs, 28 Cooked Chicken, 40 Apples, 3 Wool, 1 Iron Leggings, 1 Iron Boots {Weak}, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Entry Pass}, 4 Emeralds
[EXP: 25]
Inventory (Lenz): 1 Bow {Weak}, 1 Shears, 2 Levers, 1 Flint and Steel, 1 Stone Button, 5 Redstone Torches, 9 Redstone Repeaters, 3 Redstone Comparators, 20 Redstone, 1 Hopper, 5 Pistons, 21 Cobblestone, 25 Dirt, 1 Minecart, 1 Compass, 25 Gunpowder, 50 Steak, 1 Leather Cap [Dyed Green], 13 Arrows, 20 Wooden Planks, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Pumpkin, 32 Sugar Cane, 8 Leather, 18 Feathers, 10 Flint, 64 Emeralds, 14 Emeralds, 1 Book {Airship Piloting 101}, 1 Book {Notebook}, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Daymonte Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Ringwood Entry Pass}
[EXP: 6]
Inventory (Soul): 1 Iron Axe, 1 Wooden Pickaxe, 1 Stone Pickaxe {Weak}, 17 Ender Pearls, 1 Splash Potion of Healing II, 1 Splash Potion of Healing II, 1 Splash Potion of Healing II, 1 Potion of Invisibility {8:00}, 1 Potion of Invisibility {8:00}, 1 Splash Potion of Slowness {1:30}, 1 Splash Potion of Weakness {1:30}, 1 Milk, 1 Iron Helmet {Weak}, 1 Iron Chestplate, 1 Iron Leggings, 1 Iron Boots, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Furnace, 5 Dirt, 64 Cobblestone, 10 Coal, 7 Oak Wood Planks, 9 Emeralds, 21 Iron Ingots, 30 Cooked Chicken, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Map {Ringwood Region}, 1 Paper {Ringwood Entry Pass}
[EXP: 38]
AN: What exciting adventure awaits our heroes? What are the Endward Cult's plans? Why don't Mark and Teal have a ship name!? Really people, I thought you'd be on top of that! You came up with ship names for every other couple under the sun except these two? What the hell? Is it because it's too easy? It's because it's too easy.
I swear, this fanbase is a fickle mistress...
Whatever. Review, I guess. Bye.