AN: I must be biased, because I like writing for Cobb's section more than anything.
Also, almost died the other day from Heart Burn/Acid Reflux. It was so bad I couldn't breathe, only getting half the oxygen I was breathing in. I'm all good now, though, thanks to modern medicine and the almighty Tums.
Disclaimer: I don't own Minecraft. If I did, I'd make Phantoms do more damage.
Chapter 169
Jaded
[Lenz]
I was not looking forward to today.
Part of me just wanted to pull the covers over my head and pretend I did not have to make contact with the Paragons outside my door. However, the more practical part of my mind reasoned that it was inevitable… and necessary. They would be our traveling companions to Oak Docks (just thinking about that peninsula made me shudder) and whatever after. If there even was an after. Cobbert had his doubts and so did I.
But we were already well into it by now. We could not back out. Carys had already taken the other half of our guild and gone west. The synced maps verified it. I had a feeling Cobbert and I would be checking them often.
Nothing left to do but make the best of it.
I sat up and slid out of bed, suffering through an overly heavy breakfast of steak before leaving my bedroom and heading for Cobbert's. Glancing down the hall to the left, I saw Baltic and the other Paragons stirring awake. They had slept in their gear, not just prepared to head out in the morning but prepared in case we attacked them in their sleep. The thought had not crossed my mind, but Cobbert was particularly frosty with them. Even without Carys' presence, her guild just upset him.
I knocked on his door and announced myself to alleviate any worries that I was an intruding Paragon. He did not answer, but I saw him through the windows of the door.
He was staring into an open ender chest.
I pushed open the door and the sound had Cobbert shut the chest sharply before looking over his shoulder. He relaxed when he saw it was me, but that did not detract from the dark circles under his eyes.
"Ah, hey." He greeted. "Sorry. I didn't hear you knock."
"It is fine." I waved off. Then, since I had to ask, "Did you stay up all night?"
He nodded. "Couldn't sleep."
"You know that a good night's sleep makes it easier for your brain to function, right?"
"No, I didn't." He drawled sarcastically, walking away from the ender chest and holding a glass bottle to his arm, neck touching the green of his EXP Meter. He turned the bottle slightly, like the knob on a faucet, and filled it up to make a bottle o' enchanting. The green number on his arm flickered from 30 to 29, the bottle being just enough to lower his EXP level.
"What is that for?"
"Just curiosity." He smashed the bottle at his feet and watched the EXP float back into his arm, returning his EXP level back to 30. "Wynn told me Ember's EXP level was at 105. I'm trying to figure out how much EXP I'd need to match her."
"A lot." I said simply. "I am no expert on the exacts or the mathematics involved, but I do know that it takes more EXP to reach higher levels. The amount required increases in increments. I think I remember reading that Level 16 is a quarter of the way to level 30." I glanced somberly at the pathetic number 15 on my arm. "Basically, you have four times the amount of EXP I have got."
"At only twice the level. Shit." He cursed. "That means Ember's farther away than I feared. How many Mobs has she killed to get to 105?"
"…I very much doubt it was from Mobs." I noted grimly, thinking of the pile of dead men behind her. Cobbert caught on and kept silent, staring at the shimmering green number. "At least it is unlikely she will reach any higher."
"I wonder about that…" He murmured darkly before dropping his arm. "I guess we shouldn't keep the others waiting." He gestured to the door, but I held up a hand.
"Cobbert, I may have told you before, but I am not comfortable in a crowd of strangers." I stressed. "Especially when they refuse to heed my opinion. You cannot leave me as the only audible Beginner. You cannot abandon me like yesterday. You have to speak up."
"It's not gonna matter." He dismissed apathetically. "They're Carys' stooges. Low-tier grunts. They're not going to listen to either of us. Baltic's the only one with any authority but he's just an old man in my eyes. This whole group is a joke that Carys wants to fail. I'm not gonna waste my time and energy getting them to listen when they won't."
"So… then… what are we supposed to do?"
"Just follow their lead." He shrugged. "See someone else be leader for a change."
"You do not want to be leader?" I asked, confused.
"I was only the leader to protect the people that mattered. Right now, that's everyone in this room." He pointed to the two of us. "The rest can lead themselves off a cliff for all I care."
"But… but the alliance…!" I tried, helplessly. This was not the confident Cobbert I was used to. He was subdued and uninterested, like he fully expected this group to fall apart. He was not committing any of himself to the role.
He was jaded, but that was a word I dared not utter.
"It's the best and worst of it. No Carys, but with half of my friends and a half-dozen people I can't trust." He noted hollowly, sweeping past me to the door. "I'm going to go through with this with as little talking to them as possible. I won't lose my temper with them. I won't acknowledge them. I won't perceive them. Stick close, do the same, and we'll weather this 'alliance' garbage. They won't listen, so we won't speak. Simple as that."
He walked out and left me in his room, worried and uncertain. How could Cobbert even think that was an option? We could hardly ignore them for a month. And what if they asked a direct question? We would only create tension by ignoring them. Sooner or later, one side would snap and then what? We would be outnumbered!
If Soul or Floyd were here, they would set Cobbert straight. They would use tough love and break through his stubbornness. Ignoring a problem did not make it go away and I wished I could make him realize that, but…
He was already out the door. And when I glanced down the hall and saw him go to the Paragons, Baltic shot Cobbert a look designed to invite discussion. It was an appeal to finally get some communication between the two sides. Instead, Cobbert walked on as if Baltic and the Paragons were trash. As he swore, he did not even perceive them. He just went to the slime block exit and let it shoot him up to the surface.
The Paragons made disparaging comments about Cobbert behind his back while Baltic just shook his head in disappointment. That single exchange painted a grim picture of what this next month would be like.
Our band of ten did not use the Eastern District toll gate when we left Ringwood. We used the Northern toll gate. It was simpler, being just north of Wynn's burned down mansion, but it was also to confuse any watchful eyes. Cobbert and I did not ask why, but Baltic explained anyway. Ringwood was largely abandoned, but that did not mean there were no Endward Cult spies still lingering. By using the Northern gate, we would be tricking anyone watching into believing we were heading north, when really we would be turning east a little ways out. Carys had done the same at the Southern District gate yesterday, or so we were told.
We would be traveling by horse. The Paragons were nice enough to bring us for horses at the eastern stable (though it was more likely so that we would not slow them down). One good thing about an abandoned Kingdom was that you had the finest pick of the stables when it came to horses. Ace was there too, but Cobbert took one look at the donkey's name and his expression twisted into something disturbing. Instead, he seized the reins of a black mare named Midnight while I took a chestnut steed with white spots named Speckle. The Paragons' steeds had no names, I noticed, but were outfitted with iron and diamond horse armor. They likely acquired them in a village.
I had not really thought about it, but they had been without their major mode of transportation for a month. We stole the Asmodeus from them, just like AceOfJades stole it from us. Floyd had also tampered with the Anemoi, likely marooning that one in Shansi. It had been easier to shrug it off when they were enemies, but we really inconvenienced them. They now had to travel by foot or horse… or boat, and it would be a tremendous waste of time compared to the speed of an airship. Maybe that was why they despised us so.
After a few minutes galloping north, we pulled the reins east and began our journey to Daymonte properly. That Kingdom would be our first stop before we moved on to Oak Docks. We would be crossing the Cadboro Bridge for that… crossing the ocean…
Another shudder passed through me and I lowered myself closer to the horse. The way our formation was set up had Paragons in the front and Paragons in the back. We moved single-file, with Cobbert closer to the front, yet separated from me by at least two Paragons. They were keeping us sandwiched and separated, in case we made a break for it.
Anybody watching would think we were escorted prisoners rather than common allies.
"Lenzington." I jolted at the address as Baltic slowed his horse's pace to match mine. We trotted beside one another at a leisurely pace. "I'd like to speak with you."
My mouth opened and closed but no words came out as I struggled between what Cobbert told me to do and what was natural to do. Baltic, mistaking my struggle as permission to continue, said his piece.
"I wanted to do this yesterday, but since King_Cobb stonewalled me and has since shown no indication to do otherwise," Baltic raised his voice pointedly, but Cobbert rode on with his face forward, "I figured I'd try asking you. The leadership of this group has fallen to me. I need to know our capabilities and limits, so I'd like you to talk about your skills and talents. How do you fight? What can you do? Things like that."
The question had my mouth drying up. It was a perfectly reasonable request and I could see the benefit in sharing that information with allies, but as recent events showed, we were not allies. We were being watched constantly and escorted closely. Comparators, they were not even trying to hide it! Telling them my skills would be like detailing my strengths and weaknesses to an enemy. At once, I considered following Cobbert's advice to zip my lip and ignore the question altogether.
But… I knew I could not. Trust was low on both sides. It would be like that the whole journey unless someone extended the olive branch first. Another stonewall would get us nowhere. This alliance was like a trail of redstone; If I wanted the signal to go any further, I had to add a repeater.
"…I am an archer." I began neutrally before the words unraveled. "I can fire long-distance and short-range with pinpoint accuracy and precision. I struggle with Arc Shots, but I have since learned how to intercept arrows. My physical ability is low, but my intellect is high. While I have not yet graduated from the Redstone College, I have a comprehensive knowledge of redstone and can build several useful apparatuses. I also am an experienced airship skip—er, pilot." I corrected at the last.
Baltic nodded, writing some stuff down in a notebook he pulled out of his belt. "…Yes, we've seen your archery firsthand. Your piloting skills too. That's good. It's hard to find pilots. You wouldn't have known, but I was usually in charge of flying us around everywhere."
I did not know that. "Piloting falls under the Potion and Attrition unit?"
"It's a skill I chose to learn when we first got the Asmodeus. Outside of that, I don't know any more about redstone than the common Crafter." Baltic admitted. "We don't have a unit for redstone—actually we don't have any engineers in general."
"Because it's a useless craft for combat." Perry added brusquely, having invited himself into the conversation. "You can't fight with redstone, and even if you could, your opponent isn't just going to sit on his ass and let you set it up." I bristled at the blatant disrespect for redstone. The numbskull had no idea what the red dust was capable of.
"Archery is good though." Heather accepted at the back. "More combat skills like that would be good. How are you with a sword?"
"Er… I do not use one."
The silence was palpable and made me shrink into my saddle.
"You don't use a sword?" Perry asked skeptically.
"Ah… no… I… I use the bow exclusively."
"…For fuck's sake…" Dwight pressed the heel of his palm into his forehead. "How did you guys lose to these guys?"
"You weren't there, Dwight." Perry snarled before rounding on me. "And you! What do you mean you don't use a sword?"
"I-I mean I…" I looked between the irritated faces helplessly. "I lack the physical strength to properly wield one. All my fighting is done through a bow and arrow."
"That's stupid! What do you do when someone gets too close?" Perry demonstrated this by riding to my side and snagging my shirt collar with a fist. He pulled me close, nearly yanking me off Speckle's back. "There. I'm in your space. What do you do?"
I glanced around, bewildered. The man's arms were strong and bulging with muscle. Perry jostled me to attention and I tried to pry his hand off to no avail.
"See, this is what I'm talking about." Perry snarled with a violent shake that loosened my hold on the saddle. "If someone grapples you like this, you're dead. How are you going to fire a bow?" I reached for it and he let me, though he grabbed my other arm, preventing me from drawing and notching the arrow. Without my free hand, I could merely hold up a useless bow.
My gaze flickered to my empty bow and my trapped arm, my inability to act clear. Then, with a hefty tug, Perry dragged me off my horse and into the ground. My knee hit the packed dirt and I cried out in pain.
Cobbert and his horse were between Perry and I in an instant. He had his horse pace side to side as he glared at Perry.
"What? You got something to say?" Perry dared, spurring his horse so that he was face to face with Cobbert. "Go on. Spit it out."
Cobbert did not utter a word, but he also refused to back down as I picked myself up.
"I'm just demonstrating how useless a dead weight we got on our hands." Perry insulted. "Can't even use a sword. All the Paragons are trained in archery and swordsmanship. Even Baltic can manage that! It's because we need to be ready for anything. Close-range and long-range. Or do you think it's right lugging around a liability?"
Cobbert continued to glare coldly at Perry, the tension between the two rising noticeably. Baltic hurried to head it off.
"That's enough hard lessons, Perry." Baltic intervened. "Go back to the front of the formation."
"Why?" Dwight scoffed. "You don't think this guy's actually gonna try anything, do you?" He and Perry surrounded Cobbert. "He knows his place. And he knows what'll happen if he steps out of line—"
"I said back to formation." Baltic repeated sternly. Dwight and Perry lingered for a few more moments before spurring their horses away. Cobbert watched them go with that same cold stare. Meanwhile, I remounted Speckle.
"They're not wrong." Baltic was quick to defend. "In the Paragons, we learn all sorts of combat for various circumstances. Limiting yourself to a bow is dangerous as it makes you powerless in close-range situations."
I remembered AceOfJades saying something similar.
'As for you, Lenz, you have the same weaknesses as all archers. You suck at close range!'
"I would keep them from getting close." I swore, though Wing and Luis chuckled as if I said a clever redstone joke.
"There are fighters nimble enough to dodge arrows or strafe out of the way. And all the accuracy in the world won't make a difference if the opponent has a shield. Once they get close, you're finished." Baltic looked over my body before sighing. "You don't even have armor to defend yourself. We should fix that first chance we get and mine iron—"
"Ah, actually, I… cannot wear iron armor. Or diamond or gold. It is too heavy." Another stretch of silence, punctuated only by the slap of Dwight's palm impacting his forehead. "I-I can manage chainmail, though."
"Chainmail. The only armor without a Crafting recipe and therefore the toughest to get ahold of. Swell." Dwight muttered sarcastically.
"We'll keep you at the back." Baltic jotted down, slightly exasperated. It made me feel like a failure. Same way I felt when I traveled with those meatheads way back when. The Paragons already seemed to make up their mind about me. To them I was a burden.
But at least I conversed. Cobbert was still adamantly non-hyperverbal.
Wing and Luis' questions only drew attention to the fact.
"What about you, Cobb? What can you do?" One of them asked.
"Yeah. You showed off your skills fighting Carys." The other spoke. "You can definitely use a sword."
"Even if you did rip off her Warp Raid."
"Why even use a fishing rod with that?"
Cobbert just kept riding his horse. I could not see his face, nor could I tell what he was thinking.
"I've got an idea." Wing suggested. "Since we all got so much pent-up tension, how about we have a spar? That way, Cobb here can show off his skills without a peep and we can all beat the crap out of one another. What do you say?"
Cobbert did not say anything.
"I'm not hearing a no…"
"Wing, don't antagonize him." Baltic was quick to reprimand. Almost like he feared Cobbert would accept. "All the time you spent with Carys and you can't tell when someone wishes to be left alone?"
"He's right." Trenay added from the back with Heather. "Keep poking the sleeping bear and you'll get mauled."
Sleeping bear? Did they think Cobbert was that dangerous? Was that why he was surrounded by four Paragons? In case he made a move?
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he held his own against their leader. Carys was probably stronger than any one of them. The top dog. The Alpha wolf.
Maybe I could use that.
"Instead of having him fight, I would be more than happy to tell you about him." I offered, earning the intrigue of many of the Paragons.
"That'd be helpful, thank you." Baltic readied his quill and gestured for me to begin.
"The way Cobbert fights is unpredictable and unconventional." I started, observing Cobbert's ears perking at the front. "He employs a wide variety of tactics and items in his combat style. His arsenal is ever-expanding, and if any knowledge is dropped, he does not hesitate to pick it up. Even if the knowledge comes from a… less than reputable source." He could tell I was talking about the Herobrine books. "He possesses an eidetic memory which can recall any information gleaned, and he is unparalleled with a fishing rod."
"His greatest strength… would be how he never gives up. He perseveres through pain… and loss." His gaze fell to the ground as he recalled Erin. "He finds ways around enemies. Even Hackers. And he fights most tenaciously when it comes to protecting his friends. It may sound biased, but it is the combination of all these factors that makes him the strongest warrior here."
Perry snorted in derision, but the rest of the Paragons did not dare disrespect him. I internally smiled that my words had the desired effect. Even if they thought I was dead weight, at least I could make Cobbert out to be dangerous. Make the Paragons surrounding him think twice about their chances.
"Must be nice having your own hype-man." Wing smirked. "Guess we'll share a bit about ourselves. Me, Perry, Heather, and Luis are all part of Team Alpha, the Combat and Offensive unit. We're some of the guild's best fighters beneath the Team Leaders and Carys. Witige over there," he pointed to the man with wild green hair, blue eyes, and a scruffy beard, "is part of Baltic's Team Beta. They're the Potion and Attrition unit. They fulfill the support role. Dwight is from Team Gamma, Theft and Arms unit. And Trenay is from Team Delta, the Long Range Fighting and Intel Gathering Unit. This group has got a bit of everything."
"It is still shorthanded." I noted. "At least compared with the Crafters accompanying Carys. Was there a reason she only lent a single Team Leader to our side? Is this enough to handle the Eastern Division HQ?"
"It'll suffice." Baltic spoke, his face a mask of calm.
"Yeah, we got people looking out for us." Dwight chuckled with Wing as if sharing an inside joke before Luis elbowed them in the side. One of them opened their mouth to yelp and an earsplitting scream came out. Their eyes widened and everyone went on high alert, tracking where the feminine scream had originated from.
With my exceptional eyesight, I spotted the trouble a mile away. A raised hill that opened into a cave. A group of five Crafters were desperately fighting off a pack of Mobs spilling out of it. The shade from the oak trees was keeping the monsters from catching fire, and the Crafters were screaming for help.
"Over there!" I pointed my horse in the direction and drew out my bow. "Mobs are attacking those Crafters. We have to hurry."
"Why?"
My eagerness to intervene jerked to a stop at the simple question coming from Luis. I swung around, confused.
"Because—what do you mean why? They need help!"
"He's asking why we should stick our neck out for strangers." Perry explained with folded arms. "We don't owe them anything. We don't know them and they don't know us. So why should we waste our resources trying to save them?"
"Because…" Comparators, did I really have to explain it!? "Crafters are in peril! We have to rescue them!"
"We don't have to do anything." Dwight frowned. "They're not our problem. Plus, if they can't handle a couple of worthless Mobs, they're not Paragon material."
"I am not talking about recruiting them!" I exclaimed indignantly, another cry coming from the Crafters in danger. "We save them because it is the right thing to do! We have the power to defend the weak! What more reason do you need?"
"And I suppose we're just going to be doing this out of the goodness of our heart, without asking for anything in return?" Dwight muttered dryly. "Yeah, no thanks. I'm not wasting durability on five Newbs."
I shook with frustration as even Baltic seemed to side with the group. "Any point of conflict is a risk to the lives I'm tasked with. We could lose the horses if we're not careful. Also, we're supposed to be covertly traveling. How are we expected to do that if we help every endangered Crafter on the way to Oak Docks?"
"Let them fight their own battles, same as us." Perry growled at the last. "They'll be stronger for it."
"If they survive! Cobbert, help me out. Together we should be—"
"No."
My words caught as Cobbert uttered his first word since we started the journey… and it was in opposition to saving innocent Crafters. I could not believe my ears.
"We don't know anything about this group." He said lowly. "Are they really in trouble? For all we know, this could be staged. An elaborate trap to get unsuspecting idiots with bleeding hearts to swoop in and save the day." That disturbing expression was on his face again. "They could be cultists, hoping to be 'rescued' on the pretext of infiltrating our group and stabbing us in the back! I won't have it! Not again!"
Understanding what he meant was one thing. Allowing it was another, and completely out of the question.
I gritted my teeth and spurred my horse towards the imperiled Crafters. Baltic shouted something in protest, but I was already pulling my Infinity bow back and firing. My arrows weaved through the trees and sunk into the Mobs' flesh. With a bow like this, I did not have to worry about running out of arrows, just durability.
I targeted the Spiders, Skeletons, and Creepers, taking care not to hit one of the endangered Crafters in the process. When I burst from the trees, they all pointed to me, begging for help. One of the Crafters had an injured leg and had to be dragged by two others. They could not run away. The other two at the front were swinging stone swords wildly. They were so inexperienced they had base stone and no armor. Maybe that was why they went into the cave. To mine.
As I struggled to keep all the Mobs in perspective, there was a rush of movement behind. Nine horses galloped onto the scene, their riders surrounding the mouth of the cave before they leapt into the fray.
Trenay was at the back, same as me, as we sniped the Mobs from afar. Baltic and Witige threw down Splash Potions of Strength for Perry, Luis, Wing, Heather, and Dwight before those five went to work with diamond and iron swords. Cobbert lashed out with his Sweeping Edge blade, dispatching three Mobs at a time with its heightened range.
Within a matter of minutes, the tide of Mobs was ended, and the mouth of the cave lit up with torches to keep it that way. The ground was covered with the drops of our foes and the EXP was distributed evenly… barring the archers and alchemists who stood back. Cobbert poked around the gear, occasionally picking something up and sliding it into his backpack when nobody else was watching.
Once it was done, Baltic tended to the injured of the five Crafters who were tripping over themselves thanking us for saving them.
"I thought I was going to die." One of the women bawled in relief. "Oh, bless you…"
"We spawned about two weeks ago." One of them explained. "We heard about a Kingdom where we could be safe. Then we saw what was left of Ringwood." The group of five paled. "We opted to find another place. Someone had the bright idea to mine for iron. We stumbled upon some Mobs, and, well, the rest you can guess."
"You know the next nearest settlement?" One of them asked Baltic.
"That'd be Ravenna Village. North of here." The aged alchemist explained, pointing in the direction. "If you go now, you should make it by nightfall."
"Thanks." One of them replied sheepishly. "Hey, I know we just met, but are you heading that way? Because if more of those monsters show up, we could use the help—"
"Get out of here." Cobbert spoke dangerously, startling the five Newbs. "We're not going with you, so start walking and don't come back."
"I… but… we don't mean to be rude…"
"We just… could you at least spare us some food? We're very hungry—"
"LEAVE!" Cobbert shouted, viciously lashing out with one arm and scaring the five Crafters into scampering off. His eyes were furious and unforgiving as he watched them disappear into the trees. Only then did he relax.
"That's one way to get rid of tag-alongs." Wing smirked, nodding in approval of Cobbert's actions. "You should be vocal more often." He ignored Wing and walked the distance back to his horse. "Aaaand he's snubbing us again. Wonderful."
"If we're done wasting our time here?" Dwight grumbled, mounting his horse. "Didn't even get a level off those things."
"We shouldn't have wasted our potions like that." Witige advised.
"I can make more." Baltic assured before he spared me a glance.
I was still watching Cobbert as he mounted his horse as black as night, his expression sullen. And pained. He was likely remembering the time he thought he saved AceOfJades from Mobs. Or maybe he was thinking of the time he thought he saved her from cultists disguised as thugs. Either way, Cobbert's trust in strangers was at an all time low for him to react like that. Indifference and distrust, followed by furious rejection.
Where was the Cobbert who selflessly threw himself into a fight to protect the weak?
"He's as cold as Carys is." Baltic muttered to himself. I spared a glance and saw that the aged alchemist was looking at Cobbert, same as me.
"He is not like that woman." I defended. "He is just… dealing with a lot."
"He's clearly gone through some stuff, Lenzington. I won't deny that." Baltic agreed. "But that doesn't excuse this sullen silent treatment. Nor will it excuse any bouts of violence. Keep him under control." He said it like he fully expected Cobbert to snap and kill everyone. "I respect that he's dangerous, so long as he isn't a danger to the rest of us."
And with that, the aged alchemist mounted his steed and trotted after the group. I slowly went to Speckle and followed, my head hanging somberly.
[Cobb]
Before, my mental hub had been the Asmodeus, with its many doors and its perpetual flight in a realm as black as the Void.
Now, my mental hub was more like a castle. An impregnable fortress. Every entrance and exit was sealed up tight. A moat of lava surrounded it and there was no drawbridge to be lowered down. Nobody could get in or out. Ever.
And that's the way it always should have been.
I could sit in the central chamber, surrounded by the seven doors that led to the deepest parts of my self. Only one door was chained shut with so many padlocks it was overkill.
Heart.
Opening that door was forbidden. Reclaiming that organ was suicide. It had to be for all the pain it held. All the pain it inflicted whenever I attempted for it. Part of that pain would leak out whenever I thought of her before I squashed it back behind the door, wishing I could forget.
But with an eidetic memory, how could I forget?
All I could do was close off my little World from the outside. It had suffered a great fracture because I was too eager to trust. Too eager to open my heart to people, only for them to break it. And it cost me another precious friend.
No more trust. Five people were all that mattered. Floyd. Wynn. Lenz. Soul. Noman. Only those five mattered. Only those five would ever matter. Protected in a fortress of stone.
And no matter how hard they tried, the Paragons would never be allowed inside.
[Lenz]
We rode the rest of the day out mostly in silence. Or, at least, Cobbert and I rode it out in silence while the Paragons engaged in trivial chatter. Night fell before long and Baltic slowed us to a halt, selecting our campsite.
"We'll camp here the night." He dismounted his horse and started giving orders. "Heather. Dwight. You guys do a quick sweep and set up torches so no Mobs spawn. The rest of you, set up whatever shelter you want. Just know you'll be dismantling whatever you lay down. We don't want anyone tracking us."
There was a smattering of assent as the Paragons moved to set up their nightly dwellings. Witige put down a few fence posts off to the side and lent leads for the Paragons to tie up their horses. He only gave Cobbert and I leads as an afterthought, but we tied up Midnight and Speckle without comment.
For some reason, I saw Baltic looking over a map. My first thought was that it was a synced map like the ones we had between the other Beginners. His was likely linked with Carys', tracking her movements west. However, I was confused when he started throwing it down on the ground and picking it up over and over. Sometimes he would change up the speed at which he picked up the map, but it was very strange to look at it. I could not determine what he was doing before he finished and stowed the map away.
Some of the Paragons set up elaborate nightly dwellings. Heather and Trenay had tents of white wool set up while Witige made a cozy little wooden house with fence post windows.
Cobbert and I merely laid out our beds. Far from the other Paragons.
They noticed.
"Hey!" Perry shouted, having set up his own bed. "You know it's easier keeping track of people when they're closer together. Bring those beds over here." He demanded.
Cobbert ignored him, instead rifling through his backpack and nibbling on some steak.
Perry looked ready to march over and force the issue, but Baltic reached out and stopped him, shaking his head and muttering something. Perry bit back a growl and furiously threw himself into bed, turning his back to us.
Maybe the sleep would do everybody some good. Cobbert could certainly use it given the dark circles under his eyes and the tinge of red that hinted at exhaustion.
He was just finishing his steak when a foreign cry sounded. Paragons and Beginners all stopped what they were doing and armed themselves as a quartet of flying Mobs appeared in the sky. It was those Phantoms Nowhere talked about. And they were divebombing towards Cobbert.
On instinct, I angled my bow and fired at the Phantoms. The ones I hit recoiled and flew back up, but the others continued to divebomb Cobbert. Once they were close, Cobb took out his Sweeping Edge blade and swung at them, knocking them back into the sky with a pained hiss.
"What are those things?" Dwight asked while Trenay shot one out of the sky.
"Have you not seen them?" I asked in between shots. "They are from the latest Bounty Day. Phantoms."
"Phantoms?" Baltic asked. "Why are they only going for King_Cobb?"
I spared a glance and saw he was right. The gliding Mobs would flap their wings and circle overhead, leaving small particles of smoke in their wake, but they would only ever divebomb Cobbert, leaving the rest of us alone.
They were slippery too. The others had trouble sniping them when they could swim through the sky so gracefully or twist and narrow their bodies when they divebombed. But with my exceptional skills, I hit my target every time. They also did not do much damage. The one time they slipped past Cobbert's guard and bit him, they did only half-a-Heart of damage. Then, Cobbert killed it.
In no time at all, the four Phantoms were dealt with, leaving behind a paltry amount of EXP and Phantom Membranes. Baltic picked them up, curiously rubbing his fingers along them and muttering about 'potion ingredients'.
I actually liked fighting Phantoms since they did so little damage AND because I could actually get their EXP. They died above me, so their EXP fell down. It was the one Mob I could fight at a distance and claim the EXP afterward. Killing those four had gotten my EXP from 15 to 16.
However, them aiming for Cobbert was concerning. They exclusively swooped towards him. Why? He did not seem bothered, seeing it as another regular instance.
And it was a regular instance. After the first Phantom attack, when everyone settled down for the night and shifts were organized, Cobbert still refused to sleep. I tried to nod off, but another shriek had my eyes snapping open to watch Phantoms circling the sky.
They divebombed Cobbert again.
The Paragons on watch roused the others awake and helped to deal with the Mobs—more annoying pests than dangerous—but after it was over, Baltic walked up to Cobbert with a serious expression.
"Do you know why those things keep targeting you alone?"
Cobbert did not reply.
"Hey, fuckwit!" Perry bristled, marching over. "He just asked you a question, are you gonna answer?"
Cobbert did not reply. He leaned against a tree, his gaze to the ground.
The other Paragons were just about to get back to the sweet embrace of sleep when Baltic stopped them. "Hold on. I want to see if more come out."
The Paragons gave a collective groan, but did as ordered, staying up and watching the skies for any more Phantoms. Around midnight, they returned. I actually saw them spawn in the darkness above us. Like they just materialized from the night. Three this time.
And, of course, they went for Cobbert.
"Alright, what the hell?" Wing grimaced after stomping the final Phantom underfoot. "They just keep going for Cobb. Does he have Phantom feed in his pockets or something?"
"It's as I feared. The torches are useless." Baltic noted, his gaze going to the night sky. "Before, Mobs would only spawn on solid ground, so we could prevent it by laying down torches. We can't do that with the sky. They'll keep spawning and there's nothing we can do about it."
"But why are they only targeting Cobbert?" I asked aloud. The fisherman shrugged tiredly, clearly just as baffled. It did not convince all the Paragons, however.
"Are you hiding something?" Dwight accused. "Are you luring those things here so we can't get any sleep?"
"I need my sleep." Heather growled uncharacteristically, her expression murder.
"King_Cobb." Baltic addressed, walking right up to Cobbert with a scowl and a frown in place. "You might think it beneath you to have a conversation with me, but it's trying my patience. If you know why this is happening, you need to tell me so that we can fix it and my people can get some well-deserved sleep. So answer me! Do you know why they're targeting you?"
I dared to hope that Cobbert would answer, but the fisherman had a distant look on his face, his gaze directed elsewhere. Off to the side, the Paragons' jaws tightened, the tension of the campsite rising noticeably.
It reached a crescendo when Perry seized Cobbert's hoodie and dragged him down.
"Speak when spoken to!" He screamed, spit flying and veins bulging at his neck. Cobbert's legs went slack and his flat emerald orbs looked through Perry's incensed face like he did not exist. "WELL!?"
"Let him go, Perry." Luis said. "He's a petulant child not getting his way. If he wants to keep to the old silent treatment, I say let him."
"He's not worth the effort." Dwight agreed. "If he doesn't want to share anything, he can deal with the Phantoms somewhere else on his own. That way the rest of us can get some shut-eye."
"King_Cobb?" Baltic asked, the aged man glaring at him. "Are you going to tell us anything?"
He said nothing.
Baltic sighed angrily. "Fine. Grab your bed and camp out somewhere else. The Phantoms will follow. Being uncooperative with us is a bad idea, King_Cobb. How you gathered any members for your guild with a personality like that is a mystery to me. So go. See where being cold and detached gets you."
Perry tossed him to the ground and Cobbert landed limply, his hair covering his eyes as the Paragons went back to their beds. After a while, Cobbert picked himself up and retrieved his bed, taking it and heading off into the woods.
Naturally, I picked up my bed and went with him. Nobody stopped me. They were not concerned that we might try to run away. The last thing I saw was Baltic casting a suspicious glare.
Following Cobbert, I found him leaning against a tree. A hole had been dug out in the dirt and filled with his bucket of lava, illuminating the area and warming him from the night's chill. He was also pouring over his map, keeping vigilant on the Beginners elsewhere. He looked up before I could announce myself.
"Saw you coming." He said with a wave of his map. Away from the Paragons, he could speak freely.
"Is everyone still okay?" I asked, walking over.
"As far as I can tell." He traced the three blips that were Floyd, Soul, and Nowhere, then narrowed his eyes at Ciro's blip. "Really wish Ciro wasn't on this."
"He did let me go." I acknowledged, siting down beside Cobbert. "When we fought in Jolin, he could have killed me."
"A lot of people could have killed me but didn't. That doesn't make us friends." He shot back. "I don't care that he helped fight a Wither, Noman shouldn't have trusted him with a map. That guy has no place in the Beginners."
"He helped us look for you, you know." I pointed out. "That week you were missing. Just where were you, anyway?"
"So now he's your new best friend? Is that it?" Cobbert glared.
"Cobbert." I said, lifting my tinted glasses and looking at him eye to eye. "It is just us here."
His eyebrows slowly lifted, and he let out a harsh sigh. Like a bunch of trapped gas had been released. His shoulders slackened and the creases on his skin smoothed over as he calmed down.
"Yeah. You're right. Sorry." He leaned back, closing his eyes. "God, those guys piss me off."
"Well what did you expect by ignoring them all the time?"
"I expected them to deal with it. Aren't they trained commandos or something? Have they never been ignored in their life before or are they just attention seekers?"
"I really thought it would come to blows. Especially with Perry."
"Eh, let him slug me. It'll make ignoring him more of a challenge. And an insult." He looked proud of that fact and I just shook my head in exasperation. "…I really don't know why those Phantoms are after me."
"I thought not." I sighed, even as a new quartet of Phantoms emerged from the darkness overhead and swooped down. I shot them with my Infinity bow with little effort. "It is too bad they emerged after Herobrine wrote his Mob books. I bet he would have information on why they keep targeting you."
As I shot the two Phantoms dead and their EXP flowed into my arm, I was about ready to kill the third when Cobbert shot up and shouted.
"Wait!"
My shot went wide and the Phantom slipped past, biting Cobbert before swooping back into the sky.
"Do not do that!" I reprimanded while Cobbert took off his armor. "What are you doing?"
"Since these things aren't stopping anytime soon, I say we make the best of it." He smirked, his movements animated as he faced the Phantoms with bare fists. "You haven't shot either of those ones, right?"
"Not yet, no."
"Then we can test how much Health they got." He jumped in place as the Mobs circled. "Let's make our own Mob entry for them."
"…Like Herobrine did?" I asked, taken aback.
"Yeah, why not? New Mobs keep spawning in and nobody knows what to do with them." He reasoned with an eager grin. It was the most contented I had seen him since AceOfJades left. "Let's make our own Mob book. Then, we'll publish it and make billions!"
"Feel like you are missing a few steps there." I laughed, missing this side of Cobbert. Oh well. It looked like neither of us would be getting any sleep tonight. Not like we could with the Phantoms pestering him. "Alright, we will also check how much damage they do to an unarmored Crafter. Perhaps we can even discover the secret behind why they keep targeting you."
"Sounds like a plan. Got a book and quill?"
We spent the night fighting Phantoms, verifying their Health and damage and spawning more in while the Paragons slumbered in peace elsewhere. I felt pleased at Cobbert's seemingly lifted spirits and also that I was steadily gaining EXP from hunting the gliding Mobs. Before long, my EXP level went to 17 and I felt a bit stronger for it. Cobbert's refusal to acknowledge the others was still a concern, but maybe he just needed time to get used to them.
The day may have started out with dread, but we survived it and so had the others if the maps were to be believed. That had to mean something.
[Baltic]
When it was time for my watch, I excused myself and walked off into the woods to follow King_Cobb and Lenzington. Z7 and her assassins were likely keeping an eye on the two, but I still wanted to see what they were up to myself. I shed my armor and drank deeply from a Potion of Invisibility, vanishing from sight.
Tracking where they went, I found them around a hole of lava. When I got close enough to hear what they were saying, I found…
…That they were having a normal conversation.
I leaned back, baffled, as the fisherman who spent the whole day silently ignoring us gushed forth with engaging questions and genuine emotion. He spoke. He listened. He was like a whole other person from the cold and detached man who left our campsite a few moments ago.
Instead, he was animated, eager to speak his mind, and even more eager to solve the problem of why the Phantoms were targeting him in an energetic way. He took off his armor and took playful jabs at the Mobs as they divebombed. He was playful! It was like watching an indifferent cat transform into a gamboling puppy. The difference was like night and day.
He talked a mile a minute, bantering back and forth with Lenzington. It was as if he'd been a dam, holding back a surge of expression only to let it all go when he thought it was just him and his friend. That's right. Friend. Not servant or guildmember. He and Lenzington were friends. He was friends with all the Beginners, and in the stress of today, I somehow forgot that. I somehow forgot the fire that burned in the young man's eyes when he fought for them back at Cloud Castle.
That's why his guild fought with him. That's how they joined hands. Not because of his ruthless strength, like Carys, but because he had charisma. The cold, detached, indifferent King_Cobb was just a façade. Here he was, letting his hair down and dropping his guard. This was Cobb at his most comfortable.
He wasn't a rough loner type. Or he was, but only around the Paragons. Only around people he didn't trust. I realized then, with a pang, how unfair I'd been with him. How unfair the Paragons had been with him. Anyone would be distrustful following the betrayal he faced with that Lieutenant, Jade. His apathy towards us was just his way of keeping people out. Same with the way he snapped at those Crafters earlier.
It was then I made the most startling comparison of all. When he was apathetic and jaded, he was like Carys. But when he was animated and open—when he was just himself…
"He's… just like Carys was."
Inventory (Cobb): 1 Iron Helmet, 1 Leather Tunic [Dyed Green], 1 Diamond Leggings [Projectile Protection IV], 1 Iron Boots, 1 Fishing Rod {Backlash} [Knockback II, Luck of the Sea III, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Sword [Sweeping Edge III], 1 Banner {Beginners}, 64 Cobblestone, 64 Sand, 64 Sand, 1 Glass, 62 Glass Bottles, 24 Cobblestone, 1 Stone Pickaxe, 1 Bed, 1 Furnace, 18 Flint, 12 Jungle Wood Logs, 32 Jungle Wood Planks, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Clock, 1 Water Bucket, 1 Lava Bucket, 1 Milk Bucket, 16 Ender Pearls, 16 Ender Pearls, 64 Snowballs, 8 Ender Chests, 8 Obsidian, 12 Gunpowder, 64 Steak, 61 Steak, 15 Rotten Flesh, 1 Book {How to Kill Stuff for Numb Nuts}, 1 Book {Advanced Mob-Slaying}, 1 Book {Mobs of the Nether}, 1 Map {Minecraftia}, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Ringwood Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Zeppil Entry Pass}
[EXP: 30]
Midnight the Horse
Inventory (Lenz): 1 Leather Boots [Dyed Brown, Curse of Binding I, Unbreaking III] {Weak}, 1 Shears, 1 Lever, 9 Redstone Torches, 1 Bed, 8 Redstone Repeaters, 3 Redstone Comparators, 18 Blocks of Redstone, 2 Hoppers, 3 Pistons, 2 Sticky Pistons, 48 Cobblestone, 9 Phantom Membranes, 1 Compass, 25 Gunpowder, 1 Bow, 1 Bow [Infinity], 64 Arrows, 11 Jungle Wood Planks, 1 Crafting Table, 7 Ender Pearls, 64 Steak, 20 Steak, 1 Map {Minecraftia}, 1 Book {Airship Piloting 101}, 1 Book {Notebook}, 1 Book {How to Kill Stuff for Numb Nuts}, 1 Book {Advanced Mob-Slaying}, 1 Book {Mobs of the Nether}, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Daymonte Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Ringwood Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Zeppil Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Akasha Entry Pass}
[EXP: 17]
Speckle the Horse
AN: Can you guess why the Phantoms are targeting Cobb? Probably, since you have the advantage of the Minecraft wiki and Cobb doesn't.
As a side note, did you know Tums taste pretty damn good? Who wouldda thunk it?
FAV. FOLLOW. REVIEW. PM. FORUM. DISCORD. TUMS.