The Minecraft Story: The Beginning: Chapter 44
The pain was excruciating, however, Thomas had no regrets. He managed to stop the pigmen from stabbing Zacharius by putting his hand in the way. The blades cut straight through his left hand and poked out the other side. The tips sat no more than an inch away from Zacharius's face; so close, he could smell the blood encrusted gold.
The pigmen smiled at them. This was the first time Thomas had directly witnessed a pigman, and they were just as sadistic as the knights described them. And now, he was unsure of what his next course of action was. The pigmen would pull their swords out and go for another strike. He was unsure if he could pull his sword in time to stop them. Zacharius had proven his incompetence in a fight and he could already feel them starting to pull. Before Thomas could remove his hands, another stream of blood flew into his and Zacharius's faces. The pigman on the right had been cut through the throat.
Suddenly, the pigman on the left ripped his sword out and was about to swing before an iron sword thrusted out of his chest. As the two pigmen fell to the ground, he finally saw who their saviors were. Marcus had killed the pigmen on the left and Franz had killed the one on the right.
Thomas breathed a huge sigh of relief, "Ooooooh man, thank you guys."
"No problem, now keep riding. Get to that bridge. We're going to hang back. If any more show up in the center of the path, fall back to us. Go!" Marcus responded.
Running to the rest of the knights, Marcus could see the chaos. The knights had been bogged down by the hoglins. Several horses had their skulls crushed and some were being eaten by the hoglins. Pigmen had jumped off and were fighting knights who'd fallen off their horses.
Notch was fighting as hard as he could. He was being attacked by a hoglin. He managed to cut the pigman in half and was now taking on the hoglin. It charged and knocked Notch onto his back. It opened its slimy and bloody jaws. Notch barely managed to grab the jaw and hold it open while his swords sat to his sides.
The jaws of the hoglin were slippery, but he maintained his grip. The hoglin tried to shake its head from side to side, but Notch kept the jaws open. However, he had to get his swords to kill this monster. He placed his feet on the lower jaw and propped it open with his body. The hoglin was still swinging him around. He could see his sword fly past him over and over. He wasn't sure how long he could hold the jaws open with one arm, so he had to time it right.
Notch counted in his head how long it took before he saw his sword again. When he got the timing right he braced himself. One…two…THREE. With one swift motion, he grabbed his sword and stabbed it into the hoglins throat. It screamed as the back of its throat was set ablaze. Notch jumped out of the mouth and ran to grab his other sword. The hoglin charged again, but this time, Notch jumped over the beast. When he landed on its back, he plunged the swords into the hoglins skull. It let out one more pathetic squeal before it fell to the ground.
Notch stood there for a moment, staring at his kill. The fighting had blown his hood off from his black cloak. He readjusted it to hide his face. Once his hood was back on, he turned around to see Marcus and Franz fighting a group of pigmen.
"Everyone keep riding forward!" Marcus yelled as he killed another pigman, "We don't have time to stop! Get to the bridge before more show up!"
The knights who still had horses booked it for the bridge. The knights who'd lost theirs desperately tried to find a horse. These horses had not been trained for war and were going crazy with fear. One southerner was killed when their horse kicked them in the chest. Marcus noticed a hoglin charging at him. He braced for impact, but then Notch ran from the side. Marcus watched as Notch jumped up and turned into a flaming golden circle and he cut off the hoglin's head from the air. The pigman on top was quickly decapitated soon after.
"You heard the man!" Notch yelled, "Find a horse and run!"
Marcus helped a knight find a horse and get on. Notch and Franz did the same for the knights who remained. Soon, everyone had managed to find a horse and were riding away. Marcus looked back and saw the horde of pigmen and hoglins chasing after them. Some fired crossbows at them, luckily, they were horrible shots. It wouldn't be too long before they could see the bridge in the distance. Marcus let out a sigh of relief when he saw Thomas, Zacharius, and all the other knights who rode ahead. They had prepared some makeshift barricades out of fallen trees and prepared for the pigmen. They left just enough room at the center for them to ride through.
We're almost out of this. Marcus thought. This will be over soon and we'll be at Redwater by tomorrow morning.
Just as Marcus was about to cross the bridge, a hoglin appeared from the right. It was close, too close. Marcus raised his sword ready for a fight, when he realized that the pigman on top was holding something. It was large and green. It was a creeper. The pigman was holding a creeper.
Oh fuck. Marcus thought as the creeper was thrown directly at him. It smashed into him, all the air in his lungs was gone. He could only get a small gasp out before he fell into the water. He opened his eyes and frantically searched for the creeper. It was right next to him and was about to explode.
Shit! Shit! Shit! Marcus could see the white outlines around the creeper. I don't have any time to react! It's going to explode! I'm going to die!
BOOM!
Marcus was sent flying to the side. The water barely cushioned him as he hit his head on a rock. His head was spinning, but he soon realized that he wasn't dead. He looked at where the creeper had blown up and all he saw was water.
The water. He thought. The water stopped the explosion from killing me. I'm ok-
Suddenly, a hand grabbed Marcus from below and started pulling him deeper into the water. He looked down and saw it was a zombie. However, this zombie was different. Instead of green skin, this one had dark blue skin. Its eyes were light blue instead of black like other zombies. Marcus wasn't sure what was wrong with this zombie, all he knew was that it was pulling him down fast and he was running out of air.
Marcus kicked as hard as he could. His sword was lost when the creeper hit him. The zombie persisted in pulling him down. As he was pulled down further, he was more rocks to the side. The same rocks he'd hit his head on. He had an idea. Instead of kicking, he swung the zombie towards the rocks. And then with one good kick, he crushed the zombie's skull in between his foot and rocks. The head felt squishy whenever he kicked it. It felt as if it was full of water rather than brains.
Now that he was free, he swam to the surface. The zombie had pulled him deep into the river and he was running out of air even quicker now. He could feel his throat closing up and his lungs collapsing. His vision was starting to turn fuzzy and black. His eyes slowly began to close.
Marcus was about to give up when a shadowy figure appeared from above the surface. It quickly moved toward him. He gave a pathetic attempt to put his arms up to prepare for an attack, but the creature grabbed him. Not again. He thought as he was yanked to the surface.
Marcus was now on his hands and knees. He looked up and saw the creature thrusting its hand down towards him. He didn't have the strength to fight back and was prepared to die. But instead of being decapitated, a hand patted on his back.
This unleashed a flurry of coughing as a voice told him, "It's okay, we're safe now. Save your strength brother. Let them take care of the rest."
Marcus looked up and saw several dead pigmen and hoglins. At first, Marcus thought his knights had killed them, until he noticed they were killed with arrows. However, Notch was fighting the last hoglin. The beast charged and Notch quickly stepped to the side. He made one big cut across the creature's eye which gave him time to jump onto the hoglin. He kicked off the hoglin and flipped the creature onto its side, exposing the belly. Notch stabbed the creature in the heart and then cut the hoglin sideways, spilling its guts in a fiery inferno.
"Here," Franz said, "you dropped this." It was his sword. Marcus happily took it back and stared back at the carnage.
"Who did this?" Marcus asked.
"They did," Franz pointed.
A large group of southern soldiers were standing in the middle of the bridge with their crossbows still aimed at the dead pigmen. However, he also noticed the soldiers in the back were pointing their crossbows at his knights.