The Minecraft Story: The Beginning: Chapter 58
The horses bellowed as they arrived. The large, dark cave appeared cold and uninviting. A sense of dread washed over the Miter Knights. Soon, they would face off against the greatest evil the world had ever faced. Soon, they would face off against Herobrine.
"Our main objective is to find the Nether Portal!" yelled Notch, "I have diamond pickaxes ready to go when we find it! We will find the portal and we will destroy it! If you see Herobrine, do not engage! If you see him, alert me immediately and I will deal with him!"
"There are likely to be monsters hiding in the cave!" yelled Franz, "Keep a tight formation, I want everyone to resume a phalanx position! I want eyes watching every inch of that cave!"
"Remember what we are fighting for! We can stop all of this before the end of the night! Today, you will fight to save the world! Are we ready!" yelled Notch.
"Yes sirs!" the knights yelled in unison.
"Good, take it slow, no need to rush," said Franz.
Franz and Notch led the front of the knights. They barricaded themselves in a circle of shields as they progressed through the cave. Every step, anxiety grew. The darkness slowly overtook them and a few knights lit some torches.
Every step deeper into the cave brought more anxiety as the path ahead became darker and darker. Eventually, no light remained except for the dimly lit torches.
Their footsteps and breathing echoed through the cave. Every rock that was accidentally kicked felt a beacon had exposed their position. Franz looked back to see no light remained behind them either. They were completely surrounded by the dark.
Shit. Franz thought. This is driving me out of my mind. At any moment something could appear. At any moment…he could appear.
Thoughts of seeing white glowing eyes in the distance caused Franz to begin to shake. His body was trembling and he started to feel weak. As he held his shield, he could hear it begin to clatter with the other shields. A mix of embarrassment and fear washed over him. Suddenly, he felt a hand placed on his shoulder. He turned to see it was Notch.
Notch smiled and tightened his hand slightly. He could see it in his eyes. Notch was telling him everything was going to be okay. This helped calm Franz's nerves a bit, but his stomach continued to churn.
This is for Marcus and for the world. Franz thought.
Eventually, they began to hear noises. The cave began to echo with sounds of zombies, spiders, and skeletons. Although, it made it hard to pinpoint where the sounds were coming from.
Groooooooaaaaaannnnn!
Hhhhhssssssssssssssssss!
Rattle! Rattle! Rattle!
For an hour, the knights slowly traveled downward in a straight, seemingly unending tunnel. Eventually, they began to see light at the end of the tunnel. The knights braced themselves, believing Herobrine was at the end, waiting for them.
When they exited the tunnel, they found themselves at the bottom of a large chasm. The light source turned out to be a lava waterfall coming from near the top. A pool of lava sat near the center of the chasm. Several tunnels appeared to jut outside. They looked back at their tunnel, one out of dozens.
"Where do we go now?" a knight asked.
"Are you sure this was the right cave?" asked another knight.
Notch shushed them, "Yeah, I'm positive this is the cave. His instructions were very thorough."
Suddenly, a zombie fell in front of the knights. Blood sprayed everywhere as it landed. The knights jumped in surprise. They began to get restless.
Notch shushed them again, "No no no, it's okay. It just fell from one of the higher up tunnels. Look."
They looked just in time to see the creeper falling down, right for their center.
"Watch out!" a knight yelled. Everyone scattered and ran from the center.
BOOM!
The creeper exploded and rocks were sent flying. Franz held up his shield to protect himself from the debris. The rocks clanked against the solid shield.
"Is everyone alright," Franz asked. He looked around and saw nobody was injured.
Franz breathed a sigh of relief. Oh man, that could've been bad.
"There's more coming!" another knight yelled.
"They're coming out of the tunnels!"
"We're being surrounded!"
Franz looked around and everywhere he saw, there were monsters beginning to spew from the tunnels.
"Get back in formation!" Franz yelled, "Shields up!"
The mobs hit hard. Zombies banged against the sides. Spiders attempted to jump over the shields. Arrows rained down. Creepers tried to push past the mobs.
The shields held up strong. The knights took their chances to stab through the cracks and take out the mobs. Creepers were heavily prioritized. Any that got to close were killed immediately. They slowly moved to keep the corpses from pinning them down.
A zombie tried to grab Franz, but he quickly stabbed it through the cracks. A spider tried to jump over, but Notch managed to stab in the abdomen.
"Where do we go, Notch?" Franz asked.
"I'm looking, but I don't see anything," Notch answered.
Notch desperately searched for any sign of his brother. Everywhere he looked, he found nothing but zombies, skeletons, spiders, and pigmen. Pigmen? Notch thought. A pigman stood beneath a tunnel, watching them. When it noticed it had been spotted, it ran back into the tunnel.
"Pigman, over there!" Notch yelled. The tunnel wasn't too far from the knights, but there were still several mobs blocking their way.
"Push through to the tunnel!" Franz ordered, "Notch, take up the vanguard!"
Notch made his way to the side closest to the tunnel and began to lead the charge. Mobs began flying to the side. Their mangled corpses burned in the air. As they got closer to the tunnel, the mobs began to slow down.
They no longer spewed out of the other tunnels. Most of the ones who'd attacked now lay dead on the hard, rocky ground. When they got to the tunnel, Notch began to break the rocks above the tunnel entrance. The rocks began to fall from the top and eventually, the tunnel was blocked.
"There, now the mobs can't get in," said Notch, "and we can simply break them again when we leave. Let's go."
The knights continued through the tunnel, still not wanting to rush. Their swords and armor were ready for an attack.
Although, as they walked, Franz noticed something about the tunnel. It was different from the first one. This one had small cracks in its sides and in the ceiling, while the other was completely surrounded by rocks.
That's odd. Franz thought.
Suddenly, a scream echoed through the tunnel. It was deafening and bloodcurdling, and it was coming from right behind Franz. He turned around to see a knight being dragged inside one of the cracks. His torso was already completely inside and his legs kicked and thrashed.
A knight tried to help him, but he was pulled completely into the crack before the knight could reach him. There was another scream and Franz turned to see another knight being pulled up in a ceiling crack.
Franz rushed and grabbed the knight by his legs. Two other knights grabbed and began to pull down. They tugged with all their strength, but whatever was on the other side was extremely strong. Franz looked up and saw a massive spider rushing downward towards him.
"Shit!" Franz yelled as he accidentally let go in surprise. The other knights also released their grip and the knight and the spider were sucked up into the crack.
"Spiders!" Franz screamed as he stared into another crack to find red eyes staring back at him, "There's spiders in the cracks, stay away from them!"
"Run for it!" a knight yelled as spiders began to leap out from the cracks.
Everyone began to run. Another knight in the back was pounced on by five spiders. Franz could hear the sickening sounds of bones breaking and flesh being torn off as he ran.
As they ran, two more knights were suddenly jerked into the cracks without warning. A knight in the back met a similar fate as he was dogpiled by several spiders. The screams pierced through the tunnel.
A spider attempted to jump on Franz, but he managed to slice its head off before it could reach him. He could also see several spiders being cut in half as Notch tore through them. Franz saw a spider pounce on a knight's back. He managed to stab the spider before it could bite the knight.
Some knights dropped their torches as they ran, making it harder to see what was in front of them, causing another knight to trip. Notch was about to help him up, when he was suddenly swept away into a crack near the floor.
"Damnit!" Notch yelled as he continued running, "There's gotta be an end soon!"
Notch was right, they could see light at the end of the tunnel.
"Keep running! We're almost out of here!" Notch yelled.
They leaped through the tunnel exit. Relieved to be outside. Notch quickly turned around and blocked the exit like how he blocked the entrance. The ruble fell onto a spider that tried to jump at them.
Everyone stood there, catching their breaths. They could hear the spiders on the other side trying to get out, but the exit was secure.
"How many did we lose?" Franz said as he counted, "We lost Edson, Denkey, Marlo, Coshven, Reuben, Yaz, and Tim. That's seven. Fuck!"
Franz looked around and found themselves near the top of an underground ravine. Several lava waterfalls illuminated the area. They looked down each side and couldn't see the end of the ravine on either side.
Great! Franz thought. Where do we even begin looking for that pigman in here?
Franz walked away from the group a bit as they began to talk amongst themselves about the spider tunnel. As he walked, he came across another crack in the side of the ravine. He stared into it, expecting to see more spiders.
Suddenly, the crack talked, "I remember you."
Huh. Franz thought as the white glowing eyes appeared.
Franz swung his sword to stab into the crack.
SLICE!
Franz could only watch as his arm went flying off his body.