AN: This Chapter marks the end of the East Arc. I'll leave end of Arc notes at the end if you want to read my thought process.
For the Lenz fight scenes, please play Pumped Up by Xack. I don't usually mention musical accompaniment, but this one felt warranted.
Oh and Something Happens this Chapter. Don't skip it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Minecraft. If I did, Potions of the Turtle Master would have a clearly defined color for their effect particles. Coming up with a suitable color for this made my head hurt.
Chapter 248
The Eastern Division (Part 2)
[Eastern Division HQ: Corridor]
There was a tense, oppressive atmosphere in the air as Cobb faced the Executive of the Eastern Division, Abyssmal. The Night-Raven - former leader of the Birds of Prey guild, and the greatest archer in Minecraftia.
It was Cobb's first time seeing the man. Heck, it was his first time being in an Executive's presence. His appearance wasn't too intimidating, even if the aura he exuded was. He had shaggy, jet black hair with bangs sweeping to the right that barely concealed his blood red eye. His left eye was covered by a white eye patch with a red 'X' painted across. He wore a dark-purple collared shirt with black outlines along with a gray undershirt and white jeans. His backpack and belt were the same shade of purple as his shirt, and he wore black sneakers. An assortment of bows, crossbows, rockets, and tipped arrows hung from his belt, and he was already wielding a bow that Cobb deduced was enchanted with Flame. To make matters worse, his body was covered in enchanted diamond armor.
Cobb had also been shot with a tipped arrow of Weakness. He flexed his fingers trying to get used to the debilitating effect. If he got hit with a tipped arrow of Slowness, the paralysis combo would be complete, and he'd be a sitting duck.
At the same time, Abyssmal flexed his own fingers, feeling the damage from shooting Cobb's Thorns armor. His single eye followed Cobb dutifully.
A light giggle from behind reminded Cobb that he still had the blue-haired Lieutenant to contend with. He needed to keep both of them in his line of sight or else risk getting jumped. "Ooooooh~ You're in for it now, Cobby. Abyssmal's in the building. I wouldn't wanna be you right now~"
"I don't mean to step on your toes, Teal, but you mind explaining what the hell this guy is doing here? How'd he find us? Why is there an army flooding our base? How'd they know to attack while half our division and I weren't here?"
"Uhhhhh... Who knows?" Teal shrugged, trying and failing to hide a guilty expression. "They... uh... must've found us by chance. Yeah."
"Okay. So then why didn't you use the hostages to get them to back off?"
"Uhhhhh... yeah, the... the hostages... yeah." She winced. "About that..."
"They broke out, didn't they?" Abyssmal guessed.
"It-It wasn't my fault! Lenny used a nerdstone mind trick to-!" Teal cut herself off, as even she realized her excuse sounded lame. "W-Well... it doesn't matter! With you and the other half of our forces here, we can turn the tables. By the way, how'd the duel up north go?"
"About as bad as things are going here, if not worse." Abyssmal commented, confusing his Lieutenant. Cobb let them talk, since it bought time for his Weakness to wear off. "I'll fill you in on the details later. And what's this about turning the tables? There's not a chance in hell we can salvage this."
Teal blinked. "...Eh?"
"I took a look throughout the base's tunnels. Paragons and guards have everything swamped. I killed over fifty Crafters getting here, but that's just a drop in the bucket compared to what we already lost. Our reinforcements are only able to come out of Portal Hub A now that B is offline, and our Wither stockpile is already in the enemy's hands. I don't even know if Mark is alive. It's only a matter of time before they destroy Hub A, and then we're well and truly trapped. This is an L for the East no matter how you slice it. I can't kill ten-thousand Crafters if I'm surrounded." He sighed as he gave the corridors a wistful look. "I'm really gonna miss this place."
"So you came all the way back here just to admit defeat and run away?" Cobb asked, drawing confidence from Abyssmal's apt summation of the situation. The Executive shook his head.
"I came here to find the strongest foe and face him." Abyssmal spoke clearly before canting his head. "Are you the one who fits the bill? I hope so."
"Hey, hey!" Teal protested. "Get your own! He's my prey, Abyssmal!"
"Not from where I'm standing." Abyssmal countered coolly. "Your wings are shredded, you're down to your last totem, your artifact is ineffective against his trident, and his Thorns armor makes for a poor match-up for your fists. He could just stand there, and you'd die from pummeling him." He pointed to Cobb's belt next, continuing to list his observations. "He has a steady supply of extra lives and a wide plethora of techniques to use to kill you if Jade's intel is correct. It's a miracle you haven't exhausted your last totem already; it's like rock trying to beat paper."
"And how would you overcome him, hah?" Teal demanded.
Abyssmal gave a lopsided smile. "Scissors cuts paper."
Cobb tightened his grip on his sword and trident.
"You say that so confidently, but this bastard can torpedo around with that trident as long as he touches water." Teal filled him in on Cobb's fighting style. She spoke seriously, without her teasing lilt. "And arrows are just as affected by Thorns as my fists. How are you getting over that alone?"
"I'll Bow Boost." He said simply, the term foreign to Cobb. Teal seemed to understand it, though. Her posture relaxed and she hung her head with her arms akimbo.
"...Yeah, that would do it. Ugh. Fine. I'll leave you to it. Guess I'll go guard Hub A to entertain myself." Teal turned on her heel to leave but stopped for a moment to give Cobb a sidelong glance and a teasing smile. "Or maybe I'll go play with Lenny again~"
Cobb saw red.
Cobb bucketed down water and torpedoed after Teal's retreating, laughing form only to get shot from behind by a tipped arrow of Slowness. It only landed because it was three arrows shot at once by a Multishot enchanted crossbow. Cobb's movements slowed long enough to give Teal a good head start down the corridor. Though Abyssmal took more Thorns damage, he paid it no mind, instead Quickswapping to his bow and aiming a tipped arrow in front of him before bounding forward unnaturally fast to stand between Cobb and the corridor Teal had run down. The gold particles of the Strength effect swirled around him, despite him not having drank a potion. There was also no sign of the tipped arrow he shot.
Cobb drank milk to nullify the Slowness effect and attacked with a powerful swing of his diamond blade. The Executive blocked by holding his bow horizontally before him and locking it with Cobb's sword. The weapons stuck together fast, prompting Cobb to push forward so that he and the Executive were face to face. Cobb had greater EXP strength, but Abyssmal had a Strength buff.
Cobb's eyes were on Teal's back, his thoughts still on her threat against Lenz. She was going after him. Even after everything, she was still gunning for him.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Cobb roared at the Executive.
"That's it, King_Cobb. Get mad. Get angry. Teal is going to hunt down your friend, and you're stuck here. If you want to get past, all you gotta do is kill me." Abyssmal challenged with a lazy smile, his blood red eye focused on Cobb's movements, even as he spoke with barely suppressed excitement. "Fight me with all your strength, King_Cobb. All your skills. Hold nothing back. Show me how far this world has shaped you! Show this Night-Raven what the Darker Billionth can really do!"
"You want it? You got it!"
Cobb freed a hand and threw a flurry of snowballs at the Executive's face. The Executive fell back from the onslaught, taking zero damage and squinting one eye to see through the slush.
"If you're trying to be cute, it's not working." He ducked under the stream of snowballs and fired three whistling projectiles with his Multishot crossbow. Cobb stepped back into water before performing a Dart Leader out of the glass corridor, dodging the widespread fireworks, before using a second trident to Dart Leader back in on Abyssmal's side.
Abyssmal shot himself with a lightly tugged Arc Shot and a tipped arrow of Leaping. Then he pike jumped over Cobb's Dart Leader attack, the fisherman passing through unimpeded and punching out the other side of the glass tunnel. Water started flowing in, allowing Cobb more freedom with his Riptide tridents.
Dark Mariner!
Cobb punctured through the glass at various angles by cycling through his thrown Riptide tridents. Abyssmal twisted and pivoted his body, constantly on the back foot as he avoided the worst of Cobb's attacks.
Though Cobb took short gulps of air as he passed through the glass corridor, he had to admit he couldn't keep this pace without drowning. It was only so effective earlier because he had Water Breathing.
He dodged a trio of tipped arrows with a well-timed Dart Leader before breaking off his attack and landing back in the inundated corridor to replenish his air. Teal was getting further and further away. The chance of her finding him was slim, but she seemed persistent enough to pull it off. Cobb had to ditch this fight to stop her. Abyssmal launched a trio of rockets at him, but Cobb performed a quick zigzag with his tridents to dodge the explosions of black sparks and skewered the Executive through the torso before torpedoing past him and after where Teal ran off to through the ocean.
Sorry, Abyssmal. My friends take priority.
The ocean was dark, with only the lit glass corridors providing a light source this deep. Cobb traced the glass corridors, trying to map out possible paths. He last saw Lenz fleeing the cafeteria, so maybe Teal would go back to pick up his trail from there. There were also a lot of Crafters - both good and bad - moving towards the lower stone brick levels of the HQ. Cobb's tridents couldn't bust through stone like they could glass, so entering them would be a slight challenge. He also had to keep an eye on his oxygen. Take breaks in glass corridors when possible. He didn't have to worry about getting attacked, though. The fisherman was at home in the oc-
There was a muted whistle before the black sparks of fireworks rockets exploded around Cobb and knocked him for a loop. His body tumbled end over end in the ocean before he straightened out and righted himself. He floated in the ocean as he looked left and right, trying to discern through the inky depths.
Another trio of rockets seemed to come out of nowhere before Cobb grabbed at his totem. The rockets detonated and he died, only to respawn with a sneeze. He thought he heard the chirps and clicks of a pod of dolphins as he resurrected.
Those were Abyssmal's rockets. Cobb thought as he glanced around in a slight panic. He must have Night Vision to see in this, but how can he follow me?
Unlike arrows, rockets were unimpeded by water, losing neither their velocity nor their destructive power. Damage was high. Abyssmal likely packed them full of firework stars. The spread and explosion size also made them difficult to dodge.
I don't know how he's following me, but let's see how he keeps up.
Cobb used his tridents again to corkscrew off around the dark waters of the HQ. As he rushed by, he thought he heard more muted whistles and dolphin sounds dogging his every move. He couldn't see shit unless it was right in front of him.
When Cobb ran low on air, he easily replenished it by corkscrewing through a bubble column caused by seafloor magma blocks. The bubble column would drag him down, but it was also pleasantly warm and able to restore his oxygen supply.
As he was dragged down by a vein of magma, he caught sight of something Crafter-sized moving fast in the magma's glow. Figuring it was Abyssmal, he aimed with his trident before torpedoing straight through it with a Dart Leader.
The death clicks and squeaks of a dolphin assaulted his ears, leaving behind a few EXP orbs and a raw cod. It had been a pod of dolphins swimming after him.
Cobb's eyes widened in horror. He killed a dolphin! The most innocent and playful animal in the animal kingdom! He committed a grave sin!
Brain: Meh. It had it coming.
Heart: BUT DOLPHINS ARE OUR FRIENDS!
Finally, Cobb saw Abyssmal rush by in the magma's glow. The Executive was swimming impossibly fast with a pod of dolphins. Glaucous particles were enveloping him, signifying Dolphin's Grace. He got it by swimming with the dolphins. Befriending them. So long as he had their favor, he could keep up with Cobb's Riptide tridents.
But while the dolphins took a liking to Abyssmal, they certainly didn't appreciate what Cobb did to one of their own.
The angry mammals swarmed Cobb with angry clicks and chirps, actually hurting him and getting hurt in turn by the Thorns, creating a vicious cycle. Cobb cursed as he tried to ward them off, but they were too fast.
Brain: I never thought I'd see the day where dolphins join the side of evil.
Blood: Ow! OW! Dicks! DICKS!
Of course, Abyssmal took advantage of the distraction, firing another volley of black rockets that exploded in Cobb's face and sent him spinning into the ocean floor. Abyssmal timed it well enough that most of the dolphins were spared fatal damage.
As the pod of dolphins hurtled towards the fisherman, he realized he was at a disadvantage and corkscrewed away. Abyssmal and the pod of dolphins gave chase. Cobb didn't realize, but Abyssmal's diamond armor was enchanted with - among other things - Depth Strider. That, combined with Dolphin's Grace, actually made him faster than Cobb with his Riptide alone.
Cobb was left with no choice but to return to dry land. He angled towards a glass corridor and shot through it, gasping for air. Behind him, he heard the rhythmic thumps of dolphin bodies smacking into glass before the Executive burst through and landed in a rolling crouch before firing off a flaming tipped arrow of Harming. Cobb blocked with a hastily placed hunk of cobblestone.
"And here I thought fighting the fisherman in his element would've been a challenge." Abyssmal taunted.
"You have your own private army of dolphins? What are you a Disney Princess?"
"Hardly. I sought them out and they graced me with their swimming prowess. They and I are kindred spirits. Dolphins are notoriously horny, y'know."
"Ew, what? Ew. TMI, Abyssmal. TMI."
"You're the one giving me TMI, doofus." He countered lazily while reloading his crossbow. His eye tracked Cobb with constant vigilance. Every twitch of muscle, every ripple of skin. Every tick and tell. "Every move you make, every step you take, I'm watching you. You're already a totem down."
Cobb gave a one-armed shrug. "Plenty more where that came from." He put on a defiant grin. "Truth is, though, I was just thinking that compared to my archer's shots, yours are a little wimpy."
"Hoooh?" Abyssmal raised a brow, a lazy grin spreading. "Then I better stop holding back."
He fired another arrow only for Cobb to block it with a wall of cobblestone. This was just to force the fisherman into building a screen, however, as the Executive followed up by plopping down a single rail, followed by a black pocket box which he drew a dozen TNT minecarts from and stacked them with quick reflexes.
Cobb peeked around in time to see what was happening before he remembered what Alfonso warned him about the deadly Railgun. He sprinted away with totem in hand, just as Abyssmal gave the carts a kick and fired his bow right when they detonated.
The glass corridor was ripped asunder by the blasts, and an insanely fast Railgun arrow missed Cobb by scant inches as he dove down a side corridor and shielded his head from the eardrum shattering sound and the crushing water that flooded the halls.
...Okay, this guy's pretty good.
[Eastern Division HQ: Portal Hub B]
"Do you want me to take the shot?"
"No. Shut up. I'm doing the honors. This is personal." Captain Attila's reply was possessive.
Portal Hub B had been cleared of cultists, and the guards and Paragons involved in attacking it were now either defending against arriving stragglers, or else helping Attila set up explosives. TNT and End Crystals were placed on every portal frame, just waiting to be detonated by a stray projectile.
Attila wanted to do it. Not just because the chain of explosions would be a glorious sight to see, not just because it would be a crippling blow to the cult's transportation network, but because it would pay them back for the damage they wrought on Kate and her skyscraper community. Every one of those Crafters could've lived to see this day if they had hung on for a couple more weeks; long enough to be rescued by Carys and Jillian. Instead, their lives were taken too soon by the cult's cruelty.
I hope you all can see this explosion. I hope you can hear it where you're at. Captain Attila thought somberly as Captain Paolo reported that the final explosive had been set.
Lathrop cleared his throat. "You sure you can't be persuaded to allow me the honors? I can take the better shot."
"I say this with the utmost respect: Get your bleached-tiger-looking-haircut-ass out of here," Lathrop's frown deepened and a scowl formed, "and let me have this."
Lathrop showed a little more understanding as he conceded to the Captain's request and cleared the corridor of portals with Alfonso, Captain Paolo, and everyone else. Attila_akrasia stood at the threshold of the corridor and loaded a fireworks rocket into her crossbow. She took steady aim at the furthest End Crystal to allow herself enough time to clear the blast radius.
"...Goodbye, Portal Hub B. We hardly knew ye."
The crossbow clicked, there was a high-pitched whistle, and the first End Crystal detonated into a tumultuous chain that ruined every bit of purple portal and shattered the glass walls and ceiling and stone brick floor. It was like the foundations of the room got deleted. They were swallowed up by white smoke as TNT and End Crystals added to the explosive chain. The ocean flooded in, reclaiming the area that had been taken from it when the base was first built. With the defunct and empty portal frames serving as the only standing structure in what had moments ago been Portal Hub B, it had now become a ruined mess that the cultists could never salvage. Half of their transportation network was gone.
"YEEEEEAAAAHHHHHHHH!" The thousands of Paragon and guard forces echoed Attila's cheer as the hub was reduced to a sunken ruin. They had the momentum, and they were ready to keep it going after coordinating with Team Delta and their maps. There was still a whole lot of Eastern HQ left to clear, after all.
[Eastern Division HQ: Portal Hub A]
"Damn it, they're already dug in." Dwight noted sourly. "Their reinforcements are back too. What rotten luck."
The platoon of fifty Oak Docks guards and Paragons had successfully secured explosives and evacuated the handful of escapees that had been kept in Teal's cages. With Dwight leading them, they had gone right to Portal Hub A, killing any small bands of cultists they fought along the way. The only problem now was that thousands of cultists were there, guarding it.
The initial battle for the hub had been two-thousand Paragons and guards against two-thousand cultists. It was an even battle that favored the Paragons with their totems and training. They were able to whittle down one-thousand cultists before the reinforcements returned from the north. Five-thousand cultists came out of Portal Hub A, while the other five-thousand came out of Portal Hub B (though only a thousand made it out of B before Attila rearranged their portal and made the other four-thousand cultists wind up outside the Border where they died instantly).
With the numbers becoming six-thousand cultists against two-thousand Paragons and guards, the tide of battle changed drastically. The Paragons and guards lost fifteen-hundred before they were forced to retreat and regroup with their other forces. In that time, the six-thousand cultists had a firm defense of Portal Hub A.
All of this was relayed to Team Delta and the three Captains, and it was Captain Paolo who came up with a plan of attack.
Portal Hub A was a corridor of portals with two entrances. Two sides to attack from. Lenz, Dwight, and Perry were on one side, and Z7 and Baltic were on the other. If all their remaining forces joined together for a pincer attack, they could overpower the cultists' numbers and take the hub.
Dwight and Perry weren't too keen on waiting. They stood peeking around a stone brick bend. They were so deep in the base that the walls and ceiling had become stone brick instead of glass. Portal Hub A was encased in stone brick and well-fortified. No chance of breaking through like with the glass corridors. The Simulation Room was also like this and was a couple dozen meters and turns back the way they came. With those numbers, even warping in with an ender pearl was a pipe dream.
"We do not have the numbers to engage." Lenz advised. "We should pull back and await reinforcements."
"...I want to at least ruin their defense a little." Dwight argued. "Take some out, lure some away. Something to whittle off some of their defense. Make it easier for the pincer attack."
"I concur." One of the members of the platoon agreed.
"Lenz, you're smart." Perry and the platoon turned to the nerd. "We have a large supply of TNT and End Crystals. Is there anything redstone related you can MacGyver up to kill a shit ton of cultists?"
Lenz bit his lip as he gauged the distance between the cult's skirmish line and their own position. The ceiling was too low for a TNT cannon, and carelessly damaging the walls or ceiling would let in water, not only dampening the TNT's destruction but also exposing Lenz to his greatest fear. But if the floor was rigged up...
"Alright, Lenz, what've you got?"
"I do not quite know yet." He waved them down. "Give me a minute. I am not a computer." He snapped only for his eyes to widen behind his tinted glasses. "Oh... Oh..." A smile of clarity slowly spread upon Lenz's face as the gears in his head began to turn. "Oh, maybe I am." He chortled to himself before swiping the TNT and asking for some Paragons to rip up the floor. He also asked for someone to smelt two stone.
One Paragon looked confused. "What're we doing-?"
"Don't question him. Let him cook. Let him cook." Perry chided before following the nerd's instructions with the rest of the troops.
With the trap set, all they needed was some bait.
The Darker Billionth's supposed 'right-hand man' was that bait.
Lenz appeared before the corridor in full view of the six-thousand defending cultists. He was far enough away to dodge any arrows they fired, but it was a lot harder for a bunched-up group of cultists to do the same. The platoon of Paragons and guards had spared him nine white fireworks rockets. He fired one from his crossbow, striking the shield-bearing cultists at the frontline and damaging a few of them in the ensuing explosion. If he didn't have their attention before, he did now.
"Hey, that guy is a Beginner! One of Teal's escapees!" A female cultist pointed out.
"He's King_Cobb's right hand!"
"Lenzington spotted at Portal Hub A." Another cultist reported into a speaking tube so that the whole HQ was made aware. "I repeat, Lenzington spotted at Portal Hub A."
"You've got guts challenging us on your own! I'll give you that!" A cultist complimented before firing a firework rocket directly at Lenz. The engineer intercepted with his own arrow, detonating the rocket before it could reach him. The cultists were astonished. "Whoa. That... uh... never seen anybody but the Executive do that. But that doesn't change anything! There's only one of you, and six-thousand of us!"
"So then why are you hanging back?" Lenz called back, clumsily reloading his crossbow so that he could fire another rocket. "Here I am on my own, but all you can do is stand there while I br-bring the hurt."
He couldn't even say the line right. It was too out of character for him. Either way, he fired another rocket to harass the frontline.
"Let's just run him down! A hundred of us can take him easy!"
"Would you say the same if it were Executive Abyssmal before us?" One cultist challenged, making the others think twice. "Like Lieutenant MarkAble said, these Beginners are not to be underestimated. This feels like a trap. We should maintain our defensive position until he runs out-"
Suddenly, the speaking tube rattled to life.
"Grab that nerd! Don't let him escape! Momma Teal is on the way, now~!"
Lenz felt his heart stop, but not because Teal_Larkspur was once more after him. Cobb was supposed to be holding Teal off. If she was unobstructed, did that mean she killed him...?
"Whoever captures that nerd will get a reward from me later!" Teal's voice echoed from the speaking tube, sparking interest amongst the cultists. "Just save some for me!"
"You heard the woman! Get him!"
Greed seemed to overpower common sense, as three-hundred cultists broke off from the defending force to chase down and capture one noodle-armed archer. Lenz quickly retreated down the corridor he came and rounded a stone brick corner to where the trap was set up. The platoon of fifty Paragons and guards stood nearby in ambush.
"Damn, the nerd actually pulled it off." Dwight whistled appreciatively, having expected fifty cultists at most. Could the trap work on three-hundred? "Ready your weapons, boys! He's about to trigger the plate!"
Lenz ran around the stone pressure plate, which blended well against the stone brick floor, while the crowd of cultists came stampeding over it. The plate registered the weight and activated the first of several dozen TNT and End Crystals planted a layer beneath the floor they were on.
"...Does anyone hear a hissing-?"
That was all the warning they got before the floor erupted into explosive blasts and smoke that detonated in the heart of the three-hundred strong force. Over a hundred cultists were killed at once, and the remaining cultists were split by a crater of which a few cultists fell into. There was no water leakage, since the floor was built into the ocean floor. Same reason why the Simulation Room had so much space to build underground.
"NOW!" Dwight commanded. He and his force of Paragons and guards sprang into action and engaged the disoriented and weakened cultists on their side of the crater.
Lenz stood back and marveled at how well his trap worked. "How is that, cultists? I can still do my thing even when severely underarmed."
"And I can still do my thing with just my arms~!"
Lenz jumped a full foot before whipping around and spotting a grinning blue-nette. "Larkspur!?"
"Please, Lenny. We know each other too well to use such formal names~"
"H-How in the heck did you get here so fast!? That speaking tube message was two minutes ago!"
"When there's a will, there's a way." She remarked proudly, though Lenz noticed electric blue Speed effect particles around her, and that her chest was rising and falling from the sprint over. She pushed herself to get here. She was also a little worse for wear, with her Wonder Wings tattered and inoperable on her back.
"Where's Cobbert? And why are you here?"
"Cobbert? Is that supposed to be King_Cobb?" Teal smirked. "What if I told you he was already dead~?"
"Liar! He wouldn't have lost to you!"
"Yeah, you caught me. His annoying Thorns armor kept me at bay. But he's as good as dead now that he's in Abyssmal's sights~ That guy can see into the future."
See into the future? Lenz thought confusedly. What is she talking about?
"As for the 'why' I'm here, I should think it's obvious. I wasn't about to let your cheeky nerdstone trick slide without getting some payback." She cracked her knuckles as she advanced. "Satisfying and bone-crackling payback~"
Lenz hastily looked over Teal's shoulder. "Oh! Whoa! Mark! He is in a bikini! Right behind you!"
"Nice try, college boy. But I'm not falling for-"
"Oh my gosh!" Lenz gestured and pointed animatedly. "What is he doing!? Is he teasing it off!?"
"It's not gonna work, so you can forget it!" Teal's voice cracked, her composure waning. "I'm not falling for this twice!"
"By God, he just ripped it off!" Lenz clutched his head at the sheer audacity. "He is completely naked! Bare to all the world's lecherous eyes!"
"MmmmmmmMMMMMMM!" She bit her lip, her face showing intense conflict. "My mind is saying no... butmybodyistellingmeYES!" She whirled around, found nothing, and then got blasted in the back with a fireworks rocket. "AGH, GODAMNIT AGAIN!"
Lenz turned on his heel, preparing to flee down the other end of the corridor. He was then reminded that there was a crater and an army of cultists that way.
Worse yet, the surprise attack and pandemonium caused by Lenz's TNT trap had worn off. The Paragons and guards no longer had the advantage, and the cultists that were initially split off were now clambering over the crater to sink their blades into them. The fifty Paragons and guards had to fall back as they were outnumbered, a few of them dying.
Lenz watched Dwight point to the Simulation Control Room door before he and the other Paragons and guards retreated behind it and went up the narrow stairs to the control room.
"Lenz! Don't fall behind! Stick close! HURRY UP!" Perry called out from the threshold of the door with an outstretched hand only to get forced back by some guards fleeing from the cultists. The door was sealed as the army of cultists swept over it and beat their swords and pickaxes against it to break it down. There was no way Lenz could follow. Not when half the cultists broke off to pursue him.
"Get Lenzington! He's right THERE!" Some cultists pointed and shouted, prompting Lenz to turn the other way and run past a recovering Teal who made a swipe for his legs that he narrowly jumped over.
The engineer brought out his crossbow and a fireworks rocket as he knew Teal and those cultists would be right behind him. His heart pounded in his chest, flooding his body with the cocktail of chemicals induced by life-or-death terror. Adrenaline, dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin, and serotonin. He fitted the rocket into the mechanism as he rounded a corner. He knew he couldn't stop to anchor the crossbow with his foot, so he instead jammed his fingers behind the string and pulled back with all his might, the adrenaline making him heedless of how the taut string cut into his fingers. It was a slow, straining, painful process, but the rocket clicked into place just as Lenz heard the rapid footfalls that could only belong to the source of his misfortune for the past three days.
He brought the crossbow around and blind fired point-blank into Teal's face right as her outstretched hand was about to seize his neck, the explosion of white sparks nailing them both and making them fall back respectively. Lenz landed on his front while Teal landed on her back before tumbling backwards and skidding on her knees. She recovered faster than Lenz, who could only glance around looking for a way to run.
That's when his eyes landed on the door to the Simulation Room.
It was the place where Teal dismantled him the first time. The place that could rearrange and change biomes with the flick of a lever. Before, it had been manned by cultists, and Teal could control the battleground. But if the Paragons and guards had retreated up to the Control Room... then...
He made a break for the iron door to the Simulation Room. It wasn't like he had a choice. He couldn't outrun the Lieutenant forever with his piss-poor stamina. Practically speaking, he had to go with the option that had the best chance of survival, and he was so juiced up on adrenaline and endorphins that his mind was firing on all cylinders, telling him he could use the Simulation Room to turn the tables on Teal.
He pulled down the lever for the iron door and scrambled into the wide-open room of polished andesite. Teal pursued, shortly followed by a line of cultists who could only enter single-file.
"Nowhere to run or hide, Lenny~!" Teal crowed triumphantly. "Pretty stupid of you to run yourself into a corner, college boy~ Or did you want a rehash of our last 'fight'?"
Lenz focused on the glass window to the Simulation Room Controls, where he saw Perry, Dwight, and their forces barricading the narrow staircase to keep the cultists at bay. Dwight and Perry met his gaze as they saw the engineer cornered by cultists.
"Hang on! We're coming down!" Perry shouted.
"No!" Lenz commanded with an outstretched hand. "Stay there! I need you both right there, at the controls! Change it to Cave!"
Dwight and Perry exchanged looks while the Paragons and guards kept the doors barricaded. Teal glanced between the window and Lenz before laughing.
"You wanna make this a Round 2? Hmhmhmm~! You think choosing the venue for your trouncing will change anything? I thought you were smarter than that, college boy~"
"I am smarter!" Lenz affirmed as he switched into his tinted goggles. "And, also unlike you, I do not drop out when things get tough!" Teal bristled and her pupils contracted, her amused smile becoming wider and more feral over the insult.
Up in the window, Dwight and Perry finally found the right lever and clicked it for the Cave biome. The Simulation Room began to shift and change as polished andesite became stone and dirt around Teal, Lenz, and the cultists. Columns of gravel dropped down from the ceiling and had Teal leap back to evade it while other cultists were squashed flat and suffocated, their gear and Heads popping out of the gravel in bursts. Lenz hid behind the thick stone pillar that erupted from the middle of the room, or rather, he allowed the room to rise up and make cover for himself while he loaded a rocket into his crossbow with both hands and an anchoring leg. By manipulating the terrain, he could make his own cover and sniper's nests.
"Time I teach you a long overdue lesson in redstone, and show you just how 'stupid' we engineers really are!" Lenz belted out bravely before turning to the control room window. "Guys! On my command!
"We hear ya." Perry called down reassuringly as he and Dwight flexed their hands over the controls.
"Keep that stairwell barricaded as long as you can!" Dwight called to the Paragons and guards stacking blocks and pouring buckets of lava to keep the cultist army at bay. "Defend this place to the last man!"
"Prepare yourself, Larkspur - En garde!" Lenz threw himself around the stone pillar and fired a whistling rocket down at Teal. The Lieutenant did a one-handed cartwheel to dodge while several cultists took the brunt of the rocket blast. She glared up at Lenz's sniper nest with a mad glint in her eye and a predatory grin.
"Okay, egghead. Get ready for a scrambling~"
[Eastern Division HQ: Corridor]
"REEEEEEEEEE!" The Zombie Pigman Hybrid squealed as he wildly slashed with two golden swords, which he could apparently spawn out of thin air. Even if the durability on the easily worn material broke, the abomination referred to as Cletus_Arning could just conjure up new ones. His strength was no joke either, and it only went up with the help of Lieutenant MarkAble's potion support. Strength II, Speed II, and then Harming II to heal the Hybrid and harm his opponents. If the Paragons even tried getting at the Lieutenant, Cletus raced to his defense to great effect.
Of the twenty Paragons in their group, four were already dead, even while using totems. It was Baltic, Z7, Luis, Wing, Heather, and eleven others against just Cletus and Mark, yet the cultists' side was winning.
"I don't get it! What's with this thing's damage and speed!?" Wing shouted in alarm. He and the other Paragons had their totems already in hand after witnessing what Cletus could do. "Ever since he got buffed, he's been ripping through our entire Health in one hit! Are we sure this thing isn't the real Lieutenant and Mark is a body double?"
"I'd like to see him do the paperwork..." Mark grumbled to himself, though he acknowledged the Paragon's point. Cletus wasn't a particularly skilled fighter amongst the cultists, yet his damage output was comparable to a Charged Creeper now that he was buffed. Not only that, but he was moving a lot faster, being able to overtake a backpedaling Paragon. One would have to run from him at full sprint to keep away.
The Paragons had enchanted armor on, so how was Cletus one-hitting them?
Mark watched carefully while supporting. Cletus dashed recklessly into the heart of the Paragons' formation, prompting them to raise shields to block. Shields were the only thing that could spare them the insane levels of damage that Cletus put out. Even then, he tore through the shields' durability with frenzied bloodlust. He swung both blades to hack the shield to pieces, destroying the shield and killing the Paragon behind it, who then was forced to burn up another totem of undying. Only the Paragons with totems and shields stood as vanguard. Z7, the assassin with neither, hung back and attacked by throwing her assortment of daggers.
It was impossible to build up any damage, though. Anytime Cletus needed healing, Mark would just throw down a Splash Potion of Harming, or pass Cletus a Lingering Potion of Harming and have him make his own rejuvenating cloud that felt deadly to every other living being. Being undead, Cletus was also immune to the effects of poison, a fact Mark put to use by making green lingering clouds of poison for Cletus to fight within.
"I have an idea." Baltic whispered to Heather as she and Luis directed arrows at the Hybrid dodging and weaving through them. "I'll need to brew a new set of potions, though. Keep that thing at bay and do without my potion support for a few minutes."
"Alright, but be quick. I can't stand looking at that thing when it moves." Heather made a noise of revulsion while Baltic took a Potion of the Turtle Master from a Team Beta Paragon and slipped away to a covert little corner to take out his three brewing stands.
I get it! Mark noted as he watched Cletus cleave through shields and Paragons with ease. It's not just his Pigman strength aiding him. Since the gains from potion buffs are multiplicative, it's not his base stats I'm increasing but his improved Hybrid stats. Mark used his accounting background and crunched the numbers real quick in his head for an estimate. If his math was right...
...then the Hybridized Cletus buffed with Strength II could do twenty-one-and-a-half Hearts of damage per swing.
Even Executive Ember would be hard-pressed against that kind of raw power. Mark internally noted. Hybrids are more dangerous than I thought when combined with potion effects. Unfortunately, the ends don't justify the means. He glared at the organically moving, rotting pig carcass and shuddered at the thought of him or Teal becoming like that. No power was worth that, even if the Executives and other Lieutenants disagreed.
"Cletus." Mark called out, earning a glance from the Hybrid. "Land a hit no matter what. Even a glancing one would be fine." The Lieutenant replenished the Zombie Pigman Hybrid's Strength II and Speed II. "So long as your sword swing connects, you can kill in one hit."
"I knew it! I thought I felt stronger." Cletus oinked happily while windmilling his two swords. "The Paragons I once considered beyond me - and even Carys' personal pet assassin - can't do a thing to me like this. Imagine how much more terrifying I'd be employing Erma's 'HAWAWAWAA!' style."
"Calling what she does a style is-" Mark tried only for a dagger to sink into his arm. He cried out, clutching his arm, and Z7 darted for him with her other daggers poised to kill. It was common practice to take out the healers or supporters first. Cletus would be much more manageable without Mark's impeccable support.
"Stay away from our Lieutenant! REEEEEEEEEEE!" Cletus intercepted Z7 and swung, only for Z7 to drop into a straight-leg slide under his hoofed legs without losing momentum and pop up past him. She wore an ill grimace.
"Nb vbvyzooh ziv yfimrmt uiln dszg R hzd fmwvi srh olrmxolgs." Z7 muttered, trying not to throw up. Instead, she continued her advance, dodged Mark's Splash Potion of Slowness, and sunk two more daggers into his chest. The Lieutenant cried out in pain before getting his throat slit by a third dagger and dying.
He resurrected a moment later with a sneeze and a used up totem, but Z7 expected this and stabbed through his knee to pin him to the floor the second he appeared.
"...The weakest Lieutenant for Carys' pet assassin. Not a bad trade off." Mark groaned as he wrapped one arm around Z7's foot to anchor her in place. The other hand threw down a Lingering Potion of Harming II, spawning a maroon cloud of death around them that damaged them both.
Instead of freeing herself, Z7 dropped to Mark's side and stole a totem off his belt just as Mark did the same. She ignored the angry squeal and the looming shadow behind her as she was violently sideswiped by Cletus' golden sword and killed. The force of the blow knocked her gear clear of the Harming cloud, where she respawned with a sneeze and another used up totem. Mark weathered the worse of the Harming cloud, but was spared thanks to his previous totem's Absorption and Regeneration effects. He had two totems remaining while Z7 had none.
Cletus advanced on Z7, who took out her flint and steel to make a blockade of fire. Cletus ran straight through it, unhurt. Zombie Pigmen were immune to fire, after all. Z7 brought up her daggers in spite of defense being impossible, only for Luis, Heather, and Wing to stop the Hybrid's charge with well-placed shots from their bows. As the damage built, Mark threw another Splash Potion of Harming to keep the Hybrid's Hearts at a healthy level.
"Nothing's stopping it!" Wing exclaimed in a panic.
"REEEEEEEEEEE!"
"Look out!"
Cletus barreled through the Paragons' formation, shattering shields and killing several. Only a few still had totems in reserve while four were reduced to heaps and Heads on the floor. Heather and Luis sneezed as they were brought back, though they found themselves suddenly staring down a hideous Zombie Pigman hybrid. Heather screamed as the sword descended.
A soft blue splash potion struck the three of them, locking Heather and Luis in place and making Cletus move very slowly. His blade struck Heather, but she survived thanks to a Resistance effect.
Baltic had afflicted the three of them with Slowness VI and Resistance IV thanks to his Splash Potion of the Turtle Master.
"Clever move." Mark commented to Baltic who had returned with his prepared potions. "You knew you couldn't stop his Speed and Strength at once, so you made all of them as durable and slow as tanks, creating a stalemate. Not even Cletus' buffed Strength can overcome Resistance IV." Mark narrowed his eyes. "But Potions of the Turtle Master don't last long. And when it runs out, we're back where we started."
"I'm afraid not." Baltic countered before lifting a red lingering potion and throwing it at the encumbered trio. It created a thick cloud of red healing particles that rejuvenated the Paragons...
"REEEEEEEEEEE! REEEEEEEEEEE!"
...and damaged the undead Hybrid.
"I knew it." Baltic affirmed. "Just like an undead Mob, it's healed by Harming and harmed by Healing."
"Shoot." Mark cycled through his available potions only to pale when he saw the dozen Lingering Potions of Healing Baltic had brewed. "Uh-oh..."
"Get ready for a potion carpet bomb you monster." Baltic remarked while Wing and Z7 dragged the immobilized Luis and Heather out of reach of the creature's final thrashings. Baltic chucked a Splash Potion of Slowness IV just to keep Cletus in place when the Turtle Master's Resistance IV effect wore off. After that, he unleashed the twelve Lingering Potions of Healing II upon the hybrid's encumbered body. Cletus squealed in agony as the healing effects felt like fire against his rotting flesh and exposed bones. The red healing cloud grew larger and larger, swallowing the squealing, thrashing hybrid and obscuring him from sight. Baltic hurled more potions in his carpet bomb, replenishing the potions that expired to create a cloud so thick they couldn't see past it.
Seeing where this was going, Mark drank a Potion of Swiftness II and beat a hasty retreat.
Cletus' agonized squealing subsided long before the final lingering potion ended. Baltic had no more to throw, and the red cloud lifted after a few seconds, revealing spilled gear, golden swords, the diamond armor the creature wore, and a single blonde Head, whole and undamaged by rot.
"That thing... had a Head?" Luis questioned what he was seeing. That Crafter Head resembled Cletus' grotesque visage in some ways, and the implications were chilling. That monster wasn't a golem, but a Crafter-turned-monster. Supposedly made from Herobrine's research.
"Way to go, Baltic." Wing commended. "The nightmare is over."
"I only wish I brewed faster." Baltic commented somberly as he glanced to the spilled gear of their eight fallen Paragons. "They might have been saved."
"We can't dwell on it." Heather flexed her fingers to dispell the last vestiges of the Turtle Master potion. "Where did the Lieutenant go?"
"He ran." A Paragon said. Meanwhile, Z7 and Luis went over to poke at Cletus' Head. He had no totems, so he didn't revive. "He probably ran to Portal Hub A. It's the cultists' last stand."
"Maybe we can catch him first." Heather noted. "Luis, get away from that thing. You don't know what it could-"
At that moment, Cletus' Head began to warp and buckle. Z7 and Luis leapt back at the sudden unexpected movement. They backed away with weapons drawn as the Head imploded upon itself and vanished without a trace. Z7 shook her head, unable to accept what she had just witnessed. Heads don't just implode like that. It was a phenomenon none of them had ever witnessed. The death that awaited a Hybrid.
"...What was that?" A Paragon asked. "What was that thing really?"
"It was a Crafter. At least at one point." Luis commented, looking deeply unsettled. "What was it he said? 'The ultimate combination of man and Mob?'"
"A new breed of fighters, Mark called them." Baltic noted, recalling the slime girl working for the Scouts. "Herobrine found some way to combine Crafters with Mobs, and it looks like the cult now know how to do the same." Baltic looked troubled. "Carys and Jillian need to be told about this. If they can make a hybrid with a Zombie Pigman, what's stopping them from making a Wither hybrid?"
The implications had the Paragons grow pale.
"MarkAble." Luis decided. "He knows what made this. We catch him, we torture it out of him, we find out how to stop it."
"Agreed." Baltic nodded before throwing down a Splash Potion of Swiftness II to give everyone a Speed buff. "No time to waste."
The dozen remaining Paragons of the group dashed past Cletus' remains down the corridor Mark must have fled. They all had Swiftness II, so the distance between them only lessened when Mark's potion wore off. At that time, Portal Hub A and the army of cultists was in sight.
At the same time, Captain Attila, Captain Paolo, and Captain Fo had regrouped the entirety of their remaining forces and were now converging on Portal Hub A for the final battle. Of their ten-thousand initial combined troops from Nitebane, Oak Docks, and Zeppil, only sixty-six hundred were left. Meanwhile, of the twenty-thousand cultists of the Eastern Division, only six-thousand were left. The united troops were barely ahead, but the final battle was sure to be a bloody one.
Half of the united troops - thirty-three hundred - met up with Baltic and Z7's group to converge on the hub from the east. The other half moved towards Lenz and the simulation room's side - just missing the corridor and simulation room where Teal, Lenz, and the cultists were fighting - to converge from the west. It was looking like a textbook pincer maneuver.
Lieutenant Mark saw this. As the only available higher-up, he was appointed as commander of the remaining forces. The cultists would've felt more confident with Abyssmal or Teal fighting, but Mark's words had weight. He stood upon a portal frame and carefully surveyed both corridors leading to the hub. The forces were closing in. The cultists stood in their defensive positions, awaiting further commands. Mark worriedly scanned for a flash of teal-blue hair but found nothing.
"Is there even a point to winning this...?" Mark spoke to himself as he considered his options. "Our base is known. We can no longer operate in Oak Docks' territory. There's no victory here."
He looked at his division's cultists as they brayed for blood, awaiting the inevitable clash.
"There's not a cultist here not prepared to die, myself included." He continued to mutter to himself. "If we fight tooth and nail, even if we lose, we can take a good chunk of their troops with us and make the other divisions have an easier time." He reasoned. "But if we retreat now - use the portals and collapse them behind us - we can save over a quarter of our division to fight another day."
While Lieutenant Mark was weighing his options, one particularly devout cultist was taking the decision out of his hands. The cultist in question was different from the ones sent to watch the duel up north. This cultist was one who had returned from the Wither Skull grinder in the Nether, carrying the daily amount of skulls to add to the stockpile.
For while the Paragons had succeeded in destroying the massive stockpile, they didn't know of the handful of skulls just coming in. And in this case, the word 'devout' can be synonymous with words like 'fanatical' or 'foolhardy'.
"We suffered our losses because we were caught off guard." Mark continued to reason. "But if these Paragons still have totems, then we'll be at a bigger disadvantage. As important as the Portal Hub is, we'll have to abandon it anyway now that it's known. A good general knows when to retreat." Mark decided firmly before raising his voice.
"RETREAT!" He bellowed to his cultists, who turned to look at him as if he was crazy. "WE'VE BEEN ROUTED! THIS BATTLE IS LOST! FALL BACK INTO THE PORTALS AND COLLAPSE THEM BEHIND YOU!"
The devout cultist fought to the front of the skirmish line with a mad gleam in his eyes. He had soul sand and Wither skulls under his arms.
"We'll have another chance! A better chance!" Mark assured those that felt this to be cowardly. The Paragons were nearly upon them. "Right now, the most important thing is to live to fight another-!"
"Do not be afraid, Lieutenant!" The devout cultist shouted over him from the front of the line. He smiled crazily. "What have we to fear when Next Life awaits? It is time we show these Paragons the glorious afterlife they deny the many lost lambs of this accursed world!"
"I gave you an order! We're to-!" Mark cut off as he saw the devout cultist feverishly erect a soul sand structure in the shape of a scarecrow. "DROP THOSE SKULLS! DAMN IT, I SAID STOP! STOOOOOP!"
The skulls were placed just as the united troops reached the hub. Baltic, Z7, and the Captains were at the front from the east side as they stopped cold and witnessed the spawning of a Wither. The three-headed, blue-gray beast let loose an echoing shriek as it came into existence, slowly growing as its purple Health bar began to fill.
"TO THE PORTALS!" Mark cried out. "GO GO GO!" The cultists with the most sense dropped everything and sprinted to the nearest Nether Portal in the hub. Mark was the first to leave before things started to get clogged. Spawning a Wither and sacrificing the hub wasn't a bad idea if it meant killing a chunk of the united forces. The problem was that the cultists should've been allowed to evacuate first! That devout idiot wasn't thinking!
"EVERYONE FALL BACK!" Captain Attila shouted while Lathrop hauled a catatonic and unresponsive Alfonso onto his shoulders. The Wither was that fearsome. The united forces on both sides of the hub fell back in full retreat.
"Hahahaha!" The devout cultist fell to his knees in reverence as the Wither's health bar filled and the boss Mob's body started to flicker black, signaling its imminent destruction. The cultist knelt right beside its body, not even trying to save himself. "Go forth Wither! Send these meddlesome fools to the Next Life! Send us all to the Next Life so we may-!"
The devout cultist died in the Wither's massive startup explosion while an ominous gong sound rang out over the sounds of fleeing Crafters. The massive explosion left a massive crater in the stone brick floor and walls of the room, leaking in water. A portal or two was also taken out, as well as fifty other cultists who couldn't clear the blast radius in time.
The Wither let loose an echoing scream as it turned on the nearest living things - the fleeing cultists - and fired blue skulls at them, killing and inflicting the Wither effect on many. Thousands of cultists clogging the portals in their haste to escape were killed instantly, destroying several more portals in the process.
However, after killing most of the fleeing cultists, the Wither turned its attention on the next nearest living thing: the fleeing united forces. It screamed as it chased the eastern half of the army, firing a blue skull that took out the walls of the stone brick corridor and flooded the place with water. Baltic and several hundred united forces found themselves swept up by the water. Even more so when the Wither caused further damage and let in more water. Many Crafters had to drink milk to dispel the Wither effects as they fled. Those that lacked milk were forced to make do with Potions of Healing to keep their blackened Hearts from depleting completely.
Even the Wither got swept up, the gushing water and the demolished stone brick walls of the corridor expelling it outside the HQ into the ocean where its explosive skulls were greatly mitigated. It was immune to drowning - being undead - but its destructive potential was greatly lessened now that it was surrounded by explosion-dampening water.
The united forces didn't wait to see how long that would last, though. They continued to flee the HQ now that a live Wither was in the mix.
The aged alchemist Baltic was left on his own, thrashing in water and guzzling Healing Potions while the other united forces with him withered away.
[Eastern Division HQ: Corridor]
The fight between Cobb and Abyssmal continued to rage on.
"Bobber."
"Weave."
"Bobber. Bobber. Bobber."
"Weave. Weave. Weave."
Cobb kept trying to hit the Executive with his fishing rod bobber, but Abyssmal merely swayed out of the way, pivoting his body to both dodge and take a step with each weave.
As for why the two were speaking their actions, ah, Cobb started it and Abyssmal just went with it without any rhyme or reason.
But Abyssmal did have a reason for letting Cobb play his farce fishing rod moves. The more his eye watched the way Cobb moved, the closer he got to implementing his Foresight. He was already able to dodge his bobber despite the sway of the line caused by the flicking motions Cobb did with his wrist.
"I'll tell you this now, but the longer this fight drags on, the worse your chances will be." Abyssmal called out before cocking his head and smirking. "I can see the future, y'see."
"Oh, yeah right."
"It's true." Abyssmal loaded a tipped arrow into his bow. "And if you take a really long time, the only future awaiting you is death."
Cobb watched Abyssmal fire his arrow... and then suddenly the Executive was flying towards him with Swiftness II. The tipped arrow he fired was gone in the same moment. It was the same technique that confused Cobb earlier. It was almost like the projectile being shot was Abyssmal himself.
Cobb brought his arms up to defend with his Thorns armor, but Abyssmal predicted this and stopped hard on one foot before firing his bow again and launching himself to the side. Just like before, the arrow vanished, and Abyssmal was launched instead, this time with the Regeneration effect. Cobb had the absurd mental image of Abyssmal loading himself into a bow with his feet pressed against the taut string and his hands gripping the bow for support.
As Abyssmal launched past him, he drew a crossbow and fired a trio of rockets that exploded in black sparks, frying through Cobb's Thorns armor. Not only did fireworks not trigger the Thorns, but they got through the Projectile Protection too. Both of his anti-Abyssmal countermeasures were useless.
Cobb's hand touched the ground as he tried to shake off the damage, but he turned into another trio of high-pitched whistles and exploded in a shower of gear and black sparks.
He reformed with a sneeze, losing another totem.
"Thank your lucky stars for those totems."
"Unfortunately, I'll have to thank Carys." Cobb countered as he adjusted the totems at his belt to make for an easier Quickswap. He had two more set aside, and then six more in reserve in his Pocket Box. The Executive was going through them faster than his Lieutenant. "Since she's the one who killed the Hacker that spawned them."
"What's Carys like, anyway?" Abyssmal questioned. "She's a strong woman, but does she have a cute, vulnerable side?"
"Any vulnerable side she has I'd want to stick a sword into."
"Is that an innuendo, you dog?"
"Stop it. And cute? You should get your eye examined."
"Shoulda known better than to ask. Your type are greenheads."
"...I'm not even gonna go there." Cobb spoke with a forced calm. "You certainly live up to your Executive status. Are the other Executives as strong as you?"
"In different ways." He conceded. "They certainly have more faith."
"Faith. Okay. Sure. Why are you doing this for?" Cobb demanded. "You and those other Executives. What makes you want to do this? Whatever your goal is, you won't get it. You can't really believe killing all these people is for their own good, can you?"
"You're right, I don't. My motivations differ from the others." The Executive explained, taking a break from the fighting and lowering his bow. "I'm not looking for Herobrine so much as I'm looking for my successor. That's why I've been doing all this to begin with." He smirked lazily. "We - my colleagues and I - have created a world so fraught with peril that it can't help but produce polished diamonds like you or Nowhere_Man or Carys_Angel. It's Darwinian. The ones who don't adapt, die. And the ones left to oppose us become the strongest foes I could ever hope for."
Cobb's eyes widened at the implication before he gnashed his teeth. "You're doing all this just to satisfy some lust for battle!? I thought Teal was the only battle junkie in the east!?"
"It's not a lust for battle I'm looking for. I told you; I'm searching for my successor. My superior. My better. My end." He cocked his head. "I want someone who can not only push me to my limits but surpass them! Aren't you the same, siding with your mortal enemy, Carys_Angel?"
"No! How is that the same!?"
"How is it different?" He countered coolly. "You're helping Carys, despite your differences. Why else would you help someone who's sworn to deal you mortal harm? Is it because you secretly long for her to be your ultimate opponent? You crave one last legendary bout to end your life. A finale grander than any other."
"We will have our fight, but not for the sake of some grand finale! It won't be some theatric show; it'll be to settle all our business." Cobb vowed.
Abyssmal laughed. "You'd have to survive me to get there first." He rested his hands on his hips as he looked to the ceiling and sighed. "Stagnation is quite an awful experience. With nobody around to push you to be better, you're forced to watch your own carefully built skills fall to disuse and ruin. You almost wish you were dead."
"Is that why you left the Birds of Prey?" Cobb accused. "No one could match you?"
"I wasn't happy." He said matter-of-factly, waving his bow airily. "I was peerless. No foe could challenge me. There was no threat too great... until I saw a Wither for the first time." He reminisced. "Oh, yes. I was in Nitebane when it went down. The Tragedy of Nitebane that started it all. There, I finally found a foe I couldn't beat, and I had Herobrine to thank. I finally felt a thrill again. My competitive archer's heart pumped anew." He looked to his hands and his face twisted in disgust. "But I've grown stronger since then. Strong enough that two Withers aren't enough to phase me! Strong enough that I still have gas enough in the tank to fight you, the single greatest threat the cult and Hackers have faced in nearly four-hundred years! There's still nothing capable of surpassing me... at least for now."
He gazed back at Cobb. "Y'see, that day - the Tragedy of Nitebane - made me realize something: diamonds don't appear without pressure. Strength is attained by surviving adversity. Crushing the weak masses until something unbreakable is born. You and Nowhere_Man and Carys. The Paragons. The guards banding together! Every chump vowing revenge against us! You all only exist because we made you despise us! Would you have reforged yourself stronger if not for Jade breaking you!?"
Cobb's face twisted with rage at those words, as if Jade's betrayal was all by design, and that he should feel grateful to have had his emotions played with. Abyssmal clenched his bow in a tight fist held before him.
"You claim I won't accomplish my goals. But if you can kill me when I'm fighting with all my power and experience, then I can die a happy man! Now stand and fight!"
Cobb threw down water and used Dart Leader to close the distance. Abyssmal read the move and fired a tipped arrow from his bow, aimed off to the side. Once again, Abyssmal was launched forward instead of the arrow, and he now had a Regeneration II effect, undoing all the accumulated damage sustained from shooting Cobb's Thorns armor.
Cobb's eyes widened as he realized what the trick was. As insane as it sounded...
"...Are you shooting yourself with a Punch II bow!?"
Abyssmal smirked. "Caught on have you? It's called Bow Boosting. Your archer not able to do that?"
"Damnit..." Cobb cursed as he fell back. This was getting more and more complicated. Abyssmal was somehow able to shoot, then outrun his arrow so as to get hit by it. Since the bow was enchanted with Punch II, the Bow Boost would send him surging forward, and since he had access to tipped arrows, he could self-buff every time he did it. His diamond armor probably had Projectile Protection in addition to Depth Strider, further mitigating the damage he did to himself.
I can forget about my Thorns killing him. Cobb thought. Unlike Teal, his attacks do more damage than the Thorns' defense, and any damage I rack up can be fixed with a tipped arrow of Regeneration and a Bow Boost.
"If you're going to do something impressive, it better be now." Abyssmal warned, his blood red eye glinting dangerously. "I've seen all I need. Now I got you in my Foresight."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Abyssmal readied a tipped arrow. "It means every attack I make from here on out will cost you."
"Quit trying to scare me."
Despite the bravado, Cobb readied a totem.
Abyssmal made a show of drawing a tipped arrow of Slowness IV before his hands moved fast and Quickdrew the rocket loaded Multishot crossbow at his belt. He fired the trio of rockets, which Cobb evaded with a Dart Leader to the left.
An arrow of Slowness intercepted him, straight into his eye.
Cobb cried out in pain and slowed down, his face slamming into the glass wall and only partially breaking it. He was only slow for two seconds, but Abyssmal used those two seconds to hit him with another flaming arrow of Poison, followed by one of Harming, followed by another trio of rockets that spilled his gear like blood across the stone bricks.
In the time it took for Cobb's totem to resurrect him, Abyssmal shot himself with another tipped arrow of Regeneration II, Bow Boosting himself right before Cobb's respawned face and drilling through his head and brain with a Piercing arrow. Cobb's mouth opened in noiseless agony before Abyssmal cracked his crossbow against Cobb's face, laying him down and out on the brick floor and opening him up to point-blank arrows that wiped out his totem's Absorption and Regeneration before he could utter a sound.
Another totem was burned up.
When Cobb came back, Abyssmal put his bow around Cobb's neck and tugged, his foot pressing down on Cobb's back to choke him. Cobb thrashed as he realized he was out of totems and couldn't get the reserves he had in his Pocket Box.
Cobb twitched his right hand, and Abyssmal stamped on it, foreseeing he'd use it to grab something, likely an ender pearl, and escape.
Abyssmal wore a brutish, disappointed expression as he gazed upon the bested foe below him. One whom he had such high hopes for. All the cult's talk about this man. All the fear Herobrine wrote concerning the Billionth. It all felt empty now. A waste of his time and skills.
"You're not the one." He spat into Cobb's hair. "You're nothing but a letdown. A nonevent. Not even worth killing." He pressed a crossbow into Cobb's neck. "Or so you wish I'd say."
At that moment, an ominous gong sounded throughout the HQ, followed by distant, echoing screams. The Wither from Portal Hub A. Abyssmal's head twitched towards the sounds, drawing his eye off Cobb for one second.
Cobb's blackened left hand grabbed the bucket of lava at his belt and poured it over himself. He was spared the damage from his totem's residual Fire Resistance effect, but Abyssmal was fair game. The Executive's eye flicked back to Cobb as he fired his crossbow, only to miss as the lava obscured Cobb's body. He leapt back to avoid getting burned, his bow slipping from around Cobb's neck.
Cobb was forced to accept that Executive Abyssmal was too strong. He ate a Chorus Fruit, warped outside the glass tunnel and into the ocean, and used his Riptide trident to jettison away. Abyssmal watched him escape, one hand touching the glass.
"...Will I ever find someone worthy?" He wondered aloud.
Also, was he really supposed to kill three Withers in one day? Whose bright idea was it to spawn that?
[Eastern Division HQ: Simulation Room]
"Desert!"
The Simulation Room changed. A layer of sand blanketed the floor, covering Teal and the cultists.
"Snow!"
The sand fell away, to be replaced by snow and ice, which the cultists slipped on in their pursuit of Lenz.
"Swamp!"
The snow was drawn down as water flowed in and barren swamp trees sprung up. The floor became dirt and clay. The cultists forced to slog through waist-high water were picked off by Lenz's arrows as he crouched safely from a tree.
"Slow up, Lenz! You're calling them too fast!" Dwight complained from the controls as he changed the biomes at the archer's command.
"I would be doing better if you were the one down here fighting and I was the one at the controls!" Lenz shouted back.
Lieutenant Teal darted through the murky swamp water with ease - and a little annoyed disgust at her icky swamp sneakers - by donning her Voda Shlem leather cap. It granted her a water forcefield against Lenz's arrows and Depth Strider and Aqua Affinity to help her move through water unimpeded. Knowing this, Lenz didn't even both directing his limited supply of normal arrows at her. Only rockets could get through.
The good news? Without her Wonder Wings, she couldn't zoom after him like before. She was grounded. As long as he stayed out of her reach, he could fight the way he knew best.
"Get down here you scrawny geek!" Teal kicked at the base of the swamp tree as she shouted up at Lenz. He clung to the tree as it shook, prompting Teal to spit in both hands, rub them together, then start climbing.
"Jungle! Jungle!" Lenz cried out, signaling a biome change. The water drained, dragging some cultists around, before grass blocks replaced dirt and clay. Taller trees shot up as the swamp trees sank, and Lenz took his chance to jump onto a rising jungle tree before Teal could grab him. The tree rose up with him on it, putting enough distance between them for him to feel comfortable enough to launch a rocket. It detonated in her face, and she fell back, landing on a materializing grassy knoll.
Teal wiped at her mouth with the back of one hand, her lips twisting as her blue eyes flashed dangerously. She darted to her feet and took to climbing Lenz's new tree.
She is angry. Lenz thought worriedly as he reloaded his crossbow.
"Dwight, Perry!" A Paragon in the control room warned. "The cultists are digging a way around our lava barricade! We can't keep them back!"
"Just... hang in there!" Dwight called back.
"Go help them. I got this." Perry assured as he took Dwight's share of the controls. "I got them all mapped out."
Dwight nodded before leaving him to it and helping with the barricades.
"Come on, nerd." Perry encouraged quietly while watching Lenz on his jungle tree.
As Teal climbed, cultists fired arrows at Lenz. He only intercepted the ones that would have hit him while he awaited the Lieutenant.
Once Teal was just about at the top, Lenz made his next call.
"Swamp!"
"Ugh, not again!" Teal snapped as she reached the top just as Lenz jumped off. She lunged after him.
In freefall, Lenz aimed up and fired another rocket, hitting the blue-nette in a burst of white sparks.
Instead of falling to their deaths, the grassy jungle floor became the swampy marsh again, and they landed in fall-breaking water. Water made murky by dirt and clay. It wasn't deep enough to scare Lenz, but it certainly infuriated Teal as she landed face first in filthy water. Her head jerked up, flipping her muddied ponytail to slap against her back. She showed teeth full of mud and her glare could melt steel beams as she moved on all fours, splashing muddy water everywhere in her efforts to get her hands on the nerd. She growled and snarled.
"Comparators, she has turned into a beast!" He cried out. "M-Mountain! Mountain!" Stone rose from the floor, creating some solid ground for Lenz to haul himself up. He ran around some materializing boulders while Teal darted after him. He narrowly slid through an opening in the rocks right before it was filled by a piston. Teal darted left and right as she tried and failed to find a way through before just ramming her fist into the stone and pulling it down like Graham crackers.
"You grunts want to do something!?" Teal screamed back at her grunts as they struggled to acclimate to the ever-changing room. "Nobody actually help me catch the little bugger, that would be a little too much!" Her voice was heavy with frustration and sarcasm before she chased Lenz through his rock tunnel.
An ominous gong sounded throughout the HQ, followed by distant, echoing screams. It was a sound different from the dissonant background music that kept switching with each biome shift. Lenz knew that gong from when the Wither was spawned in Ringwood. He started to fear what was going on in the rest of the HQ.
"Nether!" Lenz's voice echoed as he scooted out the other end of his rock tunnel. No sooner had he said that than the rock mountain started to sink. Teal crawled out of the sinking tunnel only halfway, prompting her bottom half to get stuck as the pistons failed to pull the rock past her body.
Lenz heard her struggle and turned on his heel just long enough to blast her with another rocket to the face. She cried out with greater fury before prying apart the rock pinning her with her bare hands.
Lenz questioned his life choices as Teal surged forward and threw a sucker punch that broke a couple of the nerd's ribs and cracked a couple more. The punch also sent him off the sinking mountain and landing on a patch of netherrack surrounded by lava. Teal leapt down after him, landing on the lava and turning it into obsidian with her artifact, making a path for herself.
"R-Ruins..." Lenz coughed past his busted ribs as he crawled back. Cracked stone bricks rose up beneath him, forming a ruined building lifting him away from Teal and buying time. He ate his cooked rabbit fast to fix the damage done.
Teal went through the interior of the ruins as she worked her way up with impressive determination. Meanwhile, Lenz did a double take as he saw a bunch of cultists climbing up from a different angle.
He hated to do it, but...
"...River!"
"You sure?" Perry called.
"Just do it!" Lenz decided grudgingly.
The ruin sank, and a valley of dirt formed on either side of the simulation room. The cultists looked at the valley worriedly before ocean water was let in to sweep them away in the approximation of a river. Lenz avoided it by getting to where the riverbank sprang up. He lost sight of Teal, though.
I do not like losing sight of her. Even less than I like deep water. He looked around the water fearfully before calling out, "Forest!"
The water drained and the riverbank receded, allowing trees to spring up from the materializing grass blocks. Teal, who had been in the water, stood atop a rising tree. The other cultists caught in the river had all wound up on one side of the room in a jumbled, soaked mess.
Teal's scowl promised pain as she glared at Lenz. However, her gaze caught something else. Something that made her regain her smug confidence. She hopped down from her tree and started a slow sashay towards Lenz.
"Cave!" Lenz called out as he got his crossbow ready.
Nothing happened. Nothing but Teal's slow sashay.
"Perry, Cave! Now!" Lenz repeated. Still, nothing happened. He turned and paled at the sight from the control room viewing window.
The cultists had broken through and were now assaulting the guards and Paragons. Perry had to drop his post at the controls as many Paragons and guards perished. He and Dwight were the only ones strong enough to hold out.
"Aww, what's wrong, Lenny~?" Lieutenant Teal called out teasingly. "Lesson over? Is it my turn to do a little schooling on your face? I teach the school of hard knocks!" She cracked her knuckles menacingly.
The other cultists in the room were also recovering, though they didn't build up terror with a slow saunter or sashay. They sprinted at Lenz and would most assuredly disembowel him.
"Redstone is not without its flaws." Lenz called back as he brought up his crossbow and slammed it into the nearest forest tree. Teal raised a brow as he repeatedly slammed the weapon to break loose a single oak log. Then he pressed it between his hands, crafting four planks, then the planks into four buttons. "But I am about to break one of the cardinal rules of redstone: Never mess with the carefully calibrated circuitry!"
He swung his crossbow into the grass block floor, breaking a block of it and creating an opening to the inner circuitry like when he ogled it the first time. He slipped his legs into the hole before dropping down and landing painfully on his butt. He glanced around at the dimly lit room. He only had the glow of redstone torches, lit repeaters, and stored lava to guide him. He traced the redstone paths fast, following where it led up to the control room and getting a cursory idea of which sections of redstone did what.
"Forgive me, KillRoy." Lenz murmured as he placed his four buttons at key redstone intersections. "I would not tamper with this work of brilliance if there was any other way."
Predictably, Teal and the cultists jumped in after him. They placed torches down to illuminate the room and find Lenz instantly.
The fools were just making it easier for him to figure the circuitry out.
"You wanted to die surrounded by nerdstone, is that it~?" Teal taunted.
"I will let my actions do the talking." Lenz countered before clicking the button behind him.
Redstone glowed beneath the cultists' feet as the signal was sent. Pistons moved to life, moving hundreds of stored blocks that made up every available biome for the simulation room. However, Lenz also broke some redstone dust on the floor, halting other sections of the circuitry and pistons and tailoring this new chamber to his exact needs.
Teal glanced about worriedly before a blanket of sand dropped from above, enveloping her and the cultists. Lenz ran to a different section and broke a piece of jungle log reserved for the jungle biome. He made four more buttons and stuck them around in various key places.
Teal extricated herself from the sand, but Lenz shot an arrow across the room to hit a wooden button he placed. As Teal gave chase, she had to duck as extended pistons nearly crushed her skull and smothered a few other cultists.
Lenz navigated through a complex piston machine designed to hammer stone up into the surface and simulate raised terrain for the Mountain biome. When Teal and the cultists tried to cross it, he shot another button and forced it to activate, repeatedly squashing them all into the ceiling. Only Teal made it past while the others were crushed to death.
A lot of finely calibrated machinery began to break down in response to Lenz's harried work. The background music was now just discordant noise of note blocks that could drive a man mad. Pistons would jam, wrecking certain parts of the simulation room and requiring heavy repairs. It wounded Lenz deeply to do such a thing, but it was his survival on the line.
"I can't believe this. I cannot believe this! You're trying to kill me with the thing I loathe the most!" Teal screamed at the nerd while pike jumping over a squashing piston. Another piston clotheslined her in the jaw, sending her tumbling to the floor. Her Voda Shlem was powerless against block movement.
Lenz shot his crossbow at another button and called down a sheet of ice for Teal to slip on. Then he shot another button to make her trip and land face first in more clay and swamp dirt.
She snapped, then. Her muddy hair whipped around as she kicked and punched and throttled any and every bit of redstone in reach. "HOW'S THIS!? TAKE THIS! YOUR NERDSTONE CAN GET A PIECE OF THIS! AND THIS AND THIS AND THIS!"
Pistons were punted. Repeaters and redstone were ripped up. Redstone torches were swatted down. It caused more damage than Teal realized, ruining large sections of the simulation room's circuitry and making everything go haywire. Any cultists left were killed or crushed by the shifting blocks and malfunctioning pistons.
It was just Lenz and Teal left.
"Here's what I think of your stupid nerdstone!" Teal screamed as she kicked and punched more and more.
Lenz fired his last rocket and nailed the enraged Teal straight in the face, knocking her back and sending her skidding across the sheet of ice. Lenz then reloaded and shot one of his placed buttons. In response, a pair of pistons extended, catching Teal's sliding body and pinching it between them, keeping her pinned in one place. She looked to either side of her and struggled briefly in vain.
"And here is what I think about your stupid brawn!" Lenz countered as he fired another arrow at a button. The ceiling opened up, allowing Teal to see a heap of gravel coming down to crush her trapped self. Her blue eyes were wide as saucers.
"Eep-!"
*SMASH!*
The weight of the gravel mound was so great that it shook the foundations of the room. Lenz took in shallow breaths as he saw Teal's blue-haired, lifeless Head burst from the heap as she was crushed or suffocated to death. Her other gear followed, becoming strewn across the circuitry. He couldn't believe it.
"I... I won?" He whispered to himself as he took a step closer before falling to his knees in disbelief and exhaustion. "...I really won? I beat her? With redstone?"
There was nobody left alive to contend it. He really won. He killed a Lieutenant.
"Ha. Haha..." He slowly started to laugh before raising his fists triumphantly. "YEEEEEEES! TAKE THAT, LARKSPUR! YOU TOYED WITH THE WROOOOOONG NERD! HAHAHAAAAAAaaa!" His voice petered out as he fell onto his back in sheer relief. "I really did it... and I won it my way..."
"Hey, Lenz!" A voice called from above. It was Perry. "Are you okay!? How many goons are left down there!?"
"Perry!" Lenz called back up happily. "It is just me! I-I beat them! I beat all of them - Lieutenant Larkspur included! She is gone!"
"..."
"...Perry?"
"...Well put me in a dress and call me Daisy Mae Tinklepants! What the shit!" He looked to the equally astonished Dwight. "What the actual shit!"
"I... I don't..." Dwight shook his head. "Words... failing me..."
"Dude, nobody is gonna fucking believe th - I'm right here and I don't believe it!"
"Hey!" Lenz yelled, a little offended. "I can throw down!"
"I'll say." Perry pulled back his hair as he couldn't quite believe it. "Lenz, my man, you're a legend! She was the strongest Lieutenant the cult had!"
"We can celebrate his victory later, Daisy Mae. First, we need to get him outta this hole. There's a Wither rampaging outside."
"Got it. And I was just kidding about that Daisy Mae thing, don't call me that." He grumbled before searching for some water to pour down. "The simulation room is kind of a mess up here, Lenz."
"That makes sense. I did a lot of damage down here." He looked around at the discarded redstone. Such a waste. "Are the cultists up there dead?"
"Yeah, Perry and I finished off the last of them."
"Any other Paragons or guards with you?"
Dwight's silence was telling. It was only the three of them left alive.
"Oh..." Lenz felt his spirits dampen a bit. "So many deaths..."
"They bought you the time to finish her. Don't cry for them." Perry reassured. "But man. I still can't believe you beat her. Not only that, but you beat another artifact wielder. That makes two!"
"Three if you count Ciro that one - WAIT A MINUTE!" Lenz shot to his feet. "The artifact! The Voda Shlem!"
He ran towards the heap of gravel, his eyes scanning for the light-blue leather cap. Teal had it on when she died. He promised Nowhere he would recover it for him.
But, as he looked around, he found none of Teal's gear that he had previously seen spill about. He couldn't even find her Head.
"Achoo!"
Lenz felt his stomach drop to his ankles as he heard the sneeze associated with the use of a Totem of Undying. Feminine in nature. It could only be one blue-nette.
Gravel shifted ahead as something beneath fought for air. Lenz was all out of rockets. No chance of just peppering the gravel heap until the beast contained died for good. He hoped she might just suffocate and die again until a flash of teal blue hair peeked from the gravel's gray.
There was a feminine cough as the Lieutenant struggled to get free. She had the Voda Shlem on her head.
Never rob a wild beast. Lenz thought fearfully before steeling himself and getting closer.
He slowed down as the artifact's water forcefield made him feel like he was slogging through water. Teal hadn't noticed him yet. Her head was just about peeking from the gravel as he inched closer and lowered his hand.
Right as her head broke the surface and she gasped for air, Lenz's hand descended, snatching the artifact from her head and disabling the water forcefield.
He turned fast to run away with his spoils only for him to trip as something snagged his leg. He glanced back and saw three fingers of Teal's buried hand gripping him by his ankle. Just three measly fingers.
They flexed and squeezed like a hydraulic press, crushing bone like a plastic cup and eliciting an agonized scream from Lenz's throat. The sound made Perry and Dwight call out in alarm. Tears welled up behind Lenz's goggles as he tried and failed to free his trapped leg. The fingers tightened and twisted like claws as Teal's blue eyes flashed dangerously, half-buried in gravel as she was.
"You... You... You..." She growled chillingly. Her fingers refused to release Lenz while her other arm struggled to dig the rest of her body out. Lenz didn't want to wait around for that.
"Gah! AUGH!" Lenz cried out as he aimed and shot an arrow into Teal's eye. It landed, but she didn't care. She had the totem's Regeneration, Fire Resistance, and Absorption effects fixing her. Her one good eye glared murderously into Lenz's eyes as she ground broken bone into powder. "EEAGHAAAGH!" He swatted pitifully at Teal's hand with his crossbow, just wanting the pain to stop.
A sword came in and stuck Teal right through the gravel. Perry. He stabbed his sword down into the immobilized Lieutenant a few more times for good measure while Dwight tried and failed to pry Teal's fingers off. She wasn't letting go.
"Get her off... get her off...!" Lenz begged, delirious from pain.
"Ugh. This is gonna hurt like a bitch." Dwight warned the nerd with a grimace before gripping Lenz's leg and pulling back with all his might. Since Lenz's ankle bones were now powder, Teal's grip slid down. Only that meant Lenz's foot would feel like a tank was running over it.
"EERAUGHAUGAHUAGH!" Lenz flailed as the bones in his foot were crushed, even as he was getting loose. Perry, appalled by the sound, smashed his heel into Teal's furious face and jammed his blade deep into her chest. Their combined efforts finally did the trick, freeing Lenz from Teal's clutches. Her fingers made a grab for Perry instead, but he pulled his leg out of reach.
Dwight and Perry supported Lenz between them as his broken foot and record-setting pain tolerance made it impossible for him to walk on his own. His consciousness slipped in and out as he could no longer feel his leg. Teal thrashed behind them, still buried in gravel. They would've killed her, but they had no idea how many of their stolen totems she had left on her. Killing her might just make her resurrect outside the gravel pinning her down.
If she got loose, they were dead. And that gravel wouldn't hold her forever. It was time to leave.
As he was helped along, Lenz weakly asked Dwight to press a button as they passed it. He did so, triggering redstone up above and causing lava from the Nether biome to flow down and cover the gravel heap Teal was trapped in.
"She has Fire Resistance, doesn't she?" Perry asked.
"I... am aware..." Lenz called weakly before asking Perry to reload his crossbow.
To get Lenz out of the circuitry room, Perry and Dwight set down a column of water to get down, and then swim up. They had to support Lenz between them as they entered the column and swam to the top. Teal's impotent scream of rage followed them as her gravel prison became covered in lava.
"I'll GET you!" Teal screamed at Lenz. "I swear I'll GET you!"
In response, Lenz aimed and fired his crossbow, hitting another of his buttons across the chamber. Water from the River biome flowed in, flooding the circuitry and ruining it for good. It also cooled the lava over Teal's gravel prison, both forming another layer of cobblestone to contain her, and drowning her. She sputtered angrily without her Voda Shlem's Water Breathing effect to save her.
"If that doesn't kill her, she's a Terminator." Perry remarked as the trio reached the top of the column of water and resurfaced in a broken Simulation Room. Bits of different biomes were littered about, along with the default polished andesite.
"That was pretty reckless getting so close to her. Even when she was trapped." Dwight reprimanded the insensate engineer, prompting him to jostle him a little. "You still with us? Hey! Come on. Z7 is gonna give you a big wet kiss when this is over. Maybe you'll even get to third base."
"I do not... play football..."
Dwight closed his eyes as he tried to forget he heard that. "If my hands weren't holding you up, I'd facepalm."
Lenz grinned weakly as he held up the Voda Shlem with two fingers. "...Was worth it."
Dwight eyed the artifact appreciatively before shaking his head with an indulgent smile. "You are one crazy nerd. The college have anyone else like you? The Paragons could use some Lieutenant-level badasses."
"...One of a kind..." Lenz winced as his leg dragged painfully against the simulation room threshold as they left it.
[Eastern Division HQ: Outside]
Baltic got dragged to the ocean floor by a magma vein. He had gone to it for air, but now he was burning as his feet touched the blistering surface. His Health Meter was also black from the Wither, making it impossible to judge his own health. Everyone else in the water had already been killed. The Wither seemed incapable of swimming to the surface with the intense water pressure of the ocean pushing down on it, so it instead fired skulls at every living being, withering their Hearts and absorbing them into its own purple Health Meter, which was full. It was all Baltic could do to stave off the effects with his potions.
But now he was in the Wither's sights. It was coming for the old man like a shark in the inky deep. He could toss his synced map and escape through his Stasis Chamber...
...If he hadn't already ruined his chamber as a show of solidarity with Cobb. He gambled all in, promising to stick with Cobb so long as he was sticking it out.
I'm sorry, Carys. Baltic closed his eyes as the end approached. I'm sorry, Ebrill.
The Wither's scream echoed. Blue skulls were fired.
Baltic's body was jerked out of the way as Cobb corkscrewed by and snagged him with his fishing rod.
Baltic's eyes widened in surprise at Cobb's sudden arrival. He gripped Cobb, silently seeking assurance, and Cobb replied by patting him back. When the Wither screamed, Cobb turned and glared hatefully at it before gesturing for Baltic to wait there for a minute. He buffed the fisherman with a Strength II and Regeneration II potion before letting him go.
What soon followed was a one-sided beatdown as Cobb used his ultimate Dark Mariner move to skewer the Wither repeatedly and at dizzying angles. The Wither's haphazardly fired skulls hit nothing as Cobb weaved through them. Baltic's Strength and Regeneration buffs helped make Cobb's job easier as he assaulted the Wither over and over, even when it reached half Health and activated its defensive wither armor. The armor could deflect projectiles, but a Riptide trident didn't count. Thus, Cobb continued to shred through its Health unabated. There was no living being left to wither and suck Hearts from. Baltic watched proudly as the monster's purple health bar dwindled to near nothing.
This beast, once feared the world over for causing two of the biggest tragedies in Minecraftia, was nothing in the fisherman's element.
Maybe he really can win this for us... Baltic thought to himself. So Carys doesn't have to shoulder the burden alone anymore...
With one final pass, the Boss Mob was no more. It dropped a Nether Star, which Cobb pocketed, and fifty points of EXP, which barely did anything now that Cobb was Level 92. He torpedoed back over to Baltic and grabbed him before darting down to a half-demolished glass corridor that Baltic pointed out.
The two flowed into the corridor with a gasp for air. Cobb wiped the wet hair out of his forehead.
"What the hell happened with a Wither?" Cobb coughed out. "The cult spawn it?"
"A stupid zealot." Baltic explained. "What's left of the cultists ran off through the portals. You find Lenzington...?"
"I was busy finding you." Cobb shook the water off himself. "Ran into Teal and Abyssmal."
"...You didn't fight them both at once, did you?"
"If Carys asks, I did." Baltic scoffed. "I'm not joking. We tell her that. Anyway, the Teal countermeasures worked, but Abyssmal had me cornered. He's a tough bastard. Deranged too. He's trying to make his own worst enemy just so he could have a successor. Claims he can see the future...?"
"We'll add it to his dossier. Right now, we need to find your friend and finish what we started." He jerked his head down the corridor. "Portal Hub A is still intact. They spawned the Wither there, but there are still some portals to disable." He checked his map for messages. Also to see if his fellow Paragons escaped. He didn't have time to send out a message.
"I got some explosives." Cobb checked his remaining End Crystals. They'd certainly pack a punch. "We can make more if you have Ghast Tears..."
"Baltic...? It is! Baltic! Cobb!"
The two turned with weapons drawn only to find Perry and Dwight, supporting a limping Lenz between them. Cobb lowered his weapon and ran forward to sweep Lenz into a tight embrace. The engineer cried out as he put pressure on his foot, prompting Cobb to let go immediately and hover worriedly around him.
"Are you okay? What happened? Did Teal find you?"
"She found us alright, but she got schooled in redstone by the nerd, the myth, the legend!" Perry hyped up the engineer who could only grin weakly as he held up the Voda Shlem. Cobb's eyes widened.
"No way! You beat her on your own! NICE! I'm so proud of you! Come here!" He grabbed Lenz and noogied his head, earning a painful squawk that had him stop. Baltic remedied his pain by splashing his foot with a Potion of Healing. The effect was immediate, and Lenz's face was soothed. "Is she done? Is she dead?"
"We can only hope. We didn't know how many totems she had." Dwight explained. "We came this way to see if Portal Hub A was dealt with. Are you here for that too?"
"Yeah."
"Well, we're packing explosives." Dwight showed off the TNT they had left. It would be enough to finish off the last Portal Hub. "Let's end this and get out of here."
"Must we swim out?" Lenz complained before another thought crossed his mind. "Oh! Z7! Is she okay?"
Before anyone could answer, there was a commotion from the corridor going down to Portal Hub A. The group of five armed themselves as black-capped cultists started to appear. At least fifty. The ones who fled through the portals but came back? Arriving stragglers unaware of the siege?
Whatever the case, they were enemies, and they were in the way.
Cobb stood as vanguard. "Leave the heavy lifting to me."
"You still have stamina after fighting Abyssmal and a Wither?"
"He fought who and what!?" Perry's voice cracked. "Goddamn, why didn't we recruit you guys sooner!"
"Cause your boss was a crazy bitch trying to kill us!" Cobb shouted as he lunged at the cultists, bucketing down water and using Dart Leader to disrupt and damage them. They recognized him as the Darker Billionth and reacted with the appropriate level of terror before they were killed and their EXP absorbed. Perry and Dwight chipped in also, with Lenz shooting at a distance and Baltic buffing anyone who needed it.
Cobb and his team broke through - the fisherman going from Level 92 to 94 - and they made their way to Portal Hub A. Dwight handed out TNT while Perry stood guard at the corridor. The team put TNT and End Crystals on every working portal while Lenz rigged up a simple fuse with what redstone he picked up from the Simulation Room circuitry.
"Just close your eyes and don't even think about the water." Cobb reassured Lenz while rigging up explosives. He was gonna use his trident to get everyone out. Hopefully it worked as well with five people.
"I shall keep my mind focused on other things." Lenz assured before hesitating slightly. "...I did good, right Cobbert?"
"You did phenomenal. What are you talking about?" He nudged his shoulder. "Even with your inventory stripped, you got the artifact. More importantly, you survived. You're a goddamn hero. I couldn't ask for a better archer."
Lenz flushed with happiness at the praise. "Wait until the others hear about this."
"Oh, yeah. Carys is gonna lose her shit. Definitely gonna give you and Z7 her blessing." Cobb teased. "And then Noman will get another artifact. Soul and Floyd will feel stupid hearing we trounced the big, bad Teal_Larkspur they were so scared of."
"Oh, but you should be afraid." A lazy voice called from the corridor, prompting everyone to whirl around. It was Abyssmal. Here to finish off Cobb. Why hadn't Perry warned them of his approach? "I've never seen Teal this ticked off."
From beside him, out of the darkness, a disheveled and muddy-faced Teal appeared. Her wings were repaired, and her expression was fathomless as she had eyes only for Lenz.
She also had Perry's Head hung slackly in her hands as she lurched forward with cruel purpose.
"Per... Per..." Lenz gasped wordlessly.
"Get to the Portals! WE ARE LEAVING!" Baltic exclaimed with raw pain in his voice over his fallen comrade. Dwight took a step towards the Executive and Lieutenant before biting his lip and turning back around. He knew he was no match.
"I'm of two minds. I hate to see my portals go, but you set your downfall so beautifully." Abyssmal remarked before shooting one of Cobb's End Crystals. It would detonate the chain!
"NO!" Lenz exclaimed, intercepting the arrow with one of his. Abyssmal looked surprised at the feat, then interested. Meanwhile, Teal rocketed past with her wings, her flight path aiming straight for Lenz. She wasn't smiling.
Cobb intercepted with a hail of snowballs that she swerved around, even as he tried to ward her off. "Get to the portals!" He and Lenz backed up as Dwight already entered a designated portal. Baltic lingered on the frame to make sure everyone made it through. Abyssmal waited for Lenz to reload his crossbow before taking another shot at an End Crystal. The engineer intercepted it again. The Night-Raven hummed to himself, his eye on the self-touted Gray Eagle.
Teal divebombed the Beginners while Lenz was reloading, but Cobb was successfully able to knock her down with a hail of snowballs. She crashed into the floor just as Cobb and Lenz reached the plinth of the Nether Portal.
"Okay... Do it!" Cobb signaled before Lenz flipped the switch to prime the first TNT of the chain. It flashed white. It could no longer be stopped. All that was left was to escape through the portal. Baltic went through. Cobb stepped onto the obsidian frame.
Lenz's foot got snagged. By a fishing rod.
"You know, you may have been onto something. This really is a good weapon!" Teal mocked, the fishing rod in her hands holding Lenz back from entering the portal. He was pulled off his feet by Teal's superior EXP strength. It was all he could do to hang on to the plinth.
"Lenz? LENZ!" Cobb shouted as he spun on the frame and hopped down. Even while the primed TNT was set to detonate the whole hub in a massive explosion that would flood the place.
In that moment, a hopeless situation with no good options, where two insurmountable opponents laid in wait, Lenz made a choice.
The engineer lifted his goggles and turned his gaze forward with one hand holding the plinth for dear life. He found Cobb's eyes with his own and gave a sad smile.
"They need you more than they need me."
Cobb heard the words in slow motion, his body stunned while Lenz aimed his crossbow at the center of Cobb's chest and fired. The surprise impact knocked him backward and into the Nether Portal.
Cobb landed on his back in the burning hell dimension before his body snapped back up and rushed to the portal frame. Baltic held him back.
"You can't, Cobb! You can't go in! I'm sorry! The portal will have changed! It was collapsed by the explosion!"
"Let me go! Let me go! I can still save him!" He shouted frantically, his elbows slamming into Baltic's front.
"There's nothing you can do! I-I'm sorry, Cobb! There's no telling where the portal will take you! You could end up outside the Border - AGH!" He recoiled as Cobb's elbow connected with his nose, breaking it. He didn't know his own strength anymore. "COBB, STOP!"
Cobb didn't stop. He broke loose and dove recklessly into the portal, knowing he could still save his precious friend.
He found himself in an obsidian wasteland, the sun shining overhead.
Cobb's mouth fell open and his eyes became strained as he looked around, not in the Eastern HQ, but in the obsidian Lacquerlands on the whole other side of Minecraftia. The portal frame had indeed changed.
Cobb fell to his knees as he felt utter despair. All-encompassing, soul-crushing despair. What did it matter that the Eastern HQ was toast? Lenz was... Lenz was...
Cobb beat his fists against the obsidian ground and smashed his head into it a second later as he screamed his throat raw with anguish.
He felt another piece of his World fall away.
[Oak Docks]
In summation.
On December 13th, Year 500, ten-thousand brave guards and Paragons entered the Endward Cult's Eastern Division HQ under the collective title, 'the united troops'. They consisted of two-thousand Zeppil guards, five-thousand Oak Docks guards, and three-thousand Paragons and Nitebane forces.
The cultists at the HQ numbered at twenty-thousand, but ten-thousand of them were away to witness the outcome of a duel at the Northern Division HQ. They didn't return until partway through the siege.
One-thousand cultists died from the initial surprise ambush.
Three-thousand cultists died defending the Wither stockpile, taking thirteen-hundred united troops with them. The stockpile of Withers was deemed too dangerous, and destroyed.
Five-thousand cultists died defending Portal Hub B, taking six-hundred united troops with them. The number of casualties was only so low for the united troops because the Paragons lad the attack and had totems to die for them. An additional four-thousand cultists died from a collapsed portal brought on by Captain Attila. The portal warped them outside of the Border, where they died instantly without being aware of the danger. Portal Hub B was destroyed.
Five-thousand more cultists died defending Portal Hub A, either by united troops or by a Wither spawned by one overzealous cultist. They killed two-thousand united troops.
Portal Hub A was destroyed. The united troops were unclear on who was responsible for this when they ran salvage on the sunken ruin of the hub. They were also unclear on who had vanquished the Wither, or if it simply drowned.
Once the HQ was cleared of cultists, every inch was looked over and stripped of resources. Surviving cultists were killed. Surviving troops, including the handful imprisoned by Teal_Larkspur, were rescued. A Head Depository of over thirty-million Heads was also discovered hidden deep in the base. The Heads were all given a warrior's funeral and cremated.
A total of eighteen-thousand cultists died. Only two-thousand cultists survived, escaping through the Portal Hub A portals with Lieutenant MarkAble leading them.
Lieutenant Teal_Larkspur and Executive Abyssmal fled the scene by commandeering one of the ten airships of the fleet hovering over the waters of the HQ. They were being pursued west across the ocean by Captain Fo, Captain Paolo, and the remainder of the fleet. Queen Jillian had already issued wanted posters with Oak Docks' help. Abyssmal and MarkAble had citizenship records on file, and Snow Prints were arranged, as well as bounties. 2900 Emeralds for Abyssmal, 150 Emeralds for MarkAble. Teal's bounty also increased from 670 Emeralds to 1350 Emeralds.
Thirty-nine-hundred united troops perished, consisting of five-hundred Zeppil guards, twenty-four-hundred Oak Docks guards, and one-thousand Paragons and Nitebane forces. Sixty-one-hundred united troops survived. Fifteen-hundred from Zeppil, twenty-six-hundred from Oak Docks, and two-thousand from Nitebane.
The Eastern Division HQ was finished. The Portal Hubs, and the cult's entire transportation network, were disabled. Even though their higher-ups had escaped, there was no way for the Eastern Division to mount a comeback. Not when 90% of their division were dead, and their base was nothing more than a collapsed undersea ruin. They would never again terrorize the coastal kingdom of Oak Docks.
Five high-value Crafters - members of the initial landing party - were missing.
King_Cobb. BalticSkies. Agent_P. Dwight. Lenzington.
Cobb and Baltic's Stasis Chambers had been broken prior to the siege without anyone realizing, so there was no way to return them. Agent_P (Perry), Dwight, and Lenzington had been hostages, so they had no Stasis Chambers to begin with. Baltic's map blip had been shown up until the final stages of the siege. Same with Cobb's map blip. Those same map blips reappeared for a little while in the Lacquerlands region. One gave the 'going dark' Paragon signal without any further explanation just before both blips blinked out, signifying the sender was in a tight spot. No message had been sent, leaving Jillian to piece together what had transpired.
Although the united troops scoured the waters of the collapsed HQ for any sign of the missing five Crafters, they found nothing.
The day could be considered a victory in many ways.
A loss in many others.
Alfonso and Lathrop spoke seriously between themselves on Rimini Beach as they awaited the return of the search teams. They both had a vested interest in learning of Lenzington's fate. Both had been saved by the fledgling Bird of Prey. They were also discussing their next move regarding their fallen-from-grace ex-leader, Abyssmal.
Luis was hugging Heather as the latter wept over Cobb, Baltic, Dwight, Perry, and Lenz. Meanwhile, Wing was frantically describing the Mob Hybrid, Cletus_Arning, to Trenay, who, appalled, passed on the information to Jillian in Nitebane. The cult had gone too far in their experiments, and Hybrids could become a significant threat in the future.
Standing on her own, a little ways away, was Z7. Her purple curtain of hair covered her face as she stared emptily into the water, desperately hoping for a tousled head of dark-gray hair to break the surface so she could run in, hug it, and tell it everything would be alright in Jibberish. Her heart was a wellspring of emotions that she couldn't share with anyone because of the language barrier. All she had to communicate was the book and quill Cobb left her, held tightly between her hands as she hoped - prayed - for Lenzington to be alright.
They told me he was safe. She kept thinking traitorously to herself. They told me he was safe. They told me he was safe, so why is he missing? Why did they lie to me?
Z7 tilted her head down.
Where are you all?
Inventory (Cobb): 1 Diamond Sword [Sharpness III, Fire Aspect I, Sweeping Edge III, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Pickaxe [Efficiency II, Unbreaking III], 1 Iron Helmet [Thorns III, Projectile Protection IV], 1 Iron Chestplate [Thorns III, Projectile Protection IV], 1 Iron Leggings [Thorns III, Projectile Protection IV], 1 Iron Boots [Thorns III, Projectile Protection IV, Depth Strider III], 26 Obsidian, 6 Ender Chests, 1 Nether Star, 41 Chorus Fruit, 34 Cooked Chicken, 3 Glass Bottles, 64 Oak Planks, 55 Cobblestone, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Furnace, 1 Bed, 30 Blocks of Coal, 64 Torches, 2 Buckets, 1 Water Bucket, 64 Snowballs, 30 Snowballs, 16 Ender Pearls, 1 Fishing Rod {Backlash 2.0} [Knockback II, Luck of the Sea III, Lure II, Unbreaking III], 1 Trident {Awe} [Riptide III, Unbreaking III], 1 Trident {Shock} [Loyalty II, Channeling], 1 Trident [Riptide III] {Weak}, 1 Trident [Riptide III] {Weak}, 1 Map {Minecraftia}, 1 Book {Mobs of the Bounty Days}, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Green Shulker Box {Pocket Box}, 1 Totem of Undying, 1 Totem of Undying
Green Shulker Box {Pocket Box}: 35 Eyes of Ender, 30 Blocks of Emerald, 6 Emeralds, 1 Diamond Cutlass, 1 Diamond Helmet [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Leather Tunic [Dyed Green, Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Leggings [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Boots [Protection IV, Feather Falling III, Unbreaking III], 25 Lapis Lazuli, 64 Books, 64 Glass, 64 Glass, 64 Glass Bottles, 1 Fishing Rod, 1 Fishing Rod, 2 Books, 1 Enchanting Table, 1 Totem of Undying, 1 Totem of Undying, 1 Totem of Undying, 1 Totem of Undying, 1 Book {How to Kill Stuff for Numb Nuts}, 1 Book {Advanced Mob-Slaying}, 1 Book {Mobs of the Nether}, 1 Book {Mobs of the Bounty Days}
[EXP: 94]
Inventory (Baltic): 1 Iron Helmet [Protection III, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Chestplate [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Leggings [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Iron Boots [Protection III, Unbreaking III], 1 Iron Sword [Sharpness II, Unbreaking III], 1 Shield, 1 Bow, 1 Diamond Pickaxe [Silk Touch I, Mending I, Unbreaking II], 35 Arrows, 3 Brewing Stands, 1 Water Bucket, 64 Bones, 1 Ender Chest, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Gold Citizenship Pass}, 20 Emeralds, 64 Cooked Chicken, 30 Cooked Chicken, 1 Lingering Potion of Slowness {1:00}, 1 Blue Shulker Box {Pocket Box}, 1 Totem of Undying, 1 Totem of Undying, 1 Totem of Undying, 1 Map {Paragon Minecraftia}
Blue Shulker Box {Pocket Box}: 55 Glass Bottles, 64 Dragon's Breath, 55 Dragon's Breath, 48 Blaze Powder, 31 Nether Warts, 30 Soul Sand, 40 Phantom Membranes, 64 Blaze Rods, 62 Fermented Spider Eyes, 39 Carrots, 59 Melon Slices, 64 Rabbit's Feet, 40 Gold Ingots, 40 Gold Nuggets, 54 Gunpowder, 11 Redstone Dust, 56 Glowstone Dust, 63 Ghast Tears, 63 Sugar
[EXP: 32]
Inventory (Z7): 1 Iron Helmet [Thorns III, Projectile Protection IV], 1 Iron Chestplate [Thorns III, Projectile Protection IV], 1 Iron Leggings [Thorns III, Projectile Protection IV], 1 Iron Boots [Thorns III, Projectile Protection IV, Depth Strider III], 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Pickaxe, 1 Flint and Steel, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Furnace, 21 Charcoal, 39 Torches, 59 Oak Planks, 4 Glass Bottles, 1 Cake, 1 Cake, 21 Cookies, 32 Baked Potatoes, 2 Buckets, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Gold Citizenship Pass}, 1 Purple Shulker Box {Pocket Box}, 1 Map {Paragon Minecraftia}, 1 Book and Quill
Purple Shulker Box {Pocket Box}: 1 Diamond Helmet [Protection III, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Chestplate [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Leggings [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Boots [Protection III, Unbreaking III]
[EXP: 48]
AN: Okay time to take the camera off East Gang, like all of you wanted. Everything wrapped up cleanly and with no cliffhangers or open-endings. A Happy Ending. You all want West Gang so badly, so there. Now live with it. Mwahahahaha!
All jokes aside, this was always how East Arc was gonna end, with or without the Discord comments. I planned it out for a while, though I'm once again amazed I reached this far with my writing. The next milestone in my mind is crazier still, but I'll be amazed when I eventually get to that point. We won't turn the camera on West Gang immediately, though. No, no, no. There's something else that needs to be addressed first. Maybe you can guess what.
RIP Perry (Agent_P), another OC from an Anonymous reviewer. He was killed by enraged Teal.
This whole two-parter was meant to highlight the assault on the Eastern Division HQ, the number of forces, and the Eastern Division higher-ups. You get a glimpse of their character and their motivations. Mark, Teal, and Abyssmal. You only ever got bits and pieces of them before, but now you get a bigger picture on what drives them.
There was a lot of bouncing around and fight scenes, hence my need for a third-person narration. I tried to give everyone some focus on multiple fronts. Hybrids are unveiled, even though the Paragons are clueless on how they're made, and Abyssmal's strength is put on full display.
The Lenz fight scenes! Oh, lordy. The Lenz vs Teal Round 2 fight in the Simulation Room was something I built up for a while. It was inspired, as I teased in the Chapter Preview on Discord, by the Sly 2: Band of Thieves boss fight of Bentley vs Jean Bison. It's a great, creative boss fight from a game from my childhood. Teal isn't a Canadian Bison, but seeing Lenz mix his archer know-how and his redstone know-how to triumph over her and steal the Voda Shlem was a great fight scene. Brains beating Brawn.
We got Baltic killing Cletus. We got Cobb fighting Abyssmal, then killing a Wither with ease. The fisherman's element really is the water. The Eastern Division is basically wiped off the board, even if the higher-ups and two-thousand cultists escaped. They still lost a third of their amassed Heads, and their transportation network is ruined. They can no longer get around as easily. Abyssmal and Mark have their identities revealed.
But, uh-oh, now there's a significant split up. Everyone is in different places. You should never split the party.
That's all I gotta say. Leave a Review if you have any End of Arc questions you'd like me to answer. Or just go to the Discord to ask me them.
REVIEW. FAV. FOLLOW. FORUM. DISCORD. BROWNIE.