“Perfect,” Emma exclaimed. “We will start leading the beast toward the building. You have to help us.”
As Julia adjusted her armor, she announced, “Hallie is back. I just saw her on campus.”
“What?” Lucy appeared surprised.
“Yes,” Julia confirmed. “It was definitely her.”
The Wither flew close to them. Aaron splashed a potion at the beast as the Wither shot fiery skulls that landed dangerously close to them.
“This tree isn’t providing us with safety anymore,” Emma said. “We must fight back and lead the Wither to the bedrock prison.”
The group sprinted toward the bedrock structure as the Wither followed them, shooting a multitude of flaming skills in their direction.
“We’re almost there,” Julia called out.
The group was exhausted as they shot arrows at the Wither, leading the powerful beast to the bedrock structure.
“Do you think we can get it into the house?” Mia asked.
“We left a portion open. We can trap the Wither in there. You can battle it while Brad and I finish the structure and trap him,” Julia said.
The Wither shot a fiery skull that hit Aaron. He was weakened. Another skull struck his leg, and Aaron was destroyed.
“Aaron!” Lucy cried out.
“I assume he’ll respawn in the stronghold,” Emma said.
Another skull struck Lucy, and she was also destroyed. Emma worried they might not have enough people to trap the Wither.
Julia and Brad shot their final arrows at the Wither as Emma and Mia led the Wither to the bedrock structure, Julia and Brad worked hard to finish it and trap the Wither. While Julia placed the final piece of bedrock, the Wither unleashed another round of wither skulls from its three heads. Two skulls hit Julia, instantly destroying her.
Julia awoke in her bed. She wanted to rush downstairs to help Brad place the final piece of bedrock, but she couldn’t move. As she climbed out of bed, Julia gasped. Hallie stood above her. She pointed a diamond sword close to Julia’s face. Glancing down, Julia spotted bricks of TNT lining the length of her bed. She looked up at Hallie and spit out a one-word question: “Why?”
Chapter 13
DISCOVERIES IN THE DUNGEON
“Don’t move,” Hallie threatened.
“But—” Julia barely got a word out before Hallie lunged and struck her with the diamond sword.
“You moved,” Hallie screamed. “I told you not to move.”
“What do you want from me?” Julia cried.
“You’re coming with me. We’re going to see some of your good friends.” Hallie laughed.
“What did you do to my friends?” Julia was worried about them. She had no idea if Hallie was working alone or with a larger group. “Tell me now.”
“Follow me,” Hallie ordered as she held a diamond sword against Julia’s chest.
“Where are we going? What happened to the Wither? Where are my friends?”
“You have so many questions.” Hallie chuckled. “I can answer them, but I won’t. You’ll find out soon enough.”
Julia followed Hallie out of the dorm room and down the stairs. It was daylight and the Wither was gone. The campus was eerily empty. Not one student walked across the campus.
“What happened to the students?” Julia asked.
“Stop asking questions.”
Julia obeyed Hallie and walked behind her as they made their way through the woods dense with trees. Julia hoped she’d lose Hallie on a path covered with leaves, but Hallie was intent on keeping Julia her prisoner. She walked with the sword pointed at Julia, and Julia knew there was no escape. Hallie would whisper in Julia’s ear which direction she should walk, and if Julia made a wrong turn she’d poke the sword against her chest.
“You’re depleting my energy,” Julia warned Hallie. “If you keep bumping your sword into my back, I will eventually respawn in my bed.”
Julia regretted mentioning this to Hallie, as she realized this could have been an escape plan. However, she also wanted to find her friends. If she respawned in her bed, she might be safe, but she’d also be helpless in finding their location.
They passed the swamp and the small wooden structure she constructed with Lucy and the gang. For the first time in her life, Julia wished a witch would attack them and destroy Hallie. Yet they passed through the swamp biome without any incident. It was too light for hostile mobs to spawn. Julia wondered when night would set in, because the trip seemed to take forever. There were many times that Julia wanted to ask where they were going, but it was pointless. It seemed as if they had been walking forever when Julia spotted a temple in the distance. Hallie led her to the Jungle temple and said, “We’re going into that Jungle temple.”
Julia remembered Lucy mentioning that Hallie lived in a village in the Jungle, and realized Hallie must be incredibly familiar with this biome. Julia reluctantly followed Hallie deeper into the Jungle temple.
“We have to go downstairs,” Hallie ordered.
Following Hallie down the stairs, Julia cringed when a pair of red eyes stared at them. Before Julia could scream, Hallie swung her sword at the cave spider, annihilating it with one strike.
“This is your new home.” Hallie pointed to a prison cell.
Julia hated being trapped. Once a griefer covered the entrance to her igloo with snow and she couldn’t get out. She’d spent two days frantically digging her way out of her home. Julia looked at the prison cell and sighed. She was plotting her escape when she heard someone call out her name.
“Brad?” She peered in to see Brad, Mia, Henry, and Lucy at the back of the prison cell.
Hallie opened the gate and locked it behind Julia. “Good luck, guys. If you ever get out of here, you’ll be sad to find out that Minecrafters Academy is gone. I’m replacing it with my own school, where I teach people how to become villains.” Hallie splashed a potion on herself and disappeared.
Scanning the small, dimly lit prison cell, Julia realized all her friends weren’t there. “Where are Emma and Aaron?”
Lucy explained, “After we trapped the Wither, you were destroyed.”
“I was destroyed before you placed the final brick,” Julia interrupted.
Lucy seemed annoyed at Julia’s interruption, and paced. “Once the Wither was captured, Hallie splashed a potion of weakness on us. She said if we didn’t follow her, she’d detonate the TNT she’d placed around campus and would destroy every structure at Minecrafters Academy. We followed her, but Emma was able to escape, and Aaron never respawned on campus. We hope they’ll rescue us, or at least save Minecrafters Academy.”
“Why does she want to destroy the school?” Julia asked.
Brad said, “You heard her. She wants to turn it into a place that churns out evil villains.”
“I know, but I just can’t believe it,” Julia had to come up with a plan that could help them escape.
“We need to get out of here,” Mia said.
Henry looked through his inventory. “I think I have an escape plan.”
“Really? Do you think you can get us out of here?” Lucy asked.
“Yes.” Henry smirked.
“I have a plan too,” Julia announced.
“Great,” Brad said. “Let’s hear them.”
Chapter 14
HIDDEN IN THE MINE
“You go first.” Henry smiled. “I love when I learn from my students.”
“But you’re the survival expert,” Julia said.
“This is no time to debate over who should go first,” Lucy said. “Julia, tell us your plan.”
“I think we should call Hallie down here and get her to open the gate. Once she does, we can each throw a potion on Hallie and overthrow her.”
“Do you think she’ll come down here?” Mia asked.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Julia said as she began to holler, the loudest, most powerful shrill scream anyone has ever heard.
Everyone covered their ea
rs. They had never heard such a piercing, loud shriek. It wasn’t a cry for help, but an intense scream that would have broken a glass or vial if it had been in the musty Jungle dungeon prison.
Hallie walked down the stairs, “What’s that sound?”
Julia didn’t stop. She kept screaming.
“What is wrong with you, Julia? Stop shouting!” Hallie demanded, but Julia wouldn’t. Occasionally she would take a breath, but then she’d continue to unleash the harshest sound ever heard in the Overworld. Hallie opened the jail cell door and attempted to plunge her sword into Julia’s stomach, but Julia continued to belt out her intensely caustic scream.
Henry, Lucy, Brad, and Mia leaped at Hallie. They struck her with swords and splashed her with potions until she disappeared.
“We have to get out of here,” Lucy ordered, as the gang sprinted up the stairs and out of the Jungle. They raced back to the campus, but as they passed a mine they heard loud noises.
Julia stopped by the mine’s entrance, and Lucy called out, “Don’t stop, Julia. We have to keep going.”
“It sounds like someone is in trouble in the mine. We have to investigate,” Julia said.
“We can’t. We have to get back to Minecrafters Academy,” Lucy said.
Julia couldn’t leave if she thought someone was in trouble, and she raced into the mine. She didn’t turn back to see who was following her; she simply ran toward the sound of the cries.
“Julia,” Aaron cried.
Julia was shocked to see Emma and Aaron battling Hallie. She quickly grabbed a sword from her inventory, ready to pounce on Hallie, when a barrage of arrows flew past her. Julia turned around, as Lucy, Henry, Brad, and Mia aimed their arrows and once again destroyed Hallie.
“Thankfully you showed up,” Aaron let out a deep breath, “Hallie had her trapped down here.”
Hallie respawned in front of them. “And now I’m going to trap you all down here.”
“How?” Henry asked as he pointed his arrow at her.
Hallie smiled. “I have TNT bricks across the entire campus. If you don’t stay here, I will set it all off and the entire campus will explode.”
Lucy was the first person to shoot an arrow at Hallie, who was dumbfounded. Lucy called out, “You thought that threat would stop us from destroying you?” Lucy ordered Aaron and Henry to go back to campus. “I want to see if she’s telling the truth. If she is, please remove the bricks of TNT.”
Before Aaron and Henry could TP back to the campus, Hallie haphazardly constructed a portal to the Nether and vanished amidst a sea of purple mist. Julia eyed the fading portal and hopped on after Hallie. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Emma standing next to her. She’d hate to emerge in the Nether alone with Hallie. She’d never been to the Nether before, and she knew Emma was an expert.
“Get out of here!” Hallie screamed at Julia and Emma, as she stood next to them on the portal, but there was no time to reply, because the portal dropped them in the center of the Nether, and a group of ghasts flew toward them.
Julia’s heart felt as if it was beating out of her chest. The white blocky mob shot fireballs at them.
“Use your arrow,” Emma instructed her and quickly added, “duck,” as a fireball landed next to Julia’s feet.
“She’s getting away,” Julia cried.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find her. We have to destroy the ghasts or they will follow us.”
Emma’s arrow pierced the white fire-breathing flying Nether mob and it vanished. She then aimed her arrow at another ghast, destroying it with one arrow. She told Julia to grab the dropped ghast tears. As Julia reached for them, Emma annihilated the final ghast and called out, “I see a Nether fortress.”
“Do you think Hallie is in the fortress?” Julia asked.
“It seems likely that’s where she’d be hiding. Also, there are great treasures there, and she would want them,” Emma said.
Julia stared at the grand Nether fortress in the distance. Although she could see the fortress, she knew traveling toward it wouldn’t be easy. As she looked at a lava waterfall, a vacant-eyed pig walked past them.
“Don’t bother the zombie pigmen,” Emma warned.
Julia knew there were too many rules to survive in the Nether. She was at a serious disadvantage because she knew none of them. Walking carefully toward the fortress along a stream of lava, Julia hoped she wouldn’t accidentally break any rules.
Chapter 15
NOT IN THE NETHER
“I see her!” Emma pointed at a figure running in the distance.
“Are you sure that’s her?” Julia asked. “I don’t think that person has blue hair.”’
“Yes,” Emma replied, dashing toward the fortress, “I swear it’s her.”
Steps from the fortress, two blazes rose from the ground, and flew high up as they shot fiery balls at them.
“Use your fist,” Emma told her.
“What?” Julia wasn’t sure what Emma said. Surely she couldn’t have asked her to hit a fireball with her fist. Wouldn’t she get burned? Wasn’t that an extremely risky way of defeating this fiery mob? Julia looked over at Emma, who didn’t have time to answer her question. Emma made a fist and struck the fireball, which flew back toward the blazes and destroyed one. You could use your fist to defeat the blaze, Julia thought, and you don’t get burned? That’s awesome.
A fireball flew toward her, and she put out her fist and cringed, worried the pain from the burn would overwhelm her and she’d pass out. She slammed her fist into the fireball, striking the ball that flew back toward the blaze, obliterating it.
They destroyed the two blazes, and continued their trip toward the Nether fortress, but were stopped by the entrance. Blazes guarded the fortress with great care, and aimed the fireballs at Emma and Julia with the intent of destroying them quickly.
“How did Hallie get past this on her own?” Julia gasped as she dodged one blast, and prepared to shield herself from the next.
The blazes lowered themselves and Emma slayed them with her sword. Emma was screaming at Julia, something about picking up what had been dropped.
“What?” Julia asked.
“The blaze rod,” Emma said. “Pick it up. All of these drops are extremely valuable to Aaron and Mia. They help you brew very powerful and important potions.” Emma added, “You have to help me, Julia. You can’t be this passive. Just because you’re a builder doesn’t mean you don’t have the capacity to learn other things.”
Julia was offended.“You really hurt my feelings,” she said as she took her first steps into the massive Nether fortress.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings. I just want you to get accustomed to the Nether and to do it fast. This is a harsh biome and it takes a lot to survive here. I know you have what it takes, but you are just scared, that’s all. Please don’t be upset by it,” Emma said.
“Okay,” Julia replied. She didn’t want to analyze the situation. She was too preoccupied with studying every inch of this Nether fortress. The Nether was the polar opposite of the snowy biome, where Julia was from. Where she lived, everything was icy and cold, but in the Nether, she feared she’d get burned if she touched anything. Julia paused by the stairs, pointing to a patch of deep red plant that sprouted next to the staircase, “What’s this?”
“That’s Nether wart. We should pick some. It’s useful when feeding chickens and creating the awkward potion, but we have to do this fast. We don’t have time to explore the Nether fortress and its many finds. We have to stop Hallie.”
A voice boomed through the Fortress. “If you want to stop me, you came to the right place.”
Julia stopped plucking the Nether wart and grabbed her bow and arrow, pointing it at Hallie who had appeared directly in front of them. “We are going to stop you, Hallie,” Julia declared.
“How? With an arrow?” Hallie asked while pulling a potion from her inventory and taking a sip. “Now I’m very strong. Hit me, but you can’t destroy me.”
“It’s a lot more fun to be evil.” Hallie smiled as she plunged the sword deep into Julia’s unprotected arm.
“Ouch!” Julia cried as the pain radiated down her left arm, and she dropped the arrow she was clutching with her right hand.
“Is it a lot more fun to be evil?” a voice called out.
Hallie was startled to see Lucy standing in front of her. Lucy pointed her diamond sword at Hallie. “So you weren’t working alone, were you?”
“What?” Emma asked. “Who is she working with?”
Hallie struck Lucy with her sword. “I’m going to win,” Hallie screamed as she pulled a potion out with the other hand and tossed the potent liquid on Emma and Julia, immobilizing them.
“Help—” Emma could barely get the words out as Hallie leaped toward her with a diamond sword.
Julia gathered enough strength to strike Hallie before she could destroy Emma. As Emma’s energy returned, she grabbed a vial of potion and took a quick sip. Regaining her energy, she was able to strike Hallie with her sword.
Carla spawned in the center of the fortress, and Julia called out, “Carla! Help us battle Hallie.”
“She won’t help you,” Lucy hollered as she struck Carla with her diamond sword. “She’s working with Hallie.”
“Why?” Julia asked again, but there was no reply. Carla was destroyed.
Emma and Julia slammed their swords into Hallie, destroying her with their powerful blows.
“We’re safe.” Julia sighed with relief.
“No, we’re not,” Emma grabbed her arm as an arrow pierced the exposed skin. “They’re wither skeletons, Julia,” she called out, identifying the hostile mob.
“What do we do?” Julia cried.
“I’ll show you.” Lucy lunged at the black block-headed skeleton with her diamond sword, knocking it back.
The second wither skeleton struck Julia with its sword before she had a moment to mobilize. Emma called out, “Drink milk!”
Attack on Minecrafters Academy Page 5
