The Hardcore War

by Winter Morgan

  “You have to work faster. I can’t hold them off much longer!” Violet was fighting an impossible battle.

  Adam handed Violet a potion of harming. “Use this.”

  Violet splashed the potion on Thomas and Trent. They were temporarily exhausted. Violet used this opportunity to shoot as many arrows as she could at the evil pair.

  “Stop!” Thomas called out weakly, but Violet continued to flood Thomas and Trent with a barrage of arrows until they were destroyed.

  “Good job,” Adam called out as he hit his pickaxe against the ceiling.

  “Let me help you guys.” Violet took out her pickaxe. “We have to work fast. They are going to respawn soon.”

  The opening in the ceiling was getting bigger. Finally, Violet pushed her way through the gaping hole and onto the mycelium blocks on Mooshroom Island. They all climbed through the hole and joined Violet on the ground.

  “We need to find the others,” Violet said as she scanned the landscape of the scenic, rather peaceful island.

  “Let’s head to the dock. Maybe they are waiting for us,” said Adam.

  The trio hiked over the hilly island toward the shoreline, passing mooshrooms grazing in the pasture filled with red mushrooms. Once they reached the dock, they could see the boats still floating in the water.

  “We have to craft a boat for you,” Violet told Jasper.

  Adam counted the boats. “Apparently the others are still on the island. We can’t leave them here. We must find them.”

  The trio headed back toward the center of the island. They needed to find their friends. Now that they weren’t on Hardcore mode, they weren’t as nervous about being destroyed. Violet wondered if Thomas and Trent had defeated her friends and, if so, if they had respawned in the town. Suddenly a terrible thought entered her mind. She didn’t even want to think it—it was that awful.

  Violet looked at Adam. “What if Thomas and Trent destroyed the others before we were able to take us off Hardcore mode?”

  Adam stopped and gasped in alarm at the thought. “That can’t be. I hope that isn’t the case.”

  Violet, Adam, and Jasper continued the search for their lost friends. Violet tried to remain hopeful as she roamed around the island calling out to her friends, but they heard no response.

  13

  GAME OVER

  Violet was losing hope. Night was beginning to fall, so Adam suggested they build a small house to shelter in.

  “I can use a mushroom and build a mushroom house,” Violet declared. Normally she’d be excited to start a new project, but she was worried about her missing friends.

  Adam and Jasper helped Violet construct the house. Although she paid attention to building, she also kept an eye out for her friends. She hoped she would see them walking through the landscape toward them.

  When the house was finished, the trio went inside and crafted beds. Once they were snugly covered by their blankets, Violet asked, “Do you think our friends are still in the stronghold? We should go back there tomorrow.”

  Adam confessed, “I’m worried that Thomas put the world back onto Hardcore mode again.”

  “But we destroyed the command blocks,” Jasper reminded him. “And I can tell you that Thomas isn’t as powerful as he appears. When I was prisoner, I saw what he really had in his inventory. He is running low on resources. Setting the Overworld to Hardcore mode wasn’t easy for him.”

  Violet hoped Jasper was right. She wondered where her friends were at that very moment. She also thought about Trent and realized how disappointed she was that he had turned so evil. She had trusted him, and he had betrayed them all. When she closed her eyes, she imagined being reunited with her friends. She dreamed of having a picnic with Noah and the gang on Mooshroom Island. They would feast on mooshroom stew and play games without any worries.

  Before she knew it, it was morning. The sun was shining and they all sat up in their beds, eating carrots for energy. Soon, Violet realized she didn’t have any food left in her inventory.

  “I have nothing to eat. I will go find a mooshroom and milk it for stew,” she told the others.

  Adam offered Violet a carrot. “Take this for now.”

  As they finished their breakfast, a blast rattled the walls.

  “What’s that?” asked Adam.

  “Sounded like TNT,” said Jasper.

  The trio dashed out of the house to find where the blast had occurred. They searched for smoke in the sky as they ran through fields of mushrooms and peaceful mooshrooms roaming grassy patches on the island. Violet spotted Thomas and Trent. They were staring at a hole in the ground. The TNT had left a deep crater.

  Violet shot an arrow at Trent, which struck his arm. He turned around and shouted, “Thomas, the enemy is here!”

  Violet, Adam, and Jasper hid behind a large mushroom and shot arrows at Thomas and Trent. The evil duo sprinted toward them. Trent shouted, “Game over, guys!”

  “Did you set the Overworld back to Hardcore mode? Tell us the truth!” Violet demanded.

  “No, we did something worse. And it’s over for you, just like it was over for your friends,” Thomas laughed.

  Violet’s heart sunk when she heard Thomas mention her friends. She didn’t want to believe they were destroyed; she still hoped to find them somewhere on the island.

  “What happened to our friends?” Violet shouted at Thomas.

  Thomas smiled and lunged toward Violet with his diamond sword. “Your friends aren’t destroyed. But they will be destroyed soon.”

  “Are they on Hardcore mode?” asked Adam as he shielded himself from Trent’s sword.

  “Like I’d tell you.” Thomas let out a shrill laugh.

  Adam took out a potion of harming and splashed it on Thomas. He was weakened. Trent struck Adam with his sword, while Thomas regained his strength.

  “You’re not going to win this battle. There are three of us and two of you!” Violet shouted as she struck Thomas.

  “Two of us?” Thomas replied with a laugh and then called out, “Army activate!”

  Violet was shocked and speechless when a group of men in blue helmets crawled out from the tunnel.

  “Army—attack!” Thomas ordered again.

  The men in blue helmets surged forward. Violet knew she couldn’t win this battle. There was nothing left to do but surrender.

  “Stop!” she called out to Thomas. “You win. Please just lead us to our friends. We want to say good-bye before we’re destroyed.”

  Thomas smiled. “Haha! You are now my prisoners.” He then ordered the soldiers, “Take these people into the cave prison.”

  Violet, Adam, and Jasper followed the men in the blue helmets down the hole. The men marched the gang through a series of tunnels. Violet didn’t recognize this stronghold. She wondered how many strongholds Thomas had discovered on Mooshroom Island.

  As they walked down a long corridor, Violet spotted a room filled with wool blocks. When they reached the end of the tunnel, she saw a door. One of the men opened the door and led them into a cave-like room.

  Violet called out, “Noah!”

  Noah, Hannah, Ben, Will, and Daniel sat in the cave.

  Daniel called out, “Help us!”

  Noah cried, “We have almost no hearts left. Thomas isn’t feeding us.”

  Hannah screamed, “Attack the men in the blue helmets! It’s our only chance to escape.”

  Ben said quite weakly, “Since we’re on Hardcore mode, I guess this is where we say good-bye.”

  Adam offered the weary group some good news: “We are off Hardcore mode!”

  One of the men wearing a blue helmet laughed, “But you’re still trapped. Welcome to prison. And now I say, good-bye.” The man closed the door and the gang was trapped in the cave.

  “How are we going to get out of here?” Violet searched every corner. “Maybe we can dig a hole.”

  Ben asked, “Does anybody have food? We are starving.”

  Adam checked his inventory. He discov
ered he was very low on food, too. He asked Jasper, “How’s your food supply?”

  Jasper just had a couple of potatoes and an apple. Adam only had milk and chicken.

  Violet panicked and groaned, “I don’t have any food left in my inventory, either.”

  Adam calmed her down. “We just ate. So we’re fine for a little while. We’ll give what we have in our inventories to these guys, so they can restore their energy and help us escape.”

  Everyone agreed that was a good idea. As the others ate, Violet banged her pickaxe into the cave’s ceiling, but no matter how hard she struck, she couldn’t make even a dent in the dirt.

  “Something is wrong.” Violet sounded worried. “I can’t break anything with my pickaxe.”

  14

  HELP FROM OLD FRIENDS

  Thomas yanked the door open. “Trying to escape?”

  Violet held her pickaxe in her hand and scoffed at him. “You aren’t going to win.”

  “Maybe the Overworld isn’t set to Hardcore mode anymore, but you’re on Adventure mode now,” Thomas replied.

  “Oh, that’s why I can’t break the blocks.” Violet sighed. Now everything made sense.

  Adam shot an arrow at Thomas. He shielded himself and laughed. “I let you keep your weapons because they’re pointless in this prison. You’re not going to get out. There’s no escaping!” With those words, Thomas shut the door and the gang was trapped in the cave once again.

  Violet felt defeated. Although she was happy to be reunited with her friends, she was upset that she couldn’t break through the ceiling and escape. “He’s right. Our weapons are pointless. We can’t escape, and we have no food. This is our time to say our last good-byes.”

  “But we’re not on Hardcore mode anymore. Maybe we should just destroy each other with the weapons and respawn in the mushroom house,” Adam suggested.

  Violet couldn’t stomach the idea of destroying her friends. She asked Noah and the others, “Where would you respawn?”

  Noah pointed at the beds in the corner. “Here.”

  Adam said, “Violet and Jasper, we can’t sleep here.”

  A cave spider crawled against the wall, and Violet struck the spider with her diamond sword. “See, we can use our weapons after all.”

  Violet paced around the cave; she had to come up with a plan. She needed to defeat Thomas and Trent. She refused to let them win.

  “What are we going to do? Any ideas?” Violet asked the group.

  Adam suggested they wait to see what Thomas’s next move might be.

  “That’s not a plan!” Noah complained.

  “Well, do you have another plan?” Adam demanded.

  The group was tired, scared, and beginning to feel overpowered. They were also growing impatient with each other. Nobody had a plan of escape and they began to fight.

  Violet put an end to the bickering. “Please. We can’t fight. We have to stick together.”

  “But this is hopeless,” Hannah told her.

  “Oh no!” Adam shouted, as silverfish began to flood the floor of the cave.

  “Thomas must have placed a silverfish spawner in the stronghold,” Will said as he used his last bit of energy to destroy the silverfish crawling on the ground.

  The group battled the silverfish invasion together. When the last silverfish was destroyed, Noah said, “I’m sure more will spawn soon. This is the end, guys.”

  Violet looked at the others. “We have to think of something. Adam, can we use one of your potions?”

  Adam searched his inventory, but he didn’t have many potions left. He just had a few bottles of potions of harming and a potion of invisibility.

  “What are we going to do?” Violet called out as more silverfish entered the cave.

  Noah grabbed his sword and struck as many silverfish as he could, but the battle seemed pointless. They were just going to lose all their energy battling these insects. They would be destroyed and respawn in the cave. He put his sword down.

  “What are you doing?” Ben asked he struck a silverfish.

  “Giving up,” confessed Noah.

  “We never give up,” Violet said as she crushed a silverfish.

  “Look at what happened to me,” Daniel told Noah. “You all fought me so many times, and I never won—you always did. Look how that ended! Now I know better.”

  “Thomas is different. He put the world on Hardcore mode. He is pure evil.” Violet looked at Daniel.

  “He’s not going to win,” Daniel reassured her, but Violet didn’t believe him. They had no plan, and they were prisoners.

  As Hannah annihilated a cluster of silverfish, she said, “I think I hear something coming from the other side of the door.”

  “It’s probably Thomas with bricks of TNT. He’s probably going to blow us up,” Violet said weakly.

  “No, I hear a voice that sounds really familiar,” Hannah said.

  The others stood in silence as silverfish crawled around their feet.

  Violet replied, “Yes, it sounds like—”

  Before she could finish her sentence, the treasure hunters Henry, Lucy, and Max burst through the door.

  “You’re free!” Lucy called out.

  “Come quickly. We need to get you out of here before Thomas respawns,” Henry told the group.

  “Follow me!” ordered Max.

  The gang raced down the hall and toward the light at the end of the tunnel, but when they reached the exit, Thomas and Trent stood blocking their way.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Thomas asked and let out another loud sinister laugh.

  “Game over, Thomas!” Max said as he struck his sword against him, but Thomas only let out another laugh.

  “You can’t destroy me,” Thomas said, “and you can’t escape.” He ordered his soldiers to attack.

  A sea of men in blue helmets flooded the tunnel and marched the group back toward the cave.

  Violet’s hope was shattered. As they entered the cave for the second time, she felt there was no possible way to escape, until she heard one of the men in a blue helmet call out, “Ouch!”

  Another one of Thomas’s soldiers cried, “Help us, Thomas! We are being attacked.”

  The men in blue helmets were distracted and Violet used this opportunity to run.

  “Hurry, this is our chance,” Violet shouted to the others.

  As they weaved their way through the men in blue helmets and climbed out of the cave-like stronghold, Violet caught a glimpse of an orange person.

  15

  BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL

  Violet never thought she’d see the day when rainbow griefers would save her. As she emerged from the hole, she saw men in blue helmets crawl out and battle a colorful army on Mooshroom Island.

  “My army,” Daniel said proudly. He called out to the multicolored army, “Good work, soldiers. Keep fighting.”

  Once all of her friends were safely out of the cave-like stronghold, Violet asked, “Where should we go? Should we help with the battle?”

  “We need food and then we can return to battle Thomas,” Will said weakly. His food bar was dangerously low.

  The group spotted a mooshroom grazing. Violet hurried over to the passive mob and began to milk it. She handed mooshroom stew to everyone.

  “When we’re done eating, we must help the rainbow army battle Thomas,” Lucy told them. “We have to see an end to this battle.”

  Daniel watched his army fight Thomas and Trent. “This is incredible. I can’t believe my army is actually doing something good!”

  Violet was amazed when she saw the townspeople and hotel guests running across Mooshroom Island and toward the battle. The villagers were suited up in armor and they carried swords, bows and arrows, and bottles of potion.

  “We’re here to help!” one of the townspeople called out to the gang.

  “The reason you always defeated me,” Daniel told his new friends, “is because you have the most powerful resource in the Overworld.”
/>   “What is that?” Violet was bewildered.

  “You have friends. Look at all these people who want to help you. That is the most powerful resource and gift.” Daniel looked out at the never-ending swarm of people who stormed toward Thomas and Trent.

  Violet could hear Thomas shout, “I surrender! Please! Stop!”

  Noah and the gang rushed to grab Thomas. Noah said, “You give up?”

  “Yes, I do.” Thomas could barely speak those words; he was exhausted.

  Noah was shocked to hear Trent shout, “Thomas, don’t surrender! Not yet. It’s coming very soon.”

  “What’s coming?” Violet demanded.

  “Like I’d tell you,” Trent snickered.

  Noah held his sword against Trent’s chest. “You don’t have many hearts left. This is no time to act like this. Tell us what you’re planning to do.”

  They didn’t need a response. Within seconds, three Ender Dragons and two Withers were seen flying above the group.

  Everyone began to battle the invasion of flying hostile mobs. Wither skulls shot through the sky like rain. Ender Dragons let out deafening roars in unison. The gang was under full attack! Thomas and Trent simply laughed and watched the battle. Violet didn’t want them to escape, so she held her sword against Trent, and Adam stood by Thomas and aimed his bow and arrow at this chest.

  “You’ll never win!” Thomas cried out.

  Violet marched Thomas back into the cave. “You had better take the Overworld off Adventure mode right now!” she demanded.

  “Never!” Thomas declared.

  Adam marched Trent into the cave, following Violet and Thomas. Adam said, “We are going to use command blocks to put you two on Hardcore mode.”

  “No, don’t do that!” Thomas pleaded.

  “Once you are on Hardcore mode, with one strike, you’ll be destroyed. Your energy is very low and you are on an island where everyone wants to destroy you because of all the evil you’ve brought to the Overworld.” Violet pointed her sword as she spoke to Thomas.

  Adam used command blocks to set Thomas and Trent onto Hardcore mode. “There! Now do you think I was joking?”