Invasion of the Overworld

by Mark Cheverton

  CHAPTER 9

  PREPARATION

  S

  hawny worked quickly, sketching out the plans for their defenses—not just walls and moats for the village, but traps for the unsuspecting mobs, areas with overlapping fire from archers, and choke points where one or two warriors could hold back a flood of attackers. This was what Shawny was best at: strategy. He was known to build great castles, their defenses nearly impregnable, and then just abandon them on one server only to construct an even greater work of strategic art somewhere else. And so they built, all through that day and into night. With hands newly freed, the villagers worked with tenacity, driving even the youngest children to build faster, everyone knowing that their lives teetered precariously on the edge of a blade, balanced between survival and destruction.

  Oddly enough, few monsters came to the village that first night, Crafter’s prediction that the main attack would come the night after was obviously true. Only a few zombies approached out of the darkness, easily dispatched by Gameknight as he ran about the perimeter, protecting his workers, his village; he was the User-that-is-not-a-user after all. He felt responsible, not just for this battle or this village, but for all the griefing he’d done in the past, all the wrongs he’d committed at the expense of these electronic lives. He would somehow make it right.

  And so they built through the night and into the next day, constructing dirt walls, stone archer towers, trenches filled with water, and wooden fences, all placed strategically. They then cut tunnels underneath the village, going from house to house; these were avenues of escape in case a zombie breached the wooden doors. Shawny’s commands were followed to the letter even though sometimes the NPCs didn’t understand why holes were being placed in specific locations, with tunnels brushing up against these holes but not reaching all the way down.

  “Murder holes,” Shawny had answered the questioning villagers. “You’ll understand when the time comes.”

  As they built the defenses, Crafter sent villagers out through their underground minecart system, relaying the defensive plans to the other villages all across Minecraft. This was not just a battle for this village, but a battle for all villages. It was important in Shawny’s plans that the monsters be denied any victims from now on, their craving for XP heightened and magnified.

  “But why make them crave more XP?” the Mayor asked. “It will just make them more violent, more aggressive.”

  “That’s true,” Shawny said as he directed the placement of walls, purposely only one block thick at certain locations, “but an angry opponent can be easily manipulated into a position that is favorable to you and deadly to them. We need to be able to herd all of the monsters on this server to one location where they can be trapped. The only way we can do that is to deny them XP from the villages, but offer it to them in a place of our choosing. Then we’ll close our trap and get rid of them all in one stroke. But first, we need to survive tonight.”

  The village slowly changed its appearance throughout the day from a peaceful collection of buildings clustered around fields of crops to one of walls and towers ringing the community, some meant to keep monsters out while others were meant to keep them in. Gameknight stood atop the tallest tower, a new addition, with its stone spire stretching up at least forty blocks into the air, giving him a clear view of the surroundings. He could see activity at the edge of the forest. Something was moving in the shadows. It looked like an enderman, but this one was somehow different, colored a dark, dark red, like the color of blood at sunset or the color of a nightmare. It teleported from the edge of the forest to the open plain and stood in plain view, a cloud of purple particles forming a haze around the dark creature.

  Moving to the ladder, Gameknight slid down to the ground and sprinted through the open gates that now protected the village, ready to face this menace. Running around obstacles and traps, Gameknight ran outside of the village’s defenses, coming to a stop and stood out in the open, letting the enderman know that he was here, ready. But the enderman didn’t approach. It just watched and then teleported to another location around the village, and then another and another; it watched, surveying their preparations.

  Suddenly, a presence moved next to him. Gameknight jumped in surprise, drawing his sword in a single fluid motion, ready for battle as he turned toward the new threat.

  “Put down your sword, Gameknight, it is only me,” said an old scratchy voice; it was Crafter.

  “You scared me,” he said as he put away his iron sword. He turned away from Crafter and looked back toward the enderman. “Who is that?”

  “Ahh, the leader of the endermen,” Crafter said. “He calls himself Erebus.”

  “What is he doing?”

  Erebus disappeared in a cloud of glowing purple sparks and reappeared on the other side of the village, then flashed to a new position, and then another, looking at the new defenses from every angle.

  “He’s likely mapping out our defenses,” Crafter explained, careful to not look directly at the dark monster out of fear of provoking him.

  Just then, Shawny joined the two of them.

  “Shawny, the enderman, he’s checking out our defenses,” Gameknight said, then turned back to Crafter. “What did you say his name was?”

  “Erebus.”

  “Yeah, Erebus,” he continued, talking to his friend, “he can see where the walls are thinner, where they are weakly defended. We need to strengthen the defenses at some of those locations around the village.”

  “Don’t worry, Gameknight,” Shawny explained. “We want him to see those places.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Nor do I,” Crafter added. “Don’t we want to strengthen all places around the village?”

  “A flood is coming, my friends,” Shawny said, a ring of confidence to his voice. “We cannot stand rigid against this flood for it will wash us away. Instead, we will redirect the flow to where we need it and where we are prepared. All is as it should be; we are ready.”

  “What of the other villages?” Gameknight asked.

  “Word has returned through the minecart network,” Crafter said. “The other villages are as prepared as we are. Tonight, this will either be our greatest victory or it will be the end of this server and all creatures living in it.”

  Gameknight put a reassuring hand on the old NPC’s shoulder.

  “All will be well, Crafter,” Gameknight said, trying to sound confident. “No matter how this ends, we will put up a fight that will be legendary.”

  “And soon,” Shawny added, pointing to the sun.

  The square yellow disk of the sun was just starting to kiss the horizon, the sky around it turning a deep red while square boxy clouds glowed white and then faded into the darkness as the sun descended. The sky slowly filled with stars.

  “Quick, back behind the defenses,” Shawny commanded.

  The three of them sprinted back toward the village, crossing the wooden bridge that spanned the moat that surrounded their village. As they crossed, Shawny broke the wooden blocks, allowing water to fill in. Passing through the gate that was composed of two iron doors, they entered the village, a sea of scared faces looking toward them. The sky darkened, and stars began to show their sparkling faces as the defenders moved to their positions.

  “Here they come,” yelled someone from the tallest tower.

  Gameknight climbed to the top of their dirt wall. He could see shapes moving amidst the trees: dark shapes, angry shapes. The torches that had been placed out near the edge of the forest allowed him to see the approaching mobs as they moved through the circle of light being cast on the ground. At first, only a few monsters came out of the dark forest, but then their numbers swelled as they rushed forward, a wave of monsters flowing across the landscape like an unstoppable tide.

  “Remember, don’t shoot the endermen,” Gameknight yelled to the defenders. “If we don’t provoke them, they can’t join the fight, so archers . . . aim carefully.”

  He lo
oked about the village; the NPCs were already looking up at him like he was some kind of hero. What a joke, a hero, Gameknight999. He was anything but a hero; he was a gamer who always played for himself and only himself, his only friend, Shawny, here at his side. The responsibility that had been heaped on him seemed to weigh a million tons; all of these lives were relying on him. This is crazy.

  Well, real or not, dream or reality, he was here right now, and for the first time he would try to help someone else: these NPCs—no, these people. He’d fight to save them and die in the process if it was necessary to do so. A shudder snaked down his spine followed by goose bumps that chilled his skin. He was ready.

  “Everyone, stand your ground and show no fear,” Gameknight yelled to the villagers. “This is your town and your server. We won’t let these mobs take it from you.” He held his iron sword up high and then stared out at the approaching mobs. “Come on, let’s dance.”

  CHAPTER 10

  SURPRISE FOR THE MOBS

  I

  nstead of all the monsters just rushing toward the village, they came in carefully orchestrated waves. First were the creepers, their four little feet moving in a blur of green and black. They scurried across the plain and approached the village, their dark eyes glaring hatefully at those who stood on the walls, bows in hand. Some fired arrows while the creepers were still far away.

  “Hold your fire until they are close enough to hit,” Shawny commanded. “Wait until they are in the moat.”

  The wave of creepers crashed forward, the monsters speeding across the open grassy plains, then slowing as they waded through the moat that encircled the village. When the first of the creepers hit the watery obstacle, the archers opened up, their bows casting a rain of iron-barbed drops that fell on the monsters with lethal fury. The green creatures flashed red as the projectiles pierced them. Some of them died in a liquid grave while others detonated in frustration. Explosions sounded around the village, the creatures blowing up their comrades in chain reactions that did more damage to the carefully constructed moat than to the defended walls. Firing as fast as they could, the villagers pumped more arrows into the green beasts as wave after wave of them attacked specific spots on the wall. More explosions tore at the moat, transforming it from a strategically constructed obstacle, to a gaping gash torn into the landscape; the defenders remaining untouched. A cheer rang out across the village as the creepers continued to detonate harmlessly out of reach. Finally, the creepers stopped their advance and stood out of bowshot, waiting. Now the zombies and spiders started their assault, followed by the skeletons.

  “Get ready by the gates,” Shawny yelled. “Prepare the redstone.”

  One of the villagers disappeared into a nearby structure, a stone building constructed on the last day, its thick walls and iron barred windows designed to survive creeper explosions and zombie attacks. Inside the room were various switches, each connected to a redstone circuit that controlled the village’s defenses.

  The spiders and zombies approached the main gate, but also stopped just out of bow range. They’d have to cross the moat, like the creepers, and knew the archers would tear them to shreds. So they waited.

  “What are they waiting for?” asked one of the villagers.

  “Just wait for it,” commanded Shawny.

  Suddenly four endermen teleported next to the moat with dirt blocks in their hands, a purple mist floating around each. They placed the brown spotted blocks into the moat, filling the watery passage with dirt. And then another wave of endermen appeared just as the first teleported away, filling in more of the moat until a solid bridge had been formed, cutting the moat into two. Now the zombies and spiders charged the iron doors, their forlorn moans and staccato clicking filling the air. Just as the surging wave of hatred reached the village’s wall, the skeletons stepped forward and started shooting from their side of the moat, firing on the archers that stood atop the barricade. Green clawed fists pounded on the metal doors that protected the village, their frames ringing with the blows, booming like distant thunder. But then suddenly more endermen appeared, their long arms grabbing the dirt blocks that had been strategically placed next to the iron doors. The black demons grabbed the dirt cubes onto which the doors were attached, then teleported away, carrying with them the critical blocks. Without the supporting blocks, the doors fell to the ground, falling at the feet of the waiting mob; the village was now open.

  “Our defenses have been breached,” Gameknight yelled. “Everyone draw swords and attack.”

  “NO,” Shawny commanded. “Hold your positions. Let them in.”

  “What?” Gameknight said, confusion on his face.

  “Watch and learn,” his friend said proudly as he signaled the villager in the control room.

  The monsters flowed into the wall-ringed village, but just as they entered, the redstone switch was thrown. Sticky pistons buried underground all moved as one, opening a wide two-block deep channel before the attacking mob. As the monsters charged, they fell into the trough, the depth of the hole keeping them trapped. Underground, in a tunnel that ran next to the trough, villagers hacked at the monster’s feet, the passage letting the defenders rain blow after blow at the exposed legs from relative safety, only the spiders able to hit back, the zombies and skeletons staying helpless. The villagers made quick work of these monsters, slashing at them as fast as possible while the creatures struggled to escape the murder holes.

  Gameknight sprinted across the murder holes and hacked at zombies and spiders, his iron sword flashing like a bolt of lightning, carving great, sweeping paths of destruction through the mobs. He could feel blows landing on him, but his armor was holding up. Like he’d learned in Wing Commander, Gameknight ran from target to target, not stopping to slug it out, but rather using hit-and-run tactics, just as he’d taught the villagers who were now joining the battle.

  The defenders now stood amidst the attackers, their armored forms moving from zombie to zombie, slashing at furry spiders and pale white skeletons. Amidst the chaos, he saw armored zombies slashing at the defenders, their golden swords wreaking havoc. Sprinting to the beasts, he struck at them from behind, wearing down their golden armor until it fell away, then quickly destroying the monster within, their golden swords falling to the ground. Nearby villagers snatched up the shiny weapons and turned them on the mobs, carving great arcs of death through the masses. The battle was terrible, with three to four monsters falling for every villager’s death. The NPCs fought with a vengeance, trying to push the monsters out of their village, knowing full well that their children lay hidden in their homes behind them, terrified. Gameknight could hear the screams of the dying, the anguish of the NPCs hammering away at his soul, but he had to stay focused. More monsters continued to flow through the breached gate, their numbers beginning to spread out through the village.

  “Second redstone, NOW,” Shawny yelled.

  Another switch was thrown from inside the control structure. Suddenly, walls pushed up from underground, separating the attackers into three groups, stopping them from spreading out, keeping them clumped together.

  “Archers, now!”

  Villagers suddenly appeared at the top of small towers only five to six blocks high that were positioned throughout the village. They rained pointed streaking death down onto monsters, their stubby arms drawing the bows as fast as they could. The monsters were forced so close together that the archers didn’t really even need to aim; they could just shoot into the cluster of hateful beasts. But then a wave of skeletons entered the village, their arrows seeking out archers on towers. Having to duck behind stone blocks for protection, the archers slowed their attack. Gameknight saw the tide of battle starting to shift, the skeletons much better shots than his villagers. Moving quickly, he dove into the cluster of monsters, seeking out the pale, boney creatures.

  “Infantry, concentrate on the skeletons,” Gameknight yelled as he stormed into the fray.

  Again, Gameknight was a killing machine, h
is sword flowing through the air in great sweeping arcs, hitting more than one target with a single slice. He hacked at the skeletons, ignoring the arrows that now stuck out of his armor, his back looking almost like a porcupine’s. More villagers joined the attack, surging toward the skeletons. The screams of the wounded, both NPC and mob, filled Gameknight’s ears with horror, but he kept on hacking, his only purpose right now, to destroy. But then he could see a massive group of creepers approaching, followed by large green slimes, their bouncing bodies moving across the plain toward the fallen gate.

  “Shawny, the creepers,” Gameknight yelled, pointing across the filled in moat.

  “I see them,” he replied. “Get ready with red-stone switch three. Everybody fall back to the inner wall. FALL BACK.”

  Gameknight hacked his way back to his own lines, attacking any targets of opportunity as he sped by. Looking out across the battlefield, he saw the villagers struggling hand-to-hand with the zombies, their swords slashing out to surprise the monsters. The mobs were not accustomed to the NPCs fighting back.

  “Come on, fall back,” Gameknight yelled, helping one defender to his feet, then covering his retreat by killing a zombie, followed by a giant spider.

  The NPCs withdrew deeper into the village, moving behind another stone wall, small two-block-high apertures left open until all had retreated, the openings then filled in with stone. Gameknight climbed up a set of steps and stood atop the inner wall, seeing the massive wave of creepers approaching. They didn’t notice that the ground was composed of grey-spotted gravel instead of the normal brown dirt, they just charged forward, their thirst to destroy overwhelming.

  “Wait for it,” Shawny yelled.

  The monsters now slowed and moved closer to the stone wall, but cautiously, silent commands somehow flowing to them from the endermen. Erebus suddenly appeared atop the outer wall, looking down at his troops, a look of satisfaction on his face. It looked as if his troops would soon overwhelm this last wall, his creepers taking it down with their explosive lives while the skeletons and zombies flowed in to finish off the survivors. The dark red enderman looked across the village directly at Gameknight and pointed with his long dark arm.