“What?” Watcher stared up at the villager, who stood on a tall watch tower built out of dirt. The archer looked down with a resigned expression on his face and just shook his head.
Pulling blocks of dirt out of his inventory, Watcher jumped into the air and placed the block under his feet. He repeated this six times, then slowly turned. Emerging from the jungle were countless creepers, their dark eyes filled with hatred. Some of the monsters sparkled, with electric sheets of energy hugging their bodies; these were charged creepers … and they were very dangerous.
He tried to count the monsters, but there were just too many. The creepers were packed together, shoulder to shoulder, with more ranks of monsters pushing through the underbrush. They probably outnumbered the villagers ten to one … it was impossible.
Watcher gazed down at his companions.
“Well?” Planter stared up at him.
Her green eyes and long blond hair had never looked so beautiful to Watcher. And then, suddenly, Watcher realized what he’d been feeling toward Planter: he liked her, not just as a childhood friend … but something more. And now, he’d never get a chance to experience this emotion with her … that is, if she felt the same way about him.
“What do you see?” she asked.
What should I say … that I see everyone’s death? It’s hopeless.
He said nothing, just stared down at Planter and tried to burn her image into the back of his mind so that it’d be there at the end.
“Here they come!” another villager shouted.
Watcher turned toward the tree line as hundreds of creepers charged toward them. It was the end.
CHAPTER 15
Bowstrings sang as the archers fired upon the creepers, but there were just too many of them. The pointed shafts did little to slow the green wave of destruction.
“Keep shooting!” Cutter glanced up at Watcher, expecting the boy to do something.
But all Watcher could do was watch in horror as the monsters drew closer and closer.
Suddenly, the villagers were enveloped in a fluttering storm of color. Hundreds of parrots descended upon their position. The birds landed on the ground or clung to the trunks of trees. Many landed on Er-Lan’s outstretched arms, the creature now smiling a toothy grin that would have looked terrifying coming from any other zombie. The parrots squawked and howled as if each bird were competing to see which could be the loudest. The cacophony was terrible, forcing many villagers to put their hands over their ears.
And then the strangest thing happened.
All of the birds grew silent. A tense hush spread across the jungle. The creepers, unsure what was happening, stopped their advance. No one spoke and no one fired a weapon. Every NPC stood completely motionless, afraid to disturb the silence.
And then one of the birds made a noise that sounded like that of a cat meowing. Another made a meowing sound, followed by an angry feline growl. More of the parrots joined in, each mimicking the sound of the jungle ocelots, the mortal enemy of the creepers. The sound slowly percolated through the jungle, reaching the ears of the creepers. At first, the monsters held their ground, but then the parrots walked across the ground, moving closer to the hastily constructed barricade. They meowed and growled and howled louder, the replicated cat sounds becoming fierce.
Watcher saw the first creeper turn and run. One of the charged creepers tried to shout some kind of command, but as soon as the others saw one creeper retreat, it broke the horde’s courage. The creepers’ fear of the cats far outweighed their lust for destruction. The monsters turned and fled as the parrots screamed their performance louder and louder.
Finally, only one creeper remained; it was the biggest of the electrified monsters. The charged creeper glared up at Watcher with such hatred in its eyes, it almost hurt to stare back.
“Next time the villagers invade my jungle … the outcome will be different,” the monster said.
“We aren’t invading, we’re just passing through and …” Watcher stopped speaking; the monster was gone. Glancing down at Planter, he smiled, then shouted, “They’re gone!”
The villagers cheered and hugged each other in joy.
Watcher used a shovel and dug up the blocks beneath his feet, slowly lowering himself to the ground. When he was two blocks from the ground, he jumped to the jungle floor and ran for Planter. But before he could get there, Cutter gathered her up in his arms and gave her a giant hug, a huge smile spreading across the big NPC’s square face. Skidding to a stop, Watcher stared at his friends, his joy slowly deflating.
Planter released Cutter, then turned to Watcher and smiled. “We’re safe.”
She reached out and pulled Watcher into her arms, but the boy was still confused at what he’d just witnessed. He glanced at Cutter just as the warrior turned and headed for the barricade.
“Everyone, let’s move out.” Cutter used a pick axe to dig into the blocks of dirt that formed their defenses. “We need to hurry before those creepers come back.”
The villagers gathered their belongings and dug up their fortified wall, then continued to the east, toward the still-unseen ocean. As they moved past, Watcher approached Er-Lan.
“I know you saved all of us.” He put an arm around the zombie. “Did you see that trick with the birds in your vision?”
Er-Lan shook his head. “The premonitions come when they come, there is no control of what is seen.”
“Then how did you know to have the parrots mimic the ocelots?”
“All zombies know creepers are afraid of cats. Don’t villagers know that?”
“Well … I guess … I was pretty scared and just didn’t think about having the parrots mimic their meows.”
Er-Lan nodded. “At least no creatures of the Far Lands had to perish.”
“Agreed.” Watcher pulled out an axe. “Let’s catch up with the others. I bet it’s not a good idea to be on your own in the Creeper’s Jungle.”
The zombie grunted his agreement, then followed his friend through the dense vegetation. They caught up with the rest of the army. Watcher ordered the archers to the edge of the formation with arrows notched and ready. Parrots flapped overhead, diving amongst the branches, their ocelot mimicry still being blared into the jungle.
“You smell that?” Planter said.
Watcher stopped for a moment and inhaled. “I don’t smell anything.”
“Try again.”
Drawing in a huge breath through his nose, he closed his eyes for just an instant … and then he smelled it.
“Salt!”
Planter nodded, smiling. “We’re close to the ocean.”
This raised the spirits of the villagers, causing them to chop through the brush faster. Many of the archers now pulled out axes; the flock of parrots were more effective at keeping creepers away than their arrows. The NPCs moved faster through the jungle, the scent of the salty air pulling them forward.
And then they chopped through the last of the thick leafy blocks that marked the edge of the jungle biome, revealing a sandy beach. Just beyond was the deep blue ocean. When they stepped onto the beach, the hot and humid air instantly vanished, replaced by a cool, salt-air breeze. Some of the villagers ran to the water and dove in, washing away the last of the jungle heat from their bodies.
Cutter pointed to Mapper. “Where do we go now? We’re at the ocean … what did your book say?”
The old villager looked confused. “All it said was, ‘a great treasure lies under the ocean.’ I’m not really sure what that means.”
“We can’t really search the entire ocean floor,” Cutter said. “Where do we go? We can’t just stand here; eventually the creepers will find us again. I doubt they’ll fall for that trick with the parrots again.”
Mapper knelt on the beach and placed the linked ender chest on the sand. Opening it, he leafed through the book that sat in the companion chest, hidden in the Wizard’s Tower.
“I know where we need to go,” a voice said from high overhead.
“What do you see?” Cutter shouted to the treetops.
“I see our destination,” Blaster replied. “Mapper said the next relic was under the ocean, right?
“That’s right,” the old man replied, closing the ender chest. “Do you see an ocean temple?”
“Nope.”
“What about an underwater chest?” Watcher asked.
“Nope, nope.” Blaster smiled.
“We don’t have time for games,” Cutter muttered in a low voice. He glared up at Blaster. “Then what do you see?”
“To the north, at the end of that peninsula, I see a hole in the ocean.” Blaster pointed with one of his curved knives.
Everyone turned toward the peninsula that jutted out from the shoreline like a sandy finger. There seemed to be nothing in the ocean, just water. Watcher was confused and glanced back up at the boy. Blaster smiled, then leapt off the top of the tree into the open air. Opening his Elytra wings, he flew gracefully through the air. Banking to the right, he soared northward, descending as he glided. He landed on the base of the peninsula thirty blocks away, then motioned for the others to join him.
“Come on everyone,” Blaster shouted. “We have a hole in the ocean to explore!”
And without waiting, Blaster ran to the end of the peninsula and dove into the waters. Then the strangest thing happened: Blaster stood up on the ocean, the gentle waves caressing his ankles. He smiled, then walked casually across the water, heading out into the open ocean, and then disappeared under the waves, a chuckle escaping from his mischievous lips.
CHAPTER 16
The skeletons sprinted after their prey, the threat of retribution from their general motivation enough to make them ignore their fatigue. A group of the pale monsters stopped to catch their breath when they reached the edge of the desert. Some stared up at the morning sun with angry eyes as the heat beat down on them mercilessly.
“What are you doing?!” Rusak bellowed.
He pulled out an enchanted iron sword and smashed the nearest skeleton, ripping into its HP. After only two hits, the monster crumbled into a pile of bones.
“The rest of you, keep running,” the skeleton general growled.
Those that had stopped instantly sprinted into the dense jungle, climbing over blocks of leaves and veering around the looming junglewood trees, anxious to get out of arm’s reach of their commander.
“You can see where the villagers cut through the jungle,” Captain Ratlan said.
General Rusak nodded. “The fools leave an easy trail to follow.”
The captain grinned. “Where do you think the villagers are heading?”
“They seem to be heading for the eastern ocean. And that can only mean those idiotic NPCs know about the Submerged War Room. The wizard with them must be drawing on ancient memories from his ancestors. How else would they know where to go?”
“That wizard is more dangerous than we thought,” Ratlan said.
Rusak nodded. “I have no doubt now, the boy-archer with them must be a wizard returned from the dead, somehow. It is even more important he is destroyed.”
The skeletons ran through the carved path left behind by the villagers. The sounds of life in the jungle enveloped them from all sides. The catlike growls of the ocelots were everywhere, as were the moos of cattle and the clucks of chickens. But there was a new sound; it was of some kind of multicolored bird General Rusak had never seen before.
“Do you have a plan for when we catch up to the villagers?” Ratlan asked.
“They will, without a doubt, reach the War Room before we do,” the commander said. “This was a place built by the monster warlocks and we cannot let them defile it. They must not be allowed to leave alive.”
A group of creepers approached from the left. When the mottled green monsters saw it was skeletons, they held back their attack.
“Why are they heading for the monsters’ War Room?” Ratlan asked. “We’ve searched that structure many times and found nothing.”
“The boy-wizard must know where our ancestors hid some powerful weapons.” Rusak swung his sword at a cluster of leafy blocks that barred his path. The blocks instantly crumbled into dust. “We cannot allow those villagers to touch any of our sacred artifacts. Those ancient weapons belong to the monsters of the Far Lands, not to the puny villagers. All they can do is steal and destroy. They must all be exterminated.”
“We will do as you command, of course,” the captain asked. “Tell us what to do.”
“I’ll go in first with a company of skeletons and confront them. Even with the boy-wizard with them, they will be no match for our forces. We have far more skeletons than they have NPCs.” General Rusak laughed a harsh, hacking sort of laugh, his jaw clicking together with each chuckle. “I will drive the villagers into the main tower, and that’s where you’ll be waiting with a little trap. After we spring our trap, the NPCs will be doomed. You and I will listen to them beg for their lives as they are slowly destroyed.” He smiled. “It will be a great battle and a great victory.”
“But what if the boy-wizard has started to uncover his powers?” Ratlan said, sounding worried. “He may have some tricks of his own.”
“Are you afraid of this wizard?”
Ratlan nodded. “I saw him shoot his bow back in the Wizard’s Tower; he’s a deadly archer.” The captain swerved around a tall junglewood tree. For some reason, there were blocks of dirt attached to the side of the trunk, as if someone built a spiral staircase around the trunk. “But if he has also learned to work some of the enchanted weapons from the past, he could be a very dangerous adversary.”
Rusak punched the captain in the bony arm. “You worry too much, Ratlan. This child might be a wizard, but he’s still a child who can be easily crushed. Our bows and arrows will be enough to destroy them. And if not, we can always call for reinforcements from the skeleton warlord, Rakir. There are hundreds of skeletons in the Hall of Pillars, and only one boy-wizard. His destruction is assured.”
Captain Ratlan smiled and nodded, but the general could still see there was doubt in his subordinate’s dark eyes. It didn’t make a difference. General Rusak would make certain the boy-wizard and his companions never left the Submerged War Room alive.
CHAPTER 17
Watcher ran along the shoreline, heading for the long sliver of land that extended out into the cool blue waters. At his side, Er-Lan ran in lock step, the zombie concerned about their mutual friend. When they reached the base of the peninsula, they waited for the rest of the NPC army.
“Did Blaster drown?” A concerned expression covered the zombie’s scarred face.
“No way, he’s an expert swimmer.” Watcher walked to the end of the peninsula as the rest of the villagers arrived, Er-Lan still at his side. “I’ve gone swimming with him many times in the lake near our village. He couldn’t have drowned.”
Suddenly, Blaster’s head popped up above the ocean surface about twenty blocks away from where he had jumped in. “What are you all doing … come on, you won’t believe what’s down here.”
“What’s he doing?” Winger asked, confused. “It doesn’t look as if he’s swimming.”
Blaster then rose out of the water as if he were somehow walking up a flight of stairs. Getting higher and higher, he eventually stood, ankle-deep, on the ocean’s surface.
“There’s an invisible path,” the boy shouted. “Just walk out straight toward me.”
Watcher moved to the end of the sandy beach, then stepped hesitantly into the ocean waters. But instead of sinking in to his waist as he would have expected, he found a solid surface underfoot. Moving cautiously along the path, the archer walked across the watery layer, stunned by what was happening.
He walked along the path, heading straight for Blaster. A few times, his foot slipped off the invisible path, but he was a
ble to keep from falling in the water. When he reached Blaster’s side, Watcher stared at him, confused. “How is this possible?”
His friend shrugged. “The wizards must have created some kind of invisible block. Maybe we can call it a barrier block.”
“We don’t know if it was the wizards responsible for this.” Cleric said.
Watcher turned and found his father standing directly behind him and a line of villagers standing on the invisible path as if waiting to enter a theater.
“It could have been made by the warlocks instead,” Er-Lan said.
Both Watcher and Blaster nodded.
“Come closer and look down.” Blaster pointed to the ocean surface.
Before them, a huge area was blocked off by the transparent barrier blocks; it stretched from above the ocean surface all the way to the ocean floor. Blaster moved to the end of the invisible path, then stepped up onto the invisible structure, his feet no longer touching the water. “It’s okay, come closer.”
Watcher moved to Blaster’s side and stepped up onto the transparent barrier. It felt as if he were standing on a normal stone block, yet it was completely transparent, as if made of air.
Glancing down at the invisible structure, he found the ocean water pressed against the transparent wall, the structure wrapping around in the shape of a huge cylinder until it closed itself off. Water hugged closed to the outside of the barrier, unable to get through, but on the inside of the enclosure, it was just air. The whole thing looked as if someone had scooped out the water, all the way to the ocean floor, leaving behind an empty and dry region.
On the dry ocean floor, a massive structure was built, stretching to the edges of the barrier blocks, then extending through the barrier and into the water. Angry-looking designs made of black coal blocks and redstone cubes decorated the walls and roofs of the buildings, with sweeping blood-red arches marking the entrance. Near the far end of the hole in the ocean, a tower made of obsidian stretched from the sandy floor to sea-level, the dark blocks hidden by the blue waters, making it invisible from the beach. Part of the tower touched the barrier blocks, the wall of the huge turret holding back the waters from flooding into the structure.
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