The New Order, page 16
“How are we gonna tunnel out?” Bob asked in dismay, eyeing the black walls. “The walls are made of obsidian, they’ll take ages to punch through!”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got a diamond pickaxe, remember?” replied Charlie, flashing it from his inventory before looking at the map again.
“Hurry up, Charlie!” whispered Stan urgently. The ground had begun to vibrate, indicating that something very large was prowling the corridors, and getting closer to them. Almost immediately after he said this, a deep voice rang out from seemingly everywhere, the echoes ricocheting off the chamber walls.
“Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum! I smell the blood of a . . . um, I mean, the blood of four . . . uh . . . players! Oh, and also a pig! I smell the blood of four players and a pig!”
“This way,” said Charlie urgently, and he rushed down the left corridor, followed by the limping duo of Bill and Bob, the latter of whom was enticing Ivanhoe the pig to follow with a carrot. Stan took up the rear.
The group scuttled around the corners like mice, desperately searching for a way out of the black, twisted deathtrap. The footsteps of Minotaurus were omnipresent. He clearly knew the maze and was able to follow where they were going, for although the footsteps would occasionally fade, they were always right back to their loud booms within the minute.
Not helping matters were the mobs. It was entirely dark in the maze, and with Charlie putting up the torches that Bill and Bob were feeding him, Stan took the duty of killing the mobs that had spawned in the darkness. The Zombies, Skeletons, and Spiders were easy pickings for Stan’s well-trained bow and diamond axe, but he was totally caught off guard when they turned the corner and found themselves face to face with a Creeper. Stan only just managed to sink his axe into its head before the swelling creature would have blown them all sky-high. The body of the Creeper fell down next to Ivanhoe, who gave it a derisive snort before it despawned.
“You know, I read that pigs and Creepers are related,” said Charlie offhandedly.
“Is that a fact?” replied Stan, his heart rate too high for him to think to question it.
“Yeah, look it up. The model for the Creeper was created when Notch was trying to make a model for a pig and screwed it up pretty badly. He decided to turn the messed-up model into a monster, and the Creeper was born.”
The other three players glanced at him for a second.
“And . . . what does that have to do with anything?” asked Bob.
Charlie shrugged. “I dunno,” he replied, and with no further discussion of the subject, the four players continued trekking through the maze.
Stan was getting seriously alarmed now. The footsteps were now unnervingly loud and constant. Minotaurus knew where they were and would be on them at any second. Soon, they hit a long corridor that ended in a dead end. Charlie glanced down at the map. The white dot was now a good deal outside the border of the gray city.
“This is it,” replied Charlie, and he whipped out his diamond pickaxe and began hacking away at the black wall of the dead end. Stan sighed in relief, turned around, and gave a gasp.
There, standing in the middle of the corridor, silhouetted against the torchlight, stood the largest player Stan had ever seen. His body twisted through modding and hacking, Minotaurus stood a whopping two and a half blocks tall, and a block and a half wide. His legs were about the size of a normal player’s, covered in brown leather trousers, but his bare chest was huge and muscular, with the horned head of a bull topping it. In his hand, Minotaurus held a two-block-long wooden pole, on both ends of which sat glinting diamond axe blades.
“Hello,” said Minotaurus in his deep voice, a smile on his face. The other three players spun around, and Charlie gave a squeal of fright.
“I see that you four are trying to escape. Well, that’s not gonna happen, ’cause I’m gonna kill ya!” And with that, Minotaurus began to walk forward.
As Stan watched this behemoth of a player rapidly approach, something stirred within him, building in his stomach like a fire, racing through his veins, searing his heart and mind. This was the player who had killed Sally. There was no way both of them would leave alive. Stan promised himself this.
“Keep mining,” Stan whispered to Charlie, who nodded and continued hacking at the wall, a frantic air about him now. Stan drew his diamond axe and stepped forward with no fear. He was eagerly anticipating the forthcoming battle and for the first time in his life, wanted his axe in his hand not to defend, not to wound, but to kill. He locked eyes with Minotaurus’s arrogant grin, and he returned the smile with equal gritty determination before sinking into a fighting stance. Stan became aware of another presence beside him. He turned and saw Bill standing, fishing pole in his hand.
“What’re you gonna do with that?” Stan hissed out of the side of his mouth, and Bill hissed back, “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.”
Minotaurus was just ten blocks away, and he raised his axe and began spinning it around, like a vertical helicopter rotor. As the diamond blades flew faster and faster, Stan was forced to step backward, panicking as Minotaurus forced him toward the wall. Just as Stan was about to back into Charlie and Bob, a white blur flew toward Minotaurus. The bobber of the fishing rod tangled in the rotating blades, binding the diamond axe awkwardly to Minotaurus’s hand in an instant.
The bull-man looked confused, which gave Stan just enough time to bring his diamond axe over his head and toward Minotaurus’s chest. Minotaurus raised the tangled axe awkwardly in front of him and managed to block the powerful blow and stumbled backward, snapping the fishing line from the rod.
Unfazed, Bill drew another rod from his inventory as Stan went in for the attack. Minotaurus got to his knees and managed to break the fishing line with one flex of his muscles, snatching his axe just in time to block Stan’s attacks. Stan held nothing back, sending one powerful swing after another at Minotaurus, hoping to get under his guard. It was apparent, though, that Minotaurus was not just a mindless grunt with brawn and no brains. He was a skilled axe fighter, capably blocking all Stan’s attacks. Stan judged him to be not nearly as skilled as himself, but a worthy opponent nonetheless, and with far more brute strength.
After one strike, Minotaurus leaped backward away from Stan with surprising agility, and swung his blade forward right toward Stan’s head. Stan ducked under the swing and rolled in between Minotaurus’s legs. Wasting no time, Minotaurus spun around and raised his axe, bringing it down just as Stan raised his own.
The two blades clashed, and Stan felt himself becoming quickly overpowered as Minotaurus drove his weapon down into Stan. Suddenly, the burden lightened. Stan glanced up and saw that Bill had hooked his line on the blade of Minotaurus’s axe, and was pulling as hard as he could to lighten Stan’s load. Even with two players fighting him, though, Minotaurus was still stronger, and he slowly managed to push his axe farther down, soon crushing Stan into the floor. Stan began to choke as the axe pressed into his neck, and was just about to panic when he heard a clinking sound.
An arrow had bounced off of Minotaurus’s horn. The bull-man whipped around and immediately bellowed in agony as another arrow sunk into his muscular chest. Stan pulled himself to his feet and looked back to where the arrow had come from. Bob was sitting on the ground, positioning another arrow. Stan also saw Charlie break through the second obsidian block, creating an opening large enough for them to fit through. Stan saw that there was dirt behind the blocks. Excellent, he thought. They had an escape.
Escaping was the least of their worries at the moment, though. Minotaurus was now rearing up, and he began to barrel down the hallway headfirst. Charlie rolled to the side, but Minotaurus wasn’t aiming for him. Bob, who was unable to move, watched in horror as the giant player charged toward him like a freight train.
When Minotaurus was just ten blocks away from Bob, a fishing line snagged Bob by the pant leg. He managed to grab Ivanhoe around the torso just as Bill’s fishing rod yanked the two of them out of harm’s way, and Minotaurus barreled headfirst into the wall. A giant crash came from the wall and a cloud of dust rose from the scene of impact. The cloud rolled over the four players and the pig, and they could hear the howl of wind. When the dust cleared, Stan looked up to survey the scene.
Minotaurus was lying facedown in the tunnel of dirt that had been created by his reckless charge. His eyes were closed, he wasn’t moving, and there was a sizable lump on his forehead. He was clearly unconscious. Snow fell on him, as Minotaurus had managed to crash straight through the dirt and into the blizzard. Stan was amazed. How was this possible? They were underground!
Stan stepped outside the hole and saw that they were in the very lowest point of a valley, at the ridge of which stood one of the outer walls of Nocturia. Now fully aware that their escape would be a simple matter, Stan looked down at Minotaurus and, with no hesitation, raised his axe.
As he held the diamond blade above his head, staring with mortal hatred at the unconscious monster on the ground before him, Stan once again felt a feeling sweep over him. It was the same feeling that had overtaken him when he had had the opportunity to kill King Kev in the Battle for Elementia all those months ago. Minotaurus was just as weak, unarmed, and vulnerable as King Kev had been then. Stan knew he could not deliver the death blow. It was not in his nature to harm the defenseless. Stan lowered the weapon to his side. He knew that, in time, he would face Minotaurus again, and when that time came, he could finish the job on equal terms.
Stan turned around and was about to walk away when he saw a bottle containing bright red liquid latched on to Minotaurus’s belt. He pocketed it, and then headed back into the tunnel, where Bill was checking over the others for injuries. Stan explained the situation to them.
“So we’re right outside the walls of Nocturia?” Bill asked. Stan nodded.
“Well, I say that we keep tunneling for a little while, and when we’re far enough from Nocturia so they won’t be able to see us, we’ll dig to the surface and make our way back to Element City,” said Charlie.
“I still can’t believe they attacked us like that,” said Bob as Bill helped him onto Ivanhoe’s back, having healed the pig’s leg with Minotaurus’s potion. “What are they trying to accomplish? Even if they had killed us, Elementia would have declared war on them anyway. Why didn’t they just kill us outright if they wanted us dead? None of this makes any sense.”
“It’s because we’re not dealing with anything that we know,” replied Charlie as he began tunneling away from Nocturia. “The Noctem Alliance isn’t a real country. I don’t know what it is, and neither does anybody else. The only people who know how to play their game are their members, and the only way we can beat them is if we know how to play the game ourselves.”
“So you’re saying . . . ,” said Stan.
“Yes,” replied Charlie. “Catching a member of the Noctem Alliance alive has got to be our next step.”
“Well, then what are we tunneling away for?” asked Bob incredulously, stopping in his tracks and forcing Stan and Bill behind him to do the same. “We’ve got a while until they figure out that Minotaurus didn’t kill us. Why don’t we use that time to sneak into Nocturia and kidnap one of their members?”
“You know, that’s not a bad . . . ,” Bill started to say.
“That’s not necessary,” replied Charlie quickly.
“Why not, Charlie? You scared or something?” asked Stan, annoyed.
“Yes, I am. Just the thought of the Noctem Alliance makes me almost poop myself, but that’s not the reason why it’s not necessary.”
“And what is the reason, then?” asked Stan.
“’Cause we already have a Noctem Alliance member captive,” Charlie replied with a shrug. “You remember that messenger they sent us? Well, Kat had him locked up in Brimstone for just such an occasion.”
“Okay, that’s a good reason,” said Bill fairly. “All right, Charlie, I think we’re far enough away now. Why don’t you tunnel up?”
Charlie nodded, and aimed his pickaxe upward. After going diagonally up for a couple of minutes, Charlie’s pickaxe struck air, and he stepped up into the raging snowstorm, followed immediately by the other four players.
Charlie pulled out a map and had to squint to see it through the dark blizzard. “Okay, so it looks like Element City is . . . that way!” Charlie exclaimed, pointing in a westerly direction. “Let’s go.”
“Oh, how rude of you! We host you in our city, and you leave without saying good-bye?”
All four players whipped around and found themselves face-to-face with Caesar, standing ten blocks behind them, no weapon in his hand. The reaction was immediate. Stan whipped out his axe, Charlie held up his pickaxe, Bob notched an arrow in his bow, and Bill threw his fishing line forward and snared Caesar in the line. Bob was about to let the arrow fly when Caesar, wearing a sly smile, spoke.
“Now, now, boys. Are you sure you want to do that?”
Stan sensed movement, and his jaw dropped in terror as, from all sides of them, no less than fifty players clad in black emerged from the snowstorm, all holding Potions of Harming and aiming right at the four players.
“If you value your lives, you will all lower your weapons, and you, Bill, will let me go right now.”
He said this very calmly, and with equal calmness, Bill placed the fishing rod on the ground. He kicked it over toward Caesar, and stood with his hands in the air and a defeated look on his face. He was mirrored by the other four players as they lowered their weapons.
“It humors me that you four honestly thought escaping from Nocturia was an option,” said Caesar as he shrugged off the coils of string and stepped out of the tangled mess at his feet. “In fact, it humors me so much that I think that I’m going to let you get away with it.” He snapped his blocky fingers, and instantly, the black figures at the easternmost section of the circle stepped to the side, creating a gap.
Stan stared at Caesar. He was obviously dealing with a lunatic here. “What are you trying to do, Caesar?”
“Well, presently, I’m trying to let you go, Stan,” said Caesar obviously, gesturing to the gap. “I just said that.”
“But why the . . .”
“Does it really matter why, Charlie?” asked Caesar whimsically. “I’m giving you a gift. Accept it.”
“But it doesn’t . . . ,” responded Bill.
Caesar snapped his fingers again, and the black figures drew back their throwing arms. Positive that Bill’s last outburst had just cost them their lives, Stan flinched, preparing himself to be doused with the maroon gasses that would spell the end for all of them. Instead, he watched in awe as the men in black flicked their wrists, sending their potions backward. The bottles shattered on the ground far away from the circle, staining the snow crimson.
“Those could have been flying toward you, remember that,” said Caesar, irritation in his voice now. “Lord Tenebris ordered me to set the trap in Nocturia for you, and told me that if you managed to beat Minotaurus, you would be allowed to live another day for your resourcefulness. Personally, I would love to see you all dead, so I suggest you hurry up and scurry back to that hovel you call Element City before I change my mind and disobey my master!”
There was a moment of silence following Caesar’s outburst, then Stan hastily walked through the gap of Noctem soldiers, closely tailed by his friends. As they walked through the tundra, away from Caesar and his men and back toward the city, Stan’s mind was so confused that it felt like it was going to burst.
“The sooner we understand the game these psychopaths are playing, the better,” mumbled Stan to nobody in particular, yet he still got three mumbles of concurrence.
CHAPTER 16 THE LEAK
Caesar was pacing the floor in the common room impatiently. Oh boy, was he going to kill Minotaurus! How could Minotaurus possibly have been defeated by those players? Caesar was just thinking of what exactly he was going to say when there was a knock on the door.
“What?” he barked.
The door opened, and one of his soldiers, clad in black, walked in. “Chancellor Caesar, I think it might be pertinent for you to know that General Leonidas has just arrived.”
A fresh wave of rage swept over Caesar. “Tell him to get up here right now!” Caesar responded loudly, and the soldier hastily left the room.
In his rage at Minotaurus, Caesar had forgotten his anger at Leonidas from earlier. Leonidas was supposed to return to Nocturia immediately after the fight with Stan at the Jungle Base, and he had had Ender Pearls to expedite the journey. It was a day’s travel at most, but now they were entering their fourth night after the battle!
The door swung open once more, and Minotaurus lumbered into the room, his hulking form having to duck in order to avoid cracking his head on the doorframe. He flopped down in one of the chairs next to the fire and began to rub the crest of his head. Caesar hadn’t even opened his mouth to speak when Leonidas limped through the door, looking absolutely terrible. Caesar had no sympathy for Leonidas. He had some serious explaining to do. He allowed Leonidas to retrieve a potion from the chest in the corner, mend his leg, and sit in a chair next to Minotaurus. Caesar walked in front of them, his back to the fireplace.
“You’ve disappointed me,” said Caesar simply.
Leonidas look outraged. “I disappointed ya, did I? What the—”
“I’ll get to you in a minute,” Caesar cut in, his voice quiet with fury and his blocky finger jabbed at Leonidas. “You, Minotaurus,” said Caesar, and the giant bull-man raised his head and looked tiredly at Caesar. “Would you care to explain to me why you let those impudent players live?”
“I tried to kill them, just like you said,” Minotaurus said deeply, sounding exhausted. “Stan is very good with an axe, Caesar, you know that.”
“Yes, I do know that,” replied Caesar indignantly. “I also happen to know that you know that you’re not allowed to kill Stan anyway! Even if Lord Tenebris wants to kill Stan himself, it does not excuse you from letting the other three go!”
