The New Order, page 9
He was so sick of all the stupid talking his job as president entailed, and he was looking forward to a straight fight. At the moment, the only thing Stan wanted was to do something directly against the Noctem Alliance, instead of debating about it in a council room. He was looking forward to his assignment on the mission. While Kat’s and Charlie’s job was to apprehend as many of the Noctem forces in the base as possible, Stan’s job was simple: find and capture Leonidas.
Stan was still a little thrown off by the fact that Leonidas was alive. Until two days ago, he had been convinced that Leonidas was dead, blown to bits in a crater during the Battle for Elementia alongside his partner Becca. Yet somehow he had survived, and he had joined the Noctem Alliance. This told Stan that the Alliance was made up not just of random prejudiced players, but the remnants of King Kev’s army as well. The last time Stan had seen Leonidas up close, they had been in the Ender Desert, and Leonidas had hit him with a Potion of Slowness and stomped on his chest before Stan had gotten the upper hand, and Leonidas fled. Taking him down would be the most satisfying thing Stan had done in a long time.
After almost a half day of walking, the setting sun cast a cloak of darkness over the land. Not too long afterward, the glowing torchlight of the Elementia Jungle Base came into view. Stan knew the outpost was actually a jungle temple, a ruin of a structure that was generated there, and not built by players.
At the foot of the hill, Stan glanced back at Kat and Charlie. Now that they were on the brink of battle, all thoughts of disagreements in the council room were gone. All they were now were three warriors, ready to lead a charge on an evil organization that needed to be taken down.
As they had planned, Stan pulled a pale blue potion from his inventory. He downed the potion in one gulp, with the other twelve following his lead. Stan knew that the effect of the Potion of Swiftness would be countered by the Potions of Slowness that the Noctems were bound to be using in combat, but the rush of adrenaline was nice while it lasted.
Now that they were ready and enriched with the potion, Stan ordered the charge. Silently, the first of the soldiers climbed the vines that stretched up the side of the hill, reached the top, and burst into the base with a savage yell. Stan heard yells of surprise followed by the metallic clangs of swords, and before long, a wave of dark gray gas rolled out the windows of the base. As the last soldier ascended the vines, Stan offered one last encouraging look at Kat as he pulled himself up the vines, kicked off the hill face, and dive-rolled into the jungle temple.
The gray Potion of Slowness in the air immediately made him feel like his normal self again, but his normal self was still full of adrenaline. All around him, his soldiers were locked in combat with four figures clad in black leather armor, surrounded by potion clouds of all colors and swords colliding. This is where I belong, thought Stan as Charlie and Kat appeared behind him.
“Okay, you know what to do!” yelled Stan. His friends nodded and ran to join the fray, Kat with her diamond sword already whistling forward to meet a Noctem soldier in combat, and Charlie with a diamond pickaxe ready in hand. Stan glanced around. No Leonidas. He noticed a ladder on the side of the stone wall that seemed to lead to an upper level. Wasting no time, Stan gripped his diamond axe firmly in hand and pulled himself up the ladder in no time flat.
Standing atop the roof, Stan looked up, only to find an arrow flying toward him. Stan dive-rolled to the side and saw this arrow did not come from Leonidas. Although Leonidas was indeed standing there on the roof, clad in black armor, a grim look on his face, it was a Noctem trooper attacking. The soldier rushed Stan with a diamond sword in hand. The fight was over before it began. One quick sidestep and Stan’s axe had cut the soldier’s black leather armor in two, knocking him to the ground with a decent-size gash across his exposed chest.
As if programmed, the fallen soldier pulled a bottle from his inventory containing bloodred liquid. Alarm bells sounded in Stan’s head. Determined to keep the soldier alive for questioning, he dived forward to knock the bottle out of the soldier’s hand. As he moved, however, Stan felt a dull pain in his chest, and he flew backward as three arrows glanced off his diamond armor, leaving a distinct crack in the center of the chestplate. Stan jumped back up to his feet. He saw Leonidas pulling out another arrow and the soldier on the ground, his inventory scattered about him, an empty potion bottle in his hand.
Angered but determined to stay focused on his mission, Stan sheathed his axe, whipped out a bow and arrow, and notched the arrow, pointing it directly at Leonidas’s heart, just as Leonidas did the same. The two players held their weapons up, staring each other in the eye. They were at a stalemate. Both of them were waiting for the other to make the first move.
“Hello, Stan,” said Leonidas evenly, his bow still raised.
Slightly taken aback, Stan felt somehow compelled to respond. “Hello, Leonidas.”
“Fancy meetin’ ya up here,” Leonidas continued.
“Yeah,” said Stan. This is really eerie, he thought uneasily. “It is. . . .”
“I gotta admit, Stan,” continued Leonidas politely, as if the two of them were just old friends catching up, “I’m kind of surprised that ya came here yourself. I was honestly expectin’ ya to just send a couple of your lackeys to come and do your dirty work for ya.”
Stan’s eyebrow twitched in disgust. “They’re not my lackeys, they’re my friends. Not that I’d expect you to understand about that.” Now it was Leonidas’s turn for an eyebrow twitch. “Charlie and Kat are downstairs with some of my guys, and they’re gonna overpower your guys pretty fast.”
“Is that so?” said Leonidas, with almost an amused quality in his voice, which was ominous in comparison to the bow he was still pointing at Stan.
“Yeah, it is,” replied Stan, with the same portentous amusement. “And as soon as they’re done mopping the floor with your men, they’re gonna be up here. So if you want to fight me before they get here, I’d suggest firing that arrow.” Despite the fact that he was playing mind games with Leonidas, Stan was scared out of his wits, and just wanted the first shot to be fired so they could stop the banter and let the weapons do the talking.
Leonidas smiled. “I’m an honorable guy, Stan. I never fire unless someone fires at me or my allies first.”
Stan returned the smirk. “Oh, you’re an honorable guy? Well, you’ve done a fantastic job of showing it so far. Let’s see, first you worked for King Kev, then you join this Noctem gang, and, oh yeah, you’ve devoted your life to terrorizing people who can’t defend themselves. Yes, bullying is a very honorable thing to do. . . .”
Stan sidestepped the arrow that came flying from Leonidas’s bow, then proceeded to let his own arrow fly and whip out his axe. Leonidas ducked the arrow and let five of his own fly in rapid succession, all of which were deflected by expert blocks with Stan’s axe.
“Attack me all ya want with your weapons, Stan,” boomed Leonidas, a terrible look on his face, “but don’t ya go insultin’ my honor! Ya don’t know what it’s been like for me ever since the king fell!” Another spray of arrows flew from the bow, which Stan, again, deflected.
“Yeah, you joined the Noctem Alliance, which is . . . news flash, Leonidas . . . exactly the same as being part of King Kev’s army!” yelled Stan, resentment clear in his voice.
“I didn’t have a choice, Stan!” cried Leonidas. “If I hadn’t joined the Alliance, what woulda happened? Ya’d have found and killed me, no questions asked! Did it ever occur to ya that I might not want to be part of this Alliance? That I didn’t choose the Alliance, but the Alliance chose me?”
Another arrow followed this statement, but as Stan blocked it without effort, he stared at Leonidas as the archer loaded yet another arrow. Stan recognized something in Leonidas’s voice that he was utterly unprepared for: sincerity. Suddenly, he was seeing the ruthless, emotionless killing machine who had stalked him across Elementia with new eyes. What if Leonidas was telling the truth?
“Leonidas . . . ,” started Stan, but before he could get out any words, a voice from below Stan caught him off guard.
“Stan! Watch out, he’s loaded!”
An arrow flew from the trapdoor behind Stan toward Leonidas, who rolled out of the way before landing on one knee and sending his own arrow back in the direction of the sender. Stan followed the path of Leonidas’s arrow just in time to see it find a chink in Charlie’s armor and sink deep into his chest.
The split second of pity that Stan had had for Leonidas was gone. All pretense of peace between the two of them had just gone out the window. Stan knew Charlie was down by Leonidas’s hand, and he himself wanted to cause the archer as much pain as possible. Stan charged Leonidas, barely noticing the look of horror on his face as he brought his axe down on top of Leonidas. The archer reacted at the last second. He kicked off the roof of the outpost and launched into the air. As Stan pulled his axe out of the cavity it had made in the stone, he saw that Leonidas had grabbed on to some vines hanging from a nearby tree and was dangling from them, desperately trying to notch an arrow.
Kat burst up through the door, a warrior’s glare on her face. “Don’t worry,” she said, “I’ve got two guys down there healing Charlie, and all the other Noctems are down. Where’s Leonidas?”
“He’s out in that tree,” responded Stan, drawing his bow as Kat did the same. Within ten seconds, the remaining eight members of the team were on the roof alongside them, their bows drawn and aimed at Leonidas.
Although Leonidas attempted to return fire a few times, it was futile. Firing a bow and arrow while hanging from vines was hard enough, but doing it while avoiding the rain of arrows from ten archers was impossible. Stan watched in fury as Leonidas pulled a blue-green orb out of his pocket and, without hesitation, flung it as far as he could into the dense jungle in the distance.
The split second it took Leonidas to do this cost him, however, as an arrow sunk into his right shoulder blade. With an audible cry of anguish, Leonidas released his grip on the vines and started to fall to the ground below. Stan’s soldiers managed to sink two more arrows into Leonidas on the way down; Stan couldn’t tell where they had hit. Stan was counting on Leonidas hitting the ground before the Ender Pearl took effect, but Leonidas disappeared into a puff of purple smoke an instant before he would have made impact.
Stan did not have time to be infuriated at that moment. He bounded over to the trapdoor and dropped to the floor below. Ignoring the slight pain in his legs, he trained his eyes on Charlie. The soldiers had removed his diamond chestplate, but the arrow was still stuck deep in his chest, as Charlie heaved and coughed from the intense pain.
“Why haven’t you healed him yet?” yelled Stan, frantically pulling his own red Potion of Healing from his inventory and applying it to the arrow.
“We’re out of potion,” replied one of the soldiers, as the potion took effect, popping out the arrow and leaving just a small red hole in Charlie’s chest that was in definite need of more potions. “We used it all healing ourselves after the Noctem soldiers killed themselves in a potion attack.”
Stan hardly cared that, once again, they had taken no prisoners from the raid. He was far too desperate to keep Charlie alive. “So what is there to do?”
“We have to get him medical attention,” replied Kat, pulling a potion of deeper red from her inventory. “You three,” she said, gesturing to the soldiers closest to her, “run back to Element City, tell them to send a medic out here as quickly as possible. We can’t leave here until Charlie’s healed.”
“Good thinking, Kat,” replied Stan. Then he remembered something. “And the rest of you, take your weapons. Head out into the jungle and hunt down Leonidas. He’s probably gone, but if there’s a chance he isn’t, then it’s worth it to try to capture him, dead or alive. Leave all your potions with us.”
The soldiers all nodded, dropped their potion bottles into a pile, and headed down the ladders to carry out their respective assignments.
“Okay, Stan, I need you to sort out the Potions of Strength from the other ones in that pile,” said Kat, already using her own Potion of Strength on Charlie. “They’re not healing, but they should keep him alive until real help gets here.”
There were a few moments of silence while Kat used her own potions to try to stabilize Charlie, and Stan sorted out the rest of them for her use. As soon as he was done, he looked up at her.
“Wow, Kat, you’ve gotten pretty good at this. Where did you learn so much about medicine?”
“G taught me,” Kat replied, still not taking her eyes off Charlie’s wound. Then, after a moment, she afforded him a small smile. “To be completely honest, it’s one of the few good things that’s come out of my relationship with him.”
Stan faltered. He was aware that Kat wasn’t exactly in a perfect relationship, but he wasn’t aware she was that unhappy. Furthermore, it occurred to him that, despite the fact that they were fighting for Charlie’s life at the moment, he felt something he hadn’t felt since before Elementia Day: he cared about Kat’s happiness.
“Well,” he responded slowly, taking a shot in the dark, “if you’re unhappy, then why don’t you just break it off?”
Kat glanced up at him. “Well, to paraphrase Leon Livingston . . . ‘I began on a whim, continued because I loved the life, and now continue because I’m not sure how to stop.’”
Stan’s heart skipped a beat. He flashed back to just moments before, when he was talking with Leonidas atop the base. Something he had said came back to Stan. Did it ever occur to you that I might not want to be part of this Alliance? That I didn’t choose the Alliance, but the Alliance chose me?
Of course, that was right before he had shot Charlie in the chest.
Stan banished the incident from his mind. Finding Leonidas again was a task for tomorrow, and as of now, another thought had come into Stan’s mind. He looked at Kat as the two of them were fighting hard to keep Charlie alive and realized something.
Despite any differences the three of them might have in terms of their views, despite any disagreements they may have on the council room floor, Kat and Charlie were Stan’s best friends in all of Elementia. No matter what, he wasn’t going to let politics or debates get in the way of his friendships ever again.
Stan looked at Kat one more time, caught her eye, and gave her a smile. And as she returned the smile before requesting another Potion of Strength, it was somehow clear to Stan that the feeling was mutual.
CHAPTER 10 THE VILLAGER’S VISIT
So Leonidas got away?” Charlie asked in a raspy tone.
“Yeah.” Stan sighed. He sat himself down on a chair beside Charlie’s hospital bed. “We sent our guys out to try to find him after he ran, but he had Ender Pearls. We had no chance.”
“Trust me, Charlie,” added Kat, plopping down on the bed next to him, “we really did try to find him. I mean, beyond the fact that he’s part of the Alliance, what he did to you was just . . .”
“Don’t worry, Kat,” interrupted Charlie with a chuckle. “I’m sure you did all you could. We’ll get him eventually.”
Kat didn’t say anything; she merely looked down at the wooden floor of the infirmary and absentmindedly stroked Rex’s head between the ears.
Kat had been unusually apologetic toward Stan and Charlie for most everything over the past few days. She and Stan had spent most of their time since the attack in the hospital with Charlie as he recovered from the arrow wound, and during that time Kat had made it very clear that she deeply regretted her vote on the council, and that she hoped they would forgive her.
“I mean, what was I thinking?” she had said as she and Stan followed Charlie’s medical escort back to Element City from the Jungle Base yesterday. “Why did I think that ignoring the law was a good idea? It was G—I swear that was it. He made me feel guilty about going against him.”
Stan had assured her it was okay, that he forgave her and that, even if they had set up an election, Blackraven probably would have been elected to the council by the people anyway. Nonetheless, in the single council meeting Stan had attended since the fight at the base, Blackraven’s presence on the council stuck out to him like a sore thumb.
“So anyway, has the council actually decided anything yet?” asked Charlie, although he was sure he knew the answer.
“Nope,” said Stan, shaking his head grimly. “I’ve talked to Bill, Ben, and Bob about it, and they say the police and army are more than ready to launch a strike against the Noctem Alliance, but the council is still too divided to decide anything.”
“It’s the same thing that happened with the vote,” Kat added glumly. “Jayden, G, and Blackraven are pushing for us to lower our defenses in the city and to go out into the server to hunt down the Alliance, while the rest of us are saying that we can’t just drop all our defenses in the city, because if we do, they’ll attack us again.”
Charlie sighed. “I’ll be completely honest, guys, I’ve been giving it a lot of thought while I’ve been lying in here, and I’ve realized that the way the Noctem Alliance is fighting is actually ingenious.”
Kat and Stan looked up at him in surprise. “What makes you say that?” Kat asked.
“It’s called psychological warfare,” said Charlie, a shadow crossing his face. “They’re attacking us in a different way every time they strike, so we never know what to expect. Because we don’t know what to expect, we’re terrified. And that fear is driving us apart from the inside. It’s making us fight with ourselves more than we’re fighting them.”
“Wow,” said Stan, realizing the truth in the statement. It made a lot of sense, actually. The Noctem Alliance struck from out of nowhere, and they were willing to die for their cause. This was a type of fighting that none of them had ever seen before, and it wasn’t nearly as straightforward as their quest to take down King Kev had been. Stan was about to make a remark to that effect when the door to the hospital room swung open.
