War for Minecraft (Book 2)

Onwards to the King of Hell

The chores for the fifth day had been done. Steve and I found plenty of ores to use from the day's expedition. I believed he said he'd mined there for about two years and still hasn't explored the entire cave system. Honestly, I thought. I had been calling bullshit the entire time. I was wrong.

Once entering the cave opening there were two directions either right or down. He said after that choice there were about three different directions to go, and inside each of those branch mines was a long stretch of descending cave with about 20 different ways you could go in each. Needless to say, he proved himself correct. I'm sure we traveled halfway across the continent in one day through the cave systems. Also.... riding in minecarts is really fun.... don't tell anyone.

We all sat at the table eating and laughing. Fria was off somewhere in the house eating by herself. I'm sure Steve noticed, in fact I think we all knew, but didnt want to address it. As much as I disliked Fria, being a lightning creeper made her incredibly useful.

"Hey Steve, you remember when Andr threw you down that hill cause you tried to eat a cat?" Mindy laughed.

I felt my face blush at the memory. "Yeah well it wasn't my fault he was being an asshole!"

Steve laughed and tried pleading his case. "What had happened was, you tried to get me to eat something I didn't want to."

The next several hours were spent with myself, Steve, Mindy, Elise, Ayumi, and eventually Fria, all having an enjoyable evening before tomorrow's departure. I could tell we were all dreading that moment to come when we'd all march through the path of destruction that the Wither left behind.

I had finally decided to be the bringer of bad news when the topic of the war came back up. "So is everyone ready?" I questioned.

Everyone became quiet and I looked around for any answers to my question. Ayumi spoke first. "I'll be honest, I'm terrified of dying. But I'm not scared to die for a cause. Since the Allied Forces disbanded, what are we fighting for?"

Mindy nodded in agreement. "We no longer have a purpose. All of this fighting with only 7 people? Someone is likely to die on this trip. I just want to know what we are dying for."

Everyone turned towards me. At this point I'd begun to lose faith in the cause myself, but Steve's previous conversation with me rekindled my burning desire to fight. "We can't very well fight for the people in the past or present. Hell most of them won't even fight for themselves. So we fight for the future generation. They don't deserve to carry the burdens that we could've ridden them from, that wouldn't be fair. None of our previous war leaders had done anything about this. So it's up to us to finish what our ancestors started."

My speech seemed to light up the eyes of my friends in a way that prepared them for the worse, but got them excited for battle.

"I'd be fine if I just got my name in the history books!" Elise chimed in with a rosey cheeked smile across her face.

"Trust me," Steve laughed. "Once we win, our names will be every children's book."

We continued our conversation involving tactics, traps, gear, and how to track the Wither. All with light humor being thrown into the mix as we talked.

"Ok and we are sure this is how it's gonna go down?" Mindy asked.

I nodded. It would be hard for a primal beast like the Wither to have any thought processes outside of basic animal instinct. "I'm sure, but still. We'll need someone to hang back as snipers." I looked at Ayumi and Elise. "Since both skeletons and Snowgolems have ranged attacks, would you guys mind sniping for us?"

Both agreed to their tasks. "I'll be teleporting place to place trying to deal damage on its head and back. Steve and Mindy, you two will be up front unleashing as much hell as you can. Before this happens we'll all drink potions of fire resistance, strength, and speed. Mindy conjure up as many splash potions you can. Including all those I just mentioned and potions of health, regeneration, poison, and instant damage."

I paused to take a breath. "Any objections to the plan?" Fria raised her hand.

"What do you want me to do?" I was taken aback by her question, I'd completely forgotten about the lightning creeper.

"Do you have normal TNT sticks or are the lightning now?" I asked.

She set out bundles of dynamite sticks. Each were baby blue with a yellow strip that winded across the width of the explosive. "They all explode the same radius, but the TNT now has a lightning effect that'll send a large shock wave about 25 feet out."

I took this information into deep consideration while I thought of a position for Fria. "What I need you to do, is be the first to attack. Throw about two bundles worth of TNT towards the Wither before we attack. Then Steve will toss you a sword and I'll need you to focus on blocking attacks. The Wither shoots explosives so I'll really need you to block them when they head for Steve and Mindy."

Fria nodded. "I'll need a few speed potions to make sure I can get to them before the blast does though."

"Can you get that done Mindy?" I asked.

"I sure as hell will try, Steve I may need your help when gathering supplies." Steve nodded in agreement.

"Ayumi and Elise, you two should go out and hone your aiming skills. We'll need you to be deadly accurate when the battle starts." I ordered.

"And Fria..." I turned my attention to the blue hard girl. "You and I will be sparring with wooden swords." Fria nodded.

"We'll leave first thing tomorrow!"