The Quest for The Emerald Sword (Wattys 2017)

Chapter 13: The Emerald Sword

Alex  jumped and brought his sword on a blazes head. He did a backflip, dodging a fireball, and putting his sword into a blaze. He grabbed one of its rods and smashed it into another ones head. This knocked it back, and it met with fatality when an arrow from Billy hit it right in the head. Billy took a blaze skull and put it on. The blazes didn't recognise him as a player, and they thought he had disappeared. They turned on Alex. One was about to shoot him, when Billy jumped on its head and smashed it with his pickaxe. Alex took TNT, lit it, and threw it to Billy. Billy jumped and kicked it straight at a group of blazes, which exploded into a shower of blaze rods. A hole suddenly appeared in the wall, and a door appeared in its place. The door opened, and Billy and Alex anxiously walked towards it. Alex watched as Billy looked in and then for some reason screamed and ran straight in.

Alex ran in after him and saw The Emerald Sword, in a block of indestructible bedrock. Alex ambled towards it, gaping. He watched Billy inspecting it (he had learnt from his father how to tell the "ingredients" of a swords blade). "Yep, this is legit emerald. It seems to have a small bit of magic in it though." he explained. He stood on the bedrock, and put his hands firmly over the handle of the sword. Billy looked to Alex, who nodded. He tugged it, and it stayed firmly put. He tugged, yanked and shook it. It still didn't budge. Billy came off the bedrock, disheartened. Alex put his hand on Billy's shoulder. Alex went up next. He put his hand on the hilt, and tugged lightly. He felt the sword budge. Light started emitting from tiny cracks across the block. But that was impossible... Bedrock was indestructible... Alex looked at Billy excitedly, who rubbed his hands together in glee. Alex continued to edge the sword out, crack after crack emitting in the bedrock. Alex took his hands off, rubbed them together, and gave the sword a final tug and it came flying out, taking Alex to the floor. The bedrock turned into an explosion of light, and the two boys had to cover their eyes. The light suddenly disappeared, and where the bedrock had been was a trapdoor.

Alex opened it, and saw a long drop into water. Alex looked at Billy, who nodded. They jumped in, and splashed straight into the water. As they resurfaced, Alex saw there were chests with hoppers above them. Billy opened one, and took out some blaze rods. "Sick! Blaze farms!" Billy called. Alex came over and took a stack out. He placed down a crafting table, put the blaze rod and 3 cobblestone in and made a brewing stand. He put it on top of the crafting table. He took some of the bottles of water he had out of his backpack. He put them into the stand with nether wart from the nether fortress. He put it in, and while he was waiting he went and took blaze rods from the chests with Billy. He went back to the crafting table and made blaze powder, which he put into the stand. Alex had an idea, and asked Billy to stay down there. He agreed, and so Alex crafted 64 ladders, and used them to climb back into the temple place. He thought logically, and mined into the back wall, where he found a huge spawner room. He took the emerald sword. 'Time for a test drive,' he thought to himself, smiling and holding up the sword. He jumped in and slashed through a blaze. He backflipped over another, and landed on another blazes head. He took his bow and shot the first one, and then jumped onto a fourth blaze, dodging fireballs.

He ran to the corner, and built up to a height with cobblestone. He watched as the blazes crowded around the tower, all shooting and missing with fireballs. Alex stopped building, and put the cobblestone away. He took sand, and dropped it on their heads. He watched as their fireballs crashed into the sand, turning it into glass. Alex dropped sand after sand after sand after sand. It eventually turned into a huge glass tower. Alex smashed the sword into the glass, sending shards everywhere. As the blazes were distracted, trying to avoid the glass, Alex leaped over them, dropping TNT, and then he used a perfectly timed water bucket to soften his fall. He watched as the blazes blew up, leaving blaze rods scattered like a child's playroom. Alex took the blaze rods back down into where they had been before, and dumped them on the floor. Alex took one and lit it, creating a magnificent glow, which revealed something Alex hadn't seen. There was a small hole in a wall, just big enough to see through, and Alex thought he saw a flash of red. Alex signaled Billy towards it. They crept over, and Billy was about to mine it when he was thrown back by a stream of black tentacles.

Alex watched as his friend was grabbed, and was slowly being drawn towards the hole, which was now widening. Alex immediately jumped onto the tentacle and started hacking at it with his iron sword. It wasn't having any effect, and Alex was about to give up when he remembered the Emerald Sword. He took it out and brought it down on the tentacle. There was a scream of pain from the hole, and the tentacle retracted itself, leaving the part Alex had severed. Billy was breathing very heavily. Alex detached the tentacles, and then the two of them went down into the hole. Alex could see that it was a very long passage, and using the ignited blaze rod, he could see at the end was the tentacle, slowly retracting itself. Alex and Billy ran after it, taking caution not to trip over any of the blocks. Billy saw it was going to get away, and he shot an arrow, which went into the tentacle and pinned it to the wall. Yet another cry of pain erupted from the creature, while the boys ran over to it, and followed the rest of the tentacle down several passages, until they reached the creature itself. Alex and Billy were scared stiff...