Trapped in Minecraft

Chapter 9 - The Enchanted Rod

As they walked under the scorching heat of the nether, the nether portal was soon in sight and about thirty blocks away from them. Sam and Greg quickly raced towards the portal without waiting for Collin and Scarlett. "Come on! Let's get going," Greg shouted impatiently.

Collin tried his best to keep up and when the four of them were in front of the portal, he had noticed that Scarlett kept looking back and he sensed that she might not want to leave the nether world. "You guys go first, we'll be right behind you," he said in a confident tone.

Sam and Greg exchanged looks and shrugged but started to go inside the portal. "If you say so," Sam said and after a few seconds, the two Minecraftians had disappeared into the overworld.

Collin turned around to meet the nether knight's eyes. "You don't want to leave this place, don't you?"

Scarlett's gaze dropped to the ground. "You're right, I don't want to leave."

"Why not?"

With a sigh, she responded, "it's just that, I've lived in the nether for most of my life and have only been to the overworld once."

"Oh, okay," Collin said with disappointment. He began to turn away but before he could even set foot inside the nether portal, he felt a warm hand on his left shoulder.

"Wait, I will help you fight the Enderdragon, even if it means going to the overworld again."

Collin's eyes lit up immediately. "You will? Why? Why would you want to help me again?"

There was a pause before she replied; like if she didn't really know the reason herself. "Well, it gets lonely in the nether sometimes, and honestly, you are my first friend. If I stay behind, I might not ever get to meet you again."

Before Collin could react, a fast-moving fireball fell from the sky and smashed into the nether portal's obsidian walls, causing it to malfunction. "Blast!" He yelled as he realised he would not be able to return back to the overworld now.

Collin and Scarlett looked up to see a flying ghast. "How do we fight it? Our archer, Sam, is not here with us," Scarlett asked.

"Well, we'll have to do this the old fashion way!" Collin said as he brought out his shiny diamond sword and aimed the sharp point towards the ghast. He swung the blade back then forward quickly but releasing the grip, which caused the deadly weapon to sail through the air like a javelin.

Thanks to Collin's good aim and strength, the sword sliced through the ghast like it was made of paper and the flying monster turned to dust, leaving behind a tear. However, he opened his mouth in horror as he watched Herobrine also falling with the ghast tear. "H-How did he get t-there!?" He stuttered.

"Herobrine was riding atop the ghast all this time," Scarlett replied through gritted teeth and brought out her iron blade.

The white-eyed human smiled creepily and revealed an enchanted blaze rod, which he held in his right hand. He swung the blaze rod forward like a wand and a fireball appeared from it and flew towards Collin's direction.

Before Collin could do anything, the nether knight quickly stood in front of him with her sword in a defensive position. When the fireball made contact with her chest plate, it exploded, sending the two of them flying backwards into a small wall of netherrack.

Collin groaned in pain but forced himself to stand up even though his legs felt a little weak. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine. The fire does not affect me but that explosion definitely packs a punch," Scarlett said in an annoyed tone. The last thing she had expected was to get knocked back by fire. "He's dead to me," she exclaimed with a death stare as she charged towards Herobrine with her iron blade raised above her head.

Herobrine launched another exploding fireball at the nether knight but she leaped in the air, avoiding the attack. With great timing, she landed behind the white-eyed figure and stabbed him in the back. Collin gasped as he watched Herobrine glow brighter before disappearing with a huge burst of light.

"Wow! Nice job kicking his a-"

"Let's just find a way to fix the portal," Scarlett interrupted with an unreadable facial expression. She began to head for the portal without saying anything else.

Collin was about to follow her but quickly looked at the place where Herobrine had died once more. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw an enchanted blaze rod lying on the ground. "Hold up! I think I found something," Collin yelled at Scarlett.

"What is it?" she asked after quickly turning around.

Collin picked it up with amazement. "I think Herobrine dropped his magical blaze rod!"

"Impossible, Herobrine doesn't leave any items when he dies."

"Well then, what do you call this?" Collin threw the item towards her.

It landed on the netherrack floor, and she bent down to pick it up. Scarlett's eyes widened with astonishment when she saw what it was. "How could this be?"

Collin shrugged before replying, "well, it was your kill so you can keep it. Maybe you can figure out how to use it as well." He walked towards the unpowered nether portal. "One problem though, how do we get back to the overworld if the portal has stopped working?"

The nether knight moved nearer to the portal and grinned. "The solution to that is to activate it again." As she said that, she swung the enchanted blaze rod at the portal and a ball of fire went forth and collided with the portal's obsidian structure. Within a spit second, the portal reactivated and the purple swirls returned.

The brown haired boy's mouth dropped to the ground. "W-What, h-how di-?"

"Fire reopens the portal. Now are you going to go in or not?" She gestured towards the nether portal with an impatient scowl.

* * *

When the two of them had arrived at the overworld during night-time, cool mist filled the area around them. However, they were shocked to see what had awaited them. What used to be Collin's and Sam's double-storey home was now a mostly destroyed building filled with fire, craters and holes. However, what scared Collin the most was the fact that Sam and Greg were nowhere to be seen and that a whole army of creepers, zombies, spiders and skeletons now surrounded them with rage in their eyes.

"I usually don't suggest this, but I think we should run," Scarlett whispered to Collin with fear in her eyes.