There was a moment of silence as the four mobhunters let those facts sink in, the fire crackling and blazing in the background. Finally, Creeper Khan spoke.
“So … what’re we gonna do now? We can’t stick around here. You couldn’t pay me to mess around with someone that powerful. Do we go back out into the desert?”
“Oh please, you can’t be serious,” Enderchick laughed darkly. “After losing a job that was, like, this big? We’d be total losers. There’s no way I’m going back to that dump.”
“Then there’s only one thing to do,” Arachnia replied.
“What?”
“We’re gonna capture Stan2012 ourselves.”
Enderchick and Creeper Khan stared at her, eyes wide, as if she’d gone insane. Even Lord Marrow, who was leaning against a nearby tree and examining his bow, looked up in surprise.
“Uh … scusi?” Enderchick asked softly.
“Did I stutter?” Arachnia scoffed, standing up and looking down at her accomplices.
“Oh come on, Arachnia. You can’t really—”
“Shut up!” she spat, causing Creeper Khan to growl in anger as she began to rant.
“We have put so much time and effort into finding this player. We’ve travelled all across the server. We’ve slept in caves and swamps, we’ve had to fight against some of the most skilled players in Elementia, and now we’ve lost Zomboy. Enderchick is right, there’s no way that we can show our faces in the desert with any dignity without completing this mission, but it’s become more than that. Drake sent us out on a mission, guys … and with everything that we’ve put into it, there’s no way that I’m gonna back out now.”
Arachnia’s eyes were blazing with a fiery passion, and she spoke with such earnest fervour that the other three mobhunters couldn’t help but realize that what she was saying was true.
“Now that you mention it … I was forced to sleep for, like, an entire week in a disgusting, icky, slimy suh-wamp,” Enderchick groaned, shuddering in disgust at the memory before standing up alongside her leader. “It would be, like, a total shame if all of that was for, like, nothing. I’m with ya, girl – we’ve gotta find Stan.”
“All right!” bellowed Creeper Khan, leaping onto his feet and pumping his blocky fist. “Let’s show Drake who’s in charge!”
As the three other mobhunters converged to develop a strategy for finding and capturing Stan, Lord Marrow looked towards them. He surveyed them for a moment, as they schemed away with zealous enthusiasm, bloodlust and vengeance in their voices. Then, he looked at the ground, shook his head in sadness, and went back to inspecting his bow.
“Take this!” Stan screamed, launching his fist in Sally’s direction.
Quick as a whip, she feinted to the side, causing the energy blast to hit the dirt blocks below in a massive explosion. Unfazed, Stan started throwing a blitz of rapid jabs, as Sally gracefully dodged the energy shots blasting the ground to rubble below her and started to fly directly towards Stan, weaving between his blows as she did so. Stan realized what she was doing, and summoned an axe to his hand. Sally somersaulted forwards through the air, her sword slices turning the space around her into a globe of death as she rammed into Stan. With expert skill, he manoeuvered his axe with incredible speed, blocking every sword attack she threw at him. However, he was totally unprepared when she delivered two final uppercuts, which left his stomach exposed and allowed her to combo into a kick.
The force of her foot on his stomach sent Stan tumbling backwards, causing him to hit the ground so hard that he loosened the dirt blocks around him. Aware that he was in massive pain, Stan focussed all his energy on feeling better. In an instant, he was healed, just in time to see Sally rocketing down towards him, sword outstretched and ready to deliver the final blow.
A split second before Sally’s sword could impale him, Stan teleported to the side, causing Sally’s diamond sword to plunge deep into the ground. Stan reappeared beside her, and used the brief moment of disorientation to launch a punch into her side. She flew through the air but landed safely on all fours, sliding across the dirt blocks in a trail of dust. Stan took a moment to catch his breath, and watched as her eyes, burning with determination, locked on to him for just a moment before she disappeared in midair.
The back of Stan’s neck quivered in anticipation, and he spun around to counter the sword strike that Sally had launched from behind. As the two blades ground together, sparks flying from the point of contact, Stan and Sally both teleported at the same time. The duo warped through the air again and again, each desperately trying to outdo the other, but equally matched and continuously locked together. Before long, both realized that their efforts were futile and, in one motion, they pressed into the other’s weapon, sending them flying apart. Stan and Sally teleported backwards and simply hovered in midair.
Both players were staring each other down and breathing heavily. They each had a smile on their face that was one part exhilaration, one part frustration and one part admiration.
“I gotta say, Stan, I’m impressed,” Sally panted, giving a quick laugh as she tried to catch her breath. “I’ve taught you well.”
“Well, every good student will one day surpass their master, Sal,” Stan said with a devious grin. “And you’re about to realize that right … now!”
And with that, Stan stretched out his hand and sent a volley of fireballs from his palm towards Sally. This is his grand finale? She snickered to herself as she lazily raised her hand, conjuring a wall of bedrock to block the fireballs, which proceeded to hit the blocks and dissipate. However, without warning, Sally found that more and more bedrock blocks were appearing all around her, and before she could react, she found herself totally covered, unable to breathe and nearly unable to move.
Stan lowered his hand, looked at the cube of bedrock floating in the air away from him and laughed out loud. Ha. He smirked. She can’t survive in there for long … I’ll be seeing her respawn on the ground any second now …
“I must admit, Stan,” a voice rang out inside Stan’s head, “that you managed to catch me off guard. You truly have become an operator worthy of the title. However … if I were you … I wouldn’t count your chickens before they’re … hatched!”
As she shouted, a roar rang out through the server as the sky turned black, an evil, terrifying roar that resembled the cries of the Enderman, elephant and T-Rex all rolled into one. Stan recognized the roar, and gave an involuntary shudder as he realized what was about to happen. Then, the bedrock cube exploded, blocks flying everywhere as a giant pair of black wings opened wide, propelling a giant dragon, with a black hide and a silver exoskeleton, into the air. As the Ender Dragon rose higher and higher into the sky with each beat of its mighty wings, Stan could only watch in stunned silence.
Aw, he thought to himself bitterly. Why didn’t I think of that?
Underneath the rising dragon, Sally floated in midair, her hand pointed up towards the dragon and a wide grin on her face. She turned to face Stan, and their eyes locked for a moment. Then, Sally swung her hand forwards, and the dragon took off like a jet plane, rocketing at top speed towards Stan.
Stan warped to the side, only to have the dragon make a tight U-turn and be on him again in seconds. Shocked, Stan warped again, axe raised and ready to assault the dragon, but the great black beast whipped its head to the side quicker than Stan could react, and he just barely managed to avoid a snap of its powerful jaw.
Stan was floored. This Ender Dragon was, for whatever reason, much more aggressive than the one he had fought in The End all those months ago. Stan continued to warp backwards and out of range of the dragon’s claws and teeth, sending dozens of fireballs from his hands, which peppered the dragon’s face with miniature explosions. Nonetheless,