Battle in the Overworld Read online

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  Copyright © 2016 by Hollan Publishing, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

  Cover design by Brian Peterson

  Cover photo by Megan Miller

  Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-0596-8

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-0606-4

  Printed in Canada

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter 1: The Speech

  Chapter 2: News from the Overworld

  Chapter 3: Graduation Day is Canceled!

  Chapter 4: Old Fears

  Chapter 5: Small Pests

  Chapter 6: Villagers

  Chapter 7: Mystery in the Mine

  Chapter 8: TNT

  Chapter 9: Is This the End?

  Chapter 10: Cold Journey

  Chapter 11: Potions and Portals

  Chapter 12: Not the Nether

  Chapter 13: Sneaky Creepers

  Chapter 14: Waterways

  Chapter 15: Island Invasion

  Chapter 16: Back on Campus

  Chapter 17: Pomp and Circumstance

  Chapter 18: Graduation Party

  Chapter 1

  THE SPEECH

  “Can I read it to you?” asked Lucy.

  “Again?” Phoebe whined.

  “Lucy, we’ve heard this speech about twenty million times.” Jane was exaggerating, but they had heard Lucy recite her graduation speech a lot.

  “I know, but I’m really nervous. Also I changed some of it and want to see what you think,” Lucy explained. She had spent the last week reworking and revising the speech. Lucy was nervous about standing on stage and reading what she’d written in front of the large crowd. She wasn’t a fan of speaking in public. The only time she had to be on stage was when she helped her friend Adam at the school talent show, acting as his assistant. Lucy remembered it that it hadn’t been as bad as she had thought it would be, but she still preferred to work behind the scenes.

  “Lucy, we know you’re going to do a great job with the speech. That’s why Victoria chose you to be the class speaker. You’re going to be amazing,” Phoebe declared.

  “That’s nice of you to say, but that still doesn’t change the fact that I’m really nervous.” Lucy held the paper she had written her speech on tightly.

  Jane sighed. “Okay, we’ll listen to it.”

  “Don’t sound so excited,” Lucy replied sarcastically.

  Phoebe looked at Lucy. “Honestly, just read it already.”

  Lucy began to recite the speech. “I remember my first day at Minecrafters Academy and how nervous I was—”

  Kaboom!

  Lucy looked up from the speech and rushed to the window. “What was that?”

  “Maybe it was a creeper?” suggested Phoebe.

  “It didn’t sound like a creeper. It sounded like a TNT explosion.” Jane stood next to Lucy, looking out the window and inspecting the campus for smoke.

  “I don’t see anything.” Lucy clutched the speech.

  Jane nodded. “I think we should go outside and look around.”

  Lucy placed the speech in her inventory. She took out her armor and a sword. “We have to be safe.”

  Her friends agreed, and they put their armor on and grabbed swords from their inventories. They ran down the stairs and into the center of the campus. As they ran out of the building, they spotted Maya and Debbie.

  “Maya!” Jane called out.

  Maya hurried toward them. “Did you hear that explosion?”

  “Yes,” Lucy replied. “We were trying to find out where it came from.”

  “Us, too,” Debbie said. She held her diamond sword.

  “Let’s search together,” said Phoebe.

  Kaboom!

  “Another explosion!” cried Jane.

  The gang looked around, but there were no signs of smoke. They were dumbfounded.

  “Do you think this is some sort of trick?” asked Maya.

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s part of a class?” suggested Lucy.

  “Or a fireworks display they are practicing for graduation day?” added Debbie.

  Lucy looked up at the sky. “It’s doubtful that it’s a fireworks display. I don’t see anything.”

  The gang walked around the campus. When they reached the Main Hall, Adam called out to them from where he stood next to the entrance, “Over here!” The group ran over to Adam. When they reached him, he told them, “The Overworld is in the middle of an attack. There have been TNT explosions all around the villages and various biomes.”

  “How do you know?” asked Lucy.

  “Our friend from back home, Steve, is here. He says he needs help. Someone has been blowing up houses and shops in our home village. He asked me to leave the academy in order to help them.”

  “Steve?” Lucy was shocked to hear this news. “Where is he now?”

  “He’s meeting with Victoria the headmaster. He wants to assemble a team from Minecrafters Academy to help in the battle,” explained Adam.

  “Who is behind this attack?” asked Debbie.

  Adam sighed. “Steve doesn’t know, either.”

  Lucy was upset. It had been a while since the academy and the Overworld had last been under attack. She had been happy during this peaceful period, and now it was about to end. She didn’t want to be part of another battle, but she didn’t have a choice. If the Overworld was under attack, she would fight to save it.

  Phoebe asked, “But what about the explosions we heard on campus?”

  “Someone blew up the Great Hall,” Adam said and started to walk in the direction of the building.

  “The Great Hall!” Lucy gasped.

  “But that’s a new building!” added Phoebe.

  The Great Hall had been designed and constructed by the students of Minecrafters Academy. It had taken them an entire school year to finish the project, and it was where the school had been planning to hold the graduation ceremony.

  The group walked across the campus toward the Great Hall. Since it was a new building, it wasn’t in the center of the campus like the older buildings. As the friends approached the Great Hall, Lucy could see the side of the building was marred by a large, gaping hole.

  “Oh, no!” Lucy cried. “I hope we can fix this before
the graduation ceremony. It’s only a few days away.”

  The Great Hall also had a section with rooms for visitors. The group noticed that that portion of the building, in particular, was completely destroyed. Phoebe stood in front of the rubble and asked, “Where are our friends going to stay when they come for graduation?”

  Adam shook his head. “This is awful. But I don’t think we should worry about graduation when the entire Overworld is under attack.”

  Lucy knew Adam was right, but she was still upset. They had all worked hard to pass their classes at the academy, and it was disappointing to know they wouldn’t have a place to graduate. Lucy was also devastated that building they had spent an entire year designing and constructing had been destroyed by TNT in just a few minutes.

  Phoebe walked around the building. “This isn’t an easy fix. Whoever did this caused a lot of damage.”

  Lucy agreed and said, “I’m afraid to see what damage they have caused to the Overworld. I bet Adam and I won’t even recognize our village.”

  Adam said, “We have to help save the Overworld.”

  As Adam spoke, the group looked across the campus. Steve and Victoria were running toward them.

  “We have important news,” Victoria called out to the group.

  Before they could hear the news, thunder boomed throughout the campus and it began to rain.

  A skeleton spawned and shot an arrow at Lucy. “Ouch!” she cried out. Lucy didn’t have a moment to fight back. Within seconds a horde of skeletons spawned and shot a barrage of arrows at her, destroying her.

  Chapter 2

  NEWS FROM THE OVERWORLD

  It was still raining when Lucy respawned in her dorm room. She grabbed a bow and arrow from her inventory and raced to the window to aim at the skeletons.

  “Bull’s-eye!” she exclaimed as she struck a skeleton with a few arrows, obliterating it.

  “Lucy!” Steve rushed into the dorm room.

  “Steve, what’s going on? Is the academy under another skeleton attack?” Lucy questioned breathlessly as she focused on destroying skeletons with her bow and arrow.

  “This is serious. We have to get out of this building, fast,” Steve warned her.

  “But I can destroy skeletons from my window, and I’ll be shielded by the building.” Lucy shot another arrow at a skeleton.

  Kaboom!

  The building shook. Lucy held onto the wall. “Steve, are you okay?”

  “Yes.” Steve dusted some rubble off of his armor. “But they found tons of TNT all around this building. If we don’t get out now, we will be destroyed with this building.”

  Lucy’s voice shook. “And I’ll have no place to respawn!”

  Steve and Lucy dashed out of the dorm. As they exited the building, there was another explosion. They leapt away from the rubble that fell from the dorms.

  “The dorms!” Lucy cried as they ran toward their friends.

  “We can rebuild,” Steve reassured her. “The important thing is that we got out.

  Lucy envied Steve’s hopefulness as they raced to battle skeletons in a rainstorm.

  Steve looked over at Lucy. “It’s going to be alright.”

  Lucy wasn’t sure Steve was right. Two large buildings had been destroyed and the campus was under an intense skeleton attack. They might not be able to rebuild. This could be the battle that could signal the end for Minecrafters Academy and the entire Overworld. But Lucy didn’t have time to dwell on this catastrophic thought, because four skeletons surrounded her, forcing her to fight for her life. If they destroyed her, she would respawn in a building that was in the process of falling down. She placed her bow and arrow in her inventory and grabbed her powerful diamond sword instead.

  “Ouch!” Lucy cried as two arrows pierced her arm. Lucy grabbed a bottle of milk and took a quick sip to replenish her energy. She struck two skeletons with her diamond sword, but no matter how many times she struck them, the skeletons seemed invulnerable. She couldn’t destroy them.

  “Help!” Lucy called out. She needed as much help as she could get. Two more arrows landed on her arm, and she was losing hearts.

  “I’m here.” Maya ran to Lucy’s side and struck one of the skeletons with her sword, destroying the bony menace.

  Lucy wondered if her sword had lost its power. She wondered if the rain had any affect on the sword’s power, because she wasn’t able to destroy any skeletons. Lucy was relieved when she finally hit another skeleton and annihilated it. The skeleton dropped arrows, and Lucy reached to pick them up. But while she grabbed the arrows, a skeleton shot an arrow at her.

  “Not again!” she cried out in pain, grabbing the remaining milk from her inventory; she took a sip and then struck the skeleton as hard as she could with her diamond sword.

  Lucy was beginning to feel confident and struck another skeleton and destroyed it. But everything changed when Lucy saw a bunch of zombies lumbering toward her.

  “We have to fight zombies, too!” Lucy gasped.

  “We can do it,” Maya exclaimed.

  Maya ran toward the zombies and slammed them with her sword. Lucy followed Maya and battled the undead mobs. In a moment, Adam and Steve raced over and helped them fight the zombies, too.

  “This is awful,” Lucy said, exhausted from the battle.

  “I know—it’s like this all over the Overworld,” Steve said as he struck a zombie and destroyed it.

  “How long has this been going on?” asked Lucy.

  “Not too long, thankfully. The minute the shops in our village were destroyed, I TPed to Minecrafters Academy. I knew we needed help,” Steve explained.

  Lucy couldn’t believe that earlier in the day she had been so focused on the graduation speech. In fact, she had been thinking about nothing but delivering that speech for weeks, now. She had had problems sleeping, and hadn’t been able to stop obsessing, imagining making a mistake in front of everyone at the graduation ceremony.

  As rain fell on her and she struck zombies and skeletons that attacked her simultaneously, it seemed almost absurd that she had spent so much time worrying about giving a speech. Giving a speech was a lot easier than being destroyed by hostile mobs in the rain and having no place to respawn. Lucy would give a million speeches in front of the largest crowd she could imagine, if this battle would just end.

  “Watch out!” Steve called to Lucy.

  Lucy turned around and leapt away from a creeper. The arrow that was meant for Lucy pierced the green creeper.

  Kaboom!

  The creeper exploded and dropped a disc. Lucy reached for the disc. Although she wasn’t in the mood for listening to music, she placed the disc in her inventory. She promised herself that she would help win this battle, and when the battle was over, she’d throw an enormous graduation party. Maybe she’d play the disc at it so everyone could dance and celebrate.

  Lucy grabbed her arrow and struck the skeleton that destroyed the creeper. As she lunged at the skeleton, the rain stopped and the sky cleared.

  Phoebe and Jane walked over to Lucy. Phoebe sipped a potion of healing, then handed it off to Lucy and Jane.

  “Thanks,” Lucy said as she took a sip. “That was intense.”

  Her friends agreed. Phoebe added, “I’m sure it’s going to get a lot worse, too.”

  Lucy shrugged. She wanted this to be over. She wanted good news. Lucy turned around when she heard Victoria announce, “Pay attention, everyone. I have important news.” Victoria stood in the center of the campus. Stefan, who worked with Victoria, put his head down. He looked upset. The students crowded around them.

  Lucy joined the group, wating to hear the important news.

  Victoria grimaced as she informed the students, “I’m sorry, but due to circumstances beyond our control we have to cancel graduation.”

  There was a collective groan among the student body.

  Chapter 3

  GRADUATION DAY IS CANCELED!

  “But you’ll reschedule graduation, right?” someo
ne called out from the crowd.

  Victoria stammered, “I’m not sure. We have to see how this battle ends.”

  The crowd roared. “No graduation?”

  “This is awful!”

  “No way!”

  Seeing the chaos, Victoria looked quickly at Stefan and then called out to the students, “I’m sure we will reschedule. We will win this battle, and we’ll celebrate at graduation.”

  The crowd cheered. “We need to give them hope,” Victoria whispered to Stefan. “We can’t declare defeat before we start to battle.”

  The crowd was too fixated on the battle to pay attention to the conversation that was taking place between Victoria and Stefan. As the crowd’s cheers grew louder, a person shouted, “Who are we battling? Do we have any information?”

  The crowd quieted as Victoria addressed the question. “We have met with a wheat farmer named Steve. His town is one of the many towns under attack. Unfortunately, we don’t know who is behind these attacks.”

  “Is it Isaac, the old headmaster?” asked another student.

  “We don’t believe so,” said Victoria.

  “What about Liam and Dylan? They just attacked the academy,” asked another student.

  “Liam, Dylan, and Isaac are in the bedrock jail and have no access to the outside world. I’m sure they aren’t behind this attack,” Victoria declared.

  “Well then, who is?” a loud, angry voice asked.

  “I don’t know. But I’m positive that we will find out who is attacking the Overworld and we’ll stop them. This academy has the most skilled fighters in the entire Overworld,” said Victoria, and the crowd cheered.

  Stefan announced, “We will hold a formal meeting on the lawn after lunch. Everyone, go about your day. We will let you know what the next steps are in a couple of hours.”

  Lucy couldn’t believe Stefan expected them to just go about their day. How could they just act as if nothing was happening? The Overworld was under attack, and graduation had been canceled.

  “I want to get lunch,” Phoebe admitted, “but I’m afraid the building is going to explode.”

  “I’m sure they wouldn’t let us eat in the dining hall unless they had already inspected the entire building for TNT,” Jane told her friend.