Encounters in End City Read online

  “Well, at least we won’t be competing with Brad,” Emma said.

  Julia took a sip of milk. “I think we should go to the assembly and hear what Lucy has to say about the class speaker job.”

  As the group walked through the crowded dining hall, the lights went out. Julia quickly grabbed a torch from her inventory as a spider jockey spawned in the dark cafeteria. Its red eyes shined, and the skeleton’s arrows ripped through Emma’s left shoulder. Another arrow flew through the air and Julia jumped in front of Emma, shielding her from the arrow.

  Brad had skillfully suited up in his armor. Sprinting toward the skeleton, he threw the bony beast from the spider’s body. Mia raced next to Brad and slayed the eight-legged spider as Brad slammed his sword and a potion on the skeleton. The enemy was destroyed, but the lights were still off, making the students vulnerable to a hostile mob attack.

  Julia walked toward the exit with the other students. They wanted to get outside in the daylight, but she was stopped when two block-carrying Endermen silently walked through the cafeteria. One of the block-carrying Endermen locked eyes with Julia and unleashed a high-pitched shriek.

  “Julia, run!” Mia screamed.

  As the Enderman teleported toward her, Brad rushed to Julia’s side, clutching his glass of water. He splashed the water on the Enderman as other students joined in, destroying the lanky Enderman.

  Lucy walked into the dining hall as the lights came back on. “I’d like everyone to meet me on the great lawn. I want to have the assembly and talk about the teams in which I’ll be placing you.”

  “Teams?” Julia asked.

  “We can be on a team together,” Mia said.

  “I wonder how many people we can choose,” Emma said.

  Brad admitted, “I don’t want to be on your team. If you guys are chosen to be class speakers, I don’t want to be asked to stand in front of the school.”

  “Brad,” Julia said, “you have to learn to get over your fear of public speaking. It’s an important skill.”

  “I’ve gotten this far in life without public speaking, I think I’ll be fine,” Brad retorted.

  “But maybe I can help you get over it,” Julia said.

  “I don’t want to get over it. Everyone has fears they don’t want to deal with, right? I mean, what’s yours?” Brad asked Julia.

  She pondered this question as she walked out onto the great lawn. Julia was afraid of many things, but now that Brad asked her to name them, her mind drew blank. What she did fear was losing her friends. “I don’t like competitions,” she confessed.

  “Neither do I,” Brad said.

  Lucy called the students onto the great lawn and addressed the group. “I wish I could choose everyone to be a class speaker, but I am following a tradition at Minecrafters Academy. This tradition gives one person the honor of speaking during the graduation.

  “We will be considering students who have not only demonstrated the skills they’ve learned while attending the school, but those who understand the importance of working together as a group. After we break you into teams you will work with your team over the next few weeks on various challenges. The faculty will evaluate your individual skill, strategy, and ability to work with others.”

  The students stood in silence. Julia’s heart was beating rapidly. She never liked being chosen for teams. She was often picked last.

  Lucy said, “I am picking team leaders.” Each leader would be asked to choose four students they wanted to be on their teams. The teams of five would then be given an assignment and sent out in the Overworld to complete it.

  Julia watched as Nick, who was chosen as a team leader, chose his team. He picked Jamie, and he stared in Julia’s direction as he chose the next person. As he completed his list of four people to be on his team, Julia was surprised he didn’t call her name.

  Lucy called the next team leader. “Cayla.”

  Julia smiled when Cayla called her name first, followed by Emma, Mia, and Brad. Brad wasn’t happy about being chosen.

  “I told you I don’t like speaking in public,” he whispered to Cayla.

  “Please don’t make us look bad. We have to work together,” Cayla reminded him.

  “Is everything okay?” Lucy asked.

  “Yes,” Brad replied. “I was just thanking Cayla for choosing me.”

  “Great,” Lucy said and gave the group their mission. “Your group must go to the Nether and unearth the treasure from a Nether Fortress.” She added, “There is a Nether Fortress that has many chests filled with valuable treasures. You must return to campus with gold horse armor, diamonds, and Nether wart. I want an extensive update on the entire trip when you return, which you will present in front of the school.”

  “Do we have a time limit?” Emma asked.

  Lucy replied, “Whoever comes back first will be given priority, but as I said, this isn’t purely a race. This is about working together and using your minds to solve problems skillfully. I don’t want you rushing because it will just lead to sloppy work.”

  As Lucy gave the final instructions for each group, she wished them well. Julia was annoyed that many other groups were given challenges that took place in areas of the Overworld where she felt comfortable, including the Cold Biome. Julia’s heart sank. She was fearful of the Nether. Her mind raced with images of wither skeletons and magma cubes. She didn’t realize that her friends had already started crafting the portal to the Nether.

  “Aren’t you going to help them?” Lucy asked.

  Julia apologized as she pulled obsidian from her inventory and took a deep breath.

  Chapter 4

  NETHER MEANT TO HURT YOU

  The purple mist blurred Julia’s vision, and she couldn’t the see the sea of blazes and ghasts that flew toward them when they spawned in the middle of the hot, steamy Nether.

  “Watch out!” Cayla screamed.

  Julia turned around, narrowly avoiding falling into the lava stream behind her as she dodged the blast from the ghast.

  “Don’t hide from the fireballs,” Emma called out. “Remember what I taught you. You have to use your fist.”

  Julia made a fist and struck the second fireball, which flew back toward the ghast, destroying it. She battled the ghasts with her fist, as Brad and Mia battled the blazes with their bows and arrows. When the final fiery flying mobs were destroyed, Julia let out a sigh of relief.

  “I see a group in the distance,” Brad said.

  The group could see people sprinting toward what appeared to be a Nether fortress in the distance. Julia remarked, “It looks like Nick.”

  “And Jamie,” Brad said.

  “I don’t know the other people he chose,” Julia said.

  “We have to catch up to them,” Cayla said. “We don’t want them getting to the loot before us.”

  Emma reminded them, “Lucy did say that she will give priority to the team that gets there first.”

  “But she also told us not to rush. I don’t want to do a bad job,” Mia said.

  “I think we have to stop talking and get to that fortress,” said Cayla as she sprinted past an orange lava waterfall on the netherack ground.

  “Slow down,” Julia begged. Cayla was way ahead of the group and they couldn’t catch up.

  “Not again,” Brad called out.

  Four ghasts flew toward them. The white blocky mobs lowered their tentacle-like legs and spit fireballs at the group.

  Julia didn’t need anyone to remind her this time that her fists were her best weapons. She swung her fist until she annihilated a ghast, picking up a tear that it dropped on the ground.

  Cayla screamed, “Help!”

  Julia could see Cayla surrounded by Nick and his group as she battled a ghast.

  “Leave her alone!” Mia called out as she slammed her fist into a fireball, which boomeranged back toward the white floating blockhead and destroyed it. “Got some gunpowder,” Mia announced as she picked up the dropped gunpowder.

  Once
the final ghast was destroyed, Julia sprinted toward the entrance of the Nether fortress.

  “Leave her alone, Nick,” Julia called out, but was shocked at the response. Nick called out for help.

  As they sprinted toward the fortress, Julia could see someone standing by the entrance. “Oh my!”

  Hallie stood in the entrance of the Nether fortress. Her blue hair was secured with her signature daisy hair clip, and her knee-high socks were uneven. “I escaped.”

  Julia wondered if this was a part of Lucy’s plan, but she knew that Lucy would have never let Hallie out of the bedrock prison.

  Hallie held a sword against Nick’s unarmored chest. “Seriously?” She laughed as she asked Nick, “You traveled to the Nether without wearing armor? Your team should lose because of that one fact. I mean, how can you expect to survive here or anywhere without armor?”

  Nick didn’t answer. He just looked at Hallie as his hands shook.

  “Do you think you’re really going to get into this Nether fortress?” she asked.

  “Hallie,” Julia confronted her old roommate. “What do you want from us? Haven’t you caused enough damage to the Overworld and Minecrafters Academy? Why did you have to escape from prison and bother us again? Haven’t you learned your lesson?”

  “Wow.” Hallie laughed. “You have a lot of questions.”

  “And it seems you like you don’t have a lot of answers,” Julia said.

  “I don’t like your attitude.” Hallie pushed Nick aside and lunged at Julia, repeatedly striking her with a diamond sword until Julia awoke in her bed at Minecrafters Academy.

  “Mia! Emma!” Julia groggily called out to her roommates, but there was nobody there.

  Julia sprinted out of the dorms, calling out Lucy’s name through the empty campus.

  Lucy sprinted from the great hall. “Is everything okay?’

  Julia led Lucy toward the bedrock prison and walked Lucy into an empty cell. “Hallie has escaped.”

  Chapter 5

  FIERY FRIENDSHIP

  “How?” Lucy asked as they stood in the empty prison cell. “It’s impossible to escape from here!”

  “She’s in the Nether. It’s awful.” Julia explained what happened in front of the Nether fortress and how she was destroyed by Hallie’s diamond sword.

  “We have to go there right now,” Lucy said as she grabbed obsidian from her inventory and started to craft a portal to the Nether. Julia quickly gathered all of the supplies she had in order to help Lucy with the portal, then waited to be blinded by the purple mist.

  “Where are they?” Lucy asked as they emerged in the Nether and thankfully weren’t met by any hostile mobs.

  “We have to find the Nether fortress,” Julia said as she sprinted in the direction of the fortress. Lucy trailed behind her.

  “It’s right past this waterfall,” Julia said, but stopped when she didn’t see the Nether fortress. “Wait, this is where it was before. How could it be gone?”

  “Are you sure you are in the right place?” Lucy asked.

  Julia scanned the area. She recalled passing a lush lava waterfall as she reached the Nether fortress, but it wasn’t there. “I’m not sure. I thought I did. I’m sorry.”

  A flock of blazes flew toward them, shooting flaming balls at them. Armed with their bows and arrows, the duo aimed at the blazes, destroying them one by one and picking up the dropped blaze rods.

  Julia heard a voice. “Did you hear that?” she asked Lucy.

  “Yes,” Lucy stood still. “It sounds like it’s coming from that direction,” she said. They climbed up a netherrack platform, spotting the Nether fortress in the distance. Nick and Hallie were in the middle of a sword fight. Julia and Lucy climbed down from the platform, sprinting past lava falls, and running along a lava stream until they reached the fortress.

  Julia splashed a potion of Weakness on Hallie, who laughed and shrugged off the potion.

  “You’re going back to prison,” Lucy shouted.

  “No, I’m not.” Hallie slammed her sword into Lucy’s arm. The group rushed toward Hallie with their weapons, striking her with swords, arrows, and potions until she was destroyed.

  Lucy said, “I have to see if she respawned on campus. Please finish your assignment.” She teleported back to Minecrafters Academy.

  “That was crazy,” Julia sighed. “I can’t believe Hallie escaped.”

  “Do you think that was a part of our test?” Mia asked.

  “That would be a crazy test,” Julia said, “but I don’t think so. Lucy seemed very upset that Hallie had escaped.”

  Nick asked both groups, “Should we work together to get the treasures from this Nether fortress?”

  “If it helps us to win,” Mia said.

  “I’m not sure it will help us win, but I know if we don’t work together, we’ll lose,” Jamie theorized.

  The group entered the Nether fortress and made note of the items they needed to obtain while they were there.

  “We need Nether wart,” Julia said as she picked some from a patch that was growing next to soul sand at the side of the staircase.

  “I see a chest,” Brad called out.

  Boing! Splat! Boing! Bounce! Splat!

  “What’s that?” Julia’s voice quivered.

  “Magma cubes!” Mia shouted as bouncy blocks filled the small dark room in the Nether fortress.

  Julia’s heart raced. Crimson blocks with orange and yellow eyes hopped toward them, and Julia cried, “I’m surrounded! Help!

  “Use your sword,” Emma called out to Julia. Emma fearlessly slayed the magma cubes. As she swung her sword into the gelatinous cubes they broke into smaller cubes, which Emma quickly destroyed with a couple of strikes from her diamond sword. Everyone followed Emma’s lead as they worked to destroy the cubes, which dropped magma cream when they were destroyed.

  “We’ve almost got them all,” Cayla said optimistically.

  As the final magma cube was destroyed, two black wither skeletons spawned and swung their swords at the group.

  “We’re never going to get the treasure,” Mia sighed as she sprinted toward a wither skeleton, but the Nether-dwelling skeleton struck Mia and she was destroyed.

  “Mia!” Julia called out. “Oh no! I hope this doesn’t stop us from being chosen as class speaker.”

  Lucy walked into the Nether fortress as Julia spit out those words. “That’s not the type of comment I’d expect from you, Julia.”

  Julia was stunned by Lucy’s appearance, and the wither skeleton sensed her vulnerability and struck Julia until she disappeared.

  Chapter 6

  TREASURE HUNTERS

  “We lost,” Julia called out as she respawned in her bed.

  “Is it my fault?” asked Mia, who was standing in the middle of the room, getting ready to teleport back to the Nether.

  “No, it was my fault,” Julia confessed. “I said something I shouldn’t have and Lucy heard it. It was awful. When you were destroyed, I didn’t worry about you being destroyed. I was just worried about how you respawning on the campus would affect the group.”

  “That’s not that bad,” Mia said. “I actually thought the same thing.”

  “Thanks for making me feel better,” Julia said.

  “We have to get back to the Nether,” Mia said. “We have to teleport.”

  Julia and Mia teleported into the Nether fortress, where Emma and Cayla were in the middle of battling three wither skeletons, and they joined their friends in the fight against the stone-carrying bony beasts of the Nether.

  “They just keep spawning,” Cayla cried.

  “Where are the others?” Mia asked.

  “Where’s Lucy?” Julia asked.

  Both Julia and Mia joined their friends in battle, striking the powerful wither skeletons.

  “Lucy left with Nick’s team,” Cayla said breathlessly. “They have all of their treasures.”

  “What about Brad?” asked Julia as she destroyed a wither skeleton
and leaned down to pick up the skull.

  “I’m right here.” Brad sprinted in carrying gold horse armor. “All we need are the diamonds. I think we can get them.” Brad quickly placed the gold horse armor in his inventory and slammed his sword into the remaining wither skeleton and it was destroyed. He picked up the dropped skull.

  “Let’s get the diamonds,” Julia said with a renewed energy. The group sprinted through the fortress, opening chests.

  “I know there are diamonds in one of these chests,” Cayla said. “Nick’s group got them.”

  “Found them!” Mia called out from a room deep within the fortress.

  The group sprinted toward Mia and gathered diamonds. Julia smiled. “It’s time to go home.”

  Mia crafted a portal and this time the purple mist didn’t bother Julia’s eyes. She was happy to be out of the Nether with inventories filled with treasure.

  Julia’s mood changed when she realized they were the last team to return to the campus and everyone was waiting patiently for them. She knew that, at this point, they weren’t top candidates for class speaker. Julia and her friends watched as each group made their presentation.

  Brad whispered to his friends. “Please don’t make me present anything. Can you guys do all of the talking?”

  “Yes.” Julia smiled.

  When it was finally their turn, Julia was shocked when Lucy said, “I’m going to have to call out two teams that were confronted by a hostile force in the Nether. They worked together to get Hallie, a prisoner on campus, who has a history of terrorizing both the Overworld and Minecrafters Academy, back in her bedrock prison, where she won’t be able to harm anyone.”

  Julia hoped this would keep them in the running, but she wasn’t convinced. Since they had taken so long to return to Minecrafters Academy, by the time the group presented their treasures, the sun was starting to set.

  As Mia explained how they worked together to gather the Nether wart, someone cried out, “An Enderman!”

  An Enderman stared at one of the students and let out its usual high-pitched shriek as it teleported toward an innocent student.

  “Run toward the lake,” Julia called out to the girl, who seemed to be frozen in the crowd. Julia worried about the student and rushed toward her. “Run with me.”