The Return of the Rainbow Griefers Read online

  The gang agreed with Violet. They had to find Trent in the jungle temple. Will looked at the map and led the gang through a Grassy Biome until they reached the Swamp Biome. A bat flew overhead.

  “The swamp is the worst. I hate slimes and witches,” Hannah groaned.

  “Nobody likes slimes and witches,” added Ben.

  As the gang made their way deeper into the swamp, walking along a pond of murky water covered with lily pads, they spotted a witch’s hut.

  “I hope that hut is empty,” Hannah said as she took out a potion and her sword. She wanted to be prepared.

  “Me too.” Violet didn’t want to fight a witch—she wanted to find Trent in the jungle and then head to the desert to stop Daniel.

  “It’s not empty!” Marco called out.

  A purple-robed witch emerged from the hut, clutching a potion bottle in one hand.

  Noah rushed toward the witch and struck her with his diamond sword. Violet shot an arrow at her. Hannah lunged at the witch with her sword, but the witch threw a potion of harming on Hannah.

  “She got me!” Hannah cried out.

  Noah struck the witch again, but she was able to splash a potion on him, too.

  “I’ve been hit, too!” Noah called to Hannah.

  Marco raced to Noah and Hannah and handed them milk to drink.

  Violet struck the witch with her diamond sword and destroyed her. The witch dropped a spider’s eye, which Violet quickly picked up and placed in her inventory.

  “Everyone okay?” asked Violet.

  “Yes,” Hannah replied after finishing the milk.

  “We need to get out of the swamp,” exclaimed Ben.

  Will studied the map. “It’s not that far to the jungle. We won’t be in the swamp much longer.”

  Boing! Boing! Boing!

  “Slimes!” shouted Hannah. “Seriously? This is the worst trip to the swamp ever!”

  “At least it’s not too dark or we’d have even more hostile mobs to battle,” said Noah. He tried to look on the bright side, but it was hard to be cheerful—a trip to the swamp wasn’t fun at all.

  Noah struck one of the slimes with his diamond sword and told everyone to destroy the smaller slimes. “I can get the large slimes, but we have to obliterate the smaller ones or we’ll never get out of here.”

  Hannah hit one of the small slimes and destroyed it. “I got one!”

  “Don’t get too excited,” Violet cautioned. “I see a bunch of slimes bouncing toward us.”

  “And I see another witch!” Marco called out.

  Marco and Will battled the witch, avoiding splashes from her potions, while the others fought the slimes. The sun was setting as the gang finished their battle with the swamp creatures.

  “We need to get out of here,” Will said as he studied the map. “There is a Grassy Biome right outside the jungle. We can build a shelter there and find Trent in the morning.”

  The gang hurried out of the swamp before the sun set. Soon the full moon would shine over the swamp biome. The gang reached an open patch of land. Cows were grazing in the distance.

  “I have enough wood. Just help me build a house,” said Violet.

  The group helped Violet construct a house, and they all crafted beds. The sun was setting. They each climbed into their beds and fell asleep. This time there were no explosions keeping them up. They were sleeping peacefully, until someone walked in the door.

  7

  NOT THE NETHER

  “Wake up!” Daniel screamed.

  Violet thought she was having a nightmare. She opened her eyes and Daniel was standing in the middle of their crudely constructed cabin. He had at least a dozen rainbow griefers with him and they were all pointing their swords at the gang.

  “What do you want? You’ve pretty much destroyed the amusement park. Aren’t you done torturing us?” Violet shouted at Daniel and his evil griefers.

  “Done?” Daniel laughed, “I’ve just begun.”

  Hannah carefully took out a potion from her inventory and splashed it on Daniel.

  “Ugh!” Daniel shouted.

  “Quick!” Hannah called to the others. They jumped out of their beds, and while Hannah splashed potions on the griefers, the gang was able to escape.

  “We’re safe!” Marco called out as they entered the jungle.

  “No, we’re not,” Noah said.

  Arrows flew through the air. One struck Hannah. Everyone looked for rainbow griefers, but there were none in sight.

  “Who is shooting arrows at us?” Violet couldn’t see anyone, but she could feel the arrows pierce her skin.

  “Skeletons!” Noah shouted.

  Click! Clack! Clang! A group of bony monsters ambled toward the group, aiming their arrows at the gang.

  “I don’t think I have enough energy to fight them,” Violet said. Her energy bar was very low. She had been hit too many times.

  “Me neither,” said Ben. His health bar was almost drained.

  Hannah looked through her inventory. She wanted to give everyone a potion to help them regain their strength. “I don’t have any potions left!”

  “I have a plan,” Noah said as he shielded himself from the barrage of arrows heading in their direction.

  “What?” Violet questioned. She had no idea how they could stop the skeleton attack. She looked at Noah. “Are you building a portal?”

  “Yes,” he said as he placed the blocks of obsidian on the ground and a purple mist rose from the portal.

  “Not the Nether!” Marco was frightened. He had never been to the Nether.

  “It’s the only way we can survive.” Noah hopped on the portal. “Join me!”

  The gang gathered close to Noah. In an instant, they reemerged in the deep red Nether.

  “Watch out!” Noah called to Violet. “There’s a pool of lava behind you.”

  “I don’t understand why you thought this was a good idea.” Violet was annoyed. “There are way too many hostile mobs down here. We’re all going to be destroyed.”

  Will took some carrots out of his inventory. “We should eat something to regain our energy.”

  The gang ate the carrots as they made their way through the lava-filled Nether.

  Soon Violet spotted a Nether fortress. “Look! Maybe we can find treasure in there.”

  “I need Nether wart for my potions,” Hannah said and she rushed to the fortress.

  “Don’t run,” Noah warned. “We need to conserve our energy.”

  The group walked toward the fortress. When they reached the entrance Violet said, “I can’t believe we haven’t seen any hostile mobs yet. This is terrific. What a great idea, Noah.”

  Hannah stopped by a patch of soul sand by the stairs and began to pick Nether wart.

  Will led them toward the treasure. He was confident that he’d find a chest. “I’ve gotten treasure from many Nether fortresses.”

  The gang followed closely behind Will, but stopped when they saw a large pool of lava.

  “Watch out,” Will said as a blaze swam through the lava. The yellow blaze stared at them with its menacing black eyes and began to shoot three fireballs at Violet and Noah.

  Luckily they were able to dodge the fireballs, but within seconds, the blaze shot another three fireballs at Marco and Will.

  Marco surprised everyone when he unearthed a snowball from his inventory and threw it at the blaze, obliterating it.

  “We need to be careful,” Will warned as he inspected the pool of lava. “A lot of Nether fortresses have blaze spawners. We must make sure we’re prepared for another attack.”

  “Aren’t they usually found in the outdoor rooms?” asked Violet.

  “Yes,” replied Will. “So let’s stay indoors and find the treasure.” Will led them to a room with a chest. He slowly walked over to the chest. “I have to make sure it isn’t booby-trapped.”

  “I wonder what’s inside.” Marco was excited. Although he was scared of being in the Nether, he had to admit he was also secret
ly thrilled. This was the first time he was opening treasure in a Nether fortress.

  Will opened the chest and found it filled with blue diamonds. “Diamonds!” he called out.

  “Wow!” Marco looked inside the chest and picked up a diamond, placing it in his inventory.

  “There are enough diamonds for everyone,” Will said. He handed diamonds to everyone in the group.

  Violet took the last diamond and carefully placed it in her inventory. Suddenly she saw a dark block hop into the small room.

  “Magma cubes!” Will called out.

  Noah struck the magma cube with his sword, but the hit didn’t destroy the magma cube, it just created smaller cubes.

  “This is just like fighting a slime,” Ben gasped as he struck one of the smaller cubes with his sword.

  “We don’t really have the energy to fight these cubes,” Violet warned as she looked at her health bar, which was slowly decreasing. She struck a magma cube that pounced at her.

  “I can’t fight either,” added Ben.

  “We need to get back to the Overworld. We have the Nether wart and the diamonds. Do we have enough obsidian to make a portal?” questioned Hannah.

  “Yes, just help me fight the magma cubes,” Noah replied and he struck another cube.

  The group used diamond swords and bows and arrows to destroy the cubes.

  Will instructed, “Don’t worry about the smaller cubes. They aren’t that dangerous. As long as we stand on a block, they can’t hurt us.”

  When the final cube was destroyed, the gang hurried out of the fortress.

  While Noah crafted a portal back to the Overworld, he joked, “That trip was short but sweet.”

  “Sweet?” Violet disagreed. “You’re not funny.”

  Noah’s portal was complete. The group stood on the platform and a purple mist rose out of the ground as they returned to the Overworld.

  8

  BACK IN THE OVERWORLD

  The sun was setting when they reached the Overworld. Violet looked around, but she wasn’t sure where they were.

  “I think I see Supersonic,” Ben said in surprise.

  “Yes, I see the Ferris wheel,” confirmed Violet.

  “We ended up where we started.” Ben was annoyed.

  “What’s up, Noah?” Hannah frowned at her friend.

  “Don’t blame me. I wasn’t sure where we’d reemerge. Also I saved us from the skeleton attack. If the skeletons had destroyed us, I’m sure Daniel and his griefers would have been waiting for us in that house. They would have annihilated us.”

  “Noah’s right. This isn’t his fault. We need to go back to the tree house and get some rest. Tomorrow we will go find Trent.” Violet started toward the tree house.

  The group climbed up the ladder to the tree house, and they were surprised to see Trent standing in the living room.

  “Trent!” Violet called out. “We were about to rescue you.”

  “Will,” Trent said. He was very happy to see his friend. “I’m glad you were able to find my friends.”

  “How did you escape?” asked Noah.

  “It wasn’t easy, but three treasure hunters—Henry, Lucy, and Max—helped me. They threw a potion on Mac and then we all attacked him with whatever weapons we had and he was destroyed.” Trent paced as he spoke.

  “I bet he’s going to come looking for you,” warned Noah.

  “I’m not worried. We can defeat him.” Trent was confident of his friend’s skills. They were warriors.

  “I guess I don’t have to stick around,” Will said as he looked out at the dark sky, “but can I stay here for the night? I don’t want to get destroyed by hostile mobs.”

  “Yes, you can stay here tonight,” Violet told him, “and you don’t have to leave. If you want to help us defeat Daniel and rebuild the amusement park, we would love your help.”

  “You guys have been so nice to me. I think I’ll stay until you defeat Daniel. And I want to be the first one to ride the famed Dashing Coaster when it’s rebuilt.” Will was surprised to realize how happy he was that they had asked him to stay. He was a treasure hunter who was always exploring the Overworld, but he liked having a place that felt like a home—a place where people cared about him, and where he wanted to help others.

  “We should get into bed. It’s the only way we can be safe,” Violet told them. Everyone crawled into their beds and fell asleep.

  The morning wasn’t very peaceful. Within minutes of waking up, there was a loud explosion.

  “I bet the park is completely gone now,” Hannah said with dismay. She didn’t want to look out the window.

  Noah walked to the window. “No, it’s not the park. It looks like smoke is coming from the village.”

  The gang hurried down the ladder of the tree house. When they reached the center of the village, they saw a large hole in the ground. The iron golem was missing as well as a bunch of shops.

  “Valentino,” Noah called to his friend Valentino the Butcher. “What happened?”

  “Two red griefers sprinted into the center of town and left blocks of TNT. It was awful. I’m glad nobody was hurt.”

  “I knew you’d show up!” a voice boomed from behind them. It was Daniel. Mac stood next to him, and there was a large griefer army behind them.

  Noah shouted, “Rainbow griefers! You don’t have to listen to Daniel. We want to save you.”

  “Save them?” Daniel laughed. “They don’t need to be saved. They want to be here.”

  Mac aimed his bow and arrow at Trent. The arrow pierced Trent’s arm.

  Noah grabbed his diamond sword and rushed toward Mac. “Leave us alone!”

  Trent gathered his energy and removed a bow and arrow from his inventory and hit Mac.

  The army of rainbow griefers descended upon the group. It was a full-on battle. The gang used up all the weapons and potions in their inventories, but they were still losing the battle.

  “This isn’t going to work,” Violet whispered to Noah as they fought side by side.

  “Yes, it is!” Noah’s eyes grew wide and he grinned.

  “What?” Violet was confused until she saw townspeople wearing diamond armor running in their direction.

  The townspeople outnumbered the griefers and the army was rapidly diminishing.

  “We’re winning!” Hannah called out.

  “There’s no winning and losing here. We are just surviving,” Violet added as she struck two orange griefers with her enchanted diamond sword.

  The battle was long and everyone was exhausted. There were only a couple of rainbow griefers left, and soon they were all destroyed.

  “We did it!” Ben called out.

  “Where’s Daniel?” asked Noah.

  “Where’s Mac?” asked Violet.

  There was no answer.

  “Did somebody destroy them?” questioned Will.

  Nobody had destroyed Daniel or Mac.

  “That means they must be nearby,” concluded Violet.

  “It also means they must be planning something.” Noah looked around to see where Daniel and Mac were hiding, but he saw no clues to their whereabouts.

  “We need to head to my desert village,” Marco reminded them, “that’s the best way to stop him.”

  “It’s the only way,” clarified Violet. “Daniel will be weak when his army is destroyed. We were able to destroy him before, and we will do it again.”

  Katie and Leo joined the gang. Katie said, “Someone flooded the park with lava. We can’t even go inside.”

  “That’s awful!” Violet was devastated; she had worked very hard on the park.

  “We are going to start rebuilding,” said Leo.

  “We will help you rebuild,” Noah said quite confidently, “but first we must go to the desert.”

  Together the gang left the town and headed in the direction of the Sandy Biome.

  9

  ALMOST THERE

  The Savanna Biome was on the outskirts of the Desert Biome. The gang
trekked through dry grass as horses grazed around the land.

  “I see a village,” Violet pointed out.

  “Do you know anyone from this village?” Noah asked Marco.

  “No, I don’t,” Marco confessed. “I rarely left the Desert Biome.”

  “We should trade some diamonds for food and other resources,” suggested Ben.

  The village was rather small. There were only a few shops on the main street. Noah stopped in front of the blacksmith’s shop. “Should we get more armor?”

  “I need to trade my diamonds for a diamond chestplate,” Marco told them.

  They entered the shop. Marco asked the blacksmith if he had a diamond chestplate.

  The blacksmith greeted them warmly. “It’s so nice to finally see someone walk through the door who isn’t wearing a rainbow skin.”

  Violet gasped, “Are most of the people in this village wearing rainbow skins?”

  The blacksmith nodded his head and replied, “They are coming from the desert village not far from here. But I think some people in this town are beginning to change their skins to rainbow skins.”

  “Why?” asked Violet.

  The blacksmith paused, “I’m not sure. But I can tell you that business has never been better. It’s as if this entire town and the desert village is preparing for an incredible battle. I am running low on armor and swords. You’re lucky I have this diamond chestplate left in stock.”

  Marco traded his diamonds and thanked the blacksmith for the chestplate.

  “We must head to the desert village now,” Marco told the man.

  “I’m not sure they’ll let you in the village. They have guards stationed outside the entrance to the town,” the blacksmith replied.

  “Guards?” Marco was horrified. His village used to be so peaceful.

  “Why?” questioned Noah.

  “I don’t know why they have guards, but I assume they don’t want strangers entering the town,” said the blacksmith.

  “I’m not a stranger. The Desert Biome is my home,” Marco told the blacksmith.

  “Then I’m sure they’ll let you in,” the blacksmith replied with a smile.

  The gang walked through the small savanna village and toward the Desert Biome. As the grass turned to sand, they spotted the rainbow guards stationed by a makeshift checkpoint outside of town.