Attack on Minecrafters Academy Read online

  Everyone crowded in the center of campus to access the damage. Julia stared at the dining hall, the second building destroyed.

  “The dining hall,” moaned Mia. “Where will we eat?”

  “I’m going to miss the cake,” Emma said.

  “This isn’t a time to joke.” Julia pointed at Lucy in the distance. “We need to tell her what we found in Hallie’s closet.”

  Julia sprinted over to Lucy, but stopped when she saw who was standing next to her.

  Hallie was whispering something in Lucy’s ear and they both stared at Julia.

  Chapter 10

  SEARCH AND FIND

  Julia didn’t know what to do. She stood in the center of the campus, staring back at Lucy and Hallie. She wondered if they were working together. Mia and Emma sprinted up behind Julia.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Mia.

  “Look,” Julia nodded to Hallie and Lucy. “I think we have a much bigger problem than we imagined.”

  “You have to talk to Lucy. Even if she’s evil, you must confront her,” Emma said.

  Julia knew the only way she could get answers would be if she approached Lucy and questioned her.

  Just then she overheard Henry talking to another teacher nearby.

  “I can’t believe someone destroyed the dining hall. It doesn’t make sense. Why would anyone want to destroy the school?”

  Julia chimed in on their conversation “You should ask your friend Lucy.”

  “What are you saying?” Henry was upset. “Lucy doesn’t have anything to do with this.”

  “She is standing beside my roommate, Hallie. We found lots of bricks of TNT in her closet,” explained.

  “You have to tell Lucy,” Henry said.

  “But what if she’s working with Hallie?” Emma said.

  “I know Lucy, and I can tell you that she isn’t working with Hallie,” Henry declared.

  The sound of thunder stunned the students. Rain began to pour down, and zombies spawned by the rubble that was once the dining hall.

  “This is strange. It’s the second time it rained in two days,” Henry said as he put on armor and grabbed a sword.

  Julia, Mia, and Emma also gathered their armor and swords, but Julia wasn’t watching the zombies that lumbered toward them; she was too fixated on Lucy and Hallie. She wanted to see if they stayed to battle the vacant-eyed zombies or if they went to the dorms to get the TNT bricks from Hallie’s closet.

  Lucy grabbed her bow and arrow and aimed at the zombies, but Hallie was gone. Julia used this opportunity to reach out to Lucy. She sprinted across the wet lawn, slamming her sword against two zombies that stood in her path, and made her way to Lucy.

  “Julia,” Lucy said breathlessly. “This is certainly an intense battle. Why would you leave Henry? He’s an expert fighter. He knows how to survive in situations like this one.”

  “I need to talk to you about Hallie,” said Julia as three zombies circled them.

  Lucy traded her bow and arrow for a diamond sword and struck one of the undead beasts, instantly destroying it. Julia fumbled with her sword as she struck the remaining zombies until they were destroyed. As more zombies spawned, the sun came out and they disappeared.

  “We’re safe.” Lucy let out a deep breath.

  “No, we’re not,” Julia said.

  “What are you talking about, Julia? Are you threatening our campus? Your roommate, Hallie, has met with me twice. She is worried about your behavior and thinks you might be behind these attacks.”

  Julia gasped, “What? Are you serious?”

  Emma, Mia, and Henry sprinted over to Julia and heard Lucy say, “Yes, Hallie is very worried. She wanted me to alert Carla and the rest of the faculty about your behavior. She said you follow her around campus and search through her belongings.”

  “We did go through her closet,” confessed Emma, “and we found a large amount of bricks of TNT.”

  “What?” Lucy was shocked.

  “Yes, we also found a chest filled with gold bricks. I’m not sure if someone is paying her, but I think we should consider her a suspect,” Julia said.

  “At this minute everyone on campus is a suspect,” Lucy said.

  Henry said, “Lucy, I think we should have a talk with Hallie.”

  “I agree, but I’m not going to place blame on any student until I have concrete evidence and hopefully a confession,” Lucy said.

  Carla rushed over to the group, “I just saw one of our students carrying blocks of TNT and I tried to stop her, but she splashed a potion of invisibility of herself.”

  “Was it Hallie?” Lucy asked.

  “How did you know?” Carla said.

  As Lucy replied, a loud explosion was heard throughout the campus.

  “What was that?” Carla asked.

  “It looks the smoke is coming from the direction of the auditorium,” Henry said.

  The group sprinted toward the smoke. Lucy looked over at Julia. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”

  “We have to stop her,” Julia said.

  Everyone agreed, but there was one major problem. After the smoke settled, they searched the campus for Hallie, but she was nowhere to be found.

  Hallie had vanished from MInecrafters Academy without a trace.

  Julia walked back to her empty dorm room. Hallie had taken all of her stuff. Even the closet full of TNT was empty. Julia hoped this was the end of Hallie, and there would be peace on campus.

  Lucy held an emergency assembly on the great lawn. This time there was no podium, and although the location was informal, what was discussed was quite important. Lucy said, “I’m sorry to make this announcement, but we will not have classes this week. Everyone must work on rebuilding the Main Hall, the dining hall and the auditorium.”

  Julia was excited to work on the project, but she was also upset that her academics wouldn’t continue until the school was rebuilt. Mia stood next to Julia and asked, “Should I ask a question about the Academic Olympics?”

  “No, this isn’t the time,” Julia advised.

  Emma agreed. “We have bigger issues.”

  “At least Hallie is gone. Maybe this means things will finally get back to normal,” Mia said.

  Lucy concluded the emergency assembly and walked toward Julia, Emma, and Mia. “I need to talk to you guys,” Lucy said.

  “I’d love to help rebuild the campus,” Julia said.

  “I’m sorry, but I need you for another project,” Lucy said.

  “What type of project?”

  “I have Hallie’s address in the Jungle. I need you to go find her and bring her back.”

  “Alone?”

  “No. You should bring your friends Mia and Emma,” Lucy replied.

  Mia suggested, “We should go see Aaron before we go and replenish our supply of potions.”

  “Aaron?” Lucy asked.

  “He’s an old man we met living in the stronghold right near the campus,” Mia explained.

  “We met him when we were searching for Hallie,” Julia said.

  “I haven’t heard that name in a long time. There was once a student here by that name. We were schoolmates in fact, but he’s been missing for years,” Lucy said.

  “I bet it’s the same guy. He said he used to go school here,” Julia said.

  “I think we should all see him, before you leave on your journey,” said Lucy.

  The trio walked into the thick patch of leaves with Lucy. They were going to find Aaron.

  “It’s right here,” said Emma, but the cave was missing.

  “Where’s the cave’s entrance?” Julia asked.

  “This is definitely the spot,” Mia said.

  “This is so strange,” Julia remarked.

  A voice called out in the distance. “Are you looking for me?”

  Chapter 11

  THE JUNGLE

  “Aaron,” Lucy called out gleefully.

  “Hello, my old friend,” Aaron said.

  “We nee
d potions,” Mia said.

  “That’s not the only reason we’re here,” Lucy said. “We need your help. I want you to travel to the Jungle with Julia, Mia and Emma.”

  “The Jungle?” Aaron shrugged. “I’m an old man. I can’t travel to the Jungle. My days as an adventurer are over.”

  “You still have the strength to help. I know you do,” Lucy said.

  Aaron blushed. “You always know the right things to say.”

  Mia added, “If you don’t have the energy, just drink lots of potions of strength. I’m also sure that anyone who has the ability to gather all of the ingredients to brew those potions is quite strong.”

  Lucy smiled. “I think you’ll be in good hands, Aaron. This is very important to me and to Minecrafters Academy. I’m also going to go with you guys. I think we have to find Hallie as soon as possible.”

  “Wow!” Aaron exclaimed. “You’re coming too?”

  “Yes,” Lucy replied. “I’m leaving one of the faculty, Carla, in charge of the campus.”

  Julia looked up at the sky. Dusk was approaching. “We should leave soon, because we don’t want to travel at night.”

  Lucy grabbed a map from her inventory, and pointed out where Hallie’s house was in the Jungle. “She lives in this small village next to a Jungle temple.”

  The four friends followed Lucy through the woods and toward the Jungle. After walking through meadows and forest biomes, Lucy suggested they build a house in a grassy patch outside a swamp.

  Julia wasn’t used to constructing homes from wooden planks; she usually built her homes with snow. “This is much easier,” Julia pointed out as she placed the wooden planks on the ground and built the home’s structure within minutes.

  “You’re doing a great job,” Lucy said.

  “Thanks,” Julia replied, but threw down the wooden planks when she heard Mia let out a bloodcurdling scream.

  “Mia?” Emma screamed.

  “Help,” Mia hollered. “Please help me.”

  Julia sprinted toward the sound of Mia’s voice, and found her friend in the middle of an intense battle with a witch. The purple-robed witch clutched a bottle of potion and stood inches from a terrified Mia.

  “Use your potions,” Aaron called. “You can do this.”

  Julia had never seen a witch, and it was a lot scarier than she’d imagined. She wanted to help her friend, but she was also scared of becoming the witch’s next victim. Julia quickly grabbed her bow and arrow and aimed at the witch. The arrow struck the witch’s leg and irritated the old woman, who lunged at Mia with her potion. The witch doused Mia with poisonous potion that weakened her.

  Aaron sprinted toward the witch, splashing a mixture of two potions on the venomous witch, which greatly slowed the witch’s movements. “Shoot your arrows!” Aaron ordered the others as he rushed to Mia’s side and gave her a potion that reversed the damage from the witch’s poison.

  Mia drank the potion. “Thank you. I feel so much better.” She ducked from the arrows and struck the witch which her gold sword, destroying the black-hatted cauldron-brewing beast.

  “We have to finish building the house,” Lucy said, staring at the evening sky and the large full moon, as a bat flew by them. “Yes, we have to work incredibly fast. I don’t want us to be distracted by any more battles.”

  Julia was placing the windows on the house when she heard an unfamiliar noise. “Does anybody hear that? It sounds like something is bouncing.”

  “Shhh,” Lucy said. “Julia, stop building.”

  “I hear it too,” Aaron said.

  “Slimes!” Mia cried.

  Six green blocks bounced toward them. Emma was the first to slay a slime with her diamond sword, but the slime wasn’t destroyed; it broke into smaller chunks. The others gathered around the smaller pieces of slime, slamming them with their swords.

  Julia struck a slime. She felt someone standing behind her, assuming it was one of her friends, so she struck another slime without turning back. As she plunged her sword deep into the green slime, she felt incredibly tired and her body seemed to move in slow motion.

  Emma gasped and ran toward Julia, clutching her diamond sword.

  “Please don’t hurt me,” Julia cried out, but her voice was low and she could barely get the words out. She was confused and wondered why her good friend Emma was ready to attack her, until she heard Aaron say something about a witch. Julia realized it was a witch who stood behind her, ready to annihilate her if her friends didn’t help. Julia didn’t have the energy to pull a potion from her inventory or strike the witch with her sword; she just stood in front of the witch feeling incredibly weak and helpless.

  Emma sprinted toward the witch, ripping into her with a diamond sword, but the witch shrugged off the attack and drank a potion, which replenished her energy. Julia wanted to move away from the witch, but she couldn’t. The witch splashed another potion on Julia as Emma lunged again at the witch with her sword. The witch was slaughtered, but not before it managed to destroy Julia.

  Moments later, Julia respawned on the Minecrafters Academy campus and cautiously scanned the horizon. The sky had grown eerily dark. She felt a pit in her stomach as a three-headed shadow slowly emerged from behind the school building. It occurred to Julia that she might not make it back to her friends alive.

  Chapter 12

  BUILD A TRAP

  When Julia finally appeared in the wooden house by the swamp, she was greeted with both excitement and relief.

  “Are you okay?” Emma asked. “Don’t worry. The witch was destroyed. We built onto the house to make it safer and made beds for all of us.”

  Julia’s face was pale. Her fiery red hair seemed even brighter against her snow-white skin. She let out a sigh as she said, “We have to go back to Minecrafters Academy now.”

  “What? We can’t!” Lucy protested “What’s happening there? Is everyone okay?”

  The barrage of questions overwhelmed Julia. All she could spit out was one word: “Wither.”

  “The Wither? Is there a Wither attacking the school?” Lucy asked.

  Julia shook her head.

  “She looks very weak.” Aaron walked over to Julia and handed her a potion to regain her strength.

  Julia took small sips. She started to feel a bit stronger and began to speak. “It’s in the middle of the campus. It was shooting these intense fiery skulls. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I’ve only heard stories about the Wither or the Ender Dragon, but when you see them up close, it’s really horrible.” Tears streamed down Julia’s face as she described the Wither.

  Lucy paced the length of the small house. “This is awful. We must all TP there right now.”

  “First, we have to put on our armor,” Emma reminded them. “I’ve fought the Wither many times and it’s incredibly tricky. We can’t just go there and blindly fight this powerful mob. We must have a plan.”

  “What should we do?” Julia asked Emma. “You’ve defeated the Wither before, so you must have some insight.”

  “We have to trap it. This is where you will be incredibly helpful, Julia. When we get back to campus, I will take the others and lead them into the battle with the Wither. You must construct a bedrock structure where you can trap the Wither. We will lead the Wither to that structure. Does everybody get the plan?” Emma asked the group.

  “Yes.” Lucy spoke for the group as she ordered everyone to TP.

  The group TPed and landed in the belly of the action. They immediately ducked when three flaming wither skulls shot in their direction.

  “Duck,” cried Emma as she raced toward the Wither, striking the three-headed beast with an arrow. This infuriated the beast, as it wasn’t accustomed to getting struck by an arrow. The Wither stared at Emma with its three heads and blasted her with wither skulls. Emma sprinted from the skulls, narrowly avoiding a fiery demise.

  Mia, Aaron, and Lucy sprinted toward Emma, aiming their arrows at the Wither. They each struck a part of the muscular mob.


  “We’re weakening it!” Mia cheered.

  “We have to lead the Wither to the bedrock structure Julia’s building,” Emma said weakly.

  Aaron handed Emma a potion of strength. “Drink this, warrior. It will make you better.”

  Emma sipped the potion and eyed the campus for Julia. She wanted to know in which direction they should lead this flying pest that was tormenting the students and faculty at Minecrafters Academy.

  Julia was building as quickly as she could. She worried because her inventory wasn’t filled with enough bedrock to construct the final portion of the building. A familiar voice called out to her. “What are you doing? How can you build at a time like this?”

  Julia looked up and spotted Brad sprinting toward her. “I have to build this. We need to trap the Wither in here. The only problem is that I don’t have enough bedrock.”

  Brad pulled bedrock from his inventory. “I can help.” He worked with Julia and they finished the building.

  “We have to let Emma know that it’s finished. She’s leading the Wither toward this building and we’re going to trap it. We have to leave the top open so the Wither can get trapped. Once the Wither is in the structure, we have to close it,” Lucy told Brad.

  “That seems rather difficult.” Brad looked at the building and the large flying Wither in the distance. “People have been battling this Wither all night. I don’t think trapping this beast will be an easy task.”

  “I know, but we have to try,” Julia said. “Follow me. Let’s find Emma and the gang.”

  Julia and Brad sprinted across the campus, dodging and ducking from the burning wither skulls that pelted down upon the great lawn. As they approached Emma and the others who shielded themselves behind a tree while they fought, Julia was startled when she saw Hallie rush past her.

  “That’s Hallie!” Julia called out.

  “So?” Brad didn’t understand why that was a big deal.

  “She’s back.” Julia sprinted toward Emma.

  Emma called out, “Did you finish the building?”

  “Yes,” Brad replied, “and we have just enough bedrock left to construct a roof.”