Herobrine's Message (10 page)

“Daaaugh!”
Stan shouted, clenching his teeth as he grabbed his throbbing fist. He shot an irritated look up at the bedrock block, still sitting there, obnoxiously solid.

“Try again,” sighed Sally in a bored voice.

“All right,” grunted Stan, “let's
go . . . argh
!”

Once again, he shook his fist in pain. Angry now, he threw punch after punch into the bedrock block, all accompanied by grunts, and all resulting in nothing more than an awful lot of agony in his fists.

“You're doing it all wrong, noob,” Sally spoke after a moment. “You're punching the block with all your strength, which is the totally wrong way of going about it. You know that you have the ability to destroy the block . . . but you're
still going about it as if you didn't have the powers. You're punching the outside of the block. Don't stop at the surface, Stan . . . I want you to punch straight through!”

And with that, Sally leaped into the air, and threw a punch directly through the highest block in the tower. Stan watched her fist, and saw that she was right: she didn't stop the punch at the surface of the block. Her first plowed directly through the center, causing the block to disappear in the process.

Stan took a deep breath and focused on the block directly in front of him. He looked at the gray-streaked surface and drew back his fist. Then, with all his might, Stan drove his fist into the block. His fist shot through the center of the bedrock block, and it disappeared into thin air. Stan's aching fist didn't feel a thing.

Stan drew back his hand, and looked at his fist in wonder.

“Congratulations, noob,” said Sally with a smirk, clapping her hands together. “You're an operator now.”

Stan grinned and looked back at Sally, overcome with jubilation.

“And all it took was a little advice from good ol' Sally,” she continued with a laugh.

“You know,” Stan said, looking at her in an adoringly accusatory way, “perhaps you could've brought up that insignificant little tidbit of advice
before
I nearly broke all my knuckles.”

“Yeah, I suppose I could've . . . but that wouldn't have been
nearly
as funny, would it?” Sally responded with a chuckle. “Now come on, noob!” she continued as Stan glared at her in exasperation. “You've got to get back to Elementia soon, but there are a few things I want to show you first!”

Leonidas was beginning to worry. The search had been going on forever now, and every second that he sat holed up in the cave, the chances increased that Stan would return and find himself in the midst of a quintet of heavily armed Noctem fighters. Leonidas had managed to silently take out one of the soldiers who had wandered down the cave to search. He was able to replenish his supply of arrows from the archer. All the others were still scuttling around the tiny dirt island like ants on an anthill. Leonidas was just pondering how much more there was to search when he heard a shout from above.

“All troops, fall in!” Spyro's voice rang out.

Leonidas heard footfalls on the ground above his head, and he crept his way up the cave to spy on them, careful not to alert any bats in the process. He poked his head out of the side of the cave and saw the four black-clad players circled around Spyro, whose face was illuminated by the moonlight.

“Okay, first and foremost,” said Spyro, glancing around his men, “where's ShadowNinja?”

“I'm not sure,” one of the players replied. Leonidas
recognized the distinct, high-pitched squeaky voice as Commander Squid, an old private of his. “He must still be out searching.”

“Hmm . . . he can't be far . . . this is a pretty small island . . . ,” Spyro said to himself. “Anyway, not important, we'll find him in a minute. For now, let's set up camp.”

Leonidas's heart dropped out of his stomach. They were staying the night? He watched in horror as the Noctem soldiers pulled beds, furnaces, and anvils from their inventories, setting them up all around the spot where Stan would no doubt be reentering Elementia soon.

I have to kill them all,
Leonidas thought desperately,
or at least severely weaken them. There's no way that Stan'll be able to handle that many guys if he comes back . . . he'll be totally blindsided! What should I do . . .

Leonidas knew that he had no time whatsoever to think his plan out further; he would simply have to go for broke. Leonidas poked his head out from around the wall of the cave and drew his bow. He notched an arrow in the string, pulled it back, took aim, and, after he had a clear shot, he let it fly, ducking back into the cave immediately after he did so.

Leonidas heard the cry of anguish that accompanied his arrow and knew that he had hit the mark. He heard the shouts of surprise and terror from the ring of Noctem troops,
and Spyro's voice bellowed out, “WHO'S THERE? SHOW YOURSELF!”

Heart pounding out of his chest, Leonidas readied another arrow, and took another shot at the circle, this time aiming for the closest soldier. Again, the shout of pain, and the renewed round of terrified confusion.

“What's going on here?”

“Who's shooting at us?”

“Look, over there! I saw someone in the mine!”

“Argh,” Leonidas grunted to himself as he sprinted out into the open. He saw the three remaining soldiers glare at him, but he sprinted away before they could catch his eye.

“It's ShadowNinja! He betrayed us!” bellowed Spyro in fury.

For a moment, Leonidas was confused, but then he realized what had happened. The player he had killed in the mine—ShadowNinja, apparently—had also been an archer. They must have assumed that, with his black leather armor, he was their comrade gone renegade. In any case, thought Leonidas to himself, none of them would live to realize the truth.

Leonidas sprinted his way up to the top of the dirt mound that was the island, and when he was at the peak, he glanced down. Commander Squid was making his way up the island, eyes blazing in fury and iron axe in hand. Another figure
who Leonidas didn't recognize was taking aim at him with a bow from the beach below. Leonidas had no idea where Spyro was, but he had more pressing matters to deal with at the moment.

Leonidas sidestepped the arrow fired his way from the beach, and stood back up to find that Commander Squid was upon him. He launched a powerful axe strike at Leonidas's head, which he simply ducked under, sending Squid tumbling back down the slope with a body check.

Having dealt with that problem for the time being, Leonidas then focused his attention on the archer on the beach. He had to duck two back-to-back arrows before he finally managed to get a clear shot on the archer. As fast as possible, Leonidas fired an arrow to the left of the archer, then directly at him, and then a ways to the right. The plan worked; the archer hopped right to avoid the first two arrows, directly into the path of the third. Leonidas sent another well-placed arrow down to finish him, and the ring of items bursting from the beached archer indicated Leonidas's victory.

Leonidas hardly had time to celebrate, however, as Commander Squid was nearly back upon him. Almost effortlessly, Leonidas managed to stay out of the range of Squid's frantic axe swipes, and sunk three arrows into him in a matter of seconds. Leonidas took a deep breath and glanced around the island below him, hoping to locate where Spyro went.

Then, without warning, Leonidas sensed something behind him. He lunged as hard as he could out of the way of the diamond sword that had stabbed at him from behind. Leonidas fell off the top of the hill and landed on the ground with a crash, tumbling painfully down the hill until he landed with a thud on the beach below.

Aching but not badly hurt, Leonidas kicked up onto his feet, loading his bow and standing perfectly still, trying to control his breathing, in the hopes that he might feel the invisible player moving around him.

Before long, Leonidas sensed a presence coming directly toward him. He shot his arrow forward to no avail, and was about to fire another when an invisible fist sunk hard into Leonidas's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. This was quickly followed by an uppercut under his chin that sent him flying backward, leaving him sprawled out on the ground. Dazed, Leonidas focused hard on staying conscious. When a sword appeared from nowhere above him, Leonidas suddenly felt wide awake as he rolled to the side. The sword drove deep into the ground, and Leonidas sent another arrow flying toward the weapon.

There was a grunt of agony as the arrow found its mark, and Leonidas saw the pained body of General Spyro flash into view for a moment before it disappeared again. However, the arrow in his arm remained, revealing where he was. Then,
Leonidas watched in horror as a Potion of Healing poured onto the wound. The arrow popped out of the invisible arm and onto the sand.

“Well, well, well,” the invisible Spyro laughed to himself as he picked up the arrow from the ground and snapped it in half. “If it isn't Leonidas . . . the once-great general of the Noctem Alliance.”

Leonidas was too exhausted to answer. He chose to devote his energy to coming up with an attack plan during this moment of rest rather than responding.

“I'm gonna get another promotion for this kill,” Spyro laughed to himself. “They'll have to invent a rank above general!” And with that, the levitating diamond sword barreled forward, straight toward Leonidas.

Having not established a surefire plan yet, Leonidas raised his bow to fire again, but Spyro's sword cleaved it in half, the tension of the weapon sending the two halves flying into the distance. In the following instant, Leonidas considered drawing the bow he had gotten from ShadowNinja, but instead chose to draw his iron sword and engage Spyro in combat.

The effort, however, was futile. Spyro outclassed Leonidas in sword fighting by a remarkable degree, and it wasn't long before Leonidas's sword spiraled high in the air, landing with a splash in the nearby ocean. Leonidas took off sprinting, though
from what, he did not know. He now realized that his efforts were futile and, eventually, Spyro was going to catch him.

Suddenly, Leonidas came across a block-high drop on the sand beach and, not expecting it, he tripped and tumbled across the sand. He landed face-up, and he became aware that Spyro's diamond sword was just blocks away from him.

This is it,
thought Leonidas as the diamond sword rose above him. He closed his eyes.

Then, Leonidas heard a clash of two blades, and a grunt of pain. A moment later, he heard the sound of a player landing on the dirt, and Spyro's voice yelling out, “What the . . .”

Leonidas opened his eyes, and painfully propped himself up on his arm before glancing up. Standing there, his back to Leonidas, was a player. In the faint moonlight, Leonidas could just make out dark-colored pants and shoes. A black cloak obscured the top half of his body, blowing faintly in the ocean breeze. In his pale left hand he held a diamond sword, pointed at the ground.

Leonidas saw Spyro a distance away. He was sitting on the sand and flashing in and out of sight as his Potion of Invisibility began to wear off. Spyro glanced up at the mysterious hooded figure standing between him and Leonidas and looked shocked, infuriated, and scared.

“Who are you? Where did you come from?” Spyro demanded.

The figure didn't answer. He simply stood there, not moving a muscle.

“That player is a wanted criminal. In the name of the Noctem Alliance and Lord Tenebris, I order you to stand down!” bellowed Spyro, raising his diamond sword into an attack stance.

Again, the figure didn't respond. But he did raise his right arm, crossing his sword over the front of his body in what was clearly a defensive stance.

“All right, if that's the way it is!” hissed Spyro as he charged the hooded figure. The Noctem general launched countless high-power sword strikes at the figure. The speed and technique was very impressive, yet the figure was able to block every attack without moving a muscle except for his right hand.

After a minute of fighting, the figure executed a twist-block maneuver, sending Spyro's sword flying, and he sunk his left fist hard into Spyro's stomach. Spyro fell to the ground with a thud, cringing in pain. The figure didn't continue the attack; rather, he simply moved his sword back into a defensive stance.

Grimacing, Spyro looked back up at the figure, tears in his eyes.

“Who . . . what . . . are you?” he managed to get out, fear manifested in his voice.

The figure, once again, said nothing. Spyro gazed into the face of the figure for a full minute. And then . . .

“You're gonna get it,” Spyro spat, and he whipped a boat out of his inventory and hopped in the water, moving as fast as possible back in the general direction of the Mushroom Islands.

Leonidas looked up at the figure, wondering what to say. He had no idea who this player was, or where he came from, but he had just saved Leonidas's life.

The robed figure turned to face Leonidas. As Leonidas glanced up, he realized that he could not see the figure's face. The black cloak covered the upper body, and the hood obscured the upper half of the player's face, revealing only a pale mouth. And although the figure still said nothing, Leonidas somehow knew the figure's name, despite having no idea who he was.

“Thank you, Black Hood,” Leonidas whispered.

The Black Hood turned to face the ocean. Then, in an instant, he dived into the water and disappeared into the murky depths. Leonidas forced his aching body to stand up and glance down, hoping to catch any indication of where the player had gone. And yet there was nothing. When the ripples of the splash finally disappeared, it was as if nobody had ever been there.

Leonidas was perplexed, and was about to start pondering
what had just happened when he heard a noise across the island. Quietly, Leonidas crept back to the top of the island and glanced over the peak. The view of the ocean expanded forever up here, and Leonidas could see Spyro's ship going farther and farther into the distance. And on the bottom beach of the island, Leonidas could see Stan, pulling a bed from his inventory and walking over to the cave.