Herobrine's Message (16 page)

Becoming aware that somebody was staring at him, Leonidas whipped his head around, only to realize it was just Stan. The two locked eyes for a moment before Stan hastily looked away. Leonidas didn't care. Although he truly had
been emotionally invested in his own speech, he had shifted right back into hiding mode the instant that Stan had realized that there was somebody on the island. Right now, the fate of the village didn't matter to Leonidas as much as ensuring that he and Stan gave this mysterious figure, whoever he was, the slip.

As Leonidas glanced down onto the dark snowy ground, he realized with a start that not one but three figures were walking across the island. The three of them stopped in a clearing in the trees, not too far from where Stan had been just moments ago. In the faint moonlight, Leonidas could make out the bodies of all these players.

One of them had the exact costume of a Spider, and an intrigued look on her face. The second player resembled an Enderman almost perfectly, but she had blue eyes and a black ponytail down her back, her face seeming a bit unfocused. The final player had the body and face of a skeleton, with a mop of white hair, tinted black on top. This player's face looked stony and stoic.

Leonidas's heart dropped. He knew these players. He knew them well. And he knew just then how much trouble he and Stan were in.

A
rachnia looked around the clearing, surveying the trees and landscape. Enderchick opened her mouth to say something, but Arachnia raised her hand, and her mouth immediately closed. Arachnia took a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing intently on something. After a moment of silence, she opened her eyes.

“Somebody's on the island,” she whispered, looking to Enderchick and the skeleton-player, who Leonidas knew to be called Lord Marrow. “I can't tell where, exactly . . . but they're not going anywhere.”

Leonidas inhaled sharply, praying that Stan wouldn't hear this and take it to mean that he should run. Nothing could be further from the truth; they both had to stay put, lest Arachnia sense them.

Back when Leonidas had been commanding troops in Nocturia, Drake had told him about some old friends of his, bounty hunters who they could hire if they ever needed any extra hands. He had told Leonidas that this team, composed of five players named Arachnia, Enderchick, Lord Marrow, Creeper Khan, and Zomboy, was known as the Elite Legion of Mobhunters, or ELM. A mobhunter, Drake had explained, was a type of hacker who took on the skin of a mob in the game, and used cheats and mods to give themselves all the
abilities of the mobs they were disguised as.

Drake had pointed out that Arachnia, for example, was a mobhunter dressed as a Spider. Therefore, she had given herself the ability to poison others on contact, high agility and wall-climbing abilities, and the ability to sense when others were around if she devoted all her focus to it.

At that point, Leonidas told Drake that he'd consider hiring them if need be. Now, Leonidas hated himself for not having Drake go into more detail as to what exactly the other mobhunters of ELM were capable of. Leonidas assumed that Enderchick had some sort of teleportation ability, and Lord Marrow was most likely a skilled archer, but he still couldn't guess exactly what these players could do. And he had no idea where Creeper Khan and Zomboy were . . .

“You know what to do, Enderchick,” whispered Arachnia. Leonidas couldn't see Enderchick's face, but she nodded her head and then, in a puff of purple smoke, she was gone. Leonidas's heart sank; she
was
able to teleport.

Leonidas tried to keep his breathing as silent as possible as he heard the sound of teleportation go off every few seconds below him, indicating that Enderchick was clearly scouting out the island. He glanced up at Stan, in the tree directly across from him. Stan appeared to have the right idea and was crouched down, sword in hand and trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Leonidas sighed in relief, and
hoped that Stan would stay that way before the mobhunters managed to find him.

Enderchick appeared back in front of Arachnia in another burst of purple smoke.

“He's, like, not underground or anything, Arachnia,” Enderchick chirped softly, a ditzy, Valley girl tone to her voice. “All the blocks on the island still have, like, snow covering them and stuff. Also, just over behind those trees, I found this thingy.”

Enderchick reached into her inventory and pulled out a bow. As she handed it to Lord Marrow, Leonidas realized in horror that she was holding his own bow. Beyond being terrified that ELM now had evidence that somebody was indeed on the island, the feeling of helplessness that came with being unarmed crashed over Leonidas once again.

“Lord Marrow, what do you think?” Arachnia asked, as she and Enderchick turned to the skeleton-skinned mobhunter. “Has this bow been used recently?”

There was a moment of silence. Lord Marrow turned the bow over in his hand, and held it up to his eye level, examining it. Then, without a word, he turned to Arachnia, and nodded.

“All right,” Arachnia replied, a grin cracking on her face. “He's here. Enderchick, please bring over our little friend.”

Enderchick disappeared and reappeared an instant later,
holding another player by the shoulder. As Leonidas looked closer, he realized that she wasn't holding another player; this was a Zombie villager. As he got a closer look, Leonidas wondered in horror if this could be a citizen of the NPC Village he had once called home.

“Villager, give the command,” Arachnia ordered. Leonidas was puzzled. What did that mean?

The villager gave a series of short roars, sounding vaguely similar to hacking coughs. There was a moment of silence as the three mobhunters and the Zombie stood there, and Leonidas wondered what was going on. Then, the sounds of Zombie moans, Spider hisses, and rattling bones caught Leonidas's ear as he watched dozens of hostile mobs appear and begin to swarm between the tree trunks, clearly searching for someone.

“I still think that this is, like, a totally suh-
tupid
idea,” whined Enderchick, sticking her tongue out in disgust. “We could, like, totally find him ourselves, Arachnia.”

“I know that we could,” replied Arachnia, “but trust me, the mobs will find them much faster.”

Leonidas sighed, and looked down at the leaf blocks he was sitting on. If they were using the mobs to search, then he was probably safe. The only real danger would be if he looked an Enderman in the eye, so if he just kept staring down, he'd more than likely stay undetected. Leonidas gave a
quick glance up at Stan, to ensure that he, too, had the same idea. Indeed, Stan was still in the same position, crouched and ready to strike if need be, keeping his gaze fixed on the mobhunters below. Leonidas was about to return to looking down when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something.

Crouching on top of another spruce tree, not too far from where Stan was, was another player. Leonidas's heart stopped for an instant, as he feared that he was being surveyed by another mobhunter. Yet, as he got a closer look at the player's features in the faint moonlight, Leonidas realized that this player was quite different.

The figure had dark-colored pants, and his upper body was covered by a black cloak that draped down over his head, obscuring his face. Leonidas could still see a pale mouth.

Leonidas remembered back to days ago, when the same mysterious player had appeared out of nowhere to defend him from Spyro. The Black Hood had returned.

Leonidas had no idea what to do. He had no idea why this player was following him. And he had no idea why the Black Hood continued to stare directly at him. Leonidas raised his eyebrows at the player, eyes wide, as if trying to ask,
Who are you? And what do you want?

The hooded figure—the Black Hood—said nothing.
Instead, he simply raised his pale hand and pointed directly above Leonidas's head.

Leonidas glanced up behind him and immediately rolled out of the way to dodge the Spider that was dropping down from the leaves above him. The arachnid landed next to Leonidas with a clicking hiss, and Leonidas cringed, as the pain in his arm had flared up yet again from the sudden motion. He had no time to tend to his wound, though. The Spider had already hopped into the air and was about to land on Leonidas, teeth bared. Without flinching, Leonidas drew back his good hand and sunk it as hard as he could into the airborne Spider's stomach.

On contact with Leonidas's fist, the Spider hissed in pain and flew farther into the air. Then, to Leonidas's dismay, the mob fell down off the tree and directly toward the mobhunters down below. Leonidas turned in a panic back to the Black Hood, wondering if the mysterious stranger could help him in any other way. But the Black Hood had vanished. And out of the corner of his eye, Leonidas saw something that made him immobile with alarm.

Stan was still in his same position in the tree, crouched and ready for action. He was staring down at the mobhunters, completely oblivious to the Spider leaping down toward him from above. Leonidas waved his hands around in desperation, trying to catch Stan's attention. He looked up at
Leonidas with a look that questioned Leonidas's sanity, right as the Spider slammed into Stan's back, and he tumbled down out of the tree, landing with a thud on the snow-covered dirt below.

The mobhunters, who had all been preoccupied with the Spider that had fallen on them, now turned on their heels to face this player who had fallen on the ground. Arachnia took a step forward and glanced down at the player in surprise before a wild grin of victory crossed her face. The Spider reared up behind her and prepared to strike, but she cut the beast in half with a diamond sword without even turning around.

“Well, well, well,” Arachnia chuckled, elation flowing through her voice. “If it isn't the great and powerful President Stan2012 of Elementia.”

Stan, winded from the sudden fall to the ground, struggled to push himself up and look her in the eye, a pained expression on his face.

“Enderchick,” Arachnia said, looking to her black-skinned companion. Without hesitation, Enderchick disappeared in a puff of purple smoke and reappeared with her foot on Stan's back and a wild, sadistic look in her eye as she forced him to face-plant back into the snow.

“Try anything funny, Stan,” Arachnia spoke softly, as Lord Marrow drew a bow and notched an arrow, which instantly
began to swirl with strange, dark magic as he loaded it, “and we won't hesitate to kill you.”

Stan gave a tiny grunt but no other response. He seemed totally unable to move as Enderchick ground her foot harder into his back. Arachnia raised her fist and clenched it. Before long, the fist began to swirl with blue-gray smoke. Slowly, Arachnia brought her hand lower and lower, toward the back of Stan's head.

Then there was a roaring sound from out of nowhere. Arachnia barely had time to turn around before Leonidas's right arm struck her across the forehead. As Leonidas landed on the ground, a sickening crunch emanating from his legs, Arachnia fell unconscious to the ground. His limp left arm struck Lord Marrow against the back of the head, sending his bow tumbling to the ground, the dark arrow flying into the night sky. Leonidas gave a scream of agony and fell to the ground as Enderchick, shocked by the sudden attack, warped away from Stan, appearing a few blocks away. As she drew her sword for self-defense, Stan leaped up onto his feet, drawing his diamond sword and surging forward to attack Enderchick.

Leonidas was vaguely aware of Stan and Enderchick beginning to fight, but he was in too much pain to fully comprehend what was going on around him. Beyond the stinging in his legs from jumping off such a tall tree, his left arm,
which had struck Lord Marrow across the head, was now in such agony that he found himself unable to move. And as Leonidas gritted his teeth, tears streaming down his face, he realized there was no reason to move. Arachnia and Lord Marrow were both down for the count, and Stan was fighting Enderchick—there was nobody left to harm him.

Then, all at once, Leonidas became aware of the monster directly above, preparing to bear its fangs down into him. His deflating adrenaline levels suddenly pumped up to maximum yet again. Leonidas reached into his inventory and threw the bottle of Potion of Weakness, which he had been saving for weeks now, directly into the face of the Zombie villager. As the monster flinched, Leonidas plunged his hand into his inventory again, and forced the golden apple into the mouth of the Zombie.

As soon as the glimmering fruit disappeared into the mouth of the mob, it stopped trying to attack Leonidas. After a moment of standing still, the Zombie villager fell backward onto the ground, no longer pursuing Leonidas but rather shuddering as the wisps of smoke curled up off its body. Realizing that his job was done, Leonidas flopped back onto the ground, taking in the joy of lying still as he tried to catch his breath.

“You seem like you're having a totally awesome time, Stan!” giggled Enderchick, as she warped around Stan, dodging
every strike of his enchanted diamond sword.

Stan panted with exhaustion, a slight growl of frustration escaping his mouth. He had no idea who these people were, and he was baffled as to how this player named Enderchick apparently had gained the ability to teleport at will. The one thing that he did know, however, was that he was beginning to tire, and he hadn't landed one single hit on her yet.

“You know, sweetie, if you just surrendered,” simpered Enderchick, “then we could stop all this right now and just, you know, cut to the chase and stuff.”

Stan's vein pulsed in his temple as she gloated, and he rushed toward her at top speed. Drawing back his sword, he launched himself into the air and spun around like a blender, trying as hard as he could to emulate the technique that he had invented on his day of axe training in the Adorian Village. Shockwaves shot out of the spinning sword, and one of the Knockback blasts slammed into Enderchick, who had teleported to avoid Stan's attack. Caught unaware, she toppled to the ground, giving Stan a free shot to her right leg before she warped away.

Suddenly, Stan sensed something approaching behind him, and he ducked to avoid the arrow that flew past his head. The glowing projectile stuck into a nearby tree, and the wooden block caught fire. Realizing that the other player must have a bow with Flame on it, Stan spun around to face the archer,
who he had heard Arachnia call Lord Marrow. He was loading another arrow, but Stan saw that this one was different. As he squinted at it, he realized that the tip of this arrow had a tiny Creeper head on it. Baffled at what that could mean, Stan found himself forced to sidestep the arrow. It landed not too far from Stan, and there was a massive explosion at the spot where it landed. Stan had to raise his hands up to block the force of the blast, and he turned to face Lord Marrow again.

A horrible realization dawned on Stan. These players must be hackers! And Lord Marrow had several deadly types of arrows in his arsenal.

Frightened by the idea of what these arrows could do, Stan clutched his sword tightly and prepared to approach Lord Marrow. He knew how to approach archers; he had done it before. And if he could just get into close range, he would have the advantage.

Stan rushed forward as Lord Marrow fired another arrow directly at him, this one trailing purple, Enderman-like smoke behind it. Stan ducked under the arrow and it curved downward in midflight, still aiming for his head. The smoking projectile snagged onto Stan's black leather cap, pinning it to the snowy ground behind him.