General Bart ordered the 15th infantry to load up their explosive arrows this time. He was sure that the explosive ones could deal with the enemies better than regular arrows.
“Now, 15th infantry, listen up.” Bart said. “I want a clean shot, no mistakes, aim for the head. Do you understand?”
“Uhh… aren’t Magma Cubes practically jumping heads? They don’t have a body.” Tom said.
“Take aim at the enemy!” General Bart yelled. The infantry solders aimed their bows at the giant Magma Cube. The creature was still some 100 meters away, so they had to wait for the perfect opportunity.
“Hold! The monster has spotted us! We need to wait until he gets closer, and then you can shoot it down! I will not tolerate any mistakes; do you hear me?!”
The 15th infantry was focused on their shot. We watched in horror waiting for the unexpected.
“The suspense is killing me!” I told Nora.
“I wonder if those explosive arrows are going to work at all against a radioactive monster like that one.” Nora wondered.
“I wouldn’t hold my breath, but I can only hope.” I replied. “Besides, we are running out of options here. They better take the enemy down or we will be in big trouble.”
The giant Magma Cube bounced once more, and it was 60 meters away from the group.
“Just one more bounce and we will have the best shot. Wait!” General Bart ordered.
A few seconds went by, before the Magma Cube took another leap in our direction. As soon as it hit the ground, General Bart gave them the final order.
“Fire away!” Bart yelled.
The 15th infantry released their bows, shooting the explosive arrows at the Magma Cube’s face. The arrows exploded upon impact like General Bart intended. The Magma Cube fell backwards and rolled to the side before disappearing.
“Yes! We did it!” General Bart celebrated.
“Oh wow, they actually did it!” I said. “I wasn’t really sure if this would work, but General Bart was right after all!”
“Great job on that one, general,” Paul said. “You guys managed to defeat one of the Magma Cubes.”
“Thank you. I got to say, it wasn’t easy at all. But with some hard work and cooperation, we defeated the beast.” General Bart said.
However, as the group celebrated their victory, I spotted something strange going on. Four new smaller Magma Cubes formed up from the defeated Magma Cube. The four were slightly smaller in size, but equally dangerous and radioactive.
“Guys, I don’t think that we got rid of them all…” I said.
“What is wrong, Strider? Rejoice, my friend we defeated it. We are going to get out of this place safely, thanks to our sharpshooters here.” General Bart said.
“General, I think you are celebrating too soon. Look over there!” I pointed at the Magma Cubes.
“What’s the matter? I know there are other Magma Cubes roaming around. We can easily take care of them, don’t worry! Leave the enemies to us, and we will do the rest my friend! Now come celebrate with us!”
“Sorry general, I think you don’t understand. Those four Magma Cubes originated from the previous one. You have not defeated the enemy; they have transformed into four different creatures.”
“What? I know Magma Cubes can multiply, but our explosive arrows are made precisely for the purpose of annihilating any enemies on sight.” General Bart replied.
“Well, I don’t know about that, but those Magma Cubes are coming after us.”
“If it makes you feel any better, my infantry will have another go at the enemy. 15th Infantry, ready up! Load your bows and crossbows and take aim!”
The 15th infantry was ready to fire again.
“Fire!” General Bart ordered.
A wave of explosive arrows crossed the air and exploded over the four Magma Cubes. The creatures disappeared again.
“Hahahaha! Easy-peasy!” General Bart laughed. “I can do this all day! Come at me, Magma Cubes!”
“General, pay attention.” I asked him.
Now, the four Magma Cubes turned into 16 smaller Magma Cubes. They retained their radioactive form, and they were the size of a Hoglin.
“See? That’s what I am talking about. We dealt with the huge Magma Cube, but at what cost? Now we got to deal with these smaller radioactive enemies as well before they scatter all over the Nether!” I said.
“I see the enemy still has its ability to multiply, even in its radioactive form.” General Bart said. “Rest assured we won’t let them escape. 15th infantry, you heard me! We won’t stop shooting until those pesky Magma Cubes are wiped out from the face of the Nether! Now, load up and take aim!”
The 15th infantry obeyed the orders and aimed at the 16 enemies approaching us.
“Fire!” Bart ordered one more time.
They shot down the Magma Cubes, who continued multiplying.
“Wait a minute. Magma Cubes have a limit, don’t they? Why are they multiplying again?” General Bart wondered.
“Remember, we are not dealing with regular Magma Cubes.” I told him. “You should always keep in mind that these creatures are unpredictable!”
The 16 smaller Magma Cubes turned into 256 regular sized Magma Cubes!
“Make it stop regenerating!” Tom screamed.
“Perhaps shooting explosive arrows at the Magma Cube wasn’t such a good idea after all…” Paul said.
“What now, general? We must do something!” I said.
There were over 256 Magma Cubes roaming around and coming after us. The radioactive creatures were the normal size of a regular Magma Cube. Still, it was dangerous to face the enemy, given their radioactive properties.
“Well done genius, rather than running away from a slow Magma Cube, we have to deal with 256 fast ones! Way to go!” Tom sarcastically said.
“How was I supposed to know that the Magma Cubes were replicating into smaller ones? They should not have multiplied so much like this!” General Bart tried to explain himself.
“Guys, what is done is done.” Nora intervened. “There is no use in wasting our time fighting over the matter. The big question is how are we going to defeat them now? There are far too many, and the explosive arrows have proven to be worthless!”
“I might have an idea that we can try.” I replied.
“Please, do share.” Nora said. “Anything is useful at this point.”
“It involves using explosive arrows again.” I replied.
“Are you kidding me?” Tom complained. “Have you guys not learned your lesson about the explosive arrows?”
“I am talking about a single attack against one Magma Cube.” I said.
“What are you trying to get at, Morgan?” Paul asked me.
“Here’s the thing, the radioactive Magma Cube is different from the normal one. Therefore, we do not know for sure how many times they can multiply. The best way to understand how this works is by shooting down one enemy and seeing how many times it will multiply rather than shooting them altogether.”
“Oh, I like that idea!” General Bart replied. “So, you want to test out their limits and understand how far they can go. Impressive, Strider, you should join the military one day!”
“Thanks, but I definitely do not intend to do that.” I replied.
“Soldier number one, please take one step ahead!”
A female solder stepped up.
“Yes, sir!” She replied.
“Number one, you’ll help us with the experiment. I want you to aim at that target right over there and shoot it with an explosive arrow. If the target turns into four different targets, you must pick one target again and shoot at it. Repeat this process until the last target disappears completely. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.” She said.
“Okay, then go ahead and fire away!” General Bart gave her his orders.
Soldier number one fired at a single Magma Cube to the right side of the ridge. However, something incredible happened. Rather than the usual small explosion caused by the explosive arrow, a larger, louder explosion took us by surprise. The Magma Cube had exploded, vanishing in the process!
“Sir, I cannot see any other enemies emerging from the target.” The soldier said.
“Well done soldier, I think we have gotten our answer!” General Bart said.
“Yeah, it seems the Magma Cubes have reached their breaking point. That explosion definitely wasn’t normal, and the Magma Cube did not generate any other smaller Magma Cubes. In other words, I guess we are safe to shoot them down now.”
“Okay, 15th infantry, load up and shoot them down! We will get them for good this time!” General Bart ordered.
“Wait, General! There are over 200 smaller Magma Cubes in this area! Don’t you want to pick them off a few at a time? This is going to be danger –”
“Fire!” General Bart yelled, completely ignoring my advice.
The 15th infantry shot the Magma Cubes, who exploded into many pieces. The battlefield turned into a mess, and the Magma Cubes exploded in sequence, opening a massive crater in the Netherrack which led to unpleasant consequences. The barrage built by Paul to contain the radiation spill was blown away in the process, releasing a thick, radioactive lava into the river.
“Oh no, the barrage is gone!” Paul said.
“What barrage?” General Bart wasn’t aware.
“Hurry, we need to contain the radiation before it spreads even further into the river!” Paul alerted the group.
We rushed to the river, where Paul started building a new, larger barrage to contain the spillage.
“Shouldn’t have done that. If we let this radioactive lava take over the river, then we will be in deep trouble. Other creatures down the stream might get affected by the radiation, and our problems will be even bigger!” Paul said.
“I wasn’t aware about this thing here.” General Bart replied.
“That’s why I told you to take it easy with the arrows… but it’s too late now.” I said.
“Well, look on the bright side at least we defeated the giant Magma Cube. Right?” General Bart said.
“Yes, but we don’t want to create even more radioactive Magma Cubes in the process, do we? Now, please tell your infantry to keep their arrows to themselves, and do not go exploding Magma Cubes left and right!” Paul said.
“Right, we will be more careful next time.” General Bart replied. “Speaking of which, didn’t we have other Magma Cubes to watch out for?”
Suddenly, a massive Magma Cube hopped over our heads and fell over the 15th infantry. The scared soldiers fled the area as fast as they could, but some of them got stuck under the radioactive monster.
“No, my soldiers!” General Bart screamed.
“We must get them out of there!” Paul said.
But before we could get any closer, the Magma Cube released a deafening screech and erupted into a radioactive fire, burning everything within its reach. All the soldiers de-spawned, and their items caught on fire under the Magma Cube’s belly.
“What happened!” General Bart was in utter disbelief.
“Come now general, we must retreat as fast as possible!” Paul said. “Hurry, before the Magma Cube jumps on you!”
We dragged General Bart out of the area and ran to the hills again, escaping from the dangerous Magma Cubes.