General Bart could not believe what had just happened. Thirty of his men and women perished in battle and respawned again in Albeja.
“I cannot believe this…I had never lost so many soldiers in battle…”
“But you told us that you had never been in a battle!” Tom replied.
“It doesn’t matter now. My men and women were lost… I am in shambles… My honor is gone.” General Bart complained.
“What are you talking about, general? Why all that drama? You do know your soldiers are not gone for good, right? They are probably in Albeja again, at their spawning point.” Paul replied. “There is nothing to worry about. They are all safe albeit without their equipment. We are in trouble now. We lost a good amount of manpower.”
“I am not worried about them! I am worried about what Frank Bones is going to think about this!” General Bart replied. “Can you even imagine what it must feel like having someone who trusts you, and then breaking their trust by failing in an important task? Once Frank sees all the solders in Albeja again he will be furious! He will know that I failed him!”
“So, you are not worried about your soldiers at all. You are simply worried about your reputation as general.” I said. “That’s not very nice of you, general! I thought you cared more about your own men.”
“Well, I do! I’m glad that they are not in danger. However, we lost all their equipment. Those armor pieces and weapons were not cheap! Frank Bones will not like this, not one bit! I am the only one to blame once I return… I don’t even want to think about what is going to happen!” General Bart said.
“Just stop this, will you?” Paul replied. “All this whining and complaining… you’re getting in my head. I’ll have a headache soon. Now, can we focus on the task at hand? We must destroy those Magma Cubes before they come after us!” Paul pointed at the monsters.
“Yes, but how am I supposed to do that with more than half of my infantry gone? I cannot fight the monsters without my infantry by my side.” General Bart whined again.
“Sometimes I feel like asking Frank Bones to give this General role to someone else. If only I didn’t detest the guy more than anything…” Paul replied.
“What? I’ll have you know that there is no such a thing as a better replacement for me! Frank Bones personally appointed me as the General because…”
“Yeah, yeah, we get it. You guys are friends and yada, yada. Now, can we deal with the enemies or not?” Tom replied.
“But, but… my infantry!”
“You still have 20 men and women at your disposal. I am sure they are ready to fight, and they want to defeat the Magma Cube like the other 30 soldiers. Now move on and shoot it down before it gets too close.” Paul said.
“Alright… I will see what we can do. 15th infantry, or what was left of it, load up and take aim again! We will avenge the fallen soldiers this time! We cannot let this giant Magma Cube escape!”
The soldiers were ready to shoot at the monster.
“Fire!” General Bart ordered.
The explosive arrows flew over our heads and hit the Magma Cube, turning it into four smaller Magma Cubes.
“We will keep doing this until there are no more of them. Do you understand? So, fire away!" General Bart ordered.
The soldiers started shooting arrows at the enemy, one after the other. The Magma Cube kept multiplying into smaller sizes, only to be shot down immediately afterwards. Soon enough, all 200 Magma Cubes had been defeated in one go.
“Perfect. Great job, guys. Even though we have less than half of the raw power, we were able to handle this perfectly. You all deserve a commendation.” General Bart replied.
“Wow! They sure are good at it!” Nora replied.
“I’m glad at least some people in this group have previous battling experience…” Tom muttered.
“Great work, everyone. This was impressively well done.” Paul replied.
“Nice! Now, there are only two more Magma Cubes to deal with!” I replied. “And they are smaller than the previous two. This should be a piece of cake for the infantry!”
“Fret not my friends, we won’t let those Magma Cubes live another day! 15th Infantry, fire away!”
The soldiers now aimed for the remaining two Magma Cubes in the distance. They defeated the monsters one by one. When the very last normal sized Magma Cube was destroyed, there was nothing, but empty craters scattered throughout the Nether.
“Fantastic! That was the last enemy!” I said. “Great job, everyone! You guys surely deserve a raise!”
“Ahem. Only Frank can decide that, but I think you are right. We sure do deserve a raise after this, don’t you guys think?” General Bart waived at the infantry.
“I am pretty sure he wasn’t talking about you, silly general.” Tom muttered.
“Anyway, we are safe to go now. We should take that Copper block out as soon as possible before we run into any more trouble.” General Bart said. “Move along civilians, we will escort you!”
“Come on Striders, it’s finally time to take the Copper out of the river.” Paul said.
“Finally!” I replied. “We have been waiting for so long!”