3

SURRENDER SLIME

Steve ran toward the voice. The potion of weakness had wiped him out, but the milk had worked; he was now happy to have energy.

“I’m here!” Steve called out. “Where are you?”

“Help!” The voice grew louder, so the group knew they were heading in the right direction.

Bats flew overhead and the sun was setting as they searched for the person screaming for help.

“We need to build a shelter. It’s too dangerous to be outside at night. The swamp is a death trap,” said Kyra.

Steve didn’t pay attention. He was too focused on reaching the familiar voice. They sprinted along the water until they saw five green blocks hopping toward a person in the distance.

“Help!” the person called out once more.

Steve’s instinct had been right! It was his friend Caleb from the building competition. “Caleb!” Steve screamed, “Don’t worry! We’ll help you!”

Caleb was surrounded by slimes that hopped toward him, ready to attack. Caleb’s gold sword was no match for these slippery, slimy mobs.

“Steve!” Caleb was surprised to see his old friend.

“Caleb!” Kyra called out. “I’m here, too.”

“Kyra! Please help me battle the slimes,” Caleb said as he raced toward a large slime and struck it with his gold sword. When he hit it, it turned into two medium-sized slimes. It was a neverending battle. Caleb was able to destroy a mini slime and was left with slimeballs.

“Save the slimeballs!” Alex shouted, but Caleb was too busy battling the other slimes hopping at his feet to notice the slimeballs.

Steve joined Caleb, striking and defeating three large slime cubes with a single blow from his diamond sword.

Will, Alex, and Kyra fought alongside Steve, trying to stop this seemingly impossible battle of the slime.

Squish! Squash! The slimes hopped. No matter how many they destroyed, more seemed to spawn almost instantaneously.

“There must be a slime spawner over here. We need to find it!” Caleb told them.

“There could be a slime farm,” added Kyra as she crashed her sword against a small slime. It disappeared and left a slimeball.

“I’ll go look for the spawner,” Steve told the group as they battled the bouncy beasts.

Steve stalked away from the swampy water. He knew that slimes couldn’t swim, so the spawner would be farther inland. He came upon a small patch of land, thick with trees, and looked down to see a large hole. Steve peeked in his head and saw a tunnel with torches lighting the path. He was about to climb deeper into the hole, but stopped. He knew he couldn’t do this alone. Steve quickly returned to the gang.

“There’s a large hole in the ground. I think someone is spawning the slime down there!” Steve told them, and his friends rushed toward the tunnel, still trying to defeat the slime hopping around them.

Steve was the first person to climb down the tunnel. He held a torch as he led the group into the eerily silent tunnel.

“I don’t see any slimes,” Kyra remarked as she carefully made her way through the tunnel.

“And I don’t hear any slimes,” added Caleb.

“They have to be here.” Steve couldn’t imagine where else they’d be coming from. He also wondered who had built this tunnel and if they were still in the swamp biome.

A blur of colors raced past Steve and the gang.

“It’s a rainbow griefer!” Kyra called out.

“Remember how Joshua used a rainbow griefer to destroy the building competition?” Caleb said as the group walked down the tunnel, closer to the griefer.

“Rainbow griefers have Henry, Max, and Lucy trapped in the desert. I don’t think being in this tunnel is a good idea; they could trap us down here.” Kyra wanted to leave.

“We’re all nervous, Kyra, but we have to find out where these slimes are spawning or we won’t be able to stop them,” said Steve.

“But what if we are attacked by the rainbow griefer? Then we can never help our friends.” Kyra didn’t let the matter drop.

Alex defended Steve. “Steve’s right. We have to get to the bottom of this slime problem.”

They suddenly stopped when they heard a loud noise. Squish! Squash!

“It’s the slime spawning room!” Steve was excited. “It must be right down this hall,” he guessed.

The group made a right turn in the tunnel. Instead of entering a room filled with slime, they were stopped by a rainbow griefer wearing red armor and holding a brick of TNT.

“You walk one step closer and I’ll blow up this tunnel!” the griefer shouted.

“But you’ll destroy all of us,” Steve pleaded, trying to reason with the griefer.

“Makes no difference to me. I live here, so I’ll just respawn.” The rainbow griefer laughed.

Squish! Squash! Three slimes hopped from the slime spawn room and leapt at the rainbow griefer, destroying him. Steve and the gang sprinted away. They wanted to be far away before he respawned.

The tunnel was longer than they remembered, and it felt as though they’d never reach the end. When they finally saw light peeking through the hole above them, they climbed up a makeshift ladder made of vines and made their escape. Emerging in the evening light, a bat flew close to their heads.

“We’re safe! Let’s get out of here!” Will shouted, but he had spoken too soon.

In the distance, the rainbow griefer sprinted toward the group, and although he didn’t have a block of TNT, he was carrying a diamond sword.

The group tried to escape, but the rainbow griefer was fast. He caught up to them and leapt at Steve. The sword struck Steve’s arm.

“Ouch!” Steve cried, as he lost hearts in his health bar.

Caleb shot an arrow at the griefer and struck him right in the chest. The griefer was weakened. Steve lunged at the rainbow man with his diamond sword, pounding him with his powerful enchanted sword. The rainbow griefer sprinted away. They knew the battle was far from over. There were rainbow griefers lurking all around the Overworld, and they had just begun their war on the rainbow ruffians.

Squish! Squash! The sound of slimes was emanating from the tunnel.

“We need to get out of the swamp!” Alex cried to the gang.

Steve picked up a large rock and covered the hole in the ground. “That should keep the slimes away for a while.”

Night had fallen. They were stuck in the swamp. The group could make out two pairs of purple eyes in the dark sky.

“How are we going to escape?” Alex whispered.

“Swim!” Steve said, hopping into the murky swamp water filled with lily pads. The group followed.