Chapter 2

THE NEW HEADMASTER

“I need a sword!” Phoebe cried out, looking frantically at the skeletons.

Lucy looked through her inventory and found her spare sword. It wasn’t a powerful diamond sword like the one she fought with, but at least she had something left after her treasure hunt—and she hoped it would do. She handed it to Phoebe. “I’m sorry, but I only have a wooden sword.”

“That’s better than nothing! Thanks!” Phoebe started to battle the skeletons.

Lucy sprinted toward two skeletons that had Jane cornered. With a blow from her diamond sword, she defeated one of them. Jane battled the other until it was destroyed.

“We make a great team,” Jane said with a smile.

“The fight’s not over yet,” Lucy said as six new skeletons shot arrows at them. Jane’s response was cut off as an arrow pierced her leg.

Just in time, Phoebe ran over to her friends and splashed a potion of invisibility on all three of them. “We need to find the skeleton spawner,” she said. “Let’s take the stairs to the basement.”

The gang dashed out of the dining hall and made their way to the school’s basement. Lucy’s heart was beating fast. The school was under attack again. Could Isaac be behind this disaster, too?

As the friends neared the bottom of the steps to the basement, the potion wore off. Phoebe led the group, but when she reached the bottom of the stairs, she let out a shrill cry. “Oh no!”

The basement was flooded with lava. As the girls watched, stunned, it rose higher and higher.

“We have to get out of here,” Lucy cried.

The trio raced up the stairs. “Look out!” Jane warned them. A horde of skeletons armed with bows and arrows stood in front of them.

Lucy gasped. With the skeletons ahead and the lava behind, they were trapped. They were running low on energy, and with the spawner still working, the skeleton army had grown massive.

Lucy clutched her diamond sword. She took a deep breath and readied herself for a fatal fight. She leapt at a skeleton and destroyed it, but as she turned to face another, the lights turned back on.

“We’re safe!” Jane cheered.

Stefan and Victoria raced down the stairs to greet the trio. Victoria asked, “Are you guys alright?”

“It’s not over,” Phoebe told Stefan and the new headmaster. “The basement is flooded with lava. I’m afraid it might flood the school.”

“I bet it’s the work of griefers,” Victoria called out. “We have to stop them!”

“You’re right, but we need to remove the lava as soon as possible.” Stefan looked at Victoria. “If we don’t, this entire building will be destroyed.”

Victoria agreed. “Make an announcement. We need every student to get a bucket and help us remove the lava.”

Stefan nodded and went to assemble the students. In the meantime, the trio of friends began to carefully remove buckets of lava with Victoria.

Lucy was glad to be working with Victoria to save the academy. Lucy had helped find the new headmaster after the attacks last year, and she liked her—but after seeing how well Isaac had hidden his plans to destroy the Overworld, how could Lucy ever really be sure anyone was trustworthy? Well, she did trust her two roommates. They had proven themselves to be loyal friends.

“Do you think Isaac staged this attack?” Lucy wondered aloud.

Victoria responded, “I’m not sure, but once this lava is removed, we’ll go to the jail and question him.”

Lucy nodded. She knew Victoria had led one of the battles against Isaac’s zombie invasion, sacrificing a lot to keep her desert village safe. She had given up valuable resources to craft multiple golems around the town, and she had built a large shelter where her neighbors could live after their homes were destroyed by the nightly TNT attacks. And now, seeing her work just as hard to defend Minecrafters Academy, Lucy had to believe that Victoria was a good person.

Slowly, the rest of the students joined them, and everyone worked together to empty the school of lava. When the basement was finally dry, Victoria turned to Lucy. “Ready to question Isaac?”

Ever since his attack on the school and the Overworld, the old headmaster, Isaac, had been imprisoned in a jail in the center of campus. “What a nice surprise,” Isaac said sarcastically when they opened the door to his cell. “Lucy and the new headmaster.”

“Believe us, we are equally excited to see you,” replied Victoria.

Lucy blurted out, “Are you behind these new attacks?”

“What attacks?” Isaac asked.

“Don’t act like you weren’t watching from the window. We know you were excited to see our school in danger again,” Lucy said angrily.

Victoria took a calmer approach. “I don’t know if you’re behind this attack, but if you were, I know you wouldn’t tell us. It doesn’t matter. We will find out who is doing this, and whoever it is will meet a very sad demise.”

Isaac said, “I promise you, I have nothing to do with these attacks. But I do love watching a good show. So while you battle the skeletons, I get a ringside seat.”

“It’s not entertainment,” Victoria said. “This is real life, and our students are in danger.”

“It’s all the same to me from inside this cell,” Isaac said with a shrug.

Victoria looked over at Lucy, who was tense and angry. “Don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of this. Isaac is just a pest. He can’t do anything to hurt us.”

Isaac crossed his arms and said, “Just because I’m in prison, doesn’t mean I don’t have power.”

Victoria shrugged. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

As Lucy and Victoria left the cell and locked the door, they could hear Isaac pacing behind it.

When they were out of earshot, Lucy asked, “Do you think he’s behind this attack?”

“Possibly,” Victoria replied. “Whoever’s behind it, we will have to be prepared at all times. It’s awful that you have to go through this again.”

“I know, but we will get through it.” Lucy smiled at Victoria, and they walked back to the main building together.