Chapter 4

THE ATTACK OF THE WITHER SKELETONS

Maya walked into the Nether Fortress and let out a loud sigh. “I’m so relieved to find you guys. Someone once told me to travel east or west to find a Nether fortress. I picked west, and I can’t believe I found the right one!”

Lucy was surprised—she knew it was almost impossible to find a specific Nether fortress when you were looking for one. “That is amazing,” she said, eyebrows raised.

“I know.” Maya stood next to the empty treasure chest. “Did you find any loot?”

Jane replied, “Gold ingots and golden chest plates.”

Eitan said, “Next time we find a treasure chest, you can have some treasure. Since you weren’t here for the hunt this time, it doesn’t seem fair to take treasure away from the students who were.”

“That makes sense,” Maya said as she started to explore the Nether fortress.

“We need to stick together,” Eitan called out to Maya.

“I’m sorry,” Maya said quickly. “I was just so excited to look for more treasure.”

“Watch out!” Jane cried.

Three wither skeletons spawned behind Maya, and one of them immediately struck Maya with his sword.

Lucy grabbed her bow and arrow and aimed at the skeleton. “Bulls-eye,” she called out when her arrow struck home.

Phoebe, Jane, and Eitan all charged toward the wither skeletons and struck them with their diamond swords, weakening but not destroying them.

“Ouch!” Phoebe cried out. A skeleton had leapt at her and struck her with his stone sword, leaving Phoebe with a black heart and the Wither effect. For ten seconds, she was very tired and her health declined.

“She needs milk,” Lucy called out to Jane, who was busy battling a wither skeleton. She kept leaping out of the way of the skeleton’s stone sword.

Maya struck a skeleton and destroyed it, and Eitan called out to her over the sounds of battle. “Maya, pick up the wither skull!”

Maya was bending to pick up the dropped skull when another wither skeleton spawned and attacked her, catching her off guard.

“We need to get Phoebe and Maya milk,” Lucy cried, her sword locking with the stone sword of a wither skeleton.

Eitan slayed the bony mob he had been battling and ran to his students’ side to offer them milk. Phoebe and Maya grew stronger, and in a moment, they were ready to battle the new wither skeletons that were spawning at an incredible rate. Eitan said, “We have to locate the spawner. It’s the only way to stop this attack.”

Lucy agreed, but she was cornered by three skeletons. “Help!” she cried out to her friends.

Eitan hurried to Lucy’s side and struck the skeletons, destroying one. Together they battled the remaining skeletons and picked up the bones the skeletons dropped when they were destroyed.

“Come with me,” Eitan told Lucy. “We need to find the spawner.”

Lucy and Eitan searched for the spawner as the rest of the gang battled the weakened wither skeletons. “It has to be in one of these rooms,” Lucy said as they walked down a long hall.

“Yes,” Eitan agreed. “Do you have a torch in your inventory? We will need that to deactivate the spawner.”

Lucy groaned. Her inventory was almost empty, even though her friends had helped her replenish a small portion of her supplies. “No, I don’t.”

“Lucy. Every student at Minecrafters Academy is supposed to have a fully stocked inventory.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Lucy didn’t know what else to say.

A pair of orange and yellow eyes glowed in the distance. Eitan called to Lucy, “Get your diamond sword out. We have to attack!”

“Magma cubes!” Lucy gasped as two large cubes jumped at them.

Lucy barely had enough time to get her diamond sword and strike the boxy beast. The surprise attack weakened both Lucy and Eitan.

Eitan leapt at a magma cube, and with a hard blow, his sword split the large cube into pieces. As Lucy battled another magma cube, Eitan destroyed the smaller cubes that bounced on the floor of the Nether fortress. When Eitan destroyed the final segment of the orange-eyed mob, he sprinted over to help Lucy battle the others.

Eitan and Lucy struck the blocky beasts, and then worked as fast as they could to obliterate the smaller magma cubes. Then they heard footsteps behind them, and Lucy’s friends came running down the corridor.

“Lucy!” Phoebe called out.

“Eitan!” Jane exclaimed.

Lucy destroyed the final magma cube and turned her attention on her classmates. “Where’s Maya?”