15

THE ATTACK OF THE WITHER SKELETONS

William isn’t even in the Nether!” exclaimed Toby.

“Let’s get out of here,” added Jack.

Harriet surprised herself when she suggested, “Should we look for more treasure in this fortress before we go?”

“No, we have to go back to the Overworld now,” Julian shouted.

Before the gang could exit the Nether fortress, a horde of wither skeletons attacked them.

Harriet struck a wither skeleton with her diamond sword, but the black skeleton of the Nether was powerful and it wasn’t growing weaker.

“Help!” Harriet called out to the others, but they were all fighting their own battles. She used all of her strength to strike the wither skeleton and, just in the nick of time, she destroyed it. Harriet looked up to see another group of wither skeletons approaching them.

Jack finished battling a wither skeleton and looked up to see the new crop of skeletons. “Someone must have summoned these skeletons. We’re going to have to stop this wither skeleton invasion.”

“How?” Toby gasped, half out of breath, as he tried continued to battle a wither skeleton.

“I don’t know, but we can’t go on like this!” Julian shouted.

Harriet took some potions out of her inventory and splashed them on the skeletons. They weakened. She called to the others, “Use your potions!”

The group took out potions and threw them at the skeletons. Then they struck the weakened skeletons with their diamond swords and sprinted from the Nether fortress.

When they were out of danger, Veronica said, “We should stop here and build the portal. We have to get out of the Nether.”

Quickly they crafted a portal. Purple mist rose around them as they emerged in the Overworld.

Harriet looked around the jungle where they had spawned. “Now we have to travel to the desert. I assume that’s where we’ll find William.”

“Are you sure?” asked Jack. “Maybe he never made it to the desert.”

“We need to find the next batch of missing pages from the journal,” said Julian.

“You’re right,” said Ezra, “but I agree with Harriet—we should try to go back to search the desert. We know where they kept Oliver. Maybe William is trapped there too.”

Everyone agreed and they made their way toward the desert. As they climbed up a mountain, they saw a large three-headed blue creature fly by.

“Its color is changing to black. It’s the Wither boss!” cried Harriet.

The hostile mob flew by them and shot wither skulls at them. The gang dodged the skulls as they shot arrows at the three-headed beast.

“I bet Valentino summoned it!” Veronica said as she shot an arrow at the boss, striking the flying mob.

Ezra and Julian threw snowballs at the Wither. As snowballs and arrows struck it, it slowly began to lose energy.

After many hits, the Wither exploded, dropping a wither skull. Julian picked it up and placed it in his inventory. The group continued on their way down the mountain and toward the desert.

When they reached the desert, an arrow struck Julian. He looked around for the person that shot him, but he couldn’t see anyone.

“Where did that arrow come from?” asked Harriet.

A voice boomed, “From me.”

Valentino stood in front of them. The two purple-helmeted treasure hunters stood behind him and pointed their arrows at the gang.

“I hope you had fun fighting the Wither,” one of the purple-helmeted treasure hunters said with a laugh.

“The game is over, Valentino. You need to leave us alone. You’re never going to win,” Julian told him.

“I see Veronica has joined you.” Valentino walked over to Veronica. He put his bow and arrow back into his inventory and took out his enchanted diamond sword. He pointed it at Veronica’s chest. “You’re a traitor, Veronica.”

“No, I’m not. I just want to do the right thing. You wanted to put these innocent people on Hardcore mode. I couldn’t ever agree with that. I want to make my own choices.”

“Well, you made the wrong choice.” Valentino struck Veronica with his diamond sword.

Julian shot an arrow at Valentino, piercing his arm. Valentino was enraged. Together, the rest of the group attacked Valentino and the two purple-helmeted treasure hunters.

The trio was weakened. And within seconds they were destroyed. The gang sprinted toward a desert temple. As they entered the temple, they saw Valentino and the two purple-helmeted treasure hunters respawning.

“I guess this is where you are living,” said Julian.

“Good guess,” Valentino replied and he struck Julian with his diamond sword.

As they battled, it occurred to Julian that it was unlikely that William was still in the desert. Valentino lived here; he would have already found William if he were here. Julian realized that once this battle was over, they were going to have to start their search anew.

Outnumbered, it wasn’t long before Valentino and his friends were destroyed. “Let’s get out of here,” shouted Julian.

He sprinted out of the desert temple and the others followed. When they were far from the desert temple and hidden by trees in the jungle, Julian told them, “I don’t think William is being held prisoner in the desert.”

“Why?’ asked Toby.

“I think Valentino would have found him by now,” he replied.

Then Ezra made an announcement, holding up some papers in his hand. “Valentino dropped these during the battle. I think they’re the missing journal pages.”

“That’s amazing. Great job.” Oliver was thrilled. “Hopefully this will bring us one step closer to finding my old friend.”

The group gathered around Ezra. They wanted to know what the journal said next.

“Read it,” said Veronica. “We all want to know where William is being held prisoner!”

“Do you think Valentino has read this already?” asked Jack.

“I’m not sure,” Ezra replied, “but I think we still need to read it. It could help us.” With that, he began to read from the journal’s pages.