The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay

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СКАЧАТЬ back out towards him, until he heard a grunt of pain that told him that he had hit his mark. Only then did Stan allow himself to yank the arrow out of his arm.

      Stan ignored the throbbing pain, gritted his teeth and looked around. Becca was now engaging DZ in combat by sending fire at him with flint and steel, and Geno was fighting Kat. Stan did not see Charlie at all. The smoke in front of him had subsided enough for him to see the figure of Leonidas drawing another arrow.

      Stan spun his axe around in midair to deflect the arrow, and he charged Leonidas. Leonidas fired two more arrows, but Stan simply knocked them aside with his weapon. Just as Stan was about to cut Leonidas’s bow in two with his axe, he caught the glint of something in Leonidas’s hand. Stan tried to change his course, but Leonidas had already thrown the potion bottle at Stan, and it burst on his forehead, dazing him and knocking him to the ground.

      Stan felt dizzy, and the world spun around him. He was vaguely aware of wisps of grey smoke rising off his body, and found that he didn’t even have enough energy to lift himself up off the ground. Though he was aware that his axe was still clasped in his hand, Stan knew that whatever that potion was, it had dulled his nerves and reflexes. As he became aware of this, he also realized that Leonidas was pinning him to the ground with his foot, and he was yelling to Geno and Becca.

      There was screaming, Stan was sure of it, and it was a girl. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Becca still fighting with DZ, and he knew that it must have been Kat who had fallen fighting Geno. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw Geno being pushed back by frantic attacks from both Rex and Charlie, clearly enraged at the state of Kat, whom Stan could not see. He knew, though, what he must do.

      Leonidas was shooting arrows in Charlie’s direction, still standing on Stan. He therefore didn’t notice as Stan, with a great deal of focus to overcome the groggy effects of the potion, released his axe and fumbled around with his hand until his fingers clasped on his bow. Stan’s head was throbbing with the effort of moving, but he knew that this was the only way to save Kat. Feeling like his head was about to split open, Stan’s shaky hands notched an arrow in the bowstring, pulled back and fired.

      The arrow shot straight upwards and into Leonidas’s tunic, through the leather into his chest. The wound was not deep, and Stan doubted that it would be fatal, but Leonidas still cried out in pain and surprise as he tumbled backwards off Stan’s chest.

      The relief in weight helped Stan’s focus immensely. Immediately, the effects of the potion were only half as bad. Stan was now able to sit up. He saw Kat lying unconscious on the ground, and he noticed Geno turn for a moment and see his injured teammate. In the second of lost focus, Rex’s body slammed Geno in the stomach, knocking him backwards. He skidded across the ground, finally stopping when his head slammed into a nearby cactus. The thorns entered his head, and he lay limp and unmoving on the ground.

      Stan heard a clang. He whipped his head around but regretted it as soon as he did, his head still aching from Leonidas’s potion. He watched Becca’s sword flying into the air. Wasting no time, she kicked DZ in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and ran. “Come on, Leo!” she cried as she sprinted off into the night.

      Stan became aware that Leonidas was no longer next to him. He had gotten up and was now slinging Geno’s unconscious form over his back. He made to follow Becca, but then he stopped for a minute. He turned back to look at the players. DZ was still doubled over, and Rex was still growling in Leonidas’s direction, but Stan looked at Leonidas. There was something in his eyes, Stan suddenly realized, something that Stan couldn’t place. Was it pity? Sadness? Jealousy? Whatever it was, Stan knew it was out of place in the ruthless assassin that Leonidas was.

      “Leo, run!” came Becca’s cries. DZ had gotten back to his feet now and, his face contorted in rage, had strung an arrow pointed at Leonidas. Then, with one last look at the three of them, Leonidas was gone in a burst of fire charges. DZ’s arrow flew into the fire and hit nothing but air.

      In a moment, however, Stan realized that this was not true. A figure appeared from nowhere, engulfed in flames: an Enderman, DZ’s arrow sticking from its chest. Stan didn’t bother drawing a weapon. The monster was on fire, and it would die before it could reach him. Sure enough, the tall, spindly figure succumbed to death at Stan’s feet, leaving the twelfth Ender Pearl on the sand as the body evaporated.

      Suddenly, Stan remembered what had happened to Kat. He ran over to her and saw that Geno’s sword had cut across her chest, just below her neck. Stan wasted no time in pulling out one of his two remaining Healing Potions and administering it to the wound. The cut instantly sealed, and Kat, though remaining asleep, gave a deep breath that Stan took to mean that she would be all right.

      Stan was in deep thought as he sat on the front steps of Oob’s house. Mella and Blerge were inside the house caring for Kat, who was now lying unconscious in a bed. Charlie was in the village library, using the crafting table there to turn their Ender Pearls and Blaze Rods into the twelve Eyes of Ender that they would need to locate and enter the End. DZ, Oob, Ohsow the village butcher, Stull, Sequi and the Iron Golem were congregated around the well, talking and playing together.

      Stan was aware that the next day they were to fight a great battle, and as he sat there with nothing to do but wait for the others to finish their tasks, he found it the perfect time to contemplate the thoughts that had become present in his mind over the course of their journey.

      After last night, Leonidas was at the front of his mind. Stan wasn’t sure what it was, but there was definitely something off about the way that he had looked at them. He had fought Leonidas twice so far, and both times the player had initiated violence against Stan and his friends for no good reason. Stan had therefore marked him as equal in savagery to Geno, Becca, King Kev and the lot of them. Still, something about that look from the previous night made Stan feel slightly guilty about classifying him as such.

      Then there was Mr A. They had thankfully not seen Mr A since their encounter in the abandoned mine shaft, but the Griefer’s self-professed motives for his hatred of Stan and his friends seemed awfully misguided. That was, assuming that anything he said was at all true, which seemed more unlikely the more Stan thought about it. What Stan had heard about Avery007 from the Apothecary was that he was a kind player, someone who stood up for the rights of those not able to do so for themselves. Stan could not imagine any scenario in which Avery might befriend a dark-hearted Griefer like Mr A.

      He was definitely lying, decided Stan, and he told himself so firmly. Still, Stan believed that Mr A had fabricated the story based on a real experience. He had seemed too passionate while telling the story for it to not have some basis in fact. That being said, it was still true that Mr A’s hatred was ill advised, and Stan intended to tell him so should they ever meet again.

      Stan’s thoughts eventually settled on himself. For some reason, everybody seemed to see something special in him. Crazy Steve had seen it, Sally had seen it, and Kat had seen it, too. Though he couldn’t pinpoint what it was, Stan believed that there was something, some force, some otherworldly entity, that influenced him in difficult situations. Despite the fact that he knew nothing of what that power was, how he was able to use it, or whether or not it even existed, he knew that this power of questionable reality would be put to the ultimate test in the End.

      There was one more thing that Stan would definitely have liked to think about, dwell on, and consider the possibilities of. However, he refused to let himself think too heavily on it, for it might distract him in the End. No, not until he had conquered the End would he allow himself to think about Sally.

      It was just as well, thought Stan as he became aware of Charlie leaving the house. His thinking time was officially over. He stood up and walked over to Charlie, meeting him in the middle of the gravel path.

      “You’ve СКАЧАТЬ