Quest for Justice. Sean Wolfe Fay

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СКАЧАТЬ went back to her chair. Stan felt weak-kneed as she was so close to him, but immediately got back into his fighting stance, knowing what he would do next.

      Sally announced, “Match point! Ready? And … FIGHT!”

      Stan moved instantly. He cut hard to the right, towards Charlie’s side. Kat couldn’t attack him, because Charlie was in between them. Charlie took a slash with his sword at Stan, but Stan feinted backwards, and at the first opportunity he rushed forwards and thrust his sword with all his might at Charlie’s stomach. The direct blow glanced off his training suit, but Charlie still doubled over, the wind knocked out of him.

      “Point to Stan! Stan, one hit left … Charlie, two … Kat, three.” As they reset, Stan caught Sally’s eye. She smiled, and instantly another plan, more brilliant than the last, popped into his head.

      “Match point! Ready? And … FIGHT!”

      Stan stood still, and Charlie rushed towards Stan. Knowing what they were trying to do, Stan feinted right and slammed his sword into Charlie’s back, forcing Charlie to the spot where Stan had just stood. Just as Stan had expected, Kat jumped up. Not aware of Charlie’s new position, Kat brought her sword down where Stan had just been standing, but instead of hitting him on the head, she clubbed her partner. His helmet flew off, and Charlie hit the floor like a ton of bricks.

      Sally yelled, “Point to Stan! Stan, one hit left … Charlie, zero … Kat, three! Charlie is out!” But Kat and Stan didn’t notice as they were both checking to see if Charlie was OK, and even as she said it, Sally was standing up to join them.

      “Charlie, are you all right?” cried Stan, his voice hoarse with worry.

      “Oh God, Charlie, I am so sorry!” yelled Kat, tears in her eyes.

      “Charlie? Charlie, can you hear me?” said Sally, bending over Charlie’s unconscious form. Stan noticed the slash on his head, and his stomach felt like it had dissolved. Charlie couldn’t be … no, he refused to let himself think it. Sally waved her blocky hand over his closed eyes. When there was no response, she reached into her inventory and pulled something out. It was a golden apple, like the one that Stan had seen Jayden give to his unconscious brother. The second Charlie swallowed the shiny fruit, the wound on his head disappeared, and he sat upright, holding his head.

      “Well, that was unpleasant,” he said with a dark smile.

      Kat gave a shout of relief while Stan yelled out, “Thank God you’re alive, man!” He turned to Sally. “What happened? I thought you said that the armour absorbed all damage!”

      “It’s supposed to,” Sally said, frowning. “Let me see Charlie’s helmet, Stan.” Stan picked up the helmet from the floor and handed it to her. She examined it. “Well, it looks like somebody didn’t enchant this helmet correctly. It appears to have been given Blast Protection instead of just normal Protection, so you wouldn’t get hurt by an explosion – but you would by a sword. How did we not catch this in review?

      “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter, we can fix it,” she said. “And, may I say, that was an excellent move, Stan. If Charlie were in any condition to fight right now, he would have lost the match due to taking damage from both you and Kat. And Kat! To produce a strike with a stone sword that does that much damage to someone wearing a diamond helmet! Very impressive, both of you!”

      Stan tried not to look too proud of himself, seeing as he had just injured his best friend. Kat, meanwhile, was trying to hide the fact that she was blushing.

      “Well, Charlie, you’d better not fight any more seeing as you don’t have a helmet, but we still have to finish this fight. Kat, where’s your sword?”

      “Over there,” she said sheepishly, gesturing to a handle and several chunks of stone. The impact with Charlie’s helmet had reduced her weapon to rubble.

      “Girl, you are good at this!” Sally laughed as she picked up the remains of Kat’s sword from the floor. “It must have taken a ton of power to shatter a stone sword in one blow. Here,” she said, picking up Charlie’s sword off the ground and tossing it to her. “Match point! Ready? And … FIGHT!”

      This time there was no contest. Kat was simply more talented with a sword than Stan was, and she delivered a blow to his leg and won the match in a matter of seconds.

      “Point to Kat! Stan, zero … Kat, three. Kat wins!” she boomed. “Now, come on, I still have crafting to show you guys.”

      The three friends stripped off the training suits with pleasure – they were really quite uncomfortable after a while. They followed Sally down the ladder and into the crafting room below them.

      Sally explained that the tables with tools on them were called “crafting tables,” and that they used these to create a wide variety of different items. Sally handed them each a copy of a book exactly like the one Stan had gotten out of the chest that first day in Elementia.

      Sally gave Stan, Kat and Charlie instructions to craft certain items, and she said to use anything in the chests to do so. They all proved to be quite capable of crafting. They crafted their own wooden planks and then crafting tables, and then some sticks, a stone sword, a stone axe, a bow, some arrows and leather armour.

      After they had learned how to craft sufficiently, and Sally had explained how to smelt (changing the properties of certain blocks by putting them in a furnace), they headed back to the room, with a long, hard, successful day behind them. Sally once again came to talk to Stan. He was waiting – it was becoming a thing that they did. She sat down.

      “You’re really good with a sword,” she said.

      “No I’m not! Kat was better!” he said, wondering why she would say this.

      “Yes, she is better with a sword than you are. But you were innovative. Once you realized what you were doing, you managed to score two points with two people going against you. That’s not something just anybody could do.”

      “Thanks,” he said, smiling at her. “I had a good teacher.”

      She smiled back at him. “You’d better get to bed, noob. Tomorrow’s your day with Jayden, and you can’t expect him to be as nice as me. Get some rest. You’ll need it.” And with that she went to her own bed.

       CHAPTER 6

       STAN AND STEVE

      Stan woke up the next morning to a hissing sound.

      “Very funny, guys,” he mumbled. “That actually sounds a lot like a real Creep—aaauuuggghhh!”

      This time, it was no prank. An actual Creeper was standing right next to Stan, and he was staring right into its horrible, empty face. The monster was beginning to swell, and in the split second before the inevitable explosion, Stan flew at the monster and punched it in the face.

      To Stan’s amazement, instead of exploding, the Creeper flew backwards. As it walked back towards him, it suddenly keeled over sideways, an arrow protruding from the side of its head. Everyone woke up to the sound of Stan’s yell, and Rex started barking. Archie still stood with his bow in hand, aiming СКАЧАТЬ