Quest for Justice. Sean Wolfe Fay

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      Completely ignoring the gaping mouths of his three students, Jayden wiped the snow and pumpkin guts off his axe and calmly walked across the red line.

      Stan, Charlie, and Kat exploded into cheers. None of them was entirely sure what they had just seen, but it was certainly spectacular. “That was amazing!” Stan yelled.

      “Yeah, it was! And what exactly was that thing you just killed?” asked Kat.

      “Oh, that was just a Snow Golem,” explained Jayden. “They use snowballs to keep away monsters and unwanted guests. So, which of you wants to try first?”

      The smile fell from Stan’s face. He had forgotten that he would have to do what Jayden had just done. Jayden made it look so easy! What if I just end up looking like an idiot? Stan thought.

      “I’ll take the bullet,” Charlie said meekly, stepping forwards. The others looked surprised, even Jayden, though he still tossed Charlie the axe. Charlie never volunteered to go first.

      “Well, snowballs don’t hurt, do they?” said Charlie, taking his stance as Jayden readied the Golem. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

      Famous last words, thought Stan.

      And he turned out to be right, as Charlie’s trial was a bona fide disaster. The second Jayden yelled go, Charlie dashed forwards, but he instantly fell back on his butt, still grabbing the handle of the axe – he had clearly underestimated its weight. With Charlie on the ground, the Snow Golem had a clear shot at Charlie with the snowballs. Each snowball knocked Charlie into the air a little, but he was so bad at dodging them that he was actually blasted into the air by the rapid-fire stream of snow. It was only a hoe thrown spear-style by Crazy Steve, which impaled itself in the Golem’s face, that stopped Charlie from being lifted to a fatal height. Still, Charlie was pretty badly hurt when he fell back down, and a disgruntled Jayden had to pull out another golden apple to fix Charlie’s leg.

      Kat’s trial was almost as bad. She decided to throw the axe with all her considerable strength towards the Golem’s head. It would have worked had her aim been better. The flying axe ended up hitting and killing a cow in the adjacent field. From there, it was all Kat could do to keep from being lifted into the air as Charlie had. She was better at dodging than him, but she had no weapons, and she only dodged about half the rapid-fire snowballs. Jayden had to pull out a bow and arrows from the chest and fire three shots into the Snow Golem’s pumpkin head to put an end to it.

      Finally, Stan took the axe. He dropped into a fighting stance with a nervous pit in his stomach. He hoped he wouldn’t just drop the axe like Charlie, or do something else to make himself look stupid. Jayden put the pumpkin head in place, the Snow Golem became animated, and Stan took off.

      The first thing he noticed was that the axe wasn’t as heavy as he had thought. It felt rather light in his hand as he ran with it trailing behind him. The second thing he noticed was how easy it was to dodge the snowballs – he simply knew when to duck and weave around them, and in no time, Stan had reached the Snow Golem. What happened next was so incredible that even Jayden didn’t believe his eyes.

      As he neared the Snow Golem, Stan had a brilliant idea. Instead of trying to copy what Jayden had done and doing a triple spin, Stan launched himself forwards into the air and spun with all his might, axe stretched in front of him. He slammed into the Snow Golem with such speed and such incredible revolution that the Golem was cut into dust as if it was in a blender set to liquefy.

      Stan landed with one hand and two feet on the ground, well past the red line, breathing hard, his axe held in the remaining hand, and there was no evidence that there had ever been an enemy there. Nobody could even see any pieces of the pumpkin. The only evidence of the snow was the light dust hanging in the air, creating a rainbow in the light from the square sun.

      There was an absolute explosion of cheers from Charlie, and Kat and Jayden just looked amazed. Stan’s smile filled his face. The move had seemed so natural, so easy! Then he noticed Crazy Steve’s face, and his smile faltered.

      The look was shrewd and calculating. It was as if the old-timer was seeing Stan for the first time and was now trying to figure something out about him, as if there were something hidden in Stan’s pixilated body that he was trying to decipher. But his friends came over, and Stan soon forgot about the old farmer.

      “That was amazing!” cried Kat.

      “Wow! Awesome, man!” exclaimed Charlie.

      “How did you do that!?” asked Jayden, eyes wide.

      Stan shrugged, unable to stop grinning. “I don’t know. It just kind of happened.”

      “Well, it was amazing!” Kat said again, and Charlie nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

      “I think we may have just found your talent!” said a smiling Jayden. Stan’s heart leaped. And as the training continued, it seemed that Stan had indeed discovered something that he could do without trying. Like Charlie with the pickaxe and Kat with the sword, Stan blew away all the others in the sparring ring. He even managed to just beat out Jayden. Now Jayden was even more impressed, not to mention slightly jealous.

      After a farming lesson that was no problem at all (though none of them particularly liked farming, they were all capable of doing it with ease, and Steve really appreciated the help convincing the stubborn Mooshrooms to breed), they put away their axes and hoes and headed out. Jayden was just about to exit under the hedge when a hand grabbed his shoulder.

      “Yo, Jay!” Stan turned around and saw Crazy Steve speaking to Jayden. Jay turned. “Could I talk to Stan here for a few minutes?” Jay nodded and walked off, the others following behind him.

      “Come on, noob,” said Steve as he walked back into the farm. Stan was apprehensive. He had had misgivings about Crazy Steve since the episode with the QPO and was not keen on talking with him one-on-one. When they got to the cow fence, Crazy Steve sat down on a stretch of fence and looked Stan straight in the eye.

      “Look, kid,” said Crazy Steve, “I realize dat ya may not think much’a me since dat whole QPO thing, but I’ve been on this server a real long time. I’m level fifty-four, da highest in da village. I’ve got a whole lotta knowledge worked up about da server, who runs it, and how it works. Do me a favour and remember dat as I talk to ya, OK?” Stan nodded, unsure of where this was going.

      “Like I said, I’ve been here a real long time, and frankly, da server’s never been in worse shape than it is right now. Don’t interrupt,” he added as Stan opened his mouth to ask what Crazy Steve was talking about. “Dem in Element City, dat run da government, dey don’t like people like ya. Freshies. Beginners. Noobs. Ya get it, don’cha?”

      Stan nodded, his gut knotting at this revelation, and asked, “But why? Why do they not like us? And what does this have to do with me?”

      Crazy Steve’s reply was cut off when an arrow sunk into his temple.

      Stan’s shock vanished immediately when he heard the twang of another arrow being fired. He rolled off the fence and grabbed the iron hoe that Crazy Steve had dropped. He threw it in the direction of the arrow. The hoe connected, and Stan saw a player with a black ski mask, bare muscular chest, and black trousers and shoes stumble backwards, holding his face.

      Stan used the time it took his attacker to recover to look at the player beside him. Crazy Steve had fallen to the ground and now lay unmoving, bleeding СКАЧАТЬ