Battle with the Wither

  This book is not authorized or sponsored by Microsoft Corp., Mojang AB, Notch Development AB or Scholastic Inc., or any other person or entity owning or controlling rights in the Minecraft name, trademark, or copyrights.

  Copyright © 2016 by Danica Davidson

  Minecraft® is a registered trademark of Notch Development AB.

  The Minecraft game is copyright © Mojang AB.

  This book is not authorized or sponsored by Microsoft Corp., Mojang AB, Notch Development AB or Scholastic Inc., or any other person or entity owning or controlling rights in the Minecraft name, trademark, or copyrights.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Sky Pony Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

  Cover illustration by Lordwhitebear

  Cover design by Brian Peterson

  Special thanks to James Fitzgerald, Krishan Trotman and Rachel Stark, Jeremy Bonebreak, Dalton, Tobias and Rin, Eileen Robinson, Dan Woren, Alexis Tirado, Caitlin Abber, Deborah Peckham and Peter Davidson, and Taylor Hite.

  Paperback ISBN: 978-1-5107-1621-6

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-1623-0

  Printed in Canada

  CHAPTER 1

  “I THINK THERE’S A MONSTER NEARBY,” I SAID, FEELING a chill.

  Dad and I both looked out the window at the sunny day. Monsters only came out after dark in the Overworld, but knowing this didn’t make me feel any better. I felt a terrible sense of dread in my stomach; it kept telling me danger was coming closer.

  “You’re just jumpy because of Herobrine,” Dad said gruffly.

  He had a point. Last week my cousin Alex and my friends from Earth, Maison, Destiny, and Yancy and I had all defeated Herobrine in a world-spanning battle that had brought us to the End and back. That would put anyone on edge.

  Dad continued talking to me, but I wasn’t listening. It wasn’t that I was trying to ignore him. It’s just that I knew something bad was going to happen, the same way I had known it in my gut when Herobrine was first rising to power—back before I had even known that Herobrine existed.

  So I was staring out the window at the cloudless sky, squinting my eyes and looking for some unnatural zombie that could attack during daylight hours, or a rampaging giant spider that had gone hostile. Instead I just saw grass and flowers and trees—everything was the way it should be. And then I saw Dad’s angry face right in front of me.

  “Stevie!” he said, blocking the window. “You haven’t been listening to a word I’ve said.”

  Caught, I put my head down and sighed. “I’m sorry.”

  Dad huffed.

  Dad had decided that today was going to be a “father-son” day, though I didn’t really know what that meant. Earlier I’d tried to go to my special portal to Earth so I could visit Maison, Destiny, and Yancy in their world. But before I could step out the door, Dad had appeared in front of me with a Where-Do-You-Think-You’re-Going? look.

  When I’d tried to explain, he had said, “All you’ve done lately is hang out with your Earth friends. It’s time we spent a day together.”

  But so far all we’d done was sit at the table while Dad told stories about the monsters he’d slain when he was younger. He was reminding me about how he’d made his diamond sword when he was twelve, which used to intimidate me a few months ago when all I had ever made was a wooden sword. That wooden sword had been broken, but it was still hanging on the wall because I’d broken it in the first real fight Dad had seen me in. He’d been impressed by my fighting skills, though it was hard for him to say that.

  “If you were listening,” Dad was telling me now, “you would have heard me talk about the importance of always bringing along a Potion of Healing when you go on a mission against mobs.”

  “Mobs” was what we people in the Overworld sometimes called the monsters that lived all around us.

  “Potion of Healing, yeah, got it,” I said, trying to peek around him out the window. What was that movement I saw out there? Was it something dangerous? The thing moved once more and I saw it was just a chicken.

  “Stevie!” Dad said again. I tore my eyes away from the window and trained them back on his face. He continued, “I’m serious about the Potion of Healing. In these past few months, you’ve stopped a zombie attack on a school, thwarted a zombie takeover of the Overworld, and beaten Herobrine. But that doesn’t mean you’re invincible. You could still get hurt.”

  Of course I knew I could still get hurt. That’s why I was so worried about this sense of dread I had.

  Still, I could tell Dad was getting more and more annoyed with me, so I sat back at the table and made myself stop peeking out the window. Some father-son day this was turning out to be. I wondered what Maison and the others were up to. If they were here, I bet they’d go exploring with me, and we could figure out what was making me so anxious.

  “Stevie,” Dad said, a little more gently this time. He wasn’t good at talking in a gentle way, because he was more of a gruff, Take-It-Or-Leave-It kind of guy. In some ways we weren’t alike at all, which was weird, because he was my own family. Weren’t fathers and sons supposed to be more similar than we were?

  “It feels as if we haven’t spent any time together lately,” he went on. “I just want to give you the knowledge I have of the Overworld to protect you.”

  I knew he meant well. The problem was that Dad’s talks had a tendency to turn into lectures … which turned into me having my mind wander.

  “I just keep feeling like I’m forgetting something,” I said. Ossie, our cat, had come into the room and jumped up on the windowsill, as if she also felt a need to keep a lookout. “Something important.”

  Dad looked annoyed, as if he thought I was making stuff up as an excuse for not listening. “It’s broad daylight and we’re in a well-built house. There is absolutely nothing to worry abo—”

  He stopped when the whole sky went red like an evil shadow was dropping. A wailing rose up. One of the cries sounded like the weeping of ghasts, but how could that be? Ghasts didn’t live in the Overworld! I realized I was hearing the sounds of many different monsters, all of them crying out.

  “Impossible!” Dad said. I had already jumped to my feet and raced to the window.

  “No!” I gasped when I saw it.

  CHAPTER 2

  OSSIE HISSED AT WHAT SHE SAW AND LEAPT DOWN from the window, but Dad and I could only stand there and stare in shock. The sunny sky I’d looked at moments before was gone. Outside my window was a world of flame and lava, as if the Nether had taken over the Overworld.

  The sky had turned a dark red, mimicking the ceiling of the Nether and giving the whole landscape a creepy, reddish haze. Spots of fire dotted our farmland, and the little creek in the distance had gone orange-red with sputters of lava.

  I thought my eyes had to be fooling me, but the red sky, fire, and l
ava weren’t the only Nether-like things out there—there were also Nether mobs! I could see an army of zombie pigmen, all of them holding golden swords. They were squealing and charging among themselves. A pair of ghasts flew overhead, screaming out their hideous cries, noises that shook me to the core. And were those wither skeletons I saw in the distance, hulking tall and angry-looking against the red sky?

  I stared beyond the wither skeletons, and what I saw was even worse. It was a huge Nether fortress with jagged edges like a mountain, looking as if it had been built out of darkness. There was no way anyone would have had time to build that between now and the last time I had peeked out the window. What was going on here?

  Dad had grabbed his diamond sword, which was his prized possession. He looked ready to fight. I wasn’t so sure, though. How would you even go about fighting a whole Nether landscape? Nothing like this had ever happened in the Overworld, because the fiery realm of the Nether had always been a separate place!

  “What if it stays like this?” I asked in a low voice. After journeying with my cousin Alex through the Nether once, not long ago, I’d promised myself never to visit there again. And now here the Nether was, right on my doorstep!

  “It seems to be this way as far as I can see,” Dad said, squinting out the window. “I’m going to the village to investigate and make sure the people there are safe.”

  “What if this is affecting Earth too?” I asked. “I have to find Maison—”

  Dad grabbed me before I could run off. “You’re staying right here in the Overworld!” he said.

  I was shocked. Dad had always taught me the importance of helping others. How come he could go check on the villagers, but he didn’t like the idea of me checking on my friends?

  “You’re completely obsessed with that portal,” Dad said. “That’s all you talk about anymore. Maison, the portal, Earth, the portal. I’m surprised you’re ever in the Overworld these days. All you do is go back and forth to Earth.”

  “That’s not true,” I said. “I went to the Nether, remember? You broke down the portal afterward.”

  Dad looked at me, confused. For a moment there was a terrible silence between us. All I could hear was the sound of ghasts crying outside our door.

  “What portal?” Dad asked.

  “The one to the Nether that Alex and I built next to the house,” I said. “We were in such a rush to defeat Herobrine that we didn’t break it right away, but when I came back home it was gone, so I figured you destroyed it.”

  “I never saw any portal,” Dad said. “I definitely never broke one next to the house.”

  Something clicked in my brain, and I think my face went as red as the sky outside. Then my face must have gone skeleton-white as I realized what this meant. The Nether portal—that’s what I’d been forgetting!

  “Do you think … that the missing portal to the Nether might have to do with what’s going on?” I asked. I couldn’t connect the dots, yet somehow I also couldn’t stop from feeling that these two things were related.

  “Portals don’t go missing,” Dad said. “If neither of us broke that portal, someone else must have. Besides, even though some mobs can get out of a Nether portal and come into the Overworld, it wouldn’t explain all of this.”

  “Well, the Nether mobs shouldn’t have been able to follow us out of that portal, anyway,” I said quickly, trying to make things sound a little better. But my sense of dread was getting worse. I had a feeling I’d really blown it this time. “Because a Wither showed up just as we were leaving the Nether and blew up the area around the portal.”

  It had been quite a sight. I’d never seen a Wither before—they were legendary. Withers had three black skeleton heads and could fly through the air, shooting skulls out of their three mouths. The one we’d seen was bigger than a house.

  This caught Dad’s attention. “A Wither? But who created it?”

  I stared at him blankly. “I don’t know. As far as I could tell, there was no one else around.” I didn’t want to add that we had been fleeing a group of angry zombie pigmen that I had accidentally made angry. So even if there had been other people around when that Wither showed up, I probably wouldn’t have noticed them.

  “Withers need to be created by humans using soul sand and wither skulls,” Dad said. “They don’t spawn naturally like other mobs. Someone had to have created that Wither you saw. And Withers are no joke, Stevie—the destruction they cause is beyond belief.”

  Before I could say anything more, I heard a strange whistling, like an approaching storm. And then a roaring. Dad and I both looked at each other for a moment, wide-eyed.

  The next thing I knew, the wall of our house had been blasted out, sending us flying.

  CHAPTER 3

  I HIT THE GROUND, GRUNTING AS A BOOKSHELF TOPPLED over and a landslide of books fell on me. As soon as I pushed the books off, my vision was filled with nothing but the dark red sky and the blurring, raging image of an enormous Wither.

  The Wither whirled overhead, easily breaking up the entire side wall of our house, as if it were made of eggshells. The three-headed creature was spitting out skulls in all directions, the skulls landing and exploding like TNT. In an instant Dad’s supply shed next to the house was gone; in the next, half our living room was on fire.

  Dad was nowhere to be seen, so he must be buried under the all the fallen debris. A rush of panic ran up my throat as I realized I was going to have to stop the Wither myself before I could find Dad and make sure he was okay.

  “Get out of my home!” I yelled, as if the Wither could understand.

  To my surprise, the Wither turned its six white-line eyes to me, as if it did hear and understand. But it definitely didn’t stop the attack.

  I scrambled out of the debris, trying to find my diamond sword. Where was it? My shaky hands hunted through the rubble and I finally grabbed a block that had once been a part of our wall. It would have to work as a weapon.

  I charged at the Wither, and the giant monster spun out of the way, still hurling skulls in all directions. Our house was getting more and more damaged by the second. Dad had spent years building this house!

  Just as I was about to reach the Wither, it opened its mouth and a skull came rushing straight toward me! I wouldn’t have been able to get out of the way in time, but Dad appeared out of nowhere and pushed me aside. The skull landed right where I had been, blowing a hole into the ground.

  “Dad!” I cried, relieved to see he was okay. And if he hadn’t gotten out of the debris and pushed me out of the way in time, I wouldn’t still be here!

  “I am Steve, the feared mob slayer,” Dad shouted at the Wither. “Stay away from my son!”

  Dad quickly hoisted himself on top of the fireplace so he could get up higher. Then he launched himself at the Wither, his sword poised high. He slashed the head on the left, barely causing any damage at all, even though it was a direct hit.

  I realized I was just standing there, staring in shock, which wasn’t helping Dad at all. When he’d pushed me to the side and saved me, I’d dropped my block. Argh, where was my diamond sword? A skull landed right by where Ossie was hiding to the side and she scuttled away, barely escaping.

  “Stevie, look out!” Dad cried.

  I lunged to the side, rolling myself up in a ball. When I lowered my arms a moment later, I saw that the space where I’d been standing was now completely blasted out. I’d been so consumed with the search for my sword that if Dad hadn’t said something, I wouldn’t have gotten out of the way in time. That was the second time he’d saved me today.

  Dad looked even angrier. Destroying his house was one thing, but when he saw the Wither almost take out Ossie and me, I saw Dad reach a level of anger I didn’t know was possible for him. He hurled himself at the middle head of the Wither, his sword glimmering, shouting out a battle cry as he attacked.

  The Wither turned to him and opened the mouth in its middle head. It didn’t shoot him with a skull. By comparison, that might
have been the kinder thing to do, because Dad could have taken a Potion of Healing and been all better. Instead, the Wither grabbed the sword in its mouth and bit down on it like it was hungry for dinner.

  There was a fearful crunch, and Dad’s treasured diamond sword broke into pieces that fell to the ground like rain. There was no way that sword could ever be repaired.

  Dad stumbled back, face pale, startled to suddenly find himself without a weapon. The Wither knocked against him, sending him flying against a still-standing wall of the house. Dad groaned on the impact and fell, more debris tumbling on top of him.

  My eyes caught sight of something. It was my old, broken wooden sword! It was nothing compared to my diamond sword, but it was within reach, and it wasn’t as badly broken as Dad’s sword.

  I snatched up the broken wooden sword and charged toward the Wither, yelling as if to scare it off. Dad turned to look at me. The Wither turned to look at me. And when the Wither saw what I was holding for self-defense, all three of its heads burst out laughing.

  CHAPTER 4

  I SKIDDED TO A HALT, STUNNED. WITHERS COULDN’T laugh!

  “Oh—oh—you mean to fight me with that!” the middle head shrieked with laughter.

  “I told you this was the wrong house,” said the left head.

  “We’re looking for the boy that Herobrine told us about—the one with the portal,” said the right head. “But you couldn’t possibly be him. Look at you!”

  If Withers couldn’t laugh, they definitely couldn’t talk!

  “Herobrine?” I stammered. Just the sound of his name was enough to make me feel sick.

  And then I saw something. The Wither was holding on to a Nether portal by the stem of its body. No, not a Nether portal. The Nether portal Alex and I had made. As I watched, zombie pigmen jumped out of the portal one at a time, landing in the wreckage of our house and milling around.

  “You’re—you’re the Wither I saw in the Nether!” I said. I don’t know why I said that. When a Wither breaks down your house out of nowhere, then starts talking and mentions Herobrine, there really isn’t any logical thing to say.