Battle with the Wither Read online

  Maison, Alex, Destiny, and Yancy all looked at me. I looked to the side, uncomfortable.

  “What did you tell it?” Dad demanded. I knew he wanted to make sure no one in the village sent the Wither back toward me.

  “We had no idea what it was talking about,” the blacksmith said. “When it had leveled our village, the Wither said, ‘If I can’t find the boy, then first I’ll find the redheaded girl. I know which village she lives in.’ And it went off that way.” He pointed in the direction of Alex’s village. We could see a line of destruction going in that direction, too, like a morbid path.

  Now everyone looked at Alex, whose face had gone sickly pale under her bright red hair. “No!” she burst out. “We have to stop it from hurting my village!”

  “You need to go to that village, so what happened here doesn’t happen there too,” the blacksmith said to Dad. “Right now we need to stay in our village to protect it from further attacks. But you are legendary in the Overworld for your mob-slaying abilities.”

  “Alex,” Dad said. “Perhaps you should stay here, if the Wither is looking for you.”

  “No way!” Alex said. “I’m not letting some evil Wither hurt my village! If that Wither wants me, it can come and get me! I’ve got arrows!”

  “Arrows alone can’t beat a Wither,” Dad said. “When the Wither gets to half strength, you have to use a sword to finish it off. Arrows become useless. So if you and Stevie want to come along, you’ll have to do what I say. We’ll have to fight it together to have any chance of winning.”

  “Don’t worry, we’re with you!” Maison said.

  Those were the wrong words to say. Dad frowned, then said to Maison, Destiny, and Yancy, “You three should go home. This doesn’t concern you and you’ll only be in danger.”

  “Doesn’t concern us?” Destiny said in disbelief.

  “Of course it concerns us,” Yancy said.

  “Stevie,” Dad said. “I need to talk to you for a moment.”

  I exchanged bewildered looks with Alex, Maison, Destiny, and Yancy, then followed Dad to the side. He got us just far enough away that we were out of earshot of the others.

  “You need to tell them to go back to Earth,” he said.

  “They’re really good fighters,” I said. I couldn’t believe we were going over this again. “And talking about them is just wasting time. What if the Wither is already at Alex’s village?”

  “Alexandra will keep it at bay,” Dad said. Aunt Alexandra was Dad’s sister, Alex’s mom, and also the mayor of her village. “These friends will just slow us down more. That one boy thinks fighting a Wither is just a game.” His voice was full of disgust.

  “I know Yancy can be a little … well … weird,” I said. “But he’s shown that he’s an ally to the Overworld.”

  “Fine,” Dad muttered, which surprised me. Even though I’d been arguing, I wasn’t used to Dad changing his mind on things. I could tell he still wasn’t happy about it. “But they’re on their own. I’m not responsible for them if they’re going to put themselves in such a dangerous situation.”

  Dad turned to the others and barked out, “Come on! We’re leaving now!”

  Alex and my friends exchanged more confused looks. I could see Maison, Destiny, and Yancy appeared a little intimidated by Dad, and I didn’t blame them. I felt embarrassed by how he was acting.

  As we hurried on, I watched Dad’s face. He wouldn’t look at me—he kept looking ahead. I knew part of the reason he looked ahead was to keep his eyes peeled for any nearby mobs, but it also felt as if he was refusing to look at me.

  Why was that? Why was he so opposed to me spending time with my friends? And why did it feel like even though we were father and son, we couldn’t be more different?

  CHAPTER 9

  NORMALLY IT DIDN’T TAKE ALL THAT LONG TO run from the village close to our home to Aunt Alexandra’s village. However, normally we didn’t have Nether mobs to deal with. Several times wither skeletons came onto our path, hissing and charging. Alex would immediately start shooting them down with arrows, and any ones she missed were taken care of by the rest of us.

  “When I’m playing Minecraft, I like to make Withers underground, in bedrock,” Yancy was saying. “That keeps them from flying up too high, and they can’t destroy bedrock. I can literally defeat a Wither in a matter of seconds that way.”

  “Stop bragging, Yancy,” Destiny said.

  “It’s not bragging if it’s true,” Yancy said. “And I love the Nether stars they drop when they’re defeated. They make for great beacons, and I like to decorate with them.”

  Dad’s face twitched. He was not amused by Yancy still talking about a Wither as if it were a game. Seeing Dad’s angry face, Yancy quickly said, “I’m only saying this in case there’s bedrock nearby. You know, maybe we can lure it there and take it out.”

  “There’s nothing close to my village that’s like that,” Alex said. “I would know—I’ve explored every inch of the area!”

  “I’ve never made a Wither in Minecraft,” Destiny said. “I don’t understand why you’d make something that attacks you.”

  “For the challenge,” Yancy said brightly. “Right, Alex? You love a good challenge, don’t you?”

  Dad’s face was twitching even harder.

  “My arrows should weaken it pretty quickly, and then you can finish it off with your weapons,” Alex said. Although she had seen the destruction of the village, I could tell she had already gone from being scared and pale-faced to daydreaming about what a glorious battle she’d have with the Wither. That was Alex for you—always eager for some adventure, no matter how dangerous.

  She paused a moment. “Hey, Uncle Steve? How come you don’t have your diamond sword?”

  Instead of answering, Dad just ran faster. We had to sprint to keep up with him, and I ran over so I was right next to Alex. I tried to whisper in her ear (it’s hard to whisper when you’re bouncing from running), “The Wither broke his sword into pieces.”

  “Oh!” Alex said, looking alarmed. “Is that why he’s so upset?”

  I shrugged. It’s also hard to shrug while bouncing from running. “I don’t know what his problem is,” I said. “It just feels like he’s mad at me.” It also felt like he really didn’t like Maison, Destiny, and Yancy, but I didn’t want to say that out loud and hurt their feelings.

  We passed a large group of oinking zombie pigmen. Alex gave me a wicked smile. “Don’t you think it’s kind of funny that the Nether is back?” she said. “It’s like you were in such a hurry to get out of it before, you didn’t really overcome it.”

  I looked at my diamond sword and thought about Dad’s diamond sword being smashed in the Wither’s vicious mouth. “Alex,” I said, because I really didn’t appreciate her getting a jab at me when things were so serious. “Aren’t you worried about what we’re going to find when we reach your village?”

  “What’s all that smoke ahead?” Maison cut in, concerned.

  A flurry of smoke was rising against the red sky, becoming larger and reaching across the landscape like an angry hand. We were passing many little Nether fires as we ran, but none of those could create this much smoke.

  “There’s a big fire ahead!” Dad said.

  Alex went silent. We weren’t too far from her village then. That fire couldn’t be coming from her village … could it?

  We had to rush up the blocky slopes of a mountain to see, and as we ran, the smoke grew bigger and blacker. White ghasts stood out against the dark sky, their light color shocking next to it.

  When we got to the top of the mountain, what we saw was even worse than what we’d imagined. Alex’s village was swept up in a furious, roaring fire, the flames swallowing up homes and spitting out ashes. Alex’s house, which was on the edge of the village, was one of the homes that had been attacked. Its roof had been taken clear off, its windows shattered.

  It looked as if Nether mobs had taken the place over. Wither skeletons were running from h
ouse to house, chasing out families. Ghasts shot down at people like darts of lightning and I could see the small, flaring bodies of magma cubes and blazes as they attacked people on the street.

  But worst of all was the sight of the Wither. It was whirling amidst the ravaged village, its two side heads shooting skulls that blew up everything where they landed. The Wither had grown even bigger since the last time I had seen it, spreading like its own dark cloud, blocking out the sky.

  “Bring me the boy with the portal!” the middle head was thundering above the roaring fire and the screams of fleeing villagers. “Bring him to me now!”

  CHAPTER 10

  “YOU MONSTER!” ALEX HOWLED WHEN SHE SAW the scene. Now that she had witnessed this, fighting the Wither was no longer an adventure for her; it was real suffering. Just like that, she tore off down the mountain, her arrows at the ready.

  “Alex, wait!” Dad called. We were all running after her. We didn’t have a plan—we just knew we had to do something! Ossie jumped off my shoulder and ran for cover, which was better, because it kept her from going right into the heat of things. In the past sometimes Ossie had helped me fight mobs, and I could tell she knew she was no match for what was going on here.

  “Bring me the boy with the portal!” the Wither boomed again as its two other heads continued to blast out the village with flying skulls.

  Some people had run to their roofs with bows and arrows and were frantically shooting at the Wither. Either the Wither kept dodging, or ghasts flew in the way, taking the arrows instead. Then a swarm of more ghasts swept in over the people on the roofs, hitting at them with fireballs. It was a perfect distraction. If people were too busy saving themselves from the immediate attacks of wither skeletons and ghasts, they didn’t have the ability to fight the Wither!

  What should I do? What can I do? I thought. Maybe if I revealed myself, the Wither would stop its attack. But—but what did the Wither want with me, anyway? It wanted the portal to Earth, right? What if I showed up, and it captured me and tried to force me to tell it where the portal was?

  I’ll stay quiet! I promised myself. No matter what the Wither does to me, I can’t let it hurt Earth too!

  But how could I stop it from hurting the Overworld?

  Then we noticed an armored woman running toward the Wither, holding a diamond sword and leading on a group of armed guards. It was Aunt Alexandra!

  “Soldiers, follow me!” Aunt Alexandra called.

  Her soldiers tried to hit the Wither with an explosion of arrows. It didn’t work because a whole group of ghasts flew right into the line of fire. Some of the ghasts were hit by the arrows and disappeared, while others remained. Either way, none of the soldiers’ arrows managed to reach the Wither. Not a single one. And now the remaining ghasts were bombarding the soldiers with fireballs, pushing them back.

  Aunt Alexandra ducked out of the way and ran forward on her own to confront the Wither. One of the Wither heads spat out another skull, and the skull hit the ground in front of her and blew up. Aunt Alexandra was knocked back, still clutching her sword. Some of the soldiers were running away from the ghasts, trying to keep from catching on fire. Her attack had been pointless, because now she had even fewer soldiers behind her, and she hadn’t gotten close to the monster.

  “Mom!” Alex shouted, running to Aunt Alexandra. Aunt Alexandra was coughing and pulling herself back up. As a mayor, my aunt was famous for keeping her village safe, so her struggle just showed how serious this whole situation was.

  “Alex!” Aunt Alexandra exclaimed when she saw her daughter. “You’re safe!”

  “No one is safe right now!” Alex called back over the cries of ghasts and roars of fires. She had her bow and arrows out and started firing right away. It was no use. Ghasts burst out and took the arrows that were meant for the Wither. And I was pretty sure my eyes weren’t fooling me—the Wither was actually getting bigger by the second!

  “I want the boy with the portal!” the Wither wailed again, throwing out skull after skull from its two side heads. The land around it was becoming pockmarked from all the explosions. And because of the fires, the sky had gone even redder. As I ran into the scene of the attack, my ears were full of terrible sounds and my sight hazed into the color of fire. I felt my heart pounding, because I still didn’t know what to do. Even if I had ideas, if I tried to shout them to Dad and the others, the Wither might hear and respond.

  I realized that Herobrine was clever in his own sick, twisted way, because he’d picked the perfect mob to leave as his backup. According to what Dad had taught me, Withers craved random violence and destruction. Herobrine had given this Wither enough power and intelligence to be using some logic to achieve its ends.

  As I ran toward the Wither, I told myself I had to be prepared for anything. I had to be ready to jump if it shot a skull my way. I had to be able to dodge if ghasts flew in front of me with their fireball breath. I had to be ready to run into wither skeletons, magma cubes, and all sorts of nasties from the Nether.

  But I wasn’t ready for what happened.

  As I approached the Wither, I saw its eyes land on me. All six of them.

  And suddenly it stopped spinning. It stopped throwing skulls. It just hovered there, watching me, and then three morbid grins spread across its three enormous faces.

  “He’s finally here,” the main head said with a hiss, smiling like a snake. “The boy with the portal.”

  CHAPTER 11

  THAT GOT ME TO FREEZE. THE BOY WITH THE PORTAL?

  “There is no portal!” I found myself saying as quickly as possible.

  “How stupid do you think we are?” the left head demanded.

  “No, no,” I said. I was sweating. Was I really standing here, talking with a Wither? “You came by my house earlier. You know I’m not who you’re looking for …”

  The Wither was smiling a greasy smile as I spoke. Herobrine had always grinned in a hideous, evil way. This Wither smiled as if it thought I was being cute. And as if it might want to eat me. It wasn’t a good smile.

  “Oh, no. You’re the boy with the portal,” the middle head said.

  Dad, Maison, Destiny, and Yancy had rushed up beside me. Aunt Alexandra and Alex were nearby, and everyone looked equally stunned. No one knew what was going on.

  “Herobrine is just trying to trick you,” I said, knowing it was a weak attempt. “That’s what he does.” Would the Wither believe me?

  “No, you’re the one trying to trick us,” the left head said.

  “Herobrine took armies to Earth to try to take it over,” the right head said. “We’ll just keep the Overworld like the Nether, attack what we find, and get the portal to Earth. Do you know what we’ll do then?”

  I had a pretty good idea, but the middle head still told me, “We’ll unleash the Nether mobs on Earth.”

  “There is no portal,” I said. “Herobrine just fed you stories.”

  The Wither shook all three of its heads. “Poor, innocent little Stevie,” the middle head sighed.

  That sent a chill down me. The Wither even knows my name? How much does it know?

  “Herobrine didn’t tell you where this portal was, did he?” I suddenly asked. “I mean, not that it’s real.”

  Their skull faces smiled again. “No, he didn’t,” the middle head replied. “But someone else did.”

  The Wither turned to Alex’s house and all three heads began shooting skulls at it, hammering down the remaining walls. Alex cried out and tried to run toward it, only to be grabbed and held back by Aunt Alexandra. The house fell down to the base, being peeled back like a curtain, revealing layer after layer. A flurry of ghasts rushed in, and the soldiers fought back against them.

  When the front wall of the house was mostly shot away, I could see inside the building.

  “No,” I gasped.

  Standing right there was a portal to Earth.

  CHAPTER 12

  “YOU HAVE A PORTAL?” I SAID TO ALEX, SHOCKED. As far as I knew,
the portal by my house was the only portal to Earth there was! But this one looked exactly the same.

  “No, I don’t!” Alex shouted back. “What’s that doing there?”

  My head spun. If Alex hadn’t known about the portal, did that mean the Wither had created an entirely new portal to Earth and just placed it in Alex’s house? Why would it do that?

  Then I had a terrible thought.

  I sucked in a deep breath.

  “Thank you for leading us right to the portal, Stevie,” the middle head said with pride.

  No. Oh, please, no.

  “All we had to do was shoot through your house so you’d be aware of us,” the middle head said. “We pretended to be ignorant about who you were, and then we flew away. Not very far away. Then we followed you all the way to the portal.”

  No, no, no, no. This couldn’t be happening!

  I looked to Dad, devastated. His face was hard and grim, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at the Wither.

  “Now, watch this,” the middle head said gleefully. “We brought the portal all this way so you could see.” The Wither was still holding the Nether portal in its clutches, and zombie pigmen and wither skeletons were jumping out of it. Floating over through the sky, the Wither dropped the Nether portal into Alex’s house, right next to the Earth portal.

  As I watched, some wither skeletons lurched out of the Nether portal. Their dark skeleton bodies were tinged reddish in the light. They looked around for a second, as if seeking out their prey. The world they saw around them was already full of fighting. They looked at the Earth portal, shimmering red, green, and blue in front of them, full of promise.

  The wither skeletons didn’t even need instructions. Holding their black swords high, they walked right through my portal to Earth. More wither skeletons came out of the Nether portal then, and they followed the wither skeletons in front of them. Once they got through the Earth portal, they’d land in Maison’s bedroom. They’d walk through her house and out the door. And then they’d find a whole new world there, ready for the taking.