Minecraft Monarchies – #6

The city of Port Town was in danger. Dad and Dean and found a group of raiders and killed them. But was it too late?

“We need to grab that banner and get it away from the village,” Dean said. “Now!”

He grabbed it up and ran, angling away from Port Town, hopefully fast enough that nothing would come.

Dad followed behind him, a confused look on his face.

“What is it?” Dad asked. “What is the problem?”

“That pillager has a patrol banner just like the ones in regular Minecraft!” Dean shouted over his blocky shoulder. “It will call in a revenge attack from the pillager outpost if it is too close to the village.”

Dad still looked unsure, but it didn’t matter. Both of them saw a line appear above their vision, the words “Raid” beneath them, and they knew they were in trouble.

In the distance, there sounded the loud and brassy bugle of warhorns.

“Well, that’s different,” Dean said. “Do you think that the battle will be different too?”

Dad threw up his hands. “I’ve never played in a raid before!”

Dean rolled his eyes. Dad tended to like to build his own stuff in the middle of nowhere so of course he’d never been in a village raid. In fact, he was so anti-combat that he often just went to asleep immediately when it became night. He wasn’t bad at fighting. He just didn’t like to do it unless he had to.

“Alright, we’re going to have to prepare. I feel like we should have gotten far enough away from the village though. Something isn’t right here,” Dean said.

The two of them wandered through the forest a ways. Dean dug a hole and dropped the standard within, then covered it up with other blocks. Then they wandered some more. Warhorns sounded again, closer this time.

Overhead, the sky was darkening into night.

“Dad, I see a light,” Dean exclaimed. He ran through a few lines of trees, Dad behind him, and what they saw astonished them.

There was another village! It was on the top of a hill, alongside the road that they had seen leaving Port City previously. It was a small ranching outpost, with a stone tower clearly marked for authorized personnel only. A raised, placid lake hung out in its corner, little fish plopping about its waters.

This was where the pillagers were coming.

Dean and Dad shared a look. There was a fenced-in corral full of animals, a large building full of farmers, a golem . . . and themselves. No other defenses were at their disposal. And even though this was a mod, they had yet to see any villagers with bows, swords, or axes.

“This is going to be chaos,” Dean said. “If we don’t do something, this whole village is going to die.”

As if to emphasize Dean’s point, Dad yelled and he pointed. There, next to the lake, was another pillager leader.

“Get him, quick!” Dean yelled.

“Will killing him fast stop the raid?” Dad asked.

“No, but it’ll stop me from looking at his ugly face,” Dean answered.

“Hey!” the pillager said. “Words hurt, you know.”

Dad charged forward while a crossbow bolt flew in from their flank, striking Dean and taking away some hearts. Dean ate an apple and then turned, seeing another group of three pillagers coming up the side of the hill. He ran sideways, dodging their attacks.

Meanwhile, at the edge of the lake, Dad finally got to the pillager.

“Haha. Fear me!” the pillager said as he swung an iron axe at Dad.

Dad took the hit and yelled, angrily smacking the pillager in the face with his own glowing sword.

“Take that, you little monster,” he screamed. The villager dropped back, making an oomph sound.

Behind them, on the road, more pillagers streamed in. But the hulky monster statue known as the golem was there to meet them. He swung his slow arms forward, smashing one pillager and then another.

Both Dad and Dean finished their opponents at the same time, turning back to go help the golem. And then they heard an earth-shaking roar. Another golem was running up the hill from the direction of Port City. They’d sent reinforcements!

But that wasn’t all. Some treasure littered the field where a few pillagers had died. And one of the pieces of loot was a glowing spell book.

“Mine!” Dean yelled, running at it.

“I call dibs,” Dad yelled at the same time.

It was a race. A race into madness. From all around them came swarms of pillagers, firing bolts. Now a giant bull-like beast accompanied them, and a group of witches as well.

The glowing book disappeared. Dean and Dad shared a surprised look. How did that happen? Was this a trap?

“Woah,” Dean cried, jumping backwards. Just in time too. A moment later, flames blasted and scorched the area when one of the witches threw a spell.

“That is NOT in the regular game,” he cried, shaking his head.

But Dad hadn’t jumped back and now he was caught in the attack. The flames exploded all over, catching him and the nearby buildings on fire, and he screamed. He ran backwards, the flames covering his body. Then he ran back and forth like an idiot.

“I’m on fire! Dean, what do I do? What do I do?” he scream-asked.

“Jump in the lake!” Dean yelled.

Dad ran for the lake, blocky smoke trailing from his body.

“Dad, watch out!” Dean shouted. One of the witches was throwing lightning at the water, another thing that they weren’t supposed to be able to do.

But Dean yelled his warning just a little too late. Dad jumped into the lake, drowning the flame around his body, but immediately starting into a crazy electrical dance as lightning sparked over the water.

He gasped and his body fell over, then poofed away into particles, all of his inventory spreading around him in a cloud.

“You maniac! Now he has to come all the way back from the Deep Dark!” Dean whined. “You know how far away that is? And he won’t have any items either.”

“He is dead,” the witches cackled. “And now you will die too, hero. The village is ours!”

Dean dodged a flurry of lightning and fire attacks, wondering how to get over to them and even if he had strong enough equipment to try. But the earth was shaking more and more, and Dean could see half a dozen more golems on their way.

Sometimes, just waiting a little bit and not rushing in solved certain problems for you. Dean was happy that this had been one of those cases.

The witches turned to face the new army, throwing their magic at the golems. The golems continued forward through the magic, with Dean watching in awe.

This was a tiny village. In the regular game they would have been wiped out. But here, in this mod, it was a piece of a kingdom. A proud kingdom who helped their fellow villages when they were in need.

“For the Monarchy!” a golem bellowed. It was weird to hear one speak. They were always so silent in regular Minecraft. But here they weren’t wordless, apparently. The half-dozen golems bowled into the witches, making short work of them.

A crossbow bolt almost hit Dean and he turned. A pillager with a pirate eye patch sneered at him.

“Part of the fun in pillaging heroes,” said the pillager, “is taking all of their wonderful loot.”

He fired again, hitting Dean and taking away some hearts. Dean backed up, hopping a few blocks up the hill.

“You know what the fun part of fighting pillagers is?” he asked, racing through his inventory as he talked to the villain. He found his lava bucket and selected it just in time. “Watching them burn in lava.”

He dumped the lava, watching in cover the pillager. This one seemed extra tough, but the flames that covered him killed him quickly.

And then, there was silence. All around Dean, the pillagers were either dead or run off. Strange piles of loot floated just a tad off the ground.

There were some skeletons and zombies hovered near the burning village, but the golems were turning on them, lumbering over to smash them to nothingness.

Dean sighed and grabbed up all of the loot. And there, floating off the ground, was the pillager leaders banner.

“Begone. Banner!” Dean poured the lava onto the banner, vanishing it and destroying what was left of the pillager army.

Then he turned and took the path back to Port City. If he was lucky, he’d meet Dad just as he got back from the Deep Dark.

Minecraft Monarchies – Table of Contents