Minecraft Monarchies – #11

Dean and Dad headed down the path, through the desert. In the distance the pillager outpost clearly in sight, riding on the horizon like it was a ship at sea.

The two of them stayed wary, watching the sands for enemies. But, aside from a couple of friendly turtles, there were no other mobs in sight.

No more mummies; no more enemies to be seen anywhere.

That all changed when they left the desert, entering into a plains biome. There, on top of a hill, sat the outpost. And before the outpost there was a pillager. He was watching the road.

The one that we’d stupidly been following.

For a moment it was just Dean, Dad and the Pillager. His eyes widened and he turned his head. Dean yelled a warning, and Dad yelled, “Don’t you dare!”

The pillager fired his bolt and just barely missed the two of them.

“You should have run when you had the chance. Get ready to fight, pillagers!” Dean yelled, running with his shield attached to his arm.

“Woah!” Dad yelled back, running after him. “That’s a good way to get yourself killed!”

Dean ran forward, Dad behind him, then stopped short and put up his sheild.

Just in time to catch a second bolt in its wood.

“Good catch, Dean,” Dad said.

“All part of the plan, Dad.”

Another came out from a group of trees to do battle. He yelled, sounding very much like an evil villager, then fired yet another crossbow bolt.

Things were heating up. Dad turned to see Dean nodding.

“You see, I thought there might be a pillager hiding and I wanted to force him out to fight us,” Dean continued. “That way he wouldn’t come out to attack us from behind, later, when we were fighting the rest of the pillagers.”

“The rest of the pillagers?” Dad asked, looking over the three of them that they were fighting then. “How many of these guys are there?!”

Dean didn’t answer, instead running forward and smacking the one pillager with his sword. Dad ran beside him, just a step behind, and killed him. The second pillager fired another crossbow bolt, then ran backwards, screaming.

“Heroes are here! Everyone run!” he yelled. Dean put him down with two shots of his crossbow, but it was well too late.

“Every pillager to battle stations!” came the amplified voice of the pillager leader, echoing from the side of the hill. He was shouting orders to his men down below. They formed up into groups of three and rushed forward, trying to swarm over Dean and Dad.

“Back-to-back,” Dean said. Dad cocked his head, looking confused, but a moment later his eyes widened in realizaion.

“Nice,” he said. A moment later, they we pushed together, back to back, fighting the pillagers as they rushed in. Shield, block, hit, shield block, hit, one by one the pillagers were smashed, slashed, and otherwise unlived by the two of them. Experience orbs and loot scattered over the battlefield.

There weren’t nearly as many enemies now. Dad turned to Dean.

“You got this buddy? I can run up to the tower and go fight the leader while you kill the rest of these guys.”

Dean nodded, too busy to answer. Dad saluting with one big blocky hand, then left, working his way sideways around the army to get to the tower.

And to fight the leader.

Dean dodged, slashed, and blocked. His shield broken, falling apart into pixels and then fading into the ground, and he starting backing up. There were only three pillagers left. He looked up at the tower and saw that Dad was almost to the leader. And that the leader had a surprise attack planned.

“Dad, look out!” Dean yelled. He juked sideways around the three pillagers and ran forward, switching to his bow. Dad looked up, surprise on his face, and saw the leader jumping over the side of the outpost, a wooden sword in his hand.

Dad put up his shield just in time. The leader’s attack made a solid clunk against the wood, but did no damage. And Dean started firing. The arrows were very accurate and they did tremendous damage as they flew into him, one after the other.

“Thanks, Dean,” Dad said, finishing off the leader with a sweep of his enchanted iron blade.

Dean turned around to face the scared and confused pillagers, then finished off the last of the army a moment later.

Finally everything was quiet. Dad came down to join him and the two looked around them.

“Jeez these pillagers are easy,” Dean bragged. “I actually thought this might be a challenge. I was nervous even!”

“Yeah,” Dad sighed. “I have a feeling we aren’t done yet.”

On cue, there was the sound of drums and an army of pillagers rose over the horizon. They stayed back and began to fire their crossbows at the two of them.

“Dean use your shield!” Dad shouted.

Together the two of them put up their shields, blocking the swarm of arrows from reaching them. But, for the moment, they were stuck.

“What are we going to do?” Dad asked.

Dean looked around. The new army was blocking the way they’d come from, so if they ran away they’d be doing so into the great unknown. And they wouldn’t have accomplished their quest.

There had to be another way.

“Dad, I’m going to keep blocking. You run to the outpost. If you see a golem in their prison, let it out. Then go up the outpost and start shooting them from there. When they are distracted, I will come and join you.”

“Got it,” Dad said. He dropped his shield and ran behind Dean. Then he pivoted towards the outpost and made a run for it.

Arrows plocked into the ground behind him, but none of them were able to find their mark.

“Made it!” Dad exclaimed loudly. He went a little past the outpost, looking at the pillager prison set up there.

Inside it was a golem. He looked sad and friendly. Dad ran up to it and broken the fence.

“You are free, Mr. Golem,” he said. The golem stared at him.

“Free,” it said, its voive deep and booming. “FREE!”

The golem’s words echoed down to where Dean stood, dodging and blocking attacks.

“Yes!” Dean whispered under his breath. Things were about to get super interesting.

This next part was going to be tricky though.

He waited, his shield almost broken under the barrage of attacks. And then there came the sound of a pillager getting hit. Without thinking, Dean dropped his broken shield and ran.

One arrow hit him but he made it to the outpost. Behind him, the golem smashed and bashed pillagers, screaming his new favorite word.

“FREE! FREE!”

From high up in the outpost came Dad’s arrows, helping the golem from afar. Everything was going to plan.

Dean smiled and made his way to the door. Looking inside, he pulled out the special block that Brian had given him.

The Pillager Colonizer 2.0, it’s inventory label read. Brian had said that the pillagers were bound to this place, that they would keep coming and coming unless this block was placed and activated.

Did that also mean that the pillagers would all die if it was started? Dean was pretty sure that it did.

“Dad, get down here and watch the door,” he yelled up the outpost stairs. Dean was pretty sure he didn’t need the help, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Dad hustled down the stairs.

“Here and ready,” he said, taking up a spot at the entrance to make sure no pillagers could get in.

Dean tossed the block onto the bottom floor of the outpost. The two of them watched in amazement as the block grew in size, then stuck to the floor. A giant lever stuck out from its top.

Dean leaned in and pulled the lever . . .

And from outside came one big, loud, “OOPH!”

Dean and Dad cautiously peeked out from the doorway and were happy to see that all of the pillagers were gone. Above their fields of vision the words ACHIEVEMENT – QUEST COMPLETE scrolled their vision.

They’d done it. They’d beaten the outpost.

Minecraft Monarchies – Table of Contents