conversations wiped clear from their minds. It was time to take action.
“Follow me,” the soldier replied, and he marched through the iron door and into the wall, with Jayden and G close in tow.
Neither of them had seen the inside of Element City’s outer walls before, but they were totally blown away by just how much was going on. What from the outside appeared to be a ten-block-thick wall of solid stone bricks was actually hollow, filled with various staircases and ladders that led to stone-brick platforms at various levels of the massive height. Soldiers scurried to and fro inside the wall, manning various battlements on the outside, and preparing fireball launchers and TNT cannons. G heard a rush of noise directly above his head, and looked up to see a mine cart rushing across a powered rail above, surely delivering vital materials to a point even further down the wall.
The two players hardly had time to marvel at the pinnacle of Minecraft defensive technology that was the Element City outer wall. The soldier led them over to a battalion of players, bearing weapons and dressed in an amalgamation of diamond, iron and leather armour. They all stood in front of a series of pistons that were set up against the outermost side of the inner wall.
“OK, men,” the soldier announced in a booming voice, walking to the front of the group of players. “You know the drill. When the blast doors open, make a charge across no-man’s-land into the woods, and engage the Noctem soldiers. They outnumber us by a reasonable degree, so we will only engage them briefly… just enough to buy time for Councilmen Jayden and Goldman to execute their mission.”
There was a shuffling in the crowd as all heads turned to face Jayden and G. The looks on the faces of the soldiers unnerved them a bit. These were players who had been entrenched in the rage of war for longer than they had ever expected, and their expressions seemed to demand that the two councilmen not blow their one chance to take a huge step in ending the conflict.
“Corporal!” came a shout from somewhere within the highest reaches of the wall, where Jayden and G couldn’t see. The soldier leading the charge glanced upward.
“You have to go now!” the voice rang out again. “They’re preparing to move out!”
“OK,” the soldier said to his troops, turning to face the wall. “It’s time to go. Open the blast doors!”
At the soldier’s command, Jayden and G heard a series of clicks and whirs as the pistons retracted, pulling the stone bricks with them and opening the wall to the world outside Elementia.
There were no words to describe the white shock that overtook Jayden’s and G’s minds as they saw what lay beyond the outer walls. The last time they had been there, just weeks ago, the area surrounding Element City had been lush and green, with forest growing right up to the wall.
Now there wasn’t a tree in sight. The ground had been reduced to a field of dirt piles on a stone field pockmarked with craters. Everywhere their horrified eyes looked, Jayden and G could see fires blazing and the inventories of dead players scattered across the hilly ground. The remaining forest couldn’t even be seen from their position directly outside the wall, as the smoke from the fires was too thick, obscuring the world around the outer wall like render fog.
All this ran through the heads of Jayden and G in an instant. Then they found themselves barrelling forwards, into the valleys and craters created by the TNT cannons, following the command of the captain who had yelled “CHARGE!”
The group of around thirty soldiers, with Jayden and G in the middle, was sprinting as fast as they could, but it was difficult to progress. The uneven terrain underfoot made for a lot of stumbling as they pressed onwards, staying together as a group. Then, as the edge of the forest finally came into view, the arrows started to fly.
It was a desperate struggle as the squad of soldiers fought their way out of the craters and towards the forest while dozens of black-clad soldiers rained arrows down on them. Jayden heard the clinking sounds of arrows bouncing off the solid armour of the warriors, along with the occasional cry of anguish indicating that a hit had been scored.
As the soldiers finally managed to reach the top of the hill, a rain of fireballs started flying in from behind them. G glanced over his shoulder and saw lit blocks of TNT, flying far over their heads and landing in the forest with a massive blast. The turrets and battlements on the walls, he knew, were backing them up from afar.
As the soldiers poured forwards into the forest, it seemed that the majority of the Noctem soldiers were still scrambling for their gear and weapons. It had been fairly obvious that they hadn’t been expecting the attack. Jayden and G hardly noticed this, though. They were sprinting to the side, ducking into a small copse of trees, out of the Noctems’ line of sight.
As soon as they were safely hidden within the vegetation, the two councilmen stripped off their armour as fast as possible. They then proceeded to yank black leather caps and tunics out of their inventories and pulled them on. As soon as they had both adorned themselves in the enemy’s uniform, Jayden and G made a roundabout back into the trees and emerged behind the Noctem fighters.
It was mayhem on the battlefield. Arrows whizzed through the air, some lit on fire via enchantments, while a steady rain of fire and explosions fell from the smoky skies of the Elementia side. The soldiers were engaged in full-on combat, swinging swords, axes and pickaxes at a rapid pace, while the vapours of dozens of potions drifted up and into the air.
Jayden rushed forward into the combat right as a Noctem soldier faded into Invisibility right beside him. He whipped out his diamond axe, ignoring all combatants on either side until he found who he was looking for. The corporal leading the attack was fighting a Noctem soldier with a diamond sword that glowed with a red lustre. Jayden rushed in to meet the corporal just as he finished off the Noctem soldier. The corporal was about to strike Jayden when the two locked eyes. The corporal realized who it was, and a flash of relief crossed his face. The plan had succeeded. Jayden and G were now in the enemy camp.
“Retreat!” the corporal bellowed, giving Jayden a nod before turning and sprinting back down into the valley. “All forces retreat!”
Within the next few seconds, the Elementia troops were disengaged from the combat and heading back down into the valley of haze as the rain of fireballs and mortars stopped falling. Although a few Noctem soldiers continued to fire arrows into the crowd of fleeing Elementia troops, the majority just looked confused, wondering what had happened.
“Where did that come from, General?” Jayden heard a voice ask from somewhere in the crowd.
“I’m not sure,” a female voice responded slowly. “That attack came out of nowhere… and it was over awfully fast…”
“Maybe they just underestimated our numbers,” the first voice replied.
“You’re right,” responded the general, who Jayden still couldn’t see. “That’s probably what happened.”
“So, back with the mobilization?”
“Yep,” the general said, before yelling at the top of her lungs, “All right, everybody! It’s time to move out! We have to hurry. That attack set us back, and they need us back in Nocturia as soon as possible!”
As the mass of black leather started to march, Jayden glanced around wildly, trying to find G. Before long, his eye caught the eye of a player with green eyes and bronze-textured skin under the leather armour. Jayden nearly began to panic, wondering why this random soldier was keeping eye contact with him, before he remembered that this was G’s new skin.
