The Edge of MINECRAFT (Being the Second Volume of the Minecraft Trilogy)

Prologue: A Promise

The monsters were coming. It was just a small group; they were expecting their prey to be wounded or even dead. Steve grinned. That's what they think. He readied his sword. A creeper approached him. Here goes, he thought.

He jumped from the rock and drove his iron blade into the monster. It howled for just a moment, but Steve had already begun his attack. He used his sword to stab, his bow to shoot, and even his hands to push monsters into the pit around his wrecked house. Some were armored, but Steve fought them anyway. Some were in large groups, but Steve fought them anyway. He had never taken on even a single person in a duel before, but everything seemed to come naturally. He swung his sword with ease and landed arrows in vulnerable places.

The monsters were taken aback by his spirit. Before, they had been surprised at his skills, but that was mainly because of how he handled himself at his age. Steve had used his strength from working outside and accuracy from hunting to fight them then, but now he fought like a true warrior. The monsters could not handle him now. He quickly decimated ranks of monsters.

The monsters were many, though. They kept coming. Walls of orcs knocked him down and attacked him. He fought back, but they were becoming too strong. A spider hopped on his back and knocked his bow from its place. It was kicked around and lost in the crowd. Steve threw the spider off and stabbed it. He backed up against a rocky cliff face and fought the monsters. A creeper kicked him and began to defeat him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Steve suddenly saw a skeleton taking aim with an enchanted bow. Steve jerked violently, surprising the creeper and putting it in the line of fire. The flaming arrow went through the creeper, and a flaming black object flew out the other side. It looked like it contained gunpowder, but other ingredients were present as well. Most likely, it was what was ignited and caused the creeper to explode. The orb, now alight, ricocheted off the rock wall and struck a nearby zombie in the head. The orb was now becoming more of a disc shape. As it spun threw the air, a faint melody echoed off the wall.

Steve caught the disc in his hand, now a smooth oval. He tossed it at the skeleton archer. The rotating weapon sawed straight through the neck of the monster. The sniper collapsed into a pile of bones. Steve caught the disc and threw it at more enemies. The melodious compact disc was an excellent ranged weapon. Steve used it to dispatch more and more monsters. He also used his arrows and his sword to stab monsters too close for the disc. He was rapidly pushing them back.

Unfortunately, Steve's success came to an unexpected stop. A gloved hand caught the disc. General Three came out from the crowd holding Steve's weapon. He regarded it with contempt and tossed it into the canyon. The burning house cast an eerie red-orange glow on his grim face. It was the face of death. His sparkling red eyes and scarred pale face could scare anyone. But Steve stood undaunted. He had set out to cleanse the area of monsters, and he was not backing down.

General Three growled at Steve. Steve held his ground and raised his sword. General Three drew a golden sword and approached. Steve did not move a millimeter. General Three suddenly roared and charged. Steve crossed swords with the brute. He could feel the rage and hatred radiating from his opponent. This was a creature of pure evil. Unlike some of the other monsters (for Steve fast-growing suspicions about some of their origins), Steve knew it had never been anything else. General Three had been created to do evil and to lead others in doing evil.

The two continued to clash blades. General Three's golden blade reflected the firelight, creating a blinding glare, but Steve ignored it. The two swords, iron and gold, flashed in the night. Steve was only fifteen, but his newfound sword skills already rivaled many of Minecraft's masters. General Three had killed a few of these masters. He excelled in the art of swordplay, and it frustrated him that this villager child was so difficult to defeat. General Three had the unfair advantage of diamond armor, though, whereas Steve had none. Just the same, even though Steve couldn't pierce Three's armor, the zombie could not land a scratch the former.

Their duel carried them around the edges of the canyon and through what remained of the monster army. The other monsters parted to let them duel. They knew that if someone was enough trouble for their general to want to engage that they should not interfere.

Steve continued to smile as his blade hit that of his enemy. He relished the thrill of the fight. He felt the adrenaline rush through his veins. He knew he would die, but he would go down fighting. He had cut the monsters' numbers in half and caused their commander to come and meet him in combat. He would die, but the monsters would face a fate even worse: humiliation.

Steve smiled rather though of it. He began to laugh as he parried his opponent's strikes. General Three snarled and pressed his attack. Steve would not stop. He would never stop. Tonight, he would fight and die on honor.

And then the fatal moment came. General Three wrenched Steve's iron sword out of his hand. He wrapped his diamond gloved hand around it and snapped the blade off over his knee. He landed a punch in Steve's face and knocked the boy to the ground. He kicked him once, twice. Steve lay still and showed no pain. This also frustrated the general. He tossed aside his own sword and put his hands around Steve's neck. He lifted the hero high above the ground.

"Are you ready to see what death feels like?" General Three growled.

"Not... quite... yet," Steve struggled to get out. His hand procured the old dagger from his pocket. He kicked General Three in the stomach. As the orc leader stumbled back, Steve pressed the dagger blade against the diamond chest plate. Gravity took over, and the diamond cracked. General Three looked down in astonishment as the knife dug into his chest. The wooden handle cracked, the blade cracked, and the two began to separate, but the small weapon continued to sink into the monster. His eyes burned bright with pain.

"You go first," Steve muttered. The evil leader fell back into the ground. The fire disappeared from his eyes, and his pained expression froze. Steve pulled the dagger out and retrieved Three's sword. He looked at the remaining monsters, most of which stared at him in astonishment. "Now I'm ready for you, death," Steve said to himself. He charged the army with the sword in one hand and the dagger in the other. He fought until he could fight no longer. As monsters fell dead around him, everything faded to black...

~~~

Steve awoke surrounded by a pile of bodies. He slowly got up. He saw his smoldering house on the isolated land and knew he could never go back. He was covered in scratches and injuries, and he knew he had broken a few bones. But for some reason, he had lived.

The golden sword was gone. Perhaps it was taken by a lone survivor, but more likely, it had fallen into the canyon. His dagger handle stuck out of a fallen monster's chest. He delicately pulled it out. He would have to be more careful with it if he wanted it to stay intact. But the little tool had survived the battle, just like him.

Steve hurried to the edge of the woods to check if the bag he had packed was still in its spot. It was. He looked at each and every relic. Among other things, he had some gold and iron to trade, some food, his dagger, two books, some maps, and his favorite turquoise shirt, which he was wearing. Hopefully he could wash the blood out and get the rips mended.

With only a few relics of his past, Steve set off into the world of Minecraft. A few hours later, he knelt by the ransacked remains of a village. The monsters had it hit before coming to his house. As he buried the bodies, he swore to himself that he would flee from all that was evil. He convinced himself of what he knew what was true: he could not go back. He would escape evil forever.

But, he promised himself, if evil ever caught up with him, he would be a hero and charge at it head on. If he didn't flee fast enough, then he would stop running and lead the charge against his enemy.

Until then, if there was a then, he would disappear, though. He would become a wanderer. He had provided shelter to wanderers before, and they seemed like nice people. He would love in his own and move from village to village, helping people. That was what he would always wanted to do. Help others.

And during that time, he would hope that every monster had died that night, that there were no more, that Minecraft was safe forever.

But Steve remembered his promise. If they came back, he would fight. He would help people. He would be one of the heroes that he dreamed and read about.

Thus, the boy named Steve became a ghost and set off to make the world of Minecraft a better place by helping people, eventually becoming an unlikely hero, making some allies and enemies, sacrificing great amounts, and saving the world.

And this is the second story about how he did some of that.