Mythical Artifacts

Chapter 16: Bow and Arrow

Shooting okexox with my Paintball Gun saved me a little bit of time, but the gadget would do nothing against the countless mods and helpers who were rushing toward me. The only thing I could do was run back to where the dead end was and hope I would be able to climb the hedges. When I turned the corner, however, I found that there was no dead end as if the hedge wall had vanished entirely. Caring more about my life than about the hedge, I kept running.

I then came into an opening, which had two paths that led onward. But I wasn't paying attention to the terrain, for my teammates were scattered around the plain, all staring at me. "Flawed?" asked Mine, hurrying toward me. "Aren't you supposed to be, y'know, watching the staff?"

"I was. But now they're coming," I said. "We need to keep advancing. Especially now that they know where we're going."

"We can fight them," said Ferbooper, holding his Paintball Gun in both his hands. "We got all sorts of stuff to use."

"T-there are just too many of them," I said, walking onward to one of the paths leading onward, only to find that it was blocked. So was the other path. "What? It's all a dead end?"

"That's why we're still here," said Typo. "We've been trying to find a way but it's like the maze has intentionally trapped us."

"So—" I began, but then I heard a cry coming from Melon, who fell to the ground with an arrow sticking out of his back. I was about to dash toward him, but I was stopped by an arrow whizzing above me. I took out my Paintball Gun and aimed it at the swarm of staff members. Right as I was about to shoot . . .

"Do not kill them!" shouted Codename_B. The horde of staff members reluctantly held their bows, ready to shoot at us. Codename continued, "Shoot them only for self-defense." He shuffled past the staff members to the front, where he stood facing us.

"Been a while," I said to him. I glanced at Typo, who was carefully taking the arrow out of Melon's back. I looked back at Codename. "So you aren't gonna attack us. What's your plan, then?"

"If you don't come willingly, we'll take you by force," he said. I noticed him gripping his sword tighter.

"We're not going anywhere," said Ferbooper. I turned my head to find that Ferbooper and the rest of my team were standing alongside me, weapons drawn.

"You all are making a mistake," said Codename angrily. "Why are you following him? TheFlawed is an ignorant fool."

Typo stepped forward. "He's a lot of things, but he's not ignorant," he said. "He's one of the only people smart enough to figure out what's going on. And he's been able to pry information out of Hypixel himself."

"And yet he's a fool if he thought this was a good idea," retorted Codename, making a motion with his left hand. He stepped forward, readying his weapon. "Now for heaven's sake, let's get this over with. Come with us willingly, or by force."

"How about not at all?!" said Melon. "We've done nothing—"

But he was interrupted by the shot of an arrow, which darted through the air and directly at me. Before I could react, I felt myself collapsing onto the ground. I didn't have the chance to make sense of anything. Arrows and paintball pellets were being shot on either side as I remained on the ground. I had been tackled and saved by Typo.

I got to my feet and began shooting my Paintball Gun at them. There were so many of them, and they shot arrows so quickly, that it was hard to stand a chance. But as we shot more and more paintballs at them, they slowly became trapped in hardened clay. It would only be there for ten seconds. Still, it was enough to even the playing field a little. But it wasn't enough, I knew — especially when Melon got shot with another arrow, knocking him to the ground again. Armorless, Melon had now taken two hits. Were they willing to kill us?