PBG MineCraft Hardcore Season V

[2] The Shield

[McJones POV]

Ah. That was indeed to close for comfort... thank god for my brother's idiotic bravery and Barry's quick reactions. Any second longer and our journey would've sadly concluded.

We simply sat in the dark damp caves, silently sitting hearing Austin heavily breathing and Jeff whimpering something inaudible about Creepers blowing up his 'crib'. Jared was also heard momentarily muttering about almost gathering enough cobblestone from donkeys.

As much as being the leader was a drag, I guess dire times like these forces one of us to stand firmly for others.
Time for me to spring into action.
"Alright gentlemen let's begin working at renovating our home." I said finally, standing up after what felt like an eternity.

Ray shot me a side look while crafting a able, Barry grunted his approval and Austin and Dean straight up was cheering like a sports fans. The others...? Jeff was still whimpering and Jared was still muttering...

"Right. Expand this square-like space into a quadratic shape with the centre circle with a radius of 10 block space and a pathway that is a tangent of..."

Dean was still actively listening, but one look at Austin and Jeff playing with crafted wooden swords immediately silenced me.
"Um... lets make this place larger and collect watch out for lava!" I shouted.

Without my command my brother leapt into action, going down deeper into one of the other possible paths along with Ray. The rest of us began expanding the small room into something comfortable for seven people.
Jeff was extra productive, crafting stairs with his previously collected wood and made an easy exit route. Jared made many different stone tools that he distributed to everyone and finally did something other than complain about the lack of donkey meat.

I found a viable source of water, problem was it was above us and threatened to flood our current house. I could tell by the constant dripping coming from the stone above.
"Guys! Guys! I found iron!" Austin screamed as he emerged from the caves waving iron around like an idiot.

Handing it to me he ran off again.

Hm... there was something I always wanted to try since we first opened our eyes...
I smelted the iron into ingots and took some wood out of the chest Jared prepared. Placing them in the proper order on the table and using the tool embedded on the side... there!
What I crafted was masterful - made me extremely satisfied and feel... well... to put it bluntly, badass!
Austin was busy mining stone this entire time, but when he finally focused his attention on me, I saw his mouth drop to the floor.

"What... is that?"

With my left hand I proudly lifted my shiny shield and presented it to all those in the cave.
Awaiting for the praise that I do deserve - I smiled and raised it even higher.
"He used all OUR iron!" Austin finally pointed out, fingering spasming around like it's broken.
"Rush him!!!"

I've never felt that many bodies pile on me at the same time - crushing every single bit of breath in my lungs and six hands trying pry the shield away from my hands.
Not able to get up, I watched hopelessly as they messed around with the shield to no effect. Sighing and deciding that I wasn't gonna be able to get up anytime soon with cramps everywhere I could feel them; so I nodded off on the cold hard stone. I

~~~~~~~~~
I woke up to Austin sleeping on my right leg, cramping it up even more than before I fell asleep. Slowly and carefully to avoid waking him up, I removed my numb leg from his tight grip and slowly got up.
All the flames went out overnight and the soil barrier that Barry placed down began to crumble. Dawn light leaked through the cracks exposed from the barrier, illuminating the odd formation my friends decided to fall asleep in.

It reminded me of a crop circle of all things... these guys are weird...

Picking the shield up from the floor beside a snoring Ray, I decided to pry open the barrier to check for surroundings.
Right as one major piece of the soil fell from the barrier, a face appeared right in front of me and began hissing loudly. There was no time to run and more importantly I was on top of a staircase, I won't be able to scramble away. It was already glowing white and halfway through his implosion process.
I saw the fire in his eyes, the smile beginning to replace the frown that was there before.

Guess this is where I go huh?