Steve Saga - Dawn of the Steves [DISCONTINUED]

CHAPTER 3

     Sabre climbed boulder by boulder with Athena behind him. They were hiking up a small hill, "Maybe we could see something up there!" He remembered Athena's suggestion, when she was pointing at the hill while they were passing by the savanna biome. 
     Gazing downwards, Sabre stopped. "It's pretty high up here already," Sabre started, as they had reached the edge of the hilltop. "See anything?"
     He saw her pushing through the undergrowth and came up beside him, her expression unreadable. He scanned the area in front of them, there were cows grazing about on the grassy ground. There were also chickens wandering along, which reminded Sabre about the innocent Rainbow Steve who was the nicest Steve he encountered, he also had tons of pet chickens with their unique names, the friendship it had lasted drove Sabre's heart to ache. What happened to his good old friend?
     He tried pushing the sadness away and looked for more clues. Instead, he turned to find Athena with an apple in her hand. "Here," she handed the fruit to him.
     "Thanks," he acknowledged her as he accepted the apple and took a bite. He turned back to the edge when something caught his eye. "Hey! Look! There's a crater there!" He nudged her to look in the distance, where a firecharge crater was seen through the fog.
     "I see it," she added, "do you think Lucas's there?"
     Sabre spread his elytra, not looking at his friend, he replied, "Well why don't we find out?" He glided downhill and landed near the crater. To his expectations, the crater wasn't that big, but it did caused some severe damage to the earth.  Dirt blocks were flung everywhere, and some stone blocks were also cracked or even demolished.
      Athena hurried up behind him as he knelt down to examine the destruction. It wasn't fatal, yet there could be more firecharge spamming nearby. Sabre looked up, trying to find another crater, and yet, another one went visible after a cloud shot past. Without hesitation, he walked towards his new find. He then turned to find Athena still crouching by the end of the first crater, looking curiously at something under the dirt.
     "Sabre," she piped up, "you might want to look at this." Confused, he padded back and knelt next to her.
     "There, right on top of the andesite. Is that...?" she asked
     Sabre followed her gaze, and stared at the sparkling mineral. It was mostly shone golden under the dusk sky. Without warning, he hopped into the crater, putting out fire in his way to get a closer look, he stopped as he turned to his partner. "Rainbow Stone..." he observed. Athena stood up and padded to the next crater while Sabre took the Rainbow Stone and put it in his inventory. It didn't take long before she found more of them.
     Sabre turned to Athena, who gave him two more of those shimmering minerals. "How did you spot them so quickly?" Sabre questioned.
     "I just did, but let's treat this matter differently," she replied, "you've said that Rainbow Stone is a connection to Rainbow Steve. So maybe this is a sign!"
     "You're right, Rainbow Steve could be telling us something!" He took out the three finds and went to the first crater, a thought came to him that maybe there could be some other clues of where the Rainbow Town was, or if possible, if Lucas was safe. "Weird," he thought, "There's only one andesite block in this crater, and that's where we found the first Rainbow Stone..." he took out an iron pickaxe and mined the andesite. A red wool appeared behind it with a sign attached. Sabre peeked into the hole to read it.
      "What's it saying?" Athena appeared behind him.
     "I don't know... it's gibberish..." Sabre drew himself back. "It doesn't spell anything in reverse either."
     He watched her reading the sign, she too, had a confused and puzzled look on her face. "Is this a code?" She asked
     "Maybe..." he remembered the signs on the grave in the Ghost Town, which most of them were gibberish too except a few. And he couldn't figure out what those mean. Were they connected somehow? Sabre immediately tried to recall who they had encountered and who were involved in incidents that happened in the graveyard and the catacombs. Plague Steve, Faceless, Nightmare Steve, Green Steve... Ghost Steve! He opened his eyes and stared sharply on the sign. Did Ghost Steve had something to do with Rainbow Steve's destruction? He couldn't bring to imagine that Ghost Steve had been plotting to betray them like Plague Steve, "But everything's possible," he thought, then looked at Athena worried. Will the last hope of his betray him too one day? He saw her seemed to read his mind, she shook her head mildly with a smile on her face.
     The sun was slowly engulfed by the ground, sending red blazing light shooting across the horizon. The sky turned darker as calling stars to reappear like yesterday's twilight. Soon, the sun gave the last of its light as it slowly faded. Sabre knew they were still miles and miles away from the Rainbow Town, where the sun never sets eternally.
     He found a nearby birch tree on the plains where the craters were, he walked towards it and prepared to climb. After a few grunts and checking if there were twigs sticking out to prevent any unnecessary accidents, he got up the treetop, only to find Athena already sitting there with her swords laying close to her on the leaves. A bit astounded and envious, he found and moved to a comfy place where he could rest and stargaze at the same time. He organised his inventory for a while when a call appeared next to him. He turned sharply to find them surrounded by spiders. There were zombies and wither skeletons down at the tree bark, just like the ones they met at the Rainbow Tree of Hope. "Rats, how did they get here so fast?" He heard her mumbling loud while grasping her blades. Sabre took out his diamond sword and crouched, ready to battle.
     One of the spiders hurled itself towards Sabre, but Sabre threw it off the tree after stabbing it, sending it on fire. Another spider leaped and shot a string out of its mouth, trying to fix Sabre at his spot, but Sabre was faster. He dodged just as the sticky string hit the leaves, he gave it a kick, which sent it crashing another spider as they both fell down from the edge. He had fought Steves before, and the time of his first battle back at Athena's homeland really gave him the confidence and experience he needed. He spun his weapon, telling the mobs that they were messing with the wrong people. Just then, an ordinary skeleton, not associated with the assassinating mobs, shot Sabre in his shoulder, he fell off the tree from the knockback and hit the ground with a thump. Sabre looked up as he saw myriad of mobs ready to strike him. "You flippin' pieces of rotten flesh," he muttered, getting back up on his feet. He gazed up the tree, where Athena was battling with more spiders and the arrows from ordinary skeletons, which were climbing up again and again despite the damage her swords caused. he knew that he have to handle what's in front of him alone.
     Sabre slashed the mobs in front of him first, fire spread wherever his sword hit, and as he expected, the whole group of assassinating mobs were caught on fire after a while. With a few more strikes, the round was clear. Sabre pulled his sword out from a wither skeleton skull and looked at his wounded shoulder, the arrowhead was stabbed deep. Sabre gritted his teeth from the pain as he turned back, his eyes searching for Athena when an attacking spider fell on top of him. He immediately drove his sword above him and flung it off.
     "Everything okay there?" He heard her call from above.
     "I'm fine-" a zombie suddenly slapped Sabre in the back behind him. He turned around to see another wave of undead and spiders waiting to attack him. Sabre swiftly stabbed the previous zombie and it was successfully slain. But the roars of the remaining zombies and wither skeletons told him he still had a lot to face. "Bring it on!" He shouted, as the wave began to rush towards him at the same time. Sabre spun around, slashing and stabbing those who got too close.  Four Wither Skeletons stroke their swords, but Sabre blocked their attack, both pushing their swords all their might. Just then, a zombie hurled itself towards him at his back, roaring.
     "Look out!"
     Sabre turned around, Athena pulled one of her swords out of the zombie's head as they both prepared the epic fight back to back. "You okay now?" She asked, her eyes fixed on the mobs in front of her. "Thanks again," he leaped, slashing multiple undead while landing outside the circle. Immediately, some of them began to move towards Sabre. "Outta way, noobs!" He heard her shout while dealing with half of the group. It was late at night, and there were more of them than last time. Where did they come from? And why were they targeting them? Sabre's queries floated in his head, at the same time, he leaped just in time as one mob crashed into another. He took out a bow and aimed at them. "Take this!" He shot a flaming arrow and finished them off. After checking if they wouldn't fight anymore, he heard a thud. Athena jumped down from a nearby rock, spinning her swords and slid them back behind her. "Tough fight," she added.
     "Yeah..." Sabre caught another wither Skeleton behind her, "Behind you!" He warned.
     But Athena immediately gave it a powerful jab without her looking before he could finish his sentence, which made it stay unconscious on the ground. "Now that's cleaned up, we have to move first and get that dressed," she pointed at the stabbed arrow on his shoulder, "besides, more of them might come our way." They padded off, following the trail of craters as they kept an eye out for more monsters.