chapter_thirteen: Improvements

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After equipping me with some potions, food, and buckets, Alex allowed me to head down and meet up with Steve.

The moon is high, but the village is shining brighter than it was before. There's a growing fire to the north, I could tell by the smoke rising up in the air and just how bright it is over there.

It seems more quiet here than normal, though, there aren't many villagers at all, and there's just a bunch of pillagers running around as well, but none of her are minding me.

I hid my sword and started heading north, towards the fire.

Lucky enough, Steve was there, trying to tend to the burning houses. He has his back on me, holding a bucket of water in his arms whilst kicking villagers into their houses and closing the doors with his foot. Without looking at me, as if he just sensed that I was there, he shouted, "Cover me!"

I didn't know what he meant by cover, but alright. I took out my sword and followed him. I found a water source along the way, so I filled my bucket up to help him. He stopped running in front of a house, and so did I. He took the bucket by its handle and threw it upwards. The water rose and engulfed the house in dark smoke.

I was about to throw him my bucket when suddenly, a familiar, stinging feeling hit my back. I gasped, clenching my fists to suppress a scream. I turned around slowly, one of the crossbow-wielding pillagers looking straight at me, about to aim.

He shot. In the last second before the tip of the arrow made contact with my face, I summoned my sword and deflected it. Steve gave me a subtle pat on the shoulder before running off once again, probably to get some more water.

I can feel it, the heat coming from our surroundings. The fire is spreading quickly. If I don't take this guy down now, and the other mobs that have their eyes on me, I'll be wasting too much time. I've never felt more empowered before.

He shot again, I deflected. Right after shooting the arrow back with the hilt of my sword, I switched to my bow, pulled the string, and let go. The mob created a sound of pain, but before it could recover, I fired another, and another, and another, slowly walking forward. Once he was in my reach, I reached forward, switched to my sword, and swung.

I smiled, sighing in relief. I did it. I tightened my hold on my sword, flinging myself forward.
———

Steve was definitely much faster and stronger than me, so it only made sense that he was the one collecting the water and throwing around. I, on the other hand, just backed him up, which I'm pretty good at. The pillagers, vindicators, and evokers came one at a time, so it was easy for me to manage them and barricading the villagers' homes to keep them from getting out.

Once Steve was able to get rid of the fire, we headed East and started slaying more illagers and barricading more doors. They've already blocked so much, but there's still so many villagers running around.

"This isn't going to get us anywhere," Steve said after a while, grabbing my shoulder to stop me from running. We're both breathing very heavily, we've been running, kicking, slaying non-stop. What's more is that this is my first time fighting so much monsters, and Steve had to save my butt so many times.

"What do you mean?" I asked breathlessly, holding my knees. My heart's pounding so loudly, my vision is blurring.

"Killing off all the villagers isn't our goal here, remember?" He asked, squatting for a moment to take a breath. "It's finding the portal."

I nodded. "So you want me to go find it?"

"Alex gave you potions," he stood up, shaking his hands to get ready. "You should be fine—"

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