The New Order (15 page)

Kat resurfaced a few seconds later, cursing herself for going down so easily, before looking up at the bottom of the arena above her. Before long, a chunk of it burst apart and a player fell down from the top with a yell, landing in the pool
with a splash. Kat glanced at the water, waiting for the Ocelot to resurface. She was shocked, however, to see Ben's face emerging from under the water.

“Ben!” Kat shouted, appalled that they were now down two to one. “What happened?”

“I tried . . . to fight him . . . ,” Ben gasped, panting heavily, “but I just . . . couldn't . . . keep fighting . . .”

“Deep breaths, Ben,” said Kat, swimming to the edge of the pool with Ben in tow. As she helped him out of the water, Kat looked up at the bottom of the arena in anxiety. It was two on one! Kat knew that DZ was perfectly capable of handling a two-on-one Spleef game, but this was obviously an exceptional team. How was he going to . . .

And then Kat watched in dismay as yet another hole opened in the arena above, and the blurry form of DZ tumbled downward and hit the water with a splash. He surfaced a few seconds later, exhaustion and frustration in his face as the stadium above them exploded with a cacophony of cheers, boos, and shouts of surprise.

“And it's over, folks!” the announcer cried, sounding shocked. “In a stunning upset, the Ocelots have beaten the Zombies in the semifinal round, with two players left standing! They will now advance to the Spleef World Finals against the Skeletons! Wow, I don't think anybody saw that one coming! This will certainly shift the odds on the Ocelots!”

DZ paddled over to the side of the pool and looked up at Ben and Kat. There were no words to describe the look of blank shock on his face.

“It's over,” Kat said, sounding almost confused, still not completely comprehending what she was saying.

As the one Ocelot in the water celebrated by pumping his fists up and down, the Zombies heard a scuffling on the ladder behind them, which lead back up to their room. Oob stepped off the ladder and turned to face the players, looking crestfallen.

“Players,” said Oob quietly. “You . . . did not win?”

“No, Oob,” responded Ben, his voice quiet and disgusted. “We didn't.”

“It's all my fault,” spat DZ, still in the water, staring down at the stone ledge he was grabbing on to.

“No, it's not,” responded Kat and Ben in unison, the response coming out automatically.

“Yeah, it is!” spat DZ angrily. “I shoulda scheduled more practices! Ever since the Noctem Alliance thing, I've been slacking in getting our team ready for this tournament. How many practices have we had since the last match? Like, two? I shoulda been pushing us harder!” DZ slapped his hand to his head in angst.

“Dude, you can't blame yourself for that!” said Ben. “We're fighting the Noctem Alliance. Spleef hasn't been the first thing
on any of our minds! Besides, there's always next year.”

“Assuming that there even is a tournament next year,” a snarky voice came from their left.

The group turned and saw Cassandrix, clad in white armor, strutting up to them with her two teammates lumbering behind her.

“What are you doing down here, Cassandrix?” snapped DZ, pulling himself up onto the ledge.

“Oh, I just wanted to have a little talk with you all. Well, you specifically, Kat,” replied Cassandrix brazenly.

“Just go away,” mumbled Kat through clenched teeth, doing all she could to stay calm, but Cassandrix continued anyway.

“First of all, I just want to thank you for taking my advice earlier,” she said with a chuckle. “You clearly wanted me to face the Ocelots too. I mean, that's the only reason I can come up with for your team playing even worse than usual, which frankly I didn't think was possible.”

“Shut up!” cried Ben as Kat began to shake with fury and DZ gnashed his teeth. “We lost, we get it! Now shut up about it and go away, I don't want to see you again till we beat your sorry face next year!”

“Oh, but didn't you hear me, Ben?” simpered Cassandrix in reply. “I don't think that there's going to be a tournament next year. Well, not if the NNA is still around, anyway.”

Those three letters hit the three Zombies like a shock wave, knocking the air out of their lungs. After a moment of shell shock, Kat spoke. “How do you know about the Noctem Alliance's country?” she asked. “That's supposed to be confidential.”

“Oh, is it?” replied Cassandrix with a smug grin. “Well, I certainly wouldn't have guessed that. After all, it's all everyone's been talking about for the past afternoon.”

“Wait . . . hold on a sec . . . you're serious?” asked DZ.

“Of course I am, darling,” said Cassandrix with a ditzy laugh. “And I don't think there will be a tournament next year if the NNA continues to exist. They're certain to go to war with us, aren't they? And yet, for some reason, the council of this city saw fit to negotiate with them, rather than wiping their country off the server.” Cassandrix's grin was wide now, and Kat thought it looked almost evil. “Needless to say, the population of the city is not very happy with you three, or your friends, right now.”

Oob was looking around in horror. He couldn't comprehend what was going on, but he had enough common sense to know that it was very, very bad.

“How do you know all this?” Ben demanded.

“Well, through the leak, of course,” replied Cassandrix in surprise. “Do you three really not know? Well, I knew the council was dysfunctional, but not
that
dysfunctional.”

“Cut to the chase!” shouted Kat, shoving her face right up into Cassandrix's until their noses were almost touching. “What leak are you talking about?”

“Well, that's just the question, isn't it,” replied Cassandrix, smiling as she gently pushed Kat away from her. “Nobody really knows where it started. All there is to know is that somebody in the castle leaked your plans for dealing with the Noctem Alliance's new country. Oh, and one more thing, you three,” she said, and all of a sudden her voice became dark, steely, and menacing.

“I, for one, think the Noctem Alliance is a menace and needs to be wiped out immediately, not given a firm talking-to. And the rest of the citizens seem to agree with me. I've heard a lot of nasty things being said about you and your president since the leak came out. Why weren't we told that the Noctem Alliance is a country now, why did we have to find out through a leak? And why aren't you destroying them now that you have a chance?

“I came down here because I wanted to tell you this: the council isn't doing its job properly. Make it work, or the people, myself included, will take matters into their own hands.”

And with that, Cassandrix turned on her heel, walked over to the ladder, and climbed away, followed by her two teammates, leaving Kat, DZ, Ben, and Oob to stand speechless, reeling at what they had just heard.

CHAPTER 15
THE LABYRINTH

S
tan suddenly found that there was no floor beneath his feet. The view of Caesar smirking down at him grew farther and farther away as suddenly all Stan could see was blackness whizzing by around him. Stan finally landed face-first on the ground. Dazed, he looked around and saw nothing but darkness, and before long three more thuds hit the ground around him, followed by a sharp squeal.

Stan had no idea what had happened, and he could not see a thing. He was about to panic when a light flickered to life. Stan glanced at the torch Bill had just placed on the wall.

“I never leave home without emergency supplies,” he said brusquely.

“Well, that's very resourceful of you,” a sadistic voice rang out from above. “A Boy Scout is always prepared, yes?”

Stan looked up and saw Caesar grinning down at them into the pit. His look of glee made Stan want to swing his axe right into that stupid face of his.

“What do you think you're doing, Caesar?” bellowed Charlie, who had stood up beside Stan and Bill.

“Oh, just thought we'd have a little fun with you before you all die,” replied Caesar.

What does he mean by that?
thought Stan in alarm,
and he was about to ask when Caesar yelled out. “Oh, Minotaurus!”

“
What
?” came the baritone reply, and Stan's heart skipped as he heard that it did not come from up above, but from somewhere around him. Stan glanced around the newly torchlit room and saw that there were entranceways all over the place, three blocks high by three blocks wide.

“They're down there, Minotaurus! Have at them!”

“Does that mean I get to kill them now?”

Caesar sighed. “Yes, Minotaurus, you get to kill them now. Just do it. And count yourself lucky that I'm letting you do it rather than doing it myself.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you, Caesar.”

Caesar sighed again, before looking down into the pit at his captives one last time. “Enjoy my labyrinth, boys. It'll be the last thing you ever see.” And with that, Stan heard a faint click, and the trapdoors swung shut above them.

Stan was just about to tell everybody to keep calm and not panic, when he heard a faint moan. He looked down, and his heart dropped. Bob lay sprawled out on the floor, his bad leg stuck out at an odd angle. Ivanhoe lay on his side next to Bob, giving faint squeals of pain.

Bill followed Stan's gaze, and his eyes widened in alarm. He hastily knelt down next to his brother. “Bob, are you okay?”

“Ugh . . . yeah, I'm fine,” he grunted. “I just got the wind knocked out of me. What about Ivanhoe? I can't see him, he broke my fall. Is he okay?”

Charlie ran over to check on the pig. Ivanhoe brushed his snout up against Charlie's hand, and Charlie helped the pig onto its feet. Though Ivanhoe was capable of standing, he was clearly shaking with effort.

Bob pulled a carrot on a stick out of his inventory. He held it up above his head and whistled. “Come here, Ivanhoe. Come here, boy! Come get the carrot!”

Stan, Charlie, and Bill watched as Ivanhoe limped over toward his master, his front left leg clearly damaged. The pig licked Bob's face, and he gave an appreciative smile, before twisting around to look up at the others. “I couldn't see him walk, is he okay?”

“I think he'll be fine, but he's hurt, bro,” replied Bob sadly. “I don't think you're gonna be able to ride him.”

“Well, that's just fantastic.” Bob sighed, glancing at the ground before looking up at his friends again. “Guys, you're gonna have to leave me here. I can't walk on my own, and Minotaurus is gonna be here any minute.”

“You're kidding, right?” replied Bill, already stooping down to get his arm under his brother's shoulder. “What's the first thing we learned at the academy, bro?”

Bob sighed again. “Yeah, yeah, I know, ‘leave no man
behind.' But guys, in this situation . . .”

“You know he's right,” replied Stan, almost laughing that Bob was still fighting them. “No way we're leaving without you.”

“But guys, I'm just gonna hinder—”

“Look, Bob, there are four of us! Even if one of us is helping you, there's no way that Minotaurus could take on two of us at once,” said Charlie, sounding like he was trying to convince himself more than Bob. Stan felt the same way. None of them had ever actually locked blades with Minotaurus. Stan remembered seeing both G and Archie fighting Minotaurus during the Battle for Elementia. Even with all their rage over Sally's death, he still managed to hold them off and escape. This memory fueled Stan's drive to get out of the maze as soon as possible.

“Stop arguing, Bob, we've gotta move, and you're coming with us,” ordered Stan, cutting off Bob's response. Bob resigned himself as Bill hoisted him into a standing position, his arm around his brother's shoulder.

“Here, this might help us get out,” said Bill, using his free hand to grab a map from his inventory and handing it to Charlie. As he held the map, a small white dot appeared on it, marking Charlie's position. The dot was right under a gray square that marked the location of Nocturia on the map, surrounded on all sides by the white of the tundra.

“Charlie, use the map to lead us through this maze until we're not under Nocturia anymore. Then, we can tunnel our way out.”

“How are we gonna tunnel out?” Bob asked in dismay, eyeing the black walls. “The walls are made of obsidian, they'll take ages to punch through!”

“Don't worry, I've got a diamond pickaxe, remember?” replied Charlie, flashing it from his inventory before looking at the map again.

“Hurry up, Charlie!” whispered Stan urgently. The ground had begun to vibrate, indicating that something very large was prowling the corridors, and getting closer to them. Almost immediately after he said this, a deep voice rang out from seemingly everywhere, the echoes ricocheting off the chamber walls.

“Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum! I smell the blood of a . . . um, I mean, the blood of four . . . uh . . . players! Oh, and also a pig! I smell the blood of four players and a pig!”

“This way,” said Charlie urgently, and he rushed down the left corridor, followed by the limping duo of Bill and Bob, the latter of whom was enticing Ivanhoe the pig to follow with a carrot. Stan took up the rear.

The group scuttled around the corners like mice, desperately searching for a way out of the black, twisted deathtrap. The footsteps of Minotaurus were omnipresent. He clearly
knew the maze and was able to follow where they were going, for although the footsteps would occasionally fade, they were always right back to their loud booms within the minute.

Not helping matters were the mobs. It was entirely dark in the maze, and with Charlie putting up the torches that Bill and Bob were feeding him, Stan took the duty of killing the mobs that had spawned in the darkness. The Zombies, Skeletons, and Spiders were easy pickings for Stan's well-trained bow and diamond axe, but he was totally caught off guard when they turned the corner and found themselves face to face with a Creeper. Stan only just managed to sink his axe into its head before the swelling creature would have blown them all sky-high. The body of the Creeper fell down next to Ivanhoe, who gave it a derisive snort before it despawned.

“You know, I read that pigs and Creepers are related,” said Charlie offhandedly.

“Is that a fact?” replied Stan, his heart rate too high for him to think to question it.

“Yeah, look it up. The model for the Creeper was created when Notch was trying to make a model for a pig and screwed it up pretty badly. He decided to turn the messed-up model into a monster, and the Creeper was born.”

The other three players glanced at him for a second.

“And . . . what does that have to do with anything?” asked Bob.

Charlie shrugged. “I dunno,” he replied, and with no further discussion of the subject, the four players continued trekking through the maze.

Stan was getting seriously alarmed now. The footsteps were now unnervingly loud and constant. Minotaurus knew where they were and would be on them at any second. Soon, they hit a long corridor that ended in a dead end. Charlie glanced down at the map. The white dot was now a good deal outside the border of the gray city.

“This is it,” replied Charlie, and he whipped out his diamond pickaxe and began hacking away at the black wall of the dead end. Stan sighed in relief, turned around, and gave a gasp.

There, standing in the middle of the corridor, silhouetted against the torchlight, stood the largest player Stan had ever seen. His body twisted through modding and hacking, Minotaurus stood a whopping two and a half blocks tall, and a block and a half wide. His legs were about the size of a normal player's, covered in brown leather trousers, but his bare chest was huge and muscular, with the horned head of a bull topping it. In his hand, Minotaurus held a two-block-long wooden pole, on both ends of which sat glinting diamond axe blades.

“Hello,” said Minotaurus in his deep voice, a smile on his face. The other three players spun around, and Charlie gave a squeal of fright.

“I see that you four are trying to escape. Well, that's not gonna happen, 'cause I'm gonna kill ya!” And with that, Minotaurus began to walk forward.

As Stan watched this behemoth of a player rapidly approach, something stirred within him, building in his stomach like a fire, racing through his veins, searing his heart and mind. This was the player who had killed Sally. There was no way both of them would leave alive. Stan promised himself this.

“Keep mining,” Stan whispered to Charlie, who nodded and continued hacking at the wall, a frantic air about him now. Stan drew his diamond axe and stepped forward with no fear. He was eagerly anticipating the forthcoming battle and for the first time in his life, wanted his axe in his hand not to defend, not to wound, but to kill. He locked eyes with Minotaurus's arrogant grin, and he returned the smile with equal gritty determination before sinking into a fighting stance. Stan became aware of another presence beside him. He turned and saw Bill standing, fishing pole in his hand.

“What're you gonna do with that?” Stan hissed out of the side of his mouth, and Bill hissed back, “I've got a few tricks up my sleeve.”

Minotaurus was just ten blocks away, and he raised his axe and began spinning it around, like a vertical helicopter rotor. As the diamond blades flew faster and faster, Stan was
forced to step backward, panicking as Minotaurus forced him toward the wall. Just as Stan was about to back into Charlie and Bob, a white blur flew toward Minotaurus. The bobber of the fishing rod tangled in the rotating blades, binding the diamond axe awkwardly to Minotaurus's hand in an instant.

The bull-man looked confused, which gave Stan just enough time to bring his diamond axe over his head and toward Minotaurus's chest. Minotaurus raised the tangled axe awkwardly in front of him and managed to block the powerful blow and stumbled backward, snapping the fishing line from the rod.

Unfazed, Bill drew another rod from his inventory as Stan went in for the attack. Minotaurus got to his knees and managed to break the fishing line with one flex of his muscles, snatching his axe just in time to block Stan's attacks. Stan held nothing back, sending one powerful swing after another at Minotaurus, hoping to get under his guard. It was apparent, though, that Minotaurus was not just a mindless grunt with brawn and no brains. He was a skilled axe fighter, capably blocking all Stan's attacks. Stan judged him to be not nearly as skilled as himself, but a worthy opponent nonetheless, and with far more brute strength.

After one strike, Minotaurus leaped backward away from Stan with surprising agility, and swung his blade forward right toward Stan's head. Stan ducked under the swing and
rolled in between Minotaurus's legs. Wasting no time, Minotaurus spun around and raised his axe, bringing it down just as Stan raised his own.

The two blades clashed, and Stan felt himself becoming quickly overpowered as Minotaurus drove his weapon down into Stan. Suddenly, the burden lightened. Stan glanced up and saw that Bill had hooked his line on the blade of Minotaurus's axe, and was pulling as hard as he could to lighten Stan's load. Even with two players fighting him, though, Minotaurus was still stronger, and he slowly managed to push his axe farther down, soon crushing Stan into the floor. Stan began to choke as the axe pressed into his neck, and was just about to panic when he heard a clinking sound.

An arrow had bounced off of Minotaurus's horn. The bull-man whipped around and immediately bellowed in agony as another arrow sunk into his muscular chest. Stan pulled himself to his feet and looked back to where the arrow had come from. Bob was sitting on the ground, positioning another arrow. Stan also saw Charlie break through the second obsidian block, creating an opening large enough for them to fit through. Stan saw that there was dirt behind the blocks.
Excellent
, he thought. They had an escape.

Escaping was the least of their worries at the moment, though. Minotaurus was now rearing up, and he began to barrel down the hallway headfirst. Charlie rolled to the side,
but Minotaurus wasn't aiming for him. Bob, who was unable to move, watched in horror as the giant player charged toward him like a freight train.

When Minotaurus was just ten blocks away from Bob, a fishing line snagged Bob by the pant leg. He managed to grab Ivanhoe around the torso just as Bill's fishing rod yanked the two of them out of harm's way, and Minotaurus barreled headfirst into the wall. A giant crash came from the wall and a cloud of dust rose from the scene of impact. The cloud rolled over the four players and the pig, and they could hear the howl of wind. When the dust cleared, Stan looked up to survey the scene.

Minotaurus was lying facedown in the tunnel of dirt that had been created by his reckless charge. His eyes were closed, he wasn't moving, and there was a sizable lump on his forehead. He was clearly unconscious. Snow fell on him, as Minotaurus had managed to crash straight through the dirt and into the blizzard. Stan was amazed. How was this possible? They were underground!