Quest for Justice (33 page)

“Very well. If you'd like to duel, Avery, I'd be more than happy to oblige you,” he said slowly, danger dripping from his voice. “But let me just remind you . . . I've beaten you once, and you can be sure that I'll do it again.”

“I think the lack of operating powers will make a difference this time, don't you think, Stan?” came Avery's response, and he looked over at Stan, who responded with a confident grin. Avery was genuinely remorseful for his attacks against lower-levels, and as he had just saved Stan's life, Stan felt very confident in trusting him. He looked over at the King and saw what could only be described as eagerness crossing his face as Avery drew his diamond sword. King Kev, in response, drew a second diamond sword in his left hand.

Avery rushed in to engage the King on one side, quickly followed by Stan on the other. The four blades clashed against one another, but clearly King Kev's prowess with the sword extended to dual wielding. Stan fought as hard as ever, but the King seemed to be able to fight just as well with his left hand as with his right, despite the fact that King Kev's right hand was then being used in the fight against Avery. Before long, the King feinted backward and thrust his sword into Stan's chest. The point glanced off the armor, but the impact threw Stan backward, and he skidded away from the King, who sheathed his sword and went into a single-sword combat with Avery.

Stan didn't even try to re-enter the fight, because this was a caliber of sword fighting that he hadn't known was possible. Throughout his time in Elementia, he had kept on thinking that he had seen the best swordfighters in the land, but as he watched King Kev and Avery lock blades in the dangerous dance, he knew that neither was holding anything back, and that he could never fight at a level even close to that of these two players.

“What's . . . the matter,” grunted Avery as the swords continued to clash. His voice had a taunt to it. “You getting . . . tired . . . Kev, old boy?” he added with a weak smirk.

Indeed, after fighting all-out for a minute, the two fighters did both seem to be tiring. The King's face was red and
screwed up with effort, and Avery was sweating buckets. Still, though, Avery found the breath to continue to torment the King.

“Not . . . so easy . . . with no . . . operating powers . . . is it . . . Kev?” shouted Avery, and on the last word the tip of Avery's sword locked into the handle of the King's, and the sword went flying into the air and over the edge of the bridge. Desperation ripe on his face, the King reached for the sword at his side, but it had already been cut from there by a quick blow from Avery's blade, and the King was now completely defenseless, staring down the elongated, sharp point of Avery's diamond sword.

“Any last words, Kev?” panted Avery, a triumphant smile breaking on his face.

Rather than responding, the King moved into action as quick as a whip. He leaped backward, drew a hidden sword from his inventory, and attacked. Avery smirked, and Stan didn't understand why King Kev would attempt such a risky maneuver. Avery had the upper hand. What was he playing at? But as the sword swung forward, Stan realized with a jolt that the luster on the diamond sword, made ambiguous by the gleaming sun, meant that the King had the element of surprise on his side.

“Avery, look out! The sword is—”

But it was too late. The Knockback enchantment on the
glowing weapon released a shockwave as King Kev swung it, a shockwave that hit Avery across the chest with blunt force. As Avery stumbled backward, he suddenly found himself tumbling very quickly toward the edge of the bridge as the King released another rapid succession of attacks. At the very edge of the bridge, an uppercut sent Avery flying wildly into the air, and it was less than a second before the King had sheathed his sword, loaded his bow, and sent an arrow flying into Avery's head.

Stan sprinted to the edge of the bridge and stood, transfixed in horror, as Avery fell from the bridge, his items falling about him. Stan couldn't pull his eyes away until the end, and the end was finally reached when the body of Mr. A, who had once been known as Adam711 and Avery007, disappeared before it could fall into the lava moat below.

Stan felt as though a sizable chunk of him had been ripped out, and he couldn't stop staring at the spot where the form of Avery, his most dangerous menace turned valiant supporter, had just faded from Elementia for a third time. Then, Stan's eyes were ripped from the spot as an unseen force sent him flying into the center of the bridge. Stan looked up and saw King Kev charging him, sword in hand, looking as feral as Rex had that first day he had burst from the forest intent on feasting on Stan's throat.

The King's sword spun in his hand twice more, and two
more deadening bolts of energy struck Stan, making him roll in pain across the bridge. In his agony, Stan barely was able to look up and see the pulsating purple face of the King standing above him, staring him down.

“Don't expect as merciful an end as I gave to Avery,” whispered the King in a voice that spoke death, and Stan found himself flying into the air via another uppercut. An instant later, the wind left his body as if by a punch, and Stan felt an excruciating flare scorch his back. The King had thrown a Fire Charge at him in midair. Stan fell back down to the earth and felt his legs break. This was a new level of pain, higher than Stan had ever known was possible, and the process repeated itself twice more, made humiliating by the King's cruel, sadistic laughter.

Stan could not open his eyes. He could not see. He could not feel. He was aware of a scuffle going on far off in the distance, but all he was aware of was how much he wanted to die. Surely, there was nothing in the universe that could be worse than this—this terrible pain, the burn of his failure, and the sheer helplessness of being at the complete and total mercy of the evil King.

Then, all at once, the pain vanished. Sure now for the second time in five minutes that he had died, Stan attempted to open his eyes, and found, to his utmost surprise, that he was still alive and was laying facedown on the stone blocks.
There was a distinct smell in the air, which Stan recognized as a Potion of Healing. Stan heard a voice that he did not recognize shouting with incredible power, “Oh no you don't!”

Stan pulled himself to his elbows and saw, to his amazement, that he did know the speaker of the voice, although he had never known this player to speak above a normal decibel before. Stan watched in awe as the King, clutching his eyes, stumbled blindly backward as the Apothecary pulled more and more potions off his sash, sending them directly into the King. Surrounded in a cloud of noxious gas and colored in potions of all hues, the King was unable to see the Apothecary as he whipped the diamond pickaxe from his belt and made to drive it into King Kev's stomach. Clearly, though, the King was not completely incapacitated by the gas and potions, as he had the sense to raise his sword in a feeble block. The blow sent the King stumbling backward, blindly sending out wild shockwaves with frantic sword slashes to fend off any attackers as he regained his eyesight.

Too wise to walk into the King's frenzied attacks, the Apothecary instead ran back over to Stan and helped him to his feet. “Are you all right?” he asked.

“Yeah, I'm fine,” replied Stan. “Thanks for saving me. But what are you doing up here?”

“Well,” the old player replied, “I wasn't needed very much on the field. You'll be happy to know that we've started
to drive the King's forces back. But when I looked up at the bridge, I saw a body fly off! So I figured I'd come up here to see what had happened. But you're both still alive! Who was that who was just killed?”

“That was Avery007,” replied Stan quickly, sensing the King regaining his footing and readying his sword, “but—”

“What?” exclaimed the Apothecary, looking flabbergasted. “
Avery
? But he's dead! He killed him!” And he jerked his thumb at the King, who was now looking furiously at Stan and the Apothecary.

“Look, it's a long story, I'll explain later, oka—Oh jeez!” cried Stan as he raised his axe to counter the sword that the King was about to bring down onto his skull. Stan felt the shockwave pass over his head, rustling his hair, and the Apothecary sent a blue potion flying into King Kev's face. The King stumbled backward, spitting in pain, and Stan knocked him back with the butt of his axe.

Stan and the Apothecary looked at each other, and they seemed to make a mutual agreement to continue talking after they had jointly finished off the King. It was lucky, thought Stan, that Avery had weakened the King in their fight, or else he would have been putting up a much greater resistance. Indeed, the King seemed to have given up all hope of being able to combat the two players driving him backward across the bridge. Potion after potion and axe blow after axe blow
glanced against the King's diamond chestplate, which was finally beginning to crack. At one point the King dropped his sword, which Stan gratefully snatched up. With the Knockback enchantment on the sword, it was only a matter of moments before the shockwaves and splash potions knocked the King inside of the hollow tower at the right end of the bridge.

As the limp body of the King smashed into the wall, his hand caught one of two levers on the stone brick blocks next to him, and the switch flipped downward. Immediately, light flooded the tower as battlements opened systematically around the tower, creating perfect sniping posts for archers. The King took no notice, however. His face was screwed up in anticipation for what he knew was about to come. King Kev had no weapon, no energy left, and had his back to the wall against two players, one with potions and one with his own sword. There was only one track for his future now.

“Do it, Stan,” said the Apothecary grimly, and as Stan looked down into the terrified, close-eyed face of the player who had the blood of so many innocents on his hands, Stan wanted to do it. Oh, he wanted to do it so badly. It would take one simple motion to thrust the King's own sword through his chestplate and through his body, thus ending his reign of terror on the server forever. Stan raised the sword.

Then, Stan was gone. He was not in the tower with King Kev and the Apothecary anymore. He was standing in the
Ender Desert, alongside Charlie, Bill, Bob, Rex, Lemon, the crying figure of Kat, the comforting shoulder of Ben, and the body of the King's soldier with the cow-skin who lay dead beside them. The pain that Stan had felt at seeing his friend murder an unarmed player crashed over him like a tidal wave, and he remembered his vow to never murder an unarmed player again.

And here he stood, sword raised, over the body of King Kev, as defenseless as a newborn baby, his face screwed up in anticipation of the deathblow that was to follow.

“You must, Stan,” came the Apothecary's voice from behind him, sad and sympathetic but urgent as well. Stan raised the sword higher still. Of course he must. It was his duty, and the King deserved it. This might well be his last chance. But still . . .

Without warning, the King's eyes flew open, bulging out of their sockets. Then, several things happened that were so fast and so senseless that Stan barely had time to comprehend the events around him.

The King drew an arrow back in the unobserved bow and let it fire, not toward either Stan or the Apothecary but between them. Although it was not intended to hit either of them, the sudden movement was enough of a shock to Stan that he dropped the sword—right into the outstretched hands of the King. The King swung the sword, emitting a shockwave
that slammed into Stan and the Apothecary, knocking them off balance. The King then proceeded to yank down hard on the second lever on the wall, spin the diamond sword in his hands to face himself, and drive the sword through his cracked diamond armor and into his own chest.

White shock whipped Stan across the face as the King's body was knocked backward by the force of his own suicide, slamming into the stone brick wall and falling limply to the ground.
How could this be?
thought Stan, his instincts setting off alarm bells all throughout his body, for this could not be right.
Why would the King take his own life?
That was not in the plan at all. They had not even considered that as a possible outcome! Yet still the King lay there, a lifeless corpse, his items strewn about his body indicating that this was no trick, this was no illusion of smoke and mirrors. King Kev was dead by his own hand.

Stan glanced at the Apothecary to see how he had interpreted this unbelievable turn of events. But instead of fixing on the now-vanishing body of King Kev, the old player's horrified gaze rested on the lever that the King had pulled as his last action in Elementia. Stan heard the rumbling, and an instant later he realized what that lever must have done. The word “RUN!” had barely left his lips when the tower exploded.

Stan held his eyes with the Apothecary's for as long as he could, but the explosions enveloping the air around him
propelled him backward with tremendous speed. The last glimpse he saw of his elderly friend was the items bursting from his body in a ring, which disintegrated alongside the body in the inferno of the explosion.

Stan was aware of the crash as he was propelled through the glass window of the tower, and he knew that he was falling down and that the explosions were coming down after him. Stan opened his eyes and saw, to his amazement, that he was still alive and that he had received only a few injuries from the explosion. On the other hand, his diamond armor had been completely blown off. It was no matter, though. Stan looked down and saw that he was falling at terminal velocity straight toward the King's lava moat.

The explosions behind Stan seemed to be destroying the entire building, which fell down in a wave like an avalanche, right above Stan's falling body. As he neared the lava, only one thought filled his mind.
King Kev is dead. My work in Elementia is done
.

Stan felt the heat a split second before he entered the lava.