Rise of the Wither, Book 1: New Danger Page 6

see, and then they jumped back with cries of alarm.

  There were faces in the sand. Frozen faces stretched wide in silent screams. No sound came from them, but their images were so terrible that Steve could almost have sworn that he could hear, faintly, their cries of agony.

  “Soul sand,” Alex whispered.

  Steve shuddered. He did not want to get close to this stuff, let alone put it in his inventory. But this was what they had come for. He took out his shovel and tried to console himself that, with this, they were one step closer to getting out of here.

  He stepped forward onto the sand, then jumped back once more. The moment he had set foot on it, he had felt…something. Something cold grabbing at his ankles. It hadn’t been at all a strong grip, but he had felt it, and combined with those horrible faces it had nearly scared him to death.

  “Want me to do it?” Alex asked. She wasn’t making fun of him. There was no room for teasing in the Nether.

  “No,” he said. “I’m alright; just…a bit of a surprise is all.”

  He stepped back onto the sand, forcing himself to ignore the cold hands that gasped at his feet as he went, slowing his progress. He began to dig out blocks of the stuff, and he could have sworn he heard the trapped souls crying out in protest as he did so.

  Then, quite clearly, he heard an unearthly screech.

  But it came from behind him, and it was followed by a scream from Alex.

  “STEVE, LOOK OUT!”

  He turned and saw a ball of fire rushing towards him. He tried to sprint out of the way, but the soul sand grabbed at him so that he could only shamble. It wasn’t enough.

  The fireball struck the sand a few blocks from him and erupted into fire. Steve found himself blasted up and through the air as if he had just been caught in a Creeper explosion. He landed on his back, and the ghostly hands grabbed at his arms, shoulders, and head as he struggled to rise.

  Another screech, and Steve saw the fireball coming through the mist right at him. He’d never be able to rise in time.

  An arrow met the fireball in midair, deflecting it and sending it careening off into the gloom. Alex had clearly regained her composure and with it, her aim.

  Steve surged to his feet, drawing his sword, and jumped off of the soul sand as another fireball came hurtling through the air at him. This one was aimed at Alex.

  She dodged, but not quite enough. The fireball impacted next to her and, to Steve’s horror, instantly engulfed her in flames. She screamed in pain and tried to bat it off of herself. Steve ran to her, drawing one of the buckets of water, and threw it in her direction.

  The instant the water left the bucket, it evaporated in the burning air.

  “NO!” Steve shouted.

  He reached Alex and fairly tackled her to the ground, beating the fire furiously until it was out.

  “I’m alright!” She shouted as he continued to beat about her body. “Get off me! We need to go!”

  She pushed him off and scrambled to her feet as another fireball streaked towards them. She quickly aimed and shot it out of the air.

  Now their assailant was coming into view, drifting almost lazily through the red misted air towards them. Steve and Alex both gaped in awe. It was by far the biggest Mob they had ever seen. It was the size of a house; a single, enormous block of chalky gray flesh trailing a dozen stubby tentacles beneath it. Its face – for it had a very clear face, looked like it was asleep with its eyes serenely closed. Then eyes and mouth both opened, it saw them, screeched, and a fireball shot from its mouth.

  “Run!” Alex shouted, grabbing Steve’s hand and pulling him back around the edge of the cavern. The fireball impacted the ground behind them, blasting the flinty red rock to pieces and setting large patches alight. They sprinted along the cavern wall, their attacker flying behind them. It didn’t seem to be going too fast, but it was keeping pace. More fireballs blasted the ground behind them to pieces, and they could no longer tell which of passages they had come in from. Alex guessed as well as she could and ran for it.

  They soon discovered she was wrong. This passage opened not into a tunnel, but over a cliff.

  The huge, flying monster was right behind them. It would fire again in seconds. They had nowhere else to go.

  “Jump!” Alex shouted, and they did. As they fell, Alex turned in midair, aimed, and fired. At the same instant, the Mob shot another fireball after them. Alex’s arrow caught it just after it left the Mob’s mouth and knocked it right back into the monster’s face.

  They hit the ground hard, taking several hearts of damage. Behind them, the huge mob gave a piteous cry, and Steve looked over his shoulder to see the enormous beast keeled over in midair and vanished.

  “Good shot!” he gasped.

  Alex didn’t answer. Steve turned around and saw why. She was too focused on the gleaming gold swords pointed in their faces.

  Slowly, they looked up and beheld the strangest, most grotesque figures they had ever seen. They looked like humanoid swine, except that portions of their anatomy were mottled and green, like the flesh of zombies. They carried gold swords, and had gold ornaments in their ears, snouts, and around their necks. And they all looked very unhappy.

  Then the largest and most richly ornamented one spoke in a low, guttural growl.

  “Who dares invade the lands of the pigmen?”

  ***