Rustle. Rustle.
The sound of grass followed the footsteps of the trio as they walked across the plains. Arcum watched ahead of him as Stelle and Sparkle led the way, presumably towards the village.
Walking for thirty minutes had left Arcum a bit peeved. Although obtaining coordinates and a village would be good, he wasn't happy about having to walk for so long.
Especially since Sparkle claimed the iron golem threw her out. If the golem had really thrown her out, which meant she aggravated it, they would be walking into a presumable battle.
"You two are prepared for a fight, right?" Arcum spoke up, speeding up his pace to catch up with the two ladies in front of him. "I have a feeling that the iron golem will attack Sparkle on sight."
Sparkle continued to skip ahead, not giving any mind or heed to Arcum's concern. Stelle, on the other hand, turned her head to look back at Arcum.
"I have my lance," Stelle replied at Arcum's concern. "But I don't think we have to worry about Sparkle. She was good at running!"
He had to agree, Sparkle was indeed good at running. If it came down to the worse, Sparkle could theoretically just run away and stay away whilst he and Stelle traded with the villagers.
During the walk, Arcum had made sure his inventory was battle-ready. He had his armor on, his weapons in his hotbar—utilities at the ready incase of an emergency, including his golden apple.
Looking away from his UI, Arcum caught up to Sparkle, opening his mouth to ask her about the village.
"Do you know if it's close?"
Sparkle, at this question, finally turned to look at him.
"It should be close~"
Arcum, however, was not convinced.
"Are you certain?" He asked. "You could very well be lying."
"You'll just have to believe what I say, right? You don't have any other way to find it~"
Nodding his head, Arcum dropped his pace to his usual speed, done talking with Sparkle. She gave him a headache.
"So is an iron golem just a golem made of iron?"
Arcum looked back at Stelle, her question piercing the silent walk.
"Yeah," Arcum confirmed. "Why do you ask?"
"How are we going to fight it?"
Stelle's abrupt seriousness gave Arcum slight pause, not used to seeing Stelle trying to be mature for once.
But she did bring up a good point. Usually he would stack up three blocks and kill the golem while he was out of its range. However, now, he wasn't certain if it would work.
"I... freestyle?" Arcum suggested, not really sure on what to say. "I don't know, aren't you good at freestyling?"
"Yeah."
Arcum gestured towards Stelle. "There you go then."
"Ooh! On the left~"
Sparkle's voice grabbed Stelle and Arcum's attention, causing the two to look over to where Sparkle directed them to.
In the distance was the unmistakable figure of a villager house, a clear sign of a Minecraft village. It was settled in a plains biome, a forest and mountain further out past it.
"I'll take the lead then," Arcum announced, picking up the pace to walk ahead of Sparkle. "You stay in the back in case the golem attacks."
Sparkle gave a loud sigh. "That's no fun, is it?"
Ignoring Sparkle, Arcum moved forward, the sound of footsteps behind him signaling his companions following closely behind.
The village was just as Arcum expected, lively and populated. Villagers surrounded the center fountain, their signature noises and noses present.
Their arms were still connected together, their form still blocky—still letting Arcum know that they were still mobs from Minecraft, not actual people.
"Looks fine," Arcum said. "I think we should try to trade and mark the coordinates."
However, before Arcum could open up his coordinates, a sound caught his attention.
Thump. Thump.
The sound of something heavy walking across grass was heard, getting louder and louder the longer it went, the tension rising fast.
"Oh. Hey big guy~"
Sparkle's voice cut through the growing tension as she addressed the noise. Approaching the trio from behind one of the villager houses was the iron golem.
It stood tall, looming over the three as it approached. Its long arms dragged behind it on the grass as it stepped towards them at an alarming speed, its head locked onto Sparkle.
"Stop right there!" Stelle shouted, moving in front of Sparkle. She held her hand out protectively to shield Sparkle, her other hand holding her flaming lance.
The golem didn't halt its advance. It got within a few blocks of the two before it rose both its arms out to the sky.
Woosh!
Swinging its long arms downward, the iron golem attacked Sparkle and Stelle, who was standing in front.
With quick reflexes, Stelle raised her lance up, blocking the hit from the golem.
Clang!
The sound of iron hitting the lance cut through the air. Stelle had blocked the swing, a small barrier appearing in front of her and the lance to soften the blow further.
The noises from the villagers stopped.
A brief moment of silence followed, before the sound of scurrying footsteps ensued. Villagers all ran away toward their houses, as if alerted to the threat that had just entered their village.
"Aaaaand they're running," Arcum announced flatly. "Now what."
The iron golem didn't waste any time, swinging its arms up from the grass to make a follow-up attack on the pair.
Sparkle had already started to move away, backing up about five blocks as the golem swung its arms up.
"I'll just be over here~"
Stelle, on the other hand, blocked the follow-up from the golem, sending her flying backward into the air, landing atop a villager house.
"Oh," Arcum said with surprise in his voice, looking at the arc that Stelle flew. "Good block."
"Can you do something?" Stelle snapped.
At Stelle's tone, Arcum equipped his shield and started to inch closer to the golem.
"Here's the plan," Arcum announced as he got closer. "Immobilize the golem. We cannot kill it."
Killing the golem would definitely not make the villagers happy. If they could immobilize the golem, it would allow him to speak with the villagers and hopefully clear up the situation.
Rushing forward, Arcum ran behind the golem and punched the back of it with his shield.
As expected, the shield bounced right off its back. At the hit, the golem slowly turned its head and body to look at Arcum instead of Stelle on the roof.
Thump.
The golem took a step toward Arcum, raising its right arm and swinging in a horizontal arc at Arcum.
Wham!
Arcum rose his shield quickly. The shield splintered at the blow, and the force carried Arcum, sending him flying off to the side, his side slamming into a small grass hill that a villager house sat on.
Groaning, Arcum looked back to see the golem rapidly approaching.
Without thinking, he rose his shield up to block the golem's next attack, assuming that it would be a downward strike on him.
A heavy clank shot through the air.
Peeking out from under the shield, Arcum saw a wooden staircase falling to the floor, presumably after hitting the golem.
Looking up, he saw Stelle, who had picked up a block from the roof of the house she was launched on, tossing it at the golem.
"Come up here buddy!"
The golem had changed its target yet again, giving Arcum time to recuperate.
He stood up without hesitation and pulled out some blocks from his inventory.
"Maybe stacking will work?"
Before Arcum could even test his theory, the iron golem's knees bent slightly, its head still locked on Stelle.
Boom!
A loud sound shot through the village as the iron golem leapt from the ground, flying through the air to reach Stelle on the roof.
"Oh."
Arcum heard Stelle's surprise, watching in disbelief as the golem landed atop the roof, sending Stelle flying off the roof and out of the village with a backhand.
"Yo. That is just not it," Arcum said in disbelief as the golem then turned its attention back to himself. "What kind of golem is this??"
The golem had bent its knees yet again, its head locked onto Arcum. Without thinking, Arcum placed a wall of cobblestone in front of himself, hoping to whatever god that it would work.
The same, loud sound shot through the village as the golem leapt towards Arcum and his cobblestone wall.
Boom!
Arcum watched in horror as the blocks below him shook, the cobblestone wall that he had so proudly built approximately two seconds ago, was slapped away by the monstrosity that was the iron golem.
"Dude. I'm so dead, I'm deep fried, I'm cooked—well done, this is just not it."
Woosh!
Arcum flew through the air as he was smacked by the golem, flying to the side and past one villager house, sent outside the village.
Sprawled out on the ground, Arcum felt a stinging pain in both his side and his face, the iron armor that he wore already cracked and breaking.
Thump. Thump.
The horrific sound of the golem approaching struck fear into Arcum's heart.
Scrambling to stand up, Arcum brushed past the pain to face the golem head-on yet again.
Suddenly, multiple clones of himself appeared behind and to the side of him, a perfect copy—wearing the same hair, face, clothes, and armor.
"What the..." Arcum trailed off.
"I should probably help, isn't that right?"
Sparkle's cheerful voice interrupted the sound of the golem's approach. Arcum whipped his head to her voice, spotting her sitting casually, her legs atop one another as she sat on a hill just outside the village.
"Please?" Arcum said. "Help. Actually help."
"Aw. But it's so fun just watching you get beaten up!"
The golem walked into view yet again, its head moving mechanically to look at each individual Arcum. Its gaze landed on the furthest Arcum, before it started to run.
The running golem looked like a nightmare come to life, its stride moving about six blocks per second.
The Arcum clones, spotting this, suddenly dispersed, all of them running in different directions to further confuse the golem.
The golem leapt up into the air, slamming its arms down into one of the Arcum clones, blocks breaking below it as it landed. The clone that was landed upon stayed sprawled on the ground, before dissipating into red flames.
"I can only do this for 5 minutes," Sparkle said as she controlled the clones. "Then I'll be watching you get beat up again~"
The golem continued its brutal assault, attacking the clones with no hesitation whatsoever.
Arcum, using the time that Sparkle was buying him, attempted to make a plan.
"Do you have a plan?"
Stelle's voice came from Arcum's left. As he turned to look, Stelle walked towards Arcum, completely fine despite tanking the iron golem's backhand.
"You're alive?" Arcum asked.
"No. I'm dead, Sherlock," Stelle snarked back.
"Whatever."
Arcum stood there, watching the golem decimate the Arcum clones, again and again and again.
"Do you think we can take a hostage?" Arcum asked abruptly.
"Yeah," Sparkle and Stelle said in unison.
"How much time can you keep up the clones?" Arcum asked, looking at Sparkle.
"Maybe for about 4 more minutes. It's only been a minute, you know~"
Thinking fast, Arcum planned out everything in his head.
"Go get me some wood Stelle," Arcum instructed, pointing towards the forest over yonder. "Come back fast. Before the 4 minutes. Maybe come back in 2 or 3 minutes."
"Alright!" Stelle nodded, dashing off to the forest to carry out Arcum's ask.
"What's your plan?" Sparkle asked as she watched Arcum jog toward the village center.
"Bribery."
Arcum, running towards the village center, looked around at each and every villager house.
Some of the houses were short, some of them were tall. A blacksmith sat in the corner of the village, which would be good to loot at a later time.
However, the house that caught Arcum's eye was the fletcher's house.
Dashing towards the house, Arcum slammed open the oak door, finding the fletcher villager inside, looking at him with a both surprised and fearful look.
"Heyo buddy!!!" Arcum said with great exaggeration, before running back outside, placing cobblestone in front of the door to block him inside. "I can't have you leaving really quickly."
Boom!
The sound the the iron golem leaping up into the air and crashing down continued to ring out through the village, almost like it was a timer toward his untimely demise.
"Here!"
Arcum snapped his head and ran towards Stelle's voice as she came back.
"Give me the wood," Arcum said briskly, holding out his arms to Stelle.
Stelle dumped all the oak logs that she had collected into his arms, before wiping her brow. "Now what?"
"Go find a child."
Stelle deadpanned.
"What?"
Arcum looked Stelle dead in the eyes. "I didn't stutter."
"You want me to find a—"
"Find me a baby villager. Don't ask questions."
Stelle shook her head, but ultimately ran off to go do what Arcum asked.
In the meantime, Arcum whipped out his inventory, throwing the logs into the 2x2 crafting grid to create planks. He then tossed the planks in the 2x2 grid, one in the top right and bottom left to create sticks.
Lots, and lots of sticks.
Using his pickaxe, Arcum broke the cobblestone and ran back inside the house.
"I will give you sticks for emeralds," Arcum announced, holding out sticks towards the fletcher.
The villager, that once looked scared, changed its expression immediately. It was like a dehydrated man in the desert that found water—that kind of joy.
Arcum threw sticks at the villager, and in turn, the villager threw emeralds at Arcum. He traded and traded until he ran out of sticks.
"Thanks," Arcum said, giving a nod and a thumbs up towards the villager, pocketing the emeralds into his inventory.
The villager in turn, gave a nod and a 'hrmm,' towards Arcum, to which Arcum could only assume was a sign of goodwill.
"You should tell the other villagers that we want to trade," Arcum spewed out before running out of the house, hoping that the villager would do as he asked.
As he ran outside, Arcum could feel the stress start to pile on. It had probably been 4 minutes already, or perhaps even longer—he couldn't tell.
"Arcum!" Stelle called out from the opposite side of the village. "In here! Here's a... child!"
She pointed towards the open door of a villager house.
Arcum sprinted towards Stelle, skidding across the blocks and grass and leaping into the house that Stelle had gestured towards.
Rolling across the floor, Arcum felt a sharp pain in his side yet again, courtesy of the iron golem. However, when he looked up from the floor, Arcum spotted both two adult villagers and a baby villager.
Whipping out the emeralds in his inventory, Arcum showed the baby villager.
"I'll give you three emeralds if you play along with a hostage situation."
Arcum's plan was to trade with a villager to get emeralds. He would then use those emeralds to bribe a baby villager to allow him to hostage it to get the golem to calm down.
"Wait, you're trying to hostage the child?" Stelle asked. "How is that going to help calm the golem down??"
"Hopes and dreams," Arcum responded without looking back at Stelle. "Hopes and dreams."
The baby villager, however, didn't seem to want to accept the deal, as it slowly backed away from Arcum.
Before Arcum could increase the amount of emeralds, however, both of the parent villagers pushed the baby villager towards Arcum and took the emeralds out of his hands.
"Oh. They sold their baby out," Arcum thought. "What hustlers. I respect it."
Snatching the baby villager up in one arm, Arcum dashed out of the house to Stelle.
"You're tanky. You're now the baby hostage person."
Stelle, who was taken off guard, now held the baby villager in her arms. "Wait, what?!"
"Come on, chop chop! Move it, you racoon!"
Stelle, regaining her composure, smirked. "You should have told me from the start! I would've just grabbed all of them as hostages."
Stelle followed Arcum as they ran towards where the iron golem was last spotted.
As the pair reached the clearing, Arcum spotted all his clones start to fade.
"Oh, you're back," Sparkle said. "It just reached 4 minutes, aren't you lucky?"
Sparkle narrowed her eyes at Stelle holding the baby villager, a smirk tugged at her face. "What are you, a parent?"
"Golem, stop moving!" Stelle called out, causing the golem to actually turn towards Stelle. Its movement halted as it spotted the baby villager, dangling in Stelle's arms.
"I now have a hostage! Surrender now!!"
"If we can get this golem to stop attacking," Arcum thought, planning his next moves. "We can get the villagers to come out and explain the situation to them. If we get on their good side, we can get them to make the iron golem relax."
Now, Arcum could only hope that this gamble would work.