//------------------------------//
// Raid 
// Story: Minecraft: A New Adventure 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Upon their return to the village Octavia found that Pinkie seemed to be done with her work, ensuring that the walls were as good as they could be, given the materials she had right now, even though she had a feeling that her companion had to be thinking about new additions that could be made. Steve informed the Elder of the Illager presence they had seen, the fact that it was a larger force than they were used to seeing during their exploration, and that they were going to be upset once they discovered that the other village had been salvaged. Pinkie, upon hearing that statement, brought them back to the smithy and got to work upgrading their gear, as while she found that it was impossible to make diamond armor, at least in terms of the area she had put together, she did discover something she felt would boost their survival chances. She could use one of her workbenches and modify the existing pieces of armor and weapons she had made so far, meaning Steve and Alex pulled off their armor before giving it to her, finding that the first thing she did was make sure they were pristine, even if they hadn't fought anything in them yet, before getting to work.

What they discovered was that she had figured out that by adding diamonds to their armor it, somehow, boosted their attack damage, where Pinkie informed them that if she used them on their pickaxes, for example, it delivered a boost to the durability, meaning they could use it more before having to using a sharpening kit. She was boosting their chances of survival, in case the Illagers came and attacked the village, though with the wall surrounding it, and most enemies being unable to use doors, it was unlikely that their friends would come under fire, but it never hurt to be cautious. There was far too much for her to learn about the workbenches and what she was capable of doing, especially since diamond armor had to be made another way and didn't seem to have the properties of what she was used to doing, but she hoped that they didn't need that type if a raid happened. As she said that Steve and Alex hoped she was right, as fighting Illagers was one thing, but facing them with iron tools and gear, even pieces improved with diamonds, didn't sit well with them, but it would have to do for now, given their lack of materials.

Octavia, not having the skills Pinkie did with turning raw materials into tools, just helped Steve, Alex, and the Villagers in making sure everything was safe, moving the sheep and other animals down into a safe area that her companions dug out after their return, and Pinkie assured her that her tower was safe, allowing her to focus on their immediate area.

"This is the part Steve and I hated the most, the waiting... never knowing if the Illagers would come or if they would ignore us for a night." Alex commented, as she could see that Octavia was worried about what they had seen earlier, the party of Illagers that seemed to be bent on exploring the surrounding area and gathered any resources they could get their hands on, just like they had done previously, "Personally, I hope the dragons torch them and rid us of an annoying foe."

"While that would be nice, we wouldn't hear it and would continue on regardless... unless the dragon roared and we saw a fight in the distance." Octavia said, though she knew that Alex was trying to comfort her, given that this could grow into a mess if the Illagers came at them either this evening, in the morning, or in the following days, to which she sighed as she looked out at the surrounding area, "I wonder if we could tame some of the wild animals and turn them into protectors of our village... it would be nice to eliminate the potential of an Illager raid with, say, a force of Wargs or beasts."

"We'd have to figure out how to do so, as we know wolves can be tamed with bones," Steve added, as he noticed them just talking and decided to see what they were discussing, though he agreed that a force of animals, given what they had seen in the world, would be beneficial to keeping the village and it's people safe, "but a Warg, for example, we have no idea on how to tame something like that... we would either have to experiment, and get hurt in the process, or find a tome that tells us what needs to be done. Given Pinkie's powers we should be able to make an infinite amount of whatever we need to do such a thing, once we..."

Octavia would have asked what was wrong, since it was unusual for Steve or Alex to cut themselves off, but she heard it as well, a horn that sounded like someone was going to war, or a group of someones when she thought about it, to which all three of them noticed a Villager on the western wall freaking out. A few moments later they were by him and she peered out into the forest as her companions calmed down the lookout, where she spotted the Warleader, as they didn't have an actual title or name to use for him, who happened to be riding the Ravager right now. Behind him stood the force they had seen when they were gathering the animals earlier, at least twenty Illagers, not counting the monster or it's rider, who did look ready for battle, something that worried her a little. Sure enough she found that both of her companions seemed to be considering their options right now, given the number of enemies that were in front of them, all while wondering when Pinkie would be done with her modifications to all of their gear, but she guessed they had to stall for time.

As they stood there a number of the Villagers hid in one of the houses, the largest one based on what she could tell with a quick glance, but for now it looked like all of the Illagers were staring at Pinkie's wall and sizing them up, where Steve took a second to step up and draw their attention to him.

"Illager force, what business do you have with our outpost?" Steve asked, as he wanted to present himself and the others as adventurers who built a base in the middle of the forest, instead of revealing that a village was on the other side, where he was thankful for Pinkie making all of her walls taller than the Ravager, by a few blocks anyway.

"We discovered a village some distance away from this place and found that it was empty... you wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" the Warleader asked, surprising Steve and Alex, as they were used to Illagers saying next to nothing and using their weapons or magic on whoever happened to get in their way, where they figured it had to be the strangeness of this new world showing it's hand once more.

"All we know is that some Zombies overwhelmed the guards and killed the Villagers, and someone else likely salvaged the buildings for anything useful." Alex replied, as she knew where Steve was going with his question and hoped that what she was saying would appease the Warleader and his party, while Octavia said nothing as she found that Pinkie was standing near the wall, their gear resting near her, but she didn't move since this was a delicate moment, "All the stone, wood, and metal we have was recovered from our mine, as we didn't stick around to salvage the village since there were dragons in the nearby area... we didn't want to tick one of them off."

"While that is understandable, we have reason to believe that there are Villagers inside your compound," the Warleader stated, his tone informing them that he was going to declare war on them anyway, so he could claim their base and also do whatever it was that the Illagers did to the Villagers, something no one in the group wanted to know, to which he took a moment to raise his hand, "either open the gates and allow us to enter, or we will force our way through this wall!"

Pinkie, sensing that things were about to escalate beyond what they were expecting, tossed a few items into the air, where Octavia discovered the armor sets that Steve and Alex wore, modified to boost their skills and defenses, allowing them to equip themselves in seconds before their weapons were passed around. Steve, once armored once more, jumped over the edge and swung his sword down at the Warleader, while at the same time Alex dropped down and arrowed an Illager in the chest, showing their foes that they were more than prepared for battle, while Pinkie dropped a bow and a quiver full of arrows near Octavia. Of course she would have wondered when her companion built all of this, given that she had been working on their armor and weapons, but she wasn't about to complain as the adrenaline rushed through her body and she pulled her new weapon up, using the sounds of battle to push herself to use the weapon. Her targets were the magic using Illagers, as she tried to put them down before they did anything to her companions, given that this was her first time encountering them and didn't know what sort of magic they wielded, which would help turn the tide in their favor, or so she hoped anyway.

As they did that, however, Pinkie pulled out a two handed weapon that had a curved blade at the top, a scythe, where she leapt down into the battlefield and swung at her foes, finding that she could hit multiple Illagers at the same time and did her best to make sure Steve was protected. Steve blocked the incoming axe attack with his modified shield before driving his blade into the head of the Ravager, sending it toppling to the ground and knocking the rider off, though instead of just letting the Warleader go he jumped off the beast's body and slashed with him again. Alex found that some enemies were getting close to her and switched to her own blade, using the shield to protect herself before cutting down the Illagers that were coming to bring her down, all while Octavia put some arrows in the others, driving a few into the trees, who seemed to be recovering before rushing into battle once more. She also found that Pinkie danced like she was a warrior princess, where she had to be using her special senses to figure out where she was going to be hit before it even happened, while her blade cut through the leather defenses of the Illagers, either knocking them back or bringing them down in due time, something that caused all of the Villagers to cheer as they watched them work.

After some time, just a few minutes, the Warleader, missing an arm and his banner broken in half, called for the rest of his forces to retreat before they suffered a total defeat at the hands of these Crafters, showing that other beings in this world knew what they were, to which the group watched as all of the Illagers left the area and decided not to follow, leaving their foes to the mercy of the Wargs and the other creatures in the forest.

"While I'm glad that we repelled the attack, this is only a temporary win... they'll be back." Steve remarked, though he did huff for a moment, as it had been awhile since he fought this hard, in fact it looked like everyone was tired from the fight, even if it had raged for only a few minutes.

"Hopefully a dragon roasts them and their outpost." Octavia stated, though this did confirm one thing, they needed more powers and abilities to make sure something like this didn't happen in the future, meaning she had to figure out how to do everything that was in her tome, just to boost their combat abilities and responsibilities.

"That would be nice, as we won't have to deal with them again." Alex said, where she chuckled as she imagined the scene in question, the black dragon raining death and destruction down on the outpost, allowing them to move on with their lives without having to waste time on the Illagers.

Pinkie, however, was silent as she studied the scene in front of them and then glanced at the sky, no doubt thinking about what they had done and what it meant, since this was different than killing monsters, though Octavia rested a hand on her shoulder before they headed into the village, as there would be time to collect the loot after a good nights sleep, and each of them suspected that it would ready themselves for whatever tomorrow held.





"First they take down a Battle Tower, survive one of our lesser Events, now they've repelled an Illager raid." a voice stated, one that came from the ghostly figure, as he and his brothers were staring at Steve and his companions as they rested up after facing the Illager Warleader, something he was surprised they had survived without serious injuries.

"We underestimated them, that much is painfully clear." the shadowy figure replied, though while such a thing annoyed all three of them, since they weren't used to someone proving them wrong or surprising them in such a short period of time, save for a select few who were no longer part of this world, both he and his other brother were interested in the group, as it was a nice change of pace, "If we were really annoyed with them, well, one of us could summon a dragon and wipe out their entire village... would be a nice way to even the odds, given what we've seen of these four."

"They've barely started their adventure... it would be a shame to reset them so soon." the third brother remarked, as he was far more interested in the four heroes than his brothers were, because he was in charge of the Overworld, while his shadowy brother watched over the End and the Lost Dimension and their ghostly brother stuck to the Nether, so if one of them were to punish Steve, Alex, Pinkie, or Octavia it would be him, "Besides, with the Pink One's abilities it wouldn't even matter if we reset them... she built those walls and lookouts in a single afternoon, using what seems to be an unlimited amount of the same materials, and is able to produce so many tools despite the lack of gathered resources."

"She's cheating?! Why haven't you punished her yet?" the ghostly figure inquired, though he and his shadowy brother had an idea as to why their brother hadn't done anything to her yet, he was someone who thought about things before using his powers, meaning he liked to either get all the information he could or just consider his options before making his move and issuing his will on his dimension.

"Because, for the time being, it adds a bit of fun to the game." their brother answered, though while he made it seem like it was to add some fun, and part of it was because of that very fact, he didn't tell his brothers the odd disturbing part, that he had already tried to punish Pinkie, to restrict her powers and make her a normal Crafter, like Octavia, only to discover that it was impossible to do so, and he felt that even all three of them would fail if he mentioned it, "Still, even with these abilities of hers, and how they change the face of our game, they're still some time away from the Nether or any of the other dimensions that are connected to this world."

His brothers glanced at the scene they were seeing once more and considered the information they had learned, that he was fine with her being in this state for the time being and that he found it to be amusing, especially given the nature of the world, to which they turned their attention to what they would do next as Pinkie, Octavia, and their companions faced all of the dangers that the world had to offer.