//------------------------------// // Clash in the End // Story: Minecraft: A New Adventure // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// Upon their return to the village, surprising the Villagers with the three Morocks they had tamed and forcing Steve to quickly explain that they were new mounts for them, Pinkie got to work on measuring each beast and forging new diamond gear for them, so each one would be able to survive what they were about to do. While she did that Octavia made sure she and the others had everything that might be needed in the End, since there was no telling what sort of dangers might be waiting for them, but, thanks to Pinkie's previous preparations, there was nothing for her to do. Of course the Villagers were surprised to hear that they had already destroyed the Wither and, more importantly, they were planning on going after the Ender Dragon, but the Desert Elder urged them not to forget about the golem that had ruined his home. Octavia wasn't sure they could forget about it even if they wanted to, as Pinkie had spent some time setting up those walls and she was sure that the Admin they were allied with was readying them for battle with the figure, though Alex informed him that they were getting ready for a fight with it, which appeased him. It took Pinkie an hour to make sure everything was ready and prepared accordingly, though once she was done Octavia and the others watched as she emerged from her workshop with three bundles, allowing her to place the armor over the new mounts that would carry her friends into battle. "Okay, they're ready for battle." Pinkie stated, where Octavia found their Morocks wearing the new armor and had saddles so she and the others could ride them without any problems, though at the same time she knew there wasn't much else she could do for their own armor and weapons, "We had best get some sleep as we're going to need all our energy for what lies ahead of us, as I have the feeling the Ender Dragon is going to be tougher than the Wither was." Octavia nodded her head as the others agreed with her, allowing the three of them to return their new mounts to the area they were kept in, just like what happened to the Ventoraptors they tamed some time ago, before everyone headed to their residences to get some well deserved sleep. She also found that the Voice seemed to be silent this time around, which she was fine with since it allowed her to focus on the task at hand, crossing the bridge before using her hidden path to launch herself up into the lowest level of the new tower, which she was proud of. This time around she didn't waste her time on her tome's sealed knowledge and what she had revealed so far, because Octavia knew that she needed to be focused and not be totally exhausted from spending the night researching new items that had been unlocked. The only good thing was that she would be able to gleam new information from the End, with the dragon and the enemies that had to be guarding it, so once they returned from their venture Octavia was sure she'd be spending some time pouring over the newest pages and what sort of secrets were inside them. After thinking about that she placed the tome on the stand near her bed and climbed in for the night, focusing on sleep right now and nothing else, though the village was oddly silent as she and the others gathered their strength for the big fight, and she found that morning arrived much quicker than she thought, allowing her to join the others for breakfast. "Okay, what's our plan for this?" Octavia asked, making sure to have something as she double checked and made sure that her lens and tome were in her pack, though she was looking at Steve and Alex, since they had more experience fighting the monsters of their world, one of which was the Ender Dragon. "When we reach the End you'll find a number of obsidian towers, which have End Crystals at their peaks that will heal the Ender Dragon if she's wounded." Steve answered, taking a moment to think about what he and Alex had seen before being brought to this world, where he was hoping that this world's version of the End was the same as what they were used to, otherwise their information would be entirely useless, "those have to be destroyed, otherwise we'll never be able to kill the Ender Dragon, and I think Pinkie will be able to take them down easily. From what we've seen in the past the dragon has a few attacks we need to pay attention to, such as when she fires a fireball at her target or dives them, though eventually she will perch on a bedrock structure that she'll land on, which is usually when she'll breath fire on her chosen target... which is what Pinkie is looking for... and it's a good idea to melee her when she lands. Of course, we have no idea what's waiting for us in the End, so we might not be able to do some of the things I've mentioned, so it's a good thing we have the Morocks, just in case the ground is covered by enemies." Alex didn't have anything else to share with them, meaning Steve had told them everything they knew on the matter, hence why the group finished off their food before getting up, as it was time to get underway and face the dangers of the End so they could deprive another Admin of one of their toys. Once everyone had enough food, and some golden ones that were far stronger than the normal ones, Pinkie walked over to their Waystone and tapped into it, confirming that the one she had placed in the Stronghold was active and ready for use, much to the joy of the others. As such they warped from the village and appeared in the depths of the Stronghold, where Octavia tapped Pinkie's shoulder and let her lead the way, as she had the feeling that her Admin ally knew where to go and would bring them to the portal that Steve and Alex told them about, to which they got moving without delay. While they walked Pinkie swung her pickaxe and broke several items that might block her wings, such as iron bars, though she carefully followed the instructions she was given as their ally figured out where the portal was located, allowing them to save time and energy for what they were about to do. After some time they reached a square chamber that had a portal frame floating above a three by three pool of lava, with twelve places for someone to put the Eyes of Ender into, so Pinkie did so and once the last one was put into place she and the others found that the portal opened, where a sound of doom echoed throughout the area as a starry void appeared in between the frame. "I'll never get used to that sound." Alex commented, as she last heard it when she and Steve activated the End portal back in their old world, allowing them to do battle with their Ender Dragon, before everyone focused on the portal and what was on the other side, a hostile land that likely wanted all of them dead, "Okay, let's do this." The others nodded for a moment before jumping through the portal, where the world around them faded away and they found themselves in what appeared to be a black void, or at least it was that way for a few seconds before they spotted a massive floating island of yellowish stone. Resting on top of it were a number of obsidian towers, just as Steve told them, with floating crystals above them that seemed to be connected to something due to some faint energy beams coming off of them, likely the Ender Dragon based on what they had been told. The group then discovered that they were on a slim platform made of obsidian, four by four as Pinkie discovered, so the others kept still as she added some more obsidian to the edges, giving them more room to stand while noticing that nothing was coming at them. Such a thing allowed Octavia to summon her Morock and take to the air, opening the way for Steve and Alex to replicate her motions, before finding a few Enderman statues that had crystals as their eyes, meaning more targets for them to take out. In addition to what looked like an army of Enderman, as there were about a hundred of them, there were the odd crab monsters that had energy cannons or something on their backs, making the ground dangerous for most of them, before they spotted the large black scaled dragon, who had purple eyes and white edges on her wings, flying around the skies of the End. Steve, Alex, and Octavia flew after the Ender Dragon the moment they spotted her, as she was their main target, though to wound her they would need to either hit her with their enchanted swords or the enchanted bow that Alex was carrying at the moment, as she was the best ranged fighter among them. As Alex and Steve worked to get within range of their foe, to distract it from what their ally was doing, Octavia used her staff and summoned her minions once more, allowing them to rush around the floor of the End as they targeted the enemies that were trying to bring them down. While they did that, however, Octavia found Pinkie flying through the air, swinging her scythe at the End Crystals and slashing them apart with ease, all while getting out of the area before she could be hurt by the explosion, and those that were protected by a cage of iron bars she simply landed on for a time. It wasn't hard to figure out what she was doing, she mined through the iron with ease and opened a path to the crystals she happened to be hunting down, allowing Pinkie to slash them apart before taking off once more, and once she was done with the crystals that were close to the center of the island she took out the ones in the towers, just to be sure the Ender Dragon didn't have any healing powers. Of course it wasn't like they could just waltz into the End and not expect to be attacked, as the Ender Dragon flew after the three Morocks and tried to blast them out of the air with the purple fireballs she was capable of using, including swinging her claws at anyone who dared to get close to her. It caused Octavia to realize one of their errors in coming here so soon after beating the Wither, they should have gone off and defeated an actual dragon in combat, to gain some experience in battling the winged beasts that could torch a forest in no time, and yet, because of Pinkie's Admin friend, they had come without that vital experience. Fortunately it wasn't a total disaster as their Morocks knew what to do to keep themselves, and their riders, alive, as they used their instincts to dodge the incoming attacks and get close so their riders could lash out at the Ender Dragon, who Octavia found to be quite tough, in terms of resistance, as while Pinkie had upgraded their gear to Netherite it looked like this world's version of the dragon was tougher than they expected. She also knew that they couldn't kill her just yet, since Pinkie needed some Dragon's Breath for the item she was planning on making, and to get it they had to get the dragon to launch her other attack at one of them, which was easier said than done when she took a moment to think about what their friend was asking of them. As she thought about that, however, the Ender Dragon noticed Pinkie near the ground and opened her mouth, gathering her inner flames as she and the others watched, before loosing a burst of purple flames down on the area her target was standing in, though not a few seconds later Pinkie surged out of it with several bottles of Dragon's Breath, landing on top of an obsidian tower for a moment. "Good, she got the item she needed. Now we can focus on the Ender Dragon." Steve said, as that was the sign he and the others needed, though before they could move he noticed something weird on the tower in question, Pinkie had placed a Crafting Table on top of it and gripped her ring for some odd reason, "What in the world is she doing?" "Pinkie's going to craft that item, while we're in the middle of a fight." Alex replied, because it was easy for her and Octavia to tell what was going on right now, as there was no way their friend was going to simply wait until later to do this, even if it meant losing her wings for a short period of time. "And the Ender Dragon knows something's coming." Octavia pointed out, as the dragon was flying towards Pinkie, who had a smile on her face as she put the final pieces of the puzzle into the Crafting Table, causing her and the others to fly into battle once more, hopefully to stop the dragon before she did any damage to Pinkie. Her thoughts were right, the dragon attacked the tower at the same time Pinkie completed her work, producing a purple gem, but in the next moment Pinkie launched herself at their foe and embraced the gem's power, causing them to pause as a sphere of energy wrapped around her. For a moment nothing happened, though they had to brace themselves after that moment as a powerful surge of pressure surged outwards of the odd sphere, even all three Morocks were surprised by the sudden change as the Ender Dragon landed on a tower. Octavia had an idea as to what was going on, Pinkie, due to her high Experience level, was likely crossing a threshold that not many reached, becoming stronger and deadlier than she had been before this point, and because it was a Dragon's Gem, or whatever it was called, she was about to become an even stronger being than before. Such a thing had to be why the unnamed Admin had her gather all those components to make the gem, to create a weapon to deal with the powerful beings that served the other Admins, and now she had it, but before Octavia could consider anything else a pair of familiar wings burst out of the energy sphere. After that the sphere broke apart and revealed that Pinkie was, for the most part, fine, save for a pair of curved horns on her head, the ends pointing forwards, and a dragon tail, sized to fit her body while sharing her body color, that weren't there before, though once that was done, meaning the energy disappeared, she grinned before rushing forward. The air of the End shuddered as Pinkie and the Ender Dragon clashed, talons meeting scythe, though Octavia knew that it was only a matter of time until the victor was decided, causing her to spur her mount forward as she rejoined the battle, slashing at the dragon's wings while she was distracted. Sure enough her plan worked, the Ender Dragon was too focused on Pinkie to notice three other foes flying around her, as Steve and Alex joined in after seeing what she had done, though as she thought about it she quickly determined that it was more like the Ender Dragon couldn't afford to take her eyes off of her foe. It showed them just how strong Pinkie was now, so much so that even with three attackers focused on her the Ender Dragon had to focus on her main for to cripple their morale, yet even then Octavia could see that the difference in power was starting to twist in Pinkie's favor as she started to push the Ender Dragon backwards. To ensure that victory would be theirs Octavia came up with a dangerous strategy, she and Alex attacked the Ender Dragon's wings, as in both of them flew above her wings and descended, crashing her wings into the ground, and before she could shake them off the pair hacked into the muscles, damaging her ability to fly. Still the Ender Dragon roared as she fired a massive burst of flame at Pinkie, who landed nearby and did something that Octavia found to be amazing, she, too, loosed her own flame breath that smashed into her foe's, lighting up the End with ease, though in that moment Octavia fled and Alex did as well, because the weakened Ender Dragon found that she was losing the battle and, sure enough, Pinkie's attack overwhelmed her, leaving a smouldering pile behind. "I... I can't believe it. We won!" Alex remarked, though she knew it was more like 'Pinkie won', where she found that their friend picked up a few items from the smouldering pile that had been the Ender Dragon, the spoils of war, which included a vast amount of Experience that was shared between all of them, or maybe the amount was duplicated so each of them got their fair share. "Indeed, and our ally says it's time to rest before we tackle the other threat." Pinkie said, where the others nodded, as they knew that it was getting closer to when they would face the golem that was making it's way to the jungle, slowly thanks to her walls, before she smiled as she turned towards a portal that had appeared in the central point of the End's island, no doubt to take them back home. Octavia was surprised that the Voice was silent, but she was more than willing to take it as they returned to their world, all of them holding their heads high as they tore down another of the Admins' dark minions, because it showed them that they would not bow down and that anything they sent at them would be torn down, and she found herself looking forward to whatever they faced next.