[CH.008] An OverWorld As One

The time for confrontation has come! There's only one thing standing in the way of the villains' plans: the OverWorld. This is going to be a battle that defines the rest of the OverWorld's existence.

"Stand down and surrender," Daniel demanded as he stood at the front of a massive army. Lone Rangers, Minelantians, and Resistance fighters made up the OverWorld's defense.

"Not without a fight," Krampus said with a sinister, dark smile.

Krampus, amongst many abilities, summoned an army of his own. Skeletons, Zombies, Evokers, and Pillagers. Out of the three of them, Krampus was the most powerful. Teleportation, the ability to manipulate his enemy by mirroring people they know, super speed, and near immortality. But under all of his strengths, there were weaknesses too. Daniel just had to find one.

Daniel looked over to his right at Petra. She looked back at him with a determined face expression. Daniel smiled back, although faintly. He sighed and raised his iron sword.

"Then a fight you shall get!" Daniel responded, "CHARGE!" Daniel shouted as he held his sword straight out in front of him.

The skeletons and zombies charge forward towards their enemy. Ms. Frost and Scarlet followed behind a bunch of skeletons and zombies. Krampus needed no protection. Far too powerful, he is. Although, a few stayed back to surround Krampus against his direct order to charge and fight.

The moon was reaching the peaks of the nearby mountains. The skies were starting to transition from night to day. Morning is approaching. Once the Sun rises, every zombie that remains engaged in battle would burn and die.

Daniel remembered this from the first battle he'd fought in. When the Sun comes, their army will quickly dwindle and they'll become more vulnerable to defeat.

"Keep them engaged as long as you can!" Daniel yelled.

Daniel and Petra were most anxious to end this battle, as was everyone else fighting. Here Daniel was, again, being the hero to save the day.

He engaged his first opponent; a pillager with an ax. The Pillager continued to swing his ax, but he managed to deflect the deathly swings with his iron sword.

Before the armed Pillager could swing his sword again, Daniel swung his sword. He hit the Pillager, knocking the Pillager onto his back. Daniel raised his sword as he stepped over the Pillager. Down his sword went, straight into the stomach. The Pillager's body disappeared. It was dead. Leaving behind an enchanted iron ax, Daniel picked it up and put it in his inventory. Who knows, it could come in handy later.

Daniel didn't hesitate. His next target was close to him. His next target was a skeleton.

"A formidable opponent," Krampus said as he continued to watch Daniel fight from a distance.

The skeleton turned and looked directly at Daniel. It was threatened at all. He aimed his bow and arrow at Daniel to shoot him. But before he could do that, he struck it again, delivering his second hit.

As the battle went on down below on the ground, Ms. Frost raised his arms into the air. She tilted his head back and began summoning giant icicles out of thin air. One by one, the icicles started falling towards the ground.

"Someone take that ice witch down!" Daniel said.

As the battle continued, Leona was running through the Woodlands Forest in a hurry. He had one objective. That objective was to gather enough obsidian to build a nether portal. Time was not on his side.

"I'll finish him," Leona said as she landed next to Daniel. He looked over at her and nodded his head. "Remember what I showed you. It has to be you!"

As he ran, footsteps approached fast from behind him. He stopped running and immediately turned around.

"My turn," Krampus mumbled with a smile as he stormed through the few skeletons who were protecting him. As he ran through them, he made them fall apart. One skeleton was so mad that he threw a bone at Krampus, hitting him in the back of the head. It then went back to helping rebuild his friend.

As the icicles continued wreaking havoc on the battlefield below, Krampus confronted Daniel. But not in the way you'd expect.

"Daniel," a familiar voice called out. Daniel stopped and looked over to his left. "It's me."

"Henry?" He asked.

"Yes," Krampus responded with a subtle smile.

"You're—you're alive?" Daniel asked.

Leona happened to catch a glimpse of Krampus' deception tactic. She saw right through the deception. She looked up and saw an icicle forming in midair over Krampus. An idea came to mind.

She pushed the skeleton back and blasted it with a red beam of energy. It disintegrated and turned to dust. She raised her hands and began using all of her power to take control of where the icicle will fall.

"I never left," Krampus said, still appearing and talking like Henry. In reality though, Henry has been dead for well over a year.

Henry, the adoptive father to Ava, sacrificed himself so the others could flee the island after the Volcano began erupting. His sacrifice was considered his redemption after siding with the Brine Family in the first story.

A red haze appeared and started glowing around the icicle. Before Ms. Frost had even noticed Leona's manipulation of an icicle, it was far too late.

"Take my hand, Daniel," Krampus said. "Let's end the fighting…together."

"Don't listen to him! It's a trick!" Leona shouted as she threw her arms in a downward motion. The icicle came falling down. It crashed Krampus onto the ground and crushed him.

Daniel had snapped out of the trance he was under from Krampus, now fully realizing he had almost fallen for the oldest trick in the book.

Scarlet, nearing defeat against a Resistance fighter. defeated by a Lone Ranger, was entering her final minutes of being alive. She had talked herself up about how powerful she was, when she wasn't anything more than a crooked, twisted bad guy.

When the icicle crashed and slammed into the ground, it not only killed Krampus instantly, it broke apart. A massive chunk happened to fall right where Scarlet was lying on the ground.

"I'll be ba—" Scarlet said just before she was crushed.

"What'd you say?" Leona asked, "can't hear you under all that ice," she laughed.

Merlin and Ceres had returned unexpectedly. No one knew that killing Krampus would release them from the prison Krampus held them in.

Ms. Frost saw the end of the battle nearing. There was no possible way she could win against an entire world by herself.

"Daniel!" Leona called out, "Finish this!"

Ms. Frost flew back down to the ground, landing gently on her feet. The sun was rising over the mountains, which caused the zombies and skeletons to start burning and dying off one by one. All that remained now was Ms. Frost.

Daniel ran up to her with his sword raised. She prepared herself by forming two small ice swords in her hands. He took the first swing, but the hardness of the ice swords cracked his sword.

Everyone else stopped fighting and focused their attention on the last duel of the battle. Daniel vs. Ms. Frost.

"Give up!" Daniel grunted as he swung his sword again.

"Never!" Ms. Frost said as she swung her right hand into Daniel's side. But his chain armor blocked the hit from hurting him.

Another swing from Daniel led to his sword finally breaking in half. The top portion fell to the ground. When that happened, Daniel hesitated. He was using his arm to hold back Ms. Frosts left hand sword.

"DANIEL!" Petra cried out.

She had gotten him in a lock hold, with her right sword against his neck. Any sudden movement could be costly.

"The burden of being a hero," Ms. Frost said aloud so everyone could hear her. She took a step back. Petra ran towards him, but wasn't fast enough. "Sometimes heroes fall."

She then drove her right sword through his chest, ripping his chain armor like paper.

GRUNT!

Ms. Frost broke the ice sword so part of it remained in Daniel's chest. She then kicked him down onto his knees.

"Every battle has a cost," Ms. Frost said as she continued backing away.

Daniel had enough strength to get up and stumble out of the way, falling back onto the ground near a big boulder. He crawled the rest of the way and turned around and leaned up against it.

"Is that so?" Merlin said from behind her. She turned around to only be met by Merlin's powerful wand. He chanted a spell and cast it.

It was the same chant he and Ceres did earlier to attempt to restore the North Pole.

"Oh sh—" Ms. Frost said in disbelief and shock as she vanished into thin air.

"DANIEL!" Petra shouted as she looked to see where he had gone off to. When she saw him leaning up against the boulder, she ran over to him.

Is this really the meaning of being a hero? Sacrificing yourself to save others?