Chapter 18: Der Himmel

"Rise and shine, everyone.'' That was the usual greeting from Sterloin. It was yet another morning in the simulation.

"Good morning, Sterloin!" said Arianna, as she stretched both her arms upwards and gave out a yawn.

"Oh, hey, good morning y'all." Pixel rubbed his eyes, and wiped his glasses clean, just as he woke up. "What's the game plan?"

"I don't know, but look what I found this early morning," Sterloin took out three pairs of elytra from his knapsack, along with bundles of non-explosive fireworks. "We can patrol people and kill them on sight. No one would see us coming."

"Nice!" Pixel took a pair of elytra wings and a stack of fireworks from Sterloin's loot. "Also, we need to find ourselves a tracker and check more of the mountain. Seems like HackThoop and Derp didn't loot it very well."

"I actually have a tracker with me right now." said Sterloin.

Arianna took a stack of fireworks and slipped it inside her bag. "Yeah, I noticed a cave here the other day. Let's check that one out."

"Right, I got those things from a cave nearby, I was going to tell you all that maybe we should explore it together," replied Sterloin. "We've been thinking the same thing after all, huh, let's go."

Before leaving, they took all their bags, and Pixel put out the campfire his teammates made last night. They descended the mountain, following through a hidden pathway leading to a cave.

"Well, here we are," Sterloin looks at the cave from the entrance. It was dark and narrow, a tall person like him wouldn't be able to go in easily. "Ari, can I borrow Adept's pickaxe? I might try to clear some narrow entrances."

"Sure." Ari handed over the pickaxe to Sterloin.

Pixel pulled out a thick, yet short branch from his knapsack, and lit the tip on fire with coal to make a torch.

"Here, I made a torch so we can see better."

"What a relief, I've been stumbling around the whole night in this cave." replied Sterloin.

They went through a narrow tunnel that led downwards. It got tighter and tighter to the point that the three contenders aren't able to fit in anymore. Sterloin easily widened the path with his pickaxe, though.

Eventually, they reached the bottom part of the cave. It was circular, wide, and hollow. The ceiling was higher than how it was in the tunnels, at least. Anyone from the group would be able to jump up without getting their head hit on the ceiling. Inside it, four empty stone pedestals stood at the center. 

"This is where we got the elytra," explained Sterloin. "I also took the rockets in here, it seems like they hid the elytra in this cave's section for the contenders to find."

Arianna and Pixel nodded.

"Also, look over there." Sterloin points to yet another narrow opening. It was so narrow that no one on the team would be able to fit in. "Let's go there, I'll just clear it up a little."

His teammates followed him without any doubts. When Sterloin cleared the entrance, it revealed a huge cavern. It had a ceiling covered with stalactites, with the cave going deeper, further down to the point that the floor couldn't be seen at all, obscured by a thick mist. A waterfall flowing from an aquifer seemed to rush down the cavern.

Arianna looked over from the edge, with two of her teammates behind her. She bent to see what lies beneath, only for her to lose balance, swing back and forth, and eventually fall into the cave.

Alas, Sterloin and Pixel weren't quick enough to catch her, they both watched Arianna fall, knowing full well that they could've done something.

"Ari, NOOOOO!!!" yelled Pixel, reaching his hand out for Arianna in desperation.

Splash!

A faint splashing sound echoed, and the cannon was yet to fire.

…

Silence. It's been an hour since Pixel and Sterloin waited for their friend to show up.

"A cannon should've fired by now, we should go wait for Ari." suggested Sterloin.

"Well, we're underground. We probably shouldn't be able to hear it anyway, right?." Pixel disagreed. "We should go hunt for the other players now, or else they get dibs on everything."

"Fair point, let's move." Sterloin and Pixel exited the cave. As they climbed back up the mountain, they lifted off from a platform with their elytra.

The wind was blowing strongly, so it easily carried them away from the mountain.

"Follow me, I know where the nearest people are." urged Sterloin. Pixel followed him. "Thankfully, Derp had this tracker with him."

Sterloin looked at his tracker. It was out of signal at first, but as he glided lower, he started to see two faint red dots on the edge of the top part of the screen. People! he thought. He propelled himself faster using his fireworks, having Pixel do the same.

"People?" asked Pixel.

"Yes. Get ready."

~×~

"Hey, look what I found!" said Cyan, beckoning on Pizzas.

"What is it." He seemed disinterested.

"More grass! Come on, we haven't gotten anything good since the third day."

"I can see that. Maybe hanging around in the plains is a bad idea, there were some people here a while ago."

Cyan continued pacing around, in hopes of miraculously finding something. Somehow he did.

"Uh, Pizzas? For real this time."

He pointed at the sky and saw two winged silhouettes gliding toward them. Pizzas readied his fishing rod, while Cyan took out his bow and arrow.

Shortly, they recognized who the two were. Pixel and Sterloin, are two of the most feared players in the simulation.

"They're those guys who beat up a hacker, right?" asked Cyan.

"Yeah, they are, now get down!"

Pizzas caught Sterloin with the fishing rod, the strings wrapped around him and tied him up, and the elytra mid-air. This caused him to fall to the ground and roll over it as he landed.

Cyan fired his bow, narrowly hitting Pixel with the arrow as he dodged to the right. He swooped in at his opponent, taking him down to the ground.

Sterloin already broke free from the strings, snapping them forcefully with relative ease. Pizzas, without a second thought, unsheathed his rapier and circled to Sterloin's right in the blink of an eye. As he was about to stab with his weapon, his opponent did a 180, and swung his netherite sword against him, deflecting the hit and sending him flying backward.

Cyan wrestled with Pixel, throwing and exchanging a few punches until he had the strength to lift him and throw him to the side.

Pixel got up in an instant, taking out and brandishing his iron sword at Cyan, who also took out a diamond sword, and started charging toward his opponent.

Pixel moved to the side and took out his fishing rod. He cast the line at Cyan, and as the hook was about to get around and tie him up, he caught it with his bare hands, pulled the fishing line, and managed to drag Pixel across the ground toward his direction, tying him up with his fishing rod.

I know what you're made of. Bring it on, big man! Pizzas took out a Swiftness Spellbook. It disintegrated and burnt into blue flames as soon as he used it. He circled Sterloin, but his opponent couldn't even follow his movement, and all they saw was a sudden blur of yellow and red heading to the right.

As Pizzas went behind, he took out three splash potions and threw them one by one at Sterloin as he wasn't looking.

Splash!

Sterloin felt three glass bottles breaking on his back, and a fine, dark mist obscuring his vision. Suddenly, he felt as if his muscles were loose and tired from intense exercise, and his vision became wobbly, unable to tell what was going on. His movements also started to become slow— he couldn't keep up with the pace of the battle.

The effects of the spellbook on Pizzas ran out as of now. Sterloin was still weak, so Pizzas had an opportunity to take him down. However, instead of killing Sterloin, he thrust his fist upward, landing on his opponent's chin, and dealing an uppercut.

Sterloin was knocked out by Pizzas, falling to the ground. Pixel still wasn't able to free himself from the strings, and Cyan put him next to his opponent's unconscious teammate.

Pizzas picked up Sterloin's Netherite sword from the ground, with a bit of a visible struggle from how heavy it was. He raised it above his head, ready to slice both of his opponents in half.

"It all takes one slash." said Pizzas, while staring down at Pixel.

"Good game."

Pixel tried to close his eyes before the netherite blade cut through him and Sterloin. However, right before he closed his eyes, he saw something flying toward them, or someone, rather.

"Heh." Pixel let out a chuckle after the sudden realization hit him. That has to be her.

"What are you laughing a-" Cyan's words were interrupted, just as Arianna swooped in at them, cleaving him and Pizzas off with a shiny, elegant-looking enchanted iron sword. Their bodies were severed in half, and they both fell to the ground.

"It all takes one slash indeed," said Pixel. "Thanks, Ari, or should I say… Ari plane?"

Arianna landed gracefully. "Hope you enjoyed the flight." she rushed towards Pixel and untied his fishing rod's strings. She then handed the fishing rod back to Pixel, and Sterloin suddenly gained his senses back as two cannons abruptly fired.

"Woah!" Sterloin jolted up from the loud noise. "Hey, what happened? Did we win?"

"Not yet," replied Arianna. "BUT YOU SHOULD'VE SEEN THAT! Ain't that cool?"

Sterloin left her with a confused look. He then noticed Arianna's new sword and the corpses of his opponents.

"Ohh…"

"This thing right here, is Rift's sword, Himmel." said Arianna. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"I guess… Of course! Haha." Sterloin got back up and took his Netherite sword back from Pizzas's hand.

"Question," Pixel interrupted. "When's gonna be The Feast?"

"The… Feast?" asked Arianna. "Oh, you mean the time the Cornucopia gets refilled? Then the remaining contenders fight over it? Usually happens during the fifth day onwards. Depends on how many people died too."

"How long have we been here?"

"Let's see," replied Sterloin, counting his fingers. "Day one, not much, two, we teamed up, three, the hacker… and today's the fourth, huh… It's going to happen tomorrow!"

"Alright. Here's the game plan." Sterloin and Arianna leaned in closer to Pixel. "Let's go back to the mountain, and loot every place we haven't encountered. Also, from what I've seen, they refill it at noon. We'll be able to reach the center in five minutes, so let's go when it's five minutes before noon."

"And what if they ambush?" asked Arianna.

"We'll be able to clean them. By then, we'll be so stacked. Otherwise, we'll get to it first, since we're the only ones with elytra. Let's end the simulation tomorrow, then and there."

"I'm in." said Sterloin.

"I'm in too." followed Arianna.

"Alright, a deal's a deal." Pixel nodded to his teammates. The team then headed towards a small cliff, flew from it, and propelled themselves to the mountain with their fireworks.