Chapter 20: Sticks and Stones

"Hey, you should really give me the axe instead," said Ellmatt, trying to convince Scissors. "I'm THE Pineapple King. The Hive's ONLY Pineapple King to be precise."

"No, if anything that has to be me," Gyrra retaliated. "I beat you in that contest in ConCraft. They called me the Pineapple King after, and word got out to the Hive."

"Can you guys stop?" Scissors told them off, with audible annoyance in his tone. "We're near the Cornucopia, now people are gonna go and-"

Snap!

He was interrupted after he stepped on something and snapped. It was a tree branch, but something else was up. It suddenly sprouted new branches upward and enclosed Scissors in a wooden cage made out of vine-like sticks.

"Speak of the devil." said Scissors, as he took out Vergiften and used it to get out of the cage. He cut through the wooden bars of the cage, which withered out and disintegrated, much to his surprise.

"Woah, this axe is something." he couldn't help but inspect his weapon. It's cool. he thought. Drips of a poisonous substance ran through the cold iron blade. It looked rather dull but it still cuts like new.

Suddenly, Ellmatt found himself wrapped in rope. He was pulled back mysteriously, toward the direction of an oddly suspicious bush. Gyrra and Scissors rushed to him to help him, but by then, a wooden sword stabbed through Ellmatt's chest. He falls, with the sword slowly retreating backward, pulling itself out of the chest cavity and slithering up into Stick's grasp.

"Stick it up, and surrender now." ordered Stick, emerging from the bush. "This is my domain, any wrong move you make, you'll end up like your teammate."

Without anyone noticing, Six went behind Gyrra, and placed a potato sack over his head, while trying to strangle him. "Don't let your guard down, Scissors. You're next."

"You know, Six, I'm not the one who's letting their guard down here." Scissors pulled his fishing rod back, revealing that the fishing line was already wrapped around Six's left leg. He was dragged in Scissors' direction, letting go of Gyrra as he tumbled on the forest floor.

Scissors then raised his axe and bashed it against Six's head.

Stick's eyes widened in shock and bewilderment as he saw Scissors retaliate against his opponent quickly.

Scissors walked slowly towards Stick's direction, with his opponent desperately trying to block his way with stick barricades, only for them to be chopped down and wither away with Vergiften.

"Welp." Stick was faced by his opponent up front, who then was sliced by Scissors using his axe.

"Can't waste time now," said Scissors. "By the way, have you seen other players head to the Cornucopia yet?"

"There's no one else so far besides them." replied Gyrra.

As soon as he said that, he and Scissors both saw three people flying overhead with their elytra wings.

"Oh, there they are! Let's go now, Gyrra." said Scissors as they both made a run to the Cornucopia, arriving late as they were already seeing other groups about to fight.

~×~

Conhadda and Omega arrived at the Cornucopia, just a few minutes after the refill. Omega looked around his surroundings— the perimeter of the Cornucopia, between and above the trees, and inside the bushes. There's no one else besides them; they were the first to come.

"Hurry up, or we get ourselves in trouble. Arianna's team will arrive any second now," ordered Omega. "Flying with elytra has a minimum speed of 7.2 meters per second, boost yourself with non-explosive fireworks and you can travel an average speed of 33 meters per second. The mountain is quite far, but they probably already left it minutes ago, so take the apple and everything we need, then get outta here."

"How'd you know that much info, anyway?" asked Conhadda. "Also there's no sign of the apple here… yet, I guess. Surely we'll be able to find it in a bit." Conhadda frantically slid something inside the pocket square of his jacket.

"I stayed in school. Well, let's take our time, then. Better yet find pieces of armor so we'll be able to fend ourselves against them if they ever strike."

Omega found himself three pieces of lapis, and enchanted his diamond axe with the torn pages he found during the Bloodbath.

Sharpness III.

After he enchanted his weapon, he quickly scurried between the chests to find himself something that would be able to protect him and his teammate.

He found an iron cuirass— which he tossed at Conhadda— a diamond pauldron, and a pair of metallic bracelets and shinguards, which he wore for himself.

While Conhadda was looting the chests, Conhadda found himself a crossbow, twelve arrows, a shield, and a sturdy iron helmet. He then loaded the crossbow using the arrows he took from one of the chests.

"Conhadda, we need the apple right now." said Omega, tensing 'need' when he said it to emphasize how important it is.

"I'm trying to find it, just wait for me, alright?"

"Maybe I will, but if they wouldn't come here now." It was too late. Omega had already seen Arianna and her teammates flying above the Cornucopia with their elytra. They descended to the ground, geared up and ready to fight Omega and Conhadda.

"Oh, hey guys," greeted Pixel. "We uh, might need to scramble for the loot, if that's okay with you."

"It's only fair," said Omega. "But we won't let that happen, of course. Are you ready?"

"More than ever. Let's do this." Arianna replied, drawing Himmel out of the sheath on her waist.

Pixel and Sterloin also unsheathed their weapons, as Conhadda and Omega prepares.

Before Omega could even take out his axe, two people emerged from behind. It was Scissors, and a new teammate of his, Gyrra.

"Come on, aren't you guys counting me in?" asked Scissors, as he entered the scene, tossing fish to everyone involved. "Here, have some fish for y'a-"

Gyrra slapped his teammate. "Now's not the time for that! Besides, you shouldn't be wasting your food, and we literally could've just waited for them to fight it out so we can clean them up. Don't act stupid for once, Scissors."

"Sorry…" Scissors held his head down, ashamed. By far, no one dared to get Scissors' cooked fish from the ground.

"So, is that all of us?" asked Conhadda.

"I suppose, others are probably tracking down Webby and Shatadru by now, just for the buff." replied Gyrra.

"Alright, let's do this." Sterloin announced. "Good luck to each and every one of us."

Everyone in the Cornucopia formed a circle, closely together with their teams and at a safe distance from the other groups. They all locked gazes with each other, looking determined to win and ready to kill.