Stolen Thunder

Written by George the Dark Knight

We had worked so hard to get to that point. Most of us had started out green. Not me though. And neither was Joseph. From the moment he came into the bar, I knew there was something different about this man. He came asking for capable hands. I offered my services. As long as the pay was good, I would do almost any job for people that required a strong arm. He told me that he was assembling a team to help him take on the mythical beast of legend. The Enderdragon. I was taken aback of course, after all no one had challenged and defeated the beast in hundreds of years. Yet he insisted that his team would have what it took. Interested, I decided to join him, my services would be free of charge-paid for by our names going down in legend if we succeeded. I was also interested in what kind of treasures we could uncover along the way.
Our adventure would take us beneath the world where we ran into an ancient city coated in this slimy strange fungus. We would get headaches if we stayed in contact with the stuff too long. Also had these deadly hulking guardians that would chase us. Even I couldn't beat them and would have lost my life if Travis hadn't distracted it with his bow. We had a good haul otherwise and made our way into the Nether, where we encountered these weird zombified pig people. I'd never seen anything like it. Entry into the Nether was banned by all of the kingdoms, but no one's going to stop a team that goes out where no law is upheld. Anyways, we were also attacked by these massive floating white blocks that purred and waved its tentacles around. One of them even grabbed Elizabeth, and her wolves were not happy about that. Fortunately, we put an end to it easily-turns out those creatures couldn't take a hit. Two from my diamond sword were all that it took. We ended up finding a fortress in the depths of the Nether-there were texts in ancient scrolls that implied the existence of these fortresses scattered across the dimension-and we took one over. Credit to Jorge(I still hate that we share the same name) for doing his research and finding out that we needed the drops from those strange floating gold blocks and rods. I think he called them blazes. They were pretty easy to farm-surprisingly despite wood being flammable, my shield was able to perfectly block their attacks. Maybe their fire wasn't the same kind as the one in our world?
Anyways, so we got all the stuff we needed from the blazes in no time, and then we found a blue forest of mushrooms in which endermen spawned like crazy. We also needed ender pearls, so we farmed them as well. We were then besieged by several of the white beasts of the sky, and had to retreat deep underground. I ended up getting separated, but it was a good thing, because I found a strange structure that appeared to be a temple of some sort. I went in and managed to find a strange black sword buried deep within a block of netherrack. It glowed with the purple aura of magic, and I went over to it and pulled the weapon out of its unusual pedestal. It came out surprisingly easily, and I could feel its power become mine. I wasn't sure what a weapon like it was doing inside a temple that seemingly had been hidden away so well, and was surprised because I had come upon it by pure chance. Or maybe it hadn't. You never know with these things. Anyways, once I reunited with my team, we left the Nether immediately. I showed off my new weapon to the team and they were mostly impressed, though Joseph was quick to voice his distrust of the weapon and asked how I got it. Although it was strange how I had gotten it, what harm could a weapon do? I was eager to test it out and stayed up the night fighting mobs. It was so powerful, I could take out most mobs faster than with my old diamond sword. Not to mention how it would light them on fire. Overall, it was truly a great find!
During the rest of our adventure, I was able to get us out of some tight situations simply by defeating whatever threatened us. Eventually we made it into the stronghold where the gateway into the fabled End dimension supposedly was. It was so easy cutting through all the mobs that I was tempted to switch back to my old diamond sword just to have more of a challenge, but at the same time I was having too much fun. It wasn't like these creatures weren't deserving of such degradation to being tossed away by me. And so we made it to the portal, I made a little quip about how Joseph and the others would need to keep up or I was going to beat the dragon all by myself. Joseph gave his own speech to inspire the others, though I was already pretty confident, and so we placed down the eyes of ender needed to reactivate the portal and then jumped in.
The End... a world that for much of my life I thought didn't even exist. I witnessed it with my own eyes. I'll try to explain it, but you can't really experience it unless you've been in it. It was a massive black sky with a large island hovering above what I believed to be the Void itself. There were huge obsidian pillars that jutted into the sky with glowing floating crystals above them. There were endermen all wandering across the plane without purpose. And of course, there was the Enderdragon flying around already having sensed our arrival and eager to feed on its next meal. We charged forth. Jorge told us that we needed to destroy the crystals in order to weaken the beast, so that was what we set out to do.
I aimed my bow and took out one before realizing that Elizabeth needed help. She had accidentally angered several endermen, and her wolves weren't helping much to keep them off her. I ran to intercept the monsters and attacked them with my sword. The flaming blade set them ablaze and they panicked and fled. I earned a thanks from her and noticed Joseph in the distance, fighting off the dragon itself as it lunged at him. I wasn't about to be outdone by that prince, not if my sword had anything to say about it! I charged at the dragon and struck it with the blade, causing it to roar in pain and rage as it turned to me and spit its acid at me. I tried to block it with my shield, but the shield was quickly melted by the acid and I took damage. Joseph jumped to push me away, taking some damage on his own. The beast took to the sky again.
Embarrassed by having him rescue me, I said nothing and ran towards another obsidian pillar to ready another arrow. My aim proved true as I took down yet another. There were only a few left, and I saw Travis was trapped in a self-made corner by several endermen-some of which were grabbing at him. Immediately, I came to assist him and took out a good amount of them. He took out the rest. There was no time for thanks as the Enderdragon flew directly over us. I could see Jorge in its claws, and Joseph was on top of the beast, raising his weapon and striking it to try and get the dragon to let go of him. Eventually, it did and Joseph and the beast crashed onto the ground on the other side of the island. I yelled in frustration and took off running. I wouldn't let him steal my glory! Joseph and the dragon fought, as he dodged the acid attacks and the swatting from the beast's claws. Then, the dragon took off and Joseph grabbed onto his leg while I managed to grab the beast's tail.
That prince slowly climbed up the dragon's body while it tried to flail us off. I had to hold on for dear life just to avoid being flung into the Void. He reached the dragon's back a second time and buried his sword into its back, causing the beast to cry out in pain as it struggled once more to fling us off. A moment later, it crashed onto the ground, and I was sent flying until I crashed against an obsidian pillar. When I came to, I watched as the dragon's body hovered higher into the sky, letting off beams of light and letting out a final cry as it exploded into particles and physically-manifested experience.
The dragon of legend had been slain, but not by me. It had been slain by that prince. I was furious. I had been carrying the team for much of our adventure, and yet Joseph was the one to slay the beast! He didn't deserve that glory! I went back over to them as they were celebrating and gave Joseph my piece. He didn't even try to deny that I had carried the team for much of the adventure, but yet he still had the audicity to claim that he earned that victory! I couldn't believe it. The others didn't back me up, they just stood back not wanting to get involved in our argument. At least until Elizabeth spoke up and tried to make peace. I wasn't happy-I really wasn't happy, but at her request I decided to keep it to myself so we could celebrate the major victory we had accomplished.
We went into the portal that would return us to the Overworld, and I experienced a conversation between two mysterious beings. I didn't understand what they were talking about, but I could tell they were beings that were wise and powerful, and so I tried to focus on their words. But they told me that I wasn't listening, that I was hearing but not listening. What does that even mean!? They also told me that I shouldn't let my power to go my head. I assume they were referring to the power that came with my sword. Then the vision faded and I was back in the stronghold with the others. Including Joseph. I vented my anger out on the few mobs that intercepted us on our way back to the surface.
We headed over to Diamond City-the capital of the Diamond Kingdom that Joseph had been prince of a long time ago. And then we headed to the Council itself. The faces when they saw Joseph after he had been exiled were soon replaced by amusing faces of shock, horror, and amazement once I revealed the Enderdragon's egg. We wrote our names into the book that would be submitted for the royal museum reserved for those who had slain the Enderdragon. We were also each given a Champion's Badge to mark our status so that anyone and everyone could see the deed we had accomplished. After that, we left the castle. Then, our team split apart as we went our separate ways.
I will say, the luxuries that came after getting that badge have been good. But I never forgot how the glory of defeating the beast itself had been taken from me. And by Joseph of all people. The former prince who people had already called a hero even before we defeated the dragon. It had all been because I was too weak. And because of that, I chose to make myself stronger. I went back into the Nether and dug around the area close to the temple and found a good amount of the dark material that I suspected my sword was made of. After experimenting with it, I discovered how to make the material into an ingot, and then found out how to make armor out of it by using diamond armor as a base. Now, I have a full suit of the armor and nothing can threaten me anymore.
I will have my moment of glory this time. No one else will steal it away again. Especially not Joseph.