Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

Training

           Gem looked at the emperors lined up in front of her. The clock that foretold the Watchers' invasion of their world was ticking down and they only had four days left. Everyone had decided to use the rest of their free time wisely; spreading the word to their empires to prepare for war and the emperors themselves started pvp practice. Gem and Katherine had decided to teach them, with Pearl and False teaching the hermits.

           Everyone was paired up with someone else to fight with. They were given training weapons that were blunt-tipped so it would deal no damage and so everyone didn't have to hold back. Gem had told them that they didn't necessarily have to use the training weapons; some of the emperors had special skills that would help in the fight. Shelby the witch was throwing harmful potions at a distance to make up for her lack of pvp skills and training while Scott carefully used his Listener powers to help him win.

           "Jimmy, don't raise your sword above your head like that," Katherine said as they watched the sheriff take a swing at fWhip. Jimmy seemed to be using the opportunity to vent out all his frustration and need for vengeance on the goblin who'd plagued him for so long. Gem had specifically paired them up because she knew that he would enjoy it. 

           "You're smaller now so that makes you a harder target, but that doesn't mean you should open yourself up to attack like that." Katherine added. She stopped the fight and adjusted the sheriff's stance until he was holding the sword properly. "There, that's better." Katherine said. She paused. "Maybe you should go fight someone taller. So the training will be more realistic." Jimmy sighed. "Katherine, I know you're not doing it on purpose, but can you not tease Jimmy about his height?" Gem called. Jimmy shot her a thankful grin. 

            Gem made over to the other side of spawn where they were training to see Sausage and Joel fighting each other with Hermes watching from the sidelines wide-eyed. Joel was trying to strike Sausage down with lightning called from the heavens but Sausage was being Sausage and teleporting all over the place. 

           "Can you hold still for just one second?" Joel grumbled as he missed yet again. "Nope, sorry!" Sausage called as he teleported behind Joel and then shot him with a bow. "Don't worry, Joel, when the Watchers actually attack I think they'll be too cocky to just teleport everywhere." Gem said, teleporting over. 

           Joel jumped in surprise and let Sausage hit him again. "I'm still not used to the fact that I'm not the only god around here anymore." He muttered. Gem laughed but then sobered up at the thought of the war that would begin at the end of the week. She looked sadly at Sausage who seemed to understand her sentiment; he stopped training to walk over to her and pat her shoulder seriously. 

           "It'll be okay, Gem." He said sincerely. "We can handle this. Some of us have handled worse than a war." Gem looked at him. "You guys were my only real friends who weren't animals." She muttered, looking down. "I don't want to lose you like I've lost everyone else." Sausage pulled her into a hug. "It'll be okay." He repeated. "And besides, if I can survive an evil king who killed almost all of his citizens in order to steal their magic, I can survive this." 

           Gem broke apart to stare at him. "Uh, could you repeat that?" She asked blankly. Sausage whistled innocently. "Maybe I shouldn't." He confessed with a laugh. Gem smiled and went to go see how everyone else was doing. 

           She passed by Lizzie and Pix's training battle. Pix was using a bow and had his shield up but Lizzie was bypassing all of his defenses to continuously scratch at him with her claws. She'd finally 'revealed' that she was an anthropomorphic cat and not a human being, but then she realized that everyone had known the whole time and was pretty embarrassed now. At least she could fight better now that she wasn't wearing any human clothes that 'held her back' in her opinion. And cat scratches really hurt.