Cleansing Memories in Ғɪʀᴇ

[Chapter 6] Teaching

"The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence."

~ Amos Alcott

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Herobrine may have been many things, but he wasn't a liar and within a few days (and after much thought), a large section of the training ground had been sectioned off and five sorcerers - two women and three men - were standing at the edges of it. They shifted from foot to foot and looked around the area, talking amongst themselves. Like they had been told to, they wore long-sleeved shirts and long pants, all comfortable with no flapping pieces of cloth.

Herobrine arrived not too long afterwards, wearing his usual attire. His white eyes spotted them instantly and he beckoned them over towards him, dropping his sheathed sword on the ground as he walked into the centre of the training area. "Come on, let's take a look at you," he said in a neutral tone.

The sorcerers lined up, each a few steps away from the other, facing Herobrine. He glanced up and down the line, analysing how they stood, the way they watched him, their even gazes. "So you guys don't know any combat magic at all?" They shook their heads mutely. He inwardly sighed. "Alright, let's just see what you can do then." He flicked a hand and from a group of rocks he had piled up the night before,  each about the size of a small melon, five flew out and landed lightly in front of each of the sorcerers. "Levitate them for me."

One of them scoffed. "I thought we were supposed to be learning combat magic, not doing Sorcery 101."

Herobrine tilted his head the tiniest bit and looked at the man. "What's your name?"

"Diego."

"Diego. Right, levitate that rock for me and I'll teach you that combat magic you want to know."

Diego rolled his eyes but did as he had been asked. He raised his hand in front of him and the rock lifted off the ground, hovering a metre into the air before stopping. "Happy no- OW!" The last exclamation came after something hot stabbed at his lower leg. His concentration was instantly lost and the rock dropped to the ground like... well, like a rock. He rubbed his leg and glared accusingly at Herobrine. "You did that."

"Yup," Herobrine said with no shame. "And you failed to keep the rock in the air. Again, all of you this time."

Five rocks levitated into the air and over the next hour, were dropped countless times with accompanying swears, angry mutters and hisses, all with the lovely backing track of Herobrine saying "Again" or "Come on, keep going" or "That barely stung, stop complaining". His flippant remarks drove the students to madness but they shut their mouths, grit their teeth and worked harder to prove to this stuck-up man that they did have what it took, which was exactly what Herobrine had hoped for.

They started levitating two rocks, then three, and then four, ignoring the stinging on their legs, arms and shoulders and pointedly ignoring Herobrine as he randomly flew through the air, sporadically creating fire, strands of magic, figures of dogs, cats and other animals and jumped in the air for a moment before disappearing with a flash and a bang and just generally being a nuisance (although he was greatly entertaining the gathering crowds). Diego dropped his rocks yet again after Herobrine let loose another succession of bangs and flashes and he yelled in anger.

"Will you quit distracting us?" he yelled.

Herobrine halted and hovered just over a metre above the ground. The stings and various other forms of comotion instantly stopped. "No," he said quite clearly, instantly gaining all of their attention. "Because in a battle, things are going to be confusing. When you're fighting, you're not going to be able to tell the enemy 'Just stop for a moment while I do some quick magic over here and then I'll get back to you'. You've got to dodge their attacks, work your magic, keep an eye on your friends and block any of their magical attacks all at the same time. You've got to practice concentrating, or else you're dead meat."