Living in Me (Sequel to Not Gonna Die)

|Chapter 20| Bred for battle

"Man, it's almost sad to see Mr Herobrine like this," the guard mumbled as he glanced over his shoulder at the white eyed man. Although never as cheerful as Steve and not as steady as Notch, Herobrine had always carried himself upright, with shoulders back, head straight, and a look on his face that could easily become a smile or a glare at the flick of a switch.

But now the shoulders were slumped and the head was lowered slightly and the look on his face was that of a man who had had most of his life's meaning stripped from him. His walk was steady and straight but his feet seemed to fall heavily, like there was no joy in wherever he was going.

"What do you mean it's almost sad, it's horrible," another guard muttered to his friend, also looked at Herobrine's retreating back. "He and that Steve fellow used to sometimes watch our squad as we trained and they were always joking around, and now..." He gestured with a hand.

"Yeah, no kidding. I wonder what-"

"Hey, you two! Quick yacking and keep your minds on the job!"

The two men instantly snapped to attention with a crisp "Yes sir!" as they faced the plain that the Team Crafted base stood on, spears pointing to the sky. General Ian walked behind them, eyeing them to make sure that they had properly returned to their duties before giving a nod to the Captain standing further down the wall and going down the stairs back to ground level. With a glance after Herobrine, he turned and entered the training ground, finding Adam sitting in the shade cast by a building near the edges of the ground.

"Hey Ian, what's up?" Adam greeted, his legs stretched out in front of him as he took a break from training.

"Not much," Ian said, taking a seat beside him. "I overheard some of the recruits talking about Herobrine's sudden shift in behaviour. Seems that quite a few people have noticed it."

"Yeah," Adam said quietly with a sigh. "He's a lot less cheerful and energetic. It's amazing just how much Queen Anne's death affected him."

"I mean, you can't blame the guy, they were together for, what? Decades? Centuries?"

"Probably, who knows?" Adam put his head back on the cool wall of the building. "I kinda hope he'll be okay after this whole war is over, which is weird because according to some of the stories, he's been here since the beginning of time so why the hell should we be worrying about him, but he just doesn't act like an old wise guy."

"His brother certainly doesn't," Ian said with a little frown. "I meant Steve, obviously. Not the other brother."

Adam gave a small chuckle. "Speaking of Notch, have you seen any of the contraptions he's come up with?"

"Nope, but I'm sure we'll get plenty of battles to test them in."

Ian was right. The war had only just begun and a series of battles were about to take place. The army split up, going to aid their allies scattered across the country as they fought to take down Entity's main bases before his numbers grew to be too strong. Herobrine had finally allowed Adam to take part in the fight and although the General was used to being near the front lines and fighting side by side with his recruits, he found that this new style of fighting with magic was not all that different from what he was used to, especially when Herobrine had begun to teach him how to blend together magic and sword fighting.

Adam had never seen the warrior creatures of Entity's until he had joined the battles, but he decided that they were something that he could have happily died not seeing. They stood just taller than Adam, built heavy like bears, and dual wielded long black swords that were long and at the point, thin enough to be needles. They appeared to be wearing clothes underneath their burnished armour, but it was impossible to tell as the fabric seemed to meld with their skin. Their war cries were feral, their blood ran blue, and they did not die easily.

But what was perhaps equally disconcerting as the enemy was the change that came over Herobrine the instant that the opposing army was in sight. He was no longer reserved and downcast; he was a fighting machine, giving orders and receiving them with ease, full of energy and vibrancy as he darted this way and that among the lines, his sword flashing under the sun, his magic spitting out and twining around the creatures or flashing up in a shield to protect one of the recruits from a stray blade. Even with all of his training, try as he might, Adam couldn't come anywhere close to matching him in speed or agility or skill; Herobrine was unstoppable.

In a good portion of the battles they faced, the allies of Team Crafted were victorious, and their victories did not go unnoticed. After several of the battles, patrols saw flashes of a tattered purple cloak or a figure dressed in black and green that disappeared as soon as it was seen. Their enemies were watching their progress at the battles, but they hadn't yet dared to attack their bases, which was unfortunate because it meant that the allies got there first.

The first base to fall was taken down by the Gizzy Alliance almost overnight. In a cunning move from Lord David, the army had snuck in under the shadow of dusk and attacked before the warrior creatures could form their lines or counterattack, and they levelled the base in a matter of hours. Not much had progressed on the eastern front but up north, the base that Lord Ghetto and the Snow Strikers were tackling was weak, however the patrols had seen several glimpses of Acid, which lead them to call for more backup as they prepared to take down the base for good.

"I'd be highly surprised if Acid doesn't take a hand in the battle," Herobrine said as he and several of the Generals rode at the head of a large portion of the Team Crafted army who were going to assist. "The three of them have been much too quiet as of late."

"What do you think they're planning?" Mitch asked.

"Well their original plan was to synthesise a magic similar in power to Hero's," Notch chimed in, riding on the other side of his brother. At the back of his horse was a large bag stuffed full of something, and behind him trailed another horse carrying several more of the same bags. "If I were in their place, I would be trying to finish that project as fast as possible to turn the scales of the war."

"So we just need to take all of his bases down before they can finish the synthesis thingy, right?" Jerome asked. "That's it?"

"Pretty much," Herobrine muttered. "Let's hurry up and get to the others, then we can run through whatever hair-brained scheme Steve's cooked up and win this battle, then finish the war. Then we can go home."

*cracks knuckles* It's been a while since I've written a battle scene, time to get started!