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.
"Pix, how about you actually use your bow?" Gem suggested. "I'm in a bit of a situation right now," Pix said in alarm; he was treed and Lizzie was slowly climbing up to chase him down again. "Hey, you're not a cat!" She shouted. "I know!" Pix yelled back. Gem rolled her eyes and used her Watcher magic to switch their positions. "Hey!" Lizzie and Pix yelped at the same time. "Pix, just gain distance and use your bow." Gem told him and moved on.
She found fWhip and Jimmy taking a break and fWhip attempting to apologize to the sheriff about all the disrespect he'd been giving him. "For the last time, fWhip, I'm not accepting your apology!" Jimmy told him, sounding incredibly fed up. "You've disrespected me one too many times and I'm not taking you on as my deputy again."
"Jimmy, you do realize that doing that is making the Watchers very happy, right?" Gem asked. "What?" Jimmy shot a double take. After a pause he took a deep breath to calm down before holding out his hand to fWhip. "Okay, fine apology accepted. Just don't disrespect me again." "Deal." fWhip said, and they shook.
"Well, this day certainly hasn't gone the way I expected it to." fWhip remarked. "Why?" Gem asked. "Well, we had to supercharge Grumbot with a lot of power so he could teleport Mumbo here through the Watcher dimension block thingy so he wouldn't feel existential so he wouldn't blow up the world." fWhip explained. "Wait, didn't we already blow up the world- you know what, nevermind, forget I said anything." Jimmy muttered.
"You remember what happened a thousand years ago?" Gem asked. "A thousand what?" fWhip asked blankly. "I said forget I said anything!" Jimmy howled, burying his head in his hands. Gem laughed and turned to fWhip. "Oh, that's why Mumbo's here now?" "Yeah," fWhip said. "I sure hope the Watchers don't get mad," Gem muttered, wondering what kinds of consequences could be in store for the mustachioed redstoner.
"Ah, I'm sure he'll be fine." fWhip said. "Grian said something about a deal with the Watchers to bring him here so I guess they're okay with it." Gem hummed to herself and said nothing. "Okay, break's over," She said. "Who's your new training partner?" fWhip looked around for someone free but Jimmy was now in a three way fight with Sausage and Shelby somehow. "Uh..." He said blankly. "Okay, I'll be your training partner." Gem said.
They picked up training weapons and began to circle each other. Gem struck first, raising her ax and nearly landing it on fWhip's head but the goblin ducked out of the way in time and kicked her knee. Gem winced and spun around, striking him in the back as he attempted to run off. "Never turn your back on your opponent." Gem said sagely as she held out a hand to help him up. "Training fight or not."
fWhip grumbled and got to his feet again. "Again." He said, and Gem complied. Within the next five seconds he was on the ground again. He got up again but the next time Gem struck he was down in less than three. "Aw, come on!" fWhip shouted. "Why are you so good?!" "I had centuries of time to train, remember?" Gem asked, and then asked if he wanted a break. fWhip shook his head and stood up once more. "Again." He said. Everyone continued to train until the day was over.
---
Jimena feel very good as she, Martyn, and False stood in a ring, glancing sideways at each other. Herodias had decided that they should have a 'training' battle, for both actual training and for the Watchers to have an appetizer before their main course, which would be the war that began at the end of the week. They were instructed to not hold back against each other.
"I'm just going to apologize in advance." False muttered as she held out her blade, which was not blunt-tipped like a training weapon at all. "Me too." Martyn said, hands shaking as he gripped an ax. Jimena wasn't holding any weapons because Herodias said she needed to train in her Watcher powers. They were very deadly in pvp. It didn't exactly help her worries that she might accidentally kill someone.
Then False rushed forward and stabbed Martyn in the gut. He yelled in surprise and twisted away, blood splattering the clean marble floor. He held his stance and rushed forward for a counter attack, handling the pain and blood loss surprisingly well. He probably had a lot of training in that matter in the life games.
Jimena just stood there for a few more seconds as she watched False and Martyn train against each other before she heard Herodias ordering her to actually join the fight. You need to train too. She insisted. You've barely used your Watcher powers at all. It's about time you had practice. Jimena nodded and unwillingly fired a bolt of violaceous energy at Martyn, who got hit in the head and landed sprawling on the floor a great deal away.
"Nice." Herodias praised, but Jimena was quickly rushing to see if he was okay. Martyn got up groaningly and Jimena immediately healed him up, which Herodias allowed her to do because it wouldn't do for him to die this soon before anything substantial happened. "I guess we just go on with the fight now." Martyn muttered, picking up his blood-stained ax and swinging at Jimena with a quick apology murmured under his breath.
Jimena dodged and flapped her wings hard to stay out of his range, glancing at the blood dripping from his ax. False was holding back. She didn't really want to fight him either. None of them wanted to fight each other. But they were 'training' and they had to. Jimena sighed and summoned more purple energy around her hand.
You've been really basic up until now, you know. Herodias told her. Try forming the energy into something else. Jimena frowned; the thought had never occurred to her before. Under Herodias' guidance Jimena stretched out and slightly solidified the magic beam she had into a wicked violet blade jutting out of her wrist. "That looks absolutely sick and completely capable of killing me." Martyn said.
Jimena winced and as gently as possible she sliced up his shoulder. Martyn flinched but he didn't seem to mind that much. "Sorry." Jimena said, looking down. "Yeah, I know." Martyn said. "Attack False." Herodias suddenly said. "Do I have to?" Jimena asked in a pained voice. She knew this was coming but she still didn't want to do it. "Just do it." Herodias said, and Jimena felt something like a sharp blade scratching slowly across her mind.
She turned to False with an apologetic expression on her face. False let her weapon drop to the floor. "Just get it over with." She said. "Yeah, we don't mind." The other one said. Jimena closed her eyes and slashed across her chest. False didn't even let a peep out of her. Jimena quickly got rid of the energy blade and healed up both False and Martyn.
"Okay, training is over." Herodias pronounced. "That was delicious." And Jimena knew she was right; underneath all of her worry of accidentally killing a friend and unwillingness to participate she could feel the energy that she'd gotten from feeding on the negative emotions generated from the 'training' fight. "Some training." Martyn muttered.