"Careful Adam, I almost took your head off!"

          Adam clenched his teeth as he quickly brought up another glowing yellow shield just in time to block a lightning fast strike from Herobrine. "This would be a lot easier if you stopped attacking so fast," he said, dropping the shield in an instant and flicking his hand, throwing flames towards his trainer that were almost lazily brushed aside.

          "Your enemies won't move slowly," Herobrine said, nimbly flicking his sword towards Adam's thigh before dancing away. "So you won't be able to fight them and win unless I teach you how to."

          "Except no one moves as fast as you do," Adam shot back, grunting as he brought the shield up and dropped it again. "I don't see why I should."

          "Because we won't be fighting normal people," Herobrine told him, stepping back to signal a pause in their duel. "Because if everything goes to plan, you and I will be taking the brunt of Entity, Dreadlord, and Acid's attacks. And for that, we're going to need to be as fast as possible."

          Adam nodded a bit, giving a sigh as he dropped the halo of magic that had wrapped around his hands. Herobrine motioned to him a little with his sword.

          "You're doing well, pretty quick with those shields. Just make sure that you don't make them too big, it limits your speed in striking back, and make sure you cover your left side more."

          "I can't make them much smaller," Adam said. "Otherwise you'll just change your strike and hit me."

          "Then either wait longer before you create them or make them easier to move in an instant."

          "Of course, why didn't I think of that," Adam mumbled sarcastically. Herobrine heard him of course, but he only grinned and stood side on, sword in an offensive position.

          "Ready for round seven?"

          Adam shook his hands a bit to get some blood back in them and then held them up, fire bursting into life around them, creating a halo of light. Herobrine took a step forward, spinning his sword, and dove to the attack.

          "Hey, you two! Got a minute?"

          The two paused mid-fight, Herobrine's sword resting on Adam's hastily created shield as they looked over to Mitch who was standing a little away, arms crossed over his chest and a mischievous glint in his eyes as per usual.

          "There are these two guys coming up to the front gate," Mitch said once he got their attention. "Don't know who they are but judging from the fact that one looks scarily similar to you, Herobrine, I'm guessing they're your brothers."

          "About time, I was wondering when they'd show up," Herobrine said, sheathing his sword and walking away from the training grounds and towards the gate.

          Mitch grinned at Adam and jerked his head after the man. "You coming or what?"

          Adam shook his head, putting his hands on his knees and sucking in deep breaths. "I need a break for a few minutes, you go ahead."

          Like the good friend he was, Mitch didn't waste another second there and sprinted off after Herobrine. There was a definite stir in the base as the two newcomers entered the gate because while they weren't recognised on sight, the way they held themselves and the similarity between one of them and Herobrine were certainly enough to draw attention. Mitch joined Ian and Ty near the edge of the main street, looking on as Herobrine approached the two men.

          "You took your time," Herobrine called to them, a grin easily heard in his words. "I was starting to think you got lost."

          "How could we, half of the population is on their way here," one of them called back. The man was bald with a black goatee and was roughly the same height as Herobrine, but he wore a brown shirt and black pants and there was something a little strange about the way he walked, something a bit stiff or odd, but none of the Generals could quite pick it.

          "Even so, did you take the scenic route or something?"

          "He wanted to," the bald man said, jerking his head towards his companion. "I refused."

          "Course you did Notch," Herobrine said with a smile, the three of them coming to a stop as they neared each other. "Good of you to finally show up Steve, where have you been?"

          The man who looked so similar to Herobrine shrugged his shoulders. "Here and there, round the place, been around a lot, anyway, did I miss anything? You know how much I hate to miss a fight." As he spoke, he looked up the street and towards the three Generals and Ty instantly sucked in another breath.

          "Oh no, it's another Mitch," he breathed quietly.

          Mitch slapped his arm of course, but Ty was right. If Mitch could be described as having a mischievous glint in his eye, then Steve's eyes were full of the stuff. There was an almost smirking smile on his face and an eagerness in his glance as he looked around, as if he was calculating just how people would react if he started causing mass mayhem right there and then. He was half a head shorter than Herobrine and Notch but somehow, that only made him more terrifying.

          "We're going to have to keep an eye on him," Ian muttered as the three brothers continued to trade comments.

          "And whatever you do, don't let him, Mitch and Jerome get in the same room as each other," Ty added before quickly darting out of the way of Mitch's second slap and disappearing down the street.

          Mitch shook his head in mock annoyance and turned his attention back to the brothers, who were starting to walk towards the castle. "I wonder if Steve would be down to train us in sword fighting," he said suddenly, speaking the sudden thought before he could keep his mouth shut.

          "What makes you think that?" Ian asked with a frown. "He literally just got here, what if he doesn't even use a sword?"

          "Then why is he wearing one at his side?"

          Ian glanced over and when he saw that Mitch was indeed correct, he rolled his eyes with a sigh, gave Mitch a pat on the shoulder and followed the way of Ty. Mitch raised an eyebrow as he watched Ian go, but he knew that he was right. It wasn't just the long sword at Steve's side; it was the upright way he walked, the long, even strides, and the sort of tension in his limbs that Mitch had seen in the people he had trained under as a boy.

          So when he later asked Steve about that sword training, he wasn't surprised when Steve agreed to help but what he didn't expect was Steve adding "Do you reckon you should show me a bit of your army tactics? I get around a lot so I might be able to help you guys tighten up your techniques and strategy a bit."

          It quickly became apparent that not only did Steve know a lot about battle strategy and was skilled in sword fighting, he was also a very good teacher, and soon Mitch, Ian, Adam and even Lord Gizzy were being trained by him when he wasn't training the armies or chatting with Captains and recruits alike. He and Herobrine even had a few spars near the edge of the training ground, and although it should be noted that Herobrine didn't use his magic during the fights, Steve definitely gave him a good run for his money.

          If Steve was constantly seen around the training grounds then in the days following their arrival, Notch was just as constantly absent. He spent almost all of his time locked away in some building, but only a short time later, he came out with traps and designs for trebuchets and something he called a catapult and carved blocks of stone that, when put together, could have molten metal poured in to make sword and axe blades, creating dozens of weapons in the time it usually took to make a single sword.

          However one of the first items he came out with was something that he had been working on for several days, and he gave to General Adam in private one afternoon, when most of the training recruits had disbanded for the day.

          "Here, these should help you control your magic," he said, handing Adam two simple looking bracelets.

          "I thought you said that my magic was tied to my sunglasses," Adam said in confusion, turning the bracelets over in his hand. They didn't look like much, just strands of brown leather woven tightly together. The strangest thing about them was that there was no clasp or knot; the leather bands just seemed to be wound together in an unbreakable circle.

          "It is. Basically, I found a way to propel negatively charged photons through a magically induced plasma shield that changed their properties in regards to electrostatic attraction which then influenced their elemental composition so they were able to bind to- I've lost you, haven't I? Anyway, the point is that your magic can use these to stabilise itself, so you won't lose control of your magic while you have skin contact with these. And you're much less likely to lose them than your sunglasses."

          Adam gave a shrug. "If you say so, I trust you," he said, slipping on the bracelets. They were a snug fit, not tight enough to be uncomfortable but not loose enough to be annoying.

          But it wasn't all fun and games for very long. As the armies of Lord Rob and Lord Vikk reached the base, they brought with them troubling reports of the tall, black minions of Entity. While no one had struck blows and drawn first blood, the war was definitely underway.

My chapters are getting longer and I can't tell whether it's because I'm waffling on or whether I'm just trying to cover more plot in a single chapter.

Hope you enjoyed, bye!