--the last necromancer chapter 3 (please read and comment)

Ch.3

Troops

Brisingr kicked open the wooden door to the barracks of Uris-Mar. “Right!” He yelled, startling all the soldiers, who were mostly in bed. After all, it was four o’ clock in the morning. “I want you to sort yourselves out into factions of wind, fire, water and earth! I’ll give you fifteen minutes!” Bellowed Brisingr. The men looked confused, but they started moving around, sorting themselves out among themselves. But as Brisingr saw it, it was a shambles. He turned around to face the army general and sneered. “Haven’t they ever done this before?” he asked.“They’ve had no reason to.” Replied the general, clearly offended.“Don’t you even do drills then?” Asked Brisingr desperately.“No... I... No.” Stuttered the general. Brisingr tutted disappointedly.“When I was in this army, we had six drills every week. It’s clearly changed a lot since then.”“Yes, but in your day, you clearly weren’t as amazing as you make out, because ‘in your day’ you lost the old war. So you’re clearly not as good as all that,” Yelled the general. Brisingr was surprised at the young man’s courage at arguing with him, the head of the flame faction. But he wasn’t going to let himself get lectured about his limited ability by this general who had clearly never even fought in a war. Brisingr rubbed his hands together, creating heat well in excess of 300 degrees Celsius. The general assumed that Brisingr was rubbing his hands together to keep warm, and turned away. But in fact, he was creating a ball of flame between his palms, ready to hurl at the cocky general. “Never turn your back on the enemy,” Said Brisingr, before throwing his spherical-shaped ball of fire at the man’s back. The general doubled over at the force of the impact as the ball made contact. “Brisingr!” screamed the voice of Huda. He turned sheepishly to see Huda marching towards him, her blue hair waving in the wind, and an expression of rage covering her face. “What do you think you’re doing? Elidon has been destroyed, and Silthis might be going the same way. And all you can do is fight among yourselves.” Huda extinguished the flame by blasting a jet of water into the general’s rapidly burning clothes. “Why in the name of Kvijt did you do that?” she asked incredulously. “He insulted the soldiers of the old war,” Said Brisingr simply. He knew it was a feeble excuse, but he didn’t expect Huda’s outburst that followed. “You stupid old man!” She yelled angrily “You’re always lecturing us all about it! Can’t you just leave it? It’s been nearly five hundred years!” She examined the general’s burns and muttered “For Kvijt’s sake.” To herself. Brisingr left her to tend to the man’s wounds and re-entered the barracks. The men had grouped themselves into the four elemental factions, just as he had asked them to. He hated to admit it, but he was impressed. However, he didn’t regret setting fire to the general. He had deserved what he had got. He had shown disrespect for the soldiers of the old war. Maybe Huda was right, he thought. Maybe it was time to leave the old war behind. “Alright, men! In three days, we are going to be marching to Silthis to combat an army of undead! It is your duty to fight in this battle! You must pack your bags and say goodbye to your families! There were shouts of “What are Undead?” and “Silthis? That’ll take weeks!” But Brisingr ignored these and exited the barracks. He must make preparations for himself.