"I'll be teaching the class today, as Travis is still recovering from the incident in the forest. He can be a bit soft, so we need to give him some time." The fact that she calls that hulk of a man soft is shocking. I notice her narrow eyes turn to slits, and a devious smile spreads across her face as she speaks.
[It seems she doesn't think very highly of Travis.]
We all sit quietly, trying not to earn her wrath, and wait for our lesson to begin.
"Now, that dumbass was supposed to go over some basic information before even thinking about taking you all on an expedition, so I will be cleaning up after him."
[Scratch that; she definitely hates him.]
"I suppose I'll start with the most interesting thing that has happened around this dump of a town in the last few years. The Elemental. Do any of you know anything about Elementals?" The entire class goes silent. I'm too afraid to say anything, so I keep my hand down as well. Since Jezabel started speaking, her aura has only become more domineering.
"Okay, if someone doesn't raise their hand in five seconds, I'm gonna start taking them." We all shoot our hands up at once. "Bahaha, you fucking cowards crack me up! You there, start talking."
She glares daggers at the poor sod sitting next to me.
"The Elementals are large colonies of spirits. They tend to group together over time until they get big enough to move on their own!"
"Next!" she shouts at another student.
"Um, they come in four elements?"
"What elements?"
"Fire, water, stone, and air."
"Good, next!" She points at someone else.
"You can tell their age by how many stones they're made of."
"That only works for stone Elementals. How can you tell the ages of the other types?" The student she's pointing at freezes up. He looks as if he's about to cry.
"Worthless, next!" She points at Josh.
"They're big!" That response gets a chuckle out of the class. I can see our teacher holding back a smile by frowning.
"Are you making fun of me?"
"No." Josh's straightforward answer doesn't leave any room for discussion. I'm sure she'd be at his throat if he responded any other way. I can see her eyes moving to select another victim to take out her frustration.
"You," she says, pointing at me. "Aren't you the one that killed that Griffith?"
"Technically, yes," I say as I stand up.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I shoved a spear down its throat while other people held it in place and managed to break its core."
"You're dumber than Travis, aren't you?"
"Yes, ma'am." My brother told me to always respond with sir or ma'am when talking to superiors.
"Then what the hell are you doing in this class?"
"I'm trying to be less dumb," I say blankly, as if it was obvious.
"Bahaha, you stupid idiot. Well, I guess you can admit it, at least."
"Yes, ma'am."
"What do you know about Elementals?"
"Not much other than what has been said."
"So, you do know something?"
"I guess?"
"You're pissing me off; just spit it out."
"Well, for one, the stone Elementals age isn't directly connected to the number of stones in its body. That's just the number of spirits in the colony. Generally, older Elementals have more spirits, but that's not always the case."
"Keep going."
"They tend to avoid populated areas, but some have attacked towns in the past. The most memorable would be the stone Elemental that attacked our capital city of Durum almost five hundred years ago."
"And?"
"And that's about it. I remember a couple of other places that were attacked and that a lot of the attributes of spirits are applied to Elementals, but that's about it."
"Tsk," Jezabel clicks her tongue at me, clearly dissatisfied. "You really are worthless."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Sit back down."
"Yes, ma'am." I can see the hint of a smirk forming on her lips. It seems she likes being called ma'am. I'll have to keep that in mind for later. I've found things are much easier if you can get people in positions of power on your side.
"So, some of the things you all said weren't completely stupid, but you don't really know what you're talking about." Jezabel proceeds to walk over to the blackboard, where she draws several small circles. These circles aren't touching but are gathered in a group. "The Elemental is a collection or hive of spirits. They have a combined consciousness which causes them to behave erratically. While individual spirits are aloof and shy, Elementals are inert and violent. If you ever interact with a single spirit, you will notice that they run away almost immediately, while an Elemental may ignore you even if you attack it. On the other hand, it may destroy an entire town for no reason. The incident that dumbass mentioned happened just like that; people attacked the Elemental, and it didn't even move. Then, three days later, it attacked the city of Durum."
[Doesn't that make it more like a collective or a democracy? Hive minds are known for immediate unanimous decisions, while democracies are known for being slow and erratic.]
I try to pay attention even while discussing this with myself.
"The more spirits an Elemental has, the more mana it has access to and the more dangerous it becomes. The age of an Elemental isn't relevant; all that matters is how powerful it is."
"Is there any way to manipulate Elementals?" I hear Tyrion asking from the back of the class.
"You would have to ask someone more knowledgeable about spirits than me," Jezabel responds flippantly as if it were a dumb question.
[You would ask that, you manipulative douche.]
This question is the final nail in the coffin, and I realize that all of his behavior screams INTJ. He is a dead ringer for the mastermind personality type, which explains why we have a rough relationship. People tend to dislike those most similar to themselves. I glare at him for a moment before returning my attention to Jezabel.
"If you ever have to fight one of those monstrosities, keep in mind that it's way stronger than you, and you have no chance of winning." She finishes her section on Elementals with some solid advice. We continue with information about some of the more basic creatures in the area, some of which we've already encountered. After another hour or so, we wrap up class for the day, and Jezabel gives us some suggestions. "I would recommend writing these things down, as we will be having a test on all of these creatures later."
I look down at my mostly blank piece of paper with a hint of disappointment. Even back in high school, I was never very good at taking notes. I was closely paying attention to what she said, and I forgot to write it down. Looking over at Sakura's paper, I see pictures of the creatures we talked about with little notes or word bubbles near them.
[We might be in trouble. I'll have to write more next time.]
As I think that, I turn to Josh and see a carefully written list of points about each creature.
[Thank God one of us is competent.]
"Good job taking notes Josh. Do you mind if we use yours to study?"