Train The Recruits

Info:

Through his travels and search for work, John had found himself in Era, the city that housed the magic council and the headquarters for the Rune Knights. In his stay, he had heard rumors, and later spotted a flyer stating that help was needed for training the new recruits to the Rune Knights. Apparently they had a rather large influx of recruits. Of course, they seemed to lack any sort of experienced mages, and needed help in teaching their recruits magic. John no longer had any magical ability of his own, but he had, at one time, been a fairly powerful mage, and still knew the theory behind magic, or had an inkling anyway. Few people actually knew how the hell magic worked. But he knew the theory behind teaching and learning it at least. He entered the Rune Knight offices, carrying one of the fliers. "I'm here for the job training the recruits." The man at the desk looked him up and down, taking note of the cybernetic arm.
"Are you a mage, sir?"
"Burned out, but I still know how to teach its use."
"I see. And are you part of a guild?"
"No. I'm not a mage anymore, after all."
"Well, if you're capable, I'll give you a shot. You'll get your pay if you can get the recruits to use their magic. They've all got potential for it. I'll lead you to the yard."
The man behind the desk stood up and lead John out back to where the recruits were waiting.
"I'm free to rough them up, right?"
"If... that's what needs to be done, then I suppose so. Just... don't break any bones."
John grinned. "Will do."

The receptionist left him with the group of knights, who stood at attention. John walked up and down their ranks, examining them. "Gentlemen. Today, I will educate you in the use of magic, specifically, its general applications in combat. However, I am not here to teach you any spells, techniques, styles, or similar. Those are up to you to learn and hone on someone someone else's time, not mine." He finished walking through their ranks and stood in front of them all now, his arms behind his back. "Magical potential is like a precious stone within you. It's buried and needs to be dug up before you can truly begin to learn. Once you have it in hand, training and practice will cut it into the shape you want it. My job is to simply dig that stone up. It's up to you to do what you will with it." He said. He went on with his explanation, repeating what his master had told him when he was a young man like the ones before him today. He talked about how strong emotions could bring forth the potential: love and joy, but also pain, desperation, and hatred. He had no intent on making these men feel love and joy, though. That was too hard. So instead, he would rely on pain, desperation, and hatred to bring forth their magical potential.

He went through several training exercises. He had the recruits attack him and easily fended them off. He forced them to stand there and take verbal, and eventually physical abuse. "If you wanna have a hope in beating me, if you wanna get out of here with your ribs intact, you're gonna need a miracle."

Then it happened, just the miracle he was looking for. One of the men, in a burst of strength and speed managed to land a punch on him. It was far faster than the boy had moved before, and seemed to be charged with a bit of energy. Still, John was able to grab him and slam him to to the ground with ease immediately afterwards.


"Get up and do that again." He said, grinning. The boy did just that, springing up to his feet with newfound vigor, he attacked. Still, his lack of training left him unable to actually defeat the older man, leading to him being slammed into the ground once more, but it was definitely clear now that he'd done it for this one. "Good work boy, now go and get yourself cleaned up, then report back to the captain and show him your potential." He turned to the rest as the one who had succeeded picked himself up off the ground. "One down, twenty-nine to go." It took the rest of the morning, and multiple ground slams, punches to the face and gut, and other injuries, but by the end of it, each recruit had managed to fully express his magical potential, even if it wasn't a fully fledged spell per se, it was all the Rune Knights were looking for. The stone had been dug up. Their people could do the cutting. John returned to the office to inform them that the training was done. After a quick confirmation, he was given his cash, and walked out of the Rune Knight offices money in pocket and cigar in mouth, satisfied with his work for the morning.