Chapter 2 Guns, Swords, Spears oh my

I hate being the center of attention nothing good ever comes of it. Either you end up looking like a total show off or you end up looking like a failure.

None of which seemed the least bit appealing to me. Realistically though seeing as I’ve already been pushed center stage I don’t have much say in the matter. I’m sure as hell not going to impress these people with my pathetic talent as it’s about as impressive as a dog taking a shit so I’m fairly certain mockery and ridicule will be my constant companion for the foreseeable future.

Well it’s the devil you know I suppose. Maybe it’s not too late to drop out of school; I mean what’s the worst that could happen? A few fines for breaching the contract with the school? A bad reputation perhaps? I could live with that.

I could find a new school pick up a part time job you know, normal non-ulcer inducing stuff. Not that I have had any ulcers, but I’m sure to get some at this rate.

“And so as of today Scott shall be joining you all in the advance combat class” Ms. Nsia’s sentence knocked me out of my reverie and back into reality. Oh so cruel reality. I’m looking around the field to meet my new classes’ very unimpressed gazes.

Rightfully so, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less when an entire room of people look at you and see you as little more than the dirt they walk on.

“So would anyone like to partner up with Scott for the class?” Wow is this what Anya felt yesterday. Feels bad man. Looking around I’m met with gazes of contempt and annoyance until suddenly a hand slowly goes up, it was Vera.

“I’ll partner up with him” Inwardly groaning I desperately look around for another hand.

“Can I not partner up with her?”

“What’s wrong with partnering up with me?” pouting and crossing her arm. So many things lady. First off you nearly set me on fire yesterday and the guy you did set on fire was in the hospital. Secondly sparring with a people who can and most likely will kick my ass is not my definition of having fun.

I miss Henry; Henry just made little bubbles of lights and turned invisible. Vera melts pavement and sends people to the hospital. I miss Anya too. Anya doesn't really do anything and I think that's just beautiful. I bet those two are goofing off without me. Traitors the lot of them.

“Are you even paying attention to me Scott?” Not really no.

“Yes of course I am” Lies make the world go round.

“Then answer the question Scott” This one time I was talking to Henry a while ago he mentioned something like this. Women and loaded questions. No matter the answer you give to the aforementioned question everything will all just come flying back to hit you in the face.

So how do we men avoid this result? Divert and deflect. That’s the key guys.

“Forty-two” Testing the waters with my newly acquired strategy.

“That-that’s not an answer” confusion painted across her face as she struggles to comprehend my reply.

“Purple polka-dots” If I believe hard enough in myself I can overcome anything.

“Ugg just meet me on the mats when you sort your problem out” Sun Tzu would be proud.

Having disarmed the situation I smile smugly and walk off in Vera’s direction. That smug feeling didn’t last long after Vera threw me on the ground, again and again, and again. You get the picture.

“What are you doing Scott?” Vera asked dryly.

“Getting up as you can see” I sure as hell can’t since I’m constantly wincing from the pain.

“I meant what are you doing in this class Scott. You’re class 3 at best and to top it off you’re an empath. There’s no way you can succeed in advance combat. We’re only doing warm ups and you can’t even keep up” I can hardly blame her for wondering why.

“Didn’t you hear? I beat a combat instructor” I sit on my ass and look up at her. I’m really not in the mood to continue explaining myself. I’m still seeing stars from my mild concussion.

“Or at least that’s what I hear” sighing and hoping she would stop asking questions I don’t have answers for. I look her in the eye and pose a question.

“Let me ask you a question now Vera. How do you think a class 3 empath could possibly defeat a combat instructor?” She pauses and thinks for a good second.

“You cheated?” Pretty close to the truth actually. I didn’t beat him alone; I had Anya boosting my abilities. Second I had absolutely no control over my abilities at the time. The entire thing was one big fluke.

“You’re right in a way I suppose; one of my classmates is a catalyst type, a class 5 catalyst at that”

“This school has a catalyst?” she asks excitedly.

“Are they rare?” Is Anya actually super-duper rare holder?

“Incredibly so, and to be class 5 is even more amazing. Who are they? I have to meet them” She’s like a kid with a new toy.

“Nah don’t think they’re too keen on meeting a progenitor, so I think I’ll pass introducing you two” Anya mentioned something about avoiding the 13. It’s a hassle to act as a go-between anyways so it’s a win-win.

“A progenitor huh…” She looks away with a downcast look. Is it a sensitive topic? Oh well like I give a shit about other people’s feelings.

“Hey Vera, what is a progenitor exactly? I know they’re part of the 13 but I want to hear your impression on them.” I’m curious and it’s a good way to kill time I guess. She stared hard at me for a second before I turned my eyes from her gaze.

“The 13 have existed longer than we can remember. For us, they have been and always will be. They were the first holders. Their power was unshakable and could change the world. Fortunately, they kept each other in check. One never gaining an advantage over the other. That is why we call them progenitors. The 13 now though are just mere shadows of their former glory. Our bloodlines now thinned and strength at an all-time low. Every generation our power wanes more and more. Though there are some exceptions”

“Like Markos?”

“Yes like Markos, Warm-ups are over. Let’s go meet up with the instructor.”  Dismissing the topic at hand she heads over to the growing group of students. As curious as I am I think that’s all I’m going to get out of her. At the center of the group, I see what I think is our combat instructor. And by instructor I mean a moving wall of a man. And by wall, I mean wall of muscle and rippling veins.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Like honestly this guy’s abs were bigger than my future. He would have made Olympic body builders weep at the sight of his gains. I can see the instructor looking around and judging the students which was all well and good, but a little something did not escape my sight when I saw him making his rounds.

I know I wasn’t the only one who noticed too. I think most of the males noticed, but I could just be wrong. See when the instructor was sizing all of us up he pretty much completely skimmed over all the girls. Normally you could just pass this off as a man being sexist and cry patriarchy. Did I think this man was sexist? No sadly I didn’t it would have been great if he was though. All the males in the class had to endure him taking looks up and down our bodies with a smile that screams uncle who’s not really your uncle vibe. Please let me be wrong.

“Alright kiddies line up!” We all do as we’re told and form a line as quickly as possible. His deep voice was betrayed by the playful atmosphere he was exuded. All in all, it was creepy as fuck.  As soon as we finished lining up the instructor walked up and down our line as the male portion of the class’s collective butthole just puckered. I back slightly behind Vera who’s beside me.

“Scott, what are you doing?” She asks dryly with her eyes closed.

“Vera I’m scared” I can see the males in class giving me understanding looks and slight nods. Look at that. Fear unites us all under a common enemy.

“Scott just get back in line” Why won’t women at least try to be understanding.

“Alright kiddies I think it’s time to start weapons training. You’re all to pick out a weapon and learn how to use it.” I see a bunch of crates suddenly appear behind him. What the fuck, where did those come from? The shock must have been apparent because not a moment later Vera fills me in.

“He’s instructor Novik, he’s a teleporter” See that’s a useful ability, I want one.

“Alright I want each of you to pick a weapon from the crates behind me and then we’ll begin sparring with your current partner” Wait shouldn’t we learn how to use them first? What happened to starting with the basics? Alas, I can see the rest of the class already taking weapons from the crates. I can see Vera pulling out a massive halberd. Which would look utterly ridiculous to see any girl wield, but somehow she makes it work. She looks back at me and frowns as she puts the seven-foot monstrosity back down and takes a long sword out in its place.

“Scott what weapon do you use, I’ll get it for you” She calls out to me as she looks through the various crates.

“I don’t really…” Did she really expect anything from me?

“Of course you don’t” Sighing as she throws a bunch of objects to my feet. I look at the plethora of weaponry at my feet and recognize some of them. There’s a sword, daggers, a spear, and… a pistol? Holy shit is it loaded?! Jesus Vera, why the fuck would you toss around firearms.

“Fine then well start from scratch and see which weapon works best for you” She’s smiling again. Why is she smiling again? Did I ever mention that I hate this school?

“Um Vera I’m not entirely comfortable shooting you with a gun” The other weapons didn’t work out too well. Turns out you need years of training to be proficient with a melee weapon. Go figure right? The other students had said training, but me? Not so much.

“Relax Scott you won’t be able to hit me and even if you did a 9mm won’t even leave a mark on me” Smug as it sounds it’s the truth. How do I know? The psycho shot herself in the head to prove a point when we started. Literally, put the muzzle to her temple and fired off the entire clip as she giggles. It fucking tickled her, shooting herself in the fucking head just tickles her.

“It’s not that I’m scared of hurting you Vera, it’s just the nuance of pointing a gun at someone and then firing a bullet into their face.” I like to think I at least retain some semblance of normality. If I start shooting the popular kids at school what kind of person would that make me?

“Stop being a pussy and fire Scott” Ok hurtful, maybe I will shoot you geez.

I squeeze the trigger and empty the magazine into her face. That felt surprisingly good. Maybe I am some messed up kid. The lead rounds fall from her face one at a time. What a fucking monster. I’m not going to lie that felt good. Is this some foreboding sign of some mental problems? Probably.

“There now that we have your moral dilemma out of the way let’s get started on train-”

“Hey I wonder if I’m bulletproof” I’m not going to try to explain why I shot myself because it takes a special kind of narrator to deliver that kind of stupid so that others can understand. Maybe hanging out with Vera all day is a bad influence on my sense of normalcy. Maybe I’m starting to lose my mind. Maybe I’m just a fucking idiot.

“FUCK THAT HURTS” I’m a fucking idiot. I can see a bruise on my hand in the shape of a small dot. Okay, I’m bulletproof, but I’m not Vera. It fucking stings.

“What is wrong with you Scott?” Her eyes were a mix of amazement and pity. I think her gaze was more painful than the bullet.

“What, you did it” It’s not a sound argument but it’s all I got.

“I’m not even going to start to explain your own stupidity Scott, let’s just go back to training”

“Fine”

“Alright I want you to keep up evading my sword attacks while also firing back at me”

“Um it might me a little late to ask but should we be firing bullets wildly around in an open area. Won’t we hit someone?”

“It’ll be fine the training field is divided into 20 areas. Each on has its own barrier mechanism that’ll stop most things, be it bullets or abilities so it’s fine. Get ready”

“Well that’s pretty neat-“She runs up to me and swings her sword at my neck. I narrowly dodge it by stepping back, but I end up falling on my ass. She readies her sword again and swings it down at me. I roll to the side and fire off a few rounds. She doesn’t make a move to dodge and merely bats the rounds off with her sword. That would be so cool if I wasn’t I scared at the moment.

“What’s wrong Scott? You were off to a pretty good start. Keep it up.” The biggest smile I’ve ever seen was plastered her face as she swung her sword at me. Her smile was a mix of Cheshire cat and child with a new toy. I raise my gun at her and pull the trigger.

“Huh?” shit its empty and I can’t dodge.

“Somebody should have counted their bullets” Shit eating grin on her face as she stabs me with her sword. I let the darkness take me as blood flows from my body.

You know those signs in factories that count how long it’s been since their last accident? I should get one for how long it’s been since I’ve been to the infirmary. I could bring in some stuff from home, really cozy the place up. What with how things are looking I’ll be here quite often. I look down at my abdomen and the wound is already gone. Not even a scar. God bless the wonders of modern medicine.

Vera was pretty nice to me considering she’s a progenitor and all. She’s pretty and friendly to boot. Too bad she’s a complete combat junkie. It was only training no need to stab people.

“Are you done checking on your condition Scott” Holy shit that startled me. Was she there the whole time just staring at me.

“Jesus Vera warn somebody if you’re going to that”

“The startling you or perhaps the impaling people with swords?” I stare at her.

“It was a joke. See not so fun when people screw with you is it?” I don’t even know where to start my comeback. Awkward silence permeates the room as we struggle to continue our conversation.

Conversations are a two-way street. Too bad this one was a goddamn multi-car pile up traffic accident in the middle of a highway.

“So um is class over then?” I try to move the conversation away from the silence. I really do hope it’s over, I don’t fancy going through another of Vera’s training sessions.

 “Yes, we were excused so I could take you to the infirmary to get you patched up” That’s great, now I don’t have to get stabbed until tomorrow.

 “You know I’ve been wondering for some time but, does this school have a nurse or doctor? I’ve been here twice now and I’ve never seen an adult aside from Ms. Nsia in this room. Even then she’s not much of an adult.”

“You shouldn’t disrespect a teacher Scott, her in particular. She was a former mercenary you know”

“I seriously have trouble imagining that though” She seems more suited to be, well to be frank a good for nothing drunk.

“Believe it or not she’s a class 8 pushing it to class 9, even Markos would have a hard time beating her” What the shit, she’s that strong?

“Hey~ Scott me and Anya came to visit, heard ya got yer ass kicked to the curb again” Henry take me back, I don’t want to with Vera anymore.

“You two seem pretty friendly, anything happen I should know about Henry?”  Anya blushes at the question. The two are complete opposites in my opinion. Henry’s a social butterfly and corner girl is well corner girl.

“Yeah we’re training partners now that you’re gone” Not like I wanted to leave. I look to the side and see Anya hiding at the door giving fleeting glances at Vera. Right, progenitor in the room.

“Anyways guys this is Vera. Vera meet Henry and Anya” Henry is unflappable as usual and Anya is trying to decide between hiding and introducing herself.

“A pleasure” Short and to the point, Vera introduces herself to the other two.

“Right, Anya I heard your sister was a mercenary before she was a teacher what happened?” Vera turned to look at Anya who was hiding behind the door with a curious gaze.

“She got fired for her bad work ethic” She looked away from Vera’s direction. Vera looked at me and I just shrugged. Not even surprised at this point.

“So Scott how’d the two of you become so close” His grin widening as he looked at me and Vera.

“Oh easy she put a sword through my gut” No faster way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.