“You all have fifteen minutes. No more no less.” Instructor Matthews said as he exited the room and left us to our own devices. It didn’t take long for people to start discussing.

“You bums and parasites better not steal my answer! Not like you could anyway!” Derris gave a cocky chuckle as he began to rock back and forth on the hind legs of his chair.

“What are you gonna do, Derris?” I asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?! I’m inheriting my father’s stemata! I’ll be wiping the floor with those terrorists with ease!”

“What does your dad’s stemata do again?”

“It’s a glorified hot knife.” Jack said as he began writing his request.

“LIKE HELL IT IS!” Derris sprung out of his seat in anger. When he realized he lost his composure, he quickly sat back down and explained. “It’s a rapier made out of some of the toughest metals on the planet. Combine that with a stem crystal that heats to over a thousand degrees and you have a tool for death! It’s a tenth as hot as the sun!”

“Woah…that’s pretty impressive!”

“I know, right?! It’s cool as hell and I’m getting it! Then I’m gonna kick your ass and prove that I’m the better CT—”

“How about you, Anna? What are you writing?” I moved on to Anna, ignoring whatever Derris was going on about.

“Oh! I was just gonna put something about healing on here. Though it may be hard since the Health Maiden already does such a great job. They might not even need another support CT.”

“I believe in you, Anna!” I pumped my fist in the air for her and must’ve sprung it too far, because I retracted it in pain soon after.

Ori sighed in her seat right next to me and when I asked what was wrong, she said that she couldn’t think of a good stemata. She already knew what was available and none of the one’s she was interested in caught her eye.

“Maybe we should’ve waited a year before enlisting…” She muttered as she thought some more.

“I memorized the list as well. What are you looking for exactly?” Jack asked Ori.

Everyone began to get quiet. This is the first time Jack has decided to engage conversation with us in a while. He usually keeps to himself either studying or training. Because of this, everyone was at the edge of their seat, waiting to see what he was going to say. Even Derris stopped in his tracks.

“Oh. Uh…I was thinking of requesting a long-ranged weapon. Preferably a sniper. I’m a pretty good shot and I’m lacking in close-ranged combat, so I figured a stemata like that could cover all of my bases.”

“A sniper, huh?” Jack began to rock the hind legs of his chair as he thought and came up with an answer. “I think what you’re looking for is the elemental sniper. It can create wind, flame, earth, or ice shots. You can even mix and match them if you become skilled enough with the stemata.”

“Wait, I thought that that sniper was still being used by someone.”

“It makes sense that you’d think that. The owner of the stemata died last week, so if you weren’t keeping up with the stemata records, you wouldn’t know.”

“Hm…makes sense, I guess. You better not be messing with me.” Ori wrote down the description of the elemental sniper.

“There’s two things I take seriously: stematas and the elimination of all terrorists. I would never joke around about something like this.”

This is probably the most I’ve seen him talk since we met. Ever since the academy began, he’s always been to himself and it just makes me a bit happy to see him warm up to everyone else. I might as well join the conversation. After all, I’m a bit interested to see what stemata he plans to use.

“Hey Jack, what stemata are you planning to request—”

“None of your business.”

“Agh!” I jolted and slumped into my seat, pretending as if I got shot. “That hurts, man.”

Oh! That reminds me, I wanna see what Rono and Gollie are putting on their—

“Arno, you’re running out of time. You should probably start thinking about what stemata you’d want to use.” Anna said before I could ask Rono or Gollie.

“Oh, I already have an idea of what stemata you can use, Arno—” Ori was about to suggest something, but Derris cut her off.

“Woah, there. It’s his stemata. I know you do most of the thinking since his skull is pretty empty, but he should at least be able to choose his own stemata. That’s part of the fun!”

“Yeah, that sounds fun, Ori! Let me choose!” I pumped my fist in the air in excitement.

“Fine…” She rolled her eyes.

Although I was a bit sad I couldn’t get to ask everyone else, I need to think of a stemata I could use. It’s thinking time, Arno!

“Are you making fun of me or something?” Ori said in response to me imitating her signature tapping to think.

Maybe I can use that warhammer that that CT had. It’s not like he’s using it anymore. The only issue I would find is that it wouldn’t fit my fighting style all that well. I’m more of a hand-to-hand combat type of guy. The style of combat I’ve learned specifically was from my dad. He called it the snake god style. It involves stringing an unrelenting combination of attacks. If your opponent counteracts hard enough to stop your assault, you would continue the attack from a different angle. Although I know a good bit of the style, I wouldn’t say I’m a master of it. Mainly because…I lost my father—the only one who taught me that style—in the fall.

But back to the point! I need something that’s going to synergize with that style of fighting. Bonus points if it enhances my shortcomings with the style. But what?! Ahhhhhh my head hurts just thinking about it!

That’s when I vaguely remembered something Mr. Terrance told me.

===

It was a week before Ori and I’s first day of school and Mr. Terrance and I were training. I spent most of my time trying to best him in a bout. I never got close to beating him, though. He must’ve noticed I was getting frustrated because he told me something after one of our sparring sessions.

“When you’re moving forward, it’s hard for you to see all of the progress you made because it’s behind you. Be proud of how far you’ve come. When we started sparring, I barely broke a sweat with you. I didn’t even have to move from the tile I started from. But now, you’re forcing me to actually think about these fights. I can’t just stand on that same tile anymore because of how much you’ve improved.”

“But…I haven’t been able to beat you even once!”

Hearing me say this, he began to chuckle. “Oh, to be young again. So much potential and ambition wrapped up…”

The Terror Crusher then put his hand on my head and gave me a warm, yet sad smile.

“Your speed and strength are your best assets. If you iron that out to perfection, you’ll surpass me tenfold.”

===

“That’s it!” I grabbed my pencil and began jotting down my description.

My speed and strength are my strongest assets, so I need something that’ll help strengthen that! Something that’ll also go well with the snake god style! As soon as I hastily wrote the description down, Instructor Matthews walked back into the room and told us to pass our request forms to the front. When we did, the Instructor went on to talk more in-depth about the different types of stematas and we all went home for the day soon after.