Dual-Wielder

Raishun stared blankly at the resident doctor for a long moment. His golden-colored eyes searched Hazel's face for the faintest hint of doubt or deception. Finding none, all he could do was lay back in his bed with a furrowed brow and a heart full of worry.

"You're kidding me. This old thing is an Imperial Arm?" With an annoyed scoff, he lifted his armlet into the light. The metal was shredded in some parts, the paint peeling in others. In its current state, it hardly seemed like a weapon Kingdoms would go to war over. "You're out of your mind. This was a gift from my father, who's an accountant by the way, not some battle-hardened fighter. Besides, where I come from, we don't exactly have Imperial Arms."

"But we just confirmed it did we not?" Hazel said in a surprisingly formal tone, "The Caligula is currently being kept in your locker for the safety of the student body. I should be able to touch your armlet without being devoured... but we both saw what happened, did we not?"

The doctor leaned forward, her messy chocolate-colored hair shifting ever so slightly as she extended her hand outwards towards his wrist.

"If you want, I can touch it again. In the pursuit of science, no sacrifice is too great"

"No!" Raishun's hand shot back in panic, "That's not necessary..."

"Good. You promised to keep an open mind remember." Hazel huffed childishly. Dipping her hand underneath the gurney, she produced a very long and thick needle. The metal syringe glinted in the light in a manner similar to her eyes. "The next time you forget your promise, I'll make sure to gather lots of good data. By any... means...necessary."

She started threateningly wiggling the fingers on her right hand, while the other made short and quick jabbing motions with the syringe. The silliness of it all brought a smile to the sullen Legion's face.

"Haha... I won't, I won't," Raishun replied, "So, carry on. I'm ready to hear everything."

"Okay! I did some research, and that armlet didn't appear on any Kingdom's Imperial Arm registry. And since an Imperial Arm hasn't been created in over a year, I've decided on two possible conclusions." Her eyes flicked to the Legion with nervous excitement and even a bit of worry. "Either it's a fake, or what you have on your wrist is something the great Varnya Uldren didn't want anyone to know about."

"Both options... aren't great." The blue-haired boy winced as he suppressed another coughing fit. "B-but a person can only bond with one Imperial Arm right? Does me somehow bonding with two of them have anything to do with me spewing blood like a fountain?

"That's where things get tricky. Better buckle up, because even I couldn't believe this when I figured it out." The doctor's fingers glided across the screen of her tablet with such ease and grace, that it was like watching a figure skater perform. "While you are bonded to the Imperial Arm on your wrist, the spirit inside is inactive, in a coma so to speak. You can't talk with if you tried, but its semblance is still active."

"Alright, so I get an extra semblance. I haven't seen it happen yet." The fledgling Legion sighed, "I can't spit flames or fly. The only semblances I have access to are my Strength Enhancement and Perception Manipulation."

"That's because the semblance of your second Imperial Arm... gosh that's wordy, let's call it Impy." Hazel sighed and cleared her throat before continuing. "The semblance of your Impy and your Strength Enhancement is the same... kinda. Here have a look."

Turning the tablet in her hands around, Hazel gestured towards the image of an hourglass on the screen. One end contained a large amount of golden sand, the granules passing through the narrow passage in the middle at a lax rate to the other side, which was mostly empty.

"What you thought was a Strength Enhancement is actually a byproduct of Impy's semblance. Which just so happens to be Aura Suppression" Her eyes flicked to his for a moment, and she flashed a proud smile.

"Let's say the grains of sand in this here hourglass is your body. This end with all the sand is your aura reserve, and the other empty end is your body." With a lazy flick of her finger, the sand began to pass through the hourglass, until it filled the second glass. "Like most Huntsmen, you draw aura from your reserve when you feel threatened. When it's not needed anymore, it erodes into nothing. The same for your reserves, anything over your natural limit disappears without a trace."

All the sand in the hourglass disappeared the moment her example ended. Raishun blinked, then looked at her with confusion.

"Okay. What does this have to do with me?"

"Ah Ah! No interrupting."

The sand quickly reappeared on the screen and began to move towards the other end as it had before.

"Because of your Impy, whenever you'd try to use aura it would get rerouted back to your reserves."

The sand on the screen reached the choke point in the glass, only to be stopped by an invisible barrier. Gradually, small bits of sand began to seep through the barrier, but most of it was turned around the way it had come.

"It also looks like Impy can store an incredibly large amount of aura. Perhaps even more than the Headmaster to give an example."

Slowly the side of the hourglass holding the sand began to expand. Yet as it grew, the empty side of the artifact remained partly full. For whatever reason, Raishun felt a sense of unease at the growing disparity in size between the two.

"Normally not a problem. But Impy was hurt in your last fight, and his power isn't working all that well." Her finger flicked again, and the barrier connecting the two glasses disappeared. Like a plug being pulled, aura rushed into the empty end of the artifact with such force that cracks began to appear on the smaller end of the glass. "Each time your aura breaks, a new aura rushes back seconds later to fill the void. It'll happen over and over, until..."

Golden flecks of sand kept slamming against the smaller glass, damaging it more and more until finally, it couldn't take any more. The artifact shattered in an explosion of wood and glass, sending sand flying everywhere.

"...The body can't handle it anymore." She whispered solemnly, "Your aura was never weak, it was just leaking through in small amounts. But now that there's nothing to keep it as just a leak, your body can't handle the overwhelming amount of aura you have. Every time you try to use aura, it damages your cells and tissues as it strains against your limit."

The doctor looked at Raishun with sympathetic eyes, yet he didn't seem to register them. His gaze was glued to the empty screen, sun-tanned hands balled so tightly with fear that his knuckles were turning white.

"You're unique status as a Legion with two Imperial Arms is something we're keeping a secret from the other Kingdoms. We don't want them getting any funny ideas about kidnapping you, or even killing you because of it."

"Is..." Raishun gulped, his mouth felt drier than a desert. "Is there a way for me to keep fighting? A way where I can keep living my life without hurting myself."

"Unless you call going into battle without your semblance or aura, then no. Raishun it's my professional opinion that you stay away from the battlefield, for your own sake." With a regretful sigh, Hazel placed a hand on the Legion's shoulder. "I'm sorry. But your days of fighting are over."