CHPT 29: Remember it.

"I'll give you all a few minutes to look at your stats while we place these 5 bowls in front of you. Once your done just close your system and wait for further instruction." Prof. Carlina said as she started placing bowls in sets of 5 in front of students.

A man with long blonde hair and bright vibrant blue eyes appeared in front of Claude. The tanned skin that covered his defined forearms made Claude think he spent a lot of time outside.

"Hey, I'm Prof. Galen and you'll be working with me if you have an affinity for lightning." The Prof said as he placed the 5 bowls in front of Claude.

Upon hearing him say he used the lightning element, Claude started to think about Prof. Raizen. He suddenly felt a pang of sadness since he never got to say goodbye.

"It's nice to meet you Prof. Galen, if I end up having an affinity for lightning I'll be excited to be your student, Sir." Claude responded.

Prof. Galen smiled and said, "Here's a tip, since your so respectful. When your trying to figure out which element calls to you, think about a memory or moment that made you feel an intense emotion." His large white teeth shined as he smiled brightly before moving on to the next student.

Claude made sure he would remember that as he looked into the bowls. The bowls from left to right had; water, a candle, leaves, dirt or clay, and two metal rods. "The 5 base elements." He thought.

"Alright if everyone could wrap up their system browsing so we can begin learning our element affinities, please." Prof. Carlina said.

Once all the students had their eyes on her she started speaking again saying,

"Ok, if you haven't guessed already the 5 bowls in front of you represent the 5 base elements and one—or a few of these bowls if you're a mage, will be easy for you to manipulate, in fact it will feel like it's calling out to you. Now, I want you all to take deep breathes and imagine doing something simple with each element. For example, if you want to try water first, imagine putting your finger in it and swirling it around, think about how the water would feel against your fingers with it's cool and wet touch."

The students began looking at the bowls and even putting their hands over some to try and make something happen. After a couple seconds Prof. Carlina yipped in excitement as a student student lit a candle, the bright orange flame burned incredibly bright.

"Fantastic! That's impressive speed, please tell me your name."

"Lucy Elda." Lucy replied in her thick British accent as she looked at the brightly lit candle.

Soon after, other students around the room began to make their bowls of water swirl aggressively or their leaves fly from their bowls. One student even managed to create a shock that zapped between the two metal rods and he made the water in his bowl freeze.

Prof. Demetria smiled at this, realizing she'd be teaching a young mage with two advanced elements being; ice and lightning.

Claude found himself not making anything happen. After about 30 minutes of sitting in front of the bowls most students were now playing happily with the element they had an affinity for.

"Oh come the hell on! None of you want me?" Claude thought angrily as he looked at the bowls.

He soon found himself looking around the room instead of at his bowls. Eventually he met eyes with Prof. Galen who made an expression that screamed, "What are you doing? Don't you remember what I told you?!"

"Oh yea, intense memory, right." Claude thought as he nodded at the Professor and closed his eyes.

Claude began to think about his match with Samuel, he felt that familiar volatile mix of anger and shame building up inside of himself making his hands clench until his knuckles were white and his arms shake.

As he got that taste of anger he started to imagine manipulating the elements in the bowls.

HUMMMMMM!!!!!

"I can hear it!" He thought as he heard one of the elements call out to him. He snapped his eyes open excitedly hoping to see one of the bowls in a different state.

"God dammit!" He thought as he slammed his hands on his knees from his cross cross sitting position. He looked up and saw that a couple students were looking at him then quickly went back to work— laughing, once they saw him looking.

Claude got back to work now eager to silence the students that laughed at his inability to manipulate an element.

"An intense memory....come on! I know I've got something more intense than losing to Samuel.." He thought in anger.

"Hah!"

He made a noise after realizing he did indeed have an intense memory that triggered a strong emotion, a memory so intense that it always sparked the same emotion...even though he experienced it every morning.

For the first time Claude tried to remember his reoccurring nightmare down to the finest details— which wasn't much. He thought of the atrocious feminine voice that made him feel sick to his stomach and how unbelievably angry it made him feel.

As Claude forced himself to relive the nightmare his forehead began to shine with sweat and his mouth went dry. He clawed at his pants and a snarl escaped his mouth as he heard the sickening line on repeat deep in the worst parts of his mind.

"YOUR WEAK AND SO IS THAT SNIVELING LITTLE BRAT!"

Students began to look around the room unknowingly understanding the level of anger a student among them was projecting throughout the room in a series of wild, feral bursts that sent chills up their spines.

Soon enough their eyes fell on the only student who seemed to be unaffected by the ominous feeling in the room.

Prof. Galen watched in wonder as the young student he spoke to earlier seemed to be siphoning unnatural amounts of what can only be described as emotional energy, through the focus of his rage. But he wasn't focusing it well as he shook and snarled from his position at the back of the gazebo. Right when he was about to intervene to stop the student from hurting himself or maybe even other students, something remarkable happened.

Claude felt his body become slick with sweat as he got angrier, "IM NOT WEAK YOU FILTHY BASTARD, YOU'LL SEE!" Claude said as he began to respond to the tormenting message subconsciously.

Soon enough he began to hear the noise again that told him one of the elements was calling out to him, only this time it was deafeningly loud.

HUMMMMMMMM!!!!!!

Claude snapped his eyes open immediately looking at the bowls to see which element had accepted him.

Claude let his head hang in defeat after seeing that none of the bowls reacted to him..not one. It seemed he lacked a crucial skill that would seriously affect him in combat.

"Fuck." He said quietly as his hands shook and tears welled up in his eyes out of frustration.

After a few seconds he finally realized that there was no noise...nobody was talking or even playing with their elements from what Claude could hear.

His head shot up and he quickly wiped his eyes— hoping nobody saw him cry.

As his arm came down from his eyes he saw that everyone was looking from him to something behind him.

"What?" Claude said, feeling uncomfortable under their gazes.

"L-look." A student stuttered out as he pointed behind Claude.

Claude turned around and jumped back in surprise knocking his bowls over in the process.

"HUH?!"

Claude said as he looked at the two large arms reaching out to him.

The tree behind the right side of Claude seemed to morph into an outstretched arm that reached for him, the limbs and branches of the tree twisted and combined to make the large arm and hand that were only a few feet from his back, it's thick barky exterior look as strong as steel.

The left arm was also reaching out for him but instead of being from a tree, it came from the ground and looked like thousands of vines and long grass-like strands all working together to form the outstretched arm. The oddest part were the incredibly long claws at the end of each finger. The whole thing seemed to be made out of.....Nature.