Mutatio Shield

Zaid bent down and picked up very peculiar looking shield. To describe it in one word it would probably be "complex".

But that begs the question, if it is so complex why would Zaid want to choose it? Wouldn't it be difficult to learn how to use a complex weapon? To understand that you have to first understand the functions of this odd shield.

"This shield seems to be called the Mutatio Shield. Interesting. If I remember correctly mutatio means change or altering in Latin. It should also be the root word for mutation in English. The Changing Shield huh?"

Looking at the shield Zaid could see a circular shield with an approximately 30 inch diameter with sharp blades coming out around it for about 75% of the circumference, leaving about 25% safe to grab or brace against. That was what immediately caught his eye since that meant it could be used for attack and defense, but if that were all he would still be worried about his weakness in close ranged fights. Looking closer it seemed the shield had a blade that could be slid out of it about 2 feet while still being attached (kind of like Assassin's Creed hidden blade, but on a shield). This would let him get some reach when necessary. It would have limited movement since it would still be attached to the shield but it would at least give him some options.

Zaid played around with that function for a minute and gave it a few practice swings.

"That should be pretty useful. With that it is almost as if I have a sword and a shield. I'm only a little worried it might be to unwieldy, but I think I can get used to it after a couple hours. Plus it's not like I always need to have the hidden blade out. Oh wait there's more to it? How overloaded is this thing?" As Zaid thought that he looked to another part of the shield.

On the shield boss, the rounded part in the center, there was a 4 inch long spike. It looked like it could be used to punch someone with the shield and put a nice round hole in them. Zaid also noticed a small button on the handle of the shield and when he pressed it the spike shot off like a rocket.

"Whoa! What the heck was that?!?". When Zaid looked into the spot the spike fired from he noticed that there was some sort of spring loaded mechanism. "Oh it must have used the tension from this mechanism to launch the spike for a one time ranged attack. I wonder how it managed to get so much force out of it with so little room to put everything though?" Zaid thought pensively.

"This should be useful. Not I can use the spike as a melee and ranged weapon. Plus it will catch any enemy off guard. Though once it shoots off I guess the structural integrity of the shield is weakened since there is simply less metal in its center. I should only use that function as a last resort or when the victory is assured I think."

Zaid then went over to go pick up the spike, thankful that most students had already gone inside so it didn't hit anyone. He then picked up the spike and fiddled around with the contraption to get it compressed back in to the shield.

"Ok looks like there is one more function on this shield."

As Zaid thought that he grabbed the non bladed part of the shield to hold on to and gave the center a full 360 degree turn counter clockwise. This caused the handle to pop off and attached to it was some elastic cord that seemed to have been spooled around the rim of the shield. It looked like he had about 7-8 feet of elastic cord attached to the handle.

"As I thought. I noticed the seam around the handle and figured it could be detached. Looks like this cord is meant to be used to pull the shield back to me after throwing it. I wonder if the cord is strong enough to let me throw the shield and grapple on to something so I can climb up? It looks like it might be. But it could also just be meant to let me throw the shield at an enemy and then have it spring back to my hand due to the elastic. That actually sounds really tough to pull off though. Especially since this thing has blades around 75% of it. It could spring back and cut me. That would suck. Looks like this function will take a lot of practice."

"Overall I really like the variability of this weapon and most of the functions seem easy enough to use. I'd say there are probably 2 big weaknesses that I will need to watch out for with this weapon. "

"The first is that even though most of the individual functions are easy to use, using them all cohesively in battle is probably very difficult. It might take years of training to become proficient."

"The second is that due to the shield being so overloaded with features it's structural integrity is probably nowhere near as good as a normal shield. It should still be able to serve the purpose of a shield, but unless it is made out of a special material it probably won't be amazing in that aspect. And it looks like it is just made out of iron or steel to me."

"Still as long as I keep those 2 things in mind it should be a very useful weapon for me to use"

Zaid spent about 30 minutes experimenting and testing the shield. I'm addition to the nearly 30 minutes he had spent looking at the other weapons, it had already been about an hour since the spiky haired boy, Ignis, went in. By now pretty much every other student was already in the tower.

"Alright! Stop dawdling around. I've already let you all choose for an hour. Get in there!"

The speaker yelled at the few remaining students, Zaid included, for taking so long to choose their weapons.

Zaid did a couple dynamic stretches to get himself pumped up and finally walked up to the tower.

"It's go time. I'm going to get the best ability the world has ever seen!"

And with that Zaid ran in to the tower.