Last time
"Please don't kill Dr. Stein. He is a teacher at Lord Death's Weapon and Meister academy. He is also a very good scientist. So please be careful." I told Ed as he went down the stairs and entered the arena.
Chapter 8 Ed's POV
I walked down the stairs and entered the arena to face Dr. Stein and Maka's father, Spirit.
"So, you're an alchemist. Did you need any license to be able to use alchemy?" Dr. Stein asked me.
"No, where I come from, anyone can be an alchemist. Many of our greatest scientists are alchemists. The greatest of all alchemists are called state alchemists. They work for our countries military. They do all of the 'Dirty work' and are called the 'Dogs' of the military. Each year there is a state alchemist exam. Each year only one or two people are selected to join the military from those who pass the exam. I took the exam when I was twelve years old and I passed. I am the youngest person to ever become a state alchemist. I am also one of the best scientists in the state. I figured out how to make a philosopher's stone." I told him.
"You know how to make the philosopher's stone?" Dr. Stein said.
"Yes, but I will never make it because of one of the ingredients."
"What is the ingredient?"
"Human lives." I said sadly. "Also, if you do alchemy that either uses or creates a human, which is called human transmutation and is a taboo in alchemy, you can get executed for breaking the law." I told him as I looked at my right hand.
As we approached the center of the arena I noticed that Dr. Stein was deep in thought.
"I want you to remember that Dr. Stein." I said, bringing him back to reality. "I also want you to know that I am not going to go easy on you just because you are an old man."
"I ask you, as a fellow scientist, will you teach me how to do alchemy?" Dr. Stein asked me.
"It all depends on how I feel." I replied.
"Spirit, let's do this." Dr. Stein said.
I clapped my hands and drew my signature spear out of the ground. I then gave Lord Death thumbs up to tell him I was ready to fight.
"BEGIN!" He yelled.
Spirit flashed white and transformed into a death scythe. Dr. Stein then started to turn the giant screw in his head. It looked as if he was waiting for something.
CREEK, CREEK, CREEK, CREEK...CLICK!
As soon as I heard the click Dr. Stein rushed at me, twirling the death scythe around him. I had to admit that he was very fast, but not so fast that I couldn't keep up with him. We traded blows for a couple of minutes before my spear broke. I had to dodge his next attack and take a few steps back. I then transmuted two short, light weight daggers from the ground. Lucky for my there was a small bit of tungsten about two feet under me that I had found with my alchemy.
"Now this is more like it!" I said. I then rushed at him with the intent to kill.
We traded a couple more blows before I noticed that my cloak was weighing me down.
'Good thing I can take of my cloak without revealing my automail.' I thought to myself. I then made a time out sign with my hands and Dr. Stein stopped trying to attack me.
"Let me take off my cloak before we continue fighting." I told him. I then took off my cloak and tossed it over to my friends in the stands.
"Why did you need to take off your cloak?" Dr. Stein asked me.
"I just needed to get rid of some extra weight." I told him.
"Whatever, it won't make any difference."
I smiled at him. "Yes it will." I told him "I can move more freely now and I don't have to worry about it getting ripped."
I then rushed at him with a bit more speed because my cloak wasn't weighing me down or restricting my movements. We started to trade blows until I heard a ripping sound coming from my shirt. I looked down and saw that my right sleeve was torn.
'Oh crap.' I thought.
I quickly jumped back and transmuted the rip closed before anyone could see it. But I was too slow.
"What's that under your shirt?" Dr. Stein asked me.
'Great,' I thought to myself, 'He saw the metal and who knows how many other people saw it to.' I then got an idea. "My, aren't you the curious one. That's my little secret."
"Then I will just have to rip your shirt up piece by piece until I find out!" he said laughing as he ran at me.
We traded blows back and forth many times before I heard many ripping sounds coming from my shirt.
'No use hiding it now. I might as well reveal it.' I said to myself. I unbuttoned my shirt and took of my left sleeve and the glove on my left hand. I then took of the right sleeve and the glove on my right hand. I then removed the t-shirt that I was wearing so that everyone could see the scar where metal met skin. I walked over to the stands and put my stuff on top of my red cloak.
I looked around and saw that everyone was shocked, terrified, or curious about my arm.
"What happened to your arm?" Dr. Stein finally asked me.
"This," I said as I held up my arm, "This is what happens when people try to enter gods territory. This is what happens to the lucky ones when they do the greatest taboo in alchemy. When my brother and I were very young our dad left us and our mother. Not long after he left our mother died. My brother and I learned how to do alchemy so that we could bring our mother back from the dead."
"When my brother and I tried to do the transmutation, something went wrong. I lost my left leg, and my brother lost his whole body. I then sacrificed my right arm to get my brothers soul back and I attached it to a suit of armor. My brother, when he 'woke up', brought me over to our neighbors. They were doctors and they saved my life. A year later I decided that I wanted automail so that I could live my life. Without my mechanic here, though, maintenance is going to be hard. We should finish up this fight now. I will tell you more afterwards." I clapped my hands and transmuted the top plate of my automail arm into a dagger. I then transmuted one of the tungsten daggers to my automail dagger to make it longer, sturdier, and sharper. I kept the other dagger in my left hand.
"Now then, old man, let's see what your made of." I said. I then rushed at him with the intent to slice him up into little pieces.
"Now, how do you battle an opponent that is faster than you? Ah, yes, you use all of your senses except for sight."
Knowing that he would be relying on his hearing, I slowed down my breathing. I then thought to myself 'This place is made so that sounds are amplified. He is in the center of the arena and I'm standing at the wall. If I use my alchemy to make sounds in different areas of the arena, the sounds will bounce off the walls in a way that will confuse him. I should use the same type of gloves as colonial mustang to make explosions happen all around the arena.'
I reached into my pants pocket and pulled out a pair of gloves that I had stolen from mustang. I put on the gloves after I had transmuted my automail arm back to normal. I than snapped my fingers and caused a few explosions in a circle that surrounded stein, but he didn't open his eyes.
"Hey, Dr. Stein, You might want to keep your eyes open. If you keep your eyes closed you might get burned." I told him.
I could see the confusion on his face as he opened his eyes. "I thought you already took off your gloves, Beansprout!" he said, causing me to get a few tick marks on my forehead.
"What did you call me?"
"B-E-A-N-S-P-R-O-U-T… Beansprout."
"YOU ARE SO DEAD!" I yelled at him. I half clapped, half rubbed my hands together to create some sparks. I then used the spark to ignite the oxygen surrounding stein and created a large explosion. I watched as stein jumped out of the explosion with only a few cuts and scorch marks on him. He then ran around the arena while dodging every explosion I sent at him.
"This is going to be harder than I thought." Dr. Stein said out loud to himself. Dr. Stein then smiled and ran over to where Soul was sitting. "Hey Soul, come over here so you can help me out!" Dr. Stein yelled out. Soul then jumped onto the top of the wall that was behind Dr. Stein and then transformed. Dr. Stein then grabbed him and started duel wielding Spirit and Soul. "Hey Spirit, Soul, do you mind if I try something out? I'm thinking that if I do a soul resonance with the two of you at the same time I might be able to create a dual Bladed Scythe. Are the two of you willing to try it out?"
"OK" said Spirit.
"This could be fun! Let's do it!" said soul excitedly.
"OK, Ready?" Dr. Stein asked.
"SOUL RESONANCE!" Three people screamed out at the same time.