Hey everyone John here with another chapter of Stigma I know this is earlier than I usually update but I had good Ideas on mind and a 36 hour flight so... yeah a lot of Sidonniecoln in this chapter for those who love their dynamic myself included and finally a little update I'll probably do two more chapters after this one and then give the story a break in order for me to focus on other things like my other story E.M and my coming college semester thank y'all in advance for your understanding and well that should be all from me as always just sit, relax , leave a review if you like but most importantly enjoy, John out
As Lincoln and Ronnie Anne finished talking, from the top of the Academy's building a figure was stretching itself while looking down at the great number of students present at the training field. After a few stretches, the mysterious figure approached the edge of the building and in the blink of a second jumped into the training field. With impressive skill, the mysterious figure landed right in the middle of the field, catching the attention of everyone present, including Lincoln.
With a wide smile on her face the figure got up on her feet and while looking towards all the students she began talking.
"Hello everyone, is nice to see so many eager young girls for today's battle exercises "
Looking around the field the figure managed to spot Lincoln who was still amazed at the impressive entrance she had performed. As soon as caught sight of Lincoln the mysterious figure made a giant leap right next to him and while putting him in complete shock she began to speak.
"Well, well, well so you must be the famous male stigma user everyone's been talking about, Lincoln Loud I am right?"
"Y-yes ma'am"
"Relax kiddo, I should probably introduce myself, I'm Coach Keck but you can just call me coach, I'll be in charge of the battle exercises today, nice to meet you Lincoln"
"Umm… nice to meet you too, coach "
" Principal Ramirez and Mrs. Johnson told me a lot about you, the first ever male stigma user and a Loud on top of that, I'm excited to see how you perform today Lincoln"
"I-I'll give it my best shot but before that coach, there's something I should te-"
"Hold that thought Lincoln, Okay everyone, gather around the battle exercises are about to begin so all of you should be ready up to this point "
"*sigh* I guess couldn't tell the coach either, I wonder if I'm going to be okay"
Noticing the discomfort on Lincoln's face Sid called out to the white-haired boy.
" Lincoln, are you okay? You look kinda gloomy after talking with the coach"
"I'm… fine, don't worry about it Sid we should probably focus on the exercises for now "
As much as Lincoln wanted to share his troubles with Sid a part of him would not let him, he knew that as a non-combatant she already had enough troubles as it is with today's battle exercises, so giving her the mental burden that one of her friends is going through a tough time would only make things worse for her and that's something that Lincoln would never allow her to go through.
"Well, okay but you know that if you ever need to talk, as your friend I'll be here to listen and Ronnie Anne too "
"Hey wait a minute, don't go simply adding me together in a friendship group with him Sid, you know I still don't trus- "
Before Ronnie Anne could finish her sentence, she was outdone by the only thing that could never make her reject one of Sid's petitions regardless of how ridiculous they could end up being, the cursed technique of the puppy eyes.
" *sigh*…. F-Fine I'll be his friend too, if it makes you happy just stop doing that okay "
As Ronnie Anne, Sid and Lincoln chatted amongst each other, Coach Keck suddenly interrupted their conversation with a big shout.
"Okay everyone the battle exercises are starting, as you all know this is a battle simulation in which you're to defeat a specialized training doll in combat using only your own abilities and of course your wits, remember that in a battle power isn't everything "
As Coach Keck was giving her explanation a familiar brunette figure rose amongst the crowd. Taylor began to speak.
"That just sounds like weakling talk Coach Keck, everyone knows that in a battle you gotta be strong enough to make your opponents beg for mercy "
"Well, while what you say could be true, you have to remember that mindless strength isn't everything if it was, we wouldn't be any different from the revenants fight, Taylor"
"Hmpf, that still sounds like some sort of pathetic excuse to me"
"Anyways moving on, for this year's battle exercises thanks to the decision of Principal Ramirez instead of the usual free for all, the battles will be played in a team format, three students against three battle dolls, to strengthen your use of teamwork in battle, which is also a very important asset in battle, for now all of you have three minutes to find your partners so get ready and partner up"
As soon as coach Keck finished talking all the girls in the field quickly rushed in order to partner up with their ideal companions meanwhile Sid was currently smiling for some reason as she looked at both Lincoln and Ronnie Anne.
While flashing a warming smile towards the pair Sid spoke.
"You heard that guys? We are going to do the exercise in teams, I was a bit scared before but now I'm excited knowing that I get to do with you guys, yay"
"Woah, hold it right there Sid , I know I agreed that I would try to be friends with him, but I never said anything about having to do the exercises with him you and me can handle this on our own and besides we don't even know much about the guy yet, he's very suspicious "
"Come on, Ronnie Anne don't be like that, so what if we don't know much about Lincoln? He's still our friend, and as friends, we should be there for each other, right? So that's enough for me "
"Umm… don't I get a say in this?"
"No you don't so be quiet, and Sid, be reasonable you've only known the guy for at least two days"
"It doesn't matter, something like that didn't stop me when I met you, remember? Plus the coach did say we needed three people on the team sooo…."
"Well I-... *sigh* okay you win Sid, we'll work together but I'm not taking care of any mess he makes, okay?"
"Hehe, hear that Lincoln? Let's give it our all "
"Y-Yeah let's do it, I guess"
After the three minutes, that coach Keck instructed had ended a huge barrier erected from the training field surrounding Lincoln and every other student within the place. After the barrier was fully set up, everyone's uniforms began to glow in a vivid blue color as this took place the battle dolls started to appear in the field in groups of three, one right after the other.
Calling upon the attention of the class once more, coach Keck began to speak.
"Great, it seems like all of you managed to find your partners on time. That's good but the real challenge begins now all of you may have noticed the barrier and the sudden glow in your uniforms, well this can be seen as your 'lives'. As you all know when a stigma user goes out to fight revenants they must be ready for anything since one careless move could cost not only their lives but the lives of the people they are trying to protect, so for this exercise you'll work with your partners in order to defeat the battle dolls but of course under certain 'conditions' "
Raising her hand in confusion one of the girls in the field asked.
"What sort of conditions coach? "
"Three conditions actually, number one if you get kicked out of the barrier you are counted as 'dead' meaning your team losses a partner but don't worry that still doesn't mean you fail the exercise, number two if you receive enough damage to make the glow in your uniform turn red you are also counted as dead and number three your team must have defeated all the battle dolls in ten minutes or you fail the exercise"
Outraged by the conditions inputted by coach Keck many students began to shout.
"W-What? How are we supposed to defeat the battle dolls in such a short time!? "
"This isn't fair, this is tyranny"
"This insane coach, are you out of your mind!?"
"Everyone be quiet, if anyone feels bothered by something as little as this then I'm sorry to tell you that don't have what it takes to fight out there then, many brave stigma users risk their lives to protect the world every day despite any shortcomings they may find, so if you feel that something like this is enough to stop you then feel free to walk away anytime "
Everyone stood quiet after hearing coach Keck's speech, many feeling ashamed of their words earlier.
Moments later…
…ten minutes until the exercise ends.
After coach Keck's speech the Battle exercises officially began, as it was likely many students directly launched themselves for a quick frontal attack from very beginning while others tried to devise a strategy in order to takedown the battle dolls meanwhile Lincoln, Sid and Ronnie Anne were discussing their plan of attack.
"Well, I gotta say they are bigger than I expected" said Lincoln while taking a look at the battle dolls in front of him.
" Hey, if you have time to admire their size then you might as well think of a way on how we are going to defeat these things"
" Y-Yeah sorry about that, well I think for now the best we can do is figure out how we can take them on with what we have at hand "
"You mean our stigma abilities, Lincoln?"
"Exactly"
" Well Sid is not exactly the fighting type and her stigma can't do much here so that leaves her out "
"I'm sorry you guys I wish I could help out more but even my stigma ability is…"
While Putting his hand next to Sid's shoulder in order to cheer her up Lincoln spoke.
"Hey it's okay Sid, you already help enough as it is you don't need to fight to be important to us "
"Lincoln….. *sniff* Thank youuuu-"
"Hold it you two, don't even think about it, no hugs especially you, Lame-o, Understood?"
" U-Understood…, wait a minute, did you just call me Lame-o? "
" Well saying simply you was getting old and so far you have been pretty lame, so it was either calling you Lame-o or Hug Pervert "
"I think I'll stick with Lame-o then, Anyways mind telling me about the pistols?"
"Hmm? So you want to know about my ability? Hehe not a chance Lam-"
"Ah, you want to know about Ronnie Anne's stigma ability Lincoln? Sure I'll tell you, her stigma ability is called 'Twin pistols' is a weapon-type stigma ability that lets her summon two pistols from anywhere anytime, she can also fire an infinite amount of bullets as long as she has mana and what makes it so cool is that the bullets she fires can bounce from any surface until it hits the target she picked isn't it awesome?"
"Sid, why did you just went ahead and told him everything about my ability!?"
"Well he wanted to know and as friends, I thought it wouldn't be nice to keep secrets from each other"
"Grrr… well whatever, there you have it Lame-o that's my stigma ability and now I think it should be fair you told us yours which surely must be great, right?"
"Well, I-…. The thing with my stigma ability is- WATCH OUT!"
At the call of Lincoln's shout both Sid and Ronnie Anne barely managed to move out of the way as one of the battle dolls took the initiative trying to crash itself into the trio.
Being barely able to catch her breath Sid spoke
"T-that was very close you guys, if it wasn't wasn't for Lincoln's warning we could have been seriously hurt "
"No problem Sid but I didn't think those things would attack us out of nowhere, I guess we got to keep our guard up"
"There's no time for that Lame-o we gotta start attacking now we only ten minutes to defeat these things after all, I guess we'll put that talk about your stigma ability on hold for now and instead you can try using it to help us defeat these things"
"W-Well you see that's what I wanted to tell you I- I can't "
"What!? What do you mean you can't, are you not a combatant or something? Is that the problem? Arghh… you know what? Step back I'll deal with you later Lame-o, now I gotta focus on taking care of those three things on my own "
After her harsh words Ronnie Anne rushed forward while summoning her pistols in order to face the three battle dolls by herself leaving a sorrow-filled Lincoln behind.
" *sigh* What was I thinking!? Now I just became another burden, I wanted to help but what can somebody as defective as me, do? "
"Lincoln?"
"Sid? What is it? "
"Well you stayed back here after taking to Ronnie Anne so I wanted to know what's wrong"
"Oh, that? It's… nothing I just…"
"It's fine Lincoln, you can tell me, I told you that as your friend I would be here to listen to anything you have to say"
"I just... I just... feel so useless, I wanted to help Ronnie Anne, I wanted to help her defeat those things, I wanted to help her protect you but, I can't even bring myself to use my stigma ability, first male stigma user, what a joke I'm nothing more than a useless loser "
"Hey, don't you ever say that again you hear me" Sid responded in a slightly angry tone while making pouts with her face .
"Huh?
" Listen, weren't you the one that told me to not give up even if my stigma ability is a non-combatant one"
"Well, I -"
"And weren't you the one that warned me and Ronnie Anne of the attack that was coming toward us "
"Yes, I did but -
" And finally weren't you the one that promised that I'm ever in need of saving you would be my hero, Lincoln?"
"I- Yes you're right Sid, I did promise you that "
"I don't want my hero but more importantly I don't want my friend hating himself just because of some dumb power from some dumb mark, I can tell that even without it you are still a hero Lincoln you just have to believe it too "
"I- I- don't know what to say, thank you Sid those words it's just... what I needed to hear "
"Hehe, that's what friends are for Lincoln, now I just wish there was a way we could help Ronnie Anne too, she's won't last long like this "
"*heavy breathing* C-Come on you mindless puppets, is that the best you got? I-I haven't even broken up a sweat yet *heavy breathing* B-Bullet Barrage "
"Hmm… maybe there is a way, okay Sid we don't have much time so follow my lead, I think I have a plan "
… six minutes left until the exercise ends.
