Chapter Twenty
The First class of the day was with Dr Emrys in lab room, instead of a normal lecture style room.
"Good morning class nice to see you all made it here, some in better shape than others." Gwynn said with a raised eyebrow towards team STRM who were practically falling asleep at their table.
"Anyway today I'd like to carry out some simple experiments for our first class together. I don't mean to insult your intelligence or your previous place of study, what do you know about dust?" Gagana was the first to raise her hand.
"It is a substance used in almost all of our modern technology, ether as a power source in our transport or homes or as an offensive force in our weapons."
"You my dear are spot on," Gwynn replied enthusiastically, "Does anyone else want to add anything."
"Dust can only be used by beings possessing a soul," Ramona said from the back of the class.
"Also correct, come on boys don't let these girls… leave you in the dust." Gwynn chuckled to himself, he was treated to a chorus of groans form his students.
"Yes as Miss Teal said, dust can only be used by beings possessing a soul," he walked over to team STRM, "Humans, faunus, animals and maybe even plants though no one has put much research into that one. Simply if it lives it can use dust." He placed a crystal against Mary's head as she was sleeping on the table. The moment it touched her it started to glow faintly.
"Thank you Miss Gold for being an excellent addition to the class." Mary jolted awake the crystal glowed intensely bright and then exploded waking up all of team STRM, who were starting to doze off, and caused Mary to fall off her chair.
"I'm sorry Miss, I didn't know that would wake you up." Gwynn said sounding pretty sincere. Mary brushed herself off and sat down.
"Sorry Sir." She replied quietly.
"None of you really look fit for any practical experimentation so how about you head back to your dorm and meet me back here after last period so we can get you caught up." All the members nodded and filed out.
"Anyone know what was up with that lot." Gwynn asked to which the class shook their heads.
"Okay let's start the experiment. I'm going to assume everyone here can use their semblance." There was a murmur and a general nodding of heads following this.
"Good good now who has tried to combine dust into their semblance." This time no one replied.
"That's fine I don't really expect anyone to have started practicing anything like that." Rylee raised her hand.
"What is it Miss T… oh right twins, what is it Rylee?"
"Sir I just wanted to tell you that dust related things are kind of team STRM's specialty.
"Is that true, well I'll make sure to test them extensively latter." Gwynn replied. He grabbed his staff and walked to the front of the class. "First I shall show you my semblance without dust then with dust and I shall try and explain the difference in preforming both." He turned to face a blank wall, clenched his fist then shot out a blast of kinetic energy. It left a small ring burn on the wall.
"Now with dust." He said and pulled out a red crystal form his coat. He repeated the same steps as last time but this time when he launched his energy wave it glowed cherry red and let out a tremendous amount of heat. Upon impact with the wall it generated a massive explosion, witch Nathan and Ryu had to dive from to avoid.
"As you can see, there is a huge difference with the only down sides being it is a bit harder to control and your dust gets consumed. Now do we have any volunteers?" Damian looked around and saw that no one else wanted to get up so he stood up."
"Ah Mr Carmine this should be interesting. Well walk over here." Damian walked up to the front of the room and stood there a little awkwardly.
"Damian do you think you could show us your normal semblance?" Gwynn asked as he gathered up some dust crystals on his desk.
"I mean it's not that-." Damian began. When Gwynn hit him over the head causing him to bite his tongue.
"I read your file I know that you need to be injured, which is something you really should try to get over as an activation form, what if you encounter an enemy trained in psychologic attacks." Damian ignored his teacher's words and let out a feeble roar. Like on previous occasions he a red aura grew around him expanding into the same of a bear.
"Good good." Gwynn said as he taped Damian on his shoulder and deactivated his semblance. Damian looked shocked and slowly turned to Gwynn.
"How did you do that?" he asked.
"People versed enough in aura control can do many tricks like that, boosting ally's auras, draining your enemy's aura and even bypass your normal aura limits."
"Why aren't we learning about that?" Ryu asked.
"Mr Lu don't be sour just because it would seem your semblance has no real use for dust integration because it probably can, in some way or another. Also were not doing that as it is a lot harder, we normally only start training you in it in your third year and some people never fully pick it up." Gwynn replied bluntly. He then passed Damian a yellow crystal.
"Know what element this is?" he asked
"Lighting." Damian guessed.
"Well focused on that element and it should be easier to manifest." Gwynn said as he took a couple paces back. Damian adjusted his footing then let out a roar. Instantly he knew it was different as his roar toppled the table in front of him. He felt a fuzzy, tingly sensation all over his body. As his bear form manifested it was showing signs of improvement as well. This time it was a deep blue and all its fur was on edge.
"This is pretty cool." Damian said as he took a few steps
"Just keep up the concentration." Gwynn said calmly.
"Keep up what? I can barely hear you over this buzzing sound." Damian said loudly
"I said concentrate!" Gwynn replied louder.
"What… AHHHHHHHH!" Damian screamed as electricity darted inwards and started to shock him. Gwynn leapt to Damian and drained the energy out of him like a grounding rod. Damian fell down and landed on his butt. His team rushed over.
"You ok mate?" Nathan asked.
"Yea I'm fine… just a little light headed." He replied
"A little shocked." Ryu asked as he offered a hand.
"Yea just a… you piece of shit." Damian replied with a laugh. The rest of the class joined in now that it was apparent that he was okay.
"Okay Mr carmine that was a wonderful demonstration would you like to return to your seat." Gwynn asked. Damian, Ryu and Gagana returned to their seats.
"Mr Glas," Gwynn said to Nathan, "I assume you would like to practice next."
"You know it he replied!"
"Okay let's see you in action then." Nathan took a breath then then slammed his fists together. His skin and hair rapidly faded to grey. He looked up slowly. Gwynn launched a projectile at Nathan and it didn't even leave a mark.
"So this is your ultimate defence?" Gwynn asked.
"Yes" Nathan replied very slowly.
"And this would be its down side?" Gwynn asked? Nathan nodded slowly.
"Can he even attack like that?" Brett asked to which Nathan motioned him to get closer. Brett walked until he was within arm's length of Nathan. Ever so slowly Nathan pulled back a punch and lunged at Brett. Brett sat their laugh for a good couple of seconds before Nathans fist made contact with his face and sent him flying across the room. Brett bounced off the wall like a rubber ball and tucked into a ball and rolled back to the front of the class.
"Mr Tawny what a good excuse to show off your semblance as well." Gwynn said with a clap.
"What was that?" Ryu asked.
"I can store and let out energy from impacts so bumps, crashes and falls aren't really a problem for me." Brett replied. Even Ryu couldn't deny that that was pretty cool.
Gwynn placed his hands on the two students shoulders dispersed their energies and handed them some crystals. A blue one to Brett and a red one and a purple one to Nathan.
"Normally id ask a student to preform single dust control but in your case, the worst that can happen is that your semblance will protect you until the effects run out. Also this will be really cool." Gwynn said giddily. Nathan shrugged. With a crystal in each hand he slammed his fists together. This time his features turned obsidian black and his eyes glowed red.
"Give it some umff." Gwynn said encouragingly. Nathan nodded then flung out his arms and expanded his chest. Cracks stared to show in his armoured skin and form these cracks erupted bright flames.
"Holy hell he's fucking volcano." Brett screamed.
"Control yourself and try to use some dust." Gwynn said reassuringly.
"Okay." Brett said as he gripped onto is crystal and a light blue ward formed around him.
"Now get a little rough." Gwynn said with a laugh. Brett launched a few timid jabs at Nathan at first who was still moving quite slowly, quicker than before, but still quite slow. Every time Nathan and Brett made contact a little cloud of steam would form blasting them apart. Nathan was getting frustrated that he couldn't land a single blow and on the extremely fluid Brett, so he lifted his arms high and slammed his locked fists into the floor creating a shockwave of fire and jagged shards. Brett and everyone in the room for had to duck for cover as the room was almost consumed.
"Stop!" Gwynn shouted as he produced his own wave of frosty cold air to extinguish it fire. He then jabbed the two students and disabled their auras.
"What part of a little don't you understand?" Gwynn said angrily. He sighed as Nathan looked at the damage he had caused.
"Good work." Gwynn said now a lot more light heartedly, "You two did a good job and I did egg you on." Gwynn peered to his watch.
"Look at the time. If I let you guys go ten minutes early you won't tell Ironwood I let you blow up the classroom will you." There was a collective no from the student as they laughed and gathered up their bags.
"Now how do I fix all this, sometimes I wish I had a sectary as good as his." He said aloud and to no one in particular. The students then filed out and headed off to grab some lunch.