Chapter 21 - Choices

After taking the robes from Amira, Draco was surprised to feel how extraordinarily light they were.

It felt like he was lifting a feather, and the robes themselves had a silky smooth quality to them.

Draco also realized that he had never actually touched a Ḥāmin's robes before.

He had fought with Samir for nearly a week straight and only once got close to touching his robes, so he was surprised to feel how soft they were.

Looking at the look in Amira's eyes, she must've known what he was thinking.

"Go on, try them on." she said, as if she was a mom telling her child to see if a pair of jeans fit.

Draco didn't need to be told a third time, and quickly slid the robes over his shoulders. He was confused on how to put the robe on for a second, when suddenly he felt that the robe had started moving on its own.

As if the robe itself was alive, it moved over his arms and legs in various different directions.

As the robe arranged and straightened itself, Draco thought that the feeling of the silk-like material moving over his skin was rather comfortable.

Eventually, the robe settled down, and Draco could feel that it fit snugly onto his body.

It was a strange thing, for although the robes felt very snug on him, they actually looked quite loose and free flowing.

Moving his arms and legs around, Draco imagined he could accidentally wear this robe to sleep by not even remembering that he was wearing it.

"It's like I'm wearing a cloud." Draco said before he jumped into the air, attempting to test his flexibility.

However, Draco had failed to account for his recent monumental increase in strength, and went flying straight into the ceiling.

Watching Draco slam into the metal ceiling, Amira couldn't help herself and burst out into laughter.

"You sure looked like a cloud just then." she said, her boisterous laughter filling up the room.

Draco had picked himself up from the ground and was now dusting himself off, but couldn't help but start laughing as well.

"Well, at least I know the robes work." he said, and he and Amira broke into fits of laughter once again.

"Alright, get it together." She said after a long moment, even though she was the one who started laughing.

She continued, "Since we've got what we came for, let's head back."

However, Draco suddenly said, "Wait! What about a weapon? You only gave me armor."

Draco didn't mean to sound ungrateful, but he really didn't understand what he was going to be able to do with armor and no weapon.

Amira nodded her head, "Hmm… I suppose you do need a weapon. However, I doubt anything here would be suitable for you."

"Nothing here would be suitable?!" Draco asked in disbelief as he looked at the familiar hilts of light swords sitting on a weapons rack.

When Draco remembered the sight of those blades of light cutting Old Bear into pieces he knew that he instantly wanted one.

"What about those light swords? I'm sure that if I had one of those I could probably take on anything." he said.

"Ho? A light sword, you say?" Amira asked, amused.

"Draco, I'm not saying that there aren't weapons you would like to use. What I'm saying is that nearly everything here takes years of training to use effectively." she said.

Amira then reached into her robes, and from them she pulled out a small black hilt.

She flicked something on the side of the hilt, and instantly a blade of plasma extended from the hilt with a sharp hiss.

The plasma was a blinding white color, and Draco saw that it seemed to burn the very air around Amira.

"Especially light swords." she said.

Suddenly, Amira brandished the blade.

Draco couldn't follow her movements, but he saw shining white lights flash around her dozens of times as she executed various combat forms.

Watching Amira spin around wielding her blade of light was mesmerizing, and Draco found himself lost in the fluttering of Amira's black robes.

After a few seconds Amira stopped, and she promptly retracted her sword's blade.

"Incredible.. who would've thought that you'd look so good swinging a glow stick around in a blanket." Draco said, a smirk on his lips.

Amira snorted when she heard this, "If you're trying to flirt with me right now, I've heard better."

She then held her light sword up, "My point was, it took me over four years to obtain a basic mastery with the light sword, and I was one of the fastest out of my siblings."

After a moment she continued, "I'm not saying this to gloat, but to instead say that if you were to pick up a light sword without any training, you would surely end up losing an arm or a leg."

Draco nodded his head when he heard this, for it made sense.

Although the light swords were probably the coolest thing he had ever seen, he certainly didn't want to accidentally lose any limbs.

After all, there was no way he could deal drugs with only one leg.

However, he would never give up on the opportunity to wield one of these.

They were simply too cool! What other chance would he ever have to acquire one?

"Wait, wait. What's the problem then? Doesn't that mean it's fine as long as I train in swordsmanship?" Draco asked.

Amira just shook her head, "It's not that simple. Since you are not a member of the royal family and have not survived The Crucible, even if you knew how to wield a blade you would not be allowed to."

"Well, it sounds quite simple to me." Draco said matter-of-factly, "I just have to survive this 'Crucible' thing, right?"

Amira sighed and rubbed her head in frustration, "I suppose so, but it's not even remotely that simple. Just forget about it for now, okay?"

'I'm supposed to be the one in charge here, how is this guy so demanding?' Amira wondered, exasperated.

Hearing this, Draco finally relented, "Alright, I'll leave that dream for another day, but that doesn't mean there's nothing in here I can't use." he said, gesturing towards the wall that was displaying hundreds of firearms.

"I've probably already shot half the guns in here. Did you forget that I'm an American?" Draco asked, only half joking.

Amira seemed to entirely miss Draco's sarcasm, and said, "Hmm.. I guess you're right. You Americans are definitely gun crazy."

After a few moments of deliberation, she finally said, "Okay fine. Go ahead and pick something from the firearm section."

When Draco heard this, he immediately ran towards the gun wall like he was a kid in a candy store.

After getting to the gun wall, he started walking down the wall and looking at his options.

However, Draco passed by so many weapons that he had no idea what to choose.

'Choices, so many choices!' Draco thought, slightly overwhelmed.

There were pistols for every situation, sniper rifles, heavy machine guns, and Draco even eyed one of the rocket launchers for a suspiciously long time.

Luckily, Draco eventually walked past the rocket launcher.

Who knows what catastrophe could have befallen the Ḥāmin Tower that day if Draco had chosen one of the rocket launchers.

"It's probably best if I be sensible, what I need is a weapon that is the most versatile. It should be something that can serve me in almost every situation." Draco thought to himself.

While Draco was pondering over his options, Amira's voice sounded from behind him.

"Draco, don't think too heavily about it. Every firearm here is a low-grade artifact. Not only is their stopping power greatly increased, but they also have cartridges that automatically refill with ammunition."

When Draco heard this he nodded his head, as this helped him narrow down his options significantly.

After a few more moments of deliberation he knew what the perfect weapon for him was.

Walking down the wall, Draco reached the section containing the SMGs.

He walked past P90s, variations of the MP5, UZIs , and even a Scorpion EVO3. However, Draco only stopped when he was right in front of a small MP9.

Right on top of the MP9 was a slightly larger MP7, and once Draco saw the MP7 he immediately knew he had found the gun for him.

The MP7 was completely white, around 15 inches long, and when Draco picked it up it fit perfectly into his hand.

Draco had chosen this gun for a few reasons. The first one was that it was a weapon he was familiar with, as he had shot it several times in firing ranges.

The second reason was that it was an all around excellent weapon.

This small gun normally packed rounds that could pierce directly through armor, and Draco figured that since this one was an artifact it could do much more than that.

It was also compact so that it could fit comfortably into his robes.

Draco saw that this MP7 was equipped with a 40 round clip, and since an MP7 had a firing rate of 950 rounds per minute, that meant that this unsuspecting gun could shoot over 15 bullets in a single second!

Normally this would be a double edged sword, as the usual MP7 would run out of ammo in less than 3 seconds.

However, since this gun had an automatically refilling clip he imagined this problem was greatly negated.

As Draco looked at the gun in his hand, he became more and more satisfied with his choice.

Eventually, he turned to look at Amira, "Is there anywhere I can test out this baby?"