'58%...' Max thought.
A student needed more than 65% percent to pass.
"I..." Max tried to speak, but couldn't as his throat suddenly clenched.
Gareth and Vitria looked over at his exam and noticed his score.
"Oh..." Gareth gave him a look of pity.
"Hey, it's just the first exam, I'm sure you'll do great on the next one." Vitria put her hand on his shoulder in an effort to reassure him.
"It's fine..." Max tried his best to sound okay, but his voice cracked a bit, he was sure that if they weren't here it would be worse.
"Are you sure? We could wait on the bus stop with you- if you want to." Gareth said as Max started walking away, it was the end of the school day already as Professor Pate had given them the graded exams at the last few minutes of class.
"I'm fine, I need to get a book from the library anyway, you guys should get going-" Max said as he speed walked away.
Gareth and Vitria looked at him with worry as he went around a corner.
"Do you think we should follow him?" Gareth asked.
"I don't know..." Vitria replied as she shook her head.
•••••
Max was on the Armory, he picked up his poleaxe and walked out towards the Combat Training area.
There he saw the Training dummies they've been using recently, made out of steel and reinforced to the ground thanks to Professor Bronn's assistants who were Earth Elementals.
The dummies had places that had been caved in and slashed, yet none of Max's classmates made them.
These dummies had been on the school for a very long time, enduring powerful blows and Elemental Attacks, yet they still stood.
Today that would change.
Or atleats he hoped it would.
Max pulled the sleeve of the arm that was holding the poleaxe, showing quite a few yellow vein-like lines thrown around in his skin.
Max put his other hand on his arm and concentrated.
The vein-like lines came to life and moved around on his skin like strings floating on a water current, then their movements became more controlled and less erratic, slowly inching their way to their specific spots.
When they touched his articulations they disappeared, like if they had slotted into place.
When all the vein-like lines dissapeared the skin in Max's arm turned darker as the air in the room became hotter.
Then Max looked at the Dummy and ran towards it, when he was just a few steps away from it his arm moved faster than his thoughts, smashing against the dummy.
He unloaded his frustration on the dummy, beating it senseless and thoughtlessly, with a burning feeling on his chest.
But every hit didn't make Max feel better, it just made the burning feeling go away... for a while.
He smashed the dummy with the hammer head of his poleaxe for many minutes, he used his anger and frustration to fuel every blow, to burn it away.
Yet a few blows after that Max stopped himself, his arm had lost its darker color and the vein-like lines had already faded, worst of all, it hurt like hell.
Max looked up at the Dummy, it looked more like a red hot metal bar a blacksmith was working on rather than the vaguely person-shaped statue it was before.
Max dropped the poleaxe on the ground and panted heavily, holding his arm while wincing in pain.
He started coming here as a fun thing he did with Gareth and Vitria, throwing their most powerful blows to the dummies to see who would leave a permanent scar the reconstructing enchantments couldn't fix, yet one day he stayed behind after school was over and trained with them.
Since then he came here to train by himself, trying to find a way to control his powers and make himself stronger, and it worked.
He learned how to control the vein-like lines and use them in specific ways to make the boost they gave to his strength even greater.
Yet that wasn't why he was here today.
He was frustrated with himself, the burning feeling on his chest wasn't anger or frustration anymore, it was shame.
He had failed.
There was no other way about it.
It was the first hurdle of many, yet he was already questioning his choice.
He forced the lines to appear again, and looked at the Dummy that was slowly rebuilding itself in anger.
His fists clenched as he prepared a punch for the dummy, yet he stopped on his tracks when he heard a voice.
"I really wouldn't do that if I we're you..." Max looked towards the door the voice came from, there he saw Professor Bronn come out of the Armory.
"The enchantment is about to give out, so if you don't want your parents to pay for it better let it cool down." Professor Bronn said as he walked over to Max.
Max looked at his dropped poleaxe and picked it up with is non hurt arm.
"Well, you really did a number on the thing, you did cheat a bit though... using heat to make it more malleable." Professor Bronn touched the dummy and the rebuilding speed became faster as the steel cooled down..
"You- you're a Metal Elemental?" Max looked at the Professor with surprise.
"Yeah, didn't expect that did ya?" Professor Bronn grabbed his beret and showed his hair, which was seemingly made out of thin copper strings that shone with a brown hue.
"No, i-... great, now I owe Gareth 10 bucks." Max grumbled.
Professor Bronn tried to stiffle his laugh with a badly acted coughing fit as Max awkwardly smiled.
When the Professor stopped laughing he talked again "So... why are you beating the poor dummy senseless? Did it take your lunch money or something?"
Max chuckled and responded "No, i- I just wanted to- let off some steam..." Max awkwardly tried to explain himself.
"Uh, and what caused all the steam you had pent up?" Professor Bronn asked he sat down on a stool made of metal that came out of the ground.
"The exam- I failed... I studied so hard but I still failed..." Max looked down at the ground as his head hung low.
"Hmmm... Well, why are you beating yourself up about it then? I know this may sound harsh, but just try harder next time. You can't let a single failure define your whole life... I wouldn't be a Professor right now if I doubted myself the first time there was a roadblock."
Professor Bronn said as another stool came out of the ground for Max to sit on.
"I-" Max was about to retort but he felt his knees buckle, thankfully he fell on the stool.
"I feel like a failure... like it doesn't matter how hard I try to be good at things, I just can't succeed... Gareth and Vitria make it look so easy, even if I beat them in a fight they just brush it off, like it didn't mean anything... how can they do that, but if I lose I feel like I failed everyone I care about...?" Max sniffled as he cleaned some escapee tears with the sleeves of his uniform.
"That's because you're too hard on yourself... why are you trying to be perfect, when perfection doesn't exist? You're just running towards an unattainable goal, a mirage if you will. You can't learn if you don't make mistakes, just make sure you actually learn and make it better next time... that's the key to success, don't let your mistakes drag you down, learn as much as you can from from them and then let them go." Professor Bronn said as he watched the dummy slowly rebuild itself.
Max carefully pondered about what Professor Bronn said as he also watched the statue.
"If you don't believe me, why don't you just ask them? They don't have it as easy as you think, they have their insecurities, their fears... Everyone does, it's just that you tend to not see them if you consider them flawless or better than you. And I'm talking from experience with that one..." Professor Bronn said with a sigh.
"But- I don't want to bother them-" Max replied with a shaky voice.
"Well, I can understand that, you've only been friends for like a month, but do you want to truly be friends with them? The kind of friends who would have your back even if it's against an Elemental Beast? If you truly want that, you need to learn to open up, tell them your problems and let them help you while also hearing their problems and helping them, a healthy relationship, platonic or otherwise, is about giving and taking in equal amounts." Professor Bronn looked at nothing in particular as he caressed a golden ring he had in his ring finger, which Max just now noticed.
"I... never thought about it that way..." Max said as his hand went inside his shirt and touched the familiar purple gemstone in his necklace, then he looked at Professor Bronn.
"Yeah, but don't unload on them the first chance you get, baby steps first... like with that power of yours, I don't expect you to spill the beans, but if you need help give me a call, alright?" Professor Bronn gave him a knowing smile as Max looked at him as if he had seen a ghost.
He came to his senses after a while though "I- Thank you sir, for the advice and everything..." Max cleaned his face from the still forming tears and nodded at the Professor.
"Don't even mention it kid, like my Professor at college used to say, being a professor is one third teaching, one third giving life advice, and one third being your Cadet's therapist." Professor Bronn chuckled and got up the stool, which promptly went back to the ground.
Max chuckled too and went to leave his poleaxe on the Armory.
When Max was at the door Professor Bronn looked at the now fully repaired dummy, rather than being in an even worse state the caved in parts had been repaired, yet the slashes remained, it now stood up among the other dummies, looking newer in comparison.
Then the Professor looked at Max as he went through the door and lightly smiled.
"Wait-!" Max looked back at the Professor who suddenly spoke.
"Don't tell the other Cadets about this, I have a Drill Sargent reputation to maintain, for the troublemakers in class, y'know?" Professor Bronn made finger guns at Max, who laughed out loud.
"I won't sir, you have my word." Then Max smiled and waved at the Professor as he left the room.
•••••
Gareth and Vitria we're waiting outside the school for Max.
"Maybe he already left?" Gareth said as he kicked a small pebble out into the street.
"Maybe..." Vitria said as she checked the hour on her phone.
"We should-" Gareth stopped talking as he saw Max come out of the school as he was putting the Elemental Beasts Bestiary on his backpack.
"Oh, hey guys- I actually had to get the book from the library..." Max awkwardly smiled.
"Uh... Yeah..." Vitria said as Gareth walked over, he quickly got a shoulder jabbed into his side though.
"Ouch! What- Oh right... Uh... Hey Max, do you want to... I don't know, go grab some ice cream or something? To cheer you up after the bust with the exam..." Gareth said as he rubbed the ribs Vitria almost shattered.
"Uh... Yeah, I'm up for that... Sorry for running after the class was over, i- the book was just an excuse... I really needed some time..." Max looked down at the ground.
"Hey, it's fine... just tell us next time..." Gareth walked up to him and put his hand on Max's shoulder.
"Yeah... Well, I know a good place couple streets away, let's get going before it starts to fill up!" Vitria said as she led the group.