19 Strength Enhancement

"You have powers?" Stanley's teacher questioned. His brown eyes narrowed in suspicion when he heard that.

"Yes, I do," Stanley said doing his best to not show anything other than confidence on his face.

The teacher kept staring at him, not believing him at all.

"I- I only found out today too, sir Aaron," he quickly said. "I wasn't aware of it until this morning when my brother took me to help me train."

The teacher sat back. "Fine, I'll believe you as soon as you show us your power," he said as he took up the pen.

"Right, my power is that I ha— can make my body stronger," Stanley said quickly.

"A stronger body? How strong?" the teacher asked.

"Uh… I don't know exactly, but my brother said I'm a little less than twice as strong as him," Stanley said.

"Bradley did? He's not a weak person," one of the men in the room said. "Out of his batch, he definitely had one of the better physiques, didn't he?"

"I think so," the teacher said. "Show me this power of yours."

"Yes," Stanley said and stood up before pausing. "How should I show it?"

"Oh, hit me," one of them said and crossed their arms. As they did, their skins started cracking up as if it was petrifying. Soon, a layer of stone had appeared all over his torso and arm.

The stone armor also appeared around his leg, giving him a strong foundation.

"Just a punch?" Stanley asked.

"Mhm," the young man nodded.

"In the arms or…"

"Uh… I'll be in trouble if my arm breaks," the young man thought. "Hit me on my upper back." He turned around and waited for Stanley to punch him.

Stanley nodded and was ready to hit when he stopped himself from going for it without thinking. 'Right, an activation ritual,' he thought. If they didn't see him do something, they would be suspicious.

He took a deep breath and held it in, not letting it go. That was going to have to be his ritual and power.

Holding his breath gave him enhanced physical strength.

He took one step forward and punched.

*THUD*

The man toppled over and hit the wooden floor of the quarters with a rather large crack on his back. The crack wasn't there at all and had only appeared after Stanley hit him.

"Ow!" Stanley cried out in pain and saw that the skin on his knuckles had grazed off. It burned slightly and he started blowing on it a little.

"Brother, are you alright?" Stanley asked the man he had just hit.

"Yes," the man said. "Can someone please flip me over? I can't undo my arms, so my powers aren't stopping."

"Right, right," the other man in the room said. He had a single arm, his other one most likely destroyed during his battle against some crawler years ago.

He tried to flip the man over with his single arm but was surprised when he wasn't able to. "What the… how heavy are you?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Dude, I'm covered in a thick layer of stone. What did you expect?" the man said. "Just hurry up."

"Let me help you, brother," Stanley said and quickly walked up to the man in the stone armor. He took a deep breath and held it in before easily flipping the man over.

"Woah," Stanley himself was surprised at how strong he was.

The man in the stone came undone and left behind a pile of rocks in the room. "Oh, sorry about the rocks. Once I create it, it stays that way for a while, unfortunately."

"Oh," Stanley said. "How long?"

"Uhh… about a week," the man said. "I can prolong it, but I have to want to prolong it and need to be near it as well. But, if I don't pay attention to it, it vanishes."

"I see," Stanley said. "Don't worry about this, brother. I will clean it up later."

"Thanks," the young man said and turned around toward the other two. "What are you guys looking at? Why are you not continuing?"

"We're waiting on you for the answer, idiot," the one-handed man said. "What do you think? He's strong or not?"

"Of course he's strong. Didn't you see him topple me? You couldn't even do that if you had 3 Dulls pushing me at the same time," the man said.

"Oh," the teacher was surprised. "He did flip you over too. So, under power, I will write 'Strength Enhancement'. That's all right?"

"Maybe?" Stanley blurted out without thinking.

"Maybe?" teacher Aaron looked back up. "What else is there?"

"Oh, no no, there's nothing," Stanley said. "I… uhh… I just found out today, so I'm still in a daze. Please don't mind me."

The teacher shook his head and wrote down the information. He asked other various questions such as how many family members he had and where his house was and such.

The teacher knew all the answers, but he had to ask them just so they didn't have to face any trouble if it turned out that there was something other than what he wrote in the forms.

Once all the questions were answered, the two people walked out before the teacher. The teacher stayed behind for a moment and smiled at Stanley. "I'm happy for you, Stanley. I was worried you would have to go back to the farm where you would have to face your fears so soon, but the luck seems to be on your side," he said.

Stanley was stunned for a moment. "You… you know what's going on with me?" he asked.

"Of course I do," the teacher said. "You're not the first one to have trauma after seeing someone die. Many of the veteran Defenders are just like you. Maybe not as severe, but everyone has seen someone die and everyone fears it."

"Even I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, remembering the faces of my friends who I had graduated with. I see them die in my dreams," the teacher said. "I can't promise you that you will ever be healed from this, but you will be capable of having a normal life. You just need to get over whatever is happening to you."

The teacher ruffled his hair and stood up to leave. "Oh, and go to the training area and get a physical test. I want to see numbers on exactly how much stronger you are by the end of the day."

"Yes, sir," Stanley nodded.

The teacher walked away and closed the door, leaving Stanley behind in the room with a smile on his face.