Assessment (2)

Ian sat in place even after hearing his name, shocked that he was called first out of all the thousands of people there.

"Are they just trying to disgrace me?" he thought as he fidgeted in his seat. "They must have all of my information. They must know how weak I am. Are they simply trying to make me a target in front of all these people?"

"Ian Yaeger, are you present?" the voice called again, jolting Ian back to reality. "Please make your way to the enclosed area. We don't have all day."

Hearing his name a second time, he knew he had to move now or he would be exposing to everyone how nervous he was about the assessment. That would be making himself a target since a strong ability user wouldn't be scared of assessment.

He stood up rigidly, trying his best to keep his face expressionless as he strolled over to the platform. Luckily, he made it there before they called him for the third time.

As he entered the enclosed space, he was first greeted with a frown from a man he could only assume was the examiner.

"I would appreciate it if you answer to your name a little earlier," he said. "We are all busy people."

"I'm sorry, sir," he replied looking down.

"Look up," the man said. "What is your ability?"

He froze again when that question was asked. "Does he not have all of my information?"

"Answer me, boy," he hissed.

"Um, sorry, sir," he apologized again. "I assumed you had all of my information so it came as a surprise to me when you asked about my ability."

"The academy doesn't accept prior information of abilities to avoid favouritism in the assessment process. We aim to make things as fair as possible for both weak and strong students," he replied. "Now that you know, your ability?"

"Uh, I don't have one," he said and the examiner who had been looking at the holographic screen in front of him raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"I don't have one, sir," he repeated."I don't have an ability."

The examiner sized him for a few seconds before shaking his head. "Go to the machine over there and test your affinity. Hope and pray it's an ability we can provide you."

Ever since the introduction of abilities, there's been a high demand for abilities, with ability users keeping their abilities secret from the world and only sharing it with a limited few or their family members, while others shared theirs.

The military, however, struggled and fought for the masses, making sure to keep the four major elemental abilities of wind, water, fire and earth accessible to not only members of the military, but the public as well. There were a few restrictions on the abilities but they did their best to make it as public as possible but retained the highest levels of this ability within themselves and the families which awakened the abilities.

The families which awakened the strongest abilities known to the world today were known as Pioneers and they also held a lot of power and influence in the affairs of society.

Ian stalked to the machine which he had only heard about from people. An ability that would define his affinity and point him in the right direction. This had been one of the reasons why he hadn't tried to run away from military service. He has always been thought of to be medically unfit to learn an ability. He was hoping with this machine, he would have an idea of the right ability for him.

"You would feel a tingling sensation when you touch it," the examiner warned. "It's normal so do not worry."

Ian eagerly put his hand on the machine as he waited for a result.

He waited for five seconds, then ten, twenty, forty, one minute, two minutes, three..., and then there was a single beep.

"Take it off," the man said. "Now it's time for your physical assessment.

The man gestured in the opposite direction, leading him to an area with different other machines used for testing and an officer was standing there too.

The first was physical strength and he was directed to the first machine which had a handle and a flat surface adjacent to each other. He was shown a demonstration and he proceeded to follow it. He held the handle, gripping it with all his might and pulled back his free hand, delivering his best punch to the flat surface.

"Next," the man said still looking at his tab.

The next was a treadmill which was programmed to simulate real-life distance and also track speed. The purpose of the test was to test his speed and stamina.

He stepped on the treadmill and took off, running as fast as he could but stopped before he even ran two hundred meters as he was already feeling dizzy.

"Next."

He was given a few seconds to rest before the next test which was to test his reflexes. For this test, he was supposed to fight against the soldier.

"Do your best to dodge and counterattack," the soldier said as he strolled over to him.

He threw the first punch at his face and Ian avoided it slightly, already knowing his trajectory, but the man immediately followed the punch with a swing at his head. He ducked immediately and took a few steps back to put some distance between them.

"Good reflexes," the man smiled. "Again."

He rushed in this time and aimed another punch at Ian's head, expecting him to duck, but Ian had other plans. He could already see the soldier preparing to swing an uppercut with his other hand so he sidestepped instead and spun around to the soldier's side and landed a clean elbow on his side using the momentum from his spin.

He tried to spin in the opposite direction, aiming to land another elbow in the man's gut but stumbled as he spun, almost falling face first on the ground but was caught by the soldier.

"Your assessment is complete," the soldier said as he let go of him.

"Your information has been downloaded into your system watch," the examiner said without looking at him. Ian noticed that he hadn't looked at him ever since the affinity test. "Take it."

He picked up the watch as instructed and put it on, hoping to see his results.

[System Watch Activated.]

[User: Ian Yaeger]

[Health: 10/10]

[Strength: 3]

[Agility: 3]

[Stamina: 5]

[Dexterity: 5]

[Combat Ability: 10]

[Ability Affinity: None]