"Lana," she looked around to see they were all looking at her as she understood she was too busy thinking, not busy enough paying attention. She told Caser to stand by Quinn. She cleared her throat and stepped into her first golden circle. She started running then just thinking about it, a javelin formed in her hand. Sticking to the path created by the circle, she set the end in front of her down and propelled herself into the air. She was afraid she didn't give it enough and kicked the javelin with her foot, casting wither at the same time. She landed on the designated container with grace as the dust from her withered javelin hit the floor. Her instincts kicked in and she started doing flips and somersaults, twists and twirls. As she ended her time on the course, coming to the final golden circle, she leaped in the air twirling 4 times before hitting the floor with her feet to bleed off the momentum. When she looked at the others, she realized they were staring at her. The judges were staring with varying looks of interest or not as Linda was not impressed. She blushed and went to stand behind Quinn where she felt safe after retrieving Caser.
She was also last to go on the assessment for fighting. Since there were three judges and six people, each went twice. Nate had Kaz and Paul. Linda had Quinn. Blip had Fex and Shalt.
She thought it was a demonstration of ability so she asked, "can we do mine outside?"
Linda firmly replied, "No, it needs to be recorded."
Lana replied, "but I need to be outside to demonstrate my ability fully!"
Linda looked at her and said "don't be ridiculous. Show us here."
"Did you not see where I said my ability is plants?" Lana replied.
"Have you never heard of houseplant? You can think of something," Linda replied. "Part of combat is being able to think on your feet. Let's go"
"Am I allowed to damage the building by using my ability? Because if I do, the building WILL get damaged." Lana pressed.
"Enough! Fight me!" Linda was adamant.
Lana started crying terrified of what would happen to her in such a fight with such a huge handicap. Quinn tried consoling her as did Fex. Kaz scowled at her thinking her weak. She placed Caser in Shalt's arms, "Hold him tight. I don't want him hurt." Lana turned to face the strongest force she had ever reckoned with a big handicap imposed upon her.
Lana wrapped herself in level 1 and level 2 armor. She put herself into the fighting stance she learned from Leo's class. Not even able to focus, she was so filled with fear. She knew she could do nothing against so a foe. She threw a stinging nettle plant at Linda praying it would do something and it was easily dodged. Linda threw a punch toward her Lana threw up her arm so Linda would hit her bracer to block the hit. She had her white energy as thick as she could around herself. Linda was really fast. Might even be faster than Quinn. Lana was thankful the blow didn't rip her bracers. Linda didn't react so she assumed it didn't do anything. The blow hurt like hell and she was hoping the bracer would go off. Now she was wondering how much energy that thing could store. Her fear intensified. Linda intensified her blows. All Lana could do was protect her stomach. She got her whip formed but wasn't able to do anything. Linda was simply too fast for her to do anything against, unless she wanted to destroy the building that was. Lana heard paws hit the floor as Shalt was no longer able to hold onto Caser. He came charging in.
Lana screamed, "NO! Caser, move, she'll kill you!" Not knowing what she was doing, she extended her arm as Linda turned to the ferocious kitten. Her palm held outward, she screamed, "Get away from me!" and a tree extended from her palm, top first sending Linda into the wall.
Lana bent down and picked up Caser, hugging him close then she realized what she did. She stood there looking at the tree then her palm, then the tree again. Blip ran to where his sister was under the tree. She informed him she was okay but wanted the "damned" tree off of her as she was trapped under it. Lana took a deep breath then walked up to it and touched it. Wither.
She took her cat to the corner of the room and cried into Caser's fur while he purred at her to help her calm down. The rest of the eyes in the room watched her dumbfounded. Linda wasn't happy. The tree may have been strong but the building was damaged and she wasn't even hurt.
Lana noticed the wall was damaged from being hit by the tree and probably Linda and she didn't really care. The past two days had been really stressful. Now she was attacked by a crazy person who thought she could attack someone full bore during an assessment while fully geared to the nines knowing her opponent wasn't.
The four left the room to discuss the grades. A few hours later, the results were back. Fex got a D, which was the highest a new recruit could get. Kaz, Quinn, and Lana all got an E. Paul and Shalt both got an F. Shalt was just too new to his ability and martial arts.
They explained that Fex's string ability was very unique and had a lot of ways to use it. Nate was adamant about Kaz getting a D but the other two couldn't see it. Lana's power was great but Linda said she was too timid and deserved an F because she shouldn't even be on the battlefield. And she damaged the wall and was told not to. Both boys wanted her to have a D. They also explained that if the grading was wrong, the time fighting would prove it. In two months, Nate was B and Sam was a C.
Having survived the nightmare and healed her wounds while they were gone, she was just happy the ordeal was over. Nate and Sam offered to show them around the base and to the apartments they would be staying in. It was a large square building. The bottom floor was for those with families. The second and third floors were for single people; one bed in each room.
Really, Nate and Sam wanted to get Quinn alone to discuss why he was hiding his ability. Paul had advised him to do so because it would attract attention. Nate gave his card to Fex to buy an ability book for Paul and the three went off. Lana decided to follow them. She was too quick in the beast store earlier. She wanted to see if maybe there were some boots. At this point, she decided their days of selling crystals were over. If they were not turned into gear, they would feed the ship. She didn't know what things would be like on the other end yet so she was being cautious.
She was able to buy Shalt some boots as she hoped but there was no active skill. While she had windwalk, he simply had a boost to his speed. For a vampire, that was not always needed but this one needed to improve his vampire skills. She had her own ideas there after having been there and in their school.
Next was food. She found something she could eat while walking, caramelized carrots. She decided whoever invented this dish needed a huge reward. They looked around hoping to find a familiar face while following Fex. She didn't really care much about the other two.
Soon, Sam found them. He took the card from Fex and bought three different ability books for Paul saying something about spending other people's money being easier. He came from a family that was better off than most of the others did so he didn't see it as much of a big deal.
While they were searching for an ability that a vampire could learn, Lana decided to address another issue. She saw an accessories shop that sold hats, sunglasses, purses and the like. She asked Shalt to pick a pair he liked. He tried on several pair then chose one. She then bought him five pairs. She informed him this was now part of his uniform. Later when they were able to speak candidly, she would explain, he was to wear them. This way if he got angry or emotional about something, he would not alert anyone when his eyes glowed red.
Sam told the group he was there because Nate wanted to teach everyone about soul weapons. This got her attention. The soul weapon was something attached to your ability that only you, the ability user, could do. Lana happily followed Sam to the training room. Since Paul already knew about soul weapons and just got an ability, Quinn let him skip this and Lana did the same for Shalt. Both men sat down against the wall to read their books.
Nate then described the steps to shutting off the mind and talking to an area around the heart. The four remaining then tried to meditate on this area and see what happened. Three hours later, Quinn came out of his meditation. He had seen something but it had not formed yet. Nate said not to push it because that could cause it to form wrong and it would stay that way. The soul weapon starts to form after you are 16 and is not normally available until age 17. This was why the military taught it in the second year. Quinn got his ability after he turned 16 so his may take longer.
Lana opened her eyes at the 3-and-a-half-hour mark and looked at her hand. "Metal??? Nate, what the hell am I supposed to do with metal???"