◆Examination 2: Prowess◆
The second exam could still qualify as what one may expect during a physical, but a closer experience to if they were trying out for a sports team. It was simple tests to measure strength, dexterity, accuracy, and reflexes. It also mildly measured eyesight, not that it should really be a problem for any of them.
The first was an arm-wrestling match against a robotic arm. The arm wasn’t designed to win. Instead, it measured the force applied against it and adjusted accordingly until the opponent was just barely able to eke out a victory. It also measured the involuntary grip strength the person applied since they’d be forced to use as much as possible.
The second test was a bit more crude. It was a simple smack to the knee to test reflexes, but escalated a bit. Ahvra would instead swing her broom handle vigorously at their knee. If it connected, it would measure reflex as normal, but they were allowed and encouraged to try to stop it any way they could before they were hit. Curses were the only thing forbidden for Fiends.
The third test was a step-up from an eye exam. Ahvra would call out a few letters on an eye chart and the candidate had to throw darts to try and hit them.
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{No. 1; Suspiciously Average}
“You’re useless to me. What am I supposed to do with this data?” Ahvra sighed when she checked his strength result. “I feel like a gym teacher giving a yearly fitness test.”
The next tests weren’t much better. The boy didn’t react at all when she swung at him, and his leg went flying upwards after impact. For the eye test, he managed to hit one of the letters barely, but the others were quite off the mark.
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{No. 50; Stiff Ex-Soldier}
“Quite impressive, Mr. Not-a-Soldier,” Ahvra praised after the strength test. He managed to shift his legs out of the way of the broom as well, and it hit the table with a clang. “A perfect score. Must be quite the sharpshooter,” she guessed.
“While I can’t deny some skill…” the man agreed, “I just got lucky with it being darts. There’s not a lot to do on deployment downtime besides playing cards and bar games.”
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{No. 66; Big Woman}
“Sorry, little miss. I think I broke your machine thing,” the woman genuinely apologized after the strength test. Ahvra once again simply stood there with her mouth agape while the rest of her face remained expressionless. The machine had been tested with all current members, and the maximum capacity was more than doubled from the highest numbers, which had belonged to Drim.
The machine never even stood a chance. With one swift motion, the woman had slammed the arm down and broke it off its stand. The robotic hand had also been completely crushed to the point of being unrecognizable. For the reflex test, it was Ahvra who showed the most agility. She dodged deftly out of the way when the leg came up. It was out of fear for her life if she was hit by that tree trunk of a limb.
The dart test was almost as damaging as the first. The woman had ignored the basic instructions and instead chucked all the darts in one throw. They easily tore through the chart and the wall behind it. A scream from the next room followed shortly after. Ahvra normally would have laughed at the situation, but she was just too stunned and rapidly writing down notes.
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{No. 89}
This man hadn’t left an impression on Ahvra during the first exam, so she hadn’t noted much about him. However, when it came time for the second, he perked up when he saw the state of the equipment. “Seems you’re in need of some new goods. I could get you an unbeatable deal and have them here by tomorrow.” He then flashed a confident grin that could sell venom to a snake.
“No need, my assistant is bringing a spare,” Ahvra finally said after a minute of confused intrigue.
“Quite some fancy darts you have here,” the man mentioned during the third test. Ahvra happened to notice after he left that she had less of them than she’d given him.
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{No. 13; Needs Help. Might Die}
The weak girl very slowly pushed the robotic arm down to the base. The robot barely added any resistance since her touch was extremely light. For the reflex test, Ahvra started swinging at her normal strength, but as the broom got closer to the girl, she steadily slowed down until she barely brushed the girl’s knee with the broom’s bristles.
“Umm, I don’t think I’d do very well with this,” the girl admitted at the dart test. “You’re not going to make me embarrass myself, are you?” She looked at Ahvra pitifully as she asked.
“Well… I suppose we can skip it,” Ahvra relented, fury burning inside her for allowing this girl to get away with so much.
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{No. 118; Full of Himself. Stop Shaking}
“Come on, you can do better than that,” Ahvra gave the boy the least encouragement possible when he was down to his last dart. So far his strength had reflexes were middling, and he’d wildly missed all of his shots so far. Yet for some reason, she felt he could do more. Perhaps his lack of self confidence was all that was standing in his way.
Ahvra was about to try a little harder in getting him to calm down, but he took a deep breath on his own. When she blinked a moment later, he was gone. After a few stunned glances around the room, Ahvra found him again at the eye chart. He was standing inches away from it, the dart still in his hands and perfectly stabbed into his assigned letter.
“Oh Oh Oh? Now you’re useful,” Ahvra showed genuine excitement for once. “You’re only a Lesser, right?” She rhetorically asked as she began prodding his body again.
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{No. 100; Hard to Pin Down}
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Ahvra groaned as whatever was going on with this boy continued to frustrate her. His strength test was pretty sad, but she wasn’t sure she’d actually seen him do it. For the reflex test, she looked at him only through her Curse, but still somehow missed entirely with her broom.
The accuracy test was the real surprise, though. He managed to hit every single letter perfectly. However, when she was resetting for the next candidate, she noticed that the darts weren’t in the chart at all. Instead, they were placed back on the examination table next to where he’d been sitting.
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{No.s 91+92; Annoying Couple}
For whatever reason, this couple insisted that they do the strength test together, stating that ‘their power was stronger together’. Either way, the results were average; doubled, but average. For the reflex test, Ahvra never even got the chance to hit them. Instead, they playfully started kicking each other’s feet while waiting until it delved into a few full minutes of footsie. Ahvra just decided to skip the test since she doubted any results she got would be useful.
For the accuracy test, they ignored the darts and instructions entirely. Instead, they both whipped out their revolvers that they had holstered at their hips and blasted the eye chart until they were out of bullets. They then smiled at Ahvra proudly as she only sighed.
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{No. 121; Trying to flirt?}
This girl’s strength test was surprisingly low despite being a Fiend. After Ahvra made her redo it, she realized the reason was that the woman was trying to avoid damaging her nails. Ahvra appreciated the conviction, but still damned the results. For the reflex test, the girl purposely aimed at Ahvra playfully with her leg while spouting an insincere warning whoop, but still was obvious enough about it that Ahvra could dodge it easily.
This woman also purposefully ignored using the darts as well, opting for a water pistol she’d brought along with her. Before Ahvra could try to guess what letters were hit, the chart melted away into sludge. “Aww, the little chart isn’t so cute anymore,” the girl giggled to herself.
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{No. 8; Likes Hair}
The hair obsessed woman was very obedient for all of her exams, and she performed admirably at all of them. However, for the entire duration, she used only one hand as she played with the gifted hair in the other, staring at it intently. She barely glanced at the eye chart, but still hit them all perfectly. When Ahvra pulled them out later, she found a strand of her own hair wrapped around each.
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{No. 65; Formerly Injured. Fiend Anomaly}
“Impressive, one of the best specimens today,” Ahvra commented after all three tests. This girl had top marks on the strength test, second only to the big woman. She managed to grab Ahvra’s broom before it could hit her, and she nailed the dart throwing with pure dexterity. “I’m quite surprised. You don’t come off as someone capable,” Ahvra uttered bluntly as the woman’s face was confused and slightly offended.
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{No. 29; Dead inside?}
“How much strength would you like?” the man asked Avhra seriously.
“Uhh, however much you can do.” Ahvra was confused by the question.
“It is hard for me to know my own limits. What amount would make you happy?” the man pressed further.
“Umm, I don’t know,” Avhra struggled for an answer. “You’re a Lesser, so enough strength to lift a thousand pounds, I guess?” She was bewildered as the man produced the exact amount of strength asked of him and not a single percent more.
“What is the preferred outcome? Should I be hit by the stick or stop the stick?” he inquired again on the reflex test.
“Whatever makes you happy,” Ahvra was starting to get annoyed.
“Which is the better result?” the man persisted.
“Just stop the mawhging broom then, alright?” Ahvra frustratedly grumbled as she swung the broom harder than with any other applicant. She got her wish, as the broom was knocked out of her hands and sent flying across the room before it even got close to him. Once more, she didn’t even see it happening. Lessers were surprising her a lot today.
“I like this test, the assignment is clear,” the man commented as he threw his darts without objection. Ahvra let out a large sigh of relief as she calmed down and jotted her notes.
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{No. 152; Don’t Like. Causes Stress}
The ungenderable person’s absurd level of strength only added to Ahvra’s discomfort as they continued to smile through the rest of the tests. Even when hit with a hefty smack from Ahvra’s broom, their smile didn’t break. In fact nothing happened, they didn’t react or move at all. They only kept smiling unwaveringly at Ahvra.
“Oh, I’m afraid these results may be impossible to measure,” they spoke up for the first time since their initial greeting when they were handed the darts. “You see, in my world you have to learn a few entertaining tricks, and stuff like this is child’s play.” They fondled the darts in between their fingers to draw in Ahvra’s gaze, then flung them all suddenly towards the chart. Each one hit a letter perfectly, and Ahvra shuddered when she realized it spelled out ‘cutie’.
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{No. 53; Asks dumb questions}
The man was off in his own world through all these tests, snickering to himself about something or another. His scores were average, so Ahvra didn’t bother giving him much attention. However, she did pick up that he muttered the word ‘payday’ a lot.
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{No. 167; Deluded}
“Hmph, you must have calibrated it incorrectly,” the woman belittled Ahvra when her strength scores were low, blaming it on the examiner and the machine. When her reflexes were average, she blamed it on not being able to warm up properly. And when she missed every dart throw, she claimed that the darts weren’t balanced adequately, and that she would have nailed the throws if she’d been allowed to bring her own.
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{No. 144; Very Religious. Bad sense of age.}
“Cosmos, please grant me strength for this trial,” the woman prayed before grabbing the mechanical hand. Ahvra’s whole belief system was starting to shake as the robotic arm was nearly broken for the second time today. It didn’t quite reach the level of the big woman, but the sensors were screaming at her that the joints were nearing critical failure.
“Cosmos, I ask that you protect me from this act of retribution.” As Ahvra swung her broom, the tips of the bristles glowed brightly for a moment before the broom was blasted out of her hands. When she picked it back up, she noticed the bristles were undamaged, but they were also immaculately clean—not a speck of dust or grime. She wanted to berate the woman for going against the rules and using her Curse, but it was just too interesting.
On the accuracy test, the woman asked Ahvra to stain the appointed letters in any way she could. Ahvra dipped a finger in some of her giant mug of energy drink and smeared it as requested. “Cosmos, may these apostles receive your holy blessing. Guide their aim to smite the impurities that havoc this land.”
She held out her star ornament as she chanted and it began to spin; faster and faster until it was a blur that started to glow. The darts laying on the examination table started to glow as well and began floating towards the ornament. Eventually, they all spun around the ornament in sync before shooting off towards the chart. They hit the letters perfectly, but that wasn’t all. The stained portions of the chart had been vaporized, but nothing else was damaged—not the rest of the untouched chart nor the wall behind it.
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