After the lunch break, It was time for the next period. It was Chemistry. However, not a lot students were capable of focusing. The news of Sarah and Talia’s future meeting circulated through the school. After the lesson, Talia directly went to the school office to explain her leave. She also asked where was the Ability Test Chamber to a staff member. The majority of the school staff didn’t know about the situation. A student would not talk about such a heavy subject to someone who was not another student. So, The staff member innocently answered.
High school students in Union city generally finished school at around 4 pm. They either went home, hanging around or doing activities at school. However today, a lot of them headed to a precise place. The Ability Test Chamber’s size was about two-thirds of a normal gymnasium. It was equipped with devices to train abilities, evaluate them, and so on. The building was sturdy enough to withstand the average power of an A-ranked ability user. However, before the monstrous power of an S-ranked ability user, it could at best withstand one hit. The surface of the building was white and no windows could be found. It looked like a super ellipse seen from above.
A crowd was present in front of the building, but nobody, except a single girl, was present in front of the door. After a moment the already noisy crowd got even noisier. Talia was making her way toward the door at a calm pace. When she passed before Sanya, she just flashed a confident smile and landed her bag. “Can you take it for now, please? I will come to take it back in a bit.”
Sanya accepted, but she had complicated feelings. She was worried, however, she also sensed that...Talia was not the one in danger? She didn’t know why she had this feeling. The reason could have been because Talia seemed so confident and fearless today. Nevertheless, she looked at Talia’s departing back.
Talia arrived before Sarah and faked a yawn. “Let’s wrap it up. I’m still busy.”
Sarah frowned. She then took out a keycard. The Chamber could only be opened with a special keycard. It looks like she really got it from someone important in the school. “Nobody enter, ok?” Sarah glared at the rest of the students and entered the Chamber. Talia followed her. The door automatically closed itself afterward. There was no way to know what will happen inside.
The structure of the Chamber was quite simple. there was numerous equipment stocked next to the walls, which were used for the different abilities. The center was empty as to allow students to train with free space.
Sarah and Talia faced each other in the middle of the Chamber. There were about 10 meters between them. Sarah glared angrily at the other girl. “What was that this morning?”
“What are you talking about?.”
“Don’t play dumb! The strange pressure that you released this morning, what was that?” Sarah acted with arrogance, but inside she was filled with a bit of fear. This pressure was not normal. The Talia before her was not normal. Still, she was pretty confident that she would not lose if a fight broke out. Indeed, she had a D-ranked ability while Talia was a powerless girl. However, she could not shake the feeling that something seemed strange. As if a great danger was lurking around her and one wrong step could lead to a terrible end.
“I remember the first I saw you. Your hair-”
Talia remained silent. She scanned her surrounding and let out a sigh. ‘Its look like we are being monitored. I detected 10 hidden cameras and over 20 other surveillance devices. What should I do?’
“-a small wimp like you, always trying to-
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Talia had two choices. The first one was to jam the devices to make them temporary stop. This would attract the attention of the Ability Regulation Union. Even if they did not investigate, she will have to find a way to conceal her powers each time. The second choice was to openly display her powers, at least to the Union. She would just have to create a situation where she could remain neutral and not be used in the possible plots that enveloped the world. They could also ask her to tell how did she got so strong. She, in order to keep a balance in the world, could not answer it.
“-despite you still...Hey! Are you listening?!”
“Eh? Ah, yes of course. I also love cats.”
“I never talked about cats, goddamn! Don’t complain if you got hurt!”
Sarah raised her hand and her eyes turned serious. The wind started to swirl on top of her palm. It formed a blurry sphere about the size of a basketball. This was Sarah’s ability, D-ranked Wind Manipulation. She could control the wind around her and use it.
A majority of abilities rested on simple concepts, like nature’s elements or the human body. These were the easiest to train because it was easy to study them and understand them. Other abilities were the results of much more complex concepts. For instance, one of the 13 S-ranked abilities users could teleport everything around them in a radius of a few hundred meters. Teleportation technology was not developed on earth, so it was very difficult to train this ability.
Sarah stretched her hand out toward Talia and shot the ball of compressed wind. it was so fast that it seemed unavoidable for a normal person. If it stuck a normal person they would be knocked back flying and with possibly a few broken ribs. After all, the compressed air made the ball very hard.
As the ball was at around 30 centimeters from Talia, it suddenly stuck something and created a loud noise. Talia was completely unharmed. She stood there like nothing happened.
“...Eh?” Sarah’s eyes opened wide as she could not believe it. She was sure that the girl before her would be sent laying on the ground. As if to deny what happened, Sarah once again launched a wind ball toward Talia. Unfortunately for her, the result was the same.A loud boom resonated, Talia was unharmed and was smiling faintly. Seeing this, Sarah had a drop of cold sweat on her face. She took a few steps backward in fear…..Fear? Her, afraid of the weak Talia? Sarah could simply not accept it!
“Aaaah!” The wind raged in a radius of 5 meters around Sarah. Bullets of compressed air were created one after another. A few seconds later, a total of twenty air bullets were in mid-air, ready to be shoot. These bullets were a lot more dangerous than the previous ball of air. It was faster than the simple sphere made of air and it had the power to penetrate the flesh. Sarah, with a bit of madness in her eyes, fired all the bullets toward her target. She of course didn’t go insane. She mainly aimed at Talia and only a few were aimed directly at her.
The bullets traveled the distance quickly. But when there were at about 50 centimeters from Talia, they each collided with something. Talia kept looking at Sarah with a small smile. But, to Sarah this smile turned into an evil grin. The rain of air bullets was Sarah’s most powerful technique. It was hard for her to form and control more than twenty bullets. However, all of them, even those not aimed at her, were stopped by Talia like it was child play. Sarah felt like she was having a nightmare. Cold sweats started to form on her back.
“D-Did you get an ability? No, This is impossible! Your hair color is blue! You can’t have an ability!” She kept shooting air bullets one after another and they kept getting destroyed by something. Without knowing she pushed her limits and got to the point where she created more than twenty bullets. The adrenaline and the fear of the unknown made her use every possible part of her power. However, it also caused her to tire very quickly. She started to breathe heavily and her movements became sluggish.
Seconds passed and Talia didn’t move an inch while Sarah was sweating bullets and was filled with nervousness. “Who are you ?! No! What are you?!” Sarah’s face was pale from tiredness and fear. The terrifying thing was not to know that your enemy’s power is strong. It was to not know what your enemy was capable of. It would drive you insane, in fear of an unknown force. It was totally Sarah’s current situation. The worst was when you could not run away. Fortunately for Sarah, there existed a hope. The Chamber’s door.
She turned to run to the door. Even if she ran away, she would still be alive and she could bear the shame. But she felt that inside the Chamber her life was in Talia’s palm. It was an inexplicable intuition, something that her instinct as a human told her. To others she acted like a coward, but she was still just a high school girl with a bit of power. In face of danger she could only run away.
Seeing her running, Talia shrugged her shoulders. ‘It can’t be helped. If I need I can just ask Lord to help me. Wait, did he not talk about something when I departed?...Well, whatever.’
Talia’s eyes turned a bit sharper as she prepared herself to deal with Sarah.
“It's not about what I am.”
“Boom!” Sarah heard what Talia said and a loud noise like an explosion resonated through the Chamber. Sarah looked behind her, only to see Talia was no longer here. At the place she had been standing, the ground was cracked in a web pattern.
‘Impossible! the ground is made of the same material as the walls!’ Sarah could only look in disbelieve. Suddenly, She felt a presence behind her. She hurriedly turned around. Talia was there with an expressionless face.
“It’s about what I have become.” She slowly extended her hand toward Sarah.