0.

Hunters: humans blessed with supernatural powers, who awaken to their abilities at the age of thirteen.

After a hunter awakens, their potential is judged, and they are divided into ranks. E, D, C, B, A, and S. From weakest to strongest.

S rank hunters are rare, with only a handful per country and a few hundred worldwide. Yet their abilities are in high demand; the known world is small, the monsters in uncharted lands are bigger, and the wars over territories trump everything.

That’s why the clans and guilds of hunters will stop at nothing to rear these talents. Not at the massacre of children, the destructing of a country or the deletion of an entire race.

‘There may be a special place in hell for those with such greed. If it exists, I’ll be your president again.’

- Gregory, Founder and first president of the Hunter Association.

1.

image [https://i.imgur.com/lon5fUU.png]

They lined us up in front of a podium, on top of which stood a single chair. In the empty seat of this chair was a metal headband that was connected to a tall and square machine with wires. From what I had gathered, the headband activated the chips implanted into our brain at birth and read the information stored within to determine our potential.

There were around a hundred of us in total. Some short, some tall. Some fat, others skinny. I had never seen people this white or black before.

One of the extremes was on my left. A short boy whose arms I almost mistook for that of a skeleton, and his skin was the colour of honey. Had he never had a meal in his life? He carried a gourd on his back, which he was evidently struggling with as his back was bent. It was certainly not meant to carry water, because it was too big for that.

A door at the far end of the hall opened, snatching away my attention. A woman wearing a long and flowing cloak tread towards the podium. Her steps were slow and confident. From her being radiated maura, the mystical element that was the power of every hunter. I could not tell what rank she was.

‘Hope.’

The elder’s voice rang over us like a bell.

‘Fate.’

She stopped next to the chair and fixed us all with a look.

‘These are fickle. So, too, is their cousin. Pride. All can be gone in an instant. Like a candle flame in a storm. They are precisely what has led you to our valley, which swallows all light and dreams.’

The elder paused. Her words entered my ears and sunk directly into my toes.

‘I go by Elder Sui. Let my title signal your crossing of the point of no return.’

She pointed to her side.

‘We call this an Assessor,’ Elder Sui explained. ‘It will dole out your potential. Kindly or unkindly. Those judged to be below C rank will be prepared for release into the wilds. At least then your corpses will be of use to our earth.’

Out of seemingly nowhere, the elder produced a list. She wasted no time, and it quickly became clear that they held our names.

‘Jax, heir of House Verdan, step up to the altar,’ she said.

A lanky boy with blonde hair walked forwards. He was grinning.

‘How can he be so relaxed?’ said the boy to my left.

‘His father is a feudal lord in the far east, so he’s probably in over his head,’ a voice said.

A girl behind me. She was a head taller than me and had long, flowing, red hair.

I turned back to the altar. Elder Sui placed the headband on Jax’s head. The machine whirred to life, and a green glow pulsed over the metal box that crawled over the wires and into the headband. It flashed twice. Then a sound even louder than that of the elder played from the machinery behind Jax.

‘Potential: D rank. Status: rejected.’

‘D rank?’ Jax jumped up from his chair and whirred on the elder. ‘That can’t be right!’

Some of the initiates snickered, glad that someone else had become the first to fail.

‘There are no mistakes,’ the elder said in an emotionless tone. ‘Please leave the podium and stand aside. Others will join you soon.’

‘I refuse! I demand you test me again!’

The elder’s sunken eyes were unimpressed. She swung her arm, her robe smacking the air, and a man in an all-black, skin-tight suit appeared out of nowhere. He carried Jax by the scruff of his neck.

‘Unhand me! Do you know who I am—’

A wave of maura rippled from the man’s hands, and Jax's head fell limp on his chest. The man dropped him on the side of the podium, where a red sign denoted: ‘REJECTS.’

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‘Serves him right,’ the girl behind me said.

I solemnly shook my head. There was no camaraderie for failures, it seemed.

The skeleton boy next to me was of the same opinion. He frowned at the girl.

‘That could’ve been anyone of us.’

She shrugged lazily.

‘Let that be a warning,’ the elder said.

Her dead gaze swept our group.

‘The verdict is final. You can be the son of the Divine Emperor. It will not change anything.’

A hush fell over us. The elder waited, and the silence deepened. It grew darker. More sinister. Initiates shuffled in place, and only when the elder was satisfied, did she continue.

Names were called. Children stepped up to the altar. Of the ten that went each time, at least three were rejected.

‘Fahim of House Brana.’

The boy with the gourd tensed.

‘Step up to the altar.’

I don’t know why, but I held my breath as he took a seat on the chair, and the smell of old dust stuffed my airways. Did I want him to succeed? Maybe I was rooting for him because of how weak he looked.

The machine spoke.

‘Potential: S rank.’

We let loose a collective gasp. Whispers broke out around me.

‘S rank…who even are the Branas?’ one muttered. ‘I’ve never heard of them.’

‘Of course not,’ another hissed, full of self-importance. ‘Your family’s ranking is dogshit.’

‘They’re a secret,’ a more helpful initiate supplied. ‘They invented the chip.’

‘Silence!’ the elder said, her voice cutting through the chatter like the edge of a blade.

She turned to Fahim. The curve of her lips must’ve been a smile, but it didn’t look like one.

‘Please join the accepted disciples.’

Fahim bowed before leaving the podium. He caught my eye and mouthed ‘good luck.’ Strange. I had not spoken a word to him.

The student after Fahim was an A rank, which was exceptional in its own right, but because of the timing, none whispered amongst themselves.

‘May of House Lightreach, step up to the altar.’

The girl behind me. She sat down with a smoothness no one before her had. Her eyes were closed as a small smile played on her lips. Funny. After she berated Jax for his smugness.

But the difference between them became clear a moment later.

‘Potential: S rank.’

And so, the whispers started again.

‘Seriously? Two in one year?’

‘They’re making us look bad.’

The elder allowed the murmurs this time. Perhaps because she was stunned as well. She only caught herself seconds later, called for quiet, and started naming initiates again.

The lines were mostly empty when I heard my first name called.

‘Djina,’ the elder’s voice came, and I swallowed. She paused, though, and frowned. ‘Marshall,’ she finished.

I stepped forward, and she fixed me with that stare of hers.

‘Daughter of Aysu, the Tidal?’

‘Yes, Elder,’ I said.

I cringed at the mention of my mother. Her last words to me echoed between my ears. ‘My duty to you has finished, Djina. When we meet again, it will be as hunters.’

Whispers started around me that I could not decipher. But I could guess at the general sentiment. The elder nodded—a hint of respect was hidden there—and motioned towards the seat.

I took my place. I clung to that first word of Mother’s last sentence as the elder fastened the headband around my skull. When. Not ‘if.’ Mother had absolute faith in me, so I would make it through this test.

She had also told me something else that fuelled my drive: I could attract the attention of a certain individual within the academy if I showed promise. They would be able to help me greatly. I just had to figure out who it was.

That mechanical whirring started and in the corner of my vision I caught green light pacing. A cold sensation popped somewhere around my temple. Only it came from deeper inside in my head.

System booting…please wait.

…

Connected!

Status Screen for Djina Marshall.

Hunter Nickname

N.A.

Hunter Rank

N.A.

Affiliation

N.A.

Physical Status

Nervous

Maura

34/50

Physical

E

Mind

E

AP

E

Talent

N.A.

Abilities

N.A.

I frowned. Aunt Clavis had prepared me for the rows of ‘E’ ranks in my status screen. That’s where all children started before their training. But my talent should be filled in.

The machine must’ve been as confused as I was because it continued whirring way longer than it had for anyone else. It took so long the elder glanced back at the machinery.

‘Do you see your screen?’ the elder said.

‘Yes, Elder. But my talent says—’

A loud beep cut me off.

‘Updated assessment!’ the machine yelled.

I breathed out sharply. Here it was. My entire future condensed into two words.

‘Potential:’

My eyelids trembled, and my heart squeezed together inside my chest. Please. Please. Let me pass.

‘Rankless.’

Rankless!? I spun around towards the elder.

‘What does that mean?!’ I said, voice trembling.

Did I fail? That meant…I glanced at the group of rejects, who were all smirking, gladdened that another was joining in their unfortunate fate.

‘I…don’t know,’ the elder said.

She swung her arm again as she had for Jax, and another man appeared. I could not tell if it was the same one. I gripped my arm rest, afraid that he would take me away.

‘Call the principal,’ the elder said.

Then the man vanished, and I almost collapsed to the floor with relief.

If not for the hushed murmurs, we would have waited in silence. After what felt like an eternity, the man returned. The principal was not at his side. He whispered in the elder’s ear. A moment later, she dismissed him and began to speak.

‘The Assessor has been tested rigorously to stop any mistakes from occurring. Its readings are precise.’

I did not like the sound of where this was going.

‘Your denotation as Rankless must therefore be correct, and as you know, we cast out anyone below C rank.’

There was self-deprecating laughter in the group of rejects.

‘However,’ the elder said, silencing them, ‘whether you cannot be ranked because your readings are too weak or—’

Here she paused.

‘—because you are too strong, we don’t know. Therefore, you will get to join the accepted initiates.’

‘That’s nonsense!’ Jax, who had come to again, screamed.

The rest of the rejects, whom had been awaiting my arrival like sharks, exclaimed as well.

‘I understand this can seem unfair to some of you,’ she said, not raising her voice despite the clamour. ‘But we request you do not get the wrong idea.’

She lifted her arm. What burst forth from those sleeves was maura. Pure and unadulterated. Thick and raging like an avalanche. My eardrums rattled. My throat constricted, and I was pressed down into the chair, unable to move.

The elder gazed down on me. I saw a vision in my mind: me laying on the floor, cut open from head to toe, and discarded as you would a sick dog.

‘Weeds, wherever and whoever they are, will be uprooted. That we promise.’

Feelings of suppression and thoughts of death vanished with the wind. Behind me, the disciples had fallen to their knees. The chair was what had saved me from the same fate.

‘Please join your present ilk,’ the elder said.

Then she called the next name.