[In The Training Hall]
In one of the many private rooms in the training Hall that Dom's group was sitting in.
"Okay, we all know that we felt a pull within us and we pulled it, showing us the ability that we gained." Auriella continued, "I got exactly what I expected. Technomancy or Techonopathy. It's basically the ability the control anything that has wires plugged to it. Let me give an example." the lights in the the room flickered on and off, leaving Atlas and Dom amazed and disappointed at the same time.
'How would controlling bulbs help in a fight?', Dom sighed. In a fight, that would have just been used to amuse the opponent. To Dom, it was basically useless.
Seeing the disappointment in their eyes, she added, "I just gained the ability so it will take time to be able to control it well.", a very faint shade of green smoke emitted from her eyes, making Dom to once again feel like a lamb awaiting slaughter. "Next", she said, moving her gaze to Atlas, the second lamb awaiting slaughter.
Atlas went next. " My powers are quiet simple, I have the ability to create illusions. Like this", he pointed his fingers out and a rabbit appeared in front of a bored Nat.
She was startled and instinctively went for a punch but her hand passed through the illusion making it go out in a puff of smoke. "Damn!", Atlas hissed under his voice. His attempt to scare Nat, obviously didn't succeed.
"My ability is the one and only, mighty fire. I can control and manifest fire as Dom has seen.", she smirked at Dom. Expecting her gaze to fall on him, he simply evaded her eyes. With the huge gap in physical prowess, Dom felt way weaker than before. Wanting to give an example, she formed a huge fire in front of Atlas, scaring the shit out of him.
He instinctively thought of defense and in front of him, a shield was formed, but it was just an illusion that dissipated in front of the huge flame.
See that she was successful in scaring him, she extinguished the flames, her smirk getting bigger.
"The flames weren't hot, is that something you decided to do or do they not exude heat?", Auriella asked in curiosity. She was a bit startled by the huge flame that suddenly lit up beside her. She noticed that there was no heat radiating from the fire.
"How'd you figure that out?" not waiting for an answer, she continued "Well, I can also control the heat radiating from the fire. Cool, right?", she smirked once more
'This is so sad.', Dom thought. He was the only one that failed to bring out his ability. His peers were excitedly talking about their ability, leaving him in the dark. The only good thing about it was that at least he knew he had an ability.
"Dom, why don't you give it another try?", Auriela said
Dom nodded and proceeded to focus on the feeling once more, but just like before, nothing happened. He felt ashamed of himself and felt embarrassed to look anyone in the eye.
"The fact that you are able to feel something definitely means that you have an ability. It's just that yours will take time to reveal itself.", Auriela said when she noticed Dom's expression.
"Yh, don't be down. You'll probably figure it out.", Nat added. Nat most times acted like a mean and wicked person but deep down, she was actually nice, just that the niceness was covered by wickedness that was mostly aimed towards Dom.
"Let's just spar for now.", she added.
...
At the age of five, children began their physical training. It would have been impossible if not for the dust torus enhancing the children's mentality and strength.
The dust torus starts affecting human beings from birth, therefore, making them superabled as they grow.
And with so many ongoing wars, the people of West Kendal (their country), had to be prepared and what else was the best way other than to be preparing from the age of 5?
So they began intense training at that age, everyday. And by making them superabled, their body would be able to easily go through their awakening.
...
The group of four friends were divided into groups of two, each person facing against their partner. Firstly, they'll spar without using their abilities and spar once more, this time using their abilities and of course, Dom was exempted from the second spar.
They got in the fighting ring that was above the room, they were once in. The two duo went far away from the other duo. The first duo was Nat and Auriela. The second being Dom and Atlas.
Dom and Atlas stared at each other silently as they entered their battle stance. The grunts and screams of other people in the Hall was loud, drowning the silence between the duo.
'Let's see what you got.', Dom thought and went in for an uppercut, putting enough force to knock his opponent down.
Atlas bent his body backwards to avoid the punch while coming up with a counter of his own. Mimicking the move that was used on him when he first entered the training Hall, he said, "Nat has some nice moves.". Using the momentum from the uppercut, he raised his leg, aiming it to his opponent's ribs.
His opponent seemed to have seen it coming as he turned his earlier momentum into a backflip, kicking Dom on his chin.
Dom raised his hand to his face to block the incoming attack, but it was placed above his chin. A crazy thought suddenly entered Dom's head. He decided to rather, use his head to hit the incoming leg.
It belt like his chin was hit by a rock, pushing him back a bit. He immediately went back by a few steps in case Atlas had another trick.
For some reason, the kick did seem to hurt him. 'That didn't hurt.', he thought as he rubbed his chin. The backflip kick was Atlas's signature move that he used in almost every fight.
"Hey, what are you doing?", Dom asked as he kept rubbing his chin.
"What do you mean?" he replied, Atlas felt his leg almost crack after hitting his opponents head.
"You didn't put any force in your attack just now. Don't think because I don't know my ability, you should then go easy on me!"
"I used one of my most used attack and you think I wouldn't put any force behind it?", he stared at his opponent like he was stupid. He reduced the strength behind the kick since it was a spar, but it should still have hurt him a lot.
Dom didn't want to believe that Atlas wasn't taking it easy on him. The fact that he used his signature move meant that it would be easier to fool him. Atlas won't be expected to lower the force used in the move,but the force could still be lowered, therefore, making the false move believable. Dom felt his face go dim as he thought of the possibility of being pampered for not having an ability. He was about to protest when Atlas stopped him.
"Wait if you didn't feel any pain, doesn't that mean that you've gotten stronger?", Atlas asked as he held his chin, voicing out his deep thoughts.
Dom swallowed back his words. "After awakening, you only gain a little bit of strength, not something that could make you immune to the attacks of another awakened."
'Wait, don't tell me…. that this…. is my…. ability!!' He immediately rejected the possibility of it being true, but the facts were laid in front of him. The huge amount of strength that was used to block an awakened attack without pain, something that wasn't meant to be possible. He couldn't accept that his power was the ability to increase his strength.
Although it sounded like the best ability, it wasn't. Yes, you could increase your strength, but that was one of the abilities with a limit. Once activated,it can only be used when going in for a hit, only the strength, in the body part used for the attack, will be increased. It only strengthens a part of your body that is used to attack, so what happens when a part of your body that is meant for defense is attacked? The power becomes useless.
It is among the lowest 10 abilities in existence for a reason.
"I've worked my ass off day and night and the ability that I fucking obtained is strength!", he wanted to scream. 9 years of training and this was the end result.
"Hey, chill. Strength is not all that bad.", Atlas said
"Not all that bad? It's among the lowest ten for a fucking reason.", he said. He wanted to crash out more, but he felt defeated. He just sat on the floor, his eyes going dead.
Atlas looked at the sad state of his friend on the floor and couldn't help but reciprocate his feelings. "We should probably call the others and tell them about this." He looked over to the other duo.
...
Nat and Auriela had created a small dent on the floor as they kept on fighting.
"It's been a long time since we sparred, especially after you decided to focus on Dom.", Aurelia said as they kept on exchanging blows at a very fast speed. The start of their fight was slow like the other duo but unlike them, they continued fighting. The battle getting more and more intense.
"Someone had to train him.", Nat went for a lower kick with her right leg, causing Auriela to jump. Nat fluently followed by turning on the floor. Raising her left leg higher than the right, wanting to hit her opponent's waist while she was mid air. The leg connected, pushing Aurelia to the other far side of the room.
…..
"Is that enough, or should we keep going?" Nat asked, excitement was still written all over her face.
"Guys come here, quickly. Dom just figured out his ability!", Atlas shouted from the other side of the room.
'Why'd they have to cut such an exciting match.' Nat sighed as she hurriedly made her way to the duo.
"So, what's it?", Aurelia asked, glancing at Dom's gloomy face. She did seem affected by the kick.
"I think my ability is enhanced strength.", he couldn't look at their eyes as he spoke. 'They all got good powers and the only thing I got was strength. The fuck did I do to deserve this!', he cried out. His eyes had gotten a bit red and he kept his head down.
Silence ensued since none of his friends knew what to say. They would have been happy that he had finally discovered his ability but the ability was one of the weakest.
'Among everything, why did it have to be this?', Auriella thought.
"How sure are we that it's actually strength? It might just be the effect of awakening.", Nat said.
Dom looked at Aurelia for confirmation since she was the smartest in the ring. She quickly thought of the possibility.
"It is possible for it to be the effect of the dust torus, but we'd have to test it."she said. "If it's actually strength, then you should be able to overcome most awakened attacks.", she stood up and took a battle stance in front of Dom.
He got up from the floor. "I'll hit you as hard as I can and you do the same.", Auriela added. Dom only nodded his head. He stood up, took a battle stance and activated his ability.
Auriela breathed in, mustering all of her strength into that one punch. She threw it at lightning speed with everything she had. Dom reciprocated
A slight crack was heard as the fists connected. Dom flew backwards, falling on the floor. Blood was trickling down the side of his mouth, the bones in his fist seemed broken.
"Dom!", Nat immediately ran when she heard the crack. She bent down to pick up the broken boy, as he kept on coughing.
"Oh shit! I didn't expect it to affect him", Auriela said
"I'm okay.", Dom said to the caring Nat as he slowly stopped coughing. Nat would sometimes switch from a bully to caring and extremely caring. The switch was confusing to Dom but he was able to cope with it since he felt it was a side effect to what she suffered.
'Doesn't he have super strength?', Atlas thought in confusion. 'He could take one of my moves but not Aurie's?'
"Wait! The fact that you are bleeding right now shows you don't have super strength. Did you activate your ability?", Auriela asked.
"Yes, I'm sure I activated it.", Dom looked a bit grim. His ability was strength and he was able to use it against Atlas but it was only able to reduce the impact behind Auriela's punch. 'Super strength and I'm still the weakest.'
The bones in his arm were meant to be turned into dust if not for the increase in strength.
"Hey, don't be grim. If your super strength was unable to block my punch, then it's possible that it's not your ability.", Dom's eyes widened as he heard Aurelia words. She continued, "Then Nat was right, the super strength could just be the effect of awakening. So,your ability is still hidden.", she smiled. Everyone beside her all smiled at Dom.
"Fuck yeah!!", he shouted as he jumped up from the floor. Drops of tears falling off his face.
"I thought I'd have to live with a stupid ability and as the weakest.", he wiped his face as more drops of tears fell. It was easier to stop the years before, but the sudden revelation made it hard.
"Even if your ability was strength, you'll still be an equal to us.", Atlas added.
'Ugh, cringe.', Nat shrugs as she felt her skin crawl. Atlas noticed her reaction and replied with an irritated face.
"Quit paying attention to me and start your spar.", Dom said, trying to move the attention away from him. He couldn't let his friends keep staring at his miserable state.
...
They decided to give Dom space to sort himself out and continue the spar. Nat and Aurelia stood far apart and got into their battle positions.
"Ready for round two?!", Nat smirked Aurelia replied by running towards her opponent. Nat readied herself to evade any attack thrown at her.
Aurelia went in for a blow to the face and Nat responded by pushing the fist to the side and threw out her's. Somehow, Aurie was able to evade it by shifting her head to the side. She raised her leg to kick her opponent's ribs.
They kept on throwing attacks and evading until Nat grew tired of it.
Aurie threw a punch once more, but this time, Nat decided to meet the punch with her own punch. Nat had decided to over power her opponent with strength. Her hand lit up in flames, increasing the speed and force behind the punch.
The punch was meant to connect with the other fist, when Aurelia decided to turn her punch into a feint. Her arm went downwards, dragging her body with it. She raised her leg above her opponent's head, aimed towards Nat's shoulder, wanting to dislocate it.
'Shit!', Nat immediately stopped her punch. She ignited the flames on her other hand to boost its speed and used it to grab Aurelia's leg. The once stopped punch was thrown out once more, connecting with Aurelia's hip.
Still feeling the grip on her leg, Aurelia felt a sharp pain on her hips. The pain blinded her for less than a second. Using her upside down position, she raised herself to sit on Nat's shoulder. Using the force in her movement, she threw Nat away from her.
Nat rolled on the floor and pushed herself to stand on her feet. She looked ahead and saw Aurelia running towards her once more.
"Let's fucking go!", she shouted, adrenaline pumping through her veins. She ignited her right feet, switching the flame between her two feet, alternatively, with each step taken. Her speed doubled as she made her way to Aurelia.
'Dumbass', Auriella thought.
Nat was halfway when a bulb suddenly brightened up and exploded, blinding her. With her vision being impaled, she threw her arms wildly, hoping to connect with Aurelia.
Even with her throwing her arms out, several punches from her opponent still hit various parts of her body. Atlas came forward to end the match, with Aurelia obviously winning.
"Fucking snake, how could you use such petty tricks!", Nat was fuming as she regained her vision. 'I was meant to win the fucking match!!'.
"My ability is to control light, remember?", Aurelia simply said as her gaze turned towards her next opponent.
Since Dom had not figured out his own ability yet, he was unable to participate, making the number of participants to be odd. So, it was decided that the winner of the first match will face off against the one without a partner. That was Atlas.