Aftermath

Jayden's mouth dropped, so did everyone else's. Having a generic innate crystal was literally a death sentence for a wizards future. Without being attuned to any elements, he would possess no advantage against others and his chances of specialization were extremely slim.

Sir Forwick looked on worriedly. 'His high intelligence and incredible memory almost certainly warrant a large innate crystal size, but not only is his small, but it's also generic.'.

Jayden's hazel eyes faltered for a second while Sir Forwick prompted him to take his seat. Slowly he walked down from the stage, faced with a constant sniggering from his classmates around him. To them, he was as good as trash. Jayden was fazed out for the rest of the ceremony and blindly followed everyone else out. He subconsciously walked the route he completed over 500 times home.

Before he knew it he passed from the dense metropolitan area to sparse suburbs to eventually a large torn down area composing of mostly rubble with many makeshift tents and houses. He stood in front of his home, an old grey concrete building with the windows boarded off and door consisting of a large metal sheet that had to be lifted off. Surprisingly, this house was one of the better ones in the poor area of District 13, with his family only able to claim it due to his enrolment in DIstrict 13 Central Primary, but he knew that would change now.

He lifted the sheet off and walked in only to meet the gleaming eyes of his parents, older brother and younger sister.

"What'id you get!"

"What'id you get!"

"What'id you get!!!!" his sister Michaela playfully exclaimed while latching on to his arm.

His older brother Tom smiled "C'mon tell us". His parents also looked on expectantly.

Jayden sighed, knowing what it would mean for his family. "Grade 1, Generic". Silence held up in the air, as it took a bit for everyone to register. The first to move was his mother Annie, as she hugged Jayden tightly whispering "it's ok" to him. His father Brian face darkened before he shouted to everyone, "Pack up! we need to get out of here before the Dark Owls come!" everybody started moving to pack up their belongings and leave as quickly as they could. THey only secured this location due to Jayden's potential, but once the local gang knew about his true worth, they wouldn't hesitate to come and raid the place, taking everyone who was there with them to god knows what.

Jayden stood there with his head hanging low, "Sorry" he whispered repeatedly, knowing the trouble they would face because of him. "Cheer up buddy, its something you can't control" Tom nonchalantly said, "Hell, we were lucky enough to find this place because of you!". "Our family never really had a powerful wizard before, it was our fault we put all our expectations solely on you, son" Brain added on. "Jay, why are you so sad? it doesn't mean we can't go sledding in winter so it's alright!" Michaela cheekily grinned.

Jayden wiped away the slight tears in his eyes and helped them pack up. As they pack up and move they hear the loud sounds of tens of unmuffled motorbikes heading to where they left.

Tom grimaced, "If we had left any later.....".

"Keep your heads down and move, we don't want to find out" Brian responded.

The sky started getting dark as they sheltered within a broken tent they had found jimmied to the side of a crumbling building. "Tom, can you get a campfire going?" Annie said as she started stacking some dry sticks. Tom reached his hand out towards the stack, it started glowing white which then transformed into small flames, catching on the dry wood and starting the campfire.

Jayden sighed. Tom's innate crystal attunement was naturally fire, which allowed him to easily transform his mana into flames. He knew that while he would eventually be able to do the same thing, it would take both longer and more mana to do so.

As the white moon lay above, the family huddled together. "What are we going to do?" Tom questioned. "We are going to move to the district 34, I have old friends there that could get me a job as a fish chaser" Brian answered. Jayden knew how difficult being a fish chaser was, as while Brian had water attuned innate crystal which allowed him to create and control water, the fish did as well, which makes them quite powerful and fast and difficult to catch. Fish chasers also made pennies, as their only source of income was from selling fish. "I'll learn to control water and help you Dad, It won't take long".

"Haha don't worry about it, we should get some rest before we head off tomorrow, we'll pass by the border at around midday"

As everybody started drifting off to sleep, Jayden with his eye wide open started up into the starry sky. 'Am I screwed? I worked so hard yet here we are running away from everything because of me'. He lifted his hand up to the sky and let his mana flow through his body. He felt the comfortable sensation travel through his torso to his shoulder and through his arm to his hand, which started glowing white, yet nothing happened.

'Sigh, I guess I better get some sleep'. He slowly closed his eyes and drifted off.

BOOOM

The ground started shaking as a massive explosion faraway occurred. Jayden and Tom jolted up to what happened while Brian woke up and Annie tried to calm down a crying Michaela.

"What's going on?" Tom hurriedly asked as he grabbed a rusty metal pipe to defend himself.

Smoke and debris fogged up the area preventing anyone from seeing past ten meters. Brian and Tom stood side by side in front of their family, as Annie hugged Michaela and Jayden. Jayden felt a stifling feeling of uselessness, being unable to anything in this situation.

BOOM BOOM BOOM.

Loud thundering footsteps seemed to get louder and louder by the second. Soon through the barely visible dusty air, they saw groups of red bright eyes glow brighter and brighter. Eventually through the dust emerged large 3-meter tall mechanical humanoids painted as black as the night with red eyes facing them menacingly. Annie started shaking visibly while both Brian and Tom were scared stiff.

For a split second the group of mechanical humanoids stared at them until a deep voice from one of them commanded "Commence".

The humanoids swiftly charged forwards binding both Brian and Tom by their arms and legs.

"GO TAKE MICHAELA AND RUN" Annie screamed as she pushed Jayden and Michaela away while conjuring a small earth wall in front of them to try to delay the Humanoids. The humanoids effortlessly walked through the barrier grabbing Annie.

Jayden, understanding his mother's message picked up the crying Michaela and ran as fast as he could. Behind him, he could hear his family's horrifying screams but he refused to turn around, afraid he would hesitate and put Michaela in danger. Right then his only aim was to get her to safety.

BANG

The ground around him suddenly exploded, launching him away from Michaela.

The explosion launched him 20 meters away, trapping him under a large layer of rubble. Stunned and dazed he tried to stand up but couldn't due to heavy rubble.

'Urgghh wheres Michaela? she should be right next to me' Jayden open his eyes only to see through a sliver of a crack in the rubble his sister lying motionless 20 meters away.

"Michaela....." he croaked, unable to breathe properly.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

Soon the thundering footsteps returned. He knew they would take her away if he didn't do anything, but his so many of his bones were broken that he couldn't even feel anything. He fought against his eyelids to stay awake. The last thing he saw before his eyes closed where the humanoids tying up his sister.