Chapter 4: Hunter Training (1)
The next day Jin arrived at the WHA ready for his first day in training, about 30 or 40 people were there, Jin sat on the steps waiting to be called. He looked up and someone caught his eye, a woman in her early twenties. The woman was stretching when she looked over at Jin and she felt a sense of dread leaking from his body, their eyes met for a brief moment, and she looked down saying to herself
"What the hell is that guy's problem? Weirdo"
"She's powerful"
Jin says to himself as she shrugged off the weird feeling from Jin, Eric came out the front entrance and stopped in front of all the cadets, he smiled and threw his cigar on the ground saying in a loud but firm voice
"So, as you all know you've each been handpicked for this program! Which means you have an exceptional ability that we think would be an asset to our organization. There will be three rounds, and I won't lie to you this is going to be hard, some of you won't even make it past the first elimination round... Some of you may even lose your life, but with that said we will try to avoid a death all together"
Jin stood on his feet with his hands in his pockets and he began to walk up the steps towards Eric, he brushed past him walking inside
"Seems some of you are more eager than others so, shall we begin"
the cadets all followed Jin's lead and when they all entered the building they were escorted to a set of giant double doors, they all slowly entered and the room was a giant test arena that resembled a small city district, a tall man with black hair walked out in front of them and said
"Welcome cadets... This is your first test, we will be periodically releasing lower ranked Reapers into this area. B and C ranks will be worth 20 points and the ones lower than that will all award you 5 points, you all have ten minutes to get as many points as you can get. By the way, when the timer reaches five minutes left, we will release an A rank Reaper, the one who kills it will automatically pass the first test regardless of points. Do you all understand"?
"SIR YES SIR"!
They all shouted, the man exited the arena, and everyone readied themselves, but Jin was still and calm. A loud voice rung out
"3...2...1...BEGIN"!
Everyone immediately splits up and Jin started to calmly walk down the street in front of him; Eric and his associates sat in a safe room watching the action through monitors when one of his colleagues spoke up and said
"What is he doing? It's like he isn't even taking this seriously"
"Just wait, that man is something special... You will see soon enough"
as Jin continued to barely try, the woman he saw earlier was already in the lead with 90 points, she made the B and C ranks look easy.
"Mr. Saldon, who is this young lady? She seems promising"
"That is Mia Warren, she placed the highest out of all our recruits not only in the physical test, but she also placed high in our intellectual evaluation, her ability is called... Hellfire, she can manipulate flames and even create them at will"
Everyone watched her closely, but Eric was solely focused on Jin who was falling behind with still no points, 3 minutes have already elapsed, and Jin was still wandering around looking for enemies. He looked behind him and a Reaper rounded a street corner behind him; he looked at it with intensity and muttered
"I can feel its power, the Reaper from that cave makes this one look like an ant. Pathetic"!
The Reaper charged at him, and suddenly it stopped and was frozen in place for a second. Jin appeared behind it, and the Reaper fell, its body withered away leaving its crystal on the ground. Jin picked it up and absorbed it, and suddenly he heard a voice ring out
" Five minutes have elapsed. the A rank Reaper is now ready to engage, show us what you've got"!
Jin smirked and began jumping from roof to roof looking for this Reaper. Meanwhile it was already in a fight with multiple cadets, it stood about two stories tall and was oddly humanoid looking. Mia charged in shooting a massive beam of fire at the Reaper, but it held its arm up blocking most of it, she held her hands out in front of her and a ball of concentrated flames appeared in between her palms. She lifted her hand up and the ball expanded until it looked like a small sun and she said
"Expanding Sun"!
She threw it at the Reaper and as it barreled toward it, the fireball kept expanding but the Reaper opened its mouth, it was unnaturally wide and large, and it swallowed the attack, its body started to contort and change until parts of it spiked up and its body slimmed down. Everyone stopped in their tracks, Mia landed on a building overlooking the street the fight was taking place on
"Did it just eat my Expanding Sun? What am I supposed to do if I can't even use my mana to defeat it"
Everyone began to attack it in an attempt to bring it down, but it was shrugging off all their attacks like it was being attacked by ants. Mia used a technique she developed to fly using her flames to propel herself into the air, she began to shoot a barrage of fireballs at it trying anything she can to stop it. When suddenly its body flew off its feet and was sent down the street colliding with a building at the end of it. Everyone that was fighting looked over to where the Reaper was standing and Jin stood there with a cold look painted across his face. Mia looked at him and said to herself
"This guy... I could barely put a dent in that thing... And he sends the thing flying with one attack, who the hell is this"!
Jin slowly walked past the cadets littering the streets, he was intensely staring at the Reaper as it pulled itself from the rubble of the building. As everyone was looking at Jin, he took a step and vanished, he appeared in front of the Reaper as it let out an ear-piercing roar. Suddenly Jin's body surged with Mana and the Reaper picked up a part of the building and flung it at Him, Jin saw this and swiftly dodged it using Hyper Tension to appear on a building next to it
"Is this what you meant by he was special Mr. Saldon? Where did you find this man"?
"Trust me you'll see. If you heard of that Reaper attack in the downtown Venland district, he was the one that defeated it, he made it look easy, and it was an A rank"
they all watched with great interest as they saw Jin disappear and reappear around the Reaper, suddenly it charged a beam from its mouth and Jin landed in front of it about thirty or forty feet away. As the Reaper charged this beam Cain says
"You must be careful sir; this attack is quite strong. Also, if you move there are people in the line of fire behind you"
"Fine... I'll just hit it back"
Jin stood his ground as it charged this beam attack, a ball formed in the center of its mouth and rings started to form around it, some cadets started to run away in fear and Mia continued watching from the sky.
"Why is he so calm, it's kind of unnerving"
Back to the safe room Eric and his guests watched on as the Reaper charged more and more. A close friend of Eric's said to him
"You're just going to watch this! He's going to die"!
"Trust me Jay... He is going to be fine. Have any of you ever heard of the Awakened?
Suddenly they saw the ball disappear from its mouth and blinding light flashes from the monitors, as it approached Jin, they all saw him throw a punch at the beam. When his right fist collided with the beam a shockwave was sent out breaking the windows of all the building around them
"The awakened? Isn't that just some myth"
"Hmm not anymore, I believe that this man is the Awakened, before the power you see now, he had little to no mana within his body. Something within him sparked and woke up and turned him into this"!
As Jin was holding off this beam with his fist it was pushing him back ripping up some concrete in his path, he activated Hyper Tension which slowed him down a bit. As he held off his fist started to get burnt and he started to cough up blood from the strain of holding it back
"Tch DAMMIT... PUSH... HARDER"!
Jin summoned every ounce of strength he had in his body and began to push back. He suddenly pulled his fist back catching the beam with his left hand, he let out a pained groan and he began to charge his fist, lightning crackled around him, and he shot his fist forward shooting the beam back at the Reaper. The beam traveled back into the Reapers mouth, and it exploded destroying multiple buildings in the surrounding area. When the dust settled only a crater remained, Jin stood frozen, eyes white and unconscious. A voice rung out saying
"Time's up, all cadets move to the starting zone now"!
A team of medics quickly rushed in pulling Jin and some other injured cadets out of the arena. When the Cadets all convened at the starting zone Eric began pointing at different cadets each calling them out in this order, Mia Warren, Henry Soloman, Gwen Barnes and Adam Reyes and Eric says
"Congratulations you all had the highest scores, the highest being Mia Warren with 235 points, you may all head inside and rest. As for the rest of you I will have to make some cuts"
The group went inside and was led to a large room by the lobby secretary; it had chairs, some food and water. Mia sat down on a chair facing a window the showed a view of a garden outside, she started thinking about the fight she had just witnessed and thought to herself
"That guy earlier... Why didn't he just run"!
Mia's moment of thought was broken by Henry and Adam, they were talking about the Reapers they had fought and how they destroyed them, she scoffed, and Henry looks at her and says
"Got something to say princess, speak up"!
"You barely got any of those points yourself! You were taking those kills from the weaker cadets. If you ask me, you're quite pathetic"
Henry chuckles walking over to a chair, he moved it over to Mia and put in front of her and he sat down saying
"Hmm I like em mean"
"Not in a million years, asshole"!
Suddenly the door opened, and 10 Cadets walked through the door, Eric followed behind them announcing
"First round is complete; you can all rest for the day, the second round begins tomorrow. Also, if you all go out this door and to the right, there are living quarters lined up all down the hallway. See you all tomorrow"
Jin woke up in a comfy bed he sat up looking around and saw he was in a small studio apartment; he looked down at his hands and they were wrapped in bandages. He got up from his bed and left out the door. As Jin began walking down the hallway still feeling tired and worn out from his fight, he came to the lobby where the secretary pointed to the door where the cadets all convened. When he entered the room quieted down a bit and he walked over to a table sat in front of the door and grabbed a plastic cup, he then walked to the water fountain and poured himself some water. Suddenly Henry walked over to him and says
"Hey man are you okay? I saw some of your fight earlier, that was pretty sweet though man. By the way I'm Henry Soloman, what's your name"?
Jin turned and looked at him, Henry felt a shiver run down his spine as he looked into Jin's dead eyes and Jin replied
"I'm fine"
Jin walked past him barely acknowledging the interaction and left the room, Henry was slightly annoyed saying
"That guy is intense; he seems like a dick"!
As Jin was walking back to his room he was approached by Eric, he smirked and says
"I saw your performance earlier, that was impressive... And here I thought an S rank would be too much for you"
"An S rank! I could've died... I didn't join up to be a pawn in some power fantasy"
Jin looked at him with rage burned in his eyes and Eric smiled patting Jin on the shoulder replying
"I just had to know how far you could be pushed, hmm I look forward to seeing what you can do. See you tomorrow cadet"