mutated

chapter eleven: do we have to have exams for fighting?

A month passed like that. While we continued to learn how to fight with knives in everyone's sessions with Lily, I continued my more advanced training with her after hours. After learning how to fight with one blade, she trained me in two blades. After that it was fighting with a staff as a non-lethal weapon, and then batons. She also began to train me in using my telepathy in more creative ways than just reading people's minds and wiping memories, which included mind control and offensive things like destroying someone's mind fully.

Apparently, that was accepted here.

She also tried to train me in my telekinesis, but told me that after  we passed our first examination, we would have sessions to train in our abilities as well.

With Chase, that little fitness session that we did on the first day became something we had to three times a week. The other four days would be spend training how to fight, including punches, kicks, and how to dodge properly. There was also an acrobatic side that he sometimes covered, which was usually for finding higher ground or dodging an attack. These included rolls across the floors, or kicking off the wall to flip over your opponent without help from your abilities.

Thank the gods for all the crash mats we had ready because I was certain that I would have broken my back or neck when I failed. Phoebe's gun sessions gradually became more interesting, progressing from learning how to put a gun together from scratch to learning how to aim and shoot properly.

But now, one month later, it was the day I sort of feared. Examination day.

We were seated in the hall we were dumped in on the first day, lined up in three rows according to our group, and from left to right according to our first name. Me? I was in the first row, second last, due to the fact my name started with a J. "Group gap. Adrian Lee. Please enter Room A. Group yuet. Abby Tang. Please enter Room B. Group bing. Alpha Au Yeung. Please enter Room C. Time for your individual assessments." A digitally automated voice burst from the speakers, and the three people stood up to the doors.

"Good luck." I heard someone say, but I didn't notice who. I looked to the person next to me, Martin, and looked to the person on my other side, Elliot. "You guys ready?" I asked them.

"I don't even know what we're going to do." Elliot answered. "How am I supposed to know if I'm ready?"

"Are we going to be watched by anyone except for Owl?" Martin questioned instead, opting not to answer my question.

"I don't think so. It's an individual assessment anyways." I replied. 

One by one, the people trickled in and out of the rooms, each with different emotions on their faces. Adrian had looked slightly pale when he returned to his seat, Abby looked pissed, while Alpha looked smug. Soon, my name was called. "Group gap. Jade Wong. Please enter Room A. Group yuet. Ryan Yip. Please enter Room B. Group bing. Ruby Chan. Please enter Room C." We stood up, and went into our respective rooms.

Opening the door, I went into the familiar training room, only to be greeted by an unfamiliar face. Lily was there, as per usual, but the woman next to her held herself with pride.

She had raven-black hair tied into a delicate bun on the top of her head, and strands of hair curled down next to her face, framing her large forehead and high cheekbones. Her eyes were a dark brown, like looking at the sheet of glass, cold and pristine, with no emotion. Her lips were a ruby red, and her entire face made it obvious she was someone who spent time in front of a mirror in the morning, or spent time going to salons to fix up their face. No one had eyebrows that define.

Unlike the rest of the people from the higher group that I had seen in passing, she did not wear gear, and instead wore a long white silk sleeveless dress that exposed the majority of her back. She did have sleeves, though they left her shoulders bare, which was layered on her arms and made baggy at the elbows. She had a belt, like the rest of them, but hers was also woven out of silk, and served as a sash around her waist for her dress, and the entirety of her dress had traditional chinese swirls and markings on it. Looking carefully, I realized that some of the markings continued on to her skin, meaning those markings were tattoed on her skin as well.