Chapter three
I could not believe my ears. Is this real? I could not keep the smile from my face. My hands were shaking nonstop. I had to make sure he was not joking with me, I blurted out.
"Are you serious!"
With a huge grin on his face. He replied
"Have I ever lied to you?"
I shook my head no as a response. He continued with the rest of the class
For the people who do not know but as freshmen, we assign 4-5 man squads to gifted or now talented giftless. We base group selection on classes based on your incoming test scores or on the tenure you have had at the academy. You are then further broken down into four roles within your squad. You have shields, attackers, operators, and supports. I believe their names are obvious but as a brief rundown. Shields are the main defense aka tanks. Attackers are the main fighting force aka Damage dealers. Operators are the brains of the squad or are the all-rounders. They are typical leader, aka the king or the jack of all trades. Finally we have the make it or break it position. The support, aka the backbone. If you have really good support such as a healer or buffer type or scout type. Reliable support can save your life in many different ways.
Now here comes the meat and potatoes. Remember this will be the same four to five people until you graduate. I have set up the circles for each team. Once your team is called head there but do not move to meet your fellow teammates until I have finished naming all the teams.
Alright, first team is Luciano Cortez, Nico Collin's, Eduardo Saverin, Stella Saverin, and Arthios Grey, Wait these are not the ones I assigned. Well well well. The dean has decided on who's going to be with whom. For now, this is what it will be until I have a nice little chat. Now team two....
Finally, Mr Clark got to the last team.
Team 7 your members are
Ezra Masterson, Thomas commodore masterson, Kade rollo, and jack delgado. Now head to the identified circles that match your team number.
I stood from my white bleacher seat and walked down the blue steps towards the green grass. Spread out evenly were white circles labeled one through seven. I was the first to arrive at my circle. I turned to face the bleachers a boy about six feet with the darkest hair I have ever seen with a slight purple tint in the light. His handsome slender face with a somewhat slender nose. His eyes were a deep gold color. Almost like liquid amber that seemed to glow. With a perfect smile, he reached his hand out towards me and said with a deep timbered voice.
"Hello my name is Kade Rollo and you are Jack, I presume."
I stuck my arm out and said with a little chuckle
" Mr. Clark would be happy that you pay attention in his class. Jack Delgado is my full name but most just call me Jack."
About once I was done the two others came strolling into our circle. One was a skinny super model looking boy with long Snow White hair with one ruby Red eye and one ocean blue with an orange speckled iris. With his six feet and two inches frame, he had almost no meat on his bones. He easily could be transparent if left out in the sun too long to dry up like a prune. But it only made him more handsome. The two features that stuck out most was the natural rest bitch face and the fact that he had one arm. Then there was a man next to him. I mean literally a 30-year-old grown adult. The man had a wicked 5 o'clock shadow going on. It worked well with a chiseled chin and tan skin. He was at least double his partner's weight. He was not fat in the least. With his 6'4" frame he was a giant slab of meat. He gave me a big ole grin and said very loudly in a weird French British accent.
"We can't be having a shorty like you lead us. How about we have a little vote on who will be calling all the shots."
With a loud smack. The man of a boy bent forward from the blow. He grabbed his somewhat shaggy brown mop and gave it a wild rub. He stared daggers at the white haired boy. The white hair boy stood there unperturbed as the man boy stared at him. The white hair boy
Said in a silky smooth British voice
"Do not mind this geezer. My name is."
"Hey! Who you calling a geezer?"
The other boy shouted
The white haired boy smiled
"Like I said do not mind this idiot. My name is Thomas Commodore Masterson. My friends call me TC. This boy stuck in a man's body name is Ezra Masterson. Please do not mind him. He ate something and now he is too loud and rude."
Ezra chuckled and said
"Says the cripie who ate something and thinks he is all dark and broody with a resting bitch face! Haha"
I glance over at Kade. The boy had a huge grin on his face. I just shake my head at the little banter. So the big guy doesn't mind being called an idiot but doesn't like a friendlier insult.
Tc just stared at him with a somehow deeper shade of rbf then suddenly turned to Kade and me. He began to speak again
"What might be your name be"
Kade responded quickly and said
"My name is Kade Rollo and this is Jack Delgato"
"Delgado" I quip quickly.
Ezra said it loudly
" oí, Shorty we never settled our debate about who is leading us. How about we have as v…"
I said quickly to cut him off.
"How about we wrestle for it? No mana, no gifts, just straight muscle on muscle?"
The brightest canines I have ever seen popped out as he smiled
"We got ours selves a hard man here. If Mr Clark approves then I will accept it."
I called Mr Clark over to explain the situation. He smiled at me and said if I was ok with we could and it must be folk style.
We cleared out our circle. I jumped around to shake out my body trying to get the thoughts out of my head. We lined up in the middle. His muscles and stature towered over me. I know I will win. It may look bad for me but Two Thoughts keep coming back no matter what. They light a fire under me. The thought of actually being able to do something as a groupish has me jumping for joy. The other is thinking about what Rein said a couple of years ago about leading. To lead you must show the competence of your strength. Let it be either by servant leadership or…. Someone whistled to signal the start of the match.
He comes barreling right at me. I just circle around him trying to keep my back towards out of bounds and to avoid tying up. He keeps chasing like an idiot. I faked to the left and dove to quickly to the right and lifted his leg as quickly as possible. He sprawled like a lead weight in the ocean. I felt every ounce of this boy on top of me. I could barely move up as I let go of his leg. As we're coming up and about to tie up I dropped back down to snatch his knee. He was hopping on one leg as I drove him out of bounds. I look down at him as he lost balance and was lying on the floor after I shoved him. I hustle back towards the center not breaking eye contact once. He gets back up slowly and lines up in front of me. His face is cherry red with a hint of irritation. The whistle blows and his left comes barreling down for my head. I met him in the middle and hit up and got out of the way and got behind him before he could even see me move. I barely fit my arms around the giant of a man and I picked him up with everything I had. His legs took flight as I arched my back. My left shoulder landed first and the whale followed behind me slamming into the grass. I get behind him and I put my hand on the back of his head to let him back up. I did the same move four more times. The last time I put in a half and pinned him. I stand up over him and offer my hand. Just like Rein said servant leadership or absolute authoritative dominance. He lay there with a smile. He said
"Alright boss what do we do"
I just chuckled and helped him and said
"We learn what else you can do as a group"
We both kinda waddle back to the center of the circle and sit. The other began to do the same. I cleared my throat and began to speak
" I know this is a hard and sensitive subject for you guys but as your controller, I need to know what you can do. You do not have to tell me how everything works now, because there are way too many people who can hear. So let's just settle for your positions."
The other three at the same time said
"Why would we need to do that?"
I stared at them dumb founded. Are these kids brand new? Yes, that must be the only way. How could they not know how this school works? I asked
"Are you guys perhaps first years?"
Kade responded
"Yes, this is my first semester here. What about you guys?"
Ezra said hiking his thumb towards TC
"Same for us"
I sighed heavily. Truly I'm in a bad spot with a team that is nothing but newbies. Wait! No, I shouldn't think like that. I said with seriousness
"Alright, from this moment on do not talk about your powers with anyone. Also, limit the display of your powers as much as possible."
Kade said confidently
"Why? I assume we can hold our own against anyone."
I sighed inwardly and said
"You guys are new to the school and plus it's barely been a couple of hours into it. This school's gifted program runs on meritocracy. They say grades matter and gift evaluations go into the ranking is a complete lie after the first day. While you are inside the school they can tell where you are and if you used mana. They have biometric scanners to tell if you have fought someone and if you won or lost. By getting more wins you rise in the ranks. They select the list based on Incoming grades and evaluation but once that first fight happens the rankings will not stop changing until finals at the end of the year. So to answer your question the teachers monitor the fighting of giftless and the gifted to a degree but gifted versus gifted they sit back and watch with pure glee. I have seen a mid-rank gifted get ganged up by four lower-ranked and lost repeatedly because they knew how his gift worked. He then went down below past them in the rankings. It is a free-for-all between classes and on campus. From this moment on do not show or talk about your gift. If you get in a fight try to use it sparingly. Not only will that help save you from losing but when it comes to the inter academy tournament it will allow you an ace up your sleeve."
The three looked at each other and then Ezra Said in a booming voice
"I do not give two shits about who is who in this school. If they want to try and fight me I should give them a fighting chance. My gift ability is to change my mana into a form of energy whether it be kinetic or potential energy. This gift I have is an ability that doesn't injure. It….. kills. Haha, good luck peasants. I wait eagerly for the fool to lay a hand on this sexy body."
Slap!
TC once again slaps the living life out of the back of Ezra's head. He bent over in a flash almost smacking his head on the grass floor. I swear I could see a hand-sized indentation in his skull. He then spoke in a quite silky smooth voice.
" I apologize for this classless Neanderthal. He should have listened and waited to tell his power. I promise there is more to the gift than what he had stated. It was a good rough-around-the-edges description."
He cleared his throat and said with enough force that everyone could hear him and said
"I am not as cocky or presumptionish as this brute. I will use my gift to its fullest extent to make you bleed and then kill you if you dare to choose to test your insignificant worth against me."
He went back to a quieter voice to say
" I apologize for my outburst also but I could not let this brute be the only one. My gift is mana muscle manipulation. Basically, I can expend my mana to make muscles grow. It has an expensive mana to output cost. I'm also decent with a sword and shield. To your classification of battle strategy, I am a damage dealer or tank depending on what weapon I have."
Ezra chimed in a much quieter voice
" I'm a long-range or close-range damage dealer depending on how I use my abilities"
Kade let out a hearty laugh and said
"You two are the opposite in every way but kinda are the same. Haha, I like you two very much. And you too Jack! The way you took on Ezra without hesitation was totally badass. To go along with the theme of sharing my abilities depending on the mass of the object I can make it turn upside down and also proficient with a sword."
Ezra laughed and said
"So your gift allows you to do the flip bottle challenge and win every time?"
Kade looked confused and got out a nonsensical yes. Ezra leaned over to TC and whispered that it was not much of a whisper
"Remind me not to bet against him when it comes to flipping anything. Head or tails would be useless"
I just laughed at the big fella and asked
"So what would you consider yourself as? Support or damage dealer?
Kade thought for a while. He looked away and said
"I really do not know. What do you guys think?"
I didn't even have to think for a second. It was easy for me to see the value in that gift. It can easily be a deciding factor in a fight. So I said
"That's easy. Support. I want to assume you do not need to touch anything for it to activate besides line of sight?"
Kade responded
"Correct"
"What is the range?" I asked
" I do not know. I haven't tried it out all that much from range. I haven't had the ability for more than a year" He said with his ears turning red
I said "Even so if it's short range it will just need to put you in our formations to match your gift. It's honestly a broken gift. The only constraint is weight. Can you imagine at s level mana what you will be able to lift and turn upside down? You could easily lift a house and make it land on its head. Or mid-fight can you flip someone and distract them for TC and Ezra to deal a finishing blow. PVP you will be unstoppable considering you are proficient with a sword, As long as your opponent is not a range fighter I think you could win easily. I also want to bet that as you grow your abilities you develop more into a telekinesis with limited mobility. I think once we start maneuvering as a group it will just be tweaking your timing with the gift to get as much out of it as possible.
So one extrinsic main damage dealer, one intrinsic shield with potential for damage, and a game-changer support. Excuse me for my French but the dean fucked up making this team. Not only would we fit in a babybre and ditch magazine.
You guys would truly be a force to cause some havoc. I'm beyond excited to make you guys the best."