The three boys are already warming up as Lucius finally arrives on the training field. He watches for a moment before slowly approaching them.
"I see you're already warming up. I like the dedication."
The trio stops their warming up and stands up straight, waiting for Lucius's next command. He claps with his hands before a smile forms on his face.
"Let's start then. I want you to perform the basic skills so I can see how capable you are already."
Without waiting much longer, each of the three performs the basic skills known to them. Using flash steps, standing and walking in the air. Lucius nods approvingly.
"Looks good. At last I want you to explain and then show off your innate ability."
Kai looks excited and opens his mouth to speak, but before he gets the chance to do so, he gets interrupted by Teon, asking why Lucius would want them to tell and show if he had already read their files.
"It's not for me; you guys are going to become a team, so you should know what the other can do so you can understand and support each other better."
He looks over to Lloyd.
"How about you start?"
Lloyd nods and looks over at the other two before he starts to explain.
"My power is rather simple; I call it Bones. I know this might sound weird at first, but as soon as I show you, I think it's self-explanatory."
He stretches out his arm, drawing the attention of all to it. Slowly the skin on his hands gets brighter until bones start to tear through it. His face contorts in pain, and he grits his teeth together. The moment no skin is visible anymore, he stops; after waiting for a second, he closes and opens his hand a few times, moving each finger individually, before the bones slowly return back under his newly appearing skin.
"I can do this everywhere on my body and even let them grow into abstract shapes. The drawback is that it's extremely painful because I feel how they grow and rip through every fiber of my body. Good thing it heals right back without consuming any Soul-Energy."
While Lucius and Kai look somewhat excited and amazed, Teon has a slight tinge of disgust written over his face.
"You can do that anywhere on your body?"
"If there are bones nearby, then yes."
To demonstrate this, a spike of bone rips through Lloyd's shirt on his shoulder, and he gasps out in pain. The spike, in a few places, has a thin layer of blood on it.
"See..."
It slowly shrinks down until there is only the hole in his shirt, showing off the unscathed skin of his shoulder. Lucius claps.
"That's quite impressive; I imagine your pain tolerance is quite high?"
"Yes, sir."
"Can I go next?"
Kai asks, excited to show off what he can do.
"Sure, go ahead."
"I call my power Fullfiction. In simple terms, it allows me to create any fictional thing, use any fictional ability, or even summon fictional living beings, but that's really hard."
He opens his hand, and slowly glowing outlines of a small ring appear before it materializes completely.
"The drawback, if one could call it that, is I have to consume the media where whatever I want to create is from."
He puts the ring on his index finger and disappears.
"Impressive, but this thing can't hide your Soul-Energy signature."
Lucius Turns around, reaches up, and grabs something before pulling his hand away. Kai appears again, the ring on his finger now in Lucius's hand.
"Yeah, I know. This is more small trickery than any use. I can also create much more powerful things, but this also consumes much more of my soul-energy."
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At last it's Teon's turn to present his power.
"Mine is not as impressive as yours, and I'm not really able to show anything."
Kai and Lloyd look confused while Lucius rests his chin in one hand, the other arm crossed beneath to steady it, thinking to himself.
"I really hoped I'd get to see his power; out of all of them, this one interests me the most."
"Simply said, I can copy others' powers..."
Teon starts before immediately getting interrupted by Lloyd.
"So you can copy any ability you see?"
"It doesn't work like that. You see, I need to get hit by one and survive. Then my body instinctively creates a copy. The thing is, it's not perfect. It's always different in some way. For example, the opposite of the original one. I can never know what happens. That's why I call it Imperfect Copy."
He looks at Lloyd for a moment before he continues to talk.
"Because of the restriction that I have to get hit, I could never copy yours. I would only get hit by your bones, instead of any kind of ability."
After a small pause, he adds.
"Upside, I instinctively know how to use the power and don't have to learn it first."
Lucius lets his arm sink to his side before turning around and walking to the exit of the field.
"It's already late; it's time for you to go to bed. Tomorrow you will start your training."
The boys look up in the sky, the first stars already visible. Kai's gaze falls back to Lucius, who's nearly arrived at the exit door.
"So we all passed?"
Without turning around, Lucius calls out.
"You passed the moment you put out Soul-Pressure ratings that we haven't seen in years."
He steps through the open doors and disappears into the hallway behind.
"Wait, I thought he said we barely passed?!"
Lloyd says, confused.
"Does it matter? We passed!"
Kai calls out excitedly before jumping up in joy and walking towards the exit.
"Let's get to the room quickly."
Teon shakes his head and smiles before following Kai.
"This guy is really something else."
He thinks to himself. Back in their room, each of them lies in their bed, unable to sleep. Kai stares at the ceiling.
"What do you think training is going to be like?"
"Shut up, I'm trying to sleep."
Lloyd says, annoyed, before turning away from Kai.
"It's going to be intense!"
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Lloyd sighs annoyed and sits up in bed. It knocks again.
"Can one of you please open it? I don't want to get up."
Teon gives Lloyd a judgmental look before standing up and walking towards the door. As he opens it, the black-haired girl from the first exams stands before him, and behind her, the blond one.
"Ah, so you're the others that passed."
She turns around to her friend.
"Look, Kaia, I told you there were more than this dickhead."
"Hi…"
The blond girl waves at Teon. He smiles and waves back.
"Hey. Is there anything you two need?"
The black-haired girl starts talking again.
"No, we just wanted to see who else passed."
"And how much did it?"
"Besides you and us, only one more guy. Anyways, see you tomorrow."
She turns around and walks down the hallway. Teon's gaze follows her for a moment before it falls to Kaia.
"See you, I guess."
He smiles. Kaia nods.
"Kaia, what are you waiting for? Come on."
"Goodbye."
She waves again before running after her friend. Teon shakes his head before closing the door again.
"I'm excited to find out what their abilities are."
"Shut up, Kai, and go to sleep."
Lloyd murmurs before lying down again and closing his eyes.

