Leo stayed behind to talk to Nila while the group went on without him. John was called to a meeting in one of the rooms on the 2nd floor.
The meeting was about the 4th class trainees. John walked close to the walls with his head down the entire way there. He walked past a group of trainees that were in class 2 and they all made comments about him as he passed them.
"What a waste, if somebody else had gotten his ability then they would probably be stronger than him."
"Like it's not bad enough he can't fight, he can't even talk."
"He's lucky he's friends with rank 1. Otherwise I'd kick his ass right now."
"What good is an ability that can only defend?"
Each of them was laughing the whole time as they made fun of him, John could feel the scorn in their voices, their repulsion towards him. He tried his best to ignore them and continued walking.
'Theres nothing I can do about it anyways... It's no different than before. Nobody takes me seriously...' John thought.
John eventually reached the class he was meant to be in, all the other class 4 trainees were there, as well as Lieutenant Anders.
John stood at the back behind everyone else and near the wall, trying to be as far out of the way as possible. Lieutenant Anders started speaking.
"All of you in class 4 will be split further into seperate groups. If you have an ability that can be used on the battlefield to assist others in their combat, then you will be in the support class. If your ability is completely useless in combat, then you will be in the utility class. Any questions? "
A boy raised his hand, "What about those of us that just got low scores?" Lieutenant Anders looked at the boy, "All trainees who were placed in class 4 because they got a low score, will be forced to leave the academy. Your ability is too weak for combat and has no other uses. You can of course join the military through the regular channels, like non ability users do. You will have 3 days to prepare yourselves to leave, after that you will be forced out the building."
The boy, as well as the others with low scores were distraught. They believed they would at least be given the chance to improve, but instead they were instantly kicked out.
Lieutenant Anders continued, "Utility users are to report to room 2 on this floor. Support users are to report to room 5 on this floor. These will be the classrooms you are to go to each day. That is all." He then left the room.
Everyone started leaving the room and John followed behind them, he was the last person in the line to leave. Just before John could get through the door, a different boy pushed him back into the room.
Entering through the door was Trent and the 2 boys that were with him in the cafeteria. They closed the door and then formed a triangle around John, who had fallen over onto the floor.
"Your name's John, right? You've caused me a lot of trouble." Trent reaches forward, he lifts John's sleeve and grabs his left forearm . "Now, I'm going to ask you some questions, and you're going to answer them for me. If you don't, then I'll burn you." A small amount of heat radiated out of trents hand and it glowed dimly.
"Aaarrgghhh." John let out yelp of pain. One of the 2 boys behind him slapped him in the back of the head, "If you make a noise, we will hurt you more." he said.
John was terrified of the situation he was in, he didn't know what else to do but comply. "I-I'll answer y-your q-questions..." John stuttered.
Trent smiled, "Excellent. First off, what's the name of the guy who humiliated me?" Trent asked with a frown on his face.
'How doesnt he know? Even if he doesn't, surely he could find this out from anyone, why is he asking me?' John thought. "Well? what's his name!?" Trent asked again, more agitated than the first time.
p "His n-name is L-Leofalor..." John replied.
"Good. Don't take so long to answer the next one , I don't have all day." Trent said with a tone of annoyance.
John nodded furiously. "How do you know him?" Trent asked. "He's m-my roommate."John replied.
"Who else is in your room?"
"Cain and C-Clay."
"Does Leofalor have any family?"
"I d-don't know. I haven't s-spoken to him m-much."
Trent frowned, "You don't know? Well, you will just have to find out for me, won't you?" Trent let out some more heat.
"AARHMMPPHH"John held back his scream this time. "I will... I'll find out! " John blurted out quickly, before Trent could burn him more.
"What results did you and each of your roommates get in the ability test?" Trent asked
"I'm c-class 4, s-support class. Cain g-got the highest in c-class 2, and Clay got t-the second highest s-score." John paused for a moment but then Trent burned him again, "Go on dammit, what about Leofalor!?"
John had tears streaming down his face, "L-Leofalor is t-the number one r-ranker..." John replied amidst small sobs.
"Ranker? What the fuck is a ranker?" Trent wasn't there when the tests were done, so he wasn't aware of how the rankings at the academy functioned.
"H-He got the h-highest score out o-of everyone. The t-top five, t-the ones i-in class one are c-called r-rankers." john explained, still sobbing lightly.
"So he's the strongest of us, is that right? Well that's only because I wasn't there during the test. I'll have to show him what real strength looks like next time..." Trent had an evil grin on his face.
"I doubt you'll already know this information, so you're going to find it out for me. If you don't, I'll burn your arms so badly that they will never work properly again."
John nodded and more tears streamed down his face. Trent spoke, "You're going to find out exactly what your roommates abilities are and how they work, especially Leofalor. Then you're going to come back and tell me. Understand?"