Chapter 279

279 Unrivaled Potential And Withering Resolve

Sandra walked through the intricately designed gates of the great facility with Katie following behind. The royal wouldn’t let her eyes settle on a single thing.

Unlike the one they were used to back in Brigadia, this one consisted of multiple buildings that towered almost thrice the height of the highest one in Brigadia. The hunters that milled through were far too busy to pay them any attention which felt more like a relief to Sandra.

Thinking back to the Agency in Brigadia, it would have been hard for them to go anywhere without a hunter approaching Katie to make some kind of brief conversation before moving on. The two of them had come to know the hunters at home that it felt like a big family.

“This is nothing like the one in Brigadia at all, is it?” Katie mused whilst looking around.

“Nope, it’s nothing like it at all,” Sandra responded, getting her bearings and leading Katie to the main building or so Katie thought. It was the one facing the gates directly.

Inside, the building was cool with air blowing through it evenly from the air conditioners placed at every entrance. However, stepping into the main building did not save them from the utter confusion of being here for the first time.

“I’m glad the two of you could make it,” a male voice came to their rescue when they were just about to make it to the counter.

Delighted, Katie was hugging her adoptive father before he had time to complain about it, “I missed you too, Katie.”

“Mr Tom, where am I...”

.....

“Oh, your examination will be conducted in one of the labs. Follow me if you will,” Tom responded, walking them to the desk at the reception. The man spoke with the woman at the other side of the desk and got the paperwork necessary. While Sandra worked on signing the papers, the man inched closer to his adoptive daughter, “Are you feeling better, Katie?”

Katie sighed, “Well, I am trying to. The pain in my body is almost gone, but...”

“What is it?” the man asked her, now worried that something might be worse than he’d imagined. Upon seeing the man’s worried expression, Katie couldn’t help but lose the courage to get her words out.

“It’s probably nothing, Uncle Tom. Don’t worry about it,” she forced a smile.

“Are you sure?” she nodded, getting him to let it go. Tom looked her in the eye and decided against pressing the matter any further, “Very well. The family said they would like to get to know you.”

“What...?” Katie blanched. Her memories of the man that had spoken at the memorial came back to her, “Come to think of it, there was that man at the memorial yesterday. Who was he?”

“Oh, that is my brother, Thorrin. Did you get to talk to him?”

“No, I went straight home after all the tiring speeches. I was feeling exhausted,” she replied with a sad smile.

“Exhausted? What do you...”

“I’m done with the paperwork. What’s next, Mr Tom? Do I get my blood taken and checked for traces of the gift within it? What’s supposed to happen?” Sandra interrupted.

‘Safe...’ Katie breathed out in relief at the interruption.

“Oh no. It’s nothing like that Sandra. Let me take you to the lab where you’ll be tested,” the man announced, leading the way to the elevator.

The trio remained silent as they followed Tom’s lead. It was evident that Sandra was indeed nervous about the test she was about to go through.

Katie had already gone through hers and pretty much knew there was nothing for her friend to worry about, but none of that would have helped the nervous girl. They could both only watch everything unfold before them.

Stepping out of the elevator on the third floor, Tom stepped out as another hunter went in. There was a look of surprise on the woman’s face before she relaxed. Katie, used to that reaction, only passed by her as though nothing had happened. Similar reactions were seen as they walked through the hallway, attracting more attention.

On both sides, they found there to be laboratories with different instruments, almost all of them in use. At one point, Katie’s nose began to itch as she got a whiff of wolfsbane being tampered with in one of the labs, “What is this place for, Uncle?”

“Well, this is where most of the research is carried about. It would also happen to be where humans are trying to bridge the gap between science and divine energy. As of right now, there has been next to no progress on the matter,” he explained.

“Of course, there wouldn’t be. You get to see someone shifting from their human bodies into large wolves. How will that ever connect with science?” Katie huffed.

“You’re right about that,” the man chuckled, “However, there are some stunning discoveries to be made along the way.”

Finally leading them to the room they were going to. This one bore no windows or doors that let them see inside. Katie searched her mind for a sense of what was inside, but nothing came through, as she’d expected. Not even the detection of life in the room let alone the number of people inside.

'

She was still far too tired to pick up on anything. She normally subconsciously kept watch of a three-kilometre radius, but at the moment, there was nothing she could pick up on.

The door opened almost noiselessly leading them into a large room filled with machines and monitors. There was a glass ahead separating the observation room from the other part of the room.

On the other side of the glass which Katie was now sure peeked down below, was a racetrack with plenty of obstacles. In the middle of the racetrack was a single machine that Katie knew quite well.

It was built like the reverse of a weight balance. The hunter being tested would be required to lift the handle as much as they could with both hands and the versatile equipment would measure just how much force they were able to output.

If the force the hunter was capable of using was abnormally more than their physique suggested, then it would be confirmed that they had the Strength Prometheus gift.

Katie had gone through both tests as her adoptive parents were confused as to which gift she had. Until it was accepted that she had both gifts, it was impossible for any one hunter to believe that she’d been granted both.

Some of them convinced themselves that she was just really athletic, but the truth came out on the day of her examination.

“Hey, Katie... that race track,” Sandra shivered at what she was supposed to go through.

Katie looked at the obstacles on the racetrack. Most of them were standard obstacles, however, there was barely any distance between them, “You forget that it’s an agility gift, Sandra, speed is sort of like a side effect of that agility.”

“What if I was just really good at controlling my breathing out in the woods and that’s why I was able to...”

“Your confidence is boundless when you’re protecting others. I would have never thought something like this would put you on edge,” Katie chuckled at her friend’s behaviour, “Don’t worry, Sandra. You’ll do great.”

Sandra sighed and walked in as well, “Well, hunters, I have brought a candidate of my own.”

Most of the scientists that hadn’t already noticed them turned to see them, “Oh, Hunter Thomas, we thought you were just making an inspection.”

Tom sighed, “While it might have been nice to just drop in and watch you all scram in attempts to fix everything wrong on your computers, that is not why I am here.

This here is Sandra Alastair and I believe she is in possession of an agility gift. We are here to have it evaluated.”

“Oh, okay then. She’ll have to get dressed in one of the uniforms,” the man answered leading the girl away from them.

..........

“Okay, Sandra, we would like you to just relax and do this just like would to get through the race track as fast as you can. Try to stay relaxed.

If you have the gift, you won’t actually exert yourself as much as you think you have to,” the man said over the speakers.

Sandra looked up to the glass and began to wonder what kind of room they were in and how it was connected to the other building they’d been walking through. The architecture just seemed too complicated to make sense in her mind’s eye.

The girl stretched her limbs in the hopes of getting rid of the nervousness that racked her. The latex outfit they had her wear was not helping her nerves either. It was almost like she could feel the machines within the uniform that was reading her vitals.

Lights above the starting point began to blink red while a beeping sound simultaneously blared through the entire room. After blinking three times, the lights went green and Sandra was off, raising a small plume of dust with the force of her foot.

“Woah, that was unexpected. She’s faster than the average beginner. Are you sure she has only just awakened this gift?” one of the scientists asked while poring over the readings on the screens excitedly, “The scanners on the suit are picking up massive readings of divine energy. They are way too high for someone who’s only just awakened their gift.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Katie asked the man.

“Well, it either means her gift has been active, but she kept it from everyone else or... She has a will to improve herself so much that it’s forcing her body to work at peak levels. If that’s the case, then we’re looking at someone with the potential to grow really strong in a short amount of time. It’s not unheard of. I can think of a few hunters that had these same kinds of readers. Quite a few indeed.”

The way the man said ‘quite a few’ made it obvious who he was talking about, however, the hunters ignored his enthusiasm and turned their eyes on the girl dashing about the obstacle course.

Katie watched her friend weave through the obstacles almost effortlessly. The obstacles were many and difficult to evade, but for some reason, Sandra was having no trouble with any of them.

At some point where she had to jump hurdles, it seemed as though the girl was only slowed down during the moments when her feet did not touch the ground, “Look at her go. It’s like she was made for that gift.” The girl exclaimed watching her friend dash about almost blurry to her eyes.

“She definitely has potential,” Tom responded firmly.

While the girl completed the rest of the course, Katie went through the door that would take her to the other side of the laboratory that Sandra was in.

Picking a bottle of water on her way there. The race course was also meant to test endurance. From how big it had been made coupled with the laps Sandra had already run around it, Katie could tell the girl was about to reach her limit.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs leading onto the race track, the girl stopped, taking note of her ragged breathing. Sweat had already started to form on her brow. She’d been trying to ignore it, but the more something like that happened, the more she worried about it.

“Hey Sandra,” she called out to her friend who’d only just collapsed at the centre of the racetrack, “You did well, Sandra.”

“You think so... You think I was going too slow, don’t you?” the girl’s shoulders slumped. Katie laughed at her friend’s accusations.

“Here, drink up, Sandra. You’ll have a license in no time,” she handed her friend the bottle, kneeling beside her while she tried to recover.

Her eyes wandered from her tired friend and landed on the machine that measured the strength Prometheus’ gift, her thoughts wandering as well, ‘You were so fast... Honestly, I could barely follow your movements.’

For a moment, she let her hand rest on the machine meant to test grip strength. Sandra wasn’t watching this and no one else was. Katie, however, kept her neutral expression when she squeezed the machine as hard as she could.

It wouldn’t budge.