As the fight continued the pristine white room slowly became spattered with blood, while Anne’s heart began to beat through her chest as she used every fiber of her being to not intervene despite knowing it would likely be hopeless.
The longer they fought the faster Jack seemed to move as he began to recover to his feet quicker and evade some attacks.
His defense seemed to get more accurate and powerful as well allowing him to start holding some ground against the she witch assaulting him.
“Integration complete, beginning amplification.” Sounded a feminine robotic voice from the ceiling.
At that same moment multiple bright balls of light lit up from inside jacks body before quickly fading away causing him to feel an almost infinite burst of energy briefly bringing him back down from the survival frenzy state his mind had entered.
As he felt this energy he analyzed his hands and squeezed them, it was a different sensation all together it was reminiscent of the tingly fuzzy feeling one felt when a limb had went to sleep the only difference was e felt as though he could control each sensation almost every fiber of himself.
He could even feel his sensation of touch beginning to reach out as he could feel the airflow around him.
“Ohhh now this is definitely interesting.” Ace said from the sideline as he sat a little more forward as though that would help him to get a better analysis of the situation himself.
“Get ready for round two this time I am going to pick up the pace.” Commander Valia said as she began to move forward to attack again.
Jack still hadn’t looked up from examining his hands his mind was completely enraptured by this new sensation.
In no time at all the commander repeated what she had done at the beginning aiming to punch Jack square in the face, however this time he could feel the atmosphere around him.
As soon as the commander was within a meter of him he could viscerally feel every fiber of her from her clothes to her bones.
A sensation so foreign and unnatural he immediately jumped back as if he had felt something crawling on him causing the commander to punch the air.
Seeing this ace had the biggest smile on his face as he went from slightly leaning forward to standing.
The rest of their group watched aptly not expecting this turn of events.
Jack hadn’t realized it but his muscles had been enhanced along side his sensation of touch, he jumped so far back that he slammed into the wall 4 meters back causing him to stumble forward before catching himself on his hands and knees.
“Hahahaha, I never in my wildest dreams expected to experience something like this.” He laughed and said to himself as he was standing back up.
But once again the commander was directly infront of him causing his skin to crawl once more at the relentless assault.
“Didn’t I tell you to try your best to kill me, I don’t know how seriously you’re taking this awakening thing, but if I were actually your enemy you would not be breathing right now.” She said as she delivered a strong downward punch at the head of Jack who was mid roll attempting to get back to his feet.
This time he dodged her blow by nearly an inch but he was starting to understand the double edged sword he had awakened.
Her attack didn’t make contact with him physically but his deeply integrated senses with the atmosphere immediate to him allowed him to feel the full force of the attack she had just delivered sending a sharp pain through his head causing him to fall back down in pain.
“She’s always been pretty quick she’s already seen through his awakened ability.” Ace said as he looked on with a serious expression carefully analyzing both fighters movements and energy flow.
“You can do it honey!
You should never let you wife watch another woman punch you like this!” Anne shouted having a newfound faith in her husband despite him still losing ground.
These words were like fuel for his fire as he felt another surge of energy remembering his wife and son on the sideline watching him.
This time he pushed up stronger launching himself a few meters in the air where he made himself upright as he fell back towards the ground.
The commander continued her assault while Jack seemed even more adept at his defensive strategy in this second round not losing nearly as much blood as he had in the first round.
The commander was in front of him again ready to rain down a barrage of punches before Jack simply collapsed from exhaustion.
He hadn’t fought in a while and with his lack of energy control he had exhausted himself before getting a chance to understand the full capabilities of his newfound power.
“That was great Mr.
Jack rest up nicely I am excited to see you progress I hope you can help us protect humanity in the days to come.” The commander said as she bowed towards Jack’s unconscious body.
“Ace can you take him to the infirmary, and don’t worry I won’t start with the others until you get back.” “No worries, I’ll be back faster than you know it!” Ace said moving faster than any of the new recruits could see aside from Ethan.
He had nearly instantaneously appeared near jacks body picking him up like a duffel back carrying him by his surprisingly durable FBSA sweatsuit.
“In case you guys are wondering it seems like he awakened a sensory enhancement, which is very rare for a first time awakened.
He set a high bar for your team I hope you guys are able to be useful to him, actually I hope you guys show me that he will be the one that needs to work hard to be useful to you all.” Commander Valia said as she swiped her hand down bringing the holographic screen in front of her again.
After witnessing the first bout everyone couldn’t help but be grateful that Jack had gone first, now at the very least they could have some mental preparation for the violence they were soon to face.
Ace returned quickly from delivering Jack to the infirmary, and just as he arrived Amanda’s ring lit up showing another completed analysis.
“Great come on over here Amanda.” The commander said as she looked over some information on her screen and waved Amanda over.
“O-okay..
H-here I come.” Amanda said in a low tone as she begrudgingly got up trying to imagine any way she could protect herself from this monster.
Heart felt like it was beating through her chest while all she wanted most was to jump out of her own skin and get as far away from the violent commander as possible.
Every step felt heavier than the last as she could feel the sweat seeming to drip from every pore in her body.
She didn’t know if it was anxiety, fear, or excitement but her body wouldn’t stop shaking and she could undoubtedly feel something welling up inside of her.
“Now this is also pretty interesting.” Ace said as he continued standing watching Amanda walk towards the commander.
“What is interesting?
She looks terrified why is this even necessary?” Lucile barked at Ace disturbed by his excitement to see them beaten to a pulp by a commander.
“This might be a good exorcise for you guys since you’re supposed to be the ‘gifted’ batch.
Close your eyes and try to sense your surroundings, notice the subtle differences in how the air feels around you, once you can feel those differences I want you to keep your eyes closed and focus on pinpointing what separates these sensations once you can pinpoint that I want you to open your eyes and see what you have pinpointed and attatch your visual senses to those feelings.” Ace said without looking at Lucile knowing this wasn’t something beginners usually understood but this was arguable one of the safest and most stable ways to introduce normies to the world of superhumans.
Despite her frustrations Lucile listened and did exactly as instructed as did the others.
“Integration complete, beginning amplification.” Once again sounded throughout the room shocking everyone there as they opened their eyes to see Lucile hadn’t even begun her first sparring session with the commander.
Like with Jack she felt a large surge of energy something that felt so boundless she couldn’t attatch any other words to the sensation, while in front of every one else’s eyes she seemed to flicker in and out of existence before eventually she completely faded from their sight.
“Close your eyes, feel her.” Ace said as he glanced at his team seeing them rubbing their eyes and attempting to blink Amanda back into sight.
“Amanda, you can go sit back down pay very close attention to how your internal energy has moved and where it has localized itself.” Commander Valia instructed as she looked from Amanda’s location back to her screen before she began typing again.
After hearing those words a light thud was heard before Amanda could be seen on her hands and knees soaked in much more sweat than her group had expected meriting another glance from the commander who’s eyes soon shifted to ace.
“Yea, yea they’re my guys I will take care of them.” He said before again in front of the group who couldn’t seem to keep their eyes closed he disappeared from next to them appearing next to Amanda.
Unlike the rest of their team Jason and Ethan still had their eyes closed as they felt they were right at the cusp of pinpointing the internal sensations and how they were representations of what was happening external to them.