A boy cried.
He cried and cried but he didn't know how to stop. Stop the pain that was tearing at his eyes. Stop the searing fire burning down onto his body. And he certainly couldn't stop the tears falling off his face. As he wept a tall woman stood above him with a knife in one hand and a torch in the other. She spat onto the ground in disgust as she began to speak. "You filthy dual breed! Lie dead! I should never have slept with that foolish clown to begin with, and of course you'd happen to be his child." The woman spat towards the lying child in a fury raising her foot *squelch* and slammed it into the poor boys side her high heel leaving a nasty wound. She then threw the burning torch at the boy and just… up and left leaving the boy all by himself.
The woman who just assaulted the boy was none other than his mother who he had been living with up until this point. His father, while absent did visit him on occasion being nothing but kind and gentle to the young boy during their brief interactions, however he doubted that that kindness would stay when he heard of the diagnosis.
He got up creating a small ruby light on the palm of his hand and pressing it on his side making sure to not get anymore burns by shifting his body away from the spreading fire.
"Damn that hurts" he exclaimed as red embers created from his palm touched his wound leaving small oval scars where the wound used to be. You see the boy awakened an uncommon form of magic which fell under the class of dual magic. His magic, ruby flames was in reality an instance of trifecta magic a form of magic that encompassed three different aspects of three different elements, however his mother nor the doctors found this out and due to that negligence neither did he.
"Cmon Paras get up!" He yelled as he put more of the embers onto his wounds leaving more ovals on his torso, neck and thigh. Paras was a scrawny but fed boy around 16 years of age standing just short of 6 foot. He weakly got up and prepared to walk out of what used to be his room. As he left he took one look at the amber coloured flames starting to spread along the wooden floor. His mother probably expected him to deal with the fire, however he wasn't going to keep living there much longer so he didn't see why he should. After all his mother was terrible to him even before his diagnosis, she did name him Parasite. But in the end she was still his mother, so he did still rush towards the bathroom sink and grab a nearby cup placing it under the tap then throwing it on the flames. He then promptly left the house to go to his school which was a short walk away.
Usually school would be a drag, but today was different. Today they'd be assigned to units in their school determined by vote, magical prowess and family ties. He really didn't care what unit he fell into. He only hoped that in the future he'd be allowed to go roam the gateways and hunt beasts. You see magicians would be put into a gate by the government at age 18 if they were in a unit. If you didn't have battle oriented magic or weak magic you'd be considered a civilian and unable to join a unit. And Paras really wanted to be in a unit, you see joining a unit showed many benefits such as a shared dorm with clean water and two free meals a day one more then he had now. He dreamed of the luxurious life he'd live once he became a warper, with money and a family of his own. Oh how he longed for that life.
As the first bell rang an announcement played on the high schools PA system. "Could all first year applicants please proceed towards the outer gymnasium for your unit assignment." The voice recounted in a monotone voice. Paras walked towards the outer gymnasium where hundreds of students were gathered waiting to be called upon. The unit captains were sitting on one side of a long rectangular table with a laptop in front of each one showing all the students familial ties, medical history and most important of all their magic. The first student called up was a girl named Mikia, she was a well mannered girl with glasses and black hair. Paras recalled talking to her once, she was quite polite. "Mikia Keep, please demonstrate your magic by engaging in combat with Garrett the practitioner."
She grabbed a wooden sword from a barrel and raised the sword. She then slashed down towards Garrett who blocked with ease. Her sword splintered into tiny fragments then started to glow a faint green. 'Huh that's pretty interesting' Paras thought as he watched on as the wood flew back towards Mikia reforming her sword now with faint green spiderweb like cracks in the sword as she swung again. This time the sword didn't break and instead held against the practitioners sword.
"At ease" a captain said typing onto his keyboard Mikia's sword falling apart as she stopped using her magic. "Now please explain in all the detail you can so we can get a more personalized explanation of your magic." Mikia replied with a nod and spoke "My magic can repair objects while under the pressure of my mana and keep them in place however once I stop using it the object would return to its broken state." A few captains typed on their laptops and one said "You are dismissed for the day you can return home if you wish we will notify you about your results later." Mikia replied with a curt nod and walked towards her friends, smiling. "Next!" A captain said.
After many more people went the captains looked slightly bored. Most applicants so far had been mediocre or less then with only a few such as Mikia being above average. "Next! Nell Franctor!" A captain called and a tall navy blue haired boy walked towards the table. "Nell Franctor, please display your magic by engaging in combat with Garret the practitioner." The boy picked up the sword and swung down with force a slight orange tint appearing in his eyes. Why was Paras looking at his eyes? One may never know. His sword broke through Garrets defence hovering just above his face. "At ease" a captain clad in red and white said with a slight smirk on his face "Nell could you please give us a personalized explanation of how your magic works?" Nell nodded in affirmation. "My magic lets me enhance my body astronomically boosting not only my strength but my speed and perception as well." He exclaimed with pride written on his face. 'He's not arrogant in the slightest.' Paras thought sarcastically as every captain started typing away. "I just hope I'm not next so I don't fall in his shadow." He thought out loud."Next! Parasite Chance!"
rats.