Rise of the Omnimage

"What is the point of a physcial assessment? Couldn't you just look at the tier for how strong someone is?" Someone in the group said as Kyrain walked in.

"That's a great question. This is to help us, help you determine your role as a guild members. These roles are broken up into 2 categories which are broken down further. The first two categories are front line or back line. Then it's broken down further into tank, dps, and support.

Some can take on multiple or all roles. These assessments let us gauge where to train you or help you reach your goal of becoming one of those roles." The assessor explained.

Ky joined the back of the group.

"Since none of you are combat trained or know really anything about fighting yet, we will test your strength, speed, and resiliency. We want to see you attack the dummies in front of the group with a punch, a kick, then attempt to tackle it.

After, we will put you through an obstacle course, then you will be pelted with rubber balls at increasing speeds until you can't take it anymore, testing both physical and mental resiliency. Aether isn't permitted as that will be tomorrow's assessment. Passives, naturally, are allowed."

They were formed up and Kyrain watched the pitiful attempts on the dummies as people did as instructed. Eventually it was his turn.

"I was sent over from the other side as my passives don't allow them to test properly." He said as he stepped up.

"Name?" The attendant asked looking at his pad.

"Kyrain Ekart. Anti-aether path." He replied.

"Oh yeah, that makes sense. I'm assuming by who you are related to that you have combat training?"

"Yes. The role I'm planning to take is a DPS/Tank role. I can do both extremely well with my abilities." Kyrain said.

The attendant nodded. "Let's see it. One punch, kick, then tackle."

Kyrain walked up got into a basic stance then with a push, twist, and roll he launched right straight into the middle of the dummy causing it to rock back. The energy that would have been transfered back to his hand where injuries come from was nullified. He reset his stance and threw a rolling kick into where the rib cage of the dummy would be rocking it sideways.

He hopped back a step then charged. He lifted the surprisingly heavy dummy off the ground then slammed it down then mounting it out of habit for more attacks.

"Good!" The attendant said. "More or less to be expected. You can get in the course line over there for speed testing."

Kyrain jumped up and went over to the indicated line. He didn't have to wait long for the obstacle course. He didn't do anything out of expectation when it was his turn. He was a tier two and had an advantage as he had run the course before, but that was really it.

When it came time for the resiliency test, he really stood out. They had a pitching machine set up with an "X" where the initiate would stand. Since the addition of his new skill he recognized potential and kinetic energy so his passive worked to nullify it. He could feel the antimatter points nudge with every hit taken and it took more and more per shot to nullify.

After about ten minutes the attendants had the machine as fast as it could go, but none of the energy that would cause damage to him could make it through.

The group was brought back together once the assessment was done for all of them and they were given the guild recommendation for their roles.

At his feedback he was not really suprised.

"As you have probably assumed, you are good at offense and unparalleled in defense. We recommend you become a tank. With your ability to bypass aether, you have a great aptitude for offense as well." The attendant said.

Kyrain nodded and thanked the man, heading out of the room where he met up with his group. His cousins and Elijah seemed to be in pretty good spirits where it looked like they did pretty well for themselves.

- The next day -

"Ladies and Gents! Bring it in!" Came the call from Andrew the guild representative that had been running the assessments.

"We need you to break up into offense, defense, and support groups. For the aether assessment." He said.

The group was directed to three areas to wait. Elijah went to the support group, Sebastian went to offense, with Tobias and Kyrain heading to the defense group.

They were led into a similar room as before, but now there were a whole variety of people waiting for them.

"As we call your name, you're going to come to the table and verify that the information for your path is correct. At any time you can end the assessment and you can be dismissed from the initiate program.

The objective today is to rate as high as you can for defense. The higher you can rate, the more we can advertise you around the city for different jobs be they strength based, or things that require lower tiered defense such as weapon forging, some construction work, or even things that an elemental defense is required." He said.

After that they all went and sat down and they began calling names. As they came up, there was a short conversation about what their defense was about and how it worked. One or more of the guild members around the room would step up and begin using their skills to test the defense and get maximum use out of the initiates skills until they broke.

"Tobias Patterson!"

Kyrain slapped his hand in a stort of high five as Tobias got up.

After a brief conversation he went to the ring as three of the guild members stepped forward. Two had wooden swords and one was preparing aether skills.

They darted in with the weapons and began pummeling Tobias. At first the weapons were hurting him then with every strike, they did less and less damage. They darted backwards as a fireball launched. It slamming into Tobias who shrugged it off with minimal damage to him. His shirt on the other hand, was incinerate and fell to dust.

The guild members darted back in and tried to pummel him again only to have their strikes stopped through brute strength by a heavily empowered Tobias casually catching them.

The attendant called for a stop. There was a brief conversation, then Tobias was on his way back. Kyrain tossed Tobias's backpack at him who caught it, reached in and grabbed another shirt.

"Good job man! I can't wait to see how much stronger you're going to get with your Adaptation skill combined with your Juggernaut's Steadfastness." Kyrain said as another initiate was called up and tested.

After another 15 minutes Kyrain was finally called. Tobias gave him a pat on the back and a thumbs up.

Kyrain went up like everyone else.

"Your path is spellbreaker where it nullifies aether right?" The attendant asked and Kyrain confirmed. "It has a lot of us confused how to test you Mr. Ekart."

Kyrain looked at each of them and smirked.

"Send them all." He said as the attendant juat shrugged, signaling to the healer present to be ready just in case.

Kyrain walked to the center and stood, preparing all of his skills.

Once he was in position, the signal was given and the members all launched their strikes. Fire, water, earth, wind, and a few variations of those elements and even a light pink mental aether slammed into him.

He felt his Wellspring of antimatter bottom out from the influx of attacks. He pushed back immediately regretting his cocky attitude. He felt the damage begin to come through and he winced not used to taking damage in general. He tried to pull harder on his wellspring for more.

Water tried to wrap itself around him, but sloshed away, the mud stabbed toward him, but collapsed back lifeless. The wind was sent in a whirlwind trying to suffocate him, only to have it dissapate. The variants all returned to their natural states and the mental attack, stunning him for the briefest of moments, to his suprise at the minor effectiveness, dissipated as well, but the fire stream partially got through.

In spite of his harder pull on the wellspring, it didn't respond any different, as his usual amount kept coming through. The pain was getting worse. He wasn't about to be a quitter. He could never look uncle Kody in the face. He dodged out of the way, as points refilled.

He reached out with his Redirect skill scooping the fire and pushed. The flames stopped, concentrated, then redirected against its user. The flames canceled eachother out leaving the other users attacking him. He took the attacks again, but with the fire aether out of the way it was breaking even and nothing got through until a few seconds later when the fire user rejoined the barrage.

He prepared for the pain again when a signal came in to stop.

Kyrain slumped to the ground, breathing heaving. Burns covered his body and he felt rather embarrassed, but proud. He pushed himself to the limit even after biting off more than he could chew.

Perhaps, he should pick his fights better as uncle Mitch and his cousins always warned him to do.

He got himself back up. After a brief round of congratulations from the guild attendant for a good showing, he went back to his cousin who was shaking his head knowing Ky had almost made a complete fool of himself.

Arrogance is rather painful.