Cymere Coleman, “The Ungifted”

THE UNGIFTED

Cymere Coleman

“Cypher Sayato for…Hunter!” “Oh god—” Okay, I’m not one to be easily shaken or intimidated, but this? I can’t do this, no matter the preparation, no matter my strength, powers, or intelligence. My death, my inevitable, horrific death would be unavoidable. Being a Hunter is almost like being a mouse walking into a snake pit. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve killed a vessel before, but it was already injured and I barely walked out of that fight still intact. Given the fact that my last encounter with vessels almost killed me, to have to fight them and survive until I’m an elder would be absolute hell, especially as an Ungifted. At least Zakari, my meek best friend since childhood, was selected too, which made it better, but I knew it would call for nothing but whining and groaning for hours or even weeks on end. I can’t blame him because no one wants to be a Hunter, but he really doesn’t need to cause such an uproar. I sucked it up and walked up to Lector Kalos to accept my Hunter’s Mark. The second that sweltering iron hit my skin, I realized the severity of my situation, that my death sentence had just begun. After I was marked, I was handed my schedule and eventually got directed to the Training room, where the Higher Ups decided that it was more important to make fancy simulations and equipment, rather than giving more protected homes or more food to the bottom feeders of society, which could also be identified as my entire family. Putting that aside, in training we were assigned groups. They would also be the people we scout with once we were actually on the field. These groups also had been determined based on our gifts and who they synergized with the most. Just to clarify, these “gifts” are specific abilities everyone has due to a gem we had bonded into our bones from birth. These gifts are based on blood type and gradually get stronger and more unique the rarer the blood

type gets. And lucky me, Zakari, some loud kid named Kilui, and some rando that literally never speaks happened to synergize with me the best, so it’s safe to say I’m now the designated babysitter of the team despite not even having a gift myself. Nevertheless, we finally start training once we’ve picked out our weapons and our armor. Before training starts, we hear a ghastly screeching noise, loud enough to make my eardrums burst. That roar was followed by screams as Lector Kalos walked in carrying chains, chains that shackled all of our worst nightmares, and an adult Vessel. To be clear, everyone knows that sometimes they use Vessel hatchlings as training, because they were weak enough to not cause any real injuries, but not weak enough for us to deal with them easily. There is a vast difference between a Vessel hatchling and an adult Vessel, with hatchlings being a measly fourteen feet long, with barely developed fangs and a slimy body; meanwhile, an adult Vessel stood at fifty-seven feet long with fangs the size of a king-sized bed and a tail with scales harder than diamonds. The room paused, and for a moment all you could hear was whimpering, mostly coming from Zakari, and heavy breathing. Lector Kalos finally broke the silence when he said, “This shall be your first chance to prove yourself as Hunters. Although we usually don’t use adult Vessels for training, we have been given no choice due to the increase of Vessel attacks on the outer perimeter. And do not fret students. If anyone is closer to death, then the most we will step in—” “Wait, so you’re saying we have a chance of dying, like actually ‘put in the grave’ death?” “Well, yes, but I assure you we will make sure that does not happen.” “No no no, I’m not complaining, I actually would prefer that rather than giving us weaklings to fight and pretending that it’ll

do us any good.” “Oh, well, that’s…good,” Lector Kalos said as he gave the girl’s sudden outburst a slight side eye, “Um, anyways, does anyone else have any inquiries about today’s training?” “Uh, Lector Kalos…” I heard Zakari utter from behind me as his voice quivered, “I don’t think this is a good idea, like, people could end up dying.” “Well Zakari, as I’ve said, all of your protection will be assured, and, if anyone does almost die, the training will be postponed for today.” “Only for today? I’m sorry Kalos but—” “That’s Lector Kalos, and I’ve heard quite enough out of you Zakari, ‘’ he said as his eyes flared with aggression towards Zakari, aggression that held an unspoken history between them. Regardless, he stated that we had fifteen minutes to prepare, and that those who failed or did not participate risked banishment, the most supreme punishment our Higher Ups had to offer, which was basically sentencing you to imminent death because no one had ever survived a night on their own in this world. Fighting one Vessel would only give us a small taste of the horrors we would face as Hunters, let alone the atrocities we would experience if we were ever banished. In short, I was gonna die either way, so I might as well choose the path that let me live longer. I bottled up my fear, grabbed a staff, and prepared for the fight of my life. Lector Kalos unshackled the beast, cautiously and hesitantly, and backed away as it regained its energy. The Vessel let out a blood curdling howl that drove the whole room to gaze in its direction. Before we could even get ready to fight, it was already hurtling towards us, more specifically, it was coming in my—no Zakari’s—direction. My only guess is that it sensed his fear and went for it, but that was not the problem. The problem was that

Zakari was literally right next to me, and the scent of his fear most likely rubbed off on me. This now meant that I was one of its targets. I could have just run, because his scent outweighed mine by far, so he would have been the main target, but something held me back, something that required no thought or calculation, just emotion and the reminder that he was the only person who trusted me like no one else, and cared for me the way everyone important in my life should have. Only moving out of instinct, I shoved him out of the way and was soon met with the impact of a tank breaking into my chest and the pressure of wind crashing against my skin as I hurtled through the air. This is what happens when you try to be her—, my thoughts were halted when I felt myself being catapulted further into the air, followed by the feeling of sweaty skin latching onto my back. As I looked up, I was met by the face of Zakari twisted with a mix of fear and adrenaline as he launched through the field with me in his hand as the foul beast trailed behind us. “Zakari, I know you have the gift of speed and strength but that is not going to help us here. We need someone to interfere or we’re dead, where the hell are our group members?” I say, panicked. “The hell if I know! No one would actually be dumb enough to interfere with a Vessel anyway, so we might as well be ragdolls.” “I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” I said, nodding in the direction behind him. As he looked back, he saw that crazy girl from earlier. She was literally riding the Vessel, latching onto it with dual blades stabbed in between its eyes. She screamed, “Someone help me out here!” as she jabbed at the creature’s face. After that, a storm of the Trainees mustered the courage to attack the beast. All of them put their abilities to use, with the people using ranged Gifts attacking the chest and face, and the closer Gift users attacking the tail, but it was all to no avail. The beast knocked everyone back with one stroke of its tail, and it flung the girl forward in our direction, bashing into us. She yelped as the three of us crashed against the

ground. The Vessel slowly crept towards us, almost confident in its victory as it was barely affected by our barrage of attacks, and just as it lunged itself forward, I pushed my hands outward in desperation. And right when it made contact with my hands, dust. A large, looming, dark cloud of dust appeared right where the Vessel was. As if the Vessel never even existed, as if the Vessel was nothing. To be continued . . .

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