Blessed by Night

Chapter 14: The Difference Between Us

There were only two who noticed that Malachi was not as incompetent as he looked.

As he stood on the starting line, Malachi had a realization.

\'I… haven\'t had the chance to run in this body yet.\'

Deciding it would probably be fine, Mal crouched down into a sprinting stance before the examiner gave him the signal and he took off.

BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM

There was a sonic boom, a gust of wind and a loud explosion on the other side of the room.

The ground splintered beneath his feet and the shards of earth flew backwards into the other participants.

"What… the hell?" The examiner was shocked.

What just happened and where was the examinee?

"HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Suddenly, laughter was heard from within the cloud of dust that was slowly dispersing and now everyone was able to see clearly what\'d happened.

Malachi was currently pulling himself out of a him shaped hole in the wall. "That was crazy! I was just like that cartoon coyote!"

His jovial laughter could be heard throughout the entirety of the room but everyone was much too stunned by what they\'d just seen to join in.

"That speed… it was easily S Rank wasn\'t it?"

"Yea.."

"He didn\'t even go down and back but still.. I didn\'t even see him move."

"He must be blessed by a powerful god.."

Shock was evident on all of the faces of the recruits present and rightfully so.

Among the blessed, those with an S rank aptitude in any stat area are incredibly rare.

Almost as rare as those with a dual blessing.

Malachi returned to the starting line in another impressive burst of speed and everyone immediately took a step back.

"Hm? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Y-your eyes…" One of the recruits pointed out.

Only then did Malachi realize he\'d lost his glasses when he ran face first into the wall.

He immediately became annoyed when he realized why the room looked different. "Damn it.. those were really expensive."

Wanting to relieve his frustration some, Malachi kicked a nearby car for the strength test, only to send it flying and leaving it embedded into the wall right next to the hole he\'d made a moment ago.

"Whoops.." he muttered before he slowly looked at the examiner. "That counts right?"

The examiner nodded blankly as he stared at the sight of a car that was leisurely kicked over a hundred yards.

\'This boy…his strength is S rank too?\'

-

Outside in the viewing area people were equally stunned and buzzing with excitement.

Luna did not pay this any mind and instead turned to Aisha and Aubrey.

"You could\'ve told me his strength and speed were S rank you know."

"Hmm?" Aisha came out of her small stupor and gave Luna a confused look. " I didn\'t know though."

"What?" Luna\'s reddish pink eyes widened in surprise. "There\'s more we haven\'t seen?"

Usually if someone was blessed in one area they weren\'t that great in another.

Everything must be balanced after all.

So for this man to have more hidden was simply unthinkable.

Aisha and Aubrey looked at eachother momentarily before they turned back to Luna.

"Yep."

"Lots."

Luna stared dumbfounded at the two girls who seemed to be completely serious and rubbed her temples.

\'Maybe I should\'ve just signed him immediately like Aisha said.\'

-

The examinees had now moved to a much smaller room.

In one corner there was a metal table lined with a knife, a gun and a sword that glowed with a faint blue light.

On the other side of the room was another table lined with various weights.

"Alright boys and girls, your durability will be tested first." The examiner ordered and everyone followed him towards the table.

The test for endurance was simple.

The participants would line up and subject themselves to injury beginning with a simple knife stab.

If they were fine they would move up to a gunshot and then a slice from a magic sword.

The severity of the wounds as well as the time they took to heal would determine the level of endurance.

One by one each of the examinees lined up and let themselves be wounded.

Most only received small scratches that barely bled from the knife and healed in about thirty seconds.

Bianca Tate, the woman who\'d been staring at Malachi the entire time, was unable to be injured by the knife or the gun.

When she was injured by the magic sword, the wound bled for only ten seconds before it completely healed, not even leaving a scar.

\'They\'re both fucking monsters.\' The examiner stared back and forth between Malachi and Bianca who were eyeing each other curiously.

He could only imagine the storm that would follow when they left this room and their results were released.

Surprisingly, Malachi\'s durability was only an A rank.

His healing rate was a bit slower than Bianca\'s at sixteen seconds but he wasn\'t all that disappointed.

He was still upset over his smashed sunglasses.

\'All that money… wasted.\'

He barely registered that they had moved on and were now onto the final portion of the first half.

Each of them now had to lift up varying degrees of weight without actually touching it.

From fifty pounds to a hundred all the way to a whopping 1,000.

Their rating was determined by how much they could lift as well as how long they could hold it.

Most of the examinees seemed to have practiced as they could all hold three hundred pounds for atleast five minutes.

But the most impressive by far was the aloof white haired man with purple streaks in his hair.

He easily held up 700 pounds for fifteen minutes and his only sign of exhaustion was a single bead of sweat running down his forehead.

Bianca was similarly impressive, managing to hold up six hundred pounds for ten minutes.

Their grades were A and B respectively.

As Malachi stepped up to take his turn, he was still stewing over his broken glasses and was barely even present.

\'Let\'s just lift this shit and go home.\'

Reaching out with his mental force, Malachi lifted every single weight laid out in front of him and closed his eyes as he thought of all the ways he could\'ve better used 700 dollars.

"What the fuck.."

"Oh come on!"

"This isn\'t even fair anymore."

"What the hell is he?"

Malachi couldn\'t even hear the surprise murmurs and gasps when he did something outstanding again as his mind swam with regret.

\'Groceries for a whole month, light bill, phone bill, gas bill, car insurance , I could\'ve caught up on some old bills too…\'

He was… very upset about breaking his sunglasses.