To take the test they were led further down into the GEF building to the subterranean levels where they were separated into smaller groups of four people and then were led into a large gymnasium type room that had to be at least forty feet high and almost as long. The room was empty though for some reason, Daniel didn't know what they would be tested on in here, there was no sort of obstacle course or anything to go through.
Kinto and General Baker appeared from the elevator behind them, and five children came out from another door. They were just little girls, were they cursed children?
"Well glad to see everyone has lasted until testing." Baker said to them. "As you can guess we will be evaluating you here, we have some Initiators who are willing to help you so work with them. Now everyone get together with who you've been paired with."
Daniel had been paired with a petite girl, maybe about 11 years old or so. Her long silver hair went over and covered most of her face, but her red eyes still glared through at him with a look of hostility and determination.
"It looks like we'll be partnered up, my name's Daniel Edwards. Nice to meet you." Daniel reached out his hand for her to shake and to try and break some of the tension.
"Pleased to meet you Daniel, I am Amade Yukari, Model Falcon Initiator. Try not to die during the test like some of the previous recruits."Amade politely bowed to Daniel and walked back over to the entrance where everyone was grouping up.
"O-oh right, bow, sorry." Daniel nervously bowed very low to nothing as Amade had already walked away from him. He rushed over and lined up in front of Kinto and Baker along with the other recruits.
Now they were all together, two Initiators and two new recruits but...what was there to test on?
"So, hey, how are we gonna be tested in here? It's just a big empty room." The other recruit asked to Baker, Daniel had seen him before, his name was Jon if he remembered correctly.
"Ah, glad you asked it's always fun to see the first person to say that." Baker led him, over to one of the giant blast doors at one end of the room and it began to open. "You see, you'll be fighting these little guys here. One of Doctor Muroto's pets."
Immediately after Baker said that, as if on cue a banging sound was heard from the other side of the door, as if so ethibg huge was crashing against the walls. Baker began casually walking away as the recruit was left shaking in front of the blast gate as it slowly opened and the sounds became louder and more aggressive.
"H-Hey, what the hell's behind this wall!?"
Jon's voice shuddered and he seemed to scared to move away from the blast door.
"Oh come now, this is the Gastrea Elimination Force after all, how else do you think we'd test you?"Baker replied with a grin on his face. He walked back to Kinto and they went a service elevator to higher viewing area behind a glass barrier.
"Wait, hold on you can't be serious!"
"You know you might want to move out of the way, these ones can be pretty quick."
Kinto replied and simply shrugged off his outburst and the doors had fully opened and he saw two pairs of fierce red eyes staring back at him.
"Get down!"
The cursed child paired up with Jon ran out and tackled him to the ground just as two Gastrea leapt out of their cell, they landed on all fours and turned their gaze to Daniel and Yukari. They were pretty small for Gastrea, but that still wasn't saying much, they both had to be at least fifteen feet tall and that was on four limbs, they looked like foxes the virus had infected.
"Hey this is crazy! We haven't even had any training fighting these things!"
"What do you mean? You've had plenty if military training already. Besides there's two of them and four of you, those are some good odds I'd say."
The two Gastrea loomed over their selected targets and began circling the room around them. The one staring at Daniel and Yukari began to growl and bare its fangs, its voice shook the room and its teeth had to be a foot long each. The Gastrea's whole body was covered in black fur and the tail moved back and forth as fast as a whip. Its eyes glowed red as if blinded by anger,and they were staring right at Daniel. The monster began to charge at then, its speed was unmatched, it seemed to cross halfway across the room in the blink of an eye.
"Alright , let's begin."
Yukari leapt out of the path of the Gastrea and Daniel scrambled after here just barely avoiding its teeth.
Baker's and Kinto's voices came on over the speakers in the room.
"Alright you two are doing good so far, so first analysis. What type of Gastrea do these look like to you?."
"The kind that want to eat us!?"
"No, Jon that's true for most any Gastrea."
"They look like Stage I Gastrea. Maybe Model Fox?"
"Good Edwards. But remember too what their strengths and weaknesses are "
"They rely on their speed."Yukari spoke up. "So we need to be faster!"
The Gastrea continued to dash at Daniel and Yukari swiping at them wasn't too difficult to dodge their claws which would do the most damage, but Daniel was getting hit by their large arms or tails and getting thrown to the floor.
"This is I sane, how are we supposed to hurt these things if we can't even stand up without getting hit?"
Daniel looked around the room and saw that he was the only one still defenseless on the ground, Yukari was rushing past the Gastrea and it sounded like she was whistling at them but it was almost too high pitched too hear. The Gastrea tried to find Yukari but it looked like it was having trouble standing up on its own legs.
" That's right, Yukari is a Model Falcon so she must be able to whistle at high pitched sounds like a falcon. And being so close to the Gastrea she can disorient them."
"Edwards attack it now while I have it distracted!"
Daniel got up and grabbed his spear that landed near him and ran towards the Gastrea while it was still stumbling around d trying to fund Yukari.
"If I use the spear and jam it into the Gastrea's arm it won't be able to attack us so easily."
Daniel continued toward the Gastrea's front limb and dug the lance far into its leg and out the other side. The Gastrea got its bearings back and gave up on Yukari, instead focusing on the spear now sticking out if its injured forearm and Daniel standing below it.
"Oh crap."
The Gastrea swung at Daniel with its other arm and sent him across the room, luckily Daniel was still holding his spear rand it managed to take out a good chunk if arm with it. Now there was definitely no way the Gastrea was standing back up on that arm. Daniel stood back up using his spear for support, the landing hit him pretty hard and his leg was throbbing with pain now.
"Oh nice thinking on your feet Edwards."Kinto's voice came on the loudspeaker. "That'll certainly do some damage."
Daniel stood up using his spear to support himself, there was no way he'd be able to stand and fight well now, and Yukari once again had the Gastrea distracted but couldn't take it down on her own. There was one thing Daniel had left to try, he had a spear so it was time to start using it like one. He stood up as best he could and tried to find the best spot to throw the spear into on the Gastrea, it's front arm was already damaged so it would have a harder time dodging or blocking the attack. The best target would probably be the side of the head.
"Yukari get out of the way!"
Yukari turned to see Daniel taking as best a throwing stance as he could and immediately she went down onto the floor for cover. Daniel threw the weapon with all the strength his tired body could muster and it managed to hit the Gastrea, though nowhere near his original target. Daniel's balance was thrown off due to his hurt leg and the spear hit the side of the Gastrea's body instead, it didn't seem to do much damage to it at all.
"Dammit that won't help. And now I can't even get my weapon back."
Daniel cursed at his poor attempt to finish it off. He fell to the ground helpless while instead, Yukari stood up smiling.
"That's excellent thinking Edwards!"
Daniel looked at her confused, there was no way the Gastrea was going down from that wound. Yukari took a few steps away and then charged straight at the fox and kicked the other end of the spear, sending it deeper inside the Gastrea's body. She hit the weapon twice more and it completely disappeared into the monster, the Gastrea howled and collapsed onto the floor dead. Daniel and Yukari had finally won.
Shortly afterwards a medical team came and helped Daniel into a stretcher, his leg was nothing serious just twisted pretty far, but it would heal fine. Jon on the other hand was completely hysterical about a small cut he had received while fighting but he and his Initiator managed to win against their Gastrea just fine.
"Oh god it cut me, am I infected now? I'm not gonna turn into a monster am I!? How could you let us fight those dangerous monsters?
"Of course not you baby." General Baker and Kinto came over to them from the viewing platform. "These Gastrea have been genetically modified so they don't have poison. Besides, you didn't notice during your battle, but we had trained Promoters and a medical team on standby right at the side of the room. You were never in any real danger."
Yukari came over to Daniel with a satisfying grin on her face.
"Thank you ...Daniel. You did very well and it's because of your quick thinking that we won. I know I was rude before but many times people fail this test or sometimes get injured...I just didn't want to become to friendly incase..."
"It's alright, uh, Amade I can understand. To be honest though I was aiming for the head with that throw, it's because of you thinking to kick the spear deeper that we won."
Daniel and Yukari shared a quick laugh at their performance. They ended up working pretty well together, even if Daniel made a mistake, she was able to go along with it and turn it into a win.
"Well the four of you did excellent work, now you can get home and get some deserved rest. Daniel we'll just take a few minutes to check your leg and then you can leave. You'll all receive your results of the test in a few weeks and then we can continue with pairing you up with an Initiator that fits with the rank you'll receive. You may be paired up with the same partners as you were today, you may not be. But we'll see when the time comes. You're all dismissed."
Baker and Kinto left them to the medical team.
"Well I'll leave you to the doctors Daniel, I hope we see eachother again in the field." Yukari shook Daniel's hand and left for home. The test was finally finished and all that was left for Daniel was to heal and await his results. He'd get a ranking and finally be an official Promoter.