PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

139 Chapter 139 An Unavoidable Decision

′′ Melissa Colins, pass′′

Hearing her friend’s name being mentioned, Claire stopped looking at poor fool Brayan and turned her attention back to her friend Melissa, who took Claire’s hand for a moment as she gathered the necessary courage and moved to the podium.

Claire thought Melissa worry too much but she didn’t say anything and she just squeezed Melissa’s hand trying to comfort her and seeing her go to the podium Claire whispered in her ear a few words quickly.

′′ Everything will be fine, you can count on me, remember? ′′

A soft smile plastered on Melissa before she finished her way to the podium, the ceremony soon began and to Melissa’s horror the thing she least wanted to happen happened; As soon as the energy finished entering her body it emitted a weak pulse in response, this was much weaker than the one emitted by the ice beauty, but it was still clear enough to betray that Melissa had awakened quite a notorious skill.

With clear enthusiasm at their actions the military turned to Melissa to question her ability, Melissa seemed incredibly scared and stunned; but she ended up giving in to the insistence of the military and showed her ability.

Claire watched with concern as her friend was pressured by the military and soon she witnessed Melissa’s skill, it seemed like a kind of water skill and it didn’t seem too powerful despite the phenomenon previously exhibited.

Claire breathed a sigh of relief, water skills were not highly valued by the military given their low offensive and defensive capabilities, besides their flexibility there was nothing remarkable; but Claire’s expression changed for the worse when the military seemed to experiment a bit with Melissa’s ability revealing that it was a type of ranged healing ability.

It couldn’t have been worse than this, that kind of skill was extremely rare and coveted by the military, it was something they wanted even more than a skill of great destructive power; after all this skill could save someone’s life.

.....

Unfortunately, that meant there was no way the military would let her go, it was likely that she was even more desired than the ice user; the only saving grace was that healers like Melissa were extremely protected by the high command of the army because no one wanted the healer to decide in a moment of need to let them die because they had abused him in one way or another.

That meant that Melissa would be safe from the vast majority of abuses that could occur within the military, but it also meant that they would exploit her ability to the fullest possibly taking her to the battlefield.

So after receiving an envelope similar to the one from the ice user, Melissa stiffly returned to Claire’s side, who seeing her friend like this couldn’t help but feel pain in her heart, Melissa had been her only friend in years and Claire didn’t know how to stop her from sinking into misery.

′′ Claire Lynwood, come in. ′′

Hearing the name of her friend, Melissa snapped out of her stupor for a moment before smiling forcibly and wishing Claire good luck; seeing Melissa being like this Claire hesitated for a few moments before getting a look of determination on her face.

Having made up her mind, Claire stepped forward before turning around and saying a few words to her friend:

′′ Don’t worry, you are not alone; you count on me, Do you remember? ′′

Melissa was stunned for a moment as she looked at Claire whose eyes were shining once more the same way she had this morning, but with even more intensity; Melissa didn’t know why, but she had a feeling about what Claire would do, she tried to stop her friend before she did something stupid, but when Melissa came out of her daze Claire had already gone up to the podium.

The energy from the crystal entered Claire’s body who felt extremely calm about it, as this was nothing compared to the energy that had been used by Kyuru on her; the only difference is that the energy of the esper crystal although less intense seemed a bit special as it seemed to stimulate an unknown part of the potential within Claire’s body.

When the energy finished her work, an incredibly intense pulse of energy began to surge from deep within Claire, who was making a great effort controlled while she remembers the feeling she had this morning while she controlled the brightness of her eyes; she focused as much as she could to suppress the pulse as much as possible.

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The steady image of Desmond concentrating as he meditated and trained passed through Claire’s mind over and over as she used it as a way to hold on to her will, little by little she gained control and repressed the pulse of energy within her; but when it had weakened enough. . . Claire released it.

That’s right, Claire had decided to release the energy pulse and reveal that she had awakened a powerful esper ability, ever since she had seen her friend depressed; Claire had made the decision not to hide her ability and just repress it long enough not to draw undue attention as she was aware that having gone through Kyuru’s ritual and absorbed some Espe crystals, her ability was likely to cause too much fuss upon awakening and it would be bad if she attracted excessive attention from the military.

That was why she repressed the energy within her until she felt that it would emit a pulse a couple of levels below that emitted by the ice girl, as to what ability she had awakened; Claire like all the other Espers knew instinctively.

So when another group of excited military men with greedy eyes tried to approach her with who knows what kind of pretexts and offers, they were all suddenly stopped in their path and kept in their places, some seemed surprised and others annoyed, but they all tried to free themselves from what was repressing them.

The only person who did not go through this was the general who now looked seriously at the girl who had just gone through her awakening, as the general was sharp enough to notice that a small cover of violet energy covered the bodies of his men repressing them and that same kind of energy seemed to surround the hands of the girl who was now looking back at him with her green eyes shining with intensity.

′′ability? ′′ Seeing that his men would not be released soon, the general decided to personally approach the girl and ask directly.

′′ Telekinesis. ′′ Claire answered, her answer was clear but the challenge in her eyes said more than her words; her eyes said ¨I am strong, I have potential, but I will not be anyone’s toy. ¨

The general felt a bit uncomfortable when he realized that the girl had a very low opinion of the military, but looking back at his own men who had previously acted like wolves looking at a sheep and then remembering his own words where he spoke of the women as things one could get; The general could only complain inside about his bad luck, because the greatest talents of today were women.