H×H: 108 Stars of Destiny [IC]

[Asriel Dreemurr]

There are few things more infuriating than being left without the power to change things, and that was exactly where Alaster found himself.  In moments the first of them to arrive there at the top of the Sky Tower was taken hostage, and for SOME REASON the young nobleman found himself unable to act quickly enough in time.  He was forced to sit there, holding Rexxus back, while the bastard made his way to the elevator and escaped.  It wasn't a matter of who was taken hostage or what was taken, he didn't know Anemone that well and could find his way to the pines off to the northwest that had been pointed out without the sorry excuse for a map.  It was the principle of the matter.  Someone had tried to take hostage someone that Alaster was ready to see as an ally.  That was something unforgivable, and so it was made up in the young nobleman's mind that he would see the man dead.

 

"We already know where he's going," he said as he got to his feet, "so we can probably get there ahead of him.  It shouldn't be hard for us to find a way to reach the hut, especially since we know where it likely is."  He pointed off to the northwest, exactly where Anemone had been pointing moments ago, before he set himself in motion.  He decided not to wait for the elevator to come back up, instead he found an entrance to a maintenance stairwell.  He motioned for the others to follow him, before he and Rexxus began rushing down with all speed.  Unfortunately, he ran into some trouble a little ways down.

 

"You're not supposed to be up here!"  It was a security guard, a hand already on his gun, that stepped in front of the young nobleman to try and stop him.

 

"Oh really?  I will have you know that my father, Maximilian vi Florentius, is quite close friends with the owner of this particular building.  I have standing permission to access whatever floors I want on it, but right now I need to be getting out of here very quickly."  He moved to shoulder past the guard, only to be stopped again.

 

"Right, like I'm supposed to believe-"

 

"You know, my father would be very upset if I were held up.  In fact, if he found out that you, Mr. Fredricks," he said, pointing to the guard's name badge, "were the one that held me up he could see to it that you were fired.  Moreover, he could see to it that you could never find work anywhere else in the world after this.  Now, yes from your perspective I suppose I could be lying, but is that a chance you really want to take?  Do you really want to risk being fired and having to live out on the streets because no business in the world would hire you, or are you going to let my friends and I pass?"  It took the guard a second or two to make up his mind, but he did get out of the way of the young man and those following him.  Furthermore, a call was put ahead to the other guards to clear that particular stairwell, and Mr. Fredricks received a pat on the shoulder before the nobleman continued rushing along.  Sure, that delayed him a little, but he was unlikely to reach the ground that far behind Oz and Anemone.  In fact, from where he wound up exiting the building he was able to even retrieve the trident that had been thrown to the ground below.  It was in surprisingly good shape, but would need some attention to touch it up at some point.  Regardless, there was now the issue of getting to the edge of the city...which was thankfully solved by flagging down a taxi that looked to be large enough for all involved.  Really it was less of a standard taxi and more of a van that a cab company owned.  Alaster waited for those that were going to come with him to pile into the van, before he took a seat at the front, got Rexxus in the van, pulled out his wallet, and proceeded to hand off quite a significant amount of the local currency to the driver.  "Get us to the northwest edge of the city as fast as you possibly can.  We need to be there yesterday."

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

"I wouldn't suppose you're an entrant in this Hunter Exam? If you are, feel free to join us."

 

Valko elected not the respond, as he had begun to figure out how these two girls operated. They were both horribly unpleasant, but went at it at different angles. The loud one, who he would later learn to be named Iom, acted like a child, which would be understandable, if not for the... rash actions they were being accused of. There was certainly more to her than was at first apparent. The girl's sister, on the other hand, posed a much larger threat in his mind. She held most of her cards in her hand, and was working to gain allies, or so it seemed. The loud one might be annoying, but this one holds the true risk.

 

As he saw the group of females begin to piece together the scraps of parchment, he turned his attention toward the one in the armor. She had displayed much more of her character since he had arrived. She seemed to take offense at being called a knight. Valko found this amusing, as knighthood is a position of honor, that many would strive to achieve. Of course, it really was nothing compared to being a hunter, but it was better than a typical citizen nonetheless. Maybe it is some silly family issue... In any case, it doesn't matter to me. Considering that he had received no response from her as for his inquiry, he took a half-step back, deciding that she would better be approached later.

 

Finally, he looked back toward the girl in the cloak, just in time to see her crack. It would seem that she was upset that the sisters were making such light of a recent murder. They likely had a reason for what they did, but it was just as possible that they were simply maniacs. Yawning, he walked toward Celia. "You do realize this is the reaction they were striving for, correct? They tossed out some bait and you took it hook, line, and sinker. I enjoy watching people argue as much as the next guy, but don't we have a puzzle to solve? This game of offense is just slowing us down." If someone were to look at his aura using Gyo, they would discover a dark, coldness, devoid of much of any color or feel. Looking back toward the lain-out parchments, he cracked his neck. "There are still missing pieces. You two cannot solve it yourself, so trying to push that incapability onto everyone else is just bothersome. And, though you seem human enough to me, whatever species you are seems just as unintelligent as us humans."

[Tesability Black]

Many fled at the presence of the large red creature, panicked by the sight of what could be considered a monster. A fair bit of heat was being emitted from this newcomer, causing what ever plants he may step upon to instantly shrivel from the sudden lack of water within them.

It was clear he was no human as he walked among the human city on all four of his paws, a creature easily mistaken for a horse from the farthest of distances. However, the large flexible apendage on his back and the head of a fox makes it clear he wasn't so. In the tip of this appendage was a sliver of paper that seemed to not shrivel in its grasp, the piece of an image on one side and words upon the other.

The Brick House.

A cool breeze tried to pass him and though his yellow mane moved with the wind, it became warm by the time it was to the other side of him. He showed no sign of hostility, but humanity often needed no such thing to become hostile themselves. The guards that were present were immediately on the defensive when they saw him walking paw in front of paw through the streets looking for anything that matched the words on the paper. However, he finally found himself looking up with green eyes toward a sign upon a building that he had heard be described as a 'tavern', a place of rest.

He doubted they had a bed for a being like him.

"Let's see who else is here," he yipped to himself before sliding the small paper into the double-pouch pack that rested over his shoulders, then grabbing the handle of the door and opening...

 

...and the smell of tension punched his nose, causing the creature to give a sneeze that threatened to launch him off his forepaws. Twitching it for a few seconds to let the need to sneeze again pass, he saw a group of people gathered together around...wait a minute. He grabbed the sliver of paper he had been looking at a few moments ago before looking between it and the put-together pieces in front of them and noticing there was a few spots left empty...

 

Quietly walking up toward the group, he used the tip of the long orange apendage, longer than the average human arm, on his back to put his piece among the other sheets, a perfect fit among the others. Some of the patrons wound up falling over or starting to sweat profusely around him, the foreign smell of sweat prompting him to pull his natural aura of heat as close to himself as he could possibly get away with.

[Astolfo]

In The Brick House…

Iom was laughing to herself and didn’t register the sudden disturbance in the air. When a painfully hard slap struck her across the face, knocking her head sideways, Iom growled furiously, before whipping her head back to see what idiot thought it would be a good idea to hit her. Seeing the thickening aura around the blue-haired girl called Celia or something other and the angered look in her eyes, Iom figured that it must’ve been her. Her older sister was just barely holding back the nuclear anger that arose. No one hurts her sister - and especially not a disgusting, filthy human. Malnova’s own aura flared up intensely, filled with murderous intent, registering the thief-like figure’s words but choosing to ignore them. At Valko’s crack against the sisters, the burning hatred in their eyes locked onto him.

When Malnova spoke though, her voice was unsettlingly calm. “Who are you to judge us, you human. We are the superior race.” Turning to face Celia, she continued. “As for you, blue-hair, you dare lay a hand on my precious younger sister?”

“Then prove your superiority, you brats. I bet you’re still wearing diapers under those clothes. We don’t need more shrimp-brained little devils shoving their nonexistent superiority on us.

Also, yes I did. Did that hurt?”

While Celia attempted to calm herself down after Valko raised several good points regarding the situation, the older of the two kid’s taunt ruined her effort, and she was now reaching towards her backpack to grab something while staring at the two kids, watching closely in case of the two making any moves towards her or others.

Malnova looked into Celia’s eyes, searching. She found a hard edge, and paired with the obvious movement of reaching towards her bag, Malnova figured it wouldn’t be a vase of flowers that the girl was reaching for. Laughing sinisterly, she hissed out. “If only you knew how close you got. It’s unfortunate you became our enemy. I hope you can enjoy the time you have left.” Spitting out a command to Iom in a strange, rough tongue, bloodlust began to flicker through the sisters’ auras.

Without a moment of hesitation, Iom threw off the cloak - which would only inhibit battling - before flicking her arms out to the side. The left arm was quickly enveloped by an ink-black aura and grew to form a giant blade almost half her size, while the right arm swelled into a massive fist with clawed fingers.

Her older’s sister aura burned, turning darker and colder. There were no obvious weapons visible yet on her persona, but any half-brained person would sense a winding feeling, like a viper coiled to strike. Attacking either sister would be a foolish decision for the weak.

“Do you really wish to engage in combat with us, human? This is your last chance to turn back.” Malnova had no intent of letting the girl free without harm, but she figured that these words could have a slight chance of momentarily dropping her guard. If it didn’t work out as such, the sisters were more than prepared to fight without reserves - or morals.

“Big bark, wanna bite?”

After her crude taunt, Celia gave off a hand signal to everyone else around them to stand back from around the three combatants, while her other hand was firmly gripping on a decently-sized rapier on her backpack. The giant blade the smaller one formed didn’t really faze Celia, as even with her relatively short experience in regards of meeting the users of such weapons, it was enough for her to know that they pose little to no threat when one could simply dodge them well enough. Her older sister however, only stood there, but her threatening aura could still be felt by Celia, and that was enough to consider the possibility of her attacking too.

Barking another short, guttural command out to Iom, the effects were immediately visible. The raging bloodlust in their auras withdrew, growing more controlled. It was still entirely there, but as the older sister knew, letting emotions get the better of the head could prove to be fatal. Instead, it could be used for other purposes. A deadly calm settled over the two and a feeling of synchronicity between the sisters was detectable.

As Malnova looked upon Celia, she used the same concept, but this time to unbalance the other girl. “Oh right, you were mentioning something about us murdering the poor boy? You know, accusing people of murder when you have no proof isn’t a very nice thing to do. And let it be known, people,” Malnova spoke, gesturing out to the cowering crowd, “my beloved sister will only respond if this girl, Celia, decides to make a move upon us first.” Now this time, she whispered quietly, so that only her intended target would here. “But don’t worry, we were nice enough to make it painless. He did help us attain our clue piece, after all.” Smiling calmly, Malnova settled back, showing no hint of what she just said to anyone else.

“Why the hell are you talking about ‘nice things to do’ when you’re so far being completely obnoxious to others?”

Instead of her rapier, she grabbed a kitchen knife from her bag, and threw it straight towards Malnova’s direction. As it passed through the Nen cloud surrounding her, the aura strengthened and accelerated it.

Malnova registered the movement and considered side-stepping it, but she decided Iom could show off a bit here. With a silent, instantaneous agreement, Iom lunged forward and punched the knife with enough force - no more, no less - to shatter it before it could graze her older sister. As the two forces collided, a ripple of energy swept through the tavern briefly.

Unfazed by the ripple, Celia drew her rapier and rushed towards Malnova’s direction, believing her to be the more annoying threat than her sister. It barely took her a second to appear next to the devilish girl, and she proceeded to immediately aim for the little girl’s heart with a quick jab.

As Celia swept in for a piercing blow - to the heart, judging from the way it was aimed - the figure in front of her blurred, before disappearing. Barely a fraction of a second later, the massive blade from before slammed sideways to the left with inhuman force, aiming to knock the blow away. Against what a normal human would react normally with against a giant blade coming to their direction, Celia let go of her rapier just moments before it was hit by the blade, and proceeded to launch a full powered punch backed by Nen straight to the blade, aiming to destroy it in one punch and mess with the younger girl’s balance while doing so.

Iom narrowed her eyes as Celia let go of the rapier. It wasn’t of an all-too good quality anyways, and this was most likely a lead-up. Slicing the rapier apart without the slightest resistance, Iom steeled herself. Even so, the Nen-boosted punch sent her skidding back several meters. The girl managed to just barely prevent the blade from slamming into herself luckily, but the power sent a painful jolt through her arm. Gritting her teeth, Iom was about to launch a blinding fast counterattack, but Malnova motioned for her to stand down.

Facing the fearful crowds, the elder sister spoke in a honeyed voice. “Do you see this girl, she first assaults my beloved sister, and then tries to murder me and severely injure my younger sister. Yet, she’s accusing us of murdering a poor boy. And as you may have noticed, we have done nothing but protect ourselves, and that’s what we will continue to do. Do you still consider us to be in the wrong?”

“Yadda yadda nice story sis but I’m afraid I need to shut you up now!”

While Celia’s definitely not someone that would really explode at a moment’s notice in anger, the two’s overall attitude and superiority complex greatly sickened her. Gathering a significant amount of her aura to her right hand, Celia prepared for another attack, aiming to end the battle swiftly. Her clenched fist was engulfed in a greenish light as she charged up for the assault.

“Take this!

Certain Kill: Shining Finger!”

[Maeriberii Haan]

[divider1]

 

"What a bunch of little kids."

 

Nova had little to no desire to associate herself with the quarreling bunch of other apparent Hunter Exam participants, though she did attempt to listen to what they're talking about, and it seemed that they're going to try assembling the pieces of parchment into something that gave them the next hint about the Exam. It did pique her interest, as before that, she pretty much had little to no idea on how to utilize the piece that she obtained on the way here in any way. 

But when she's considering to put her piece there and get this over with, a fight unsurprisingly broke out between a teal-haired girl and two other girls, seemingly sisters, the three which clearly were the main part of the arguments earlier from the group. At first, Nova watched half-amusedly as the three started to aim for each others' throats, but then she noticed the pieces of parchment being scattered all across the area due to the brawl. Sighing, Nova moved out from her seat and walked into the pieces, not really paying any mind to the fact that she's passing through the fight.

 

“Take this!

Certain Kill: Shining Finger!”

 

The teal-haired girl seemingly attempted to launch a direct strike towards one of the other girl's direction, though, Nova was standing between the two of them. Before the teal-haired girl could crash at her, Nova punched her straight at her face, knocking her backwards before the girl collapsed. While she was not showing it, Nova was surprised that the punch actually managed to knock the girl out, though she in the end chalked this one up on her getting stronger physically. She then turned her sight to the girl with the giant blade, her gaze hammered the point to the little girl that Nova was not doing this for her sake, before she casually continued her stride towards the pieces.

 

Not really caring to look at other participants, she gathered the pieces and went straight into one of the tables nearest to her. Counting her own piece, there was a total of seven pieces overall. It's...practically a kid's play at this point as she realized that there was no more missing pieces, and Nova proceeded to arrange the seven pieces into one in no time, revealing the picture of a certain seaside cliff.

 

[spoiler=Image][/spoiler]

 

Ugh, where the hell is this place anyway?

 

It's pretty clear that it's supposed to be the next direction she needed to head to, but frankly, she's quite unsure as of where exactly would this place be. Well, she couldn't also risk getting any of them reaching the place before her too, which definitely would happen especially if any of them had any knowledge about the area around the town. Well, unless...

 

"Burn."

 

Placing one of her hands on the picture after she had memorized it well enough, small sparks came flying from her palm, rapidly engulfing the picture in a localized fire, and in seconds, nothing was left from it aside from ashes and charred marks on the table. Now, Nova was the only person there who had seen the picture. There's no way now that someone else could reach the destination before her, and the other participants currently there would depend on her until at least when they reached the destination. Then again, that insurance was probably enough for now. Smiling pridefully, she turned around and headed straight towards the exit of the bar, without even bothering to look at anyone else there as she left through the door.

 

[divider1]

 

The punch from earlier still hurt like hell for Celia. And not to mention, when she's awake, the owner of the bar forced her to pay for the damages she caused on her brawl against those two devilish tyrannical brats, which had ran off somewhere before she regained her consciousness. Heck, all of the other participants that were in the bar already left when she's awake.

 

Fortunately for her, as she strode aimlessly towards the wilderness on the outskirts of the town, she stumbled upon the other participants, seemingly trying to look for the next meeting place for the Hunter Exam. With nowhere else to go, she decided to join in with them, though, she was not really appreciating the company of both the two brats and the woman that punched her right at her face. Speaking of her...Celia noticed that apparently everyone was following her for some reasons. While she would usually go ask about it immediately to someone, this time she decided to keep silent and go with the crowd, just to avoid making more troubles than necessary.

 

Replacing the rapier and the kitchen knife was a real pain for her wallet, and the damage compensation she had to pay to the owner of the bar was even more so. Granted, she might've gone a bit too overboard with her reaction to things back then, but the two girls were annoying enough that she couldn't regret lashing out at them that badly.

 

[divider1]

 

It was almost evening when Nova and the flock of people that followed her arrived at the place illustrated on the parchment. And Nova, however she wanted to just reach the next stage as fast as possible, realized that even as they arrived there, none of them really had anything on their minds regarding what should they do once they reached the destination. Not to mention, she's quite tired from walking all day long, and she still needed to shake off the other participants off her trail somehow, so for now, Nova decided to pretend that the cliffs was not the destination and that they would need to rest there.They wouldn't really have any other choice but to follow her anyway, as she's the only person there that knew about what was on the parchment before she burned it.

 

"We'll rest here tonight and continue the search tomorrow."

 

Just as Nova finished her sentence, loud noises could be heard coming from the sky. When she looked upwards to see the source, she could clearly see shades of oversized birds of prey circling above the group, ready to come down at them at any moment.

 

"Nevermind, Let's handle these birds first. We will need dinner anyway." she said as she readied herself for the birds' onslaught.

 

[divider1]

[Tesability Black]

The cries of the birds above was sharper to his ears than the rest of this group, causing him to let out a strange mix of growl and yelp as he got up onto his four paws with a minor shiver from the cold night, seeing the sight of the avians that circled above them. He's never seen birds near his home desert, at least none like these.

 

Unsure of what to expect, the fox-like beast allowed the heat he naturally produced to spread around him, not containing as he had been through the human places. One bold bird spotted the red creature and decided to take a dive for it, viewing it as a prime target. He did not move, even as he watched the strange bird approach him. The bird pulled forward its talons, prompting the creature to tilt his head slightly. Just before the talons reached his throat, however, something suprising happened.

The red quadruped burst into flames.

 

The bird wound up flying through the newly-forged flames, having no time to stop or turn around, emerging on the other side as a fully-roasted, featherless piece of dinner...at least it would have made for such had it not bounced off the ground multiple times the way it did. Reforming into solid fur and muscle a second later to turn his head toward the newly-roasted creature, it took a moment to snack upon the bird, revealing to still be raw past the first half-inch in. This was not a problem, he prefered his meat raw after all.

 

The other birds exchanged glances toward each other, as if not sure any of them should try that again on him...

[Kyng]

It went without saying that Cecilia had to follow the trail warmly as the group followed Nova in hot pursuit. It seemed very few of these people seemed even slightly trust-worthy. The two girls were simply excessively bratish whilst this pyromancer seemed nothing short of a blatant competitive b!tch. The cloaked figure seemed reasonable, as did the one questioning the price of her armour which she was still clad in at the moment - you really didn't know when your next breath would be your last considering the crowd - and the beast that came soon after was, well, a beast. Can't fault a beast being a beast. With an inward sigh Cecilia felt that she hadn't been restricted from the outside world, but rather sheltered from the kind of people there was.

 

Nontheless the only lead they had decided to burn up the parchment, so she had a crew of followers for the meanwhile, and Cecilia's eye had no intention of dropping from her for an instant. That is, until the birds showed up.

 

Holding the hilt of her rapier, Cecilia's eyes closed as she began to focus. Soon after she locked her eyes upon one of the birds as her grip tightened. With this, she continued to be patient, she waited and bought time to charge while the birds seemed distracted with the beast. Indeed, the fire show it had put on did more than a good job at startling the other birds, they were disarrayed and uncertain of attack.

 

With the enemy's guard down one of the birds charged her, yet the offensive was her's.

 

"Hmph!"

 

A graceful display, Cecilia's rapier was drawn, and circled around her head, her arm crooking until she was in perfect form, all the while her blade leaving a beautiful humming of resonant steel singing off the edge of the rapier. In an instant, she thrusted the blade forward and, like a bullet, the bird's breast was punctured with a screech, Near-invisible to the naked eye due to the amount of time spent concentrating, the haste of Cecilia's thrust was simply perfectly executed, and difficult to relent, especially an unaware, unarmoured bird. It was an easy target and she had a distraction to aid her in preparing her attack, but with all said the bird's chest was punctured as it fell down to the ground, finished.

 

All this said and done, Cecilia simply sheathed her rapier before glancing to Valko, smiling softly. He was the only one who seemed to speak to her directly, to even show some sort of interest, even though it was merely at the price of her armour. Nonetheless she softly spoke to him.

 

"I never told you what you asked, did I? I am afraid it was a gift from my father, though I will ask him of it if you are still interested."

 

Hoping to break some ice at least, she approached the kill, her bird. Truth be told she was packed with what she thought she might need, but she hadn't prepared to cook, well, a raw kill. With a soft sigh she pouted looking at the dead bird - it was too large for her to haul. Seem like she'd be going hungry for the night.

[Love of Ghibli]

Well it would be and understatement to say that didn't just escalate quickly. It seemed that right after the picture was assembled the group dynamics began to shift. It seemed that this Oz character now had a knife to the Trident girls throat. He managed to take the picture of the next location and got away. Intrigued by this kind of devious personality Lettess simply stood still. After Oz and his hostage got away Lettess couldn't help, but notice Alaster's drive to quickly rectify the problem. He's just like Arie, quick to act as the Alpha male. I guess someone has to do it though. Lettess was about to go forth and follow Alaster but then he looked off into the distance and he realized something. Oh that will be important. As Alaster and the others took the stairwell Lettess chose a slightly quicker route. He jumped off the side of the building. 

Not trying to be a dare devil he did have good intentions. As he began his massive decent he cleared his mind and used his nen to actually add some friction to his feet and he literally proceeded to run down the side of the building. Luckily, his training in the culinary arts had prepared him for this. Well the hyperbolic and dangerous training a Sprout family chef has to endure anyway. He was getting his stride and for the most part made it down the building without too much trouble. Of course by the time he landed on the ground he was completely worn out. He had just run down from the tallest point in the city, but it was worth it because he found his target. Not to far in front of he spotted Anemone's Trident. Yay...I found it! That was tough. Of course his smile turned into a slight pout when just around the corner came Alaster. Well...that womps. 

 

Nevertheless he joined Alaster in the disturbingly convenient automobile that had enough space for a wolf to be a passenger as they ventured out to the woods. 

[Aix]

Anemone realized too late that she had completely misjudged this person, and ended up being held hostage. She would have made a move, but deemed it too dangerous when he seemed ready to slit her throat at any moment. Next thing she knew, however, she was let go as they went down the elevator, and her kidnapper even put his weapon away. The entire time they descended she remained silent, and stared at him at varying intervals with her eyebrows creased, deep in thought.

What even? What is with this person? He has no real consistency in his actions, does he? Ha, he's kind of a funny guy. Is he even dangerous? No, probably not, he's a buffoon.

There were no such erratic personalities where she came from, and this person felt somewhat refreshingly new in his bizarre actions. "You're weird," she said quite plainly as she stepped out first from the elevator. "Let's get going, I don't want to be late for the Exam."

They were going to the same destination anyway, and Anemone could find no real reason that she had to separate from this guy. It was inconvenient getting around when everyone treated you as a kid, and she felt like simply ignoring any protests and tagging along.

[divider1]
Morrigan honestly didn't give much of a shit that some middleschooler got kidnapped. He watched the events unfold coolly, his dead-seeming eyes ironically the only moving part on that sickly body. Everyone else seemed struck by the suddenness and randomness of this event. Finally, as that lime-haired man with the dog moved did things proceed again.

Morrigan followed Alaster down the stairs, and ended up falling behind do to the frailty of his condition. He wasn't going with them anyway, there was no particular reason for them to be sticking together and holding each others hand, being all friendly. That kidnapper was at least right in this regard. If he was going to make his mark on this world, it wasn't going to be with anyone's help. On another note, he was hardly going to fit his motorcycle onto that guy's van.

Sitting firmly on the seat of his bike, Morrigan started the engine with a dramatic rumble.

[divider1]
He had to ditch the motorcycle behind a tree, and set off into the forest on foot. He seemed to have gotten here first as the others got stuck in traffic whereas he didn't care about the road laws. The forest didn't seem particularly dense at first, but the proximity of trees tightened as he got farther in, making it more difficult to find where he was going. Perhaps this was not such a good idea after all, to go alone. He turned his head suddenly as he sensed movement. Closing his eyes, he sealed off his aura nodes, and used his sixth sense to feel for the presence of others.

"AWWOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Wolves. Already, there were four wolves gathered around, and evidently that was a call for more. Morrigan clenched his teeth, this was going to be a tough one. From the strength of their aura, they weren't your ordinary predator. It made sense, after all, that they would send potential examinees to an area inhabited by dangerous beasts.

[Andx]

Solving a puzzle always brought such a sense of fulfillment with it. Seeing the picture of the cottage in the woods come together had Xiu ready to go with the image now almost imprinted in her mind. Before she could do anything the one who had introduced himself as Oz took rather drastic action and took Anemone hostage with the completed picture. It didn't much matter to Xiu at this point as she'd seen the picture long enough to remember it nor did she see any reason to go to the girl's rescue. The Hunter's Exam was what mattered and despite the theatrics that still seemed quite within her reach.

 

Alaster quickly took action as he seemed much more interested in what became of the hostage. Seeing an opportunity to move quickly towards her own destination, Xiu followed close behind. Alaster had practically commandeered a van for their transport which was considerate of him. Xiu slipped in without much of a word and sat close to Rexxus. Various things were said but of course the biggest thing on anyone's mind was where to go. "I'll know the place when I see it. Provided it was accurate, the picture gave enough detail that I should be able to make it out." she stated to the group. It seemed she'd be helping the rest of them to the exam after all. But that didn't bother her much. Nothing ever really seemed to. Even now she seemed to be lost in thought on something else entirely.

[Aix]

Who am I, you may ask? I am probably the real protagonist of this story. This story is really all about me hunting down the legends known as the 108 Stars of Destiny. I view my life like it were a story. It's probably not a story which you would read your children, but it's a very honest one. I climbed my way from the bottom to the top, through grit and talent and the cold-blooded murder of children and innocents. All that's in the past however, and fuck if I want to talk about that. Right now, I'm standing in the massive basement of an unobtrusive mountain cabin, stuck with the filthy stench of plebeians filling my nostrils as we wait to be let out. One or two of these trash might have unrefined potential, but disappointingly, they're nothing like the powerful paragons I'm expecting.

The 108 Stars of Destiny - a very real myth that recurs every 500 years, changing the shape of the world. They are all said to be extremely powerful Nen users. Their combined combat potential should rival the entire United Nations. They are the kind of guys who'll get my heart pumping, the kind of guys that I just want to tear apart and drench myself in their blood. These guys are the kind that can take me on one-on-one - just think about that! How long has it been that I've had a real man-to-man fight?

Anyone with potential is drawn to the Hunter Association. If I wasn't already an assassin, I would have become a Hunter a long time ago. Even if none of the Stars show up today, I'll be able to find more information within the Hunter Association itself. There's a lot of people that fear the 108 Stars, even amidst the Hunters, and if I go along, I'll be able to encounter the Stars myself.

I narrowed my eyes as I look at the door, and drop them in disappointment as another waste of space walks into the room. What am I doing, getting my hopes up? Calm down, Jack, be patient. And yet I cannot shake the feeling that this Hunter Exam will be more fun than I expect. Sighing, I wait for the last of the participants to roll in.

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

Though he's not one to prepare for upcoming events, he saw an opportunity too good to not throw away as he was navigating his way to the forest: A gunfight between what appears to be two mafia members. It was a split-second decision to liberate the man of his gun, and the process of liberating it was a smooth and easy process, involving only Morrigan leaning to the side, crowbar in hand, arms extended, and sweep the leg of the poor sap. The gun fell right onto the hands of the unhinged biker, who didn't even do a double take on what he's done, speeding off far too quickly for the mafiamen to even realize what just happened. By the time the other, still armed mafia fired the killing shot, Morrigan has already disappeared from their view. Upon closer inspection, the pistol isn't an ordinary pistol. It seems to have a much longer magazine, as well as an equally elongated barrel. Judging by the engravings that say "DIO et MUERTE" on the side of it, it appears to be custom-made. In any case, Morrigan was pleased with his "legally" acquired weapon, and flashed a smirk as he rode through Ferris, unaware that he's scaring any civilian that happens to see him and the pistol in his hand. 
 
[divider1]
Four wolves. He's survived fights against four drunken angry men, but they weren't using Nen. He can already feel that the fight is gonna be more difficult than the ones he's been through. With his crowbar in one arm and a pistol in the other, Morrigan braced himself for whatever happens next. The four beasts circle him, and gradually walks closer toward him, before one of them lunged at him without warning. Of course, Morrigan dodged it, but it was far too fast to execute a counterattack. The Nen allowed him to sense the next attack, dodging another wild lunge from his blindside. Of course, he can't counterattack that, either. 
 
However, the next second, he sensed an opportunity. Or rather, "He" sensed an opportunity. The insane sunovabitch is back, and he's got bloodlust. He stopped concealing his aura and just let it flow out in a shroud of Ten, instilling fear and hesitation in the wolves. "Here, kitty kitty..." He said to a cowering wolf, before suddenly shooting one of its legs repeatedly. As it struggled to get back up, Morrigan was already standing right in front of him, and started whacking its head with his crowbar. He repeated the process several more times, causing blood to splatter everywhere, stopping only upon hearing tire screeching noises. He turned around to face the other doggies, facing the direction where the van arrived. 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Torben watched as each of the strange group entered the Skytower. He had been given a strangely hastily scrawled note that read "Skytowar" moments after entering the city, and had camped out across from it. He held the large case in front of him casually, prepared to take out the rifle inside at a moments notice.

He didn't know why he was called to this place, but he had a feeling it would be best to wait it out here.

 

Soon enough he noticed movement, one of the men that had entered was coming out, holding a girl at knife-point. Torben opened the case slightly, focusing on the scene before him. He didn't want to kill someone already, but if this man was going to take a hostage Torben might have no other choice.

However his interference didn't seem necessary as the man let her go and they both headed off together. It seemed odd to Torben but he decided that perhaps they had worked out a plan together. It looked like the participants were already separating into groups and making allies.

Torben decided to wait a little longer, even after another single man came out and left on his own. It would be best to try and stick with the largest group for now.

 

And there they were, an odd assortment who were all gathering in a van, lucky for them they all fit. Torben slung his gun case over his back and made his move as the last entered, hopping up and onto the roof of the van smoothly.

He wasn't fond of the idea of cramming into such a limited space. Though the van might have some heating, he thought with a shiver.

 

[divider1]

 

They traveled out of the city and Torben took note of the direction they were heading, making sure he could trace his way back if need be. They entered a forest and were forced to slow down. The van could barely make its way through the trees and Torben wondered if it wasn't for the best to proceed on foot.

 

He noticed movement in the distance. The man he had seen on the motorcycle was in a fight with a pack of wolves. Though he didn't seem very concerned, as he was currently focused on bashing one of them with a crowbar. Doesn't he realize he's just leaving himself open?

The van was still moving, the passengers having apparently not quite noticed the wolves yet.

The man was outnumbered and totally engrossed in his violent killing so Torben took it upon himself to even the odds.

He reached around and brought out his sniper rifle. Quickly loading it and taking aim, Torben took a deep breath and focused.

 

The van was moving, but thankfully at a slow pace. He took aim at the closest wolf, quickly calculating the distance and the speed they were moving at. He fired, hitting the wolf square in the back of the head and blowing its brains out in the process.

The van skidded to a halt, but Torben had anticipated this reaction to the loud and sudden gunshot.

He jumped from the van and landed safely on his feet. Had it been going any faster it may have caused more damage but as it was Torben was able to jauntily make his way towards the man and the wolves. While making sure to walk in a direction that allowed him to see the whole scene and keep his distance from man and wolf alike.

 

Flashing the biggest and cheesiest smile he could muster he called out. "Hey there new friend, looks like you found yourself in quite the pickle. I never knew why they called it a pickle seems like a weird food to go with. Aren't they normally a sticky situation? Wouldn't something like caramel make sense? Course I'm in a caramel doesn't sound right either. My name's Torben, Torben Orbus."

[Love of Ghibli]

Lettess was clearly happy as he got in the van and it hurried out into the wilderness. He actually wanted to sing camp songs and laugh as the group rushed to the aid of a comrade. Not so much comrade as some chick they had all just met. Nevertheless this was fun. There were some interesting characters in this van ride, but it was good to see that they all had the good intention of helping out another individual instead solely focusing on the hunter exam.

As they approached the woods it looked like one of the other potentials who decided to venture alone was surrounded by powerful looking wolves. Lettess was impressed to see that other potentials were so ready to jump into action. He noticed how one of the members launched himself from the van. Well that was impressive. At this moment the van had stopped some distance from the actual battle so Lettess took his time actually walking to the main stage of combat. He walked around and surveyed the scene. He noticed that more wolves were coming from the distance so Lettess thought it would be a good idea to try to flank one of the wolves.

Unfortunately, that didn't work. Immediately Lettess was staring down one of the animalistic opponents. The feral beast was literally foaming at the mouth with murderous intent. Lettess tilted his head sideways cartoonishly for a second as he analyzed the beast. Do they know Nen? He thought as he was feeling the gripping fear of intimidation coming from the beast. Lettess clapped his hands and bowed as he prayed for the food he was about to prepare. As Lettess lifted his head the massive wolf creature was already above him ready to pounce down. Lettess nonchalantly sidestepped the attack and when the wolf landed it moved to attack again. It then felt a sharp pain in the back of it neck like a mosquito bite, but before it could go in for another strike it the wolf found itself peacefully in sleeping position. Lettess then walked up to the sleeping wolf and spoke that was imbedded in the back of that creatures neck. Thank you for being the food I will cook for my friends.

The moment that wolf landed Lettess had more than enough time to actually drive a spoke through the back of the creature's neck quite effortlessly. All of his training is made to take out beast as quickly and efficiently as possible. In a one-on-one it is really hard for an animal to get the best of Lettess. Lettess looked over his defeated foe with a butcher's knife and the blood spoke as he was ready to start prepping the meat and all of the useable body parts for transportation. Of course he turned to see that he had wasted to much time appreciating the food as he was surrounded by two more wolves. Hmmm...I don't want to be wasteful, but I can't take out both of them with one attack. Sad now I can't make this painless like I wanted.

[Raine]

Oz’s eye twitched as the elevator doors opened. The girl seemed unguarded, disturbingly so. In all of the efforts he recently exerted on the rooftops the last thing he felt he would come across as is the type someone can be ‘Comfortable in the Same Room With’. Something was had to be pretty fucked up inside the toddler’s head. ‘Neat’ he thought. The open doors showcased a variety of movement and confusion among the back staff of the building, nothing to get worked up over, but apparently everyone’s cumulative antics to getting on a rooftop, they were never supposed to be on, has caused a most unbecoming stir.  Perhaps the time for a more hasty exit has come, he’d be surprised if someone wasn’t already questioning through the sewing circle up top.

 

He turned to catch a look of the girl; she was going on about following him. He ticked when she called him weird, “Hi, pot. I’m kettle,” he swore under his breath and resumed looking down the hallway. That was never quite the plan, seemingly because the entire point of his actions was to dump the newbies and let them not get involved. ‘Goddamn it,’ he thought in a cringe. “Girl, Girl, look,” Ozymandius took a deep breath and directly faced his whole body to the girl, “You aren’t scared of me, huh? You know the massive dick with the uncontrollable fits of hostage taking and bad words,” Oz swiftly moved his head inches from Anemone’s and briefly paused, “Neat. Well, I don’t trust you’ll just wander back into one those…” he stopped to avoid swearing too much in front of the girl, “people. And lead the merry band all the way Timbuktu or wherever this map points so for now,” he paused again, “Just, stick close to me.”

 

Oz took a light grip of the girl’s wrist and became to power walk through the facility, bobbing and weaving through the labyrinth of tope walls and budget flooring, careful to avoid the unwanted attention of the tower’s tenants. It wasn’t a few minutes before Ozymandius had pulled his quote unquote hostage out the back loading dock of the modern obelisk. “Well, shit… that was like significantly easier than I figured it might have been.” Oz reached for the map in his possession and began walking down the alleyway keeping his free hand behind Anemone in case she tried something. Apparently it was very very vague map but give Anemone’s direction courtesy of her index finger. “Fruit loops,” he’s started to accustom himself to not saying bad words around the 3^rd grader, “What the hell is the point of a map like this? Well, at any rate, without the map perhaps the rest of Justice League will just wander into a Sarlacc pit and I don’t have to worry about them for a long time,” Oz put the map way and began to walk faster virtually dragging Anemone at his rate. “I’m not going to risk anything, we’re walking there after that you can find your own damn way back. I’m not gonna babysit you forever.”

 

 

“HOLY BLUE BANANA SON OF A BOOKING NUTCRACKER! CHRIST!,” Oz shouted with a hate of a thousand suns as he and Anemone came into view of the cabin and consequently a pleasant view that the whole merry band had, in fact, drove in all manner of vehicles and found their way to the fucking cabin without the fucking useless map he stole from a baby. Ozymandius leaning against a nearby tree and collapsed to the ground, “I’m a failure… what the hell is this irony. God, please kill me…” he whimpered, “Annie just… go back to your friend… leave me to rot here with the rest of the organic garbage… .”

 

While Oz’s head slowly… very slowly decomposed on the earthen ground, his sideways vision spied a group of wolves weaving through the tree lines towards the vans and one of the previous fellows. Ozymanidus jumped to his feet  and withdrew his knife once more in a defensive stance, “I’ll cover you to your buddies as an apology for being kidnapped by someone as utterly pathetic as myself before I bury myself in this wasteland,” Oz began carefully towards the grouping zig-zagging a path in the forestry with the girl behind him, he quietly observed the conflict in the clearing from the distance as he grew closer, the wolves were fighting oddly but it seemed irrelevant, he watched his previous acquaintances make quick work of wolves some of them in a less than psychologically healthy way. 

[Aix]

As it turns out, Anemone couldn't locate the fallen trident. She should have realized that someone probably picked it up after it fell from such a height. It was a nice looking trident, after all, and she would assume it would sell for a decent sum of cash. She took solace in the fact that no one probably got killed by the falling polearm. Moving on, she followed that weird mushroom-haired guy all the way into the forest, where the guy proceeded to have a nervous breakdown as they arrived at a wooden cabin. Whatever caused the breakdown, Anemone couldn't quite tell, but she just attributed to his usual bizarre state of mind.

"Hey, there's wolves," said Anemone. She lacked the habit of looking at whomever she was speaking to and basically spoke into a tree. At any rate, Oz noticed the wolves as well, and stood up before heading straight towards the wolves under some notion of protecting her.

[divider1]
The cabin. It was a horribly rundown thing and Anemone found it difficult to imagine any respectable person would stay there. Just as she was about to touch the door, it burst open outwards, causing Anemone to jump back in surprise.

As she expected, it was not a particularly well-dressed and civilized person who emerged. A disheveled old man with a mane of white hair and a beard, dressed in nothing but a loincloth, thus baring his wrinkled, but toned body in its almost complete glory. It was not uncommon for people to live this way in Lemuria, but it was rather unusual to live as a hermit so close to a developed area like Ferris.

He tapped the ground with the butt of his spear to draw everyone's attention. The old man's voice was hoarse and bore an accent, he hadn't spoken in perhaps months or even years. "Ah, I've..." he coughed. "I've been waiting for you. I am the Navigator."

[Asriel Dreemurr]

The sound of a gunshot, followed by the sudden stop of the van, was enough to get Alaster into action.  He didn't want to risk anyone else that had ended up on top of that tower ending up in more danger than necessary, and with Lettess leaping out of the van after someone with a rifle that had hitched a ride on the roof.  Basically this was turning out to be quite the interesting day, and it looked about to get only more interesting.  As he and Rexxus emerged from the van, it seemed that the situation Morrigan and the others found themselves in was going from bad to worse.  They seemed able to handle themselves for the moment, so wolf and man took the opportunity to disappear.  Silent as shadows, they slipped into the undergrowth and lay in wait as the rest of the pack prepared to come to the aid of their terrified brothers.  So far the others seemed to be doing alright, though Lettess didn't seem to be in a great position on account of being cornered by two of the beasts.  At the moment, he was the one most in need of assistance.

 

Even only a year old, Rexxus was a fair bit larger and significantly heavier than a full grown wolf of the normal variety.  So how could anyone be surprised that when he came leaping out of the bush and landed between the young chef and his assailants that the others began backing down.  A good show of snarling between the three canines, and even some feigned bites in each other's direction, was all it took for Rexxus to assert that they couldn't have Lettuce and off the two ran.  With that done, the wolf turned around, reared up on his hind legs, and assailed the now safe chef with a flurry of licks to his face after his VERY large paws wound up on the young man's shoulders.

 

Alaster himself was skirting the edge of the sight of the confrontation, from which the offensive response from those present was driving the wolves, who were more about getting a meal than risking injury against strong opponents.  Of course he also spied an interesting sight, Oz and Anemone with the male putting himself between the wolves and the girl.  This was somewhat confusing, seeing the man try and protect the girl after he'd taken her hostage.  For now he kept himself hidden, waiting for the wolves to flee.  Once they had been fully driven off, he summoned Rexxus to him and stepped out of the undergrowth not more than a meter or two from where the pair had been standing.  "Lettess has your trident, Anemone.  I can confirm it is in as fine shape as it was when you lost it.  So, let us see what this Navigator has to tell us."  With that, and one glare sent Oz's way, he and his wolf closed in on the cabin to better see and hear what was to be presented.

[Love of Ghibli]

Lettess was about to move forth and see if he can end the lives of these wolves as efficiently as possible. But hilariously enough that wasn't needed. the fight was immediately interrupted by Rexxus the pet wolf of that Alister fellow. This will work. Lettess just tilted his head and watched the law of the land take over. The beast actually back down and retreated. Awesome!! Was the only word he could mutter while he turned to the wolf he had killed. He then looked back to the wolf who was standing as guard duty and decided to go to work. He looked up and noticed that the group was talking to some old man with a loincloth. Ugh that means he had to act quickly. Well that means it won't be as clean as he could be. 

10 minutes later Lettess was walking up to the group with completely bloody hand and three bags. Anemone's trident was fastened to his back with the use of his back pack so he looked almost comical with the amount of stuff he was carrying. So we have lots of prime wolf meat in one bag, organs cartilage and the like in another bag...maybe we can make a soup or something. Finally we have the fur, I don't really have any sewing skills though sooo yeah. What are we doing now? 

[Aix]

Anemone merely nodded at Alaster as he approached, telling her of the location of her trident. Glancing at Lettess, she turned her attention to the Navigator, who Morgan had just asked a question.

 

The old man paused as he looked at the zombie girl. "Are you not Hunter examinees?" he inquired. He scratched his head contemplating that maybe he got the wrong people. Looking at these young group of people, they certainly seemed like prospective Hunters. They handled the wolves outside quite handsomely and he detected that they were quite able to handle Nen.

 

"We are," said Anemone, and the old man nodded.

 

"Well then, I will be navigating you guys to the site of the Hunter Exam," he said, and he stretched his old limbs. Walking past the group, he then stood still for a few moments, before he dived into a full out sprint. "Follow me!" Despite his old age, his speed was tremendous, as fast, if not faster, than the wolves which they just fought.

 

"We can't lose sight of him!" said Anemone, recovering immediately from the shock of this man's speed. She realized there was no way she could catch up, and could only hope that their destination wasn't far enough for him to run completely out of sight. Diving through the canopy and dodging trees, she ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

[Raine]

Oz witnessed the final demise of the wolfian menace and their attempts at dismissing his colleagues from their mortal coil. Fortunately for the heavily advantaged side of humanity, there was the pack master Alexander of Macedon and his loyal beast Peritas… wait, never mind, Oz remembered it was Alaster and Rexxus. A sobering wave of disappointment washed over Oz for some reason. Oz emerged from the safety of the words as the animal insurrection was promptly suppressed thanks to the traitor wolf, and noted that Anemone who parted by his side had found new shelter with the people he had originally kidnapped her from. The nausea crept back into his throat, disgusted that such a thing happened to him. Oz legitimately considered just leaving to the far northlands to live his pathetic barely acceptable life of failure in peace in the remote cold but digressed when he thought about living off Walrus meat, it must be gross.  

 

“Good show, boys and girls,” Oz said applauding with enthusiasm. Oz’s pupils jerked to the left, and spied with his little eye an imposing nearly naked old man of significant years. “Bejesus, Old Man River is still alive!?,” Oz spouted overreacted and recoiling his body at the sight.

 

Oz had studied such old hermits of the forest but dismissed most of his books information as nonsense due to the rather outlandish claims and the lack of validity of the authors. After all, who writes about naked old men other than people who study naked old men, obviously those writers were not the fairest of mind. Morrigan #2 and Lettuce Wrap had already lined up at the dementia blighted crusty man under the delusion that his claim to be a ‘navigator’ was more or less true. “Baka na,” Oz retorted under his breath managing a face of disgust to rival all other attempts to convey disgust before it.

 

At this point, Ozymandius was entrapped in his little world and phased out of reality as his daydreaming about various topics from the proper ways to season and cook the various meats of polar animals to acceptable excuses to use to explain his previous crimes. After all, if the old man was leading them to the Hunter exams he would like to not be forced into a one-man Nuremburg trial with 5 witnesses against him when things calmed down. A blast of wind kicked up in Oz’s face and knocked him off balance stumbling to the ground where his butt fell oddly on a tree root. “Ow…,” Oz recovered his vision to see the old man blazing past the ground at inhuman speeds, “2 minute miles are not okay.”

 

Seconds later, Anemone and the caravan of idiocy and fools followed suit and found their feet moving out from under them and their vain attempts to follow a remnant of a man who could have likely hunted wooly mammoths.  Oz realized that he was falling behind quickly, he hated running, why couldn’t he just fight a martial arts tournament and beat Goku like everyone else. Oz accelerated and took off in the direction of the old man who hovered at the limit of his view.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Torben's attempt to make conversation with one of the others, which was him trying to figure out what kind of person he was working with, seemed to fail utterly as the man just stared at him with a "What the f*** are you doing" look.

As it seemed the wolves were proving to be no problem Torben cursed himself for having been so rash and revealing his hand so soon. It was always better to present yourself as powerless so that others didn't try and take advantage of your skill. At least not until you learned who could be trusted with such a thing.

The sudden arrival of a nearly naked old man took Torben's mind off his current goal. By the way the others flocked to him he must be important in some way. He didn't seem like much but Torben had seen enough to know that appearing weak was not an indication of weakness.

 

This was seemingly proven correct by the speed the old man took off. Torben groaned, he hadn't anticipated this and was not in the best position to give chase. However it seemed he had to try.  "Whoa did ya see that? That old guys has some moves!" He called to the strange man he had tried to speak to, in hopes it would make him realize that the old man needed to be followed.

Not pausing to check if his message was understood Torben headed off after him. He didn't need to keep up, he only had to keep his eye on his target No don't think like that, he's not a target, just an old man that I need to follow.

As long as he kept his eyes on the man, he could tell which direction he was headed. There was obviously some destination in mind and Torben was determined to find out what.

 

[Maeriberii Haan]

[divider1]

 

Nova’s…actually really tempted to leave the group when they were being busied with the birds, but the only thing that was stopping her was the catgirl that was currently staring at her - as if she was accusing her of what she was thinking about. Not to mention, the map clearly painted that the location for the next stage of the exam would be right in this point, or somewhere really close, so even if she left, she would only remove herself from the competition, and even if somehow leaving helped her in finding the actual location, they’d still be able to catch up to her easily.

 

“So, who’s cooking these birds? You? You seem to have a knack for purrning stuff, so it’s only seems natural.” The catgirl asked her, after she killed a bird with a pounce and a bite. It…looked pretty disgusting. Her casual, made-up innocent tone, and how she said purr instead of burn seriously irritated Nova.

 

“Ugh, just pack them up for now. We probably should find another place near here to settle for tonight.” Nova answered, avoiding giving a proper answer. It was then that she sensed a bird coming from behind her, in seemingly an attempt to divebomb straight at her. Nova leisurely turned around to face it, and pointed her finger to the bird like a gun as she tried to aim at the bird’s vitals. The bird was not slowing down at all when it was closing in to her, attempting to crack her skull in with its weight in a single swoop, but-

 

“Bang.”

 

A small spark of fire travelled from Nova’s index finger into the bird’s open mouth as it cawed just a foot away from her, but the bird didn’t even slowed down after that, so Nova ended up resorting to a well-placed fast roundhouse kick to slam the bird crashing into the ground. The next second, Nova’s fire finally showed its work, completely scorching the bird from the inside at the span of seconds. She then immediately turned herself around, and faced that disgusting catgirl again.

 

“That one’s already well-done, so there’s that.”

 

[divider1]

 

Of course, why would I expect otherwise?

 

Celia sighed before she silently pulled the new kitchen knife she had bought just hours ago from the belt she wore as she decided to join in the mess. One of the birds seemed to have noticed her, and went down towards her as if it had any chances in having her as a dinner.

 

“Sorry, little bird.

 

No hard feelings, but I’m kind of hungry and you’re there coming at me. But hey, thanks for doing that. Much less work for me to do.”

 

On the next second, Celia already passed the bird; her kitchen knife was drenched in its blood. The bird just froze there for a second, looking completely surprised about whatever had happened to it, while Celia wiped the blood from her knife with her “apron”, before returning it to her belt.

 

“I guess, that’s what they call a cutting-edge­ technique.” Celia said, her expression returning to its usual, cheery one. Then, in a flash, blood bursted from the bird as it somehow got cut into pieces and fell to the ground. Celia then turned around to see the result of what she did.

 

”Let’s see…both wings into two parts, upper leg, lower leg, head, bottom, and six parts for the body. Not bad, not bad.”

 

[divider1]

 

Without any hopes nor reasons for now to shake these competitors off her tail, Nova gave in finally, and decided to actually stay with the group for the time being. The birds had been dealt with swiftly, and that blue haired brute seemed to have packed most of the birds she could get a hand on into a big bundle that she somehow able to carry on her back alongside her comically big backpack  And with that, the flock of annoying birds had been cleared off and all sounded pretty well right now, aside from-

 

“You’re looking for me, young one?”
 

A voice echoed from the top of the cliff, before a figure rapidly descended from it straight into the group’s location in seconds. Nova, irked that the figure seemed to have read her mind with ease, prepped herself into a fighting stanc-

 

Only for the figure to lightly tap her head, which somehow had enough force to slam her face-first into the ground.

 

“Eight people, huh? Not bad, not bad at all.” The figure commented, with an unclear tone despite the content of the statement. It was either completely flat, or a deadpan comment, but with how the figure spoke that sentence, it couldn’t really be determined as of how the figure really delivered it.

 

“May I ask about who are you supposed to be, actually?”

 

“Please let me fully reveal myself first before asking such questions, young woman.”

 

The figure then moved closer to them, and with the moonlight shining over her, it could be seen pretty clearly that she was an old, blue-haired bespectacled woman, without much else going on to describe her. There were no signs of her being threatening if one was to passingly look at her, what with her frail, old frame, the pleasant look on her face, and everything else.

 

“Now that you all could see me, let me introduce myself. You don’t really deserve to know my name though, so just be content to know that I’m the Navigator for the Hunter Exam stationed here. Well, an unofficial one, but hey, it can’t be helped. My job here is basically to-”

 

“Unofficial?” Celia was intrigued hearing that word, and decided to cut the old woman mid-sentence. She was clearly irritated by this, seeing her expression, but the old woman recomposed herself immediately, to answer Celia’s question in the most expressionless tone she could manage.

 

“The official one died of old age this morning, and this old woman here decided to just replace him since she lived somewhere close here and she didn’t have the heart to let some aspiring Hunters being disappointed completely that their journey ended too soon. His pet birds were completely furious about his death, and they fell into a deep suicidal frenzy since this morning. I was going to handle them on my own but…

 

…Speaking of them, you all seemed to have done quite the admirable job in handling them, just like what civilized people-“ she stopped for a while, “and I guess, seeing your group’s composition, also just like what civilized demons and animals would do in situation like this. You’re even kind enough to the plant life here by scattering the birds’ blood and guts everywhere messily for the plants to enjoy. How nice.” Her emotionless tone suddenly shifted into a far sharper and more mocking one now as her gaze shifted into the bloody bundle that Celia carried on her back and the mess created behind them, before she decided to look into each of the other people there more and more closely. She then suddenly, as if she was being disappointed by something.

 

“Not quite what I’m expecting, you all are. In fact, I am utterly skeptical that any of you would even get past even one part of the Exam itself. You know what? I’m seriously thinking of just saying right here right now that none of you had any of the qualifications to enter the exam to save your time from being wasted.

 

Tch, but paperworks regarding this if I just deny all of you from being able to continue here would be a pain to handle, especially for an old woman like me, so I guess I’ll let you all move forward.

 

Just don’t be mad when you’re eliminated from early on, ok?”

 

“Ugh, stop acting like that, old hag. You know nothing about us and our capabilities.” Nova replied as she stood up while cleaning herself from the dirt she received after the old woman’s hit on her that sent her facefirst into the ground.

 

“Don’t make me change my mind, youngster. I’m in one of my good moods right now, so be thankful for that” The old woman was clearly offended by Nova’s words, but Nova herself didn’t seem to care about that part.

 

“But yeah, to make this quick since I'm not intending to annoy you more for today, if you keep going to that direction-“ she pointed somewhere at the mountains, “you’ll find a cabin near some trees. And that’s your next destination.” After saying that, the old woman withdrew back into the shadows before leaping out of the view of everyone present there in a flash.

 

[divider1]

 

“Hello there.”

 

Celia approached the armored woman that she saw from earlier on the bar, before they leave the cliffs towards the cabin. The blue hair’s still carrying the kills from earlier, all were already cut to pieces and packed nicely into a bundle, but seeing the development of things, she probably would not be able to cook them before tomorrow, at which point it might be better for her to just drop them off.

 

“Since the earlier incident in the bar, it seems that I have missed quite a lot of things. Specifically, do you know why we’re following that redhead now?

 

Oh, pardon me, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Celia, pleased to meet you.

 

…Welp, if you look at there, the redhead just left this group quite hastily, it seems. I've never seen someone run that fast before outside of combat.”

 

[divider1]

 

"This cabin...for some reasons I get a bad feeling from this place.

 

Ah well, seems that I'm the first one here, so it won't be that bad.."

 

And Nova then proceeded to open the door to the cabin.

 

[divider1]

[Tesability Black]

"Do not speak of the future as if you---," the beast barked and yipped out in response to the mysterious lady's emotionless diatribe against the group as a whole before she disappeared in a literal flash, pulling in the heat he projected around him as close as he could get away with as he did. Turning his head toward the direction the lady had pointed, he focused his gaze into the distance...

 

...only barely could he see the huts that had been briefly depicted on the back of those sheets through the trees and plants that surround the group.

 

"At least she spoke truth," he let out with a few neutral growls on the vowels before running through the trees, showing some of the agility attributed to traditional foxes as he did, despite his size. The only trace of his path were the plants that shrivelled up instantly from being trapped within his super-heated aura...

 

(He's not hitting the place immediately, I am giving others to catch up and 'interfere'. :P )

[Love of Ghibli]

Lettess simply stood-by and watched as the group of people seem to run after the old person. Lettess could already tell that the man had experience in running the selected path. The movements he took to get to wherever he was going were very impressive. It was interesting though with everything he was carrying and after the excessive amount of running he's already done during the day, he just wasn't in the mood to actually try to pursue chase and catch the people. Hmmm he decided that the best course of action was to actually simply walk along and just follow the trail that the others left. 

 

Lettess decided to pursue with a brisk walk and simply enjoy the time he had to himself. Hmm I hope the path isn't too far away I don't wan't this meat and stuff to go bad...Hmmm maybe I can make wolf stakes. Yes, wolf stakes sound nice. He said out loud as he was walking down the path.

[Aix]

 
All eyes turned to the door as another group of examinees walked in. Another two groups, I must correct myself. They were handed small circular number badges at the door based on their order of entry, and I noted that the number of examinees had now hit 500. It was an unprecedented number in the Hunter Exam, and I saw that they had run out of badges. I looked in amusement as the last of the second group was denied entry, a fair girl who reeked of nobility. Despite whatever protests she had, the men at the door forcefully escorted her out.
 
Now... this new group. A strange group, there were two animals brought along, and it seemed one of them was in fact a participant. I could feel their potential, just the intuition of a god, you know? This group was probably more worthwhile than the rest of this room combined... however, whatever potential they had was so painfully raw and undeveloped. I will not pick a fruit until it was ripe, but perhaps it will entertain me to... play with them some during this Exam? I was about to stand up and go greet them when suddenly there was a clang as the back wall of the room collapsed.
 
[divider1]

Anemone

The old man had lead them to a cabin hidden behind some trees in the mountains. It was empty, but the old man revealed a trap door, with a staircase leading down. Descending the staircase and opening the door at the end of it revealed a vast underground room where almost 500 people stood or sat in wait.

This was the Hunter Exam site.

There were some tough-looking people there, scattered among them were thugs, martial artists, bowmen, and a plethora of other strange people. Anemone noted to herself that all of these people managed to reach the exam site before them. Of the people already there, Anemone's eyes zeroed in on a red-haired man near the front, staring intently at them who entered. She wondered if he was a pedophile, but decided not to jump to conclusions. The group of them were handed numbered badges by a rather stereotypical looking man with sunglasses. He told them to be very careful not to lose them or they will be disqualified from the Exam.

Behind them, another group entered, however the last of them was denied entry as the man ran out of badges. It seemed awfully unfair, but she realized that she had no say in a matter like that. At that moment, the wall furthest from them collapsed, revealing thirteen absolutely identical ninjas.

Tridectuplets? Highly unlikely. At that point, all of the ninjas began speaking at the same time in the same voice.

"Congratulations to all that made it to the Hunter Exam site, but your trials and tribulations have just begun. Phase 1 of the Hunter Exam will begin shortly. I will explain the contents of the first exam." The ninjas gave way to reveal a narrow tunnel through the mountains. "You will follow this tunnel outside, where you will be met with a narrow mountain path. Follow that path and you will encounter a few obstacles such as cave bears and boulders blocking your path, as well as a rather poorly maintained rope bridge, until you reach another cabin identical to this. On the way, be sure not to lose your badge. All who make it to the cabin without losing their badges will have passed the first phase of the Exam. Vehicles are not allowed, but otherwise, anything goes."

More running. Anemone was far from inclined to leap for joy.

"Oh, and here's the kicker," said the ninjas. "Us ninjas will be chasing you to make sure you don't dilly-dally. We'll be trying to steal your badges, particularly those at the back of the group." At that point, each ninja held up a different number badge, and several cries rang out in the crowd as they realized their badge had already been stolen. Suddenly, each badge cracked in half, and they dropped them to the floor. "Yes, you are already disqualified. However, to be nice, we'll be giving you a ten second head start on this race. You may begin."

The crowd suddenly sprang into motion with the exception of the thirteen examinees who already lost their badges. Everyone was clamoring to get through the narrow tunnel, clogging the passage way. Fights already began to break out as they punched and pushed each other. Anemone leaped, jumping over the heads of other examinees, stepping on shoulders to run across the crowd, and ending up a few meters before the tunnel. She was about to shove her way through when a man appeared in front of her.

It was the man she noted before staring at them. He appeared out of nowhere, as if he teleported. Anemone immediately noticed that his fingers had become claws, and then it all happened in an instant. The air suddenly became red with the scattering of blood and severed body parts as an opening opened up in front of the tunnel for the man to sprint through.

Anemone shuddered as she realized if she had gotten there a moment sooner, she would have joined the pile of detached limbs, but she clenched her teeth and followed the man through opening he created.