H×H: 108 Stars of Destiny [IC]

[Love of Ghibli]

Lettess immediately jumped back and got of the way once he heard Alister's warning and he kicking recovered his position he bore witness to the combination techniques of the duo. Needless to say he was impressed. Even though his heart was racing and he was facing against a dangerous beast he couldn't help but smile at the thrill of it all. In the end the wolf and hunter duo was able to slay the beast and Lettess took a slight breathe of relief.

 

AWESOME!! That was freakin epic! he exclaimed as the beast let out its final screech. "Thanks for the help.  You certainly made that easier on us."  Glad to be of service. I mean its what us chefs are supposed to do right? He said with a cheerful smile as he was going to laugh. It was then that he bore witness to Alister was digging around behind the spider to bare witness to the gift of eggs. It seemed that fate was on his side. As he took his egg and he put it in his bag. He was about to respond to Alister when they were quickly interrupted by another kind of attack. Lettess jumped back and readied himself for combat as he didn't understand what this one was. The group was attacked by appeared to be a massive worm. Lettess simply raised an eyebrow as he didn't know massive worm creatures were something else they were going to deal with. 

It was hilarious though when he witnessed the hunter duo to actually jump forward into battle. Lettess' eyes widened as the wolf took a massive chunk out of the worm. The worm proceeded to run back down into the hole and then Lettess looked around and he started to wonder what was going to happen next. He reached in his bag and grabbed a pouch of red powder. He then turned around and looked at the ground and realized that the worm was making another strike. From behind the worm beast rose up again and this time it charged dead at Lettess and the young boy through his pouch directly at the creatures mouth watching his pouch disappear into the abyss as he dodged. Alright, time to stall for a couple of minutes.

[Tesability Black]

He effectively galloped as he ran forward, heading back towards the mother spider that he had found earlier. It didn't take long for him to return, and the spooky semblence of a delighted grin fell upon this one's face upon seeing the beast come back with still-living flesh.

 

"Excellent," she hissed in delight before wrapping up what she could of the human upon seeing that she was still awake before the Armagnis could even let go of her. "Place her right here next to the nest and I'll let you have one of the eggs. My choice which, however."

 

"That's fair," he barked towards the mother spider. "You are the one having to part with a potential child." With that did he carefull lay down the girl next to the nest of unhatched eggs, to which she gave a happy cry.

 

"Ah, my children's first meal shall be wonderful," she chittered before glanced over towards the nest, trying to figure out which would be the best to surrender to best improve the chances of survival for the rest of the group. After a moment, she carefully picked up one egg with her two front-most limbs, a relatively-small one which would have hatched into a runt, which he carefully held within the whiparm before placing it within one of the bags to his sides. "Now, go before I change my mind."

 

And with that, he gave one more guilty look towards the wrapped-up girl before galloping off towards what he could only hope was the exit...

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Wolf and Hunter dodged out of the way as the wurm made it's next attack, though Alaster raised an eyebrow as he saw Lettess leaping in front of it.  He was about to call out, when he saw the young boy throw something and dodge back out of the predator's path.  Truly, this fellow was an amazingly swift fellow.  Of course, he needed to think for a moment to figure out what that object this current member of his party had thrown to the beast was.  A moment which he was deprived of as the wurm burst up to attack them again, and he needed to repel it.  Not wanting to risk breaking his spear off against the creature's hide, he instead infused his legs with Nen and leaped forward to drive a jump-kick into the side of the beast's head.  As painful as that strike was, the beast was sure to return for them again after it retreated back elsewhere in the tunnels.

 

"So, what was that you fed the big guy?"  he directed his question to Lettess, while he and Rexxus came together again.  There was little left to do aside from waiting for the beast to return, and they needed to be ready for it.  "I don't really think giving it your cooking is going to make it like us any more than it does already."

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

"Damn it I was too slow." Torben cursed silently. They had been near the entrance when a giant worm creature came out of the ground and separated the two.

They were forced to split up down separate paths to escape the beast. Luckily it didn’t seem to be very bright and it was simple to trick it into going down the wrong path. He was able to double back after a while.

Torben had made his way back to the place where the worm attacked, marked obviously by the gaping hole in the ground. There was no sign of Valentine. And from what Torben could tell the boy hadn't came back to this place. He was sure Val would make his way back here once he thought it was safe, so Torben decided to wait.

He hid himself as best he could and watched as several hunters passed him by. One had been in such a rush that he fell into the hole left by the worm. The screams echoed for quite some time before cutting off suddenly.

After a while, with no trace of the boy, Torben realized he couldn't wait longer. He debated looking for him, but realized it would be foolish. He didn't have a lot of time as it was. For all he knew Val had made it out by some other path.

With guilt weighing on him, Torben picked the egg up and continued down the path, heading for the exit and the end of this test.

[Maeriberii Haan]

Why always me, goddamnit?

 

Why, for every single other person that could get so much bad things piled on them in succession, why it should be me?

 

Dammit, and now I'm going to be spider food at this rate. Or worse. Again.

 

Fuck this shit.

 

Celia was definitely less than amused to find herself being bound and gagged and carried by a beast towards a spider's nest, presumably to be turned into its next meal. She could only grumble in complete annoyance as she saw the beast took over an egg in exchange for herself, seemingly just to spite her utterly horrible, horrible luck. After something that could be interpreted as a quick conversation between the two, the beast ran as fast as possible from the spider's location, presumably to find an exit before the spider would attack it. Without him in sight, now she was alone with the spider in its nest, as the spider went closer and closer towards her with its utterly ugly face that was a mockery of human faces everywhere. She was still holding her knife in her hand, but the angle of how she was bound made it hard for her to try cutting the ropes. She nevertheless tried her best to break out from her binding. No way in hell she would let fate win after it screwed her over too many times already in the last several hours. If she could avoid narrowly turning herself into a breeding pod earlier, she would definitely have the ability to escape this fate of being eaten.

 

The spider was close to her now, just as she managed to finally start cutting the ropes binding her, though she realized that she was a bit too late. With her current position, she wouldn't be able to get away in time from the inevitable paralyzing venom injection, and if that hit her, then she would be completely toast. Though, just before the spider attacked, both it and Celia felt the ground was shaking.

 

Something made it shake, and that something was coming to their direction.

 

on the next second, from the wall behind the spider, a gigantic creature rushed through, swallowing the spider whole without even stopping down as it crashed through walls like an unstoppable freight train. Celia was centimeters away from the creature's path, and if she was this close in being trampled by it. The creature was ridiculously long, and it took a while until it disappeared completely from Celia's view.

 

"What the hell was that?"

 

Though, the fact that something like that existed in these caverns worried her enough to make haste on freeing herself from the binding. Once she was done, she tried to look around to find whether there was still any eggs left in the nest, and much to her joy, finally, she could see that three eggs were still intact. Using the ropes that used to bind her, she created a makeshift sack of sort, and placed the eggs there, before she looked around in confusion of where she should go next in the utter darkness of the cave.

 

Until...she decided to just follow the path that the giant worm-thing made earlier. Who knows, maybe it would lead her to the exit of the cave before time's running out.

 

Or she could meet face to face with it by doing it. Knowing her luck, that felt like something inevitable at this point. Sighing, Celia decided to keep on moving on her path, trying her best not to think of that possibility as she did so.

[Love of Ghibli]

Lettess looked at the creature as it prepared to come around he had counted down and waited for the effects of his mystery pouch to actually take hold of the beast. Alister and the Rexxus had came next to him and it seemed the warrior hunter was inquiring as to his plan. Lettess snickered. Well it wasn't something that I cooked...persay. It was something I wanted to cook. That was a bag of chocolate 7-pot peppers. I think its like the third hottest pepper in the world. One is enough to take a person out so I feel that a little bag should be enough to take down that thing.

At that moment Alister would here the screams of the massive beast echo throughout the corridor. The beast began to shake violently inside the cave as it would feel the dangerous effects of 1.8 million SHU times 23 surge throughout its body. So I would share with you, but the sheer smell of the peppers would probably not be good for Mr. Rexxus here. Fun science facts for you. Worms have a very similar digestive system to that of humans, they ingest food and their digest tracks pull out the nutrients and expell the rest. So that big beasty is pulling out all of the Capsaicin in those peppers. If you didn't know Capsaicin is the chemical that makes hot peppers hot and when you ingest it your body gets filled with the immense burning sensation. It's pretty deadly when not dealt with correctly. So long story short, I threw a Molotov Cocktail in his mouth and then upgraded to chemical warfare. Food is fun. Lettess ended his rant with a smirk.

As the massive worm convulsed in massive pain Lettess remembered what this did to humans who weren't ready for the taste. OOOhhh, so as a big beast hunter person you might want to kill that quickly...or get out of the cave quickly I don't know what giant worm bowel movements smell like, but I don't want to be here to find out personally.

[Aix]

"Thanks," said Anemone, taking the flashlight. She turned it on all by herself this time, an achievement she most definitely, certainly was not secretly applauding herself for, and looked around. "I feel things only will get worse from now... let's hope there isn't more where that came from."

 

Which there were, and the two of them ducked into a crevice against the wall again. This time they were prepared for it, thus Anemone avoided losing the new flashlight Emui gave her. She caught a momentary glimpse of that gaping teeth-filled hole of a mouth and shuddered. "Let's head back, if anything we can steal an egg from someone else," she said quite assertively as she stood straight again. "Facing off these things isn't part of the exam."

 

Without glancing back and hearing at what Emui thought, she rushed in the direction that they had come, keeping note of any areas where the tunnel was wider than usual so she could dive into it at any time.

 

[divider1]

 

After a good deal of time retracing their steps, Anemone recognized the larger, natural caves that existed closer to the surface. They were still a good way in, but not too far. Another wurm rushed by, and Anemone was able to easily avoid it this time, finding that she could sense their Nen easily when using Zetsu, but she recognized the crimson splashes of blood in its teeth as it zoomed past. Undoubtedly, these wurms were wreaking considerable havoc, and not everyone was nimble enough to avoid them, or small enough to squeeze against the side of the caves.

 

Up ahead, however, Anemone sensed a target. She turned off her flashlight, and furthered tightened her Zetsu, before running forth and diving out to the path in front of him. She switched her flashlight on (again marvelously all by herself) and flashed it in her target's eyes, hoping to temporarily blind him. At the same time, her Nen exploded outwards into Ren as she focused in on her target.

 

A boy carrying a large gun, the one that she had seen talking with the dangerous red-haired man. She wondered if he was acquaintance of that man, and hesitated for a moment, pondering if this person was perhaps too dangerous for her to take on if he was indeed that man's acquaintance. Dangerously, this gave the other person a possible split-second interval to react.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Apparently Torben wouldn’t be allowed out of this cave without some more trouble.
He had been so close to escaping this place, the entrance wasn’t far off, yet an unexpected obstacle stood in his way.
The sudden brightness startled the former assassin, and he realized quickly this was the preface to an attack. He couldn’t tell who his attacker was, but they seemed to be relatively small in size. There was the briefest moment of hesitation that Torben was more than happy to take advantage of.

 

It wasn’t easy carrying both his rifle and the egg, but he was glad he had decided to do so. Dropping the egg, and hoping it could survive the fall, Torben quickly aimed the rifle towards the figure. However instead of aiming it directly at them, he instead went for a spot next to what seemed to be the assailant’s head.

 

He pulled the trigger. The shot rang out and echoed through the cave. It was extremely loud to Torben, and, for the person whose ear was right next to the gun it was likely deafening.
This gave Torben enough time to recover from the surprise at being caught off guard, and the partial blindness that had stricken him.

 

He could more easily tell who this attacker was. A female, the one he had seen earlier with the kidnaping pervert.
Torben really didn’t want to harm her. But he couldn’t afford to let up at this point. Torben went for her legs, attempting to sweep them out from under her and give him enough time to scoop up his egg and go.

[Aix]

Anemone didn't react fast enough to the boy's movements. She began to dodge away from the incoming gun, when it fired right close to her ear, with a shattering noise that stunned and deafened her despite her Ren. While she was recoiling from the shock of the sound, the boy managed to sweep her feet from underneath her, before picking up his dropped egg and making a break for it.

 

A pacifist? But, Anemone had no time to ponder her opponent's virtues as she immediately got up and dashed after him.

 

[divider1]

 

There was someone blocking the way at the cave entrance. A number of other Hunter examinees were cowering in the shadows farther off from where the man stood. Jack Whitechapel, bathed in blood, stood atop a pile of mutilated corpses and spider eggs. His rampant killing intent chilled the air and made Anemone stop in her tracks.

 

I'll have to find another way, she thought. But then she realized that the red-haired man had managed to collect a number of eggs, and now seemed to be cruelly showcasing them to her. Maybe, somehow I can find a way to get around him and snatch one in the meantime.

 

Far easier said than done.

[Tesability Black]

Leaving small pockets of ash on the floor to mirror the effect of footprints, the beast of flame galloped through the tunnels in search of the exit. Along the way, it caught sight of something that wound up having its interest quick, though. There was an abandoned metal quarterstaff, a black-colored one with yellow points at the two ends.

 

Tilting his head and lifting an ear at the sight of the weapon, the creature grabbed it at the middle with the whiparm on its back before spinning it around like a baton for a moment.

 

Huh, it felt much like the one it accidentally left behind back home...

 

With a slight nod did he take the weapon with him, continuing its run through the tunnels until he finally came upon a source of light that wasn't his own, an exit out of the tunnels...

 

...however, there was someone standing in the middle of the path with various bodies nearby and the scent of blood emerging from both them and the one standing in the way.

 

"It's a waste to kill what you will not eat," he barked towards the stranger, a narrowed glare aimed at his possible foe-to-be...

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

It was one thing after another with this test. Torben could swear there was somebody watching him and intentionally screwing him over whenever he got close to the cave.
The girl had given chase, but his headstart let him pull ahead. Unfortunately all that meant was that he got to see Jack first. And his pile of bodies. This monster already had more than enough eggs, and here he was killing more just...for fun.
Torben knew the man could sense his own killing intent, which he had gotten very good at suppressing, flare up. No chance of playing at being friends this time.
Jack was staring straight at him, Torben had been too focused on his pursuer to avoid being spotted.
Very well then. He stared right back, moving back several more feet to give some space between the two before reading his rifle. An assassin was strongest when he was undetected, Jack had him at a disadvantage, but the rifle was his only chance.

 

And there was the dog creature going straight for Jack; reckless but it would help. Torben glanced at the girl that had been chasing him a moment before. “It’s going to take all of us to keep alive, you’d better be ready.”
Torben took aim, he could see the confident smile on Jack’s face. This wouldn’t work. But there wasn’t much else he could do at this time. He would keep a steady stream of shots and be prepared to run at first opening.
“Let’s see how fast you are bastard.”
Torben pulled the trigger.

[Raine]

Due to his endless supply of tact and instinctual protective nature, Oz found himself once again free of the devious creatures of a devilish earth. The reprieve was momentary and fleeting like all happiness in the world, or at least, that’s how it seemed to Oz who was moist, tired, and forgotten the belly of packed dirt and stone. Oz digressed; he realized that such a stomach was better than one belonging to giant man-eating demon worm. Truly, this was a time to be alive, where test makers could throw the most forsaken and deathly of creatures against any volunteer for the sake of sport. Man… fucks those guys.

 

His feet found new soil and he resumed a careful track down the tunnels created in the wake of the beast insect he evaded. After all this time, he was no closer to an egg or whatever nonsense they were commander to obtain. How dare the presumptuous bourgeois demand the precious resources of the Earth to be harvested by the proletariat masses for their individual benefits! Oz considered writing a book. His mind’s wandering was interrupted by the solemn sound of churning dirt from the rear. Fan-tuckering-tastic. Another creature or demon of the underground realm has come to take my life for the umpteenth time. ‘Not this time,’ he thought. Oz sped quietly and silently into a passing crack in the wall of the tunnels in preparation of an ambush.

 

The sound grew into a noise, but the constant echoes and random vibrations that occupied the air made it difficult to discern the sound between creature paws or men’s footsteps… or a grand piano. The distortion was pretty bad, he really had no clue except for the fact it was growing louder so quickly he could swear it being affected by blue-shift. Moments passed, the churning could be judged by a distance now. Oz waited in silence, whatever hell born monstrosity awaited him, it was about time he finally did something to change the score of him versus various evils to 15-love. Seconds, the sound was immediately in front of him but the darkness obscured direct visual connection, it was too late to delay now.

 

Oz emerged from the crevice bearing his hands with firm extended fingertips, “Face me, demon creature! Ozmandius Chop!” Swinging down with a lackluster karate chop, his hand caught strands of hair and a firm landing surface. Too firm, it was someone’s head and the impact hurt his hand probably as much as it hurt whoever he hit. “Holy hell,” he screamed reacting from the pain before realizing his mistake that he struck an intelligent humanoid person girl thing with blue hair rather his fantasized monster. “Ohh, hell, I’m so sorry! I swear, I didn’t think you were actually a 8-legged wolf with spider eyes covered in fire who wanted my soul, I swear!” 

[Maeriberii Haan]

[hr]

 

"Well, this seems to lead to the exit or somewhere near, I think."

 

Of course, Celia was quite unsure regarding what she just said. Without any lightsource, she was effectively blind there, and even with her trying to enhance her eyes with Nen, she only got enough vision to walk through the path made without falling down on her own feet due to a hole on the ground, or tripping. There's not really anyone around at the moment, and what was really more annoying was that-

 

“Face me, demon creature! Ozmandius Chop!”

 

"...What the-"

 

It was quite sudden, and the next thing Celia knew was that someone threw a lousy karate chop straight to the back of her head. Though, even if it's lousy, it still hurt like hell to Celia, and thinking that it was an attempt to steal her eggs, she immediately turned around without even realizing that the person that struck her was actually currently apologizing to her due to his mistake, and launched a hard punch to his guts. It took a moment for her to realize that the person was definitely trying to apologize to her. Embarrassed and slightly shameful of her mistake, she then tried to talk to the person she had just sucker punched, while thinking of the best way to apologize.

 

"Aaah! Sorry, sorry! I thought you're trying to steal my eggs or something! I've been having a bad day so far, so please forgive me!

 

Wait...here, you can have one of them as a token of apology from me!"

 

Celia took one of the eggs from her bag, and placed it near the person she just hit. She had no idea about who it was, but it's probably one of the participants of the exam. She's not exactly keen on giving the egg to someone, as she picked three just so she could cook the other two later after the exam, but well, Celia decided that it wouldn't hurt to show that she was sorry to this guy, whoever he was. After making sure that the guy noticed her giving him an egg, she turned back again towards where she was going before, and she started to run as fast as she could. However much she wanted to have a travel companion now, it's not really the time for that, and she definitely wanted to get out of this bloody cave as fast as she could. She might see him again soon, hopefully. That'd make her be able to make up for this more properly if that happened.

 

Unknown to her at the moment though, as she was running towards the exit, she was apparently only carrying one egg with her.

 

[divider1]

 

"That was stupidly easy."

 

Clutching the egg she snatched from that dumb bluehead earlier, Nova immediately ran as fast as she could from the girl without her realizing it. It should be quite obvious to the other guy that was there when it came to her presence there, but the dumb brick of a girl didn't even seem to realize her half-assed attempt at sneaking at her. Oh well, not that it mattered now. She was somewhat tempted in just smashing the other egg or damaging it enough to make it unacceptable for the exam, but she decided that it would be too long if she did that, and even with a dumbass like that blue-head, that barely conscious idiot would be able to notice her presence and started to attack her.

Once again though, it barely mattered. She rushed through the cave system with using her fire as her only source of light, while following the path made by presumably the wurm from earlier, since from what she remembered, it would lead her to a spot near the entrance. As she ran, she did a quick recap regarding on what she had done so far inside. Not much, really. She only led a group of other participants to their death, she was almost killed by a berserk mother spider, and then, she stumbled upon that idiot and took an egg from her. Not exactly smooth sailing, but since she managed to get an egg either way, it's good enough for her.

 

After around half an hour of running, she arrived near the entrance, only to notice that someone was standing there, seemingly trying to block everyone else from getting outside. Nova thought about trying to fire off some of her fireballs at him without him realizing it, but she decided that it would be unwise. After all, that man had seemed to kill a lot of people right there. And, she noticed the fire beast that chased after her earlier like a rabid dog. It didn't notice her yet, but there's no point in Nova trying to risk her life right now. With the circumstances going on, Nova decided to just wait and walk around to see whether there's-

 

"....you..? Wait, how the hell can you even arrive here before me?"

 

[divider1]

 

"Oh, me? I don't know, really. Wait, you're the redhead from earlier yesterday, right?"

 

"Probably. I think so?"

 

Celia looked at the redhead that stood there clutching her egg with her, seemingly looking surprised at her presence there for some reasons. It was somewhat weird, but Celia felt that she might've passed the redhead on her way to the place. Seeing that her guess that the path would lead her somewhere near the entrance was right felt wonderful, of course, but...something felt strange. It's a tingly feeling down her spine, but something definitely felt wrong. While she had spent the last fifteen minutes resting right there, she felt that something dangerous was near. It was not like the spiders and the giant thing earlier. It felt like something that would definitely actively try to kill her just for the act of killing her.

 

"Uh...can you wait here for a bit? I want to check out something." Celia said to the redhead, who was seemingly content enough with that decision. She then moved to see the entrance, and what she saw disgusted her. A man was almost standing at a pile of corpses and broken eggs, covered in blood while looking quite menacingly. Several hunters-to-be were looking back at him hostilely too it seemed, and it was pretty clear that this person that was seemingly trying to block the exit was the source of the uneasy feeling.

 

Content with her observation, Celia returned to the redhead, having decided on what to do next. Then, without the redhead expecting it, she punched the wall before her as hard as she could. It cracked, but it didn't seem to crumble as much as she wanted, which made Celia somewhat frustrated. She punched and punched the wall again, unleashing what could be said as a flurry of successive punches in a short timespan. And, with it not budging at all, Celia in frustration coated her right fist with as much nen as she could manage, and punched straight at the wall with that fist. The wall, which had cracked down badly due to all of Celia's onslaught on it, crumbled at that strike, opening up a big hole, and light came down from that hole. The fact that it was already near the exit, which made the wall of rock thinner compared to the ones inside might have made it easier for Celia, but she was proud enough that she apparently could pull that off.

 

"And now, I think I need some more rest. Just go through this hole for now." Those words were of course aimed at the redhead, but due to Celia's fatigue, it sounded a bit unclear. She was still very much intending to try going through the normal exit, of course, but she needed to get some of her energy back first otherwise she'd get minced by whoever that bloody person was.

 

[hr]

[Love of Ghibli]

It was definitely a tad depressing to watch the giant worm creature actually squire around, suffering in the manner that it was. The sad part was that he didn't have any desire to actually eat or cook the worm monster. So this was probably a good time to let the experienced monster hunter do what he does best. I'll head to the exit and save you guys a seat for the bus home. Lettess didn't realize that there were still other parts of the test that they had to go through. In fact he would actually keep thinking that each test was probably the last one.

Nevertheless he ran off into caves. As he went deeper and deeper he could hear the screams of  others echo throughout the caves. This definitely wasn't a pleasant place to be. But he could feel a slight breeze coming from in front of him. This clearly meant he had found an exit or at the very least he was getting close to one. However once he turned the corner to actually see an exit he would lay witness to...a massacre! The villainous villain, the demon in red-hair had slaughtered another group of participants. He was covered in blood and he looked like he was simply standing to keep other people from passing. Lettess was definitely afraid and made full intentions to run, but at that moment he took notice of Anemone and some other person from the first test trying to fend off the assailant.

Lettess then dug deep down inside himself to find what ounce of courage he had and proceeded to run at manic murderer with two of his ktichen knives drawn. All this fear was warping his the fruits of his training. It was time to man-up!

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Alaster simply nodded as Lettess suggested that he handle taking down the writhing wurm.  Channeling Nen into his spear, the hunter approached the beast with Rexxus at his side.  The dire wolf was quick to put its unnatural strength to use, latching onto the writhing monster to hold it just a little more still than it was and let Alaster do his work.  A moment was taken to make sure the spear was aligned properly, and the hunter thrust it into the beast.  His aim was true, and the beast's spine was severed.  The wurm writhed and flailed with greater intensity for a time, before it finally became still again.  A long sigh escaped the hunter, and he retrieved his spear from the beast.

 

"That wasn't much fun, was it?"  The wolf inquired of his friend, whimpering slightly as he turned his gaze towards Alaster, head cocked to one side.  The wolf wasn't even concerning himself with eating the beast, though that was mostly because he hadn't liked the taste from the chunk he'd torn out earlier.

 

"Oh, I don't know about that," Alaster began as he turned to begin making his way back out of the tunnels.  "He put up a pretty good fight.  We'll come back and hunt here again some time when-" the hunter was cut off as both he and Rexxus felt the ground rumbling with greater intensity.  It seemed that their fight had attracted the attention from the other Wurms, and it didn't take a genius to tell that there were a lot more than just one coming.  The two broke into a run back up towards the cave entrance just as a fair number of the beasties broke into the tunnel and began pursuing them.  Seeking to avoid being eaten, they channeled Nen into their legs and ran for everything they were worth.  It was fairly easy to find the path back to the cave entrance, they just followed the smell of fresher air.  Of course, as they were running, they came upon a scene of carnage before them.  If they'd had time they would have stopped to assess it, but given the intense rumbling in the earth that followed them it was fairly obvious why they didn't have that option.

 

"Run now!  Fight later!"  Alaster shouted as he came near the scene of the growing conflict, Rexxus providing an affirmative sound to the conversation.  Neither paid too much attention to who was directly in front of them, they just sprinted on past while ducking or dodging as necessary to avoid smashing into someone.  Wolf and nobleman both hoped that the red-haired fellow in front of them had the good sense to put whatever quarrel he had with those present on hold until they had reached a more advantageous position to deal with each other.  

[Aix]

I am already quite tired of this game. The Hunter Exam's purpose is just to cut examinees down, right? Why don't I speed up the process a bit? Blood has already soaked through the sleeves of my jacket as the corpses pile up at my feet. It's quite fortunate I am wealthy enough to simply replace any of the expensive attires I ruin. Life has its rewards.

 

High risk, high reward, isn't that the height of excitement? I gathered the eggs of the examinees I had slain to taunt any daring fools into stealing one from me. Dare you try? I intended anyway to smash the eggs before the end of the Exam in a figurative act of smashing the dreams of these wannabe Hunters. In all the shadows of the cave, I find numerous despair-filled eyes staring back at me. How wonderful.

 

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Oh dear, how did I end up holding these sniper rounds in my hands? I drop them and they land with a resounding clatter on the stone floor. [acronym=Muda, muda, muda, muda]Useless, useless, useless, useless[/acronym]. These ordinary bullets cannot hope to hurt me. And if it isn't that boy from before? Are you [acronym=punpunpunpunpunpunpunpun]cow[/acronym]ed by my might? I step forwards towards my attacker, but in that moment, one of the examinees dives forth to snatch an egg. My right arm turns into a marvelous blur as the the examinee is split in half. Blood is once more splattered across the cave.

 

What a dilemma, I can hardly leave my spot at the entrance lest someone tries to slip past me. It was then which the cave resounded along with a flare of Nen. It was that one blue-haired girl with a ridiculous amount of Nen. A grimace broke across my face as I found my efforts wasted with the opening of another exit to the cave. Numerous examinees at this moment decided to run through while I could only helplessly watch.

 

The ground once more started to rumble. It seemed to be coming from deeper in the cave. I was distracted enough to not properly deliver a killing blow to the girl who was foolish enough to run right at me. Then, a boy and his pet puppy came charging out of the darkness, but it was ridiculous to think that they were the source of the rumbling. At that point, what they were running from became apparent. A massive tooth-filled void appeared behind them, rapidly catching up. Oh dear, what the hell is this?

 

The natural inclination of an ordinary man is to quickly move out of the way of this incoming engine of death, but I am no ordinary man. The natural inclination of an ordinary man is to say your prayer to the invisible men in the sky as death bears down on you, but I am no ordinary man. The natural result from an ordinary man is to be brutally shredded to pieces within this monster's tooth-filled esophagus, but once more, I repeat, I am no ordinary man.

 

Come, challenger, let us see who is the greater bringer of death.

 

[divider1]

 

Anemone honestly had no idea how she was going to get through this one. The clatter of bullets on the ground brought her back to her senses, and she turned to find that catgirl once more by her side. It was reassuring, even if just a bit. However, now was not the time to ponder friendship, and she turned her attention towards the red-haired man who stood as a towering presence before them all. A hole opened up beside them, but she still had not obtained an egg and could not exit the cave just yet. Should she turn back and try to find one in the little time that remained?

 

At that time came the familiar rumbling along with the one guy and his dog. They had lured a wurm to the entrance! Surely, this man would jump out of the way, and in that brief moment when he was occupied by the wurm, she would strike. However, to her surprise, the man had no intention of budging, in fact, he rushed forwards into the wurm's mouth!

 

But, there was no time to be surprised, she ran forwards, snatching two eggs from the pile just before the wurm shot past, crushing the rest. What happened to the red-haired man? She was not so optimistic to think he was dead. Surely enough, the wurm slowed as it exited the cave, and the reason became immediately. It had been cut open from the inside, and crawling out from the gore, surely enough, was the red-haired man. It was more proper to just call him the red man now, as he was utterly drenched, with that expensive suit of his torn to shreds.

[Love of Ghibli]

Oh this was a mistake! Lettess thought as he was witnessed the psychopath grab sniper bullets out of midair like they were nothing. This meant that he was clearly faster that Lettess currently was. Lettess was still going in though. Maybe he would be able to actually take on the creature. But once again, as luck would have it, Lettess served as distraction for some unfortunate fool who was about to snatch an egg. The psycho's arm slashed the man into pieces, but that was just the opening that Lettess needed. He lightly put his foot on the floor and the world seemed to stand still. Within that nanosecond Lettess used all of his training and powers of Nen to dart past the actual assailant and make beeline to the actual truck.

In fact he was going so fast he could tell that he didn't have time to actually break. So instead he power slid directly under the truck and almost buried himself in the friction. As he arose from his cartoonish burial he stood up to see that he was alive. He jumped in the air triumphantly as his heart was still racing. He immediately presented his egg to the examiner as he was proud to have actually survived the test. Test in this case was the psycho murder and not really the spider or the worm as those two creatures were arguably natural. A little bit later Lettess was actually happy to witness that some of his new friends were actually able to survive the trial. He looked on as Anemone made it through the cave and behind came another one of the giant wurms. The next second the beast was cut open and the murderous red man actually showed his face.
 

Lettess only tilted his head and stroked his chin. Okay this is simply unfair, clearly this dude is not the same as the rest of us. Why isn't he a hunter yet? Better yet why isn't he in some kind of prison? Well with the number of players having been severely cut down, bad pun, maybe this is enough for the exam to be over. He said out loud to no one in particular.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

This wasn’t working, this wouldn’t work, this wasn’t doing anything. Torben kept firing, not taking his eyes off Jack. Every shot should have hit but the man stopped them all. Every adjustment he made was pointless.
The best he could hope for was that his shots would keep him busy enough for something to turn up...before he ran out of bullets. Which wasn’t very long from now...

He hadn’t expected a worm to save him. He also hadn’t expected Jack to let himself be swallowed, though there was no way that was the last of him. Torben took the lucky break without question. and hurried out of the cave to drop his egg off with the examaminer before being told to head back to the cabin.

He was excited about having passed the exam. Though there was a nagging worry that dulled this excitement.
He had to grow stronger, he would have to grow in strength so that his bullets could pierce even the likes of Jack Whitechapel.

[divider1]

Torben collapsed onto a seat in the cabin. He hadn’t realized how much stress he had been putting on himself. He had tried to take it as easy as he could, but it seemed he used up more energy than he originally wanted.
He couldn’t be bothered to put on his false cheerful persona, at least unless someone came up to speak to him. While he didn’t want to seek anyone out he would try and be friendly to anyone that decided to disturb his rest.
Part of him wanted to speak with that trident girl who had attempted to steal an egg, if only to make sure he didn’t permanently damage her ears, but mostly he just wanted to relax. At least, relax as much as he could with that man still around.

Torben hoped Val had made it out fine, and hadn’t ran into Jack...the thought sent a chill down his spin. If something happened to the boy...Torben turned his thoughts away from that. And onto another, even less pleasant, matter.
Jack.
He knew what Jack was, and yet he could do nothing to stop him...There had to be something he could do, but; he wasn’t strong enough. There weren’t many that Torben felt he couldn’t take down but this one...was different from the rest.

For now he had to rest, and focus on getting through these tests. As he was, Torben couldn’t do much to stop Jack. But he swore on any god that may be listening that he would bring that man down.

[Tesability Black]

He had been ignored. Probably a good thing as the worm that came up behind him rushed passed the hound and towards the cruel human ahead. Remembering that there was a task that needed to be completed, the red canine jumped over the madness with his powerful legs towards what appeared to be a cabin in the distance. Hopefully, this was the place where he had to turn in the edge that he had---

 

---why did he feel shaking in his sidepack?

 

Using the tip of the whiparm on his back, he opened up the pack on his right that held the egg, seeing instead several eyes looking back at him from one small black body.

 

"...mama?"

 

This...was gonna be interesting, especially since he didn't think the examinee would be interested in a spider egg that had hatched...

[Raine]

Oz’s smile reflecting his incomprehension stained his face as he bore witness to the utterly grotesque and imaginative scene unfolding before him. I mean, that’s long winded but it does justice to the act. Prior to this potential war crime that was watching, Oz was minding his own business after being dishonorably ambushed by a punch from the blue-haired broad. Side note: truly this world has gone to the dogs if poor Oz, having done absolutely no evils, not just to the girl but all living creatures, is being forced into the role of a victim in these turbulent times by a fire-tempered bimbo with a passion for ultra-violence. Oh woe is me. Oz digresses, he was at least able to reward himself with a token of apology from the lass and claim the key to his progress, an oval… shaped… thing… he wasn’t sure if it was an egg, it made sense, but it was a funky looking egg.

 

Back to the present, Oz finished watching one of the giant worm monsters, who call this little piece of hell home, devour the man with red hair. Oz felt a strong sting of sympathy in his heart. He didn’t ever get to talk face to face with the red-head devil but he figured that he would have liked him. Oh the memories they would have made.

 

[“Ha ha, stop it, Jack~ You’re getting me all wet again!~” Oz raised his arms in defense of Jack’s playful  water splashing. Jack was too absorbed in the fun to hear, it appears their day at the beach was going a bit too well. Jack scored  direct hit on Oz’s face causing him to lose balance and fall backwards into the sea. “Hey!” shouted Oz as he emerged from the sun-lit ocean water, “Jack-y, we need to start heading in. It’s almost time for the picnic~”

Jack mumbled something under his breath in response. Oz wasn’t having any of it so we closed the distance between them and whispered something in his ear. Jack jumped, “Lettuss is cooking again!? Es muy fantastico!”

 

It didn’t take long after that before the two arrived at the picnic site on the beachhead. The day had been exhausting for everyone on the trip. Oz took a moment to pass Morgan who was conversing back and forth with Anemone about the sand castle contest that Morgan felt she had been robbed the first-place ribbon on. “I never knew the undead could be such massive sore losers, Morgan, but who exactly are you pissed at?”

 

Morgan was irritated and showed, “ Believe it or not, Nova could going on the stupidity of sand castles but she topped all of us!” Nova was smirking in defiance on the opposite side of the gather, she was clearly too proud of what she’s done.

 

Lettess was operating the grill, which I suppose was an unusual instrument but the smell of browning meat was a good sign. Celia was actually sulking not far from the grill. Torben apparently was right next to her comforting her with pats on the back. He remembered this story, earlier in the day, Torben was going on and on about the merits of being able to operate boats and water transportation. Celia took interest and so they went out an rented  water-ski, a beginners choice vehicle, Oz guessed. One thing led to another and head-strong Cecil “accidently” kicked off a 360-spin from a wave and sunk the water-ski. I don’t see what she’s worried about, I know Torben’s credit card was on the deposit.

 

Jack jumped out from behind Oz and pushed him into the sand. Oz landed harshly and looked back, Rexxus was giving chase followed shortly by Alistair. The pair and the dog ran off into the sunset with Alistair in blind rage. Oz took a moment to nudge Emui who had watched the whole thing go down. “…why?,” Oz managed to say. Emui perked up, “Jack said Rex was purrfect for picking up cute girls so he cat-napped him to do nyau-ghty things. You can guess who found out.”Oz was mildly impressed, he should have thought of that. ]

 

Oz did not know who half those people were.

 

OH, s***! THE RED-HEAD IS STILL ALIVE! Oz quickly made his escape through a hole in the wall while the calm as still around and towards the cave exit. 

[Aix]

Five members of this year’s Exam Committee had gathered upon the Hunter Association’s flying flagship, the Argos, and were now engaged in a staring battle intense enough to make the ship’s crew in the vicinity shiver. It was a one-sided battle -- one-sided in that one side was not at all interested in participating and was casually sipping his tea, waiting for the other side to concede. The bespectacled, silver-haired man who was the target of the stares of three of the world’s top Hunters was none other Yggdrasil Varias, the Hunter Association’s Vice Chairman. Realizing that Hunters were perhaps the most stubborn and unreasonable lot in the world, he sighed and put down his teacup.

“The Chairwoman has spoken, further Exam Phases are not necessary,” said Yggdrasil.

“Don’t you fuck with me! Do you know how long it took for me to prepare the stage?”

“The Chairwoman has spoken, or do you wish to invoke her ire?” asked the silver-haired man, deflecting the blame.

“Fuck that old hag. Isn’t she going to die soon? What is she going to do when a bunch of unqualified greenhorns join our ranks?”

It was at that point the Hunters realized there was an ominous presence at the door that perhaps did not like being called an old hag about to die. Nine white-tipped tails fanned out behind her like a fiery peacock's tail and they writhed in unkempt anger, as the two inhuman ears perked atop her head heard every detail of the prior conversation. Yet despite that bestial nature which betrayed her indignation, her visage remained a bastion of cold calm as she strode into the room with all the stately grandeur of a martial god. Despite her diminutive stature and child-like form, the Hunter that insulted her looked rather anxious in his seat as she walked past him to confront the Vice Chairman.

“Ah, Madame Chairwoman, we were waiting for you,” said Yggdrasil amicably, standing up to meet her. The Chairwoman twitched slightly.

“That's Miss Chairwoman,” she said coldly. “Madame makes me sound old.”

Yggdrasil couldn't help but smile inwardly at the irony, but he nodded and bowed. “Miss Chairwoman.”

The Chairwoman took her seat. “The Hunter Exam was just an excuse to call you here,” she said, and at this the other Hunters started angrily, but she raised a hand. “I apologize, but none of you would have come otherwise. It was planned to gather you last year, but too many of you were preoccupied with your own pursuits. However, here you are now with the proceeding weeks or so freed up because of the Hunter Exam. None of you here have an interest in politics or the grand destiny of this world... which is precisely why I trust you.

“You are free to leave now if you wish, but trust me when I say the events that are to follow will be... extremely interesting.”

The light in the Hunters' eyes changed. They were, by definition, adventurers, path seekers who delved into the darkest and most interesting depths of the world. They wouldn't back down from something like this.

“I presume you have heard of the 108 Stars?” asked the Chairwoman.

“Difficult not to, it's all the craze in underground circles,” said the Hunter who spoke up before. His name was Tigre Amand, a Blacklist Hunter who was more interested in fighting criminals than the pursuit of justice itself. “And... I've heard of how you're related to them as well, Chairwoman Nogitsune.”

The Chairwoman brushed by the last comment. “Every 500 years or so, individuals will appear with the power to overturn the balance of the world.”

“But nothing of note managed to really happen 500 years ago,” said Tigre.

“Indeed, we were able to prevent it,” said the Chairwoman. “That is, by identifying them and slaughtering each and every one of them before anything could happen.”

No one spoke, they all realized the Chairwoman had an emotional connection to this incident 500 years ago. Her usual mild demeanor was broken by an unstable flame.

She gave an embarrassed smile. “I am getting ahead of myself,” she said, settling herself down. “At any rate, we were only able to do so because of the Hunter Exam – the gathering of the most talented individuals in the world. This allowed us to put tabs on any potential Stars that appear.

“And last year, once more through the Exam, we managed to identify thirty of them,” she said. “An unprecedented incident where thirty Hunters graduated from the Hunter Exam.”

“Just because they're talented doesn't mean they are Stars, right?” said Tigre.

“Of course, we were only able to confirm it with Nen divination... which resulted in the death of the diviner because she was noticed the moment she tried,” said the Chairwoman. “But with her final breaths she confirmed their connections to the Stars.”

Tigre gave a grim smile. “Ohhh, scary, scary.”

“One of them drew our attention in particularly,” said the Chairwoman, and she pulled a photo from her robe and tossed it in front of them. “His name is Sei. Nothing else is known about his identity or background, but he is strong enough that it is almost unimaginable how he had gone unnoticed before. After receiving his Hunter's License, he went to the Empire of Shenglong, and was immediately hired by the Emperor himself.

“I don't imagine many of you keep up with politics, but the Empire of Shenglong is a superpower with greater military might than all the rest of the world. With a population of over two billion, they have no shortage of talent to come through and they even have their own elite force that rivals our own Hunter Association. However, in the past one hundred years, they have been engaged in their own civil conflicts that arose as a result of their rapid expansion. But the moment these civil wars end, you can be sure that they will turn their eyes to the rest of the world.

“This will undoubtedly result in an all-out war in Lemuria.”

“Eh, but surely, the rest of the world has enough firepower to fight back,” said Tigre. He sat back in his chair in disinterest.

“Which only makes it worse, because the war will drag out with casualties piling up on both sides,” said the Chairwoman. “Thus, we must make sure that the civil conflicts in Shenglong don't end.”

“I don't suppose this one man, Sei, is ending this one-hundred-year civil conflict now, is he?”

“That is precisely what is happening. And where you come in is...”

[divider1]

Anemone sat in the cabin beside Emui, even more listless than she usually was. The surviving group, where only 30 examinees remained, was told to wait as the Hunter Association's airship arrived to take them to their next destination. All of them looked tough enough that Anemone would be unsure of her own ability to fare against them.

“Ah. The airship has arrived,” said Anemone. Outside, the Argo was beginning its descent. It looked like a remarkably luxurious airship, and because of such Anemone hoped there was good food aboard because she hadn't eaten for the last 15 or so hours.

Her stomach grumbled, and she kept a stony face that concealed her embarrassment. Now that she thought of it, any food would probably taste great to her now. She wondered if the cat girl would try to bite her considering that she likely hadn't eaten in a long time as well. Cats liked to eat fish, right? Scary. Hopefully without the other girl noticing, Anemone edged away under the pretense of getting closer to the window.

However, at the moment, Lyval, the examiner, stood up. “Let's go outside.” Without even looking at anyone else, he walked out.

[divider1]

Those thirty odd examinees stood before a group of Hunters there to greet them. Among them, Anemone noted a tall, silver-haired man and--

“I am Saika Nogitsune.”

First a cat, now a fox? Anemone thought those nine tales looked remarkably fluffy.

“I am the Chairwoman of the Hunter Association.”

A rather impressive fox, then.

“I would first of all like to congratulate you all for making it through the Second Phase of the Hunter Exam.”

Thanks.

“And secondly, I would like to welcome you all above the Argos as we proceed to the next Exam destination.”

Hungry...

“A large buffet has been prepared for you all to enjoy during the flight. The trip should take 12 hours, so I suggest you eat well and rest up for the next Phase of the Exam.”

At the mention of food being already ready to eat, Anemone bolted, and promptly leaped over the Chairwoman of the Hunter Association, landing in the doorway behind her. “First!” she declared to herself. If anything, she managed to beat that abominable red-haired man on board. Then, without listening to anything else the Chairwoman may have to say, she ran inside straight towards the smell of food.

[Maeriberii Haan]

"Awh, de owthewrs hab awwibed here abbaredri, hwh?" Celia said while her mouth was full with food. She had sneaked her way in towards the dining hall of the ship, and without wasting any time, she started to munch on the food. Everything that happened to her during the Hunter's Exam earlier left her completely drained, and she hadn't even got the chance to take a bath between finishing the exam and coming into this airship. She still felt completely uncomfortable at the moment, and her body felt pretty sticky due to sweat and everything else. Buuuuuuuuuut, eat first, bath second, then sleep. That was the plan Celia had in her mind right now.

 

By the time she sloppily greeted the other hunters, she was very close in being full, and a sizable chunk of the served food had disappeared into nowhere. She was not exactly a big eater, but only eating a little the last two days pretty much cranked her appetite to ridiculous level this one time. Though, the others arriving pretty much reminded her that she had eaten way too much anyway, and with that said, she quietly withdrew herself from the area, and asked one of the patrons about the direction to the rooms. Once she found her way there, she was quite pleased to see that the rooms featured a nice, comfy double bed, among other things...and most importantly, an indoor bathroom, with warm water ready to boot. It had been ages since Celia got the chance to enjoy a warm water bath, and it didn't take her long to immediately jump into the water and relax there.

 

"...This felt a bit familiar somehow-

 

Ah, probably just my feeling."

 

Losing most of her stuffs due to that beast kidnapping her was definitely a complete pain for her, but at least, her smartphone and headset was still intact enough on her pocket, though she made a mental note to try finding a battery recharger for it soon, or else she would get screwed over.

 

Another thing that she was somewhat curious about was the old quest giver from quite a while ago. The old woman that directed her and the others tagging alongside her towards the cabin actually looked familiar somehow. She might've met her before, but her memory was completely crap when it comes to this. Though, this probably wouldn't be something big or too important.

 

And anyway, there's no use in thinking too much when one's trying to get some damn rest.

[Tesability Black]

Before the ship came down, the red creature had gone back into the spider's den to get another egg, miraculously swiping one from the human that had quite a few bodies piled up next to him due to such focusing on something else.

 

Between the whiparm and his neck, the black baby spider that now thought of him as its mama was curled up into a little ball, taking a snooze for the time being. To his surprise, he had been allowed to keep the tiny thing with him after he explained the oddballness of his acquiring the creature. He lifted his head towards an elderly lady with the appearance of a nine-tailed creature, looking vaguely like him, but definately not quite. Defiantely a note of curiosity, he thought before catching mention of a buffet, which triggered the sound of a grumble from his stomach. Glad that his red fur hid whatever blush may have shown on his cheeks, the large fox made his way towards the buffet, grabbing a large leg of chicken with the whiparm before putting it near his mouth and taking a large chomp out of it.

 

Well, it wasn't what he was used to, but it was decent none the less...

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

“This place is hella swanky isn’t it?” Torben said cheerfully to the nearest examinee. Maybe it was the fact they were away from the cave, maybe it was the promise of food, or maybe it was the lack of Jack in his immediate vicinity, but Torben was feeling good enough to bring his cheerful cover over himself once more.

Hella swanky isn’t exactly the description Torben would normally think, however it did seem to about cover it. The Hunters were even more impressive than he had heard if they had a vehicle like this at their beck and call.

It seemed many of the others had rushed in at the...unusual woman’s promise of food. Torben was hungry, but before he could allow himself to indulge he had to check out the room he was given.
It was fairly extravagant. Especially compared to the cramped and gloomy lodgings he had in his...past life. It was fully stocked with all the necessities within easy reach. The window at one end was a bit too large for comfort but he was sure there were some sort of shutters.

They had even placed a tray of food on a desk located between two beds for any like Torben who prioritized finding their room to eating.
Wait.
Two beds? Meaning that Torben would have a roommate. Torben suddenly felt uncomfortable with this idea. He was accustomed to sleeping only once the area was totally secure. Adding a stranger to the mix threw that out the window. He considered requesting a single room, however he had a feeling it wouldn’t be granted. He had to appear to be accepting of the situation. He needed to try and at least seem to fit in with the others.

And so, without sparing the bed a second glance, he began strolling through the room. To an observer it seemed he was just checking out the scenery; grinning like a fool and admiring his new room. However he was searching for any recording devices and other such unpleasant things.

Once he was satisfied with his findings he headed for the door. His stomach hadn’t been very happy to wait so long and, while there was food in the room, he wanted to at least try and eat with the others.

Torben opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Well, this had been an eventful series of events.  Thankfully the red-haired murderer was more focused on the Wurm than on he and his friend, so they were able to get by out into the open along with the rest.  After a less-than-dignified landing, the Nobleman tried to get up only to be pinned down by his companion who proceeded to lick him all over and, eventually, lay on top of him.  Thankfully, he'd managed to get the egg he had acquired earlier out of his bag before it was crushed.  Though, there was the problem of getting anywhere for the moment.  His oldest friend was far too focused on being excited about the fact that they'd made it through the experience whilst begging for them to do it again to be open to the idea of moving.  A sigh worked its way out of the nobleman as he looked, somewhat forlornly, over towards the exam proctor from where he lay.

 

"Rexxus," he began over their telepathic link.

 

"And then we were running, and chasing, and we fought the big spider thing, and then-"

 

"Rexxus."

 

"we killed it, and then more showed up, and then we were running again and then-"

 

"Rexxus!"  That one got his friend's attention, the wolf thankfully remembering their original goal.  There wasn't any discussion needed beyond that point, and Rexxus got up to let Alaster to his feet.  It was then, when the adrenaline started to wear off, that the both of them remembered something.  The numerous quill-like hairs stuck in them from the spider they had faced.  Now that they had time to relax, both realized just how incredibly painful they were.  Forcing himself to move in spite of the pain, he made his way over to the proctor and presented the egg.  "You wouldn't happen to have any first aid kits lying around, would you?"

 

Some time and several applications of bandages and alcohol wipes later, and the pair were more or less alright.  Waiting for the airship to arrive had proved to be uneventful, with there being little to grab the attention at this stage.  Well, except for the large fire creature cradling a baby spider.  That was odd in so many ways, and Alaster couldn't keep his eyes off the creature.  Of all the things he'd seen, and the many more that Crassus had told him about, he was completely unfamiliar with that one.  He would have to approach it another time.

 

As for being on the airship itself, it was nothing especially surprising.  Sure it was about as luxurious as his father's home, but that was to be expected.  The Hunter Association was quite a large organization, and wealthy at that.  It made sense that they would have the resources to provide them with such transportation.  While the young nobleman was personally more fond of being out in nature and getting practically up to his neck in mud, this was exactly the sort of place he would want to go after outpacing ninjas and fighting beast seemingly torn from Hell itself.  When the Chairwoman made her appearance, and then set them off to go and eat, he first approached her with Rexxus at his side.  Dipping into a low bow, the nobleman took one of her hands in his and gently kissed the back of it before he rose once again.

 

"Thank you for your hospitality,"  he began with a smile upon his face.  "I, Alaster vi Florentius, will not forget it."  It was only proper to extend a greeting to one's host, regardless of the circumstances, and to promise to reciprocate should their next meeting allow it.  He remained for a few moments, both because it was polite and because he was honestly intrigued by the many tailed woman's appearance, before finally setting off to enjoy the buffet with the others.  Now that he was in a place where there was less risk of it getting dirty, he was able to pull out his orange scarf and wrap it about his neck once again.