125 PassedXQualification

He followed the trail and before he could enter the fog, screams of fear and death reached his sensitive ears. "The fun already started then, better catch up."

'Can't let my guard down. And at this fog, no one would notice. Batears!' Mental image came in to him and saw applicant after applicants being eaten beast and monsters. He saw turtles with large strawberry on their backs that are attacking applicants left and right.

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Sesame Fog-Man:

Only moves on foggy days. It uses the strawberry-man that grows on its back, that resembles a scarecrow but a strawberry as a head to fool some men and attack them

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Silver also saw several applicants being swallowed in one bite by a frog which is well hidden on the ground.

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The attentive-patient frog:

Particularly slow when moving. It buries itself with its mouth open. It hides the opening with vegetation while waiting for unsuspecting tavelers.

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Then there are some being lured away by a talking parrot to a cliff while others are being charmed by some spore of some kind.

Silver then kept jumping left and right to avoid the attentive-patient frog's traps since they are like a black dots on a white pavement for him.

After a while five human size mantises blocked his way forward. Their grasping legs are replaced with sharp and long blades. "Oh hoh, we got some challengers." Silver smiled as he extended his claws on both hands.

"Screeechhhh" the group of mantises shrieked as they focused on their prey. The first one jumped on Silver and slashed with its right blade. Then the rest followed.

"Let's see which is sharper then." Silver replied with a slash of his own. *shing* The claw and blade connected without showing any clear winner. 'Tsk. Just as strong without nen, but who said I need to play fair. Shu!' Silver's claw started glowing with Nen as it suddenly become sharper and slide the connected blade in half and not stopping until it penetrated the skull of the first Mantis.

He then duck immediately as a second slice came in from the second mantis from back of the first mantis, thoroughly slicing the already dead mantis in half but missing Silver. Once the blade passed his head, he stood up and moved forward slashed the neck of the second mantis severing it in a stroke.

The other three mantis surrounded him warrily after seeing their kind killed easily. As if they have communicated mentally, the two attacked at the same time from the left and the right. The two planned to corner Silver by taking different approach, one is aiming for the neck while the other aimed at the legs.

"Futile." Silver jumped in place and rotated just enough on the gap between the neck and leg evading the blade attacks. When the two mantis missed and passed by him, Silver both used Shu and Ren to do a whirlwind attacked that shredded the two mantises to pieces.

The last mantis saw this and jumped back to evade. However, before it could jump further back. It realized it couldn't move back any further. A white string was attached to its stomach to the kid's left hand. It then panicked as it was pulled with such force it was practically propelled to Silver's direction. *swoosh* The light on the mantis' eyes dimmed as its head fell on the ground before its body fell forward.

Silver then looked at the corpses and muttered. "I wonder, had I fought these before the expedition. Would I have easily diposed of them?"

Something came into Silver's mental image and he huriedly ran to a direction.

~~~~~~

"We can't defeat him with just the three of us here." Kurapika looked at Hisoka surrounded by dead participants' bodies with all manners of slices and card-pierced fatal wounds.

"What are you doing? This is madness!" Questioned Leorio.

"I already told you, I'm helping the Judges eliminate some participants." Hisoka answered while shuffling a deck of cards.

'Shit, I don't have a weapon on me.' Complained Leorio while looking at the wooden swords Kurapika is wielding as he remembered his briefcase being carried by Gon.

"We should escape in different directions." Survivor number three suggested. "We all have different reasons to be a hunter and now is not the right time to sacrifice them. Go!"

The trio started running in three directions.

"That is a great Idea, I'll give you a 10 seconds headstart." Hisoka agreed with their sudden decision and started counting. "10... 9... ... two... one. So who will be the unlucky one. Huh?" Hisoka looked at his right and saw Leorio with a bat.

"I can't resist, I can't resist the urge of beating you for belittling us." Leorio said.

"Huh!?" Hisoka answered with a deadpan look.

"That's it!! I've lost my temper! Yaaaah" Leorio charged in.

"Leorio!" -Kurapika.

"Idiot!" -Third man.

Leorio did an overhead strike with the bat, but Hisoka managed to evade and maneuvered himself swiftly at the back of Leorio for a strike.

*Pang* An object hit Hisoka's face that stopped him from hitting Leorio. Hisoka then followed the flying object returned to its owner which happened to be Gon with his fishing pole.

"Gon!" Leorio/Kurapika

"Pretty good kid! With a fishing pole? What a peculiar weapon. Will you show it to me?" Asked Hisoka.

"Hey you're fighting me!" Shouted Leorio as he felt humiliated by not being attended to.

Hisoka didn't even looked back and did a punch with Leorio's face as the trajectory. *swoosh*. However he felt weird when his attack didn't connect. He looked back and saw that Leorio is no longer within his reach but 10 meters away from him just before another kid. White string attached to Leorio' back and connected to the right hand of the Brown haired Kid with a peculiar white pupil. 'Nen? No, it is attached to his wrist device.' Hisoka failed to recognize the batear since the long brown hair covered it.

Hisoka then dodged to the right as he evaded a fishing pole swing from Gon.

"Gon!!!" Shouted Silver back as he tried to rush to Gon's aid. However, he stopped midway when he saw Hisoka had his hand holding Gon's throat.

"Come to help your friends? What a nice duo you are." Hisoka commented while licking his lips and looking at Silver and Gon back and forth. "Don't worry, I won't kill him. As your companion passed my evaluation. In fact, all of you have." He smiled and let go of Gon. He then looked at his vibrating phone and looked at the message. "Hmmm... I see, we need to hurry. They are nearing the second exam site. I'm going this way." Pointed Hisoka.

"Both of our companions are waiting for us. You'll manage to find your own way right?" Asked Hisoka to which Gon nodded. "What a good boy." Hisoka waived while deliberately showing Leorio's neck tie.

"Gon!" Killua/Leorio/Silver shouted as Gon knelt to the ground.

Hisoka the magician. Never in Gon's life had seen such a thing. Never had he felt fear among the living beings.

"Are you alright Gon?" Asked Silver.

"Uhmm" Gon nodded. "We should follow him. He said something about this stage almost over."

The group agreed and run along Gon. "How are you sure it is this way?" Asked Kurapika.

"Before he left, he showed me Leorio's tie." *sniff* *sniff* "I'm currently following Leorio's aftershave perfume that has scented the tie."

"My what?" Leorio just looked at his shirt less body and realized that he really is missing his tie he was sure he was still wearing after exiting the tunnel. "Damnit! When did he did that?"

"It fell when he was going for the last punch." Silver said from the back of the group. He then deactivated his Batear since he too can smell the aftershave after he copied Gon's active node in the nose.

"Hey, he said our group was qualified. What do you think he meant with that!" Gon asked.

"Obviously he is just acting high and mighty!" Leorio complained.

"He said, he was playing judge. He was testing as on his own way." Answered Kurapika.

"But how did he do it? He easily captured me and I can't do a thing." Said Gon while remembering what occured.

"That may be true, but you did manage to him, didn't you." Kurapika replied further.

"But Leorio didn't even hit him, yet he said he was still qualified." Gon said innocently.

"You insensitive brats! I'm right here and can hear you talking!" Complained Leorio.

Kurapika ignored Leorio and answered. "Maybe he sensed you two were connected. I can't see Hisoka being a hunter, but we can't be blind to see his immense display of strength and abilities. It is often that people with special abilities recognise those who are their equals and probably trusted his intuition that enabled him to sense the potential in others to become hunters." He then took a glance at Silver running at he back. "Killing them now wouldn't bring me any fame. That is proabably he was thinking."

"I see, I think I'm beginning to understand the strange sensation earlier. I was feeling terrible pressure and wanted to run away, but the hold on my neck even though barely touching, I feel I would die if I even move a finger. On the other hand, knowing all this. I was really excited! Strange isn't it!" Gon smiled charismatically.

~~~~~

The group managed to meet with the rest of applicants waiting in front of a huge building. There is a clock on top of the main door and is currently showing 11:55.

Satotz announced as he started walking back to the forest. He then looked back at the group and quickly counted. 'Around 150 of them remained. I thought there would be less than 10 by the end of the first trial. This year's batch is rather good. I wonder how they'll fair on the next exam.'