HUNTSMAN

YPERION

 After the complete expansion of the rink,the salamanders began to arise,each even larger than the centrion we had fought that day.there were five hundred and ninety nine of them."At least the ratio is more in our favour than last time",Ida said with a smirk. They still outnumber us and are way stronger than the last chimeras."Then don't slack off, she said as she charged into the chimeras with several rings of blue flames around her body. She grabbed hold of the outstretched tongue of one of the salamanders,torching it before ripping it clean off it's mouth and hurled a spear of concentrated fire at it's skull.It penetrated the head of the salamander and one behind it before dissipating as it hit the wall surrounding us. I sighed as I concentrated magical energy in front of my eyes,"move!",I yelled at Ida before unleashing four devastating beams of light at the salamanders,disassembling numerous salamanders and mortally wounding some. The creatures cowered at the sight of me as I kept on devastating them with light rays. A shadow began to cover my face,but I evaded and grabbed the hand. "Please, do not touch my face",I said angrily."How dare you,those are my prey!, Jhooni yelled,the moisture on his body sizzling. I was annoyed but held myself back,the risk wasn't worth it. Mr Jhooni,I would suggest ceasing your pursuit of conflict with the young man,and Mr Hyperion,may i plead with you to let go of his hand. I let go, realising my fingernail had already dug into his skin. "Wonderful", captain Wyatt remarked. "You're lucky kid, Jhooni spat before he walked away. "Way to go, didn't think you would destroy this many of the monsters on your own after suggesting we team up", Ida said. "Well,it seems the remaining monsters are a bit too afraid to attack", captain Wyatt remarked, with a voice that almost sounded chipper. I guess that brings us to the end of the huntsman entrance examination then,stand by for the results ".After he said that,the speaker went off,and the rink sunk back into the ground."Oooh I can't wait,what do you think you'll get,a hundred?,seventy?,eighty?,Ida asked excitedly as she sat on one of the seats sorrounding the whole floor." I don't think this is your conventional examination with that kind of grading system",I remarked as I sat next to her.

 After a surprisingly short thirty minutes of waiting,a bunch of huntsman employees I guess,came and shared an envelope to the remaining hundred and forty of us. "Due to the circumstance in the final examination, we've decided to reduce it's importance to the final grading and increase the importance of the other examinations. I repeat,the grade given is not permanent. You can be promoted by subduing a stipulated number of entities of a higher grade. But of course,the consequences of being in over your head shall be carried by you and only you. The grading equates to the grade of entities we have deemed you capable of subduing,and dying at the hands of a higher grade entity ,unless by circumstance,will lead to you being cut off from the huntsman death gratuity to be given to your families post mortem. Now, you may proceed to open the envelopes",he concluded before walking away.

 ...you kidding me, fifth grade

 ...am I supposed to do with a fifth grade huntsman's salary

 ...all because of that long golden haired kid.

"What grade are you?",I asked Ida,not out of curiosity, but rather to verify whether it really was my fault some of the huntsman fell below average, not that I'd care either way. She gave me a proud smile before turning the card for me to see."first grade!",she exclaimed with fake surprise, "how did lowly Ida manage to pull that off. Well, guess I'm more amazing than you think ". I scoffed before turning around to see the captain walking towards us. "Great work Mr Hyperion,a rather impressive show of power near perfect magic and precision control,and a massive magic pool at that,to be able to keep all those beams active,befitting of a first grade". Doesn't really mean much when someone who didn't do nearly as much as me also got first grade,I thought internally. "And good job to your lady friend here, she had a remarkable showing in the first and second rounds,no doubt prepared for another superb performance had you not hogged the spotlight".Ida nodded her head in agreement."Anyway,I look forward to seeing more from you,and congratulations", he said as he extended his hand to me.i shook it , and he turned around and left."Should we go now,we don't have anything left to do",i asked Ida. Yeah no, nothing turns me on like the contradicting stench of sweat and cologne mixed together",she replied sarcastically,"of course we should leave". "I just wanted to ask,so I could get the reply from you first". I stood up,"well, let's go,we haven't even found a lodge yet"I said as I motioned for the door.

 We went back to the bottom floor and gave the receptionist from when we first arrived our cards. The other applicants,or huntsmen rather seemed to be showing more respect to the receptionist after the shocking reveal. He took them from us and gave us a golden coin which was apparently the actual huntsman identity card,or coin rather.

 "Finally,I felt like a darkwyrm staying in that sunlight blocked building", Ida sighed loudly. "Okay, first of all, there's no sunlight outside now either, second of all, don't say the name, calling their name aloud might enrage them. I said in the weird accent the old lady who told horror stories about chimeras in one of the towns we visited years back used to say it, before laughing loudly forgetting we were in a public place,or were we. "Hmmm",I sighed. "At least they had the decency of not harassing us back there",Ida gave a puzzled expression before realising what I meant. Good evening kind sirs, anything we could help you with this fine evening?. The nerve of this kid, said the hoarse voiced man at the forefront who had an apparent hatred for clothes his size.he had cartoonishly huge,veined muscles and a kind of smug expression that told me all I needed to know about him. The others came out of the shadow revealing that they all looked as if they had been drawn by a preteen. "Why do people go out of their way to look muscular when it is completely pointless in this world",I thought inwardly You have caused an inconvenience for us kid, your little show of force has stopped us from getting the grade we wanted, said the hefty man in the front. "If that show of force didn't make you understand that I'm not one to be intimidated,then I guess I did a piss poor job ",I clapped back. "Ooh",the man said with an expression that looked as though he had taken something too salty." That's quite a mouth you have boy",he said as he seized control of the magical energy around him." I hope you can take as much heat as your mouth releases",he growled.