Snippet #1667585

An old Asian man in a jet-black suit stood at the podium, the microphone tilted down towards him. The podium sat atop a large wooden stage firmly planted in the middle of a massive clearing. On stage, a line of four dozen or so men and women stood in a jumble before a curtain, most dressed formally. There were rattles and screeches coming from behind the bright red cloth. In front of him, over one hundred more people stood nervously, awaiting his speech.

"My name, you all know," he stated in a thick Japanese accent, "Is Mr. Tachibana, and behind me stand the entire Board as well as veteran hunters who will be teaching you." He scowled before continuing. "Although you all should have already read the information given to you, the Board will go over everything once again!"

He stepped down from the podium as another man stepped forward. This man was taller than Mr. Tachibana, but still shorter than average. He wore a gray sports coat and slacks, though he had a Thai-dye T-shirt visible underneath. His long hair was blown in front of his face by the gentle breeze. "Don't get so worked up, man," he retorted, "Anyway, dudes, I'm John Greenwich, on the board, too. You all made it through training, maybe even took this test before. Far out! This will be your final test. Let's just cover some common-sense rules. This is in your packet, page 2 if you miss something." The hippie pulled a paper from his jacket, cleared his throat, then began reading the list verbatim.

Page 2: Rules of the Final Test

1. The goal of this exercise is for each hunter to capture or kill a single predetermined creature. The body must then be transported back to the predetermined meeting place (location of the assembly).
2. Hunters may work together, but each must have their own specimen. Hunters can use any weaponry of their own, assuming it does not pose a risk to the environment or fellow hunters due to a large area of effect.
3. Purposely injuring another hunter results in automatic disqualification for this year's test.
4. Accidentally or purposely killing another human results in permanent disqualification.
5. Stealing the killed specimen of another hunter results in automatic disqualification for this year's test.
6. Extreme destruction of the test's environment as determined by the Board may result in disqualification of various lengths.
7. Veteran hunters and Board members observe participants for rule-breaking. Their word is final.


The rules read out, John looked back up at the audience. "Now, I'm sure you're all itching to see the monsters, right?" he asked, signalling for a nearby man to pull the red curtain free. A massive cage held many little demons, flitting about. Each was around four feet tall, had dark gray skin, and flaunted two large horns atop their bulbous heads. Their black eyes stared maliciously at the crowd. They shoved their thin arms through the iron bars that held them back, their sharp claws reaching for their captors. Most were climbing and gliding throughout their prison, wrapping their little hands and arrowhead tails around the bars for support.

"There are thirty of these little guys," John explained, beginning to dismount the podium, "So the Board has decided that we can only afford to hire 30 of you this year! Our recruiters did too good of a job, huh?" This joke went down badly with the newbies, most of whom found such a small chance of winning disheartening. "Chill, dudes," the hippie mumbled before going back to the small crowd of Board members. Yet another person stepped forward, this one a woman dressed in a white lab coat, her brown hair tied into a bun.

"I am Professor Carmen Tapia," she stated in an ever-so-slight Mexican accent, "and I have, as usual, supplied this year's test creatures. Imps are really quite amazing little monsters! Their wings are primitive, though I haven't yet deciphered whether they were once full wings and are becoming vestigial or just have not become capable of full flight. Still, they can glide and easily scurry up the tall trees of this forest. Though they have thick leathery skin, killing them should be the easy part; catching them is the issue! Be careful of their claws and teeth. They are carnivorous, though they usually only eat small creatures. They'll try to run at first, but if you corner them, they will lash out aggressively! You have the rest of the day, twelve hours until midnight, to pass. After that, a poison in their blood will start to weaken them so that they can't escape into public areas. Isn't that lovely? I designed it myself!"

Carmen had spat out her information very quickly. John added in helpfully, "This is on page six of your packets, guys!"

Professor Tapia continued, despite having given more than the information she needed to. "They're so difficult to capture, and so rare nowadays, we actually had to breed them to get this many! I was in charge of that little expedition. They're very finicky with their partners, and the males do this peculiar mating dance! They sort of jump around, like this..." she explained, beginning to jump around back and forth, "And then, the males finish by exposing their-"

"I think that'll be enough," a man on stage interrupted, elbowing the petite woman out of the way. He had to stoop down to reach the microphone. He was dressed in his military uniform, despite being dishonorably discharged years ago, and stood almost seven feet high. "I'm Michael Christianson, and y'ur job's ta kill these little bastards," he explained, gesturing towards the cage behind him with an obvious expression of hatred, "Ta give 'em a fighting chance, we're gonna make ya wait a minute after we release 'em 'fore ya go geddem." With a hand gesture, two brave men opened the massive cage, releasing thirty imps out into the forest, away from the stage and the crowd. All of the little monsters immediately spread out, climbing the tall pine trees and getting as far away as possible. The veteran hunters and Board members in charge of monitoring the test were allowed to go. A stopwatch was started.

The sixty seconds seemed to drag on forever. Finally, however, the giant Michael boomed into the microphone, "GO!" and the crowd of prospective hunters rushed past the stage and into the forest.