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.

At the sound of the thunder that was Michael’s voice, most of the hunters ran madly towards the woods, challenging everything and anything they could think of. Ayo chuckled quietly. Half of them could spend a whole year tracking down a single imp and would never get even close.
Ayo Bhekizita did not run. Ayo Bhekizita did not sprint, did not rush, nor did he start looking around for random trees trying to find an imp that got lost and hurt itself in its confusion. Ayo Bhekizita did exactly what his last name suggested: He watched the enemy. He watched the imps move, watched every breath they took and paid attention to the directions they ran. Nothing went unnoticed under the sight of the Enemy Watcher.
Ayo stood up, checking all his equipment for the tenth time. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous, but that was no excuse to get desperate. Ayo just remained calm. He noticed other hunters that did the same. There was a man wearing a strange breathing device; there was another man with complete sharpshooter equipment; Ayo considered asking the marksman for help, but the man was too busy with his gear and Ayo thought it was best to leave him alone.
The African man sighed deeply and stepped into the forest.
The woods talked to him. He could almost hear them whispering what he wanted to know. Ayo heard a shot from the distance. He tried to focus on his surroundings. Suddenly, he heard something. A twig. Something stepped in a twig.
Ayo followed the sound the most silently as possible. He reached for his wooden stick, as he followed the other sounds the creature made; steps in the foliage, a thud on the ground. The African man hoped it wouldn’t be a very unlucky squirrel. Finally, the creature stopped, and Ayo could take a look at it. It certainly wasn’t a squirrel…
The woman seemed lost. No… not lost. She had an interesting look on her face. The hunter turned her head around, like a cat sniffing for a mouse. Suddenly a smile would appear, quickly replaced with an expression of delight. The woman was amazed with everything, wanted to see everything, to smell everything, to touch everything. Her curly brown hair matched with her brown eyes. Ayo guessed she was originally from somewhere in the Mediterranean. Greek, maybe? Middle eastern, perhaps. It really did not matter.
Ayo decided that having a support would be much better, and even so the woman didn’t seem to be carrying any kind of weapon, it was always nice to have another pair of eyes and ears. He approached her slowly, keeping his stick harmless in his back, trying not to frighten her.
“Hey you”, Ayo shouted, trying to sound as friendly as possible, “Over here! Need help with catching some imps?”

Jason Cabella was not by nature a callous man, but he knew that the only way he would ever wear the olive-drab of an ASCO employee would be to step on a few toes. The promised pay was lucrative and the young marksman was just shy of broke and in danger of eviction. He figured his need was greater than the throng of prospective hunters pressing and jostling around him. Many of them looked like people he might have been friends with in another time: the ones he'd met and bunked with for basic training had been amiable enough, but this was a no-holds-barred game of stakes, a horse of a different colour altogether from the lazy days spent plinking targets on the range. Only thirty could succeed today. It would be difficult to beat out the competition in finding and laying claim to even one of the hideous specimens; for even if they spread out over ten miles or more(Which he thought unlikely given the time alloted) the ratio of hunters to hunted did not exactly inspire confidence in one's chances.

Strangely enough, he was only slightly anxious about the hunt. Jason Cabella, trained SWAT sniper and owner of many rifles, had an ace up his sleeve. For now though, he'd stroll about and observe the competition and their methods, hoping to find inspiration for future hunts, if in fact future hunts were forthcoming. That would depend on his performance today, wouldn't it?

"Don't count your chickens untill they hatch, man..." he reminded himself grimly. He suddenly craved hot-wings for some reason.

He stomped along briskly, feeling the rocky trail beneath his thin soles. The crowd was breaking up now, sliding away from each other and coalescing in smaller groups like hammered mercury. In the distance, cackling Imps fled before the methodical machine that drove them from hiding with bright lights and shouts, perhaps regrouping or not. (Were they sentient enough to recognize strength in their numbers?) Hiding and burrowing into the leafy detrius of the forest floor, scrambling as one into the treetops to watch the goings-on far below with their glassen eyes. They weren't threatening, not really: from this distance they looked almost comical as they disappeared into the brush. But creatures were all the more dangerous when cornered, were they not? And cornered they would have to be if many of the newbie hunters were to capture them. Honestly, some of the rookies had blades. Perhaps they intended to offer the imps a haircut and a shave in return for coming peacefully? No, the creatures came well-equipped with all manner of pointy, sharp, and likely poisonous apendages. As impressive as a sucessful capture might look, a clean and simple kill would be the best option.

Jason figured he didn't have much of a chance against all the bright-eyed newbies and experienced combat vets. He used the same company-issued rifle as many of them. He had a burning desire to win the contract, so did they. They were all the same, really. Except that most people didn't have acess to a nice Northrop-Grumman thermal scope. Jason did. Come nightfall, all the world would become a neon firing range, and the former trick-shooter would be there to make the money shot. So it was that Jason Cabella, rifleman and ASCO hopeful found a sturdy Fir in which to perch and scan the mid-day woodland for anything out of the ordinary.

"Yer a wiry lil' bastard, aren't ya mate?" A man said with a thick Australian accent. He was taunting the Imps in the cage by sticking a finger in and quickly ripping it away. The man was dressed less formally than the board members. He wore a yellow and black striped button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his pants were a grungy dark blue, and his boots were muddied combat variety. He wore a yellow Socceroos hat and black sunglasses. The most telling feature however was his large beard. A couple of caged Imps reached out for the hairy mess, but Titus continued to tease and pull away from their skinny fingers.

The board members who were speaking only passed through the ears of the Aussie. He had already completed his test, he knew exactly what to expect. First there was the Japanese man, Mr. Tach. Because his name was too damn long and complicated to say fully. Then followed by that hippie, John. Then the mexican scientist Carmen, then finally religious wing-nut Michael. Truth be told, Titus didn't give a damn about the speech, he was just here to observe and report. He didn't want anyone in the ASCO who couldn't pull their own weight. They might even get him killed, and he couldn't have that, now could he?

Then with a hand gesture from Michael, Titus assisted in opening the cage door. He watched in contempt as the Imps scattered out into the forest. He spat to the ground and checked the gun he had on him, a USP. He wasn't participating in this hunt, merely observing, but, it'd be stupid to hop on into the forest unarmed. Either for the Imps or... Less than reputable hunters. He walked back to the stage and retrieved his assessment clipboard, because that was what he had to do, right? Assess? Eh, sure. The test was about either capturing or killing their own creature, but the way they did it also counted. Titus was not a brilliant man, true, but he knew the importance of understanding your allies' strengths and weaknesses.

By this time, the sixty second head start was up, and the wannabe hunters raced into the forests to hunt down their creature. He could have gone into the forest behind the Imps and observe from there, but Titus preferred to watch the young hunters and not wait on them. He was not a patient man. Besides, he'd add a certain level of anxiety and pressure by his mere presence alone. That'd let him know how the testers do under pressure. See, there was a method to his madness. He gave one look at the people still on the stage and nodded, heading into the forest to begin his observation.

Before long he came to a fir tree, with a man up in the branches. Titus raised an eyebrow behind his sunglasses and looked at his clipboard. Jason Cabella. Sniper. Made sense the man was in a tree. He was bound to be patient, and it'd be a waste for him to stay there and watch the sniper watch... So with that, he spun of his heel and went in a different direction, giving the sniper the courtesy of not stepping in his firing zone.

Snaking his way through the forest, he came upon another hunter, or rather pair of hunters. Ayo Bhekizita. Close combat expert. and Netanya Haddad. She didn't have a specification next to her name, which made Titus chew his lip. She was going to be a wild card. His train of thought was interrupted by Ayo shouting at the woman. "Bloody hell mate!" Titus called, "Why are yer yellin'? Ya suppose to be huntin'. Yellin' is kinda detrimental to that, yeah?" Titus said, before looking at Netanya, "An' remember, if yous two team up, ya both need a critter."

He turned and walked away, looking to observe some more newbies. Under Ayo's name, he wrote "Loud". Titus chuckled to himself as he walked, this observing thing was kinda fun.

Jace

"You have to be kidding me.."

He was lost, already.

The command, 'go' had boomed, sending a surge of would-be hunters out into the woods, Jace had been carried along in it's wake. As groups split off however..he was abandoned. In a hole of all places. More a ditch, but it was still rather deep. "How does this shit even happen? 'Come, hunt puppets worthy of the Muppet show..see the world..get stuck in holes'. Buncha shit.." he grumbled climbing free. He still wasn't sure what he was doing here; the letter he received informed him of a job...so he came. "Monsters..pfft."

Checking his gear, and chambering a round in his 9mm, he sighs. Most of the others were getting deeper into the woods, the Imps would be driven before them in a rush to escape. Jace just failed the exam. Or so he thought.

The beast took him by surprise, slamming into his right shoulder like a freaking missile. The blow spun him, and caused him to fall down and dropping the pistol. It was on him in a flash. Teeth snapping, claws raking, it took all he had to avoid one or more painful attacks. It must have hid, waiting for a chance to escape, a lone human must have seemed an easy target. It showed how smart these things could be.

Rolling, just avoiding a stab of it's tail, Jace snags his knife from it's place on his leg and whips the blade up. A shriek sounds, the tip of it's tail now a geyser of foul smelling fluid. Now the tables turned, the Imp trying to escape as Jace attacked it's retreating back. A wild swing catches the beast on the lower back, cutting deep but doing no lasting harm. As it wriggled free he knew it would escape if he didn't act fast...and then his luck got better.

By chance his right hand fell onto the butt of his pistol, it had fallen into a pile of sticks n'crap in the struggle. Ice filled his veins, as combat instinct kicked in. In one fluid motion he rose into a shooter's crouch and drew a bead on the Imp's form...then let the little bastard have it. Hollow pops, and the tinkle of spent casings. The first shot caught the being in the right shoulder..irony that was lost on the Imp, spinning it to take two shots to the chest. As it fell it tried to shriek...but the 9mm rounds had shredded it's lungs. It died with a gurgle.

Jace's rush came down, his body shaking slightly as the adrenaline ebbed. Automatically, as his brain was still wrapping around the Imp's death, he checked the pistol, loaded a new mag and holstered the gun. What the hell..that thing almost killed him..these people were nuts. "Mother fucker...." he mutters, cleaning his knife off on some leaves. The corpse was ugly. Worse than when it was alive. what was he supposed to do, drag it back with him?

As he stares at the body..he feels some pain, reaching up to the source he discoverers that he hadn't made it through the fight unharmed. A deep gash under his left eye, a series of slashes to the right shoulder...a bite on the left hand. With a sigh he settles down, sitting next to the corpse with his med-kit, cleaning his wounds...his pistol close at hand..this shit wouldn't happen twice.

[site issue/double post; ignore, please]

Man... all these people were so... solemn. It was like somebody's funeral or something. Well, okay, maybe it was in a sense for some of them, if a preemptive one, but that was only if one assumed failure, and Netanya Haddad, genius, optimist, and lover of all things intriguing (not necessarily in that order) never assumed failure. If you thought you were going to die, you'd already put one of your own feet in your grave, and it seemed silly to do that when there were plenty of little and not-so-little monsters and assorted creepy-crawlies who'd gleefully do that for you, natch. Which was why, even though she was a doctor and had absolutely no combat experience whatsoever, she did not simply assume that she was unsuited to the task and give up before she had begun.

Instead, Netanya took a sober, reasonable pace into the forest and studied it. Typical North American fare, largely coniferous. The scent of pine needles and spruce was everywhere, not to mention the needly green canopy overhead. It was a nice place, actually. She wondered if anyone had even noticed. most of the board probably hadn't. Tachibana had that very angry, 'I-am-a-scary-powerful-man-huuurr!' thing going on, which probably meant that he didn't stop to appreciate the little things. Tapia was nuts, no two ways about that, but in the sort of way that made Anna want to giggle, then maybe scream and run in the opposite direction. Since neither of these things was really in keeping with the job description, though, she suppressed the desires for the moment. Christianson was scary, and she made a mental note to sneak into his office and decorate for Channukah or Christmas or some holiday that involve cheer if she ever got the chance, just to see what he'd do.

Greenwich might get it. The thought tugged at her lips, and she was wondering if he'd loan her the key to Christianson's domain when she stepped right on a twig, which broke with a clean snap. "Oops," she mumbled to herself, though there was little but good-natured amusement in her tone. Apparently, someone else was not quite so amused, and someone was yelling a second later. It took her a minute to decipher the actual words, but once she did, the person who had yelled was joined by another, this one with a hilarious-looking beard, who told him to keep it down. This time, Netanya did chuckle- it was like the teacher scolding you in school, only she was certain that Mrs. Davis was never in possession of facial hair you could hide small animals in.

Once beard-guy had left, she turned to the man who had originally addressed her. "I could use a hand," she confessed, though in a much quieter voice than the one he'd used. "I'm a doctor, see, so that whole 'pew, pew, kill things deal' isn't really my specialty. I've got a buncha stuff here if you get bitten, though." She shrugged, causing a small disturbance in the rucksack she was wearing. "So... you get two, and I'll patch you up after?" It was about all she had to offer, but if he'd been kind enough to ask in the first place, he probably wouldn't mind, right? Besides, she was hiding more than just a medical degree, and she'd be useful in ways that people with weapons often forgot they needed.

Song had made her way into the forests, just like the others, but she had made sure she distanced herself from them. She knew that it was going to be expected she worked with a team once she passed this test, but she preferred to work alone. Not only did it gave her time to think, she wouldn’t be distracted, or worse, accidently poison somebody. She touched one of the needles, for now safely tucked against her wrist.

She tried to recall what she had witnessed just minutes ago. The imps in the cage had surprised her. Of course, she had read about monsters and knew what was expected of her in ASCO, but to see these... well these creatures for real. The imps, as the Mexican woman had called them, resembled little winged demons, with their dark gray skin, sharp claws, horns and evil black stares. She didn’t know her poisons would work, but if they didn’t, she was going to be in big trouble. Then again, she probably wouldn’t have been considered for this job if they thought her poisons wouldn’t work.

She walked under a couple of trees, trying if she could hear anything. She cursed at her lack of tracking skills, but still tried looking for any sign on the ground. Some of the flowers, lovely little violets, were trampled, though Song couldn’t tell what kind of being, human, animal or imp, had made it. Having nothing else to go on, she followed the trail. Then she couldn’t believe her luck. One of the creatures was standing right in front of her, in a patch of ferns, eating a small rabbit. The poor thing had been ripped apart, only the head still identifiable. The imp was gorging it down, less aware of its surrounding. Song approached the creature as quiet as possible, carefully opening the pouch around her waist. She had expected to kill the creature with her poisoned needles, but then remembered the first rule. She had to get the freaking thing back to the meeting place. Not wanting to drag the creature all the way throughout the forest, she decided to use a different kind of poison. Made from Opium poppy, ginger root, Wild Angelica, Borago and Calla Lily, the poison she was reaching for would make the creature groggy. Hopefully it would prevent it from running off or attacking her, instead letting her steer the monster to the place she wants it to go. Song wasn’t sure if it would work, but it could save her a lot of time.

She just had to get the creature to swallow the poison, but that wasn’t going to be difficult. She saw a piece of the rabbit lying on the floor, apparently tossed aside by the creature in its frenzy. Song opened the vial and drenched the piece of meat, possibly a leg, with the poison. Now, it only need to eat this. Just then the creature noticed her, looking at her with a malicious stare. They both stood there, standing still for five seconds. Song could feel her blood quickening, not from fright, but from excitement. She had never expected to feel so alive. Then, without warning, the imp ran off. Cursing in Chinese, she ran after it. Okay, this might be a bit more difficult than I had expected.

Ayo blinked, surprised. What medic in the world would willingly go into a forest filled with deadly creatures without backup? How could someone unarmed survive in the wilderness without help? That thought went away rather quickly. If there was something Ayo learned in Mali, is that you should never underestimate someone. She probably had some hidden weapon, and she just didn’t want Ayo to know. Privacy, Ayo thought. Or maybe she would stab him in the back once she had her imp.
Again, Ayo banished the thought from his head. Not everyone is a deadly assassin trying to kill you! Relax. She’s just another hunter, except a non-violent one. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Ayo raised his hand in order to shake the doctor’s hand in a harmless way, when he froze. He looked up slowly, his eyes fixed on the imp he had seen a second earlier in a tree right above the woman’s head. He pulled his hand back slowly, trying not to lose the imp, and touched his throwing blades. Ayo knew the taser wouldn’t reach the creature this far, and if he injured it in the leg or in one of the wings, it would fall from the tree and become an easy prey. Of course, if he missed the creature would either glide away and vanish or it would jump in the woman’s head and reduce her to a bloody pool of flesh.
The creature was hideous. Ayo could feel the roughness of its gray skin just by looking at it. Its mouth was salivating, and from time to time the creature would shake its head and the viscous substance would glue everywhere. Its eyes were staring at something… Then Ayo noticed that the imp was making a pathetic attempt to reach a bird nest way up in the tree’s crown, and the creature was so dedicated to it that it didn’t really seem to be aware of Ayo or the woman’s presence.
Ayo unsheathed one of the short blades. He passed it nervously from one hand to another, waiting for the best position. Then he threw it, aiming for the imp’s leg. The blade hissed, cutting through the cold air…

Aiden clasped her hands together as she let them rest on her lap, the denim of her black jeans feeling rather comfortable on her body. Her grey tank top, combat boot and tied up hair finished off her look. The tight clothing helped her think in ways she had never thought possible, it was all just familiar for her. Not to mention that the speech that the board member was giving was plenty soothing to her nerves that seemed to be tightened into nervous bundles, not that she would ever admit it. Their speech was something she assumed meticulous, almost like clockwork. She could imagine her father sitting her years ago, listening to practically the same thing except with different people. The thought put a small smile on Aiden’s face and she wondered if any of the board members recognized her, she had met most of them at one point in her life thanks to her father.

The small quirk of her lips was vanished in a moment when her eyes landed on the imps, their vile, beady eyes darting to and fro. She immediately listened for the voice in her head that she had grown accustomed to, memories of her father debriefing her on situations and monsters. Imps weren't something she had yet to face with her father and she assumed it was because of what Carmen had said, they were hard to breed and even more difficult to find. But she had been told of them and from what her father had told her came rushing into her head. From what she recalled they would be generally easy to kill, it would be finding them and killing them before they actually noticed you. She didn't want to deal with a pissed off imp because, like most things, they were never pleasant to deal with when pissed off. But this would hopefully be rather easy for her, after all, she didn't train practically her whole life not to get into A.S.C.O. on her first try, it would just be embarrassing.

The monsters were let out and a small smirk graced her face once more as the man gave them permission to go. Aiden was quick to dart out of her seat, pulling the Glock 17 pistol out of the homemade belt she wore that she kept her guns in, the sleek plastic in her right hand felt surprisingly right. She dashed into the woods, trying her best to ignore the others around her; it wasn't that she wasn't a social person, she just needed to get one of those imps, she needed to get into the association. So she just ran straight into the woods and then stopped, waiting for the initial strand of people to leave, she would need to find a water source if she wanted to find and imp, it only made common sense. They would eventually become parched and they would go to find some water, it was simple killing logistics. It was something she had listened to her father drill countless times when searching for monsters near scarce water sources.

She stood there for a few moments, waiting for the welcoming silence as the tread of feet became less and less common. She smiled once more as she stood there, listening for the indistinct sound of water running, trying to hear a spring in the distance. A small frown formed on her face when she did not, in fact, hear a spring. But the discrete sound of breathing kept throwing her off, and it was not her breathing. She lowered her gun to the side of her body, resting the thing against her thigh as quietly as she could and looked up, searching for the source of the noise. She wanted to think that she got lucky, that she perhaps struck out in the fortunate department but she knew it wasn't so. The breathing was soft and calm, nothing that would make her think of an erratic monster, no, the breathing was simply human.

She peeked up and noticed a man camping in a tree, perhaps waiting for the imp to return back to the beginning of the forest, something that Aiden thought was rather unlikely, although slightly plausible. She looked at him for a moment, trying to decide if she would speak to him or not or just go on with her happy hunting on her lonesome. She debated both points in her mind before shielding her gaze from the sun, placing her free hand above her eyes in a visor like fashion, the other hand still holding her gun against her leg, the safety still on the thing.

"Hey, name's Aiden." She yelled up to the man, a small smile gracing her face once more. "But my codename's gonna be Maxie, if you're wondering, once I get into A.S.C.O." She told him. She knew sounded cocky, which wasn't her intention, she just knew that eventually she would get in. She didn't care how many trials it would take her, she would eventually get to be proud enough to call herself part of that association. "I'm going to go find a water source, trying to find some springs to lead me to one. I mean, in an hour or two, when they start getting thirsty, their noses will bring them to the spring. Maybe it'll be a better place to camp out?" She asked. She knew it didn't sound like much of an offer but if the guy accepted it would always be nice to be in a team with someone and he looked rather reliable. She pulled her hair out from her ponytail and redid herself a sloppy bun with one hand, trying to do something to distract herself, secretly hoping the man would say yes. Friends were always nice to have, and allies were all the better.

Blaze heard the word go and watched as the imps were set free and darted for the forest. He checked his dagger at his back and the two M&P .40 pistols in their holsters at his chest before he raced after them.

Darting between members of the crowd and other people around him who were now into the chase before he took a route that led him off to the side of the main group who now rushed by. Typically he would stay with the group for safety reasons, but with these imps he felt a little more sure of himself than other monsters he'd seen in the past. He took out one of his two guns and checked the barrel before cocking it and holding it ready to fire.

He wandered through the forest step by step, taking great care to avoid walking on twigs, too many leaves and slippery stones to minimize his profile as he calmly advanced. He knew form watching the imps that some had scattered to the sides just as they entered the forest, so the chances of him meeting one out here were fairly high.

He stopped and knelt down on one knee, listening. He heard the faint sounds of the others in the distance, some of whom he was sure had at least found an imp. Whether or not they had killed them yet was unknown to him from this distance, but he was forced to stop listening to them. He was here to kill an imp and bring its body back, and that was what he was going to do.

He rose to his feet and took a few more steps before kneeling down again and listening hard to the forest around him. He could hear the sounds of the imps in the distance, having been released only a minute ahead of him, they couldn't have flown too far ahead in this forested area.

He decided it was best to wait and see what would happen next, so he kept his gun at the ready and planted his back to the biggest tree he could find.

"Alright Blaze... This is it." He whispered to himself.

Ayo and Netanya

The imp was not simply hiding out in the trees. This particular beast was intelligent enough to know there was strength in numbers, and he understood that this was a hunt. So he found three of his brethren and had them hiding in the trees and bushes surrounding the small clearing. The imp was trying to get into position when the dark hunter saw him. The monster studied the man, and saw him pull out the blade. The creature tried to move away without alerting the woman, but the man threw the blade at the imp. The monster moved quickly, but the edged weapon was thrown with such force and speed that the beast could not fully escape its deadly path. The weapon clipped the imp's leg, releasing a gout of dark, stinking blood. The monster screamed in agony, and jumped to another branch, hissing out orders in its strange, primitive language.

The other beasts burst from the bushes, considering the woman to not be dangerous. Two of the imps lunged after the man, one grabbing his legs and the other going toward his face. The third imp chased after the woman. The fourth imp, the smartest of the group, dropped from his vantage point, holding the knife that had injured his leg. He slowly hobbled toward the one who had thrown the weapon, a savage look plastered to its ugly face. It lifted the blade, thoughts of revenge burning in its tiny brain....


Song

The imp was not as stupid as this hunter thought it to be. It noticed her presence, but simply considered her not as important as feeding. It was hungry after all. But when she put some strange fluid on its food, the imp knew this girl was dangerous. It could smell the herbal mixture, and one stench in particular stood out. The Wild Angelica, while beneficial to humans, was actually quite toxic to imps. Once the beast smelled this, it took off into the forest, trying to find shelter. Then, an interesting smell reached the little imp. The beast flapped its wings to get into a tree, following the faint scent of brimstone deeper into the forest. The smell was comforting, inviting...



Deep in the forest

On the ground in a large clearing, several candles sat in a line. At the farthest ends there were two black candles, and in the center the candles were a deep red. In in five points around the candles there were sticks of Dragon's Blood incense burning. In the middle of the incense, drawn perfectly in the cleared dirt, there was a strange symbol. As the incense and candles burned, wisps of smoke and sparks coalesced in the symbol. The symbol began to pulse with a red glow, the cloud of incense smoke growing thicker above the symbol, its sweet aroma slowly flowing through the forest. Several imps were attracted to the smell and found their way to the symbol, dancing around it and chattering amongst themselves. One of the Great Ones was coming. The symbol pulsed brighter, and fire from the candles flowed toward the symbol, building a fuel-less flame. The flame pulsed larger, burning hotter as it seemed to breathe in the smoke from the incense.

Suddenly, the fire erupted, a ring of flames exploding out and erasing the symbol. The incense and candles were incinerated and the imps let out a cheer. In the center of the clearing, a huge beast stood tall. The monster took a deep breath and exhaled fire and smoke. It stepped forward, its cloven hoof sinking into the soft earth, scorching the land where it stood. The lower body was that of a goat, the beast was covered with thick black hair. Its upper body was amazingly muscled, the red skin rippling with inhuman muscle. The cloven hands flexed, and powerful black claws smoldered like cooled magma. The Ifrit raised its black horned head and sniffed the air. The stench of blood was there. It looked to the imps; simply its servants, but the demon would avenge his fallen comrade. Another step and more scorched earth. The Ifrit observed the means of its summoning... Whoever had called it into this world was sympathetic toward the demons. They had not used the cruel, binding summoning circles, and the human had used a delicious incense. The Ifrit breathed in the perfumed air. The request was in the smoke. Whoever summoned the Ifrit wanted it to attack the humans. The Ifrit noticed that the summon was a request, not a binding order. Since one of its kin had already fallen to the humans, the Ifrit was more than willing to hunt the rest down. With a savage roar that echoed through the forest, the Ifrit began running forward, followed by its imp horde. The Ifrit left broken trees and burning earth in its wake. By the time it was done, all the forest would burn. It followed the stench of demon blood, wanting to get the human responsible first.

Jace

It did not take ling for the Ifrit to track down the one responsible. The human lurked near the corpse, as though proud of his kill. The Ifrit lunged forward, a huge fist swinging and smacking the human with a vicious backhand. The human flew through the air, hitting a tree and falling to the ground. The first blow was revenge, but now the Ifrit stood and roared at the human, challenging him to a battle. The demon would fight the human face to face if the human accepted. If he didn't and ran, then the Ifrit would enjoy hunting him down.


Song

The imp quickly changed course, following the trail of broken and smoldering trees. It would join its fellows and the Master in their quest... The silly human that followed him should abandon the chase, lest she wanted to meet one of the Great Ones.

--oops, posted in wrong place... ignore --

Most of the veteran hunters and Board members had spread out through the forest, and John Greenwich was no exception. Given their task following the assembly, he once again questioned the regular formal attire. No matter. He wouldn't be hunting. The hippie gazed up into the trees. Now was the easiest time to spot the imps, before it got dark. He saw something flit through the trees. An imp! Too bad there were no nearby hunters that he could tell. John smiled. If only he had managed to find his test's monster that easily, back when he was becoming a hunter. Suddenly, another imp leaped past him, only a few feet overhead, running in the same direction. Strange.

He looked up again, but not into the trees. He gazed past them, into the blue sky. A trail of black smoke was visible in the distance. Perhaps the imps had smelled it. Still, imps had no power over fire. How bizarre. A flock of birds soared over John, away from the smoke. A few squirrels followed. John quickly contacted the others in charge of watching the test via a headset they all carried. "Looks like some fool set the poor forest alight. Not cool. Whoever did this is disqualified, automatically. Didn't think I saw any fire-based weapons... they wouldn't be particularly effective against imps, anyway, though they seem to be drawn near it. Carmen, did these imps have fire magic?"

Carmen Tapia sat back in the clearing of the assembly, waiting for hunters to come back with their prizes. She was surprised by John's comment and quickly replied, "Impossible! Imps, at least this subspecies, are non-magical! Impossible, they could not possibly be attracted to fire, either! Investigate this at-" Suddenly, communications shut off, and the test watchers were left isolated.

"Hey? Hello? Anybody read me?" John asked the tiny microphone. No response. He didn't seem particularly worried, uttering only a sigh. His battery had probably ran out. Nevertheless, he had to figure out what to do before the forest burnt down. Luckily, it had recently rained. The fire would probably go out on its own. Still... he stared at the sky again. More smoke. Perhaps he should go back to the assembly, but hunters might be in danger, especially with the imps all strangely leading towards the fire. John set off at a jogging pace, carefully looking for signs of hunters.

Jason shifted uncomfortably in his perch, a little put-out by the pain in his spine. Trees were not by reputation the most luxurious of seats, but the elevation was nice, as were the clean and sharp smells of sap and needles. He scanned the woods with a careful eye, giving extra time to anything he thought suspicious. Squirrels and small birds flitted and fluttered about in the duff, needlessly drawing his attention and rifle more than once. The crisp northwest breeze played tricks on him with whirling leaves and shivering branches. The whole forest was alive with movement, something that quietly irked the urban hunter. It was his job to pick out the movements that mattered.

Only dimly aware of passing time and the trespasses of other contestants into his field of fire, Jason allowed himself to breathe deeply and focus on the sounds of the woods. Chirps, snaps, the trickle of water, a distant gunshot... no good. There was noise alright, human noise. Simply too much to filter. A sliver of doubt niggled its way into his brain. He'd gambled on the imps' inevitable return to the clearing to mislead pursuers, but perhaps he'd judged the creatures unfairly. They weren't desperate criminals, just creatures unlucky enough to look like Muppets rejects with spikes and claws. They wouldn't be following the same rulebook that he expected them to. In fact, he began to worry about passing the test. He'd heard sporadic gunfire and shouts already, probably heralding the sucessful killing of an imp or two. How many had been captured already? How many remained? What if--

"Hey! Name's Aiden" someone yelled from nearby.

Jason had been out of human contact for long enough that it took him a second to realize that swinging about to bring his rifle to bear was not appropriate conduct, especially not in a tree. He almost slipped, but caught himself with a panic-fueled lunge for the trunk. He shakily turned to find a brown-haired woman staring up at him, shielding her eyes from the sun and smiling thinly.

"But my codename's gonna be Maxie, if you're wondering, once I get into A.S.C.O." she continued. "I'm going to go find a water source, trying to find some springs to lead me to one" she stated simply. The unmistakable confidence in her voice gave Jason pause. The woman seemed unshakably certain that she was ASCO material, and her equipment agreed. Her choice in armaments was to be admired.

"Eh? How'd you come up with that?" he asked. He felt as though he'd met her before, though that was improbable.

"Well, I mean, in an hour or two, when they start getting thirsty, their noses will bring them to the spring. Maybe it'll be a better place to camp out?" She casually pulled her hair out of a ponytail and began to reshape it into a sloppy bun as she answered.

Jason stared at her blankly. That was actually a very sound idea. Logical.

"Well, ma'am, that sounds like a really good idea. You thought of it first, so I'm not gonna wrest it away from you, but if you'd like, maybe I could come with you?" he asked, turning the statement into a question by raising his voice slightly.

In the distance Blaze heard a terrible roaring sound that couldn't have possibly come from one of the imps they were hunting, and if that were true, where did this new beast come from?

He began to run towards the sound, worried of any other young hunters that may be facing off against the creature. As he ran he noticed that there was fire and smoke in certain areas around where the beast was located, and he knew that meant trouble. Magic in any form was not a strong suit of Blaze's, and he'd be severely handicapped in a battle against a magical beast.

As he neared the monster, the sight was ghastly. The lower body of a goat, and a rippling muscled upper body with red skin and black claws and horns. It was the most ugly creature he'd seen, and the fact that the Earth became scorched under its feet meant it was a powerful force to be reckoned with.

Blaze was not ready for such a creature, not yet. He needed both experience and heavier firepower if he was to stand a chance against such a beast, and so he turned and left the beast and the unfortunate individual facing off against it to their battle. He felt bad for leaving his fellow applicant for the A.S.C.O, but his life was more precious to him than someone else's and he was not about to let some demon that wasn't supposed to even be there kill him.

A short jog later, he stopped to catch his breath. He rested for a moment against a tree and looked around the forest to see if anyone else was around. Luckily, there was nobody near him and so he sat down and rechecked his guns to make sure the safety was off on each and they were cocked and ready to go. He brought them both up to an aggressive posture as he heard a faint scratching sound in the trees.

He looked up and around, but saw nothing at first. Eventually his eyes came around again, and in one of the spots he had observed not more than a few seconds ago now housed an imp hanging in the tree, staring at him.

He slowly brought his guns to the ready position and let out a single breath.

Come and get me you ugly little son of a bitch! He thought to himself.

Netanya had stepped forward to shake the guy's hand (awfully friendly for a supposed competitor, but then who was she to judge?), when he stopped. His eyes were somewhere above her head, and his hand went right for a weapon. Well. She wasn't dumb, and knew that didn't signal anything terribly good.

Okay, maybe that depended on your definition of "good." Technically, they were supposed to find and bag the little buggers, so maybe having them around here wasn't such a bad thing- oh dear there were four. That wasn't "good" no matter how you sliced it, now was it? Immediately having the useless instinctive reaction of throwing her hands up and over her head, she ducked to the side and tried to figure out exactly how she was going to handle this. All the semi-reliable-looking literature on the subject indicated that imps were trickster spirits, who thrived on causing minor misfortune to humans. She was pretty sure being maimed or killed was worse than 'minor misfortune,' so really without reliable information, she was at something of a loss.

Maybe there was a chance the trickster part was still true? One of them was chasing her, forcing her away from her ally and deeper into the woods, which really she had a bad feeling about. This was always the part in horror movies where the minorities died- granted, the guy she'd left behind qualified, too, but she was both Middle-Eastern and a girl, so really the chances of her surviving this were not spectacular if things continued to proceed in this manner. "Uh, hey," she called back at the imp. "I, um... challenge you to a game of riddles? First person to stump the other wins?" Did imps count as people? They were supposed to be able to understand human language, right? Which one though? "Uh... te reto a un juego de enigmas? Je vous defie a un jeu de devinettes? Don't make me whip out the Italian on you. Or Latin. I could preform an exorcism, you know!"

She didn't think it was all that important to inform the thing that she was Jewish, after all.

Blaze

The imp stared at the hunter and his weaponry. It was smart enough to understand its life was in danger, so it quickly jumped deep into the tree, shaking branches and throwing leaves to create a cloud of debris. It keenly felt the presence of one of the Great Ones, and longed to join the master and its brethren. The creature lunged from its perch, hoping to get past the young hunter.


Netanya

The imp tried to drive the woman deep into the forest, but when she started speaking to it, the creature stopped and listened. The woman had an interesting knowledge of human tongues. The imp and its kin naturally had all human languages programmed into their minds, as well as the languages of beasts. Now the imp was curious. It stopped and sniffed the air, taking in the scent of the woman, and reading her blood. The imp recoiled back slightly in surprise as it smelled that the woman was of the Old Blood, one of the original peoples who dealt with "demons."

The imp coughed several times, as though clearing its throat. "אתה רוצה לאתגר אותי למשחק, אדם? האם אתה חושב מהסוג שלי לא מבין המטרה שלנו כאן?

אנחנו אמורים פשוט בשבילך בבני אדם כדי להוכיח את עצמכם. האם בחיינו אין שום משמעות? סוג שלי נהנה לשחק במשחקים להיות מטרד לבני אדם, אבל אנחנו כל כך רע שמגיע לנו מוות? זה לא משנה. רוחות שלנו לחיות, גם אם פגזים הגשמי שלנו שנרצח. אנחנו חוזרים כאשר גזע הניצולים."

The imp looked past the woman, sensing the Great One and his rage. Its curiosity kept the imp in place, and it sat back awaiting a response.


Jason and Aiden

A solitary imp noticed the two humans talking, so it stalked closer silently. It climbed the tree, observing the strange human and his tools. The imp reached forward, wanting to grab the shiny object in the human's hands. It grabbed to the long part of the object and yanked back, trying to wrestle it out of the human's grip. This imp was a youngling, and very curious. Its curiosity had not yet been tempered with caution that real experience provides, and it perhaps did not understand that its lie was in danger. Still, the imp was strong and brave, qualities that Djinn and Ifrits prefer in their servants.


Brennus

Brennus observed the ceremony from a distance. The strange Aussie, Titus, seemed to be enjoying himself, but Brennus considered all of this simply business. He chose not to interact with the hunters as he ranked their performance, and made sure to make his impact in the forest as minimal as possible. Brennus noticed the smoke and heard the roaring, and instantly knew something was happening. The roar sounded much like an Ifrit. How could an Ifrit be summoned here? The summoner was apparently quite an adventurous sort. Brennus cautiously made his way to the demon, hoping to observe its behavior. Tapia would want to hear more about it later.

"I'd like to show her my mating dance."

Those words made a couple of the reruits as well as the man in the gas mask, Bobby Estacado, laugh in hysterics. It was perhaps the only gem of the whole ordeal that he was faced.
It was rather simple really: God hates him.
It explained everything. How the backwards miracles of Bobby barely managing to pass through all the tests, either through some ability he has, or the family connection. How his dream for a stable life was slowly dissapearing: The red Bentley, stable job as a stock broker, wife, kids, and a large house.
The Bentley got blown to smithereens on Wall St, in a "terrorist" act, though those words weren't entirely false. Bobby's dad has become what he like to call: A fucking psychopath. Any man who uses C4, can't text, and threatens a son, who is a perfectly successfull stock broker into joining an organzation dedicated to slaying mythological cretures: Insane.

Of course the biggest piece of slime belonged to Bobby himself for being such a tool. Really, all he had to do was face his father. Alright perhaps face his father with a few policemen behind him (as well as a SWAT team) but it wasn't that easy. To rat on the man who raised him was definitly easier said then done.

Now the stable job as a Stock Broker was dissapearing as well. Instead, the valient A.S.C.O, was sucking him in a black hole, that once he got in he'd never get out and that's not a euphemism of any kind.

For now though, he remained calm at the imps that escaped the cages, with a little technique he had came up with. They weren't imps. They were midgets. Acrobatic midgets. With wings. And a taste for bloo-Too far! Acrobatic midgets with wings. That's all they were, Bobby kept telling himself. It was only then that he reilized he was the only person left standing at the spot, everyone apprently already run off, as he dazzed off in thought.
A good few minutes after everyone had left so did Bobby with his gas mask and his expensive suit at a walking pace! It was as if there was no such rush to battle imps and in reality there wasn't. He had no fantasies of battle and such.

...He's been wallking a good while too and still no imps. Or people. A sudden roar had got his attention and he froze in the spot; unsure of what to do now. It was like all of those horror films ever made where there's a sound and some putz decided to go towards the noise, without calling the police, and then all of a sudden-VRRRRRRRRR- head taken clean off with a chainsaw.
Like a putz, Bobby walks toward the source of the roar, with shaky legs, shaky hands, and some damned faulty thought process with too much of a curiousity.
Oh God! It's in his pocket! It's going to eat him alive! It's gonna slither in his skin and walk around like those creepy ass scarabs from The Mummy which slithers to the brain, destroys it, and, and-!

With a sudden hand at his pant leg, Bobby reilized that it was just another panic attack, and his iphone vibrating. With a frusterated sigh he took it out from his pocket and noticed he recieved a text from his girlfriend: Katherine.
It was hardly a time to check texts but nothing beats the time like the present. So with a tap of the phone he read the message:

From: Katherine
Subject: Goodbye

Bobby, this isn't going to work. It's not you. It's me. I just can't live a normal life with you.

Isn't she so nice? Texting to check up on him? Why he should jus-wait a second. 'T-This isn't..." He whispered to himself, shocked, then angry as he felt his blood run hot. He started to walk a little bit faster towards the source of the noise, jacket opened wide to the arsenal of weaponry in his coat pockets, pistol equipped with a silencer and laser sight in his right hand, mind swirling with thoughts.
Can't live a normal life with me?! She just thinks she's the cock of the walk isn't she? "Oo! Lets go skydiving! Lets go rockclimbing! Lets go scubadiving!" SHE'S the one with the boring life, I'm here slaying monsters and kicking ass like Buffy the vamp-well more like risking my neck for a job and THIS is how that bitch repays me?!

In any other situation he would have been the "chick crying because of the breakup" if he didn't have a gun in his hands. And imps to kill.
The thoughts practically consumed all the fear he had (for now) as his mind was racing, eyes on the goat-legged red skinned sonuvabitch, and the man that it had knocked down. Bobby could tell that this was a desperate situation, and raised his gun at the Ifrit in front of him, a red dot dancing around the cheek of its goat head. He had a side view of the whole situation, was distanced a good 10 metres with trees in between, but most importantly wanted to kill something.
Five pulls of the trigger with an itchy finger were sqeezed out of the gun in quick succesion, muzzle flash non-existent, and suppressors silencing the *BANG* of such a pistol...

Song managed to follow the creature, though barely. Somehow, the imp seemed to know where it was going, while she kept bumping into trees and branching with no sense of direction. At this moment, she was glad her speed and agility made up for her lack of strength. She almost lost the thing two times, but on both occasions she had been able to glimpse the wings of the imp. While running, she tried to figure out how to capture the thing. She wasn’t so sure anymore if the poisoned bunny feet would work, as food clearly wasn’t the priority of that little devil anymore. After a while, she noticed something. Or to put it in a better way, she smelled something. At first, Song thought it was garlic, but the scent was too strong for that. It smelled more like... rotten eggs? That’s most likely... sulphur. Why was she smelling sulphur? To Song, it didn’t really make sense.

Suddenly, she heard a horrific cry, not that far away from her. It made all the hairs on her body stand up. Song knew it couldn’t have been human, but she had never expected an imp to make such noise. Without warning, the imp changed direction. Almost missing it, Song bumped into another tree. She cursed once again at her own stupidity, “Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng.” After turning around for a bit, she headed for the direction she thought the imp had gone off to. For a couple of minutes, she was unsure if she was still on the right path, but then she came into a path of devastation. All the trees had been uprooted and smashed to the ground, the earth was broken and everything was hot or even still burning. She also smelled something worse than sulphur, though she had no clue what it was. Seeing as she had no other way to find the imp back, she followed the trail, dreading what she could find. Something told her this wasn’t just the work of an imp. Was this a set-up by the organization?

She then saw it and out of pure astonishment she blabbered: “That’s no imp!” She was standing behind the monster, but she could still see the thick black hair covering its body, the lower part of a goat and the horns on its head. But most of all, it was big. She had heard that some of the monsters were big, but all the talk and all the textbooks couldn’t prepare a person for something this big. For a moment, Song just stood there like a deer in the headlights. She then reached for a tube in her pouch and quickly sprayed the entire contents on her body. She hated this particular potion, as it made her stink like hell (well, wasn’t that ironic), but it completely covered her human scent. Contemplating what she should do next, as she had also noticed how a bunch of imps were near the monster, she could just see another human in the distance.

The blank look on his face for a moment made her feel stupid; maybe it just wasn't the best of ideas after all. Perhaps it was just ill thought out and now she would seem like an idiot in front of the guy she had thought looked rather decent. She tapped nervously at her thigh and started to bite the inside of her mouth. The soft twittering of birds and rustling of wings seemed to comfort her down, trying to stop her thoughts in their lead. Her father’s voice in the back of her mind whispered to her, replaying the strategy to go find water, it was what her father would do in this situation. The amount of time they had ensured that at least a few of them would find the body of water to drink from, even perhaps bathe in it.

Her thoughts were confirmed from the guy in the tree, the one that she had yet learnt the name of. His voice made her eyebrows crease, he had a slight accent. It wasn't that she had never heard accents in A.S.C.O. before when she was young and had visited with her father on occasions, but his accent threw her off. She hadn't really expected this man to have one, which made her mind whir all the more. She had been trained to pick them out with her father; he had made a game of it when she was younger. They would sit in public places together and he made her pick up their accents; at the beginning she had been absolutely horrendous at it but it was all a game of memory. She had had most accents stored up in her mind by now and she gave him western U.S.A., it just seemed to match him.

Her mouth opened to tell him that of course he would be invited to come with her, she would love nothing more to have his company, but it clamped shut when she saw the rustling up in the trees. Her hand twitched with the gun in it as she pulled the safety off with a soft click and started to increasingly raise her gun. As it started to wrestle with the man's gun that still remained nameless Aiden's brown creased. She knew her aim usually hit dead on but with the guy there, she really didn't want to risk it. What if she hit him accidently? She really didn't want to face the consequences of murdering a man that was trying out for A.S.C.O. with her.

She frowned, her father’s voice screaming at her inside of her mind, telling her to just take the shot. She had some room in case her shot had missed; chances were she wouldn't hit him. She had been shooting guns since the age of seven, her aim was rather good.

With her decision made, her arm blurred up, pointing the Glock at the small imp that she had noticed to be a bit smaller than the others. Her face shot with disgust at the odd creature, she hated all of them. None of them reserved the right to live; their greed disgusted her and their mischievous faces made it worse. She held the same amount of apathy for them as they would hold for her, it was a mutual relationship.

She squeezed the trigger rather than pulled it, something her father had claimed to be quite important when she was younger, to her it just sounded like a quote from some crappy B class movie. But she retained the information regardless; her father's words were law in her books. The kickback hit her almost immediately and she faltered just a bit, her proper stance keeping her upright for the most part. A thump of flesh hitting the ground made her conform that it had been killed but with a glance to the thing she saw it still twitching, hissing and sputtering. But the blood and ichor leaking out of its stomach told her the thing was good as dead.

She took aim once more and shot it in its head, the bullet landing compliantly in place for it was only a few feet away from her. She shook her gun a few times, shaking the smoke off and then stuck it back in her holster for now, looking up at the man on top of her, shooting him a grin, proud of her kill. She noticed the small amount of blood she had got on his clothes and she blushed widely, the grin leaving her face.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get its blood on you . . . I'm sorry!" She yelled up to him, scrounging the clothing on her body to try and find something to offer him as a rag. Unfortunately for her humility and the blood on his face, she had nothing. "Oh god, I really am sorry. . ." She trailed off. "But if you still want we can still go to the river, I can always offer you company, I mean I have forever to waste now, and besides, two shots are better than one, right?" She asked him with a cheesy smile, feeling bad for the small amount of sprayed blood she had got on the man.

She walked forward and picked up the tiny imp, grimacing at its ugly body, wondering if she actually had to haul that thing around. But with no better option she bent down and picked it up, leaning it on her shoulder. She scrunched up her nose from the smell as well as the wet she now felt on her shoulder, its blood seeping out of its body onto hers.

"I mean, only if you want the company, no obligations." She smiled up at him once more, trying to ignore the dead creature on her body.

The imps jumped on Ayo like lightning, and in a second he was down. He couldn’t loosen the grip of the imp holding his legs, and in moments the other imp would be eating his head… He saw for a split second the evil expression (if such creatures had facial expressions, Ayo wasn’t sure) in the leader’s face as he got closer and closer, swinging Ayo’s own blade. How ironic. To be killed by a monster using your own weapon. Ayo was sure the leader, for it was obvious he was the leader, was enjoying it. It was obvious because he was the one who didn’t have to get his hands dirty… Yet.
All these thoughts ran in Ayo’s head for half a second. Now all he thought about was surviving… To become a hunter, a famous hunter, the star of the organization… All that, of course, if he managed to leave the woods alive.
The imp was moving fast from the right towards Ayo’s face…. Too fast, actually. He couldn’t change his direction now even if he wanted to. Ayo reached with his right hand the other short blade, and raised it in the direction of the imp, waiting for the impact with both hands firmly holding to the blade’s handle…
When the monster realized what would happen, he panicked. Ayo saw it in the imp’s eyes, right before its face clashed violently with the sharp blade. The impulse of the imp’s own speed was all it took for a resistant steel to meet a soft, tiny brain. Ayo pushed his hand, and the corpse of the thing fell, with the blade still stuck right in the middle of its eyes.
The imp holding Ayo’s legs seemed surprised, but did not let go. Too bad, Ayo thought. It was time he taught these creatures some manners.
The African man grabbed the ground under his left hand, and pulled out a soft mixture of dirt and grass. Before the imp could do anything, he threw it at its face, hoping it would blind it for a second and let go his legs. If it didn’t work, there would be not much of a body left to bury…

Sniff, sniff

"Smoke? Is someone settin' the forest on fire? That's a good way to get your ass kicked out," Titus said, smelling the smoke. It was after all one of the rules. Not to destroy the testing area or something of the like. Titus wasn't really listening, but he did know the rules. Titus spat to the side and cussed, did none of these kids know that this was a secret organization. How in the hell did they expect it to stay secret if they burn the forests down and yell at each other? Titus snorted, ambling his way towards the direction of the smoke.

"Bleedin' newbies," Titus muttered. He was going to have to kick someones ass, he could see it now. It was probably the fellow with the gas mask. He looked the part of a pyromaniac. Yet, a transmission from his ear bud stopped him cold. It was that hippie, Ol' Johnny. "Looks like some fool set the poor forest alight. Not cool. Whoever did this is disqualified, automatically. Didn't think I saw any fire-based weapons... they wouldn't be particularly effective against imps, anyway, though they seem to be drawn near it. Carmen, did these imps have fire magic?" Now that he said something, Titus didn't remember seeing any fire based weapons either. But still, someone could be trying to smoke the Imps out. A clever ploy to be sure, but not against a petty creature like the Imp.

Titus leaned against the nearest tree and pushed the ear bud in to listen better. "Impossible! Imps, at least this subspecies, are non-magical! Impossible, they could not possibly be attracted to fire, either! Investigate this at-" And the transmission was cut short. Peculiar. Titus took the microphone from his shirt pocket and spoke into it, " 'Ey, where'd ya go boss lady? John? Can anyone pick me out. Dammit," Titus said, sliding the microphone back into his pocket. That was useless now. He wondered what happened. A feeling was beginning to creep up the Aussie's spine. Something was not right in the forest. He held the clipboard under his arm while he removed the USP from his holster and chambered a round. Just in case.

Carmen had asked John to go investigate, even if she was cut off. The hippie probably wouldn't mind a bit of back up. Then Titus began to make his was to the smoke. Before long, he came upon the source. A fiery beast with the legs of a goat and horns. The thing looked like a devil. And it was assaulting one of the newbies. Titus did what any Australian would do.

BANG, BANG, BANG

Titus aimed and fired three times at the creatures back with one hand, the other still clutching the clipboard. He didn't think about what he was doing, he never did. All he had on him was the USP and the M9 bayonet, but that didn't stop the Aussie from making his presence known. "Crikey, you're an ugly fruit loop aren't you?... You're not part of the goddamn test!" Titus said before firing two more rounds at the beast. It didn't matter if the small arms fire was affecting the beast or not, the only thing Titus was trying to do was save the damn new blood's life. The Ifrit had adopted a challenging pose, and if the man was to take it on one-on-one... Well mate, those just aren't good odds. Their targets were the Imps, not this beast. Titus scarcely heard the muffled shots from Bobby's gun, and he only saw a flash of the poison master, Song.

Great, three newbies and him against an Ifrit.

She had to admit, the little guy had a point. Still, it wasn't like there was much she could do about it, so really her options were limited anyway. Netanya stilled, tapping her lower lip with an index finger and giving the matter some thought. Unlike some of the people around here, she wasn't doing this for some revenge scheme, nor did she harbor any more hate for your typical supernatural creature than for anything else that may or may not try to kill you at some point. So... wariness then. She was wary, and a little bit unnerved, but not hateful. Maybe that would be enough? Well, it was worth a try, anyway.

"אני לא צריך להרוג אותך. אם הייתי רוצה, הייתי יכול לתפוס אותך חי. מה קורה אחרי זה לא הדאגה שלי. האם תקבל האתגר שלי?" She replied in the same tongue. "Oh, and if you don't mind, I'd like to switch back to English. You know, just in case someone wanders by and assumes I'm a witch making a contract with you or something. Don't need that." She grinned, wondering if her implications would be fully understood. All the rules said was that she had to bring one of these things back alive, not that it had to remain in the custody of ASCO once she did. Of course, she'd probably rather it did, but all she was doing was presenting an alternative viewpoint. Know thine enemy; in this case, think like a trickster.

A sound reached her ears, and her head turned in the direction it had come from. "That doesn't sound pleasant," she mused aloud. Then again, she had no idea what was going on, and approaching the situation was probably not the smartest idea at the moment. Now when the odd noises had stopped, that was about the point at which she became useful, what with the stitches and the field surgery and the disinfecting and so on.

"Oh right, terms. Hm." She squatted so she was on eye-level with the creature, and thought it over for a second. "Game of riddles, first one to stump the other wins. You win, I let you go, and you can... I dunno, attack me or whatever we were doing before where I run away and you chase. I win, and you have to follow me without protest until such time as it's been confirmed that I've passed my little test deal, and you have to keep your buddies off me, hm? Not too hard for you, I imagine. Of course, what you do after I've passed is entirely up to you." She grinned, cocking her head to one side.

*I do not have to kill you. If I wanted, I could catch you alive. What happens after that is not my concern. Will you accept my challenge?

Netanya

The imp was mildly surprised at the woman's response. As she laid the terms of the game, the imp could not help but grin. True, the imp was not as clever as a Djinn, but his race was still considered one of the craftier demons. it would be entertaining to try his wits against the woman.

"You... are not.. Cruel. Like the other humans. I accept your challenge. I know, as do my brothers and sisters, that we are destined to die, regardless of the results of this hunt. I accept your challenge, human. As they say, ladies first. You may begin."

The imp at first struggled with English. It was a younger language, as opposed to Aramaic, Latin, or Greek. The younger languages were more challenging for the demon's to work with, but it managed well enough. The smells and sounds of the Great One were blatantly obvious now, so the imp thought it would be courteous to answer the implied question.

"What you hear is one of the Great Ones. A powerful force who has been summoned to this world. It is Ifrit, a spirit of Fire and Air. You humans stand little to no chance against such a creature. Only a team of powerful Djinn, or a more advanced Great One may destroy the corporeal shell of the Ifrit. Worry not, this One is not of the Abyss, and is preoccupied at the moment."

The imp fluttered its wings, shifting into a more comfortable position. Already its mind churned, coming up with old and obscure riddles.



Song, Bobby, Jace, and Titus

The original human was apparently not taking the first blow well at all, and before the man could get up and respond, other humans appeared. Two of them thought it wise to shoot at the Ifrit. Fools, did they not know what they were dealing with? A Masked human shot the demon five times in the head, another one with a beard shot the monster in the back. The bullets hardly penetrated the first few layers of tough flesh, and instead melted and dripped off the monster, leaving hardly any damage, comparable to a light scrape. The Ifrit turned to face the newcomers, noticing a fourth human simply watching from the distance.

The Ifrit spoke, its voice sounding like crashing rocks, its hot breath creating heat shimmers, "This was not your fight, humans. Your interruption will not be tolerated!"
In a strange language, the Ifrit spoke to the imp horde. They turned their sights on the non-aggressive human, and began flocking around her. The instructions were to drive her away from the battle. The Ifrit would deal with her later.

Turning his full attention to the two aggressors, the Ifrit raised a clawed hand, summoning a ball of white-hot fire. It tossed this at the masked human, but did not wait to see if contact was made. The monster lowered its large head and charged toward the bearded man, attempting to impale him on one of the large black horns.



Ayo

The leader was not prepared for the human being able to escape the clutches of its fellows, so the new weapon was a complete surprise. The lead imp felt the blade scramble its physical mind, but its spirit quickly retreated to the Other World. It felt the warm, soothing energies of its home, and it retreated into itself to recover.

The other imps, seeing their leader fall so suddenly, began to question the plan. When the human threw dirt at them, they quickly let go and jumped back, savagely hissing and flaring their wings. It was not worth fighting this human any longer, so they decided to join their brothers with the Great One. They would all die in this place; they all knew it and could feel the poison in their blood. Some of the imps wanted revenge, the others accepted they would die. The two that held the dark hunter wanted vengeance, but they knew their chances were better with the Great One. With a final howl, they flew off, leaving the bloody corpse of their one-time leader for the human.



Aiden and Jason

The poor imp, so young and only wanting to learn more about the strange beings that were around at the time of its birth, felt crippling agony as a loud noise cut through the forest. The imp fell from the tree, feeling another spike of intense pain as its body crashed into the hard ground. It saw one of the humans standing over it with a strange tool in its hand. Then, all was silent, and the imp felt the soothing energies of its true home. The material world was harsh and dangerous, and the strange creatures there were dangerous. If the imp ever returned to the physical plain, it would be more careful around the strange bipedal creatures.



Brennus

The newcomer was indeed an Ifrit, and Brennus watched it carefully from a safe distance. Titus and one of the new hunters attacked it, and Brennus made sure to note that the new hunter was the first to attack. Whether this was due to immense bravery or immense recklessness was yet to be determined, but Brennus could not help but feel impressed with the hunter. He made sure to note this under Estacado And then kept watching. It did not look good for the young hunter, as the Ifrit summoned a powerful fireball. Titus seemed to be in trouble as well. Those horns gave off immense heat, and the demon moved quickly, considering its size. The way Brennus figured, there were only a few possible outcomes. Either one of the new hunters had immense knowledge of summoning, and would be able to conjure up another Ifrit or even a Marid to fight against this Ifrit, or all the hunters would die. Of course, they could also kill the Ifrit, provided they discovered a way to weaken it. The monster was impervious to all but the strongest firearms.... as far as Brennus knew, nobody had brought strong enough weaponry. This would be interesting...