01.35 - Fun and Games

“He… he is not dead, is he?” asked Vega, both palms covering her mouth.

The mood of the hunter exam watch party had gone from cheerful to shocked in an instant.

Seconds earlier, they were rooting for Luc and speculating on his new position on the scoreboard after the individual trials concluded. Then the stream on the Wired showed him taking aim, immediately followed by the evaluator's weapon shattering, an explosion, a knockback, and a pool of blood.

“If he were dead, they would not have shown it at all,” said Aqua with a calmness that seemed to put the group at ease again.

Before she had finished the sentence, the screen showed the two healers arriving at the unresponsive evaluator's body. The Body Creation and Transmutation spells they used proved effective immediately. New flesh grew on all parts of his semi-detached shoulder, his bones regrew, blood vessels sprouted and merged with the existing network.

Soon after, the evaluator regained consciousness, coughed up blood, and stared at the dark specter that had almost parted him from the world of the living.

A wave of relief washed over the observers, a few of them exhaling the breath they didn’t realize they had been holding.

“Told you,” said Aqua. “The exam isn’t all fun and games; there is a reason for the age restriction and the one-hour delay.”

“I hope my sister will be okay,” said Merope, her voice still audibly shaken from witnessing the last fight.

“Electra should be fine,” said Aqua. “But there are always participants with more ambition than sense. The examinations usually don’t have any casualties; the final field tests, on the other hand, tend to weed out some of the less fortunate. But not on my watch.”

“On your watch?” asked Merope.

“The field tests take place in the ruler’s territories, and it is the intermediary's job to help with the setup and oversee the exam. Up till now, I’ve managed to heal or otherwise resuscitate the more foolish participants thrown my way. Exams taking place in other territories usually don’t go as smoothly. Terra tends to do her best to minimize casualties. Those tested under Ignis' watch are often not as lucky. This year will be Aer’s turn, a mixed bag at best and…”

She was interrupted by the sound of Cuddles opening and munching a bag of potato chips.

“...you know we just had pizza,” Aqua pivoted.

“Not my fault,” complained Cuddles. “Bubbles and Puddles ate the last slices with chili peppers before I could get to it.”

“You’ll get fat, you know?” she said.

“Foo,” Cuddles countered after he washed it down with another sip of apple juice. “I am still growing!”

“More to cuddle,” said Vega after embracing him. She placed Cuddles in her lap and gently patted him.

Cuddles let out a content hum, while his body was painted in a cascade of rainbow hues.

“Anyway,” said Aqua. “Point is, there is a reason for the delay, and they won’t show it on the Wired if anyone actually ends up dead. Your sister should be fine; she’d be the highest-rated participant if it weren’t for our nine little monsters.”

“Speaking of ratings,” Kass said, while pointing to the screen. “They are done with the individual combat examinations.”

The Wired stream showed the new ordering of participants.

The new score showed Hannah, under the alias ‘Oktavia’, was still in the number one spot, with Sascha following up as ‘Hexia’.

Luc, under the name ‘Oudeis’, had advanced to third place, followed by Mirai as ‘Dualys’, Gabe as ‘Heison’, and Uriah as ‘Penteus’.

Electra’s rating took a hit, leaving her in seventh place, followed by Rafe under the name of ‘Heptarus’, Rogue as ‘Treian’, and finally Rem as ‘Tessara’ to close out the top ten.

Imbrius, Sarpedon, and Glaucus kept their positions in eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth place.

The other participants were left in the dust by quite a point gap.

The anchormen kept discussing the results, teasing a ‘best of’ compilation once the current segment was done.

The following clips showed three identical copies of Hannah, clouded in black miasma, working together to knock out her evaluator.

Sascha’s fight wasn’t nice to watch either. You know catgirls fight for real if they start grabbing and clawing, and there's a lot of hissing, growling, screeching, and blood flying around.

The impact of Luc's sniping and artillery did not need a refresh.

Mirai outmaneuvered her opponent at every step, glimpsing just long enough into the future to evade tricky attacks, then instantly switching to a counter-offense while her spell effect was on downtime.

Her brother Gabe toyed with his examiner, evading every close-combat attempt with a quick position exchange before ending the match by dropping his opponent from a height of about three meters.

Uriah caught his opponent in a quagmire and knocked him out cold.

Merope’s older sister Electra had to give up some spots in the ranking, but her combination of long-ranged chain lightning and paralyzing shocks in close combat earned her a well-deserved seventh place.

Rafe, on the other hand, did not enjoy his fight, stayed on the defensive, and outmaneuvered his opponent, using his blades of compressed air mostly in self-defense.

Rogue’s fight went similarly, but the motivation behind it was different. He visibly enjoyed messing with the evaluator's senses, not claiming an early victory but prolonging the play on his terms.

As for Rem’s examination, she always stayed on the defensive, with good use of ice walls and slippery ground.

Imbrius, Sarpedon, and Glaucus' matches were less visually impressive, but all showed a mastery of close-range combat and conventional but effective use of fire, plant, and water Creation and Manipulation.

There were some highlights among the other contestants, but the clips were few and far between.