After some time, everyone gathered in Astrin's room. Ciylia just wanted to get this over with but wondered what their trial would be. She naturally assumed it would be to kill some monster but then again it could have been a bake-off for all she knew.

"Welcome," yelled Mistress Astrin in a grandiose voice. "Today we will see if you will join our home as true members of ze Erend 'unt!"

The thief rolled her eyes and notice that Meowlynn did the same. Both elves hated this kind of theatrical crap, they were both here for the money, and if possible a bit of fame. Fame didn't interest Ciylia as much as Meowlynn because normally thieves liked to remain unknown except for a moniker the public gave them. Still, fame would grant the thief a chance to get closer to juicier targets with less suspicion.

"Now will everyone please follow me," Astrin gleefully hummed.

The Jellybeans made their way towards her, "Except for you." The lady of the hunt pointed at Blaine. "You 'ave not done a job under an official contract so you are not allowed to participate my dear. Don't worry, I'll 'ave someone come and cast some magic so you can still 'atch, no?"

That was a disappointment, Ciylia wanted to see how everyone else reacted when they watched Blaine's blood literally ignite into flames. It didn't really matter to her one way or the other, she was still going to perform well and that was what was important.

Astrin led the group to a long winding staircase that went down into a basement. As they walked, torches along the rounded walls lit right before they were engulfed in darkness. Halfway down Mistress Astrin turned to the group, "Zis is where I leave you. Keep going down and enter ze main trial area. You will 'ave to wait for further instructions. Good luck!" The lady of the hunt whistled to herself as she walked back up the stairs.

Aliya nervously hid behind Kira when Astrin left. The thief really didn't like that gnome but she endured her so that the healing magic would come when Ciylia needed it. Kira at least had a cute rivalry thing going for her, the law paired with the outlaw. It was a dynamic Ciylia was growing fond of. Gene continued to march forward into the semi-darkness, even though he was a good guy, he understood that Ciylia was a necessary evil the group needed, not that Ciylia saw herself as evil. Meowlynn was Meowlynn, she had her likable side which made her want Ciylia's true love, gold, but she also had a very annoying side with her holier-than-thou bullshit. Fern was growing on her, as his name suggested. He was easy to manipulate because he craved everyone's approval for some stupid reason.

Finally, they reached the bottom of the staircase. The room was pitch black but thanks to Ciylia's ability to see in the darkness, she could see they were in a large rectangular room with some big shadowy figure looming in the back. Once everyone was standing on the sand, all sources of light were extinguished. A blue light appeared in the middle of the room, then that light grew taller and wider before making the shape of a man.

The man was huge, wearing a giant pelt over his shoulders. The pelt looked like a dire wolf with arrows shot inside of it. The image had a long beard that was braided in many places with some sort of bone also being used as decoration within it. His hair was long and wavy but his face was stern. A long scar ran across the left side of his face and the eyes had no pupils as if the image was blind. Finally, Ciylia noticed he had a giant axe in his right hand with a short sword and shield strapped to his back. A belt of daggers hung from his waist with a hand axe on either side of his hips.

"Welcome," spoke the image of a man. "Jellybeans, you are here today to test your skills and be judged if you are worthy of joining our ranks within the Hunt. The Hunt, if you are not aware, is an organization within Asmir meant to protect the country from monsters and creatures that would plague it."

Blind eyes slowly scanned the group, lingering only on Gene. "We are not only within Erend, we have other locations as well such as Cadamem and Hallow Wind Harbor. Your test today is one of combat. We will be observing your teamwork and decision-making. As well as how well can your team react to certain situations." The image's eyes locked on to Gene, a shiver went down Ciylia's spine. The pressure that this figure made of light created was immense. She couldn't even imagine what Gene must have felt.

"Now let your trial begin," the deep voice announced.

Torches ignited around the room, revealing a crouching two-headed giant at the end of the room. The beast stood up and lumbered forward. Its skin was slightly gray and it was naked save for the skirt it wore made of leathers and furs. Some skulls of humanoids and wild animals were tied onto it. The heads resembled that of orcs and they even had tusk-like teeth that stuck out of their mouths. Both heads shared an animal tooth necklace. Each hand was armed with a different weapon, in his right hand was a morningstar, a giant metal ball with spikes attached to a chain that was attached to a giant metal club. In its left hand was a giant battleaxe made of nice metal.

The giant garbled some words towards the group. "He says that he's looking forward to seeing our strength," yelled Kira.

"You speak giant?!" Fern's expression was priceless but it showed the same confusion that Ciylia had on the inside.

"Yeah," the halfling stated as if it was something so obvious.

Ciylia noticed that Gene didn't seem to care as he ran forward to face the hulking two-headed man. As Gene ran towards the giant, it swung its morningstar at the monk. Gene jumped as he twisted in the air, avoiding the attack. Then, he quickly sidestepped to his right and evaded the axe slamming into the spot he once stood.

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"I'll distract him," called out Gene. "The rest of you pelt him with everything you have."

With that, the rest of the party went into action. Ciylia fired an arrow towards an eye of the giant but it was blocked by the monster lifting up its axe as a shield. Kira then shot her own arrow into the now-exposed armpit of the giant.

Meowlynn moved towards the creature and stretched out her arms in front of her, she touched her thumbs together and created a cone or pyramid shape with the palms of her hands and her fingers stretched out. A wave of fire erupted from her hands and seemed to consume Gene and the legs of the giant. What the hell was Meowlynn thinking?

As the flames died down, the monk was still swiftly moving through the sand dodging any attack that came his way without a singe on his clothing. Fern transformed into a bear and stampeded forward only to be swatted away by the morningstar swinging wildly. Aliya whispered something and clutched on to a new necklace that Ciylia hadn't noticed until now, it looked expensive. A small green light traveled to Fern and healed some of the holes the morningstar made in his bear form.

The giant swung his axe at Gene and the monk dashed under it and jumped onto the handle. He then smashed his foot into the monster's thumb causing it to let go of the blade. It was at this point, the giant started saying something again. To Ciylia, the words simply sounded like grunting and growling but not to Kira.

"He says he yields," Kira's small high pitched voice traveled around the room.

"Hold your attacks," commanded Gene. "Kira, tell him to drop his weapons and to kneel."

Kira opened her mouth and instead of her sweet caring voice, a deep guttural sound came out. It sounded like she became a heavy-set man who had lost all his intelligence. After the disturbing noises stopped coming from the halfling ranger's throat, the giant dropped his morningstar creating a big cloud of sand. Gene stood facing the two-headed creature and once the cloud dissipated, the giant kneeled. The Jellybean's leader then walked closer and patted the giant in the legs.

"I never planned to kill you. I know you weren't captured just for us to have a trial," Gene's soft voice made the giant grin with both sets of its teeth. "You have the ability to think for yourself and no monster with yield unless it thought it could make a sneak attack on its attackers before it died."

Kira translated her leader's words and the beast replied back.

"Astrin is my friend," translated Kira. "She thinks you are good people. Brave and mighty people. Now you show you are merciful."

"Welcome to ze 'Unt!" Astrin's voice surprised everyone. She was standing at the bottom of the staircase slowly clapping. "Zanks for not killing my friend."

More footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. Two people ran past the party and went to the giant's aid. They began casting healing magic on his roasted legs.

"If you 'ould please follow me." Mistress Astrin led the Jellybean back upstairs.

The group entered her study yet again, a flame roaring in the fireplace. "It's time for ze final part of ze initiation." The lady of the hunt went over to the fireplace and grabbed an iron rod with some sort of design on it.

"Exactly what are we going to do?" Aliya looked like she was going to faint. The thief didn't blame her though, Ciylia wasn't too thrilled when her log thieves guild branded her. She instinctively touched her wrist, there hidden under her wrist guard was her brand. It looked like a hood with daggers on either side making it seem like the hood had wings.

"A simple brand," replied Astrin. "At least simple in the getting it part. The brand itself 'as a magical property that allows 'unt contracts and other masters of the 'unt to recognize you as a 'unter and your current status within the 'Unt."

"And what is our current status," inquired Meowlynn.

"After zis, you'll be Recruits," answered Astrin. "Now who shall go first?"

To no one's surprise, Gene stepped forward. Only fitting, leaders should always suffer first for their team, at least that was what Ciylia thought. He stood in front of Astrin, her tall muscled frame covered in dark colours and furs appeared to loom over him.

"Remove your shirt and knell," demanded Astrin. She made her way to the fireplace, as she placed the branding iron into the flames they turned green. After a few moments, she walked back to the shirtless monk. "Brace yourself, zis will 'urt a lot. Try not to bite your tongue."

The woman then plunged the iron into his shoulder, Gene screamed in pain but didn't pass out. Sweat was pouring from his face as he staggered to his feet. In fact, sweat covered his whole chest as well making his abs glisten in the fire, it was not an unwelcome sight. He turned around to pick up his top, wincing a bit from the pain. With the brand now in full view, the center of it looked like the face of a barn owl with elk antlers producing from the top of its head. The head was surrounded by a circle of twigs or vines with some sort of lily resting at the top of the circle, between the antlers. The skin around it still sizzled and the smell was unpleasant.

"Fern, you are next," smiled Astrin as she beckoned him with her finger.

"Why me?"

"I want to get ze men done first so ze ladies can 'ave a bit of privacy." Astrin was already preparing the branding iron again. "Quickly now, on your knees."

Fern did as he was told, his very thin frame looked very frail compared to Gene's. He pulled his long silver hair over his left shoulder as Astrin had just melted Gene's right. Astrin walked over and placed the iron onto his skin and within seconds, he passed out. Gene grabbed him and carried him out of the room so that the women could take off their tops in peace.

Kira went next, as she took her shirt off, everyone could see the bandages around her chest but she didn't remove them, there was plenty of space for the brand. Meowlynn hesitated about it but removed her top to reveal her perfect breasts, of course, they were perfect. Ciylia followed suit revealing that the clothes she wore made her breast look bigger than they were.

Aliya then spoke, "Is it okay if I go last? I'm not comfortable being topless in front of all of you."

"Zat is fine," said Astrin and started branding people. Kira passed out after her branding but endured during it. Ciylia handled it fine as this was her second time to experience this kind of pain and she knew what to expect. Meowlynn also handled it well, probably because her favoured type of magic was fire.

"Well, I always wanted a shoulder tattoo," laughed the perfect elf. "I always thought they were sexy."

After everyone was dressed, Aliya dressed Kira, the women left Aliya in the room with Astrin. Meowlynn and Ciylia each took Kira by an arm and dragged her to a bed to rest. Some other people from the Hunt also were in the barracks and clapped for their new recruits and offered some ointments for the burns.

Screaming could be heard and then suddenly cut off and a few moments later, Astrin walked into the barracks holding Aliya. "Drinks at ze Leaky Tap are on me tonight. Let's 'elcome our new recruits with style."

Everyone cheered. "I'll see you all tonight," grinned Astrin. "Welcome to our family."