Aiyana's A Rank Exam

Aiyana had never spoken to Hikari Starr, the new Guild Master of the Sabertooth Guild, ever since she had joined the guild. When she had first come Raven had been in charge, the woman's absence putting Hikari up for promotion to lead the Guild; which she seemed to be doing perfectly well, and would probably do for a long time to come.

It was at the request of the person she was thinking about that she was heading towards the Guild Masters office. She wasn't sure why she was to be heading there, but there she went none the less! In all of the jobs she had done, many had been with people whom called Sabertooth home. Ardere; the Flame God Slayer, Mei and Mao; her two best friends, as well as a couple others; some of which had left the guild for others or whom were unheard from for a while. Her body was different than when she had first joined, though many now recognized the nine tailed fox celestial spirit as who the mage really was. She still worried about Mao, the poor woman still not remembering anything about her even after their last job together. The mission had been awkward, though it had allowed her to meet Zack; the good looking Guild Master of Blue Pegasus. She would have to visit there one day, see how they all were. The fox ears twitched as she thought about getting to know him, tails wrapped around each other swinging happily at another conversation with him.

Thoughts would need to end for a bit, the doorknob to the Guild Master's office having a hand placed over it as the vixen knocked softly before entering. "You requested my presence Hikari?" The girl was quieter than normal. After all, it wasn't often your Guild Master just requested you to show up to their office.

Ah, another exam. Was it already time for another one? It hadn't felt like it had been that long ago that Kihia had done the same thing to her. A new guild, another exam. 'Well, let's hope not every exam is in a different guild...' Aiyana planned on staying with Sabertooth permanently, barring any insane changes that take place, and loved the people that were in the guild that she had met thus far. The young woman would watch and listen to Hikari as she spoke, detailing the first trial of her exam; including how it could be failed. Once finished, a simple turn and snap of the Guild Master's fingers would bring forth a portal on the wall, the portal that would bring her to the beginning of trial number one. ”Thanks, I'll start right now!” The words would be said with a smile on her face, the nine tailed fox spirit charging through the portal to begin the challenge she had been given.

Stepping through the portal brought her to exactly what she had been described as. The area was circular, a door in each direction to make the place look like the inside of a compass. Trees were scattered about, creating mini-forest patches, with grass across the entire area. Near the middle was a single, wooden, crate that reached up to about three feet. Walking up to it would show food rations inside, individually wrapped to preserve them for a long period of time. It seemed like enough for a few days, which was the time limit anyway, so she opened up one that said 'breakfast' and bit into it. The taste of granola and dried fruit wasn't the best, the rations obviously not made for the personal enjoyment of those eating them, but it would tide her over for quite a while. After all, the woman really didn't really need to eat save for when she exerted herself; the celestial body not actually needing it to survive.

”Well I guess I should try and start figuring out this maze, right?” The vixen spoke aloud to no one, as there was not a soul around to speak with, before she headed towards the north door. The massive opening was obviously made of metal, the entirety of the maze that she could see from there being made of the same colored material as well. Not wanting to waste any time the Sabertooth mage began a sprint that would put most out of breath pretty quickly. An increased speed due to her magic, and not needing to breathe because of her body being celestial, allowed to to run through without needing to stop except for to think about where to go next. Such a stop happened after about an hour, when she realized that she had managed to find her way back to the glades; though she entered it from the east door instead of the north she had began in. 'Well, I don't know how I managed to get myself so mixed up in that... I didn't even make any right turns! Maybe I should use my bandages as a trail to keep from doing that again...'

A brisk walk, not feeling like running until she went into the maze, would bring her back in front of the north door. ”Okay! Day One, attempt two! Here we go!” As the word 'go' was yelled the woman darted off into a sprint, her right arm out behind her to release bandages as she ran. The magical holder item would never run out, becoming an endless spool of white linen wrappings that could be used for any task. Such a use was amazing for a task such as this, especially when the maze was sure to be much larger due to her being the 'pencil' drawing its way out. The Binding Bandage mage took a right from the start, running all the way through each time she turned so that her only option was to turn right. If there was no right turn she would double back to the closest one and take that instead. It was slowly starting to get dark, the place quiet save for her useless breath and the wind blowing from over the high walls; walls much to high for her to climb over. The woman needed to get back soon, else she would have to face whatever terrifying trap her Guild Master had hinted at if she didn't make it to the glade by nightfall.

It was too late to double back, so the woman continued to run until she found herself walking up to the entrance of the glade. There was no trace of a bandage, meaning all max range right turns led to this door when starting north. It was odd, however, that the west door would be all right turns when it felt she had turned right enough to be coming in from either the east or south sides. A 'humph' noise would leave from pressed lips as she heard a grinding noise all around her; the sound of the doors closing. Not wanting to remain close to the grating sound, the vixen moved towards the food in the middle and decided to grab a bite to eat before she ended day one with sleep until the doors opened again. Once the doors were fully closed, and she had finished chewing what felt like some kind of jerky mixed with honey, she laid herself down on the ground; her tails being used as a soft bed and pillow so she could rest well atop the ground. The rest she desired never came, the sound of screeches and the clacking of some kind of metal reaching her ears throughout the entire night. It was no doubt what Hikari had warned her about, creatures that came out at night. It was a good thing the doors closed at night, else the nocturnal beasts could nab whomever lay here in their sleep at any time.

Daybreak seemed to take ages to get there, though when it did the noises stopped. A sigh of relief would leave her lips as she stood carefully to her feet, the woman fretting over not being able to take a shower and fuss with her hair; the lack of a comb making the last part impossible. A simple running of a hand through her hair and fur was all she would do before she walked up to the north entrance yet again, a gasp leaving her lips as eyes widened as far as they could go with the look of shock the mage made. Over night the creatures she heard must have torn through the bandages she had laid out. Pieces were EVERYWHERE, thrown about with careless abandon to the point where she would never be able to follow the trail. Luckily her days work had only been right turns, meaning she really didn't need the bandages to remember where she had gotten to the day before.

”I'll just have to remember which way I went this time, since they won't let me get away with leaving a trail to follow.” With that day two's exploration would start, the woman running off and starting with a single left turn. The sound of her feet hitting the ground is all she heard for hours, until she suddenly stopped as she made her way through the entrance to the glades yet again. How? How had she made it back to the North entrance? She had gone each direction and turned in specific paths, how could they all lead to a different entrance that made no sense? The distraught woman sat down for a moment to think, another hour of light passing before she realized that the maze was magically charged. 'That means no matter what I can't go through the north, any turn I make there will just end up with me back here!'

With the epiphany made the fox girl would stand up and walk her way towards the southern door. Not a single one of the turns she had made in her three trips had ended up with the B rank mage coming back through that door. Surely it had to be the proper way out of the place, or at least lead her to a different part of the maze than what she had seen so far! With that said the fox eared mage began to make her way through the maze using that exit. She left a trail of bandages to follow back to, not wanting to get stuck out here at night, as she made left turns the entire time. It seemed like forever of making those turns, never once finding her bandages or an exit, before she turned to look behind herself. A small backtrack would reveal she had, in fact, been running in place after the first turn, the magic of the maze making the space she was in feel like the girl was moving as her legs tried to.

A defeated grunt left her lips as she rolled up the bandages to her hand, walking towards the entrance that was but a few feet of a walk away, and making her way to the food to eat a few of the ration packets with reckless abandon. The mage was upset, having fallen prey to a simple enchantment that she hadn't even seen with here ability to see through illusions. The loud sound of the doors closing would be heard as she remained lost in thought, not happy with how the start of her exam had begun. After waking up there would only be one day left to finish this trial of it, which meant she couldn't come back when it started to get dark. That also meant she would have to deal with the unknown creatures that lurked out in the dark as well. The thought made her shiver, the thought of being alone AND with an unknown assailant, or multiple of them, struck her heart with a chord of fear; the girl hated being alone you see. Sleep was easier to come by on the second night, having gone almost forty eight hours without her body getting any rest, as she quickly fell asleep within moments of the doors closing completely.

The girl was startled awake, the nightmare she had been going through bringing her eyes to look directly into the first light; blinding herself for a few moments in the process. Her nightmare had been silly, something involving angry clowns on motorcycles, and she simply shrugged it off onto the large amount of the rations she had eaten before going to sleep the night before. Looking into the food crate would reveal just two rations left, her binge eating the night before taking out most of them. Eating both, as she was not going to be coming back here ever again, the woman would begin making her way back to the south exit again. ”All right, we know the left has nothing in it, which means I HAVE to go right to get out of here!” The lesson from last night had been a hard one, wasting plenty of time she could have used to get out of here quicker than she was going to now. It was too late to think about it though, she needed to get this trial finished successfully!

Her run, after starting to the right, went on in a straight line that seemed to go on forever. Not a single turn could be made, unless she wanted to turn one hundred and eighty degrees and head back; something she thought about doing until she realized that there was an opening up ahead. Speeding up as fast as her legs would go, tails shipping around slightly in the air as she did so, the woman broke through into a wide open area, pillars lining up like soldiers spread apart at arms length. Her movement stopped as she felt the ground under her shift downward, her foot having stepped on a large pressure plate to start something she was not looking forward to. Walls rose up from the ground, the pillars being the points where the walls could connect. Once all the walls were up they began to move, meaning an ever changing maze that had the chance of crushing her if she mistimed any movement through it.

The nine tailed fox spent a good half hour walking up and down from the front, watching each individual door that she could see to make out a pattern. It seemed there was none, all of it random, which meant she would just have to clear through and figure out the way out on the way. With that decided she ran in once the wall before her shifted. A turn right, the only way through, would quickly close to reveal a way to her left; the path in front of her closing towards her. Running left would bring her in the clear for a few moments until a wall began to rise up from the ground a few feet away. It would have been impossible for most to jump over, though the bandage mage had one bonus to her magic that most didn't. A bandage shot out from her left hand as she jumped, the cloth striking the top of the wall and wrapping around the corner to allow her to pull herself up and over to come down on the other side unharmed. There was no time to gloat, however, as a wall on each side was closing in on her, the tailed woman barely making it through the gap in time as the tips of her tails brushed the edges to both walls. Once she had passed by those walls she could see a large hole in the wall that seemed to be man made. Jumping over another wall that had just began to pop up, the woman rolled into the entrance. As she stood, the hole surprised her by closing with a hidden door, the click of it locking meaning she was now trapped inside the room she had found.

”Well, at least there's some soft light in here. Would have sucked to be stuck in absolute darkness when inside a maze.” The Sabertooth A rank exam taker made her way slowly through the soft lighted room, almost dropping into the massive hole in the floor before suddenly stopping. The dark floor had almost made it impossible to see the hole until the last moment, the woman breathing out slowly to calm herself as she made her way around it. That breath, somehow, woke something far above her; a shriek piercing through the room that sounded just like the ones she had heard each night thus far. Looking up would reveal a nightmarish creature looking back down at her. Half machine, half.....bug? The beast let go of the ceiling to try and drop down on its prey before it could get away. Aiyana ran forward, screaming slightly at the sudden thing, before the weight of the creature made a slamming noise against the ground she had been in but moments before. A half turn would show the monster giving chase, metal legs letting it slowly creep up on her even as she sprinted towards what appeared to be a closed door; the same shape as the one she had arrived to this room in. Arriving at the door revealed that it wouldn't open for her, the girl turning around to prepare herself for avoiding the attacks of the beast coming towards her. The white hairs of the creature shifted as the eyeless monster swung two clawed appendages at her, Aiyana's response being to draw her Khopesh and slice through one as she dodged in the same direction as it. A yellow ooze bled from the wound as the limb fell to the ground, the creature ignoring the pain to swing at her again. The bug-robot thing found it unable to move the naturally hooked weapon as it found bandages wrapped around the entirety of it, a nine tailed fox spirit charging towards it with a weapon raised to strike. A metal leg blocked the khopesh, the wrapped appendage pulling on the bandages to flip Aiyana up and almost over the creature. The woman had to count her blessings, especially those that were among the items she had with her. The hat allowed to to regain her balance, feet being place atop the creature before she stabbed straight down into its back and dragged the weapon through as she jumped back down to the floor. A even more primal screech was let loose before the creature fell to the ground, in the same fashion one would watch a spider die. A relieved breath left her, just before the nausea and dizziness hit. Looking down at her leg, a slight scratch could be seen bleeding lightly down her leg. If the poison had been strong enough to do this with that scratch, Aiyana could only fathom what would have happened if she had taken a full pierce of the metal legs.

The closed door made a loud beep, three of them to be exact, which made her turn around quickly to see what was going on. With the beeps finished, the kerchunk sound of a large lock coming loose could be heard before the door slowly opened up to reveal a portal like the one she had taken inside of Hikari Starr's office days ago. Could this be it? The end of the maze she had spent almost a half a week on trying to figure out? There was but one way to find out, to walk through. A slow, testing, step would put her leg through, the portal pulling the rest of her unexpectedly with it. The end result was for the woman to land on her back inside of the Guild Master's office, legs spreading out completely as her small dress lifted up into quite the view for those that had wandering eyes.

Kiersa blinked as a fox girl in a revealing kimono suddenly appeared in front of her... exposing herself to her view. The blonde nun gave a small eep before covering her eyes. "V-Vulpecula! I th-thought I t-told you n-not to do that!" she squeaked, her face going crimson before she looked through her fingers and blinked.

"Y-You're... You're not Vulpecula..." she said softly before averting her gaze so her eyes wouldn't wander down to the show being put on in front of her. "Apologies... you look very similar to her, and... never mind. I'm Kiersa Bec, one of Sabertooth's Paragons and..." She said before beginning to rummage around Hikari's desk for a moment. "Hold on... where did she put it... no, that's not it..." Kiersa muttered as she shifted through the papers on the Guild Master's desk.

"No that's not... wait... I told her to sign this a week ago! That little... urgh! Right, sort that out later... ah, here we are." said the blonde nun as she collected a note. "Hikari got called away on some business a couple of days ago and left this message concerning your exam Miss Shuer, which I am now to handle the rest of. Do you require any medical treatment or do you think you'll be alright?" Kiersa asked her, nodding at the injury on the woman's leg.

A strange name would be squeaked out in a strange voice as she slowly made her way to standing up. Even as she did so, the stranger speaking apologized before explaining her mistake and then introducing herself. So she was the Paragon of Selflessness! She was so young! And dressed like a nun...did that mean she kept that faith as well? That was too bad, she was really pretty and would likely keep that beauty as an adult. 'She would be the master of so many men if she so chose to go that way.' The amusing thought rang through her head as the other began looking for something before finally finding it. So Hikari was out on business, and the only current Paragon would be taking over for the rest.

A nod of her head to show her understanding would be made, her hair moving with the nod even as her ears wiggled slightly, before looking down at her own leg where she had been cut. ”I should be fine, my body heals pretty quickly now that it's that of a Celestial Spirit's. I'm ready for the next part of the exam without waiting, accept for maybe a shower once I know what I need to do for it.” Three days on your own, with no way of cleaning, were not fun; not one bit. A good shower and a change of clothes would need to be had once her mission was made clear.

The blonde nun blinked as the woman made her statement. "You're... You're part Celestial Spirit?" asked Kiersa as she inspected the woman from head to toe. "How does that work... I mean, do you have a Key or something?" she asked, genuinely curious before her eyes widened in fear. "If you've got a key and lose it... someone could find it and then try to make you do stuff..." said the blonde nun as she bit her lip in concern.

The girl before her was quite surprised at the small bit of information. Questions were asked, and she should probably answer them with how Kiersa was looking at her. "Yeah, Mei and I went on a job together a short while after the two I did with Ardere. The job had us fight a Celestial Spirit that had broken a contract and been banned from their realm to stop her from causing problems. Her dying breath was to switch bodies with me as a last attempt at ruining lives. It was strange at first, and panic inducing when I started to run out of magical energy for a bit. I made a contract with Mei, the only friend that I trusted with it. She has the only key of mine right now, though I believe I could do more if I so wished." A paused would be made so Kiersa could register everything. Not needing to breathe, the nine tailed fox could just continuously speak if she so wished to.

"Losing a key...that would be interesting. There's not much I am really up against...The only thing I would refuse is killing someone or some other illegal activity against others." Her ears would twitch slightly as she wiggled all of her tails as she awaited a response from the only current Ace of the guild.

I have come to an understanding Aiyana's exam was handed to Jaffa unfortunately as they are the same rank that is not allowed the examiner needs to be one rank above the examee Hikachu needs to do the exam or a ace of A rank or higher.

I am passing this as there is no other ace and guildmaster is unavailable congrats Aiyana you are now A rank have fun