ꜱᴛᴜᴄᴋ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴍᴇ- ᴋɪʟʟᴜᴀ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ [OLD]

22- 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵

"I sincerely apologize for the long wait." Beans said over the intercom. "The airship will be arriving shortly." I got up and stretched my legs. I was a bit nervous, but I just shook my head, as though all negative thoughts would disappear that way. I walked to the entrance of the airship and took a deep breath in.

"You nervous?" Quinn asked. I just nodded. "Ah, don't be. I know you're gonna pass!" They giggled.

"Ya really think so?" I smiled nervously.

"Yup! I'm not sure what this phase will contain, but I think you'll do pretty alright. I'm gonna try my best to be with you." They punched my shoulder lightly, trying to encourage me.

"Thanks, Quinn." I hugged them. They hesitated for a moment but hugged me back.

The airships doors opened and we had taken this as the okay to get out and walk around. We were on a small platform that was very high up in the air. I glanced around, awaiting instructions. "Everyone, this is the site of the hunter exam's third phase." Beans cleared his throat. "You'll be competing here at the top of Trick Tower. In order to pass this phase, you must reach the base of this tower alive. The time limit is 72 hours. And with that, the exam's third phase will now begin."

I nodded. There were assorted conversations everywhere. "So how do you think we should get down?" Quinn asked. Gon just shrugged.

"No idea." I sighed. I looked around at the area surrounding us. If we weren't so high up in the air, it'd be a really nice day. Unfortunately, we could die if we slipped from this height so it wasn't as nice as I expected it to be.

"Alright, everyone! Do your best." Beans cheered through the PA system. Gon leaned over and looked at the drop. He let out a small gasp.

"Now what? Are we supposed to climb down?" Leorio asked.

"Well, I'd hope not. That would be suicide." Kurapika sighed. I nodded. 

A man behind us chuckled. "Sure, for most people." The man appeared to be dressed in attire that was suitable for rock climbing. He began to climb down the rocky pillar.

"Sir, I don't think that's a very good idea. If you slip, you could die from this height!" I said, incredibly worried.

"Hey, I'm an expert rock climber. This is gonna be a piece of cake!" He retorted. I sighed, knowing he'd probably be fine and I was just worrying over nothing. 

"Oh wow," Killua said, sounding quite unimpressed.

"Look how fast he's going!" Gon seemed excited, but at the same time didn't.

The rock climber was doing pretty well until the sound of a heavy wind filled our ears. "Hey, what's that noise?" I asked.

"Sounds like wings," Quinn noted. "But that's gotta be one big bird if we can hear it from here without seeing it." Suddenly, several large, red creatures with wings swooped in. One of them flew upwards and ate the rock climber, who was screaming quite loudly. I fell onto the platform we were all forced on in fear.

"What the hell are those things?" I shouted, pointing at the one who flew above us. The strange creatures flew away.

"So I guess we can't climb down..." Leorio whimpered. "Not this way at least."

"Hmm...How interesting." Quinn smiled. "These beasts must've been trained to eat us if we want to climb down. So that means they want us to find some other way down."

I sighed. I was not prepared to flee from giant, red, bird creatures that looked like ugly babies.

After a bit of waiting, I had noticed some people tapped on the tiles that made up Trick Tower. Kurapika stepped on one and looked around. I didn't pay this any mind and I just kept standing there for a little while. I wasn't too sure what I was supposed to do, but I knew this was not working.

"Kurapika, Leorio,Quinn!" Gon shouted, which brought my attention back to the people I was with. Maybe they had figured something out about this whole ordeal. The three other people rushed from where they were previously standing.

"What is it Gon?" Kurapika asked after running.

"Look at this! We found a trap door, check it out!" Gon knelt down and lightly pushed on the crack. It went down and went back up when Gon removed his hand.

"I see. So the only way that we can reach the lower levels is by turning over these stones." Kurapika observed.

"Okay good job! Now whaddya say we head on down?" Leorio smiled, gripping on to Gon's shoulder in a fatherly way.

"Kay." Gon said, rather unenthusiastically. "But I'm sort of confused."

"Why? What is there to be confused about?" Leorio let go of his shoulder.

"There's one, and another, and another, and another one right over there! There's a lot of 'em. " Gon pointed to the tiles sprawled across the rocky platform.

"That is a lot." Quinn sighed.

"Well, maybe the examiners thought that most people wouldn't figure it out so they put a lot for the ones who did?" I suggested.

"Well, that's plausible but it doesn't really make sense. People could figure it out just by walking along the tiles. Also, if few people were to find out, why put so many? It'd be a waste of resources." Kurapika explained. I nodded. "Five hidden doors located in the same area. Sounds a bit suspicious." He sighed, thinking for a bit. "No doubt a few of them are traps."

"Ah, man! My head hurts from thinking so hard about this!" Quinn whined, rubbing their head.

"From what I can tell, each of these trap doors can only be used one time," Killua said, ignoring Quinn's previous remark. "We saw somebody fall through one earlier. But when we tried to open it, it wouldn't budge an inch."

"Judging by the door's size, only one applicant can go through it at a time." Kurapika's arms were folded across their chest. 

"It's beginning to look like we all have to split up." Killua sighed.