Duality (A Rivalry)

Chapter four

A/N: welp this took too long I need to set deadlines.

                  As they walked through the forested mountains, they came out of it and continued the trail through the cliffs. The path would be far too narrow for them to walk side by side so Hakurin ended up taking the lead followed by Ankou, Holly, and then Loxo. As they continued through the wildlife never seemed to stop. While all of them were training unlike most mentors that valued speed, strength, and power. Theirs tended to prefer stealth and the ability to fit in with others. I mean... What would be the point of even trying for this job if you couldn't even do the basics.

                  As they all kept going the path got so thin it made Hakurin's drake get angsty and from time to time would refuse to go further. Although it took them a good 4 hours to get past all that narrow path (And them missing lunch). They got to the wider path again. As they all got to the wider paths the paths also got much steeper and around tight bends. It was useful that Ankou's cat (Who is named Zeus) and Hakurin's drake (Who was named after his old pet dog Thor) has long claws/talons to help stay on track. Holly bird and Loxo's snake on the other hand.... Not so much. As they continued to ride Hakurin would be eating some random jerky he brought with him, the other three having not much for snacks or quick meals just watched him. With Ankou being tempted to just snatch some but knew better from previous incidents with Hakurin when they were kids. The random poor bystander that day did not though.

                The sun would slowly sink lower as the group started to see the tree line again all hoping to not have to walk on this cliff at night yet also wanting to get to the safety of the trees. They would all slightly speed up although if Holly really wanted to risk getting spotted, she could have flown ahead but her bird refused to fly in such a cramped space. As they got closer, they noticed another group of people. This would make Rin slow down making all the rest look ahead and notice them too. Rin and Ankou would scale the edge of the cliff while Loxo slithered down, and Holly would hop along and act as bait... This was an exam to see what team would be best for almost any job, with one of the trials being taking out your fellow examinees.

              As Rin got closer to them, he'd be more noticeable with his drake as it was almost pure white. However, Ankou and Zeus were almost invisible to them. Rin started to bait them all out and when Ankou finally went after one his cat biting down on one of the two with the other being almost impaled by Ankous scythe. Rin would be rushing in and jump off Thor holding his pole arm while landing on some poor person pinning them to the ground with the pole arm as his drake would ram into one of the people before impaling them with its talons.

            "That's four." Rin said while looking at them all. Still stepping on the person that's stuck to the floor. "You guys didn't have to use that much force you could have killed them." Holly seemed quite annoyed with these two although Loxo seemed more interested in taking their snack supplies. "Ya well we didn't did we now?" Ankou would reply to Holly jumping out of the tree after he got back onto his Shiross. "Still though ever thing of what our mentors would do to us if we did?" Holly now had the tone of a mother that was scolding her child. "I mean I think they'd be disappointed but that's about it?" Rin said coming to Ankou's aid as Holly would simply sigh and this time take the lead while turning on the tracker device that would alert the supervisors that a team was down.

           "Also, since we're too close to people I say we continue through for a while." Loxo would finally say grabbing everyone's attention before they all turned to the person with a nocturnal Shiross... That poor person being Ankou who's face went to the unamused dead pan glare and while sulking took the lead...