Chapter 11 Coward

The man not expecting to get kicked couldn't react that much in that short amount of time and was kicked in his side being sent skidding back until he stopped and recomposed himself standing up straight

Buck then readied his dagger in front of himself and prepared to fight

"Wait, wait!" the man screamed in a high-pitched voice "You've passed my test ill let you move on now"

Buck then dashed forwards with an overhead slash downwards towards the man "I won't rust someone who was trying to trick me a second ago, how do I even know if you are an examiner or if my test has even ended?"

"Wait, wait don't attack me, my job was only to scare you a little and check your awareness and judgements, please stop." the man said on the verge of tears

Buck sighed seeing this, 'I won't attack a man on the verge of tears, even though I've done it before my gut tells me he's innocent, plus he is probably the examiner why else is he near the x on the map.'

"Do you at least have proof that you are an examiner?" Buck said while looking at the man with pity at how his composure was crumbling

"I don't but I'm how you're supposed to get to your next trial, or how else would you get there in time while being stranded in the middle of the woods." the man said while his body started to shift and morph

It was a large, bipedal creature covered in light brown fur, which is thicker on its head, shoulders, chest, stomach, and pubic region. It has anthropomorphic and fox-like traits. It has three fingers per hand and three toes per foot, all considerably long and ending in sharp claws. It also has an elongated muzzle, thin eyes, long ears with a darker top half, six whiskers, and a long, thin tail ending in a darker tuft of fur.

Buck looked at him with shock visible on his face and his jaw dropped to the floor at the changes from a man into a beast

Buck was ready to attack again but still saw the cowardice in the beast's form, the claws may look scary but Buck still noticed the shaking of the beast, the dilated pupils and the shivering snout, from fear.

"Look I use these under my arms to help fly candidates to the exam area." the beast said pointing to some frilly skin under his arms

"Ok, I believe you," Buck said resigning himself to believing in this magical beast not sensing any sense of danger posed by the beast

"Our race is called the Kiriko, I believe you haven't met anything like me before, after all, it is a bit of a rare occurrence for ordinary citizens."

"Your right, this is the first time, do you live among the ordinary people or do you live isolated in your own race?." Buck couldn't help but ask

"We mostly live among each other in our own families but we do spend time in the human cities and sometimes among people in the hunter's examination when we come by each year's tests.

"Let's get going then" Buck said wondering how he would fly while having to carry him

"You need to stick your arms up and ill grab you with my feet and well fly all the way." the kirko said while slowly flapping his arm wings while starting to hover off the ground slightly

Buck then stuck his arms in the air and they began their journey to the hunter's exam next stage

After some time passed flying Buck spoke "Hey my arms are hurting how much further until we arrive."

"not long now anytime now the view of the city should come into view, ah here it is" the kirko finished talking and Buck saw the city with a view of the sunrise in the background making it look majestic and beautiful in the eyes of buck whos never had the chance to see anything like this before.

Upon landing, just outside the city while the son Kiriko transformed back into his human form Buck could already hear people in the markets shouting and the hustle and bustle of people walking and chatting. Buck could see that this city was larger and more vibrant than the harbour town he arrived, this made him believe that there might be more to this world than what he's seen already exciting him to adventure more and explore this new land.

They started to walk through the market with various items being sold and people calling out to him to buy from their stall but Buck looked around as they walked by almost tempted to explore the goods being sold but he continued following the kiriko as he wanted to not be late to the hunter's exam, he followed the kirko to the food shop to enter the first phase of the exam.

As they walked in, Kiriko spoke to the chief, "Is the backroom open?"

The chief replied, "What'll it be?"

Following the order of the code to enter the exam the kiriko answered "The steak combo that will make me see the light for one"

"For one huh, how do you want it?"

"Grilled over a low flame, until done."

"Got it please seat yourself in the backroom"

The chief and the kiriko finally finished their code.

Adam followed as the kiriko began to walk through a door leading to a table with one chair. The kirko then said to Buck "Good luck."

As he closed the door and left, the room began to shake and vibrate but Buck stayed perfectly still. Then the room began to descend downwards.

As he waited for the room to reach its destination, he began to ponder what he'll do in the hunter's exam and what follows it as there was so much to experience with their being magical animals and he doesn't know what else in this world