The pairs approached the forest temple, by chance all arriving at the same time and still early in the day. It wasn't much of a temple anymore - more a run down, crumble semi-circle of pillars and flagstones, with a few walls. Arranged in a half circle, nestled in the protection of the remaining parts of the temple itself, were 22 pedestals. Each held either a blade of some sort or the matching sheath, except two which had obviously already been gathered.

Closer inspection revealed that the blades available were:

An ornate rapier with a crystaline basket hilt resembling a pair of folded bat wings. The matching scabbard was next to it, a simple thing made of brushed steel and decorated with faint, swirling etchings.

A worn broadsword with a simple round pommel, and a beaten leather sheath to go with it. The stitching on the sheath has started to fray at both ends.

A well cared for scimitar with several minor nicks in the blade and next to it is a sturdy, well oiled and cared for leather scabbard.

A slim estoc with a half-moon guard and a stylised human with four arms and four legs embossed on the pommel. Engraved on the blades in elaborate script are the words 'From Dust We Come'. Beside it rests a dark leather sheath with symbols of the four basic Dust elements stitched down one side in golden thread.

A simple gladius, looking almost new, and a simple sheath. A closer look at the sheath reveals that it has been stained with blood at one stage.

A clean and sharp cutlass with some sort of sea creature scratched into the blade, with a reinforced plastic sheath to go with it.

A broken katana with a rusted tsuba shaped like a dragon, it's badly damaged bamboo sheath looking like it will fall apart on the pedstal next to it.

A large, springsteel cavalry sabre and its sturdy kevlar sheath.

And a rainbowed titanium Jian with a Nevermore themed guard and feather tassel. Beside it is a bone sheath with red markings, similar to the designs found on Grimm masks.

As the partners move forward to choose their relic, another four burst out of the forest behind them. The leader of the pack has a bright orange mohawk and his partner is identifiable by a green pontytail. The other two are very similar in looks, cousins would be the guess of most people, with one having grey hair and a shock of purple in his fringe, and the other having purple hair and a shock of grey in his fringe. They darted through the gathered applicants and swept up the Jian and it's matching bone sheath before bouncing back the way they had come, racing towards the cliff once more as they let off jeers of 'Slowpokes!' and 'Losers!'.

[u][b]next round is an all hands on deck situation, AKA a full RP collab. no time limit on this one due to sheer scale, it wil be one post, likely put up by me, containing all of our actions leading up to the teams splitting and fighting their respective 'boss monsters'[/b][/u]