[hider=Honehe's Test]
When the six students assigned entered their assigned laboratory, Administrator Malkin was alone and lacking his usual translator. Malkin surveyed his group of students for a moment and jotted down a few notes on a clipboard awkwardly held in his one claw, then 'spoke'. Or rather, did something similar to speaking. Malkin was clearly straining himself to use this form of magic which was common among the more intelligent Monster species that lacked adequate vocal cords.

[color=00a99d]"Again, welcome to the Institute. This isn't just a test, in case you were wondering. It's also unofficially your first lesson. You will demonstrate your abilities for me to evaluate, and even if you don't quite know how to harness them, I will be able to determine roughly what you're capable of. Ms. Kishimoto, please step towards the table and begin your demonstration. You're free to use anything on the table if need be."[/color]

The small human girl said nothing, and her 'demonstration' (if it could be called that) took an uncomfortably long time, but Malkin continued pushing her to do whatever it was she was doing.

After the confused human finished her demonstration and was congratulated by the first-generation Chimera, the Administrator turned towards Honehe. [color=00a99d]"Honehe Bitter-Tooth. I'm glad one of your people have finally joined us here again after all this time - I'm sure we have much to learn from one another. Would you please demonstrate what you know?"[/color]

As curious as he was in regards to the Administrator's comment, Honehe chose to focus on his demonstration. Taking the elements of stone and dirt available, Honehe placed them at his feet and then sat down in a sort of meditative pose. He then manipulated the elements to create a raised platform directly beneath him, elevating him as he worked. [b]"Does this satisfy, honoured Administrator?"[/b] He asked when finished with his work.

[color=00a99d]"Just Administrator, or Malkin, please. And yes, it does. Could you separate the materials again, then step back for the next student, please?"[/color], the Administrator asked, eyeing the platform Honehe had constructed. He scribbled down a fairly long note on the clipboard.

[b]"Ah, of course, sir."[/b] Honehe replied before disassembling his work, raising from his seated position and stepping away.

The administrator scribbled one small addition on the clipboard, then looked up. "Good work. Next, Deegon Bigknifestabby." A small ratlike creature stepped forward, hungrily staring at the block of silver on the table, to begin its demonstration.

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After all of the students had completed their demonstrations, Malkin announced the beginning of the combat tests by ripping the black cloth off of the top of the cage in the back of the room. The huge insectoid Monster was thrashing about blindly, trying to get at the rack of gas masks on the wall next to it. It didn't seem like it was able to see the thin wire mesh of the cage it was being held in, and it seemed to have too short of a memory to realize it couldn't escape.

Administrator Malkin quickly explained what this creature -- an Ashhopper -- was, and why they were dangerous, just as every other professor was doing in their own respective rooms. He added one last bit that the others didn't, though: [color=00a99d]"Not everyone will be visiting the Deadlands, but every field of magical study involves some level of risk and unknown factors. Even if you don't think this combat test will help you at all, trust me when I say that it will."[/color]

The Administrator called upon one other student to take their test first - the ratlike Monster from earlier, which returned from the room five or six minutes later carrying fruit pods it had stolen from the vines. [color=00a99d]"Honehe, you're next. Please put on one of the masks and enter the room. There's one tailored to your species on the left, and you may take this knife if you wish."[/color]

[b]"The knife shall not be necessary, but I appreciate the offer, sir."[/b] Honehe said respectfully before acquiring his custom made mask. With his mask fastened, Honehe made his way into the room.

The Administrator closed the door behind Honehe, sealing him within the darkness. The environment was ill-suited to humans and Chimeras, but Honehe would find it fairly easy to see even in the darkest corners. The plantlife in the room had been chosen and planted for a very specific purpose, which evaded the understanding of the humans and Chimeras who had reconstructed the scene: It gave a strong advantage to Monsters. A white mist filled the room, followed by a soft tingling feeling sweeping through the room. Moments later, the room sprung to life, and Honehe's target appeared.

The Ashhopper was enormous. There was really no other word for it - the thing was large enough that its carapace seemed to fit its body poorly, and was cracking and peeling away where it had grown too thick. The eyestalks upon its head section were dwarfed by the insect's size, and it stomped out from behind the mushroom tree in the corner, and turned to face its opponent. The Ashhopper lifted its wing covers and a loud buzzing filled the room as it attempted to take off, not realizing that it had grown too old and fat to fly years prior. All in all, it was slightly larger than Honehe himself was.

[b]"Is this to be my opponent?"[/b] Honehe spoke aloud, and derisively. [b]"Either there is deception afoot, or you are a truly pathetic creature indeed. No matter. The task at hand bids I crush you."[/b] Bursting into action, Honehe stretched out with his magic and triggered an upset beneath the mushroom tree. The warped concrete struck out slammed into the tree's roots, aiming to knock it down upon the overgrown Ashhopper.

The tree's fibrous roots snapped away from the mushroom stalk, and it leaned to the side slowly and surely. With an immensely loud crack, the mushroom's wooden cap bent against the room's ceiling and the stalk came loose, coming down upon the Ashhopper, and the one ton cap fell only to be caught by a net of vines spanning the room. The Ashhopper jerked an eyestalk towards the falling log, and leaned back, closing its shell, followed by lurching forwards with its enormous hind legs and snapping its shell open to hurl the log directly at Honehe's chest. While the log was flying through the air, it turned to the space the tree had previously occupied and began rooting around in the hole at the smell of damaged wood. It wouldn't find what it wanted there, but it had to be certain.

[b]"Bah."[/b] Honehe exclaimed as he dodged out of the way of the oncoming log. [b]"A miscalculation. No matter..."[/b] With the Ashhopper distracted with its discovery, Honehe bounded up to it and gripped one of its hind legs with his nailed hands. He then yanked at it, aiming to tear the leg clean off.

The shell surrounding the leg was brittle and incredibly hard, which didn't serve the goliath particularly well. Its weaker hip joint popped out of place, split slightly, and spewed a high pressure jet of brown fluid at the ground before loosely hanging on by strands of wet black muscle fibers. The goliath spasmed in pain, interrupted from its meal searching, and spun to strike Honehe with its substantially smaller right side forearms, tearing its useless leg both out of his hands and completely out of its socket. The leg fell to the ground, very slowly flexing back and forth under its sudden lack of brain input.

Honehe maneuvered out of the way of its rightside assault, and then aimed to grip the very arm that had just aimed at him, and tear it clean the same way he had torn at the hind leg.

Upon feeling the clawed hands wrap around its middle right leg, the creature decided to cut its losses and ignore the arm, instead opting to thrust out its lefthand legs and flip itself over on top of Honehe. The arm came off much more easily and remained in Honehe's grip as the maddened insect rolled to crush him.

Quickly adjusting to the weight of the situation, Honehe ducked down as the great beast came at him. It was not his intention to move clear so much as buy time to reach to the ground, and inspire a thick slab of concrete to erupt and slam into the encroaching roach from below.

The Ashhopper was feeling its age in its lack of agility and watched in irritation as Honehe moved almost out of the way. No matter - the mammal would still be flattened. It was inevita-

The Ashhopper's confidence was shattered by a pillar of concrete coming up beneath it and throwing it into the air, buckling its carapace in a way it hadn't felt since it was a hatchling. The creature flung upen its wing coverings and righted itself before it landed, still losing fluids from the holes where its legs had been, then scraped the ground with its four remaining legs as it tried to turn towards the concrete pillar and its enemy. It couldn't see Honehe behind the stone, but he could see it.

Honehe had no intention of hiding, and stood out from the pillar, almost begging to be seen. [b]"Come here, you great sow. Let me give you a final mercy."[/b] He called out in a mocking fashion, following up on that by roaring with a primal fury. He did not intend to make a move just yet, as his plan was to let it come to him, where he would introduce it to yet another concrete slab.

The instant Honehe moved out from behind the pillar, the Goliath made its move, launching itself forwards on its one remaining rear leg with the sound of an artillery piece firing. The noise was immense, and a jet of dark fluid sprayed out onto the ground where its other rear leg had been, splattering and covering every piece of grass and flower behind it. The enormous creature hurtled through the air in a spiral, revealing its enormous mouth as it aimed for Honehe's filter cartridge.

Now was the hour. Honehe erected a large, thick slab for the beast to collide with, while bounding clear of its path.

The slab came down in pieces. The Goliath's momentum had been slashed, but it was still headed almost directly towards him, trying to right itself and correct its course with its borderline useless wings. The creature's flight path curved slightly, but not quite enough, and it lashed out with one of its frontal legs to at least try to catch a hold of the mask's filter. Fluids were still pouring out of the open wounds in its right side.

Almost allowing it to reach his cartridge, Honehe lashed out with his nailed hand once it was in range, meaning to savage the leg that would grab out at him.

The Goliath retracted its leg the instant it saw Honehe's hand move. It recognized the danger that those hands posed, and focused instead on landing safely. It wasn't successful - between the fluid loss and the relatively small size of the room, it crashed head-first into the test chamber wall and flopped onto the ground in a daze. A few chunks of carapace peeled off of its head section and hit the ground, revealing the rough, fresh chitin beneath.

Honehe siezed the opportunity to conjure forth another concrete attack, but this time, it was a pointed, piercing lance that would strike at its exposed chitin.

The creature jerked as the concrete lance struck and penetrated the thinner section of shell where the old chunks had fallen loose. It thrashed about madly, trying to pry itself off of the concrete lance, and eventually broke it free, turning to face Honehe with the remaining, broken pieces of stone lodged in its head. It lifted its body once more and tried to leap, but couldn't muster the strength, and slid forwards several meters, where it came to a rest and merely lay there, flailing its remaining legs in desperate hunger.

[b]"Don't feel sad in your last moments, creature."[/b] Honehe called out to it in a falsely pitying tone. [b]"You were old and broken before I came here, I merely sped you to your rest. Blame this Empire for dragging you here to die for their sport."
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The dying Ashhopper stared unintelligently at Honehe, then flailed its rear leg to throw itself one last time towards the filter cartridge on his chest. It only moved a few inches, slinging dirt and stone backwards at the wall behind it. Moments later, it stopped moving completely, and the whir of the room's ventilation fans came into play, draining the white mists from the testing chamber. Bright white light spilled into the room, and the enormous Ashhopper disappeared, along with all damage to the room, including the fallen Mushroom tree log, which was now back in place and completely intact. Administrator Malkin waited outside for Honehe to exit.

Exiting the room, Honehe greeted the Administrator with a bow. [b]"Might I ask, Administrator, if that particular Ashhopper was truly there, or whether I have just come to blows with an elaborate illusion?"[/b]

The Administrator stared down at Honehe with his signature lack of expression. [color=00a99d]"Yes, and no. The Ashhopper was there, but that was not a creature that existed before you entered that room. It was rather an unliving recreation of the first Volcanic Lowlands Ashhopper that we ever encountered during an exploration mission, which killed no fewer than eight researchers for invading its territory before I personally put it down. You may remove your hood, by the way - you've passed your test, and you have the rest of the day off."[/color]

[b]"I thank you for indulging my curiosity, Administrator."[/b] He replied before removing his hood and placing it neatly back where it belonged. [b]"I shall take my leave now. Farewell, sir."[/b] He then promptly left. His thoughts briefly dwelt on the curiosity of such a creature. It would make one wonder if it could be considered cruel to kill and mock it, given it wasn't truly alive to begin with. But for Honehe, such things came naturally in combat. A bit of sport, if you will. Now he had a day to dedicate to getting ready for the bigger trials to come.
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