They both arrived on the other side, what looked like a tall white jungle surrounded them.
Trees hundreds of feet in height towered in imperfect curves, their trunks awkwardly wide became narrower as they went up. Instead of leaves at treetops, jagged spiked sprouted in whichever direction, except downwards, which created more of a mushroom shape than those of any jungle he had seen. Small black beads dotted some of these branches.
Marco felt much shorter than usual, not only that, but also crowded. There was no more than a few feet between each tree, he was unable to extend his arms out without hitting a trunk with his hands. The clear space around the cat was the only part which it felt like he had some space to himself.
"These are your testing grounds." Spoke Jupiter, she adjusted the mask on her face, her light fingers fiddling with the neck of her jacket. He looked around, trying to see if he could see anything, peeking his head around, he could see nothing but more and more trees around. He felt one of the trees with his good hand.
"B-class" he said in a monotone voice. Jupiter turned to him, "what do you mean?"
"B-class altered, this is the work of one." he repeated again in a lighter tone. "What's a B-class?" Jupiter asked, she adjusted the holder of her sword before pulling it out in one smooth motion. The sword was made of a light material, sparkly, opposite to his own sword which was dark and cloudy.
"B-class is just what we call those who do stuff like this." He summoned his sword, inspecting it, he swiped at a tree. The blade went through smoothly, though he did have to use some force to get it past the halfway point of the trunk. The tree began falling, but got stuck as the branches overhead hooked onto the ones of other trees, keeping it at a slant.
"Why B-class? That seems a bit steep for this kind of work? Perchance a C-class is stronger?" she swiped the sword at the ground. It was dark gray, unlike the one he had seen before. He crouched down, feeling the soft floor. It was grainy, almost like thick bark.
"B-class are the second strongest ones we have on record. Unless that is a different story for you guys?" He asked her, she looked up pensively. He could see the shift under her mask almost like she's pouting her lips. "For you guys maybe, though, for a hunter like me? The one responsible for this is light work."
They stood around awkwardly for a few seconds. "So?" asked Marco. She turned to him and shrugged, "You've got to go fight it. You ready?" He looked around looking for whatever it was he had to fight. He shrugged, gripping his sword tighter, "I guess so."
"All you had to say." She snapped her fingers, disappearing from view the next instant. A loud creak and deep crunch came from behind him. As soon as he turned his head, the log that he had sliced in half was swung at him at full force. He ducked, barely dodging it and rolled forward while slicing.
He looked up as he swung. A giant monkey, slightly taller than himself and much wider in stature. It was not standing, but instead hanging from a tree on Marco's right. The swung barely hit under him, snagging into the tree.
The monkey grabbed his arm, shrinking down in size. Marco went to grab it with his right, but it flipped over, jumping at his face. It grabbed Marco by the hair, tugging it hard as he went over his head. Despite its small size, it felt like it weighed a ton.
It brought him down with itself. The monkey shrieked loudly. Marco felt himself falling backwards, trying to grab it from behind himself, he felt the monkey had somehow grown in size again. It kicked into him, throwing his legs up as it tugged on his hair to make him spin rapidly midair.
In the span of three seconds, he had gone from being on his feet, to rotating in the air uncontrollably. With a sharp smack to the right side of his body, Marco was sent flying to a nearby tree on the left.
He bounced off it almost like a rubber ball. Landing face up on the soft floor below, he tried regaining his composure. He wasn't sure how he had been caught so off guard. He was dizzy now from the ride the monkey had put him in. He summoned his gun.
Aiming in the general direction of the right, he fired. Just as he did, the monkey was about to swing at him. The blast from the gun pierced a hole through its left shoulder, causing it to shrink down and retreat. Jumping backwards at a size no bigger than a chimp.
Marco regained his footing. Wiping his face with the back of his left. His eyes darted around looking for the small creature. "What the hell were you doing before this?" He turned around as the voice of the woman came behind him, aiming the gun in that direction. "Where the fuck are you?"
"I'm just an observer in this fight, but this is... unusual?" She said from behind him again, he turned his face again. "Don't bother I'll always be out of sight."
"What do you mean by before this?" He asked loudly, looking around while waving his gun around ready to fire. "I was fighting some guy, astronaut dude."
"Astronaut? What's an-" "Astronaut, big bubble head thing, sound familiar?!" There was a moment of silence. Jupiter spoke again. "Oh shit." "Oh shit what?!"
Jupiter answered quickly "You know what I said about the hunters? You may have faced Apollo." "Apollo? like the old space missions?" "Yeah, whatever you may, us hunters have heralds. Mine is the cat, Apollo's is the-"
"Monkey!" Marco shouted as the creature leaped out from above him, he aimed up and fired. The bullet again pierced through the creature, slightly throwing it off balance midair. He swung his sword at it, but it caught the blade with its left, pulling its right fist back and slammed it against his face.
He gritted his teeth, pulling and slicing deeper into the monkey's palm. It finally let go, smacking him across the face with his tail before retreating again.