3rd Person POV:
The participants are nearing the end of the tunnel, and 30 of the 500 contestants have dropped out. Currently, there are 470 participants left as they start to come out of the tunnel.
"GOAL!!" Gon shouts as he passes the 'finish line'. "I won!"
"Eh?? No, I reached the finish line before you!" Killua argues.
"Ano, Mr. Satotz? Who crossed the finish line first?" Gon asks the examiner.
"I believe you two crossed the line simultaneously. However, this group of individuals all beat you to it." Satotz explained, pointing to the demon slayers.
"Whaa? How did I not see them pass us?" Killua said, his mouth agape.
"Oh! Those are the other friends I was talking about! Let me introduce you to them!" Gon explained. "Hi everyone! This is my new friend Killua! Killua, these are my friends."
"Yo." Killua waved. Each of them introduced themselves and bowed. (Except for Inosuke lol. He just introduced himself as Inosuke) 'Hmm they all seem a couple years older than us. They're all carrying swords.. Are they ninjas of some sort?' Killua thought while examining them. 'They all act so formal.. actually almost all of them. That guy with the boar head is kind of weird. I wonder where they came from?'
"Oi, Gon. I think Kurapika and Leorio have made it. Want to go talk to them?"
"Sure! Talk to you guys later?" Gon asked the slayers.
"Hai! We'll see you then!" Tanjiro waved.
With the Demon Slayers:
"What's with all these weird sounds..?" Zenitsu said, covering his ears.
"I know.. All these different scents are giving a wild savage-like presence." said Tanjiro.
"We should be on guard.. We don't know what roams these marshy lands." Genya stated.
"I'm going to use my seventh form to see what's lurking here!" said Inosuke.
"I-I don't think that's a good idea, Inosuke.. I get the feeling that we don't want the rest of the participants to know that we aren't normal people. We might scare them like Hisoka did." Kanao said, observing the crowd suspiciously.
"Speaking of Hisoka, he seems to be silently observing everyone. I get the creeps just from looking at him.." Genya whispers.
" I can sense whenever he is looking at me, especially with my heightened senses! He's very powerful." Inosuke admitted.
The crowd's murmuring is suddenly silenced when a rugged looking man came around the corner.
"Don't listen to him!!" the man said pointing at the purple haired examiner. "He's not the real examiner! I am! He wants to lead you into the wetlands only to devour you once you get there!" the 'real examiner' claims. For proof, this man pulls a beaten-up looking copy of the purple haired examiner to show that there are more than one of the examiners. There are loud gasps heard in the crowd as they are torn about who the real examiner is.
"What? That only makes sense as to why he runs so weird!!" Leorio huffs.
"You're lying!!" Tanjiro shouts, silencing the crowd. "You're the fake here!"
"Yeah! You're the one who isn't human. I've never heard a sound like yours before, but I can assume that you're only the man-faced ape that the real examiner, Mr Satotz, warned us about!" agrees Zenitsu.
"Yeah, prove to us that you are the examiner!" Genya says, crossing his arms.
Suddenly, there are 3 sets of cards thrown. One set of three cards is thrown at the so called 'real examiner', another set was thrown at Mr. Satotz, and the last pair of 3 cards was thrown at the three slayers that spoke up. Mr Satotz caught the three cards easily, while the demon slayers simply moved out of the way. The only one that was killed from the sudden card throw was the roughed up man that claimed he was the real examiner.
"I see, I see. So you're the real examiner." The same magician, Hisoka, from before smirked. "An examiner is a hunter chosen from the Hunter Committee to guide us through the exam without pay. In other words, any real examiner would have been able to dodge that attack. Quite easily might I add."
"I shall take that as a compliment. However, if you ever attack me for whatever reason, I will take that as a violation of the exam and you will be disqualified. Am I clear?" Satotz said to the clown.
"Sure.~" he replied.
"Hey! Why did you attack us?" Tanjiro shouted at Hisoka.
"T-tanjiro.. That is the magician, H-hisoka, that turned that guy's arms into flower p-petals.." Zenitsu whimpered, backing behind his burgundy-haired friend.
"I seriously hate people like that." Genya mumbles.
"Hm? Oh that. It was just a test.~" The clown smirks.
"That being said. If any of you lose sight of me while traveling through the swamp, you will never make it to the second exam." Satotz declares bluntly to the rest of the applicants. "Now, let's go shall we?"
"A test? How delusional is this guy?? We could've died from that!" Genya grumbled, eyebrows furrowing. "Even Sanemi nii-san wouldn't go that far to possibly killing anyone.."
"Hey. I think we should go.. the group has already started running again." said Kanao.
"Kanao, are you able to see through this mist?" asked Tanjiro. "My sense of smell is getting hampered from all the different organisms living here."
"Hai. I can still see a little farther ahead of Mr. Satotz." Kanao smiled. "We should be fine as long as we keep at this pace."
"T-there's a lot of screaming around us.. I want to go hoooome!!" cried Zenitsu.
"Calm down Zenitsu, I'm sure this phase is almost done. As long as we follow Kanao we won't get lost." Tanjiro said, trying to reassure his crying friend.
With Kurapika and Leorio:
"Eh? It's getting tough to see in this fog!" Leorio shouted.
"Yea! But as long as we follow-" Kurapika started, when suddenly the people they were following disappeared. The two stopped and realized they were surrounded by dinosaur looking creatures. The other participants around them were being eaten up and thrown all over the place. Unfortunately for Leorio, he ends up getting lifted up by one and he is now dangling from one of the dinosaur's mouths.
"Hang on!" Kurapika shouted, grabbing his two wooden swords. He jumped up and stabbed the dinosaur in the eye. The dinosaur drops Leorio and he falls landing on his bottom. The two then sprint away from the scene only to come across another.
There was a group of about 9 men surrounding Hisoka in a circle all with weapons out. One of the men (which seems to be their leader) says, "You're not Hunter material. I've been thinking that ever since we met last year."
Another one speaks up and says, "We'll spare your life if you promise you'll never take the Hunter Exam again."
To everyone's shock, Hisoka agrees. "Sure. I intend to pass, so there's no need to retake it.~"
"Oh yea? You idiot, just look at this fog. Do you really think you can figure out which way the main pack went in all this?" responds another man.
"He's right! We all failed this year! No way we can catch up with everyone else!"
Hisoka simply chuckles. "That's it, then? You failed so now you want to play Examiner?" Unfazed by the threats made by the group of men and seemingly amused by the situation he continues, "Hunter's require prey, so why don't I play the Examiner? All of you gentlemen claim to be Hunter material, but I'll be the judge.~"
Enraged by the magician's unwillingness to back down, the whole group charges at him. Without even flinching, Hisoka draws a card from his deck and swings it around in a perfect circle. Before any of them can register what just happened, they are all cut through the torso and instantly fall to the ground. The last one left standing is their leader who is now visibly terrified of Hisoka. He struggles to get on his feet as Hisoka draws yet another card into his hands. Before he manages to throw another card into this man's back, a flash of pink and white is seen separating the two. Suddenly the man is sheltered behind the same flash of pink and white, yet this time they could both clearly see what it was. More specifically, who it was.
"Oh~? And who's this?~"