"You're in the right place." the male behind the desk answered.

"Shut the door behind you." he said.

He was then silent, looking at her.

"....hm." he muttered under his breath.

'Impressive already.' he thought.

"We do our best." the male replied.

"We pride ourselves on being accessible, despite the maze of corridors." he said further.

"Have a seat." he told her.

"I'll need your name, and what your specialization is." he went on.

"As well as what abilities you bring to the table."

The male paused for a moment when he heard that.

"One of the rarer hunter gifts." he said.

"Interesting." he said further.

"All right then..." he muttered further, writing some things down.

"Now, tell me." he said.

"Why do you want to work here?" he asked.

"And this isn't the standing bullshit interview question where I expect you to make it sound like you're a willing drone." he told her.

"I want the blunt truth. You got any special reason for wanting to work HERE?"

He raised an eyebrow when he heard that, before writing some things down.

"Allll righty." he said.

"...hm." he then muttered, pausing for a moment and thinking about something.

"Moving on." he said, as they continued some back and forth. This went on for about 10 minutes, before he placed the papers and folder down on the desk.

"Now. There will be some more questions and paperwork after, but we're moving to the practical portion of this interview." he informed Abby.

"You will be pitted against one of our hunters in a fight, and you will be evaluated on how you perform in said fight. Ie: what tactics you use to achieve victory, or whatever goal you intend to pursue." he finished.

The male nodded.

"Standard rules." he said.

"And your goal cannot be to kill." he told her.

"I mean, seriously. If you must treat it as such, then fine, but do NOT kill." he said further.

"Beyond that, standard sparring rules, essentially." he went on.

He then pressed a button, and spoke into a comm system, beckoning someone to come to his office.

"You'll be taken to our gym where the test will be administered." he told her.

"Fighter or not, your skills are to be tested in battle." the male replied.

"Standard practice." he said, as there was a knock on the door. When they were beckoned in, a younger male poked their head in.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Take her to the sparring arena." he told him.

"Once your fight is over, your opponent and I will speak, and she'll give me her honest evaluation of you." he told Abby. "After that, she'll leave, you'll return, and we'll conclude the interview." he explained.

"Got it?"

As the two of them stared each other down, there were whispers among the crowd.

"That a new recruit?" one asked.

"Yeah." was the response.

"...fighing PHYRA?" another asked.

"Guess so." another responded.

"Poor girl." one lamented.

"I dunno, I heard Vyn was the one that picked this fight, so there's gotta be more to her than meets the eye." yet another countered.

".....the hell?" one person asked.

"What happened there?" another muttered.

"What's that smirk for...?" yet another inquired.

Their interest and attention was now at its peak, as they wondered what would happen now.

Abby had already exceeded expectations, but now things were getting truly unpredictable.

Sure enough, to maintain his objectivity, AJ had not gone to see the fight, opting to stay in his office... though he hated that he'd made the choice, as necessary as it had been.

"Damn it." he cursed.

"I'll bet the fight is really something to watch." he said to himself, mere moments before there was a knock on the door.

"Enter." he called to them, causing the door to open, and Phyra to appear.

"....you do NOT look pleased." AJ commented.

"That's on Vyn as well, you know." AJ responded.

"Not JUST me." he said.

"And we wanted to test her out against one of our best." he went on. "And not just a mana hunter, but Desiree's daughter." he continued.

"She genuinely seems to be no threat to us." he told her further.

"As for what she can do, I DO know she is the heir to the Silver Tongue gift, and she has a way of getting what she wants through conversation... but the fact that she got you to give up IS surprising." he then admitted.