Chapter 1

Everyone stood frozen still, not knowing what to do. The stricken tour guide whimpered in pain and terror, the security team seemed paralyzed in fear and indecision and the spider let out its whispering chittering noise. Jack didn’t even know spiders could make noise like that.

He too, had no idea what to do, if he made a move it might provoke the spider into finishing off the guide, if he did nothing the spider might just do it anyway. Although he did feel some anticipation at the amount of lightning cultivation essence this giant thing might provide him.

In the end the decision was made for him when one of the security team members drew his sword, at the sudden noise the spider shifted to face them and one of its legs stabbed down into the tour guide's shoulder. She let out a scream of pain, the noise seemed to galvanise the rest of the security team as they aimed their rifles and drew their swords. The ones with guns fired on the spider, but it didn’t seem to do much good, the bullets just bounced off its tough chitinous armour, it was like an eight legged tank. The spider didn’t just stand there and take it however, it moved fast, extremely fast, a hell of a lot faster than something as big as a car should. It barreled straight into the group, Jack dodged away to the side but some of the others weren’t so lucky.

One guy was sent flying by the spider's charge, another received a leg through his stomach and another man unfortunately received the full personal attention of the spider as it fell upon him and savagely tore into him with its fangs, the unfortunate man let out ragged screams of pain and terror. The rest of the security team had managed to safely scatter, but upon seeing their guns do nothing and three of their friends horribly injured or dead, the fight went out of most of them.

At this Jack stepped forward, he thought with the spider distracted by the guy it was chomping down on he could get a decent surprise attack in. He reached around behind himself to the small of his back where his chain was stowed. He unwrapped it and approached the spider, it was a little too big for him to lasso, not that he knew how to do that anyway. So instead he flung the chain so that it wrapped around a couple of the spider's legs and then channelled a large amount of electricity into it.

The spider shrieked angrily, it discarded its victim and tried to turn on Jack, however with two its legs tied up it stumbled. Jack took this opportunity to thrust his spear into its side, it let out another shriek of pain but then jerked away, tearing the spear out Jack's hand. It reared up and flailed around with its sharp front legs, Jack dodged back in the nick of time, he darted around to the side to grab a loose end of the chain and channelled more electricity into it. The cry of pain from the spider was more of a high pitched grumble this time. Its movements were becoming more erratic and sluggish whilst Jack held onto the chain, after a few more seconds of channelling lightning energy into the beast it finally collapsed onto its abdomen, not dead but seemingly close.

Jack let go of the chain and walked around to its front, looking down at its eight eyes he unhooked his axe from his back harness. Just before he dealt the death blow however, the spider suddenly raised one of its front legs and stabbed it into Jack's chest. He felt sharp pain in his chest as the air was driven out of his lungs and he stumbled back several paces, the spider withdrew its leg and made to get up. Jack didn’t give it a chance as he rushed forward, drew back his axe, flooded it with lightning energy and brought it down onto its face in one frenzied blow after another after another. He didn’t stop until he realised he had destroyed its head and had already begun to cleave through it into its thorax.

Once he was done he collapsed onto his arse and looked down to his chest, strange, he thought, if he’d just been stabbed through the chest there would probably be more blood. Or any blood actually. He unzipped his flak jacket and took a look under his shirt, no wound except an angry red mark on his skin, that was gonna bruise as he thought, wincing slightly. He looked at the jacket, it was ripped where the spider had got him with some kevlar fibres showing and one of the small metal plates inside it was bent badly out of shape. He let out a breath of relief that he’d come out of that unexpected fight relatively unscathed.

He climbed to his feet and put his jacket back on. He heard sounds of people around him and remembered the security team, most of them were gathered around their injured comrades, some were standing around the giant house spider staring at it in shock and fear. Allan, the chief of security, approached him however.

“Are you alright son?” he asked weekly.

“Er yeah, I’m ok thanks, just a bruise, my armour held up,” Jack replied awkwardly.

“That's good, thank you that, most of my team have never fought anything other than goblins before. We never expected…we…..anyway, I’m sorry about earlier this morning, I know I was abrupt, but you just proved you’re a real hunter. We’re glad to have you with us.” He extended his hand and Jack took it in surprise, but appreciated the gesture nonetheless.

He looked over to the stricken security team members, the one that had been knocked over was sitting up but looked very unsteady. The other two were still laying down, unmoving, he didn’t know if they were dead or alive. The tour guide was still alive for now though, she had light wounds to her legs and chest with a large stab wound to the shoulder to which someone was holding a blood-stained towel over.

Allan noticed his gaze. “We’ve called for an ambulance but the operator said there'll be a delay,” he said in frustration.

“A delay? Why?” Jack asked.

“Apparently the same sort of thing is happening in multiple places in the city, there are giant spiders and giant insects suddenly appearing all over and attacking people. The police and ambulance service probably have their hands full already,” Allan explained.

Jack frowned, if that was the case then this was probably the sort of thing the hunters guild would mobilise for too, he would have thought. Just then his pager buzzed and let out a strident, unpleasant chiming. He read the message, speak of the devil.

EMERGENCY. TO ALL HUNTERS. MULTIPLE SIGHTINGS OF MUTATED INSECTS IN YORK CITY. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED. ALL VOLUNTEERS CONVERGE ON HIGHLIGHTED SPOTS ON PROVIDED MAP.

A map appeared on his pagers screen and showed a dozen or so spots spread out over the city. One spot was a bit of a jog away but he thought he could make it in a few minutes. He looked back up at Allan.

“Emergency, gotta go.” He set off south before looking back down at the map and turning around to go north past a confused looking Allen. No, actually the closest spot on the map was south, he changed direction again, this time sure he was going the right way. He crossed the street and jogged past the dungeon gift shop, most of the tourists were still there, taking refuge, some even clapped for him as he passed them. He waved nervously as he passed, as well as making sure his visor was down covering his face, for Jack that was the most surreal experience he’d had all day, all week even. He’d gone from people telling him he was basically trash to people actually seeming to appreciate him. Huh, what a weird day.

After ten minutes of running Jack arrived at his destination, a car park by the river. He looked around for signs of trouble but once again he heard it before he saw it.

The sound of gunfire from the other end of the car park behind some buses. Jack ran over and rounded the buses, several police officers wearing riot armour were backing off, desperately firing rifles and pistols at another giant spider. Fortunately for them the creature appeared to have its front two legs stuck through the side of a bus and was struggling to free them, Jack wasted no time and rushed forward. He drew his spear and aimed carefully at its head, this time he wanted to kill it in one blow. It was not to be however, the spider managed to free itself just as Jack reached it.

The giant spider reared up and Jack narrowly avoided its two front legs as they slashed at him. The police continued to fire at it and only managed to cause it pain, but it did back off and flinch. Jack took the opportunity to dart forward again and plunge his spear into any part of the spider he could reach, he managed to stab it in the chest, the spider shrieked in pain and backed off. Jack knew the best thing to do was to keep attacking and not give it a moment's rest so he immediately unhooked his axe, flooded it with lighting energy and continued forward.

The spider went down fairly easily after that, a quick axe to its head pretty much sealed the deal. Jack stepped back and observed his handiwork with weariness but satisfaction. He was unprepared however for the second spider.

Jack heard a crunching, grating noise of broken metal combined with the shattering of glass. He glanced upward to the top of the bus and saw another giant spider leering down at him from on top of the bus. He backed off warily and prepared to fight again, but he needn’t have bothered.

“FIREBALL!!” An actual ball of fire came out of nowhere and impacted on the beast’s side, it shrieked in pain and scrambled off the bus on the opposite side of Jack. Jack ran around the bus and watched as the spider flailed around as a fire engulfed part of its abdomen.

Then a large man came running over near the spider. He was dressed like a hunter, a mixture of bone materials clearly from monster origin and steel, he carried a gigantic warhammer in one hand and looked to be a little older than Jack, maybe early thirties.

He extended his other hand and shouted, “FLAMETHROWER!!” A huge gout of flame erupted from his hand and engulfed the spider. It shrieked even further before finally dropping to the floor dead. Parts of its flesh still smouldered and sizzled but it lay still.

“YES!!” The man whooped in triumph, raising his hands and almost person sized hammer in the air, bouncing on the spot. This guy certainly seemed exuberant, a bit like Nate. Jack approached cautiously, this guy shouted out his moves before he did them, was he doing that for safety's sake or because he thought this was a video game?

“Er, hey there! Thanks for the assist,” Jack called out as he walked over, it always paid to be grateful and show appreciation to someone who had likely just saved your life. Manners cost nothing after all.

The cheerful man suddenly noticed him. “OH! Hello there! I wasn’t aware another hunter was in the area! Well in any case I’m glad I could be of help! Have you spotted any other insects here abouts?” he asked while stepping forward and reaching down to shake Jack's hand, he pumped it up and down enthusiastically and Jack had no other choice but to go along with it while answering unsteadily.

“Uh uh no, I got one on the other side of the bus and you got the other just as it was about to jump on top of me. Thanks again,” he answered, wondering when he’d get his hand back.

“AH! It was my pleasure! I’m Aaron by the way! Excellent work with the other spider!” he greeted Jack, finally letting his hand go.

“I’m Jack.” He gave Aaron a nod. “There’s some police around here somewhere, we should probably find out what else needs doing I think.”

“Of course! Lead the way!” Aaron agreed with a grin.

They both walked around the bus and spotted the small group of police officers. Some were kneeling down over injured comrades, others were on their radios. The two hunters approached them to find out what was going on and what else they needed to do.

They spoke and found out that apparently a few dozen giant insects and spiders had appeared out of nowhere all over the city and began attacking everyone in sight. Many people were injured or dead but plenty of members of the hunters' guild were already out in the city and nearby to the places being attacked. Most of the areas under attack quickly saw a hunter presence and many insects and spiders were put down relatively quickly.

Jack took out his pager and looked at the map detailing the hotspots highlighted as being under attack. Almost all of them were gone already, including the spot he was at. One of the police approached them and asked for their names and hunter licences so that they could attribute these kills to them, then Jack and Nate would get paid for their work. Jack also made sure to tell them about the spider over by Cliffords Hill dungeon.

While they were speaking the last of the spots on the map disappeared and the emergency was over. Once everything was wrapped up Jack decided to head back to the dungeon to see what would be happening with the next tour, he doubted it was going to happen but he needed to find out. Aaron invited him back to the guild for a drink at the guild hall but Jack declined and said he’d catch up later.

As they walked through the car park and just before they parted ways Jack noticed something odd off to one side of the car park, a large lorry parked right by the river. The cargo trailer doors were open, in fact they were shredded, it looked like something large had clawed its way through them. The trailer itself was empty, but on the outside a strange symbol had been crudely scrawled upon the sides, it looked familiar to Jack but he couldn’t quite place it. It was a multicoloured symbol of white, red, blue and yellow with different sigils inside. Ah, that was it, the strange man who tried to recruit Jack into the Cult of Four or whatever it was called, he had been wearing an armband with this symbol on it. Interesting, he turned back to where the police were and called them over.

“Hey!” he called out.

“Hmm, that looks like trouble,” Aaron said thoughtfully while he rubbed his chin, looking apprehensive at the symbol.

One of them came running over. “Hunters? What can I do for you?”

“Take a look.” Jack pointed to the symbol painted on the lorry.

“Hmm? What about it? Graffiti?” the officer asked, puzzled.

“Er, isn’t that the symbol of the Cult of Four? You know? The Four Horsemen? That weird cult that’s suspected of crimes involving monsters or something?” Jack tried to explain, shouldn’t the police know about these things?

The officer looked confused for a moment before he turned around and yelled out.

“Sergeant! We might have something here!”

Another officer came running over, this one looked familiar, it was Sergeant Peters, the police officer Jack and Stacey had met during Jack's first goblin hunt.

“Nathan? What is it?” Peters asked.

“Sir, these hunters say this symbol belongs to some sort of cult I think,” the officer answered.

Peters looked up at the symbol and seemed to recognise it. “Ah! Shit, the Cult of Four, ok this might explain some things. This is officially a crime scene now, not a cleanup operation. Nathan, tell the others to stop what they’re doing and to start documenting everything like usual and I’ll call for the crime scene investigators.” The younger officer, Nathan, ran off to the other policemen and Peters turned to Jack and Aaron.

“Thanks guys I - hey, you seem familiar.” He looked at Jack.

“Yeah.” Jack acknowledged with a nod and smile. “We met maybe a couple of months back, a goblin infestation, remember?”

“Oh yeah, you were with that other hunter, the pretty lass. She’s still alive I hope?” he asked in slight concern.

“Yeah, she’s fine. You’re still alive too I see,” Jack pointed out jokingly.

“Ha! Yeah just about, just about.” Peters laughed, though it sounded strained and tired, he reached up with a shaky left hand to scrape his short black hair back against his scalp. Jack noticed that his little finger and ring finger were burned and withered, tell tale injuries from a failed cultivation attempt some time in the past.

“Well, anyway, I need to call this in. Thanks again…….” He trailed off.

“Jack.”

“Aaron!”

“Thanks guys, we’ll take it from here.” Peters gave them both a tired smile and Jack and Aaron bade goodbye as well before leaving the car park. Aaron made Jack promise to meet up with him later in the evening for a drink at the guildhall and they then parted ways. Jack headed back over to the dungeon.

When he got back he found a couple of ambulances with paramedics treating the injured security members and the tour guide. Sarah the manager was also hovering over the tour guide and the paramedic treating her, looking tearful and worried.

She spotted Jack, walked straight up to him and slapped him in the face.

“Where were you!?” she screamed angrily at him.

“Huh?” was all Jack could muster up before she slapped him again.

“Amy nearly died! She still might! Where the fuck were you!? You’re supposed to be a hunter! It's your job to deal with these things!!” She tried to slap him again but Allan the security chief stepped in and gently restrained her.

“Easy there, it wasn’t his fault. That thing appeared out of nowhere, there was nothing he could have done. And the hunter was the one to kill the beast anyway,” he tried to explain but Sarah wasn’t having it.

“I don’t care! The guild should never have sent a lightning element for this job! Oh yes! I found what he is! If we had a real hunter here this would never have happened! You…you’re fired!! Get the hell out of here!” she screamed at Jack.

Still Jack couldn’t think of anything to say, not that any words would suffice. She was the one in charge and she was pissed, he was angry too but he realised she was also distraught. Trying to reason with her or scream back at her would probably be pointless, besides he was extremely tired from the day's activities and a drink at the guild hall was sounding better and better.

He glanced at Allan who looked back at him sadly before Jack turned around and walked away.

A few minutes walk and his pager buzzed. He took it out of his pocket and saw an angry red message box saying request failed had appeared on the screen. Damnit.

Jack continued to drag himself back to the guild HQ, after an hour of tiredly dragging his feet, he had walked past multiple scenes of destruction and carnage. Smashed up vehicles and store fronts told of the destruction, fresh blood stains and scorch marks told of the fighting done. The mutated giant spiders and insects seemed to have all appeared around busy, highly travelled areas within and around the city centre. Ambulances, police, traumatised bystanders and news crews were everywhere along with hunters and various guild personnel.

While he was approaching one of the bridges to cross the river Ouse he saw a larger than usual gathering of hunters and guild personnel at the bridge's northern end. They were all walking over the bridge in the direction of the guild HQ. Amongst them he spotted Stacey and Cheryl, he strode over to them.

“Hey guys!” he called out as he joined them.

They both turned around and smiled at him with relief.

“Jack! Are you ok?” Stacey asked in concern as she hugged him. He was surprised for a second before returning her hug and then they both continued walking.

“Yeah, I’m fine, it’ll take more than two giant, mutated, feral, bullet proof, flesh hungry, eight legged walking tanks to take me down!” he jokingly bragged while beating on his chest with a fist, which he immediately regretted and winced in pain.

“Really?” Cheryl asked with scepticism. “It looks like they came closer than you were comfortable with.” She pointed out while looking down at the damaged portion of his armour on his chest.

“Whoa! What happened?” Stacey gasped. “And did you say two giant spiders?”

“Yep, well, not at the same time, one was right outside the Clifford Hill dungeon, the other was in a car park. The one at the dungeon did this to me. I thought it was done so I let my guard down for a moment, my bad.” He shrugged casually.

“Oh well, live and learn eh Jack? It happens to everyone.” Cheryl shrugged as well and ignored Stacey’s disapproving glare. “Anyway, how did the dungeon job go?”

At this Jack grimaced, he was feeling a little depressed over it to be honest. He thought he hadn’t done anything wrong, but for some reason he still felt guilty anyway, urgh, feelings.

“I…….” He hesitated. “Got fired,” he added simply. Both girls stared at him dumbly for a moment.

“You…what the hell happened!?” Cheryl asked in shock. “It was an easy job!”

He rubbed the back of his head and sighed before explaining. “One of the insect attacks happened right outside the dungeon, we’d just finished a tour so me and some of the security guys were in the breakroom. The tour guide was having a cigarette just outside, then we heard a scream, everyone rushes outside and we eventually find a giant spider standing over the tour guide,” he explained and both girls winced.

“Dead?” Stacey asked.

“Nope.” Jack shook his head. “As a matter of fact she was still alive and being treated when I left after getting sacked. She was attacked and badly injured but I killed the thing then went on to kill another at a nearby car park. When I went back to the dungeon the manager Sarah came right up to me and slapped me, saying it was all my fault. She was pissed, I think she was friends with the tour guide or something, they were both American.” Jack shrugged lamely.

“That bitch,” Stacey hissed. “She can’t just do that!”

“Unfortunately she can.” Cheryl sighed. “She’s the client, what she says goes, if Jacks out he’s out, nothing we can do. Hang on.” Cheryl began swiping and tapping at her pager, after a few seconds she looked up.

“Yep, there it is, job aborted, request for new hunter in process. Ooh, yikes, she was particularly scathing in the comments section.” Cheryl showed it to them. Jack bent down to read it before realising how bad it was.

“Oh what the fuck? Cowardly and unprofessional!? I don’t remember seeing her anywhere near the fight, and who the actual fuck does she think killed the beast. I mean Jesus! She seemed so nice when I first met her! What the hell!?” Jack exclaimed in indignation. “Good grief, even the security chief backed me up but she just ignored him, why is she saying all this stuff about me? And clumsy!? That was unnecessary!” He shook his head in despair.

Cheryl meanwhile tutted in annoyance. “I see what she's doing here, the sneaky bitch.”

“Wha-Oh! I think I see it too!” Stacey looked confused for a moment before realisation dawned in her face.

“What? What?” Jack asked in agitation.

“When a hunter fails a job or otherwise messes it up badly, the guild is legally obligated to provide a hunter to finish the job and pay out of its own pocket. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem if the job was only a week long at three hundred pounds a day, the guild can take that loss easily. But contractually the job is actually six months long with options to renew at the end of that six months, we just switch the hunters out every week so they don’t get bored, so that's erm, about fifty thousand pounds overall. There's no way we're letting this slide without a fight, if she thinks she can avoid paying she’s got another thing coming.” Cheryl looked furious.

“Oh, that's cold. I thought she was just upset about the tour guide getting injured and wanted someone to blame,” Jack said, now a little confused.

Cheryl looked at Jack with amused pity. “Oh Jack, she probably is upset and looking for someone to blame, but she’s also in charge of an extremely profitable venture and is looking to expand, so she’s also a shark looking for every advantage. The tourism industry can be cut throat sometimes, or so I hear.”

“Huh, well what now?” he asked.

“Now? For you nothing, well, you get a black mark but otherwise you go find another hunt or request. The guild will handle the dungeon job, probably have to bring some lawyers in, I doubt she’ll get what she wants,” Cheryl answered him, but also sort of talking to herself as if making plans in her head.

Meanwhile Jack had to do a double take at the mention of a black mark. “A black mark? What's this now? That sounds bad,” he asked worriedly. “Is that bad?” He turned to Stacey who shrugged.

“It's fine, everyone gets them every now and then,” she told him. “If you mess up on a job and the contractor or the surveyor isn’t happy, you get a black mark on your record. If you have ten in one year then your record gets reviewed by admin and they decide your punishment, they might demote you, give you a fine or boost you from the guild entirely, the penalty varies by how much you’ve pissed people off I think.” She shrugged again. “A mark only stays on your record for a year.”

“Huh, do you have any marks?” He asked.

She looked a little embarrassed. “No, though I may have had one or two in the past,” she admitted with a slight reddening of her face.

“You Stacey!? I’m shocked!” he said with a grin.

“I had a few in the past too,” Cheryl put in.

“Now that doesn’t surprise me at all,” Jack said, prompting Cheryl to punch him in the shoulder just as they reached the iron gates of HQ.