Chapter 27

The next morning found Jack watching the news, eating breakfast again.

In breaking news a large localised multicoloured storm similar to what had appeared around Oxford had manifested in the USA, Texas. Rather than wait to see what would emerge, the American military had opted to fire as much explosive ordinance as they could directly into the storm, completely saturating it in man made fire, stopping just short of sending in a nuclear warhead.

Jack watched as the television showed a large multicoloured storm cloud in the distance get lit up by near continuous explosions, he could see rows upon rows of artillery send in their ordnance in a rapid staccato. Hovering helicopters would periodically fire missiles and the sky above was filled with planes continuously flying overhead firing off everything they had before flying off. The Americans really weren't messing around. They clearly didn’t want what happened in Oxford to happen to them.

Apparently this had been going on for several hours and was predicted to go on for several more with continuous news coverage promised. Jack switched to another news channel, more locally Parliament had decided to not bomb the hell out of Oxford and had instead opted to maintain the perimeter around it indefinitely. The argument was that it was such a culturally important city that it was worth maintaining, with future plans to recover it being considered. Needless to say this had people simultaneously up in arms and crying out in joy.

In other news the British Prime Minister himself was in South Yorkshire attending the completion of the first wall to be built around a British settlement in centuries. The small village of Clayton near Doncaster was surrounded by farm fields and now also had a thirty metre tall wall around it with several gated entrances. The screen showed a cheerful looking suit and tie wearing Prime Minister smiling and waving for the cameras, trying to shake the hand of one of the villagers, the villagers on the other hand were not smiling and simply looking stone faced at the cameras, more than a few of them were carrying a variety of improvised weapons, one grim faced fellow in the background openly carrying a double barrelled shotgun.

Other than that the news didn’t have much else of interest to say beyond reiterating old stories such as the fact that cultivation accidents were still on the rise both in the UK and abroad. In fact it was becoming a serious issue and putting a great strain on the National Health Service, the waiting list for surgeries to remove pieces of petrified tissue was immensely long. Emergency rooms and trauma wards in hospitals were almost continuously overflowing with patients coming in suffering burns or having had heart attacks or strokes, the less said about the state of the ambulance service the better. This wasn’t even taking into account the victims of all the monster attacks.

Jack watched all this feeling glad for his discovery of lightning cultivation and the ability to get stronger, this world really was going to shit.

He brought out his laptop and checked out his bank balance and hunters account before moving some funds around. He sighed happily, just a month in and already he was looking at more money in one place than he’d ever seen in his life, virtually that is.

He put his laptop to one side, sat back in a relaxed position and closed his eyes. He concentrated on his elemental core, what Russell had said the previous day was still in the forefront of his mind. Jack really needed to put more effort into developing a ranged ability, charging in with a spear or axe was fine but that probably wasn’t a viable long term tactic unless he wanted to invest in full on heavy plate armour, which he didn’t.

He concentrated on his core and explored what he felt, he tried to manipulate it and draw some of the power away to experiment with. He could feel a strand of energy come loose, to his mind's eye it looked like an arc of electricity coming off a tiny bright sphere inside him. It was there and he could sort of make it move like he wanted but beyond that it did nothing. But then he felt a ripple move down his arm and he opened his eyes, he watched in confusion as a blue spark travelled down his left arm to the tip of his index finger. It stayed there for a second before an arc of electricity shot forward towards the television screen.

Jack's eyes widened in panic for a second, at first nothing seemed to happen but then the screen began to flicker.

“Shit shit shit no no no! Fuuuuuuck!!” Ziip hsssssss. The screen went black and a small burst of smoke emerged from the back of the tv.

Jack stared dumbly at the screen for a few seconds before groaning in frustration, he then turned to cautiously look at his poor sweet innocent laptop, he edged away from it, not wanting the same fate to befall it as had happened to his valiant television. He probably needed to invest in some rubber gloves.

Suddenly his pager buzzed.

Hey Sparky :) E rank hunt ready to go, get your arse down to the guild!!

It was from Nate, his pager buzzed again.

Hi Jack, sorry about Nate, we need a third for an E rank hunt and since you’ve just been promoted we thought you might like to join us. Text us. Stacey.

He smiled and texted he’d be there soon, he hurriedly got dressed and grabbed his gear. He was out of the door in five minutes and at the guild in thirty.

As soon as he walked into the requests room he spotted Stacey and Nate easily, Nate was being his usual boisterous self, joking with a group of hunters and Stacey was casually chatting with Cheryl at the help desk. They noticed him and he waved with a smile across the room as he approached.

“Hey Jack.”

“Hiya sparky!”

“Hey guys. So an E rank then?” He greeted them.

Stacey smiled then motioned with her head to follow her to a terminal, Jack and Nate followed her and waited as she signed in and found the correct hunt.

“Demi-Wyrms, three of ‘em.” She stated. Stacey moved to one side and Jack leaned in to get a look at the terminal screen, the image of their quarry showed a long but fat looking tan coloured worm like creature with tiny eyes, its mouth opened up into an impressive if grotesque fang filled maw and was stated to be on average around five metres long. It moved by burrowing through soil and was primarily an ambush predator. It looked like a complete bruiser and Jack gave an uncertain look to Stacey.

“Are you sure these things are E rank? And these aren’t the same Wryms as what they're dealing with in the Middle East right?” He asked in trepidation.

“These are Demi-Wyrms, what they’ve got in the Middle East are classified as Great Wyrms, ours are the tiny variant. And yes, they may look a little intimidating but they are E rank, they’re strong but slow, and easily confused by multiple strong vibrations in the ground.” She explained patiently.

“Tiny huh? Well, ok then, let's do this. I don’t suppose you have some way to cheat our way through this hunt to do you? Is there something at the shop we can buy that will make these things just curl up and die?” He asked half seriously.

It was then that Nate decided to chime in with a smirk. “Stacey said these things get confused by strong vibrations, all we need to do is go up to any one of the girls here and ask to borrow their vibra- gah!!” Cheryl appeared out of nowhere and smacked Nate across the back of his head, she nodded to Stacey and walked back behind the help desk.

While Nate was crouched on the floor holding his head Stacey smiled and turned to Jack. “Unfortunately the plaza doesn’t sell anything useful for this situation, what we’ll have to do is lure these things out of the ground and kill them the old fashioned way when they're exposed.”

With that they set off, the hunt was located in the small village of Dinnington, only a few minutes drive east of the city. The hunt details listed the Wyrms being discovered in a small playground in the centre of the village next to a children's school.

As they were driving Nate suddenly let out a laugh.

“Hey! Did you guys hear what happened in the men's locker room yesterday?” He asked in delight.

“Huh? No, what?” Stacey asked curiously.

“Ha ha! Some legend burnt all of Barry and his friends' stuff while they were in the sauna! Hahahaha!”

“What!? Are you serious? Hahahaha!” She cackled madly.

“Whaaat really? I had no idea.” Jack tries to act as if this is the first he’s hearing about it.

“Oh yeah, all their stuff, just burnt to a crisp, ha ha! No ones owning up to it. Barry tried to complain to Welts but it turned out they left their stuff outside their lockers so….”

Stacey sighed. “What an idiot, I don’t know what that guy's problem is.”

“He’s a dickhead, that's his problem.” Jack stated confidently.

“Oh yeah, he really doesn’t like you either, does he sparky?” Nate said with delight.

“A clear indicator of his dickheaded-ness, how can anyone not like me? I don’t even know why he thinks he can act that way, I saw him try to get out of trouble with Cheryl a couple of weeks ago, mentioned his father, who is that?” Jack asked.

Both Nate and Stacey were silent for a few seconds before Stacey spoke. “Ah, yeah, his dad is probably a valid reason why he’s allowed to get away with so much and why few people are able to stand up to him. You ever heard of Eric Flamewrought?”

“Vaguely, that's one of the Oxford titan slayers right? I heard he actually had his name legally changed after killing that titan……Wait…..NO! Seriously!? He’s Barry's dad!?” Jack asked in disgust.

“Yep, apparently he’s bailed Barry out of more than a few things he’s done in the past, that's why Barry is able to keep doing what he’s been doing.” She said with regret.

“And his dad just lets him get away with it?”

“I don’t think his dad cares much, I met him once, he’s a pompous jerk and he made a pass at me! He’s like twenty years older than me!” She said in indignation.

“Huh, actually I think I saw him a while ago at the guild, big muscular blonde guy, reeking of smoke and ash, he was speaking to Welts about something.” Jack mentioned.

“Probably Barry’s latest stunt.” Stacey said with disgust.

“What stunt?” Jack asked.

“You heard about the civilian who was pushed into the Needletongue nest during the priority hunts two weeks ago? Yeah, the popular opinion is that it was Barry who did it.”

“Oh shit, Cheryl said they couldn’t comment on who was actually responsible, but I can definitely see Barry doing this.”

“Yeah, and that was probably dear old daddy you saw bailing out his boy yet again. Seriously Jack, I don’t know exactly why Barry seems so fixated on you but you need to lay low when Barry’s around, don’t do anything stupid.” She said in concern.

Jack thought this over for a moment, he didn’t like the idea of a bully being able to do or say whatever they liked but at the same time he knew there was no truly satisfying way he could actually deal with Barry that would resolve their issues with each other. Thinking carefully Jack was confident he could find a comfortable middle ground where he didn’t outright confront Barry but also didn’t just take the abuse either, perhaps passive aggression and snide comments? That could work. “I’m sure I’ll come up with an appropriate response for whatever situation I find myself in.” He answered enigmatically.

“That's great, just lay low and he’ll leave you alone eventually.” She said in relief. “He’s got a short attention span.”

They continued to drive along until they reached their destination. When the trio of hunters arrived in Stacey’s car they parked near the playground.

Getting out of the car they could immediately see something was amiss in the playground, the earth had been torn up, the jungle gym, the various swing sets, slides and other things were twisted or demolished and the ground itself appeared to be moving in places. At the entrance to the playground two very nervous looking uniformed police officers stood guard to prevent anyone from entering.

Jack, Stacey and Nate approached them and showed their hunters licences before being let through, they stepped past the officers and through the gated entrance. Stacey held her hand up to call a stop before they stepped off the concrete and onto the softer ground and grass of the playground.

“I’m going to go around the playground to the other side to draw off one to two of the Wyrms, when I’ve got them distracted I want the two of you to start pounding the ground here to draw one to you. Hopefully that should split them up and allow us to deal with them easier, whoever finishes first helps out whoever's left, you got that?” She explained to them.

“Got it.” Jack nodded.

“Yup.” Nate snapped off a salute.

She rolled her eyes before walking around the perimeter of the playground, sticking to the concrete, once she was at the other end she began stamping on the grass. The shifting earth in the playground fell still for a few moments, Stacey kept stamping on the ground for a few more seconds before she suddenly rolled to the side just as an enormous Wyrm exploded out of the ground. She narrowly avoided it and backed off drawing her sabre, the Wyrm tried to withdraw back into the soft ground but Stacey hit it with a jet of water and swiftly swiped it across the face. This enraged the Wyrm which then tried to follow her.

While that was going on Jack and Nate began stamping on the ground from their position. They both felt the ground vibrate strongly and began to back off just as two Wyrms burst from the ground onto their positions.

As he stared at them up close Jack thought he was right in his initial assessment, these things were absolute bruisers, five metres long and a body so fat it came up to his chest. He backed off further and drew his spear from his back holster, he extended it and poured lighting energy into it before stepping forward quickly and stabbing the closest Wyrm in its meaty flank.

The spear only sunk in a couple of inches, the Wyrm despite its bulk turned towards him swiftly snapped at him with a wide mouth filled with rows of sharp jagged yellow teeth. He easily avoided it, Stacey had been right, these things were slow. He jabbed at its face but his spear couldn’t penetrate very far through its hide, it was too tough and leathery. He avoided a few more lunges from the Wyrm, dancing around it, he sunk more and more lighting energy into his spear and thrust it into the Wyrm’s flank once more, he had more luck this time as the spear sunk deeply into the creature.

The Wyrm let out a low hiss and thrashed around, Jack hurriedly scrambled back to avoid being squashed, losing hold of his spear in the process. When it was done thrashing around the Wyrm turned to him and fixed him with a murderous stare, he got to his feet and unhooked his axe.

Jack poured as much lightning energy as he could into his axe and ran to the side of the beast once more, it clumsily tried to snap at him which he easily avoided. He then proceeded to take out any and all frustration he had upon the Wyrms flank. The axe bit deeply with every hit, and there were a lot of hits. The beast kept writhing, trying to turn upon Jack but he just shifted his position and kept hacking away into its side.

Eventually the beast succumbed under this punishment, it let out a twitching gurgle and lay still. Jack turned to Nate to see how he was doing, he watched as Nate stood just beyond the beast's range to get at him, Nate had lured it further away from the playground and further onto the hard concrete. The beast kept mindlessly snapping at him but couldn’t do much more than wiggle and shuffle towards him, when it opened its mouth for another snap Nate suddenly raised his hand and unleashed a massive gout of flame down its gullet.

The Wyrm let out a strangled shriek, Nate didn’t give it time to recover or retreat however, he deftly leapt forward to its side and stabbed in deeply with a red hot longsword, the Wyrms flesh sizzled loudly and Nate dragged his blade along its flank for a couple metres before pulling it out. He stepped back to observe his handiwork.

Jack turned to look how Stacey was doing, just like Nate she had lured her Wyrm further away from the playground and was standing just outside of its range to get at her. She was standing still and had her hands in front of her slightly apart, then suddenly a stream of white water jetted out from her hands, impacting on the Wyrm. The Wyrm recoiled but Stacey kept the water going, to Jack it looked like she was firing off a high pressure hose, the Wyrm writhed around, the white water stream kept battering it for a few seconds until the water splash rebounding off it turned red. The Wyrm shrieked in pain as Stacey continued to carve into it with a high pressure water attack until eventually it fell still, a massive puddle of red water surrounding it.

She turned to them and waved with a smile before she shouted over to them.

“Harvest the hides then let's get out of here!” She called out to them before turning her Wyrm and drawing a large knife from the small of her back.

Jack looked to his own kill, he glanced surreptitiously to Nate who was happily carving into his Wyrm with a cheerful hum. Jack needed to harvest some of the hide but also cultivate his element too without being noticed by Nate, he stared at the Wyrm, it was big, bigger than anything he’d ever cultivated from before. The more he cultivated the more he came to realise that size was a factor in how much he could cultivate from a monster. If it was something small like a goblin he could cultivate from loads of those things, at this point it was like snacking on fries, but the larger something got the more it had to give. This Wyrm might even have more than he wanted to take, this wouldn’t be much of a problem but he didn’t want to leave behind its corpse for people to stumble upon.

Then again, he did have other options available to him now. He stood up from where he’d been kneeling next to the downed Wyrm, he looked for somewhere private and spotted some bushes by the fence and walked over there.

“Hey sparky, where ya goin?” Nate asked in confusion.

“Errrr, I need to pee.” Jack answered.

“Oh, got ya.” He turned back to carving up his kill.

Jack hurriedly went behind the bushes and got his pager, he dialled up the number for Cheryl. It rang for a few seconds before she answered.

“Hello?”

“Hey Cheryl, it's Jack.”

“I know it's you Jack, what's up?”

“Erm, how would you like to get your hands on a fully intact monster corpse? Well a sort of intact monster corpse, like ninety percent intact, or maybe eighty five.”

“HA! I knew it was you! The Jaw Gnasher in the city centre park right?” She answered, sounding triumphant.

“You knew? Then why didn’t you say something earlier, like in the assessment thingy yesterday?”

“We didn’t want to push you, the director and I both agreed it was a somewhat unprecedented situation, no other lightning cultivator had come along yet and the whole thing is too new to push ahead too fast. Besides, most cultivators and hunters tend to be a little quirky, we didn’t want to scare you off, oh and we also know about your ‘deal’ with Steven the taxidermist.” The way she said deal made Jack suspicious.

“Did- did you just put up quotation marks when you said deal? Whatever, the offer still stands, how does a giant stinking Demi-Wyrm corpse minus a patch of hide sound to you?”

“It sounds brilliant, we’ll have our team come over to collect it, how does a bounty of say…..seven hundred pounds sound to you?”

“It sounds brilliant, me, Stacey and Nate should be leaving soon and heading back to the guild.” He answered, elated at the sudden windfall of extra cash.

“Ok great, see you back at the guild.” Click.

Jack smiled and put his pager away before walking over to his kill. He immediately set about cultivating from it, after a few minutes he could feel himself getting full and it didn’t seem like the Wyrm was going to run out of energy anytime soon. He stopped cultivating and took out a skinning knife from his harvesting kit.

Fortunately the hunters guild offered classes, seminars and training on a variety of subjects other than fighting monsters such as tracking, mining, wilderness survival, foraging, harvesting and skinning to name but a few. With that in mind he vowed to actually take one of these classes when he was done here.

He stared with uncertainty at the Wyrm corpse before hearing footsteps behind him, he turned and saw Stacey approaching him while placing several neat looking sections of Wyrm hide into a plastic bag. He looked at her with his best puppy dog expression stopping her dead in her tracks, she stared at him with a disgruntled expression for a second before rolling her eyes with a smirk and taking her skinning knife out again and kneeling down next the Demi-Wyrm Jack had slain. While her back was turned Jack silently pumped his fist in triumph.

Once she was done the trio walked back to Stacey’s car with their loot, they nodded to the police on the way back. They then set off back to the guild triumphant. They chatted on the drive back.

“How was that Jack? Your first E rank.” Stacey asked.

“It was good, yeah, definitely different from fighting goblins or giant rats.” He answered.

“Well yeah, rank E is where the real fun begins, rank G and F is stuff that can be done by any non-cultivator, theoretically anyway. But from rank E onwards it gets harder and harder and needs a little something extra.” She explained as they drove back to the guild, more than ready for a good meal and a drink.