Chapter 15

The next morning Jack was relaxing at home, watching the news like usual as he ate his breakfast.

The news showed the story of the giant ship in Liverpool, it was just about finished and was set to begin its maiden voyage across the Atlantic ocean to Boston in the USA in one week. The entire thing had just about completed construction and was now just being loaded up with goods from all over Europe, the story showed a bird’s eye view of the ship. It was massive, looking like it could fit a small city on its deck, it was said to be able to easily haul more than three hundred thousand tonnes of cargo, it bristled with weapons including missile launchers, torpedoes bays, anti-aircraft guns and massive harpoon guns attached to thick chains. There was even a permanent complement of C, B and A rank hunters attached to the crew.

Another interesting story shown that morning was of a British ‘athlete’, a sprinter who had been disqualified from the upcoming Olympics which were to be held in Berlin next year in July. The story cut to an image of a tall athletic young man in a tracksuit speaking with a short, slightly overweight, middle aged, balding man smoking a cigarette who must be the young guy's trainer. Jack wondered if this was yet another drugs scandal, however there seemed to be a bit of twist. As the story continued it was revealed that the sprinter in question was in fact the short middle aged guy, his name was Harrison Charles.

It was further revealed that even though he’d gone through very little actual training, he had actually done an extensive amount of cultivation with the fire element. Thus his body was much stronger and faster than the average human, more than enabling him to keep up with and surpass Olympic level sprinters. Therein lay the controversy, cultivation was still not a common practice in the world of sports. The risks were seen as too high and many coaches, fitness instructors and sports team managers forbade their professional athletes from doing it due to health concerns. When other countries found out about Harrison Charles, their national sporting organisations put in formal protestations about him competing, and so the international Olympic committee was forced to ban him.

Needless to say this led to an immense amount of controversy as cultivation hadn’t been against any official rules in the first place. The question then became, was cultivation to be banned completely in any sport? Or was it guaranteed to wind up becoming necessary in the future so that athletes would be able to compete against each other on a level playing field?

Another story was shown that had Jack cringing as he was unfortunately one of the subjects of it. The story was about the death of Eric Flamewrought's beloved eldest son, Barry Arneson. It went on to describe Barry as a kind and conscientious individual who’d never done anyone anything wrong and that he was fully committed to the protection of the people as a proud monster hunter for the UK hunters guild, that he risked his life everyday, that he was such a great person and blah blah blah. Jack scoffed in disgust.

Fortunately they withheld the actual specifics of what exactly happened down at Clifford’s Hill dungeon, only that Barry and all his team were all killed in there and that Jack was the only one to walk out alive.

The story cut to an interview with Eric Flamewrought himself who spoke to a young woman from across a low table in what looked to be the atrium in the hunters guild HQ in York. Flamewrought was dressed in a black tailored suit and looked to be the very picture of a grief stricken father.

“Thankyou for agreeing to speak with us today Mr Flamewrought, I know this must be a very difficult time for you,” the young woman began in a sympathetic manner. “You have my sincerest condolences for your loss.”

“That's quite alright Sarah, thank you.” Flamewrought regally nodded his head towards her in acknowledgement.

“Now, you agreed to speak with us about your son’s death,” she began, trying to approach the subject as gently as she could. “How are you feeling? How are you handling Barry’s death?” she asked.

After a moment's pause as grief seemed to flash momentarily on his face Flamewrought answered. “I’m devastated, what father wouldn’t be? I still remember Barry as a little boy barely up to my knee running around in the living room, and now he’s gone.” He looked like he was about to choke up but seemed to control himself.

“Again I’m so sorry, but what do you think was the cause of your son’s death? Are we placing too much pressure on our monster hunters? Should there be more safety measures in place?” she asked.

“It wasn’t a lack of safety measures that got my Barry killed! He was a proud hunter and damn good one!” Flamewrought burst out before calming down. “My apologies, I didn’t mean to snap,” he said.

“That's quite alright, you were saying?” she replied.

“As I said, Barry was a strong and dedicated hunter who never tackled anything he couldn’t handle, he wouldn’t put himself or his team in a situation that led to their deaths at the hands of mere monsters.”

“I see, but he was in a dungeon, they can be quite dangerous and unpredictable, or so I hear,” she said.

“Yes they can, but not Clifford’s Hill, it's a very low ranked dungeon, I’ve been in it myself. There was nothing in there that could’ve killed….could’ve killed…..my boy,” Flamewrought finished emotionally.

The interviewer waited a few moments before speaking again. “Then, what do you think happened in there?” she asked curiously. “What could have caused your son’s death.”

Flamewrought’s face hardened. “You would have to ask the only person to have survived down there.”

“Ah, you mean Jack Errant? The first and only known lightning cultivator,” she supplied.

“Yes,” he replied bitterly. “Why was it that only he came out alive? What exactly happened down there? What did he do?”

“Well I er…are you…are you implying that he may have had something to do with your son’s death?” she asked nervously.

“Well, I can’t say anything for certain, I can only speculate, but it's awfully convenient no? My son and a full team of strong accomplished hunters all die in a low ranking dungeon but he of all people walks out with nary a scratch? Hmph!” He snorted in derision at the thought.

Nary a scratch!? Jack thought indignantly, most of his scratches were still healing, thank you very much.

“He of all people? What do you mean by that sir?”

“I mean that it was well known that Jack Errant was antagonistic towards my son and his teammates, he’d approached them multiple times to insult them and behave in an unprofessional manner, unbecoming of a hunter. I’ve also had multiple concerned hunters come to me and say that Jack Errant had tried to lure them into teaming up with him for particularly difficult hunts that they didn’t feel comfortable undertaking. Fortunately most of them didn’t take him up on those offers, but it seems the same can’t be said for my son, he always was a helpful soul,” Flamewrought lamented sadly.

Jack watched the interview progress with mounting horror, where the hell was he getting this information from!? None of this was true!

“Are you saying that Jack Errant may have lured your son and his teammates into that dungeon on purpose? With uh….a particular motive in mind?” The interviewer was beginning to look uncomfortable now.

“I’m saying it's a possibility we shouldn’t discount, afterall, everyone saw the method he uses to cultivate, he clearly needs living matter to cultivate. In the video we saw he was using those monsters to cultivate, but why should he only need monsters? Why not any living creature? Why not other humans?” Flamewrought explained.

Oh shit, he said the thing! He figured it out! Literally the thing he’d been most afraid of and that jerk just blurted it out on national television!

The interviewer gasped. “O - Other humans? Surely that can’t be…that can’t be true can it? The guild wouldn’t condone something like that would they?” she asked nervously.

“My own sources within the guild confirmed that it is indeed possible, and as far as the guild letting it happen, well, maybe they don’t let it happen, but they can’t know everything that happens behind closed doors or down in dungeons now can they?” he asked rhetorically.

Wow, he was really selling his narrative. Jack tried to think how this could go any worse.

“I plan to ask the UK hunters guild to launch a formal inquiry into Jack Errant’s conduct as a member of the guild and to have him suspended until the results of the inquiry have been made available to the public.”

Ah shit, that's how, Jack thought bitterly. He was beginning to find that fame was just one side of a coin with the other side being infamy, and he seemed to be getting rather infamous lately. Well, whatever, people could think what they liked, he just really hoped he wasn’t getting fired or suspended.

The interview continued a little while more before it was wrapped up and the news ended shortly after.

Jack sat back and stared at the tv blankly for a time before the alarm on his phone went off to remind him to get ready and go. He scrambled to pull on a pair of comfortable tracksuit trousers and a tee shirt before putting on his armour over it all, he went downstairs carrying his weapons wrapped up in the harness along with his new helmet. As usual he had to shove his way through dozens of reporters before he got to his car and drove to the guild HQ.

He arrived at the guild and went straight in, the reception from the various hunters and guild personnel was somewhat frosty, everyone he passed gave him wary looks and didn’t seem to want to turn their backs on him until he’d gotten far enough away. A bubble of quiet, of hushed voices and stilled conversations followed him all the way to the guild hall.

He made straight for the bar and ordered a black coffee, for whatever reason the bar staff didn’t give him any strange looks, they simply fulfilled his order and handed him his coffee without any attitude, for which he was grateful.

He placed his helmet on the bar and leaned against it, he slowly sipped at his coffee whilst impassively observing the hall, it was sparsely populated, just the occasional hunter or admin staff here and there. After a few minutes the doors to the hall opened again and Russel strode in, he wore a large set of metallic grey bulky plate mail that completely covered his entire body, he also easily carried a massive, thick tower shield that looked to weigh as much as an entire man.

Russel spotted Jack by the bar and walked over to him.

“Jack, are you ready to go?” he asked in his deep rumbling voice.

“I don’t know? Am I?” Jack asked with a raised eyebrow, taking a sip of his coffee.

“What?” Russel frowned in confusion.

“Aren’t I suspended or something, did you see the interview that Flamewrought guy gave, he wanted the guild to suspend me for an investigation thingy, so am I or not?” Jack asked forcefully.

Russel sighed lightly before answering. “Eric Flamewrought doesn’t have that kind of authority, and the guild already did an investigation into what happened, you were found to be without fault. You’re still a part of the hunters guild if you want to be,” he told Jack calmly with a shrug.

“Oh.” Jack felt a little surprised and relieved. “So that guy was just talking shit all along then? I knew it! Great! Let's go kill something! I feel so much better.” Jack grabbed his helmet and walked cheerfully out of the hall with Russel following along behind him.

As they walked Russel told Jack about the hunt.

“This will be an E ranked hunt for a Xenosilf, an insectoid monster, it has ten legs plus two pincers and a stinger which can deliver a potent venom, it's fast and strong but primarily an ambush predator.”

They stopped and Russel showed Jack an image of the monster they were about to hunt on his pager, from what Russel had described Jack thought the thing sounded like a scorpion. But instead it more resembled a flattened black segmented armoured worm with pointed legs, it was about four metres long and a couple of feet thick plus some sort of white wispy looking tail which ended in a red stinger. One end which he assumed was the head had a bewildering set of mandibles and teeth strangely enough. He didn’t know insects could have teeth. Though technically it wasn’t an insect but a monster that looked like an insect. On either side of the head were a pair of limbs ending in crab like pincers. At the other end of the beast was a thin white prehensile tail that looked to be made of silk strands, apparently the length of the tail could vary and it ended in a long red stinger. All in all it looked very intimidating.

“The guild is willing to pay you a bounty of two thousand pounds if you turn the full monster corpse over along with the fee of one thousand two hundred for the actual hunt,” Russel stated.

If Jack had still been drinking his coffee he would have spat some out in shock. “Two thousand!? For just the corpse, seriously!? Okay! Deal!” Jack couldn’t help but let a wide goofy grin spread across his face. “Where we goin’? C’mon, let's get us a fresh steaming monster corpse!” Jack marched off through the atrium with his helmet raised in triumph.

“The cemetery, the target, has recently taken up residence there, we’re to eliminate it as soon as possible,” Russel said as he caught up with Jack. “It's not far from here so we can walk.”

As they walked Jack thought he might as well ask Russel about the earth element while he had the opportunity, feeling it may be beneficial to round out his knowledge of all the elements.

“Hmm, the earth element?” Russel rumbled out, going quiet for a moment in contemplation. “It's a tricky element,” he said eventually.

“What?” That had not been what Jack was expecting.

“Earth isn’t just earth, it's composed of many different elements, silicon, calcium, iron, aluminium, many different metals and minerals. There are all sorts of different compositions of earth out there like limestone, granite and concrete as well as metals like iron, copper and steel. Most cultivators can manipulate it all to some small degree, but most quite often find themselves specialising in particular substances, everyone has different talents when it comes to using the earth element. Earth isn’t like fire or water where it's all the same stuff, earth has lots of moving parts, but at the same time it's firm and solid,” Russel explained.

“Oh, that does sound tricky actually. What do you specialise in?” Jack asked.

“Silicon, it's the most common element you’ll find in the ground or anywhere there's rock. It lets me work around other stuff I find in the ground like iron and aluminium and calcium. I find it's the most effective specialisation for combat because it pretty much lets me use anything as a weapon, though there are others who would disagree with me.” Russel shrugged.

It took them about twenty minutes to walk south east of HQ across a bridge over the river to York cemetery. The entire area was just under a square mile in size and surrounded by a tall iron fence. The cemetery was a known hotspot for a heavy amount of monster spawning and thus an area that hunters frequented on a regular basis. It was now avoided by normal people at all costs and had long since stopped being a place for people to bury their dead. Though death was still very much a presence there.

Before the advent of monsters and magic, the vast majority of the area was given over to grass and trees with the majority of the gravestones and mausoleums located on the northwest side up a slight incline; it once had a very natural, peaceful look. Now however, it was like a small thick forest in the middle of the city, completely overgrown with a mixture of normal and exotic flora and fauna. The people of York had apparently petitioned the city council multiple times to have the entire place chopped and burned down to prevent any further monster spawns from having a place to lurk in, but for some reason they were always denied.

Once they arrived Jack saw with some annoyance that they’d been beaten there by several journalists and camera teams lying in wait who all eagerly perked up when he arrived. The journalists had been waiting close to the large set of iron gates leading into the cemetery which were guarded by several armed and armoured police.

Also present however, was a small group of several tired looking people in plain clothes, some of them were holding old weather beaten signs that said things like ‘Burn it all Down’ or ‘Remember Samantha’ or ‘How Many is Enough?’. A couple of the women were wearing tee shirts that had the pictures of a child's face on the front, Jack squinted at them for a moment before he recognised the face. It was one of the numerous children to have gone missing over the past couple of years, last seen in the vicinity of the cemetery.

Both hunters made their way across the street and strode up to the iron gates leading into the cemetery, they had to walk through the various journalists and cameras that insisted on crowding them. Russel had to remind Jack not to say anything under his breath. Russel showed his licence to the police and they unbarred the gate and let them through.

As soon as they stepped into the cemetery Jack immediately felt the air change, all the trees growing in close proximity to the boundary of the cemetery and one another muffled all sound.

Russel walked on and casually motioned for Jack to follow him, if Russel was at all phased by the claustrophobic and oppressive atmosphere then he didn’t show it.

After they got a bit further into the tree line Russel turned to Jack and quietly spoke. “Put your helmet on but keep the visor up until the fighting starts, it’ll protect your head from a strike in an ambush but keep your eyesight unimpeded.”

Jack nodded and did as he was told, they continued walking until they both heard a consistent sliding and scuttling noise across dead leaves. Whatever was making the noise seemed to be quickly circling around the two of them, just out of sight behind the trees. Jack unsheathed his new shortsword from the sheath on his back, and followed the sound. Suddenly the sound stopped and Jack faced the direction he’d last heard it.

It occurred to Jack that letting an ambush predator make the first move was a dumb idea, even if you knew it was there and thought you were ready for it, it may not be the best idea to just let it attack you.

So rather than wait for it to pounce or whatever it was about to do, Jack decided he’d make the first move. He snapped his helmet visor down, feeling the new visor/gasmask fit snugly around his face and channelled some lightning into his sword. He then began swinging around randomly in wide arcs all around him, carefully making sure not to swing at Russel. He plastered the entire area around him with misty white water vapour and arcs of electricity for a radius of about ten metres all around him and Russel.

For a few moments he filled the small forest with the sound of crackling and buzzing as countless small but strong arcs of electricity filled the area around the two hunters. Eventually he heard a thump on the ground and a frantic rustle of leaves behind him, he turned around and saw his quarry, a twitching writhing mass of tangled black segmented chitin and limbs.

It looked like that was it, the monster looked disabled and that he just needed to finish it off. But then it seemed to rally, it suddenly untangled itself and whipped a long white wispy tail at Jack as he approached, Jack tried to get his sword in the way but the stinger made it past. Fortunately it clanged off his left knee which was protected by a greave. The monster smoothly and rapidly scuttled to the side and tried to lunge at Jack with its pincers, he held it back with an arc of lightning from his sword, it backed off but quickly stabbed at him several times with the long tail and stinger.

Jack fended it off and backed away too, he watched as the monster rapidly circled around him, it never stayed still as it smoothly slithered and scuttled across the forest floor, he was barely able to keep it within sight, it moved so fast. Suddenly it darted in again and attacked both with its pincers and its stinger at the same time. Jack took the stinger on his helmet but felt one of the pincers grab his right leg.

Jack was pulled off his feet but at the same time he channelled a small amount of electricity through his boot and the monster received a nasty shock that forced it to back away.

Jack had learnt his lesson from before that when he channelled a large amount of electricity, it would force the muscles of whatever was grabbing him to contract. If that had happened when the Xenosilf’s pincers were holding onto him then he might’ve lost his foot.

While the Xenosilf was reeling Jack quickly scrambled to his feet and rapidly swung his sword in a series of short chopping motions at the monster. He covered it in water vapour and lightning and caused it to convulse and start twitching uncontrollably. He stood up and shot off a few quick bolts of lightning through his left hand while he quickly walked over to it before smoothly thrusting his sword through its mandibles into its head.

He channelled some more lightning into it just to be safe and backed off to look at his handiwork. Apart from the occasional lightning induced twitch, it lay still.

Once he was sure it was dead Jack let out an explosive breath and squatted down before looking over to Russel who’d just been standing there watching the whole thing. However it looked like he’d been ready to intervene judging by the sharp sliver of stone hovering over his shoulder.

“So, what’d ya think?” Jack asked between huffs for breath.

“I see you took my advice to heart and developed a ranged ability or two,” Russel remarked.

“Course I did, I always listen to you Russel,” Jack said with a grin as he settled down to sit on his backside and looked over to the monster corpse, Russel snorted. One of the pincers was just within reach so he extended a hand and began cultivating from it while Russel observed with interest. Eventually Jack felt like gotten everything he could from the monster without draining it too much, he remembered the guild still wanted it.

Once he was done cultivating he stood up and looked over to Russel. “Hey Russel, can you come over here for a sec?” Jack called over. Russel shrugged but walked over anyway. “Just erm, kneel down there for me?” Jack asked, Russel did so and Jack grabbed the Xenosilf and positioned it next to Russel, then he grabbed one for the pincers and draped the arm it was attached to around Russel’s neck, Russel looked at him questioningly but didn’t protest. Then he squatted next to the Xenosilf on the other side and did the same with the other pincer, both of the monster’s arms were draped over their shoulders as if it was drunk and they were carrying it home, its head and torso resting between them. Then Jack brought out his pager and took a selfie.

“Hah! The others are gonna love that!” Jack exclaimed. But at Russell's bemused look Jack quickly added, “It's also good for official proof of the hunt's completion too, gotta be thorough. So anyway, what now? Do we just leave it here for a team to pick up?”

“No, if we did that then something else will just come along and eat it, also we don’t want the pickup team to have to come in here and unnecessarily expose themselves to danger. We’ll drag it out while we’re here, there should be a van from the guild waiting for us.” Russel picked up one of the pincers, he stopped and wordlessly waited for Jack who sighed quietly before grabbing the other pincer.

They dragged the dead Xenosilf across the forest floor through the dead leaves for several minutes before they saw the iron gates and fence of the cemetery boundary. They also saw numerous cameras pointed through the bars at them, waiting for them.

However twenty metres before they reached the gates Russel and Jack heard shouting and screaming off to their right up a slight rise. That was the location most of the graves were in, it was also the most sparsely populated by trees. The two hunters stopped and Jack looked questioningly to Russel, the shouting intensified before sounds of gunfire also emanated from the area.

Russel grunted a little in frustration before saying, “We’ll go, it could be hunters in trouble, they may need help.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t sound like anythings going to plan up there,” Jack replied.

They turned to the right and began dragging the dead Xenosilf up the low hill at a quicker pace, the sounds of shouting and gunfire got louder. Eventually the trees thinned out enough for them to see what was going on.

It was chaos, running in random directions around the gravestones were seven hunters, they were wielding an assortment of melee weapons and guns, and chasing after them was a large group of Leather Claws. Leather Claws were a monster that Jack had tackled before, relatively common in Britain and considered low rank, nevertheless they were much faster and stronger than their small size suggested and made up for any shortcomings in their pure viciousness. They were like wrathful, vengeful, hairless wolverines on steroids.

It seemed this group of hapless looking hunters had taken on a job for getting rid of a nest of Leather Claws. They did not seem to be handling it well, judging by the general disarray and the flailing about of one hunter who had a creature attached to his back while another hunter desperately tried to pry it off.

“Hm, I’ve always wondered if Leather Claws shouldn’t actually be a rank higher than they are,” Russel muttered, impassively watching them.

“Really? I once dealt with an entire nest by myself easily enough, sort of,” Jack replied with a shrug.

“Well I think you -” But Russel stopped what he was about to say and suddenly ducked down behind a gravestone, dragging Jack down with him, an instant later several stray bullets whizzed by them or impacted on the gravestone they hid behind.

They peeked out from behind the gravestone.

“Should we help them?” Jack asked. “Or is that like, against some unwritten rule or something? Are we only supposed to step in if it looks like they're gonna die?”

“No, we’ll help them out, they don’t seem to be doing too well, if they’re annoyed then can take it up with me,” Russel rumbled, sounding vaguely annoyed himself as he got to his feet, hefting his immense tower shield.

Jack glanced up at his companion and not for the first time was reminded how imposing he was, Russel was over six feet tall and very broad, and none of that bulk was fat either, the immense physical brute strength he possessed was backed up by the powerful earth elemental core of a B rank monster hunter. The heavy plate armour he wore made him look even more intimidating. It was easy to forget all that when Russel had such a calm, quiet, thoughtful demeanour, but he was still the sort of person whom you did not want to get into an altercation with.

Russel strode over to the battlefield and Jack followed him, they left the Xenosilf corpse by the gravestone. The graveyard was located next to the iron fence marking the boundary of the cemetery, already several camera crews and journalists were watching the unfolding chaos with rapt attention.

Now that Jack got a closer look at the action he saw there seemed to be rather a lot of Leather Claws, around twenty or so. They were all rabidly attacking the hunters whilst the hunters desperately tried to fend them off. Most of the hunters seemed to be fire elements, though not very strong, they sent small streams of fire at the creatures whenever one pounced at them but the little critters just seemed to tank the fire and carry on attacking. Leather Claw hide was quite tough, and considered moderately valuable for use as armour materials.

Once they’d gotten close, Russel quickly conjured a small shard of pointed stone and made it shoot into a Leather Claw that was attached to a panicked hunter's back, the monster dropped to the ground with its head missing. The other hunter who’d been trying to help him looked over in shock and surprise before spotting Russel and Jack. They didn’t have time to stand still however as another Leather Claw attacked them.

Jack jogged into the centre of the small battlefield and ran a weak current of electricity through his body, he soon attracted the attention of a couple of marauding Leather Claws. They raced towards him with snarls from their frothing mouths, their small claws scrabbling through the grass and dirt, they leaped towards Jack. As soon as they touched him however they immediately yelped in pain and dropped to the ground. Jack quickly crouched down and grabbed both monsters by loose folds of hide and ran a much stronger current of electricity through his hands. Both Leather Claws shuddered and spasmed briefly before falling still, Jack dropped both monsters to the ground and looked around.

He saw Russel seemed to be handling himself with his usual unflappable competence. As Jack watched, three Leather Claws charged the big man but didn’t make it within ten metres of him, Russel raised his hands slightly and the earth directly underneath the charging monsters seemed to go soft like quicksand. The three monsters were quickly submerged underneath the soil, their fury turning to confusion, then Russel performed a sudden twisting motion with his hands and the ground the monsters were trapped in also twisted. Even from where he was standing, twenty metres away, Jack heard the sickening sound of breaking and snapping bones from the ground.

Things wrapped up fairly quickly after that, Russel and Jack each dealt with a couple more Leather Claws which gave the other hunters time to catch their breath and deal with the rest of the nest.

One hunter who was armed with an assault rifle stabbed a leather claw with an attached bayonet then fired several rounds into it. Another hunter relentlessly poured fire onto his target which eventually succumbed, the monster's corpse a smouldering ruin. A hunter with a shotgun frantically shot round after round into a Leatherclaw before it finally fell dead.

After the last monster had been dealt with, the group of hunters all turned to regard Russel and Jack with a mixture of relief, gratefulness and some annoyance. They looked like a rag tag mix of low level hunters, most of them were wearing cheap light leather, kevlar and chain armour. The hunter with the assault rifle approached Russel and Jack, looking a little sheepish.

“Er, thanks for the help guys, we er…didn’t know any other hunters were in the area.” He took off his helmet and gave them both a weak smile, looking at them nervously.

Russel regarded them silently for a few moments before speaking. “We were on a promotion hunt further into the wooded area, it looked like you required assistance.” Russel's deep voice echoed out from behind his full metal face visor. He may have been trying to sound reassuring but the gathered hunters only looked more intimidated as they stared up at him.

One of the hunters however was not so cowed. “Pff, we could’ve handled it fine.” He looked at Russel and Jack resentfully, he had been the panicking hunter who’d had a Leather Claw attached to his back.

“Yeah, you certainly seemed to have everything handled nicely, all wrapped up with a neat bow,” Jack quipped, his voice also sounding distorted and vaguely inhuman through his visor/gas mask.

The group turned to look at Jack with some annoyance but their faces turned to ones of apprehension when they got a look at the demonic visage on his visor.

“Erm er, cool - cool helmet bro,” one of them said nervously. “Where’d ya get it?” he asked before one of his friends jabbed in the ribs with an elbow.

“Oh, Gary’s Monstrous Alloys over on the high street, can’t miss it, it's got the sign of a crimson bull on the front.” Jack tapped the crimson rampant bull in chains icon on the front of his kevlar jacket before lifting up his visor.

Some of the group looked interested in this for a second before one of them looked shocked and pointed at Jack with a slight amount of awe and horror.

“Holy shit! The crimson bull on the chest, I recognise you! You’re Jack Errant! The lightning cultivator, he uses monsters to cultivate somehow. It's Hungry Jack!”

“Eh? I thought he was called the Sparker or Sparky,” another hunter asked in confusion.

At this Jack frowned, he had a moniker now? That was quick. “Actually I’m pretty sure ‘sparker’ is just a derogatory term used to refer to all lightning elements, so please don’t call me that. And I hope people can come up with something better than Hungry Jack,” Jack said with derision.

“What about Sparky?” the hunter who’d asked about his helmet spoke up with a smirk, he got an elbow to the ribs again from his friend.

“That too, now if you all don’t mind, I’m hungry,” Jack smiled at them bitterly before walking through the group, they all hurriedly parted for him afraid to get close and he made his way over to the nearest dead Leather Claw and began cultivating from it. Normally he might have considered leaving another hunter’s kills alone as a matter of principle, but now that he apparently had an unstoppable, vengeful killing machine after his head, and well, he needed every last bit of strength he could get.

“Hey wait! Those are -,”one of the hunters tried to protest but he was cut off by Russel.

“Don’t worry, you’ll still have the monster corpses to harvest the hides from, Jack just needs them to cultivate from them.”

The group looked like they wanted to protest further but at Russell's words they nodded nervously and stood around awkwardly, waiting.

After twenty minutes Jack stood up from the last dead Leather Claw and walked back over to Russel, again the group of hunters nervously shied away from him.

“Ready to go?” Jack asked, Russel nodded silently. They walked back over to the dead Xenosilf and dragged it out of the cemetery and into the mass of eagerly waiting cameras and reporters.