Bonus Chapter

Three months after the hunt for the Black Shuck, before the orc attack at Park Estate……

“Please hold still sir,” said the man with the camera.

“This is as still as I’m gonna get,” Jack replied as he hopped from one foot to another, hurriedly dragging on his armoured boots and greaves.

“Jack! What are you doing? Hurry up! You’re on!” Danny, Jack’s trainer, ducked his head into the locker room they were in.

“I’m hurrying, I’m hurrying,” Jack muttered as he fastened the catches on his greaves.

“Mr Errant, please,” the camera man practically pleaded.

“Oh alright then.” Jack finished fastening up his armour and stood up straight, quickly trying to strike up a pose that looked heroic without trying to make it look like he was trying to look heroic.

He stood up straight, he had his axe head rested on the floor in front of him while his right rested on the butt of the axe haft. His left hand rested on his sheathed short sword at his belt. His helmet was on with the visor down, the photographer snapped a few pictures.

“That's great, okay now can I just get you to take your helmet off so I can do a couple of head shots?” he asked as he swiped through the images he’d taken on his camera.

Jack sighed quietly before taking his helmet off. The photographer took a picture of his face then another from the side.

“Okay, that's great Mr Errant. I’ve got all I need here.” The photographer looked satisfied as he began putting away his equipment.

“Great, when will the first cards be available to the public?” Jack asked in curiosity.

“Oh it should be within a couple of weeks, you’ll probably be swarmed by kids and collectors trying to get their cards signed before anybody else’s,” the photographer remarked as he put the last of his gear away and hefted his bag up. “Good luck in your match Mr Errant.”

“Thanks, oh shit! Gotta go!” Jack suddenly remembered he had somewhere to be, right on que Danny ducked his head back in the locker room.

“Jack!”

“I’m comin I’m comin!” he hurried out of the locker room into the tangle of corridors that made up the training halls, quickly making his way down one with Danny alongside him.

“What took you so long?” Danny asked. “Nevermind. Remember, close the distance and get into melee range, he’ll want to try and keep as far away from you as possible to use his ranged attacks. Don’t let him,” Danny lectured Jack as they walked down the narrow dimly lit corridor. As they got further along they began to hear the dull roar of the crowd increasing in the distance.

“I know I got it, my axe is my friend, hack n slash and all that,” Jack reassured him as they reached a small door at the end of the corridor.

“Right, okay I think you’re all set.” Danny reached up to Jack’s shoulders and adjusted the fit of his armour. Their door opened and a man in a suit peeked through.

“Jack Errant? It’s time.” He looked at Jack expectantly and Jack nodded.

“Good luck Jack,” Danny gave him a reassuring nod and Jack nodded back in return. “Remember to acknowledge the crowd!” Danny hurriedly shouted after him as Jack turned away.

He turned to the door, he could clearly hear the roar of the crowd and their excitement behind it now. As usual before these types of events he took a deep breath to settle the slight surge of nervous energy he felt in his stomach before going through the door. He came out into a small clearing of plain concrete just at the edge of the main event, still hidden from the view of the crowds. He was told to wait there by the man in the suit, it wouldn’t be long now. He tensed and took another deep breath as he heard the announcer start speaking into his microphone to the crowds.

“GOOD EVENING EVERYONE! I hope you’re ready for a hell of a show!!” Adrian Welts declared to the cheering crowds of the arena. Hundreds of hunters, guild personnel and spectators who’d bought tickets cheered enthusiastically.

“I present to you all……the final matchup of the E rank bracket!! They’ve fought hard through all other contenders and now they’re here!! Ready to face off against each other once off for all!” Welts got the crowd ready and warmed up, he had a wide smile on his face, clearly enjoying himself. The crowds cheered and whistled.

“Firstly….I give you Jack Errant!! ‘Hungry Jack’ here made history by becoming the first ever lightning cultivator before going on to become a notorious hunter within the guild. Well known for rushing straight into the thick of things, we’re all about to see first hand the skills of the first ever lightning element hunter!!” Jack steeled himself and marched out onto the large arena floor, the same arena Flamewrought and Thomas Norton had fought their exhibition match on. The crowds roared as he made his appearance, the spotlights focussed on him and followed him to the centre where Welts waited with a wide smile.

This was it, he’d fought for two months against one E ranking hunter after another to get here, the final match against the other top E ranking hunter in the local duelling league. This was the first time he’d set foot in the main arena of the York branch training and duelling halls, he’d fought all his previous bouts in the various scattered smaller duelling pits. He raised his axe to the crowd who cheered enthusiastically, this was the lowest ranked bracket in the whole league at E rank, but the interest and support for it was still huge.

“And now……..I give you Eric ‘hot hands’ Weaver!! The local talent, born and bred right here in York! This fire cultivator has been with us for a year and since taken down an impressive list of monsters alongside his team! Let's see he fares against his next opponent!” Eric, from the same Neighbourhood watch team as Nate, walked out from the other side of the large main arena into the spotlight to the cheers of the crowd.

Eric wore a set of modern looking black carapace plate armour mixed with white scales from some beast or monster, covering most of his body along with a sallet helmet leaving his jaw uncovered, the left pauldron and vambrace looked larger and chunkier than the right side. He carried a straight long sword in his right, though the blade was at least three times as wide and thick as a normal sword, indicating the extreme weight and power he could put behind his attacks. In his left hand he hefted a large grey metal kite shield. He had his head turned to Jack and Jack could tell, even through his visor that he was angrily glaring again.

Welts leaned in and covered the microphone before speaking to them. “Okay gents, lets see a good clean fight. You both know the rules by now,” he told them.

The ‘rules’ such as they were, were a strange mix of strict and lax. When he came up with what was allowed and what wasn’t, Welts or whoever had made up the rules had to balance the safety of the hunters with the need to put on a good show. Guns and grenades were out, so were poisons, acids, bear spray, missile launchers, claymores, power tools, chainsaws, raw uncut elemental crystals and many more things besides, monster hunters were really starting to get inventive in the pursuit of their profession. Tamed mutated animals were also starting to become a thing now too.

However, they were still allowed, in fact they were encouraged to use their regular weapons along with most of their elemental techniques. Only a few specific elemental attacks were banned from use, unfortunately, Jack’s railgun type ability was one such technique.

So really, apart from the extensive list of banned items, they were actually encouraged to go all out and try to murder each other for the entertainment of the crowd.

At Welts’ words both Jack and Eric nodded tersely, Welts nodded back before retreating to a small elevator that took him to the protected announcer’s chamber.

They both stared each other down, waiting for the signal to begin, slowly tensing up. Jack gripped his axe tighter. And then the signal was given.

“BEGIN!!”

Eric immediately sent a pulse of flame in a wide arc at Jack before leaping backwards, attempting to place distance between them just like Danny had predicted.

Jack tanked the flame attack, it was just supposed to serve as a distraction and a smoke screen rather than cause damage anyway. He rushed through the flame and tried to close with Eric, however Eric kept dodging and leaping backwards, sending one gust of flame at him after another.

Jack chased Eric over half the arena but couldn’t get any closer. Despite the relative weakness of the flame attacks, they still blinded him and were beginning to cause some damage, parts of his flak jacket were smouldering and he could feel the metal of his vambraces and helmet heat up.

In an attempt to break through and close with Eric, Jack channelled as much power as he could at a moment's notice into his axe and swung through Eric's latest pulse of flame. A strong shockwave of water and lightning ripped straight through Eric’s attack and into Eric himself, it wasn’t quite enough to stun him but it did make him stumble. Jack took full advantage of that and bull rushed through the cloud of smoke and blue crackling traces of lightning left over from both their attacks.

The first thing he did was punch Eric straight in the jaw, sending him reeling and staggering back, the crowd let out a cheer at that. They’d begun to grow somewhat bored and discontent when all that was happening was Jack chasing down Eric.

As Eric staggered back Jack pursued and took a swing with his lightning augmented axe, Eric brought up his shield to block it and from there the two engaged in a furious melee duel. Jack was able to get in three attacks for every one of Eric’s, forcing Eric to go on the defence.

They were evenly matched in skill, but every time their weapons met, Jack was able to briefly electrocute Eric each time. As their duel progressed, Eric’s form and movements got sloppier and slower, less coordinated and jerkier. It seemed Eric was aware of this as he desperately backed off, Jack aggressively attacked, seeking to end the duel.

However, Eric had a nasty trick up his sleeve, he took a wild swing with his sword to force Jack to back off for a moment before dropping it and quickly bringing both hands together as if he were holding something. Jack moved in once more but Eric suddenly opened his hands up to reveal a small orb of incandescent light, the orb only lasted for an instant before it disappeared into a massive explosion of light, flame and smoke, enveloping both combatants.

Both Jack and Eric were catapulted backwards, dozens of metres away from each other. Both of their weapons went spinning away.

Jack’s head was ringing, he momentarily forgot where he was and what he was supposed to be doing. However after a brief shake of his head to clear it, he began to hear the roar of the crowds and remembered what was going on. He frantically got up and looked around for Eric, he saw him, at the far end of the arena. Eric was also quickly staggering to his feet, smoke clinging to his armour, he looked to be in a similar state as Jack.

They looked at each other from across the arena, he couldn’t see it but Jack was pretty sure Eric’s usual scowl had turned into a smug smirk. Jack charged across the field and Eric stood there waiting, when Jack was about fifteen metres away Eric raised a hand and unleashed a large flamethrower of an attack.

Jack’s eyes widened in alarm and he desperately tried to change course, he swerved left but Eric simply shifted his aim and the gout of fire caught Jack across the shoulder. The attack was no weak pulse of flame this time, meant to serve as a distraction, he felt his skin immediately burn and blister. He stopped charging forward and scrambled back, out of range of the flames, frantically patting his shoulder to put out the fire on his combat wetsuit.

Now it was Eric’ turn to attack, he stepped forward, keeping up his assault with one large gout of flame after another. Jack backed off, now he was the one being pursued. He still had options though, he reached into his core and began pulling off strands of lightning before throwing one quick bolt after another at Eric as he backed off.

Now it was Jack retreating in order to put distance between himself and Eric while he was pursued across the arena floor. He threw quick bolt after quick bolt, not having the time to charge up a full lightning bolt, Eric took the attacks on his armour and kept doggedly attacking. He was only able to get the tail end of his flamethrower attacks to wash over Jack, but it was enough to cause some damage. However, he could tell Eric could only keep up the powerful attacks for so long, judging by the grimace and gritted teeth he could see on Eric’s lower jaw.

Jack desperately backed off, trying to keep away from the worst of the flames but still getting singed, hoping to outlast Eric and counter attack when he grew tired. But then Jack almost tripped over something, he risked a glance down and saw Eric’s shield on the ground, fallen when the both of them were sent flying by Eric’s desperate explosive attack.

Without hesitation he quickly reached down and grabbed it, raising it between himself and the flames. His pause in retreating had let Eric get closer and now Jack was fully in range of the flames being thrown at him.

Not seeing any other option, he kept the rapidly heating shield in front of his face and blindly charged forward through the torrent of fire. He poured as much lightning as he could into the shield and a moment after he began his charge he felt himself collide with something.

He stopped and looked out from behind his shield and saw Eric sprawled out on the ground, twitching and spasming but still painfully getting to his feet. Jack wasn’t willing to give that chance, he kept the lightning current going and clubbed Eric over the back of the head with the shield.

Eric went face down, he struggled to rise again but after a final effort he collapsed to the ground.

After a few moments of silence the crowd went wild, they cheered, clapped, whistled and screamed in celebration. He raised his hands in victory and the crowds redoubled their cheers.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! I GIVE YOU YOUR VICTOR OF THE E RANK BRACKET! JACK ERRANT!!”