Chapter 28

“Whoa!” Nate looked out at the vista before them. His sentiments were echoed by the rest of the hunters.

The sky….was both bright and dark at the same time, it appeared to be both night and day. It looked like a night sky filled with countless stars, it was like looking at entire galaxies, but at the same time there were swirling riots of many colours, creating a chaotically elegant, abstract mural of colour all over the sky. It was beautiful, but at the same time it hurt to look at for too long.

Across the sky, multiple thick rivers of multicoloured essence slowly flowed in winding, curving paths over the forest, continuing out of sight.

At the edge of the cliff, when looking down, there was more forest, just like the rest of the Dire Woods. The same colossal trees that dominated the rest of the Woods seemed to be growing at the bottom of the cliff, many miles below, spreading before them further that the eye could see. It seemed like the Dire Woods just continued on forever.

Amongst all the trees, miles into the distance, some sort of colossal structure or mountain dominated the horizon, standing far above even the gigantic Dire Woods trees. The rivers of essence snaking across the sky all seemed to spiral loosely around it.

“What is that?” one of the Raiders asked, pointing to the structure.

Jack and the others took out their binoculars. When he focussed on the structure, he could see it wasn’t a building, nor a mountain. It had a thick base which seemed to taper off, the whole thing leaned off to one side. However he couldn’t quite make out the details of the structure's surface.

“Hang on, just a sec’,” another one of the Raiders spoke before fumbling around in one of their belt pouches. They revealed a small vial of something before taking out a glass dropper and dripping some liquid from the vial into their eyes.

“Gah, you know they don’t say that this medicine actually burns like fuck for a few seconds after application,” the Raider grumbled, blinking furiously, his eyes took on a strange purple hue. After he finished blinking and rubbing his eyes, he looked back up to the giant structure in the middle of the forest.

“Well?” Cheryl asked him.

“That.…..is some sort of tree or…root or something. If that's not a piece of Yggdrasil then I don’t know what is,” he said with confidence.

“That's great, we’ve found it,” Katie said with relief.

Jack looked down over the miles high cliff precipice and the dozens upon dozens of miles of inhospitable monster filled terrain they would have to cross just to get there. It seems finding the piece of Yggdrasil and getting to it were two entirely separate endeavours.

“Fuck that!” Sonya spoke up. It seemed she was equally dubious of their chances of getting there.

“Agreed, we’re turning back. We’re not getting down there as we are right now,” Cheryl told them before turning around and marching away, never being one to waste time.

Everyone let out tired sighs of relief before following her, though Jack did make sure to take a few pictures of the incredible vista plus a few selfies of himself along with the piece of the cosmic entity known as Yggdrasil in the background, or its root anyway.

A couple of days later…..

Jack, along with team Meredith, Cheryl and Duncan’s Raiders, were all standing within a small room looking through a large one way window, on the other side of which was an operating theatre. On a metal table within the theatre, surrounded by multiple individuals wearing surgeons gowns, was the body of the infamous Dire Woods Tyrant.

Also within the operating theatre, in multiple ascending tiers, were seating areas surrounding the operation on the ground floor taken up by numerous VIPs from the guild, the government, the military and various leaders of different industries. Some of the most important and powerful people in the country were currently in that room. They all had decent views of the ongoing autopsy of the Tyrant. Amongst them, were Bernard Straken and Imogen Shriverston, two of the guild founders apart from Cheryl plus director Adrian Welts and outpost commander James Harren.

“I can’t see shit from down here,” Jack complained. They were on the ground floor, several men and women performing the autopsy blocked their view. “Why couldn’t we sit up there with the highbrows?”

The autopsy continued, the VIPs watched with fascination, making various expressions of shock and awe, leaning forward with excitement or shrinking back with horror. The hunters behind the one way window could only watch with frustration as their view was continuously obscured.

“Goddamnit! This is bullshit! They could’ve at least sprung for a camera and a live feed to a monitor in here!” Katie cried out in frustration. The other hunters except Cheryl echoed her sentiments.

Cheryl simply shrugged. “The guild, the government and the military don’t want any video evidence of this to be available.” Everyone gave her confused looks, but she shook her head slightly in a way that told them to stop asking questions. It still felt like they were being deliberately being kept in the dark about something, but if that was the case then why invite them to the autopsy at all?

After another hour or so, when team Meredith and Duncan’s Raiders had long since given up trying to watch the proceedings and began playing with their phones, the autopsy concluded.

Jack looked up from his phone and the screen full of runes to see the various VIPs filing out of the auditorium/theatre or chatting with each other, god only knows what people like that chat about.

The door to their little room opened and in walked Welts, the outpost commander, Imogen Shriverston and Bernard Straken.

“Congratulations on a successful hunt everyone,” Straken announced as he walked in. “Well done Cheryl.” He smiled at Cheryl.

“Piece of cake,” she sighed with a shrug, showing off her injury. Imogen Shriverston’s face contorted, looking upset for a moment before she regained composure.

“Yes…I see that.” Straken looked uncertain before continuing. “In anycase, the guild stands to make significant revenue from this venture. The Dire Woods Tyrant is by far the most powerful monster we’ve ever managed to recover more or less intact, the biological data alone is invaluable. And the government is willing to pay the guild billions for it,” he said with satisfaction.

“Oh yeah? And what’s our cut?” Nate piped up. Both Katie and Stacey elbowed him in the ribs at the same time.

Imogen decided to answer him. “You’ve already been paid the standard fee for an A rank hunt, which is far more than any hunter your rank could ever dream to see,” she told him with slight disdain.

“I thought that monster was A rank plus? What's the fee for that?” Jack asked.

“Whatever we decide it is,” she bluntly told him with a tone of annoyance in her voice.

“Okay but what about the sale of the corpse? Shouldn't we get something for that? If you’re getting billions as you said, then shouldn’t we see a little of that?” Jack pressed her. He didn’t particularly care about the money, in truth he wouldn’t know what to do with a significant cut of several billion pounds, but he sort of just wanted to hassle and harrass Imogen Shriverton at that moment in time.

“What's wrong Jack? Are we not paying you enough?” she asked mockingly.

“Well I didn’t see you in the forest with us, scared to get mud on your fancy high heels?” he shot back. Everyone’s eyebrows raised at witnessing the exchange, not being aware of the antagonism between Jack and Imogen, nor the reasons for it. Cheryl especially, looked rather impressed.

“Hmph! Whatever, that's not why we’re here anyway. The guild would like to set up an exhibition match for you Mr Errant,” Imogen told him tersely, ignoring his earlier comment.

“Oh yeah? Who would my opponent be?” he asked out of curiosity.

“Jason Osborne, one of our lightning cultivators currently going through the guild’s training programme,” she said.

“Oh, him? Pass,” Jack rejected the idea, completely uninterested.

“May I ask why?”

“Has he even done any hunting? And isn’t he still a G ranker at the moment? What would be the point of me fighting him? Also he’s kind of a douche, I don’t really want to be in the same room as him.” Jack waved his hand dismissively.

“That's disappointing, we were prepared to offer you a rank up if you won the bout. Oh well, maybe next time.” She shrugged cheerfully, having just dangled something so tantalising as free rank up in front of him before snatching it away.

“Wait wait wait, let's not be so hasty. Why do you want us to fight anyway? What's your angle?” He looked at Imogen and Straken suspiciously.

Straken then stepped in. “It will be good publicity, and it's only right after all, that the country which first discovered lightning cultivation also be the first to showcase its capabilities.”

“Hmm….” Jack thought about it but wasn’t quite convinced yet.

“It should also be nice to compare the results of the guilds’s training regimen to…..your own training methods, Jack,” Imogen put in, though she sounded somewhat disdainful of Jack’s training.

“A comparison eh? I’ve heard about the stuff you guys are getting up to down in London. Providing them with all the cultivation essence they can get their hands on? Making them do it all the time?” He looked at Imogen and Straken judgmentally.

“You have a criticism Jack?” she asked, sounding amused.

“Not really, to each their own I suppose, but I personally would never cultivate from something that I hadn’t already hunted and killed myself.” He was actually rather proud of that fact, it was a point of pride for him, a principle he lived by. Maybe he was limiting himself but he didn’t care, there was more to life and being a successful hunter than pure power.

“How old fashioned, you also sound a little like that serial killer, Michael Westen,” she pointed out, again sounding amused.

“Yes well, fortunately for all of you I’m not like him,” he responded in irritation. “I just don’t believe in having my cultivation essence prepared for me. If you’re going to be a monster hunter, then you should only cultivate from your own kills, anything else is cheating. That includes stalking helpless non-combatants in the night and being provided with farm animals. I’m the first so I get to decide that,” Jack said defiantly. Everyone looked at him with scepticism, but Noah of all people did make a grunt of approval in the background.

“Well whatever, would you care to back up your words with actions then? Prove to everyone that you’re the superior lightning cultivator?” She raised her eyebrows and quirked her lip in amusement as she was clearly goading him on and he knew it.

“I get a free rank up for winning, right?” he questioned. She nodded smugly. “Fine then, where and when?”

“Next week, we’ll do it at the London guild arena, unfortunately we don’t have anything quite like the Grand Coliseum they’re building in New York, but we’ll make do with London for now,” she said. The New York Grand Coliseum, a massive edifice being built by some of the best earth cultivators and architects in the world, it was like the colosseum from ancient Rome, but on a far grander scale. The Americans were building it for the same purposes as the ancient Romans; gladiatorial combat, beast and monster fighting, bread and circuses. It was still a ways away from being completed but the first fight to happen there was predicted to be one of the most televised events in history, Jack really wanted to fight there one day.

“Fine, I’ll see you there,” he confirmed with a firm nod.

“Excellent! Until then Jack,” she said cheerfully before walking out. Straken, Welts and Harren who’d been conversing with Cheryl followed her out shortly after that.

“A free rank up? And all you have to do is beat up an annoying baby G ranker? That's a pretty good deal,” Katie remarked from where she leaned against a wall.

**********************

He could hear the crowds through the concrete and steel walls. It was a low roaring that was both quiet but couldn’t be escaped from, it made the room he was waiting in reverberate and he could feel it in his bones.

He was in a locker room in the London guild headquarters, just down the hall from the main area where he’d be fighting. He continued to pull on his armour as he listened to Danny, his trainer who’d come with him from York.

“Okay Jack, this shouldn’t be a difficult fight. I mean, I don’t think this kid has even been in a real life or death fight before, let alone a monster hunt, so he’ll probably be pretty nervous.” Danny helped him pull on his armour and made sure it was fastened up tight.

“I don’t think nerves will be an issue for him, I met him before and he’s kind of an arrogant twat,” Jack remarked.

“Heh, well even so, you should be fine. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any info on his fighting style nor any videos of him sparring, but I reckon he’ll favour an aggressive style with either his element or a heavy weapon. Try to close the distance and get into trapping range, elbow strikes and grappling will be the way to go for this fight,” Danny told him.

Jack nodded as he admired himself in the mirror. Gary had come through for him just before he left for London and supplied him with his newest set of armour, all in Kladican silver.

It was a heavier set of armour than he was used to, with a heavy solid breastplate over his torso and part of his abdomen, though segmented to allow some flexibility, light pauldrons over his shoulders, heavy vambraces to protect his forearms and elbows along with full gauntlets to cover his hands. Covering his waist and upper legs was a kilt made from a mixture of chainmail composed of Kladican silver and cloth woven from left over Glimmer spider silk. The kilt wouldn’t provide as much protection as full plate but it was light and he’d be able to freely in it. His boots were similar to what he’d had before but again, in Kladican silver. He could definitely feel the weight of it far more than from his previous set of armour, according to Gary, the whole thing actually weighed well over one hundred kilograms. That was more than four times the weight of a normal full set of steel plate armour. He also made sure to drape the thick black pelt of the Black Shuck he’d helped hunt several months ago over his shoulders.

The last piece of equipment Gary had provided him with, was the helmet. It was the exact same design as before but made from Kladican silver. A barbute helmet with a visor that could be raised or lowered, the visor had ballistic glass shielding covering the eyes and the lower half was moulded into the shape of a ferocious set of demonic looking fangs with two gas mask respirators on either side of the fangs; form and function.

Gary had been a little annoyed at having to hand everything over so soon, since there had been more work he’d wanted to do on it. Apparently, he’d been in contact with a tech company that director Welts had sent his way. The company known as ‘Tactical Assault Technologies’, were designing technology that could be interfaced into a hunter’s armour. Gary had been wanting to install a HUD into the helmet, a ‘heads up display’, that would show Jack all sorts of different information through his visor that would overlay his vision of the real world. It would also connect to his pager, allowing him to operate it through voice commands or even specific eye motions and blinks. He’d be able to see things like names, details and weaknesses of any monsters he encountered along with known harvestables, any harvestable flora or minerals he was looking at and how best to harvest them, photochromic lenses, infrared vision, his current GPS location along with a map and so much more more, all of it overlaying his vision in a form of augmented reality. It even told the time and played music.

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Unfortunately, Gary didn’t have time to put any of that in. But as soon as this fight in London was through, he’d be getting straight back to York to get it installed.

Once he was ready, he and Danny continued to discuss different strategies until five minutes before the fight was set to commence, then they both exited the locker room. Jack, breathed in deeply and stretched as he walked to loosen up, Danny walked behind him carrying Jack’s weapons.

He was only allowed two weapons for the fight, he’d selected his water crystal axe and his blast spear. Gary had also kindly seen to provide Jack with an upgrade to the spear. Obviously, there was absolutely no way in hell the guild was going to allow Jack to use the high grade explosive attachment on Jason, they wanted a decent spectacle but unfortunately that didn’t include seeing his opponent getting vaporised and drenching the audience in blood. So Gary had provided him with several different attachments that Jack could easily and quickly attach and detach to the spear head in place of the bolt action explosive delivery system. For this fight, Jack had chosen the poleaxe attachment, which had a small axe head on one side and a hammer on the other.

He’d also been told that he couldn’t use runes for this fight either, since Jason didn’t have access to them it would be considered an unfair advantage. If he did so then it would result in instant disqualification.

Jack and Danny continued to walk down a narrow corridor, the roar of the waiting crowds got louder and louder. The arena at the London guild HQ was significantly larger than the one in York and normally saw many people from all over buying tickets to watch the league, tournament and exhibition duels taking place.

However, as they walked, Jack began to hear a frustrated voice coming from one of the other locker rooms along the corridor.

“......Are you joking!? This isn’t what we discussed!” Imogen Shriverston’s angry voice came from within the locker room, she appeared to be talking to someone on the phone. Jack paused just outside it so he could listen in. He held up a hand to stop Danny and put his finger to his lips. Danny smirked but nodded and stayed quiet.

“I know…..I know…..that's a lot of interpretation on your part Daryl. This wasn’t what I envisaged at all!.............Minor aggressive tendencies? Try completely unhinged and psychotic! Rickey told me his concerns when he left but I thought he was exaggerating! What the hell have you been doing down there Daryl! He’s……what? No! Of course not! I never said that!..........Oh for god’s sake fine! Well as it is all we can do now is dose him with some tranquillisers to keep him relatively calm and make sure he doesn’t take off his helmet in public for the foreseeable future, and if he also doesn’t rip out Errant’s innards and eat them whilst on international television tonight I suppose that will be a bonus.” Imogen sighed heavily in frustration before bidding a terse goodbye to whoever she was talking to. She then dialled up her phone and began speaking to someone else.

Jack shared a wide eyed, confused ‘what the fuck?’ look with Danny before they spotted someone at the end of the corridor holding a clipboard waving frantically at them. Jack gave one last glance at the locker room Imogen was in before walking the corridor to the harried looking man with the clipboard.

“Mr Errant? It’s almost time. We’ve just got a quick photo op with you, Mr Osborne and a few of the guild executives before the fight begins,” the guy told him.

Jack nodded and allowed himself to be led down the corridor to a small conference room. Bernard Straken, Adrian Welts, Cheryl and several other guild higher ups, all dressed to the nines in suits and gowns, were already in the room along with several journalists and camera crews. Jack walked over to them, taking off his helmet and holding it under his arm.

“Ah Jack! You’re here! Great! Are you ready then? Raring to go?” Welts asked him good naturedly.

“Er…yeah, I’m good, good to go.” Jack plastered on a fake smile, the half conversation he’d overheard still at the forefront of his mind.

“Excellent! We’ll just wait for Imogen and Jason and then we’ll have ourselves a little photo session before you boys get into the ring.” Welts clapped him on the shoulder with a grin. Jack also greeted several of the other guild execs including Straken and Cheryl who also gave him an encouraging slap on the back which sent him stumbling.

At that moment, from the other side of the room, Jason Osborne, his opponent, walked into the room fully armoured like Jack along with Imogen Shriverston who was wearing a sleek red gown. Although it looked more like she was escorting him in, she appeared to be grabbing the back of his armour and was physically holding him in place as she corralled him towards the small stage everyone else stood upon. She easily carried an enormous sword in her other hand.

Jason was in full armour and wearing his helmet, he was wearing a bulky and heavy looking mixture of plate, monster bone and scale and a helmet that covered his entire face.

Jack couldn’t help but stare at the incongruous sight. Jason Osborne was a rather tall and by now, physically imposing specimen, especially with all that armour on. But next to him was the barely five and half foot Imogen Shriverston who couldn’t be much more than fifty kilograms and wearing a slinky red dress. And yet, it looked like she was physically forcing him to the stage whilst carrying a sword in the other hand which almost definitely weighed more than her.

There did seem to be something off about Jason however, though his face was covered by his helmet visor, he seemed….different almost, it was definitely Jason, but something was just not quite right.

Imogen and Jason reached the stage and the group allowed themselves to be arranged by one of the guild’s PR people for the photos.

Jack found himself standing next to Jason, who for the last minute while they were standing getting their pictures taken, had not said a word or even moved, he was just slightly hunched over, staring ahead listlessly. But then he began to shake slightly, and murmur something indecipherable. Imogen sent him nervous, worried looks. After a minute, Jason suddenly hit the side of his head with his gauntletted fists a few times as if he was trying to wake himself up and began a brief coughing fit before he hacked up something and took off his helmet to spit it out onto the ground.

“Phew! That's better!” Jason exclaimed, standing up straight. He took a deep breath and beat his armoured chest a few times. Everyone looked at each other with uncertain looks. Jack wanted to edge away from Jason but he was boxed in by the people on his other side.

Jason suddenly stopped what he was doing and slowly turned to look at Jack with a creepy lopsided smile. “Hey…hey Jack?” The veins in Jason’s face stood out, building and pulsing, faint traces of blue light could just be made out under his skin in a network amongst all the blood vessels. A sour smell of ozone wafted from Jason’s breath and his left eye seemed to be twitching.

“.....what?” Jack glanced at him briefly and took it all in before facing forward again.

“As soon as this duel starts?.........I’m gonna straight up murder you,” he told Jack matter of factly with a twisted grin. A small trail of drool escaped from the side of his mouth.

“......uh huh…..’k…” Jack continued to stare straight forward while Jason positioned his leering face an inch or two away from Jack’s, directly facing him. The journalists watched everything in fascination and took pictures of the whole thing.

“Jason, remember what we discussed, the helmet stays on,” came Imogen’s voice.

“Yeah yeah whatever. When are we gonna talk about prizes?” he responded petulantly.

“I already told you Jason, if you win this then you get a free double rank up to rank E,” Imogen said with a tone of impatience.

“Yeah I know that! I mean what about personnel stakes? Forfeits! Like the loser has to give something to the winner,” Jason said eagerly.

Jack turned to regard Jason with a raised eyebrow.

“When I win, I get his armour!” Jason declared.

It was silent for a moment before Jack decided to respond. “I never agreed to any forfeits. If in the unlikely event that you win, then your perfectly welcome to go fuck yourself, but you’ll get my armour over my dead body,” Jack told him tersely.

“Hah! Over your dead body? Sounds good to me!” Jason grinned.

“Jason! Stop talking right now!” Imogen ordered angrily.

“Well whatever, we’re not doing forfeits because you don’t have anything I want,” Jack told him before turning away.

“Don’t care, I’m taking that shiny armour whether you like it or not Jackie boy! Hahaha!” Jason cackled madly.

Jack turned to Imogen and Straken. “So this lightning cultivator training regime you’ve got here? Is it any good? Maybe I’ll apply myself,” Jack said in mock thoughtfulness. Both Imogen and Straken looked a mixture of vaguely embarrassed and irritated.

Imogen had finally had enough of Jason’s antics and marched over to him before roughly shoving his helmet back on and dragging him out of the room.

“Is the photo shoot over then?” Jack questioned.

*********************************

“JACK! JACK! JACK! JACK! JACK!” A crowd of thousands roared and chanted his name as walked out onto the arena floor. It was about the size of a football stadium, much larger than the main arena in York and above ground too. The stands which held the spectators were even larger, they were dark with only light being shone upon the arena floor, but from the thousands of camera lights and flashes surrounding him all around and far up into the sky, he could tell that countless people were watching him right now.

He raised his axe, acknowledging the crowd as he marched to the centre of the large arena, the crowd redoubled its excited roaring. He allowed it to wash over him, their joy and adulation was intoxicating, he could get used to this. Above him and throughout the arena stands, multiple large screens showed his image.

The fight announcer finished introducing Jack to the crowd as he reached the centre of the arena.

And then, from the opposite end of the arena came Jason. He proudly marched out onto the arena floor, his sword held up triumphantly. The crowd's reaction was significantly muted in comparison to what they’d shown Jack but he still got plenty of applause and cheers.

“You ready Jackie? I’m gonna kill you in front of all these people! Hahaha!” Jason cackled through his helmet visor.

“What was your name again?” Jack queried in response. Jason growled angrily.

The announcer quickly left the arena floor. Jack and Jason faced each other, ready to fight as soon they were given the word. Jason hopped on his feet, filled with nervous, excited energy, or filled something anyway, judging by the stray strands of electricity travelling up and down his frame.

Jack dipped into his core and allowed a decent current of lightning to travel throughout his body in preparation, he gripped his axe tighter and took a deep calming breath, focussing. Both combatants stood ten metres away from each other, ready to fight.

“FIGHTERS READY?” the announcer’s voice from the speakers surrounding the arena. They both nodded.

“BEGIN!”

Immediately, Jason unleashed a huge lightning bolt that hammered into Jack’s breastplate like a kick from a horse on steroids. Jack was sent stumbling backwards, the breath knocked out of him. Jason didn’t let him catch his breath and immediately followed up with two more of the same lightning bolts, one after the other.

Jack desperately dodged and rolled out of the way, he recovered his feet just in time to deflect an overhead smash from Jason's sword. Fat white sparks flew away from the clashing metal. They locked blades for a moment and Jack could feel the brute strength Jason was able to bring to bear against him, it was a lot more that Jack could hold back against. What were they feeding this guy!? Oh right.

Jason brought a knee up into Jack’s stomach and then booted him, sending Jack flying back several metres. He quickly regained his feet and watched Jason, who stared back at him through his featureless helmet visor. He needed to reassess, he hadn’t expected Jason to be this powerful, he might very well have outstripped Jack in cultivating the lightning element. Though if the stories Rickey had told him were credible, then that could very well be true. Jack only cultivated from his kills on hunts, but apparently Jason was supplied with a never ending buffet of cultivation material.

Speed, he needed speed, Jack pushed as much of an electrical current as he dared into his brain and allowed the world to slow down around him. He then channelled the current in a more controlled fashion directly into his muscles, rather than just allowing it to randomly flow through his body. This was a new but tricky technique he’d been working on, it would significantly augment the speed at which his muscles would respond to his commands, thereby increasing his overall body’s speed. It was still a work in progress and a similar technique to what he did by augmenting his brain’s processing speed, though for some odd reason the muscle augmentation technique was more difficult and far less intuitive than what he did with his brain.

The world around him slowed down, the excited screams and cheers of the crowd changed in pitch to a low bass roar, he could see individual motes of dust lazily floating by him in the air. Jason, who’d been standing there waiting for Jack to come at him, tapping the tip of his sword on the ground, began to walk forwards in slow motion.

Jack decided to meet him, he rushed forward with his axe raised. This time it was Jason on the back foot when he barely managed to get his sword up in time to block Jack’s axe. Jack didn’t relent and followed up with a rapid series of attacks that had Jason scrambling backwards in an attempt to defend himself. He managed to block a few strikes but Jack’s axe found its mark in several places and numerous rents in his armour had Jason gritting his teeth in frustration and pain as blood dripped from his wounds.

Jason may have been much stronger than Jack physically, but he was nowhere as skilled in real combat. Jack expertly deflected a clumsy sword swing and then used his axe head to hook behind the back of Jason’s head and bring it forward so that Jack could deliver a devastating headbut that crumpled Jason’s visor.

Jason stumbled backwards onto his rear. Jack attempted to move in and to finish him off but Jason suddenly let out a roar of anger and everything exploded in a flash of blue light.

When Jack came too a few seconds later, he found himself crumpled in a heap at the far end of the arena, his armour smoking slightly. His head was ringing and his vision was filled with flashing light, like he’d stared too hard into the sun. He coughed and shook his head as he staggered to his feet.

Several dozen metres away at the other end of the arena, Jason was hunched over as if in pain, large thick arcs of lightning trailed off him and raked across the ground and through the air. He dragged his ruined helmet off and cast it aside.

He suddenly twitched and looked at Jack in a fury before charging across the arena. He covered the distance in a flash and sent a lightning wreathed fist into Jack’s breastplate. Jack was sent flying back yet again, Jason leapt after him and cleaved down with his sword, Jack desperately rolled out of the way and shot off a lightning bolt. Jason simply took it on his chest with a chuckle and kept on attacking.

He somehow managed to charge up a series of fully powered looking lightning bolts and fire them off from alternating hands in a rapid fire attack. Jack dodged and blocked the attacks with his axe but he felt each attack like a fiery hammer pounding away at him, chipping away at his defences. He began to feel what his opponents felt when he’d fought them. His muscles were cramping and spasming, he began to lose control over his movement and reaction times.

In a desperate effort to regain control of the situation, Jack reached into his core and channelled a strong surge of lightning around his body, purging the foreign lightning energy poisoning his system. It worked and he hurriedly regained his feet, dodging a sword strike that would’ve taken his head off.

At this point Jack was beginning to lose his temper, so much for this being an exhibition fight, Jason was genuinely trying to kill him. He also appeared to be in some sort of psychotic rage, or his cultivation practices had damaged his mind, judging by the foam gathering around his mouth and his wide bloodshot eyes.

Jack gathered himself for another attack and charged in again, he blocked a heavy swing of Jason’s sword and did as he’d been instructed by Danny earlier, he got into trapping range. Trapping range was a term used in martial arts to describe the distance between two opponents, when one combatant moved in too close so that the other combatant could no longer properly swing their weapon or fists. It was the distance required for grapples, elbow strikes and headbutts.

Another effective attack for trapping range, Jack had found, was a knee to the jaw. Jack quickly ducked past Jason’s sword and leapt upwards, delivering a powerful rising knee strike to Jason’s jaw. Anybody else, even many cultivators, would’ve been knocked out cold by that attack but Jason simply reeled backwards and stayed on his feet. He regained his footing and wildly flailed around with his sword in a rage. Thick arcs of lightning trailed up and down his body in uncontrolled bursts. Blue trails of light shone brightly under his skin in a network like blood vessels. He screamed in a feral rage and released a massive surge of lightning, Jack dodged out of the way and retaliated with a lightning bolt.

From there it progressed into a running battle with both opponents running, ducking and diving, firing off one lightning bolt after another at each other. Jack’s attacks were significantly weaker than Jason’s, but they were far more accurate. He was able to hit Jason more often than not whereas Jason’s attacks were extremely powerful but also extremely inaccurate, Jack was able to avoid each one and allow the lightning bolts to rake across the arena floor, walls or the thick ballistic shielding protecting the audience.

Jack sent a couple of lightning bolts into Jason’s face and moved in to attack with his axe while Jason was stunned. He brought the blunt reverse side of his axe down on Jason’s sword hand, forcing him to drop the sword and then sunk his axe blade into Jason’s chest. The axe bit into Jason’s breastplate, not quite killing him but it had definitely bitten into the flesh beneath.

Jason looked at Jack with wide eyes for a moment before letting out a scream of pain and anger. It wasn’t a human scream, it sounded more like a dying animal scream coming through a broken radio, mixed with static and electronically distorted sounds.

Large arcs of lightning coalesced around Jason’s body and wreathed him in a jagged blue crackling halo of light. The glowing blue network of lights under his skin grew more prominent and his wide eyes began to glow an electric blue. Jason let out a feral snarl filled with the sound of static before he pounced on Jack like a beast.

Jack found himself seized in a vice-like grip like that of a bear before he was slammed down onto the ground. Jason’s own lightning element surged into Jack at the same time and Jack found himself paralyzed, completely overpowered and overwhelmed. Jason slammed him into the ground again after lifting him overhead before doing it again several more times.

Jack let out a gasp of pain, he could barely move now, some bones were definitely broken and his core was being suppressed again by the invading foreign lightning element. Jason grabbed him by the throat, lifted him up again and threw him one handed across the arena.

Jack flew through the air and bounced across the ground for several metres, landing in a painful heap. He still could barely move, he heard footsteps and crackling, signalling Jason’s arrival.

“On your knees Jackie, I want you and everyone else to watch what’s about to happen,” Jason growled out in a strange, distorted voice.

Jack was hauled up and roughly positioned onto his knees. He looked up stiffly and saw Jason standing over him, still wreathed in crackling blue energy, holding Jack’s own axe. Jason grinned down at him, his face was a mess of blood and glowing blue vein like structures scrawled underneath the skin, he hefted Jack’s axe and got ready to deliver the killing blow.

Jack’s entire body hurt like never before, bones were broken, foreign lightning energy coursed throughout his system causing all sorts of havoc and he was pretty sure he had a bad concussion, blood ran down over his face, obscuring his vision. And there was also a madman wielding an axe about to execute him on national television. He’d had better days.

It was time to break the rules, Jack conjured a small blade of light in his left hand and quickly stabbed it into Jason’s stomach through a gap in his armour before slicing it across and down into his groin. Jason reeled back in panic as blood and other things began gushing out of his gut. The lightning wreathing his frame guttered out and he collapsed to the floor, trying to keep his intestines from falling out of his abdomen.

“OH! OH SHIT! ERRRR……THE WIN - THE WINNER BY RULE VIOLATION AND DEFAULT IS JASON OSBORNE! ERM…MEDIC!” the fight announcer frantically cried out over the arena speaker system. Doors on either side of the arena floor opened up to reveal multiple medical personnel rushing towards them.

Whilst Jason was screaming in pain and panic, cradling his stomach and groin, desperately trying to keep his intestines from spilling out into the floor, Jack stiffly and painfully clambered to his feet, covered in blood, he took off his helmet and grinned. So what if he technically lost? He raised his arms in triumph to the crowd who were cheering regardless and promptly collapsed into unconsciousness.