“Nothing? Fuck, really? Nothing?” It had been almost a month since Jack had been attacked and they hadn’t found anything.

“I’m sorry, I performed many of the searches myself. We definitely found traces that something had been living beneath the city, but we have no idea where it went.” It was Harriet Griffith talking. His monster’s teacher.

“What kind of traces did you find?”

“Well, I really shouldn’t be telling you this, but we found some clothing of the reported missing people. But we didn’t find a body or any sign of a struggle.”

“Fuck that’s creepy,” was all Jack could say.

“I agree. I don’t like it one bit. But I can only search for so long. We have built a new security system. We have reinforced multiple access points to the underground. We have also hired multiple extremely qualified professionals to perform more long-term investigations. These are each a specialist in their own way and even more qualified than me to hunt such a beast.”

*Sigh* “I really hope they can find it. I’ve been having nightmares and I’m terrified of the dark now.”

“I’m sure they will find something soon, for now, you should focus on your studies. The first tournament of the year should be coming up. Are you prepared?”

“Uhhhh, not really.” Jack scratched his head sheepishly.

“A high result in the tournament is very important, you must do your best.”

Jack looked at her. She looked serious and seemed like she really wanted Jack to try his best. “Uh all right, I’ll try my best.”

“Don’t try, do”

“Right…” Jack left Ms. Griffith’s office after that. He slowly walked down the hall. He had been putting off the thought of the tournament because of the monster but he needed to do something. The tournament was in squads of five. He needed two people to join him, Chad, and Sable. He had a couple of weeks to try and find squad mates that would accept their ragtag group. Jack was walking down the hall when he saw Salem. Jack hadn’t seen him in a while. True to his word he had gotten out of rank E soon after Jack and he met, and Jack hadn’t seen him since.

“Hey!” Jack said.

“Hey, look who it is.” Salem seemed happy to see Jack, but he also looked a little distracted.

“How have you been?” They shook hands and stood to the side of the busy hall.

“Good.” Salem was quiet, and that was all he said.

“Oh, ok. It didn’t take you long to get out of rank E, just like you said.”

“No,” he said angrily.

“Sorry?” Jack asked confused.

“I did not get myself out of rank E. my family did.” He spat the last words.

“Oh, uh.” Jack didn’t know what to say.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“The academy knew it would be a big problem if they kicked out one of the sons of the richest baron in the country, so they bumped me.” He looked defeated and was staring at the floor. “I am a failure.”

“What? Come on man. with your handicap, you are the most impressive person I have ever met.”

“My new classmates are nice to me, but they pity me, they look down on me. I was invited to squads for pity and my family name. I can never escape it.”

“fuck em, join my squad.”

“huh?” he lifted his head in real surprise.

“My squad is a group of no names, and we are gonna make it big, join us because I promise we don’t care about your name.”

“Wow, uh, ill have to think about it.”

Eventually, Salem came by Jack’s room. The knock on the door surprised him. He jumped out of his chair and walked over to the door. “Hey. Uh, I’ve been thinking about it. I think I will join your team. I don’t want my family name to be what propels me forward. I want to do it myself. You don’t have any big names or strong people on your team. That’s what I want.

“Perfect.” Jack put his hand out, and they shook.

Once they talked a bit about their plan Salem went on his way. Well, that’s a bit of stress off my back, but what about that damn monster. What happened to it? He was restless in his room. He had been trying to do some of his more mundane homework, but he was having trouble focusing. In the end, playing with Pyke was more fun and distracting. Pyke had gotten really good at understanding Jack.

He went about training Pyke to do more advanced stunts. Eventually, he accidentally stepped on Pyke and thought he had killed his companion. Pyke had lost a leg and part of his chest. But then Jack noticed him slowly somehow replacing the missing pieces. Replacement parts seemed to slowly form out of his body and rebuild themselves. Jack had been wondering where the metal went when he fed him. He wondered if this was the metal being reused. “How come you haven’t replicated like at that shop?” Jack asked curiously. After a moment of watching Pyke heal, Jack decided that was enough and went about his electricity practice.

He had been working non-stop, and his control was getting better, but it was incredibly slow. He could still only make an aura for a few seconds at best. And even then, it usually had holes. Electricity seemed to be one of the worse elements for an aura due to its inconsistencies. His ability to send blasts was just as abysmal. Anytime he tried to shoot it forward it would quickly veer off in a random direction. Jack would practice again and again. He would build up a very small amount and push it forwards. If he kept it to a smaller voltage he could control it more, but it still wasn’t very reactive. The electricity would also respond slowly and fight back relentlessly. It was incredibly exhausting. Jack was losing his patience.

He went to his favorite practice room. In the room, he set up a target dummy. Then he paced across the room, turned, and faced the target. Ok. I can do this. He closed his eyes. Once closed he started focusing. He felt the electricity flowing wildly and like always he slowly attempted to give it conformity. He encouraged the power to flow toward his hand. Then stay in a ball. The electricity had slowly become easier for him to use. Now he was able to keep it in a relatively round shape. It was still a long way from perfect. But it was also a long way from where he had started. Jack smiled then looked up at the target, took aim, and released. The electricity flew incredibly fast toward the target, but halfway it suddenly shot off in a random direction. Damnit. He tried again. This time it didn’t even get halfway before shooting off. Funny. After exhausting himself he went back to his room. Since being attacked he had been on alert anytime he went anywhere. Jack took the long route back to his room, but it was highly trafficked and there was no chance he would be attacked.

While walking back he passed some people whispering. They were drunk so they were talking louder than they thought. The two drunks were talking about the duel between Darius and Albert. “I heard they saw those damn mechanical critters running around the coliseum, some people think they are being controlled by something.”

“Naw, I heard it was Galan preparing to invade.” The second man said.

Galan invading? I hope not. But the critters are definitely being controlled. If they saw them near the coliseum, did they poison Darius and Albert? I should talk to Ms. Griffith. Jack went back to Ms. Griffith’s office, but she was gone. He slid a note under her door mentioning the men being poisoned and wondered if it had something to do with the beast.