Chapter 31

“Hello my friend! How does the day find you?” the man called out in a friendly manner, he was a short, slim, pale skinned fellow wearing a dark grey suit, with light blonde hair combed back neatly, close to the scalp. He had a sort of inappropriately cheerful, but still very dapper looking funeral attendee vibe. He also had a strange multicoloured band tied around his upper left arm, it was a mix of red, yellow, blue and white, each colour had an odd symbol inside it.

“Errrrr…..” Jack eloquently replied, oh dear, this person was about to sell him something, he knew it, he never was very good at saying no.

“I noticed you just came out of that church, the one that was infested with Needlejackets? And I see you cleared out the entire nest by yourself, quite impressive for a new hunter on his lonesome. Can I ask what rank you are?” he asked, maintaining his cheerful demeanour. Ok, maybe this was something else altogether, however Jack felt instantly distrustful, not only was this guy not trying to sell him anything, but the smile he had plastered on his face, the cheerfulness, it all seemed forced, scripted somehow and just altogether off. Plus the way he steadfastly maintained eye contact with Jack throughout this encounter for too many Mississippi's was beginning to make Jack feel uncomfortable.

He knew what to do in this situation, be vague, don’t promise anything and find an adult. “Oh you know, still pretty low, just starting out still,” he answered evasively whilst quickening his pace towards a more populated area. The man quickened his own pace and kept up.

“I see, I see, well then I just might have an opportunity for you. Have you ever heard of the Four Horsemen?” he asked with a smile.

“Is that a band? Or is this a religious thing?” Jack asked.

“Ha ha! No no my friend, I refer to our saviours of course.” He gave a wide beatific like smile towards Jack who’s internal creepo metre crept up a couple of notches. “The Four are our leaders, the leaders of a new movement who will one day save us all and lead us into a new golden age!”

Jack tried to edge away whilst walking quicker but the guy still kept pace, he knew he shouldn’t engage and encourage this man but he was mildly curious. “Uh huh, and what is this movement called? Are the Four Horsemen your leaders or are you all called Four Horsemen or what?”

“Ah well! Our name isn’t known yet but it will be very soon! The entire world will know of us very soon!” He’d begun to raise his voice and the few people walking around Jack could see on the street they were approaching were looking over at them and the noise.

“Uh right, that's nice, but I’m a little busy so I’m just gonna go…..”Jack was now officially jogging.

“Ah wait, before you go please let me give you our card, if you're interested in discovering why the world is like it is now and in becoming stronger in your element, simply contact us and we will answer any question you have! We would welcome you amongst us, as one of us, so that we may instruct you in our creed!” He ran alongside Jack, huffing and puffing through what was apparently a recruitment speech.

Jack stopped running abruptly and cautiously turned to face the man. “You know about cultivation?” he asked in curiosity.

The smaller man was breathing hard but nodded. “Haa haa haaa, yes of course, we have…..haaa….many documented methods of different cultivation techniques for all four elements, all of it backed up by hard scientific data,” he answered pridefully.

“Hard scientific data huh? So what's the difference between you and the guild? They run experiments on cultivations and elemental techniques all the time, they have trainers that help you learn about your element and how to use them, what do you have that they don’t? Also there are five elements, not four,” Jack explained.

“Five? I only know of four, fire and earth, wind and water,” he answered, sounding reverent, as if it were a prayer, performing strange signs with his fingers and hands when he said each element.

“What about lightning?” Jack asked.

“Lightning!? That is not a true element, it is an abomination!” His entire demeanour suddenly turned dark. “It is thankful that there are so few of them, they are despicable vermin!” Jack grimaced, he could understand why short sighted people might look down upon lighting elements for not having the same ability to cultivate as other elements do. But the vitriol this man had for lightning elements seemed to be entirely on another level.

“Why isn’t lightning a real element? Why are they vermin?” Jack asked slightly defensively, he wasn’t scared or angry, well, maybe he was slightly annoyed. He didn’t know if this was going to turn into a violent confrontation, but since he was talking to a somewhat excitable man who seemed to harbour a burning hatred for people like Jack he wasn’t going to rule it out. His hands were full of loot, so he discreetly manoeuvred his feet to deliver a quick kick to the groin before fleeing if it became necessary, always be prepared.

“They are not able to cultivate! It is clear they have been rejected by the Four! Fire, earth, wind and water are the only true elements! Those that receive the lightning element are unworthy souls, they harbour nothing but malice and deceitfulness within themselves, always looking at their betters with envy and avarice! That is why they received lighting rather than any true element.” The man was progressively becoming more and more ardent in his little rant.

Jack who’d been listening to this stoically actually felt relieved, he’d learnt to internalise his feelings and grow a thick skin whenever someone made a disparaging remark or sneered whenever his element was mentioned, but is still stung. However, whenever a clearly unreasonable and emotional individual also expressed his dissatisfaction with the lightning element, it sought of discredited the overall view that lightning was a poor element. He briefly considered telling the man what his element was just to see the reaction but he decided against it, he was the only lightning element in the guild right now so it wouldn’t be hard for this group whoever they were to find out who he was and where he lived. Instead he just nodded and smiled whilst backing away.

“Uh huh, well I can’t say I’ve ever met one, any-who, like I said, I’m a little busy so I’ll just be going now. I’ll definitely give you a call. See ya.” With that he about faced and marched off very quickly.

“Goodbye my friend! May the Four be with you and the elements watch over you!” He cheerily waved Jack off.

Jack walked off quickly and as soon as he rounded a corner he stopped and let out a slight breath. What was that guy's problem? Lightning elements being vermin? What the fuck? Fuck that! What a nutter! Whoever these Four Horsemen were it was clear he needed to stay away from them and their followers, or whatever their movement was. Whatever, he shook his head and tried to put the whole encounter behind him. With that he set off for the guild to turn in his loot, Steven was gonna be a happy man.

He eventually made his way back to the guild, his first stop was a small drop off point in the plaza that specialised in purchasing medical research materials from hunters, from there they would distribute the loot to interested parties such as pharmaceutical companies or government funded research laboratories. They agreed to buy each of his venom sacs for one hundred and fifty pounds each. After that he made his way over to Steven's taxidermy shop, the bespectacled man greeted him with a bubbly smile and literally jumped up and down with excitement as Jack withdrew the wasp heads from the sack he carried.

“Oh this is marvellous Jack! Simply marvellous, just look at them! My word!” Steven held up one wasp head with a gloved hand and stared at it lovingly as he had done with the wolf heads.

“They’re pretty great I suppose, sooooo, how much?” Jack didn’t really feel like beating around the bush.

“Hmm, Needlejacket wasps are E rank, so how about one seventy for each one?” Steven offered.

As usual Jack had no idea of the market price for these things, if there even was one, in fact he was probably setting one right then and there. But he sensed no guile within Steven so he shrugged and accepted the deal.

Afterwards Jack walked lazily down the stairs to the ground floor of hunters plaza. Whilst walking he noticed a small crowd gathered by the fountain in the centre of the plaza. In curiosity he wandered over to find out what it was all about.

A trio of armoured hunters stood next to each other on the edge of the fountain speaking down to the crowd, it was two men and a woman, all well armoured in metal, kevlar and monster materials, carrying a mix of swords, axes and guns. You could normally see how successful a hunter was by looking at their gear, and these hunters looked very successful.

“Listen up guys! We need a large group for this hunt!” the man in the middle spoke out, addressing the crowd. “At least twenty or so, all willing to follow our instructions, all elements and any rank is welcome, even Gs and Fs. My team and I have accepted a hunt for a Wire beast.” At this the small crowd grew excited and murmured amongst themselves.

“That's B class!”

“They’re really valuable.”

“Even split twenty ways, that's plenty of money!”

“This is gonna be great!”

The speaker continued. “Anyone who’s interested can come forward now, it's first come first served.”

At that a small surge from the crowd made its way to the fountain and the first hunters began signing on for the group hunt, speaking to the trio of hunters at the fountain. Even though he’d just completed a hunt Jack thought he might like to sign on too, that guy did say all ranks and elements were welcome.

When he was at the front of the queue he found himself in front of one of the female hunters who was holding her pager whilst typing information into it. She briefly looked up at Jack before asking in a distracted manner. “Name, rank and element?”

“Um, Jack Errant, F rank and erm, lighting,” he answered, cringing a little, this could only go two ways.

When he said his element she paused, going completely still before looking up at him with raised eyebrows.

“Lighting?” She looked over to her male colleague whilst still eyeing Jack. “Hey Paul! C’mere, we’ve got a lightning element who wants to join up!” The man looked over from where he was conversing with two other hunters and walked over to them with a smile.

“Hey Nance, what's up?” he asked cheerfully.

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“This spar- lightning element wants to join the hunt,” she answered blandly with a shrug.

“Lightning huh? Hmm, I remember hearing something about a lightning element joining up a little while ago, that's you huh?” He turned to face Jack with a speculative look.

“Yeah that's me.” Jack gave a little wave.

“Well, sorry buddy but this hunt will be a little too dangerous for non-cultivators.” The way he spoke to Jack felt like he was speaking down to a child, full of condescension and smug pity. From behind him he could hear sniggers and whispers about him.

“That's the guy that tried to trick Nick into a hunt for giant wasps.”

“Oh it's the sparker, still trying to get a hunt is he?”

He could see how this was going to go but still felt the need to defend himself. “You said all elements and all ranks were welcome.”

“I know I said that but, well…..” He gave a sigh and pitying look at Jack. “Look, it's nothing personal, ok? But I need people who can actually fight and pull their own weight you know? You just, well……” He trailed off awkwardly.

Jack just stared at him. “Fine, whatever.” He then walked away, pushing his way through the crowd until he was free. He made his way over to the exit into the med vendor room, he felt eyes on his back and heard sniggers and giggles the entire way.

Yet another encounter with the anti-lightning sentiment, what was with today? Another blow to his pride, he again shook it off. Despite it all, today had been a very successful day, and very profitable. All he needed to do was keep doing what he was doing and eventually he’d make it.

“Yo! Jacky Jack!” He heard the door to the plaza open behind him and suddenly a slim arm was boisterously placed around his shoulders. He looked around and saw it was Rachael, grinning at him. “Heya Jack! Long time no see!” He smiled back at her, his mood suddenly much better.

“Hello Jack.” Another voice, Rachael’s brother Zack stepped up to his other side.

“Hey guys, yeah it's been awhile,” he replied, still smiling.

“It really has, and we heard you got promoted to F rank! Nice work!” Rachael enthusiastically congratulated him.

“Yeah, well done Jack, it only took you a month too. Not bad at all,” Zack added in.

“Thanks, yeah, it's definitely opened up the hunting list for me, more monsters, more money.” They continued walking through the med vendor room into the jobs and request room. “You guys want to get something to eat? I’m finished hunting for the day,” he asked them to which they nodded.

“Yes! I’m starving!” Rachael replied with relish. “But I thought you didn’t do any hunting today?” she asked in confusion.

“Huh? No, I just got back from a solo hunt for Needlejacket wasps,” Jack replied also in confusion.

“Needlejackets? You actually did that hunt? A whole nest?” Zack asked in surprise to which Jack nodded smugly. “That's really dangerous Jack, they may be low rank but you shouldn't try to deal with monsters that swarm when you’re by yourself,” he said worriedly.

Rachaels reaction however was the opposite. “Whoa, nice work! Very nice! You’re doin’ the lightning clan proud with that one! Ha!”

Zack just rolled his eyes at his sister. Jack felt the need to justify himself. “I only accepted the hunt because I thought I would have backup. Some guy I spoke too seemed eager to join the hunt so I accepted it but then I mentioned I was a lightning element to him. After that he couldn’t fuck off fast enough.” Jack sighed bitterly.

“You could’ve just got the person at the helpdesk to cancel the hunt for you,” Zack pointed out.

“I know, I know…..I just…..Everyone was looking at me and…….” Jack sighed again and shrugged. “I think at that point I just wanted to go out and kill something.” Rachael let out a cackle at that.

“That guy was Nick by the way, popular D ranker,” Zack told him.

“Yeah, he’s spent like the entire day telling his buddies and everyone who’ll listen how you tried to trick him into a dangerous hunt,” Rachael chimed in. Jack gritted his teeth.

“That fucker.” Was all he could sum up at that moment.

“Seriously though Jack,” Zack interjected. “You won’t try another solo hunt for swarm monsters will you? Doesn’t matter how strong you are or not, it will get you killed one day,” he warned Jack seriously. Jack nodded in agreement.

“Yeah fine, I’ll admit it was touch and go a couple of times, but I did get this.” He pulled out his pager and showed the siblings the selfie he’d taken with the giant wasp head. Rachael let out a raucous laugh and even Zack let out a chuckle. “So what have you guys been up to? Any hunts today?” he asked once they were finished laughing.

“Yep, we hunted a Garriont today,” Rachael said.

“Huh, what's that?”

“D rank, it's like a cross between a big dog and a monkey. Really fast, like, really really fast. They like to pull their victims' corpses up into trees to eat later on,” Rachael explained to him. “Tricky bugger but we got it in the end, good money.” She smiled in satisfaction.

They made it to the guild hall and sat down at one of the side booths on the ground floor.

“And you didn’t want to sign up for the thingy in the plaza? The Wire beast? Everyone seemed pretty excited about it,” Jack asked, still a little bitter at being turned down for what sounded like a great hunt.

The siblings looked at each other before Zack spoke. “We never do more than one hunt a day, that got drilled into us by our Dad pretty early on actually. Makes sense really, you don’t want to overdo it and suddenly run out of stamina when facing down an angry Minotaur or something.” Jack nodded at that, maybe he should follow the same advice, it's not like he was in a rush or anything. “Er, we saw what happened when you tried to join up, sorry man.” Zack sounded regretful.

“Yeah, sorry Jack, but don’t worry, it won’t be like that forever. Our dad told us you can actually cultivate lightning. Now that's pretty cool! We’ve definitely got to go on another hunt together soon!” Rachael exclaimed.

“Yeah, definitely, definitely. But seriously though.” Jack leaned forward on his elbows looking both siblings in the eye. “That Wire beast hunt isn’t all that great surely, I mean, twenty people? They’re barely gonna wind up earning anything, what even is it anyway?”

Both siblings grimaced and shared a hesitant look before Zack spoke. “Um, a Wire beast is basically an animated metal monster.”

“What? Like scrap metal? Rusty iron or copper and the like?”

“No, more like rare earths and valuable minerals, the sort of stuff that's extremely valuable because it's only mined in one or two places in the entire world. The sort of stuff tech companies usually pay an arm and a leg for because it makes up various components in mobile phones and computers,” Zack explained.

“Shit,” Jack replied.

“Yeah, I heard the Wire beast they’re hunting right now is about the size of an elephant, that means it's old. Apparently the larger ones tend to have diamonds and other gemstone deposits inside them.”

“Fuck!” He rested his forehead on the table.

“Even split twenty ways, everyone in that group will probably make close to fifty grand if not more, much much more.”

“Please stop,” he groaned.

Rachael decided to take pity on him. “Aww don’t worry Jack, there’s a reason why Wire beasts are B rank after all. They’re basically like these massive, fast shifting masses of razor sharp metal wire bundles, they sort of take random forms and attack by quickly wrapping around you and then ripping you to pieces. They’re also highly resistant to elemental attacks. That group might all die today,” she told him comfortingly, patting him on the shoulder.

“Really?” Morbidly he felt a little better.

“Yeah, really.” She nodded to him with a warm smile.

“Thanks Rachael.” He smiled back. Zack meanwhile just rolled his eyes.

While the trio looked down at the menus to order some food, the plasma screens above the bar showed the news story of what had happened in Texas with the multicoloured storm.

It seemed something had been forming in the storm all along, when the storm finally dissipated what emerged was a horrendously malformed looking titanic creature. No one could guess at what it was supposed to be because the American military had done a real number on it, it was essentially a small mountain of malformed pink, green and purple flesh with random twisted limbs, orifices, eyes, horns and tentacles in various places. Despite being completely unrecognisable or comparable with any other life form ever seen before it was clear it was horrendously wounded. It staggered out of the storm on several different size legs and proceeded to bleed, vomit or expel some sort of black sludge all around it.

Unfortunately it moved much faster than its bulk would suggest and various groups of military units comprising several thousand soldiers had advanced forward a little too far in order to finish it off, believing it vulnerable. The creature stumbled on top of them and they were caught in a deluge of black sludge raining down on top of them from a few hundred metres up and they simply dissolved. Tanks, artillery pieces and humans just melted into the ground and became black gooey puddles. The remaining Americans redoubled their rate of fire and eventually the monstrosity was brought down with a great gurgling roar. A massive amount of the black sludge seeped out of it and began dissolving its corpse as well as the surrounding landscape. The giant corpse sunk down into the ground and the surrounding land turned black with the sludge it had expelled, from the camera feed provided by a news helicopter Jack watched as the black ooze and rising clouds of noxious fumes it gave off seemed to spread further and further from the epicentre of the dead giant monster into the surrounding landscape for miles and miles, showing no signs of slowing.

“Holy fuck! I’m not sure if that went better or worse for them than it did for us!” Rachael exclaimed, aghast.

“Well, at least they got to evacuate their non-combatants,” Zack pointed out, looking faintly disturbed.

“Yeah, but that black stuff looks like bad news. Could be a new anomaly zone. Just like Oxford all over again,” Jack said.

They continued to watch the news and idly chatted away whilst waiting for their food to be served. While they spoke Jack remembered the encounter he’d had with the strange man after clearing the Needlejacket nest.

“Hey guys? Have you two ever heard of the Four Horsemen? Or the group they lead?” he asked in curiosity.

“Huh? Er yeah actually,” Zack answered. “How did you hear about them?” he asked back, both he and Rachael suddenly looked wary for some reason.

“I think one of them approached me. Some weirdo in a grey suit,” Jack answered with a shrug. “Gave me a card and everything.” He fished out the card and handed it over to Zack

Zack accepted the card, the nervous look on his face remained. “What did he want?” he asked.

“Erm, basically I think he wanted me to join up, or at least that was the impression I got, I dunno, he tried to lure me in with promises of teaching me cultivation techniques, how to learn elemental abilities and secrets of the universe and stuff. But I think we got sidetracked,” Jack explained, recalling the strange encounter.

“You got sidetracked?” Rachael asked, tilting her head quizzically.

“Yeah, he seemed to have a rather strong opinion of lightning elements,” Jack said, at the siblings' inquiring expressions he elaborated. “He was of the belief that all lightning elements were vermin and that it wasn’t a true element and that only bad people receive the lightning element or something like that. I don't know if that was just him, but I sought of got the impression that view is probably shared by the rest of his friends, if he has any,” Jack explained. “Anyway if that's the case I think I’ll probably not bother contacting these Four Horsemen, sounds a bit like a cult anyway if you ask me.”

They both stared at him for a few moments before visibly relaxing.

“They are a cult Jack,” Zack said emphatically. “We were sort of warned about them by our dad, since he's a branch director for the guild he’s been briefed about these sorts of things. Not much is known about them except that they recruit young cultivators who disappear never to be seen again, their recruiters talk about their leaders as if they were the messiah and they’re suspected of several major crimes involving monsters. The Cult of Four as its known is on the watch list for MI5, thats domestic counter terrorism.”

“Oh fuck me! Seriously? Jesus!”

“Don’t worry, just don’t get involved with them and it's all good,” Rachael told him whilst leaning back casually. Jack looked at them suspiciously.

“Why did the two of you seem so tense a little while ago? And then you relaxed after I said I wasn’t going to have anything to do with these guys, did you actually think I was considering joining this cult or something?” he asked.

They both looked uncomfortable for a second. “No,” they answered unconvincingly at the same time.