Meanwhile, as the Scavenger Hunt continued, many other contestants were trying to acquire their own star rune in order to pass the first trial, each with their own unique way of acquiring it. However, because of how many contestants there were, each of them were given an average of a few seconds of screen time on the spectator screen before it switched its focus to another contestant.

  Of course, some contestants were given more screen time than others due to their level of notoriety before going into the trial. One of them was Jack Maelstrom from the Brimstone Inferno Guild.

  Jack Maelstrom was a man in his mid-20s with spiky dark-red hair and medium-brown skin. He wore a vest made of tan animal fur that revealed much of his lean yet well-defined muscles—accompained by khaki pants and boots. Stylish flame tattoos were marked on his forearms, ones that seemed to glow and glimmer on occasion as though they were composed of actual flames. Everywhere he went, he would always wear a cocky grin on his face, one with the fearless aura of a primal beast.

  Currently, Jack was fighting against a fire drake—a 3-star monster—all by himself. Drakes were similar to dragons except for the lack of wings—instead having four legs on the ground like a quadruped. Fire drakes in particular were covered with dark-red scales and were roughly the size of a bear, though their slender lizard-like tail made them appear longer.

  Even though he was a trialrunner who initially came into this trial as part of a team with other members of the Brimstone Inferno Guild, he was not much of a team player. In fact, many on his team would consider him to be a rebel of sorts, always going against what was ordered. Instead of trying to hunt down a monster rune with his team, he decided to hunt down a rune all by himself as a way to test his skills. He decided to start with one of the 3-star monsters and work his way up, since he’s fairly confident that fighting a 1-star or 2-star monster was simply too easy for him.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Haha! You think you can take me down?!” Jack said, grinning from ear to ear with the exhilaration of combat as he faced the fire drake. “Show me what you got!”

  The fire drake began the battle by blasting out a jet of flame from his mouth, one which Jack dodge-rolled out of the way. Then, the drake quickly approached the young man with a lunge, biting with its fangs and slashing with its claws as it hissed and snarled. However, even with that onslaught of attacks, Jack was able to evade those as well with his superior reflexes.

  Feeling that it’s time for him to be on the offensive, Jack extended both of his arms to the sides before activating his signature spell “Inferno Beast Claw”. This caused the flame tattoos on his forearms to literally burst into flames before transforming his arms into massive, monstrous-looking claws. The claws themselves seemed to be segmented pieces of dark-red obsidian, with the gaps between the segments possessing a yellowish-orange glow—giving the impression that these claws may have been powered by magma. Additionally, the areas between his elbows and shoulders were constantly on fire while the spell was active.

  With one swipe of Jack’s claws on the fire drake, the gashing wounds that it left behind would burst into flames as well as shedding large amounts of blood. Those were the signature effects of many of Jack’s offensive spells—first they make you bleed, then they make you burn, both ailments combined with devastating effect.

  Of course, fire drakes had a natural resistance to fire damage—that was why Jack wanted to fight them in the first place. It was his way of giving the monster a sort of handicap. It wouldn’t be much of a challenge if he’d actually fought something with a type-advantage, now would it?

  While spinning his own body rapidly, he continued slashing against the drake with a relentless fury—his powerful claws sharp enough to cut through even the scales of the drake itself, which were known to be as tough as a decent set of knight armor. In a matter of seconds, Jack had pretty much eviscerated the fire drake, causing the body to burst into a cloud of pink particles while leaving three star runes behind.

  With such ferocity to his style of fighting, it’s no wonder why he was deserving of the name “Maelstrom”.