by Gunhus, Jeff
JACK TEMPLAR
and the
MONSTER HUNTER ACADEMY
Book 2
A Novel
By
Jeff Gunhus
Kindle Edition
JACK TEMPLAR and the MONSTER HUNTER ACADEMY - Copyright 2013 by Jeff Gunhus
Kindle Edition, License Notes
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. And resemblance to actual persona, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright 2013 by Jeff Gunhus
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Seven Guns Press. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Cover design by Eric Gunhus
Cover Art by Nicole Cardiff
Formatting by RikHall.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gunhus, Jeff
Jack Templar Monster Hunter: a novel / Jeff Gunhus
ISBN-13: 978-0-9884259-4-1
ISBN-10: 0-9884259-4-7
Praise for Jack Templar Monster Hunter
The Templar Chronicles Book 1
Selected as a 2012 Finalist for the Book of the Year Award. – Foreword Reviews
"Gunhus brings young readers a monster-filled romp to read at their own risk. The tone is set--sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek and likable; rooting for Jack is easy...Gunhus masterfully introduces fully realized characters with whom readers can connect almost instantly. The pacing is quick but not rushed, and events seamlessly progress, complete with action, cliffhangers and surprise reveals. " - Kirkus Reviews
"The action starts right from the first chapter and doesn't let up until the book ends. This is the first book in a series, and I look forward to reading the rest of them." -The DMS
"Jeff Gunhus has made a terrific fast paced fantasy. I even wanted to bolt my doors and lock my windows! Five stars for the best book of the year." -Elizabeth A. Bolt
"Everything in this book was something a reader could love - action, adventure, mythical creatures, mystery and even a touch of romance.” -Sandy @ Magical Manuscripts
“Move over Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, there's a new kid in town - Jack Templar, and he will take you on a wonderful adventure of good vs evil, with friends and enemies at every turn.” -Penny Brien "
“This was a fun read with non-stop adventure. Reminiscent of Percy Jackson and Harry Potter, Gunhus creates an interesting world and characters that are easy to root for. Already anticipating the next story!" - M. Profant
“This is a fantastic read!! Jack Templar Monster Hunter is full of adventure, twist and turns, and a couple of surprises also!! "Middle Graders" (as well as everyone else) will love this book!! Definitely recommend this read if you are a fan of fantasy!” - MSRheinlander
“I love this book…the character and action descriptions are so vivid. At times, the monster battles were so intense I didn't even realize I wasn't breathing! I would recommend this book to all ages.” - Tulip Bouliphant
“Very rich and interesting characters. You get the feeling that there is much more of the story to unfold, so I am expecting sequels. Keep them coming!” -Martha Biemann
“I bought this book for my kids and found myself fighting them for time with it. From the first page you are drawn into Jack's discovery of a fantastic new world around him - a world he didn't know existed. It's a real fun, vivid read full of cliffhangers and non-stop action that will keep even your most reluctant reader interested.” -Jim Beard
“Vivid imagery and tight, fast-paced narrative make this first book of a series a great read not only for middle teens, but for any reader who enjoys suspense a little on the darker side.” -Book Diva
For my own little monsters:
Jackson, William, Daniel, Caroline and Owen
And for Nicole: who always smiles when she tells me to go write
My name is Jack Templar and I am an orphan.
Just before my fourteenth birthday, I discovered that I came from a long line of monster hunters. You know, vampires, werewolves, zombies, you name it.
Not only that, but if monsters around the world could choose one human to kill, it would be me. Why? I haven’t a clue. I’d like to find out some day, but for right now, I’m happy just to stay alive.
WARNING
Since I can’t be certain that you read my first book about the night I found out I was a monster hunter, I should start out with a warning.
First, monsters are real. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, demons; you name it. In fact they are more common than you could ever imagine. Second, this book is not make-believe. This is a truthful account of my life as a monster hunter and the mysterious circumstances that seem to constantly surround me. Third, reading this book makes you fair game for monsters.
You heard me right: the simple act of reading this book will attract monsters to you and give them the go-ahead to attack. Usually, if you were under fourteen years old, you would be safe by the Law of Quattuordecim, an ancient truce between man and monster that protects non-combatant children on both sides until sundown on their fourteenth birthday. I blew it by attacking a monster that was trying to eat someone I knew the day before my birthday. You’re about to blow it by reading this book.
If you’re over fourteen, you are already at risk for monster attacks, but in reality they are few and far between. Still, by reading this book, you are guaranteeing they will come after you. So don’t come crying to me if a rock troll chops off your feet or a harpy eats one of your eyeballs. The choice is yours.
However, if you decide to turn the page, you’ll be reading about the Monster Hunter Academy, a place no non -monster hunter has ever seen or heard about before. What happened there is not for those with weak stomachs or for those who are easily upset. There is blood and gore and death and, like it or not, some kissing. But there is also an adventure unlike anything you have ever seen before.
So turn the page if you dare. The adventure starts now.
Jack Templar
Beware.
Here there be monsters!
Label found on ancient maps describing the lands beyond the known world.
Chapter One
I leaned up against the ship’s rusty metal railing, barely able to catch my breath. I took a pull from a water bottle as I looked out at the hundreds of miles of black ocean that stretched out in every direction, the full moon painting broad, glowing strokes across the surface that seemed to point right at me.
I always imagined that the middle of the Atlantic Ocean would be a violent place, filled with giant, rolling waves and massive storms, but the water that night was as calm as if we were on a lake. Good thing too, since the trawler we had been on for the last week was a creaky old lug of a ship whose best days were far, far behind it.
“Come on,” said a girl behind me with a distinct English accent. “Break’s over.”
I was about to complain when I instinctively felt the attack coming. I rolled to my right and a sword sparked against the metal where I had just been resting. I held up my own sword in front of me and crouched down.
“Eva, we’ve been going for hours,” I said. “Can’t we relax just for once?”
Eva paced in front of me in the shadows of the main deck of the trawler. Her brown hair was tied back in a ponytail like every time we sparred
. She held a sword in her right hand and had a nasty barbed hook screwed into the socket on her left wrist.
Even though it would seem that a lethal iron hook would attract my attention first, it was Eva’s face that always distracted me when we fought. Even in the dim light, even though she was trying to run me through with her sword, she was just about the most attractive girl I’d ever seen. Every time I looked too closely at her face, I thought of the kiss she gave me right before my fight with Ren Lucre. As I pictured it in my mind again, Eva smiled, her teeth nearly glowing in the dim light. That smile wasn’t good news.
She lunged at me, using a twisting combination to my weak side that I had to jump backward to avoid. I blocked a low blow from her hook, but felt a breeze as her sword swept sharply within an inch of my right ear. I reached up and felt a small patch of missing hair. I guess it was closer than an inch.
“You’ll get more than a haircut unless you practice harder,” she said.
I gripped my sword tightly and the two of us circled one another on the deck. Eva had been the first person to tell me that I was a monster hunter. She had been with me through that terrible first night, when the Creach horde had come to kill me. I had lost my Aunt Sophie that night, but I had also discovered that my father was still alive and held captive by the Dark Lord of the Creach—Ren Lucre.
Eva had been all business since we left Sunnyvale for the Monster Hunter Academy. Nothing but hour after hour of fighting practice. I didn’t mind too much because she was an amazing fighter—much better than I was—and after coming face-to-face with the enemy I was eager to learn new ways to protect myself.
Not only was she a great fighter, but she seemed to understand how I had changed. She could sense the heightened strength and speed that had surged through me right before my fourteenth birthday. The change seemed to have either slowed or stopped, which bummed me out because I was hoping for full-on superhero powers. Or at least a body-builder physique. To look at me, you’d never imagine the strength I possessed. When I caught a glance of myself in the mirror, a skinny middle school kid looked back at me. Not only that, but I still thought of myself as Jack Smith, the name I’d been raised with my entire life. Jack Templar felt like a stranger’s name to me and I wondered if it would ever feel like my own.
Still, my body was stronger, faster and more agile than I could have ever hoped for. Unfortunately, this didn’t always help me when I faced Eva’s superior skills.
“Brace yourself,” she said. “This might hurt a little.”
Before I could react, Eva was inside my defenses. I bashed into her using the hilt of my sword and I felt her fall back. I stepped up to take advantage of her misstep…only to find that it was a trap. The second I was off balance, she swept my leg and I hit the deck hard, my sword skittering across the ground.
She was right. It did hurt. Only I wasn’t sure what hurt worse—my banged up knee, or my ego from losing to her for the hundredth time?
She lowered her sword, her green eyes showing her disappointment.
“See? You’re on your heels again,” she said. “That’s why we can’t stop practicing.”
“I wasn’t on my heels,” I complained.
“She’s right, Jack,” said a voice, a bit garbled from a mouthful of food. “You were on your heels.”
I looked over at T-Rex, one of my buddies who had come along with me on my adventure. He was in his usual deck chair watching the workout, a thick sandwich in his hand and a soda balanced on one of the armrests. After a rough few days of seasickness, he had since gotten his sea legs, found the ship’s kitchen and was in the process of eating his way through everything the cook could throw at him. T-Rex had been round and heavy when we left Sunnyvale, and he was only getting rounder and heavier as the journey went on.
T-Rex was back to being his usual cheery self, but I knew leaving had been hard on him. Mostly because he missed his grandma.
She had raised him most of his life, but in the last year she had started acting strangely. The doctors said she had Alzheimer’s, which meant that her brain would slowly stop functioning and she wouldn’t be able to take care of herself, let alone take care of T-Rex. Just as I was going to leave town, Child Protective Services had taken his grandma away to a nursing home and was looking for him to put him into a foster home. So, with no other family, T-Rex had decided to come with me. And I was happy that he had.
“Why don’t you come out here and try?” I asked, glaring at T-Rex.
“Who? Me?” T-Rex asked.
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, his hand creeping up from his lap. He then planted a finger firmly in his nose. Did I forget to mention that T-Rex was a world-class nose-picker? Every time he got nervous, he started digging for gold. That’s how he had gotten his nickname, T-Rex, because we all wished he had itty-bitty T-Rex arms, so he wouldn’t be able to reach his nose. The good news was that since our night battling monsters, his nose-picking had slowed considerably.
“Yeah, you,” I said sternly. “You need to practice too. This isn’t a vacation, you know.”
T-Rex stuffed his face with another bite of a sandwich and said, “No, I’m fine right here, thank you.”
“I’ll do it.” A shadow jumped down from a perch on the control tower in the center of the trawler. It was Will, my other friend from home. Both he and T-Rex had been drawn into my little monster problem on that terrible night. In fact, I owed them both my life. But that was where their similarities ended. T-Rex wasn’t the adventurous type. He would have been perfectly happy staying at home if his grandma hadn’t been taken away. As for Will… he was another story completely.
While I had been raised an orphan by my Aunt Sophie, Will had been raised by parents who were worse than the monsters we now fought. When my Aunt Sophie—who turned out to be a devil-wolf—was killed by Ren Lucre, Will felt the loss as much as I did. After that, there was nothing left for either of us in Sunnyvale, so it was a no-brainer that we left town with Eva, ready for anything this new world would throw at us. Three days later we were on a ship leaving New York harbor on the way to Europe. Destination: the Monster Hunter Academy.
Will strutted out on the practice area. He was short, but carried himself with a curled up tension that reminded me of a pit bull. Will loved it when people underestimated him because of his size. It made winning a lot more fun.
T-Rex cupped his mouth with his hands and made a sound like a stadium cheering a gladiator. I stepped back and let him into the training session.
Will held a short metal rod in front of him. He pressed a button and both sides telescoped out, leaving him with a spear in his hand.
“Besides, I need to practice with the new toy you gave me,” he said.
“You’ll get your turn,” Eva said, turning back to me. “Come on. Do it again.”
I held out my hand to Will and he tossed me his spear. “Let’s see how I do with this.”
Eva flashed me a smile. The one I’d seen far too many times on the deck of the ship. It was the smile right before I got my butt spanked.
Will and T-Rex hooted at the challenge. T-Rex got out of his chair and joined Will on the railing like they were at a boxing match while Eva and I circled one another on the deck.
“Are you going to make a move?” Eva asked.
I didn’t reply. I concentrated on her movements, moving the spear so that the tip created a figure-eight pattern like Eva had taught us.
Eva feinted to my side, testing me. But I didn’t take the bait.
“Good,” Eva said. “Better.”
She made a run at me and we exchanged a flurry of blows, the sword and spear banging off each other. As we parted, I nicked the shoulder of her leather suit. It didn’t draw any blood, but I knew Eva felt it.
“Yeah!” Will yelled. “That’s the way.”
“Get him, Eva!” T-Rex cried.
Eva and I circled each other again. Testing. Waiting.
“I’ll admit, you’re improving,” Eva said.
“You even look good doing it. Kind of cute, actually.”
I felt my face flush at the comment. I paused, caught off-guard…and that was all she needed.
She lunged forward, smacking my spear to the side with the flat side of her sword, rolling her body along its edge until she was standing in front of me, my spear tucked under her arm. With a simple twist in the other direction, the spear flew out of my hands and skittered across the deck.
She spun and placed the point of her blade against my throat.
I gulped nervously, but nodded for Eva to look down.
Hovering right over her rib cage was my long dagger.
Will and T-Rex clapped. This was the first time I had even gotten close to beating her. Eva didn’t share Will’s enthusiasm.
Eva pushed me away and glared at us both.
“You all seem to think this is a game. It’s not,” she said. “Dying alongside your opponent still means you’re dead.”
“You’re just mad because he almost got you,” Will said.
Eva walked up to Will. She wasn’t that tall but she still towered over him. She leaned down so they met eye-to-eye. Will, never one to back down, glared back at her.
“Wait until we get to the Academy. You won’t last a day,” Eva said. She turned on her heels and stalked off into the ship’s cabins.
“What’s gotten into her?” T-Rex asked.
“We’re getting closer to the Academy,” I said. “She’s the only one who really knows what we’re in for.”
“So?” Will said.
“I think she’s scared for us,” I said.