Lightning Is the Only Way

The door of the Hunting Guild burst open. "We're back!" shouted a man at the front of a big hunting party. He had multiple scars on his face and showed a victorious smile. Behind him, a gigantic two-handed sword hung, thoroughly drenched in blood. Seven people with different weapons stood behind him.

Most people in the Hunting Guild released a loud "Heeeeeyyy!" in unison and lifted their jugs of ale. The group walked in, triumphantly. The leader of the group noticed that things were a little different. Usually, everyone would stand up and cheer, but many kept quiet this time. The leader furrowed his brows.

He walked to one of the guys he knew. "Did something happen? The cheer this time seems more… subdued," he asked. The guy he asked was the same person that called Gravis a newbie on his first day.

The person smiled bitterly. "Well, something happened when you were gone, but that's not important right now. So, I take it you succeeded?" He asked with a grin.

The leader smiled again and nodded. "Yeah! The Earth Salamander has been slain!" He sat down at the table and took a swig from the man's beer. "Man, that took forever! It put up one hell of a fight. Only when it bit and devoured Mensk, did we finally have a chance to injure it majorly. It fled, and we had to track it for nearly two weeks. Sadly, Jacob got ambushed by a ferocious beast snake and died too. Someone always dies in a hunt for low-grade demonic beasts." The leader sighed.

The man in front of him also sighed. "They were good men." He took another swig of his mug, but it was empty. "Hey, you drank all my booze, Anthony!" he shouted and stood up.

The leader, Anthony, just laughed loudly and ordered more beer. "Calm down! The next one's on me. We made it big this time. The corpse is pretty complete, and we should all make a couple of gold off of it. With this, I should have enough money to buy a Skin-Pill for my son." Anthony leaned back and looked out of one of the windows. "If he can get into the Elemental Guilds, he will get much further in life than his father."

The man in front of him lifted his new mug. "Cheers to that," and he took a swig.

Anthony looked at the man and felt like something was wrong. "So, what happened? You all seem kind of downtrodden," Anthony asked the man.

The man just bitterly smiled. "Well, we have a new guy," he said as he took another swig.

"That sounds

look at the mission board. Then

It was empty. Why was it empty? There always were tens of missions up

took another mouthful of beer. "Not only that. When everyone realized that the missions for ferocious beasts have grown sparse, a group formed to hunt a low-grade demonic beast. Guess

his brows further.

the low-grade demonic beasts before he finished

a short amount of time, especially when they hunt them solo. Even someone with tempered

man just laughed bitterly again. "It's true. If you don't believe me, ask Simone." The man

over to Simone, who just sat on a chair behind the counter and read a

her hand nonchalantly. "All gone," she said as

whitened. "But, it's only been two

with a frown. "Don't shout at me! It's not my

asked

that's his nickname. At least, that's what we call him." She gestured toward the tables, where all the hunters sat. "Look around! Everyone's just waiting for new missions to come. It's even harder

weeks, and now, everything had turned upside down. He walked back to his drinking buddy and sat down. He clenched his fist and hit

is taking all the meat for himself, not even leaving us any soup, and you all take it like

guy." He took another swig from his beer, emptying it. "We can only

fury in his eyes. "When I'll see

BANG!

of the Hunting Guild opened loudly, and the whole atmosphere changed. Every hunter looked deeply into their mugs, uncomfortably. Silence descended across