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.

confused. "That sounds more like

sighed. "Why don't you look at the mission board.

furrowed his brows, stood up, and walked to the mission board. When he arrived, he gasped. It was empty. Why was it empty? There always were tens of

and 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 what

his brows

guy had finished all the

in such a short amount of time, especially when

you don't believe

just sat on a chair behind the counter and read a book. "Hey, Simone.

hand nonchalantly. "All gone," she

face whitened. "But, it's only been two

frown. "Don't shout at me! It's not my fault. The Demon cleared all

Demon?" Anthony asked

toward the tables, where all the hunters sat. "Look around! Everyone's just waiting for new missions to come. It's even harder to find any ferocious beasts in the surroundings since the Demon also kills them. What else would you call someone that basically destroys a whole Hunting Guild while keeping to

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

looked away from his eyes. When Anthony saw this, his teeth clenched. "Look at you! One guy is taking all the

swig from his beer, emptying it. "We can only wait until he leaves.

fury in his eyes. "When I'll see

BANG!

hunter looked deeply into their mugs, uncomfortably. Silence descended across the entire