Lightning Is the Only Way

"Tournament!" shouted the Guild Master of Water, and the others groaned.

"Really? A tournament? That's going to take forever with over 200 people," groaned the Guild Master of Wind.

"Do you have a better idea?" Asked the Guild Master of Water back.

No one answered.

"Tournament, it is," sighed the Guild Master of Lightning. "This is going to be a pain in the ass." He looked around at the 50 participants who had gathered. The other 200 were not here right now. It was understandable since many people would prefer fleeing to getting closer to such an apocalyptic scene.

"Let's first call them back," said the Guild Master of Light as he created another ball of light. The other Guild Masters followed suit and also created a ball of their elements. Then, they all shot them into the sky, and the balls exploded one after another.

Everyone in the Basin of Nature should be able to see this and realize that they should gather. If someone was so stupid as not to realize that this was a gathering sign, they might as well not join the guilds.

The Guild Masters waited for several hours, as one participant after another gathered here. After around six hours, no more participants arrived. The Guild Masters did a quick count and saw that 217 People had gathered. The others were either already dead or too stupid to realize that they should gather.

"Alright, everyone!" shouted the Guild Master of Earth. "Follow us back to the arena!"

The participants groaned again, realizing that another hard marathon awaited them. Everyone ran after the Guild Masters with their full power. This time, it was even harder to keep up since not everyone was in their peak condition.

Gravis seemed to be only walking a little faster, yet every step shot him forward for multiple meters. With his new muscle strength, keeping up with the Guild Masters was even easier, even though he was still injured.

When they finally arrived back at the arena, all the participants fell on their knees in exhaustion. The same scene from back when they had arrived at the Basin of Nature repeated itself.

The Guild Masters gathered in the middle of the arena and discussed the details. They had to make this tournament as fair as possible. What if the second strongest fought against the third strongest in the first round? Would they throw away such a talent?

human element mixing into the results. The Guild Masters didn't want to risk it here. Who knew

decided to make five drawings of opponents and five rounds for everyone. Anyone who won three or more rounds would pass. Yet, they groaned again as they realized how

back of their minds, but they didn't want to voice it. Like that, it would take even longer.

a traditional tournament. The top ten would receive rewards, while the others got nothing. The Guild Masters felt bitter about all the lost treasures in the Basin of

rewards that ferocious beasts carried. The lost treasures that

Those treasures didn't originally belong to their guilds, but their parent guilds. Their parent guilds had granted them those treasures so they could be awarded to extraordinary

most of them got lost in the battle in the ravine. How was he supposed to protect

scratched together any remaining treasure they could find and would award them in the tournament. After everything had been planned out, they called the participants to gather, yet they grew angry when they saw

more treasures? Get out!" shouted

mean that I

that. Gravis would just win and get another valuable treasure. He had already gotten his saber, so he should

the arena and sat down. The reactions of the other participants were mixed. Those 50 who had seen what Gravis had done, sighed in relief while the others looked at him in anger. Why did they have

their annoyance openly. They still were not part of the Elemental Guilds, and if they stood out negatively, they might lose their qualification. Everyone remained

multiple days. The participants always gathered at noon and scattered in the late evening. Since the arena was big enough, there were always seven fights happening simultaneously, with one Guild Master looking over

days, they had finally finished the first part of the tournament. Only around 60 participants had gotten three or more wins.

sixth day. So, Gravis was spending his remaining days looking through some

gold. He was sure that gold would also be useful in the Elemental Guilds. If it were useless to the guilds, the Guild Master

sixth day, he saw that only around 60 participants remained. The contrast between 5,000 initial participants and 60 was massive. The arena had been nearly

interest in the tournament since it was merely some sparring. Sparring was useless to him now. One could even say that it was actually damaging to him. Too much sparring would dull his killing-intent and his

of the 60 participants had seen what happened that day. The majority had no idea what had happened, and they also wouldn't believe the

won the first place. He had silver hair and was fighting with a spear. He had used several Martial Arts, and he also had tempered bones

on winning the tournament, Brother Sigur," complimented one of the other participants. Sigur had already

able to temper his organs. Organ-Pills were extremely pricy. Supply never met demand, and they were only sold in auctions.