I'm not special

"Thunder Flash Spear... RELEASE!!!"

In a split second, Brogan's saw a flash of lightning blitz past him, then Verner appeared behind him, taking the exact same stance he did before the flash attack. "What is this, I can't move my body, how did he pull this off?". Brogan thought, he tried harder to move but couldn't. "Everything...the world seems to be in slow motion, including my body", he noticed a bug that was flying past him, except that it was frozen in mid air. "I only saw a flash of lightning and the boy just disappeared, if my theory is correct, and what I've heard is true, then..."

"After lightning...comes the thunder"

'GBOOMM!!!' A roaring thunder sound exploded through the air and a massive slash opened on his chest, the rocks that coated his arms broke into pieces at the same time. The thunder flash, an attack so fast his body didn't even sense that it had been cut, and this brat with no Qi just pulled it off. "Did I just...lose?" he asked himself as he collapsed to his knees. "How?, how is this possible?".

"I might not have any Qi or special abilities, but one thing I'm very good at is learning". Verner stood up and sheathed his sword, then turned to face a defeated Brogan. "I learned this ability by watching Master Rodric teach it to other students from the thunder clan using mannequins, he made this sword by inscribing the spell in it so that students could practice it without having the ability themselves. Both of them couldn't grasp it for some reason and he never taught me personally, but I saved it in my memory, that was 2 years ago, it was during this battle that I remembered that this was the exact same sword he was using that day, and I decided to try my luck, and guess what, it worked".

"With enough training and the right tools, anyone can become a hunter, you don't need be special, with hardwork, anyone can be anything. You have Qi and I still beat you, does that make me a better hunter than you?". Brogan's eyes lit up after that speech, such wise words coming from a boy half his age. He finally realized the true essence of being a devil hunter, to push yourself to your limits in order to protect lives, not because you were born with special abilities, but because you know the world needs you to do it, that is true purpose of a devil hunter.

"Why did you choose this path?"

"What?..."

"Why did you go down this path, what is pushing you to achieve this goal of yours, you have no powers yet you so desperately want to become a hunter, no kid ever wakes up one morning and becomes that determined, so I ask, what is it that pushes you to do what you do?"

"When I was a little boy, my village was burned down and my mother was killed by the devil king"

Brogan was stunned "Devil king Malachar?"

"Yes"

Verner clenched his sword in his fist "I want to become a powerful hunter one day, so I can make him pay for what's he did to me, to us, so that no child will ever have to see what I saw that day ever again". Brogan almost shed a tear, then he smiled and stood up slowly to face Verner. "You have my respect boy, you're a lot greater than I could have imagined". Verner noticed the huge wound he made on Brogan's chest.

"Are you okay?" he asked

"Yeah sure...it's fine" Brogan placed his hand on a tree and his wounds began to heal, but the leaves of the tree slowly withered. "My technique allows me to draw life from plants to heal damages on my body, so I'll be fine". Verner smiled and he smiled back.

"I need to find my fruit basket, miss Amah must be waiting for me" he ran off immediately, he got carried away on an errand... again. "I hope we meet again boy" Brogan put his chewing stick back in his mouth as he watched Verner run till he was out of sight. "What a kid".

Back home, Miss Amah was carrying her little baby. and pacing around the front yard. "Its been a while since he left, he never takes this long to come back from the orchard, could he be in trouble?". She kept wondering and thinking until she saw him running towards the house.

"Boy where have been?, your brothers have been waiting for you, and why do you look so rough, where you in a fight?"

"I'm sorry mama, some street boys tried to take my basket, I put them in their place of course, all my training hasn't been for nothing" he smiled almost flirty as he spoke, miss Amah laughed at his cheeky face.

"Just be careful next time ok?"

"Yes mama". Amah wanted Verner to address her as his mother and her 3 children as his brothers, she did it to make him feel like a part of the family, the only exception was master Rodric, Verner could never imagine calling master Rodric his dad. Verner never actually knew who his father was, his mother never said anything about him, no stories, nothing, not even a name. Verner never really thought about, his father was probably a street boy who hit his mum and ran away, none of it mattered anyways, finding his father was probably the last thing on his mind.