With thoughts of beer on everyone's mind, the trip back was much faster.

In truth, it was little more than a free-for-all. The unified army of adventurers broke into their respective groups and headed back at their own pace.

Surprisingly, Lan found it much easier to keep up with Locke and the others even though they tried to be the first back to the city. On the way, he learned more about the people he had just fought a battle with.

First and for no particular reason was the party’s Mage, Olivia Renly. To Lan’s surprise, he discovered she was of the nobility.

‘Yes, yes, my family rules over a barony on the outskirts of the kingdom,’ she waved at his surprise.

‘But as one of two twin daughters with no brothers, one of us needed to marry, seeing as both of us couldn’t inherit. And as I was lucky enough to have been graced with the aptitude for magic. I graciously left for the Magic Academy,’ She sighed wistfully.

‘But don’t feel sorry for me. If I hadn’t, I would never have met you,’ She added, smiling sweetly at Lan. Momentarily stunned at the sight, Lan stumbled over a rock.

To say that Olivia was beautiful would be an understatement. Despite just having been in a fight to the death, Olivia had already healed her arm and mended her clothes. She didn’t even have a hair out of place. Which only made her flawless features even more pronounced.

Nobles really were in a league of their own, he thought.

Watching him try to play off his mastery over simple coordination, Olivia Giggled, and Lan was sure he felt his heart skip as her eyes lingered on him.

‘And by graciously left, you mean you dumped the responsibility on your sister and ran away to play with magic,’ Sora chimed in.

‘Oh, how could you say that?’ Olivia pouted as the others laughed.

‘One would think that you, of all people, would have understood?’ she huffed.

Lan must have looked curious as Sora sighed and rolled his eyes.

‘Vasha,’ Sora nodded to the Archer, who gave him a small wave and smile, knowing what was coming, ‘and I come from the same village. I was training to be a tracker, and Vasha, a hunter.

‘We probably would never have left the village if not for the fact that the Noble woman who ruled over our land took a liking to me. And it didn’t matter to her that I was only fourteen or that she was old enough to be my great-grandmother.’

‘Not to mention that she crushed the last man she had taken a liking to.’ Vasha added, making Sora wince at the thought of something he didn’t wish to think about.

‘My family couldn’t do anything, and it wasn’t like I could hide,’ He shrugged, ‘so we ran and joined the army.’ He finished, feeling like he had said enough.

‘Oh, sorry to hear that.’ Lan offered.

‘Don’t be,’ he said, placing his arms behind his head. ‘best decision I ever made. Wouldn’t have met this lot if I hadn’t,’ he added, making the others smile.

‘Wait, so why did you leave?’ Lan asked Vasha, who, still wearing a smile, shrugged.

‘The Lady had a brother.’

That was all the explanation that Lan needed. However, it didn’t make him feel better about it.

Lan learned that Sora was now eighteen, although he was on the shorter side, which made him look younger, especially next to Vasha, who was taller than average and two years older.

For a fourteen-year-old and sixteen-year-old to be forced to join the army to escape from ignoble nobles left his stomach tight.

So that they wouldn’t be forced into a life they didn’t want, they had decided to face the same dangers that he had barely survived.

After a moment, Vulk looked around and cleared his throat.

‘Well, seeing as we are all sharing, I’ll go next,’ he grinned, ‘as you can tell, I am a Dwarf. A black scar dwarf, to be precise,’ He said, shooting a thumb at the immeasurable black mountain that carved the southern sky in two.

‘And there are only three things we dwarves do. That is, hit rocks with a hammer for ore, hit metal with a hammer to make items, or hit things with a hammer for money,’ He hefted his hammer. ‘I chose the noblest path.’

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Vulk laughed, and Lan was sure the trees around them shook slightly.

In many ways, Vulk was the typical Dwarf. Inhumanly strong and with a legendary capacity for alcohol, food, and fighting. What wasn’t typical was the lightning he had fought with, which was only more interesting as he played it down.

He also didn’t have the usual body fat most dwarves had and his long dark-red wire-like hair. That had been made into hundreds of small braids, which had been linked into ten larger braids, the end of each having been cut flat.

‘Eloquent as always.’ Drevin chimed in, ‘don’t let him fool you. If you used a weapon Vulk makes, the only person in danger is you.’ The others laughed at a side joke that made the Dwarf frown.

‘You are one to talk, mister former Knight,’ he shot back, ‘I didn’t know you could stop being a Knight.’

‘You can if you try hard enough,’ the dark-skinned man with irises like newly minted silver coins shrugged, ‘and I retired; that’s different from not knowing how to temper steel properly without it exploding.’

This was followed by more laughter. Only Vulk and Drevin joined in this time. Lan just watched on entirely at a loss, sometimes feeling like they were speaking a different language, and to him, they were.

Lan couldn’t remember the last time he had seen people have such a carefree conversation without worrying about hurting the other.

‘As you can see, we are just a group of misfits that somehow manages to stay alive,’ Locke stated, and the group laughed again at another inside joke.

‘What about you.’ Lan asked the leader of the team. Who shrugged?

‘My story is nothing like the others. My father was a soldier, and my mother was one of the women that followed the campaign that he was on. I was practically born into soldier's armour, and that’s all I knew until I left. After that, I met Drevin and Cassandra, and we started our party, The Ebon Fox.’

Lan smiled, and Locke shrugged at the name. He thought the name fit well as he tried to remember the story.

The mischievous creation of the Lords of light, who would hunt down the deadliest monsters while playing tricks even on the Lords of light themselves.

The painting of the small black fox biting the neck of a dragon he had once seen as a child had always stuck with him and fit those around him well.

‘Cassandra,’ Lan asked, and she turned so their eyes could meet, the look in them telling him that it was best he didn’t ask the question he had in mind, and Lan found the words sticking in his throat.

Although she had washed most of the blood out of her hair and Her armour now looked like new, her eyes still had the same burning intensity. As if She could mistake him for another wolf if he made the wrong move.

‘I was a seamstress.’ She said without a hint of irony, leaving Lan feeling like he had stepped out into a cool breeze on a winter night, and no one challenged her as they had with the others.

‘Ah, right.’ Lan swallowed and looked away.

‘Well?’ Sora asked. When no one said anything, Lan looked up and found everyone looking at him. ‘Everyone else has told you their stories… well, more or less. It’s your turn.’

Of course, it would be, Lan thought, feeling the strength leave his arms as he almost dropped his spear.

‘Oh, right.’ Lan said and wanted to die when his voice shook. ‘well… I, I was.’ he forced himself to say, but before he could go on, Locke rescued him from himself. Seeing something as their eyes met.

‘I think we can wait until we get back to hear your story.’

‘Yeah, you must be tired.’ Olivia added, squeezing his arm and looking at him with a sympathetic smile. Unable to meet her eyes for more than a second, Lan nodded and looked away.

The sun hung low in the sky, turning it the colour of the amber-gold liquid that seemed more of a reward to the adventurous than the reward waiting for them.

‘So who’s buying?’ Cassandra asked, and just like that, a dangerous kind of excitement replaced the tension that Lan’s weakness had created.

‘More importantly, who’s going to regret it.’ Sora grinned devilishly as Vasha cleared her throat.

‘Well… One of the razer wolves snuck up behind Sora and almost bit his head off.’ She said quickly.

‘What!’ Sora cried with a look of betrayal on his face, ‘that’s because I was trying to save you; that one doesn’t count! What about Olivia? She almost got eaten like three times.’

‘Hump, don’t try to use me as a scapegoat. It is natural that I would have a hard time when monsters attack from every direction. Plus… that only happened because Vulk left his position… again and then almost got himself killed.’

At this, the red-haired Dwarf looked like he was trying to disappear into the woods. Wincing as all eyes turned to him.

‘Oh, come on,’ he grumbled. ‘you know that we all thought that battle was over before the second wave came.’

‘The fight’s not over until it’s over,’ Locke shrugged, and Vulk looked around for any sign of support. When he didn’t find any, he cursed.

‘Ah, Cal’s metal ass.’ he choked out as he frowned ‘fine… now we pick the most outstanding member?’ the frown moulded into a grin as all of them turned to Lan.

‘Want do you think, boss?’ Vasha asked Locke.

‘Hmm, well, he did save each of us at least once.’

‘And gaining a level is enough to put you in the running, let alone four.’ Olivia added.

‘He also didn’t run when he saw a monster for the first time.’ Sora continued.

‘W-wait, what?’ Lan stopped and even took a step back as the sudden urge to run filled him. Despite the words, Lan suddenly felt in more danger than against the wolves.

‘Don’t worry, Lan.’ Locke laughed, ‘it’s just a little tradition we have. At the end of each guild job, we like to… look back at how everyone did.’

‘Yeah, whoever scrawled up the worst or, in most cases, had the worst luck has to buy drinks the whole night.’ Olivia explained primly.

‘And the one that stood out the most or did the best,’ Drevin picked up, ‘well, let's just say we like to show them that we… value them.

‘And, I think it’s unanimous who it is today.’ Locke finished, Lan didn’t know what to say, and before he had to, Locke moved the conversation on again.

Lan had a lot to think about as they walked, but it always came back to Locke. Although he had seen first-hand just how strong each party member was, it was hard to see them as a team most of the time.

That was until you saw Locke leading them. Even to Lan, it was easy to see that the others respected and trusted him. Just being around him made you feel like you were a part of something.

Now more than ever, Lan felt like that mattered, and the thought stayed with him as he watched the city grow large under the slow closing of the sky’s burning eye.