As they walked, the swordmaster went up to Dali.

“I just realised, we don’t know your name.”

“That’s okay,” he replied, “I don’t know yours either.”

She paused for a moment before continuing.

“The priest’s name is Pealla, the monk’s Rell, the mage’s Aesh, and I’m Aurora.”

“Australis or borealis?”

“What?” she said confusedly.

“Nevermind. I’m Dali.”

She offered her hand and he shook it.

“So we were wondering why you weren’t wearing armor. Aren’t you a knight?”

“Ah, a common misunderstanding. Being a knight isn’t about wearing armor and using a sword. It’s about chivalry.”

“Chivalry.”

“Yes, because most knights feel that an important part of chivalry is fighting openly and head on, they wear heavy armor and don’t bother learning how to dodge, but rather just trade blows with their opponent, may the best man win.”

“When you put it that way, it almost sounds stupid.”

“Chivalry always sounds stupid when you put it that way. Personally, I think it’s admirable. It’s why I decided to become a knight.”

Their conversation was stopped by a call from Rell in the front.

“Wolf!”

They had been lucky so far, not encountering a single enemy, even a wolf.

They were already more than a third of the way there, and in a short while they would be half way.

Aesh started the fight with a simple blast of flame, then Rell and Aurora jumped in and started pummeling the wolf.

’Looks like our knight froze up’ Rell thought.

He had been worried that this would happen.

Someone who never fought a wolf before could be scared on their first encounter with a real enemy.

Then the wolf’s claws hit Aurora, and his fangs sunk into Rell.

They fell back.

“Heal!”

That was when Dali reached behind him, and pulled out two flat, bent pieces of wood.

“What kind of knight uses clubs?” Rell wondered aloud.

Then he shocked them even further, when he threw the clubs, one in each hand at the wolves.

And then both clubs missed.

But the wolf had noticed him, and was charging.

He pulled out a third item, also carved out of wood.

Unlike the previous two, it had three prongs coming out of it, equally spaced.

He threw it horizontally towards the wolf, and it skimmed the grass as it flew.

However, halfway there, it curved to the right, and missed the wolf too.

The four other members of the party saw that there were no more weapons on his back.

Aurora started yelling.

“What kind of knight throws his last weapon?!”

“What kind of knight even uses ranged weapons in the first place?!”

Dali knew how fast the wolf could run.

He ran away from the wolf for a short amount of time, and then turned to fight.

Rell said “Maybe he fights unarmed, and was just trying to aggro it, or soften it up.”

As the wolf drew near him, however, he jumped over it, and started running in the opposite direction.

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“Maybe he’s just trying to buy us some time?” Pealla suggested.

He jumped over it again, but this time he did not run.

Dali thought it was perfect, even if the wolf moved slightly at the last second, he would still be hit by at least two of them.

So he stood his ground.

The wolf readied itself to attack, and then a boomerang smashed into his forelegs.

The other members watched in shock as they saw the other boomerang hit his hind legs from the other side.

The wolf was knocked to the ground, but was still belly down.

“Didn’t he throw three?” asked Aurora.

“There!” yelled Aesh.

The boomerang with three prongs was above the wolf.

It was heading straight down.

*CRACK*

CRITICAL HIT!

The wolf disappeared.

Dali grabbed the three prong boomerang and looked around wildly.

“Where’d it go?”

The rest of the party looked at him incredulous.

“It died.” Aurora said.

“Oh.”

“How did you reach level seven without seeing anything die?” Rell asked.

“Um, quests.”

“How long were you in the city”

“A month,” Dali said, instantly regretting it.

“You can’t level up in your first month.”

“Quests can-”

“Not in the first month they can’t.”

“What are you talking about?” Pealla asked.

“What they’re saying,” Aurora said, “is that Dali lied to us. He’s really level one. I don’t think he’s a knight either.”

“So what?”

They turned to see Aesh.

“He lied to us Aesh.”

Aurora seemed to be getting angry.

“Yeah, but he killed that wolf pretty dead anyway. Besides, I said we needed an archer, and the Dalirangs fit the part.”

“The what?!”

“Contraction of Dali and boomerangs.”

“Boomerangs?!”

“Yeah, he killed the wolf with them. They curve around and return to their thrower. He used them to attack when they were coming back. Pretty smart really.”

“But he’s only level one!” Rell interrupted.

“If the glove fits, and he killed that wolf. He probably trained abilities and skills in the city rather than level. Not so common, but it works pretty well. Although that means he didn’t have time for quests. Probably undecided class. Good thing you lied, if you were honest, we’d never have let you in.”

“And we shouldn’t have.”

“Nah, it would have been our loss. He’s good at what he does.”

“What he does is lie.” Aurora reentered the conversation.

“He’s good at that too. Could come in handy. Oh, and Dali? you leveled up.”

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