Lukrut is a man of many talents, or so he tells himself.

His hands were raised behind his head in a carefree, relaxed gesture. Hunting monsters was a common occurrence, and his skills as a ranger would allow him to detect danger and prepare himself well before battle. The mostly open fields lended themselves well to his sharp eyes.

In other circumstances, Lukrut's ears would be employed in the business of scouting as well, but this quest was something different. The trial member of the Swords of Darkness had some unfortunately loud footsteps, and Lukrut was not in the business of making enemies.

Delta's movement patterns had become exponentially weirder outside of the city walls. The small, deep curves he would hop in the Adventurer's Guild with only grew exponentially larger with speed. He would do them forward, backwards, sideways… while the base pattern stayed the same, there were intricacies woven into the movements. Sometimes the curving patterns would arc dozens of feet in a smooth curve, only to alternate directly after the next jump into a series of incredibly shallow zig-zags. Lukrut knew that no normal archer could hit that shot, himself included.

After a certain point it seemed more like he was flinging himself across the open ground than he was controlling his movements. He would even hit trees at high velocities and just… stop. Similarly, Delta would occasionally bash into sloped hills or curved surfaces only to glide smoothly across them, or get his horizontal momentum transferred into air time. Lukrut only grew more curious and concerned at his new teammate's interactions with the world as time went on, and it reminded him of Delta's initial interaction with Dyne in the guildhouse.

Regardless, he rubbed Lukrut the wrong way. His instincts would scream every time Delta would collide with a tree, only for him to let out a breath subconsciously when Delta did not become red paste.

His arms were also doing some weird motion akin to a slight teleport in their posing, almost always pulling out some sort of contraption or his knife. Whenever he had held out a weapon for more than a few seconds, he would switch the item he was holding multiple times until he seemed to grow bored of it. Lukrut suspected some clever use of illusion magic, though why Delta would use it all the time on the hunt was somewhat confusing. He would also seem to inspect his weapons' conditions many times, ensuring they were clean and ready to use.

And through it all the hopping madman didn't even seem slightly winded. Now that was truly a feat in and of itself.

Thankfully Delta had stopped being such a force of nature and had opted to simply walk along with the team at the request of Peter. It was interfering with their party's ability to detect enemies as well as pushing everyone's attention towards the man jumping literal circles around the party.

This had the odd side effect of turning Delta from a being of chaos into a mimic of a poorly trained animal, often stopping and staring at objects only to realize he was being left behind. Full body crouches staring at dandelions and blades of grass, running into trees to get a closer look, and hopping off of the nearest outcropping to get some extra height.

Lukrut envied that movement. Even a fraction of that movement would have probably boosted his scouting skills to platinum.

The handle of Lukrut's shortsword bumped into his hands, returning him to the present moment. He lowered his hands and continued walking, unsure if he had heard some movement in the forest to his right.

His hand twitched in anticipation.

He spared a glance to his right, seemingly casual to any outsiders but enough to clue his teammates in about his premonition.

His hunch proved right. "Goblins and trolls. Several trolls, a few dozen goblins." He reported to the group quietly.

Beasts were still just beasts, but keeping a seemingly oblivious profile would help deal with the initial wave. They would get cocky, approach the team as they were led into an open field, and mowed down like the meat they were when they reached Lukrut's sights. Delta's too.

The team moved according to protocol towards the nearest open field, away from the forest where the monsters resided. Each of them looked as casual as they were before, but they had all tensed up in their own way. Peter held his sword just a little tighter. Ninya grasped his staff with two hands instead of one. Dyne's hands were ready to quickly whip out his mace.

And Delta… well, he looked pretty unfazed, though Lukrut hadn't had much time to figure out what his tells were.

He would call the signal pretty soon. Lukrut knew he just had to bide his time. Just enough for him to get them in range…

"Now!"

Lukrut pulled out his bow and performed a quick turnabout on the now exposed horde. It was a little bigger than he had estimated, but that was just fine. He shot an arrow, purposefully shooting before they got into range to let his opponents underestimate them further.

Peter took to the frontlines while Ninya casted support spells on him. Dyne was readying a mobility hindering spell, Twine Plant, as per protocol. There were still a few dozen feet between them and the horde, and he needed to wait until a troll was in striking range to synergize with Peter.

Delta had also prepared, transferring his momentum to hop out of range of the party and to the side of the coming battle. He had pulled out his weapon of choice, a large contraption of metal that required two hands to hold. It looked li-

A loud series of noises like thunder continuously cracking sounded off from Delta's position as something started to rip small bits and pieces of the goblins like paper. Lukrut clutched his ears and narrowed his eyes, setting his bow as quickly as he could onto the ground. The sound continued, deafening the world around him and sending trails of light through the enemies.

The light trails quickly stabilized into a single nearly continuous beam, ripping through any goblins unfortunate enough to have been caught in its wake. The trolls fared better, their regenerative abilities forcing them on all fours as they howled in agony.

Lukrut forced his eyes to stay open. He needed to see this, this carnage that their new member would rake.

The beam still managed to continue, now guided towards the heads of the trolls. Once locked on, the unfortunate head would cave in at the point of entry, blood and all sorts of matter spraying out onto the grass.

The beam had managed to slay one more troll before sputtering out, the last few strikes being accompanied by a high pitched metallic sound not unlike a hammer on an anvil.

Lukrut's head hurt.

He pulled himself up from the cowardly position he found himself in as he slowly readjusted to the world at large. A survey of his team members for damage found nothing asides for a strong dose of shock and fear.

The trolls that remained were attempting to flee, cowering at the sight of their utterly brutalized comrades. Unfortunately for them, the man -no, he was something else- of the hour was already advancing upon their position. He hopped towards them in the same way he would spring towards a flower or a tree, seemingly without a care in the world. The blood and gore didn't track on his shoes.

Delta whipped a piece of metal out from his weapon onto the dirt and replaced it with a similar piece of metal. Ammunition was the likely answer, Lukrut surmised, but he had never seen something like that. Something so easily disposable, yet left so much waste behind.

The trolls' lives were already forfeit to the being who had so innocently tagged along. For something that seemed to barely even be able to scratch a tree on a good day, the damage it could cause when it tried was nothing short of monstrous.

The weapon sounded in Delta's hands once more, this time far enough away to where Lukrut could hear himself think.

As the trolls were finished off, Lukrut wondered if this was the beginning of the end. At best, he was simply outclassed. At worst, Delta's weapons would revolutionize battle as he knew it. How such a powerful weapon and being escaped the public consciousness was beyond him.

One thing was sure though- Delta did not belong with the Swords of Darkness. He belonged with the upper echelons of warriors, the people who Lukrut knew that he would never reach. Hell, Delta might even give the whole of Blue Rose a run for their money.

The Swords looked at each other, each waiting for another to break the silence. Shock, fear, and awe were present to some degree on all of their faces.

Lukrut, however, was mainly feeling the fear.

"Light Healing." As the light green glow enveloped Lukrut his headache started to clear and his ears stopped ringing so harshly, the aftershock of the freak of nature letting go. He bathed in the warm feeling of the magic washing through his body, choosing to not focus on the destruction in front of them. He noticed he wasn't shaking as badly as he was before.

"He can't stay." Peter broke the silence.

The others nodded.

"Well then." Lukrut pretended to stretch out the tenseness in his arms, pretending to return to normalcy. "Let's finish this up, eh?." He smiled but it didn't reach his eyes.

As they approached the scene of the massacre they found most of the ears already cut clean off by Delta. It was short work to finish the job, though the corpses were a bit more gruesome than they normally were when defeated by standard weapons.

The carnage didn't stop at the monsters though. Holes a bit smaller than a coin riddled the trees and foliage, as if whatever Delta's weapon emanated passed through the mobs and into the trees. The markings were likely permanent things in the rough bark.

Just another reminder of the carnage that was born here.

"Did we get all the ears?" Peter asked, more out of formality than a real question.

"Yeah, I think so." Ninya called from across the bodies.

"Let's head out then." Peter waved them back to E-Rantel, his voice lacking his usual vigor.

Lukrut turned back to his thoughts for company on the quiet journey home.

It was no secret that many people would be 'capped' at a certain rank. Those who could get past that were seen as heroes or true warriors.

Delta didn't seem to fit in either category.

Maybe Lukrut was just fearing the unknown, and once he understood how Delta or his weapon ticked he would be able to understand and admire such combat. The masterful aim of an archer could take many years to perfect, and the same goes for a warrior or a mage. Yet all he saw here was indiscriminate carnage. The only thing masterful about Delta's abilities was the impressive mana pool he must have drawn from, as well as his weapon.

Delta's weapon must be some sort of magic-based rapid fire casting. That's the only idea Lukrut could come up with for such a powerful weapon. He would ask Delta, but the man seemed to only speak in simple terms, and he doubted he could get anything of a real explanation out of him. And that was before he even considered the intimidation factor.

The reflective material that covered Delta's eyes was seeming more and more like some all-seeing being, the perfect circles in the mask waiting for a slip up. The cylinder jutting out of his mask looked more and more grotesque the closer he looked. The flags on his arms commanded respect and authority.

Delta was beyond his paygrade, Lukrut decided. In another life they could have been good friends, maybe even rivals in battle. But in this one, Delta symbolized the overwhelming distance between the haves and the have-nots, having come to E-Rantel with a gift and the power to use it.

As Delta would continue to climb the ranks, Lukrut would be hard stuck at silver. Maybe he would reach gold one day, but by that point Delta would be leagues beyond. Lukrut didn't envy the journey and burdens Delta would face.

They claimed their reward in short order, with this quest having been one of their fastest subjugations on record. Five coppers each was a hefty sum given the party size, enough to drink their problems away and rest up the next day.

For now though, they had to break the bad news.

"Hey Delta." Peter had seemingly calmed down enough to put up a cheerful facade.

Lukrut flinched as the masked man turned.

"I wanted to let you know that you did a really good job out there. However, we cannot accept you as a member." Peter glanced at his teammates to reaffirm their decision. "Truthfully, we think we would hold you back. You… could find better teammates than us." He grimaced.

Delta stared at Peter before slowly dropping his gaze to his feet, hunching over in the process. "Roger that."

And with that, Delta shuffled away, the vigor normally found in his skips replaced by a walk as he disappeared into the streets of E-Rantel.