Braden heard the first arrow whistle by just behind him, then felt the second sink into his back. He tumbled forward, crashing into the edge of the fountain. Again his mind was sending off alarms about the pain, but he knew there was nothing there. Well that wasn't totally true; there was an arrow in his back that was sending shivers down his spine. His armor had done next to nothing, he could feel the unholiness radiating off the arrow, and it had nailed him in his vitals for a crit. All told, he was so close to half health that a butterknife could have put him there.

Receiving the elf's message, he looked at his health once more. "Duel. Concede," he declared aloud. The system handled the rest, declaring Daeris Shadowleaf the winner and allowing his health to begin recovering from being in the town. "Congrats," he replied to Daeris. He could see the guards approaching, so he worked fast. WIth the duel over, the arrow in his back vanished. Relieved of that hindrance, he stopped by the now uncrowded NPC for the quest (all the players had either been watching the fight or moved away to avoid it).

"You've got a quest, right? What do you need? And please make it fast." Not as though an NPC could-
"Five pheasant talons. Good luck."
A small bell announced that he had the quest. He was surprised, but he took off running for the pheasant fields. [i]Convenient system,[/i] he thought as he ran. [i]Now where did that elf go?[/i] Immediately after thinking that, he wondered why. But she was a good shot; it had only taken her one to get the aim right, and the second had been murder.