(Arc 2 Complete!) Path of the Last Champion [Sci-Fantasy LitRPG, Party Dynamics, Earned Power]

They set up a tent for Era to heal Calli and Eum at the back of the cave, so that he could unleash the full might of aether healing skills. It was the home of the loentu nest, but as long as they remained within it, the beasts would not respawn by the dungeon guardian, and it was nice to be somewhere sheltered after all of the rain and mud of their drawn-out encounter.

Meanwhile, they had laid down the floor tarp close to the cave's entrance, so that Jasphaer and Leta had somewhere cleaner and more comfortable to heal up the more seriously wounded.

"I'm fine!" Jul promised, after his refusal to leave her side. "It's just a broken arm!"

"Two…" Nar mumbled.

"And Jasphaer will fix me up in no time! Right?"

Nar turned to the healer, his hand gently stroking Jul's hair. He had already removed the worst of the caked in mud, blood and gory bits with a wet towel, but all of them were in desperate need of a shower.

"Eh… A bit more than no time," the healer said, wincing as he scanned her with his [Aura Sight]. "And it's going to be a bit painful… Two broken humeri, and the top arm bone is actually broken in two places, with quite a few bone shards around the place…"

And indeed, Jul had needed to bite down into a plastic mouth guard while Jasphaer healed her, and Nar had her two right hands in his as the healer infused her with her aura. Her broken left arms were the second serious injury that Jul had suffered during the encounter with the matriarch, and after Jasphaer was done healing the fear-based warrior, Nar had to spend the next ten minutes fighting her sense of embarrassment and perceived failure until the quam had at last fallen asleep.

As for the others, Teb had suffered cracked ribs from a glancing blow by the matriarch, while Lim had taken a deep gash across his chest from when Gad's aggro flows had faltered, and one of the loentu had managed to get through Tuk's rings and reach the top of the rock formation, sowing chaos amidst the ranged and leadership.

Then there was Tun and Gad, laying sprawled and passed out side by side. Tun had actually exhausted himself just as the matriarch came down, and was now in the grips of stamina depletion while Leta worked on patching up his shoulder, which had been pierced by one of the matriarch's spikes when he had been forced to choose between protecting himself, or Mul.

At his side, Gad had instead been suffering from pathway exhaustion, her limbs trembling and her heart beating at a precarious, arrhythmic rate. Despite the lack of external injuries, she had been the first one to receive Jasphaer's and Leta's attention until her rampant pathways had been soothed and her heart rate restored to more normal levels.

Pathway overuse, uh… Nar thought, eyeing his own trembling hand.

Jasphaer had let him know, in no uncertain terms, that what he had done to himself was actually quite insane, and that the damage to his brain, spine, nerves and basically everything else within him had been quite extensive. His self-healing had managed to delay the spread of damage, but not prevent it, and by the time Leon had stepped in, Nar had been risking severe enough damage that would've required Jasphaer to break Tys orders and heal Nar himself.

"I doubt you won't do it again, no matter what I say, so 60 seconds is as much as you can go at once!" Jasphaer had told Nar, as he fixed Jul. "Six consecutive [Aura Quickening], and then at least five minutes before you do it again! And I'm being serious here! Your self-healing is not strong enough to handle this kind of damage!"

Yet, Nar thought. But it will be. And I've just found a way to speed up my self-healing training by a lot… Maybe even my body's transformation into aurium in order to increase my attribute utilization rate as well.

Nar heard the sound of a tent flap, and lifted his eyes to find that Leon had stepped out of the glowing blue aethermancer tent, and was now exchanging a few words with Medis and Mach, who had been anxiously sitting outside the tent.

Then, Leon scanned the cave, considering the auramancers still undergoing treatment, and headed in Nar's direction.

"How is he?" Leon asked, his glowing golden, pink and rainbow stare focused on the cave's entrance.

"Still the same, probably," Nar said.

Mul had entered into some sort of deep meditation, and he hadn't moved or talked even once as the rain continued to flood around him, and Sej watched him from the cave's entrance, to ensure his safety.

"Suppressors are nasty affairs," Leon muttered. "Especially at the early stages."

He shook his head and sighed as he took a seat beside Nar.

"Bloodlust, rage, guilt… Such difficult paths to control," the paladin said. "Once, Eum almost killed Calli when she tried to help him."

"Really?" Nar asked, his eyebrows rising.

Leon nodded. "Nasty, nasty thing… Requires constant vigilance, or Eum will descend into a crazed state where he truly cannot tell friend or foe."

Damn, Nar thought. He could understand Mul's decision to accept the path of the berserker, as he didn't really have any choice in the matter, but for an aethermancer… Why would you choose a path and element like that?

"And how's Calli?" Nar asked, eyeing the glowing tent.

"Ah, she'll be fine," Leon said. "Calli's tough for a ranged, and she's suffered far worse… I'm actually more worried about Mul. He looked like he was on the verge of breaking."

Nar exhaled, further allowing his spine to arch under his torso's weight.

"He's a grumpy shit, but he probably has the best heart in the party," Nar said. "Hurting your sister… That won't be an easy thing to accept."

Leon rubbed the back of his head in tired frustration. "Yeah… I figured. Gods! This was such a mess!"

"Are you alright?" Nar asked him. "I mean, I appreciate you holding back to let me and Eum get some fantastic gains back there, and I also learned something amazing from it, but you seem… Worried?"

"Yeah," Leon muttered.

"We ended up like this because we took too long, didn't we?" Nar thought, eyeing the injured.

"Yeah," Leon said, with another drawn out sight. "We need to try something different… But you don't care about that kind of stuff, do you, Mr. I'm Not Part Of The Leadership Nar?"

"Meh…"

"Instead…" Leon said, and for a moment he looked almost sheepish. "I have a different proposal for you."

"Oh?"

"Let me teach you how to use your sword," Leon said.

"You… What?" Nar asked, blinking at the sudden request.

"I can tell that you have a really good master. A really, really good one, given how okayish you're doing with only three months of training…"

"Hey!"

"But Nar, I'm sorry man, but from what I saw today, you still have a long road ahead of you. And we'll be stuck here for months. Months! Meanwhile, I'm right here! So let me teach you in the meantime! I promise you that your master will only be thankful for it!"

"But…"

"No buts, man! Do you have any idea how much XP I'm offered for just a single hour of sparring and some pointers back at the academy?" Leon asked him, wiggling his eyebrows. "It's a lot, man! A lot!"

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"But our-our styles! They're different!" Nar said.

Leon raised his hand, and to Nar's gaped as an elaborately crafted longsword of flowing gold and rainbow colors appeared in his hands. The grip was fashioned out of some sort of golden material, arranged to look like interlaced feathers that ended up in a feathered pommel where a pink jewel glowed, and the sword's guard was composed of six outstretched wings of gold, studded with rainbow jewels. The golden, rainbow blade itself was shorter and thinner than Nar's.

"Here! Now we share the same style, Nar. And unlike you, I'm the heir to a powerful family," Leon said, grinning like a child who had just managed to pull a prank. "That means I have been trained in combat since the moment I could walk. And no, that is not an exaggeration. I wish it was."

"You use a longsword?" Nar asked, his jaw almost hitting the floor.

"Aethermancers, especially elite ones, can learn to use a variety of weapons," Leon explained. "Some skills are locked in with specific weapons, and varying situations demand varying solutions. We call these builds. The shield and sword are my main build, but in easy dungeons I sometimes swap. Using the longsword is what allows me to get more [Strength] and mobility attribute gains."

Oh, is that why such an agile tank? Nar wondered, eyeing the exquisite blade.

"Eum used to use fist weapons, but like Mul, he has since abandoned that build completely in favor of his bestial transformation one. And he lost the skills he used to have associated with his fist weapons as well, though maybe in his case that's more a path than a build?" Leon wondered. "Mach and Era have only ever focused on one thing, while Medis used to have actual physical throwing javelins before, and she still carries them around. As for Calli, she can actually double up as a medium to longish range sniper, though she much prefers the gunslinger build and her path is mostly attuned to that fighting style."

"Really?" Nar asked, still shocked.

"It's not super common, but it's not that rare either," Leon said, storing his longsword away. "Though I think it tends to be rarer amongst auramancers. For you guys, you gain flexibility by being able to change and upgrade your skills according to your needs, right? It's one of your greatest strengths, as we just saw in that fight, eh?"

"Right…"

"So since you're likely to be stuck with the longsword for the rest of your life, let me teach you and speed things along," Leon said.

"Sure…" Nar said.

Leon was a much better swordsman than him, and he had no doubt that extended to the longsword as well. After all, he had only been formally learning the ways of the longsword for a few months, compared to his years and years of training. And he had no dumb ego blocking him from accepting instruction from someone his age either. No, the real question was…

"Why?" Nar asked, half frowning at Leon. "It's not that I doubt your good intentions but…

"You do?" Leon asked, smirking.

"Well. Yes," Nar confessed. "Everyone's been going on and on that everyone in the Nexus is looking for a chance to take advantage of us, and we were told specifically not to trust anyone out here in the Labyrinth. If not for that…"

He made a gesture above Leon's head. "Display of faith or oath skill, or whatever it's called, we probably wouldn't have been so trusting of you guys. We would have helped you, of course, but we would've been a lot more careful."

"And they're right to warn you," Leon said, his expression darkening. "You're all fresh out of those Gates, and you don't know anything about anything. So defaulting to being wary of and careful of everyone and everything will keep you alive long enough to figure out how things go. But you can trust us. Especially since I swore our good intentions on my patron and source of my powers, and the paladin vow that is the center of all of my being and…"

"Alright, alright!" Nar muttered. "I'm not doubting you, Crystal dammit! I just wanted to know why!"

Leon rubbed the back of his neck. "I… Well, let's just say you've got some crazy potential, Nar. The kind that would be a crime to let go to waste.

"Really?" Nar asked.

"If you keep going like this, I wouldn't be surprised if a few years from now you caught the attention of a Named Few within Tsurmirel," Leon said. "That kind of potential."

"Oh…"

Well, you're both right and wrong, Nar thought.

"You are well on your way to power, Nar. True power. Your path, your skills and attributes, those passives you're aiming for, and, above all, your attitude? That despair to do anything it takes to grow strong, no matter what it is? That's going to take you far, Nar. Really far," Leon said. "And I've seen enough potential go to waste for lack of help, or resources, or giant bank accounts, so if I can help you, I will!"

Nar snorted at him. "That's very nice of you, but you do know I'm in Tsurmirel, right? I doubt they're lacking in anything."

Leon chuckled.

"Sure. That is true, and maybe I got a bit carried away there. I just want to give you a helping hand, is that bad?" the paladin asked, grinning. "And if it makes you feel better and want a more selfish reason from my side, I will always need people that I know I can rely on and call upon. People I can trust. Real… Friends."

"Because you're the heir to a rich family?" Nar asked.

Leon grimaced. "I shouldn't have said that. We're supposed to be delving incognito so as to not have people helping us in the hopes of curbing favor from our families."

"And you think we won't?" Nar said, with a predatory glint in his eyes. "A rich family's favor would be just the thing we need to protect us and assure our future."

To his surprise, Leon smiled back at him.

"That would be a fair exchange then," he said. "And if all you want from me is a good life for your party, I think I've made an excellent choice of friends."

Nar stared at him half lost and half stunned, but he spotted no indication of falsehood within his glowing eyes. He shook his head.

"I don't want to be using anyone," Nar said. "But friends… I could use more of those. Like you said, I don't know anything about anything out here, and that's deadly."

Leon chuckled.

"I knew you were one of the good guys!" he said, clasping Nar's shoulder. "We'll get started tomorrow morning. Early! Hopefully you've stopped shaking by then, and this way, you have time to continue your [Aura Blade] practice, and I, my morning devotions, and then we can all still do our morning stretches together! And Nar, prepare yourself. I don't teach with a light hand."

Nar shrugged. "I'm grateful for it. And don't worry, things aren't exactly easy aboard the Scimitar..."

"So I've heard," Leon said.

Then, his expression dropped, and he seemed to hesitate.

"Is there more?" Nar asked.

"Well, yeah. I guess there is one more thing," Leon said, scratching at the back of his neck. And his glowing stare dropped to the delver sleeping besides Nar.

"Jul?" Nar asked, frowning.

Leon hesitated, then he nodded, his shoulder slouching. "Back there, when Kur was about to send you and Eum down to join us, she warned him not to… And she was right. That ripper was there and no one had sensed it."

"Jul has always had a great [Instinct]," Nar said, eyeing the exhausted, green-haired quam. "I know you didn't get that attribute name, but she's always been very good at doing this sort of thing. And like Kur said, every time we ignored it, we always regretted it. So now, we just do as she says."

"I know vaguely about that attribute. Or at least I think I do," Leon said, rubbing his chin. "But this is different, Nar. Everyone gets that garbled attribute that you have once they reach a certain level, but from my understanding, they can't do what she does. What we get is more like what Eum does, with his [Wild Instincts], and I guess, kind of like what you do, though yours seems very strong as well… And also, even beasts and monsters get that attribute, did you know?"

Nar nodded, remembering the corrupted illatrian and one of its wargs, who had indeed used [Instinct] against their party to great effect.

"I can't even chalk it up to her fear sensing learning attempts," Leon said, his tone lowering. "No, this feels like Jul could actually have a sense for the future."

Nar stared at him.

"Stare all you want. There are people with skills or attributes, or whatever it is, that can do such things," Leon told him, his tone hushed. "And I've seen it with my own eyes! A prediction that came true! So don't discount it!"

Nar frowned towards Jul. "I guess, after all we've seen, it wouldn't be that crazy… But still. The future? Not just threats?"

"I could be wrong here," Leon conceded. "But the issue is not whether I'm right or wrong, Nar. Is with the possibility that I am! As you said, the Nexus can be a disgusting place, and there are people out there that would do anything to get their hands on someone with her perceived capabilities. Anything! Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Nar's expression darkened, and he went deadly still.

"If certain sorts of people suspect that she can do it, they will get their hands on her first and check it later," Leon continued. "If she has it, they will do whatever it takes to make her an obedient tool. If she doesn't, they'll just make her suffer for wasting their time. And this is as true for the trash down in the Minus, as it is for the trash sitting in the glittering offices of the tallest, fanciest, corpo towers in the O-Nex. Even noble houses will be tempted to nab her…"

Well, fuck, Nar thought.

"Having friends like us… Will help," Leon said, his tone dropping even further. "But only so much."

"So, we need to hide it?" Nar asked.

"That would be the best course of action," Leon said. "I will speak with Kur as well, as I don't want anything happening to any of you because of this or anything else, and we'll exchange contact when we leave the Brightnight. That way, I can be of help if anything ever happens. Azzin granted it that nothing ever does, though!"

"Thank you," Nar said, with a heavy sigh. "I didn't even think anything of it. I guess, we've just gotten used to it."

Leon nodded slowly.

"Just be careful from now on," Leon told him. "The Nexus, and the Labyrinth for that matter, is filled with incredible people! That much I can promise you! But it is also filled with the sort of people your masters and teachers warned you about. So be sparing with your trust and make sure you never misplace it. That could be the last thing you ever regret doing."

Leon rubbed his hands together.

"Right. I'm off to chat with Kur about this and about our strategy going forward," the paladin said. "I'll see you later."

"Hmm. And thank you!" Nar said, to his back. "For the fight, the training and this too."

"No worries!" Leon said, throwing him a smirk. "What are friends for, eh?"

Nar snorted to himself, shaking his head.

Friends, battle brothers… This has been a wild delve, he thought.

Then his features hardened as he pondered Leon's warning.

Another reason to get stronger and faster, Nar thought to himself.

His dad may be out of reach, but Crystal and All The Radiants as his witness, he wouldn't let anything happen to any of them. No matter what, or who tried to do so.

Still, seeing the future? He wondered. Was that what I did with that illatrian, when I knew that I had to wait…

He shook his head.

Now I'm just being crazy.