Lone: The Wanderer

Lone approached Breena first and placed a hand on her head. She didn't flinch at all and even seemed happy at the gesture, as if she had missed it. 'Emotional progress too? Well, If I ain't the proudest Golden Foxkin for miles. Ignoring that I'm the only Golden Foxkin for miles...'

"I've got enough World Force to use Full Body Diagnostics three times, though it has a daily cap of twice. Who really needs a heal via Creation Magic and who will let me try to get a first aid skill off of 'em?" he asked.

"I-I'm fine," Breena replied as she enjoyed his brotherly head pat. "I'm just a little exhausted, nothing more."

"I'm fine too. It's lovely to see you, by the way, Lone," George said as he jogged on over after having picked up both Alisa and Emma. "Breena hit Emma on the head a little hard, and she was already poisoned, so she likely needs actual healing."

"I'm fine," Scott said as he crawled over. "Use first aid or whatever on my ankles. They hurt like a motherfucker but it's nothing serious. my master'll use body reinforcement magic to make me heal faster on my own anyway."

"Right you are, Apprentice," Master Mezro'nan said, having taken the stairs instead of a flashier entrance like Lone had.

At the same time, Soph teleported next to Lone, still focused entirely on her barrier practice. "Hi everyone."

Breena replied shyly while Scott grunted in greeting and George nodded with a polite smile on his face.

"So the girls it is," Lone said as pulled his hand away from Breena's head. "Alisa looks fine, so the other two get to be diagnosed."

Breena gave Lone the impression that she was a bit sad at him removing his hand which made him want to ruffle her hair for being such a good kid and for moving so far past her older self but he held it in.

A moment later, he applied his Agility for but a moment to grab Hazel and move her unconscious body over to the group.

"Holy fuck! How'd you move so fuckin' fast?!" Scott exclaimed.

"He applied hisss Agility. Very impresssive. Sssuch control isss rare to sssee in sssomeone ssso young. To isssolate Hazel from experiencing the ssspeed too asss it would have killed her wasss mossst impresssive, indeed," Master Mezro'nan commented.

"I had plenty of time to practice. Now, gimme a sec to heal the sleepin' beauties before I poke around at your ankles," Lone said to his former student.

Scott swallowed nervously. Clearly, the way Lone had worded that left the boy regretting offering himself up for practice so readily.

"Urg..." Hazel awoke to an immediate headache. Her Mind Reading was trying to batter itself against an unsurpassable wall that felt all too familiar to her unique skill.

She was barely conscious but as she struggled to get up, so dedicated a bit of her attention to suppressing her unique skill. Upon succeeding, the headache disappeared.

Hazel opened her eyes and saw the culprit of her recent discomfort. "Lone?"

He was squatting next to Scott with some basic first aid tools like a stitching needle and some gauze while her friend was wincing in pain.

"Mornin' sleepin' beauty. Or, well, late afternoon-slash-early-evening. How ya been holdin' up these last two months?" he asked casually before shooting a warm smile her way.

"I, uh.. I don't feel groggy. The poison magic...?" Hazel was confused.

"I healed you up. I also dealt with the internal bruising you had. Ya gotta learn to rest more, Haze. Master Mezro'nan said it was fine, but those kind of injuries can't ever fully heal even with most magics. You gotta sleep properly, or, have an amazing big brother with unmatching healing capabilities," he replied arrogantly.

'Haze? He hasn't called me that in forever. Not since before Dad really started abusing him... so when I was five or six? I can't really remember. What a blast from the past...' Hazel brushed off her knees and stood up.

She saw that Lord Mezro'nan was right next to Lone, keeping an eye on his student Scott. Breena was talking softly with Soph - it had to be Soph since Sophie seemed to hate Breena - while she was practicing her unique barrier magic.

"Where's everyone else?" Hazel asked, not seeing Emma, George, or Alisa.

Scott replied through gritted teeth. "George decided to carry them to their quarters and he said he was going to start cooking dinner. We lost, by the way. Again. Ah, fuck! Be gentler!" �

"You have Physical Pain Resistance. Stop being a little bitch," her brother chided. "I'm almost there. Once I'm done the skill should proc, hopefully. Aha! There we go. Basic First Aid Mastery. I wonder if I needed to do first aid on two people for it to trigger? I've done it with Soph and Sophie a few times, but they share a body..."

Lord Mezro'nan took over as her brother began rambling to himself, casting a spell on Scott's injured ankles.

"You gotta cast that on me too," Lone demanded matter of factly, immediately breaking free from his ramblings. "What do you need to use it on me? Will an open wound do?"

Lord Mezro'nan looked confused but his big lizardy head nodded. "Yesss, jussst an open wound isss enough."

'If he wasn't a big scary X-ranker being employed by Lone to keep us safe and train us, he'd almost be cute.' Hazel did think the creature's tuxedo top was very dashing, in an adorable kind of way.

"Awesome," her brother replied.

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Hazel then almost gagged reflexively when she watched the skill addict concentrate for a second and then bring one of his tails up to his left hand before severing it entirely in one clean motion.

The hand disappeared, likely into his Dimensional Storage, while he held out the profusely bleeding stump towards the X-ranker as if it didn't bother him even slightly.

"I finally got the hang of silent casting skills too just recently, so mind the tails. My racial skill is still active," her brother explained. "Ah, and can you say the skill's name when you use it on me, please? Would appreciate that."

'Lone... So brazenly stealing a skill from someone who, to my understanding, he doesn't really know that well? He's insane... Mad for skills. Still, it's certainly a useful one. It's the only healing skill Lord Mezro'nan has used on us these past two months and its saved us from killing each other so many times...' Hazel commented internally.

Lord Mezro'nan's brow furrowed, which she expected, but he did nod nonetheless. He got up on his hind legs and held one of his front feet against Lone's stump. Hazel noticed the X-ranker's front feet now sported a set of very dangerous and powerful looking metal claws that she'd never seen him wear before.

'Did Lone give him those? Ah. It must have been part of the payment for him looking after us, right?' she deduced.

"Regenerative Ssstimulation," the Restodian Iglaform cast his body fortification magic spell.

Nothing flashy happened, as was normal when he used the spell on Hazel and her friends, of which she included Breena reluctantly.

She liked Breena but the girl idolised her brother to an unhealthy degree and it didn't help that Lone treated the foxkin girl more like a sibling that he did his own sister.

Regardless, Lone looked ecstatic as he stopped suppressing his Basic Regeneration, resulting in his hand returning to normal in less than a second. "New school of magic acquired. Awesome. Definitely gonna have to spar with you soon, man. I bet you have tons of interesting earth magic combat spells. Anyway, should we deal with our guest now? My tails will stay sharp for the next 19 or so minutes, and if we're gonna kick her ass, I say we do it now rather than later."

"Don't be reckless," Soph warned.

Lone smiled bashfully at her. "While the last time I fought an X-ranker was an ambush against me, it failed. And besides, this time, I've got an X-ranked ally and my stats are doubled. Thanks for that by the way, Scott. You were out cold when it happened, so couldn't thank ya at the time."

The beefy teen cracked a smile. "I should be thanking you, even if you were a heartless cunt to my ankles a minute ago. I doubled your stats, you ten x'ed mine, and ya saved ma life."

Lone replied, "Glad it was worth it for both of us. But yeah, Soph, If things go tits up with Lady Carnation, we're definitely fighting, not fleeing. I could use the stats from an X-ranker. I've yet to kill one if you've forgotten, Miss Killed An X-ranker Without Me."

Soph blushed at that remark. "That was Sophie, not me, though I did think about it... That guy was a creep..." She shook her head to break her line of thought before she gave Lone a hard look Hazel would have expected from her other personality. "You're not fighting! You promised you wouldn't until you could beat SSS-rankers with no troubles!"

"And that's true. Solo. But I've got you and Master Mezro'nan here, don't I? Plus, I have my doubled stats which I didn't before, And I can apply Agility, and I have a lot more ways to amplify attacks with my nine new intermediate weapon masteries. Granted, not all of the new ones can be applied to any weapon, but still... surely you don't mind me fighting an X-ranker with all of that considered?" her brother pleaded with his lover.

'Nine weapon masteries ranked up? In just two months? What a monster. I know he has that unique skill of his, but if being a skill addict can lead to even half of that in two months... maybe it might be worth trying to get addicted.' Hazel chuckled to herself. 'What an insane thought.'

"I would rather not fight her, even if I am confident I could win now. I do not enjoy combat and conflict. And Lord Immortusss... you have sssome very interesssting abilitiesss. I have never ssseen sssuch fassst ssself-healing before. My massstery over Regenerative Ssstimulation is expert-ranked, but it cannot work that fassst," Lord Mezro'nan commented. "Ssseeing it when you fought the prince wasss one thing, but to regrow a limb ssso quickly isss amazing."

"Don't fight if you don't have to. No unnecessary risks!" Soph put her foot down. "Train your social skills. We can earn stat points later."

Lone grinned at Lord Mezro'nan. "You'll get to see some of my other tricks soon too." He then turned to Soph. "You win. I'll tell her to fuck off nicely before anything else."

Soph nodded triumphantly. "Good."

"Wait, wait!" Hazel interjected. She realised she didn't really know who they were talking about. An X-ranked guest that was a potential threat? That sounded pretty serious. "What's going on?"

"A nosy nelly who's still interested in my and Scott's aura explosion from two months ago doesn't know when to back off. She's likely interested in Soph's mana capacity too now since she used a item to track that today, meaning she looked into us and found out about that. We're off to confront her since Master Mezro'nan has been avoiding her for the past two months for you guys's sakes," her brother explained.

'That's only incredibly terrifying. So because my brother greedily got Scott to use his unique skill on him, we now have the attention of an X-ranker who doesn't know when to give up? What the hell? We didn't ask for that,' Hazel thought bitterly.

Lone walked over to her and kneeled down to meet her at eye level since she was sitting on the floor. "I know that look. Sorry. I'll deal with it, 'kay? Once the stalker's fucked off, whaddya say you and me have a nice long chat? Just you and me. I could certainly use it. Been wanting to for ages but life and my stupid ass kept getting in the way."

'His tone is so... uncertain. Is he... is he scared I'll reject him? Why? Because he thinks I don't understand?' Hazel almost felt offended by the notion. 'Does he think I'm just a stupid girl? Does he think I didn't know he wanted to make it up to me two months ago for the way we first met on this stupid planet? Does he think I don't know Sofia had to reverse time for some reason, likely because he fucking died?! Does he think I don't know that's more important than I am? Does he th-'

Suddenly, his arms were wrapped around her and he was saying, "Hey, hey, hey, I'm sorry. We can chat now if you'd rather, 'kay? Soph and Master Mezro'nan can deal with the rude asshole upstairs instead."

Hazel tried to speak but found herself choking up and unable to do so. She was... crying? Is that why her brother had suddenly hugged her and spoke in a calm and comforting tone? His embrace was warm and filled with a love that was almost foreign to her.

Hazel could barely see Soph smile and nod before she moved her hand, picking up Scott in a barrier that only left his head exposed. She then began walking out of the room while Master Mezro'nan and Breena quickly followed her.

"Hey! Not a-fucking-gain! I can walk!" Scott protested loudly.

"It's faster this way," was all Soph said in response to his struggling.

Master Mezro'nan turned to Lone and said, "Will you be long?"

"We'll be as long as we need to be," her brother replied, not looking away from her as tears streamed down her cheeks and she sniffled loudly.

"I sssee," the X-ranker replied before turning around to follow Soph in earnest.

As soon as they were gone and it was just her and Lone left in the training room, he, while still hugging her, said something that almost made her burst into laughter from how stupid but cute it was.

"I love you, Haze. I really do. I'm sorry for neglecting you. I'm busy and my life is in almost constant danger. A consequence of my own actions, I suppose, but still. I wanna be a good brother to you. So once you've got it out of your system, tell me about yourself. I was out of the house when you were only seven, and before you became my student, we only saw each other, what, once a year, if that? Didn't expect it to be in a magically-altered basement of a fuckin' wizard tower, but hey, time for a sibling heart-to-heart. Whaddya say?" he asked with a big grin.

Still crying, she wiped her eyes and smiled back at him. "I'd love that."

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