Maryuu maintained her wide-area healing magic at full power, her expression easing slightly as she answered.
"Phew, we're okay. Treatment wasn't too late. Everyone's out of danger. The injuries are still serious, but at the very least, the worst-case scenario's been avoided."
Alise, Kaguya, and Lyra, who was busy wrapping bandages around her own arm and torso, all let out a breath of relief.
"The worst didn't happen. Thank god!"
"Lady Astraea watch over us..."
"..."
Just then...
A tortured roar erupted from the battlefield, and the group turned just in time to witness Kureha's breathtaking quick-draw technique.
"Holy shit!"
Alise and Lyra, both non-swordswomen, stood slack-jawed and wide-eyed, scalps tingling from Kureha's display.
"A-Alise, if I'm not seeing things, that silver-haired human woman is Level 2, right?"
"Yep."
"Then can you explain to me how a Level 2 just broke through a Level 6 Monster Rex's defense? And it doesn't stop there. She didn't just break through, she dealt massive damage to the two-headed dragon..."
"Yep."
Lyra's mouth twitched as she looked up at Alise.
Their captain's eyes had gone glassy, her face blank. She'd clearly lost the ability to think.
"Ugh..."
Lyra shook her head and turned to Kaguya instead.
If two non-specialists like them had been floored by Kureha's strike, she could only imagine the reaction from Kaguya, who was equally proficient in swordsmanship and close-quarters combat, and who'd mastered her own lethal quick-draw style.
Kaguya had fallen uncharacteristically silent after witnessing Kureha's peerless slash.
"Strong."
"Incredibly strong."
"Of every swordsman I've ever known, purely in terms of technique, no one surpasses that woman."
Having said her piece, Kaguya shut her mouth and spoke no more.
Ryuu and Maryuu, mid-treatment, both froze. Their magic nearly cut out.
"Not a single one of Leon's companions is ordinary."
Then Maryuu, who'd been unconscious earlier and had missed the introductions, glanced toward the battlefield while maintaining her spell. She watched the protagonist weaving through the fight, alternating between Ice Ring and Fireball for crowd control and damage output. The more she watched, the stranger it seemed. A puzzled look crept onto her face.
"I don't know if any of you have noticed, but something seems off about Mr. Leon's Level."
"That kind of destructive power from his magic... a Level 3 mage shouldn't be able to pull that off, right?"
Everyone's eyes glazed over again.
Alise murmured in stunned disbelief:
"Since when is he Level 4?"
Her face was blank with confusion. She might be a bit brash and a touch vain, but she was no fool.
Watching Leon tear things up on the front line, casually tossing out rapid-cast Fireballs with destructive power that dwarfed even her own fully buffed finishing move, Blazing Blossom, at maximum output, bewilderment slowly settled into her expression.
"Something doesn't add up here?"
She muttered under her breath, memories of every encounter with Leon flashing through her mind. Her brow furrowed as she sank into thought.
"Kaguya, when we first met him, he was clearly only Level 2, right?"
Kaguya's face was expressionless, her gaze locked on Leon's group as they clashed with the Two-Headed Dragon Amphisbaena. Of course, most of her attention was fixed squarely on Kureha. Even Leon, the man the city's rumor mill had dubbed "Kaguya's man," had been bumped to second priority.
"Mm."
Seeing Kaguya's non-reaction, Lyra's eye twitched. She jerked her chin toward the two "war goddesses" holding the absolute front line, trading blows head-on with the dragon's claws, tail, and fangs.
"Alise, if you think Leon's the only abnormal one here, you're dead wrong. Take another look at Lady Rose and Lady Jeanne..."
"They're tanking consecutive heavy hits from a Level 6 Monster Rex head-on. Not only is their defense rock-solid, they look completely unfazed after every block and parry. Setting aside their technique and experience, just in terms of raw Basic Abilities alone, that kind of Strength and Endurance doesn't look like Level 2 to me."
Ryuu's hands, pressed against her comrade's wounds and glowing with healing green light, went rigid. Her magic nearly broke.
Behind her hood, her eyes had gone distant. She turned her head stiffly toward Rose and Jeanne, who were grappling with the two-headed dragon, each collision ringing out like hammer on anvil. Her gaze gradually went hollow.
"Lady Jeanne and Lady Rose... the two of them... they leveled up again?!"
"They're not Level 2 anymore. They're Level 3 now..."
Ryuu had always taken quiet pride in the fact that she and the Loki Familia's Sword Princess, Ais Wallenstein, were both hailed by the people of Orario as the city's Rising Stars. She acted like she didn't care on the surface, but knowing that her talent and hard work had earned the recognition and expectations of the gods, her companions, and the citizens brought a private warmth to her heart. It was validation of everything she'd put in, and proof that her beloved goddess Astraea's judgment had been right.
But now...
"When we first met them... they were only Level 1..."
"And in less than a year... we're still stuck in place, and they've already caught up to us!"
Looking at Ryuu, dazed and shell-shocked, Alise opened her mouth to say something comforting but came up completely empty.
That was when Neze Rankett, the wolf-girl bearing the title Bloody Justice Fang, who couldn't read a room to save her life and had only just woken up, spoke from where she sat cross-legged nearby, cheerfully spectating Leon's party as they took on the Monster Rex.
"Huh, those arrows pack some punch. That's enchantment magic like yours, right, Alise? Wind-element too, similar to the Loki Familia Sword Princess's style? Wrapping wind around the arrows before firing them. Pretty clever. That way she avoids being exposed to attacks while putting all her combat power to full use..."
She sucked in a breath through her teeth. "The penetrating force on those wind arrows is ridiculous. They didn't break through the defense, but they covered the vanguard perfectly. Damn, that's strong... destructive power's got to be close to Level 3, right?"
"And then there's the wide-area amplification magic from that silver-haired elf girl's magic circle..."
"That's enchantment casting, huh..."
"Oh, I see! So those two little elves leveled up to Level 2 as well!"
Neze, please shut up.
As her words landed, the group's attention inevitably shifted to the two elven supporters providing rear-guard cover.
"Huh?"
"The little elves leveled up too?"
"Aren't they about the same age as Ryuu?"
Sharp intakes of breath hissed across the group.
...
...
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