Lucien

An anomaly in his adventuring party, Lucien stands out by being a commoner– one without magical powers, or royal connections. While many would assume a quick downfall against one of the many, many dangers that exist outside the protection of established kingdoms, Lucien has managed to endure and even thrive in his newfound life.

His power rarely comes from him, but from the trinkets, allies, and blessings he has found along his journeys– borrowed strengths that can make him a force to be reckoned with– if the cards are willing to align.

Combat Report

While knowledgeable enough about mana, spellcasting, and the greater etheral plane as a whole from his studies, it is clear that Lucien has neither experienced nor knows the reality of combat. He has a surface level understanding of fighting, lacking any amount of confidence in his movement or attacks from the single spar I witnessed.

On top of all this, he does not have an elemental affinity, nor even the ability to manipulate mana, rendering his combat potential limited.

Footnotes

The Kingdom's combat reports are meant for those with experience in... well, combat, so it was difficult to find anything noteworthy to write about.

In the context of those without any powers to speak of, Lucien is rather normal. He does not have the physical strength to function as a solider, though he seems to be doing well academically– enough to justify his enrollment.

(In the future, though, please try to get reports through the proper channel, Aladia. I understand this was a unique situation, but I am not a fan of any "under the table" activites.)

Background

Lucien was born and raised in the the heart of one of the major kingdoms,

Born and raised in the heart of one of the major kingdoms, Lucien Without any magical talents, nor royal blood, he was not privy to the greater world of magic and divinity. This first began to change when he enrolled into the top school in the kingdom.

During his time there, he accidentally developed a friendship with Aladia, one of the great reincarnated weapons. As they began to spent more time together, Lucien learned more about the upper workings of the Kingdom, and the resentment she felt at her reality.

This would all change when an internal sabotaging within one of the noble groups led to a questioning of allegiances, leading to Aladia's status falling, with Lucien's quickly being treated as a possible coconspirator. The situation culminates with the eventual explusion of Lucien and Aladia.

Alongside Aladia, Lucien finds himself paired up with several others, and (beyond his forces) ends up creating his own adventuring party.

Apperance

Lucien's outfit is a mish-mash of equipment and items he's collected along his journey. Unlike his other companions, Lucien has never had any military experience, so there is no origin for his outfit.

The majority of his armor is situated near his chest, as he finds himself sluggest when wearing anything on his arms and legs. He does wear some plate armor on his non-dominant arm to have something to help deal with impacts.

As the only non-magic user in his group, Lucien wears gloves– something that would normally be a hinderance to spellcasting.

Fighting Style

In general, if Lucien can avoid fighting, he will. His lack of any innate natural abilities and his unremarkable strength make any "fair fight" heavily against him, something he is keenly aware of whenever he is forced to fight one on one.

As Lucien continously loses and gains powers, equipment, and allies throughout the story (much moreso than anyone else), it is hard to define a strict style or technique he adheres to. However, in all cases his lack of endurance means he heavily prefers short, quick fights that he has prepared for. If he has strong allies to rely on, Lucien will gladly do so, but in an event where he's outmatched, he prefers on staying back and running unless he can spot an opportune moment to strike. In other words, Lucien is very feast or famine in fighting, and ideally doing neither and simply running away.

Weapon/Companion - Aladia

Aladia is classified as a reincarnated weapon– a human whose soul was put into an object to allow them to continue living after death. She was imbued into a sword by one of the gods she served, as a major show of gratitude for her efforts.

Though predominantly a sword in combat, Aladia does have a human form she can swap in and out of, though it consumes a high amount of mana to maintain, forcing her to swap back after a few hours.

Aladia is one of the stronger reincarnated weapons, with the rare ability to move on her own in her sword form allowing her to fly and act without Lucien's input. This automated movement makes her the overwhelming majority of Lucien's firepower.

At some point, in order to save Lucien's life, Aladia forced a soul binding between the two of them. This gave Aladia access to Lucien's mana reserves, something he can not use directly, effectively turning him into her personal mana battery. This also gave her increased endurance and stamina, but came with the restriction that physical distance weakened their bindings, and consequently Aladia's strength. At longer distances, this would come in the form of physical pain, making it practically impossible for the two of them to be a part. Additionally, it allowed Aladia to stay in her human form for significantly longer– to the point where she could stay human for days on end.

Divergence

Divergence is a soul contract Lucien forged with one of the gods. The contract allows Lucien to boost the strength of his next attack by calling out his next move. If successful, the attack becomes significantly stronger. If not, Lucien will be hurt as punishment.

Divergence must be primed before it can be activated; for Lucien, this is done by snapping his fingers, mentally calling out his next move. Afterwards, a four-second window is given for him to perform his next move. A successful attack immediately activates the ability.

The strength of this ability is increased by performing certain actions deemed risky or dangerous; popping Divergence near the end of the activation window, rushing towards the enemy, or the most effective of them all– directly telling your opponent that you plan on using it.

In the story, Divergence is not a unchangable contract, but an ever-changing ability that can be altered by either party, as long as the other agrees. The text above describes the base version of Divergence.

Nullification

At some point, Lucien makes an agreement to reduce Divergence's potential power, in exchange for "cleansing" the damage done needed to perform the move. This decreases his raw strength, but dramatically boosts the versatility of the ability.

The most proimnent example of this upgrade is how Lucien uses it to fall from dramatically high heights, as he can simply cancel the impact damage by punching the ground.

Despite being an overall benefit, the god that powers Divergence was not bothered by losing more of his strength, as the main purpose they agreed to even give Lucien the power in the first place was the interest they had in his fighting, which only grew dramatically due to the increased risks he was taking.

Ice Manipulation

As a show of support from one of the distant ice kingdoms, Lucien was gifted a blessed amulet to allow for fine manipulation of ice magic. Because of his inability to access his own mana reserves, Lucien's consumes mana at an extremely high rate– comparable to high level chaos magic.

To help offset this cost, Lucien is regularly supplied with shards of supercompressed ice, with act as fuel for his spells, reducing the cost of his magic by allowing him to use ice without fabricating it first.

Note that Lucien does not receive the benefits that come from an ice affinity– his casting is still noticeably slow, and his body is not conditioned for frequent use of the amulet. This can be circumvented by "pumping out" mana at a faster rate, though Lucien notes that this it is an incredibly uncomfortable action.