Rufus Remore

Rufus Remore is an elite swordsman and educator from the family that operates the Remore Academy. He is one of Jason Asano's first companions on Pallimustus, teaching the newly arrived outworlder the foundations of essence magic, adventuring, and swordsmanship. Although raised to become a great adventurer, Rufus ultimately finds deeper purpose in helping others become capable, principled adventurers themselves. (Chapters 9–23, 37, 487)

Biography

Greenstone apprenticeship

Rufus meets Jason while both are prisoners of the Vane blood cult. Unable to escape his own cage, he calmly explains how spirit coins work, warns Jason about overtaxing his normal-rank body, and insists that Gary be released first once Jason obtains the keys. Jason's decision to return for the other captives overturns Rufus's confidence that training and pedigree define a great adventurer. He responds by taking personal responsibility for Jason's education, offering knowledge, protection, and a model of competence rather than treating the inexperienced outworlder as a burden. (Chapters 9–15, 37)

Greenstone also exposes gaps in Rufus's own sheltered development. After refusing the noble title offered for his part in defeating the cult, he tells his father that operating independently has revealed weaknesses hidden by the academy's structure. He proposes a permanent Greenstone station where graduates can gain field experience while improving local standards, then begins giving Jason the rigorous sword and meditation instruction expected of a Remore student. The decision turns a humbling assignment into an institutional commitment to adventurers who lack wealthy families or elite private training. (Chapter 49)

That confidence is tested catastrophically during the expedition disaster. Rufus, Gary, and Farrah Hurin hold a retreat line through practiced teamwork, but a high-silver enemy overwhelms them despite Rufus's superior technique. His brief Speed of Light burst cannot penetrate the enemy's grafted metal protection, and a slip costs him his sword arm; moments later, the same enemy kills Farrah. Rufus survives and is healed, but skill no longer feels like an assurance against failure. His grief gives the Greenstone academy project a sharper purpose: training must prepare people for the moment talent and plans are not enough. (Chapters 109–113)

Yaresh and the messenger war

By silver rank, Rufus increasingly admits that teaching at the Greenstone annex is more fulfilling than fearing his next adventuring mistake. Farrah nevertheless asks him to accompany Team Biscuit temporarily, both to refine Jason's swordsmanship and to rediscover the field experience that keeps a teacher's lessons honest. Around Yaresh, he applies that balance immediately: his short-range teleports let him move through collapsing structures during the evacuation, while his tactical education helps the team integrate his unfamiliar affliction-and-finisher style into group combat. (Chapters 487, 581, 602, 638, 660, 665)

Gary's acceptance of the Cup of Heroes forces Rufus to confront sacrifice from the other side. When Jason realises what repeated self-destruction has done to his friends, Rufus confirms that this helpless anger is exactly what they have endured for him, then sends him back to the work Gary's choice bought time to complete. Rufus later loses Gary despite the victory. Rather than allowing grief to close him off as it did after Farrah's apparent death, he lets memories of his friend become a source of warmth and accepts the responsibility to keep living, teaching, and seeking advancement. (Chapters 774, 836, 845, 851, 860)

On Earth, Rufus accepts a new field of students instead of retreating into mourning. He teaches Emi Asano, overhauls the Asano Clan's essence-user curriculum, and refines training methods that spread internationally, while respecting the limits Emi's parents place on her instruction. Chosen to represent clan interests without becoming a clan member, he also applies his diplomatic education to external negotiations. His Sun and Moon essences ultimately reach gold rank through sustained training in Jason's astral spaces, while his study of philosophy and religion extends his vocation from teaching techniques to understanding the ideas his powers embody. (Chapters 853–865, 948, 954, 984)

Appearance and personality

Rufus is a dark-skinned, bald human whose striking looks are repeatedly remarked upon. Even when first seen dirty and battered after captivity, he carries himself like a composed action hero; his controlled voice, upright bearing, and polished clothing reinforce the impression of someone raised amid exacting expectations. In combat, his golden blade and bursts of sun- or moonlit movement make that poise visibly dynamic. (Chapters 11, 34, 109, 936)

He is disciplined, courteous, and slow to discard humane standards for convenience. Rufus distrusts status pursued for its own sake, rejects a lordship, and expects teammates to be reliable enough to trust with one another's lives. His reserve does not prevent dry humour or warmth, especially with Gary and Farrah, but he often responds to pain by making himself useful. That habit matures from avoiding grief through work into consciously using teaching to build something that outlasts loss. (Chapters 30, 37, 49, 487, 774, 860)

Magic and abilities

Swordsmanship and essence focus

Rufus is a sword specialist whose essence abilities are built around weapon technique, speed, and carefully sequenced special attacks. His known essence aspects include Sun and Moon, which he later explores conceptually through academic study. Unlike Farrah and Gary, he has no external-magic specialty or summon; his early description of himself as simply “good at stabbing” reflects a deliberate concentration on swordsmanship rather than a lack of magical sophistication. His effectiveness therefore depends heavily on technique, positioning, and access to a suitable blade. (Chapters 23, 38, 109, 984)

Most of Rufus's essence abilities are special attacks, a human tendency that complements his training. He feints, exposes blind spots, and chains attacks so each movement creates the opening for the next. This lets him contest opponents with greater raw speed and strength, but rank remains a hard limitation: against a high-silver enemy at bronze, perfect execution produces little damage and a single mistake ends the fight. His style is powerful because magic magnifies exceptional swordcraft, not because it replaces the need to read an enemy correctly. (Chapter 109)

Speed, mobility, and finishing attacks

Speed of Light is one of Rufus's strongest trump cards. It accelerates him until the world appears frozen, providing a brief window for multiple uncontested strikes. At bronze rank the effect lasts only a scant few seconds, and it does not solve problems of insufficient penetration: using it against the metal-grafted abomination tears away robes without breaching the protection beneath. The power is best used when Rufus has already identified a vulnerable point or can turn the fleeting advantage into a decisive sequence. (Chapters 109–110)

Moonlit Step and Flash Step are short-range teleports. Their limited reach makes them less suitable than a portal for long-distance travel, but extremely valuable for tactical repositioning and rescue. Rufus uses them to navigate buildings while they are actively collapsing, bypassing blocked passages without the delay of forcing a route. At higher ranks, his mobility also includes controlled movement through the air, silver light forming beneath his feet as he skates across open space. These tools keep a close-range fighter engaged but do not grant the mass evacuation capacity of a true portal specialist. (Chapters 660, 936)

Rufus also carries slow-burn affliction powers that load enemies with effects before empowering a finishing attack. The setup can produce enough force to eliminate even a silver-rank target in one strike, an exceptional result for a non-assassin, but the circumstances are demanding. He needs many lesser enemies on which to build afflictions, time for the effects to accumulate, and the freedom to move among the hostile force without being pinned down. Against a sudden duel or a sparse battlefield, the engine cannot reach its full output. (Chapter 665)

Training, perception, and teamwork

Rufus's most consequential ability is not a named power but the combat system he teaches. He combines meditation, combat trances, aura control, weapon fundamentals, and group tactics, using instruction both to expose weaknesses and consolidate mastery. He refines Farrah's Earth training programs, restructures the Asano Clan curriculum, and withholds higher-level techniques when political relations make unrestricted dissemination unsafe. His limits here are ethical and institutional rather than magical: effective training still requires willing students, sustained practice, and judgement about who should receive dangerous knowledge. (Chapters 49, 487, 853–854, 948, 967)

In a team, Rufus functions as a mobile striker who exploits the openings created by defenders and controllers. Gary's ability to halt powerful opponents gave Rufus room to cut them down, while Team Biscuit's control effects and tactical communication let him pick healers or accumulate afflictions without carrying the whole front line. He can operate independently, but his strongest outcomes come when disciplined coordination supplies the time and target access his sword-focused build needs. (Chapters 109, 602, 665, 936)

Power progression

Relationships

• Jason Asano: Jason rescues Rufus before he understands the world or its magic, prompting Rufus to become his first formal adventuring mentor. Their relationship develops into one of reciprocal correction: Rufus teaches technique and restraint, while Jason's instinctive courage forces Rufus to rethink what training is meant to produce. (Chapters 9–15, 37, 49, 638, 774)
• Farrah Hurin: Farrah is Rufus's teammate, intellectual counterweight, and one of his closest friends. Her apparent death shapes his commitment to constructive teaching; after her return, she trusts him to refine Jason's combat skills and later to carry their training reforms further than she could alone. (Chapters 23, 109–113, 581, 948)
• Gary: Gary's strength and defensive style complement Rufus's mobility and precision, but their bond extends far beyond combat. Gary's final sacrifice leaves Rufus angry and bereft; remembering him as a friend rather than only a hero helps Rufus turn grief toward mentorship instead of isolation. (Chapters 9–11, 109, 774, 845–860)
• Arabelle Remore: Rufus's mother is both family and a source of psychological insight for the wider group. Her understanding of adventurers helps frame the emotional costs Rufus tends to answer through work, while the Remore family's educational tradition gives him the institutional foundation for his own vocation. (Chapters 448, 487, 711)
• Emi Asano: Emi becomes Rufus's principal student on Earth. He takes her talent seriously without ignoring her age or her parents' authority, using her education as the starting point for a broader revision of Asano Clan training. (Chapters 845, 853–854)