[Olm]

I have never seen an explicit ask for help, perhaps didn't look carefully enough. Even being far away I could have probably done something, at least against T'ien Chi.

I don't recall the son of Niefel exactly, but I know that I felt the urge to cloud trapeze some mages in and blast him away with lightning bolts. That was when I figured I hadn't researched cloud trapeze yet.
He really needs some resistances.
But then SC status depends somewhat on the opposition he faces. So probably you are right, he was a SC under the circumstances.