F Grade Healer Becomes Strongest Biomancer-Chapter 43: Round Two

Mio

Mio kept stepping back.

The new swarm gained ground. Teeth snapping, nails swiping the air. Feral. Hungry. Dozens of them pouring in from the frozen escalators, stumbling over each other to reach her.

She let them come.

One lunged. She sidestepped. Another swiped at her face. She ducked. A third got close enough to scratch her arm—she kicked it back into the horde.

The blooms drifted around her, forty of them, maybe more, glowing softly in the dark atrium. Little green lanterns. Waiting.

They stepped into the vicinity. Then the first few stopped.

They weren’t stupid.

But the swarm already caught up.

Mio whispered it.

"Pon."

The first bloom detonated.

Then the next.

Then the next after that one.

White and green light ripped through the atrium. The chain reaction tore through the swarm—bodies shredded, limbs scattered, the chittering drowned out by the roar of rupturing life. The shockwave hit Mio’s chest like a drum.

[Level Up: 19]

[Level Up: 20]

[Level Up: 21]

Glass shattered somewhere above. A mannequin’s head rolled past her feet. The heat washed over her skin, and for a moment she couldn’t see anything but light.

When it faded, nothing was standing. Just ash and silence.

Then she pulled it all in.

[+12,408]

[+18,144]

[+9,776]

[Debt: -22,920 → 17,408]

Positive.

Green.

For the first time since Final Vigil, the number wasn’t trying to kill her.

Mio stood in the aftermath. Ash drifted down like snow. Her ears were ringing, hands shaking.

The debt was gone. Thirty thousand bloom that had been crushing her chest for days—gone.

She was smiling. Couldn’t help it.

"Huh."

Mori’s voice. Unimpressed.

"That’s your trick?"

Mio turned. Mori was still by the pillar, arms crossed. She hadn’t moved the entire time. Her airpod was back in.

"It worked, didn’t it?"

"Barely."

Before Mio could respond, the chittering started again. Louder this time. From above.

She looked up.

A wave. No—a tsunami. A flood. Husks pouring down from the upper floors like water breaking through a dam. Hundreds of them. The ceiling was black with bodies. Wall to wall. They crawled over each other, falling, tumbling, scrambling down pillars and escalators and storefronts. The sound was deafening.

[Hostiles: 397]

Mio raised Can.

Then Mori’s hand was on her shoulder, yanking her backward. Mio hit the ground, tailbone first. Her teeth clacked together.

"Hey—"

But Mori was already stepping forward.

Her eyes went quiet. The playful energy, gone. The smirk, gone. Even her posture changed—shoulders back, chin down.

Mio had seen this before. The assessment. The Bureau training room. Heat sealing under her heels until she thought her bones would melt.

This was the woman who’d almost killed her.

Mori raised her palm. Fingers spread. Casual, like she was waving goodbye.

Thermal energy gathered. Orange, then white, then blinding. The air crackled. The temperature spiked. Mio felt her skin tighten, her lips crack. She shielded her eyes.

[Eruption]

The wave hit an invisible wall—and evaporated.

The heat rolled over them in a crescent, swallowing everything in its path. Husks didn’t scream. They didn’t have time. They simply ceased, reduced to ash before they could touch the ground.

The fire curved upward, licking the frozen escalators, melting mannequins into puddles, scorching storefronts three floors up. The glass ceiling cracked. Then shattered. Shards rained down, glowing orange from the heat.

Two hundred Husks. Maybe more. Gone in three seconds. The air smelled like burning meat.

[Level Up: 22]

[Level Up: 23]

Mio stared at the charred bodies, or what was left of them.

That’s A-grade.

Two hundred thousand bloom. That was Mori’s value. And she’d just spent a fraction of it like pocket change.

Mio had leveled seven times today. She was still nothing compared to this.

The blooms were everywhere now. Drifting in the smoke like fireflies. Dozens. Hundreds. More than she’d ever seen in one place.

Mio got to her feet. Her tailbone ached. She didn’t care. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

She reached out and pulled.

[+8,496]

One by one.

[+12,288]

[+14,776]

Then altogether.

[+29,440]

[Reservoir: 82,408/287,500]

Eighty-two thousand.

She’d never held this much. Never even close. The hunger was purring now, satisfied for the first time in days.

Full. Content. Happy.

Finally, Mio-san.

She shook its thoughts away.

[Hostiles: 194]

The smoke was clearing. Upper floors still had movement—shapes crawling along railings, watching from shattered storefronts. The last of them.

"Engine’s such a cheat," Mori said. She was brushing ash off her sleeve. The airpod was out again. "Us regular delvers dream of this kind of potential."

"Sorry...?"

"Don’t get me wrong. You might actually survive me at half strength."

Mio rolled her shoulders. Her legs were steady. Her breathing was even. The stats hummed through her—seven new levels she hadn’t even processed yet.

She felt good, even standing this close to an A-grade.

Then Mori’s eyes darted behind her.

Her jaw tightened. Her hand moved toward Mio’s wrist.

"Don’t move."

Mio turned.

Two figures stood at the entrance.

One massive—tall and wide like a sumo wrestler, a gaping hole in its chest where the heart should be. Still smiling despite it. One thin, blindfolded, head tilted at an unnatural angle. Both etched with geometric lines that glowed faint against their skin. The same geometry as hers.

The sight of them made Can shake just the slightest, as if he knew what they were.

"There she is, Skinny." The fat one smiled. "The bigger sister."

"She’s not alone." The skinny girl’s voice was unamused. "Think she has the same powers as you do, Fatty."

The fat man’s head tilted, considering.

"Huh. You’re right."

"What’d you do, Mio?" Mori stepped forward. "Did you turn down a date or what? They seem obsessed with you."

"Huh?"

Mori took off her Bureau jacket. "It was a joke."

Then her hazel eyes went still. "They’d have to have gone through Shizuka-san."

"Who’s that?" Fatty chuckled.

Skinny cocked her head. "I think she means the humans outside the shimmer. What did we do again, Fatty?"

"Blew up the entire block."

Mio’s chest went cold.

Shizuka was Level 67. A Champion. One of the strongest people she’d ever met.

Gone?

"Fatty, you take the fire girl. Green eye’s all mine."

Skinny took off her blindfold. Folded it. Dropped it to the floor. Her eyes were glowing yellow.

"How about this, Mio." Mori cracked her knuckles. "Do good here and I’ll put in a good word for you with Segawa-san."

"What did they do to Shizuka—"

"That’s not important right now. They can regenerate." She finally spoke with authority. The teenage angst, the demeanor—gone. "Kill them until they can’t."

"R-right," Mio said.

She had to put both hands on the hilt to stop Can from shaking. He’d never done this before. Not even against the daemon.

"Focus, Mio. As your squad leader, lock the fuck in."

Mio tightened her grip on Can. She didn’t want to admit it, but her senses were flaring just the slightest. This was the real deal. Now wasn’t the time for grudges.

"Yes ma’am."