The Lone Healer-Chapter 202: The Healer’s Light, Part Nine
The next portion of the map was a vast, cozy-looking park where some odd, white trees stretched up, thin and tall.
Around them were paths of stone. A couple of which were being walked by some fallen angels.
Three enemies, this time. One dual-wielding spears, another carrying a massive ax, and an archer.
Level 74
MP: 450/450
Level 72
MP: 440/440
Level 72
MP: 450/450
[Three-on-three, huh?] Neve thought as she and Erin glanced at each other. [With how strong Erin is, it still can’t really be called a fair fight. How do we approach this?]
First things first, Neve ran through her usual setup, casting {Field of Brilliance} followed by {Encourage} and {Bolstering Presence}.
MP: 1175/1300
[If it’s not broken, why fix it?]
However, with three highly skilled enemies they’d need to take down, Neve made one addition to her prep. She cut her left palm open, allowing blood to roll down her staff, and then cast {Rorvan’s Spirit}.
MP: 1125/1300 (+75% regen)
It was as she cast this spell that the fallen angels finally noticed the approaching trio.
Neve only had a few seconds left to determine the rest of her plan.
Naturally, her eyes fell on the enemy archer, determining that if her side was able to get rid of the opponents’ only ranged option, this fight would be made several times easier.
[Hm... If I could get in front of that archer, I could just trade spells with it until the thing runs out of mana, and take it down like I did with the other one before. But, it’s staying behind its friends. Plus, it has room to fly away from me here, so it’s way harder to reach it.]
Neve’s eyes instead went onto the two close-range fighters.
[So, change in strategy. I’ll have to take one of these two down fast, and then team up against the archer with either Erin or Viscera. From there, this should be easy.]
Pointing at the dual-wielder, Neve ordered Viscera to engage that opponent. Erin nodded, perhaps being on the same page as Neve was, and took on the ax-user.
Neve wanted Erin to go up against the one with the ax so that the lamia could potentially make better use of her speed advantage.
Meanwhile, the enemies’ archer flew up into the air, getting above the battles happening below and putting its attention onto Neve.
"Tsk."
Clicking her tongue, Neve strafed toward Erin’s side of the fight, as the archer began to fire some of those homing arrows at her.
MP: 1100/1300
MP: 1075/1300
Using {Flash Shielding}, Neve blocked the attacks. The purpose of moving this way hadn’t been to dodge the arrows, as she planned on using {Flash Shielding} to protect herself anyway. the purpose was to get close enough to Erin’s side of the fight to where Neve could then take aim at her opponent.
MP: 1065/1300
MP: 1055/1300
Neve cast {Fireball} twice. One of the spells crashed into the enemy’s body from the side, covering it in flames and scorching it. The second missed, however, as the enemy turned toward Neve, to avoid her abilities.
Which, of course, was a big mistake on its part, given that it had just decided to ignore an enemy who was, effectively, around level 90 or so.
Erin dashed in, moving behind it before the angel could react.
The lamia dug her claws into the angel’s back, proceeding to rip out its spinal cord in one gruesome move.
EXP Gained: 140
EXP: 510/720
WST Gained: 500
WST: 74000
Erin tossed the enemy’s body aside, then, before the two of them set their eyes on the archer in the air, who was currently firing at them.
MP: 1030/1300
As Neve spent a bit more mana to block more arrows, Erin asked:
"Neve, can you shoot some of those fireballs above it?"
Immediately, Neve understood what Erin was trying to get out of her.
[Force it to move down to avoid my spells, so Erin can jump up and reach it. Yeah, I get it.]
Neve nodded and then aimed a blood-soaked staff in the archer’s direction.
MP: 1020/1300
MP: 1010/1300
MP: 1000/1300
Neve began trying to execute on Erin’s idea, aiming her {Fireballs} at the opponent’s head.
None of her spells landed, but her attacks had the intended effect, driving the monster to descend to avoid Neve’s magic.
Once she was low enough, Erin activated {The Lamia’s Hunt}, bent her body, and then leaped into the air.
She didn’t get enough height to land a solid hit, but, she did get close enough to use {Freezing Gaze}.
The archer, who’d been staring back at Erin as the lamia jumped, froze in the middle of the air.
As soon as she saw that, Neve spammed {Fireball}, casting the ability until the archer was nothing but ashes.
EXP Gained: 140
EXP: 650/720
WST Gained: 500
WST: 74500
MP: 960/1300
With two of their three enemies down and out, all that was left was the one Viscera was engaging.
Looking over at that side of the field, Neve saw that her battle was not going anywhere near as well as theirs had.
Both Viscera and the dual-wielder were injured. Scratches, cuts, and a few shallow stab wounds were on display all throughout their bodies.
One would not be able to notice that from their expressions alone, though. No, both opponents maintained the same emotionless, stoic faces as they aimed their weapons at each other.
Neve and Erin began moving toward them.
The two enemies began an exchange as the others approached. Viscera parried a pair of quick thrusts, using the shaft of her spear to push her opponent’s weapons away before she tried to retaliate with thrusts of her own, only to have them blocked just as easily.
Neve and her summon arrived, however, before any other injuries could be applied.
The lamia went behind the enemy and grabbed his head. Neve went in from the side and landed a stab with her sword, applying some Bleeding. Viscera seized the opportunity, stabbing the man through the chest.
And, finally, Erin finished the fight by yanking up, taking the enemy’s head off.
EXP Gained: 200
EXP: 850/720
Level Up!
WST Gained: 750
WST: 75250
Breathing a sigh of relief, Neve re-summoned Erin just as the lamia disappeared on her own.
As she reappeared, Erin’s eyes moved to Viscera, scanning her.
Neve did the same and grimaced. Her charmed ally was not exactly in the best condition.
[I can’t heal her, though, so... I don’t know what to do.]
"You watched a little bit of that fight as it was happening, right?" Erin suddenly asked Neve.
"Yeah. What about it?"
"These warriors are good. Damn good," Erin replied. "I do not believe we would have lasted long in this place if we didn’t have the advantages that we do."
[Yeah,] Neve thought as she looked over at Viscera and found her looking back with those unique heart eyes of hers. [As shitty as this whole journey’s been, I can’t deny that we have gotten lucky at times. This floor could have been a lot worse if things had gone differently.]
At the same time, the fact that every enemy here was so skilled made Neve wonder how much time The Final Challenge was actually supposed to take.
[Were we expected to arrive when our own skills were around 90 or 100? That would take years, probably. I don’t know.]
After looting the bodies, and finding nothing but the enemies’ weapons, the girls began to do the only thing they could and walked forward.
Only to be stopped by a voice that spoke behind them.
"Aphria... Help us..."
Neve froze.
She turned around, finding the first enemy, the one whose spinal cord Erin had extracted, speaking through a mouth filled with blood.
[What?]
The enemy did not say another word, however, before taking its last breath.
Erin, who had kept going, then called out:
"Neve, take a look at this."
With her attention pulled from one thing to another so harshly she almost got whiplash, Neve turned to find Erin standing before a statue.
One depicting the very woman whose name had just been so ominously uttered.
The image standing proudly in front of the trio portrayed an Aphria who looked quite a bit different from the one Neve had met. One that was confident and joyous as she took the head off some indistinct monster with two swords. A violent display but clearly one that was a source of pride for the community that lived here.
Right behind the statue was, predictably, another golden barrier.
"It would seem our camp’s guest is more important than we thought," Erin remarked. "Unless it’s common in this world to dedicate statues to regular people."
Indeed, Neve’s mind was treading the same path as Erin’s.
She’d guessed that the woman was someone of importance, but, now, between this statue and that warrior’s dying words being a request for help from her, Neve found herself morbidly curious.
Plus, due to that barrier, they needed Aphria to come here regardless.
"... Let’s head back," Neve said. "I wanna see if she has anything new to say."
