Damned Healer-Chapter 208: I Can’t Wait

The high-ranking officer took a deep breath and then spoke calmly:

"This year’s rookie tournament is gonna be different from every other one in the last century, but I can’t share the reasons just yet. The tournament itself won’t be the usual solo fights — it’s going to be team battles."

Everyone was surprised. Historically, the competition was never purely one-on-one — if it were, tanks would always come out on top, while supports would be dead last. It’d be dumb to compare rookies’ strength like that.

That’s why tournaments were always organized as battles between people of the same class, with four separate brackets running at the same time.

Mystics were grouped together with fighters. Even though mystics could act as tanks and had a bit of an advantage, they weren’t outstanding in that or any other role, since they weren’t specialized. In fact, in the whole history of the tournament, only once had a mystic ever beaten the fighters and taken the win.

"Each empire will send exactly ten people, split into two teams," the officer went on. "We’ve got 18 young talents here today. Eight of them will naturally be eliminated."

He gave a quick explanation of how the selection would work. To create two strong and balanced teams that could compete properly in the tournament, the selection would happen through individual battles by class, just like in past years.

Among the 18 rookies, there were four supports, four tanks, four fighters, four mages, and only two mystics — the twins.

So the selection would be individual matches across the four main classes, with the mystics included as part of the fighters. Each role would have two spots, and the fighters would get four — forming two teams of five people.

After the announcement, the officer began formally introducing all the rookies. It had to be done, since everything was being recorded and would be broadcast to the empire’s population in a few months.

This selection didn’t include every rookie from the last four years — only the ones the empire handpicked and kept under wraps because they were seen as promising talents. The rest would be shown off in a smaller internal tournament later on.

The twins were chosen because of their ancestral awakening. Darian, on the other hand, was a healing support — something no other empire had. As for Veyle, she’d been seen as promising but failed to reach three rings within four years. Still, since she’d joined that special mission and made it back with huge gains, she was automatically approved.

The officer called out each person’s name and clan as small drones flew around filming everyone up in the stands.

No surprise, the biggest group was made up of five participants from the Red River Pact clan — three men, one of them a tank and the other two fighters. One support woman and another tank. They all gave off the arrogance of people fully aware of their own power.

Then came a surprise — four rookies who didn’t belong to any of the top three clans. The officer announced the name of the empire’s newest clan, Shadows of Heaven, and then introduced Veyle, Darian, Lucy, and Lucius.

The Red River Pact members shot cold glares their way. The rest of the crowd just looked curious, interested to see what they could do.

What stood out the most was that none of them had three rings — actually, the twins only had one. But no one said anything. That wasn’t against the rules, and in several past tournaments, there had been monster-level talents with one or two rings who still managed to shine.

The average person never understood how that was even possible, but Darian got it now — those prodigies from the past had also gone through an ancestral awakening, just like Lucy and Lucius.

Even with fewer rings, they could still compete — though there was obviously a limit. Those geniuses never actually won a tournament, but they still placed well despite being technically weaker.

Since that kind of info was top secret, the people who knew a little also assumed Darian and Veyle were on that same level.

Soon after, the four members of the Temple Wardens clan were presented — three male mages and one female fighter.

After that came the reps from the Amazon Sentinels clan: Nayara, a fighter, and that guy from earlier who was a tank.

Then the officer introduced a couple. The woman was named Eleanor, a support. The man, Silas, was a tank. They weren’t part of any clan — technically mercenaries.

But... as soon as their names were spoken, a murderous vibe came off the five from Red River Pact. Niara could feel a kind of anxious energy in their eyes, like they could barely wait to move.

Darian snorted. All real talents usually ended up in one of the top three clans, since they got picked up fast after showing any promise. That reaction probably meant the couple had once been connected to — or even part of — Red River Pact. But something went down. Clearly, it didn’t end well.

Finally, the last person was introduced — another mercenary named Joseph, a support. But unlike the couple, he didn’t get any reaction from the Red River Pact people.

After all 18 participants were introduced, the officer spoke calmly:

"There’ll be one-on-one matches. Win twice, and you’re in. Lose twice, and you’re out. We’ll draw the first name, and that person will choose who in their same class they want to fight. After that, the winner has to challenge someone else from their class. If they win again, they’re in — and done fighting."

The high-ranking officer turned to the four from the Shadows of Heaven clan:

"Since you four are at a big disadvantage, to balance things out, you’ll be allowed to refuse battles if someone challenges you. Also, later on, you’ll be able to pick anyone to challenge, regardless of class. That person won’t be able to refuse."

Everyone nodded. It was actually a solid advantage. They could just sit back, let the others wear each other out, and then pick someone already tired or who had already lost once. Considering they had fewer rings, it wasn’t unfair at all.

"That’s all. Let’s draw the first name," the officer announced, then pressed a small device.

Up in the air, all the names appeared glowing with light. They started shuffling around until one of them locked in place:

"Support class, Joseph."

It was the support guy with no clan. He calmly walked toward the arena. Once on the martial platform, he stood with a confident look and declared:

"I challenge Amelia, from the Red River Pact clan."

Everyone was caught off guard by his choice. Besides Darian, Joseph had what looked like a much easier option: the mercenary, Eleanor.

Amelia scoffed and walked up to the stage.

The two exchanged cold looks. Amelia equipped a pair of combat gloves. Joseph pulled out two short daggers.

It wasn’t that rare for supports to learn how to fight for emergencies. Since their blessings had no offensive use, they needed something to actually attack with. Sometimes that meant just relying on artifacts, but ideally, they’d train some close-combat skills too.

"Begin," the officer called out quickly.

Without wasting time, Amelia was suddenly wrapped in a strong blue aura. Her blessing was a kind of buff that boosted allies through water element energy. She clashed her fists together, activating a feature in her gloves — ice formed around her fists.

Like everyone in the empire, she had the Star Physique, which made controlling elemental energy way easier. Her blessing, combined with the gloves that created ice, gave her some actual combat potential.

Of course, her whole strength depended on that artifact — and it probably wouldn’t last more than a few exchanges.

Joseph let out a growl, and the space around him twisted. Then, he basically vanished before everyone’s eyes.

His blessing was simple and pretty well-known: it gave an ally a buff that let them move through space and turn invisible for a few seconds.

Using it on himself was possible, but he still had to dash and fight with his own strength — which, as a support, he naturally didn’t have much of.

Amelia narrowed her eyes, scanning the area carefully.

*BANG!* freewēbnoveℓ.com

She struck, and a figure appeared just in time to block — then vanished again.

’How pathetic. They’re pretending to fight,’ Niara’s voice echoed in Darian’s mind.

He frowned slightly and glanced up at the older people in the stands. They all wore blank expressions, like they noticed the same thing — but just didn’t care.

He let out a dry snort. ’Great. People from this clan just love looking for trouble... well, I can’t wait to fuck them up.’