The Lone Healer-Chapter 58: The Hall of the Luminous, Part Twenty-Three

{Wave 16}

[A lot of this is going to be on my shoulders,] Neve thought. Her arms trembled slightly as she breathed out. [I need to perform well.]

She looked at Erin’s new stats one more time, as the first wave materialized at the back of the temple.

Erin Leynall

Level 50

MP: 100/100

EXP: N/A

Activity Points: N/A

WS Tokens: N/A

---

Endurance: 35

Speed: 40

Precision: 50

Strength: 40

Arcane: 10

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Spells:

Freezing Gaze - 50MP

{Paralyzes an enemy for 3 seconds}

The Lamia’s Hunt - 50MP

{Increases Movement Speed for 10 seconds}

---

Techniques:

Rorvan’s Flurry

{Cooldown: 30 seconds}

{Skill Req: Dual Wielding - 50}

{Become a whirlwind of steel. Attack all nearby foes with a series of slashes, dealing more damage with each hit that lands. The technique ends with the first miss}

The power Erin had gained from the grinding they’d done didn’t exactly allow for new strategies, but Neve still tried to think about how they should approach these coming fights. Mainly because what did change things this time was the strength of the enemies going forward, and Neve needed to account for that.

"Erin, if you feel like you can’t kill the enemies under the minute you have, then just soften them up enough for me to take them out, alright?"

"I’ll try," Erin replied.

[That’s good enough for me,] Neve thought.

Going over her own spells, now that she possessed an alternative to {Healing Ground}, one that required considerably more skill to be used, Neve felt like she was truly going to be tested as a healer. If Erin were killed during the middle of a fight, Neve would have to resummon her, wasting precious mana she could use later.

And, if she couldn’t resummon her, she’d probably just die.

[Timing, positioning, kiting... The fundamentals haven’t changed. Just cause you have some new toys to work with doesn’t mean you can forget any of this stuff.]

Four figures appeared.

All enemies were level 48, matching Neve’s own current level.

Two of them almost looked like red pterodactyls. The draconic birds began flying across the temple while their allies, two drakes, screeched.

[The last 2 sets only spawned enemies from certain locations, though I couldn’t tell what location exactly the last one was supposed to represent. Are these 5 waves going to be dragon-type enemies?]

If that was the case, then Erin needed to hear something important before she started fighting.

"Erin, aim for their undersides, their eyes, and their heads. Those are their weak points!"

The lamia nodded and slithered forward, holding her swords out.

The birds ignored her, though, and went straight for Neve.

[What?]

They started breathing fire in her direction, flanking her from above.

[Shit!]

Neve turned and ran across the temple, nearly slipping and falling.

And so, the fight split into two sides.

Neve’s side, which consisted of her running away from fire-breathing pterodactyls, and Erin’s side, which Neve could not spectate like this.

One of those birds tried to cut Neve off, flying ahead of her and breathing flames in front of the healer, almost forming a wall of fire. Neve halted and nearly got roasted by the bird behind her, avoiding a stream of fire narrowly as she jumped to the side.

[These things are smarter than the other enemies we’ve fought up until now. Dammit!]

Casting {Waterball} at them as she ran away, the sounds of roars and blades slicing through flesh reached Neve’s ears.

MP: 870/900

She snuck a single glance at Erin to see how the lamia was doing before she kept running.

20 seconds had passed and the summon hadn’t managed to kill either of the drakes. Although the drakes had cuts on them, it was clear that Erin was struggling to get as many slashes as she needed. Neve saw Erin slithering up to try landing a blow only to be prevented from doing so by her target’s ally, getting pushed away.

[... This is already a little too tough,] Neve thought. [We won’t get anywhere with the two of us split up like this.]

Neve ran toward Erin, then.

"Erin, the birds!"

The lamia looked back, her eyes widening as she saw Neve run at her.

Both of the drakes the lamia had been fighting saw an opportunity and opened their mouths to breathe flames at her.

Neve stood between them and raised her staff, using one of the spells Kelvon had taught her over the last week. It was the spell Kelvon had used to prevent Neve from being burned when they first met.

Barrier - 50MP

{Erects a barrier of pure mana that defends against spells and magical Techniques. The amount of damage the Barrier can defend against is determined by the user’s Utility Magic skill}

Although it wasn’t a healing spell, it was still an ability the Priestess class could use. And, Neve was thankful for that because without this spell all that would have happened is that she and Erin would have gotten burned to crisps right now.

MP: 820/900

As the barrier did its job, Erin took her blades and threw them at the birds while they tried to catch up.

They failed to dodge the incoming swords. Skewered, the birds were shot right out of the sky as the barrier Neve was casting finally broke.

"Crap!"

She couldn’t do much else but cast {Healing Ground} and {Sacred Ground} back to back, directly beneath her and the lamia.

MP: 745/900

Neve closed her eyes, hoping the burn wouldn’t hurt too much.

A pair of arms wrapped themselves around her.

[Huh?]

As she opened her eyes, she found that Erin had grabbed her and shielded the mage with her own body.

Looking up at her face, she was clearly in pain, but her hold on Neve didn’t let up.

[Did she do this on her own? Or, did her instincts as a summon make her save me like this?]

As soon as the drakes’ flames disappeared, Erin let go. She slithered to the weapons she’d thrown out, as the drakes went to attack Neve who the lamia had left alone.

"Wait, wait!" Neve scurried back, casting {Iceball} at both creatures.

MP: 725/900

Before the two spells she cast even hit the monsters, Erin was back, dashing at them. Covered in a red aura that signaled she’d activated {The Lamia’s Hunt}, the warrior cast {Freezing Gaze} at the same time.

Both drakes were briefly paralyzed, but that was enough.

Finally, Erin used her new Technique, {Rorvan’s Flurry}.

See, the interesting thing about that Technique was that it would only end when an attack failed to land.

But, that wasn’t really a concern if neither enemy could move.

Neve flinched as Erin began slashing in all directions. Turning into what could only be described as a rolling ball of swords, the lamia struck her opponents at a rate that was so fast Neve couldn’t catch every individual strike no matter how hard she tried.

Dozens of tiny cuts and wounds accumulated on the drakes, at the specific locations Neve had called out earlier. All while the drakes just stood there, powerless to do anything about it.

It wasn’t until the spell faded away and both of them screeched loudly, pulling back in a hurry, that Erin finally missed a swing and the Technique ended.

[Holy fuck,] Neve thought, as fresh blood dripped from Erin’s blades onto the stone beneath her.

Before either enemy could counterattack, Erin ran up and stabbed through one’s head, from below. She ripped her sword out and the drake fell to the ground, dead.

She began moving toward the other one.

[Wait, what am I doing? Stop staring and help!]

Casting {Iceball} at the drake to slow it down, Neve tried to make Erin’s job a little easier.

She landed three well-placed swipes aimed at the drake’s limbs, before moving to stab it in the same way she’d done with its previous ally.

[Wait... Wait!]

"Hold on!" Neve called out.

Erin froze.

The lamia looked back, puzzled.

"Leave it alive."

She was even more confused to hear that. It was an order, though, so even if she wanted to, Erin couldn’t go against that instruction.

A couple of seconds passed and the lamia disappeared, leaving Neve alone with a heavily wounded enemy.

One that was struggling to even remain on its feet.

Sighing, Neve nodded to herself.

"Sorry, dude," she said to the drake as she walked back to the altar and sat down on the steps leading to it. The drake tried to chase her but was barely able to move, let alone keep up. "I need to regen some mana. Hope you understand."

Almost like it was frustrated with the current situation, the drake roared at her. It tried to breathe some fire at her, but the flames didn’t even reach halfway to Neve’s position.

"Yeah, yeah. I’ll finish you off in a bit."

Letting her head rest against the altar, Neve went over the fight in her thoughts.

[I got caught off-guard by how smart the birds were. Though the drakes were just normal monsters, the birds felt like they kinda knew what they were doing up until they flew straight into two swords. Are the enemies actually going to start strategizing? More than just basic ranged and melee formations? That’s annoying to think about.]

In addition to the impatient roaring of a drake that just wanted to get killed already, Neve found a {Level Up!} message over her head.

She’d get to it in a moment, though.

It was inevitable that she would be here for a while, after all. She had time.