The Lone Healer-Chapter 64: The Hall of the Luminous, Part Twenty-Nine

With Neve’s mana fully regenerated, she killed off the last enemy and quickly went to manage her Attribute Points. As she decided before, everything from this point on was going toward her Arcane.

Level 63

MP: 660/660 (+300)

EXP: 340/630

AP: 1690

WS Tokens: 16510

---

Endurance: 30

Speed: 40

Precision: 30

Strength: 31

Arcane: 66

As the next wave began, Neve summoned Erin and prepared herself.

MP: 660/960

"Here," Neve said, before giving Erin two potions. One of Bloodlust and one of Medium Agility. "Might help a little with the power gap."

"Right."

In continuation with the theme of human enemies, the next wave was composed of just two opponents.

Two level 66 spear-wielding knights. One with a blue feather sticking up from its helm and the other with a red one.

Level 66

MP: 100/100

Level 66

MP: 100/100

Unlike the knights before them, however, as these two appeared, they used some sort of spell and flames burst up from their hands, coating the blades of their polearms in fire. Their mana went down by 50 each.

[A buff to increase their damage. It might be a safe assumption then that this is to account for most of their points being invested in Endurance, Precision, and Speed. Considering that it’s just two of them, it’s probably safe to assume their skills are going to be higher than the other knights too.]

"Erin," Neve said, as the spear knights postured up ahead. They did not seem anywhere near as eager to attack as any of the other creatures they’d encountered so far had been. "These things might not be as strong as the other knights, but probably better with their weapons. If you want, you can try waiting out the fire on their spears before you attack."

"You are a healer, are you not?"

Neve blinked.

That question came so suddenly that it caught Neve off-guard.

"Yes. Why?"

"... If these things are more skilled than the previous enemies, there’s a real chance they will be more skilled than I am. In that case, perhaps you could, I don’t know, heal me through this? Is that an option?"

She said all of this through gritted teeth, as though the mere suggestion that she wasn’t infinitely superior to her opponents this time hurt to say out loud.

Understanding that she was likely swallowing her pride for this plan, Neve wanted to honor that effort.

"I can," she replied.

"Then... Let’s go with that idea."

With 15 seconds having passed since Erin was summoned, the lamia finally moved to attack.

Neve cast {Sacred Ground} a short distance up ahead, where she expected the fight to take place.

MP: 610/960

Erin, seeing the magical rune drawn on the ground, placed herself in that spot as she began trading blows with both enemies.

The fact that she was a dual-wielder perhaps made it marginally easier to handle multiple attackers, but even Neve could see that these opponents were slowly overwhelming her.

One of them, the blue-feathered one, composed and patient, waited for its ally to engage Erin. The second knight attacked with a flurry of rapid thrusts, each individual strike aimed at different parts of the lamia’s torso. She parried the blows but was then forced to contend with the first knight, who joined as the pressure from the second knight mounted.

Neve circled around them and decided to use {Iceball} on one knight and {Waterball} on the other. The idea she had was to slow down one of the opponents enough to make the battle essentially a one-on-one, while the faster opponent that Erin would then focus on would be sloppier with its moves, hopefully leading to more mistakes Erin could exploit.

She sent out six spells, three at each knight.

MP: 550/960

One missed as the blue-feathered knight noticed Neve’s actions and dodged the sixth spell, but the other 5 all landed.

One enemy, the blue-feathered knight, was wrapped in cold winds, while the other was noticeably less accurate with its thrusts.

These were still high-level enemies, however. So, one stab from the red-feathered knight, even while debuffed, finally hit its mark.

"Agh!" Erin was impaled through the abdomen.

Neve’s eyes widened as she saw the blue-feathered knight dash forward, looking to end Erin then and there.

Four quick casts of {Great Healing Dart}, however, stopped that from happening.

MP: 510/960

As Erin was healed back up all of a sudden, she turned the blue-feathered knight’s aggression against it.

Parrying its incoming stab, Erin thrust one of her swords into the space between the knight’s helm and its chest plate. The knight fell to the ground and the red-feathered knight backed off, not wanting the same thing to happen to it. As it did, the fire on its spear faded away.

[Good, good,] Neve thought. [Some patience is all we need to make it through these first few fights.]

As Neve kept track of Erin’s timer in the back of her mind, she guessed that it was about to run out.

To prepare for that, she cast {Rorvan’s Spirit} and asked Erin:

"Erin, cut my wrist open."

It was an order so, instantly, Erin slithered away from her opponent and walked up to Neve, slashing down her left wrist. Blood quickly began trickling down onto the stone, and the spell she’d just cast was empowered.

MP: 460/960 (+80% regen)

Inhaling slowly, Neve calmed herself down as she looked at that and Erin disappeared.

[The regen is higher than when I asked Erin to stab me. It must be because I’m bleeding out at a fast rate.]

She resummoned Erin and checked again after a couple of seconds.

MP: 170/960 (+90% regen)

[Yep... Wow, that’s scary.] Taking slow breaths, she stepped back as Erin re-engaged the red-feathered knight. [I need to start healing myself soon because the blood loss might actually just end up making me pass out way before I actually die.]

With this in mind, Neve cast {Great Healing Dart} once on herself. This spell was meant to be spammed so the effect of one cast was only enough to keep her from outright passing out and dying.

Ahead, Erin was stabbed again, but Neve healed her through it once more.

With the knight’s spear stuck inside her body, Erin let go of one of her swords so she could grab the polearm.

With it, looking into the knight’s dark eyes, Erin cast {Freezing Gaze}. The knight was paralyzed and rendered unable to protect itself from the series of stabs that followed.

"Don’t kill it," Neve called out, "the other guy died already. Leave this one alive."

Without waiting for Neve’s mana to fully regenerate between waves, there was no chance of surviving from this point on.

Erin left the knight heavily wounded and soon disappeared, as Neve maintained herself in that slowly bleeding state until her mana was full once more.

---

Level 66

MP: 750/750 (+300)

EXP: 20/660

AP: 1690

WS Tokens: 18710

---

Endurance: 30

Speed: 40

Precision: 30

Strength: 31

Arcane: 75

As a fully-healed Neve began Wave 23, she nodded to herself, scanning those stats.

[So far, so good. Just take things slow.]

As per usual, Neve summoned Erin at the same time as the enemies appeared.

"Drink these," Neve ordered Erin, throwing one potion of Bloodlust and one of Medium Agility her way.

She drank one of Medium Agility herself, figuring that she was probably going to have to be more active soon. This left just one potion remaining, one more Potion of Bloodlust.

Three enemies once again. All level 69.

Two spear users, with the same feathers on their helmets, and one enemy they hadn’t seen so far.

A giant, bulky mess of grey flesh, holding two whips in its hands. It wasn’t wearing any armor, waddling forward with just a pair of red pants, but Neve guessed that based on its size alone, its Endurance had to be quite high.

[Erin was barely able to deal with the pressure from the last set of enemies. So, with three of them... Yeah, it’s time to put my running shoes on again.]

And so, Neve cast several spells in rapid succession.

One cast of {Sacred Ground} just ahead of Erin, four casts of {Iceball} aimed at both spear knights, and four casts of {Waterball} aimed at the whip-holding human blob between them.

MP: 620/1050

"I’ll distract one of them. Good luck!" Neve said before running forward alongside Erin.

The move caught her summon off-guard but she didn’t bother telling Neve not to do that. She knew how dangerous fighting all three opponents at once would be.

So, Neve caught the attention of the blue-feathered spear knight and pulled him away from the others, casting {Iceball} at it twice to anger it.

Running back to the altar, Neve wasn’t able to spectate much of Erin’s fight from that point. She was going to be busy enough dodging this guy’s attacks.

The blue-feathered knight, though it clearly understood that Neve wasn’t the warrior Erin was by the way it recklessly began attacking, still seemed like it didn’t want to underestimate Neve. It hesitated between attacks, watching out for any potential tricks Neve could throw at it.

[These things have personalities,] Neve understood then. [Or tendencies, at least. This guy is way more methodical than the red knight. It’s probably-]

As she was having those thoughts, the knight dashed in before she could react.

It was all she could do to slightly lean to the side and avoid a fatal blow to the heart, but she was stabbed through her left shoulder.

[Crap!]

Casting {Waterball} at the monster from point blank range, she hit it three times before the knight pulled its spear out and went in for the kill.

What happened next may not have been possible if Neve hadn’t used that Potion of Medium Agility. She may have been killed before she managed to get the casts off.

She quickly cast {Equivalent Exchange}, selecting herself and then the knight.

As it went to stab her in the throat, she activated the ability.

Unfortunately, though, {Equivalent Exchange} was not an ability that prevented damage. It just healed it in a way that damaged the enemy as well.

Meaning that Neve still felt that spear go through her throat.

"Gggh!"

It was one of the worst things she’d ever felt. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t scream either, with the blade stuck in her throat.

But, she didn’t die, as the knight ripped its spear out and the wound slowly replicated itself in the spear knight.

Both of them hit the ground. As the seconds passed, Neve gasped for air, with her throat having been repaired enough to breathe again.

"Holy shit," she said with a scratchy voice, just barely getting the words past a mouth full of blood. "Holy fuck."

Erin then slithered into view, observing the dying knight in front of Neve.

Judging by the fact that she was here, Neve guessed she’d somehow managed to kill the other opponents. How she did it, Neve had no clue, of course. She’d been busy getting stabbed.

As indicated by Erin’s missing left arm, though, she hadn’t gotten through her fight unscathed.

"Well..." Erin said quietly. "I’d be lying if I said it seemed like our odds of survival are good if the next enemies are to be even stronger than these."

Before Neve could respond, she disappeared.

The gurgling from the knight laid out in front of Neve, as both their bodies’ blood pooled together and soaked Neve’s hair, let her know she’d have at least a few seconds before wave 24.

Which was wonderful. She needed every bit of mana she could get.