197: The Healer's Light, Part Four

The Healer's Light, Part Four

Aphria led Neve and Erin down the golden path they'd taken previously. 

The lamia shot a couple of slightly concerned looks Neve's way on occasion due to how silent Aphria was being, but she largely ignored them. 

Mostly, Neve was just happy to be out of those rags and back in her Angel Set. Now, she was keeping her hands on her weapons, ready for anything that might happen. 

Aphria stopped just before reaching the door that would have taken Neve and Erin to the next fight. Here, she turned around, with her hands on her hips. 

"This hall will lead you into the Golden Keep, after a while, from which you can access the palace, if the gods are telling you that you need to go there, which I imagine they are. This way is heavily defended, however. You will find many, many more enemies just like the ones you faced here, if you take this path. If you want, however, you can take that path above," she said, pointing at a catwalk leading to the west that neither Neve nor Erin had spotted.

A corridor that was clearly inaccessible without being able to fly. 

[Of course. Come to think of it, it might not have been that we didn't notice this catwalk, but that it literally wasn't there until Aphria agreed to show us around.] 

"This path circles around the keep, leading into the palace as well, but will present its own obstacles. There are a great many traps we'd placed throughout this place, in hopes of stalling out the otherworldly invasion. You can expect fewer enemies that way, however. So, unless you are truly confident in your abilities, I would suggest you go through there." 

"Sounds good," Neve said. Erin simply shrugged. 

"Alright. Come." 

Aphria put her hands out, gesturing for Neve and her summon to grab them. Once they did, she flew up to that catwalk and dropped them there. 

"I'm heading back to the camp, for now. I'll come back once I figure you've done all the fighting you're going to do. Like I said, I don't want to see those monsters again, so I'm leaving," Aphria unceremoniously announced. Before she did so, however, she flew in close and leaned in, whispering into Neve's ear, "try not to die. I do wish to see just how grateful you are, later." 

Leaving Neve stunned, the woman flew away like a passing storm. 

Erin chuckled. 

"The purpose of whispering is, unfortunately, defeated when you have senses like mine. Not that her voice was all too quiet anyway," Erin said. "So, you did seduce her?" 

"Not entirely..." Neve replied, looking away. "I, uh, had basically convinced her already. That was just- what?" 

"So, you seduced her." 

"That's not really... Fuck you," Neve muttered as she saw Erin's smirk. 

"Hehehe, hey, far be it for me to judge a lady for utilizing her charms. I just didn't think you had it in you." 

"I don't. The outfit I was wearing made it possible." 

"Right, right. Would it make sense for an archer to compliment her bow for landing a bullseye?" 

"Let's just keep going," Neve responded, feeling tired all of a sudden. 

"Understood~" 

Erin went ahead first since Aphria had told them there would be traps in this place. 

The catwalk became more and more narrow until a silver door finally brought them out to the roof of this massive building. From here, Neve looked to the right and saw a couple of enemies waiting patiently for players to enter the conventional way. 

Neve and her summon remained silent, as they walked through the area on their way to a second catwalk they could drop down onto. This one took them behind the second room they would have fought in, leading to a room that was pitch-black. 

Erin went in first. Once she was inside, and figured that there was no danger, she signaled for Neve to go in after her. 

The dangers inside waited until the healer had done so to present themselves. 

Two figures appeared in the darkness, manifesting from red portals that popped up in the ground. 

The doorway Neve and Erin had passed through to get here became walled off by a black barrier, which, incidentally, cut off the only source of light in the room. 

One of the enemies was a female archer, the other was a man dual-wielding spears. Both of them looked like the corrupted warriors Neve and Erin had fought before, with ashen grey skin, horns on their heads, and black wings. 

Level 73

MP: 440/440

Level 75

MP: 500/500

Neve pulled back at the sight of those numbers. 

[A duo miniboss fight??? Already!?] Neve sighed. [Fighting two minibosses in the dark, in a cramped room, with their skills being high as hell. Yeah, this definitely has "final level difficulty" written all over it.] 

Because the space was so cramped, Erin was able to dash forward and get the enemies' attention while Neve went to prepare both herself and her summon for this battle. 

First, she cast {Field of Brilliance} to get the most out of her spells. Then, she cast {Candlelight}, {Encourage}, and {Bolstering Presence} back to back. 

MP: 1165/1300

{Candlelight} rendered the whole "fighting in the dark" challenge irrelevant, while {Encourage} and {Bolstering Presence} allowed Erin to get away with only being hit two times, once by an arrow to her left shoulder and once by a stab thrust to her abdomen, before being able to contend with both enemies. 

Neve healed her summon up and then strafed around her to try landing {Fireball} on the archer. 

MP: 1145/1300

The archer saw Neve and moved to the corner of the room, dodging away from the spheres of flame and accepting the healer's informal request for a separate duel. 

With them positioning themselves away from the two melee fighters, they began trading spells. 

Yes, spells.

[What kind of archers are these!? Can human archers do this stuff too?] 

The woman pulled back an arrow just as Neve launched a couple of {Fireballs}. The arrow she launched transformed into a barrier in mid-air, protecting her. The archer then launched another arrow that transformed into a beam of light, like a divine lightning bolt. Death flashed before Neve's eyes, but the healer used {Flash Shielding} to make her own barrier. 

Firing three arrows at once, the archer tried to deal with Neve through the somewhat admirable method of trying to break through her defenses with brute force, with the three arrows turning into three golden lightning bolts each. 

If Neve wasn't using her Angel Set, maybe the corrupted archer would have been able to do so, but the outfit the healer was currently wearing made it so that was no concern to her. 

Still, with the archer having a barrier of her own, Neve wondered how much mana she'd have to spend to get to her. 

[... There is one thing I wanted to try... Would now really be the best time for it, though?] 

Neve shook her head. 

[No, not yet.] 

Looking over to the right, she found Erin and her opponent sizing each other up. Both of them were covered in wounds, though the spearman was clearly losing. 

[Hm... If this works, it would win the entire fight in an instant. Plus, there's less of a chance that I'd get myself killed trying this with the archer than there would be if I did this with any other types of enemies. But, I need to create an opportunity.]

Neve raised her staff. 

[Yeah, it's worth it to spend at least a little mana to try it out.] 

Neve re-summoned Erin before the lamia's timer could expire, healing her body in its entirety at the same time. 

Then, Neve cast {Fireball} at the archer, in a rapid-fire manner. 

The archer responded in kind by shooting out one barrier-making arrow at a time.  2

Spheres of flame flew through the room, crashing into magical shields, over and over again, until one fact came into play. 

The archer had 440 mana in total. 

Neve had 1300. 

Eventually, the spheres crashed into the archer, setting her body on fire. 

[20% max HP damage. One... Two... Three... This should be enough. But, I'll throw one more in for good measure.] 

With the archer being hit by 4 straight {Fireballs}, Neve finally put her plan into motion. 

She needed to act fast. 

Opening her Inventory, Neve swapped out her Angel Set for the Bloodstained Rags. 

She wanted to try out the second effect the outfit had gained after its enhancement. 

Ignoring how terribly cold she felt as soon as she threw the outfit on, Neve dashed forward. 

The archer had the reflexes to react but was so wounded that she could barely move. That allowed Neve to put her theory to the test. 

[Loving gestures, huh? Thank God this monster doesn't look... *that* gross.] 

Setting aside her reservations, in the interest of science, Neve planted a kiss on the fallen angel's lips. 

The archer pulled back but hadn't been able to keep the contact from happening. 

A heart briefly appeared over her head. 

Straightening her posture, Neve watched as the archer became friendly in real time. 

[Okay... Now...] 

A simple glance and a thought was all it took to get the archer to shoot down her ally. 

The spearman hadn't seen the arrow coming, and so, it ended up being an instant kill shot aimed at his head. 

EXP Gained: 150

EXP: 490/710

WST Gained: 500

WST: 71500

Neve flinched. 

The archer finished killing her friend and then turned back toward Neve, with heart-shaped pupils in her eyes, waiting for the next order. 

[Oh,] Neve thought. [It worked.] 

pqdm.com