I’ll Heal While I Fight!
6: A Berserker?
I’ll Heal While I Fight!
Chapter 6: A Berserker?
I’ll Heal While I Fight!
The afterglow of the setting sun had not yet completely faded.
Celeste sat cross-legged on the floor of her room, her breathing even and deep.
After a moment, she slowly opened her eyes.
Several hours of focused adaptation had allowed the sense of weightlessness and the heightened casting speed from the Wind God’s Blessing to fully integrate into her combat instincts.
It was no longer a conscious buff but a natural part of her movements.
This newfound fluidity gave her a sliver more confidence for the upcoming public execution—no, the battle.
‘A Monk…
no, a Battle Sister!’ She whispered the self-devised class name to herself, a flicker of manic excitement dancing in the depths of her eyes.
The thought of what she was about to do was both terrifying and thrilling.
The next morning, the Yi City Central Arena was a roaring cauldron of noise.
The atmosphere was even more electric than during the first round of the tournament.
Every competitor who had made it this far was an elite from their respective school, and the crowd knew they were in for a spectacle.
Standing in the waiting area, Celeste could feel the weight of countless gazes on her, easily ten times the number from yesterday.
If the looks she received in the first match were akin to watching a lost little rabbit wander into a wolf pack, the stares she got now were entirely different.
They were filled with sharp scrutiny, burning curiosity, and the predatory interest of an audience eager for a good show.
“Area A, Ring Two: Celeste versus Wang Meng!” the arena’s optical computer announced, its synthesized voice echoing through the hall.
Wang Meng?
Celeste raised an eyebrow.
She was quite… “familiar” with that name.
As she stepped onto the stone ring, she found herself facing a mountain of a man.
He stood nearly two meters tall, with muscles bulging so intensely they seemed to strain the plates of his heavy armor.
A hideously shaped double-edged battle-axe was slung over his shoulder, its polished surface reflecting the stinging morning sunlight.
The profession panel hovering above him was clear: [Wang Meng – Berserker Lv.22].
Level 22.
Among the graduating students, this placed him at the absolute peak of the pyramid.
In the audience, several students from Second High School looked at their representative with undisguised awe.
Although the Berserker had a notoriously foul mouth, his strength was the real deal.
Wang Meng looked down at Celeste, his chin tilted at an angle of pure arrogance.
“Yo, isn’t this the Priest who beat down that piece of trash, Li Yue?” His voice boomed across the ring, laced with undisguised contempt.
“I heard you whack people with a staff?
Cute.
Those fancy tricks are only good for bullying low-level scrubs like him.” His tone then shifted, taking on the air of a superior granting a subordinate a rare favor.
“But I’ll admit you’ve got some skill.
How about it?
Join my team.
A main DPS like me is the only one worthy of a support like you.” Off-stage, his lackeys immediately began to nod and voice their agreement, though a flicker of surprise they couldn’t quite hide crossed their faces.
‘Brother Meng… why is he being so polite all of a sudden?’ Below the stage, the more keen-eyed members of the audience also noticed something was off.
“Strange.
Did Wang Meng have a personality transplant?
He hasn’t sworn once.” “It is a bit weird.
He’s still an arrogant ass, but his choice of words is way more restrained than usual.” “Maybe it’s because his opponent is a girl?” “Since when has he ever been polite to girls?
The mage in his party complains he flames her so hard she wants to quit every single day!” Celeste simply looked at him, her expression a blank mask.
With a flick of her wrist, the delicate pink-and-white staff appeared in her hand.
“Tsk.” Wang Meng sneered, the last of his patience evaporating.
“I’m talking to you, Priest.
You really want to do this?
Fight me?” He gestured dismissively with his chin.
“Wouldn’t it be better to just stand in the back and heal like you’re supposed to?
Why insist on playing melee?
With those skinny arms and legs, my axe doesn’t have eyes.
Don’t come crying to me when I make you regret it.” Celeste didn’t waste her breath on a reply.
She raised her staff slightly, settling into the opening stance of the Millelith Spear Technique.
The referee saw that negotiations had failed and blew the whistle.
“Match start!” Wang Meng did not charge.
Like a massive brown bear locking onto its prey, he began a slow, deliberate advance.
Each heavy footfall sent a muffled thud through the stone slabs of the ring.
The landing point of every step was precisely calculated, methodically sealing off every angle Celeste could use to circle around him.
He held the grotesque battle-axe loosely, but his muscles were coiled like powerful springs, ready to explode into a strike that could tear the air itself asunder.
This was no mindless brute; this was a seasoned warrior, a veteran of a hundred battles.
Celeste’s mind entered a state of hyper-focus, the pink tip of her staff remaining steadily locked onto her opponent.
Her feet tapped lightly against the ground, her figure becoming an elusive phantom as she searched for the slightest opening in the crushing pressure Wang Meng was creating.
Suddenly, he moved!
His right foot stomped down with violent force.
CRACK!
The stone slab beneath his boot shattered, spiderweb-like fissures spreading out in an instant.
His massive body launched forward at a speed that completely defied his size, his trajectory not a straight line but a strange, deceptive arc.
The battle-axe sliced through the air, a flash of cold, deadly light.
Its target: Celeste’s waist.
The strike was heavy and ruthless, the angle so tricky it seemed impossible for a Berserker to execute.
The rapidly growing glint of the axe blade filled Celeste’s vision.
She did not retreat.
She advanced.
Pushing the effect of the Wind God’s Blessing to its absolute limit, her body slid sharply to the left.
Like a weightless shadow, she instantly cut into the blind spot Wang Meng had created with his wide swing.
The staff in her hand became a condensed white line, stabbing directly at the Berserker’s axe-wielding wrist.
It was a classic counter: strike where the enemy must defend.
Wang Meng’s reaction speed was astonishing.
With a flick of his wrist, the handle of the axe jerked upward.
CLANG!
A piercing shriek of metal on metal echoed across the arena as a shower of sparks erupted between them.
He had actually used the heavy axe handle to parry her swift, precise thrust with perfect timing.
Immediately after, his empty left hand slammed against the flat face of the axe.
He had just turned a cleave into a push.
The thick axe-head instantly changed trajectory, transforming into a battering ram that could collapse a city wall as it slammed toward Celeste’s chest.
A terrifying physical force rushed at her, compressing the air until it let out a sharp sonic pop.
Celeste knew she couldn’t take that hit head-on.
The tip of her staff tapped the axe face like a dragonfly skimming the surface of water, using the immense force to propel herself backward.
Almost at the same instant her body retreated, she cast a spell.
Power Word: Shield!
A solid, white-gold barrier of light formed in a flash, enveloping her entire body.
The casting was so fast it was practically instantaneous.
Even so, the sheer wind pressure from the axe slammed into the shield, causing it to hum with the strain of a heavy impact.
Ripples vibrated violently across its surface.
‘The strength gap is too big,’ Celeste judged instantly.
A Level 22 Berserker’s Strength attribute was likely pushing 90 points.
She only had 60.
A direct confrontation was suicide.
The strategy had to change.
She fully merged the agility of the Millelith Spear Technique with the speed of the Wind God’s Blessing.
Her footwork became unpredictable, like a willow catkin caught in a gale, as she began to rapidly circle the iron tower that was Wang Meng.
The staff no longer sought direct clashes.
Sometimes it stabbed at the gaps in his plate armor, other times it poked at the joints of his wrists and elbows.
Occasionally, she would use a clever application of force to stick to his battle-axe, guiding its destructive power into empty air.
Wang Meng’s strength was enough to shatter stone, but every heavy strike missed its mark by a hair’s breadth.
The battle-axe whistled shrilly as it tore through the air, smashing deep, bottomless craters into the hard arena floor again and again.
“Slippery as a damn loach!” Wang Meng grunted, his brow furrowed in frustration.
He let out a low shout, and a brilliant red light flared to life along the edge of his battle-axe.
Frenzied Strike!
The speed of his swings suddenly soared, turning the axe into a dense, blood-colored storm of steel shadows that completely sealed off all of Celeste’s evasion space.
The pressure on her increased tenfold.
Celeste’s eyes remained sharp.
The staff in her hand danced, becoming a blur of light—parrying, blocking, deflecting, and guiding.
She pushed the exquisite defensive stances of the Millelith Spear Technique to their absolute limit.
Just as she used the body of her staff to knock aside a heavy cleave, in that brief, vulnerable interval where her old strength was spent and new strength had yet to rise, an opportunity appeared.
Her left hand suddenly released the staff and shot upward.
A mass of extremely condensed Holy Light exploded in her palm.
The light was like a miniature sun detonating right in front of her opponent’s face.
At the exact moment Wang Meng was fully concentrated on his attack, his pupils dilated to their maximum, the blinding light was plastered directly onto his vision.
“Ugh!” His world turned into a field of dazzling white.
Tears streamed uncontrollably from his eyes as he instinctively squeezed them shut and jerked his head away.
The violent storm of axe swings faltered fatally.
“Holy crap!
A Holy Light flashbang?!” a magic-user in the contestant area screamed out.
“She’s a freaking Tactical Priest!” SCREEECH—!
Despite her best efforts, a stray gust from the faltering axe storm still clipped her shield.
The barrier of light shattered on impact.
The terrifying force vibrated through the aftermath.
Celeste felt her entire arm go numb, and a painful pressure bloomed in her chest, as if her organs were being turned inside out.
But there wasn’t a trace of panic on her face.
At the same instant the shield shattered, she took a single step back and raised her left hand again.
Flash Heal!
A gentle Holy Light descended upon her.
The surging blood and qi in her chest were instantly calmed, and the agonizing numbness in her arm quickly faded.
Immediately following that, another Power Word: Shield was cast in a seamless chain, and a new, pristine light shield shone once more.
From the shield breaking and taking damage to self-healing and re-shielding, the entire process was completed within two seconds.
It was as fluid and natural as if it were a single, unified skill.
In the contestant area, a male student of the Priest class stared blankly at the scene, his jaw hanging open.
He murmured to himself, “She…
why is she wasting mana on herself?
A support is supposed to give it to teammates…
wait, she has no teammates!
Oh, then it’s fine…” He paused, his brain rebooting.
“No!
It’s still very wrong!
Can you really just squander mana like that in a one-on-one duel?
Is her mana bar hooked up to a damn crystal core?!” Beside him, a spectator from the Warrior class rubbed his chin, a dangerous glint flashing in his eyes as he fell into a long, deep silence.
‘If…
if I also had a ‘pocket support’ who could heal me to full at any time and let me tank a Berserker’s hit…’His eyes widened as a revolutionary thought struck him.’No, wait.
If I myself were this ‘pocket support’…
why would I even need teammates?’ [Elysian’s Note: Having a good time with the story?
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