S-Rank Healer Gets Kidnapped First – Chapter 55

Author: isuzuuy

‘How is Park Ji-won, who belongs to the Association, participating in the competition?’

Park Ji-won seemed to have known all along, because our eyes met easily. Judging by the persistent way she looked at me, it almost seemed as though she had been waiting for me to recognize her.

‘Why…?’

I couldn’t figure out the reason. Once she realized that I had noticed her, she didn’t say anything. She merely smiled.

“…Isn’t that Park Ji-won?”

“Yeah. Why is she over there?”

Na Ye-ri and Han Seong-woo also noticed Park Ji-won.

But Park Ji-won herself didn’t seem interested in whatever the two of them were saying about her. Unless someone nearby asked her for a heal, she kept her eyes fixed on me.

“Does she have something to say to you, Healer?”

“Yeonhee, are you close with her?”

“No. Other than that time, we’ve never really talked…”

Since I was just as puzzled, I slowly backed away.

Watching the situation quietly, Cha Seohae spoke to Park Sang-oh.

“Wow. Sang-oh, you’re really going all out now that you’ve been found out.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb. You’re telling us you’ve been in contact with the Association, aren’t you?”

“Contact? How could you say something so hurtful?”

Park Sang-oh continued with a sly grin.

“You should call it being quick to assess the situation.”

“You’re still shameless as ever. You’re the one who did something underhanded.”

Cha Seohae laughed as though he hadn’t expected anything different.

It seemed he had already finished investigating which of their alliance members had betrayed them, so he had made peace with it.

‘Wasn’t it written that the Black Tiger Guild betrayed the guild alliance?’

According to the information Cha Seohae had given me, this was what I knew about the Black Tiger Guild.

They were a guild with an S-rank Hunter and the third-strongest guild in the alliance.

Since they both had S-rank Hunters, they had been rivals and hadn’t gotten along particularly well in the past, but their personal feelings toward each other weren’t especially bad.

‘The strongest ones usually grow by competing against one another.’

On top of that, they were ambitious when it came to power, so they had willingly joined the alliance for the sake of their guild’s prosperity.

Up to this point, they might have seemed greedy, but they at least appeared capable of separating business from personal matters.

However, they gradually became less involved in the alliance’s affairs and began acting independently.

Despite being reprimanded several times, they refused to change. Eventually, they were reportedly caught secretly communicating with someone from the Association in the provinces.

‘What did the Association promise them to make them go this far?’

The Association president absolutely hated the guild alliance.

After all, the S-rank Hunters who were supposed to work under him had instead made him their enemy.

From the Association president’s perspective, it wouldn’t be strange at all for him to try to tear the alliance apart.

‘Even if he made them an offer, it would probably just be empty promises. There’s no way the Association president would actually do something that benefited a guild.’

Had they already been dissatisfied with the alliance? Or had the Association made them an attractive offer?

In a way, the two possibilities were connected.

Perhaps they had been unhappy with some aspect of the alliance, which made them susceptible to the Association’s offer.

‘I don’t know that much about the alliance, but if I could figure out this much, I’m sure the others have already taken care of it.’

Of course, I trusted them, but being worried was another matter.

I glanced at Cha Seohae anxiously, and our eyes met.

“Why? Are you scared?”

He asked with an amused smile.

I shook my head.

“I’m not scared. I was just thinking about something else.”

“Liar.”

“Focus on the fight.”

I muttered, wondering why he had suddenly started teasing me.

“Ha, you two look awfully close?”

Park Sang-oh, who had been listening to our conversation from across the field, sneered.

“See? Baekyang has always been like this. They monopolize everything good. I hated how they treated the alliance members like nothing more than lackeys! I don’t know how you managed to win over the Association’s healer, but I’m going to use this competition to expose every single one of your misdeeds.”

Park Sang-oh acted as though he was desperate to get revenge on Cha Seohae.

Cha Seohae looked at him before turning to me.

“What do you think of the situation?”

“Why ask? It doesn’t look good.”

“Right? That means this is the perfect time.”

“My big moment?”

I hadn’t even used Divine Descent yet, but hadn’t I already shown everyone my abilities?

I rolled my eyes, unable to figure out what he had in mind.

“What are you planning to do?”

“A comparison.”

Cha Seohae explained his plan in a low voice.

“They have a famous healer who’s been around for a long time. Judging by the commentary, she seems to have quite a fanbase. Even with an S-rank healer appearing, they’re still excitedly talking about her return.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“Then that won’t do. You’re supposed to be the star today.”

“What should I do? Use an offensive skill now?”

“Do we really need to be strategic? They’re only A-rank.”

Cha Seohae spoke in an utterly casual tone.

“Just overwhelm them with sheer power.”

“Huh?”

“Healing, attacking, buffing. Whatever it is. Let’s show them something so overwhelming that all the experience that healer has built up becomes meaningless. You yourself are the variable.”

Cha Seohae immediately drew his gun.

As I listened to him, all the distracting thoughts disappeared.

It seemed like this had started as a joke, but hearing him speak made my mind, which had been overthinking everything, finally relax.

BOOM!

As if someone couldn’t stand the peace, a deafening roar came from above.

The surprise attack had exploded without reaching us.

‘So that’s why Cha Seohae drew his gun.’

He had spotted and intercepted the attack that was flying toward me from behind.

“Oh, what a shame. I thought it would work.”

Park Sang-oh’s voice was filled with disappointment.

“Yeah. Who tells their enemies to wait while they chat? I’d like to wait, but this is taking too long.”

“Wow, how considerate of you to wait for us? You should’ve just attacked.”

I looked at Cha Seohae.

The smile blooming on his handsome face looked ominous.

“Even if all of you attacked at once, it wouldn’t do much damage.”

As he openly provoked them, I smiled weakly.

‘I’d better start buffing them.’

I activated Divine Protection and gave each of the four of them buffs suited to their abilities.

There was something genuinely fun about customizing the others however I wanted with my buffs.

I checked on Childeugi, who had only recently started coordinating with the others.

He had only had a short time to get used to my buffs after being selected for the competition’s starting lineup.

Fortunately, he seemed to be good at fighting in actual combat, because he held his own quite well.

The Black Tiger’s team for the competition seemed to have been selected specifically to focus on offense.

They had chosen a composition that took Na Ye-ri’s shield into account. At the same time, it was designed to counter the combination of Cha Seohae and Han Seong-woo, who fought at incredible speed.

If your opponent’s attack speed was faster, you could be taken down before you even secured your position.

Once the first move went wrong, their mentality would start to crumble.

After all, losing the lead naturally caused people to panic.

‘Of course, fighting like this every moment would quickly drain our stamina… but Baekyang has me.’

In the end, this was exactly what Cha Seohae had said.

It was a battle between healers.

I looked at Park Ji-won.

The gaze that had been fixed on me for quite a while had now shifted away.

I was accustomed to this style of combat, but Park Ji-won wasn’t.

‘The first team’s fighting style wasn’t about constantly healing everyone on the team like this. It was about focusing on Do Joo-yeon.’

The first team had always maintained a combat style centered entirely around Do Joo-yeon.

It was a fighting style designed to make him stand out the most.

While Do Joo-yeon stood at the very front and absorbed every attack, the others covered the openings.

So the healer would keep healing Do Joo-yeon and move the healing to wherever someone appeared to be in danger.

At the same time, this served as a signal. If an area was collapsing, it meant they were asking Do Joo-yeon for help.

Since Do Joo-yeon always received enough healing, he could easily respond to those calls for help.

Just as tanks and damage dealers each had their own fighting styles, healers also had support methods they personally felt comfortable with.

So adapting to a different style like this must be difficult for her.

‘It’s not that I have anything against you… but today, I can’t let everyone focus on how well you’re doing after your long-awaited return.’

It wasn’t enough that Baekyang and Sawol hadn’t joined the Association.

From the Association president’s perspective, seeing the Black Tiger Guild join them would be an opportunity.

It meant there was a crack in an alliance that had seemed so formidable.

He might already have started working on the guilds under Black Tiger.

Even guilds that had received offers might waver while watching the competition, despite wanting to remain loyal.

After all, the Association had promised to provide a healer with full support if they joined their side—and Park Ji-won standing right in front of us was proof of that.

BOOM!

Another powerful collision shook Na Ye-ri’s shield.

“Crazy. Their bombardment really packs a punch.”

Na Ye-ri looked troubled.

As expected from a team created specifically to target Baekyang, she was struggling.

The Black Tiger Guild was already famous for its high damage output, and they had selected only Hunters with particularly strong offensive power.

Most importantly, Park Sang-oh’s class, ‘Hand Cannon,’ used a bazooka-like weapon that fired heavy artillery shells.

It was a weapon focused entirely on destructive power, so its skill activation and projectile speeds were slow.

But if that weakness was compensated for even slightly, it demonstrated enough power to overwhelm skills of the same rank.

‘Judging by the activation time and the speed of the shells, he must have received an attack-speed buff.’

I gave Na Ye-ri some additional healing.

Only after receiving the healing did Na Ye-ri seem to regain her composure, and she shouted.

“Hey! Damage dealers, take one of them down! If we’re being protected, you should at least be able to subdue one!”

“Got it.”

Han Seong-woo immediately charged inside.

The purpose was to expand the range of our attacks.

If attacks came simultaneously from the front, back, and sides, it would divide their attention.

‘That’s a good strategy since they don’t have a shield.’

Han Seong-woo disappeared from sight as he moved farther back.

Cha Seohae deflected the incoming attacks before speaking to Childeugi.

“It’s not difficult to deflect attacks anymore, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Na Ye-ri, you don’t need to worry so much about the shield anymore. Let’s join the attack.”

“You think I can’t manage the shield just because I’m attacking? Don’t worry.”

Cha Seohae smiled at Na Ye-ri’s answer before firing his gun into the sky.

BANG!

The crisp sound echoed into the distance.

“He’s probably signaling Han Seong-woo, right? But that guy won’t be able to attack. We already have our people hiding on the side.”

I frowned.

“What is he talking about…?”

“Did they violate the rule about five people per team?”

Na Ye-ri asked.

“Haha! Violate the rules? Can’t you see that we’re following them perfectly?”

Park Sang-oh extended his empty hand to the side.

“There are exactly five people here. It’s just that there are a lot of teams who want to take you down.”

At those words, one or two people at a time began emerging from the bushes.

Na Ye-ri muttered as she watched.

“What a cheap bastard.”

“My goodness. It’s not like you don’t know what an alliance is, so why are you doing this?”

Cha Seohae said nothing, seemingly counting the increasing number of people.

“I’m not particularly worried.”

“What?”

“You could only say that if you were seriously underestimating Han Seong-woo.”

Cha Seohae smiled leisurely.

“You actually joined hands with someone as insignificant as you. Is this the Association’s doing, too? If so, there’s nothing to worry about. Surely Han Seong-woo can deal with people like them.”

His fierce criticism made Park Sang-oh’s face turn beet red.

“This isn’t going to work. I guess you only understand after seeing your allies beaten to a pulp. Hey! Go get Han Seong-woo!”

“Master, um…”

“What!”

“We’ve been signaling for them to gather here for a while now, but we haven’t received any response from the right side…”

The right side was where Han Seong-woo had gone.

Park Sang-oh frowned as though something felt wrong. But soon, he shouted as if there was no way that could be the case.

“He’s just running late! Then go support him!”

“Why don’t you just accept that your allied team has already lost?”

I offered advice after listening to their conversation.

Both the Black Tiger members and Park Ji-won fixed their gazes on me.

“Ah, you’re that ungrateful—”