S-Rank Healer Gets Kidnapped First Chapter 57

There were only two people on the Black Tiger side who were even remotely unharmed.

And even Park Ji-won was breathing heavily from exhaustion.

Despite that, the battle was reignited in an instant.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Cha Seohae! Hey! You said not to waste your energy!”

Han Seongwoo tried to stop her, but Na Ye-ri held him back.

“They’re S-classes fighting each other for the first time in a while. Let’s just watch.”

Na Ye-ri’s tone had gone beyond resignation. She actually sounded pleased to have something entertaining to watch.

Han Seongwoo spoke as if her attitude was frustrating him.

“You know too, don’t you? Even though this is a competition match, the fact that the Association sent that healer means they can intervene at any time. If we don’t stop this now, we’re just giving them an excuse to interfere.”

“Then go join them and stop them with your own body. You’ll probably put a few more holes in things here and there, though.”

“Hah.”

“I don’t really like watching gunmen fight.”

Na Ye-ri shuddered and stepped away from the battlefield.

Boom! Boom!

Heavy gunfire different from Cha Seohae’s shots rang out.

I listened to their conversation before looking straight ahead.

I wondered if I could really say this.

“She looks a little excited, doesn’t she?”

“A little? You can see her smiling even from here.”

Na Ye-ri answered indifferently.

A direct hit from Park Sang-oh’s attacks would likely burn you to a crisp or turn you into dust.

Yet even while confronting those cannons head-on, Cha Seohae showed no fear.

She easily dodged Park Sang-oh’s attacks, from launching herself into slides to leaping high into the air and engaging in aerial combat.

“He must know the Association will interfere at any time if Black Tiger starts losing. Why is he doing this?”

“He’s probably trying to call the Association here.”

Na Ye-ri answered my question quietly.

“Because he’s angry.”

“Cha Seohae doesn’t normally go around recklessly just because she can’t control her emotions.”

“That’s true. But this time… I guess you could say they touched an old trauma?”

Na Ye-ri scratched her cheek with an uncomfortable expression.

It seemed like even she was reluctant to talk about this subject.

“The Association tried to kill her comrade again…”

I couldn’t tell whether she was saying it to me or muttering to herself in a way that implied she understood Cha Seohae.

‘Something definitely happened, judging by how even Han Seongwoo flinched.’

I vaguely remembered Cha Seohae saying something like that when we first met. She had said the Association had given her a gift.

‘Could that “gift” from the Association have meant that they killed her comrade?’

My eyes widened in shock.

I already knew how ruthless and vicious the Association could be.

But I had thought such atrocities were limited to those carried out under the Association President’s authority.

No matter how much they disliked a guild, I never imagined they would go as far as killing guild members just to wreak havoc!

As I stood there in horror, I suddenly felt as though something had pierced straight through me.

‘Then is the reason Baekyang has no healer… because of the Association?’

It was only a guess.

But given the situation, unfortunately, I couldn’t ask for the specific details.

“That’s why we can’t stop her. This fight will only end once Park Sang-oh goes down.”

My eyes widened at those words.

“Wait. Killing him would violate the rules.”

“Right. They’ll probably capture footage of the killing blow and distribute it, then make sure we’re socially branded for it. That would allow them to intimidate us into submission, and naturally give them grounds to restrict or sanction our activities.”

Na Ye-ri gave a self-deprecating laugh.

“The Association President is probably aware of what’s happening and deliberately isn’t stopping it. Since it isn’t an Association hunter under his direct command, he can use the sacrifice of a guild hunter to control us.”

So that was why Han Seongwoo had been so desperate.

Without realizing it, I felt the urge to say we had to stop them.

But no one here was unaware of that.

Saying it out loud would only make the conversation go in circles.

‘If we want to stop them, we have to do it ourselves.’

Na Ye-ri had been observing the situation from the sidelines for a while now.

She probably felt the same way Cha Seohae did.

‘She’s waiting so that if the Association President is summoned here using Park Sang-oh as bait, she can strike immediately.’

Otherwise, there was no way Na Ye-ri, after being reminded of her past, could remain this calm.

I gave up on asking for Na Ye-ri’s cooperation and turned my head.

I saw Han Seongwoo and Childeugi.

‘They can’t do it.’

If I sent another damage dealer into a fight between damage dealers, things would only get worse.

‘And if I stop Cha Seohae by putting Slow on her, there’s a chance Park Sang-oh will take advantage of the opening.’

Guns and cannons collided in the sky, exploding with loud bangs.

It looked almost like fireworks.

“Ah, I just need to stop healing him.”

We were going to win this fight anyway.

Park Sang-oh was in terrible condition, barely moving through sheer force of will.

If I wanted to end the situation quickly, all I had to do was stop the healing he was receiving right now.

I looked around for Park Ji-won.

“Huh? Park Ji-won!”

I spotted her barely keeping herself upright on one knee, refusing to collapse.

I instinctively approached and supported her.

She looked terrible, as if she had already vomited blood several times. There was blood all over the ground and around her mouth.

“Park Ji-won! Stay with me!”

“Gasp! Cough!”

Another lump of blood suddenly came out.

Without stopping to think or weigh the situation, I immediately healed her.

“Yeonhee! What are you doing over there?! It’s dangerous!”

“Yeah! You could get caught up in the battle!”

Na Ye-ri and Han Seongwoo had belatedly noticed me.

They were right. Being in the Black Tiger camp was dangerous.

Cha Seohae’s attacks could stray this way, or Park Sang-oh could take me hostage.

But if I left her like this, Park Ji-won’s life would be in danger.

I didn’t know whether she had been ordered to properly heal Park Sang-oh, the bait, or whether she had developed some shitty occupational habit from working for the Association.

I couldn’t know what was going on inside Park Ji-won’s head, but one thing was certain.

She might have been treated a little better because she was the President’s niece, but she must have been exploited by the Association President just like every other hunter.

And then there was what she had said at the memorial service—Let’s meet again.

What had she meant by that?

I needed to hear what she really thought.

“I don’t know. We healers are few and far between. We should look out for each other.”

If Park Ji-won betrayed me, I could think about that when the time came.

Maybe I was simply being complacent because I was a higher rank.

But honestly, I didn’t think I would be at a disadvantage if I fought Park Ji-won.

“I’m healing you, so breathe in slowly. That’s it. And stop healing Park Sang-oh.”

“But…”

“Even if you keep receiving heals, it’s dangerous if you keep overexerting your body. You’re a healer, so you know that better than anyone. Why are you being so stubborn?”

Healing might work when the body is in decent condition.

But if the dam was already broken, there was a limit to how much healing could accomplish by simply holding together a body that continued to push itself beyond its limits.

Perhaps hearing someone else state it objectively finally brought her back to her senses.

Park Ji-won gradually stopped healing.

“Urgh! Park Ji-won! What are you doing, stopping the healing?! Start again right now!”

Park Sang-oh immediately reacted.

The way he shouted at her as though Park Ji-won belonged to him was unpleasant to watch.

“What’s wrong with him?”

I muttered irritably, and Park Ji-won, who had been coughing against me, suddenly shifted her body.

She looked at me with narrowed eyes and asked,

“Do you think this situation is funny?”

“You’d find it funny too if you were me. The enemy team is saving me, while that bastard who’s supposedly on my team is yelling at me…”

“That…”

“Maybe it’s because we’re both healers. You understand my condition better than the first team or the Black Tiger Guild. Yeah. I guess this is what having a comrade feels like…”

A comrade?

Perhaps because the tension had finally left her, Park Ji-won had been speaking freely, but at some point, she abruptly closed her mouth.

‘The words that would have followed were probably a lament.’

This was only the second time we had ever spoken.

We had interacted so little that it was impossible to say we had built any trust.

And yet Park Ji-won had revealed her distrust toward the Association to me.

‘What exactly did she see in me? What if I told the Association everything?’

Of course, I had no intention of doing that.

I had stepped forward intending to help a fellow healer, and now that I had heard what Park Ji-won had said, I had no desire to report it to the Association.

Just as Park Ji-won’s condition began to improve, the ground shook violently.

“Urgh…!”

Then came Park Sang-oh’s groan, followed by the sound of something collapsing.

Had the battle ended?

I was turning my head to check the situation when Park Ji-won moved.

“You shouldn’t move that suddenly—!”

“Yeonhee!”

At that moment, Na Ye-ri called out to me.

Han Seongwoo and Childeugi hurriedly grabbed her as they tried to run toward me.

“It’s dangerous!”

Park Ji-won stretched both arms into the air.

“Guardian Wall!”

A shield made of densely packed particles formed.

BOOM!

As I tried to understand what was happening, a deafening roar erupted right beside my ears.

If not for Park Ji-won’s shield, we would have been in serious trouble.

“Ugh…”

Perhaps because she had blocked such a powerful attack without warning, cracks appeared in Park Ji-won’s shield.

“Divine Protection.”

I hurriedly deployed my own shield and turned to Park Ji-won.

“Leave it to me and cancel your skill. Quickly!”

“Cough! Okay…”

Perhaps she could feel the cracks in her own shield, because Park Ji-won obediently canceled it.

Whoosh! BOOM!

The rock that struck my shield bounced straight off and crashed into a tree on the other side.

“Where did that rock come from?”

Among the survivors, the only person capable of throwing a boulder was Na Ye-ri, a troll-class hunter.

‘But there’s no way Na Ye-ri would throw a rock at me. Could this be another reinforcement from Black Tiger?’

We needed to move.

I helped Park Ji-won to her feet.

“Khk! Yeonhee. Get away from me…”

“Huh?”

“I’m fine, so hurry and evacuate somewhere safe.”

Her voice was urgent, almost as if she were trying to hurry me away.

I examined her.

Her condition, which had barely improved, had deteriorated again from the impact just now.

And despite that, she was telling me to leave because she was fine.

“What are you talking about? I don’t know what condition your body is in—”

“Do Joo-yeon is here!”

“What?”

The moment Park Ji-won finished speaking, a shadow fell over me.

“Long time no see.”

There was no mistaking that voice.

I sharply inhaled in surprise.

“Moon Yeonhee!”

I heard my name being called again from beyond the figure blocking my view.

First Na Ye-ri, and now Cha Seohae too.

I gave up.

Just as Park Ji-won had said, the reason those two had been acting so sensitive was here.

“Good work, Ji-won. You kept her safe.”

But at Do Joo-yeon’s words, I abruptly raised my lowered head.

I saw Do Joo-yeon standing there in immaculate clothes.

The contrast between his neat appearance and the rest of us, who had just fought a battle, was striking.

His gaze was directed toward the person beside me.

I knew exactly where his gaze ended.

Without meaning to, I looked at Park Ji-won as well.

“……”

She said nothing even when our eyes met.

At that, a sense of foreboding ran through me, and my body stiffened.

There was no way Park Ji-won, who had been leaning against me, could fail to notice the change.

She gave me a brief glance before slowly pulling herself away from me.

“…Of course. It was something I had to do.”