Please Only Heal Your Allies
Their presence brushed against my senses.
The number of footsteps wasn’t that high.
‘Five.’
No, more were slipping in from the side.
‘Seven, then.’
Poison Hounds.
These were the signature vicious monsters of the second stratum. Speed and persistence were a given, but the real problem was those fangs.
A single scratch from their needle-like mutated teeth would cause the wound to rot from the inside out.
“Grrrrr!”
One Poison Hound kicked off the ground and lunged first. I read its trajectory and swung my dagger.
Slash!
The short, decisive Wind Blade severed its front leg clean off.
The beast screamed and tumbled, but there was no time to breathe. Two more immediately charged from both flanks.
I focused mana into the soles of my feet.
If Wind Blade was an enhanced version of Feather Step, then it should still retain that skill’s functions.
Whoosh—!
‘Just as I thought. Feather Step was only fused into Wind Blade. Its core ability hadn’t disappeared.’
My body felt light.
Ever since I’d become a woman, my base physical strength had dropped, but my mana reaction speed had become abnormally fast in exchange.
I struck precisely into the gaps between them.
Stab—!
‘Got them.’
Black blood sprayed as I slashed their throats in rapid succession.
But there was a problem.
‘Poison Hounds aren’t stupid.’
Even without a commander, they knew efficient hunting tactics.
And sure enough, their gazes slid past me and locked onto what was behind.
“H…Haaaaa!!!!”
“Lucia! Stick right behind me!”
They had switched targets. They were aiming for Lucia now, not me.
Having someone you had to protect in battle was a fatal weakness.
Every time the hounds charged at Lucia, I was forced to reposition recklessly.
“Kyaa!”
One hound slipped through and dove at Lucia’s feet. I threw myself forward and kicked its head as hard as I could.
Thud!
I knocked it away, but the move left my side completely open.
A different hound’s claw raked across my left arm in that brief window.
“Ugh!”
A burning pain, like flesh being seared. The wound wasn’t deep, but I could see toxic energy rising around it.
My arm went numb in an instant.
‘Shit. I’m losing sensation.’
This was dangerous. I turned to Lucia and shouted desperately.
“Lucia! Heal! Heal me!”
Lucia flinched hard at my scream, her eyes darting around in panic.
“Y-yes…? H-heal?”
“Yes! You’re a priest, aren’t you?! I don’t care if you smack me, just slap a heal on me right now!”
How hard could a delicate girl’s fist possibly hit, anyway?
Compared to the agonizing poison crawling up my arm, it would probably feel like a tickle.
“Uuu… Haaaaaaa!!!!”
Lucia’s lips trembled violently. Cold sweat beaded on her fingertips, and soon golden mana began gathering in both her hands.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Huuu… Haaaaaaaaa!”
“…What the—? Where are you going?!”
The situation took a bizarre turn.
Lucia screamed and sprinted right past me, charging forward.
“What are you doing, you crazy girl?!”
I tried to grab her in a panic, but it was already too late.
With golden mana wrapped around her fist, Lucia hurled herself at the nearest Poison Hound.
And then…
Crunch—!
“…?”
A dull, explosive sound echoed through the forest.
The hound’s jawbone twisted at a grotesque angle.
“Krr… krrrrrrk——!!!”
In that instant, the golden mana injected into its body began leaking out.
“What the hell? What just happened?!”
At a glance, the power in Lucia’s punch was clearly healing energy.
But the Poison Hound’s body…
Bang!
Its skin, stretched to the limit, screamed as it burst apart.
Black blood and chunks of flesh splattered everywhere.
Dark droplets landed on Lucia’s face like macabre freckles.
‘…What the hell did I just witness?’
Lucia froze for a moment.
She stared blankly down at her blood-stained hand.
Then—
“Uuu… uhehe…”
What filled her eyes was unmistakably madness.
Her mouth stretched into a grin so wide it looked like it might tear at the corners.
"Kihi—! Kihahahahat!! Huhuhihahahat!!!!"
“??????????”
Lucia suddenly burst into a deranged laugh.
The crybaby face from moments ago had vanished without a trace.
She immediately charged at the next hound.
“Uhehehehehehehe—!!!!!!”
The roles had reversed.
The predators had become the prey.
“What the hell is even happening right now?”
“Kyahahahahat! Uhihihihihit! Kehehehehehehet!!!!!”
Healing allies by hitting them = X
Suppressing enemies by hitting them = O
“So that’s what ‘beating’ meant?!”
Every time Lucia’s fist cut through the air, the forest rang with explosive thuds.
The hounds she struck didn’t die cleanly.
Some had their joints twisted until they bound their own bodies. Others had their muscles over-healed until their backs literally exploded.
I simply lowered my dagger and stared at the scene in stunned silence.
‘What the hell is she… Who is this girl, really?’
I had picked up a crazy priest.
And not just any crazy priest — a very, very dangerous one.
The forest fell silent once the battle ended.
The ground was littered with Poison Hound corpses so mangled they were barely recognizable.
Lucia sat slumped in the middle of the carnage.
Her white robe was completely ruined, soaked in black blood.
“Uuuu… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
The manic grin from earlier was gone.
Lucia had returned to being a timid crybaby.
“I did it again… I acted so un-priest-like…”
I treated my wound with the Green Herb I’d kept as a precaution, then shifted my gaze to the mangled corpses on the ground.
‘…Now I get it. Why Lucia’s old party abandoned her.’
They threw her away because she was useless?
That had been my mistake.
‘Anyone would’ve ditched her out of pure terror…’
They had recruited a priest, yet she completely ignored her actual job of healing and spent the entire fight punching things in the front line.
And those punches caused monsters to explode from over-healing, no less.
‘Even I would refuse healing from a priest like that.’
A tiny spark of sympathy rose for her previous party members.
While abandoning a teammate in the second stratum was trash behavior, I could completely understand the primal fear they must have felt.
I approached the sitting Lucia and spoke.
“You really are an unprecedented talent. In a completely different sense.”
“I’m sorryyy… I didn’t mean to do that…”
I sighed and reached to pat her head, but stopped when I saw the blood on my hand.
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
Lucia flinched and looked up at me.
I pointed at the hound remains scattered behind her.
“That was amazing just now.”
Her eyes widened.
“…Huh?”
“I said it was amazing. Whether it was priest-like or not is none of my business.”
Lucia’s lips trembled faintly.
“Thanks to you, both of us survived. If you saved lives, then you’re a priest. Right?”
“Uuu… uuuu…”
Tears welled up in her eyes.
Not from sadness, but from hearing words she had never heard in her entire life.
“Did I… Did I really help?”
“Yeah. A lot.”
“Hehe… Really…?”
“Yes. But be careful from now on. It’s dangerous.”
Lucia’s face flushed with a mix of embarrassment and confusion.
It was a strange expression, halfway between crying and laughing.
Then, suddenly, she clenched her fist with triumphant energy.
“N-next time I’ll burst them even harder!!!”
“Did I just say the wrong thing?”
Anyway, the baggage I thought I’d picked up had proven to be a surprisingly useful card.
‘With that combat power, she’s definitely above D-rank… Wait, maybe even C-rank?’
But girls like her were usually time bombs.
Unexploded ordnance that could go off at any moment.
‘Once we reach the surface, I need to ditch her as fast as possible.’
With that resolution firmly in mind, I started walking again.
The second stratum’s Poison Mist Forest was essentially one giant labyrinth.
The escape routes leading back to the surface were so convoluted that only veterans like me could find them.
I kept Lesser Tactics active as I advanced.
It was the best precaution I could take against surprise attacks.
The constant mana drain was a downside, but right now it was the optimal choice.
Lucia stayed close behind me, senses on high alert.
She usually looked like a clumsy baby chick, but the moment we stepped onto the battlefield, her eyes turned sharp as blades.
‘Split personality? Or does extreme fear trigger explosive aggression?’
Either way, she was clearly not a normal priest.
She was timid, apologized constantly, but the instant mana gathered in her fist, she transformed into a monster.
‘Is she trying to become a physical therapist or something?’
She definitely had high potential as an explorer, but getting involved with her would clearly be exhausting.
‘The moment we get out, it’s goodbye. I’ll at least escort her to the guild.’
That was when it happened.
Sssssss—
The air ahead felt wrong.
The poison mist hung thick along the ground, and the area was filled with Poison Plants.
The floor was slick with wet green mucus.
I stopped walking.
‘Ah, this is a dangerous spot.’
I knew this place all too well.
It had the distinct atmosphere of a territory belonging to the second stratum’s ruler-class monster, the Venom Ent.
I remembered it vividly because I had once ignorantly stepped in and nearly gotten my limbs torn off.
“We’re detouring. Lucia, fall back.”
But she didn’t answer.
Feeling suspicious, I turned my head.
“Hey. Didn’t you hear me? I said we’re detouring.”
“U… uhe…”
“…?”
Lucia’s pupils were dilated and fixed in place.
She was staring intensely at the cluster of Poison Plants ahead.
“U… uhehehehe… hihehehehehet……!!!!”
“Lucia…?”
Golden mana began condensing at her fingertips again.
A chill of ominous dread ran down my spine.
“Kyahahahahahahaha! This time I’ll burst them even more spectacularly!”
Lucia dashed straight toward the front line.
There wasn’t even time to stop her.
“What the hell are you doing, you idiot!!!!!!!!!!”
But Lucia had already plunged into the thicket of Poison Plants.
Crack! Crunch!
Her healing fists were smashing the plant stems to pieces in an instant.
“Lucia! We really need to run! That thing is a ruler-class monster!”
I screamed, but Lucia wasn’t listening.
She just kept swinging her fists, her blood-soaked robe flapping wildly.
“Kiiiiiiiiiik—!!! Kyahohohohuhuhit!!! Muhehehehet!!!!!”
“You crazy bitch!!! Please listen to me!!!!!”
The moment I threw myself forward to stop her—
The massive tree stump at her feet began writhing grotesquely as it rose.
Creak— Crunch—!
Branches split like human arms.
Bark dripping with venom.
“Venom Ent…!”
The true ruler of the second stratum’s Poison Mist Forest.
This was only my second time facing one in person.
Gooooooo—!
The Venom Ent slowly rose to its full height.
The surrounding poison mist surged like massive waves in time with its breathing.
“Kyahahahahahahahahaha!”
Yet Lucia only laughed maniacally as she charged straight at it.
“The world is screwing with me!”