While everyone demonstrated their might, Balm stood back and sighed. When she was still young and had no sense of responsibility – like, roughly two months ago – she had dreamt of being a healer with combat skills, saving her friends while vanquishing enemies. However, when she and her friends recently planned their upcoming class change, she made a heavy decision. One could say it was the exact opposite of what Bloody Edge did. Balm decided not to insist on dealing damage and instead focused entirely on being the best healer possible for the group. She wouldn't stand in the limelight but become the most reliable support so her friends could fight without worries.
Balm's decision earned the admiration of not only her friends but also other guild members. After a discussion with Liam, she thus settled on the [Dazzling Light] class.
This class was focused entirely on healing. Every time she healed someone, her passive had a 15% to trigger one of three buffs for the healed person. Not only her passive but many of her skills also had chance-based effects on top of their basic effects. This harmonized well with her ultimate skill [Blessing of Life] which reduced all her cooldowns by 20% and increased the probability of all chance-based effects by 15%. Additionally, the ultimate skill's duration was prolonged with every 10.000 points Balm healed while it was active.
All in all, Balm became an extremely impressive healer. However, in order to show her power someone had to finally get injured. Perhaps this was the plight of being the healer in the number one team?
Balm idled behind everyone's back, twirling her staff between her fingers. With so much time on her hands, perhaps she could learn some cool moves like juggling her wand. Wait, was she about to become an NPC? Balm shivered, secretly hoping for one of her friends to get injured. Bloody Edge was not at full HP, but this was part of his class. He had already informed Balm that he only wanted to be healed should his HP fall below half.
Thus, Balm could only put her hope on Silver Blade and Radiant Shield. The former was still holding out with her [Luring Barrier] but the latter was using up his stance rapidly. Perhaps Balm should tell Radiant Shield to rely on her instead of using stance?
Just as Balm was contemplating, she noticed that one of her friends showed some changes. Quickstep had been running circles around the enemy, only using normal attacks instead of skills to build up her Storm. It had to be said that after her class advanced Quickstep still relied on this additional resource which got generated as long as she moved. If there was one difference everyone would notice immediately, it was that Quickstep was now restricted to a single sword instead of two. The reduced damage was only somewhat made up for by an increased attack and movement speed.
However, Quickstep was not displeased with her new class called [Hurricane Sword] and the reason for that was the state she was about to enter.
Suddenly Quickstep's eyes began to shine with a mysterious silver-blue colour, extremely sharp at one moment and endlessly profound the next. An armour of wind engulfed her body, pulling some pebbles along and instantly pulverizing them. She had entered [Hurricane Mode], a special state only achievable after gathering the maximum of 200 points of Storm.
Quickstep felt her body becoming incredibly light. Each movement seemed able to propel her for hundreds of meters. She was like a hurricane, able to traverse the vast ocean with incredible might.
In numbers, [Hurricane Mode] would triple her attack speed and double her movement speed. Each of her attacks would deal an additional 20% wind damage and 20% water damage. The Storm cost of all skills was reduced by a staggering 80%. However, her Storm would gradually decay, which could only be delayed by moving around, until her Storm reached zero, ending [Hurricane Mode].
Quickstep revelled in the incredible feeling. Her eyes locked onto one of the beetles. It was time to show her might.
In a flash Quickstep appeared behind the unsuspecting, oversized insect, which was hitting its head against Silver Blade's [Luring Barrier]. Her sword slashed, leaving a silvery-blue tail, gorgeous and mysterious. Her attack speed was so high that she couldn't even use it effectively. One attack followed the other, incredibly satisfying and without delay.
[-2885!]x3
[-627!]x3
[-649!]x3
Her sword erupted with wind and water damage caused by [Hurricane Mode]. The feeling was intoxicating. But this was not all Quickstep could do. She put her sword vertically in front of her body. The light in her eyes grew increasingly intense. She couldn't help but let out a shout as she slashed with all her might.
"Ha!"
A terrifying power of wind and water erupted from her sword, forming a miniature hurricane in the air. It was a frightening white whirlpool emitting a dreadful might. The targeted beetle was instantly caught in its midst, receiving continuous physical, wind and water damage.
[-321!]…
[-310!]…
[-442!]…
A surprised squeak came from the side. The beetle standing closest suddenly felt its movements affected. There was horror in its eyes as it realised that a strong force was pulling its body. It was sucked towards the miniature hurricane!
The beetle created deep scars in the ground but no matter what it did it couldn't safe itself. Soon, its back touched the hurricane and it received the same damage.
If Quickstep wasn't in [Hurricane Mode] the beetle might have been able to get away, but in this special state the pulling force increased. Even the elite beetle was affected, barely resisting with all its strength.
"Wow, Quickstep, what a move!"
Silver Blade sincerely praised her fellow warrior. Thanks to Quickstep, all three beetle which had been attacking the tank were occupied, momentarily ceasing their attacks.
Quickstep felt great. She grinned and thought about which move to test next. Her eyes fell on [Carrier of Storm], an upgraded skill. With a thought her body suddenly disappeared, transforming into three violent wind blades hanging in the air. Suddenly the blades flashed, shooting wildly through the battlefield, almost too fast to catch with the naked eye, slashing at the various beetles, causing a whistling wind to blow through the entire tunnel.
[-1702!]x4
[-892!]x4
[-784!]x4
The skills only lasted three seconds. The three blades dissipated and at the location of one of them Quickstep reappeared. She now stood behind the beetles sieging Radiant Shield. Her eyes flashed brightly as one of her new skills [Ferocious Hurricane] got activated. This skill only had the effect of resetting the cooldown of a single skill and increasing damage by 10% if in [Hurricane Mode]. However, its own cooldown was exceedingly long at 240 seconds.
Thanks to [Ferocious Hurricane], Quickstep was able to instantly use [Hurricane Slash] again. Another swirling death whirl appeared, engulfing the three beetles in its terrifying suction force.
"Eh… thanks."
Everyone else was amazed as Quickstep alone managed to control all their enemies. Affected by the hurricane none of the beetles could attack. They were like fish on the chopping block. Not only did they suffer continuous damage from Quickstep's hurricane, but also from everyone else. Their HP bars decreased quickly, and another enemy died while the others dropped dangerously low.
Soon, Quickstep's eyes returned to normal. Her [Hurricane Mode] ended and entered a five-minute cooldown period. But this didn't mean she couldn't continue attacking.
There was no suspense in the fight from the start. Soon, all the common beetles fell under the party's attacks. Only the elite enemy remained, trying to put up a fight. It managed to break through Silver Blade's [Luring Barrier] after a while. Silver Blade received a few hundred points of damage, a drop in the ocean compared to her HP pool. Yet Balm instantly perked up, bestowing her with potent healing.
Silver Blade thanked her friend with a chuckle while continuing the fight, keeping the beetle at bay with her shield. Under the onslaught of the party the elite beetle wasn't able to survive much longer. Eventually it let out a distressed shriek and collapsed on the ground.
"Haha, nice one! Good job!", exclaimed Cyclone happily.
"Yes! Cyclone, you were great. Your lighting is so fast now. So easy to paralyze enemies.", complimented Quickstep.
"Tsk. You are one to speak. You controlled all the enemies alone."
"If we talk about controlling, we still need to look at our incredible tanks.", laughed Silent Acacia, causing Radiant Shield to sigh:
"This fight was not enough to test us. I couldn't show anything."
"Are you complaining or showing off?", joked Liam.
"Showing off? Well, you are clearly our expert in that, Mirage. You entrance was so flashy."
Obviously, the friends were in a great mood. They continued to discuss their new classes while Cyclone looted the beetles. Just as expected these weak enemies dropped nothing of note. The friends soon continued on their way, following the main tunnel, ignoring all branches.
Soon, the temperature became noticeably colder. A chilling wind froze everyone's ears as it whistled through the tunnels. A light could already be seen. The friends hurried up and reached the end of the tunnel.
"Woah!"