Episode 9
The battle had started at 49 minutes past the hour, and seven minutes had passed, bringing it to 56, but both our HP bars were still barely hovering around 50%. No matter how much of a tank-versus-healer fight it was, matches like this usually had a winner within ten minutes, and even my usual fights with Jaesugang lasted around five minutes. This one was dragging on for an absurdly long time.
If I just stood still and let myself be beaten to death, it would end before ten. If I didn’t interfere at all, he could comfortably deal damage and the duel would be over quickly. More than anything, Jaesugang was only doing this because he was in a foul mood and wanted to make things difficult for me, so if I stayed still, there was also a chance he’d lose interest and back off.
But my pride wouldn’t allow that. A ranker letting themselves get hit just to lose because they had an appointment? That wasn’t a ranker’s mindset. The proper mindset wasn’t to let myself get hit to make it on time, but to kill him quickly to make it on time.
At the moment, Jaesugang’s HP was around 47%, while mine was around 55%. On the surface, my situation looked slightly better, but one glance at my status window, loaded with all kinds of virus debuffs, made it clear I wasn’t in a better position than Jaesugang at all. It was because I’d failed that mind game earlier and ended up with two more DoTs on me.
Virus I, Virus II, Research Virus IV, Influenza Virus, Mutant Virus II, Mutant Virus LII, Mutant Influenza Virus, Discarded Miasma. All sorts of DoTs were slurping away at my HP. Still, the fortunate thing was that two of them were just about to expire and disappear……
[Combat] Jaesugang’s Discarded Miasma has mutated, resetting its duration.
“Ah.”
[Combat] Divine Protection has been dispelled.
[Combat] Jaesugang’s Mutant Virus Extraction dealt 21,709 damage.
[Combat] Jaesugang’s Mutant Virus II has been dispelled.
[Combat] Jaesugang’s Mutant Virus LII has been dispelled.
[Combat] Jaesugang’s Mutant Influenza Virus has been dispelled.
[Combat] Jaesugang’s Regenerative Miasma has been dispelled.
[Combat] You have been paralyzed by the stacking effect of Jaesugang’s Mutant Virus Extraction.
My character froze in the exact pose it had been moving in. I’d been hit with the paralysis status effect.
[General] Kkulppang: 10;;;
[General] Jaesugang: 0-(-<
[General] Kkulppang: asdlfkja;slkdfjalskdfj
[General] Jaesugang: ;-;) ?
Unlucky bastard. Even his nickname suited him perfectly.
Ah, Jaesugang was one thing, but I hated Combat Medics so much…… They were supposed to be healers, so why did they create this many viruses, spread them, mutate them, and extract them? I could never understand the developers’ intentions. Sometimes I wondered if they were healers because they helped viruses survive.
That Mutant Virus Extraction skill was the weapon skill that allowed Combat Medic Harmonizers to at least scrape by in one-on-one confrontations. In exchange for removing mutated viruses, it dealt high-scaling damage “proportional to HP,” making it an especially toxic skill against Divine Knights, who lived and died by their HP pools.
On top of that, for each mutated virus extracted, the Combat Medic gained stacks of the Research buff, and once those stacks reached four or more, it even inflicted paralysis. This character really had no conscience when it came to that. To carve away 15% of my HP and paralyze me on top of it.
While I was paralyzed and unable to move, Jaesugang used a fast-casting heal skill to recover his HP. Then he began casting another virus DoT. Once the paralysis wore off, if I put up my immunity skill, I’d be able to nullify at least one of them, but Jaesugang was by no means an easy opponent. He would see through even that thought and cancel his cast the moment my paralysis ended.
[Combat] Paralysis has been removed.
As soon as the paralysis ended, instead of using my immunity skill, I immediately charged at Jaesugang with my gap-closer. Just as I’d expected, he stopped casting without using the DoT. And perhaps because he’d predicted I would use my charge, I saw him quickly activate a resistance skill. That was because being hit by the Divine Knight’s charge skill, <Vanguard Command>, inflicted stun.
[Combat] You used Vanguard Command and dealt 2,547 damage to Jaesugang.
[Combat] Jaesugang resisted the stun from Vanguard Command.
[Combat] You used Shield Slam and dealt 5,611 damage to Jaesugang.
[Combat] Jaesugang resisted the taunt from Shield Slam.
The reason a ranged class like Combat Medic didn’t retreat even after the enemy got close was because, once they activated Harmonizer stance, melee skills became their main PvP tools.
Of course, scattering DoTs from range produced better damage, but in PvP, where you had to pressure your opponent and apply status effects properly, they had to use melee skills, which had the most status effects distributed among them. Thus, Combat Medics were disadvantaged in close combat, yet paradoxically had to approach their opponent.
After striking Jaesugang first with my shield and making him flinch slightly, I positioned myself by the right side of his character and used a skill that spewed chilling sword energy, beating him down.
[Combat] You used Desperate Sword Energy and dealt 2,908 damage to Jaesugang.
[Combat] You used Desperate Sword Strike and dealt 3,532 damage to Jaesugang.
[Combat] You used Desperate Fierce Strike and dealt 4,097 damage to Jaesugang.
[Combat] Jaesugang’s damage-over-time effect dealt 4,044 damage.
[Combat] Jaesugang recovered 16,198 HP through the effect of Foresight.
[Combat] Sediaz: You used Desperate Blow and dealt 8,890 damage to Jaesugang.
[Combat] Jaesugang recovered 12,958 HP through the effect of Healing Acceleration.
Jaesugang recovered every bit of HP I had worked so hard to shave off. At least the skill with the higher damage coefficient had landed as a critical hit, so it wasn’t as if I gained nothing at all…… But once again, I was struck by how much Combat Medics could heal.
There were now only two minutes left until ten. Jaesugang’s remaining HP was 51%. The average time it took to shave off all of Jaesugang’s HP was five to six minutes. It wasn’t enough time to kill a healing-specialized Combat Medic Harmonizer with 50% HP left.
Was I supposed to keep fighting past ten, exactly as Jaesugang wanted? The party members I’d promised to join for the war were all close acquaintances, so in truth, being a few minutes late wouldn’t be a problem. I’d just have to listen to them grumble about why I was so late—though they were probably enjoying watching me and Jaesugang fight right now—and then tank a little more to make up for the time I’d missed. In other words, even if I went past ten, it wouldn’t damage my reliability.
But being held up by Jaesugang past ten would be extremely damaging to my pride.
It wasn’t a matter of winning or losing. Who had control of the fight, who had overwhelmingly won the mind games, who had led whom around by the nose. That was what mattered to us.
Jaesugang must have felt similarly. Even when he lost, he would often say things on stream like, “Ah, still, at this level, I’d say I was dragging them around by the collar. I’m satisfied.” At those times, his usually sweet and gentle voice would be tinged with exhilaration.
Now, too, what mattered more than victory or defeat was “control.” And currently, the one who held that control was Jaesugang. If the fight didn’t end by ten and I failed to keep my promise, force-quit, or declared surrender, then that would be a perfect victory for Jaesugang. Because things would have gone exactly as he intended.
That wasn’t happening. Whatever else, in a one-on-one with Jaesugang, I would never let things go his way. And to do that, I either had to display overwhelming control…… or empty my head and do something outside his expectations.
Impulsively, I pressed the rank-exclusive skill I’d placed far off to the side, one I almost never used unless I was in a large-scale war.
[Combat] Commander-in-Chief: You used True Incarnation of the Night.
[System] Commander-in-Chief: By casting True Incarnation of the Night, you cannot gain Fame for 120 minutes.
It was a skill I had never once used while fighting Jaesugang. To begin with, using it in a one-on-one was extremely rare.