CHAPTER 113: REVEALING HER CLASS

Hailie wasn’t bleeding out like I first thought. Marc had gotten in at the last possible second to protect the party’s precious healer. His longsword clashed against the stranger’s broadsword with a shriek that was comparable to that of nails on chalkboard, steel sparks scattering across the dirt, partially highlighting the split-second muscle struggle under the moonlight.

Yet, the stranger persist, her force was brutal enough to hurl Marc like a ragdoll, his body skidding until he landed hard on his side, he let out a huge groan as Hailie panickingly cast another [Heal]

The way his body skidded left marks on the floor was quite absurd to see... That wasn’t normal strength for a so-called rogue.

"She can outmuscle a swordsman... Probably a fighter then." I muttered into my empty glass of milk even though no one could hear me.

The chat was blowing up, theorizing stuff that’s a bit overboard for my taste.

[Is that a strength build rogue???]

[No way, she’s gotta be a fighter with overclock boots.]

[Overclock boots isn’t until level 70 you half-witted nerfherder.]

[Is that a broadsword?? Who the hell plays rogue with a broadsword?]

Before I could scroll back to catch more of the theories, the screen shake as the bow was primed. RinaWenswood loosed her arrow, it hissed through the air at a perfect headshot angle as the stranger was distracted looking at Pearl.

Yet, the woman just turned around just in time, reacting fast enough to just simply tilting her head like she was posing for a photo. The arrow missed by a hair.

But the chat, including me, knew that it was a trick, and started cheering like wild maniacs. A second arrow had been hidden in its shadow, flying tight behind the first, but had its angle just curved a fair bit, enough to aim for the woman right where she had her head tilted towards.

The camera zoomed in and the chat slowed as everyone was holding their breath.

And then, Hailie... Of course it had to be Hailie, the healer who didn’t run away and stayed exactly where she was when Marc took her hit, was just within arm’s reach.

The stranger’s hand clamped around her throat, lifting her like a doll effortlessly like this was some kind of erotic female-oriented fiction, using her body as a shield.

"Unbelievable," I hissed, dragging a hand down my face. "Literally the most vulnerable class, and she keeps volunteering as bait without meaning to... Her invulnerability’s going to be discovered is it."

The second arrow would’ve split Hailie’s skull clean if the witch-hat twin sister; Mei, hadn’t sprinted in like lightning. I swear, my heart stopped when that arrowhead came inches from Hailie’s forehead, yet, Mei broke it midflight with her staff.

Only... Her next action was questionable. Mei then used Hailie’s knees as a springboard like this was some kind of circus act, to take another step upwards, her feet landed one kick to the stranger’s face, solid impact, brutal crack. And she backflipped away using that face as another pedestal like she’d rehearsed this acrobatic move a thousand times.

For the first time, the hooded woman actually staggered. Just barely, but enough for Pearl to make his move. He shouted something, and the air tore open with a slicing roar, and from his staff, a vertical wind slash cut between them. The ground split the two of them apart like paper, forcing the stranger back and freeing Hailie.

The healer crawled, then stumbled to get up, then finally get up to run towards Marc, glowing hands out, voice trembling so hard as she reassured that he’ll be okay.

"She hits as hard as an orc," Marc commented as Hailie helped him get back up, and he spat blood, "I shouldn’t have been taken out like that, I was seriously not ready for impact."

Meanwhile, RinaWenswood’s live chat feed turned into a war zone of guesses:

[She’s too fast for warrior class, no way.]

[Could be an assassin tank hybrid build?? Who the fuck have that much money this early in the game?]

[Lmao a New Destiny’s farming party about to be wiped by an edgelord on stream, clip it.]

The viewer counter ticked up like crazy... 369 last time I checked.

And then she lunged, straight for Marc again. He braced himself this time, and brought his blade down in a heavy slash in her trajectory, but she redirected it with a twist of her wrist using the broadsword.

The clash screamed through my headphones, sparks flying. Her parry proved effective, it shoved Marc’s blade sideways into Mei, who was mid-sprint on her flank following right behind the figure.

The sickest, rawest scream tore through the mic as Mei’s shin split open.

She went down rolling, clutching her leg, swearing so loudly the chat just copy-pasted her voice lines in all caps: [F**! F***! F***!]

Marc’s body carried the momentum and was down with the blade direction, this alone left room for the stranger to punish him instantly. With one brutal elbow snapped up under his chin.

His jaw cracked, teeth probably shattered, and he hit the ground gasping.

"God, just... Fucking hell, log out already, people!" I yelled at my screen, slamming my desk. "You’re making it worse!"

But what I didn’t know was the backlines.

Rina fired again, and this time it was dead perfect while the woman was still in the motion of recovering from retracting her elbow.

The arrow embedded itself right into the woman’s temple.

Perfect headshot.

Her hood jerked sideways from the force, her body rocked, and for a moment, silence fell over the stream.

Then, eruption comparable to Chernobyl as chat went nuclear. Emotes flying, screaming, small donations pinging like a slot machine, my whole screen was flashing from the noise of it alone.

I thought it was over. It should have been over.

Then the hooded woman’s started speaking... Purely for dramatic effect, since it was never needed to say your spell out loud, it was just easier to focus and cast it doing so.

She spoke...

"Protective Barrier."

The glow was subtle at first, just a faint ripple around her head, the arrow dissolving as if it had never landed. Then the shimmer spread across her shoulders, her chest, the faint blue sheen of an active barrier spell.

I froze, and my autopilot sent me to start drinking milk even when the glass was already empty.

"Hoh..." I chuckled.

The chat filled the silence for me:

[?????]

[wtf she tank??]

[No that’s impossible, that’s literally a Paladin skill, what is going on??]

I leaned back in my chair, and legs on the table.

Fast like a rogue, deadly reaction and manuvers like a ranger, strong as an orc. But she had just tanked a headshot with a barrier... And Protective Barrier was one of the Paladin’s class unique skill that scaled off Attack stats.

You can protect two people, or double the shield if it was for one. And for a solo player, it was good enough.

Paladins wouldn’t usually go solo, because they lack so many stuff, and just hybrid-classing alone would take you a shitloads of money and raw skills, trust me, I would know. But here we are, a tank class playing like a weaponed-up monk.

"Reminds me of an old friend..." I whispered at the horrifying thought that... I might know who she was.