Chapter 1831: Dual Duels
Lotus happily entered the ring so that she didn’t have to watch Ophelia’s fight live, and waited for the warrior to enter the arena with her.
The man had been reborn, so he was still working on rebuilding his Skill Tree, but he had quite a wide selection of skills from before he was reset into the body of a fifteen-year-old.
He was far from the youngest, but he was gangly, awkward, pimple faced, and his sister had been spreading vicious rumours about him.
He had definitely had it the worst of anyone who was reborn.
At least the ones who were fully regressed to child sized got some sympathy points from the rest of the Clan. An angry teenager got none.
"I’m sure that you both know the rules already, as the Clan Leader brought you here. No summons, no bonded assistants, no outside help, no deliberately aiming at the genitals," the referee announced.
That last part was new.
Lotus didn’t remember hearing that was part of the ruling, and normally, it would put her at a disadvantage, as that was close to shoulder height for her, with so many tall men around. But it didn’t matter, this guy wasn’t fully grown, and she wasn’t going to punch him anyhow.
"Start."
Lotus immediately transformed into the [Tree of Life] and began summoning [Entangling Vines] to grab her opponent.
The warrior countered with [Field of Blades], tearing apart the vines as fast as they were sprouting, but Lotus was not a simple opponent to fight. The vines exploded in a paralytic toxin every time that they were damaged, and she had poison damage on a few pieces of her gear.
The logic was that if she had to fight, they would take continual damage to offset enemy healing, while the majority of her skills were intended to buff her healing skills.
Lotus added [Circle of Wrath], a holy element area damage skill to the mix, and the warrior’s health began to steadily drop, even as her own stayed completely full. It was a brutal war of attrition, and her opponent couldn’t afford a single misstep because her vines would sedate him if he did.
In the crowd, a few of the regressed Clan members laughed.
"That spell, the Green Dragons use it to hold down and sedate unruly patients. She’s turned it into a primary combat skill, and her regeneration is so high that even his [Field of Blades] isn’t hurting her."
Karl smiled as he heard their admiration. [Field of Blades] was a physical damage spell, literally just blades cutting at everything in the range. Simple, brutal and effective.
Unless your opponent was bonded to a Spirit Bear Tyrant, that was.
Then, Lotus remembered that she had a second partner now. Which meant that she had a new skill.
[Chain Lightning] arced from her branches, adding more damage to the mix, and causing her opponent to stumble. He was scratched by a thorn that tore through the joint of his armour, and began to slow, giving Lotus even more chances to attack.
Lightning slowed and stunned, while her vines sedated, and within a minute, her opponent was barely mobile, with a vine wrapped around his ankles.
However, he had [Bestial Regeneration] and Lotus had truly terrible spell damage.
She still only had him at half health.
The crowd didn’t care. Getting to watch a healer fight in the arena was a rare thing, as nobody would normally ever challenge them and risk making an enemy out of a healer.
Only those who had to restart as children instead of spending years rebuilding their damaged Immortal Spirit could possibly understand the suffering that they were put through, in the minds of those who had undergone the treatment.
A flurry of blades continued to clash with the vines, while arcs of bright white energy blocked the lighting strikes. The battle was turning into a furious duel that would make any combat class proud, but the actual damage level was so laughably low that more than one of the Immortals had to check to make sure that Lotus wasn’t still a student.
Comparing the two battles, the one between the healing tree and the warrior was definitely the flashier. However, the other was definitely messier.
With rapid regeneration and long claws, the two berserkers had turned the battlefield into a storm of flying blood and fur. The challenger had far superior damage and agility, but Ophelia’s regeneration and pure durability was making the fight a questionable outcome.
Those watching had a pretty good idea where she would rank on the charts for the Spirit Immortals, but in a duel, she ranked among the elite tanks.
Nearly impossible to take down.
Not that either berserker cared. The fact that their opponents were not easy to defeat was exactly the outcome that they had hoped for.
"FORFEIT! FORFEIT!" The warrior fighting Lotus began to frantically shout, as his friends burst into laughter.
Lotus’ tentacles had managed to breach his armour, and apparently he was not a fan of where they were headed, so he called the fight before things could get really bad on his end.
It was probably the right call, Lotus had a history of traumatizing the boys.
The warrior scrambled out of the arena as soon as Lotus retracted her vines, and then the Priestess transformed back, and pulled Tifa from her space to spin the bear around in a victory dance.
"She... has a Spirit Bear as a pet? Damn, the Beast Master class is just broken."
"No wonder she’s so tough. Ranger type classes all get bonuses from their partners, and the Beast Masters can bond proper monsters. With that sort of advantage, and her healing skills, he never stood a chance.
Though, how bad were her combat skills before? Like, she’s got absolutely zero buffs to her damage, it’s like she’s still a newly anointed acolyte.
Or does her usual group have so much damage that she never needed to learn other skills?" Another warrior asked.
"Well, she’s in the Darklight Host. So, wouldn’t that mean that she’s likely part of Karl and Dana’s usual group? They came from a Mortal World, and Lotus just reached Immortality. So, she was likely part of their team as she advanced, and relied on the massive damage that the two of them could output."
"Well, that makes sense. With a team like that, and a gigantic Werebear berserker as your tank, damage is much less important than crowd control."
