Chapter 18: The Healer Who Strikes First

After moving quickly for about ten minutes, Seong-jun’s group finally reached the location where the battle was unfolding.

Clang!

Clang!

Clack!

Boom!

Bang!

Kaboom!

The side being pushed back was a typical hunting party composition, while the aggressive side was composed entirely of damage dealers.

Since they were villains who targeted other hunters rather than monsters, it was likely more efficient to form a team of pure damage dealers rather than including tanks or healers.

Moreover, since they were humans and not monsters acting on instinct, they could ignore a tank’s aggro skills and prioritize attacking the ranged dealers and healers in the back.

“Urgh! Dammit! Protect Su-hyang no matter what! If our healer goes down, we’re all dead!”

“I know! I know, but I can barely keep myself alive right now!”

“Dammit! If only we hadn’t been ambushed!”

The battle had begun after a sudden surprise attack while they were talking amicably, so they had started the fight after taking significant damage.

Furthermore, the party included a tank with significantly low offensive capabilities and a healer who was practically useless in a fight.

Meanwhile, one ranged dealer had already left the area to seek help, and another member who looked like a dealer was already incapacitated and lying on the ground.

There was a stark difference in firepower.

The problem was that the villains were persistently clinging to them, making it difficult to escape.

The tide of battle had already clearly swung in the villains’ favor.

“Stop playing around and finish them off quickly. If that guy who ran away brings someone else, it’ll be a headache.”

“Don’t worry. They’re struggling hard, but looking at their condition, it’s almost over.”

It seemed they were barely holding on because the healer was still safe, but based on the healer’s state, her holy power appeared to be on the verge of exhaustion.

She was squeezing out what she could, but she was reaching her limit.

Seong-jun, who had just arrived and assessed the situation, spoke hurriedly to Gwang-taek.

“This doesn’t look good. Brother, I think we should support the healer and the ranged dealers first.”

As soon as Seong-jun finished speaking, Gwang-taek charged forward with his sword and shield held high.

“Copy that!”

Dash!

“Yu-seon. Provide some cover fire for him.”

“Got it!”

As Gwang-taek and Yu-seon joined the fray:

“Gah! W-What! Dammit! More of them! I told you to hurry up!”

“F-First, stop that guy!”

The villains panicked and shifted their gaze toward Gwang-taek, who was charging at them.

Bang!

Boom!

Clang!

Two villains unleashed powerful attacks on Gwang-taek, but they were only D-rank. Gwang-taek, a B-rank tank armed with various buffs from Seong-jun, didn’t take any significant damage.

And toward them…

Whish!

Yu-seon’s fierce attacks poured down.

“Kuh! D-Dodge!”

Boom!

Crack!

With Gwang-taek and Yu-seon’s intervention, the party that had been the target of the villains finally found some breathing room.

However, it wasn’t as if the tide of the battle had completely turned yet.

The original party was in such poor condition that they had merely escaped overwhelming disadvantage.

‘In this situation, instead of participating in the attack directly, it’s better to focus on my role as a supporter and coordinate the overall situation.’

In Seong-jun’s view, there were two ways to resolve the current crisis.

Either help Gwang-taek and Yu-seon eliminate the villains one by one while the original party held on, or use heals and buffs to raise the overall stats of the hunters to pressure the villains from all sides.

Seong-jun decided that the second method would be much faster and more stable for suppressing the villains.

‘No time to lose. Let’s start. Light of Healing! Divine Heal! Fast Heal!’

Seong-jun first cast healing spells on those in poor condition.

‘Iron Body! Iron Stamina! Iron Strength! Wind Walker! Elemental Blessing!’

He quickly rotated through and cast the five basic buffs.

“Huh! T-This is!”

“My health, which was hitting rock bottom, recovered this much in an instant?”

“Oh! These are the buffs we got at the dungeon entrance!”

Judging by their words, it seemed this party had already received buffs from Seong-jun once at the entrance of the dungeon.

“I will provide support! So focus on the battle!”

As the situation reversed rapidly with Seong-jun’s participation, the villains began to grow desperate.

“Gah! What are you doing! Kill that healer first!”

The original healer in the party was already low on mana and wasn’t a big threat.

However, the appearance of a fresh, new healer was a huge problem.

Perhaps that’s why the villains prioritized Seong-jun as their primary target, but…

“Where do you think you’re going!”

“You think we’ll just let you through!”

The original hunters held them back and wouldn’t let go.

Most importantly, Gwang-taek and Yu-seon were tying up at least two or three people each, so the villains’ threats couldn’t reach Seong-jun.

‘Fast Heal! Fast Heal! Divine Heal!’

He extinguished urgent fires with Fast Heal, which had low healing but an extremely short cooldown, and used Divine Heal occasionally to rapidly restore the hunters’ vitality.

‘Wind Walker! Elemental Blessing! Iron…’

He distributed buffs evenly among his allies, gradually ramping up their firepower.

“W-What! Why did these guys get so strong suddenly!”

“Dammit! Did they take some drugs? They’re completely different from before!”

Those who received Seong-jun’s monstrous buffs displayed power incomparable to their previous state.

Consequently, the tide had completely turned, and the villains began to be pushed back.

‘This should have handled the emergency. Time to wrap this up.’

Seong-jun, having perfectly revived the party that was on the brink of annihilation, decided it was time to end the fight.

“Brother! Yu-seon! Here it comes!”

At Seong-jun’s words, Gwang-taek and Yu-seon smirked.

“I was waiting for that! Go for it!”

“Haha, let’s see if critical hits land well on villains too, shall we?”

Once Gwang-taek and Yu-seon understood his intent, Seong-jun immediately cast his skill.

‘Attribute Infusion: Darkness!’

The skill Seong-jun cast was none other than Darkness Attribute Infusion.

Until now, he had only used it on monsters, but this was his first time casting it on a person.

Flash!

Dark energy momentarily erupted from the body of the villain hit by the Darkness Attribute Infusion.

“Whoa! W-What! Suddenly… power is overflowing!”

The villain felt a momentary surge in strength.

And why wouldn’t he?

It increased overall stats in exchange for changing the attribute to darkness.

“Oh! This works on people too? Brother! Yu-seon!”

As soon as he placed the Darkness Attribute Infusion on one of the villains:

“Haha, goodbye! Stun Charge!”

Gwang-taek unleashed a Stun Charge at the villain who had been infused with the darkness attribute.

Bang!

“Ugh! W-What…!!”

The villain was momentarily stunned.

And toward him…

Whish!

Yu-seon unleashed a powerful attack skill.

Kaboom!

“Aaark!”

Even though she was F-rank, Yu-seon boasted incredible offensive power thanks to Seong-jun’s various buffs.

Moreover, since the target had been changed to the darkness attribute, every attack from Seong-jun, Gwang-taek, and Yu-seon landed as a critical hit.

Imagine how massive that damage was.

Thud!

The villain, unable to move due to Gwang-taek’s stun, died instantly from a single attack skill from Yu-seon.

“Next! Moving on!”

Seong-jun immediately cast Darkness Attribute Infusion on the next villain, and Gwang-taek firmly grabbed that villain’s ankles.

Even though he couldn’t use Stun Charge because of the cooldown, the villain couldn’t easily escape when a B-rank tank was determined to hold him down.

Then Yu-seon finished that villain off with a powerful attack.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Aaaaagh!”

In an instant, two villains were dead, leaving six remaining.

The villains were now starting to lose even their numerical advantage.

“Dammit!”

Realizing the situation was turning grim, one of the villains who had been fighting the original party’s tank abandoned his opponent and dashed toward Seong-jun.

Dash!

The tank who had been facing that villain looked flustered.

“Oh! D-Danger!”

The villain was targeting Seong-jun, who looked like a healer.

Naturally, he assumed Seong-jun had no defensive or offensive skills to speak of.

“You bastard! Even if I die here, I’m taking you with me!”

In an instant, the villain reached Seong-jun’s immediate vicinity.

However, a strange smile played on Seong-jun’s lips.

“Heh, give it a shot.”

Seong-jun had been prepared for this situation since he first intervened in the fight.

He used the ability that allowed him to borrow a skill from someone with absolute trust once a day.

He had already equipped one of Gwang-taek’s skills.

‘Stun Charge!’

Bang!

The skill Seong-jun had borrowed from Gwang-taek was Stun Charge.

He had thought that a stun skill, which could momentarily incapacitate an enemy and allow for a counterattack, was much more efficient than a purely defensive move.

Moreover, since no one would expect a healer like Seong-jun to use a stun skill, it was the perfect way to catch the enemy off guard.

“Gah!”

The villain fell into a stunned state instantly.

‘Holy Attack!’

Toward the villain, Seong-jun cast his skill and swung his mace.

[Active] Holy Attack [1/10]

Strikes the enemy with divine power using a blunt weapon.

-Holy Damage +30,000

-Double damage applied to Dark Attribute targets.

-Damage increased by [30%] when using blunt weapons.

-50% chance to apply status effect [Bone Breaker] upon successful Holy Attack.

Casting Time: [Instant]

Holy Power Consumption: [120]

Cooldown: [1 minute]

As the swung mace slammed into the villain’s side:

“Aaaargh!”

An enormous shock overwhelmed the villain.

Unable to withstand the impact, the villain rolled across the ground.

“Cough! Hack! Gasp!”

Looking at him, several ribs seemed to be completely shattered; it appeared the Bone Breaker effect, which triggers by chance, had been applied.

Above all, Seong-jun was a B-rank even if he was a healer, and his actual stats exceeded A-rank.

Since his stats were on a completely different level than the villains, who were only D-rank, the impact was bound to be even greater.

“……”

Perhaps because Seong-jun, who they thought was a healer, had suppressed a villain with a single powerful blow, the eyes of both the villains and the hunters momentarily converged on him.

Seeing them, Seong-jun shrugged his shoulders.

“What are you looking at? The battle isn’t over yet.”

When Seong-jun made them realize the current situation, they snapped back to their senses and re-engaged.

However, the tide of battle had already completely shifted, so further fighting was meaningless.

“D-Dammit! Let’s run!”

Judging that there was no hope, the villains hurriedly tried to flee.

“Kuh! You guys! Just you wait!”

Looking at them, Seong-jun flashed a cold smile.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

He immediately cast a skill.

‘Sword of Light!’

Along with Holy Attack, the Sword of Light was another offensive skill he had acquired upon reaching B-rank.

[Active] Sword of Light [1/10]

Summons a sword of light imbued with holy power to purge the enemy.

-Holy Damage +150,000

-Double damage applied to Dark Attribute targets.

-Number of summonable swords [1/10]

-After striking the target, additional damage reduced by [50%] from original damage is dealt to enemies within a certain range.

-After striking the target, status effect [Confusion] is applied to enemies within a certain range.

Casting Time: [10 seconds]

Holy Power Consumption: [1,500]

Cooldown: [2 hours]

The Sword of Light was an ultimate-tier attack skill that dealt massive damage and was also an area-of-effect skill that dealt additional damage to nearby enemies after the initial strike.

Although it required a long cooldown of two hours and a high holy power consumption of 1,500, it was a correspondingly powerful skill.

Swish!

The summoned Sword of Light shot toward the villain at an incredible speed.

Boom!

With a massive explosion, the villain directly hit by the Sword of Light died instantly.

“Aaack!”

The other villains who were fleeing with him were also caught in the area-of-effect damage and suffered massive blows.

Flash!

“Gah!”

“Urgh!”

Even though the damage was reduced by 50 percent, it was not at a level that could be ignored considering the original damage.

However, perhaps it was slightly insufficient to kill them, as no one died except for the villain who took the direct hit.

Nevertheless, they were shown unable to regain their senses as the Confusion status effect was applied.

“Hurry and suppress the remaining ones.”

If only Seong-jun’s party had been here, they would have killed them all and taken the mana stones, various byproducts, and the equipment they were wearing, equivalent to what those villains had stolen from their victims.

But since there were other hunters here, it was unfortunate, but he had to follow the standard procedure for now.

“You damn villain bastards! Stay still if you don’t want to end up dead like that guy!”

Suppressing the villains, who were in a state of confusion along with extreme damage, was easy work.

In this manner, the villains were quickly subdued by Seong-jun’s group and the other hunters.

***

I Became an EX-Grade All-Round Priest Episode 18

E-book Publication Date 2025.11.14

Author | Kim Hyun-jun

Publisher | Heo Heung-beom, Park Gun-won

Published by | Poten

Address | 10th Floor, 8 Yeonmujang 11-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul [04783]

Phone | 02-6320-8500

Fax | 02-6320-8585

ISBN | 9791175302167

Price | Not for Sale

Kim Hyun-jun 2025

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This e-book was published under a contract with the author, and unauthorized redistribution, reproduction, distribution, or sharing without the written consent of both parties is prohibited.