MIGHT AS WELL BE OP

Chapter 1021: Crimson Irene’s Backstory

Crimson Irene came to a stop as no Angel attacked her again. Her breathing was stable and rhythmic, her body unstained as her white robe remained as pristine and immaculate as ever. Her crimson hair, despite having danced and whipped violently in the wind due to the extreme speed at which she had been moving, seemed to immediately fall back into perfect arrangement the moment she came to a halt.

Silence swept across the planet once again as Sylthorin Aethryx Solvarion and his group of twenty Eleven-Winged Angels stared at her in utter disbelief. They were simply too stunned to speak. For a moment, none of them could help but wonder whether the information they had received about her had been completely false, or whether what they were witnessing right now was some elaborate illusion crafted to deceive them.

After all, this woman, Crimson Irene, seemed far too capable in battle. And it was not only her raw performance that shocked them; she possessed battle experience, the kind that ran deep enough to rival even seasoned veteran warriors who had spent millennia fighting in brutal wars.

Crimson Irene was not like most healers.

She was different, and the first thing that made her different was her heritage, the Crimson family bloodline.

The Crimson family was renowned for their innate flame affinity, a lineage that had produced generations of powerful warriors. But within such a family, Irene had awakened as a healer. That reality was no different from being born a chicken within a family of wolves, a non-combatant existing within a household composed entirely of combatants.

Of course, she was neither mocked nor bullied. Despite awakening as a healer, everyone knew that healers were rare and invaluable. Because of that, she still held great worth despite being different from every other member of the Crimson family.

But there was one thing the Crimson family would never tolerate;

Weakness.

Despite awakening as a healer, they drilled the art of battle into her mind and body. They carved martial discipline into her very soul. Yes, she was a healer. She could not wield weapons properly, nor could she cultivate Sword Intent like true swordsmen. But she had her hands. She had her body. She had her mind.

And so she was thrust into brutality, forced to confront hardship again and again, so that she could break the invisible chains that bound healers. It was done so that she would never need to depend on anyone during battle simply because she had awakened as a healer.

Thus, while she had not awakened as a Martial Artist by class, she had nonetheless been forged into one through continuous training. Even after she married Collins, she still trained with him regularly in hand-to-hand combat, ensuring that her skills never dulled.

All of this was done while she also made sure not to neglect her extraordinary innate talent for healing.

The Crimson family threw her into dungeons again and again, forcing her to fight monsters and beasts that matched her physical level so that she could accumulate battle experience. When she was injured, she would simply heal herself and continue fighting. When exhaustion threatened to consume her, she would grit her teeth and push forward regardless.

She carried the burden of belonging to one of the most powerful families within the human domain of the Blue Planet. And just because she had been born different, just because she had awakened as a healer, did not mean that the rules of the family would bend for her.

Even Mitchelle had undergone similar training. However, in truth, everyone else had it easier than Irene. None of them had to train against the very nature of their awakened class. It was not as though the Crimson family suddenly forced Mitchelle to swing swords or wield rapiers or demanded that she learn weapons that were completely incompatible with her class.

Irene, on the other hand, had to struggle against the limitations of her own awakening.

Her past, her Crimson lineage, had forged her into the woman she was today. Crimson Irene. A healer who could fight on equal footing with most veteran warriors when it came to physical combat.

Of course, she was still outclassed whenever her opponents began using techniques and skills that were deeply tied to their combat-oriented classes. But throughout her life of hardship, and throughout her journey as a healer navigating a world dominated by warriors, she had found a way to create her own form of combat technique despite not being a combatant class.

Even while growing up, when healers were expected to remain safely behind the battle lines, she too would stand at the back of the formation. But when monsters occasionally broke through the defensive lines and reached the healers, she would not run away like the other healers. Instead, she would step forward and attack them with her bare hands.

However, at the end of the day, her own body had always been her greatest limitation. No matter how hard she trained, the body of a healer simply could not match the physical capabilities of someone who had awakened as a true martial class. That was why, during her years, she had relied heavily on counterattacks rather than initiating direct confrontations.

But now things were different.

After Anthony had given her the fruit, her body had undergone a tremendous transformation. A body that had already been honed to its natural limits, but restrained by the shackles of its class, had finally shattered those invisible boundaries.

In terms of physical strength, she had entered a new realm she had never reached before. She had finally begun to close the massive gap that separated her from other veteran warriors when it came to pure physical parameters. That was precisely why, at this very moment, she could move, react, counter, and respond to every incoming attack launched by the Angels surrounding her.

Yet despite the incredible display she had just shown, Crimson Irene was not foolish enough to believe she could defeat twenty Eleven-Winged Angels alone. At best, she could drag as many of them as possible down into the abyss with her, and ensure that she went out in a blaze of glory.

And of course, she knew that the battle was about to escalate to an entirely new level. With that realization, the ring resting upon her pinky finger suddenly gleamed as she activated its effect.

The ring possessed only a single function: to double every one of her physical parameters.

Immediately, Crimson Irene felt heat surge through her body as her strength soared in real time. She felt more powerful than she ever had before. But her body did not change in appearance. She did not suddenly grow bulkier or larger. The artifact simply performed its task flawlessly without any visible alteration.

At the same time, mana hummed through her mana core and spread across her entire body, coating her like an invisible armor as it boosted her strength even further. Her crimson hair swayed gently with the wind, while her crimson eyes gleamed with fierce intensity as she stared at the twenty Angels now watching her carefully.

Their expressions had changed, the times of underestimating her simply because she was had come to an end, she would no longer be treated as a mere healer on this battlefield. From this moment onward, she would be confronted with the full force reserved only for veteran warriors of war.

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: I hope you love her tiny bit of background story.