Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-105

Chapter 105 - Battle beside the Mailbox

Evading the flame wheel was no longer possible for Gu Fei and the five men with its fast descending speed and proximity to them. It might still be possible for players to evade the Descending Wheel of Flames spell if they had begun to make their getaway while a Mage was still chanting its incantation, but in the case of Gu Fei and the others, no amount of Agility would help them escape the flame wheel now, since they only tried dodging the spell when it had already formed. At this moment, only the inexperienced player, Gu Fei, was still hoping that the flame wheel would not descend.

In the end, the flame wheel completed its descent and engulfed everyone within its AOE. This was the second time Gu Fei had been hit with such a devastating attack after bearing the brunt of Xiaoyu’s Cyclone back then. Right now, this flame wheel scorched him as well as depleted his HP. Why is it my friends who always end up hurting me? Gu Fei was depressed.

Ice Glaze did not possess high Magic Attack Power like Gu Fei, after all; an AOE spell like Descending Wheel of Flames affected a large area, so the corresponding damage it could deal to each individual was rather low. Unless there was a large level difference, insta-killing using this spell was almost impossible.

Gu Fei’s ability to insta-kill players with his Descending Wheel of Flames had unknowingly created a shadow in his heart. So when Ice Glaze casted the spell, Gu Fei’s nerves were severely frayed, causing him to utter a heartfelt prayer for a Priest’s timely intervention. No such thing happened, of course; instead, Gu Fei discovered that the damage dealt by Ice Glaze’s Descending Wheel of Flames was rather low, only managing to chip a bit of his HP.

The five opponents Gu Fei was facing were clearly more experienced in fights involving spells; they remained unfazed while being blasted by the spell and even launched attacks on Gu Fei to take advantage of his reduced HP. With their side having numerical superiority in this five-versus-one PvP, they were not afraid of confronting Gu Fei.

Gu Fei also awakened from his stupor. He quickly swung his sword upon seeing that the opposing Mages were about to cast spells once more.

The two Mages tried to cast Twin Incineration despite its damage output being low. Gu Fei had just received damage from a flame wheel; receiving the spell from them might not insta-kill Gu Fei, but its five-second duration of burning effect would be more than capable of doing so….

Unfortunately for the two Mages, Gu Fei’s reaction was faster than theirs. Just as they were enunciating the second syllable of Twin Incineration, Gu Fei’s Moonlit Nightfalls swooped down and insta-killed them. Killing the two Mages by hitting them with Ice Glaze’s Descending Wheel of Flames once and Gu Fei’s Moonlit Nightfalls twice was not surprising, as the opposing pair had low HP.

As for the Priest in their midst, he was still healing himself and did not realize that his teammates had stepped through the threshold of life and death.

It was now the two Archers’ turn to panic, as Gu Fei engaged them in melee next. The two Archers had originally assumed that their two Mage friends would be able to kill off Gu Fei, but the two Mages were the ones killed off by him in the end. Being weak in melee, the two Archers performed in the fight more poorly than the Mages. They tried to distance themselves from Gu Fei, yet the latter did not let them do so as he stabbed them twice.

Gu Fei was a full-Agility Mage, so the Archers could not pull away no matter how fast they retreated. Actually, he was inferior to the two’s running speed. But by simply extending his arm holding a sword forward, he was able to make up for this deficit. The Archers were eventually pierced each in their backs. Just like the two Mages before them, one flame wheel and two stabs turned them into streams of white light.

After killing the four, Gu Fei finally faced the petrified Priest who had raised his magic staff. The Priest, who had just finished healing himself, turned to help his companions next. What greeted his sight, however, was their disappearing figures as Gu Fei killed them one by one almost instantly.

The Priest was now alone and helpless, yet Gu Fei felt not an ounce of sympathy for him. Gu Fei resolutely darted forward… The Priest was obviously slower than Gu Fei, and these few meters showed this fact clearly. The escaping Priest just turned his body halfway around when Gu Fei caught up to him.

“Twin Incineration! Incinerate!” Gu Fei happily called out, thinking of how the two Mages from before must have felt vexed at having only chanted half of this spell’s incantation.

The Priest obviously had an Endurance build, as he survived Gu Fei’s Twin Incineration. This was hardly unexpected for various reasons. Firstly, Twin Incineration dealt the lowest damage out of all the spells available for Mages. Secondly, the weapons wielded by players could not influence the damage output of the spell’s five-second burning effect. Thirdly and ultimately, the Priest could heal himself, so weathering the spell was easy!

Fortunately, Gu Fei was not careless and delivered another Twin Incineration to the Priest. With the Priest finally succumbing to this blow, Moonlit Nightfalls was able to regain its reputation as a weapon with monstrous Spell Damage.

All this happened within a short timeframe. When the fiery glow of Ice Glaze’s Descending Wheel of Flames dissipated, only Gu Fei was left of the six people that had originally been engulfed by the blazing flame wheel.

“So powerful!” Gu Fei flashed a thumbs-up toward Ice Glaze, “You insta-killed them all.”

Ice Glaze was no Xiaoyu, however. Understanding everything, she smilingly said, “My PK value didn’t increase!”

Her words reminded Gu Fei of his PK value and he hurriedly checked his character window. His PK value had the number ‘6’ written in red by its side.

“F*ck!” Gu Fei cursed aloud in his extreme vexation. The six men clearly initiated the attack! Only the Priest had not attacked him, so he was sure that his PK value would rise by 1 point at most. How did 1 PK point turn into 6 PK points?

Crap! Gu Fei realized what went wrong. His kill of that person by Peddlers’ Street had already awarded him 1 PK point, so the PvP rule of not gaining PK points when defending against assailants or killing players with PK value would not be applicable to him. This was because he had become a player with PK value before them.

Tears streamed down Gu Fei’s face. Even the wisest man would occasionally make mistakes. In addition, he was usually unmindful of the game rules. Seems like I’ve to adjust my mindset regarding PvP. I need to commit the PvP rules in my head to a point where I’ll know the consequence of my every move. PK value… was the game feature Gu Fei had the most contact with ever since he first entered Parallel World. He had rid himself of it about four hours ago and now it found its way back to him once more.

Ice Glaze naturally knew nothing of the emotional roller-coaster Gu Fei was going through in these few moments, as she regretfully said, “That guy seems to have fled using Stealth.” She was talking about Nightmare of Death, whom they managed to identify by the equipment information Gu Fei had provided her before. Could this count as Gu Fei miscalculating now that the target had escaped?

However, Gu Fei just smiled calmly, “Isn’t he still here?” With that, he leaped and twisted his body mid-air to deliver a beautiful roundhouse kick.

A figure appeared beside Gu Fei following this kick. It was Nightmare of Death whose head had turned askew as another big footprint became visible on his right cheek.

“How cool!” Ice Glaze applauded.

Gu Fei laughed, not thinking much of Ice Glaze’s compliment. People from the outside and the people in the know often focused on different things. While a roundhouse kick looked cool and beautiful, it was actually a move with limited application in real combat. This was because a certain distance and space was required to execute it. Making a turn mid-air with the body’s lower half and recovering from that position were major flaws of this move. Therefore, real experts would seldom use this move in bouts between one another.

Gu Fei used it this time for several reasons. First, the person he was fighting was not a kung fu practitioner like himself. Second, Nightmare of Death’s current standing position was just too perfect for a roundhouse kick; Gu Fei could not resist but employ this rarely used technique. Third, his roundhouse kick was something he had improved based on his research, reducing the kicking timeframe by half compared to the usual roundhouse kick. In layman’s terms, he had reduced its flaws by removing the redundant parts of the move!

Ice Glaze who lacked knowledge in kung fu would of course be unaware of all these; when Gu Fei heard her praise, he knew that it held neither substance nor meaning.

Meanwhile, Nightmare of Death tasted Gu Fei’s kicks for the third time, with his head receiving two out of the three. While the damage was inconsequential, he was clearly kicked stupid by Gu Fei. Five seconds had passed, yet he was still in that same pose. With his head skewed to the side of his body, it was as if he was stuck in a freeze frame shot of a film.

Gu Fei was actually glad Nightmare of Death had been standing dumbly there, as he was currently buying time for his mercenary group mates.

Gu Fei had purposely blocked the mailbox earlier to confirm the one holding on to Frost Memories. After confirming that Nightmare of Death was the one holding the weapon, Gu Fei proactively killed of the rest of his companions. He purposely ignored Nightmare of Death to buy time for the rest of Young Master’s Elite mercenary group’s to arrive.

The extremely unluckily Sword Demon experienced an item-drop with merely one death today, losing his Frost Memories to Nightmare of Death. A hunt would be necessary if they wished to get Nightmare of Death to drop Frost Memories. Players with pieces of top-grade equipment would of course carry those around with them. Nightmare of Death was no different. The difficulty in reclaiming the weapon also increased since Frost Memories could change hands to a different owner at any given time.

In truth, Gu Fei had little hope of recovering Frost Memories. His main purpose was actually to help Sword Demon get even – well, besides his desire to fight.

Whatever the case might be, Frost Memories remained as an important goal at the moment. Nightmare of Death would naturally respawn at the Thieves’ Union after being killed off. Gu Fei was currently waiting for Young Master Han and the rest to position themselves there before sending this opponent over.

Nightmare of Death stood frozen in place for five seconds before coming back to his senses. Although his hand was holding on to a dagger, Nightmare of Death did not know what to do with it. Running away was the best plan. Just as Nightmare of Death decided on this, Gu Fei’s sword whizzed over.

If Nightmare of Death had tried to run away from the beginning, Gu Fei would not have been able to stop him. This was because once he activated the level 30 Fleetfoot skill, Gu Fei would not be able to catch up to him. Seeing Nightmare of Death come to his senses, Gu Fei immediately acted. He had to hamper this man until Young Master Han and company completed their preparations.

He flourished Moonlit Nightfalls into a flurry of crosses, forming a sword net. Nightmare of Death was trapped within it, at a loss of what to do. Fortunately, he was able to successfully duck and block some of Gu Fei’s blows.

Unbeknown to him, this was intentionally done by Gu Fei. Being stuck in a stalemate, Gu Fei put up the facade of feeling anxious for his failed strikes to properly fool Nightmare of Death. And just like this, the opponent slowly regained his self-confidence. Although this opponent has the upper hand, I’m still able to defend against his attacks. Seems like my reaction time and speed ain’t too bad! Nightmare of Death smugly thought to himself.

My backup should be arriving soon, so I’ll just keep at it! Both were actually thinking the same thing. And yet, the two’s wish was not granted in the end.

Gu Fei suddenly heard a high-pitched female voice shouting: “Oh! There’s a fight!” followed by a shocked voice coming from Ice Glaze, “Lie Lie!”

“Hah. I’ve nothing to do, so I came to have a look. Turns out it’s a fight! Let me give you a hand!” Lie Lie thundered.

Nightmare of Death and Gu Fei felt a chill in their hearts.