Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-148

Chapter 148 - 6 against 4

Gu Fei was happily running toward the hilltop when he noticed that there was someone beside him who was heading in the same direction. Turning his head to look, he saw that it was Sword Demon. “Hey!” He pointed his sword to Sword Demon as a form of greeting and said, “Let’s go killin’!”

“Listen!” Sword Demon blocked Gu Fei’s advance.

“What?”

“We’ll likely head straight into an ambush if we rush to them like this,” Sword Demon replied.

“That’s perfect! Saves us the time to find them; we can kill all the enemies in one go,” Gu Fei was currently experiencing an adrenaline rush and carelessly thought that all sorts of PvP maneuvers were useless before his absolute strength.

“Calm down. I know your Attack Power is high, but can you really face over ten enemies at once?” Sword Demon rationalized.

“If you shield me for a bit…” Gu Fei began to say, thinking of his coordination with Svelte Dancer yesterday.

“I may be able to shield you once, but there won’t be a second time,” Sword Demon frankly said. Gesturing around them, he added, “Take a look.”

Plains surrounded them, so they could immediately see the many teams of Cloud Herder mercenary group heading their way from various directions. Furthermore, Foe-herder was now provocatively pointing his claymore toward Gu Fei and Sword Demon.

Even if they rushed up the hill and eliminated Foe-herder, they would end up getting surrounded by the other members afterward. Uncaringly, Gu Fei lifted his Moonlit Nightfalls and accepted Foe-herder’s taunt. “We’ll kill as many as we can!” With that, he continued his charge up the hill.

Sword Demon tried to block Gu Fei once more, yet his speed was no match for the latter. Despite being a Thief, Sword Demon’s boots were not top grade. He knew that he would not catch up to Gu Fei even if he activated his Fleetfoot, so he could only helplessly follow him from behind.

Foe-herder remained unfazed when he saw that the two men had continued their charge toward him. With the enemies just three meters away from him, Foe-herder parted his two hands holding a claymore each and placed them on both sides of his body.

“Dual-wielder! He already went for his Job Class Advancement as a Berserker! Be careful!” Sword Demon shouted after Gu Fei.

When a level 40 Warrior advanced to a Berserker, the first skill he or she would learn was Dual-wielding Mastery, which would allow him or her to dual-wield weapons. Nonetheless, equipping weapons on a dominant hand and a non-dominant hand had some differences. While no changes would occur to the weapon that was equipped on the dominant hand, equipping a weapon on the non-dominant hand would only allow a player to access 20% of the weapon’s Attack Power. This percentage would only increase when the respective mastery for the skill reached a higher rank. This skill was similar to Gu Fei’s Spell Mastery, so players did not need to grind its proficiency. As long as they reached the appropriate level, they could level up the skill’s rank from the relevant NPC over by the Warrior Encampment.

Foe-herder was at level 40 and he had a non-dominant left hand. Therefore, the sword in his left hand could only unleash 20% of its Attack Power. However, the Dual-wielding Mastery skill affected not just this.

“Cyclone!” Although Foe-Herder’s current posture of hanging his claymores by his two sides was different to a Warrior’s regular stance when unleashing Cyclone, Gu Fei could still tell his intention just from seeing half his body’s posing.

What surprised Gu Fei was not the fact that a Warrior had activated this skill during a PvP; instead, it was the fact that Foe-herder had activated the skill early. Having fought with Warriors many times, Gu Fei no longer needed to take a defensive stance against it. Using his fast speed and high damage output advantages, he managed to insta-kill many opponents in the past just by guessing when they would start their attacks. At this moment, however, Foe-herder activated his Cyclone about three meters away – a distance Gu Fei had no means of attacking the other.

This small detail already decided the gap between an expert and an average player. Many Warriors could not use Cyclone against Gu Fei, yet Foe-herder’s Cyclone was even starting to spin.

The change that Dual-wielding Mastery brought could directly be seen through this Cyclone alone. The speed of Cyclone produced by two claymores being held parallel to the ground was fiercer and gustier than the speed of regular Cyclone.

Players had long noticed this aspect of the skill and they had of course tried using both hands to unleash Cyclone before, but they ended up returning to using single weapons to perform the skill when they realized that their off-hand weapons did not generate any Attack Power. Putting this aside, there was also a possibility that a Warrior might unluckily push his or her opponent outside the Cyclone’s attack range with their off-hand weapons. As a corollary, the attack from the dominant hand would get wasted.

At present, with the non-dominant hand finally able to generate Attack Power, this Cyclone was able to display the advantages of dual-wielding weapons.

Gu Fei’s pupils contracted. He could tell at a glance that this doubly fast Cyclone was not something he could block! Nonetheless, Gu Fei still positioned his sword before him as he knew that doing something was better than just waiting for his death.

...And what awaited him was extreme pain!

The sword met the claymores and, as Gu Fei had expected, failed to block Cyclone. Grating against his body, Foe-herder’s Cyclone successfully flung Gu Fei outward with a whoosh.

Sword Demon chased after Gu Fei’s flying figure and cushioned the latter’s fall by positioning himself behind Gu Fei. “I’m alive!” Gu Fei gasped in astonishment as he stood up.

“His left hand holding a claymore only dealt 20% damage,” Sword Demon told Gu Fei. Having known Gu Fei for quite some time, his fellow mercenaries wholly understood that Gu Fei did not spend much time researching about the game’s mechanics like them.

Gu Fei sighed in relief. Although he was not that knowledgeable of the game’s mechanics, he at least had an understanding of this sort of concepts after playing Parallel World for over a month. It would indeed be an overkill if just 20% of a Warrior’s Attack Power could insta-kill someone.

However, the two did not have the time to ponder about this matter for long since a fiery glow began to emerge right above their heads, the ground beneath their feet became warmer, and the piercing sound of objects traveling through air echoed about.

“Quickly dodge!” The duo simultaneously shouted as they bolted away.

Descending Wheel of Flames, Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno, Double Shot, Homing Projectile... The opposing teams that that had gotten into firing range of Gu Fei and Sword Demon began unleashing their long-range attacks on the two.

Although the two managed to dodge the first wave, the second wave was already upon them. The next batch of flame wheels appeared above them; the Olympic rings of Descending Wheel of Flames that Gu Fei had previously disdained effectively widened the spell’s current AOE.

Relying purely on his extremely fast movement speed, Gu Fei barely dodged the flame wheels. Sword Demon was not as lucky, though, and one flame wheel managed to hit him full force. Thankfully, the average Mages did not have Gu Fei’s or Drifting’s high Spell Damage, so that one flame wheel failed to insta-kill Sword Demon. He was still ablaze when he ran after Gu Fei.

“We can’t continue like this; let’s split up. Rush out of the encirclement from the 156, 217 direction,” Sword Demon said as he activated Fleetfoot and headed toward a different direction.

As another flame wheel began to form above Gu Fei’s head, he quickly ran for his life. He used Descending Wheel of Flames to insta-kill many players before, yet he was currently being forced to flee by this very same spell. Was this what others meant by retribution?

Gu Fei ran onward as he took note of the flame wheel’s progress above his head. After a bit, he could only sigh, “I’m finished!”

Two flames wheels had already appeared to where Gu Fei was heading. By the time he ran to that area in front, the flames wheels had begun their descent to the ground. Although the two spells could not insta-kill him, Gu Fei’s HP was currently not full, so the current magic assault would mostly likely kill him.

This was what facing an expert mercenary group meant. Gu Fei was not the only one who could calculate in advance where a spell would hit. Since the opponents currently had more manpower, their coordinated strikes managed to include the most conservative as well as the most extreme estimation of Gu Fei’s possible movement, covering all the routes he would likely take.

“How depressing!” Gu Fei thought of Royal God Call’s look of anticipation when he asked him to avenge their deaths. And yet, here he was, about to die in an even more embarrassing manner than them.

Knowing that the flame wheels would hit him, Gu Fei raced forward as he fervently hoped that his remaining HP would be able to survive the spells’ damage output. He kept on running as he waited for the system to announce his fate, yet no further movement occurred above his head. Unexpectedly, Gu Fei managed to escape the spells’ AOE with his mad sprint.

Glancing backward, he felt stunned by what he saw.

Sword Demon on Fleetfoot did not break out of the encirclement; instead, he bore the brunt of Descending Wheel of Flames and charged toward the pack of Mages, eliminating two Mages with his practiced footwork and skill in a split second. The flame wheels above Gu Fei dissipated because Sword Demon had forcefully interrupted with his assault the Mages’ spell-casting. With the Mages scattering about to dodge the still burning Thief’s attack, the Archers behind them sent forth a cloud of arrows toward Sword Demon. Given how tightly knitted the arrows were, Sword Demon naturally failed to escape the bombardment and subsequently turned into a beam of white light. “Listen to Young Master’s orders…” Sword Demon sent this private message to Gu Fei right before he disappeared.

Gu Fei froze in place for a bit. Checking the mercenary channel, he saw that Young Master Han had sent out this message: “Head toward 164, 189….”

Gu Fei did not think more about it and just headed toward the indicated direction.

“174, 201.”

“189, 176.”

“201, 176.”

Messages incessantly flashed on the mercenary channel as Young Master Han constantly sent Gu Fei a fresh batch of coordinates, allowing the latter to move forward without getting hit by any of the enemies’ attacks. As Gu Fei left the chasing players further and further behind, the players in front of him tried to block off his path of escape. Unfortunately for them, the route Young Master Han had guided Gu Fei to allowed the latter to escape them unscathed.

Foe-herder, who remained atop the hill, watched Gu Fei’s movement and found it to be very perplexing. The route Gu Fei had taken completely avoided any form of obstructions or any incoming mercenaries from Foe-herder’s side. It would be understandable for Gu Fei to successfully avoid all of them if they were in an open plain where everyone’s location was visible. Presently, however, they were attempting to intercept Gu Fei from places he should not be aware of. And yet, he was still able to successfully circle past them.

This… There must be someone giving him directions! Actually, the first thought that came to Foe-herder was: There’s a spy! He suspected that the instructions he had sent on the mercenary channel were being revealed by a spy to the enemies. However, he very quickly dismissed this theory. If that was really the case, why would the two previously risk their lives to rush up the hill to kill him?

A breeze swept through the hilltop from a nearby forest. Foe-herder suddenly looked at the hill across him. Although that hill was not as high as this hill he was on, that place was well-covered by tall trees. If someone was atop a tree… Although the field of view over there could not match his current position, commanding from over there with an overview of this map’s terrain would not be difficult!

So that’s how it is! Foe-herder was delighted with his discovery and he immediately sent a command: “Team 3 and Team 7, head over to that hill within the forest near you. An enemy should be hiding atop a tree over there. Hurry!”

Receiving this order, Team 3 and Team 7 promptly made their way toward the hill by the forest.

Young Master Han, who was atop the tree, saw the two teams heading his direction as he continued to direct Gu Fei. “Oh. So you finally found out…” he muttered to himself.

The score right now was 6 against 4.