Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-184

Chapter 184 - One Hundred Kills

Initially, Foe-herder was certain that Gu Fei was the Mage that he was looking for, but he was now considering the possibility of Xi Xiaotian bringing an imposter to scam him out of his money. Is it really necessary for them to leave hastily like that even if he is reluctant to add me as a friend? Something seems off... There was also the fact that Gu Fei had just given Foe-herder a nonsensical excuse on why he refuse to add him as a friend, causing the latter to become even more suspicious of the whole matter.

It was a rough day for Foe-herder. His attempt to find out the identity of the mysterious Mage had caused others to treat the players of his guild as weirdos with how they kept on asking the same question around the city. The worst thing here was that the Amethyst Rebirth’s ladies hated him now after he had tried to get the mysterious Mage’s IGN from them through bribery. Foe-herder was not in a good mood from the start, and after Gu Fei and Xi Xiaotian left without a word, he was no longer thinking clearly and simply assumed that Xi Xiaotian was just trying to swindle him. In a fit of rage, he mobilized his entire guild to hunt those two down.

When the Cloud Herder’s members asked him how much he had been cheated off by Xi Xiaotian, Foe-herder felt slightly embarrassed to tell them that it was only 100 gold coins. While the amount was not small, it was too little to warrant mobilizing many players of his guild. However, he could care less about that right now as he only wanted to vent his frustration and seek revenge from those two who had made a fool of him.

It was human nature to feel like that, of course. Would anyone just laugh it off if someone raised his or her hopes up, only to smash them to pieces later by revealing that everything was but a scam?

But when Foe-herder was about to deploy his entire guild for their first-ever organized manhunt, the Mage Gu Fei squeezed his way through the crowd and spoke aloud to him, causing Foe-herder to be dumbfounded.

“Who’s this guy?” the men of Cloud Herder whispered to one another. As expected, not many could recognize Gu Fei’s face with his fast movement speed in their previous PvP match.

“Just what is up with him?” Foe-herder was utterly confused.

“I assure you that this is just a huge misunderstanding, so can you please disperse everyone first?” Gu Fei then turned around and waved his hands dismissively to the surrounding Cloud Herder members, “Everyone can leave already!”

Some simpletons of Cloud Herder began to take their leave upon hearing Gu Fei, so Foe-herder quickly sent out a command, “Don’t leave just yet, everyone.” As Gu Fei innocently faced him once more, Foe-herder said, “Give me an explanation for all this.”

“Xi Xiaotian didn’t lie to you. I am truly the man you’re looking for,” Gu Fei said.

“You are the masked Mage of Amethyst Rebirth during our guild match?” Foe-herder asked.

Gu Fei nodded his head.

“How are you gonna prove it?” Foe-herder pressed on.

Gu Fei was vexed. Being a full-blooded man, he felt embarrassed that he had entered an all-female guild before, so he had done everything to prevent others from knowing about it. Who knew that a day would come where he actually had to prove his Amethyst Rebirth membership?

Seeing that Gu Fei was speechless for a moment, the members of Cloud Herder thought that Foe-herder was in the right and lifted their weapons in hand.

Seems like this crowd won’t be pacified without me presenting some evidence, Gu Fei thought to himself. While he was good at killing people, he did not know how to deal with such a situation!

Foe-herder coldly snorted, “There’s no way we will believe your claim of being a member of Amethyst Rebirth without proof; can you show us your guild emblem?”

Gu Fei was once more regretful. The guild emblem Foe-herder spoke of existed precisely to prove a player’s guild membership. Any players could prove that they were part of certain guilds so long as they had their respective guild emblems.

Luo Luo had once given him this item, but Gu Fei had actually politely rejected it, believing that he would not be in the guild for long. As a corollary, he had become the only player in Parallel World without his guild’s emblem. Now that he had to prove his guild membership to other players, Gu Fei could only feebly say, “That… Erm… I forgot to bring it along…”

Everything suddenly became quiet. A guild emblem was an item with a specific purpose. It could be placed in a slot inside the dimensional pocket and would not take up space; it would also not take up an equipment slot when worn. It did not even weigh a thing when held in hand. Besides not possessing it in the first place, there was no reason that one would actually “forget to bring it along”.

With that, the players of Cloud Herder started making their moves. Archers nocked their arrows, Mages raised their magic staves, Thieves vanished from view, and Warriors pointed their weapons to Gu Fei. He hurriedly cried out, “Don’t be so hasty! Is there another way to prove my identity?”

“Another way? You can try killing all of us, then. Should be easy for you if you really are the Mage that we’re looking for,” Foe-herder rasped out coldly.

Hearing that, Gu Fei seriously checked his surroundings. Cloud Herder Guild had a hundred men surrounding him here at the Archer Range. This situation was similar to that time he had been left by himself in the frontline of Carouse Guild. Except on that day, he had appeared into the opposing guild’s defensive formation in a way that was akin to an instantaneous movement, allowing him to catch the enemies by surprise.

Right now, the members of Cloud Herder were fully prepared. In this tight encirclement, Gu Fei did not have any way to avoid their Mages’ AOE spells or to cast his spells without being interrupted. Seeing the empty, unguarded space behind Cloud Herder’s PvP formation, Gu Fei wished that he had already learned Blink by now.

“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” Foe-herder cruelly laughed.

“The difficulty is too high. Can you lower your standard a bit and just assign twenty to thirty of your men to test me out?” Gu Fei asked.

All the players of Cloud Herder felt stunned. They knew that Foe-herder had said those words flippantly, yet Gu Fei had apparently taken him seriously. Although he did not say that he could kill everyone present, challenging twenty to thirty of them was already daring enough. Foe-herder was still hesitating when Gu Fei’s eyes suddenly shone and he excitedly said, “I got it! l will fight all of you at once, but under the condition that no one can use their skills. How does that sound?”

The eyes of the Cloud Herder’s men almost fell off. Fighting without any spells or skills would lower their Attack Power, yet the man before them was a Mage. A Mage’s fighting prowess without his spell was equivalent to zero, so what was he trying to accomplish by suggesting such a thing?

Foe-herder dazedly looked at Gu Fei as he carefully considered the proposition for a moment. Mentally planning out something, he gave Gu Fei a slight smile, “That’s a rather interesting suggestion. Alright, let’s play according to it.”

“Wonderful! Just wonderful!” Gu Fei excitedly rubbed his hands together.

Foe-herder raised his claymore as he addressed his guildmates, “Everyone, listen up! No one is allowed to use any skills or spells. We’re only using basic attacks.”

As all dazedly nodded their heads, Foe-herder said on the guild channel, “This guy’s movement speed is fast, so maybe he is just trying to think of a way of escape. Finish him off with skills if he tries pulling something like that.”

Foe-herder’s words made the players who had participated in the mercenary PvP tournament recall how this Mage had left them in the dust, causing them to praise Foe-herder’s foresight. “His intention is to escape our encirclement by relying on his speed amid our weak attacks” was what those of Cloud Herder were thinking right now.

Foe-herder instantly felt more confident with his judgment after seeing the praises from everyone on the guild channel. He then ordered some Thieves to remain on Stealth outside the encirclement to intercept the Mage’s escape routes. He also positioned his men to counter situations, such as “What if the Mage suddenly uses skills”, “What if he escapes into a safe zone”, and so on, from popping up.

All in all, the entire Cloud Herder believed that Gu Fei was up to some tricks. How else would a Mage fight a hundred players without the use of spells?

“Boss of Cloud Herder, can we begin now?” Gu Fei asked.

Foe-herder carefully reviewed the formation he had set up. Upon ensuring that Gu Fei would have no way of escaping their encirclement, he nodded his head, “Yes. Let’s!”

“Awesome!” Gu Fei excitedly said. His left hand pulled out a sword, as his right hand held a Chinese broadsword. He then leaned his back against the outside wall of the safe zone.

Taking a step backward instead of coming forward to meet us, it seems that he really plans to run away! But... What’s up with his two weapons? The entire Cloud Herder had doubts on why Gu Fei was pulling out two weapons, but their numerical superiority of a hundred men against one Mage without spells made them fearless. Without waiting for Foe-herder’s order, four Warriors stepped out of the formation and charged toward Gu Fei.

In situations where everyone could not use skills or cast spells, the Warrior could be considered as the strongest job class in Parallel World. The four Warriors swung their claymores at Gu Fei’s head, intending to slay him with one stroke.

However, Gu Fei’s fast movement speed made it so that a skill-less Warrior was his least dangerous opponent. He was only worried about the high defense that a Warrior’s armor provided, and the possibility of facing off against job classes with high defense stat was precisely why he had decided to wield Sacred Flames of Baptism.

The four men’s swords were easily dodged by Gu Fei. He then lifted his right hand to perform Yi Shi Er Niao, a sword move that was mainly used to cut two enemies at once.

Gu Fei’s Agility was already high enough to use this sword move perfectly when he was at level 38, so of course he would have no issue pulling off this sword move at his current level. The two Warriors could not even see Gu Fei clearly when he slashed on to their chests.

The Chinese broadsword’s damage output was low, but the sudden additional fire attack that was procced afterward managed to frighten the two Warriors. Before they could recover their senses, the Chinese broadsword had once again flashed before their eyes. The two Warriors took the full brunt of this fast second strike as they remained frozen from shock just then. By the time they repositioned their claymores before them, Gu Fei’s fast third stroke had already arrived on them. At this decisive moment, the two unexpectedly began to coordinate their attacks. One tried to block Gu Fei’s incoming slash, while another continued to slash at their target.

Things seemed to be going well for these two Warriors, as one managed to block Sacred Flames of Baptism and prevent it from proccing again, while another was able to raise his claymore high up in the air and slash it downward to Gu Fei in the next moment. Gu Fei tried blocking the attacking Warrior’s downward slash by holding Moonlit Nightfalls horizontally on his left arm, but his inferior Strength allowed the attacking Warrior’s downward slash to force Moonlit Nightfalls into threatening his own flesh instead. The attacking Warrior’s heart was filled with elation as he saw that he was about to deal damage to Gu Fei, but in the next moment, Gu Fei forcefully turned his entire body to the right, redirecting the attacking Warrior’s claymore to clash with his companion’s weapon that was supposed to be restraining Sacred Flames of Baptism on Gu Fei’s right hand.

Now that it was no longer being blocked by the enemies, Gu Fei took this chance to weave Sacred Flames of Baptism again, proccing another bout of fire on the two.

The two other Warriors joined the skirmish at this point, yet Gu Fei easily took on all four of them. While his right hand dealt attacks using Sacred Flames of Baptism, his left hand blocked or parried blows using Moonlit Nightfalls.

Although the weapon in his non-dominant hand could cause a slight defense Verdict, Gu Fei’s flawless method of using the incoming attacks’ force to redirect the other blows allowed him to stay unharmed and for Verdict to get canceled. Each time the four Warriors’ claymores clashed against Gu Fei’s sword, they would feel their attacks being guided into different directions.

Sacred Flames of Baptism’s attacks were relentless. The Warriors’ HP was steadily burned off with every slash and cut of Gu Fei. In the blink of an eye, one of the Warriors succumbed to his death and disappeared in a blaze of fire.

Gu Fei was shocked. Feeling somewhat remorseful at what he had unintentionally done, he told the other three men, “Retreat when your HP turns red! It’s a shame to drop a level just because of this.”

The three became furious when they heard this, even as fear gripped their hearts. They bellowed and resolved to never back down.

The Cloud Herder’s members surrounding the skirmish finally realized that Gu Fei was a formidable opponent who had no intention of running away, so many of them moved to join the skirmish in an attempt to suppress him.

Since Gu Fei had a wall behind him, he only had to deal with the players before him in the one-hundred-eighty-degree arc. Although Cloud Herder had almost over a hundred members present, only a handful of them could engage Gu Fei in that limited area. Therefore, Gu Fei was dauntless and easily matched them blow for blow.

Soon, two more men fell. Gu Fei once more expressed, “Retreat when your HP turns red!” The Cloud Herder’s hundred men now believed that if this continued, they would all truly be decimated.