Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-282

Chapter 282 - Leaving Everyone Breathless with His Extraordinary Fighting Skill

Young Master Han, who was watching the fight before him, was incessantly shaking his head. Even Youthful Reflection could tell that Gu Fei’s retreat to recuperate his mana was extremely troublesome, yet the man in question did not know of this. Actually, Young Master Han did not put his hopes on Gu Fei from the start since he knew that the latter had insufficient mana to get out of the monsters’ encirclement. They would probably have an easier time if it were players that encircled them, as Gu Fei’s monstrous damage output could strike fear in their hearts. Unfortunately, the Mountain Bandits the system spawned were not programmed to feel fear when facing formidable players.

Many people were currently feeling annoyed at Gu Fei! It was as if he had realized this himself as he suddenly returned to the frontline with the apple still stuck in his mouth. Waving his Moonlit Nightfalls through the Mountain Bandits, he spat out the apple and recited the Twin Incineration’s incantation. The flames that burst forth went around him again, causing everyone to be dumbfounded. Many of the gathered players gawked at the half-eaten apple of Gu Fei’s. What sort of apple was that? How could it replenish his mana in just a short while? Many of them strongly resisted the urge to inspect the half-eaten apple that lay on the floor.

When Gu Fei returned into the formation, Svelte Dancer immediately coordinated her attacks with him and took that chance to ask, “How did you recover your mana so soon?”

“I’m also wondering about that myself. How strange!” Gu Fei’s mana was continuously getting replenished even as he spoke. With his rudimentary gaming knowledge, he could not make sense of this and could only do his best to expend it. Flourishing his Moonlit Nightfalls, Gu Fei pointed toward the monsters’ side and chanted, “Electric Wall! Fall!”

The air instantly crackled with electricity amid the players’ anxiety, yet nothing else happened. Gu Fei felt stunned; the air should form a wall of lightning, so why did nothing appear?

Young Master Han also found Gu Fei’s grand casting of a spell that did not cause anything to be rather strange. Knowing how well Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer worked together, he quickly sent him this message: “Use an AOE spell to burn a path out for everyone!”

“Right!” Gu Fei replied. The mana consumption for Electric Wall was on the high side, and he currently did not have enough for it. Nonetheless, his mana was still being replenished continuously. Gu Fei did not bother to dwell on this. Seeing that his mana bar was filled up once more, he lifted his sword and cast Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno.

His casting time was still slow. Having chanted the incantation, the ground blazed into a firestorm that burned down a whole swath of Mountain Bandits. Young Master Han felt pissed, though. “What did you use that for?! Cast Descending Wheel of Flames, instead!”

“Eh?!” Gu Fei was nonplussed for a bit before slapping his forehead at the sight in front of him.

The blazing inferno raged for five seconds. Given his ‘Insta-kill Mage’ moniker, not one player dared to step into the spell’s AOE for fear of getting killed by it. In contrast, the Mountain Bandits fearlessly swarmed into the sea of flames and filled the space he had created in a jiffy.

Gu Fei quickly learned from his mistake; raising his hand, he unleashed Descending Wheel of Flames once he had enough mana. The players were finally able to capitalize on this chance of him clearing out another patch of Mountain Bandits, allowing them to tear through the enemies’ encirclement.

“Do you still have mana? Continue!” Young Master Han shouted to Gu Fei.

“It’s like I have unlimited mana!” Gu Fei was elated. Descending Wheel of Flames was still on cooldown, so Gu Fei opted to teleport himself into the Mountain Bandits’ midst and slashed them with Twin Incineration, swiftly clearing another small circle. Svelte Dancer darted forward to aid Gu Fei at the first opportunity as the other players did their best to keep up with the two’s pace.

“Alright. It’s back!” Gu Fei’s sword slew several Mountain Bandits just as Descending Wheel of Flames’ cooldown ended, letting him cast it once more. Any attacks that could potentially interrupt his spell-casting were dutifully blocked by Svelte Dancer. The newly formed flame wheel burned brightly as it dove straight down to the ground and cleared out another patch of Mountain Bandits.

When the players saw this, they excitedly called out to Gu Fei as they defended him, “Forget about breaking through; let’s just kill all of them!”

“What a great idea!” Gu Fei concurred to these players and flourished his sword with Twin Incineration to kill off a whole row of Mountain Bandits, evidently getting carried away in the process. It was then that he received a message. Opening the message box, he felt surprised to discover that it had been from Vast Lushness: “Hey. It’s best if you watch your mana consumption. My mana is about to run out.”

Gu Fei dazedly searched for Vast Lushness among the crowd and located her not too far from him. Vast Lushness had also charged in with the melee job classes, yet she had been pointing her holy staff to Gu Fei. When she saw Gu Fei looking at her, she smilingly asked, “Did you really think that you’re being freely gifted mana from the gods?”

Although Gu Fei was still clueless about it, he could still feel that Vast Lushness’s presence and his constant mana replenishment had a direct correlation. Based on her words, his mana replenishment would not last forever. Hence, he immediately decided to stop squandering the gift.

A saying went: ‘Good steel should be used for the blade.’ Although Gu Fei thoroughly enjoyed using Twin Incineration to slay foes, he knew that Descending Wheel of Flames was the better choice in the current situation. Reining in his impulse to directly cut people down, he waited for Descending Wheel of Flames’ cooldown to end before diligently bombarding the Mountain Bandits.

“Charge, everyone!” Gu Fei pointed for everyone the direction to head over to, as if he were a commander directing his men. What he was truly worried about was meeting the accusing eyes of those who had just suggested to him to butcher all the Mountain Bandits.

Reality proved that the players were not so obstinate. Seeing Gu Fei striving to break through the enemies’ encirclement, they also followed suit and carved their way out accordingly.

The players quickly filled the space Gu Fei had emptied by disposing of the throng of Mountain Bandits with his Descending Wheel of Flames.

A breach in the encirclement soon appeared after Gu Fei dropped two more flame wheels. Vast Lushness’s mana was already used up by this point, so Gu Fei’s supply of mana subsequently halted. His remaining mana was enough to cast Descending Wheel of Flames twice from here on.

All the encircled players were elated; as long as they got out of the encirclement, they would no longer have to fight the Mountain Bandits’ attacks while being surrounded on all sides. These level 30 monsters would surely fall under their assault once they properly got in position by the rolling plains ahead.

As everyone was fantasizing about this, the Mountain Bandits suddenly roared. Following their guttural roar, Sooto burst forth, leaped over the players’ heads, and landed right before Gu Fei, effectively blocking the players way out.

The players’ hearts thumped fast. Did Sooto who had been mainly commanding the Mountain Bandits thus far finally decide to join the fight?

Although Mountain Bandit Leader Sooto’s underlings were merely at level 30, it would be fatal to assume that he would be of the same caliber. Sooto could be considered as a quest-specific Boss – a monster that would only appear if players obtained the relevant quest and killed their way through Oolong Cave. Without it, players would only find an empty hut deep in the recesses of Oolong Cave. Everyone was also aware that quest-specific Bosses were far troublesome to deal with than Wild Bosses of the same level.

When two commanders clashed, the underlings would usually stand by the side to cheer and show support accordingly. Sooto’s underlings, meanwhile, continued to attack the players even when he came forward. The players continued to fend off the Mountain Bandits, as they felt clueless on how to deal with Sooto.

They were heavily surrounded and were barely holding their own against the swarming monsters; none had a hand to spare to deal with the Boss. Anyway, was a Boss a being any random players could easily deal with? If even players who had made substantial preparations would still die when facing this sort of monsters, what more could be expected from these players that were currently in an unfavorable and chaotic predicament?

As the players anxiously considered if they should disperse themselves, Gu Fei brought his sword before him and charged at the Boss without missing a beat.

“You’re insane!” Even Svelte Dancer was shocked by his action. No matter how indomitable she considered herself to be, she would never think that she had the ability to solo a Boss. Therefore, she did not expect for Gu Fei to actually have the guts to solo a Boss.

“It’s not like it’s my first time facing him; I’m quite familiar with fighting him.” Gu Fei smiled at her before sending a sword slash to Sooto. Sooto reacted exactly like how a Boss would when facing such an attack; he sent out an attack of his own! Shrugging his shoulders capriciously, Sooto moved to unleash his powerful attack – Red Blaze!

Gu Fei vividly recalled his duel with Mountain Bandit Leader Sooto, and the latter’s shoulder movement clued him in on the fact that Sooto was about to unleash his special attack. Although he did not know how powerful Sooto’s special attack was, it had never once hit Gu Fei before!

Moreover, Gu Fei was no longer a level 30 Mage. He had been about even in terms of attack speed with Sooto back then; right now, he was faster than the Boss Sooto. Swiftly extending his hand, Gu Fei was able to send a slash to Sooto before the latter could complete his ultimate move.

Sooto’s ultimate move was unfortunately not a spell, so the Verdict deemed Gu Fei’s slash as insufficient to interrupt the attack. Thankfully, Gu Fei had fast reaction speed. As the huge saber glowing red lashed out, Gu Fei nimbly twisted his body and avoided the move completely. Following this, he heard someone scream from behind him. A random player got hit by that blow instead, dying right there and then.

Actually, these players should have been able to withstand Sooto’s Red Blaze at their current level, yet that player had just been a little unlucky since he no longer had full HP after fighting in the frontline for so long. Without any Priest dedicated to healing the player, death was the only outcome for him after taking that move head on.

“Take care, everyone!” Gu Fei cautioned as he continued to engage Sooto. He could only do this since he did not have a way to stop Sooto from unleashing Red Blaze. Having judged that his Mage character did not have the capacity to endure the Boss’s special attack, he could not possibly offer to block it with his body!

The players could not help but be affected by the sight of the mad person duking it out with the Boss Sooto, causing everyone to lose their minds.

Gu Fei was actually taking on Sooto by himself without appearing to be at a disadvantage. This was only possible because he could avoid every attack of Sooto. All the players could only gawk at the fantastical level of fighting skill that Gu Fei was currently demonstrating.