Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-381

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It felt really awkward to be left in a state with nothing to do. Gu Xiaosiang and her troops stood rooted to the ground for a moment before immediately heading in a different direction. Even if she was unable to complete her duty to stall the enemy, the least she could do was help the others, instead.

At this time, there was yet another bunch of players who had nothing to do, as they were momentarily at a loss as to what measures they should be taking.

Back in the river valley, the two squads had each circled half way in either direction, allowing them to meet and link back up together. They could have accidentally fought with one another had it not been for the fact that they could tell the other party was not a group of seven men.

Now that both squads were now facing one another again, they were surprised that they had not caught sight of YMH and his team, despite having just finished completing their circuit of the area.

That mercenary leader was very anxious at this time, because he had already received the message that one of the parties of players from Yunduan City had already been inspected and their target was reduced by one. This was considered good news for anyone in the coalition, but it was actually bad news for him. He needed time on his end as well! This mercenary leader once more suspiciously regarded Southern Lone Blade, despite having thought the latter’s analysis to be reasonable.

“Why aren’t they here?” Southern Lone Blade could not make sense of it either. Whether the enemy was looking to traverse along this path that cut through both branches of the fork, or if they were heading back to take the right branch, they would still have to get through one group of players. As things stood, there could only be a single explanation: the enemy had not taken this route at all.

“Where else could they be?” Southern Lone Blade muttered.

“I’m curious as well...” that mercenary leader said in an icy tone. His attitude towards Southern Lone Blade ever since they had met had been quite the extraordinary experience, a roller coaster ride of emotions with troughs and crests.

“Oh, crap!” Southern Lone Blade looked to have suddenly thought of something, his hand slapping his forehead.

“What?” The leader’s heart tightened in that moment.

Southern Lone Blade quickly drew out that reverse letter A on the ground again, pointing towards the left tail end of the A, “Both of our groups, one went through the horizontal connecting path while the other took the vertical path over. But we missed that dead end!”

“At this rate, considering the time we took to meet each other like this, they could have taken that connecting path towards the right river path and continued on towards the city!” The mercenary leader quickly came to the same conclusion as well, realizing the situation they were in as he immediately recall his men, “G*dd*mm*t, hurry and give chase!”

Southern Lone Blade’s heart was racing even faster at this point. He had originally thought he was not in any particular rush. All he needed to do was to casually keep an eye on the target, and wait for the right moment to strike. If this time it failed, there would be another opportunity next time; Southern Lone Blade was a very patient man, after all. But the current situation he was in made it seem as if every move he had made thus far had been clearly in the grasp of the enemy. His squad might very well have been exposed to those men already, which meant that he had to make his move soon! The longer he took to do the deed, the more likely the enemy would be prepared for him.

“Hurry hurry hurry!” The mercenary was busy rushing the throng of men he had brought along. However, no matter how fast everybody was, they would still have the match the movement speed of the slowest individual. They had no issues blocking people at such a speed, but giving chase made things difficult.

Southern Lone Blade quickly told him, “We won’t be able to catch up to them like this. It’s best to select a few players with fast movement speed to engage the enemy first, as the rest of us hurry behind!”

Given how familiar the mercenary leader was with regards to the journey and terrain of the land, how could he not know that they could only maintain a certain distance away from their target with they pace they were at, which would never allow them to catch up to them. Thus, he made the decision on the spot, quickly picking out Thieves and Archers for this task. Unfortunately, he was a Warrior himself, so there was no way he could personally lead this team. All he could do was repeatedly remind them, “Be quick! It’s best if you can intercept them by the river mouth. We’ll be right behind catching up. Good luck!”

These Archers and Thieves had never fought YMH and his mercenaries before, so they had no idea just how formidable they were. These speedsters believed that they would be able to suppress the enemy by themselves, so they left with boundlessly confidence.

But the mercenary leader was well aware of the level of skill they would be facing, and he was certain that just those men alone would not be enough to make the enemy even break a sweat if they were to clash in earnest. However, because they were all speedsters, he felt they should be able to stall for time, so he made sure to keep reminding them to “take care, take care and take more care”, only missing out the part, “It’s fine if you guys die. The key here is to delay those men for us”.

While the men within the river valley were making a commotion over this matter, the battle outside the valley had a rapid change in development.

With the sudden appearance of the Eternal War mercenary group, as well as the inclusion of the other party of players that had merged with another party when they were left to their own devices, the players from Yunduan City found it exponentially more difficult to hold on like before.

This was especially true when going against the men from Eternal War, who were not killing the men they had downed, yet all it took was an exchange of a few blows before they faced a Seismic Toss. Yunduan City players were being Tossed all around as a result. While their combat strength remained the same, the problem was that the tightly packed formation they had originally adopted had long been disrupted. Thus, finding out if Todd was hidden within their party could be done at a quick glance.

Even though those members of the mercenary group coalition were vexed that Eternal War had suddenly turned up, they realized that their ability to “hand check” the enemy had proven to be valuable. They were essentially able to benefit greatly from it, since the moment they saw Todd was not around, they could rush to the aid of another party instead.

With only three remaining parties left, they were able to easily take down the players of Yunduan City with two groups ganging up on them. Because they could not see a trace of Todd, they were certain that the last party would be where he was hiding via the process of elimination.

This last party left standing happened to have Black Forefinger in command. He was really crafty, intentionally pulling the fight to the far side of the map as they battled, so they avoided meeting Eternal War from the start, or from bumping into the aid of the other parties who were left with nothing to do. But at this moment, with all the battles of the other three parties at an end, everybody that had participated in the battles all across the map, including the players from Yunduan City, converged on their location and surrounded them.

Naturally, it was important to be fully devoted to the role if they were to act the part. Now that everyone had determined that they were the ones hiding Todd in their party, it only made sense for them to fight as if their lives depended on it.

Originally, the movement speeds of all the parties involved in this battlefield would be incomparable to that of Eternal War, as a whole. But now that victory was right in their sights, nobody cared for the fact it was a group PvP, as the job classes with the fastest movement speed raced against time to run to their aid. In that instant, the entire map looked as if it was a large scale wargaming simulation, each job class no longer caring to match their movement speeds with one another. Those who could run faster were recklessly leading the charge, while those who were slower huffed as they trailed behind.

Black Forefinger sure had it tough! He had specifically led his party to the furthest reaches of the map precisely to avoid a scenario where the enemies that were done with their fighting would rush over to lend aid. While that had proven to be effective, it had actually made his party to become the last group standing!

It was precisely because he was the last party remaining that instantly caused them to become public enemy number one. Everyone came pouncing towards them, and their fighting spirit at this moment had reached the apex, as if they had no more regrets once they finished this last fight, leaving nothing in their tank for this final push. Even those that had been fighting with them all this while instantly changed their style of fighting; these men originally wanted to find Todd without suffering too much of a loss in the process of doing it, so they fought a little reservedly. But now that it was guaranteed that Todd would be found within, they abruptly embraced a scorched earth policy, endlessly bombarding, blasting and slashing with reckless abandon.

However, everyone was ultimately balanced in terms of their power. This death or glory offensive swiftly eliminated players from both sides. Black Forefinger watched the enemy count steadily drop like flies, his own men matching it equally, while the players that were running their way across the hills and dunes on the map were increasing as well.

These players hailed from both Luori City as well as Yunduan City, both parties rushing over to lend a hand to their respective comrades, engaging in skirmishes with one another along the way. And because the difference in movement speed had increased the distance, the entire battle suddenly looked very three-dimensional and layered.

Leading the charge was a phalanx of dagger-wielding Thieves, who had the highest movement speed out of all the job classes in Parallel World after they activated their Fleetfoot. However, Fleetfoot only lasted for a limited duration, and once that was over, their movement speed would lose to that of the Archers, allowing the formations of Archers to stride past them, maintaining their distance from afar, executing highly difficult shots as they advanced. Because there were so many people fighting, even if a single arrow released did not hit their intended target, it might still be able to score a hit or knock over another person instead. While it was difficult to say if this would be an enemy or ally taking the hit, no one really put much thought towards it.

What followed after them was the exchange of spells from the crowd of Mages right behind. Out of all the skirmishes occurring between the job classes, this was the most exciting to watch. Fireballs floating from within the mass of players like a guiding light, while the peal of thunder could be heard periodically, seeing a thunderbolt strike squarely onto people’s heads, as the cold Arctic Whirlwinds spun forth all over the battlefield, twisting and turning. There were even large bursts of raging flames in certain areas, where some of the Mages were apparently not satisfied and had decidedly stood still to toss out their two AOE spells imposingly.

The Knights and Warriors running behind were rather similar in their approach. These players did not have any brilliant visual effects in their arsenal of skills, but the sound of clashing blades was deafening,and they were users of heavy weaponry! Although the weapons used by the Knights were slightly inferior in comparison, it was nevertheless far louder than the sounds made by the daggers from the Thieves.

And finally, the pack of Priests took up the rear. These men had no inherent combat power whatsoever, but using their Heal on the enemy was a good method to show their disgust to the other. However, since they were in the middle of a huge battle, everyone was hoping to conserve their mana to use when it was truly needed, so this lot of Priests was like a thunderstorm without rain. If anyone were to close their eyes, they would surely think the fight here was the fiercest, given how loudly these players were cussing at each other. But the reality was that aside from their war of words, they did not do anything at all.

The only job class left were the Fighters, and because Fighters were still not particularly favored by most experts, they were unable to form a phalanx of their own and had to randomly mix into the different job classes instead.

Both sides continued to harass each other as they ran on, rendering the entire map exceptionally chaotic. Plenty of players who were minding their own business grinding were dumbfounded at this sight. PvP fights occurred every day, but it was usually with two clearly defined sides clashing head on until the victor was decided. A good example would be the four separate battles that had happened just now. But at this moment, it was like ants were instantly swarming all over the map, and even fighting towards the same direction all at once; it was truly a rare sight!

The one who benefited the most from this ended up being the members of Eternal War. These guys were experts beyond experts! No one dared to be overconfident and entangle with them, especially since most of them were Fighters, so they did not really have any part in this job class v.s. Job class war. Thus, with no one obstructing them and their decent movement speed, these Fighters could simply sprint all the way through to be the first ones to arrive.

The combatants over by Black Forefingers had already been fighting until they were seeing red, the members of Eternal War did not bother to distinguish between either party as they dashed into the midst of combat at the command of Eternal Dominion, throwing a few punches and kicks at everybody, be they from Luori City or Yunduan City, pummeling them soundly to the ground.

In the end, they still did not manage to catch a glimpse of Todd!