Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-542

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

The hearty cheers from all the members of Deep Freeze came to an abrupt end when they saw Gu Fei come to a rest after leaping up on the tree. The crowd was now back to their state of being dumbfounded. And just like a few seconds ago when they saw Gu Fei take on their trap formation, their mouths hung agape once more.

There was nothing strange about climbing up a tree in a game, but suddenly getting up on a tree in a close PvP duel like this was a PK technique that nobody currently residing in Linyin City had developed yet.

“How did he do it?” the people asked in hushed voices. There were even some who had tried replicating it physically, hunching their bodies to let another player step on their heads and see if that was a method to get up on the tree quickly. However, reality proved that, besides Gu Fei having his Blink to achieve this, finding purchase around a round head and swiftly using it to propel oneself up just like how Gu Fei had done it was a technique in itself! That was because this one step had to be rapidly executed; both parties were exchanging blows, so this was not the other player stiffening their neck to provide the necessary support for the other. If the player attempting this was not quick enough, all the opponent had to do was turn his head away and they would avoid being stepped on; the person executing it could accidentally use too much strength in his step, too, which would cause the other player to be sent sprawling on the floor, eating dirt, instead. There was no way someone could get the push needed to complete this leap consensually.

Following this, they saw Gu Fei turn and twirl his body up on the tree to avoid the six shots from Broken Water Arrow, which only caused the crowd to become even quieter. They all thought that it might be unfair for them to continue cheering for Broken Water Arrow at this rate. Given how he was facing against such a fearsome opponent, asking Old Broken to achieve victory might simply be too tall a request, and they should not make things difficult for him.

Even though Broken Water Arrow knew that continuously shooting at Gu Fei would be tough, he nevertheless felt he still possessed the initiative in this exchange at the end of the day.. All Gu Fei could do up on the tree was either lose his footing and fall off, or take a direct shot from his crossbow bolts, while it seemed as if Gu Fei was unable to threaten any sort of retaliation from up there.

CRASH! A sudden flash appeared from up above. Broken Water Arrow paused ever so slightly as he hurried to take a step and dodge. Another streak of lightning scorched the ground right next to where he had sidestepped. He paled again. It’s only been a few minutes! How have I forgotten that he’s a Mage again! Broken Water Arrow really wished he could slap himself across the cheeks right now. Nevertheless, I am still the one holding the advantage here!

The speed at which the spells were unleashed from a Mage was no match to the speed of projectiles an Archer could release, especially since most of them required the luxury of precluding the casting time needed. No matter how powerful Gu Fei was, this was not something he had the capability of changing.

Now that Broken Water Arrow had determined the situation that they were in, he did not hesitate to lift his head and begin firing.

The repeated firing from his crossbow sounded. The crossbow bolts whistled through the air, and Gu Fei continued to dodge these shots like before. Turning to his left, twirling to the right, turning his body to its side, bending over by his waist… The man looked as if he were about to fall off the tree branch at any time, but that never happened, even as none of the shots fired off found their mark.

Broken Water Arrow was very patient. He withheld his Snipe this entire time, unwilling to use it as he did not want Gu Fei to get used to the speed of the projectile when it would be unleashed. He was hoping to wait until Gu Fei made a mistake in the process of dodging before capitalizing on it. Besides, not using Snipe the entire time would work as a sort of pressure on Gu Fei. Casually using it would just let him feel more relaxed when he knew that the skill was on cooldown. Snipe was not a high-level skill that had not been announced; the officials had public released the complete data of this skill by this time, so everyone knew about the 45-second cooldown it would normally have. Broken Water Arrow hoped to put Gu Fei in a constant state of stress by holding it back, not even allowing him to have that 45-second breathing room.

It was difficult for physical fatigue to be set in Parallel World, but mental fatigue and strain worked in the same way as in the real world here. Right now, Broken Water Arrow was looking to forcefully tire out Gu Fei’s mental state first.

Pulling out the cartridge, fitting in the arrows, and continuing the stream of arrows… Broken Water Arrow mechanically completed this sequence of action with deft ease. He raised his crossbow to fire immediately after he fitted in the bolts, thus continuing Gu Fei’s performance up on the tree.

While he attacked, Broken Water Arrow tried to think up of other methods based off Gu Fei’s previous attacks and discovered that the way the latter dodged and evaded his bolts were unlike how players would recklessly run in a serpentine motion in an effort to make it difficult for the attacker to get a bead on him. Instead, his way of evasion by calmly identifying the direction of Broken Water Arrow’s attack. Without a doubt, this was a method only someone who possessed outstanding reflexes and judgement could do. Broken Water Arrow tried using some tricks he had to make Gu Fei lose focus, but none of them worked. He realized that Gu Fei no longer had his eyes on him but on the crossbow in his hands, instead. Gu Fei’s concentration was devoted toward where the crossbow was pointed and did not seem to care if Broken Water Arrow was alive or dead, sprawled on the ground or standing.

I refuse to believe that you can keep dodging like this! Broken Water Arrow began putting tremendous effort into this, not giving up despite each bolt he fired off missing its target. Reloading the bolts and carrying on, Gu Fei still managed to return-fire with a spell or two from time to time – sometimes a Thunderbolt, at other times an AoE spell, or a few times even a measly Fireball. Broken Water Arrow dutifully dodged these attacks and fired his own attacks in return; the two men continued in such a fashion, maintaining the distance between them as they exchanged fire.

“Yawn…” The onlookers had no idea who was the first to yawn, but it began to spread like H1N1, and soon, yawns could be heard all over.

After the initial surge of excitement everyone was feeling watching the two fight, it had since petered out into a lull of drowsiness. Things were no longer as climatic like before and they were all prepared to abandon this show.

“Hasn’t it been half an hour already?” someone asked a friend beside him.

“24 minutes and 34 seconds to be exact…” The friend beside him had already been bored to death and was no longer watching the battle but the time, instead.

“Will anyone emerge victorious if they carry on like this?” The crowd began to share the same sentiment that Broken Water Arrow had. Everyone believed that Broken Water Arrow was holding the advantage in this situation, and all it took was a mistake from Gu Fei’s part to end the fight, but the fact of the matter was, there was still no clear victor between the two even after such a long time…

“Someone will.” To think someone actually still held such an optimistic outlook. “Old Broken will sooner or later run out of bolts to shoot, right?”

“Hey, hey, hey. Don’t lend Old Broken any bolts! If he comes asking for them!” This voice was quickly disseminated among the crowd as they each clutched their quivers tightly.

“Can’t they change things up a little…” There were some who still held hope for this fight, wishing that there would be another climax.

“Ugh!” Most of them began to show a more pessimistic view to the fight.

“How long is that guy gonna keep evading; why isn’t he coming down?”

“Probably afraid of the trap formation set up on the ground…”

“But there’s nothing set up there—”

“SHHHHH!” Someone hurriedly muffled the man’s mouth. Even though they all hoped that this match would quickly end, they were all holding onto the hope that Broken Water Arrow would be the victor, so none of them wanted to let Gu Fei know of this important information.

“Old Broken should just chase after the man up the tree,” another supposed.

“How will he escape if an AoE spell comes crashing his way while he’s halfway climbing up the tree?”

“Welp… It looks like we can only wait till Old Broken uses up all the bolts he’s got on him.” Everyone sighed deeply.

The man himself, Broken Water Arrow, did not seem to show any of the anxiety these onlookers had, which obviously showed how resilient his state of mind was. More importantly, he had never once considered Gu Fei to be a normal player, nor was he holding onto any hope that he would be able to finish him off in the short time he had.

This PvP isn’t simply just a match of skill! It’s a contest of spirit, and it will all depend on who can maintain this heightened level of concentration till the end! I have a great advantage since I hold the initiative, and he’s surely expending far more energy than me here, so I can’t lose! Broken Water Arrow encouraged himself.

Another ten minutes passed in this manner. Broken Water Arrow continued to focus his mind on this battle of concentration when he suddenly heard Gu Fei spoke, breaking the stalemate.

“What took you so long?” He heard him ask.

“There’re plenty of traps here in the forest; gotta be careful.” A voice from behind him answered.

Broken Water Arrow turned to look backward in a hurry and saw Sword Demon. He had no idea when the man crept up on him, but they were no more than three meters apart right now.

Broken Water Arrow was too focused on this fight he did not even notice it when someone else sneaked up behind him.

“Your mission.” With this said, Gu Fei leaped off the tree coolly and landed safely on the ground. The man then took several steps forward, seemingly unafraid of the possible traps lying around. Even though there was not any in actuality, there was no reason for Gu Fei to act in such a nonchalant manner…

Broken Water Arrow watched Gu Fei pace off and had a feeling that, while he vaguely believed he held the initiative, when in fact, this Mage had actually been leading him by the nose this whole time. He thought this was a contest of spirit when it was actually just a game for the man to buy time. Was the whole thing orchestrated just for Sword Demon to make his way over so that he could complete his ‘Daily Mission’? This incident had come a full circle and made its way back to where it started; this was ultimately a game.

Broken Water Arrow watched as Gu Fei walk away and suddenly realized that the space where the man had stepped onto was the very same spot he had taken when he ran in. This person had been using his spells to attack up from the tree, forcing Broken Water Arrow to dodge time and again. This was especially the case for those AoE spells of his, and each of them forced Broken Water Arrow needing to run for quite a distance in order to avoid them. In the process, Gu Fei was actually memorizing all the different routes Broken Water Arrow had ended up using and then plotted his own path from these routes. It no longer mattered if there were traps on the ground or not.

Blinking his eyes as he looked at this a few more times, Broken Water Arrow experienced a mental breakdown once more. Gu Fei was not leisurely walking away right now either but was instead revising the few routes Broken Water Arrow had taken previously as he thought of finding the best route to attack Broken Water Arrow from these. To actually make such preparation for an attack so self-assuredly, had Gu Fei considered him as meat on the chopping block already?

Gu Fei was a professional combatant, so he was of course very efficient. Quickly charting out a way in to engage in the fight, he lifted his head and saw that Broken Water Arrow was staring right at him. Cocking his head to the side, he gazed over to Sword Demon, who was standing behind Broken Water Arrow. “Do you need my help?”

Before he could even answer, the crowd watching this fight was the first to clamor. “Two versus one! Shameless!”

These men all threw curses from every angle, but the parties involved in the fight ignored them all. Sword Demon calmly replied with a ‘no need’, which Gu Fei answered with an ‘okay’ before he remained where he was.

Broken Water Arrow looked at one man and then the other. Since they were both enemies, and one was even what Ye Xiaowu called a ‘game-breaking existence’, Broken Water Arrow had a good grasp of their characters. He believed that even if the two decided to gang up and engage him in a two-versus-one duel, they would not attempt to hoodwink the enemy by claiming otherwise. With Sword Demon already rejecting the offer, then Gu Fei would surely not meddle in the ensuing fight unnecessarily. Thus, Broken Water Arrow was certain that the duel would remain as one versus one, but his opponent would be Sword Demon, instead.

Broken Water Arrow turned around and stared at Sword Demon. The Thief was far from being as fearsome as Miles, but he nevertheless managed to defeat Cool Apple, and there was barely a distance of three meters between them currently. At such a range, with the speed of Shadowmist Assault, he was still very apprehensive about the skill despite knowing how to dodge it.

But with the ground littered in traps, Sword Demon will have his misgivings as well; he’ll surely not attempt such a direct approach when making his attack , Broken Water Arrow thought to himself as he raised his crossbow, his arm steady as ever.

Sword Demon’s figure suddenly disappeared. Broken Water Arrow cried out in dismay to himself even as the Thief reappeared, standing right before the Sharpshooter; the two daggers in the former’s hands plunged right toward the latter. Broken Water Arrow dodged part of the attack on reflex, but tragedy filled his heart.

It seemed that he had made a miscalculation again. He did not expect for the solid old-school gamer, Sword Demon, to take the risk and completely ignore the existence of the traps set…