Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-561

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

“Drunk bro, why aren’t you back yet?!” Fireball was already wailing in despair. There was no doubt that he was the weakest player out of the five; Vast Lushness had been sent flying, Blue Ease and Sakurazaka Moony were busy rescuing her, and Fireball remembered that there was another still underneath Southern Lone Blade’s foot. Right now, Fireball was no more than a clown as he tried to leap, weave, and chant spells right at Southern Lone Blade to force the man into leaving, but why would Southern Lone Blade bother with him when he could easily bear the brunt of the three players’ attacks at once? Besides, now that he had a Priest beside him, he sometimes even felt lazy to block the spells Fireball tossed over with his shield.

“I’m here!” at this crucial moment, Gu Fei was finally in position. This was a pivotal point of the battle, and no one was taking note where he would be coming out of. All they knew was that the moment he appeared, he was already crouching before Vast Lushness, clutching Moonlit Nightfalls with his hands as he fended off that sword from Unrivalled Lucky Star.

“That’s quite the Strength you’ve got there!” Even though Gu Fei was not too strong himself, the Knight Unrivalled Lucky Star did not add much to Strength, either. With both their subpar Strength matched up, Gu Fei was able to hold on and resist the sword as he said this, turning to take a glance behind him expressionlessly.

“Sorry…” Vast Lushness was embarrassed. She had not been standing idly and waiting for her death, Instead, she used her spell, Kiss of Death, the moment she saw Unrivalled Lucky Star running toward her, but because Gu Fei had appeared so suddenly in the spell’s path, that Kiss ended up landing right on him.

Gu Fei showed Vast Lushness his full face when he turned around, letting Vast Lushness see that it was him, so there was no need for her to mess around anymore. Gu Fei’s eyes were not even on Unrivalled Lucky Star, yet his actions were still against him.

“You look rather familiar!” Gu Fei said when he turned to face Unrivalled Lucky Star again as he straightened up and attacked. The body of Moonlit Nightfalls slid along Unrivalled Lucky Star’s sword, as if unimpeded at all. By the time Unrivalled Lucky Star turned into a ball of white light, Gu Fei’s shimmering sword had just finished being wreathed in an intense flame.

Gu Fei’s attack had truly been too fast. It was so quick that he had not even gotten an answer for that question he just asked.

His eyes swiveled, and Gu Fei caught sight of the peeking Flame Singed Clothes. The moment Flame Singed Clothes saw that Gu Fei had his eye on him, he quickly shrank his head back. Gu Fei was pondering if he should finish that Mage off when he heard Fireball yell, “Drunk bro, quickly come help!”

Gu Fei did not hesitate and quickly left Vast Lushness’s side to come dashing over to him.

Southern Lone Blade was currently feeling so dispirited that he felt like dying. Just as he was feeling pleased with himself for holding down Svelte Dancer with a stomp of his foot, it was now his turn to be trapped now. He had no idea how much defense Svelte Dancer had, but the woman looked to be unharmed even after giving her quite a few cuts with his claymore. Looking at her eyes that were aflame with anger, Southern Lone Blade was certain without a shadow of doubt that he would be met with a miserable end if he ever released her from beneath his foot.

Now that the even more fearsome Gu Fei was rushing over to him, Southern Lone Blade no longer dared to dawdle. Stepping on Svelte Dancer and crossing over her, he gave a kick with his back leg, which sent her flying the moment he released his foot off her.

“Don’t mind—F*CK, YOU B*ST*RD!” Svelte Dancer, who was originally shouting ‘don’t mind me’, soon realized that Gu Fei had no intention of getting anywhere near to catch her at all. Seeing the man instantly duck to the side with great Agility, Svelte Dancer abruptly felt her heart sour and quickly changed her words to curse at Gu Fei even as she ate a whole face of dirt when she crashed onto the ground.

“Are you okay?!” Vast Lushness stopped by and quickly checked on Svelte Dancer, but Gu Fei continued to dash ever forward to chase after Southern Lone Blade.

Southern Lone Blade could not help but feel a fleeting sense of sorrow when he saw this. Thousand Miles Drunk was truly a real man, to not give a whit of care for the other sex just like him. It was a pity that the situation he met this true man left him a little dejected; at this rate, how would his baby-legs outrun Thousand Miles Drunk with his full-Agility build?

“Disperse!” Southern Lone Blade came to a stop and made his stand as he gave this order. The others naturally knew that he was prepared to sacrifice himself to stall for time so that the others would have a chance of escaping. With how things stood, this was indeed their only option, seeing that Southern Lone Blade would already having a very hard time escaping.

Flame Singed Clothes, who had been hiding all this while, turned head and ran. Realizing that Sakurazaka Moony and Blue Ease did not have any plans for him, he quickly dropped his wall of flame to force the two back. Meanwhile, Blackwater and Paddy Scented Pastures were already executing Southern Lone Blade’s initial order to retreat, so it was not difficult for either of them to escape.

Being unable to take them all out at once did not dull Gu Fei’s fighting spirit. With the blade of his sword lit with flames again, it threateningly slashed right on to Southern Lone Blade.

Southern Lone Blade did not balk to the challenge and raised his shield forward as he Charged into it.

Gu Fei saw that Southern Lone Blade was keeping that block with his shield very low to the ground, so he knew that this man was treating this fight very seriously. The first time the two had had a skirmish in Linshui City, Southern Lone Blade had also used his Charge to block the strike, but his shield was raised too normally, allowing Gu Fei to use a technique from his prone sabre-style to roll right into his guard. It was apparent that the move had left quite a deep impression on Southern Lone Blade after.

Unable to execute the same trick again, Gu Fei dodged toward Southern Lone Blade’s left. Even though Gu Fei had no idea what was the angle the sword behind the shield would strike from, he knew that the sword was in Southern Lone Blade’s right hand. Attacking an enemy on the left would be a little awkward to achieve. Gu Fei was confident that this sword of his would be faster than Southern Lone Blade’s.

The sound of metal meeting metal thundered about. Gu Fei’s sword was indeed very quick, but Southern Lone Blade’s was not any much slower, either. It was just that the man had not used the sword behind his shield to do an attack. Instead, he flipped the shield he was holding on his left hand over to the side, which resulted into Gu Fei’s attack landing on the shield.

“Oh, no!” Gu Fei cried out to himself. Southern Lone Blade’s Charge did not stop there and then, and he brushed past Gu Fei’s side after blocking his sword. The one he was targeting was not Gu Fei but Vast Lushness, instead. From the very start, Southern Lone Blade was clear on who his target was. Even if Gu Fei showed up, he was nothing more than a huge obstruction. The key focus of this entire situation had always been Vast Lushness.

Vast Lushness had just lifted Svelte Dancer up to her feet. Since Gu Fei was on the attack, the two were very confident that Southern Lone Blade would be taken care of in a few brief strokes. As such, neither of them expected the man to actually get right past Gu Fei’s attack and Charge over toward them. Svelte Dancer had a faster reaction to this sudden change and was able to push Vast Lushness aside in time.

Southern Lone Blade was a little dispirited, but he could not let this Charge go to waste; he had no choice but to send it right toward Svelte Dancer, the woman who had ruined his plan. Svelte Dancer no longer had time to avoid this, so she took this Charge squarely on her chest, flying high in the sky as she subsequently turned into white light.

“OH, F*CK!” Gu Fei was astonished. Even though Svelte Dancer was a woman, he had considered her to be an iron-woman that could not be defeated deep in his heart. With her whole body of equipment that provided her with Attack Power, defense, and everything in between, he did not think that she would actually die at the hands of Southern Lone Blade.

“You teleported away, right?” Gu Fei could hardly believe what he had just witnessed and sent a message over to Svelte Dancer.

“Teleport, your *ss. You’d better get revenge for yours truly!” Svelte Dancer’s reply was clear.

No matter how high a defense, it was not limitless. Besides, Southern Lone Blade was no run-of-the-mill Warrior himself. His Attack Power was topnotch. Having already given Svelte Dancer many slashes of his sword when he was stomping on her, with her eating another Charge directly as she did, how could Svelte Dancer withstand it all? No matter how excellent her equipment was, she only had that much HP as a Thief.

Southern Lone Blade was also surprised he ended up successfully killing Svelte Dancer. He lifted his gaze and saw the collapsed Vast Lushness not too far away, but he knew that he no longer had the chance to mount an attack on her. He reckoned that Gu Fei would set about to utterly annihilate him by now, and he could already smell the smoke belonging to a fire that was at the insta-kill level.

“MANA!” Southern Lone Blade heard Gu Fei shout this, and his voice was really close to where he was standing. Southern Lone Blade struggled hard to shift his shield behind him as he turned in hopes that the metal’s bulk could block Gu Fei’s attack yet again. In the end, his shield was pulled away, and Gu Fei was now standing right before him. In an upward motion, Moonlit Nightfalls was already shooting right up for his chin.

Southern Lone Blade could feel all his hair stand as he shuddered when he thought that he was about to be skewered in such a frightening position. He no longer had any PK awareness or attempted any sort of technique and just brandished his sword plainly to cut Gu Fei in front of him with his conditioned reflex. Gu Fei, who had already positioned himself to another side, sent his sword to brush past that man’s neck again.

Now that she was back on her feet, Vast Lushness began to cast her Mana Sacrifice with her Utopian Magic Staff. This was the item that Southern Lone Blade was after, so he naturally knew just what she was trying to do. Now that Gu Fei’s attack was going to be enhanced by his spells in the next moment, he already knew the inevitability of his grim fate at that point.

However, Southern Lone Blade had no wish to die too cowardly, so he began to wildly wield his sword and shield, hoping that Gu Fei would not have such an easy time getting close to him even as he began to run toward Vast Lushness.

Gu Fei’s mana was just a little off the amount he needed to unleash a Twin Incineration, and Vast Lushness’s Mana Sacrifice would soon help supplement this. He decisively began his incantation, slashing out at Southern Lone Blade with his spell-infused sword. As for Southern Lone Blade’s wild swinging of his sword and shield, all Gu Fei saw was the many flaws and openings he created as a result, so he simply ignored it all.

The sharp whistle of wind sounded, and Gu Fei immediately came to a halt. It was as if a single bolt whiffed right past his eyes. If he had not stopped in time as he did, it would have most likely found the side of his head. The precision of this shot made in advance was extremely accurate; if Gu Fei had not reacted quickly to it, there was no doubt that he would have taken the hit.

Everyone could not resist but look in the direction of where this bolt had come as a result of this sudden change. They saw a player darting out to the middle of the street at a high speed, with both his hands raised levelly. Another bolt was then released.

Gu Fei could already guess who this strange Archer was. As he quickly avoided that incoming bolt, Broken Water Arrow dove right behind a flowerbed.

“Big South, quickly run!” A disembodied voice shouted, overshadowing the sound of the whistling wind. This shot, however, did not originate from Broken Water Arrow. As Gu Fei dodged this incoming projectile, he realized that there was another Archer shooting at him from a side of the wall.

Southern Lone Blade could identify this voice belonging to his comrade Glue. At the same time, he was given a set of coordinates for him to retreat. No longer hesitating for even a moment, the man began to run accordingly and even attempted to run past Vast Lushness. The lady was no fool to stand there like a dummy for the man to cut and quickly took evasive action. The movement speed of a Warrior and Priest was about the same, so Southern Lone Blade did not dare to give chase as he buried his head and sprinted as fast as he could.

“Where do you think you’re going?!” Sakurazaka Moony and Fireball heroically ran out to lend a hand. Blue Ease had managed to replenish some of his mana after consuming a piece of fruit, so these three men had come forth in hopes of helping cut off their target. In the end, all they heard were the sounds of three consecutive shots, and each of the three men found a short bolt stuck right on each of their foreheads in the next moment, petrifying them where they stood.