Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 266 - The Flying Gu Fei

Black Index Finger had once stopped in his tracks when he had learned of his men’s fate on the mountain peak. Upon reaching the top, he once more found himself standing rooted to the spot.

The mountain top had limited space, yet Gu Fei and the four members of The Black Hand appeared as if they were currently playing a game of chase. The atmosphere was somewhat lively and harmonious, making Black Index Finger wonder if he had just been transported to an alternate dimension.

Amid Monologue under the Moon and his men’s cries of: “Over there!”, “Block him!”, and so on, Gu Fei spotted Black Index Finger bounding toward him with undisguised glee and he promptly yelled, “Let’s have a duel!” Gu Fei had had enough of this comedic situation by now.

Black Index Finger had yet to make sense of things on this mountain peak when Gu Fei greeted him with a sword slash. The flames that lit Gu Fei’s blade gave Black Index Finger quite the fright, thinking that he was a goner against Gu Fei’s Twin Incineration. But when he saw his HP barely dip, he quickly calmed down. Indeed, most players struggled to discern the minute visual difference between Sacred Flames of Baptism’s additional fire attack and Twin Incineration’s effect at first glance.

Monologue under the Moon also spotted Black Index Finger at this point, yet Gu Fei was the one who stood beside their group leader and solemnly told them, “Alright. Enough games. Let’s properly fight now!”

Black Index Finger took Gu Fei’s words as a cue to send a sword slash at the latter while he told his other men climbing up the mountain, “Quickly take care of him!”

They were an Archer and a Thief respectively; one quickly distanced himself from Gu Fei, while another went to his side to conduct a pincer attack with Black Index Finger.

With three Priests and a Holy Knight present, Gu Fei’s every action was still useless, yet he still could not help but sigh in relief. At least, the opponents were no longer resorting to using such a despicable method that had them attempting to throw him down the mountain by ganging up on him. Knowing that Royal God Call and Sword Demon would arrive soon, he spiritedly engaged the enemies in a fight.

Black Index Finger thought it would be easy to deal with a mana-depleted Mage. He was even unwilling to use Cyclone on him, yet he soon discovered that Gu Fei’s fighting prowess was far more extraordinary than what was rumored. He could not seem to land even one slash on Gu Fei no matter how hard he tried, whereas the latter’s Chinese broadsword easily found its way to his body numerous times.

The Thief attacking from the other direction felt even more humiliated. While Gu Fei was incessantly moving around Black Index Finger as he dished out attacks, the Thief was fruitlessly chasing after his butt. The Thief could only wait for Gu Fei to slow down so that he could land his attack on the latter, but Gu Fei just moved faster and faster, instead. When the Thief tried attacking from the opposite direction, Gu Fei merely matched his movement, and the chase would repeat itself. The Thief had been on the mountain peak for quite some time, yet he had not even landed a blow on his target. All he had accomplished was circle around Black Index Finger until even the latter grew nauseated following him.

There was also the Archer who could not even fire off an arrow with Homing Projectile because he could never seem to be able to set his reticle on the constantly moving Gu Fei. When he finally shot an arrow, it dug into Black Index Finger instead, scaring him from firing a second arrow.

Monologue under the Moon got everyone to focus their Heal on Black Index Finger, which resulted into Black Index Finger angrily bellowing, “Just one healer will do! Everyone else should come and surround this twerp!” He still had his dignity as a leader to consider. He did not wish to be treated as a punching bag like Monologue under the Moon was being treated moments ago.

Monologue under the Moon wanted to say that the few of them would be unable to surround Gu Fei properly, but he kept quiet in the end. Simply saying that Gu Fei was formidable would only sound absurd. Everyone in The Black Hand had laughed at him when he had told them of Gu Fei’s extraordinary fighting capability after failing his mission the other day. Honestly speaking, Monologue under the Moon even felt somewhat sated, as if he had gotten his revenge on his fellow teammates, when Gu Fei decimated his twenty-man team just then.

At their group leader’s command, the three Priests and one Knight came over to surround Gu Fei. As Monologue under the Moon had expected, Gu Fei’s fast movement speed made it so that even the Priests could not get near him as he nimbly moved about; Black Index Finger ended up chasing after Gu Fei just like the Thief.

The mountain peak was once more filled with cries of “Over here!”, “Block him!”, and so on. These lines seemed to echo the ones he had heard earlier when he had just arrived on the mountaintop, making Black Index Finger think, Seems like I’ve really entered an alternate dimension....

This stalemate on the mountain peak was broken by an arrow’s shrill scream. With Royal God Call and Sword Demon’s arrival, Gu Fei wiped the sweat off his forehead, “You guys are finally here!”

Royal God Call marveled teasingly, “So there are situations where you have trouble holding on as well?”

“It’s not ‘hold on’ but ‘kill on’,” Gu Fei rectified, supplying, “There are many Priests. If only there weren’t any....”

Monologue under the Moon’s ego received bruising when he heard that. He had previously been bemoaning his team’s lack of damage dealers when they were down to three Priests and two Knights and had been fantasizing about what it would be like if they had more combat job classes. Hearing Gu Fei’s words now... Such a team composition would apparently only lead to their deaths!

Meanwhile, Black Index Finger’s expression turned deathly pale. After experiencing how troublesome it was to deal with Gu Fei, he no longer doubted the latter’s capability to stall for time until the match’s end. Since Gu Fei’s allies were now in this location, the other three were probably nearby. Did the few of them have a chance to survive until their reinforcements arrived?

More importantly, Black Index Finger had no way out now. Seven men were with him on this mountaintop; besides the Thief and Archer he had brought, the rest had slow movement speed.

“Charge!” Royal God Call roared as he shot an arrow at the enemy Archer. Sword Demon activated Fleetfoot and dashed toward the enemy Thief.

The Archer was the man Black Index Finger and company had saved from tumbling down the base of the mountain. He did not have full HP to begin with, so he failed to survive the Snipe Royal God Call had fired off at him despite the many Priests present.

With an angry bellow, Black Index Finger hurtled himself toward Royal God Call using Charge.

The veteran combatant Royal God Call quickly shuffled to the side at the sight of Black Index Finger charging at him. Black Index Finger charged right up to him and extended his sword to activate Cyclone – a two-skill motion that any Warrior worth his or her salt would be able to execute.

Royal God Call was distressed by this assault and scampered away to evade Black Index Finger’s Cyclone.

Accordingly, Black Index Finger canceled the skill to conserve his Rage points. Gu Fei thought that an opportunity was present, so he quickly closed in on Black Index Finger. Gu Fei slashed at him and extended his hand to push Black Index Finger over the edge. He was hoping to send the latter rolling down the mountain by catching him off guard.

This was a wrong move, though. A huge gap existed between a Mage’s and a Warrior’s Strength to the point that the latter easily suppressed the former. The adage ‘A strong man can easily overpower ten martial artists’ really held some truth. The technique that Gu Fei had used on the Knight before was useless before a Warrior’s Strength. Gu Fei’s push did not even move Black Index Finger an inch. In fact, his attempt resulted into the latter reflexively grabbing and tossing him away.

“Wonderful!” Monologue under the Moon was moved when he saw this. That’s why he’s the boss. He only had to shoot his hand out once and he easily dealt with the troublesome Mage.

Black Index Finger was actually taken aback by this. What he had just done was a conditioned reflex that even Gu Fei had trouble reacting in time. Agility’s impact to movement speed was obvious in this game, yet things like attack speed were not as exaggerated. If a Warrior’s attack speed was eight times slower than a Thief’s Agility, then no Warrior would be able to fight anyone in Parallel World no matter how strong he or she was!

Sigh... That’s too careless of me! Gu Fei reflected on this while mid-air. Once more, he lamented his Strength or lack thereof as he adjusted his posture to regain his balance.

When Black Index Finger returned to his senses, he immediately realized that he had done something huge. He excitedly looked backward to watch Gu Fei’s tumble down the mountain, but all he saw was the latter landing safely on the slope.

“Sword Demon and Royal, hold on for a bit!” Gu Fei shouted toward the mountain peak’s direction. Fishing out an apple to munch on, he decided to replenish his mana instead of promptly heading back to the combat zone.

Monologue under the Moon’s expression changed when he heard Gu Fei’s shout. How was he fine after being tossed off the mountain peak like that? He ran toward the mountain edge, looked down, and saw Gu Fei calmly eating an apple. Turning his head over, he and Black Index Finger exchanged looks. “We can’t let him recover his mana!” Monologue under the Moon was about to cry.

Black Index Finger was well aware of this fact as well. However, he could only regret using so much strength in that toss that he managed to send Gu Fei sailing so far away. Even if they ran toward Gu Fei now, they would be unable to stop him....

In a last-ditch effort, Monologue under the Moon flung out Holy Ball, which merely drifted toward Gu Fei. Gu Fei did not dodge the attack and instead saved those precious seconds to recover a bit more mana. When Holy Ball landed on him, his mana recovery was interrupted. Nonetheless, Gu Fei already managed to replenish a quarter of his total mana. With a chuckle, he shouted, “I’m coming back!” He then pulled out Moonlit Nightfalls and rushed toward the mountain peak.

“We’re doomed...” Monologue under the Moon was a meticulous person and he had been observing Gu Fei’s fighting style, hoping to find any weakness. He did not find any, but he became aware of Gu Fei’s fighting habit. Gu Fei would wield his Chinese broadsword whenever he ran out of mana, and he would change it to that non-appraisable sword whenever he had mana.

Actually, Sword Demon and Royal God Call had almost finished decimating the players on the mountain peak by themselves. The enemy Thief died under the two’s joint assault without giving the enemy Priests ample time to Heal him. They then bullied the two Priests and one Knight in a relaxed manner. All the while, Black Index Finger and Monologue under the Moon were lamenting about Gu Fei’s recovery of his mana over by the mountain edge!

What else was there to say about the ensuing scene? Black Index Finger, Monologue under the Moon, the two Priests, and a Knight had slow movement speed, so it was essentially impossible for them to escape from Gu Fei, Sword Demon or Royal God Call at this point. They could also not rely on the three-man healing method that they had used before since Gu Fei and company could easily insta-kill any job classes by cooperating with one another.

Black Index Finger might be tough, but he could still not survive the combined damage output of Sword Demon’s Backstab, Royal God Call’s Snipe, and Gu Fei’s Twin Incineration!

The rest of The Black Hand on the mountaintop was handily eliminated in this way. The three men of Young Master’s Elite headed to the mountain edge and surveyed the land below. Young Master Han and the two others were almost about to reach them, while The Black Hand’s four teams that were supposed to support the now eliminated Black Index Finger were making their way over to this highly contested vantage point as well.