Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 90 - Silver Moon’s Team

After assembling all the Past Deeds’ Knights in the Knights’ Barracks, Silver Moon immediately led his team toward the Warrior Encampment. The Warrior Encampment was the most crucial establishment that he was trying to reach, as Warriors would gain the most advantage from the King’s Command skill.

Mages were the best at dealing AOE damage;

Thieves could vanish from sight through Stealth;

Knights’ buffs were similar to King’s Command;

Priests were mainly useful for their healing;

And lastly, Fighters were the best at... being rarely chosen.

Not all the job classes’ fortes could be strengthened by King’s Command. Only the Warriors, with their abundant HP, high attack, and strong defense – simple soldiers whose strength lay in their stats – could fully exhibit the might of King’s Command.

Regrettably, Silver Moon’s team of low-Agility Warriors could never outrun the high-Agility team of mostly Thieves and Archers that Sword Demon had sent to assist in defending the Warrior Encampment. A large number of Mages were manning the Warrior Encampment at the moment as well. If Sword Demon’s reinforcement arrived and formed a defensive line in front of those Mages, Silver Moon’s plan of blitzing the Warrior Encampment with the thirty Warriors under King’s Command would be razed to the ground.

This was why Silver Moon had chosen to create a diversion by splitting his forces into two units. The team of Archers headed northeast at the Mage Academy and drew the enemies’ attention there; meanwhile, Silver Moon’s team of Warriors headed toward the real target, the Warrior Encampment.

The Knights’ Barracks was taken along the way, as having more Knights on their side would also bolster the team’s strength and number. In terms of stats, Knight could be considered as the job class closest to matching up the Warrior job class.

As for targeting the Archer Range first... Young Master Han might have overanalyzed things. Silver Moon’s plan was simple: His team was mostly composed of Warriors, so he had chosen to target the garrisoned Thieves, which the Warriors had more confidence of subduing due to their advantage against the job class, at the Archer Range.

The squad, which was now composed of Warriors and Knights, made its way south to the Warrior Encampment. Actually, King’s Command consumed 4% of Silver Moon’s mana every second. This meant that the skill could only last for twenty-five seconds. Fortunately, he had an effective supplement to his team.

Vast Lushness. She was also in possession of a weapon with an additional skill.

[Utopian Magic Staff

Additional skill: offers 5% of a player’s mana to replenish a target’s mana.]

In addition, the skill did not have a cool-down time. Since Vast Lushness was a Priest with an Intelligence- and Spirit-based build, she had plenty of mana. This meant that her 5% mana could essentially become Silver Moon’s 10%, tripling his current mana and extending King’s Command by another fifty seconds as a corollary.

Silver Moon had deactivated the skill at the moment. King’s Command could only be maintained for seventy-five seconds even with Vast Lushness’ mana supplement. Seventy-five seconds was simply not enough for them to reach the Warrior Encampment from the Knights’ Barracks. In any case, Silver Moon already resolved to refrain from using King’s Command in the fight at the Warrior Encampment. This was to let the skill finish its cool-down time of ten minutes and be available during the final battle.

Silver Moon’s troops had finished all their preparations en route to the Warrior Encampment; the Knights applied Blessing of Health, which regenerated HP every five seconds, on each squad mate.

Dealing with Mages was easy. They only had to survive their initial attacks and engage them into a melee.

Broken Cloud who had been killed by Silver Moon’s previous assault respawned over at Warrior Encampment with the others. Currently, they were outside the Warrior Encampment, feeling extremely nervous. This was because the Knights who had respawned after the attack at the Knights’ Barracks reported that Silver Moon’s team was already on their way to the Warrior Encampment.

“They’re here!” Broken Cloud’s brows arched downward. The thunderous footfalls he was hearing right now felt even more frightening than before. Silver Moon did not activate King’s Command this time, so the Warriors and Knights were not gathered around him. Instead, he divided them into equal pairs, made them take different routes leading to the Warrior Encampment, and sicced them to jointly attack the spawn point.

Broken Cloud looked distraught. He never expected Silver Moon to preserve his skill and to spread his troops out from all directions. This move effectively countered the AOE advantage of the Mages who were currently defending over at the Warrior Encampment. The Mages could hold their ground, provided that they were facing few enemies. Right now, however, they were up against opponents that outnumbered even the defenders of the Warrior Encampment.

Silver Moon’s thirty-man team was joined by the forty plus rescued Knights from the Knights’ Barracks. Thirty plus Warriors charged out of the Warrior Encampment at this same moment. Besides these frontline troops, there were also the Priests that Silver Moon had rendezvoused with after breaking through the encirclement at the Archer Range. This was the first battle appearance of the opposing Priests ever since they had gotten out of the Priest Academy. All in all, Silver Moon now possessed an army of at least a hundred men.

“It’s over... We can’t defend against this,” Broken Cloud and his fellow players could already envision their defeat upon seeing the army before them. Nevertheless, the hot-blooded players of the Past Deeds Eradication Army still chose to face the enemies here. Although their defeat was a foregone conclusion, they intended to make Past Deeds pay the price for their deaths.

Past Deeds had amassed quite an army of mostly Warriors, Knights, and Priests in front of the Warrior Encampment. The army’s composition was akin to a meat grinder in a way that it was not dependent on skills but more on brute force, focusing more on their melee capabilities to kill their opponents. Broken Cloud watched Silver Moon and his men assemble in front of the Warrior Encampment from inside the spawn point. This was his second time being the recipient of such a battle formation, yet he still did not know how to deal with it. He could only report the situation’s every detail to Sword Demon and the gang who were currently stuck at the Mage Academy.

Shortly after eliminating the last of the team of Archers at the Mage Academy that Silver Moon had sent to belay them, Sword Demon and the gang received the news that the Knights’ Barracks and the Warrior Encampment had fallen into their enemies’ hands. Sword Demon’s group failed to provide assistance to their comrades at the two spawn points since they had already rallied the rest of their troops at the Mage Academy. This included the squad of Warriors manning the Thieves’ Union. They had summoned the Warriors over to the spawn point for Mages for the purpose of establishing their final defensive line here.

All these meant that the only advantage Sword Demon and the rest now had over the enemies was the Past Deeds’ lack of Mages. If they relinquished this spawn point, everything would just revert back from the time before all these happened.

Some of them were currently analyzing the reports Broken Cloud had sent over at the expense of his life.

“Our opponents are mostly Warriors and Knights. There’re plenty of Priests as well. This team has high HP and healing capabilities.”

“Silver Moon has an unknown skill, too. Under his skill’s light, his teammates’ speed, attack, defense, HP, and other stats alarmingly rise. We don’t know how far the skill’s effect extends; we only know that it can affect over thirty players at once. Although we’re unsure of how long its effect lasts, it should only be short. At the very least, Silver Moon couldn’t keep it up all the way from the Knights’ Barracks to the Warrior Encampment.”

“What a brutish tactic. To tank the attacks and engage in melee.”

“Any job class will have difficulties engaging a Warrior in melee,” Sword Demon sighed.

“Maybe Fighters can deal with them,” Celestial Pig opined. He had always wanted to be a Fighter. However, he ended up not choosing the job class after getting discouraged by the official statement about its high degree of motion requirement. Even now, he could not get the Fighter job class out of his mind.

Everyone only squinted at him. With the severity of the situation, even Dusky Cloud could not be bothered to wail on him.

“Silver Moon is our opponents’ figurehead. Get Archers atop the roofs and make them focus their Snipe on Silver Moon once they spot him,” Sword Demon instructed.

All nodded their heads. By the looks of things, this final fight did not seem to be very difficult. The only worrying factor was that unknown wide-area skill of the Past Deeds’ guild leader. This battle’s difficulty would drastically diminish with Silver Moon’s death.

But is it really that simple? Everyone dared not be overly optimistic.

Whatever the case might be, the Archers still quickly got into position on the buildings’ and houses’ rooftops around the Mage Academy and silently awaited the Past Deeds’ arrival.

The plaza outside the Mage Academy was quiet. If one did not see it himself or herself, no one would suspect that many people were currently hiding in the various corners around this spawn point.

After a short while, however, this silence was broken by a voice, “M*th*rf*ck*ng Celestial Pig, stop quaking in your boots! Is that all there is to you?” The person cursing was none other than Dusky Cloud.

“M*th*rf*ck*r, aren’t you shaking as well?” Celestial Pig countered.

“Where am I shaking?”

“Your legs!”

“M*th*rf*ck*r! Since you can see my legs going soft, why aren’t you coming over to assist me?” Dusky Cloud berated.

“M*th*rf*ck*r...” Celestial Pig went forward and lent Dusky Cloud a hand, letting him rest his arms across his shoulders.

“Bastard!” “M*th*rf*ck*r!” The two continued to bicker.

Sword Demon laughed at their antics. Undoubtedly, these people were a group of hot-blooded and loyal brothers. From their first assault and the changes they had to make in between to their final showdown with their opponents....

Everything had deviated far from Sword Demon’s original plan.

But upon winning their trust, none of them voiced any complaint.

Even when he erred in predicting the Past Deeds’ move or he commanded them wrongly, everyone simply thought of ways to resolve them. Not one of them let out a sigh at his failure.

Countless other players were watching this scene in the plaza. Many of them were as nervous as Dusky Cloud and Celestial Pig, yet none deserted their positions; they remained focused on the battle ahead.

Since we’re doing it, then it’s only right for us to keep it up till the very end! Sword Demon declared in his heart, feeling a little teary eyed. It had been a long time since he had last felt such strong emotions!

“Coming! They’re coming!” the Thieves fired off this message.

Someone suggested sending a squad of Thieves to ambush Past Deeds on their way over, but that idea was quickly vetoed.

Even if the Thieves could attack a meat-shield army made up of Warriors with Backstab, they did not have the strength to take them down – the large number of Priests following behind would at least ensure that. Hence, sending those Thieves would only reduce their own number unnecessarily.

Besides the Archers, the other job classes formed a human wall. “We’re banking on their lack of Mages right now!”

This was the unchanging aim of this showdown.