Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

No Smile stared at him expressionlessly, not saying a word. The people outside the entrance did not disperse but increased in number instead. Gu Fei sighed as he opened the mercenary group channel, “No Smile sure is gutsy. I’ve killed him too many a time, yet he still dared to have me surrounded.”

“Why aren’t you dead, then?” Young Master Han asked.

“I’m squatting in the safe zone!” Gu Fei said.

“Can you get out?” Young Master Han asked.

“Let me give it a shot,” Gu Fei said as he got up.

“We’ll be there shortly,” Young Master Han reassured him on the conversation window.

“No need to,” Gu Fei said, “Their number will just keep on increasing. Even if we group up, we can’t go up against all the Traversing Four Seas’ three hundred members. It’s better if I fight my way out while there’re still few of them.”

“Alright, good luck then. We’re off to the bar,” Young Master Han agreed easily.

Gu Fei was speechless at his lackadaisical response.

The long robes of Mages had the tendency to drag on the ground, getting in the way of movement. So when he was getting up, Gu Fei picked up the hem of his robe and tucked it into his waist. With his hand still holding the Flames of Baptism, he said to No Smile, “I’m leaving!”

No Smile looked at him in astonishment. Ten players of Traversing Four Seas were now gathered outside the Thieves’ Union, with many more on their way, yet this person actually dared to face them head on... Did he think he was a GM?

Even those blocking the exit outside had not expected to hear such a bold statement from Gu Fei. They were prepared for a ‘seige’, either hoping for No Smile and Gu Fei to reach an understanding in the safe zone or expecting for the Mage’s companions to arrive and assist Gu Fei in engaging them into a bloody battle outside the safe zone. But as things stood right now, Gu Fei seemingly intended to solo them all.

Gu Fei slowly stepped out of the safe zone with his face still covered by the piece of black cloth. No one could see his facial expression, yet his aura unconsciously made everyone feel apprehensive. They had to constantly remind themselves, There’s nothing to be afraid of. We outnumber him! Although they kept on repeating this mantra to themselves, their minds still could not help flashing back the scene earlier when Gu Fei had made short work of No Smile. They could not fathom what method he had used to accomplish such a feat.

Gu Fei shortly arrived at the Thieves’ Union’s door. As soon as he got there, he launched himself forward.

Gu Fei’s one leap was akin to him crossing the realms of life and death. At the same instant, the Flames of Baptism started dancing in his hand.

There were three reasons why no one was able to dodge Gu Fei’s ensuing attacks. First, he was a Mage with agile movement due to his allocation of all his stat points to Agility. Second, the attacks he unleashed were unfathomable and went beyond the abilities of everyone present. Last, Gu Fei was able to vary his attacks according to the battle flow even when they missed at first.

His first strike mercilessly rent the Mage casting a spell by the side.

Although Gu Fei did not learn Appraisal, he could still tell the job classes of these players with a glance. This was because their equipment was dictated by their in-game job classes. For example, Mages wore robes, Thieves donned cloaks, and Warriors equipped heavy armor. Through his knowledge of their gear, Gu Fei could easily tell the type of job class each of them had with great accuracy.

Gu Fei’s first cleave with his Chinese broadsword might not have insta-killed the Mage, but it at least disrupted his spell-casting. Although Gu Fei had a keen close combat sense, he was still wary of mage spells. This was especially the case with the beginner spell Fireball, which could track his movement and hamper his technique execution for a short amount of time.

Besides that strike with his Chinese broadsword, Gu Fei managed to kick another player as well. Even though the kick was not backed by a strong force, it was still able to drive the player a few steps backward, which in turn stopped the other two players at Gu Fei’s rear from rushing at him.

Once Gu Fei had landed on his feet, he spun the Flames of Baptism and hurtled it toward the Mage. The Mage was unable to deal with Gu Fei’s attack with his low HP and average speed. The magic staff in his hand could not block the attack as well, making the Mage frustrated with it. The last hit procced the Flames of Baptism’s fire attack. Despite the Mage job class’ high magic resistance, its weak physical defense and meager HP ensured that the Mage could not survive Gu Fei’s two attacks.

With the Chinese broadsword in hand, Gu Fei was completely fired up and itching for a fight. Even though the group of people that had been blocking his way out only tried to subdue him, Gu Fei still took the initiative and killed one of their own. No Smile largely contributed to his fellow guild members’ inability to deal with Gu Fei as well, since he had continually been shouting this instruction from within the safe zone, “Don’t kill him! Just take off that cloth masking his face!”

No Smile was worried that Gu Fei would be shredded to death by the concerted attack of his fellow guild members. If that happened, No Smile would be unable to find out Gu Fei’s identity, as the latter would be sent back to the Mage Academy’s spawn point. Hence, No Smile made the same mistake that Cao Cao did in the past.

As the story went, Cao Cao made the fatal mistake during the Battle of Changban of issuing this order, “Nobody fires an arrow. Capture them alive!” which gave Zhaoyun the chance to carry Liu Bei’s son across the battlefield in his bloodied robe and escaped.

However, Cao Cao made that critical error in judgment back then because he was greatly emboldened by his army of a million men. No Smile, on the other hand, only had ten men, yet he still saw it fit to emulate such a historical figure. Within the time-frame of his command, Gu Fei managed to kill off the Mage. The remaining nine men rushed to avenge their fallen comrade, but felt somewhat troubled when they heard No Smile’s order once more.

Normal players could neither control their attack to the point of consistently causing maximum damage like Gu Fei nor maintain attack with minimum damage. Hence, the Warriors carrying bulky weapons were at a loss of what to do, fearing that their immense strength would result into Gu Fei’s death.

Gu Fei was not a reckless fool through and through. Before making the decision to break through this blockade, Gu Fei had already judged that he was more than capable of dealing with these ten men. No Smile’s order had caused them to become hesitant in their attacks, staring at Gu Fei confusedly as they thought of how to deal with him. Gu Fei thought No Smile was being such a wet blanket, so he threw him a death glare.

That glare apparently meant nothing to No Smile as he continued to holler, “Grab him! Grab him! Take off that piece of cloth! Take it off!”

The men kept their weapons ready as they rushed forward, intending to tackle Gu Fei to the ground. Unfortunately, Gu Fei’s wielding of his Chinese broadsword was very dynamic; he weaved the Flames of Baptism in and out among them, quickly killing the two players with low HP. One of the Warriors, who had prided himself as someone with a substantial amount of HP, decided to bet on it as he forcefully attempted to capture Gu Fei. The whole situation evolved into a situation wherein Gu Fei was like a little chick evading the swooping talons of these players of Traversing Four Seas. But Gu Fei’s combat prowess truly outclassed these Warriors, resulting into them not even catching the hem of Gu Fei’s robe.

Two more fell from Gu Fei’s swordplay in the next instance, with one of them being the Warrior who had disregarded Gu Fei’s damage output with his high HP.

No Smile finally realized how terrible his previous command was. Unfortunately, it was too late for regrets now, and he could only watch everything unfold. In an attempt to avoid the ire of the people who had come to assist him, he shouted encouragingly, “Just hang in there until the reinforcement arrives.”

People would probably assume that Gu Fei was the one who had surrounded these people with a huge army after hearing No Smile’s words without the visual cues.

Gu Fei had heard No Smile’s words as well and considered the futility of his current predicament.

Gu Fei’s Attack Power was substantial as long as the additional fire damage from Flames of Baptism’s fire attack was added into the equation. The problem lay with the attribute only having a 30% proc rate, which was something Gu Fei could not overcome with technique. This caused his Chinese broadsword to have maximum and minimum attack he had no control over, making it awkward for Gu Fei as he fought on.

His single stroke in fact had contained a number of follow-up attacks that could extend his combo, yet the additional fire attack got triggered and immediately killed off the opponent. Another scenario was when he had used the Chinese broadsword to strike to his left, hoping for the fire attack to get procced and kill off the target, which would have allowed him to focus on another enemy on the right. Unfortunately, that did not happen and he was forced to adjust his battle plan accordingly.

The fire attack’s infrequency helped as well as disrupted the fighting tempo of Gu Fei, affecting his overall performance. While this was somewhat negligible in a one-versus-one fight, it was somewhat troublesome in a one-versus-many brawl like now.

Out of the original ten people blocking Gu Fei’s exit, five had been struck down. Yet he had eight more targets left to fight, as their number had increased once more.

It looked like his plan to wipe out all ten people was not very realistic. Even if he were to exclude the ones that just came in to provide support, just the return of the two Thieves Gu Fei had killed off once made continuing the fight seemed pointless. Since this was the Thieves’ Union’s entrance, they simply respawned and joined the fight with Gu Fei again. Furthermore, No Smile’s command to not kill him but find out his identity made everyone less pressured of having to achieve victory. In fact, the two Thieves had taken off their sets of equipment to prevent them from losing durability and fought Gu Fei topless.

Gu Fei’s attacks were no longer limited to his Chinese broadsword, as punches and kicks were thrown into the mix as well. He was doing everything he could to fend them off. Although the people were being summarily beaten by Gu Fei, they figured that they at least had him surrounded. However, they all failed to realize the truth of the situation; Gu Fei was not actually being trapped by them, but rather he was choosing to stay put. Now that he had made the decision to leave, he largely twirled his Chinese broadsword twice. The resulting gap due to the opponents’ evasion allowed Gu Fei to slip right through and escape the encirclement.

No Smile assumed as well that his plan to trap Gu Fei had succeeded. So when he saw Gu Fei breaking out of the blockade, he attributed it to these people’s blunder. He impatiently shouted, “Quick, quick! Surround him! Surround him once more!” He even risked his life and ran out of the safe zone.

However, Gu Fei had already bolted a few meters ahead. No Smile pointed at Gu Fei’s fleeing figure and hollered at the two Thieves, “Fleetfoot! Quickly activate your Fleetfoot!”

The two Thieves cried, “We just dropped a level so we can’t use Fleetfoot anymore.”

One of them cried even louder, “My Fleetfoot has already lost a bit of proficiency.”

No Smile’s heart chilled upon hearing the Thieves’ words. He had almost forgotten about his losses. Seeing that his level dropped by four and his equipment durability reduced to zero, No Smile could only thank his luck for not having lost any equipment yet. No Smile had grinded the level 30 skill Fleetfoot to a relatively high proficiency, but now it was all gone.

Just as he was feeling saddened by his losses, he saw Gu Fei suddenly stop fleeing ahead. No Smile lightened up and quickly ordered everyone to catch up.

Gu Fei himself started running back toward them, while seemingly mumbling something. Everyone was taken aback by this and all involuntarily slowed down. Gu Fei abruptly turned around and ran away once more.

“F*ck, we’ve been tricked!” No Smile bellowed in his anger. When they started to slow down before, the distance was increased further as Gu Fei ran off once more.

All were vexed as they once again quickened their pace. Suddenly, a fiery glow appeared before their eyes as a fire dragon formed mid air and changed into a mass of fireballs that flew toward them.

“Ahhh!” all of them shrieked in anguish as they got bombarded by the spell unceasingly.

All the Traversing Four Seas’ guild members besides No Smile suffered a number of slashes from Gu Fei’s Chinese broadsword, and they had yet to recover from those fully; hence, the spell just now sent two players back to the safe zone.

Level 30 Mage spell, Repeating Fireball.

Although the topless No Smile did not die, he was not able to escape the explosion’s range unscathed. As he fought back his tears, he could no longer hold back himself from heaving a long frustrated sigh, “Arghhh! I forgot that he’s a Mage!”