Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“Quick!” Gu Fei shouted as he continued to weave through the streets. Poor Eternal Dominion had not allocated all his Stat points to Agility like Gu Fei, nor was his footwear comparable to Gu Fei’s, so he was lagging behind quite obviously when they are sprinting like this.

“Why are you so slow?” Gu Fei shouted back at Eternal Dominion, feeling quite accomplished. His usual combat partner was Svelte Dancer, and she would always be the one leaving him behind to eat her dust, shouting those same words. Today, it was finally Gu Fei’s turn to enjoy the sensation.

Unfortunately, while the faster was able to slow down, the slower had no means to speed up. No matter how much Gu Fei complained, all he could do was slow down and match Eternal Dominion’s pace as the two men headed towards the coordinates they were given.

This set of coordinates was naturally not just related to Gu Fei alone, but also Sakurazaka Moony and the entire mercenary group, The Great Hunting, over the mercenary channel. Everybody was rushing over, ready to lend a hand to Gu Fei.

------

At the moment, it was like rumors were already flying all around Linshui City, as players would randomly see others sprinting by with their weapons unsheathed. Curious players were all inquiring, wondering just what was happening.

The experts from Young Master’s Elites were dumbly waiting by the Warriors’ Encampment. There was supposed to be five of them, but Brother Assist was actually not present, leaving just the four others.

“Why is Brother Assist gone for so long...” Young Master Han glanced at the time as he watched several players rushing past him in a hurry. “Looks like everything is about to begin.”

“Ask Miles how things are on his end,” Young Master Han ordered.

The other three stared back at him. “Ask him yourself!”

While Young Master Han was without a doubt their mercenary group leader, and they would listen to the man when it came down to his plans and strategies, they were nevertheless still experts. Of course they had their pride, and they were all unhappy with how Young Master Han would dictate orders to them like they were his secretaries.

Young Master Han had no choice,but to ask Gu Fei himself, which only got him a single word reply, “Busy!”

“That rascal’s actually pretty efficient! He actually got everything in full swing so soon?” Young Master Han muttered.

“Miles has already located Southern Lone Blade?” War Without Wounds immediately stood up from the wall he had been squatting by the moment he heard this, lifting his weapon to the ready. Death was all that awaited their target once Gu Fei found him, so that meant their own fight was about to begin, as well!

“How is he so quick, the show hasn’t even started yet!” Young Master Han grumbled. He was still discontented over how quickly Gu Fei had located Southern Lone Blade.

“Forget about all that, let’s get ready, everyone,” Sword Demon pulled out his daggers and engaged his Stealth right by the entrance. Any player that appeared in the designated safe zone would not be able to escape his sight.

“I’m getting into position as well!” Royal God Call lugged his three bows and climbed up a nearby roof, locating a spot that would afford him a good angle to fire.

“What about me?” War Without Wounds asked Young Master Han.

“Same as always; protect me,” Young Master Han answered.

------

Linshui City, Fourteen Street...

Southern Lone Blade and his squad of men had arrived after circling through the back alleys. They had weaved through the streets along the way, feeling as if every single player they saw sprinting might possibly be targeting them, taking detours as necessary. What could have originally been a perfectly straight route wound and meandered across many streets instead, successfully avoiding those players from Blue Umbra that were after their heads thanks to their experience. The route the seven had chosen was long and changed erratically, causing the Hunter from Forever in Flowers to have quite a hard time keeping pace with them, and he was finally spotted by Southern Lone Blade and his men.

They pretended to be unaware, taking a turn at a certain intersection before coming to a halt. That poor Hunter had no idea what was coming, as he quickly gave chase the moment he saw his targets took a turn. In the end, Southern Lone Blade sent a sword cleaving down the moment he peeked his head round the corner. Even though his head was not chopped off, he nevertheless disappeared in a flash of white light.

------

The Hunter who had sacrificed himself had conscientiously reported his last coordinates before informing everybody that he had been discovered and subsequently killed off.

“Sorry bro!” Gu Fei was truly conscience-stricken, but he had no idea what he should say.

It was instead Sakurazaka Moony and his men who clamored as they gloated over their comrade’s misery. This was the common spirit shared by every member in this mercenary group, which would have been termed a “corporate culture” if they were a real life business.

“Don’t worry about it. All the best, Drunk bro!” was the gracious reply that hoodlum gave, even as he personally addressed his own comrades’ eighteen generations worth of ancestors and descendants.

“Rest assured, I’ll be sure to take him down!” Gu Fei had also felt the only thing he could do at this point was to relate to the Hunter how decisive he would be when slaying Southern Lone Blade, in an attempt to assuage the man on the value of his sacrifice.

At the moment, Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion were not too far away from the last coordinates they were given. The two dashed on to the street opening ahead. Seeing that they had already gotten the abscissa correct, they turned to the right and immediately spotted Southern Lone Blade and his men as they were about to turn the corner.

“Over here!” Eternal Dominion sounded almost cheerful as he bolted ahead, clearly not regarding this cruel hunt as anything. Just like Gu Fei, both martial practitioners figured this would be as easy as crushing an ant between their fingers.

Gu Fei hefted his sword and was not a beat slower than the Fighter. The squad had thought the dawn of hope would greet them the moment they dashed out of the street, yet they had not expected to be crashing into two meteors instead.

They no longer dared to face them directly, so the only choice the seven of them had left was to retreat.

“Palatial Balefire!” Fire Singed Clothes unleashed the same spell once more, as a flaming wall surged to cordon off the street. He was about to resume and run after his six comrades, but instead heard the six of them yell in unison, “F*CK!”

Fire Singed Clothes’s Palatial Balefire may have blocked the two men from getting closer, but Gu Fei had also cast his Electric Wall to seal their escape!

They had purposefully chosen narrow alleys and streets in order to maximise the effectiveness of Fire Singed Clothes’s spell, yet this came back to shoot them in the foot since Gu Fei’s Electric Wall had actually became the perfect counter!

Considering the fame behind his name, no one dared to test out the prowess of Gu Fei’s spell. That seven-man squad could only stay put, hoping that Gu Fei’s Electric Wall would disappear before Fire Singed Clothes’s Palatial Balefire did.

“F*CK!!” While the six men were staring at the Electric Wall, waiting for it to run its course, they heard Fire Singed Clothes curse loudly. They turned back and were dumbfounded by what they saw.

That impregnable barrier came crumbling down in their hearts when they saw Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion easily make their way past it. Gu Fei utilized his Blink with a raise of his finger, swishing into existence past the Palatial Balefire without losing a hair. Eternal Dominion got past the wall of flames in an even more outrageous manner; he ran up the slightly slanted wall that was a short step away from the Palatial Balefire and had parkoured his way up to the roof with ease.

If even Gale Force could do this, there was no reason Eternal Dominion would not be able to. In fact, he did not even need to use the Fighter skill Swallow Dropkick to get up there. Up on the roof and stepping past the spell, he leapt down to the ground in one go, conveniently utilizing his Swallow Dropkick to smash right down on his target, Southern Lone Blade.

Southern Lone Blade’s counterattack was not a pace slower, lifting his shield over his head and caused Eternal Dominion to slam his leg squarely onto that hunk of metal. Most ordinary players would probably have ended their attack with that, but Eternal Dominion was anything but an ordinary players. With his foot on the shield, his follow-up move had already been unleashed; still falling in mid-air, his other leg shot right out and landed on Southern Lone Blade’s chest with deadly precision.

That blow sent Southern Lone Blade back several steps, leaving Blackwater and the Knight beside him to scramble to support the man. Southern Lone Blade turned back and could feel his heart tremble at the sight, for just two more steps and he would have found himself snared in Gu Fei’s Electric Wall. Would he have died had he come into contact with it?

Over on the other side of this encounter, Gu Fei had sent an opportune kick towards Fire Singed Clothes the moment he Blinked over and sent the man falling to the ground. Fire Singed Clothes was lucky; Gu Fei only had enough mana for a single Twin Incineration after casting both his Blink and Electric Wall. He planned to leave this move for Southern Lone Blade, so he did not slash out at Fire Singed Clothes, otherwise the latter would probably be turned into dust had he chosen to feed that slash to him.

At the very same moment, Eternal Dominion was sent bouncing after delivering that kick to Southern Lone Blade. Gu Fei whooshed past him and hurtled straight for Southern Lone Blade.

Southern Lone Blade had only managed to find his feet moments ago. His thoughts were still stuck on his back foot that came so close to the Electric Wall when Gu Fei pounced upon him like a wolf on sheep. Southern Lone Blade was still leaning backwards at this time, with Blackwater on his left and the Knight on his right holding him up. Such a posture would almost guarantee Gu Fei to score a triple kill with that one Twin Incineration brushing past them.

The three wanted to defend themselves, but they had no idea if they could make it in time. Gu Fei had also thought he had this in the bag as well, when he suddenly realized the spot his front foot was about to step on was flashing a glaring red glow.

Gu Fei’s conditioned reflexes were indubitably formidable to be able to stop himself in time, despite hurtling himself forward with all his might. He jerked his torso forcefully in the opposite direction even as his body came sailing back.

At the same time, a wall of raging flames shot forth from the ground. Gu Fei turned his head while in the air, and spotted Fire Singed Clothes still sprawled on the ground, stubbornly raising that magic staff of his in the air. He had saved the lives of his three friends in the nick of time.

Fire Singed Clothes had no choice but to do this. He could tell that if he did not attempt such a move, there was simply no chance for Southern Lone Blade or the other two to resist that slash. But this one interception forced the six of them into an desperate situation: Being sandwiched between both the Palatial Balefire and Electric Wall like this had already limited the space they had. Gu Fei was a Mage. At this rate, all he needed to do was toss an AOE spell and they would have nowhere to run.

But there was no use in worrying about this possibility, now that everything had climaxed to this point. All they could do now was see how much damage could the Video Mage really dish out.

This gamble from Fire Singed Clothes had unknowingly paid off, since it had actually snagged Gu Fei’s Achilles’ heel. His AoE damage was indeed not as scary as his Twin Incineration in terms of its damage output, and he was only able to cast a single spell at this point, as well.

Would this be a Descending Wheel of Flames or a Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno? Fire Singed Clothes had his eyes glued to Gu Fei, hoping he could give his comrades the all important hint to their enemy’s next move. Yet, Eternal Dominion had also happened to land on the ground and was right beside him, casually dishing out a Seismic Toss as he reached the ground. Fire Singed Clothes was still sprawled on the ground when Eternal Dominion threw the man right into his own Palatial Balefire.

The glow of the flames surged to the sky! Fire Singed Clothes was entirely unable to put up any sort of resistance as he was thrown into the blaze of his own making, instantly losing his life before he could even give any sort of hint to his comrades.

Nevertheless, that hint of his became irrelevant with his death. This one toss that Eternal Dominion had done may have eliminated Fire Singed Clothes, but it was truly a huge failure in their cooperation.

Had Svelte Dancer or any other expert from Young Master’s Elites been in his place, they would surely have made the choice to step forth and help Gu Fei intercept the arrows fired by the Archer Glue, allowing Gu Fei to successfully complete his incantation and bombard the six players before them to kingdom come.

Not only was Gu Fei exposed to the Archer’s shots that prevented him from successfully casting his spell as a result of that one throw from Eternal Dominion, he had also caused Fire Singed Clothes’s death, which meant the Palatial Balefire would instantly become harmless. There was no reason for the six veterans to miss such an opportunity now that it had presented itself, and they immediately dashed through the flames.