Chapter 156 - Single File Formation
Although Carouse was known as Yunduan City's second largest guild, its size and level were the same as Traversing Four Seas. Both guilds were at level 5 with seven hundred fifty members. Frankly speaking, the only worry that large guilds in Parallel World had was if the guild level was not high enough. As for the member count, many players would immediately fill up the available spots once the guild level rose. People were dying to join such large guilds at the first opportunity, after all.
Carouse was viewed as the second largest guild in Yunduan City only because it started slower than Traversing Four Seas and was always a few steps behind the latter at leveling up the guild, leaving Carouse at an unfavorable position whenever it was time to level the guild and recruit new members.
However, ranking the guilds was not just simply a race to being higher level. The day-to-day tasks and happenings in the guild were important as well. A large guild would not simply let its members waste away their spots as days went by, so replacing members was a common occurrence in a guild. Players that seldom logged on or were leveling too slowly to meet the guild's demands would be kicked out, and the freed spots would naturally be used to inject new blood to further strengthen the guild.
This race to recruit capable experts was the main contest of struggle between the two guilds. Although Traversing Four Seas and Carouse were ranked as first and second based on the time they each leveled, the public was still unsure which of them was stronger and had better experts since the two guilds had never clashed before. Thus, a majority of the players were hoping that the guild versus guild tournament would determine for everyone which was the better guild between the two.
Since Amethyst Rebirth, a small guild with fifty-four players, had drawn such a formidable opponent, the specter of death was visible even on the ladies' very expressions. Although they were not heavily invested to the match's outcome, they still had some regards toward it. The small flicker of hope inside each of them wished for a miracle to happen. They managed to breeze through their two matches easily thus far, so they naturally felt a little sad to finally encounter a huge hurdle today. This was more or less what the ladies currently had in mind.
Concluding her presentation, July merely said, "Everyone, do your best."
All the ladies and the sole gentleman nodded their heads. Gu Fei chose to remain silent, as Svelte Dancer approached him and said, "Plenty of kill points out there today, so I won't lose to you for sure."
Gu Fei laughed bitterly for a moment, "I'm afraid this might be our last chance to compete for kill points, so you better try your darndest."
Svelte Dancer bewilderedly asked, "Why did you say that?"
"You actually think that we've got a chance to win today?" Gu Fei asked back instead, astonished.
"Why not?" Svelte Dancer felt shocked at his question, asking, "Haven't you seen the forums?"
Gu Fei was confused by her question, saying, "Forums? I've skimmed through them. Why?"
"There is this six-man mercenary group called Young Master's Elite that defeated Cloud Herder mercenary group with over seventy members. Don't you know of this matter?!" Svelte Dancer gasped in surprise.
"Of course, I know about it," Gu Fei replied hastily.
Everyone had already been drawn in by Svelte Dancer's gasp. Young Master's Elite might not be very famous, but that name held plenty of weight to Amethyst Rebirth's older members. The ladies knew that that mercenary group had helped them resolve the matter with No Smile, so they were happy that Young Master's Elite had made the headlines. Hearing Svelte Dancer suddenly mention this mercenary group, they eagerly pricked their ears to eavesdrop.
Svelte Dancer cleared her throat and swept her gaze over at everyone present, "Ladies!"
"Ahem!" Gu Fei coughed lightly.
Svelte Dancer casted a sideway glance at him before adding, "And someone."
Gu Fei did not cough anymore, as being 'someone' was better than being labeled as one of the 'ladies'.
Svelte Dancer continued to address the crowd, "Young Master's Elite is a good example for us. The players in that group did not falter despite encountering strong enemies and instead tried their best to drag the fight out with their opponents. We are in a similar predicament to Young Master's Elite in today's fight, so we must actively learn from that group's tenacity. Keep running if you can and drag as many enemies down if you cannot; do your best to cause an upheaval and sacrifice every bit of your strength for our guild to win this match."
Svelte Dancer's speech had an extremely rousing effect to the crowd. One after another, these ladies showed in their expressions how her speech had cleared the heavy mood permeating the air and had given them hope for victory. These ladies solemnly promised to put their all into this match.
The meeting ended in a positive note, and everyone was subsequently teleported into the PvP arena when the countdown was over. Svelte Dancer whirled her dagger in the air and yelled out a battlecry before sprinting out of sight in a cloud of dust. The other ladies followed suit by waving their weapons about, shouting battlecries, and proceeding to run toward the rolling hills and vast plains before them.
Gu Fei was once more at the end of the group and by himself. He felt like puking blood. When it came to matters of personalities, some things never changed and they were hardly worth talking about. They had no chance of winning this match at this rate, unless Svelte Dancer miraculously acquired the indestructible bodies of the five Saint Seiyas when they donned their golden zodiac clothes.
Gu Fei did not hurry to join in on the charge forward and casually went up a small knoll to survey the map's terrain, noting that their effort might still come to naught even if they had Young Master Han's expert guidance.
About seven hundred players were in this match between Carouse and Amethyst Rebirth, so this PvP arena was far larger than the ones Gu Fei had previously been into before. Getting into a vantage point and looking about, he merely saw more land stretching beyond the reach of his sight. How would anyone do any sort of high-ground commanding at this rate? It was exactly as what Young Master Han had said before: There were limitations to commanding from a vantage point.
Gu Fei descended from atop the knoll and bounded across the land. The size of the map and the time limit for the PvP match were truly complementary to the quantity of the participating players. With such a big map, we might eke out a victory if I kill every opponent I encounter, Gu Fei thought to himself. He gave up the idea of engaging the enemies head on to avoid alerting the opposing guild's main force of his presence. Gu Fei walked along the edge of the map, hoping to first observe the enemy guild's composition before making any further plans.
The guild channel was surprisingly 'quiet' when he pulled it out. The ladies' desire to win this guild match was apparently pretty high for them to prioritize the fight at hand over chatting. However, focusing on a task did not mean that it would get accomplished brilliantly. In this case, the ladies' lack of strength was still the prevailing truth.
Gu Fei continued to run forward. The guild channel was 'quiet' and the PvP arena was deserted. As Gu Fei was thinking that he might have entered an entirely different dimension, a message suddenly flashed on the guild channel from Svelte Dancer: "F*ck me!"
Gu Fei's heart skipped a beat. Svelte Dancer's high Attack Power and fast speed made her combat strength comparable to his, so having her around would somewhat increase their guild's chance of victory. Could it be that she had been eliminated so soon?
Thankfully, the system did not send out any signal for a death and Svelte Dancer immediately followed-up her message: "These guys are far too comical."
"What happened?" A rush of queries appeared on the guild channel.
"Have a look for yourself," Svelte Dancer replied cryptically.
With her monstrously fast speed, Svelte Dancer's mad dash to the front allowed her to see something that the others would only see after quite some time. Gu Fei was considered as the second fastest member in the guild, but he wasted quite a few precious minutes due to him walking to the edge of the map and climbing up a high hill. At this moment, not one person was visible in his line of sight.
Quickly making his way forward, he finally spotted human figures ahead and could not help but spit out, "F*ck me!"
At the very boundary of his sight, the members of Carouse had lined themselves up in one row. They were only a few meters apart from one another as they marched forward. Undoubtedly, this single row formation that Carouse had adopted with its nearly seven hundred participating members would cover the map from end to end. Marching in this manner to the opposite side of the map was equivalent to the guild thoroughly searching the entire PvP arena and not allowing one person to escape their sight. Truly, having plenty of people has many advantages! Gu Fei sighed to himself.
Still, this search formation might prevent any enemies from staying hidden, but it was clearly vulnerable to attacks. Just as he was thinking of this, July sent out a command on the guild channel, wanting everyone to gather in one place. It seemed that she was planning to harness Amethyst Rebirth's full power to pierce through this formation.
The ladies' speed varied, but gathering them did not require much time as they had been traveling toward the same direction. Gu Fei was currently on the opposite side of the ladies' rendezvous point, so he was the last to reach their location despite his fast speed. Moreover, the fighting of the two guilds had already started without him.
Gu Fei ran up a nearby hill and took a look at the fighting of the two guilds below.
Since both guilds were clashing in just a specific area of the PvP arena, it actually seemed like Amethyst Rebirth had the superiority in numbers when all the ladies were charging toward a few enemies who were lining up in this single file formation. The players of Carouse were definitely inferior in terms of number in this skirmish, but their job class composition and fighting power were extremely balanced. Instead of fighting the ladies to the death, they chose to maintain their formation and defend against their assault. In contrast, the Amethyst Rebirth's ladies' lack of a good commander and group battle experience became more and more evident as the PvPing dragged on. For instance, the ladies' battle positions were a mess.
Given that players had no immunity from friendly fire in Parallel World, the players' stationary and mobile battle positions were often stressed upon. Right now, Amethyst Rebirth's assault was akin to scattered sand battering a large rock: The Archers had their firing range blocked by their guildmates, the Mages could not unleash AOE spells due to how tightly packed they were, the Warriors that usually acted as vanguards of a battle formation to tank their enemies' attacks were instead at the rear, and the Thieves that should be on Stealth and flitting in and out of the fight to deal bursts of damage to the opponents were instead at the frontline.
Carouse's team steadily retreated to further upset the Amethyst Rebirth's already fragmented battle formation as more members from either side of the single row formation began to stream in. At this rate, these ladies would not attain any sort of victory! It seemed that Carouse had a thorough understanding of Amethyst Rebirth's flaws, which was why they had intentionally shown a weakness in their formation to bait the ladies into assaulting them.
Since the ladies thought that their battle formation's weakness was insignificant, then it meant that Carouse's ploy was a success.
Gu Fei could no longer bear to watch this, so he sprinted down the hill and hollered, "Retreat! Leave them all to me!"
None of the ladies was commanding, so they happily and obediently retreated to the side when they heard Gu Fei's shout. As Gu Fei raised his Moonlit Nightfalls and chanted a spell, the opponents timely fired off arrows toward him to disrupt his spell-casting. At the same time, he heard a familiar yet aloof voice: "Use AOE spells and zone1 that twerp."
Chapter 157 - Gallantry and Tactics
Just as a row of Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno sprouted before Gu Fei, a series of Descending Wheel of Flames ignited in the sky. Looking beyond the wall of fire separating him and the opposing guild, Gu Fei saw that a familiar-looking Priest was currently leisurely bestowing Heal on the nearby Carouse's players. When this Priest saw that Gu Fei had spotted him, he performed a curt bow toward him with a flourish of his left hand.
"Thieves, no need to enter Stealth. Archers, don't fire arrows together; instead, keep a steady stream of arrows coming to pester him. Mages, continue what you're doing," Young Master Han threw Gu Fei a smile as he issued these instructions to the members of Carouse. Since the ladies had all retreated at Gu Fei's behest, the opposing players were able to focus their firepower on him.
The ladies who were now standing at a safe distance looked on to see what Gu Fei meant by his "leave them to me" declaration, yet they merely saw him getting zoned to the side by the opponents.
"Fireball! Shoot!" Gu Fei could only cast this most basic spell under the enemies' intense suppression.
The damage that his Fireball spell could cause was shocking, but because of its extremely weak Verdict, the enemy Warrior was able to cleave the ball of fire with his sword as if it was nothing.
Gu Fei dealt with all the incoming arrows as he waited for the wall of AOE spells to dissipate. Given that the average Mages had much higher mana pool than Gu Fei, these Mages before him were unlikely to run out of mana after casting just four or five AOE spells. While Gu Fei was being zoned in a corner, the men from both ends of Carouse's single file formation stealthily made their way toward the Amethyst Rebirth's ladies. Standing atop the hill, Gu Fei saw that a number of opponents were in the process of encircling Amethyst Rebirth to annihilate everyone in one go.
At this moment when advancing or retreating was not possible, Gu Fei actually received a message from Young Master Han: "Compared to your gallantry, tactic is certainly more useful!"
He is really sadistic! Gu Fei spitefully thought to himself. Despite the steadily increasing number of opponents, Carouse continued to deal with Gu Fei by zoning him and did not dare engage him in a melee.
The enemies that were not dealing with Gu Fei moved to assault the ladies, and although the ladies retaliated at the incoming enemies, they would still occasionally look at Gu Fei's direction, hoping that he would do his "leave them to me" declaration again.
With the situation becoming worse as time dragged on, Gu Fei knew that it was only a matter of time before the ladies were decimated. If that happened, he would have to deal with a seven-hundred-man encirclement by himself. No matter how much Gu Fei loved PvPing, he still did not wish to deal with such an insane situation.
Looking around and spotting a sizeable boulder at his rear, Gu Fei sprinted toward the rock and hid behind it. As the Archers grew nervous at the realization that the boulder would shield Gu Fei from their arrows, Young Master Han merely smiled, "Don't worry about that. Any spell he chants over there won't hit us. That boulder has long been included in my calculations."
The Mages of Carouse paused for a bit as they realized that the range of their spells, be it their Descending Wheel of Flames or Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno, would indeed not be able to reach that rock. Meaning, Gu Fei's attack would not be able to reach them as well.
As the men of Carouse thought up to this, they spotted Gu Fei peeking from behind the boulder. A raging inferno sprouted before them in the next moment, yet it was a good two meters away from their nearest player. All of them laughed heartily at this and praised Young Master Han's brilliant calculations.
It was at this moment that Gu Fei had dashed recklessly out of the rock and into the wall of fire zoning him.
"Is he surrendering to his desires? That's suicidal!" Young Master Han laughed coldly. Gu Fei had dived head-first into the burning conflagration and was instantly lost in the flames. The time he had to spend within the flames was but a moment with his fast speed, yet he had no means to withstand the damage output of several Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno and Descending Wheel of Flames.
Young Master Han and the rest of Carouse thought that they would not see Gu Fei in this PvP arena again, yet the sight of Gu Fei making it through the wall of fire with soot streaks and burned marks on his body gave them a thorough shock.
"How is that possible?!" The Mages whose spells had formed the wall of fire separating Gu Fei from them involuntarily stopped their spell-casting as they gawked at one another.
When the bombardment stopped, only the scorched ground, a few raging infernos, and one flame wheel were left on the PvP field.
"Whose flame wheel is that? Why haven't you made it descend yet?" These players indeed lived up to their reputation as experts of a large guild as they very quickly found the reason for the anomaly, questioningly eyeing the few Mages in charge of zoning Gu Fei.
As the Mages suspiciously looked at one another, Gu Fei suddenly laughed, "Do you mean that flame wheel? Sorry about that… That's actually mine." With Gu Fei uttering the word "descend", the flame wheel finally explosively landed on the ground.
"You…" Everyone finally realized what had happened, "That's too sneaky!"
"You're not just a musclehead, after all!" Young Master Han could not help but praise Gu Fei's ingenuity.
That one flame wheel Gu Fei had casted effectively disrupted the Mages' chain of spells. The thing was that the coordination of these Mages who were casting Descending Wheel of Flames was actually flawless, as they would all take turns casting that spell, and each of them would only cast the next flame wheel after the previous one had descended. Gu Fei's Descending Wheel of Flames had deceptively stayed suspended mid-air amid the enemies' casted spells, giving the Mages the wrong idea that one of them had yet to drop the casted flame wheel on the ground, and thus buying enough time for Gu Fei to safely breakthrough their spell cordon that was only made up of several Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno.
This foolhardy method only worked because the Mages of Carouse had been coordinating with one another so expertly. Had they been the Amethyst Rebirth's ladies, they would surely have unleashed spells on the targets at their convenience without a care about coordinating their attacks with others.
The originally excellent coordinated attacks of the enemies were thus exploited by Gu Fei.
"Quickly attack!" Coming back to reality, the players of Carouse realized that Gu Fei was already upon them and quickly organized themselves for a frontal assault.
"Too late!" Gu Fei said as he closed in on his most hated enemies, the Mages. Before the Mages could raise their magic staves to cast spells, Gu Fei's Twin Incineration had already instkilled a full circle of them.
"F*ck! What kind of Mage is he?!" The remaining players were dumbfounded. The Archers had originally assumed that Gu Fei would cast a spell to attack them, so they had readied their arrows to interrupt his incantation. Who would have thought that Gu Fei would instead dart toward them while dodging the incoming attacks to instkill the Mages with his Twin Incineration?
"His Spell Damage alone is already monstrous!" Everyone finally realized why Young Master Han had treated this Mage so specially and tried to prevent him from getting near them or completing his spell-casting. Truly, the Spell Damage he had just displayed was too shocking.
Several Archers split up and ran as they fired off arrows on Homing Projectile at Gu Fei.
Although Gu Fei did not fear this archer skill, the need to knock the arrows on Homing Projectile singly still made him feel very annoyed as it somewhat disrupted his fighting tempo. While Gu Fei weaved his sword to deal with the arrows on Homing Projectile, several opposing melee job classes were moving onward to surround him.
Gu Fei had casted one Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno and one Descending Wheel of Flames just now before he managed to blitz through the enemies' ranks. Moreover, that Twin Incineration he had used to cut down several Mages almost depleted him of his low mana. He had yet to eat any fruit to recover his mana as well, so instkilling these players that were moving to surround him was not possible.
Young Master Han seemed to also be aware of Gu Fei's dilemma as he sniggered over by one side.
Turning his head in the direction of the laugh, Gu Fei impatiently bellowed, "What are you looking at me for?! Get rid of that Priest already!"
The enemies followed his gaze, yet all they saw was air. They returned their gazes to Gu Fei and regarded him oddly, thinking, Has this guy finally lost his marbles?
However, a figure unexpectedly faded into view from that empty space in the next instant. When this figure completely materialized, it was already within two meters of Young Master Han.
Svelte Dancer.
When Gu Fei broke through the enemies' zoning, he noticed that a Thief on Stealth had detached itself from the ladies' side. Gu Fei should have no idea who this Thief on Stealth was without the person revealing himself or herself, yet the person's fast speed allowed him to guess the Thief's identity right away, as no one could move so quickly while on Stealth besides Svelte Dancer.
The Priest Young Master Han without an Endurance build currently did not have anyone near him. With Svelte Dancer's monstrously fast speed and high Attack Power, he might not even have time to bestow Heal on himself.
Relieved, Gu Fei returned Young Master Han's snigger. Unexpectedly, Young Master Han merely flashed Gu Fei a cold smile. Before that smile faded away, Gu Fei had already heard Svelte Dancer's annoyed cry: "Ahhh! Why would there be a Hunting Trap here?!"
The Archers that that had previously shot nothing but air due to Svelte Dancer's extremely fast speed immediately made the necessary adjustments. These Archers were confident that they could hit a stationary target, so they unhurriedly made their shots.
"How troublesome!" Gu Fei said as he used his last bit of mana to carve out a portion of his encirclement and dart toward Svelte Dancer.
Gu Fei arrived to where Svelte Dancer was, and the arrows were close to hitting her as well. So he immediately bent over and swept his leg at her heels, causing Svelte Dancer to screamingly topple to the front and into his waiting back, successfully evading all the arrows heading her way at the same time.
"F*ck! Why does it seems like the new one is always heavier than the last one when I am carrying girls?!"
Heavy, fat, plump, ugly, old… were usually taboo descriptions for any women, yet the emulous Svelte Dancer did not react negatively to Gu Fei's crass comment and instead guiltily answered, "I'm sorry! I have lots of stuff in my dimensional pocket."
"Throw them away! Quickly throw them away!" By the time he said this, Gu Fei had already straightened his back while running away unsteadily with Svelte Dancer on his back. He felt as if he would cough up blood at any given moment due to her heavy weight.
Gu Fei had of course no wish to PvP while Svelte Dancer was on his back, so he decided to run away with her for now. He was only helping her move since she had no means to do so herself. She would return to normal without receiving damage once the Hunting Trap's effect wore off, anyway. This was what he had learned from the Forever in Flowers' 'Hunting Babes with Trap' method.
As for when exactly the trap's effect would wear off… Gu Fei lowered his head to check, and he noticed that the trap was still clamping down on Svelte Dancer's leg!
"Oh!" Hearing Gu Fei's exhortation, Svelte Dancer promptly tossed out some items from her dimensional pocket.
Gu Fei indeed felt the weight pressing on his body lessening and his steps becoming lighter the more items Svelte Dancer threw out. He looked backward and saw that the enemies were closing in on them fast, yet the trap was still hugging Svelte Dancer's leg.
"Don't bother about me! Run!" Svelte Dancer resolutely made a decision.
"How could he?!" Someone actually answered for Gu Fei, saying, "He wants to prove that companions are important."
He looked backward once more and saw that Young Master Han was staring at him with mocking eyes.
Gu Fei gave out a light laugh, "I'm not trying to prove anything! It's just instinctive sometimes."
Although Svelte Dancer had thrown out many items, Gu Fei was still heavily encumbered. This meant that his speed had barely increased, so the enemies very easily caught up to them.
The enemies catching up to him was not really a problem despite his depleted mana, but since the immobile Svelte Dancer was with him right now… Gu Fei could only sigh.
Surprisingly, the enemies who initially had their eyes fixed on the two were now gazing even more intently on the ground. "These items…" everyone mumbled.
Gu Fei glanced around them. The many items Svelte Dancer had thrown on the ground were glistening with radiance. He had a sudden realization, I'm carrying the world's mightiest pay-to-win player. The items she carries around are of course not just mere trinkets. Although not just anyone could equip these items, they were still worth a lot of money.
How many people would actually be unmoved by such a shower of valuable freebies? These players of Carouse clearly did not wish to reject them, but… Pick them up? But what if the others scorn me for doing so… Refrain myself from picking them up? But what if the others pick them up for themselves? Such thoughts were fermenting on their minds right now.
How long does a Hunting Trap last? As Gu Fei was pondering on this and the enemies were hesitating about picking up the items on the ground, the Hunting Trap on Svelte Dancer had finally worn off.
"I'm fine now!" Svelte Dancer whispered.
"Go finish them!" Gu Fei and Young Master Han actually said the same thing at the same time.
Svelte Dancer nodded her head confidently as she hopped to the ground, "What about you?"
"Let me eat a banana first," Gu Fei replied.
"F*ck! This again…" Svelte Dancer muttered as she zipped off.