Chapter 166 - Internal Conflict
Moonlit Nightfalls glowed as a ball of fire formed from its tip before flying toward the four ladies.
"Ahh! Quickly dodge it!" The ladies were thrown into a tizzy. With the current standard of Parallel World's players, the most basic spell in the Mages' arsenal, Fireball, was often disregarded by many. Most people would casually knock it away with anything that they had and view the spell as not a big deal even if it hit them.
As for the ladies, they treated Gu Fei's spells, even Fireball, as something very dangerous. Thus, the four quickly dispersed when they saw the ball of fire heading their way.
Fireball had a tracking ability, yet Gu Fei did not make his spell chase after any of the four ladies and the ball of fire was floating in a straight line instead. Gu Fei had always been using Fireball like how he threw his secret projectiles during his kung fu training session, and he would often throw the spell out by relying on his eyes and calculation instead of on the system's target lock-on assistance.
"Fireball! Shoot!" Ice Glaze and another Mage made use of the same spell to counter Gu Fei's. He extended his sword and unhurriedly sliced apart the two balls of fire heading his way, easily dissipating them.
"YA!" The female Warrior lowered her head and sprinted over using Charge. Gu Fei sidestepped to let her pass him and swung hard at the incoming figure with his sword, "Twin Incineration! Incinerate!"
The blade formed a beautiful red arc, yet it cleaved nothing but empty space. The female Warrior was currently standing next to the sword as she said in confusion, "Oh, dear. Did I estimate wrongly for the distance?"
Gu Fei wanted to faint right there and then. The lady Warrior had apparently calculated the distance wrongly with Charge. The lady could simply not reach Gu Fei from where she had activated Charge, so while Gu Fei's sidestep perfectly opened up an opportunity for him to strike her, the lady's poor execution of the skill had rendered his swing useless.
"Let me do it again!" The lady ran back to her original position.
Gu Fei's could do nothing but to hold his sword tightly in hand. Originally, he had wanted to slash at the Warrior right away, but he ended up staring blankly at her retreating figure after hearing what she had just said.
Once back in position, she bent her waist, lowered her head, and raised her sword again. After getting into that posture, she said, "Just wait for a little longer! The skill's cool-down time is about to end."
The other three ladies confidently nodded their heads.
Gu Fei was in tears. Is this a PvP match or a mentoring fight?
"Aye! Here I come!" The female Warrior shouted and rushed forward using Charge once more.
Gu Fei was afraid of her misjudging the distance once more and wasting his effort, so he decisively took a step forward, "Twin Incineration! Incinerate!"
From the perspective of Parallel World's Verdict, no matter how many times a Mage casted Twin Incineration, the spell would be unable to win against the Warrior's Charge skill. However, Gu Fei saw through the skill execution and his forward step essentially dodged the female Warrior's Charge. With his follow-up swing to the opponent's direction, his actions virtually canceled out Verdict.
"Ah! She got him!" Ice Glaze and the other ladies rejoiced, fully assuming that Gu Fei's forward step would make him receive the full brunt of the Charge skill. In the end, they only saw their guildmate catching fire as she went past Gu Fei and burning until she was nothing but a white light.
"Ah… How is that possible?" The three ladies were left befuddled by what they had just witnessed.
"I'm not gonna go easy on you lot anymore!" Gu Fei flexed his forearm to show them that he was serious.
The three ladies were standing separately, so Gu Fei could not cut down all three with one stroke of his sword. Thus, he threw out a ball of fire and dashed toward one of the ladies' direction.
A whistling sound stopped Gu Fei's forward momentum, though. The sound of the traveling arrow gave a vague indication of the Archer's attack power and speed, and Gu Fei believed that only one Archer present in this match could shoot an arrow of this caliber.
Turning his head over, Gu Fei saw that the ball of fire he had thrown to the female Priest was dissipated by the arrow.
Royal God Call then hurtled over from the arrow's firing direction and shouted, "Who dares to touch Grape?!"
Oh? Is this lady that Grape? Gu Fei glanced at the Priest and sighed in his heart, saying, "Royal! Look at how much you've frightened her."
Royal God Call hurtled over like a wild sparrow, standing in front of Grape while pointing his bow toward Gu Fei. Before anyone could say anything, he signaled Gu Fei like crazy by winking his eyes and moving his brows.
Gu Fei originally wanted to praise Royal God Call for being able to shoot down his Fireball, yet he lost the will to do so after seeing the latter's facial gestures. He simply sighed and asked, "What are you trying to do here?"
"I'll fight whoever that dares to touch Grape!" Royal God Call continued to act the part of a hero saving a damsel in distress.
Before this matter could be settled, War Without Wounds also trampled over. His voice reached Gu Fei ahead of his figure, "Xiao Bing and Xiaoying are under my protection! Anyone who dares to attack them will have to get through me first!"
Xiao Bing naturally meant Ice Glaze, as for Xiaoying, Gu Fei did a quick check of Amethyst Rebirth's members list. Spotting a Mage by the name of Singing Peach, he reckoned that this lady before him must be her.
War Without Wounds, who had gotten near the ladies, opened his stance and bore the look of someone defending justice. The way the two looked at Gu Fei seemed to suggest that he was the one infringing upon the virtues of the fair maidens before him, angering Gu Fei to the point of speechlessness.
The ladies were of course at a loss at what was happening. Ice Glaze meekly asked, "What is going on?"
"It's an internal conflict!" Gu Fei huffed.
Royal God Call and War Without Wounds stood their ground firmly, as if what they were doing was logically sound. The three ladies looked at one another, unsure of what to make of the situation that they had found themselves in.
"Since that's the case," Gu Fei rolled up his sleeves, saying, "I guess I'll have to take you two down first."
Royal God Call cried out, "Do you think it will be that easy?" With that, he fired off an arrow on Homing Projectile toward Gu Fei.
Gu Fei flipped his sword over and knocked the arrow aside as he chanted, "Fireball! Shoot!"
Royal God Call fired off Double Shot instead of dodging; one hit Fireball and the other one flew toward Gu Fei.
Gu Fei rushed toward Royal God Call once he finished casting Fireball, dodging the incoming arrow with a deft twist of his head. Royal God Call smiled when Gu Fei broke eye contact with him and took that chance to turn tail and run.
F*ck! Gu Fei cursed inwardly. The movement speed Royal God Call currently possessed was comparable to his, so chasing after him would be no different from when he was fighting with Sakurazaka Moony: It would just be a stalemate.
War Without Wounds was trying to twist the situation into one where the ladies would feel indebted to him, so he hurriedly addressed the ladies over by the side, "Run away quickly! Leave him to us two!" Gu Fei had been turned into the villain by the actions of these two idiots.
"Ha ha! Come and get me!" Naturally, Royal God Call knew that Gu Fei would be unable to do anything to him right now, so he delightfully taunted him. He ran toward the ditch and dashingly leaped over. However, Royal God Call disappeared from the surface with a whoosh when he did so.
"What happened?" War Without Wounds asked in shock. Gu Fei, meanwhile, was laughing inside him. Evidently, Brother Assist, who was still hiding inside that ditch, had taken that moment to pull Royal God Call down when the latter was gleefully leaping over the ditch. Brother Assist might not have these experts' fighting prowess, yet a person in hiding would always have the upper hand when it came to pulling a fast one on others.
Recalling that time when they drank the most expensive liquor on Young Master Han's tab, Gu Fei had only drunk three glasses while Brother Assist had had a whole bottle after the first glass. He profited the most during that incident, yet Gu Fei took the blame for the whole matter. The deviousness of Brother Assist's duping tactics could be seen from that move alone.
No matter how powerful an Archer was, he or she would oftentimes be at a disadvantage when it came to melee. At this moment, Royal God Call was being held down in the ditch by Brother Assist and was no longer a cause for worry.
Gu Fei raised his sword and turned about to close in on War Without Wounds.
War Without Wounds was a Warrior, so he clearly did not have the skill to kite Gu Fei. Thus, he firmly planted his feet to the ground and did not forget to tell the ladies in order to earn more brownie points, "Stand behind me."
The ladies had long been muddled by the messy predicament they had found themselves in. Hearing War Without Wounds' words, they meekly hid behind him.
Gu Fei sprinted toward War Without Wounds, as the latter separated his two hands each holding a claymore to his sides.
He has taken the Job Class Advancement to be a Berserker! Gu Fei's heart tightened. He had since learned from his fight with Foe-herder that the Warrior's dual-wielded Cyclone was not easy to deal with. Foe-herder was ranked sixth on the Warrior leaderboard, while War Without Wounds was currently ranked third. Besides this, he was also known as the number one Warrior in the entire online gaming community, so his Strength should be much higher than other Warriors.
As all these thoughts were running through Gu Fei's head, War Without Wounds had already bent low and dropped his swords, taking up a very familiar stance.
Here it comes! Gu Fei cried out in his mind. He did not dare to increase the speed of his forward sprint and chose to halt his steps instead. He then raised his sword in preparation for unleashing an AOE spell to interrupt War Without Wounds' attack.
Unexpectedly, War Without Wounds lifted the swords from his sides and clasped both in front of him as he lowered his head.
F*ck! Gu Fei was shocked to see War Without Wounds stomping toward him using Charge. He quickly sidestepped to dodge the attack and was about to chant a spell when War Without Wounds suddenly jerked his head up, separated his claymores to his sides, and stopped his forward momentum by twisting his waist to meet Gu Fei head on.
"F*ck!" Gu Fei cried out audibly this time.
Gu Fei did not know how far War Without Wounds' Charge could reach, but he was positive that the latter had canceled it before reaching the intended distance. His timing for the skill cancelation was nearly impeccable, placing him right before Gu Fei. What was worse was that War Without Wounds had immediately followed this up by unleashing Cyclone on the spot.
A dual-wielded Cyclone had double the effect compared to the usual Cyclone. Using only one hand to take the blow would result in a player taking a gash from the other weapon before being flung outward by the skill's spinning. Gu Fei had already experienced this before and he could only think of one way to fully block this attack: dual-wield weapons, as well.
Characters without the Dual-wielding Mastery would be unable to deal damage with the weapons in their non-dominant hands, but the Verdict for blocking still existed. When Gu Fei used the sword in his right hand to block the first blow, his left hand also reached into his dimensional pocket for his Sacred Flames of Baptism.
The clashing of metals rang out twice. This was followed by Gu Fei being hurtled outward by the Cyclone's spinning. His HP was dropping rapidly while mid-air. Although his weapons had managed to block the attacks, his blocking attempts had been judged by Verdict as very weak. Thus, Gu Fei still received a lot of damage from the Cyclone skill.
"This sucks!" Gu Fei sighed in frustration. He might have been able to take all the damage had he been at full HP. Unfortunately, he had earlier taken damage from Ice Glaze's Descending Wheel of Flames....
…Can Gu Fei survive his impending fall to the ground with how he is currently sailing through the air? Find out next time in the succeeding chapter of Virtual World: Close Combat Mage!
Chapter 167 - A PvP to Decide the Winner
Gu Fei was flung outward by Cyclone with only a sliver of HP, but two beams of holy light unexpectedly enveloped him before he landed on the ground. Gu Fei looked toward the two directions where the Heal had come from and saw a pretty face from each spot. One Heal had come from Young Master Han, while the other one had come from Luo Luo. Clearly, these two Priests did not expect either of them to make an appearance here.
Receiving Heal twice, Gu Fei's HP was no longer in danger of depleting. He lay on the ground and sighed in relief. Meanwhile, War Without Wounds anxiously ran over while shouting, "Do you even cherish your life?!"
What is he even saying?! Gu Fei perplexedly did a kip up, "I don't get what you are trying to say."
War Without Wounds muttered, "Why did you not dodge my Cyclone and forcibly block it?"
"How could I dodge it at that distance?" Gu Fei asked, discontented. He had blocked Cyclone many times in the past and knew that the skill could not be blocked or dodged at such a close range. After all, moving his wrist to block an attack was a lot quicker than moving his entire body.
"I've even slowed it down! I especially left a gap for you to dodge it," War Without Wounds said.
"Is that so?" Gu Fei asked, surprised. Truth be told, he had only concentrated on pulling out his second weapon to block the attack, so he did not notice the actual speed of War Without Wounds' Cyclone. As he tried to recall it at this moment, it did seem as if War Without Wounds had activated his skill slightly slower than usual.
"Didn't you see me wink at you?!" War Without Wounds asked.
"Did you?" Gu Fei was surprised once more. His focus was solely on War Without Wounds' swords as he had been attempting to block the latter's Cyclone.
Finished with explaining himself, War Without Wounds boomed, "Now you know my prowess! Leave!" With that, he turned around and gave Ice Glaze and the ladies a soul-stirring look.
At the same moment, the three ladies who managed to catch up to Luo Luo were having a little squabble with her.
"It's a good thing we arrived in time. Miles nearly died!" June's Rain said.
"That's not right! Miles is our enemy right now! Sis Luo Luo, why did you help him?" The other lady was clear of the situation.
"It's a mistake. Bestowing Heal on him became a habit!" Luo Luo earnestly explained.
Young Master Han smacked his forehead as he stood at a nearby peak; he could really not stand this convoluted scenario any longer.
Gu Fei stood up. Peeling a tangerine and eating each piece, he asked, "So are we still doing this?"
The ladies were at a loss at what was going on as well and they exchanged confused glances with one another. A normal PvP match would have both sides clashing right about now. The ladies were no fools and knew very well what sort of experts the members of Young Master's Elite were. If they were to get serious, this match would be less of a fight and more of a beating. Gu Fei alone could easily take care of the six of them.
War Without Wounds whispered to Gu Fei, "Don't make things difficult for your bros. Go into another location and wait a moment before you engage again."
Gu Fei helplessly glanced over at Young Master Han who was standing atop a hill, only to see the latter's expressionless face. He then turned his face toward the ditch, "How's Royal?"
Brother Assist peeked from the ditch, "Royal said he's not here."
"AH!" A depressed wail came from over the ditch, followed by someone singing, "Why am I always the one getting hurt1…", fading away softly as the person got further. While War Without Wounds obviously won quite a few points with the ladies present, Royal God Call lost his face to the point of wanting to bury himself forever inside the ditch. Those who did not know what had truly happened automatically assumed that he had fallen into the ditch in an attempt to kite Gu Fei.
"Oh! Someone fell into that ditch!" At this moment, June's Rain laughingly pointed at the ditch. "To actually fall into a ditch, what sort of expert is that?"
Brother Assist despondently crawled out of the ditch as he threw a questioning glance at Gu Fei, asking him of what they should do next.
Gu Fei looked toward War Without Wounds and the latter thundered, "Retreat! Retreat now!"
Gu Fei looked again toward Young Master Han, who shrugged his shoulders helplessly and walked down the hill. Sword Demon appeared from the other side and also moved closer to them.
"Retreat! Retreat now!" War Without Wounds repeated his demand with surety this time. Now that the conversation had moved to the mercenary channel, everyone could discuss this matter away from prying eyes and eavesdropping ears.
"What now?" Gu Fei asked.
"Let's retreat first!" Young Master Han answered.
"That's right! A gentleman is the one who does chivalrous deeds," War Without Wounds delightedly added.
Still, the Amethyst Rebirth's members had opinions of their own. When June's Rain saw the five men proceeding to leave, she hurriedly called out to them, "Oi! Where are you all off to?"
"We're going to have a group meeting," Gu Fei replied.
Young Master Han looked backward and swept his gaze all over before settling it on Luo Luo. She had previously represented Amethyst Rebirth in hiring his mercenary group. Although she was not the guild leader, she must at least hold sway in it. Thinking of this, Young Master Han addressed her, "Since we're all so familiar with one another, let's make things simple for everyone and end this match in one place in one go."
"Oh? In that case we will need to have a group meeting of our own as well," Luo Luo said.
"The coordinates will be 110,125. We'll be waiting for you ladies there," Young Master Han informed her before bringing his mercenaries in the direction he had just mentioned.
"You're all such bros to me today! Tonight's drinks are on me!" War Without Wounds excitedly said as they went on their way, playfully punching each of them before finally resting his hands across Gu Fei's shoulders and calling him his 'sworn brother'.
Gu Fei struggled out of War Without Wounds' hold for quite some time, yet he was just no match for the latter's Strength. He asked Brother Assist, "Where did Royal run off to?"
Brother Assist indicated with his chin a certain direction. When Gu Fei shifted his gaze over, War Without Wounds' huge head unintentionally blocked his line of sight. Casually nudging his head to the side, Gu Fei finally spotted Royal God Call who was sitting atop a lone tree stump in the middle of an empty clearing, looking utterly miserable.
The five felt amazed by what they were seeing as they walked toward their fellow brother-in-arms. Royal God Call stood up and met the five of them halfway, a look of utter embarrassment hanging on his face. Although he got dragged into the ditch by Brother Assist, he was still quite aware of how the situation had panned out. War Without Wounds had successfully demonstrated his fighting prowess by sending Gu Fei flying with his Cyclone, while Royal God Call had fallen into a ditch like a loser. His heart was extremely unsettled right now.
Royal God Call looked more and more like a child right now. The five adults did not know what to say in this situation, so they simply consoled him by ruffling his head. Brother Assist even rebuked War Without Wounds, "Look at you; an adult fighting with a child over some chicks!"
Including Royal God Call, the six finally reached the coordinates Young Master Han had given the ladies. The rolling plains here had no forest, mounds, or even Royal God Call's hated ditches.
"How are we fighting this match?" Gu Fei asked Young Master Han.
"Are you two willing to continue with the match?" Young Master Han instead asked War Without Wounds and Royal God Call.
War Without Wounds chuckled, "We've had our fun. It's time that we get serious!" He had no more demands at this point, especially after managing to show his might to the ladies when he dominated Gu Fei in the fight earlier.
Royal God Call was not resigned to this, but he could only reluctantly agree to fulfill his duties to the group as it truly was time to decide the fate of this match.
"Since all are willing to play their part, there's no need for any tactic or strategy. Let's just meet the enemies head on," Young Master Han said in a relaxed tone.
All nodded their heads. War Without Wounds, who was currently the most energetic out of everyone, consolingly patted Royal God Call's shoulder, "You can still let the ladies know how great you are by fighting them well!"
Royal God Call listlessly nodded his head.
They did not have to wait long as the ladies quickly began to trickle in from every direction according to their speed and job classes. Naturally, Svelte Dancer was the first to reach them. "Are all of you here?" she loudly asked Young Master's Elite.
Gu Fei gave her a wilted look, "Do you not know how to count?"
"Just you wait till I take care of you!" Svelte Dancer bared her teeth, as if she was about to pounce on to Gu Fei and bite him to death.
Amethyst mercenary group had twenty members. Gu Fei killed one off, so only nineteen of them were making their way to the PvP field. Royal God Call shoved off his deadened look with the ladies' arrival and replaced it with a cutesy smile, waving and greeting all the ladies he was familiar with. War Without Wounds' confidence skyrocketed after he had injured Gu Fei with his Cyclone earlier, so he refrained from acting familiar with the ladies like what Royal God Call was doing and instead chose to stand coolly by the side. When Royal God Call finished greeting all the ladies, he flashed them a bright smile and said, "It's time for a real fight, so I hope you won't blame us for what we are about to do!"
The ladies returned his smile, "You guys can't fault us, either."
"Let's begin if everyone is here!" Young Master Han said faintly.
Both sides stood across each other. Young Master's Elite stood in a neat row while Amethyst opted for a two-row formation - the Warriors and melee job classes in front and the Archers, Mages, and Priests at the rear. At least, these ladies were aware of such a basic formation.
"Let's begin! No point in dragging this out, unless you prefer us to make the first move?" Young Master Han spoke in a lackadaisical tone.
"Attack!" War Without Wounds wanted to let the ladies personally experience his might, so he eagerly rushed forward.
The ladies with melee job classes in front calmly spaced themselves out, allowing the Mages and Archers from behind to initiate their attacks on War Without Wounds who was leading the opposing mercenary group's assault.
The sound of the female Archers' arrows hitting War Without Wounds' armor resounded. Young Master Han quickly bestowed Heal on to War Without Wounds, and the latter promptly activated his Charge following this.
"Descending Wheel of Flames! Descend!" "Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno! Arise!" The female Mages deemed that casting AOE spells would not be a waste even if they missed hitting War Without Wounds as his companions were just right behind him.
Being an expert gamer, War Without Wounds would of course not easily receive these spells. He immediately lowered his head following the ladies' chanting and continued charging forward. Successfully weaving through the ladies' casted spells, he smashed head-first into them.
The melee job classes immediately surrounded War Without Wounds just like what he wanted. Separating the claymores to his two sides, he prepared to unleash Cyclone.
Behind, Gu Fei took a few steps forward and pointed Moonlit Nightfalls toward the fighting crowd: "Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno! Arise!"