Chapter 263 - Pursuers behind… Rolling men ahead…
The land depression was not far from the foot of the mountain. When Black Index Finger saw Royal God Call running toward it, he could not help but feel anxious, Are they planning to flee again? Should I check where they are running off to?
In the end, he had worried for nothing. The enemies were not planning to flee; instead, they climbed out of the land depression and personally received his team since they were unwilling to go to them.
Black Index Finger froze on the spot, as he could already predict the outcome of this possible four-versus-five fight. Seeing the opponents take the initiative to fight them, he immediately made a decision, "Let's head to the mountain peak first!"
Monologue under the Moon's team on the mountain was a lot closer compared to the reinforcements heading over, so it was better for Black Index Finger's group to join with the closer team, as they would have a higher probability of achieving victory or stand a better chance stalling for time until the reinforcements arrived that way. With this thought in mind, Black Index Finger urged the other three men to climb up the mountain faster.
It should actually be him that the others needed to hurry. After all, the one with the slowest movement speed among the four was the Warrior Black Index Finger. It would in fact be safer for the three men to split up and hike on their own. While none of them knew just how much slower they were currently moving with the addition of the cumbersome Black Index Finger, their speed was certainly slower compared to if there were just the three of them. They had seen all the system notifications, so they naturally knew just how powerful their opponents were. Since Black Index Finger was their group leader, the three could only grumble about his slow running speed internally and fantasize about getting rid of the latter by kicking him down the mountain. And yet, Black Index Finger had the audacity to tell them to hurry as if they were the ones at fault for their slow progress!
"Stop right there! Don't run away!" Royal God Call had fast movement speed and could shoot from afar, so when the four men entered his attack range, he promptly fired off an arrow on Snipe.
The four men became Royal God Call's moving targets and his arrows continued to pursue them as they hurriedly clambered up the mountain. There was no Priest among the four men, so they could only endure the pain and lament the hardship that they were suffering right now. This was especially true of the man who had been hit by Royal God Call's Snipe; despite him not getting instkilled, it was still a miracle that the man did not faint from how low his HP had dipped.
"His Attack Power is too high!" The man was thoroughly unnerved by this and he decisively abandoned all forms of loyalty by increasing his running speed, effectively leaving the others in the dust.
Black Index Finger was constantly telling the three men to hurry, so he knew it would be inappropriate for him to comment on one of his teammates' act of speeding up. Helpless, he could only looked at the remaining two men with him.
The two were at least loyal enough to not leave Black Index Finger to his own devices, and the three continued to climb together under the enemy Archer's trickle of arrows. Royal God Call's Snipe was fortunately on cooldown, so the damage he could deal was not very high. Despite it being higher than the average Archer's damage output, it was still within the tolerable level. Royal God Call was just one Archer, and his bow was not an automatic rifle. It was perfectly normal for some of his shots to miss, considering how he was running as he shot arrows at the moving targets. Even the Olympics did not have such a difficult event like this.
Royal God Call was always not too far off the mark, though, and the three men would break out in cold sweat whenever his arrows landed near them. Death was certain if any of them took his shots consecutively, since none of them had full HP right now.
Black Index Finger was already moving at his fastest speed, but it was still difficult for the two men to distance themselves from their pursuers while matching his inherently slow pace. Oh, how they wished to do the same as their other comrade....
With that, the four men continued to climb with one ahead and the other three trailing behind for quite some time. Suddenly, they heard cries coming from the mountain peak. They lifted their heads just in time to see three men with flailing arms desperately trying to regain their balance right by the mountain edge. Anyone looking could tell that it was too late, though, as the players tumbled down soon after.
This situation took the four men by surprise. Arrows were still flying from behind them, and now rolling logs—no wait—rolling men were blocking their advance. Was this how a high-ground assault was done in ancient times?
The man climbing ahead identified the tumbling men to be their brothers-in-arms and he moved to intervene in the first man's downward roll. However, he might have been too confident in his assumption that he could stop the man from rolling down the slope. Did he even consider how much Strength he had, or the accumulated force behind the downward roll of the man? Were his slender arms enough to counter the force created by the man's downward roll?
Surprisingly, he managed to do just that! But if there was one thing that physics taught people, it was that either of these two outcomes could be achieved from such a thoughtless action: one was for the object to come to a complete stop and another was for it to continue in a uniform motion.
The two unfortunately had the second outcome, which had them rolling down the mountain once more. The player who had attempted to stop his comrade's downward roll became a rolling man as well. Soon after, the two gained speed and tumbled down faster than ever.
Black Index Finger and the two others, who were just slightly below the men, were originally planning to stop their downward roll, but none of them dared to do it after witnessing their brother-in-arms' disastrous attempt. Instead, they acted clueless on what they should be doing when the rolling men neared them. In the end, they could only watch on as the two tumbled past them.
The three men exchanged glances and silently expressed their shame.
Seeing another person tumbling down, the three men worked together to assist him. One man might not be enough to accomplish the task, but three men working together would be different, right?
One man tumbling down the slope had rolled off course, so only one man could be saved by the three. They marveled at how coincidental this was. Decisively abandoning the other, the three men surged forward to receive the one tumbling before them and easily managed to stop his downward roll.
The man who had rolled down half the mountain continued to howl in pain even when he got rescued. Based on the man's painful cries, the three firmly believed that the rolling men would most likely die if they continued to tumble all the way to the base of the mountain.
"Bro, are you okay?!" Someone shook the man back to his senses.
"Oh?!" The man slowly opened his eyes and was elated beyond words when he realized that he had stopped rolling downward, profusely thanking Black Index Finger and the others for their help.
"No need to thank us; we're all in the same mercenary—" Before this man could finish his sentence, he had turned into a beam of white light. Black Index Finger and the other man's expression changed instantly. They had forgotten about the opponents pursuing them! Black Index Finger quickly helped the man who had rolled downward to his feet and said, "Quick! Climb back up the mountain!"
"Up the mountain?" the person asked, exclaiming, "But it's dangerous up there!"
"Dangerous?" Black Index Finger asked, baffled, "Isn't there just one enemy up there?"
While there was indeed only one man on the mountain peak, that man was the most dangerous player in the game.
Spell-casting in Parallel World was split into two steps: first was the name of the spell itself. Just saying it would consume mana; second was the activation word itself. This would let the caster execute the spell.
If only the spell's name was said, the spell would not work. This meant that no damage could be generated. Just like in the various safe zones in-game, anyone could chant a spell and form it, but the activation word would have no effect.
Once people learned of this, they resolved to dodge upon hearing Mages chant spells. This was why most Mages out there would not shout the incantations; instead, they unanimously chose to quietly utter them, as if whispering sweet nothings to a lover's ear with great articulation. The words they spoke might sound mellow, yet the spells' Magic Attack Power would still be just as powerful.
As for Gu Fei, he was not whispering the spell's incantation at all, "Blazing Tree of a Thousand—"
All ran off just as they heard him chanting. He was THE Instkill Mage, so no one doubted the might of his spells. Naturally, they preemptively got themselves to safety rather than risk it. Seeing that Gu Fei was pointing his sword at where they were standing, the men scampered to the mountain edge.
This was precisely what Gu Fei was after. He had cast the spell with every intention to stop short of completing it. He then quickly changed the spell he was chanting and teleported himself at the side of the mountain where The Black Hand's men had gathered. Gu Fei had managed to push the three men before off the edge by using this method.
He has cast Blink twice and Twin Incineration once so far… Monologue under the Moon tallied the spells Gu Fei had cast in his mind as his heart beat with trepidation.
If Gu Fei did not have mana issue and could endlessly cast all the spells he knew… Would there even be room to doubt his capability to instkill twenty or even thirty men by himself? What truly puzzled Monologue under the Moon, though, was how Gu Fei could possess quick reaction time that allowed him to effortless evade their attacks and dish out unavoidable strikes.
Out of all these players who had directly crossed swords with Gu Fei, one was pushed into friendly fire, another was shoved off the mountain, and three were instkilled with his Twin Incineration. Three more men were pushed off the mountain moments ago, yet it soon became clear that chanting Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno was just a ruse. Only twelve men were left from the original twenty men that Monologue under the Moon had brought with him on the mountain peak. Right now, Gu Fei's remaining mana was only enough for casting Twin Incineration once and perhaps Blink as well. Monologue under the Moon had been enduring all this while; he even reminded everyone constantly, "Don't panic! He has long casting time. We have plenty of time to evade his spell after hearing his incantation."
This particular weakness of Gu Fei had been said countless times in The Black Hand, yet the Instkill Mage's aura was truly oppressive, and none of them was able to act calmly when facing him for real. In fact, all of them had pretty much forgotten about this aspect of his casting speed once they heard him chant.
The Black Hand was very aware of Gu Fei's weakness by now. Monologue under the Moon had exchanged blows with him before as well. Right now, everyone took care to stand apart from one another. They would not let Gu Fei kill three men with one Twin Incineration again; his fake casting to push people off the edge was also found out by everyone present.
Only one spell left… What spell is he going to use? Monologue under the Moon kept his eyes trained on Gu Fei. He can't possibly be thinking of teleporting himself right next to me to shove me off the mountain, right? Although Monologue under the Moon was quite far from the edge, the thought still sent a chill down his spine.
The others shared Monologue under the Moon's sentiment. Despite holding numerical superiority in this fight, they were anxiously waiting to see what Gu Fei would do next.
Gu Fei still had that placid smile on his lips. Evidently, he held the advantage in this fight, and everything had been dictated by him thus far. Pushing an enemy off the mountain, instkilling three men with one Twin Incineration, unpredictably teleporting himself using Blink....
The Black Hand's members were unable to guard against Gu Fei's actions even now. Presently, no one dared to be near the mountain edge. These players kept themselves evenly space out as they trained their eyes on Gu Fei for fear of him suddenly appearing behind their backs.
It was quite cramped when there were twenty of them on the mountain peak together… But it's fine now with just twelve of them! Gu Fei thought to himself as he stepped forward to begin his assault once more.