Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

There was still the presence of some city guards inside Yunduan City, but just like the portion that was outside the walls, these city guards had also experienced a significant reduction to their stats and were considered easy targets to the players. Even though the seven major job classes’ spawn points all had city guards stationed to defend the locations, they were vastly different from those guards found in the encampments used by the city assaulters; the bulk of the city defenders’ forces were gathered outside the city gates. Once this portion had been breached, the city defenses left inside the city would hardly be noteworthy. By comparison, fighting the players from Amethyst Rebirth and Extremely Heaven Defying would be even more of a significant obstacle than the city guards.

But they were just a little bit more troublesome to deal with, nothing more.

The city defenders’ respawn abided by the normal respawn rules of normal operation, so the various job classes would all respawn back at their own respective spawn points. As such, the Priest Academy was the first to break since Priests lacked any sort of combat power. Besides, the two guilds hardly had any Priests to begin with, having depended on the manpower that they had hired from the workshop previously. Furthermore, these people had packed up and left after they had finished what they were hired to do.

The second to come under attack was the Fighters’ Dojo. Even though the Fighters possessed combative power as a job class, their numbers were low and mostly underleveled. This had always been a long-standing issue for this particular job class since the game’s inception, so they were very easily dispatched and destroyed by the city assaulters.

The third to go was the Knights’ Barracks. The Knight was considered to be more of a moderate job class out of the seven, yet it was the third to go. But this was because their location was the nearest to the city gates out of all the seven job classes… After all, the water tower would be the first to get the moon.

After these three major spawn points were all destroyed, the depths of the tragedy that befell these three job classes could easily be imagined. They had previously been vanquished when they clashed with the city assaulters, only to end up getting hunted down to where they respawned at their respective spawn points. The city guards in these locations were not able to provide any protection themselves, so after all these guards were killed, the countdown to dismantle these spawn points began. It was not a matter of the city defenders not working hard, but that their enemy was simply too numerous and too ferocious.

In the time it took these three spawn points in the city to be demolished, 20% of the encampments on the city assaulters’ side had collapsed, and the small well openings that these water columns originated from were now shockingly wide, and it was already impossible to see if the water was spurting outwards or seeping in. In any case, as the water kept flowing out, the muddy ground around the hole was completely inclined, sliding and sinking down.

“Report! The speed of the encampment being swallowed has slowed!” The scouts that were observing from the side had sent their guild leaders an update, and they had even used the term ‘swallow’ to describe the situation. In their eyes, the opening for the water column was like a black hole, looking as if it was going to swallow the encampment entirely.

This news was of course rather inviting, and the guild leaders of the large guilds of Yunduan City were lifted by the news. In fact, they were presently not even bickering over which guild would be the one to take down the various spawn points in the city at the last moment.

“Let’s carry on with this; we’ve still got four more locations left! Victory shall be ours!!!” All the guild leaders of the large guilds were all focused on this one thing, each of them throwing out their most impressive line they could think of to encourage the people. Honestly, what they actually said did not matter, but the key was the atmosphere that they shared. Now that everyone knew about the situation they were, aware that their lives were on the line right now, there was really no need for any sort of encouragement as they were all giving it their all. No matter what their guild leaders ended up yapping on about, they would most definitely feel very invigorated hearing it.

“We’ve destroyed the Thieves’ Association!” Another report of victory arrived once more. The resistance that they faced in the Thieves’ Association was a lot less than what they had expected, but of course Oathless Sword and the others were not aware that the Thieves on the city defenders’ side had lost twelve players. Those Thieves had been sent out to remove the well covers, so they had yet to return in time to lend a hand. Since the two guilds only had approximately 200 players in total… Losing twelve of one job class like this would most definitely make them look much smaller.

“Concentrate, everyone. We’re down to the final three locations left to break!” Oathless Sword continued his exhortation. The team that he led had already cleared out the Knights’ Barracks, and were currently headed straight for the Mage Academy. Because they were in a hurry, the players with a higher movement speed had already run ahead, while Oathless Sword was leading the whole bunch of babylegged players, desperately running behind.

“There’s something you’ll need to take note of!” Youthful Reflection had suddenly sent this message. He was the one leading the team of speedsters.

“What’s the matter?”

“While taking down their Priests’ Academy and Knights’ Barracks here might have stopped them from having access to Healing spells, I’m afraid that this would not be enough to send them all straight to the 15th District. I believe they will follow the same sort of respawning rules like the ones we currently observe for this event after they lost their respective spawn points, which means that every one of them would ultimately be grouped up in a final spawn point altogether. The way I see it, they should only have about 200 players on their side, so that could be a little tough for us,” Youthful Reflection said.

“We should have paid attention to this issue a bit earlier,” Oathless Sword said.

“There’s nothing we can do even if we gave this problem attention any earlier,” Youthful Reflection expressed his helplessness. “This attack had been done in haste, so we did not have the time to fine-tune our coordination and the command. Otherwise, we could have attempted to time our attacks and launch our assault across the seven spawn points simultaneously while their numbers were still scattered. That would have saved us quite a bit of trouble.”

“What’s the use of saying all this now? We should think about how to deal with the final fight instead!” Oathless Sword said.

“God d*mm*t. Aren’t you the one who brought this matter up in the first place?” Youthful Reflection derided Oathless Sword’s attempted false accusation.

“Ahem. I’ll contact Brave Surge. Their Mage Formation working in tandem with our Archer Formation will become a massive killing machine in this sort of small scale city battle,” Oathless Sword immediately messaged Brave Surge once he was done saying this.

He sent message after message, yet each of them was like casting a stone into the vast ocean. Oathless Sword found it odd. The problem he had raised was quite critical, so there’s no reason that Brave Surge would ignore him! This battle was mainly a race against time right now, and while it was hardly a difficult task in the least, there was no reason that man would be so busy to the point that he could not find the time to reply, right?

“Something must have happened to Brave Surge, since he’s actually not responding to my message,” Oathless Sword had come to such a conclusion and messaged Youthful Reflection about it.

“Is that so?” Youthful Reflection was surprised for a good moment. What could have happened at this stage of the battle? “Then let’s contact another bigwig from their guild!” Youthful Reflection replied to Oathless Sword as he casually sent a message to Oathless Sword. As the left hand man for Traversing Four Seas, he had the qualifications and opportunity to add Oathless Sword as a friend as well.

In the end, a second after he sent the message, Youthful Reflection soon received a single question mark from Brave Surge. Youthful Reflection sweated. Because Oathless Sword had said Brave Surge was not replying, that was why he had sent out a message of random letters.

“Are you here?” Youthful Reflection quickly responded.

“What nonsense is that?” Brave Surge scoffed. “What b*llsh*t are you up to?”

“Oathless Sword said you aren’t replying…” Youthful Reflection began.

“I blacklisted him,” Brave Surge calmly answered.

“I’ve gotten in contact with Folding Fan Invader from their guild,” Oathless Sword was still going about his task seriously on his end!

Youthful Reflection was utterly speechless, but he could not be bothered about it and gave Brave Surge the analysis of their current situation post-haste.

“Of course I’ve noticed this already,” Brave Surge made it known that he was no fool. “Our Mage Formation has already finished gathering. The best thing about this is that we are now able to control the offensive, and we have the initiative regarding which is the final spawn point. Doing so will be a lot more aggressive, my Mage Formation is already in position.”

“You’re right,” Youthful Reflection nodded. “My Archer Formation is also thinking of doing the same.”

“So where shall we choose?” They were both large guilds, but the problem was that all the city assaulters were all running wild by now, and none of the guilds participating, no matter their size, was taking the lead.

“We’ve met with staunch resistance in the Mage Academy. The enemy is very difficult to handle!!!” Both guilds had received the reports from the frontlines at this moment. Seeing the word ‘Mage’, Brave Surge and Youthful Reflection both felt their own hearts skip a beat as a splendid black figure was instantly conjured in their minds…

“It can’t be, right?” Both men muttered the same thing under their breaths as they quickly pressed their underlings for further information.

“It’s not Thousand Miles Drunk…” After receiving this message, both men first subconsciously heaved a sigh of relief.

“However… The two pre-eminent Mages, Drifting and Slyris, are supporting the troop of Mages there, and with the Warriors’ being commanded by Southern Lone Blade protecting them, they are indeed not an easy opponent to deal with,” Brave Surge knitted his eyebrows.

“Looks like that will have to be the location for our final battle,” Youthful Reflection said.

“I think the enemy had already expected such an outcome, so they had knowingly picked the Mage Academy as the place for the final showdown,” Brave Surge said.

“Mage Academy? Just hearing the word ‘Mage’ gives me an ominous feel…” Youthful Reflection shivered.

Brave Surge felt quite despondent hearing it as well. He was a Mage himself, yet what made him feel such despair was the fact that he could also feel his own skin crawl just hearing that word being uttered.

“That guy isn’t gonna come back, is he?” Youthful Reflection wondered out loud.

“I think we should seize what time we’ve got and deal a fatal blow to those people in the Mage Academy now,” Brave Surge said.

“I agree!” Youthful Reflection concurred, and began announcing across his party channel, “There’s been a change in our target. We’ll be heading to the Mage Academy, full speed ahead.”

“Youthful Reflection, your men should head toward the Mage Academy,” Oathless Sword had of course received the same information as well, except his instruction this time was a bit belated.

“We’re already on our way,” Youthful Reflection replied.

Oathless Sword was satisfied with this answer, not at all getting the sense that Youthful Reflection had reacted quicker than he did and stole his thunder.

————————————

Over by the Mage Academy, Southern Lone Blade and the others were leading the elite members of both guilds put together, engaged in a fight to the death with the stream of city assaulters that came pouring toward them like the coming tide.

Sword Demon and Southern Lone Blade were also experts when it came to tactics and strategy, and because the city assaulters were in a hurry racing against time and could not spare even a moment of time to think things through, they had neglected a few issues. Conversely, the city defenders had been keeping calm the entire time, and when they realized that the enemy was about to break through the city gates, they had already come to the conclusion that they would end up employing the strategy of defending the final spawn point to the death.

“Warriors, hold the front line. Priests, pace yourselves accordingly. Mages will bombard the incoming foes while the Archers will act as support. Thieves, be careful not to block their line of sight!!” Southern Lone Blade’s choice of words here had incurred Sword Demon’s side eye.

“Don’t blame me, I’m only being honest!” Southern Lone Blade said.

Sword Demon was helpless. Their current setup was the best formation that they could deploy, keeping the city assaulters outside the Academy entrance, having the Warriors in the front as cover while the Mages were behind casting their spells, Archers supporting with their arrows. As for the Thieves… Indeed, they were no more than players getting in the way, especially since there was hardly any of them there at the moment, and Sword Demon could feel everyone’s gaze gather on himself, especially the ladies from Amethyst Rebirth that had no idea about such things! Southern Lone Blade was simply reminding everyone to keep away! I have not been blocking anybody’s line of sight, so why are they all looking at me like I’m a noob? Sword Demon was depressed!

“Boss Sword Demon, you’re allowed to do a little as you wish. Just don’t rush up to the Mages’ arrayed in front and it’ll be fine.” After fighting side by side with Sword Demon, Southern Lone Blade had personally witnessed the frightening prowess of Sword Demon’s Shadowmist Assault, and felt Sword Demon possessed the inherent strength to charge into the enemy lines by himself.

And that was exactly what Sword Demon had done, and after he executed a Shadowmist Assault and took the lives of a group of people, he quickly slipped back and waited in a corner of the academy for his cooldowns to end.

“It’s just not cool!” Sword Demon sighed.

“Actually, there’s no need to be so nervous. Look, the Thieves’ Union has just been destroyed, so you would only respawn here back in one piece if you were to die,” Southern Lone Blade pointed to the Mage Academy behind him.

“I know that, but the problem is that I could lose 15 lives if I were to die once,” Sword Demon was not a careless man. He had not forgotten about the fact that he was a guild leader, and that numerous City Assaulters had picked him for the mission that would consider him as a possible Honor Kill target.

“Oh, then it’s best if you play it safe a bit,” Southern Lone Blade was talking to Sword Demon from behind his sword and shield. He did not have anything complicated to be in charge of aside from this team of Warriors that he was in command of. He was in charge of coordinating the attack, defense, and Healing. Sword Demon merely nodded while he was squatting to one side, watching without seeing any issues with Southern Lone Blade’s command. “A talent indeed.”

“Take heed! Another wave of attack is inbound!” Southern Lone Blade bellowed.

“Is it your turn?” Drifting asked Slyris.

“There’s still another wave!” Slyris answered.

“Is that so?” Drifting glanced at his mana. “That’s not right! Why is my mana off?” Drifting was an expert Mage. He did not need to count and could simply tell that it was almost time to swap based on how much mana he had expended.

“Do you have all your necessary equipment?” Slyris asked.

Drifting did a quick check of himself. He had previously been running all over the place, and he used different equipment for combat and questing. Sure enough, he noticed that he had forgotten to swap a few pieces of equipment over now that he checked. “You’re right,” Drifting mused even as he made the necessary changes, quickly rallying the group of Mage he took command of to unleash their spells. Mages needed to replenish their mana, which was why Slyris and he had split all the Mages into two groups, each taking turns to rotate.

Slyris waved her magic staff and unleashed her arsenal of spells, decimating that wave till only stragglers were left.

—————————————

Watching this scene unfold, Gu Xiaoshang was shaking her head repeatedly, “Facing such devastating firepower, there’s simply no way for us to charge in! Our people won’t be able to expand the battlefield!”

“It can’t be helped. These people aren’t going to listen even if someone asks them to stop,” Young Master Han expressed his helplessness. He was of course someone who was capable of determining the trajectory of a battle in advance but working together with Colored Clouds on this one, he found it difficult to demonstrate his prowess because there were too many people around.

“However, they can’t hold on for too long either; they don’t have enough Priests! It seems like the casual hires they rented have expired,” Young Master Han continued to say.

“If this continues on, the Priests might well become our point of breakthrough,” the same line was being uttered by Southern Lone Blade to Sword Demon. They were not only lacking in numbers, but their mana expenditure was also actually much higher than than the Mages.

“Let’s just do what we can…” Sword Demon said.

“Just count ourselves as lucky if we come out on top?” SLB grinned.

“It’s 200 versus 200,000! There’s no way we can get lucky,” Sword Demon replied.

“It would be a miracle!” Southern Lone Blade declared.

Compared to the hot-bloodedness of the city assaulters, it was evident that these players on the side of the city defenders were a lot more composed. Indeed, to these players, achieving victory was too much of a stretch, so much so that they had trouble digesting the incongruence. For 200 plus players to succeed taking on 200,000 players, the ensuing victory from this battle… Such a record would go down the annals of history had this not have been achieved in a game.

“Can Miles make it back?” Southern Lone Blade asked.

“He said he’s gonna need some time…” Sword Demon answered.

“He’s never too far away if a miracle is to happen…” Southern Lone Blade stared out into the distance.

——————————————

In the control room under Yunduan Lake, Gu Fei had successfully opened the watercourse beneath the lake after he was done studying the controls. However, never would he have thought that this contraption required the player to continuously operate it, otherwise the magic array that had been in place would automatically resume, resealing the watercourse and rendering all the work that he had done prior for naught. Gu Fei deftly worked the half magic, half mechanical control panel in the control room, but what he was doing was simply too uninteresting. In fact, he could not even personally witness the effect of the destruction that he was doing. All he could do was inquire after what’s happening via messages, and they were letting him know that he had been rather successful with his operation, causing catastrophic floods to the five encampments.

“When are you coming?” It was around this time when this question was thrown at Gu Fei.

Gu Fei sighed deeply. Did he not wish he could just leave? But because he was required to continue his operation of the contraception here in the control room, all he could do was send out plain text to everyone.

“Have you guys arrived yet?” Gu Fei was also blasting his own messages.

“Almost there! This grid isn’t easy to count out!” Xi Xiaotian complained.

“You’ve reached the grid already?” Gu Fei was elated.

“What you told us isn’t wrong, right?” Xi Xiaotian confirmed.

“That’s right. I double-checked while you guys were making your way over,” Gu Fei confidently said.

“In that case, we’re done!” Xi Xiaotian said.

This time, Gu Fei was fortunate enough to get an audience’s perspective and learn how it looked when he arrived at this control room. He saw as the circular plate in the middle of the control room suddenly conjured a pillar of light. In a short while, Xi Xiaotian’s character stepped out from the pillar, and right behind her was Svelte Dancer and Royal God Call.

The entire experience of depending on the weak glow of the torch to discern the four cardinal directions and walking on the grid in that inky darkness was extremely cruel, and he was currently wearing an expression that was as pale as a ghost.

“There’s no need for everyone to go through with it. Royal didn’t do it, and he still got transported over,” Xi Xiaotian told Gu Fei.

“It was only telling him just in case!” Gu Fei said.

“Where is this place?” Xi Xiaotian asked.

“I don’t have the time to explain this. Head over there and you can read the instructions,” Gu Fei pointed.

Xi Xiaotian went over to take a look.

“After you’re done, come and take over my spot,” Gu Fei continued.

“Okay, you can head back to the battlefield!” Xi Xiaotian waved her hand.

“We don’t have to stay here as well, yeah?” Svelte Dancer asked.

Gu Fei froze, suddenly feeling a little hesitant.

“Best to leave one other person behind, just in case I’m up to something,” Xi Xiaotian did not take her eyes off the instructions and had softly said this for all to hear.

“Let’s go, we’ll all go.” All of them had been working together this whole time, and even someone as inattentive as Svelte Dancer could tell that the relationship between Gu Fei and Xi Xiaotian was contradictory yet tacit. It was very strange, and it was still the same right now; Gu Fei still maintained his suspicions of the lady the entire time.

“I can stay behind,” Royal God Call coughed.

“There’s no need, we’re leaving!” Gu Fei suddenly blurted out.

“Oh?” Xi Xiaotian was surprised.

“I doubt you’re so talented to the point where you are able to figure out that we would get to this step and devise a scheme for us,” Gu Fei said.

“You can’t say that for certain, I am very gifted,” Xi Xiaotian giggled.

“Well genius, it’s time you head over there,” Gu Fei prodded.

“I know,” Xi Xiaotian quickly paced over and officially took over Gu Fei’s job.

“We’re leaving,” Gu Fei said.

“Alright,” Svelte Dancer and Royal God Call nodded. “How are we getting out of here?”

“We’re gonna die,” Gu Fei said.

The two were dumbfounded.

“It will send up straight back to the city, no?” Gu Fei pulled his sword out and the spells from above and below were all cast at once, leaving them as nothing more than three flashes of white light.