Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Black Index Finger had at least managed to somewhat get his revenge. Forever In Flowers was no more than a bunch of rabble in his eyes, so The Black Hand Syndicate did not need to coordinate much when dealing with them. There were plenty of ways to deal with such a team that was overly specialized in just a single job class.

“Okay, we’ve hunted them quite enough by now,” Black Index Finger saw his Archers running further and further away, even going so far as to start splitting up to hunt them down and chase them separately, so he quickly sent this message out to stop them. Even though the men from Forever In Flowers were rabble, they would surely have their own ragtag tricks that he might not have the means of safeguarding against.

Presently, the Stealthed Svelte Dancer was nearby, close enough that she even had Black Index Finger in her sights. Even though Black Index Finger was still wearing a cloth over his face, his equipment was better than decent since he was an expert and a guild leader to boot; Svelte Dancer had memorized what his equipment looked like while she was assassinating him the last time, identifying him in a glance right there and then. She saw him standing in the crowd with the slightest smirk of satisfaction and the revulsion she felt made her grind her teeth.

Just as Svelte Dancer was uncertain about what she should be doing with all her anger, she suddenly saw a figure swiftly breeze past herself. Svelte Dancer lifted her eyes and looked, and who else could it be but Gu Fei. When Svelte Dancer saw the man, all the players from The Black Hand Syndicate had also spotted him. Black Index Finger received quite the shock and opened up his mouth to shout for his men to ‘fire’, but soon realized that his Archers had all been sent to chase after the men of Forever In Flowers, and even quite a few Thieves had joined in the pursuit as well.

Everybody knew that Thousand Miles Drunk was someone who focused on Agility as well, and it was when Black Index Finger thought about this point did he blurt out, “Oh crap, we got tricked!! Mages, stop him!!”

Black Index Finger quickly directed his Mages to unleash their spells so as to prevent Gu Fei from getting close. However, the range for Mages was all the same, so when his group of Mages was chanting their spells, Gu Fei was also doing the same as well. Gu Fei was casting this at the maximum range that a Mage could cast, and promptly retreating after he was done; there was no way that the Mages could hit him with their attacks.

Meanwhile, the Mages were still rather happy with themselves, believing that their spells had stopped Gu Fei from advancing. However, Gu Fei’s spell only appeared after their spells had ended. Flames came crashing from the skies as well as flames that came rising from the ground, and that naturally caused everyone to descend into disarray. Just a single AoE spell from Gu Fei was fine, but having two spells cast together like this made things uncertain.

Svelte Dancer dashed out to Gu Fei’s side as well, as he turned his head around to say, “What are you doing? There were so many Archers that ran off, why aren’t you heading over to have your fun?”

“How did you know that?” Gu Fei had mentioned that he was still clearing his PK Value when Svelte Dancer sent a message to him before. Never did she expect for him to have been so quick with it, not only managing to get back in time to intercept but had even used the time to get up to speed on everything here.

“I read that from a message. Sakurazaka Moony had been messaging me this entire time,” Gu Fei explained. This was completely not part of the plan. Sakurazaka Moony had really intended to merely take advantage of their current situation and minorly benefit as best as he could, while at the same time, help create a chance for Svelte Dancer to strike. In the end, he had failed terribly on this part, though in the process while he absconded from the place, Sakurazaka Moony had also discovered that their attempt had accidentally lured all the enemy’s Agility-focused job class away from the bulk of the 300-man escort. Without any of these speedsters, would they not end up becoming no better than a cripple when pit against the attacks from someone that had invested heavily into Agility?

As such, Sakurazaka Moony had very quickly sent a message to Gu Fei. He was the only one who could bear such a heavy burden at the end of the day. Even if most players had devoted their points toward Agility, there was no way that anyone would be able to go toe to toe with the enemy without the power to insta-kill them.

Gu Fei did not get stained with too many PK points this time, so he had cleared himself of it all while Sakurazaka Moony and his men were trying to take advantage of the enemy’s disarray. He had been wondering just what he could be doing next when he received the message from Sakurazaka Moony. While reminding them that there was no need for them to be so bold anymore, Gu Fei also knew that it would be too much of a waste if he were to let this unintended opportunity slide, so he began sprinting over as fast as he could. From that point on, the escape of Sakurazaka Moony and his men became an actual stratagem, and the plan was to lure those players as far away as possible.

With this back and forth motion right now, Gu Fei had managed to trick the enemy Mages into attacking, and at the same time tricking them into a situation that fulfilled the conditions for him to launch a passive retaliation. Seeing Svelte Dancer run up beside him, it just so happened to allow him to save a Blink as he pointed to the roof beside him and said, “give me a hand.”

Svelte Dancer understood what he wanted, so she folded her arms as Gu Fei unceremoniously stepped onto this makeshift foothold. Svelte Dancer tossed him upward, allowing Gu Fei to jump up into the sky, but he saw that the strength she used was not enough to get him up to the roof. He did not have the time to be too precise, so he very swiftly stepped on Svelte Dancer’s head so as to boost the force.

Even though Gu Fei had no choice but to do so, Svelte Dancer was of course greatly angered by what he did. To actually use her head as a stepping stone was simply too much. Svelte Dancer dusted off the dirt on her head even as she kept yelling at Gu Fei. The man was already up on the roof by now and he was using the linked rooftops to circle around past the area where the enemy was burning.

“Rooftops! He’s up on the rooftops!!” Black Index Finger was in a hurry pointing up to the roofs as he alerted everyone. However, Gu Fei was crouching low up on the roofs at this time, so the players below were completely clueless as to where he had repositioned himself to. These Mages could only make blind guesses and toss out their AoE spells randomly all over the rooftops.

They had no idea if they managed to damage Gu Fei at all, and the only thing there was certain was that Gu Fei did not die from this. He had just poked his head out and waved his sword, causing the pinch of fire spells from both the sky and the ground to appear once more. The men from The Black Hand Syndicate were all squeezed into the streets below, so the pain they felt was immense. This was especially true since Gu Fei had actually been dishonest with where he pointed his sword while he was doing his spell incantation. He had even used a kung fu feint so even the more experienced Mages were completely incapable of determining where Gu Fei ended up unleashing his spells. With the street momentarily devoid of a portion of Thieves and all their Archers, the remaining 200 or so players all felt that their position was being assaulted; everyone was ducking and taking cover everywhere, people bumping into each other as they started a stampede. It was a scene of utter chaos.

“Don’t panic! Everyone, don’t panic! You won’t die!” Black Index Finger was bellowing loudly, absolutely dissatisfied with how easy it was for his underlings to be thrown into such a state of disorder.

The players from The Black Hand Syndicate heard their guild leader’s voice, yet none of them paid any heed to it at all. Their guild leader had equipment that helped bolster his HP so that he might not really die from two of Thousand Miles Drunk’s AoE spells, but the rest of them? A good majority of them were not at all confident that they could survive from such an attack!

While Black Index Finger was shouting all this with a calm and composed expression on his face, he was of course standing still, not at all creating further chaos by joining in the frenzy of movement. In the end, Gu Fei’s delayed spell cast had finally arrived, the flames from above and below shrouded Black Index Finger and those underlings who believed him….

Meanwhile, all the other players who were safe from this bombardment were not only not feeling anxious for their guild leader, they were instead thinking, See? Because you weren’t trying to take cover, you’re now burning up!

Everyone was thinking along this line, yet nobody said it out loud. But sometimes, eyes were able to speak volumes by themselves, especially when they were all giving off the same look together. Black Index Finger could feel himself lose face and was infuriated by this, but what else could he do against Thousand Miles Drunk. He continued to shout for those Archers that had run off to quickly make their way back as he kept yelling at his Mages to continue and blindly bombard the rooftops.

However, Gu Fei had already leaped off from the roofs and was diving down to the street. The tip of his sword was accurately aimed right for Black Index Finger.

Black Index Finger was stupefied, quickly waving his sword in hopes that he could kill Thousand Miles Drunk outright with this cleave.

All Gu Fei did was twist his body and his Moonlit NIghtfalls parried Black Index Finger’s sword. Sliding along down the length of his sword and a quick incantation, the flames from his Twin Incineration caused Black Index Finger’s own sword to glow red, and when Gu Fei lifted his left hand, his Palm of Thunder had made Black Index Finger’s little face light up with its blue radiance.

There was no way for Black Index Finger to evade or dodge in time, and Gu Fei’s sword had already brushed past his neck, while his Palm of Thunder was already pressed onto Black Index Finger’s face. Black Index Finger had already taken the pinch of the two spells from before, and there had not been anyone who gave him a Heal from then till now. Adding these two even more powerful spells that were now cast on him, his tears had already rolled out from the corner of his eyes. But what else could he do? His HP had depleted to zero and he was already drenched in white light. Black Index Finger could only roar out loud, “KILL HIM!!!”

He believed that even though Thousand Miles Drunk had killed him, he was also heavily surrounded by his guildmates right now. These comrades of his were all strong players as well, so they should not have any problem ganging up on Thousand Miles Drunk in this instance.

But how was he to know that Gu Fei would actually turn his head around after emptying out all his spells on him, lifting his head to point to the roof that he had been on. Blinking over with a quick incantation, he briefly disappeared and rematerialized up back on the rooftops. The time it took for Gu Fei to jump down, kill Black Index Finger and Blink back up to the rooftops was no more than the time it took for a person to take a breath. Anyone who blinked their eyes could just as easily miss anything that happened, and in the entire process of what happened, Gu Fei had not even landed on the ground once. He had killed Black Index Finger while he was still in mid-air and he Blinked immediately after; his movement was already so fast that any ordinary player could hardly keep up.

This time, Gu Fei did not hide himself after making it up to the roof. Instead, he stood there on the eaves and struck a dashing pose, gazing down upon everyone below, “You’re all from The Black Hand Syndicate, right? You guys are finished. Quitting the guild is your only escape, otherwise, you’ll end up just like your guild leader!”

The moment Gu Fei was done with his statement, he did a backflip. He had been rushing to finish his sentence as the Mages below had already begun to launch their attack on him. Gu Fei took several steps back to avoid all the spells, ending up on the adjacent street. Naturally, none of the players from The Black Hand Syndicate had witnessed this embarrassing scene. At this time, Gu Fei had already departed, their ears were still ringing with Gu Fei’s parting words.

End up just like your guild leader…

There was plenty of weight behind what he said. Without a doubt, a guild leader was the most important person in a guild, so now that even their guild leader had been slain to the point that he lost 3 levels, how would the rest of them unimportant underlings not have even greater difficulties preventing their own deaths?

How did their guild leader end up? Black Index Finger had gotten himself slain twice in succession, losing three levels in the process, and was now at level 39. He had even lost his job class advancement, and that was a huge loss to take. Players who finished their job class advancement were not just a bit better than those without, so the difference between being level 39 and level 40 was huge. Black Index Finger was now level 39; were it not for the fact that his equipment was a grade better than most, his strength in the Black Hand Syndicate would most likely be backward.

The players present would not be frightened into quitting their guild just from this alone, but no matter the case, there was already a shadow in their hearts and they began to hedge on their luck, simply hoping that they would not be the unfortunate target when Thousand Miles Drunk strikes.

It shouldn’t be me. I’m just a nameless player. His target should still be our guild leader, right? Plenty of the players here were having such thoughts, and Black Index Finger of course could deduce the mentality shared by his underlings, even believing there were some who thought to kill themselves.

“You’re good, to think you really managed to kill him,” At the moment, Svelte Dancer was not blankly staying in her original hiding spot. She had quickly made her escape as well when she saw Gu Fei run off, messaging him even as she made her exit.

“Sakurazaka Moony and the others sacrificed so many of their men in order to get us this one chance, so I gotta seize what I’m given,” Gu Fei answered firmly. Those among Sakurazaka Moony and his band of brothers that were still alive were all safe by now, and it was all thanks to Black Index Finger’s action that had saved them; had he not have been in a hurry to call his men back from their hunt, Sakurazaka Moony and his men were no match for their pursuers in terms of speed or strength despite being of the same job class.

“So where are you going now?” Svelte Dancer asked.

“Since I’ve gotten some PK points now, I’ll go on ahead and kill a few more,” Gu Fei said. In the beginning, Gu Fei had managed to win the opportunity to launch a passive retaliation against those Mages, but he had no choice but to take the initiative when he was eliminating Black Index Finger, so he had ended up with a single PK point as a result.

“The Warrior Encampment?” Svelte Dancer asked.

“Yeah. Even if I can’t kill Black Index Finger, I would at least be able to give him a scare,” Gu Fei chuckled.

“You’ve really learned how to be bad,” Svelte Dancer commented.

“It was all forced unto me,” Gu Fei did not feel in the least bit embarrassed when he protested against the accusation.

————————————

After Black Index Finger respawned in the Warrior Encampment and learned that Gu Fei had managed to escape completely unscathed, going so far as to leave behind threatening words to his men, even he felt somewhat shaken by it. But there was no way that he would show this in front of his comrades, so he had no choice but to act, spitting out over the guild channel with extreme contempt, “Tsk. That guy had only gotten lucky and killed me twice. I refuse to believe that his treachery would succeed each and every time. I dare him to come and kill me again.”

“Boss, he might have already left to do that,” someone answered.

“What? You guys saw him?” Black Index Finger was astonished.

“No, we didn’t. But we did see Svelte Dancer leave, and the direction she ran off to seemed to be heading toward the Warrior Encampment. Could they not be thinking of meeting up to find you?” This underling of his continued to provide evidence to his claim.

Black Index Finger was scared sh*tl*ss by this point, but he continued to calm himself, “Very good. Then we shall gather here too, and we can have a fight to the death.”

The meaning behind the words he said had already revealed Black Index Finger’s inner panic. The enemy that they were up against were no more than two players. He was in a spawn point right now, and there were plenty of men stationed outside. However, he still wanted his men to gather, and even wanted to have a fight to the death with them… Despite the fact they were just a pair of players.

However, the players from The Black Hand Syndicate were still aware that even though their guild leader would be safe there, he would have to end up requiring them to put in the work for a bit. As such, they departed for the Warrior Encampment as well, at the same time praying in their hearts nonstop, Please don’t slay me, Thousand Miles Drunk. Please don’t slay me, Thousand Miles Drunk.

Given the movement speed both Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer possessed, they had very quickly made it to a location near the Warrior Encampment. The enemy had quite a comprehensive positioning for the ambush over by the spawn point, and it was similar to what they had done over by the Priest Academy before; there were players who had their faces covered, as well as those who were not. At present, the players who were masked were out in the open, while those who did not cover their faces were the real threats looking to harm their targets without alerting them.

Gu Fei was crazy! He did not care if there was an ambush or otherwise, he simply walked right in. Svelte Dancer was originally hesitant making the same move, but she had always enjoyed competing with Gu Fei, so the moment she saw how the man did not have a shred of fear in him, she took a step out and wanted to do the same, only for Gu Fei to pull her back, “hold it!”

“What?! He’s about to run.”

“His men are all inside, why would he need to run? I’m certain he has planned a trap here. Be careful.” Gu Fei said.

“Look, there’s two of them there again,” Svelte Dancer pointed. She had already discovered two players with their faces covered.

Gu Fei was looking all around their surroundings. It was still a little difficult to identify if the players around them were just ordinary players or if they were the enemy. But the moment he saw that the players with their faces covered had run off the moment they spotted him instead of coming over to confront him, it became rather obvious that they wanted him to step right into a trap of some sort, so of course it was not his intention to fall for this at all. Seeing three players run off to their right, Gu Fei intentionally chose not to go in that direction, pulling Svelte Dancer along to head left instead.

“Where are we going?” Svelte Dancer asked.

“There most definitely must be an ambush lying in wait for us there. Let’s head over this way to take a look first, see what sort of tricks they are up to. I refuse to believe that they would still be able to move their men and surround us right under my nose,” Gu Fei said.

Svelte Dancer was a little confused after hearing his explanation, but she nevertheless followed Gu Fei to head left. Searching for a position, the two had their backs against each other, beginning to stand still and not move.

“Are we just gonna foolishly stand here?” Svelte Dancer asked.

“You’re so uncouth. This is called preventing a move through tranquility,” Gu Fei said.

“How so?” Svelte Dancer was unconvinced.

“Because we are tranquil, that is why they would not dare to make a move,” Gu Fei explained.

“Why not?”

“Because if they do not have their faces covered, I would be able to memorize their faces, so what will they do if I hunt them down after? It’s too scary a possibility,” Gu Fei said.

“You’re so shameless,” Svelte Dancer chided.

However, what Gu Fei had said was not in the least bit wrong; the enemy was almost going crazy wanting to make their move against Gu Fei. They had come up with all sorts of tactics and strategies, and the most important factor out of them all was not to alert their targets of their presence. Because of Gu Fei’s fast movement speed, he would be able to escape at the sign of the slightest trouble. Even if they used players with higher movement speed than him, the fact that Thousand Miles Drunk possessed Blink meant that he could very easily scale up to the roofs as he had demonstrated time and time again. Conversely, they would have to move ladders in order to give chase; how could they ever compete?

They must most assuredly surround him completely and kill him. Only when he had no way of escaping would they have any chance of killing the man. There was no use mobilizing just a handful of men against him to try and stall for time.

They were speaking from their bloodsoaked combat experience, and their conclusion was right on the money. Unfortunately for them, Gu Fei had seen through it. When those three masked individuals had run off after spotting Gu Fei, their goal was indeed to lure Gu Fei to chase after them, to end up barging into an encirclement that they would then be able to have him completely surrounded without any way of escaping, subsequently killing him. In the end, Gu Fei did not fall for their trick, and went in the opposite direction instead. As a result, the bunch of them that were prepared to bare their fangs and claws were all stuck. It was exactly as what Gu Fei had said; these people who did not have their faces covered did not dare to reveal their identities so easily. What would they do if Thousand Miles Drunk were to take his revenge on them? They must be 100% certain that Thousand Miles Drunk could be slain if they were to reveal their identities, as he would only no longer be a threat when they could ensure they were able to kill him until his account was rendered useless. But in their current situation, Thousand Miles Drunk had not even lost a strand of hair on himself, and he was even holding his sword at the ready, which was why none of these men dared to make a move. All of them merely continued acting the parts that they were assigned, as if nothing had happened at all. The players who had their faces covered were scratching their heads all over the place, trying to draw Gu Fei’s attention to make him chase them, only to find Gu Fei looking at them with a smile on his face, addressing Svelte Dancer, “Is it fun?”

“What fun?”

“Look at how flustered they are without either of us doing anything,” Gu Fei said with bemusement.

“We may not have to do anything right now, but we will have to move eventually! Those men from The Black Hand Syndicate could still make their way over, right?” Svelte Dancer said.

“I reckon they would be here soon.”

“So won’t we still be fleeing when they arrive?”

“Yeah.”

“Then what’s the point of coming all the way out here in the first place?”

“See, you’re not keenly observing your surroundings; Black Index Finger has poked his head out thirteen times over there by the Warrior Encampment since we arrived, and every time he would shrink his head back once he caught a glimpse of us. My plan to scare him is still very successful,” Gu Fei said.

“What’s the use of just scaring him like this? When you were up on the rooftops tooting your own horn, the people below were still perfectly fine and did not act like your ex-guildmates in Extremely Heaven Defying. Just how many people ended up leaving then?” Svelte Dancer taunted.

“It is a matter of time before they leave the guild. You gotta be patient,” Gu Fei replied.

“Look, here they come. Why don’t you go ask if any of them wish to quit their guild?!” The horde of players from The Black Hand Syndicate was already hurrying over in the direction where Svelte Dancer was facing.

“Oh, could they be looking to pincer us?” Gu Fei suddenly realized the players who did not have their faces covered were ready to start causing trouble.

“You toyed with them too much!” Svelte Dancer was in sorrow.

“Don’t panic.”

“What do we do now?”

“Kill our way out, of course!”