Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

“Don’t just blankly stand there!!” Oathless Sword’s left hand slapped while his right hand punched, striking the Archer and Mage that were standing beside him on both sides. In the end, he caused the Archer’s arrow to be sent flying out into the empty sky above, while the Mage staggered as the butt of his magic staff plunged into the ground for support. Anger was written all over their faces when they turned back together, “What was that for?”

“My spell got interrupted!” the Mage cried.

“My arrow went awry!” the Archer complained at the same time.

“Oh, you two weren’t stunned to dumbness! You should have told me that you’re both going to attack!” Oathless Sword was actually the one who had made the mistake, yet he still wanted to blame others for his fault!

“Don’t you know what it means to attempt a sneak attack?” The two men’s spittle was all over Oathless Sword’s face. They were all friends, so neither really care to show their guild leader due respect.

“Of course I f*ck*ng don’t, I’m a g*dd*mn Warrior, what the f*ck is a sneak attack?” Oathless Sword was still arrogantly blustering as the two men beside him forced themselves not to dive to the side and expose Oathless Sword to Gu Fei’s swordpoint.

Oathless Sword glanced around him and counted up to nine players, including himself. Even though none of them were mediocre in any sense, all of them had a very good understanding when it came to Thousand Miles Drunk. They were well aware that the experts and noobs that the average player clearly classified people into were really just an issue of two cuts or one cut to Gu Fei, which meant there was essentially no difference between the two. For someone as strong as Thousand Miles Drunk, not only was Traversing Four Seas unable to recruit the man, they even shared some bad history between him and the guild. While they were now fostering a growing friendship in recent times, these men would still privately imagine hypothetical countermeasures with him as the enemy. Unfortunately, none of them had come up with anything substantial; would there have been a need for the handful of them to bunch up like a meatball, otherwise?

Oathless Sword and his men had come up with a plan to take on Thousand Miles Drunk, and that was to leverage on their numerical superiority and slowly whittle him down. But they could hardly even attempt this with just the nine of them now.

After the Mage and Archer were interrupted by Oathless Sword, the two were still pretty crafty. While they were showering Oathless Sword with their saliva as they argued, the two men were also preparing another attack at Gu Fei on the sly, still intending to pull off a sneak attack.

Gu Fei tossed his banana peel over with a casual flick of his wrist, and followed right after it, dodging to his left and evading to his right, causing the Archer’s arrow and the Repeating Fireball from the Mage to both miss him. Gu Fei already had his sword raised, and before his spell was even fully cast, literally everyone could already see the fiery red glow of flames right above them.

“Pipi, help me block it!!” Oathless Sword bellowed. The Warrior in front of him pulled out a huge bulwark and suddenly raised it upward, meeting that slash coming down from Gu Fei.

Gu Fei was stunned. He recognized this bulwark. This was the same bulwark that three Guardians had used when they were running around with Silver Moon, called the Bulwark of Imprisonment. Its defense was strong to the point of irrational, and any sort of attack that connected with the bulwark would simply be a waste of time, especially since the enemy was in a situation where they were able to Heal. Gu Fei lifted his head and saw that their Light Priest and Holy Knight were both in position to begin their work, so he very decisively avoided wasting time. Gu Fei quickly changed his position and searched for another target to strike.

That was when another Bulwark of imprisonment appeared elsewhere. There were originally three copies of this bulwark, each owned by three players respectively. After Silver Moon had fallen for Young Master Han’s tricks and plotted his escape, Oathless Sword had very conveniently recruited the three into Traversing Four Seas. Even though the three men were not members of Oathless Sword’s tight-knit battle squad, the three had naturally been deployed as his bodyguards during such a time when Oathless Sword urgently needed protection. He was always fond of a bit of secrecy, and he enjoyed the point of treating something like a secret weapon, or some ultimate move that was to be unleashed at the last minute. That was why the three Guardians had been using swords at the beginning of the fight, planning to pull out the Bulwark of Imprisonment to give the enemy a surprise when it was time to defend. In the end, they were unable to pull out their bulwarks in time due to the suddenness of Sword Demon’s Shadowmist Assault the first time, and so one of them was heroically sacrificed there and then. By the time Sword Demon came the second round, the bulwark was out, but that person had not managed to defend the target in time, so they failed to intercept him in time as well.

Oathless Sword had endured these two Shadowmist Assaults; he had been protected in that first attempt, while he suffered no damage from the second attempt. During the third attempt, with Gu Fei’s sword point right before his eyes, Oathless Sword had been afraid that the two remaining Guardians would not be aware of the severity of the situation, which was why he made the call to verbally remind them.

The full IGN for the Guardian whom Oathless Sword had called Pipi was Pipi Sheep. Influenced by children’s books and movies, he had originally wanted to call himself Lu Pipi, but that was a registered name and so it could not be casually used. He later wanted to be named Happy Sheep, but someone else had already taken it. Thus, he had no choice but to use his imagination and created combinations of Pipi Goat and Happy Sheep until he chanced upon the still unused name of Pipi Sheep and finally got an IGN he liked.

When Gu Fei saw that it was another Bulwark of Imprisonment, he immediately remembered that there were three, and that given how there were just nine of them, three people taking on three directions meant it might not be difficult for them to completely protect Oathless Sword from all angles, just like what Silver Moon had done when he turtled up before. Gu Fei was rather deflated by this, abruptly hopping several steps back as he used the AoE spell that he did not like using during PKs.

“Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno!” Gu Fei waved his sword and pointed. When he last used this move, Silver Moon and his men had squeezed onto a single bulwark, But there were more of Oathless Sword and his men this instance than Silver Moon back then, so there was bound to be players who would be left out as a result.

Sure enough, Pipi Sheep and the other Warrior had quickly thrown their bulwarks onto the ground and stepped on them like they were skateboards. Oathless Sword was the first they saved, while the others tried their best to squeeze atop them, while the speedy Thief and Archer each used their own movement speed to escape the area.

Gu Fei chuckled at this, “That was a bluff!”

Everyone lowered their heads and, indeed, there was no fire beneath their feet! This was the Mage’s trick that most people would tend to cast aside—Fake incantation. During a 1v1 duel with a Mage, they would often use such a trick to control and mislead the opponent. Currently, players could only depend on their own PK experience to make their own judgment, which was impossible to not get annoyed in the process of taking precautions. This was especially since they were up against Gu Fei, who was capable of dishing out damage that would undoubtedly insta-kill everyone, holding onto a lethal power which nobody dared to lightly gamble against.

Thus, when Gu Fei pretended to incant half his spell, as unrealistic as it appeared, these people had all panicked and made to evade it by getting on their Noah’s Ark.

“Blink!” Gu Fei actually cast this spell this time, and he was already right in front of Oathless Sword and his men in an instant while they were still standing on their Bulwarks of Imprisonment. How quick could they be to pick it up and shield this incoming attack? Gu Fei was not about to be courteous either, twisting his body as he gyrated out his Twin Incineration twice, insta-killing the three players who were right in front of him. There were still four players squeezed behind and they hastily backed away, which only resulted in them leaving the two bulwarks behind.

“The bulwarks!!” Oathless Sword cried out in his alarm. They were also considered as outstanding pieces of equipment that their guild possessed, and he had no wish of losing them in such a fashion. Oathless Sword shouted even as he turned to look at Gu Fei, “Miles bro, uhm, this is just a mission, can you not steal the equipment we’ve dropped?”

“I won’t do that, I’ll just help you step on it first,” Gu Fei answered.

“No no no, let us pick it up, otherwise the system would wipe it out when it refreshes,” Oathless Sword’s heart was aching.

“How could I let you do that? You guys will block my attacks if you managed to pick it up,” Gu Fei was not that stupid.

Before Oathless Sword could even reply to this, Pipi Sheep had already charged right over. Sometimes, equipment was far more important than level, much less in a situation where death would not be penalized. The other Guardian who owned the other bulwark had just been killed off by Gu Fei, so Pipi Sheep was making a reckless attempt at this moment to go save the two bulwarks, though there was a bit of selfishness that stemmed from his action. The three men had joined Traversing Four Seas not too long ago, and it was only because of the three bulwarks they hold were being held in high regard. As such, the three of them knew that if Oathless Sword were to pick it up, there was no guarantee that he might return it to them. Pipi Sheep evidently did not have too much of faith when it came to Oathless Sword’s character, so all he wanted right now was to personally recover his own bulwark.

Of course, Gu Fei was not about to be merciful, hacking out with his sword toward this person’s forehead as he came barrelling over. Pipi Sheep was really sturdy though, ignoring the attack as he buried his head low and devoted himself to that one thought of taking back his equipment.

How much Strength would Gu Fei really be exerting when he stood atop the bulwarks? Even though Pipi Sheep was just a Guardian, the amount of Strength he possessed was still more than enough to take on Gu Fei’s, and a forceful pull on one of the bulwarks was all it took to snatch it right back.

“Chance!!!” Oathless Sword yelped loudly as a streak of flames got unleashed right with that shout. Gu Fei’s Twin Incineration had finished its cooldown at this very moment, and it struck Pipi Sheep across his forehead just as Gu Fei went falling to the ground.

However, Pipi Sheep was ultimately a Guardian. He had a ludicrous amount of HP and so even though his bulwark was not raised in time to completely block the attack, he was still able to survive this one slash. But just as he wanted to disengage from the fight, Sword Demon had chosen precisely this moment to dash right up, and under the warning from Oathless Sword and the others, Sword Demon plunged a flurry of stabs right on Pipi Sheep’s back, turning the man into white light. When that Guardian respawned back in the encampment, he looked down in his hand and sighed in relief when he saw that he was still holding onto his Bulwark of Imprisonment. In his heart, whether Oathless Sword lived or died was nothing compared to this bulwark.

The fight between the two parties back on the battlefield was still ongoing. When Gu Fei slashed his sword out as he fell over, he did not even land back-first on the ground as his other hand shot out to the ground and he used it to flip himself back up. Gu Fei stood firmly on the ground and lightly spoke to Sword Demon, “Sword Demon, hold onto this bulwark first.”

Sword Demon did not stand on ceremony as he came over and stuffed the bulwark into his dimensional pocket. Oathless Sword paled, “Sword Demon bro…”

“I’ll return this to you guys after this,” Sword Demon answered.

With two Guardians killed, and another two before that, Oathless Sword’s group was now down to just the five of them; a Warrior, a Thief, an Archer, a Knight, and a Priest. They hardly had an advantage in terms of numbers for this fight by this point, especially since the five men were nowhere nearly as skilled as the expert Gu Fei.

“Where are you guys? Why aren’t any of you here yet?” Oathless Sword was looking at the dark metal blade on Gu Fei’s Moonlit Nightfalls gleaming menacingly, and he felt as if he was going to go insane from his anxiety.

“I’ve already sent those with faster movement speed ahead of me,” Gale Force helplessly answered.

In order for Oathless Sword to buy himself more time, he began to try and hold a dispute with Gu Fei and Sword Demon, using the bulwark as the topic, “Do the two of you know the origin of this bulwark?”

“Nope. What is it?” Gu Fei chatted as he took out an apple from his dimensional pocket.

“We will have to talk about that old acquaintance of ours, Silver Moon! Heh, actually, we are not really acquainted with each other, though I did hear that you guys have clashed with this Silver Moon person multiple times?” Oathless Sword continued.

“That’s right, I heard he has quit the game now!” Gu Fei added, crunching and munching.

“Is that so? How did that happen?” Oathless Sword was elated over how smoothly they had eased into a conversation. However, the Priest beside him had whispered, “Oathless, he’s eating an apple.”

“Eating an apple? Hah, apples are great. They are sweet, so eat all you want! Do you not have any? I don’t have any myself. Warriors like me don’t need to eat apples. Wait. Apple? APPLE? F*CK!” Oathless Sword finally realized that Gu Fei was using this time to replenish his mana.

“You’re really so hopeless,” someone near him said this, even as several arrows flew straight for Gu Fei and fire also began to ignite from up above and on the ground. Gu Fei held his apple between his jaws as he evaded these attacks, with Sword Demon following closely behind. Oathless Sword turned in the direction of this voice as excitement filled him, “Xiaoshang.”

Gu Xiaoshang swept a gaze over him and shook his head, “Quick, run away!”

But, not only did Oathless Sword not run away, he had even begun to happily skip right over to where Gu Xiaoshang was positioned, calling out, “Why are you here?”

“Don’t come this way!!” Gu Xiaoshang bellowed. Oathless Sword was stunned, standing his ground, consequently seeing the spells up in the sky and on the ground blaze. This was actual combat, and the entire process of Young Master Han relaying all his command over to Gu Xiaoshang, using her to send to all the other players would only end up delaying its final execution. Because of this, Gu Xiaoshang had already given the order to everyone to completely listen to Young Master Han’s orders the moment the fight started. Young Master Han was also calmly playing the part of a strategist, using both the two ranged job classes, Mages and Archers, to lay waste to the coordinates he sent out. Meanwhile, he had already preemptively reminded everyone involved: No matter if the target is within the given coordinates or otherwise, all they needed to do was execute his orders precisely as they were told.

“Team 1, Fire at XXX, XXX.”

“Team 2, Fire at XXX, XXX.”

“Team B, Fire at XXX, XXX.”

This was the style by which his commands were relayed out, as Young Master Han moved across the party channel one after another. Players were all previously assigned to their respective teams in this same fashion, and everyone would start their attack at the coordinates they were provided the moment their team was called. Oathless Sword had forgotten about everything happening around him the moment he saw Gu Xiaoshang, wanting to get in close to be more intimate with her. So even though Gu Fei and Sword Demon were nowhere near the path Oathless Sword had taken, that area just so happened to have been covered by Young Master Han’s attack commands. Would Young Master Han even care about that person’s survival? Of course not.

Obviously, Young Master Han did not care, but what made it all the more pitiful, was that Gu Xiaoshang’s underlings were equally unconcerned as well. Oathless Sword’s affection for Gu Xiaoshang was utterly a one-sided affair, which was why the guild members from Colored Cloud had always viewed Oathless Sword’s pursuit of their lady boss to be harassment. Even though their guild leader did not share in their assessment, many of them really wanted to help their guild leader vent and eliminate this lecher.

That was why the moment they saw Oathless Sword wander right into their muzzle fire, they were more than happy to toss out their spells and arrows. There were some who even secretly realigned their angle so they could better engulf Oathless Sword in the ensuing deluge of attacks.

Oathless Sword had not expected this to happen. The moment he heard Gu Xiaoshang shout at him, he was all the more stunned as he stayed rooted to where he was, becoming no more than an open target. The attack arrived as it was supposed to, and it bombarded him quite thoroughly.

To make matters worse, Young Master Han had immediately followed up this command, “Team 1 and Team 2, XXX, XXX.”

The players that made up of both teams could not help but sweep their gaze over at Young Master Han. This guy actually intends to focus the attacks of the two teams right where Oathless Sword is standing. This will really kill off Oathless Sword!

The two teams hesitated for a moment. Before, they could claim that Oathless Sword had abruptly entered the space where they were unleashing their spells, so that was no one’s fault but his own. But this time, everyone would actually be taking the initiative to cast their spells right onto his head. Everyone around would be able to see this happen clearly, so there was no good explanation this time around!

As a result, in that moment of hesitation, Gu Fei had actually run right over in this direction, and his target was none other than Oathless Sword. It was only at this time when the two teams completely understood that Young Master Han was already convinced that Thousand Miles Drunk would take this opportunity to strike at Oathless Sword. Thus, he had directed the two teams to bombard that area with spells, not because he wanted to blast Oathless Sword to kingdom come, but that their target was ultimately Thousand Miles Drunk, and Oathless Sword would just be considered as collateral damage.

Nobody had any doubts once they thought about this, and they quickly began to cast their spells. However, Gu Fei was already right in front of Oathless Sword by this time and he instantly whipped out a Twin Incineration. A single slash of fire swept by. Since Oathless Sword’s HP was already significantly lowered from all the damage he took from before, there was really no need for Gu Fei to cut again when just the Burn effect from the Twin Incineration was enough to light him up. However, Gu Fei did not take any chances and very swiftly followed up the second revolution of his Twin Incineration up on the target.

Oathless Sword was already helplessly shutting his eyes when an unexpected beam of white light washed over him. Oathless Sword’s HP was instantaneously filled up to the brim, which left Oathless Sword quite surprised. Gu Fei’s second revolution flashed by at this moment, and he still remained standing despite taking that second slash. This time, even Gu Fei was taken aback by what happened. Oathless Sword had just taken damage from the wave of AoE spells before, thus it was rather amazing that he was still standing after taking a 720 degrees Twin Incineration from me. Truly, the man lived up to his status as the guild leader of a large guild like Traversing Four Seas. Perhaps he just so happened to have a whole suit of gear equipped that granted fire resistance.

The bombardment of spells that Young Master Han had commanded finally arrived. Gu Fei had thought Oathless Sword was some superhuman that could resist such flames and that caused him to waver ever so slightly. As such, he temporarily made the decision to retreat, turning round as he began to make his escape from that wave of spells.

Oathless Sword was still astonished by how his HP had suddenly shot up to full in that instant. It appeared to be the effect of a Heal, but that would just be too frightening. In his dazed state, he once more got bombarded by the two teams’ worth of spells. Oathless Sword was really resilient, and those two waves of spells had not managed to kill him off. By the time he was back to his senses, he quickly did a Charge and then another, escaping the target area with these two motions, yet his d*mn*ble heart was still set on heading to where Gu Xiaoshang was, and not return back to his own comrades.

“He’s really very persistent…” Young Master Han shifted his magic staff away from Oathless Sword even as he spoke to Gu Xiaoshang for a bit, before continuing to give out his command over the party channel, “Team 4, 2 o’clock; Team 5, 12 o’clock; Team 6, 10 o’clock!”

They were also using the clock position method, and the clock was based off Young Master Han, with the direction his magic staff was pointed to be the 12 o’clock direction.

Oathless Sword was making his way over to these men, but he soon saw Young Master Han’s magic staff shift back onto him, and his heart thumped. *Could it be this freak? To actually be able to fully recover his HP to full just now, that was a Heal that was far more insane than the damage Thousand Miles Drunk could dish out! *

Oathless Sword pondered over this even as he continued to prioritize making his way to Gu Xiaoshang, merrily walking over, “Why are you here, Xiaoshang?”

He really wanted to hear Gu Xiaoshang tell him she was here to rescue him, but that would mean that this was no longer a one-sided courtship if Gu Xiaoshang had really said that. The lady simply pointed to both Thousand Miles Drunk and Sword Demon, “To take them down.”

Oathless Sword very audaciously understood this as she had come for his sake, so he was absolutely elated. Despite how busy Young Master Han was with everything, he still found the time to glance over, “Guild leader Oathless, you should hurry back to the encampment, sort out your guild and head back for the City War. They are all already in a mess.”

“Thank you for your concern, but my men are making their way over right now. It won’t be too late if I leave after we defeat Miles and Sword Demon together!” Oathless Sword looked at Young Master Han standing right before him and ultimately managed to control his emotions. He very courteously said they would ‘defeat Miles and Sword Demon’, and not ‘slay those two rascals’. As he said this, he pulled out a piece of bread and replenished his HP.

However, Young Master Han shook his head, “You don’t have much time.”

“Ah?”

“You’ve still got five seconds left.”

“What?”

“Four.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Three.”

“What is he talking about?” Oathless Sword asked Gu Xiaoshang.

“Two.”

“HEY!!!”

“One.”

“This—” Oathless Sword did not even finish saying what he wanted to say when he became a white light.