Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

“Here he comes!” Such cries could be heard from within the enemy formation. Gy Fei carefully looked at these men and realized that they did not have their faces covered, nor did they have any guild emblem on display. He did not recognize any one of them and even more miraculously, Gu Fei was currently running right into a team of Mages and Archers, all the ranged job classes that were ready to step up and bully Gu Fei and everyone while they were unable to move. There was not a single melee job class near them that could help protect them since none of them had expected Gu Fei to be able to so rapidly make his way over under the current circumstances.

Gu Fei had lost count just how many times he had bullied these two job classes by getting into melee range with them, so it was like he was driving a car down a familiar road, whether the cleaves he made left the enemy terrified if it came with a fiery glow or otherwise. The mountain path itself was narrow, so even though there were melee job classes in the enemy’s party, they were temporarily unable to squeeze up to the front in time. Gu Fei hacked left and slashed right, while these players tried to distance themselves as best as they could in order to avoid the attacks. As such, the players on Gu Fei’s left were all squeezed to the cliff face, while the players on the right would find themselves knocked off the cliff if they were not careful.

After several of them fell off, it was as if the enemy had gotten an epiphany as someone suddenly shouted, “Squeeze him, shove him down the cliff!”

A whole bunch of them fearlessly charged at Gu Fei, who responded with a Twin Incineration, clearing the space in front of him. There were players who were still behind him that were continuing to push, so Gu Fei cast an Electric Wall and the whole lot of them were convulsing while sprawled on it.

“Push him to the wall!” Another voice shouted this fantastic idea out loud and another group of men from another direction gathered in an attempt to push Gu Fei into his own Electric Wall. However, the cooldown for Twin Incineration was not too long, and the spell was ready to be used again after a few more rounds of him exchanging blows. Gu Fei spun around and swung his sword out as another bunch of players turned into white lights.

His PK Value had been steadily climbing, and when Gu Fei had the time to glance over, he saw that he had already reached 56 points. Gu Fei had not cleared out the PK points that he had gotten from the Archer Range before and he had left to grind with everyone right after. With such a solid foundation, he had very easily managed to increase his PK Value. Fortunately, Yueye City was still quite a distance away from their present position, and it was not considered to be anywhere near the city, so at least the city guards would not be in pursuit all the way out here. But seeing this crowd of players piling by the mountain path as well as the others still making their way over, Gu Fei reckoned he would most likely hit 100 PK points if he were to keep slaying like this…

A PK Value above 100. It was of course impossible for him to let it naturally fall off by hanging out in the wilderness where he would not be chased by the guards, but if he were to cleanse it, that meant he would have to fend off the city guard’s pursuit. Gu Fei had already experienced that before, and it was rather difficult. Now that he had gotten over 100 PK points, Gu Fei could only feel his shoulders sink. When would he be done clearing all those PK points?

Even as he was thinking about such things, Gu Fei’s sword strokes did not show any mercy. He killed any and every one of them that came within arm’s reach, in addition to his careful calculation of how he could effectively maximize the mana regeneration effect that he possessed, ensuring he would not fall into a situation where he ran out of mana.

Standing on this mountain path, there would only be ten or so players standing in a single row, so even though the enemy had the numerical advantage, they had no way to properly utilize it in their current situation. Gu Fei was basically killing them row after row, leaving all these players wishing they could cry though no tears came to them. They were all paid and hired to do this task, so they were still able to get their payout even if they died. But if they ran away now, their pay would be docked, so they had no choice but to grit their teeth and feed themselves to Gu Fei’s sword.

“You m*th*rf*ck*rs! Oolong Mountain Range; don’t you know where Oolong Mountain Range is? Have you never been to Yunduan City before?” Dusky Cloud was currently yelling at his guildmates to quickly come to their rescue. Right now, they were facing a blockade from the front while there were pursuers from behind. Plus this was his home court, so he would completely lose face if he did not call for some reinforcements.

“F*ck me, you’ve really never been? G*dd*mn you to hell! Get someone else to come and talk to me! Where are the others? Where have all of them died? Is there no one who knows the way?” Dusky Cloud was panicked. He usually found the flood of chatter in his guild to be a nuisance, yet during such a crucial moment, he was resentful over the fact that his guild had too little people.

Dusky Cloud had only brought a small group out to Yunduan City to help lend a hand to Thousand Miles Drunk in his battle, and quite a few players from the Ten Guild Alliance were also aware of this. Since their guild leader had not said a word, they were of course more than happy to stay in their city and go about their own business. But now that their guild leader was shouting for them, they had no choice but to follow the order given, scrambling to find players to take part and to lead this foray.

At the moment, Gu Fei’s charge had paid off; the enemy was completely in disarray and each of them was too busy taking care of themselves, so why would they have the time to target the players hugging the cliff face avoiding the rocks and logs crashing down onto the mountain path? Furthermore, the ranged job classes were all lined up in the front of the pack, and there were not too many of them left after Gu Fei had decimated their ranks by this time.

“Move, keep close, and move forward!” Young Master Han gestured to the front as the survivors clung close to the cliff face, forming a long line that was slowly edging their way to safety. When they got out of the area that was being assailed by the rocks and logs, just as they were about to jump out and join in the fight, Young Master Han had instead preemptively called out for them to stop, “Don’t get out. If we are to walk out like that, we’ll still be stuck with our backs to the cliff when we engage in combat!!”

The players in the lead froze when they heard this, quickly retracting themselves back as they continued to hug the cliff face and shuffled their way forward.

“Are you worried that they would crush us along with their men?” Luo Luo was not too far away from Young Master Han and had turned her head around to ask him this.

“We have to take precautions against such a possibility,” Young Master Han nodded his head as he sent a message to Gu Fei, “help us out a bit.”

Gu Fei had been happily slaying people around him when he turned his head over and saw the whole lot of them sprawled along the cliff face as they slowly shuffled their way forward, but moving like that was akin to crossing a single plank bridge; it was really easy for the enemy to stop them. Without saying another word, Gu Fei began to head in the direction of the cliff face, killing as he went. It was like he was capable of carrying the world on his shoulders alone, clearing out the way such that any player who was in the way was very swiftly dispatched or ran off. Dusky Cloud and his comrades were taking up the rear of this procession and after they successfully stood beside Gu Fei, all of them instantly felt the sensation of having triumphantly disembarked, letting out a heavy sigh now that it was over.

“Hurry up! Before those men come over, let’s get off this mountain path!” Young Master Han gave the command as he threw a furtive glare of contempt to the group of men who were foolishly in the way. Gu Fei and the rest had managed to cover the distance and were right in front of them, yet these men were still staking their life and holding their ground. Truly, they were the very definition of fools. It was not that they could not retreat either; several meters behind them was the way off the mountain path, and if they were to stand by the mountain pass entrance and form a pocket formation, their manpower would not be so inefficiently used. These men were simply too inflexible.

Young Master Han was naturally not about to hint their enemy about this, but had merely expressed his disdain secretly in his mind. Even though they were slow to react, these assailants finally came to their senses after seeing everyone making it past by hugging the cliff face. With a cry, this group of men finally began to withdraw and back away.

Young Master Han did a rough calculation of the enemy’s numbers and they were indeed not too many left. There were approximately 300 or so of them, making it around the same with their own, but their standard was most definitely far off in comparison. With their ranged job classes suffering crippling losses after Gu Fei’s bout of killing, as well as the fact that the enemy had picked out an adversarial tactic for this assault, it was evident that the ranged job classes acted as the main fighting force for them. With the majority of these ranged job classes out of the picture, what remained only looked all the more subdued and weak.

“Do we still hug the cliff face? Or do we charge them?” Dusky Cloud and his men were somewhat unable to restrain themselves any longer. Seeing Gu Fei kill with such wanton abandon, they were also itching for their turn to take on the enemy.

“Go ahead if you wish. Your level is your business, after all,” Young Master Han lifted his head up to the sky and casually said this. Everyone took his cue and did the same, hesitant if they should join Gu Fei.

“G*dd*mm*t, what is there to be afraid of? Follow me and rush them!” Dusky Cloud hollered, becoming the first one to leap out and dash out to Gu Fei’s side to lend a hand. The others saw this and felt their blood begin to pump as well, crying out “g*dd*mm*t” and other curses as they sprinted over. The enemy could barely hold on with just a single Gu Fei, not to mention an additional pack of tigers and wolves baring their fangs and claws; yet another swathe of enemy collapsed under this attack almost instantaneously. Someone amidst their rank was even yelling non-stop, “RETREAT! WITHDRAW!!!”

“CHASE THEM DOWN!” Dusky Cloud killed two players and became eager. Hearing their enemy yell for retreat, he was spurred into calling for his men to give chase. There was originally some fear that the rocks and logs from above would still be sent tumbling down their way without caring for friend or foe, but when they did not seem to catch any signs of this, their morale had of course rallied. Even the lads from Forever in Flowers jumped out from safety and were now firing into the crowd at random.

“Let’s charge out in one go!” Dusky Cloud shouted. Action spoke louder than words, Gu Fei had already Blinked out and had re-appeared right amidst those who were fleeing. Swathes of white light basked the land, while Dusky Cloud was at the back mowing down the enemies. This was no longer a PK, but an abattoir.

The enemy was now running down the mountain path as if they had lost their souls, but how many of them actually possessed a movement speed that was faster than Gu Fei’s own? The man was still not letting any of them go, and with how these enemies were not even retaliating as he gave chase, it allowed Gu Fei to very perfectly recover his mana. Just as he was about to root them out, he suddenly sensed something was amiss beside him, so he turned his head over and saw that there was already a horde of players on standby on the mountain slope.

The enemy was actually not as foolish as Young Master Han had imagined. Their numbers were not just the 300, but because they were well aware that the battlefield would be along the mountain path and that their numerical superiority would not be too much of use in that terrain. Therefore, they had decided to send out only a portion of their men, while leaving the other remaining players on standby right by the mountain pass entrance in case of an emergency. They had originally thought that their plan was foolproof, but they did not imagine that Thousand Miles Drunk would be so insanely powerful to such a degree where he could just stroll out unscathed despite the circumstances and wreak havoc.

These men also demonstrated their forbearance very well, patiently lying in wait by the side of that mountain slope until Gu Fei finally came killing right out from the mountain path before finally appearing to give their target a surprise. At the moment, this battle was nothing like what broke out on the mountain path. Exiting the mountain pass, the terrain immediately opened into wide and flat plains, allowing hundreds of players to engage in an open battle and participate altogether. Conversely, it was Thousand Miles Drunk and his friends who would be suppressed on the mountain path, working with limited space, thereby resulting in a scenario where they had to fight despite their lesser numbers.

Gu Fei was no stranger to such a scenario; back when he was following Traversing Four Seas for their guild quest expedition, this was also the location where the Bandit Leader Sooto had led his mountain bandits and ambushed them as well. But it was a human who had pulled the same stunt this time around, and they would be a lot more versatile than NPCs, which meant that they were also that much more difficult in dealing with. At the same time, those players that had been fleeing were also striking back and running to intercept. The melee job classes had run up to tangle themselves with Gu Fei as well, while the ranged job classes targeted Dusky Cloud and his men, who were all behind Gu Fei. Spells and arrows sailed through the air. Dusky Cloud and his comrades wanted to return fire too, but they were unable to open their formation, so the difference in their firepower was clear. Sadly, they were left with no choice but to back away. That was how the party was cut off, with Gu Fei alone out of the mountain pass, but trapped, while Dusky Cloud and the others wanted to follow, yet they were being pushed back onto the mountain path.

“If you can’t kill our way through, then head on back first!” Young Master Han hurriedly messaged Gu Fei. Honestly, even Sword Demon and his fellow mercenaries were unsure just how strong Gu Fei was, despite how familiar they were with one another. As such, Young Master Han had no idea if Gu Fei was able to get out of his current predicament; if he had the ability to do so, he could attempt to break up the enemy formation all by himself. But if he could not, then they would all have to retreat back up the mountain pass and attempt to draw the enemy in for a fight in more favorable terrain.

Retreat back onto the mountain path… When Young Master Han thought of this, he suddenly exclaimed and quickly waved, “watch where you’re going!”

At that very moment he said this, the rocks and logs from the mountaintop began raining down once more. Even though he had managed to warn everyone just a step ahead, because everyone was all huddled together at this time, there was no way for them to hug the cliff face like before so quickly, so several dozen of their people ended up getting crushed to death by this.

“D*mm*t. Copying yours truly’s tactics has made yours truly somewhat panicked,” Even at this juncture, Young Master Han had not forgotten to voice out his disdain for the enemy as he praised himself.