Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“Nope, I’ve still yet to locate Oathless Sword.” Sword Demon replied to Gu Fei’s message. “How are things on your end? Can you still hold on?”

“Easily,” Gu Fei answered.

There was no way a fortress would rise up on the battlefield, but pyramids were still highly possible. The huge rocks that piled up were already stacking up high, and Gu Fei hiding within one such pile felt completely safe and secure inside it. With the huge rocks that continued to stack atop the other rocks, they essentially created plenty of safe houses, and randomly taking cover in any corner would mean that the spells that were raining down would never hit him. Thus, Gu Fei had even fewer misgivings, boldly poking his head out everywhere, and killing off any lone player from Traversing Four Seas that he discovered.

“How many have died?” Oathless Sword was currently holed up in a mass of his guildmates. He was not too near to the front, or too far off in the back. He was currently positioned in a very central location that allowed him to avoid the flying rocks, even as he asked the player in charge of collating the battle statistics for a quick summary.

“54 so far…” that player was looking rather ghastly when he reported. 54! While that was no more than a small proportion out of all the members in Traversing Four Seas, the fact remained that they were just going up against a single player. Even if it was a single player as indomitable as Thousand Miles Drunk, anyone from Traversing Four Seas would feel equally embarrassed.

“Hang in there!!” Oathless Sword encouraged over the guild channel.

Everyone in the guild was in tears. A thousand players going up against a single foe, yet their guild leader had instructed them to ‘hang in there’.

“Youthful Reflection, quickly think of something,” Oathless Sword was the best at getting Youthful Reflection to clean up after his messes.

Why would Youthful Reflection not have been trying to think up a solution all this while? Honestly, the power of the trebuchets was not such a big deal any longer, as the rocks provided plenty of cover now that they stacked so numerously. Not only could Gu Fei use it, but even the players from Traversing Four Seas had also ducked under the rock crevasses to hide from the attacks of the trebuchets. Very slowly, this sort of ducking became an instinct, and the previous method of the scattered position could no longer be in use. Now, that the spacing between the players was replaced by the rock maze, some players would climb up the rocks if they ran out of space on the ground.

Youthful Reflection lived up to his name as a dog-headed military commander. An idea came to him as he watched this scene, calling out over the guild channel, “Send the Strength-based job classes forward.”

“What for?” the Strength-based players asked. Obeying every aspect of his orders was something in the past; everyone had been asking for an explanation from Youthful Reflection ever since the start of the battle.

“We’re going to push the rocks together! If Thousand Miles Drunk does not wish to come out, then he can stay there forever. Everyone! Move the rocks and seal up this maze by filling up every possible opening,” Youthful Reflection had never been so self-confident with his orders all this while, but he really believed that he came up with a brilliant plan this time. The other players in the guild also agreed with his plan, and a good number of the Strength-based players had already begun to get to work. From the top to bottom, back to front, left to right; everyone expended their strength and effort to push the huge rocks around them, moving them all right towards the center. No matter where Gu Fei had positioned himself, if he did not reveal himself, he will only end up squeezed amidst the huge rocks.

“Arrow squad and Mage Squad, keep your eyes peeled! If you see any trace of Thousand Miles Drunk, open fire immediately. Don’t stop even if you might hit one of our own in the process. Any fellow comrades who end up sacrificing their lives as a result of this can retrieve a 100 gold coin ‘pension’ for their death.” Youthful Reflection said. The players were all the more energized as they moved the rocks, and the system’s trebuchets were now their accomplices. They continued to help reinforce this entombment of Gu Fei by continuing to send more materials into Traversing Four Seas’ hands.

The players from Traversing Four Seas were enthusiastically going about their work. This move that they were now executing was truly ingenious, as Gu Fei was indeed surviving by staying between the crevasses. What Traversing Four Seas was doing now essentially reduced the gaps he could hide in. There were even some parts where Gu Fei could no longer get in, and he could clearly sense the space he could work with shrink. While he might have slain a good number of people during this time, his opponents were no longer caring about his attacks and were solely focused on implementing this solution Youthful Reflection had came up with.

This cannot go on! Gu Fei thought to himself. He wanted to break out of this entombment, but who would have thought that Traversing Four Seas had actually transformed every route and direction he could take and turned them all into dead ends, completely sealing him within this rock tomb. Gu Fei had no choice but to climb up to the top. But this single poke of his head was instantly spotted by the Archers and Mages that were positioned as the lookout per Youthful Reflection’s orders. All it took was a single ‘there’ from these players and a mixture of spells and arrows came flying his way. Fortunately, Gu Fei had a quick enough reaction and hurriedly dove back down to find a place and take cover as he heard the roaring blast of the spells go off above him. Even the light was blurred quite a lot from the arrows in flight when they were overcast. Gu Fei raised his head to look. There was rumbling movement from the rocks that were next to the spot where he had poked his neck out from. Everything was beginning to collapse, and Gu Fei no longer dared to stay around much longer, so he quickly changed his direction and attempted to search for another way out.

In just this short period of time, another two escape routes that he originally could have taken used were blocked off. In the end, Gu Fei morosely sent a message over to Sword Demon, “I f*ck*d up. I might not be able to get out. And I’ve used up all of my teleportation scrolls as well.”

“I think they are the ones who f*ck*d up here,” Sword Demon responded.

“How so?”

“The heap of building blocks that they stacked up looks a little too dangerous,” Sword Demon said.

“Oh?” Gu Fei was stuck under the mountain of rocks, and every single player watching from the outside could see how precariously built the structure of rocks that were being built in tandem by Traversing Four Seas and the system’s trebuchets looked.

“What? Will it collapse?” Hearing how Sword Demon had described it, he carefully observed it from the interior and sure enough, he found there were parts where large rocks were stacked that were shuddering under the strain. Some were even crumbling from supporting all that weight, which would ultimately lead to the entire construct toppling over. If any of the large rocks were to really suffer a shock, there was no doubt that this fragile and unstable rock prison will collapse.

If all these spectating players could tell what would happen, how could the players from Traversing Four Seas themselves not come to the same conclusion as well? However, even its collapse was an eventuality that Youthful Reflection was hoping for, and seeing that it was about time for the structure to collapse, he had already given the order for everyone to withdraw. He was now just waiting for everything to cave in on itself, burying the scumbag Thousand Miles Drunk alive in the process.

However, reality often defied Man’s expectations, and the system had indeed not given Youthful Reflection much face. Just as he gave the order to retreat, a huge rock was launched out indiscriminately and it crashed right into that structure’s most vulnerable point.

Actually, the system would be a little maligned if anyone were to solely blame the system for this. This was because where the trebuchets would send their payload was actually controlled by Traversing Four Seas to a certain degree. Each rock would not be randomly thrown out, but it would all be directed at a member of Traversing Four Seas that stepped within its range. Youthful Reflection’s consideration was simply not comprehensive enough. Had he considered this point and maximized the use of his men’s position, he could actually make the system do the work for them and send the huge rocks to the location where they needed them to be. Furthermore, now that they were withdrawing, there was even less reason for the trebuchets to fire so casually, such that a huge rock ended up being tossed right into the vulnerable point.

This negligence was on the commander’s part. Furthermore, it was not just on a single person who walked by the point while executing this plan, but there was a series of three rocks that came soaring through the sky from the trebuchets to batter the structure. Even the players from Traversing Four Seas that were scrambling to disperse suddenly felt the ground beneath their feet shake violently and the ground that had always been stable actually began to move as a result.

These players looked down, and realized that they had not been standing on solid ground this entire time. A large number of the players were still standing on the huge rocks, and three more had just come crashing, moving this stack of huge rocks in three separate points. Due to this shift, the many rocks that were positioned even higher up began to lose their support, and that caused them to crumble and knock into the other huge rocks below, creating further movement which resulted in even less support…

It was like pushing a row of falling dominoes, except the rocks would tumble in multiple directions instead of one direction, and the force was being spread out in every direction as well.

The sound of the rumbling rocks was endless as these huge rocks came tumbling down. Some immediately dropped down, and the ‘pyramid’ that was originally formed suddenly began to collapse. How could any of the players standing on the structure even get a semblance of balance while on top? Each of them began falling all over the place. Some came tumbling down from up high with the huge rocks, the speed of the rocks gaining momentum as they rolled down, and they began bouncing rapidly down the slope and were soon rolling off the pile just as quickly. The players from Traversing Four Seas were each like bowling pins, all just waiting for the huge bowling rocks to smash right into them for the strike.

“F*CK, this is really g*d d*mn unlucky!” Youthful Reflection was currently positioned in the path of one of these bowling rocks, complaining even as he dodged to the side, not even realizing that this was negligence on his part and had thought this was just the result of his bad luck acting up.

The pyramid of rocks caused dirt to surge up high when they crashed into the ground, and with how heartless the system was, the trebuchets were still hurling their own payloads targeting these exposed players still struggling to get up on their feet atop the rocks despite the state they were all in! Adding a rock upon another rock, the dirt and dust created flew high up in the sky, covering everyone miserably as a result. Others had no idea, but Oathless Sword was actually receiving a continuous string of messages about his guild members dying and getting sent back to the encampment. In a blink of an eye, 28 players had died, and the number was only rising unceasingly.

Players really had no way of fighting back against this sort of catastrophe occurring on such a large scale. The outer circle of players could no longer hear their commander as they began to scatter from the field of rocks by their own accord, throwing the entire Traversing Four Seas into a panic. Youthful Reflection could hardly care so much as there was only a single thought in his mind: The shameless and despicable Thousand Miles Drunk must surely have died now that the situation had deteriorated to this point, right?

Just as he was entertaining this thought, he saw a blurry figure appear amidst a cloud of dust that appeared in the direction of the collapse. Youthful Reflection immediately felt a strong sense of foreboding as he stared at that figure. The figure happened to be headed in his direction, and seeing it wobble and sway as it continued on its way, Youthful Reflection’s heart also lurched with it. When he could finally make out the figure clearly through all the suspended dust and dirt, the blood that he vomited out reached a good three meters. The sense of foreboding had come true, and the figure was really the unkillable Thousand Miles Drunk.

Gu Fei used Blink to evade the initial collapse in that one moment, and used his prodigious sense of balance and body coordination afterward, leaping out from certain death while among the rolling and falling rocks. How could Youthful Reflection not vomit out blood when seeing such a scene unfold before him?

Is he even still human? Youthful Reflection’s despair overwhelmed his heart, as he watched Gu Fei perform inexplicable vertical jumps.

That was indeed not something a normal human could do. Gu Fei proceeded to demonstrate his superhuman capabilities as he borrowed the force of each and every piece of rock that came falling down as he hopped from one to another, not even hesitating for even a moment in the process while he continuously leapfrogged for a good period of time. Gu Fei’s balance had already been completely ruined by this point, barely having enough Strength to accomplish this feat, and he knew there was no way that he could reach the target landing he had wanted right before his eyes for this final jump.

Youthful Reflection was stirred, as it now appeared as if Gu Fei would end up landing into an opening between the rocks that would send him straight down to the ground below. The opening Gu Fei used would soon be sealed off by the mess of rolling rocks, and this should allow Youthful Reflection to escape death in the end.

Youthful Reflection had made a fist in his excitement of such an eventuality, but he did not expect that the moment a huge rock dropped, a figure had suddenly flashed out in mid-air with both arms outstretched, snatching Gu Fei away at the last moment as the two ended up swaying and tumbling around in mid-air, but they never did fall down the opening.

“F*ck me!!” Youthful Reflection yelled in his anger. He had no idea what was going on, but did the game even care to follow the logic of reality at all seeing how this figure could actually fly?

Gu Fei could see that they were about to fall, and he failed to sense any sort of killing intent from this other player that swooped in in all this chaos. Gu Fei turned around to identify his savior once he realized that this person was hugging him, and saw that it was obviously none other than Slyris. Gu Fei was a bonafide youth, so he would of course feel uneasy being hugged by a lady, and he subconsciously fidgeted in her embrace. Slyris was a Mage, so it was evident that she did not invest much into the Strength stat. She had intentionally donned on quite a bit of equipment that added Strength before she could just barely hold Gu Fei in the air with her, but the mana expenditure of her Flight spell intensified after she got a hold of him. Now that Gu Fei was also struggling in her grip, the pair sunk, and a chunk of her mana was expended as a result.

“Don’t struggle!” Slyris was panicking as well. They would both be dead meat if they were to drop down again.

“Quick, let me go,” Gu Fei had quickly understood where the problem lay and did not dare to move again, but he still could not help but utter this in his embarrassment.

“You’re rather old-fashioned,” Slyris could tell Gu Fei was ill at ease.

Gu Fei was helpless. She had come to rescue him, not tease him. Was there a need for her to talk so much? Slyris had quite a bit of experience carrying others given how she would also use her Flight spell to bring Yan Xiaozhu along to have fun, so she soon had everything under control once Gu Fei stopped fidgeting. It was only that her mana was being exhausted very quickly, so she had to quickly find a place to land.

Youthful Reflection soon recovered after experiencing a moment of mental collapse from what he had just witnessed. He abruptly pulled out his bow and released an arrow targeted at the pair.

This arrow struck Slyris on her shoulder and the lady nearly threw Gu Fei out as she shuddered and winced in pain, but she still gritted her teeth and persevered.

Youthful Reflection called on reinforcement from his guild, but all of them had become like refugees trying to escape from the disaster. No one cared to pay attention to his call, leaving Youthful Reflection on the verge of crying, though no tears came out. This was such a great opportunity. There was no way the pair would escape from being turned into white light if he gathered their Arrow Formation and fire a barrage of arrows at the two of them.

Since no one in his guild answered his call, Youthful Reflection had no choice but to take it upon himself to put his life on the line for the kill. Gu Fei had quickly nailed down its precise trajectory this time when Youthful Reflection fired another shot up in the air. He wished that he could just swat it away, though he knew that such a wild movement would only create further issues for Sylris. Youthful Reflection was a crafty fox. He could tell from the two that Gu Fei was depending upon the lady to keep them in the air, so as long as he focused his shots on killing her, Gu Fei would automatically fall as well and end up dropping down with the falling rocks.

Slyris might be one of the Five Unyielding Experts, but no matter how powerful a Mage like her could be, their defense and HP would always be just that unless the player got other items that would help increase a Mage’s Endurance! Slyris was no exception to these limitations, so she was already down to almost half her total HP after getting herself shot twice. Youthful Reflection was not just someone who merely knew how to come up with ideas! He was also a highly ranked Archer expert on their individual job class leaderboards, and his equipment was all exceptional. In terms of overall combat strength, he was hardly any weaker than any of the Five Unyielding Experts.

“Let go of me on the count of three,” Gu Fei said.

“Then wouldn’t I have come for nothing!” Slyris was not about to give up.

“It’s obvious I have a plan since I’m asking you to release me on the count of three! One,” Gu Fei began.

“Two!” Gu Fei counted,

Slyris carried on flying as she got ready.

Gu Fei paused for a good while.

“Where’s your three?” Slyris asked in response. In the time that Gu Fei had counted to two, and paused, Gu Fei had eaten another two arrows.

“Okay, three,” Gu Fei finally uttered three when he saw that another arrow from Youthful Reflection was flying over to them.

The moment Slyris let go, the arrow was alright right in front of her. A quick glance over at her HP, and she wondered if this would turn out to be a tragedy. Just as she braced for impact, she saw Gu Fei flick his sword while mid-air and a fitful strike swatted the arrow away as he continued to fall down.

Youthful Reflection was gleeful, unaware that Gu Fei had been the one that asked Slyris to let him go. He interpreted the sequence of events as Slyris being unable to take another shot, so Gu Fei had no choice but to lash out and swat the arrow. But in doing so, Slyris lost her grip and thus sent him plummeting down to the ground.

Below Gu Fei was the tumbling rocks, and he would most definitely lose his life dropping from his current height. However, there was of course a good reason as to why Gu Fei had waited before telling Slyris to drop him, and that was to wait for his Blink cooldown to finish.

Blink!

Before landing on the ground, Gu Fei activated his Blink, and he immediately materialized six meters away, stepping onto a large rock that was hurtling forward. This time, he did not leap to another rock like what he had done before, because he could clearly see that the direction that this rock was speeding toward perfectly aligned with where he wanted to go. The countdown had all been to wait for one such moment.

Youthful Reflection still wanted to fire another arrow to eliminate Slyris at the same time, but he did not expect to see the falling Gu Fei disappear from his sight with a single Blink. Youthful Reflection was instantly alarmed as he began searching for where Gu Fei could end up appearing when he spotted that rock that was headed straight for a direct collision with him. Quickly, he dodged to the side to let it tumble past.

Youthful Reflection might have dodged the huge rock, but when he moved past it with his bow arched, searching all around for any trace of Gu Fei for him to fire at, he spied a figure leap right out from that falling rock that had passed him.

Gu Fei’s two feet came smashing right down onto Youthful Reflection’s head, and the force of this stomp sent Youthful Reflection straight to the ground. Gu Fei had executed such a difficult maneuver in order to mitigate the impetus of his attack, and he was unable to remain stable afterward. And so, Gu Fei adjusted himself and stepped onto Youthful Reflection’s face as he did a backward flip and landed on the ground. He staggered as he tried to regain his balance, but not before slashing Youthful Reflection across with his sword as he yelled out loudly, “It’s over for you!”

Youthful Reflection could see his own guildmates all around him, but they were all only concerned with fleeing from the disaster area. No one even spared a glance his way, and all he could feel in his heart was deep sorrow. Gu Fei got up and was about to relish in stabbing Youthful Reflection with his sword, when he heard Slyris’ voice coming up from above, “Be careful!”

Gu Fei lifted his head up and saw a huge rock bounding right over. Gu Fei promptly shunted his body to evade it, leaving Youthful Reflection lying right there. By the time he twisted his head up and saw rock coming toward him, he already got very intimately acquainted with it.

“Quick, run!” Slyris shouted at Gu Fei.

“Got it!” Gu Fei fled immediately, but he was not solely focused on fleeing like the other men from Traversing Four Seas, as he would often pick on other players to play around with and bully for a bit. Without Gu Fei burdening Slyris, she had enough mana to continue flying out a good distance, and she was not in the least hurried. The two traveled by land and air respectively as they made their escape from this disaster, even while the rocks continued to cascade down after them.

Traversing Four Seas suffered heavy losses in this battle, and even though they had been running the whole time, how many of them would actually have a high movement speed like Gu Fei? There was a range to the trebuchets and their huge rocks, but there were no constraints to the attack range of the rolling rocks that were part of this collapse. They were simply rolling along with the laws of physics, squashing plenty of players from Traversing Four Seas before even implicating the players that had been standing too near spectating everything.

Gu Fei turned around and looked, feeling as if this catastrophe was something too terrible to behold.

“That was a timely appearance on your part,” Gu Fei commented.

“I was only here to watch. I never thought that I could actually save you,” Slyris said.

“Where’s Sword Demon?”

“He’s off searching for Oathless Sword with Yan Xiaozhu!” Slyris replied.

“Oh, then we better go lend a hand, fast.” Gu Fei decided.

The two turned to walk away as they threaded through the chaotic crowd. However, there were many pairs of eyes trained on the two at this moment. But because of just how everything was in a state of disarray, even if Gu Fei could sense these people, there was no way that he would put too much stock into them.

“They are heading off to locate Oathless Sword. Are you anxious for him?” Young Master Han asked Gu Xiaoshang, standing right beside him.

Gu Xiaoshang pursed his lips, “Just a little mixed feelings.”