Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“Drunk bro, Drunk bro, you’re too exposed out there!” As Gu Fei equipped the pair of rings he borrowed from Slyris, he could hear a voice right by his feet yell at him.

“Stand up. What are you sprawled on the ground for? It’s so distasteful,” Gu Fei wrinkled his brows.

“An ambush, of course!” Fireball replied, still prone on the ground.

“They are already here,” Gu Fei said.

“There’s still dozen of meters between us and them. Drunk bro, you got up too early,” Fireball said.

“Well, hurry up then. You’re the one dealing the final blow!” Gu Fei stamped on him.

“While that might be true Drunk bro, the enemy has not stepped into our ambush range yet!” Fireball climbed up to his feet feeling very aggrieved. The opposing troops were evidently still almost a hundred meters away. To expose their presence so soon, Fireball was not used to this style of ambush.

“Do I need you to teach me how to PK!?” Gu Fei scoffed contemptuously.

D*mm*t, could it really be Thousand Miles Drunk!? Foe-herder silently muttered this. Because they were still a hundred meters away, the players from Cloud Herder could not see him too clearly, but it was just the person in front looked very similar to how Thousand Miles Drunk was described to look like, so everyone was skeptical as to the identity of the newcomer.

“Is he coming for us?” Someone asked.

“No way, how did we aggro him?” Currently, all the large guilds were very cautious, and not provoking Thousand Miles Drunk was one of the commandments they all shared.

“Hmm?” There’s someone else standing up next to him. Who would that be?”

“Looks like a Mage as well.”

“Guild leader, didn’t Colored Clouds tip us that Thousand Miles Drunk and the others have established a city defender’s guild?” Someone said to Foe-herder. Colored Clouds knew about this information through Young Master Han, so of course, there was no reason for them to keep this a secret for Gu Fei. Gu Xiaoshang had made sure to disseminate this information to anyone and everyone she could inform, which naturally meant the guild Cloud Herder was also in the loop as well.

“Yes, she did mention that,” Foe-herder nodded.

“Then, is that…”

“Are you saying he has brought men to attack us?”

“Isn’t it possible?”

“Just one man?” Foe-herder asked.

“Uh, well…”

“With how insanely skilled Thousand Miles Drunk is, it’s actually far more convenient for him to act alone. Whether he has one, two or even a squad of men with him, they would all be nothing more than dead weight to him,” someone analyzed clearly and logically.

“You’re right,” Foe-herder nodded. He agreed with this assessment, so he randomly picking out two of his men, “Head out to check.”

“Guild leader… He’s already coming over,” someone warned.

Foe-herder turned his head around and sure enough, he saw Gu Fei pulling out the sword that was stuck in the ground beside him and made a beeline straight toward them.

No one was foolish enough to think that Gu Fei was running toward them just to say hello to them. Foe-herder was startled as he quickly began commanding his men, “Archers, impede him with your arrow fire, Mages form up in a row and have a row of Warriors get into formation to provide cover for all of you. The Thieves will attempt to flank the target!” Foe-herder had somewhere around 200 players with him, and complimentary class composition was not really being emphasized at the moment. The guild was not focusing on the war efforts at the moment, and its members had split up everywhere to focus on questing. Foe-herder did not bother to evenly distribute his men, meaning it was completely voluntary wherever they wished to go, with those who were too lazy to move about staying to follow Foe-herder camping out right in the middle.

Who would have guessed that even skiving off would result in them running into trouble? Over 200 of these loafers suddenly found themselves being subjected to Thousand Miles Drunk’s surprise attack, listening to their guild leader’s instructions as they re-positioned themselves, even as they spontaneously yelled for help in the guild channel.

“We’re being ambushed! Please send reinforcements!” Several players were calling out for help in the guild channel.

The other guild members not present were all confused when they saw the torrent of messages. Why did so many people suddenly call for help?

“Where, where do you guys need help? Eh? Methodless? Aren’t you together with the guild leader and the rest?” Someone asked, recognizing one of the people to be somebody he knew personally.

“That’s right, we’re the ones being ambushed right now,” Methodless replied since he was being named.

“What the heck? You guys got ambushed? How does that work? Which guild is it?!” Everyone hurriedly asked. They knew there were over 200 players that were together with their guild leader, so it must surely be a big deal for these people to have been so anxious!

“It’s Thousand Miles Drunk!” Cloud Herder’s guild channel was flooded with Gu Fei’s IGN.

“G*dd*mm*t, everyone stay calm!” Foe-herder was incensed. The man had just begun his charge toward them and had not even started slaying people, yet they were already so frightened. Just how humiliating would this be if word got out? So what if it was Thousand Miles Drunk knocking on their front door? Did everyone forget that out of all the large guilds in Yunduan City, theirs was the first to have been targeted by Thousand Miles Drunk? It was not as if they had never clashed with the man before. He might be indomitably strong, but there was no reason for everyone to be so afraid of him to such a degree. Carouse’s thousand men got slain? That was pure exaggeration; Carouse had applied poor battle tactics in their skirmish and stretched the battlelines unnecessarily. This ended up doing more harm than good as they got slaughtered one by one, all the way until they had lost almost all their Agility focused job classes. At that point, were they not just letting Thousand Miles Drunk bully them?

Foe-herder was still very clear-minded. Even though he had no intention of inciting Thousand Miles Drunk’s wrath, he was not going to be terrified now that the man had arrived right at his doorstep. Was he supposed to kneel on the ground, hold his head with both hands and await his own death?

As long as they did not make all the strategic mistakes that the men from Carouse had run afoul with during this confrontation, Thousand Miles Drunk was nothing to be afraid of. Foe-herder pumped himself up, but he did not reject the help from the more zealous members who were making their way to assist at the same time. Foe-herder turned around and saw that his men were in position and the battle formation that he had arranged was more or less complete, so he raised his sword and bellowed, “ATTACK!!”

Two rows of Archers raised their bows, but Gu Fei had already expected for the first wave of attack to come from the Archers. Seeing that there were quite a lot of players here, he was not foolish enough to dash in a straight line. At that moment, he utilized the Nine Palace footwork, also known as the Nine Palace Flight, moving in a way that covered all Eight Trigrams, which also included the center palace. A person could cycle through each of the nine palaces as they step; initially, practitioners would follow a set routine, going either as taught or in reverse. The length of each set of steps would also be controlled, but persistent practice over time would allow the practitioner to dictate the length of their own steps arbitrarily. Even the set routine would no longer be limited to the pattern, and the possible variations naturally becoming more complicated. Gu Fei considered something like this to be rudimentary, moves that he had learned since young. Now, whenever he had nothing to do, he would often head up to the rooftop and practice it. Gu Fei was already so proficient with this that it had gotten to the point where he could completely several rounds every day with his eyes closed, able to return to his starting point no matter how he began his step.

The instant he began demonstrating the footwork, the Archers were instantly made useless. Even if their marksmanship with the bow had the system’s target assistance, the swiftness of Gu Fei’s movement was simply too much, making it nearly impossible for these Archers to adjust the positioning of their hands in time to follow his motion. In gaming terms, the man was simply moving too erratically that nobody was able to keep up.

Someone made his shot, yet it was like the Homing Projectile did not see Gu Fei as it flew past him, which only showed how the Archer had not even aimed at him the moment he released said arrow. There was no need to even mention the other skills used, like Snipe or Double Shot. In the mess of arrows that came raining down on him, there would of course be some that ended up finding their target, but did that really matter? There were just not enough of these arrows, Thousand Miles Drunk still remained standing, and he was closing in as he weaved about the battlefield. There were not really that many Archers on Foe-herder’s end, only around 20 or so. Because of how Agility affected the movement speed in the game, it made the Agility focused job classes a lot more diligent; Job classes without much Agility were baby-legged and slow when covering long distances, making it troublesome for them to run around. As a result, there were just not many Thieves or Archers among the 200 indolent players that stayed back with Foe-herder and were malingering about.

“D*mm*t, so useless. Mages!” Foe-herder saw how his Archers had their hands full, yet were unable to achieve any results. Gu Fei had managed to cover dozens of meters in this time, so he quickly called his Mages forward. There were a lot more Mages than Archers, and they hastily chanted their spells while waving their staves correspondingly. However, Gu Fei was not in any rush as he brandished his sword and cast his own spell in response. In Parallel World, as long as a spell incantation was complete, the spell would appear even if they continue to move about, as long as the caster did not die. This particular point was criticized by players, but it favored Gu Fei greatly since he was able to evade the spells after he quickly chanted his spell. In the end, he was able to get away, but the whole group of Mages was unable to do the same! All of them saw the wheel of fire that spontaneously appeared above their heads, and all of them felt like crying, though no tears came out of their eyes.

“What are you afraid of? You can’t die from this!” Foe-herder yelled. They were no longer during the time when everyone was around level 30. Foe-herder had more or less gotten a grasp of things pertaining toward Gu Fei and he knew that the damage from his AoE spells right now was incapable of insta-killing players.

In the end, every one of them endured the spell from Gu Fei, while the Priests at the back swiftly got busy with Healing everyone affected. Even though nobody was insta-killed, the damage that they took in terms of their HP was a lot fiercer than what most Mages would be able to deal, causing all these people to urgently howl as they begged for healing. Everyone was standing clumped together, and the Priests were in a flurry. Some were being Healed by three or five Priests at once, while others had nobody paying any attention to them at all. The entire place was in chaos, and Gu Fei had very inconsiderately given them an encore performance with his spells. This time, it was a Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno, and the Mages who were still waiting for the Priests to aid them one by one could not even retaliate. There was no need for Gu Fei to dodge anything, so he threw out Thunderbolts freely after, electrocuting players casually. Furthermore, his keen eyesight allowed him to very diabolically target all the players who were not being served by the Priests’ flashes of Heals.

As the flames from the Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno raged, there were still quite a lot of people who had managed to survive the firestorm thanks to the support of the Priests. Foe-herder felt that his guild’s formation was really resilient to have been able to withstand all this, and was very satisfied with the result. He continued to raise his sword and ordered, “Counterattack with spells!”

All the Mages turned around to stare at Foe-herder, with one saying, “Guild leader, we’re all on fire. We can’t cast any spells like this.”

When Mages were in the process of chanting their spells, any sort of attack would interrupt their casting. At the moment, the Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno was ticking with burning damage every second, and anyone standing in the AoE will not be able to cast any spells at all. Brave Surge would most definitely have not made such a mistake if he had been in command as he was a Mage himself. Foe-herder was a Warrior, so it could not be helped that he would sometimes fail to consider the fight from the perspective of the other job classes. His choice before to make all his Mages stand their ground and fight actually made it impossible for them to retaliate right now. Gu Fei had very quickly came sprinting toward them during this pause of inaction. The Olympic record for the 100 meters sprint was under 10 seconds. Gu Fei was not as fast as that, but he had no problems clearing 30 meters in 5 seconds. Before the crowd of Mages on Cloud Herder’s side could even unleash a sea of flames to cordon themselves away, Gu Fei had managed to cover the distance was now right in front of their frontline. “Warriors! Brace!” Foe-herder bellowed, and all the Warriors stepped forward. This was Foe-herder’s job class, so he able to command them with adept ease. Be they Guardians or Berserkers holding shields or axes, every one of them fanned out and prepared to pinch Gu Fei within their ranks.

Gu Fei knew that Warriors had plenty of HP and tough defenses. He would be doomed if he was unable to insta-kill them with a slash of his sword when they come pinching in, so he quickly began to backpedal and retreat. Foe-herder was elated when he saw this and pointed his sword into the sky. Suddenly, a bunch of men appeared behind Gu Fei, their warcry deafening as they came charging in toward Gu Fei.

Gu Fei turned around and saw a lot of Thieves. But these Thieves were no Warriors, so Gu Fei had no idea what they were so excited or happy about. Turning around to face the Thieves’ encirclement, Gu Fei whipped out his revolving Twin Incineration, igniting two distinct circles of flames onto the men. Anyone who got slashed twice in such a manner died, with some of those who were only struck once dying outright while a few managed to survive. In any case, Thieves attempting to surround and obstruct Gu Fei were treated like they did not exist at all.

Foe-herder had been shouting when he raised his sword, but just as the words “We’ll show” left his mouth, Gu Fei had already carved out a huge hole in the encirclement of Thieves. Foe-herder had not thought that Thieves would be so weak when facing against Gu Fei, incapable of even stalling for time when they clashed. Before he could think of the next order to give, Gu Fei had already begun his massacre with the Thieves behind him. Now that the battle was in close combat, the Mages were once more out in an awkward spot. They were no longer dealing with burning damage from Gu Fei’s spell before, but their comrades were all around Gu Fei at the moment. They could not cast any of their own AoE spells safely, and as for the other spells in their arsenals… All they could now see was a mass of Thieves and Warriors. None of them had a line of sight on Gu Fei, so there was no way that they could cast anything. By the same logic, the Archers were also equally useless at this stage of the battle as well.

By now, Foe-herder was also worried about the combat situation over by the frontlines, but all he could see was flashes of fire and white light. To their surprise, the Mages and Archers slowly discovered that they could spot Gu Fei anew once more because the players surrounding him were thinning over time.

Gu Fei had been killing rather mercilessly during this time, and his mana was quickly drained from all the spells. His mana regeneration could barely keep up with the amount that he consumed, so he quickly cast his Blink and fled, running in his erratically swaying footwork as he waited for his mana to return.

When Foe-herder saw that Gu Fei was suddenly on the retreat, he quickly added one plus one together and happily cried out, “He’s out of mana, chase him now!”

It was true that Gu Fei was out of mana, but that did not mean that he would be out of mana forever. Besides, he had already cleared out the Thieves in the engagement moments before, and all the Warriors could only watch as Gu Fei ran off with his movement speed. They took a few steps forward before turning their heads back in unison to look at Foe-herder. Chase him? That’s just impossible!

Gu Fei had already finished his first round with the enemy, while Fireball had been creeping his way forward the entire time. He had only just cleared half the distance when Gu Fei turned around so as to recover his mana, spotting Fireball carefully crawling over the ground on all fours.

“Why are you sprawled on the ground again?” Gu Fei had no idea if he should laugh or cry.

“Drunk bro, I don’t have your capabilities. What was that d*mn*d thing that you did when were twisting around back then anyway?” Fireball asked.

“Nine Palace footwork. You won’t understand even if I told you about it. Here, let me give you a chance to show off,” Gu Fei suddenly threw his sword and Mage’s robes to Fireball.

The men from Cloud Herder were all dumbfounded, widening their eyes in disbelief. Just what did that mean? Just Thousand Miles Drunk was killing everybody so happily, why did he suddenly take his clothes off and go shirtless?This is not some kung fu movie, bro!

Fireball became extremely excited when he received the two pieces of equipment, instantly changing out his own equipment and climbing up to his feet once that was done. The men from Cloud Herder were astonished, “What in the world, there’s another Thousand Miles Drunk!?”

“Not another, you dolt. That man is wearing Thousand Miles Drunk’s equipment. Everyone, be careful!” Foe-herder warned his guild.

“Here I come!” Fireball believed himself to be invincible now that he had changed his equipment, sounding excessively egoistic when he shouted this out as he dashed forward. He raised the sword up into the sky and roared, “Grant me strength, I am Drunk bro!”

“What the f*ck? Stop messing around and attack already!” Gu Fei was infuriated. The Archers were already closing in on them. How would Fireball even have the physical expertise to avoid their arrows? It was fine if he died, but would his death not result in the disappearance of Gu Fei’s equipment from this fight as well?

But of course, Fireball had his own way of doing things, and would he really be the sort that did something as dangerous as putting himself in the Archer’s line of fire? After he flashed his pose and yell out those two lines brazenly, Fireball immediately returned back to his original stance and reprehensibly laid prone on the ground.

There was a very logical basis behind this as well. On the battlefield, all foot soldiers would be prone on the ground so as to reduce their targetable surface. What Fireball was doing right now was a tried and effective method, his head becoming the only target possible now that he was prone on the ground as he rolled from side to side, making him that much harder to hit than Gu Fei’s Nine Palace footwork. The Archers were suffering as well; how could there be such a despicable person? Some of the Archers had almost gotten their heads and bows down on the ground as well, as if that would allow them to better see where Fireball was crawling.

“My clothes!” Gu Fei was angry. With Fireball rolling around on the ground like he did, the Midnight Spirit Robes he loan to Fireball was no longer black.

“Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno!” Fireball finally tossed out a spell while sprawled on the ground, casting it on several of the Warriors in his sight, before he swiftly rolled as he raised the sword, unleashing a Descending Wheel of Flames in unison.

The two spells that Fireball threw and sandwiched the opponents were nowhere as slow as Gu Fei’s. However, the Warriors had witnessed Fireball taking Thousand Miles Drunk’s equipment, so none of them treated him like an average Mage. This group of originally united Warriors could be seen scattering in every direction with their Charge, allowing them to evade the AoE spells despite their baby legs.

But in the end, there were bound to be some accidents, such as players who ended up crashing into their own comrades. Not only did such accidents cut their escape short, they even ended up Dazing their comrade, resulting in two deaths from a single Charge. Then there were those who wanted to Charge out, only to realize they ran out of Rage, similar to when a Mage ran out of mana, so all they could do was stare mutely.

Fireball actually got quite a decent harvest from his two spells, killing off almost ten players like that. However, there were far more Warriors who managed to escape. Fireball remained sprawled on the ground, and he cast a Thunderbolt, striking a Warrior till his head was smoking from the shock. This Thunderbolt from Fireball was a lot stronger than Gu Fei’s, capable of dealing lethal damage to most targets. The Warrior’s face turned ashen when he took that Thunderbolt, and Fireball took that moment of shock to throw out a Repeating Fireball to follow up, blasting the Warrior to his death like he was letting loose a fusillade of cannon fire.

Fireball continued to toss out Thunderbolts at several players after this, having tons of fun as he caused the Warriors to run helter-skelter in an effort to flee the range of his spells. Suddenly, his eyes sparkled with recognition. Isn’t that guy in front the target, Foe-herder? Fireball got excited, as this was a big deal! It would truly be a show of his prowess if he was able to take down Foe-herder without relying on the assistance of Drunk bro.

However, Foe-herder was still quite a distance away from Fireball, and his spells would not be able to hit him at that range. Fireball was instantly eager, crawling forward, only to hear the scream of whistling wind sound as an arrow struck him right on his forehead. Fireball had been stationary as he laid prone on the ground electrocuting people with his Thunderbolts, and the Archers were finally able to find him as a result. Fireball could tell that things were going awry and he immediately began to roll on the ground even as he tried to pull the robe off himself while he shouted out to Gu Fei, “Drunk bro, tag out!”

Gu Fei had managed to recover quite a bit of mana by this time, and was more than a little annoyed with Fireball. Several players could see that Gu Fei was without his equipment at this time and wanted to try and bully him a little. However, Gu Fei’s movement speed without the two pieces of equipment was still much faster than the Warriors, and there was nothing they could do about it. The Archers were still unable to hit him due to the Nine Palace footwork, and were essentially helpless toward Thousand Miles Drunk. The Mages were also too far away from him, and were now dashing forward to try and attack him.

Gu Fei reached Fireball’s side in several quick steps, and that rascal happened to pull off his robes and tossed it over to Gu Fei. Gu Fei reached out his arm and caught the robes and slipped them on, even as he caught the Moonlit Nightfalls Fireball threw at him with an outstretched hand. He did not even bother to properly dress himself as he renewed his assault on Cloud Herder once again.

“Thunderbolt, Fireball!” Gu Fei threw out the small spells that barely expended any mana, helping to readjust the Warriors’ HP so as to bring them closer to insta-kill range. Still utilizing his Nine Palace footwork at the same time, Gu Fei quickly paced over to the Archers. The sweet taste of fighting Carouse the last time had allowed him to understand just what would happen when the enemy lacked any Agility focused job class, and it was as if he could hardly be restrained.

The Archers were fleeing in a disorderly fashion as Gu Fei went all out dealing with these men, more than willing to expend a Blink just to chase after a single target, electrocuting and slashing his sword once he caught up with them, only stopping once they were dead by his hands. None of the other job classes in Cloud Herder could catch up to him, and they were completely troubled and distressed by this fact.

Calm down, don’t panic! Foe-herder reminded himself as he tried to compose himself and organize his men to first spread out and expand their area coverage. They might not have any way to hamper Gu Fei’s speed, but he was prepared to constrict the area in which Gu Fei could operate.

Gu Fei was busy killing anybody he set his eyes upon when he suddenly received a message. Anyone who could message him now would not be any random outsider, so it would mostly be an urgent matter. He quickly pulled out the logs and saw that it was from Svelte Dancer, “Hahaha, this madam has already slain her target, do you need me to come over and lend a hand?”

At the same time, Fireball had poked his head out to shout, “Drunk bro, Black Index Finger has been killed, you need to hurry up!”

“D*mn!” Gu Fei was very embarrassed, feeling as if he really needed to pick up the pace, there was no reason for him to drag things out so lacklusterly! Looking all around him, Gu Fei shouted, “WHERE IS FOE-HERDER? WHERE ARE YOU?”

“Bruh, how could you not know what he looks like, Drunk bro!?” Fireball vomited blood. Foe-herder was literally just ten meters away from Gu Fei, taking command of the battlefield!