Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

The north gate that had been quiet for a long time finally had some action, as the players from Traversing Four Seas made the first move. The guilds nearby had been staring at one another, watching each and everyone’s actions, so when Traversing Four Seas made their move, plenty of people who were keeping an eye on them were startled, staring hard as they wondered just what Traversing Four Seas was up to.

The direction that Traversing Four Seas was headed toward was all the more inexplicable, as it seemed like they were leaving the north gate. Their old rival Carouse was obviously the most concerned about Traversing Four Seas, and the Thieves that Brave Surge had sent out to investigate them had quickly gathered around Traversing Four Seas as they kept B Surge constantly updated with their activity.

“Just what are they up to?” Brave Surge wondered even as his eyes flitted over to where Gu Fei was arrogantly walking along the city walls. Naturally, Brave Surge had long since spotted Gu Fei’s presence, but it was because he was like a comet that everyone could hardly avoid it if they could help it. Brave Surge had been on tenterhooks after that man and Sword Demon had crashed into the vital quest Carouse had chanced upon. In reality, even Brave Surge had found the existence of those two men to be rather annoying; the fact remained that they were just two players, it was somewhat too much effort on his end if he were to send his men to deal with them. But opting to not deal with the two men only made everyone panic whenever they saw them coming and going like that. Brave Surge heard the reports of Traversing Four Seas’ movement and he was slowly able to connect the dots between them and Gu Fei. He wondered just why Oathless Sword would make such a huge decision? Was he really intending on sending all one thousand men up against a single Thousand Miles Drunk?

But no matter how he evaluated the move, all they would achieve was send that person back to a spawn point and it would hardly serve to solve any problem, which was precisely one such reason why Brave Surge felt that the existence of the two men was very disgusting. Of course, he had no idea that Oathless Sword happened to have been severely constrained by the two, so he had no choice but to shed his passivity and take the initiative. He needed to eradicate the mission those two had otherwise he would be ill at ease.

“Guild Leader, I think they seem to be targeting Thousand Miles Drunk!” At this moment, Brave Surge’s spy had also read the signs and discussed this matter with him.

“Yes, I’ve come to the same conclusion as well. Something fishy is going on here,” Blue Surge did not believe Oathless Sword would waste his efforts on something so unfavorable. There must surely be some reason as to why he had gathered his entire guild just to deal with Thousand Miles Drunk.

It was not like Gu Fei was blind; he had already spotted Traversing Four Seas’ activity in the distant. Seeing some of the quicker job classes move completely paralleling his own, with some even faster than his own movement speed, Gu Fei felt that he understood what was happening as he quickly sent a message to Sword Demon, “Where are you? Our chance is here!”

“What happened?”

“Traversing Four Seas has made their move,” Gu Fei answered.

“What move?” Sword Demon asked.

“It looks like they are taking the initiative to look for me,” Gu Fei said.

“You call that a chance?” Sword Demon was feeling sorry for Oathless Sword. Gu Fei’s mentality was forever so exasperating.

“We would only have a chance if they made a move! Otherwise, it would really be difficult for us to deal with a thousand people. You know how little mana I have,” Gu Fei explained.

Sword Demon was speechless. This was the first time that Gu Fei had openly expressed the belief that if he had enough mana, even a thousand players would fall to him.

“I’m headed toward the west gate here. I think he’s about to come over here, so you should Stealth your way here as well. We can act the moment opportunity comes knocking,” Gu Fei said.

“What about Slyris and Yan Xiaozhu?” Sword Demon asked.

“Eh? What do they want to do? Has Slyris dried herself yet?” Gu Fei asked.

“She’s all dry already…” Sword Demon answered. Just what sort of lousy question was that!?

“Then they can do whatever they want!” Gu Fei said.

Thus, Sword Demon relayed Gu Fei’s greeting about if Slyris was dry yet as well as the fact that they could do whatever they pleased, which Yan Xiaozhu curiously asked, “What are the two of you doing?”

“We’re assassinating someone,” Sword Demon answered.

“Who?” Yan Xiaozhu persisted.

“A guild leader here in Yunduan City. The two of you probably don’t know much, yeah?” Sword Demon said.

“Among all the guild leaders here in Yunduan City, Oathless Sword and Brave Surge are two of the more famous ones. Is it any of them?” Slyris asked.

“It’s Oathless Sword,” Sword Demon nodded.

“Do you any help with him?” she proceeded to ask.

Sword Demon grimaced, “There are a thousand players in his guild, we’ll only be four if we included the both of you. Miles claims this to be an opportunity, but I really can’t see it.”

Slyris and Yan Xiaozhu could not give an answer either. No normal human would dare to think that a situation where a single person had to face a thousand people could be seen as an opportunity.

“Well, no matter the case, I’ll go over and take a look first,” Sword Demon said.

“We don’t have anything happening here either, so let’s go take a look as well!” Slyris and Yan Xiaozhu had really done as they pleased and joined Sword Demon.

While the party of three was moving over to the west gate, Gu Fei had not headed over to the west gate. Instead, he pulled out his sword and walked straight in the direction of Traversing Four Seas. Oathless Sword received this report and confirmed it with his own eyes, quickly commanding his troops to halt their advance. Traversing Four Seas had stopped in their tracks, skeptically sizing up the lone figure that was walking right over to them. All the various spies had each taken up a position, as they continued to observe everything that was happening.

“I’ll go greet him,” Youthful Reflection said.

“Go on then!” Oathless Sword did not dare to reveal himself, afraid that he would miraculously die once Gu Fei caught sight of him. After all, common sense did not apply to this person.

Youthful Reflection made his way through the crowd and walked out to the front. When he saw Gu Fei stepping closer with every step, he secretly gave the order over the guild channel, getting their Arrow Formation ready. If Gu Fei were to step into the range of the Arrow Formation, Youthful Reflection would immediately give the order to fire and kill him, and that would be the end of it. This might be what Youthful Reflection hoped, but he did not expect Gu Fei to stop right before he entered the firing range, waving his hand out to the players from Traversing Four Seas.

“What does that mean?” Youthful Reflection asked people on his left and right, nonplussed.

“It looks like he’s saying something? I see his lips moving,” someone beside him said.

“No sh*t, I can see that too,” Youthful Reflection said.

“You need to be louder!” Youthful Reflection shouted at Gu Fei, but he still could not hear what Gu Fei was saying. That was when Gale Force came forward and Youthful Reflection quickly asked Gale Force, “Look, tell me what he’s saying?”

“How can I see anything so far away?” Gale Force was someone who knew how to read lips, but at such distances, even he was struggling just locating Gu Fei’s mouth.

“I think he’s intentionally not raising his voice, so when we want to hear what he’s saying. He is trying to lure us over,” another guildmate mentioned.

“It could not be something so childish, right?” Youthful Reflection said.

Everybody shrugged to show they had no clue. Youthful Reflection could only shrug as well even as he reported back to Oathless Sword, “We’ve no idea what he’s up to.”

The eyes of those gathered near the north gate had already shifted over to this confrontation. Gu Fei was all alone, facing off against the one thousand-man strong army from Traversing Four Seas. Neither side stepped forward, as they continued to waste time there. Gu Fei was not in the least bit anxious despite being alone, while it was the one thousand players who were fraught with thoughts, speculating just what his intention was. Sword Demon, Slyris and Yan Xiaozhu had also arrived here, none of them reaching the west gate. They could see from afar that Gu Fei was attempting to do something with Traversing Four Seas, and even as they came running over, they messaged him, “What are you up to?”

“Waiting,” Gu Fei told them.

“What are you waiting for?”

“I’m just staying here, not making my move. I want to see what are they gonna do about it,” Gu Fei answered.

What could they do? Traversing Four Seas had no idea what they should be doing right now. They might have taken the initiative to go up against Thousand Miles Drunk, but now that he was standing right before them, if they were to stand before him, they would not just be dealing with Thousand Miles Drunk alone, but the trebuchets from up the walls as well. Were it not for their apprehension toward being subjected to the attacks, Traversing Four Seas would have long since stormed forward.

“Thousand Miles Drunk is really being too savage doing this!!!” Youthful Reflection gleaned a bit of understanding of what he was doing and was uncertain if he should laugh or cry.

“What’s the matter?” Oathless Sword asked.

“Isn’t he taunting us? ‘You guys want to come and kill me? Fine, I’ll stand right here. Give it your best shot!’ And what’s the end result of that? We can’t just go attack him in the current circumstances and if we leave, that’s as good as meaning that what we said before about taking care of Thousand Miles Drunk was all just nonsense. This guy is clearly forcing us in a situation where we’ve got a tiger by its tail!” Youthful Reflection moaned.

“Argh, how am I so unlucky!!” tears were streaking down Oathless Sword’s cheeks. The honor of catching Thousand Miles Drunk’s eye was the one thing that he did not want to compete with Brave Surge over, and he was more than happy to concede this to Brave Surge.

“We really can’t continue wasting time here. He’s just one, very thick-skinned person, who just so happened to be unafraid of anything. There are plenty of eyes, both from the guild and outsiders, observing us!” Youthful Reflection reminded me.

Oathless Sword no longer cared about the look that the other guilds were giving them now, and even his own guild members were starting to spread baseless rumors. Their target was just one man, yet their guild had not made the move to take him down after all this time. None of the normal members cared to try and show consideration for the difficulties about this matter, merely thinking that they were acting very cowardly and feeling as if their leaders were out of ideas.

“We can’t just let them see us as a laughingstock, we should try and test his reaction! Everyone, scatter and prepare to attack!!!” Oathless Sword gave the order as the entire guild was finally given a directive. The players saved their own opinions regarding the command, but they nevertheless executed it accordingly. Traversing Four Seas’ squads began to spread out, as they gave each other the necessary space they required to avoid the large rocks. Having assaulted the city several times, they were at least capable of applying some of the experience that they had in the attacks they’ve done before.

Being the top guild would mean it had many extraordinary experts with plenty of experience and awareness. Once the order was given, these players dispersed into their separate squads uniformly, and each of these squads comprised of job classes across the whole spectrum. There was even a squad that was solely made up of Archers, based on the unique Arrow Formation that Traversing Four Seas boasted.

Oathless Sword was looking forward to seeing Gu Fei’s reaction, but it turned out that his reaction was to simply not react at all.

Oathless Sword could feel his heart shatter: You should at least turn back and run when you see us on the attack like this, at least giving us a good excuse to say going any deeper would result in the system attacking us, so we were ill at ease to give chase. But now, you’ve opted to remain stationary like this.

“What do we do now? Do we attack or not?” Youthful Reflection asked.

Oathless Sword took in his surroundings. His comrades around him were already very annoyed, and they were presently looking as if they wished to settle the account at hand, not in the least bit concerned with their own life or death. If things were to drag on any further, they would truly look like a whole bunch of cowards, so he gritted his teeth, “ATTACK!!!”

The men from Traversing Four Seas surged forward, but this charge of theirs hardly looked rowdy. All of them knew who the target they were charging at was; would it not be too much of a joke to see a thousand men roaring out battlecries on a single player? Everyone looked on as they saw that the players from Traversing Four Seas all looked depressed, committing a muted charge that gave off a very dispirited atmosphere.

Oathless Sword had no choice. Against a single foe like this, he did not want to utter any words to boost their morale. However, Youthful Reflection was still able to come up with an idea in this crucial moment, announcing over the guild channel, “Do your best, comrades! Anyone who slays Thousand Miles Drunk will be rewarded with 200 gold coins!!!”

200 gold coins was no small sum, especially during such a delicate time in the game’s economy. Even though some people expressed their disdain for this notion, there were still some players out there who would be moved for the money reward, and Youthful Reflection’s words had more or less changed some of their mental outlooks, but these people were still a little embarrassed to cry out loudly.

The trebuchets had begun firing as huge rocks came crashing down from the sky. The players here all had a lot of experience dodging these, and they were able to calmly executing the counteractions. However, it was around this time when the neatly coordinated people began to space themselves out a little. This was what Gu Fei had originally been looking forward to, but what made him dejected was the fact that he could not find Oathless Sword anywhere. It was evident that Oathless Sword knew what was Gu Fei’s aim and would not reveal himself so openly.

“Here I come!!!” This was around the time when Gu Fei bellowed out of nowhere, suddenly raising his sword as he received the thousand men from Traversing Four Seas. He cast a Blink with the raise of his hand, materializing to the closest player coming his way and insta-killed him with two swift brushes of his blade. Gu Fei did not even get carried away with fighting after the kill, calmly observing the scene in front of him before he dove into a location with fewer players.

The players from other guilds who had been watching everything unfold were exuberant. Every one of them was just like Traversing Four Seas; no one could completely understand Gu Fei’s line of thinking, but all of them envied his display of heroism when they saw how he dared to throw down the gauntlet against a thousand players. Facing off against insurmountable odds while solo was actually a dream scenario that plenty of MMO gamers had.

In the beginning, Oathless Sword and Youthful Reflection had been afraid that Gu Fei would run off when their troops had rushed forward; there was no way that they could afford to continue playing around if their enemy had teased them with such a shameless act. But now that they saw that Gu Fei really had the guts to challenge Traversing Four Seas in a direct confrontation, their spirit abruptly rallied, with Oathless Sword becoming invigorated as he shouted in the guild channel, “That rascal had really dared to challenge all of us. Everyone, listen up! Whoever vanquishes that guy would be awarded with 500 gold coins!”

This exhortation appealed to both the emotions of the people and a tangible monetary reward, a huge motivation that the players from Traversing Four Seas no longer acted as frigid as before, their killing intent surging as they began to chase after Gu Fei.

“Squad one, take the left-wing and circle about over, Squad two will do the same on the right-wing. Squad three will cut off the retreat, while squad four maintain your attack. The rest of the squads, try and join in on the fight as soon as you can!” Youthful Reflection had begun taking command for this battle. Because the squads were positioned far apart from each other, and with how Gu Fei would go on the offensive and exchange blows with everyone after stepping onto the battlefield, there was still a good half of the troops from Traversing Four Seas that had not moved in on the attack yet. As such, they were now continuing to flank out to the left and right, expanding the formation as they delved deeper into the battlefield, braving the trebuchet shots while still ensuring they had the space to evade the incoming rocks.

“D*mm*t, don’t engage him solo; Are you trying to get yourself killed? Take on him four at once!” Some reckless player had charged up and got insta-killed.

“Four… Four isn’t working either? Attack with eight!” Four players that stepped up had all been insta-killed with a 720 degree Twin Incineration.

“Don’t let him retreat! F*ck. Keep up the attack, don’t give him the chance to stop and replenish his mana!!!” Once Gu Fei had run out of mana, he ducked behind a huge rock for cover, promptly vanishing from the line of sight.

“F*ck, is he controlling the trebuchets or something? How are they coordinating so perfectly with him?” Several guild members that went forward to harass him were all disrupted by the huge rocks that rained upon the field.

“Where is the target!? There are so many pairs of eyes out there, how did all of you miss where he went?” By the time people had made their way up behind that initial huge rock, all traces of Gu Fei had vanished.

“There’s really too many rocks out here, it’s such a mess right now. The system better refresh soon…” Gu Fei was fighting in the area with the players while the trebuchets continued to launch rocks out continuously. Each one of the rocks took up a patch of land when they thumped onto the ground, and the battlefield was slowly transformed into a maze of rocks.

“Send two to three squads over to this set of coordinates here!” a player had died in that set of coordinates and sent a message with his death.

“What? Did he disappear again? F*ck his ancestors,” Youthful Reflection was really on the verge of a breakdown.

“Where are squads five through ten, why haven’t they made their move yet!?”

“What? What do you mean they can’t make their move? Why can’t they make it?” Youthful Reflection was tethering on the edge. Why was it that everything he wanted to do could not be executed smoothly?

“We can’t advance any further, doing so would mean shrinking our formation!!” each of the squad leaders reported accordingly.

This was apparent when Youthful Reflection glanced over at the squads that they had sent on the attack. Gu Fei was just one person, so how much space would he take up alone? They had originally planned on surrounding and apprehending him thusly, but they had all failed to account for a huge problem with that plan: Under the threat of the trebuchets, their players had to maintain a certain distance between each other, which meant there was only a certain amount of area by which they could surround Gu Fei. Shrinking in the encirclement any further would mean that they would risk being put in a position where they might get to a point where they would be unable to avoid the rocks thrown by the trebuchets.

“Are our ranged players all dead or something? Where the heck are they?” Youthful Reflection bellowed immediately.

The ranged players reported in, with tears streaming down their cheeks, “You gotta tell us where he’s located first before anything else!!!”

“Forget where he is. All you Mages, get to the frontlines and choose an area each. Bombard that area with spells for me, carpet the area with flames!” Youthful Reflection shouted.

Thus, several people gave up their positions to the Mages, letting the Mages standing at the front to begin their bombardment. As a result, did Gu Fei even need to use his spells to take care of the Mages when he suddenly appeared out of nowhere? He simply came out kicking and punching, and even though these basic attacks of his would not kill the Mages, a single slap was all it took for Gu Fei to push people right under the falling rocks, and death was all that awaited them in the end.

“Protect them! D*mm*t, why aren’t any of you protecting them!?” Youthful Reflection yelled.

“Protect? We’ve got to maintain our distance between each other; how are we going to protect them?”

“Haven’t you heard of the word ‘anticipate’? Anticipate his attacks!!!!”

“I’ll anticipate your *ss. That guy always jumps back behind those rocks after taking down one or two people at one go, how do we know where he’s gonna appear from?”

“Just bombard whichever rock he takes cover behind. QUICKLY!!!”

“G*dd*mm*t, can’t you see that’s exactly what we are doing? What are you yelling so much for!?”

The players were apparently all in a really pathetic state after being thrown all around by Gu Fei’s actions. None of them were feeling that good that many of them just stubbornly rebutted every sentence that Youthful Reflection sent their way. Ever since Traversing Four Seas’ creation, they had never once experienced such a state of disharmony in any of their group battles thus far. Youthful Reflection could not hold on any longer either, his command simply could not contain Gu Fei, and it got to the point where he ended up getting so impatient that he was giving out orders that could not be achieved; how could these men not end up ladening him with their curses and displeasure?

——————————————————

The players that were spectating the entire fight were dumbfounded. They watched as more and more huge rocks accumulated on the field, with some even beginning to pile up together.

“If this were to continue, would they end up stacking up to make another city wall?”

“No, I think they can start building a fortress if they continue on like this.”

“I don’t think it would be so perfectly stacked up to form a fortress right? It’ll probably end up becoming a pyramid.”

“Oh, you’re right, a pyramid,” many players agreed with this conclusion.

—————————————————-

“How are things? Have you located Oathless Sword yet?” Gu Fei was currently sending a message to Sword Demon. The huge rocks building up around the area looked like a rock maze at this point, and not only did they make it hard for Traversing Four Seas to track his movement, he was also having a tougher time making out Traversing Four Seas’ movement as well. At this point, slaying any player that he chanced upon was all about happenstance. He was only killing players wherever he went if he saw them appear in his sight.

Meanwhile, random AoE spells pounding that Gu Fei received had damaged him several times, but the firepower was just not concentrated enough to insta-kill him. Gu Fei prioritized recovery, eating bread and food whenever he had the time, stubbornly expending resources against the whole of Traversing Four Seas.

Traversing Four Seas had been thrown into sheer chaos by his hand, and Sword Demon was slowly but surely approaching from the periphery, searching for the location of Oathless Sword.