Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Attacking once every 8 seconds meant that he would never run out of mana; this sounded like a truly satisfying circumstance to be in. However, there was something that was very unpleasant he had to deal with, and that would be the amount of attacks he would receive in those 8 seconds.

Calculating this theoretically speaking, with Carouse having a thousand players on their side, even if they each attack once every 8 seconds, that would still be a thousand attacks, and that was considering that they have such an impossibly slow tempo. Of course, after a rough outline, taking into account all the other factors like the actual movement of these players, the time it took for them to launch their attacks, the travel time for the spells unleashed and so on, it would be hard to determine the total number of attacks that Carouse could send at Gu Fei. Especially now that Carouse had been in a hurry to chase up to Thousand Miles Drunk, and ended up stretching out into a snaking line…

This was the first time that Gu Fei had not dashed right in to initiate the combat when encountering an enemy. Gu Fei stood still and waited. Now that he was able to regenerate 2% of his mana every second, he needed as much time as he could get. A slash every 8 seconds was only a mathematical problem, and the actual combat would not be anything as agreeable. Perhaps he would find himself in a situation where he had to slash thrice in 8 seconds, and there would be no need for any mana for the next 16 seconds. Such distribution issues were actually commonplace in online games, a similar issue like how DPS classes would have to control their damage output.

As Gu Fei saw his mana increase bit by bit, the enemy Archers had already begun to fire their arrows at him. With a quick glance, Gu Fei discovered that he could no longer wait any longer. Carouse’s formation was extremely extended at this point, and it just so happened that his current predicament meant that it was easy for him to defend, but difficult to attack. There was no way that Gu Fei would be able to survive even if he had a million mana once these men had properly gathered together, with a hundred Mages all in position to cast their AoE spells.

“Take this!” Gu Fei yelled, raising his sword as he went for a downward slash. Several Assassins happened to be Stealthing their way up to him, and Gu Fei was well aware of this. Swiftly sprinting right up to them, a flash of fire heralded the official start of this fight.

The six Assassins were sent back to the encampment with tears streaming down their cheeks. Folding Fan Invader was still the team leader for this pursuit, and he was currently charging in front of the rest of the guild. Fortunately, he was not one of the six men that had been eliminated from the get-go, though he did witness the scene as it happened. Folding Fan Invader quickly gave an order to the Thieves that were in his team, “Gu Fei’s Stealth detection has a high proc chance, so everyone should give up on being Stealthed.”

The equipment and skills that detect Stealth in the game depended on proc chance to work. If such methods had a 100% chance of detecting Stealth, what was the point of Thieves even having the ability to go into Stealth? This was also the competition between the proficiency of both skills as well; if players could increase their proficiency in detecting Stealth, it would of course only be fair that Thieves could be more proficient with Stealth. The point for players was to do whatever they could to increase their proc chance, which was why when Gu Fei was able to detect Stealth time and time again, there were still Thieves who were incorrigibly unrepentant and wanted to test their luck. Meanwhile, Folding Fan Invader had completely given up on succeeding with this, so he decided to simply ask everyone to stop sending themselves to their deaths with Stealth.

That’s one cast, At the same time, Folding Fan Invader quietly counted in his heart as he agilely slipped to the back of the crowd. As one of the Ten Great Adepts in the Thief job class, Folding Fan Invader was a man with aspiration and he had absolutely no desire of becoming cannon fodder. Folding Fan Invader felt someone of his stature should be the one who dealt the final blow to Thousand Miles Drunk!

The Archers stopped advancing once they had gotten into position. Obviously, none of them were thinking of running up and engaging in close combat with Gu Fei. When Gu Fei saw this, he was far from reassured. Once a hundred of these Archers gathered, he would surely meet his fate at their hands once they sent over a hundred Homing Projectiles toward him!

I cannot let them have free rein and gather their strength, Gu Fei thought to himself even as he ignored a wave of Assassins that was coming forth to envelop him and dove straight for the Archers. There was a fatal flaw when a team of Archers attacks: Positioning was far too crucial. If they were to randomly squeeze themselves in a cluster like this, none of them would be able to even stretch their arms out and arch their bows, nor could anyone behind even draw a bead at the target and fire. Gu Fei was already upon them by the time these Archers got into position and began searching for an angle for them to begin shooting.

No matter when, where or what sort of opponent they were up against, Archers that found themselves in a state of melee combat would most definitely make them turn tail and run. But the direction that Carouse had given for this battle today had made it such that none of these people even attempted to break off from Gu Fei. This was because their goal this time was to force Gu Fei to use his mana, so a row of Five Archers stood still and magnanimously accepted their fate.

That makes two, Folding Fan Invader silently counted.

“Four seconds,” Gu Fei was counting as well, but he was not counting down the number of uses, but the seconds of time itself. Gu Fei lowered the tip of his sword and quickly chanted a spell.

“Evasive maneuvers, it’s a Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno!” Someone immediately hollered from among the men of Carouse. Gu Fei was astonished, for he had indeed unleashed such a spell. He never would have guessed that there would be people from Carouse that were keeping such a close eye on his every move.

The players that were several meters in front of Gu Fei hurriedly scrambled to clear the area. Having failed to successfully pull off his sneak attack, Gu Fei’s heart ached at having wasted the mana for the spell. However, the enemy formation was now in further disarray, forcing the Archers to re-position themselves in response, so Gu Fei pulled back and helped Carouse make a further mess in their formation.

After the Assassins have given up on remaining Stealthed, they changed to utilizing their Fleetfoot, allowing them to achieve a movement speed that was much faster than what Gu Fei possessed. In the time he took to dash up and get mixed up among the Archers, several of them were hot on his tail. Thus, when Gu Fei pulled back, they stepped up and completely surrounded Gu Fei in every direction.

Gu Fei was unfazed by this, choosing to focus on a direction and went charging in headfirst. His swift moves meant he was able to deliver several slashes with casual ease. When the enemy saw that he was not using any mana with these attacks, they had no choice but to tighten the encirclement so as to force the man to unleash his ultimate move.

Gu Fei was not in the least bit courteous now that an opportunity presented itself, lashing out a whirl with his sword to execute another Twin Incineration. In the end, there was actually a single Assassin that had managed to hold onto his dear life and had not been insta-killed. However, the Priests had yet to arrive at this point in time, so there was nobody present that could help Heal him. This assassin quickly thought to flee, but Gu Fei’s reaction was much quicker. A lift of his sword and that sliver of HP was snatched away from the Assassin, who was ultimately unable to escape the fate of ending up back in the encampment.

That’s the third spell! Folding Fan Invader was still counting. When he saw the fourth wave of men run right up, Folding Fan Invader could already hear the bugle call in his heart. It’s almost my turn, he thought to himself.

Gu Fei was not in a rush to deal with this wave of men. He had been hard-pressed just handling the previous attacks, with each interval lasting somewhere just over ten seconds. Gu Fei saw that the enemy was still in a state of disorganization, taking this period when they had yet to strike to buy more time. Thus, Gu Fei was not in a hurry to insta-kill the Assassins when they came hurtling toward him, opting to patiently use his sword to fend them off as he continued to retreat, maintaining his distance from Carouse.

The moment Folding Fan Invader saw what Gu Fei was doing, an idea immediately popped into his head: could he be out of mana?

The information he had on hand explicitly mentioned how Gu Fei could only cast Twin incineration for a maximum of four times, and he had already used it thrice by now. However, he had been fighting with enemies in the copse previously, and he was running for his life right after that. He might have been unable to replenish his mana back to full in the interval in between, which was maybe why he was unable to cast his ultimate move right now!

This is a chance! Folding Fan Invader very excitedly realized. He raised his arm and called out as he activated his Stealth, “Brothers, the time for a showdown is upon us!”

When everyone heard this, they knew the time for them to strike was ripe, as each of them scrambled to be the first to deal the killing blow. The prestige of slaying Thousand Miles Drunk was great! The Archers were feeling rather depressed as they watched the Assassins swarm over to steal the glory. None of them cared to give the Archers any space for them to fire their arrows, so these Archers could only watch as the chance at glory slipped right away before them…

This was hardly satisfactory, but no one was going to be pathetic enough to the point they would tear into their fellow comrades just for this. Nevertheless, there were still a good number of Archers who had very bravely swapped out their bow for a dagger in hopes of competing for this chance.

Gu Fei was only focused on saving his mana and did not really put himself in the enemy’s shoes to consider what they were feeling. All he saw was that these players suddenly become frenzied without any rhyme or reason as they bounded recklessly toward him.

Are they thinking of using the hooligan fighting method? Gu Fei was shocked, making the mistake of believing that these men were attempting to endure his damage and physically suppress him. But speaking from common sense, there was no way that they could use such a method when facing an opponent who could insta-kill players because there was simply no way for these people to withstand the damage at all.

I can’t delay any longer… Gu Fei had managed to buy a few seconds of time, and recovered quite a bit of his mana as a result. At the moment, he had swung his sword out twice against this wave of Thieves surrounding him as he slipped out from the encirclement. The Thieves could also tell that the time for action had arrived, so they quickly gave chase. Gu Fei continued to run as he saw how these people suddenly coordinated perfectly as they end up forming group after group piling up behind him.

Gu Fei simply could not stand it now that he was given such a boon like this. After circling back around, he suddenly came to a stop, pointed his sword down and incanted a spell. Gu Fei was afraid that someone would be staring at his lips again, so he covered it up this time by getting his robe to billow wildly when he turned around, perfectly covering up his mouth that instant, which he reckoned nobody could see. After he finished the incantation, Gu Fei made it seem like he was just looking around and taking in his surroundings as he turned back around, his sword very naturally twirling in his hand. This time, the sword was pointed upward, and Gu Fei hid his mouth behind his collar, and once more secretly chanted a spell.

The people had all arrived by this time, and Gu Fei was completely surrounded on all sides. However, it was Gu Fei who had successfully set up a large kill zone this time, and his heart did not ache for the mana he used. Seeing everyone close in on him, he lifted his finger and Blinked.

Gu Fei rematerialized outside the encirclement, leaving everyone from Carouse stunned.

He still has mana? This was the same question that floated in everyone’s minds.

“We got tricked! Quick, get out of the way!” Sure enough, Folding Fan Invader was an expert with a good head on his shoulders. The moment he saw that everyone was grouped up together, yet Gu Fei had already flown right out of the confinements of their encirclement, he had immediately realized that it was a ruse. However, this realization had come too little too late; the Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno below the feet of the crowd had risen in all its glory, burning with such zeal that left the people screaming and yelling in the flames. The Descending Wheel of Flames that was cast a moment after also crashing down to the ground at this time to join in the conflagration.

A good majority of players had instantly disappeared under the combined damage from these two spells, while those who had managed to survive this massacre barely had much HP left after. Gu Fei immediately bolted right toward these sparse few targets and swung back around to finish them off, ignoring that bit of Burn damage that came from his own Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno in the process.

Folding Fan Invader happened to be one such player that was still left standing. He was an expert with top tier equipment. Because he was going up against Gu Fei, he had made sure to have equipped gear that granted as much fire resistance as he could, so his HP was not hanging by a thread presently. However, he had already come to a clear conclusion with regard to the current situation he was in. Gu Fei’s mana usage had already gone well beyond the four times limit that they had previously evaluated. Without a doubt, he must have either increased his maximum mana, or he must have gained some method that allowed him to regenerate mana. This was without a doubt the very definition of extremely terrible news to them.

In Folding Fan Invader’s eyes, he was an expert that reached the ranks of the Ten Great Adepts and could be considered to be an existence that was a grade above those around him. However, from Gu Fei’s perspective, the crowd around him was no more than rabble that could be easily killed off. Gu Fei did not know who Folding Fan Invader was, so he would of course not treat him any different, continuing to pick off the players left on the field with a cut of his blade like what he did with everyone.

The flames from the Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno had subsided, but the players who were barely hanging onto their lives were still critically lacking in HP. Having no Priests around was apparently a terrible fate, and these players could only scurry for cover as they ran for their lives. Just the physical damage from Gu Fei’s Moonlit Nightfalls was enough to reap these stragglers with barely any HP remaining.

Gu Fei wished it could just be like this forever; harvesting his way with each and every stroke of his sword as he watched his mana increase every second. Gu Fei felt that this was truly a blessed way to live.

Gu Fei’s hands were already working as fast as he could push himself to work, even going so far as to sacrifice a bit of HP to get a head start with the killing before the fire fully subsided. However, there were just too many targets, and they were all running helter-skelter. Gu Fei could only take care of the targets in just one direction, so quite a lot of these players ended up successfully making their escape. However, after he managed to clear out this wave of players, the area in Gu Fei’s immediate vicinity was empty, which meant it was perfect for players to get a shooting angle on him. When Folding Fan Invader saw this, he quickly hailed, “Quick, fire your arrows!”

The Archers who had been feeling sad about not being able to get a chance at glory before were having mixed feelings when they saw the comrades they were feeling jealous about encountering such an end. It would be bad timing to laugh at their plight, yet they were indeed experiencing quite the schadenfreude glee presently…

There were some who had put their bows away, so all of them scrambled to pull out their bows and fire when they heard the order. Gu Fei began to run about randomly, leading the arrows’ trajectory in such a way that he managed to evade all the arrows except the Homing Projectiles, with all of them ending up striking the players with little to no HP left. As a result, these players were all finished off by the hands of their comrades’ friendly fire.

Folding Fan Invader had also taken a Snipe in this fashion, but because of how well equipped he was, his HP dipped right down till it was left with the single-digit ‘1’. His face turned ashen in his shock, as he quickly called out, “Stop firing randomly or running about. We need to regroup.”

In Parallel World, where friendly fire was enabled, group battle tactics were really a huge problem, and this chaotic situation that they were currently was precisely what caused the tragedy where comrades ended up killing their own people.

Folding Fan Invader gave this order and saw Gu Fei move in a direction away from himself. Just as he was thinking he got lucky, he suddenly saw Gu Fei raised his hand over to where he was.

“What?” Folding Fan Invader was confused as to what was going on when a d*mn*d dagger struck him right on his forehead. The 1 HP that Folding Fan Invader had left, having failed to evade the attack, dropped to zero as he was brought away in a stream of white light.

Folding Fan Invader was in tears; he was a formidable Thief that was one of the Ten Great Adepts of his job class, yet he had actually been killed off by a throwing attack from a Mage. Furthermore, what Gu Fei had thrown was a trash item that he could not even tell where it came from! The dagger was even rusted!

Meanwhile, Gu Fei had only very casually flicked his hand out to vanquish Folding Fan Invader. He had intentionally led the arrows to kill the players, which was why Folding Fan Invader had also been struck by the arrows before. But when Gu Fei discovered that he managed to survive being shot, Gu Fei figured that this person should not have much HP left, so he casually threw a throwing dagger at him.

Given the power behind that throw and the quality of the dagger, this one attack should not be able to penetrate the defense that players currently possessed. Unfortunately, Folding Fan Invader happened to only have just that 1 HP left, so even a thrown brick would cause his death…

Gu Fei was busy running all around while he saved up all his mana. His actions were still guided by what he had previously thought of, and that was to prevent the enemy from gathering in strength at all costs. As such, he did not bother to continue chasing after all the stragglers with barely a sliver of HP as he went hurtling straight for the Archers.

This time, the Archers did not sacrifice their own lives like what they had done before to make Gu Fei spend his mana. Now that Gu Fei was able to cast spell after spell right before everyone’s eyes, they were all skeptical if this mana depletion method would be worthwhile. Thus, now that Gu Fei came around to target them once more, the Archers began to reposition themselves as they evacuated from the battlefield.

This was quite a troublesome development for Gu Fei; his movement speed was no match for these expert Archers from Carouse, and with how they were running in every other direction, there was no way for Gu Fei to gather them all up together and insta-kill them at once. Furthermore, even ignoring the Archers, the Assassins from Carouse were still undecided, jostling each other, nobody daring to step up and take on Gu Fei. Hence, Gu Fei took the initiative to go on the offensive. This whole group of Thieves that had been hesitating over what they should be doing finally decided to set aside their face and flee as well when they saw Gu Fei coming right for them!

“Hey, Guzzler. How coincidental to bump into you again…” While Beyond Thirty Miles had been trying to make a break for it, he happened to chance upon another encounter with Guzzler.

Guzzler was still running as coolly as he did before, this time briskly sprinting with his Fleetfoot. The moment he heard Beyond Thirty Miles’s voice, he turned around and flashed a calm smile, “It’s me.”

“How did this happen?” Beyond Thirty Miles still had the time to have a tactical discussion with Guzzler.

“Without a doubt, Thousand Miles Drunk must actually have gotten himself some means that allowed him to recuperate his mana. The tactics we were employing had really put ourselves in his crosshairs, while the lives that our comrades had sacrificed in this entire ordeal had been completely in vain.” Guzzler actually gave a very sound interpretation of all that happened.

“So what do you think we should do?” Beyond Thirty Miles asked.

“What we should do? Do you not see us running here?” Guzzler wondered.

“Forget it. I shall go out today living up to my name; I’ll run over thirty miles with that man. Keep me informed if anything changes,” Beyond Thirty Miles no longer cared about anyone else any longer as he decided he would run until the very end.

Gu Fei was feeling very discouraged at this time because there was actually nobody out there that wanted to fight with him. The men from Carouse were like chicklings running rampant without a mother hen protecting them, fleeing far and wide to escape from the clutches of the eagle giving chase. The Archers were more troublesome since they still persisted with their attacks from afar while keeping their distance. The moment Gu Fei caught up, they would be off running again, and Gu Fei understood that he was being kited. As for the Thieves, all of them had run off and were watching everything from a safe distance.

The two job classes with high movement speed were the opponents that Gu Fei was currently facing. There was a clear gaping distance between these two job classes and the majority of the guild. Gu Fei could now see the huge amount of reinforcements making their way over, but just how should he settle the Archers that were presently everywhere around him?

Thunderbolt!

Since Gu Fei could not find the opportunity to get into close combat, he had no other choice but to rely on this spell to do the work for him. The damage from his Thunderbolt was nowhere comparable to his Twin Incineration, but the mana consumption cost was lower, and more importantly, not even players with quick reactions could escape from the spell when it arced down from the heavens. As such, Gu Fei raised his Moonlit Nightfalls and began running all over the place electrocuting players. Those who did not die with a single strike would receive a second or even a third… These men from Carouse were all crying even as they fled. They had only just remembered that Gu Fei was actually a Mage and not some melee job class. Most maintained a ten or so meter gap from Gu Fei, and that was well within his cast range. Thus, with a bolt to the left, and another to the right, even the players out in the distance were lit up by the lightning, convulsing Thieves and Archers alike as they kept running.

Brave Surge had already heard the report of what was happening while he was still a good distance behind. There was about a total of 300 Archers and Thieves in Carouse, and while not everything was fully accounted for at the moment, they had already lost about 200 or so players unceasingly since the start of the chase from among the copse of trees until now. Brave Surge had thought that he could sacrifice 40 to 50 men to deplete Gu Fei’s mana, so the remaining 250 players should be more than enough to eliminate Gu Fei afterward. In the end, he discovered that they had become the 250 that ended up being toyed around with till they were left in a tizzy.

“Everyone withdraw!” Brave Surge gritted his teeth and gave this order. He could already see the endless bolts of lightning that were being cast up ahead with his naked eyes. He could see a guildmate convulse with each and every strike, while Gu Fei kept running around electrocuting people from Carouse, happily enjoying himself immensely.