Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

This fight highlighted War Without Wounds’ wise decision to dedicate a hefty portion of his profit from the previous ‘meet and greet’ into purchasing top-grade equipment. Warriors did not have the ability to launch sneak attacks like Thieves, nor did they have the specialty of performing combo attacks like Fighters. They would usually find themselves clashing with opponents head on, pitting their HP with others’, and exchanging blows upfront, so it was nearly impossible for them to avoid receiving damage. Receiving eight hundred injuries in exchange for the lives of a thousand enemies¹ was the most apt depiction of a Warrior’s PvP, especially when it was a fight between Warriors.

Counterattacking the enemy’s every blow was a good move for a Warrior in a one-versus-one PvP. Meanwhile, the only way for a Warrior to last longer in a one-versus-many fight was to possess outstanding defense, as it would allow the Warrior to withstand the enemies’ attacks as he or she took down as many of them while allowing a comrade Priest to aid him or her in time.

To be able to hold his own against more than five enemies without requiring urgent assistance... This was what War Without Wounds had been thinking while making his equipment purchases. His weapons and the enemies’ fiercely clashed and separated beneath the oak tree.

Brave Surge was not watching this chilling fight as he was busy organizing the Mages and Archers in his group to begin assaulting the enemies atop the trees. Even the few Priests that were idly standing on the sidelines were asked to throw Holy Ball into the mix. The damage dealt by a Priest’s Holy Ball might be minute, but its glow would be more helpful in illuminating the shaded areas between branches and leaves than a Mage’s Fireball.

The five men of Young Master’s Elite hid motionlessly among the branches and leaves of the trees for fear of being shot senselessly by the enemies. In fact, Royal God Call remained still despite the pain he was feeling after getting struck by an arrow on his butt and could only hatefully remember the culprit for his suffering.

Brave Surge and his men were not just shooting blindly. The spell Gu Fei had previously cast gave Brave Surge an idea of where the others could possibly be hiding; Young Master Han’s Heal also ended up pointing out his team’s hiding place. After discussing things with two Priests and pointing to a certain direction, Brave Surge commanded everyone to target the area he had just indicated.

Gu Fei knew that Young Master Han could no longer hide himself from the enemies’ newly unleashed wave of attacks. Although this first wave of attack did not land too near his hiding spot, given Brave Surge’s meticulousness and dedication at locating them, it was only a matter of time before Young Master Han would be struck down.

Gu Fei was hiding not too far from Young Master Han’s location, so the probability of him being in their line of bombardment was high. However, unlike Young Master Han, Gu Fei had the Blink skill! Seeing that the enemies’ attacks were about to arrive and that his Blink skill’s cool-down time had ended, Gu Fei furtively teleported into a relatively safe place. He turned his head over and saw that a wave of attacks was quickly traveling to where Young Master Han was.

Young Master Han lacked any skill that would let him furtively move to another location. Climbing further up the tree would only reveal his exact position to the enemies, as well. Without any viable method to save his life, Young Master Han could only wait for his death.

Despite his helpless situation, Young Master Han remained calm and collected. He even unhurriedly took out a small bottle of liquor from his dimensional pocket and leisurely drank its content. Just as the attacks were about to hit him, he nonchalantly threw that bottle toward War Without Wounds and the enemy Warriors that were wildly exchanging blows without anyone noticing. That bottle struck an enemy Warrior’s shoulder and loudly shattered into pieces.

“AHHH! THAT GUY’S BACK!” The bunch of Warriors battling with War Without Wounds scattered about as if their butts were on fire. After a bit, the two sides looked at one another with stunned eyes.

Their group leader Brave Surge felt quite embarrassed by his men’s cowardice and chided them, “Didn’t I tell you all to not panic and to calmly analyze the situation when something happens? Don’t get so flustered if you don’t even know what the origin of the sound was!”

Actually, these men should not be blamed for reacting like this, as they were merely guarding themselves against Gu Fei’s attacks to the point that they became overly sensitive to even the slightest changes in their surroundings after they saw his indomitable fighting prowess.

Brave Surge had been keeping his head up this whole time, so he had identified that that thrown object was an empty liquor bottle in the first instance. He commanded his men’s attacks to direct their attacks at where the bottle had come from. At this same moment, they saw Young Master Han suddenly part the branches, peek his head out, and laugh at them before jumping down toward the crowd. “Follow up with a spell” was the message that Gu Fei received from him.

However, Brave Surge saw through this particular tactic and he immediately ordered his men who were about to surround Young Master Han to stop, “Don’t approach him. Archers and Mages, prepare to attack when he lands!”

Young Master Han landed on the ground with a thud, eliciting a wince from him. This was an eight-meter jump, so he received some damage from the fall. When the Archers and Mages saw Young Master Han land, they immediately launched their attacks on him. Young Master Han had anticipated their attacks from the treetop and he had chosen to land at this particular spot due to this.

Without pausing to think, Young Master Han rolled to the side and hid himself behind a nearby large tree. This position was a dead angle for Brave Surge and the other ranged job classes. Any skill that required direct view of the target was made useless in the face of a proper cover. Only skills like Homing Projectile and Fireball were able to track their targets once they took cover. Sadly, those were useless against Young Master Han as well, as his job class was a Priest, and he was someone who had managed to attain the legendary Golden Ratio at that. Therefore, it was a simple task for him to grasp the timing between their attacks and survive the damage dealt by them through his Heal.

“Quickly move!” Brave Surge signaled everyone to change their positions to spots that would allow them to hit the target.

He intended for them to shift angle and have Young Master Han who was hiding behind the tree enter their line of sight, yet even after changing positions, his men’s view was still blocked by something else. Truly, the spot Young Master Han had chosen was exceptional.

Nothing was perfect in this world, though, so an Archer eventually found a good position where he could clearly see Young Master Han’s figure that was leaning against the tree. As he excitedly nocked his bow, he felt a breeze by his waist. Turning his head to look, he was greeted by Sword Demon’s permanent scowl before being sent out of the PvP arena.

“There’s another one over here!” Someone discovered Sword Demon’s presence and hurriedly unleashed an attack over to him. But with practiced deftness, Sword Demon delved deep into the forest and immediately found a cluster of trees to obstruct the Archers and Mages’ clear view of him.

“124, 253... 120, 251... 117, 146...” Sword Demon’s private message constantly flashed with coordinates from Young Master Han. With Young Master Han directing him superbly, Sword Demon easily weaved through the forest, looped about, and appeared behind the backs of three different Archers or Mages, and assassinated them. Overall, he had killed four players including that Archer from before.

Fear ran up Brave Surge’s spine and he hurriedly ordered his men back to prevent them from spreading too far out.

This convoluted command was another decision that paid attention to one matter while losing sight of another. Sword Demon’s ghost-like movement derailed Brave Surge’s train of thought. Gathering his men to one spot would just result to them facing a more frightening foe.

As the Archers and Mages gathered around Brave Surge, the ground beneath their feet began to heat up. “Oh, no!” Those with fast reaction speed tried to flee from the spell’s AOE as tears streamed down their faces, but it was too late. The Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno spell rose from the ground and its flames grew in intensity with each passing second. This group of low HP players simply had no way of surviving Gu Fei’s fiery assault. Some Mages with high magic defense managed to cling on to their dear lives, but before they could celebrate, Descending Wheel of Flames had finished forming in the sky and descended on their heads. The Mages and Archers of Water Flower mercenary group were smashed into smithereens after being sandwiched between Gu Fei’s two spells.

Everything descended into chaos and Brave Surge lost control of his men. Young Master Han even managed to find time to peek his head from behind the tree and bestow Heal on War Without Wounds to recover some of his HP.

War Without Wounds, who was steadfastly pitting his HP with the other enemy Warriors, suddenly perked up. This was not due to Young Master Han’s Heal but due to his Cyclone’s cool-down time finally ending. While Cyclone had incredibly high damage output, the skill’s cool-down time was appropriately lengthy.

Young Master Han’s Heal boosted War Without Wounds’ confidence to a whole new level. Ignoring the attacks of the five men, War Without Wounds resolutely took two steps forward and unleashed Cyclone with his two claymores whirling out.

War Without Wounds had high defense and offense, so the five Warriors felt great remorse well within them as they faced his vicious attacks. They had originally thought that the five of them would be able to easily finish off War Without Wounds, yet they had never imagined that everything would drag out until this moment. Had they known that this would happen, the five of them would not have come forward together. Just two or three of them using Cyclone would have cleanly sliced War Without Wounds off the face of the map long ago.

They could only blame the fact that Cyclone’s cool-down time was simply too long, which caused them just like most Warriors to prefer saving it for the critical moments. Their frugal mentality had actually caused them to be at a disadvantageous position right now as it had given War Without Wounds the chance to launch his counterattack.

With how long War Without Wounds had been taking their blows, the amount of Rage points he had accumulated was plentiful. As such, the dual-wielded Cyclone shredded the five Warriors until they turned into beams of white light.

Royal God Call did not idle while he was atop the tree. With Brother Assist’s Blessing of Strength, he picked targets and fired off arrows as if his life depended on it.

The people under the trees had already fallen into disarray; they feared Sword Demon who came and went like an incorporeal apparition, and they were even more fearful of the devastating spells Gu Fei could release. As for Royal God Call, hardly anyone took note of his shot arrows.

“Don’t panic!” Brave Surge hollered while anxiously waving his magic staff about. Water Flower mercenary group lost twenty-five men in the ensuing panic, and they were now down to only thirty men. What was worse was the fact that almost half of these remaining thirty men were Priests that pretty much possessed no combat power.

Gu Fei’s burst of spells had since calmed down. Sword Demon had hidden himself in a corner of the forest after his sneak attacks. War Without Wounds had finished off the five Warriors, and the enemy Priests had chosen to not clash with him despite holding numerical superiority. As the forest descended into silence once more, Royal God Call finally located the Archer that that had shot him on the butt previously. “Eat this, you little sh*t!” Royal God Call gritted his teeth and fired off an arrow on Snipe that he had been saving for this.

The arrow screeched through the air and Water Flower lost another player. Only twenty-nine players were left on Water Flower mercenary group’s side now.