Chapter 162 - Flawless?
Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
The members of Carouse ran helter-skelter as they attempted to evade the spell. Unfortunately, some of them failed to escape Blazing Fire of a Thousand Infernoâs wide AOE in time despite quickly leaving their stationary positions.
Nonetheless, Gu Feiâs slow casting time still gave most of Carouseâs players enough time to make their escape. Glancing at Amethyst Rebirthâs score, he saw that it had increased by another 6 kill points. What was originally a score of 29 against 49 had now become 41 against 49. Another nine kills would allow Amethyst Rebirth to turn the tables on Carouse.
No one could stop this reversal, as Gu Fei immediately followed up his chanting of Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno with the incantation for Descending Wheel of Flames. The flame wheel in the sky began to form once the raging inferno sprouted. Some of the players underneath the flame wheel ran away, yet a few unfortunate souls rushed over to the flame wheelâs AOE to get away from the raging inferno. These players who had failed to see the flame wheel descending from the sky could not dodge it in time, gaining Gu Fei 11 kill points, which were more than the last spellâs.
The tide had finally turned with a score of 52 against 49. Mere moments had passed since Svelte Dancer lured away that first wave of Archersâ attacks until now.
âI learned this from you,â Gu Fei smilingly said to Brave Surge, who was audibly grinding his teeth in frustration at the turn of events. The two spells Gu Fei had just casted truly resembled a bit of Carouseâs spell bombardment. When Young Master Han introduced the guild leader of Carouse to Gu Fei, Brave Surge left a strong impression of his spell-casting with his blue magic staff to Gu Fei.
Brave Surge gritted his teeth harder. Casting two AOE spells might seem easy, but besides timing the chanting, one must calculate the targetâs movement speed and predict his or her intended direction as well. Doing all these necessary steps prior to execution ensured that the second spell would not miss. As for Gu Fei, he did not need to think too much about these when casting his spells as he currently had plenty of targets to choose from.
âArctic Whirlwind! Release!â Brave Surge raised his magic staff and a whirlwind came into existence, heading toward Gu Fei while spinning.
âYou still wanna fight with me?!â Gu Fei smiled, saying, âYouâre better off chasing after Svelte Dancer!â
Brave Surge continued to grind his teeth in frustration. Some of his men who had been chasing after Svelte Dancer just sent him this message: âShe was very fast!â so Brave Surge was very aware that there was no way to chase after her.
Brave Surge knew that they would most likely lose this match. Feeling heartbroken, he now just wanted to take revenge on Gu Fei.
âTwin Incineration! Incinerate!â Gu Fei did not choose to evade Brave Surgeâs Arctic Whirlwind; instead, he met it head on by sweeping his sword with both hands as he finished chanting a spell toward Arctic Whirlwind.
The twin dragons entwining around Moonlit Nightfalls blazed fiercely as it slashed Arctic Whirlwind in half, dissipating it in an instant. Gu Fei brought his hands to his sides and said to Brave Surge, âAlright. Stop messing around.â
Brave Surge felt extremely shocked by what he had just witnessed. It was not actually that surprising for Arctic Whirlwind to be cleaved away by a heavy physical attack, as quite a lot of strong Warriors could do that. But while Arctic Whirlwindâs Spell Damage would be reduced once it got dissipated, the spellâs additional freezing effect that reduced speed would still come into play once it touched the enemy. And yet, Gu Feiâs movement seemed completely normal, as if the spellâs freezing effect did not get triggered.
Only one explanation could justify this: The burning effect of Gu Feiâs Twin Incineration was deemed stronger by Verdict to the point of completely suppressing Arctic Whirlwindâs freezing effect. For him to have such a high level of proficiency toward Twin Incineration, just what sort of Mage was he building?
Brave Surge began to take note of Gu Feiâs sword in hand and tried to appraise it, only getting rows of question marks in the end.
Gu Fei walked about casually as Carouseâs six hundred members kept him trap within. Raising a hand to his brow, he swept his gaze around him and sighed deeply, âOh, dear! I canât even see where Svelte Dancer has run off to!â
Gu Fei said that while fishing out an apple from his dimensional pocket to bite on it. Unexpectedly, he heard a whooshing sound that was quickly followed by a satisfying thwack. An arrow had struck the apple in his hand, splattering its flesh and juice all over his face.
Expressionlessly turning his head over and seeing an Archer with a raised bow, his face showed a good deal of shock. âYou saw through me!â Gu Fei acknowledged, asking, âBut donât tell me that you were only aiming for that apple?â
The person felt quite embarrassed.
âAlright, I admit it. Iâm out of mana,â Gu Fei raised his hands, adding, âKill me if you wish!â Not one player was around him at this point in time.
Brave Surge raised his hand and several Archers and Mages came out.
âHey, donât be like this! Send me two melee job classes to play with!â Gu Fei dejectedly requested.
Brave Surge ignored his request as he issued an order. The Archers shot out arrows on Homing Projectile while the Mages casted AOE spells to where Gu Fei was.
âFireball! Shoot!â Gu Fei defiantly countered their attacks by using his last bit of mana to cast the most basic spell in his arsenal.
The opponentsâ attacks all struck the part where Gu Fei was, yet he did not try to dodge any of them, as there would be no use in doing so. Finally, Gu Fei was reduced into a stream of white light that soon faded away.
The Fireball unsteadily floated toward the crowd, but given how experienced all these players were, no one tried to dodge it as they knew that Fireball no longer had any Spell Damage on it and a simple slap from one of them would extinguish it.
âEvery second counts! Go and find Svelte Dancer fast,â Brave Surge ordered and proceeded to look all around him. The scenery before him blurred as he suddenly realized the vastness of this PvP arena, causing his heart palpitate erratically as the task at hand overwhelmed him.
Gu Feiâs vision darkened for a bit before returning to normal. He then found himself by the teleportation array outside the Main Hall of Guilds. The Amethyst Rebirthâs ladies were around him. The sight of Gu Fei being crowded by a bevy of babes immediately attracted the envy of the other male players nearby: âLook at that guy! To be teleported right in the middle of so many ladies, how very lucky of him!â
âWhat happened? Howâs everything?â The ladies each asked Gu Fei. Players that were transported outside of the PvP arena would be unable to hear the system announcements for their respective ongoing matches, so none of the ladies knew of the current score.
âWeâve made a comeback in terms of kill points,â Gu Fei answered.
All the ladies cheered.
âGood luck, Xiaowu!â The guild channel was filled with words of encouragement and celebration.
Gu Fei smiled at the sight of the ladiesâ rejoicing and quietly moved to leave.
âWhere are you going?â Quite a few of them had noticed Gu Fei leaving and asked this question.
âIâve got something on, so Iâll take my leave first and see you all tomorrow!â Gu Fei replied and squeezed his way through the crowd, running straight toward Rayâs Bar.
âWhereâs Young Master?â Gu Fei quietly asked Ray upon entering the bar.
Ray pointed to Room 2.
Gu Fei giddily walked toward the said room and lifted the curtain before freezing on the spot. Young Master Han was indeed inside the room, and so was Cowardâs Savior. The two were enthusiastically exchanging drinks, and Cowardâs Savior was even insistently pushing a chunk of grilled meat toward Young Master Han. âThis is the best one! Grilling this chunk alone has increased my proficiency by three points. Have a taste!â
Both men turned to look at Gu Fei when he entered the room. Cowardâs Savior hurriedly placed the grilled meat down as he got up to greet Gu Fei. Young Master Han stared at him with a placid smile on his face.
âSigh...â Gu Fei forced a smile on his face and said, âYou guys are... getting along quite well!â
âQuite well indeed. What else do you expect?â Young Master Han laughed coldly as he raised his glass to toast with Cowardâs Savior.
Cowardâs Savior drained his glass in one gulp and said to Gu Fei while patting the seat next to him, âSit down, Drunk bro! I am still waiting for the man that youâre talking about. Itâs a good thing that you arrived first; Iâll put on a good show for you in just a minute.â Gu Fei had resolutely refused Cowardâs Savior calling him Master, but the latter had insisted on having a respectable title for him, so Gu Fei finally settled on having Cowardâs Savior address him in the same way that Fireball was doing. Gu Fei learned that Cowardâs Savior was younger than him, so this way of addressing him was not inappropriate.
âAlright! Alright!â Gu Fei stopped Cowardâs Savior from talking further, saying, âGo ahead and resume what you were doing a while ago. No need for your help here anymore.â
âAh?â
âItâs fine. Just go and be busy with your things!â Gu Fei patted him on his shoulder.
âOh!â Cowardâs Savior bade farewell to Young Master Han and prepared to leave. Before leaving, he reminded Gu Fei, âDonât call me Coward. Call me Cowardâs Savior. Kung fu produces no cowards!â
âAlright. I got it Coward,â Gu Fei completely ignored his request.
Cowardâs Savior nodded his head in satisfaction and left the room, not realizing that Gu Fei had still called him as âCowardâ.
âHe he he he...â Gu Fei gazed at Young Master Han with a stupid grin plastered on his face.
ââA man that looks like a womanâ? âBeat him up goodâ, eh?â Young Master Han said.
âWhat? No... That is all a misunderstanding!â Gu Fei vehemently denied.
âIs that so? Just which part was it that I have misunderstood?â Young Master Han clicked his tongue as he asked sarcastically. Evidently, Young Master Han had learned of Gu Feiâs order and had somehow duped Cowardâs Savior into thinking that he was not the one that Gu Fei was talking about. Since the matters had gotten to this point, Gu Fei could only shamelessly press on, slapping the table with no regard, âDonât be so arrogant! Do you think no oneâs gonna beat you up just because that guy left? Iâm still sitting right here! Iâll just beat you up myself if I have to!â
âDid you get by that match fine?â
âIt was alright.â
This was how intelligent men acted when trying to change a subject: not dragging things out and going straight to a point.
âYour so-called flawless strategy doesnât seem to be much, after all!â Gu Fei goaded.
âYou turned the tables on us?â Young Master Han asked.
Gu Fei nodded his head.
âOh. How did you do it?â Young Master Han pressed on.
Gu Fei explained the process.
âUsing Seismic Toss twice to get across the spell bombardment and youâre not dead? You?â Young Master Han found this entire account incredulous.
âI calculated it,â Gu Fei replied, explaining, âThe two ladies removed all their equipment that boosts their damage, so their Seismic Toss could only half my HP. Then, I borrowed an item with magic resistance from Svelte Dancer, pushing my fire resistance all the way up to 73% and allowing me to make it through the spell bombardment with enough HP.â
âThat woman is perverse!â Young Master Han mumbled.
âHe he...â Gu Fei merely laughed.
âSuch a violent method is all you can think of?â Young Master Han asked.
âWhatâs your expert method, then?â Gu Fei countered.
âDoesnât she have a Teleportation Scroll? Wouldnât going in using Stealth and marking the coordinates work just as well?â Young Master Han sarcastically inquired.
âUhm....â
âPlus, they were gathered up just waiting for you lot to try and do a reversal on them. Why did you act so soon? Wouldnât it be better for you lot to do this at the last minute? Now, if they manage to find and take care of Svelte Dancer, wonât all your efforts go down the drain?â Young Master Han looked at the time as he continued, âThere are still thirty minutes left before the match is over.â
âUhm...â Gu Fei could only hum at this.
âTsk, tsk, tsk!â Young Master Han repeatedly clucked his tongue loudly while shaking his head.
âDidnât you say that your stratagem is flawless?!â Gu Fei countered.
âIâve already said earlier that I placed importance into the mercenary group.â
âWhat has this got to do with our mercenary group?â
âIf Amethyst Rebirth manages to win here, it will subsequently advance the battle strategy of our mercenary group by a huge step,â Young Master Han answered.