Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 196 - You are near, that is why.

Gu Fei’s maximum damage output could only be fully unleashed when he was in close combat, as the additional fire attack as well as the Fatal Blow trait would only be activated when his weapon made contact with the enemy, and casting Descending Wheel of Flames and similar AOE spells would not generate these effects at all.

At this moment, Gu Fei had fortunately procced all these traits. With the Physical and Spell Damage of Moonlit Nightfalls, Twin Incineration’s damage, 10% Fatal Blow, and the additional fire attack... Gu Fei managed to take down the enemy Warrior with his one sword slash.

This feat meant more than just that, however. The Warrior had yet to undergo his Job Class Advancement, but given his stat point allocation, he already possessed a large HP pool. Moreover, he had equipped himself with high magic defense gear all over after learning of Gu Fei’s monstrously high Magic Attack Power. Who knew that that would still not be enough to survive Gu Fei’s one sword slash, though?

Silver Moon and his fellow mercenaries were of course aware of their companion’s high HP and how he had high resistant to magic attacks, so they were horrified that Gu Fei could finish him off with just one strike. Through Appraisal, they managed to identify Gu Fei’s various accessories that granted him higher chances of dealing additional fire attack, but they failed to get any information about his sword and robe.

Silver Moon, who owned King’s Blade, naturally knew what it meant when an item could not be perused through the current standard of Appraisal: Gu Fei’s two pieces of equipment were at the forefront in terms of grade and tier, and the others could not appraise it since their levels were considered lower than those equipment.

Just what is so special about his sword and robe? This thought filtered through the minds of everyone in Silver Moon’s group as they got even more curious about Gu Fei’s two unidentified items.

Actually, Brother Assist’s desire to uncover the secret behind Silver Moon’s sword was equal to Silver Moon’s desire to find out about Gu Fei’s equipment. In fact, his feeling might even be stronger than Brother Assist’s, as their side was at a disadvantage right now due to their lack of understanding of Gu Fei’s equipment. Losing the current match without finding out the real deal behind those two pieces of equipment would be akin to dying senselessly without accomplishing anything.

Silver Moon was within arm’s reach of Gu Fei and the latter only had to lift his hand to cut the former, but recalling Brother Assist’s intention to appraise Silver Moon, Gu Fei temporarily spared his life and extended his sword toward another Warrior, instead.

Silver Moon had a total of three Guardians, three Knights (including himself), three Warriors, and one Priest in the beginning, but the three from Young Master’s Elite had already gotten rid of one Guardian, two Knights, and two Warriors. Gu Fei was currently assaulting the last Warrior of their bunch, who happened to be the one with the highest damage output in Silver Moon’s team.

While the two Guardians had Charge, Cyclone, and other skills of the Warrior job class, their weapon of choice was a shield, so their damage output was still lower than the sole remaining Warrior, since shields boosted their defensive capabilities more than their offensive capabilities.

“Not good! Everyone, protect our Warrior!” Counting the remaining mercenaries he had in his team, Silver Moon realized the importance of this last Warrior and quickly gave out this order when he saw Gu Fei make his way toward the man.

Gu Fei had already struck the target with his sword, but Silver Moon’s timely warning had allowed the Priest to quickly bestow Heal on the Warrior. Gu Fei’s Twin Incineration was still on cool-down, so his sword’s basic attack was easily countered by that Heal, making it seem as if Gu Fei had not attacked the Warrior in the first place.

Silver Moon immediately rushed over and wedged his sword between the two in an attempt to protect the Warrior from Gu Fei, while the two Guardians also moved close to the Warrior and raised their shields up on his left and right. Somehow, Silver Moon’s current formation had ended up revolving around their last remaining Warrior.

Just as Silver Moon was feeling gratified at his quick-wittedness, he saw Gu Fei approach the Priest in a few quick strides.

“Twin Incineration! Incinerate!” Gu Fei’s sword came cleaving down.

Most Priests would be flustered when their enemies drew near them, but this Priest actually remained calm. With Gu Fei’s fast speed, the Priest knew that fleeing was not an option, so he settled for bestowing Heal on himself when Gu Fei’s sword came slashing down.

Priests had an edge in Endurance, so they could withstand Gu Fei’s attack as long as they focused their points to that stat at level 40. This Priest before Gu Fei had done exactly that and allocated most of his points to Endurance. He was a rather unfortunate fellow, though, as Gu Fei was not the only one that was dealing with him.

A yellowish light infused Gu Fei’s body earlier when he casted Twin Incineration. It was the Blessing of Intelligence by the Knight Brother Assist, which increased the former’s Spell Damage to a whole new level. At the same time, Sword Demon had appeared from behind the Priest and executed Backstab with his dagger, his body pulsing red from Brother Assist’s Blessing of Strength.

Despite bestowing Heal on himself beforehand, the Priest could only watch his HP drop to nothing when both attacks landed on him from the front and the back.

“Is the Priest your target all along? Were you merely pretending to strike at the Warrior to fool us into isolating our Priest?” Silver Moon’s extremities went cold upon witnessing the death of his Priest. He looked at the two Guardians protecting the Warrior and his heart seethed with hate-filled regret.

Gu Fei looked blankly at him before smiling, “It’s nothing that fancy.”

“Then...” Silver Moon was nonplussed.

“I targeted your last Warrior earlier because he was the closest to me, that’s all,” Gu Fei pointed to the Warrior that Silver Moon and the rest were heavily guarding and said, “I would attack anyone who was in his position just then.”

Silver Moon was coughing up blood inside him. He had put too much emphasis on Gu Fei’s Spell Damage, causing him to become very nervous. Making mistakes when one was anxious was easy, and this blunder of his had caused the death of their Priest. Without the Priest, the HP of Silver Moon’s members would only dwindle without the possibility of recovery. This meant that their defeat was inevitable.

Young Master Han and the rest, who were looking from afar, also saw the overwhelming advantage that their force had gained in their foray and realized the futility of employing the Grand Kiting strategy, as facing the remaining four enemies head on and killing them was no longer a problem. As such, the others promptly made their way over, while Gu Fei retreated to a safe distance. The reason was of course Gu Fei’s need to eat fruit again.

“Man, your mana... He he he!” Several of his fellow mercenaries could only chuckle teasingly.

Gu Fei ignored their teasing and merely indicated to Brother Assist the very exposed Silver Moon, “Quickly appraise him!”

“I’ve already appraised him. I really can’t get anything out of it!” Brother Assist shook his head and sighed.

“Isn’t it just a matter of probability when it comes to appraising something successfully?” Gu Fei asked.

“Maybe...” The officials did not clearly provide information on this matter, so nobody could tell for sure.

“Let’s kill the rest and leave Silver Moon alive, so that you can appraise him for a hundred times. Maybe, you will find something out by doing that,” Gu Fei suggested.

“Is this how you plan to torture him?” Everyone sharply inhaled.

“Uhm... Isn’t this something you need?” Gu Fei questioningly gazed at Brother Assist.

Brother Assist just wiped the non-existent sweat off his forehead.

“Let’s talk about this after we kill the rest,” Young Master Han waved his hand dismissively.

“Wait for me to recover my mana!” Gu Fei requested hurriedly.

“Chill, man. You’ve already killed a few; why don’t you leave the rest to us and let us earn some kill points?” Several of his fellow mercenaries eagerly rubbed their fists and palms as they went forward, and it was obvious that they had no intention of waiting for Gu Fei at all.

Straightforwardly clashing with one another without any strategy... This essentially boiled down to their skills and the teamwork of both sides. Silver Moon mercenary group’s two Guardians and one Warrior formed a triangle with Silver Moon at its core, and he blessed the three with Blessing of Strength. This was to ensure that his comrades would grow even stronger when he used King’s Command later.

Over by Young Master’s Elite mercenary group, each person did what he was best at. Royal God Call fired off arrows from afar, War Without Wounds and Sword Demon closed in on the enemies to strike at an opportune moment, Brother Assist blessed his comrades accordingly, and Young Master Han readied his staff to bestow Heal on his team’s two melee job classes. Since Silver Moon and his fellow mercenaries did not have any long-range capabilities, there was no need for Young Master’s Elite to worry about long-range attacks at all.

Once War Without Wounds and Sword Demon were near enough, Silver Moon raised his sword, and the two Guardians and one Warrior were suddenly infused by golden light and used Charge to rush at the approaching two.

The two were already prepared for this; Sword Demon activated Fleetfoot and circled around the three, while War Without Wounds braced himself to receive the charging enemies. While the ensuing collision looked frightening to onlookers, the game still calculated the damage systematically. In the end, War Without Wounds’ high defense rendered the enemies’ tackle as ineffectual.

After purposely receiving the enemies’ Charge, War Without Wounds did not counterattack and instead chose to shout out a number behind him.

Young Master Han smiled and relayed this to Brother Assist.

Brother Assist quickly understood what was happening and promptly added the equipment data he had appraised from the Guardians to do some calculation. Since the Guardians’ weapons were shields, their Attack Power was only based off on their Strength as well as the skill’s inherent damage, simplifying Brother Assist’s calculation process. Brother Assist took out a booklet and began to solve it using Xs and Ys. Royal God Call temporarily stopped his attack to take a look at Brother Assist’s calculation, “Is there a need to do column equations?”

Young Master Han looked sideways at Royal God Call, “I knew it. A student like you who play games every day truly doesn’t spend time on his studies. You call that ‘column equations’? That’s ‘function’, which uses X and Y as variables. Do you understand what variables are? It’s....”

Their three opponents that were under the effect of King’s Command were desperate to score a hit against them fast, as there was a limit to how long Silver Moon could use that skill. Unfortunately for their enemies, Young Master’s Elite was made up of a bunch of old hands that were not foolish enough to confront them at such a period. Instead, they scattered about and fled in different directions. Even War Without Wounds who was closest to the buffed enemies had managed to quickly pull away from them with his life intact by using Charge.

Eventually, the King’s Command skill ended and the two Guardians and one Warrior returned to their normal state.

Young Master Han noted the time and muttered, “Silver Moon’s skill lasted about twenty-five seconds last time, but it did not even reach twenty-five seconds now. Probably because he has blessed each of his three comrades before this. By the looks of things, that skill depletes his mana as he channels it.” With that, he shouted to his team’s Knight, “How’s your calculation progressing, Brother Assist?”

“Don’t rush me! How can I calculate all these so quickly? I don’t know how much damage their Charge skill can provide, so my calculation may not be too accurate. I think it’s better to find someone to get tackled again!” Brother Assist replied.

“But the battle is about to end already...” Young Master Han said as he stared at a certain direction.

In that direction, Gu Fei, who had already recovered his mana, was sprinting over with a huff.