Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“Let’s evade it before we discuss this further!” Drifting cried out as everyone stepped into the firestorm before them once more. The Blazing Tree of a Thousand Infernos slowly but surely depleted everybody’s HP, but they had no choice but to bear it.

Seeing Flame Singed Clothes hide behind Southern Lone Blade’s shield as he continued to display his prowess, War Without Wounds could only grit his teeth and bottle up his anger inside him.

“Drifting, Cast your own spells to match his! Let’s see who dies first!” War Without Wounds spat acidly.

“No way!” Drifting and Royal God Call both cried out at the same time. Royal God Call once more revealed an expression as if he had just swallowed poison, allowing Drifting to explain to War Without Wounds, “That guy’s cooldowns are reduced to the point where its unreasonably short. I reckon in the time I can cast two spells, he would be able to toss out five in response. Who do you think will die first?”

“F*ck, does that mean we are doomed to die like this? Should we call for help? Miles, perhaps?” War Without Wounds grumbled.

“It would only take a single Blink to get over to them had Miles been with us...” Brother Assist said. These experts were usually rather irate with how Gu Fei’s indomitability would often relegate them to a lesser role, but now that they were at such a critical juncture, each and every one of them missed him terribly.

“I’m afraid that guy won’t be able to make it here in time unless he falls down from the heaven right now!” the others yelled, even as they once more escaped from the sea of flames and back into the dead end.

“Don’t just stand there, toss a spell over!” The experts felt disgruntled when they saw Flame Singed Clothes recast his Blazing Tree of a Thousand Infernos arrogantly upon the exact same spot the moment the previous one was about to extinguish. Drifting acquiesced to the request of the crowd, raising his magic staff to toss out a Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno of his own. In the end, the enemy had already retreated back after finishing casting their spell, easily escaping to an area where Drifting was unable to reach them with his spells.

They were all speechless. This was the difference between the terrain either side had to work with! The enemy had an escape, while they had nothing.

“Got it! Use your spell the next time he steps up. There’s no way he can defend against flames that rise from the ground right, wouldn’t you then be able to interrupt his spellcasting in this manner?” War Without Wounds looked to be as elated, as if he had just discovered the new world.

Drifting and Royal God Call stared at him together, but because Royal God Call was more familiar with him, he brazenly glared at Wounds as if he were looking at an idiot.

“Don’t blindly hazard a guess if you don’t know anything. When it comes to a battle between two experienced Mages, unless they are using instant cast spells, there’s no way they would be able to create a situation where they could interrupt the other’s spell. You can go and mull over the reason for this by yourself!” Royal God Call chided him.

With that, he added, “Man. Mile’s Lightning spells would be able to interrupt the enemy’s casting if he was here. It’s such a pity we got this useless trash with us instead!”

“Are we unable to survive this without Miles with us?” War Without Wounds was in tears as he spoke.

“Watch what I can do!” Royal God Call triumphantly boasted. At this moment, the enemy’s four-man squad was now back to their original position. Flame Singed Clothes raised his staff and got ready to toss out a Descending Wheel of Flame yet again when Royal God Call roared, firing off an arrow with his arched bow, landing a hit right onto Southern Lone Blade’s shield. Flame Singed Clothes had finished his incantation, so the sky glowed fiery red once more as the seven men ran back towards the sea of flames with their hands covering their heads.

“Watch your d*mn head!” War Without Wounds berated Royal God Call. He originally thought that arrow of his was going to turn the tables, yet nothing changed.

“What do you know!” Royal God Call replied.

After suffering the usual damage they took from standing in that sea of flames, everybody retreated back to their original position. Right at the moment that Blazing Tree of a Thousand Infernos was about to die out, Royal God Call once more drew his bowstring back and sent another arrow flying out.

“Just what does that rascal think he’s doing!” Even though there was a wall of fire and a sea of flames between the two teams, Southern Lone Blade and the others could still clearly see the action they were taking, so if Royal God Call knew there was be a Warrior holding a shield blocking the attack, what was the point of him taking potshots like this for? Was he trying to use this method to slowly shave his HP down?

Southern Lone Blade could not help but chuckle to himself mirthlessly. Even though Royal God Call’s ranged attack was far more fearsome than the average Archer, he felt that Royal God Call’s attempts at reducing his HP would only result in those seven men dying before he did.

He continued to block with his shield as he thought about this, not feeling at all surprised when he heard the resounding thunk of each arrow meeting his shield. But suddenly, he felt a sensation that he had never felt before travel through his shield. It was an attack that seemed to possess a sort of continuous force to it, nothing huge, yet it felt extremely swift. Before Southern Lone Blade could react to what could have caused this, he felt that force penetrate through his shield, even going so far as to pass through his body, as well!

“Am I about to die?” Southern Lone Blade felt his heart lurch in that moment, but a quick glance at his HP saw that it had only lowered insignificantly, dealing the same amount of damage a basic attack would. Just as he calmed himself, he promptly heard a cry from behind him, “F*ck me!”

“How did he shoot me?” Flame Singed Clothes lowered his head and stared at his chest. There was no arrow stuck to him, yet he had felt a force pass through him. The damage was slight, yet it had managed to interrupt his spellcasting!

Royal God Call knew he had succeeded the moment the Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno had ended, yet the new spell had yet to be unleashed. He turned round to raise a V sign to the other experts with him, “Oh yeah! Piercing Attack!”

Royal God Call’s third bow, Point of Ephemera, had a 10% chance to Pierce, and had procced for this shot.

“Let’s go!” Everyone did not even waste time to admire his pose as they seized that moment to charge ahead.

Without the Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno under their feet, everyone plunged through the Palatial Balefire with full HP. Perhaps the damage from Palatial Balefire was already enough to instakill them, but at least they were more confident broaching the wall of flame without having to traverse the sea of fire.

With Flame Singed Clothes’s Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno unexpectedly interrupted, and not being able to complete his cast in time, the spell was nevertheless still on cooldown. No one was more aware of how much damage Flame Singed Clothes could deal than the man himself. He knew things had taken a turn for the worse when he saw the experts before them were about charge across the row of flames. He did not spare a thought what would happen next, deciding to block off the situation before him before further discussing the matter in detail.

He once more extended his magic staff and drew a line upon the ground as he yelled, “Palatial Balefire! Ignite!”

The seven of them were all stunned when they heard this incantation. Everyone had already thought it was really ludicrous how Flame Singed Clothes was able to consecutively maintain a sea of flames with his Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno. They had not expected Palatial Balefire to be even more preposterous, as Flame Singed Clothes was able to cast it before the last one he cast had even ended! Just as these seven experts suspected he was trying to fool them, another wall of flame had already surged up to the sky.

With two rows of flames aligned one after the other, the flames present looked all the more enchanting. These experts had the guts to try and brave one wall, but none of them were feeling confident now that there were two rows.

Flame Singed Clothes tossed out that Palatial Balefire and quickly pulled up his Skills interface and examined it, finally sighing in relief after sweeping through the cooldown timers listed. He already had the perfect plan to force the enemy back to their original position once again, so this sudden change had been shocking, but not dangerous.

Just as his heart eased up, he caught sight of Drifting step out from the crowd as he casted his spell, “Icy Mirage! Split!”

“F*ck, what’s the point of using that now?” Royal God Call rebuked as Drifting’s Icy Mirage formed up. The four Driftings took a corner each, forming a square, and one of them had actually formed up past that wall of flames.

“Could it be!?” All the experts had the same thought when they saw this. Why would Southern Lone Blade and his men dare to be carless the moment they saw Drifting suddenly split into four, with one of them right in front of them? They quickly hurtled towards him, only to see Drifting raise his magic staff high in the air, “Blossoming Crimson Lotus! Expand!”

Three other Driftings were standing over by the side with Young Master Han and the rest. The fact Drifting was willing to risk using this skill had already demonstrate the truth; the real Drifting was the one that had made it past that wall of flames, for that was the only Drifting whose Blossoming Crimson Lotus would not reach the six of them.

Ignoring if they received any damage or not, each of the Blossoming Crimson Lotus for all four Drifting looked exactly alike and in that instant, the flaming petals that bloomed from the four of them simultaneously looked to be no less intense and incandescent than the two Palatial Balefires.

The self-proclaimed Fire spell expert Flame Singed Clothes instantly knew the sight before him was trouble as he quickly called for Southern Lone Blade to block it.

Southern Lone Blade understood and already had his shield at the ready before him, with Flame Singed Clothes and the Priest immediately shrinking to take cover behind him.

The burgeoning flames looked as if it was about to envelope all that stood in its way, but that unknown shield Southern Lone Blade had on him was truly extraordinary. It actually held back the blast of fire that sought to devour all in its path in a way that allowed the three men to take cover against this conflagration, leaving them unscathed as they watched the firestorm dumbfounded.

While the three of them had managed to survive this tide of flames, the same could not be said for theStealthed Thief Blackwater.

The moment Drifting appeared beyond the walls created by the Palatial Balefires, the man had already gotten close in hopes of dealing a Backstab to the Mage. Yet he did not expect Drifting to burst forth a spell that covered the whole 360 degrees around him; his Stealth state was interrupted the very moment the fire touched him. Blossoming Crimson Lotus was a fire spell that pushed forth layers of damage like waves, so Blackwater could only watch as he saw his HP drop like a stone in a well. He knew escape was futile so he decided to continue his charge instead, prepared to put his very life on the line in hopes of delivering this Backstab to his target.

A sudden whistle in the wind could be heard!

Drifting hurriedly turned his head back the moment he heard this, andhe could not help but be shocked when he saw was a Thief firmly clutching a pair of daggers in hand darting towards him. Before he could even react, the sound of metal plunging into flesh could be heard from the Thief’s back.

That Thief transformed into white light and disappeared within the fiery deluge. MMOs had always declared the death of players without a margin of error. As long as their HP were completely depleted, the victim would instantly disappear without even the slightest bit of struggle. So even though Blackwater’s dagger was but 0.01cm away from Drifting, not a single point of damage of that attack registered on the Mage.

On the other side of the fire wall that continued to rage, Royal God Call tossed his bow aside, wailing aloud as his left hand held his right, “AHHHHHH! Will my hand rot as well!?”

Southern Lone Blade and the two men with him were currently hiding behind that shield of his, so none of them had a clue when the spell Drifting used would end. They could only gape at the red hot flames that rolled past, not daring to move an inch from their cover. They had no choice; no matter how experienced they were as experts, the fear of the unknown was the only feeling they had when faced against a spell they had not seen before.

As for Flame Singed Clothes huddled right behind him, he stood upright the moment he felt it was safe and immediately waved his magic staff, “Fireball, shoot!”

“Argh!” Flame Singed Clothes managed to toss out his Fireball successfully, but he immediately took an arrow to his head in the next moment. It was the most powerful skill in Royal God Call’s arsenal: Snipe. No matter how indomitable a Mage was, there was no way they would be caught wearing any equipment that gave high enough physical defense to weaken the damage of this Physical attack Royal God Call made. Flame Singed Clothes was insta-killed right where he stood, leaving just that Fireball he had tossed, which had no magical power now that it had lost the support of its owner.

Even more pitiful were his two comrades, Southern Lone Blade and that Priest. Witnessing Flame Singed Clothes disappear the very second he stood up only made these two men shrink themselves deeper behind the shield, afraid to pop out from behind its safety.