Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

The poor man whom Svelte Dancer had kicked out went rolling like a bowling ball, while the Hunters that stood in his way looked no more than bowling pins. The men hurriedly tried to fire off their arrows at the incoming Thief, but the equipment she had on was simply far too powerful. Svelte Dancer blocked those arrows that she could block, evaded those that she could evade, not caring a least bit at those that struck her squarely on her body. In the next moment, that bowling ball had cleared off an entire lane for her, allowing Svelte Dancer to dash forward right behind it. What chance did these men have to escape her grasp now?

A Bludgeon incapacitated one, while a stab with her dagger killed another. One of them panicked and instantly stepped onto one of their own traps they had set up, which indiscriminately snapped down onto its owner when it was triggered. What else was needed to be said? Svelte Dancer calmly dispatched the whole lot of them, ignoring the woeful cries from the player who had traps stuck all over his body as she adjusted his direction once more, and kicked him towards the other pins remaining.

---

Over by the other side, Deep Waters was still stuck up on the Electric Wall. The moment the twenty second duration of the Electric Wall ended, he dropped down even as his body continued to twitch and convulse. He was shaking as he tried to stand, with Coco getting zapped the moment she reached out to support him, as if she had been hit by a wave of electric current. Her arm shot back reflexively, and Deep Waters collapsed to the ground immediately now that there was no one to hold him up.

Coco gingerly reached her hand out once more to probe, making sure the electric current was gone before quickly supporting him. Deep Waters was a little faint after being electrocuted, so his eyes were a little glazed. Coco hugged his head and shook it lightly, shouting out his name twice before he finally came back to his senses.

“F*CK!” Deep Waters immediately rasped out a curse the moment he came to, waving the bow still in his hand as he yelled, “Where is that man?!”

That man was right in front of him, for Gu Fei had already found his way into the array of traps they had set up. Deep Waters watched as this man made it into the array with every step he took, yet he was entirely unscathed as he continued his massacre of everybody present. Those poor men he had brought along were now nothing but helping him demine the area. Even Oathless Sword was having fun as things stood.

Deep Waters ground his teeth angrily, nocking his bow as he sought to fire.

“Be careful!” Vast Lushness had been keeping her eye on him all this while, and instantly called out to everyone a warning the moment she saw him move.

Oathless Sword was having plenty of fun right now, standing still as he dragged the man he had hooked in every direction, entirely unbothered if he was standing onto a trap or not. Seeing Deep Waters about to fire another shot, he immediately puffed out his chest and braced for the shot in retaliation, “Haha, come on now. Shoot me!”

A whistle of air, and that arrow landed squarely upon his temple...

He had actually been prepared to fire this shot at the person who was the most difficult to handle, but the look of smug arrogance that Oathless Sword had on his face was unbearable, so he decided to gift this man his attack instead.

Oathless Sword had plenty of arrows find their way to his head today, and even though he had yet to die from them, part of the effect that came with being shot was how it would symbolically cause them to bleed. A bit of bleeding here, another trickle there, had essentially dyed his whole head red, like some sort of horrifying clown. He originally thought Deep Waters would fire another Snare Shot at him, yet who knew that a Snipe would find its way to his temple instead.

Just as he was about to curse back at him without restraint, Vast Lushness snapped at him, “What sort of monkey business are you getting into, I don’t have the time to take care of you right now!”

Oathless Sword thought that what she said made a lot of sense. Gu Fei was the main combat power they had right now, and Vast Lushness was currently using her unique skill to maintain his mana, so where could she spare any for Heal? Oathless Sword finally realized why YMH had arranged for this lady, whom they were all unfamiliar, with to escort Todd; it was most likely in preparation for such a scenario. As for Svelte Dancer, she had always been following in stealth right beside them, as only this indomitable lady had the ability to keep up with everyone’s normal movement speed while maintaining Stealth.

After Deep Waters fired an arrow out of spite at Oathless Sword, the next shot he had was aimed towards Gu Fei, yet he saw that Gu Fei was already prepared for this. Thinking back to how that man had easily swatted away that whole cluster of arrows everybody had sent his way, how were his shots going to end up any differently?

Seeing the scene before him, as well as Vast Lushness’s involuntary yell from before, he immediately made a decision about who should be the recipient of his second arrow. He once more targeted Oathless Sword and fired away.

There were only four opponents they were up against right now. With the skill Gu Fei had displayed, Deep Waters was not at all confident he could land a shot on the man. Svelte Dancer was nimble, so it would not be easy for him to shoot her. Given how robust her defense was because of her equipment, it was unlikely he would make a dent in her even if he did connect with his attack. Finally, there was Vast Lushness, who could easily duck back behind Todd and therefore take up an angle in where he could not attack her.

Despite how overly aggressive Oathless Sword acted, he was actually the easiest target out of the four and also happened to be the leader of this quest! Killing him might create some sort of unexpected result. Each and every point that piled up in his analysis made Oathless Sword the undisputed choice for this second shot from Deep Waters.

After taking an arrow to the head like that, Oathless Sword felt an arrow drive into his chest in the next moment. Seeing that Deep Waters was really looking to kill him, he abruptly felt extremely regretful that he had arrogantly called attention to himself. Fortunately, he was the leader of a large guild, someone ranked on the Warrior leaderboard. He was considered to be one of the top players of his job class, so while Deep Waters was one of the Five Unyielding Experts, he had chosen to advance into Hunter, which meant the arrows he shot were not the strongest; Oathless Sword was more than capable of withstanding two arrows like that.

He turned to look at the other three. Svelte Dancer and Gu Fei were focused on disposing of those other Hunters, so neither had turned to look in his direction. Vast Lushness was close by, but was currently staring at him. If he was looking for the best way to describe the look she had at the moment, the only phrase that came to mind was “cold regard”.

Vast Lushness was truly a woman of her word. She meant it when she claimed she did not have the time for him; she was not showing even the slightest hint of bestowing a Heal onto Oathless Sword at all.

At this crucial moment, all he could depend on was himself!

Because Oathless Sword had been playing with the man hooked by the sky hook, he had managed to clear out a path free of traps from all the dragging he did, and he naturally did not just stand there to take all the shots Deep Waters sent his way. He instantly stepped onto the safe path he had created with his own hands.

Unfortunately, with how slow his movement speed was, Deep Waters was able to deal with this attempt at escape, and continued feeding him an even stream of arrows without missing a beat.

Oathless Sword was now flustered like his head was on fire, and what made things worse was the fact that ever since he started moving, Todd had begun to follow him and move as well. In truth, every time Todd was taken out from the Prison, they had always assigned him to someone in Traversing Four Seas to follow.

Todd had always been assigned to follow Oathless Sword, but although this NPC was assigned to follow, the reality of the matter had everybody following him instead. While Todd was following Oathless Sword, he did so at his own pace. Disregarding how fast the movement speed of the assigned player was, he moved according to his own pace. Almost everyone proceeded to match their movement speed to the pace that Todd had set.

They had not tried to find out what would happen if everybody abandoned him, but that was mainly because they did not dare to test it out.

Now that Oathless Sword was moving again, Todd immediately followed him at one side and walked after him obediently. The sound of a metallic trap going off sounded in the next moment and it seemed there was nothing special about Todd aside from the immense amount of HP he had. After it had been ensnared by triggering a trap, he dumbly stood there without taking another step.

Oathless Sword did not bother to put too much thought into it, however, as he was solely focused on avoiding the arrows still coming after him, dashing straight ahead.

Actually, it was not too much of an issue for Todd to be trapped in place like this. The issue was that the one step he took instantly exposed Vast Lushness to Deep Waters’ arrows!

Being an experienced combatant, Deep Waters had already identified the glow from Vast Lushness’s staff as the exact same that wreathed Gu Fei, and deduced that there must have been some sort of cooperation involved with the two. But Vast Lushness had plenty of combat experience on her shoulders and had been hiding behind Todd all this while, not giving him any chance to interrupt her. Since his men currently had their hands full trying to get away from both Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer, they could not really spare the effort to notice such fine details.

But now that Oathless Sword had suddenly moved, Todd followed along with him which indirectly exposed Vast Lushness. This had all happened in a brief moment, yet Deep Waters had already grasped onto the chance and immediately fired off an arrow at Vast Lushness.

Vast Lushness was unable to defend against this arrow in time, and her skill was interrupted. As Mana Sacrifice was a skill provided by her magic staff, the cooldown duration it had was extremely long. This interrupt probably meant there was good chance the battle would finish by the time she could use her skill again.

Vast Lushness hurriedly cast a Heal on herself before realizing how Oathless Sword had messed up the entire status quo. She was irate, but looking at the bigger picture, she ruthlessly brandished her staff as if she were slamming it into someone as her Heal brushed over Oathless Sword. “Why did you move!?”

Oathless Sword had also realized that he had ruined the situation they were in, but should he have waited for death instead? Thus, he helplessly moaned, “What else could I do?!”

Vast Lushness knew how helpless he was in the situation before, so she had no idea what to reply, either. Topping up Oathless Sword’s HP with her Heal, the two now worriedly gazed over at Gu Fei.

When Gu Fei had mana, every move he made insta-killed the Hunters. Now that he was out of mana, he was still as imposing as ever; He had already swapped the Moonlit Nightfalls in his right hand to his Sacred Flames of Baptism, and every slash he dealt would occasionally course with Fire or Electricity, no different from how he looked before! Naturally, the damage from a Fire Attack and a Twin Incineration were worlds apart, but the lot of Hunters were still fleeing ignominiously in the face of his attacks.

Oathless Sword and Vast Lushness looked at one another, and felt that their worry for Gu Fei had been for naught. Did it even matter to this unique Mage if he had mana or not, given the level of expertise he possessed?

The one who was suffering the most was, of course, Deep Waters. He had been in high spirits when he interrupted Vast Lushness’ casting, thinking that it would have such a strong impact that it might turn the tide of the battle. But in the end he discovered that the bunch of Hunters he had brought along were still struggling in an ugly way, losing their lives one by one as Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer hunted them down with impunity.

“Deep Waters...” Standing beside Deep Waters all this while, Coco softly called out to him.

This couple had played six different MMOs together, and had lost count how many battles they had fought side by side. Coco’s skill, experience, and insight might not be as plentiful as Deep Waters, but was nevertheless still substantial. She could already tell that the quest they had picked up this time was truly difficult to accomplish.

It was entirely because their opponent was simply far too indomitable...