MMORPG: The Elementalist

‘Stand down?

‘Hmph! Who do you think you are?’

Without looking, Snowblind could tell that the voice belonged to White Wine, the Ignis Swordmaster from the Hall of Heroes.

He smirked. As a member of Holy Clan, part of the Netherspirit’s Claw League, why would he take orders from someone from the Hall of Heroes League? Even if they were working together in the same party, such orders should only come from their own Tier 5 supreme champion—also from the Netherspirit’s Claw. As for the little Swordmaster, what right did he have?

What was more, this Qin Ruo, this Tier 4 Aquamancer, had caused their Holy Clan no small amount of humiliation within their League. Now that Qin Ruo had appeared before him, bearing a red tag, he would be an idiot not to strike!

Ignoring the command, Snowblind continued to sprint for his target, closing the distance between them to less than fifteen meters.

“Damn!” seeing that he was being ignored, White Wine cursed aloud, getting ready to rush in and teach that rascal a lesson.

Then he heard a familiar, stern voice behind him. “White Wine, come back.”

“Dark Dragon?” White Wine halted immediately and turned around, confused by the orders from the Tier 5 supreme champion. “You’re already a Tier 5 champion—surely you have no interest in his stuff?”

White Wine had intended to recruit this Qin Ruo into his own party. The power of his Pet alone was reason enough for him to fight alongside them, and he could help speed their way through the upper levels of the Graveyard of the Gods, which meant more loot!

However, the moment Dark Dragon had ordered him to halt, he had realized that he meant for Snowblind to kill off the red-tagged Qin Ruo. Unaware of the grudge that the Netherspirit’s Claw held against Qin Ruo, he could not understand Dark Dragon’s true motivations.

Dark Dragon, one of the Tier 5 supreme champions of Netherspirit’s Claw, was a middle-aged man with short hair, and a Level 50 Aeromancer. As the second-in-command of the Netherspirit’s Claw Clan, he was comparable in position to Homme Fatale of the Bauhinia Clan—although he had taken longer to complete his Tier 5 Advancement Quest.

Noticing the mocking tone in White Wine’s question, Dark Dragon smiled in spite of himself.

“I wouldn’t care even if he had a full set of Dark Gold equipment! There are people in my League who have suffered at the hands of this little blighter. Now that we’ve found him, I don’t mind sitting back to watch a good show. I am curious after all how he managed to defeat both Ron and Grieving Arrow.”

“Ron?” White Wine balked at this.

During the gathering in the Great Winter Hall, the night before last, this name had been deeply engraved in his memory, mainly due to the peculiar name of the woman by his side—”‘Ron’s Mistress”—a man who would allow his woman to take such a name, along with that subtly disconcerting hint of arrogance about himself, combined to create a truly unforgettable character.

What truly surprised him, though, was that although Ron was apparently a Field Commander within the Holy Clan, he had been defeated by Qin Ruo, who was only Level 41? His Pet might be something else, but it was only Level 31 at present, and probably couldn’t even join the battle at the time. Unless…

As the thought occurred to him, White Wine’s eyes lit up, and his gaze returned to Qin Ruo, still being chased down by Snowblind.

Such a powerful player running around on his own without any affiliation… were all the Clan Leaders in the game blind—or was this a chance for the Hall of Heroes to get some new blood in their ranks?

***

When he had heard that Hall of Heroes player calling out earlier, he had allowed himself a moment’s hope. If everyone could just hold on for a moment, he might be able to buy some time until his red tag expired, and then he would no longer have anything to fear from Bandits!

However, not only had this Snowblind ignored the Ignis Swordmaster, he’d actually sped up the chase! As the Bandit faded from his view, Qin Ruo felt anger swelling in his heart!

“This is too much!”

It was obvious he just wanted to take advantage of the red tag, and with an entire League behind him, he was resolved to put an end to Qin Ruo.

Even though his comrades behind him had asked him to stop!

Along with his rage, there came a vindictive little whisper in his heart.

‘Alright, if that’s how you want to do this, I’ll play your game!’

Qin Ruo stopped suddenly.

“Freeze!”

Two Aquaramparts, which he had been holding at the ready, rose up and froze over instantly!

In tandem with the first Frostrampart he had conjured earlier, the walls began to draw together. The Water Veil now covered an area thirty meters across.

‘Let’s see how good you are without your Stealth—are you a match for my magic?’

A wave of cold washed over the people watching from a distance.

He could not even be bothered to bring up his Frost Barrier. As he kept careful track of the Bandit’s movement through his Water Veil, he brought in his Frostramparts to intercept him, while he continued to move steadily around the Water Veil himself, maintaining a safe distance from Snowblind.

Snowblind was having serious trouble, here. At first, he had thought that the ted-tagged Qin Ruo would not be able to escape from him within the Graveyard of the Gods, whether by teleportation or logging out from the game. His only options should be to strike first, or die.

Either way, he was a goner!

With a stronger player waiting in the wings, if Qin Ruo attacked first, he would suffer their full retaliation, and lose all of his equipment. Escape was impossible: his Pet might be incredibly quick and all, but Elementalists were generally slow on their feet, and had no hope of outrunning a Bandit.

Seeing that he was neither summoning his Barrier, nor attacking with any spells, Snowblind had been under the impression that he would just keep running like a coward.

That would have been so much better. Snowblind would have very much liked to just run him down and take some of that Gold equipment away from him. That satisfaction alone would have made this expedition to the Graveyard of the Gods worthwhile.

He was disappointed when Qin Ruo stopped running—whether because he had realized he could not get away, or because he had decided to fight back—the Aquamancer stopped and began preparing to conjure Aquaramparts.

Snowblind hurriedly went into Stealth mode. Once he’d gotten past those two Frostramparts, he’d put an end to Qin Ruo before he could bring up his Barrier.

Little did Snowblind realize that this was only the beginning of his nightmare.

Just as he’d made his way around the first Frostrampart, the second one came sliding in at high speed to block his way, and then swept towards him, forcing him to continue circling around.

He dodged aside, only to be sandwiched between the first and third Frostramparts, holding him back for another moment more.

Snowblind was taken aback, but put it out of his mind. Just random guesswork, that’s all it was. But as he found his progress obstructed time and time again, he began to wear a very different look on his face!

Several times, Snowblind managed to get within just a few steps from Qin Ruo, but it was as though he could clearly see the Bandit, immediately sliding one of the Frostramparts between them, and then moving it to match his own movements, keeping him at bay. When he finally managed to get around the ice wall, Qin Ruo would already be more than ten meters away again.

“Damn it, how long do you think you can keep hiding from me?”

After numerous attempts to reach his target, all without success, Snowblind was close to losing his temper. He hadn’t noticed that his six teammates, who’d only been watching the scene for not twenty seconds now, had all become very grim and sober.

In the case of White Wine, of the Hall of Heroes, he was actually beside himself with delight. At first he had been worried that Qin Ruo might lose his cool and whip out a magic scroll to defeat Snowblind, which would have been seen as a grave affront to the Tier 5 supreme champion of Netherspirit’s Claw.

But now, watching this casual display from Qin Ruo, he was more convinced than ever that he had to bring that Aquamancer into the Hall of Heroes.

His Pet had yet to join the fight, and he hadn’t even bothered with a Barrier—with just the most basic elemental control skills, he had the elite Bandit of the Netherspirit’s Claw running around in circles, like a cat playing with a mouse.

Snowblind didn’t seem to realize what was happening, didn’t seem to understand just how much Qin Ruo was holding back against him. In the eyes of the spectating players, his most earnest efforts looked like nothing more than a clown show.

Dark Dragon, who had belayed White Wine’s command earlier, was now visibly fuming. However, through his own Elemental Perception, he could tell that Qin Ruo’s success thus far was thanks in large part to that fine web of water beneath the combatants’ feet. That Water Veil was giving away all of Snowblind’s movements, allowing Qin Ruo to use nothing more than Tier 1 magic to make a complete fool of him.

He had heard Holy Clan’s Leader Raziel going on about all the cunning tricks this scoundrel could come up with. Not only did he have a spell to emulate a Bandit’s Stealth skill, he even had a home-made technique which completely defeated a Bandit’s Stealth as well.

‘Hmph! Small wonder he was so full of himself.’

At Tier 3, he’d been picking fights with a Tier 4 Radiant Priest of the Netherspirit’s Claw. Now that he was Tier 4, he seemed to enjoy going around showing up their Field Commanders. At his core, one could see the signs of an inflated ego.

The Bauhinia Clan has created quite an asset for themselves… Dark Dragon thought to himself, his eyes flashing with a vicious light that a casual observer might have missed.

To have brought such disgrace unto a Clan under the Netherspirit’s Claw, could it be that your next target will be… our Netherspirit’s Claw Clan? Hmph, Scarlet Bauhinia…

Dark Dragon assumed that Scarlet Bauhinia was directing Qin Ruo’s actions from behind the scenes. Watching Qin Ruo make a mockery of their League members, to the point that Snowblind was now callously hacking away at the Frostramparts, abandoning his Stealth…

Irritation clawed at his heart, and he took a step forward. Closing his eyes, he began to channel his magic.