Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Silence abruptly returned to the street. Sword Demon, who was huddled behind that pile of sacks, was feeling awkward. Being someone considered as an expert of days past, he did not really feel good to have fallen into his current state. He really wanted to poke his head out to see what was happening, yet he did not dare to do so. He was not afraid of death; rather, he did not want his action to create further complications for Gu Fei. He knew he had become a burden in this battle, and just this thought alone made him feel that he should just delete his account.

On the street, Gu Fei and Broken Water Arrow were motionlessly staring at each other. What was different between the two were where their eyes were looking at. Broken Water Arrow was staring at Gu Fei’s mouth, for he was wary of that Blink spell. He was taking precautions against it, as no matter how softly a Mage muttered an incantation, their lips would still move. Meanwhile, Gu Fei was watching Broken Water Arrow’s hands. He was thankful that they were in a game, and there would be an obvious visual effect whenever players unleashed the different attacks and skills. Take the bolts fired from the crossbow as an example; a glinting flash would always appear with every shot – similar to the flash of muzzle fire from a firearm. While it might be a little later than the squeezing of his index finger, at least it was still a visual cue he could take reference from. Against Broken Water Arrow’s dirty tricks, like blocking his trigger finger, even Gu Fei could not concisely make out the difference between the shudder of fingers cramping against an actual trigger pull.

Coco, watching afar in Stealth, was also anxiously waiting with bated breath for the two to begin their attacks. In the end, she nearly went breathless, yet the two did not even move. Finally, she could not stand anymore and typed out a message. “Just how long are the two of you going to stare at each other?”

Gu Fei sighed inwardly and said aloud, “Look here, you—”

Gu Fei saw Broken Water Arrow dash forward just as he said these three words, giving him quite a scare that he dodged in a hurry. The two immediately steadied themselves when they realized that the other had not acted according to their predictions. Gu Fei grimaced, for he had experienced such a situation before. Back when he was having a duel with Traversing Four Seas’ Gale Force, that man had also been staring intently at his lips, and the instant he spoke caused the man to anxiously attempt to evade his Blink. Broken Water Arrow had apparently made the same mistake as well, except Gu Fei had also lost his focus for a moment there and moved in accordance…

The two experts realized in that instant what had happened and felt a little embarrassed. Coco, who had been watching this exchange, sent her message: “What’s with you two? Stroke?”

“Don’t worry; I didn’t intone my incantation,” Gu Fei said.

Broken Water Arrow immediately recognized that he was already at a disadvantage; his opponent merely had to move his lips to fake him out; it was really confounding ! Since he is suddenly talking, is he perhaps thinking of mixing his spell incantation with his rambling to make it nigh impossible for me to defend against it effectively? Broken Water Arrow thought about this as he took another two steps backward. He had no idea what the maximum effective range of Blink was, but he was at least positive that it would not be without limitation. The more he backed away, the safer he would be. While the further distance would slightly lower the chance of him getting the kill, he would still be the one benefiting in the grand scheme of things by maintaining his distance from Gu Fei.

“Looks like you’re prepared to have a contest of patience with me!” That was what Gu Fei had wanted to say when he first opened his mouth, but now that he saw Broken Water Arrow backing away, he was all the more certain of his presumption that Broken Water Arrow was thinking of getting a clearer picture of what he would do before the man attacked.

Broken Water Arrow remained quiet, focusing his attention straight to Gu Fei. At the moment, he considered Gu Fei’s words to be a trap. There was no telling when he would utter the phrase “Translocation! Blink!” while talking.

“You win if we’re in a contest of patience!” Gu Fei continued. “I don’t have the time as I still have work later!” Gu Fei glanced at the time.

Broken Water Arrow continued to be silent.

“All right. Here I come!” Gu Fei suddenly said. Raising his sword without any spell incantation or strafing, Gu Fei walked straight toward Broken Water Arrow using the shortest route.

Broken Water Arrow did not expect Gu Fei to be so direct and unrestrained, completely ignoring the crossbow pointed dead center at him. In such a situation, why would Broken Water Arrow even hesitate? Firing a shot was the only option he had left.

A cold glint flashed.

Snipe was unleashed, and the bolt flew out far faster, more powerful, and even greater than before.

Can you dodge this? Broken Water Arrow did not believe that Gu Fei’s reaction time would reach such a level.

Sure enough, Gu Fei was unable to react in time. He dashed right toward Broken Water Arrow just like that crossbow bolt. Broken Water Arrow’s Snipe struck his glabella, which showed how transcendental his marksmanship was. Unfortunately, a crossbow was not like a real gun, so there was no such thing as getting an insta-kill from a headshot. Gu Fei swung his arm and wiped that arrow off as if he were wiping off sweat from his forehead. A trickle of blood ran down his forehead, but there was no stopping Gu Fei from advancing onto Broken Water Arrow.

That’s too much, man! Broken Water Arrow and the spectating Coco shared the same thought in their minds. This was because from how Gu Fei acted, it looked as if he had no intention of even evading the bolt and planned to devote his mind and head, literally, to take that shot entirely. Was he not at all afraid of being insta-killed? After all, Snipes from many of the powerful Sharpshooters were entirely capable of insta-killing Mages. There was no doubt Broken Water Arrow could be considered as one himself, so it only made sense to make such a consideration when faced against such opponents!

There was no point in thinking all these now. Broken Water Arrow turned around in a hurry to leave, for he had no wish to engage Gu Fei in a melee battle. He was even less inclined to waste the only two bolts he had left in his crossbow. He was hoping to run off to buy time for his Snipe’s cooldown to end before firing off the next shot. The fact that Gu Fei had taken that first Snipe gave him confidence that Gu Fei would not have taken the shot straight to the dome like what happened had he been able to evade it. That meant the speed of his Snipes was at a level which was impossible for Gu Fei to dodge.

However, Gu Fei managed to close in with those few steps after eating that shot, well in the range for him to Blink over, so there was no reason he would be foolish enough to engage in a chase after an Agility-based Sharpshooter that had a distinct advantage in the same stat. This was the chance for him to get into melee range that he had used his HP to exchange.

“Translocation! Blink!”

Broken Water Arrow was still keeping his eyes glued to catch Gu Fei’s lip movement even while he ran. Realizing that he was about to use his Blink to engage in close combat, Broken Water Arrow had already thought up of a preventive measure he could take and immediately rolled on the ground.

No matter where he Blinked, Gu Fei would have to be somewhere next to Broken Water Arrow. Broken Water Arrow did not believe he had that much bad luck to roll right at where Gu Fei’s feet would appear. He swept his eyes to take in his surroundings even as he rolled. Sure enough, he was not that unlucky, and Gu Fei was left to the side of his body after completing that roll.

Before Broken Water Arrow even got up, he lifted his arm and aimed the reticile of his crossbow right at Gu Fei . You didn’t dodge the first arrow, so would you dare take a second shot at point blank? I’ll use that chance when you dodge to increase the distance between us, using that time while your Blink is on cooldown to reload my bolt magazine as I run. That was what Broken Water Arrow planned to do: seize the opportunity to counterattack before the enemy could even act accordingly. Simply put, he did not have the confidence to take down Gu Fei with just the three bolts he had left in his crossbow right now.

Broken Water Arrow’s reaction time was fast, but so was Gu Fei’s. He could tell through Broken Water Arrow’s action that he was going to roll away when he cast Blink. Gu Fei executed a reverse leg kick, and it accurately sailed toward Broken Water Arrow’s hand. His hand went awry and the bolt he had shot went zooming past Gu Fei’s side, missing him entirely.

Broken Water Arrow had quite the shock. He watched Gu Fei’s kick brush past, and this was quickly followed by the sword in Gu Fei’s right hand. There was no doubt that Broken Water Arrow was not just your average player as he was not in the least bit flustered when faced with a professional kung fu attack. The man shrunk back and avoided the danger. Broken Water Arrow swiftly extended his left hand as a follow-up, actually aiming to grab a hold of Gu Fei’s wrist.

This was naturally an attempt to leverage on Gu Fei’s disadvantage when it came to Strength. As long as anyone with War Without Wounds’ Strength got a hold of Gu Fei’s limb directly, they would be able to forcefully hold his head down to face down the muzzle. Thus, while this move dealt no damage whatsoever, the fact that it could create potentially severe consequences for Gu Fei was not lost to him. Gu Fei had no choice but to evade this, for this was a move that was far more frightening than a move that dealt damage.

Gu Fei retracted his hand in order to dodge this grab from Broken Water Arrow, and the Sharpshooter lifted the crossbow in his right hand once more and aimed down the sights. Gu Fei quickly waved his left hand and again misaligned the aim. Broken Water Arrow had apparently learned his lesson and did not fire off his shot in a hurry, thereby saving that final crossbow bolt left in the magazine.

However, the cooldown for Gu Fei’s Blink was continuing with every second, and that was obviously to the detriment of Broken Water Arrow. After exchanging a few rounds of punches and kicks, Broken Water Arrow never found the opportunity to line his shot for the crossbow. He was very astonished by the accuracy, reaction time, and deftness that Gu Fei demonstrated through his skill at unarmed combat.

Time to go all out! Now that the situation had escalated to this point, the only option Broken Water Arrow had left was to make a final gambit. In the moment Gu Fei’s sword came slashing toward him, Broken Water Arrow’s arm did not shoot out like before to grab a hold of his wrist in an attempt to push back the attack. Instead, the man chose to ignore this slash and held that crossbow tightly with both hands, raising it up against Gu Fei.

“Let’s see if your sword or my shot is faster. At worse, we’ll just die together!” The cooldown for Broken Water Arrow’s Snipe ended at this time, and he believed that there was no Mage out there that could survive taking two shots of it. Meanwhile, it was too late for Gu Fei to stop that shot, for this was what Broken Water Arrow had traded off when he chose to ignore Gu Fei’s attack. He was very clear as to what it meant to be cut by the Insta-kill Mage. However, the design for an Archer’s attack was different from that of a Mage; as long as the projectile was released, even if the player firing it got killed, the damage from the attack would still remain. Meanwhile, a Mage’s spell inhibited no physical form and so the damage of their spells would disappear along with the caster’s death.

In such a situation, as long as Broken Water Arrow managed to release the crossbow bolt in time, even if he was unable to evade Gu Fei’s attack, both of them would end up killing each other. In fact, if the bolt managed to pierce Gu Fei before he could complete his attack, the damage from that flaming slash would not be of any danger to Broken Water Arrow. He simply did not consider himself to be at a loss at either outcome.

Broken Water Arrow pulled the trigger, but he felt a trace of disquiet overcome him. The bolt did not fire out as he had hoped – the trigger jammed. As such, Broken Water Arrow did not feel the sensation of the triggering mechanism at work.

“Heh. Don’t firearms suffer from mechanical failure from time to time? That’s why a sword in the hand is still the most reliable weapon to hold onto! Twin Incineration! Incinerate!” Gu Fei saw that Broken Water Arrow was unable to avoid this slash and immediately uttered the incantation for his ultimate move, using up the very last of mana for this attack.

Broken Water Arrow was no longer able to avoid this and used that final moment he had to glance at his crossbow. He discovered that a tiny wad of paper was stuck right behind the trigger.

Could it have been back then? Broken Water Arrow recalled that second time he dodged Gu Fei’s attempt at closing in on him; the man’s left hand slapped his weapon while he was aiming for a shot. He figured that it was probably then that Gu Fei had stuck this wad of paper to jam his weapon.

How truly frightening… Broken Water Arrow muttered to himself. The dexterity of his hands, the confidence that I would be unable to sense him tampering with my weapon… Can he still be considered as human?