Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

This one shout from Gu Fei similarly shocked Broken Water Arrow so much that his soul almost fled him. Hiding behind a tree, he almost thought that Gu Fei had spotted him, which was why that man had shouted this cry for a showdown. Broken Water Arrow was moments away from stepping out himself, but he thankfully reacted quickly and soon realized from that there was no way Gu Fei could have spotted him if he took into account the direction and distance of Gu Fei’s shout.

The tree Broken Water Arrow had chosen was thick and large, it should have been safe enough as cover, but he currently felt a little vulnerable, so he quickly squatted down. The base of the tree had plenty of bushes grown around it; now that Broken Water Arrow was huddle among it, even if Gu Fei were to walk over, he would have to pay extra attention to it before he could uncover him. After all, Broken Water Arrow still had his camouflage outfit on, and it was perfect for hiding in such surroundings.

Gu Fei’s footfalls were distinct; the dried leaves and twigs on the ground were crunched under his every step. He was completely non-compliant to the rules Broken Water Arrow advocated about jungle warfare. It seems that adopting a method that is so arrogant and mighty will only lead to death that much sooner , Broken Water Arrow mused to himself. Whether this was simply to instill greater confidence in himself or not, that, he himself was uncertain of.

The footsteps came to an abrupt halt, and Broken Water Arrow felt his heart skip a beat. Gu Fei stopping clearly meant that he had discovered something, but he should not have spotted where Broken Water Arrow was at his current position…

When it came to the ability of echolocating people, Broken Water Arrow was not any worse than Gu Fei. Furthermore, he knew plenty of techniques that the latter was unaware of. Take for example how he was able to discern the distance between Gu Fei’s original position and the distance between them earlier, and with how loud Gu Fei’s footfalls were, just from mutely counting each step, Broken Water Arrow more or less could determine how much progress he had made this whole time.

No, he shouldn’t have discovered my position yet. He’s at least 20 meters away from me right now, Broken Water Arrow thought to himself.

So, what is he doing stopping there? Broken Water Arrow really wanted to take a peek, but he was afraid that would end up exposing his position to Gu Fei. Just as he was hesitating on what he should do, he suddenly felt the ground he was standing on heat up.

What? Broken Water Arrow lowered his head and looked, only to find growing embers that began to rise from the underbrush.

F*CK! Broken Water Arrow yelped in his heart. He could no longer care about exposing himself or not and quickly scrambled out of the AoE. In the end, his butt even got singed by the fire, burning off a chunk of his HP. As Broken Water Arrow escaped the sea of flames, he immediately saw Gu Fei’s figure quietly waiting for him several meters away.

“You seem to have forgotten that I’m a Mage.” Gu Fei darted over and gave chase. Broken Water Arrow really had tears rolling down his face now, for he had indeed focused too much on Gu Fei’s insane capability of slaying in close combat that he had completely forgotten that his kung-fu expertise was but one aspect of his indomitability. Since Gu Fei’s job class was actually a Mage, he was similarly someone who could attack from a range and had access to much larger pool of AoE spells. A Mage did not need to see his targets to hit them with spells!

Evidently, Gu Fei had come to a halt just then to toss a Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno over to that underbrush. While he had no idea where Broken Water Arrow was positioned, that berth of fire he had unleashed sent Broken Water Arrow tumbling out the moment he got burned.

Deep Waters, who had been watching from the sidelines, witnessed this scene of Broken Water Arrow leaping out from the base of the tree with his buttocks on fire and could not help but burst into laughter. While he had no idea where Broken Water Arrow had hidden himself, he had a clear view of every action Gu Fei had taken. Unmistakably, he saw the process of Gu Fei reciting the incantation, and in that moment, he broke out into a bout of cold sweat and cried out to himself in embarrassment. Just like Broken Water Arrow, he had completely forgotten that Gu Fei was actually a Mage – one that was capable of using AoE spells to directly bombard his targets.

That was when he knew that Gu Fei’s actions were not reckless, nor was he underestimating his opponent. Instead, they were the ones who had overlooked a simple fact.

The man was actually a Mage!

“Thunderbolt! Strike!” With Broken Water Arrow exposed right before him, Gu Fei waved his sword and chanted. The instant the lightning flashed, the entire jungle looked as if it were engulfed in daylight, zigzagging right down onto Broken Water Arrow in a blinding glare.

Broken Water Arrow had a trick or two up his sleeves, though. When the entire jungle shone in dazzling brilliance, and nobody knew what was going on, the man quickly leaned his body out.

That lightning arced right past his forehead and struck the ground before him, the flash from the spell making him look pale like a ghost.

This was the first time anyone had been able to evade Gu Fei’s Thunderbolt, and he was not particularly surprised by this. After all, time was needed for the lightning to fall from the sky, so it was not impossible for players with quick reflexes to dodge it. Gu Fei was a little pained at having expended the mana, however, for he would not have casted it in the first place had he known that this would happen! It would be far more enjoyable to save it for a Twin Incineration, instead.

“You’re still running away!” Gu Fei saw Broken Water Arrow continue to tuck his head low and dash off after avoiding his Thunderbolt, so he did a quick flourish with his sword and gave chase. Broken Water Arrow ran like mad even as he turned around to fire two bolts, hoping to use this method to disrupt the progress of Gu Fei giving chase.

Actually, since Broken Water Arrow was a Sharpshooter, he should have the advantage over Gu Fei when it came to Agility, but the problem was that his equipment was no better than that of a beggar when compared to Gu Fei’s. Many members in Deep Freeze gifted a handful of equipment to Broken Water Arrow after he had joined the guild, but these pieces were simply not up to par when juxtaposed against the top-grade equipment Gu Fei had in possession. The job-class advantage of being an Archer was essentially balanced out by this difference in equipment, thus Gu Fei was not in the least bit slower. Furthermore, Broken Water Arrow knew that despite the distance between them being a dozen or so meters; A simple Blink from Gu Fei would instantly reach him once this drops to within 5 or 6 meters, so there was no way he could neglect this gap!

Unfortunately, Gu Fei casually twisted a little and easily weaved past the two bolts. With the tip of his sword pointed ahead as his lips moved, Gu Fei sent a conjured Fireball from the tip flying straight toward Broken Water Arrow.

“How is that possible?!” Deep Waters was staring with dumbfounded eyes at this scene. Gu Fei had indeed just cast a Thunderbolt and a Fireball, but there was one small detail that Deep Waters could not make sense of: Gu Fei had cast both spells, yet he had never once halted his steps. The man had tossed both Fireball and Thunderbolt while he was running, and that was considered as impossible in this game.

A caster moving his or her feet would interrupt the spell incantation.

The truth was that Deep Waters’ eyes were just not that sharp. In the moment that Gu Fei was uttering the incantation as he ran, both his feet were actually firmly planted to the ground, but because of how quick he chanted, as well as the fact that his every pace matched his incantation flawlessly, not a single second was wasted in the process of him doing so. The two words ‘Fireball! Fire!” fit nicely in the time when his feet were firmly on the ground. Continuing without slowing down after completing the incantation, this was also a testament to how impressive Gu Fei’s coordination was. The average human like Deep Waters would be unaware of these subtleties, so all he could do was have his mouth hung in surprise as he witnessed Gu Fei accomplish this ‘mobile casting’ feat.

The attack power of the Fireball was naturally nowhere near that of a Thunderbolt, and that speed of the flaming ball floated over made people feel as if it would extinguish before it reached Broken Water Arrow. However, the Sharpshooter was feeling really dejected when he saw this Fireball trailing after him. This was because he had completely changed his direction when he dodged behind a tree, and he was prepared to crisscross and use the dead angles from the many trees around to disappear right before Gu Fei’s eyes again. In the end, Broken Water Arrow could only watch as that flickering Fireball, undeterred by his attempt at optical deception, dutifully drift toward him.

The spell Fireball, while it was not as outrageous as Homing Projectile, was nevertheless able to track its target for a short duration, and this bit of time was more than enough to be fatal. Broken Water Arrow knew that this Fireball was not used to deal damage to him but was instead used like a beacon to guide the way, leading Gu Fei in the direction where he was planning to hide; it was an illumination that was showing him the fastest route straight to the Archer Range.

I can’t just ignore it! Broken Water Arrow thought thusly before he made the necessary adjustments. He nimbly lifted his crossbow and fired off a bolt, shooting that Fireball dead center to extinguish it. However, Broken Water Arrow had already spotted Gu Fei leaning his body out, extending his sword once more to send another Fireball right at him.

Broken Water Arrow was in tears, for he was sure to be the one holding onto the shorter end of the stick if this continued. His crossbow only had 6 bolts within its magazine cartridge, and he only had three left inside at the moment. While he was aware that Gu Fei was a Mage with a full-Agility build, and his mana pool was paltry, the man was only throwing out little Fireballs; He was still a Mage over level 40, who had advanced his job class, so Gu Fei was bound to have more in the tank in comparison. Broken Water Arrow knew if he continued to expend his ammunition in this manner, Gu Fei would continue to send those Fireballs his way, and to that end, he would just eventually be unable to put up any sort of resistance.

“Your marksmanship is superb!” Gu Fei was still hot on his heels even as he praised the Sharpshooter’s skills. Moments ago, Broken Water Arrow had shot down the Fireball with a lift of his arm. While this level of marksmanship could be considered as at the level which Royal God Call and the other experts could boast of, none would demonstrate his ease in doing so. Sure enough, a professional just was not the same.

Broken Water Arrow was in no mood to take Gu Fei’s compliment right now, however. Seeing another Fireball fly toward him, he quickly scanned the terrain around him as he ran off.

“What’s the point in continuing to run?!” Gu Fei sure had plenty to shout about as he chased after his quarry. Broken Water Arrow was starting to lose the calm composure he had at the beginning of this engagement and all he was feeling was misery right now. Job class…To think he had totally forgotten about his opponent’s job class in this PK duel. How could he make such an extreme blunder as an expert PKer? Against a standard Mage, Broken Water Arrow would have no use for all this cover and foliage around him.

This was comparable to executing a guerilla maneuver, but the opponent possessed the firepower to blanket the entire jungle; what was the point of engaging in a guerilla warfare? Of course, Gu Fei did not possess firepower as ridiculous as to blanket the entire jungle, but even though he was unable to see the hidden Broken Water Arrow, the man was still able to use his AoE spells to blindly bombard the area and flush him out accordingly. Broken Water Arrow might be able to continue sneakily firing his bolts as he skulked from cover to cover, and while such an insignificant technique would work against the average Mage, would it be anything but a joke when used this against Gu Fei? Even after identifying the best angle to fire five shots from cover and throwing out all his skills at one go, that man was still alive and standing. What sort of extreme sneak-attack could Broken Water Arrow still attempt at this point?

The two continued their chase among the trees openly, and Deep Waters was watching every second of this enthusiastically. Deep Water was obviously not about to call it a day, so he continued to cheer after them like a loyal fan, but when he saw Broken Water Arrow head toward the main path they used, his heart stopped.

Clank! A crisp sound resounded throughout the jungle.

Of course! Deep Waters cried out to himself. Broken Water Arrow was obviously no match for Gu Fei in a one-versus-one fight, so he had lured Gu Fei into one of the training grounds Deep Freeze was using. Even though Deep Waters had instructed everyone in his guild not to interfere in this fight, the traps that were already set on the ground would not discern friend or foe.

Broken Water Arrow was familiar with the various trap formations and setups they were using, so he would never be caught in any one of them. That other person was probably the one who had caused that sound from before and had gotten himself caught!