Virtual World: Close Combat Mage Chapter 188-189

Chapter 188 - Archer Formation

The ladies chose a companion each and went to the various spots of the PvP arena to hide. Along the way, they continued to chat with one another.

Gu Fei could not help but sigh at this. At such a crucial moment, these ladies still have the time to chat with one another. They truly have the air of experts! Conversely, the two real experts jumped into a trench and crept toward the enemies' direction. Gu Fei had the two of them doing this to prevent the enemies from seeing him and Svelte Dancer before they could spot them.

"Must we do this?" Svelte Dancer felt very embarrassed at having to crawl in the trench.

Gu Fei firmly nodded his head, "We are up against seven hundred three men. How else will we have the chance to launch our surprise attack if they can see us even from afar?" Unlike how he would arrogantly charge into his targets when doing 'Bounty Mission', Gu Fei proceeded in this PvP with caution.

While they were stealthily advancing forward, Gu Fei was asking for more information from Royal God Call, "So what sort of the strategy are you guys employing?"

"Archer formation," Royal God Call replied.

"What?" It was a new term for Gu Fei.

"You'll understand when we engage you all," Royal God Call replied vaguely.

"Archer formation… You know what kind of PvP formation that is?" Gu Fei asked Svelte Dancer.

Svelte Dancer shook her head, clueless.

Traveling from one end of the map to the other via this trench was impossible, but the two were not planning to do that and were merely using this for cover as they proceeded forward, peeking their heads out from time to time to see if they had the enemies in sight and continuing to crawl forward when they spotted no one. Eventually, Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer spied two enemy players ahead that were also doing their scouting from the opposite side.

"You really are my lucky star! Leave these two guys to me!" Svelte Dancer happily said to Gu Fei as she activated Fleetfoot to charge at the enemies.

Svelte Dancer differed from the other Thieves in this aspect. Usually, Thieves would avoid being spotted by others and focused on launching a sneak attack on their enemies. Thieves had low HP after all, so they would be risking their lives if they met the opponents head on. But with Svelte Dancer's fast speed and top-grade equipment that provided her high defense and Attack Power, she was more than capable of taking any opponent head on.

"My prey..." Gu Fei muttered to himself as he saw her pounce forward to where the two enemies were. Given Svelte Dancer's speed, he simply had no way of catching up to snatch the prey from her, and he had indeed been reduced to trailing behind Svelte Dancer.

Meanwhile, the two enemy players had also caught sight of Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer and prepared themselves for combat. The two men were the conventional kind of Thieves, so they promptly activated their Stealth when they caught sight of a Mage and a Thief closing in on them.

"Ah! They're gone!" Svelte Dancer exclaimed as she slowed down her pace.

Gu Fei was still hurrying over from afar, so he could not really tell the exact locations of the enemies on Stealth. Not to mention that the two men had focused all their attention on to Svelte Dancer and had completely disregarded Gu Fei, making it harder for him to sense the presence of the invisible enemies.

The situation was quite perilous, yet Svelte Dancer still fearlessly exclaimed, "I know you guys are still here! Come out quickly!"

It was at this moment that one of the Thieves materialized from behind her and struck her with a large baton, causing a Dizzy status effect on Svelte Dancer that left her immobile.

An opportunity to kill the two by his hands had just emerged, and Gu Fei happily shouted, "Don't wake her up just yet!"

The Thief on Stealth and the visible Thief positioned themselves behind Svelte Dancer, as they were planning to use Backstab - the current thief skill with the highest damage output - on her together to kill her off. Gu Fei's shout left them stunned for a bit, but they naturally ignored his request and still plunged their daggers on to her back. And with that, Svelte Dancer was able to move again.

"Sigh…" Gu Fei said disappointedly, "I told you not to wake her up."

Wasting no time, Svelte Dancer pivoted on her heel once she was able to move again and killed off one of her assailants with a swish of her dagger.

To think that backstabbing this female Thief twice is not enough to kill her off… Her defense must be insanely high! While the Thief was still dazedly thinking this to himself, Svelte Dancer mercilessly stabbed him with her dagger.

Gu Fei did not manage to kill even one of the two enemies, leaving him utterly disappointed as he walked toward her.

Svelte Dancer cheerfully took out a loaf of bread from her dimensional pocket as she called out, " We'll continue onward after my HP is recovered."

Gu Fei helplessly nodded his head. If things continued on in this fashion, Svelte Dance might steal all his possible prey away from him!

As Svelte Dancer sat on the ground and ate her bread, Gu Fei peered all around them and saw a cloud of dust incessantly getting stirred in the distance. It was as if a large group of people were marching forward….

"Hey!" Gu Fei nudged the seated Svelte Dancer using his foot, "It appears that a large number of players are currently heading our way."

"Where?" Svelte Dancer, who had more or less recovered her HP, stood up and took a look. The cloud of dust was rolling closer with each passing second. Indeed, there appeared to be many people marching toward their direction at a steady pace. "From the looks of things, I expect there to be about two hundred players," she surmised.

"That's ridiculous. I say it's about one hundred," Gu Fei corrected.

"Let's bet on it!" Svelte Dancer said.

"What are we betting with?"

"1000 gold coins," Svelte Dancer answered.

Gu Fei did not say another word. Money was a sore issue for him right now.

Svelte Dancer did not pursue the matter anymore and just said, "They really are heading our way... In that case, just hide inside this trench and cast your spell from here! This way, I don't have to cover for you!"

"Okay," Gu Fei nodded his head in agreement, even thought he was not exactly thrilled at the prospect of instkilling his enemies with an AOE spell. In fact, Gu Fei disliked this sort of fighting style.

The two lay prone in the trench, watching their enemies' figures become more defined with each passing moment. As they continued to observe the approaching squad of enemies, they started to take note of something odd: the marching speed of their enemies.  Usually, the marching pace of a huge squad would never be fast, as there was a need for the faster players to match their speed with low-Agility job classes, such as Priests and Warriors. And yet, this particular squad was marching forward at a speed that was unlikely to be possessed by the low-Agility job classes. It was as if this squad was composed entirely of fast-moving individuals….

In a short while, the two finally saw that the advancing squad was entirely made up of Archers. Gu Fei recalled the term 'archer formation' that Royal God Call had used. Could it be referring to this squad of Archers before him?

It was at this moment that Svelte Dancer gave him a quick nudge, "They are about to close in on us; get ready!"

As Gu Fei nodded his head, the sound of arrows flying toward them reverberated. Judging from their speed and origin, the arrows were most likely under Snipe. The two swiftly ducked down and many arrows sailed past their heads, landing in the opposite wall of the trench that they were in.

"What sharp eyes they have!" the two exclaimed in unison. They barely peeked half their heads from that trench, yet the Archers easily spotted them from afar.

"Keep on firing your arrows!" said Youthful Reflection, who was one of the core members from that guild. He was the one leading this marching squad of Archers, and he had no intention of stopping the assault now that two enemies had been spotted. 

Over a hundred Archers nocked their arrows and drew their bows, releasing another volley on their targets. Upon their released, the arrows blanketed the sky and created a gusty wind. The arrows did not fly straight to Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer but arched high up in the sky before diving toward the trench.

In real life, an arrow's range was influenced by how much strength and force an individual applied when he or she was nocking an arrow. This was not the case in Parallel World, and how far the in-game Archers could actually shoot out their arrows was determined by a combination of their equipment and the distance boost provided by their skills, such as Power Shot or Snipe. The in-game archery was easier to master, so one did not actually have to practice that long like in reality to get the hang of firing different types of shots. In a way, the landing spots for the arrows were something that was already predetermined, as the range and distance covered by arrows were all decided by the game's algorithm and data. With enough practice, one would find the arrows he or she fired off to be oddly accurate in hitting the intended spot.

The arrows currently peppering the trench were like a horde of locusts, and the two did their best to find some sort of cover within. Although the arrows were not under any archer skills, ending their lives would be easy under such a heavy barrage.

"I'll cover for you; bombard them with your spells," Svelte Dancer frantically yelled to Gu Fei.  When she tried to leap out of the trench, Gu Fei had to practically hold her back, "Don't be silly! There are too many of them."

"What do we do, then?!"

"We're moving to another spot." Gu Fei dragged Svelte Dancer along the trench as they deflected every arrow coming their way with their weapons. This shooting style of arrows relied on gravity, so the speed that the arrows were falling on the ground was not especially fast.

The trench seemed to be aiding the two immensely, as the first turn actually led them to the archer formation's flank. The squad of Archers was still busy firing waves after waves of arrows to Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer's previous location, causing Gu Fei to sigh in relief, "Our counterattack starts here."

The two then leaped out of the ditch. Unfortunately, the enemies were still outside of the range of Gu Fei's AOE spells, so the two of them hurriedly ran toward the enemies' formation in order to get close enough to hit them with spells. But the enemy squad had of course noticed those two's new position when they leaped out of the ditch, and Youthful Reflection proceeded to calmly commanded, "Formation B."

The Archers changed their position following his command and once more had their arrows facing the two members of Amethyst Rebirth.

While the two were feeling stunned by the Archers' change in formation, Youthful Reflection yelled, "FIRE!"

Over a hundred arrows were once more sailing toward Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer like angry locusts. This time, the arrows were flying straight to them. Since the Archers had aimed for the whole surface, the two would have no place to dodge the incoming arrows. Be it left or right, they would be struck dead by the projectiles coming their way.

"Get back in! Get back in!" The two could only dash toward the trench that they had just vacated.

The ditch was just a few steps from them, but the arrows sailing toward them were very fast. Svelte Dancer might make it into the ditch in time, yet Gu Fei who had a slower speed than her would definitely not.

No tears came out of Gu Fei's eyes despite despair settling inside him. Unexpectedly, Svelte Dancer did not sprint to the trench but positioned herself behind Gu Fei instead. She then gave Gu Fei a shove, allowing the latter to not only stumble forward a bit faster but also to be shielded from a few arrows by her.

The two tumbled into the trench and hundreds of arrows went sailing past their heads once more in the next moment.

A few arrows were lodged into her back, but Svelte Dancer managed to remain alive. Panting heavily, she hurriedly munched on a loaf of bread as she said, "We can't rush over!"

"Yeah!" Gu Fei agreed, saying, "No amount of speed will help us deal with this archer formation, unless we can blink into their midst."

"'Blink'?" Svelte Dancer stiffened, asking, "Say, are you at level 40 yet?"

Gu Fei nodded his head.

"And you chose to become a Lightning Mage?"

As Gu Fei nodded his head once more, Svelte Dancer reached into her pocket, "Does that mean you can use this?"

Gu Fei took the item off of her hands. It was a permanent skill scroll for Blink.

Chapter 189 - Translocation

"Where did you get this?" Gu Fei asked, dumbfounded.

Svelte Dancer pouted indignantly, "It is the crappy game company's fault. They did not explain things properly… I thought I could create a unique skill tree through the use of the permanent skill scrolls. After purchasing this Blink Scroll, I was told by the system that I have to become a Lightning Mage to use it." For the players, game companies would always be the ones at fault whenever there was something that did not go as intended.

Gu Fei asked, "So how many skill scrolls did you manage to collect?"

"Why would I buy more after getting tricked into purchasing this one?" Svelte Dancer knocked Gu Fei's head dismissively.

"So you've only gotten one skill scroll, and it happened to be Blink. Are you sure you're not MY lucky star, instead?" Gu Fei said as he placed his hands on the scroll. Light flashed between Gu Fei's fingers and entered his body. The system then notified Gu Fei that he had learned a new spellㅡTranslocation: Blink.

"You've used it?" It was Svelte Dancer's turn to be flabbergasted this time.

"Yup!" Gu Fei answered as he opened up his skill window and read the following description: [In exchange for a certain amount of mana, the caster can bend time and space to instantly appear at the place he or she is thinking of...]

Killing intent! Gu Fei felt shocked at the intense killing intent emanating from someone near him. He turned his head and saw Svelte Dancer glaring at him with murder in her eyes, as if she was moments away from tearing Gu Fei apart.

"What?" Gu Fei hurriedly asked.

"Who said you could use it?!" Svelte Dancer asked angrily.

"Then why did you pass it to me?" Gu Fei was at a loss.

"I just wanted to show it to you!" Svelte Dancer replied.

"But you can't use it!" Gu Fei reasoned.

"I could sell it! That's still money!" Svelte Dancer screamed in frustration.

"Why don't you sell it to me, then?" Gu Fei bargained.

Svelte Dancer immediately stuck her hand out, "2000 gold coins."

"So expensive…" Gu Fei stuck his tongue out in defeat.

"I bought it for 1800 gold coins, so I'm only earning 200 gold coins from you," Svelte Dancer was quite transparent when it came to doing business.

Gu Fei nodded his head and stuck a hand inside his dimensional pocket. He retrieved his coin purse and passed it over to Svelte Dancer.

His casualness about the whole affair surprised Svelte Dancer. Taking the purse, she muttered, "I didn't know that you're actually a wealthy man..."

Gu Fei sheepishly smiled, "There are only 200 gold coins inside that. Consider that as the profit you've made. As for the scroll's purchase price, I'll pay you back in installment since I don't have that much money on me."

Svelte Dancer grudgingly accepted the payment from Gu Fei after she counted the money in the pouch and confirmed that there were indeed only 200 gold coins inside. As for whether Gu Fei would really fork out the other 1800 gold coins eventually, she could only hope that he truly was a man of his word.

"I'll appear in their formation and cast a spell while they are still confused. Cover me a little," Gu Fei smoothened his robe. At this moment, the Archers of Traversing Four Seas were still peppering them with arrows, yet those did not pose any threat to the two given their fast speed. Once Svelte Dancer fully recovered her HP, the two leaped out of the trench once more.

"Translocation! Blink!" Gu Fei promptly chanted once he regained his balance. To use this defensive skill, Gu Fei had to point at the direction he wished to teleport to as he chanted. In this case, the location was the very center of the Traversing Four Seas' archer formation.

Meanwhile, Svelte Dancer darted in front of Gu Fei and used her body and dagger to block the arrows heading their way.

Gu Fei felt the space around him distort upon completing the incantation. While the Thieves would become blurry and transparent when using Stealth or Vanish, Mages would appear as if they were torn apart when using Blink. Right now, the nearby players saw Gu Fei's figure shatter like pieces of glass that faded into nothingness in the next moment. 

When Gu Fei completed his spell chanting, a second spatial distortion also appeared at the same time at some place else on the PvP arena. Compared to how his figure cracked and disappeared into thin air at his initial location, the enemies could witness the sight of the shattered pieces of glass reforming into Gu Fei's figure over in that location.

Translocation: Blink was truly instantaneous. Gu Fei barely blinked his eyes and the scenery before him had already changed to that of another location. He turned around to look at where he had originally been and saw that Svelte Dancer was still blocking the arrows over there. That was also when he realized one big problem: His Blink did not allow him to reach the intended location that he had pointed to moments ago.

Gu Fei was behind Svelte Dancer moments ago, and yet he was now barely five meters in front of her even after he had casted Blink - a long way off from the position he had pointed to just then!

"Why did you blink there for?!" Svelte Dancer fumed.

"I don't know!" Gu Fei was at a loss. He was certain that his finger had not pointed wrongly, so why was he only teleported at such a short distance?

The skill description for Blink did not mention a limitation for the distance that a player could travel; it only mentioned that the distance one could travel would be proportionate to the mana consumed. Glancing at his mana pool, he saw that it had barely been reduced. Therefore, it was definitely not an issue of insufficient mana that had caused the disparity in the distance he had traveled.

Before he could make sense of what had happened, the enemies had already launched their second volley of arrows. And this time, the arrows were fired off under the effect of Homing Projectile that traced after its enemies. Compared to the other skills, the distance covered by this skill was actually shorter, but these five meters that Gu Fei had suddenly advanced to had effectively brought him into a range where Homing Projectile could reach him.

Ever since the squad of Archers started their assault from the very beginning, Youthful Reflection had been slowly steering the Archers closer to the trench as they fired off arrows precisely because he wanted the two's hiding place to enter Homing Projectile's range. This way, the two targets would certainly be eliminated once their heads appeared out of the trench again. But that was no longer necessary, as Gu Fei had just kindly delivered himself to them. The Archers did not hesitate to fire off arrows on Homing Projectile at him, and dozens of arrows could be seen coming straight toward Gu Fei's direction in the next moment.

One could not actually 'dodge' the arrows empowered by the Homing Projectile skill, and getting rid of these arrows was only possible by either deflecting them all or running until the skill duration ended. For Gu Fei, of course he could deflect several of them, but he had no way of parrying all hundreds of arrows at once. Even Svelte Dancer had given up on covering for Gu Fei when she saw this scene, as she knew deep down that it was unlikely for him to escape this aerial assault. With a sigh, she chose to return into the safety of the trench.

Gu Fei desperately tried to throw out a spell at the Archers, but this attempt ended in failure as dozens of arrows lodged themselves into Gu Fei's body, eliminating him without suspense.

Just as he was sent out of the PvP arena and into the plaza by the Main Hall of Guilds, Royal God Call's message arrived: "Did you just use Blink?" Royal God Call was part of the Traversing Four Seas' archer formation and was even one of the Archers that had fired off arrows on Homing Projectile at Gu Fei. Therefore, he clearly witnessed everything that had just occurred in the skirmish.

"Yup," Gu Fei answered.

"Where did you get its skill scroll?" Royal God Call asked.

"I bought it from Svelte Dancer," Gu Fei replied.

"How much?"

"2000 gold coins."

"You're really rich!" Royal God Call exclaimed admiringly.

"I'm paying it in installment… I've only paid her 200 gold coins for now," Gu Fei admitted.

"She is rich, anyway... and given how close you two are, you should have just asked her to give it to you as a gift!" Royal God Call remarked.

"We're just friends. And being rich is no reason for one to gift people things arbitrarily," Gu Fei lectured Royal God Call.

"Tsk!" Royal God Call ignored his words.

"How is Svelte Dancer faring?" Gu Fei was busy being skewered by arrows that he did not have the time to check on Svelte Dancer's situation.

"She nimbly hid back inside that trench," Royal God Call informed him.

"Finish that fight quickly. Come and experiment Blink with me once you're done," Gu Fei said.

Gu Fei's carelessness on relying on a new-found spell had caused him his death. With him being defeated, even just handling twenty or thirty Archers alone would be a tall order for Svelte Dancer to overcome, let alone clashing with the entire archer formation of Traversing Four Seas all by herself.

The match ended just as expected. Each of the ladies scattered all over the map was found and killed off, letting Traversing Four Seas secure an easy victory. Amethyst Rebirth was finally put down and would no longer be able to mess around in the guild versus guild tournament. Given the guild's strength, it was already fortunate of Amethyst Rebirth to make it this far in the PvP tournament.

The ladies knew their limits well. Honestly speaking, the ladies were not really saddened by their elimination from the guild versus guild tournament as they were not that interested in it in the first place. When everyone was sent out of the PvP arena, they merely expressed a few casual remarks about losing the match before putting the entire matter behind and leaving cheerfully to do their businesses.

In the end, Svelte Dancer seemed to be the only one that was truly saddened by losing the match. She had been busying herself by participating in the mercenary and guild tournaments, but with the elimination of her mercenary group and guild, she was suddenly left without a purpose and was currently feeling very depressed.

As for Gu Fei, he was also feeling very despondent over losing such a viable reason to slay people with no consequences. He and Svelte Dancer shared a moment of depression until Royal God Call squeezed his way out of Traversing Four Seas and found the two of them sitting at the corner of a wall.

Royal God Call temporarily abandoned his passion for magic when he saw the beautiful Svelte Dancer. Cheerfully greeting her, his eyes barely registered Gu Fei's existence.

Svelte Dancer was currently in a bad mood. She easily surmised that Royal God Call was part of the enemy camp's annoying archer formation upon seeing him here and knowing his job class, so Svelte Dancer barely greeted him. Singing a sorrowful song, she swiftly left.

"Ah… Her voice is so melodious," Royal God Call said as he watched her walk away.

"Grape!" Gu Fei called out.

"Ah!" Royal God Call quickly turned around with a solemn expression on his face, yet he found not even a trace of Grape.

Gu Fei sobbed in his heart. Royal God Call was truly the type of man who lusted for every lady. Compared to Sakurazaka Moony, Royal God Call was actually more reprehensible.

Royal God Call realized that Gu Fei had just been teasing him when he saw no traces of Grape. He felt slightly embarrassed inside, so he hurriedly changed the subject and engaged Gu Fei in a discussion about the Translocation: Blink spell. Royal God Call asked Gu Fei to explain in greater detail his status at that time of using the spell - chanting speed, finger and eyes' direction, etc. 

Gu Fei was dumbfounded when Royal God Call began a lengthy tirade about ten possible reasons for being teleported by the skill short of the intended location. At the end of his speech, Royal God Call casually asked, "So which among these do you think is the reason behind it?"

"I think it's because I just learned the skill. My low proficiency in it prevented me from being teleported far," Gu Fei felt quite ashamed of his rudimentary gaming knowledge.

"Oh… That - That's probably a reason, too," Royal God Call was actually feeling more ashamed than Gu Fei inside for not considering that possibility.

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Chapter end