Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 237 - Perfect record?

One of Gu Fei’s two slashes procced the additional fire attack. This was actually no surprise since Gu Fei’s proc rate for the additional fire attack was at 50%. However, the current players were not easy to insta-kill like in the past. Moreover, Gu Fei saw Monologue under the Moon incessantly bestowing Heal on the Mage he was trying to quickly dispose of. Meanwhile, the enemy Warrior's already slow movement speed was further slowed by his Mage companion’s recently cast Arctic Whirlwind. Since two or three meters would now take the Warrior quite some time to traverse, what more would the five-meter distance he had with Gu Fei?

Monologue under the Moon naturally did not foolishly stand there. Since Heal was not a skill that required proximity to its target to work, he could stand far away to counter Gu Fei’s ability to interrupt his Heal with a mere extension of his arm. Following this train of thought, Monologue under the Moon quickly retreated a few steps as he lifted his magic staff to chant once more.

“HIYA!” Gu Fei shouted. In the next instant, Monologue under the Moon’s eyes bulged as he saw Gu Fei’s Sacred Flames of Baptism fly toward him. Monologue under the Moon did not retreat very far, so the Chinese broadsword managed to strike his forehead, interrupting his Heal once more. Gu Fei then used the sword in his right hand to stab the Mage twice more. At close range, Gu Fei reduced the poor Mage into nothing but a punching bag. This was especially the case since the enemy Mage’s wish to receive Monologue under the Moon’s Heal never came to be.

Gu Fei’s stars aligned at the moment as his Moonlit Nightfalls’ Fatal Blow and his additional fire attack procced simultaneously. Given that the Physical Damage Gu Fei dealt was not low, the Mage could only throw Monologue under the Moon a resentful gaze before dying.

The Warrior only managed to arrive at the skirmish at this point and determinedly used the Charge skill at Gu Fei. Gu Fei nimbly dodged the moving block of metal hurtling toward him and casually slashed at Monologue under the Moon once more.

An unprotected Priest was as pitiful as an undefended Mage. Gu Fei flipped the dropped Sacred Flames of Baptism up in the air with his foot. Arming himself with his sword and the Chinese broadsword, he began to rain blows onto Monologue under the Moon with reckless abandon. Even his legs joined in on the fun and swiftly delivered brutal kicks to Monologue under the Moon from time to time.

Monologue under the Moon could only blame himself for striking at the wrong time. Gu Fei was usually not so unconstrained when he PvPed, so he failed to see the logic in executing attacks that would not deal damage. Unfortunately for his enemies, he was currently demonstrating the extent of his kung fu to his students! Monologue under the Moon had thus become the perfect recipient of all his attacks. The Warrior over by the side was in tears as well. The Freeze effect of Arctic Whirlwind had yet to end, so he could only watch Gu Fei unrelentingly attack Monologue under the Moon as they got further and further away from him. He really wanted to assist the Priest, yet his reduced speed would simply not allow it. He could only blame the fact that his friend Mage was wearing a lot of equipment that enhanced the effect of Freeze, causing it to last for such a long time.

The Priest Monologue under the Moon had no combat skill whatsoever, so he could only bear Gu Fei’s endless blows until he finally turned into a stream of white light. What was more infuriating was the way that Gu Fei had smiled at him right before his death, “See you later in the PvP match!”

It was already too late when the Warrior regained his normal movement speed, as the one-sided beating was already over. With his slow speed, his current dilemma was on how to catch up with Gu Fei if the latter decided to kite him. In the end, he was forced to bear the shame and watched as Gu Fei gave him a wide berth by returning to his students’ side.

Those players of the small guild had not once stepped in to assist the four members of The Black Hand when Gu Fei was bullying them and instead chose to risk their lives targeting Gu Fei’s students.

This small guild’s number was at a clear disadvantage after suffering one of Gu Fei’s spells, so the students laboriously managed to kill off three more of them. Defeating the small guild was only a matter of time now.

“I’m back!” Gu Fei yelled as he pointed his sword upward and roared, “Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno! Arise! Descending Wheel of Flames! Descend!”

Gu Fei smoothly chanted the spells, yet the players of the opposing guild that had learned their lesson last time did not flee and instead chose to locate where Gu Fei was pointing his sword.

Gu Fei was unfazed by their action and merely continued to point out a direction, causing the ones in that area to quickly flee for their lives. They had previously heard Monologue under the Moon and Gu Fei talk about the latter running out of mana, yet he had still managed to cast Thunderbolt after. Even when he was engaged in melee with them, his Twin Incineration seemed to flare from time to time as well. Facing the Insta-kill Mage, none of them dared to bet their lives on the possibility of Gu Fei running out of mana.

In the end, everyone who had scrambled to dodge the incoming spells was bamboozled. Gu Fei had truly run out of mana when he had cast that Thunderbolt spell.

When the small guild’s players became distracted by Gu Fei’s deadly might, the students were able to use that chance to send a hail of arrows and spells to them. Although the students did not have much power in their attacks, they still managed to severely injure their enemies. The students enthusiastically surged toward the enemies amid Gu Fei’s shout of: “Hey! Leave me some!”

“Sir, watch what we can do!” The students were still worried about Gu Fei, so they bravely and diligently eliminated the opposing guild, not sparing a bit of thought about Teacher Gu Fei’s true feelings.

Gu Fei stopped caring about his image as a teacher when he was presented with such a situation and just rolled up his sleeves to enter the fray and fight for kills with his students. The students uniformly pushed onward, leaving Gu Fei by himself to attack the center of the enemies’ formation. Ah Fa very anxiously called out from way behind, “Sir, escape quickly! I’m about to cast my spell!”

“Just cast it, then! I’ll dodge it once you do!” Gu Fei replied. He then waved his magic staff and cast Descending Wheel of Flames himself.

Gu Fei was well within the spell’s AOE and did not seem to have any intention of dodging it as he continued to slash at the enemies ruthlessly. His attacks forcefully prevented many enemies from escaping his Descending Wheel of Flames as well.

The flame wheel came crashing down with Gu Fei right in the midst of it. The small guild’s players were already in a precarious state due to their diminished HP, so quite a few of them were killed off after taking Ah Fa’s spell. Gu Fei glimpsed about him and quickly counted that seven men were left. Shocked, Ah Fa asked aloud from behind, “Sir, why didn’t you dodge it?!”

Gu Fei looked backward and could not help but deride, “Dodge what? Do you think you’re me?”

The students burst into laughter. Truly, Ah Fa’s Spell Damage was absolutely incomparable to Gu Fei’s.

Gu Fei’s Descending Wheel of Flames could easily send people back to the spawn points in the city if they chose to not dodge it, whereas Ah Fa’s flame wheel could definitely not insta-kill anyone who took it head on. As such, simply bearing the damage was no big deal.

Gu Fei’s sword rose and cut deeply, killing yet another player. He then proceeded to address the remaining six men, “So, shall we forget about this?”

The small guild’s leader had lost his life earlier in the battle, so none of the remaining six men could make a decision, unsure how of they should respond. Gu Fei glanced over and saw that The Black Hand’s Warrior was standing still by the other side.

He was an expert, after all, and could judge the situation better than the average players. Dying and losing a level for this mission was pointless since the enemies knew that his side no longer had the chance to emerge victorious.

“We’re all doing a quest, so we won’t be cruel. You guys can leave!” Gu Fei magnanimously waved his hand off to dismiss them. The six men exchanged glances before glancing over to The Black Hand’s Warrior. Unsure of how to broach this situation, the seven of them could only lower their head and leave accordingly.

Gu Fei turned back to look at his students and saw that they were grinning from ear to ear in their excitement at winning this fight as they bragged to one another about how wonderful they had performed in the PvP.

“Pipe down!” Gu Fei put his Chinese broadsword into his dimensional pocket and raised his sword, “Where’s our class monitor? Come out and bring us back to the city.”

“Class monitor is dead!” the students replied. Their voice did not have any trace of sadness and some of them even displayed gleeful expression at their classmate’s misfortune. Gu Fei suspected that this lot of brats had pushed their class monitor to bear the initial attack’s brunt; otherwise, why would they be so happy about it?!

After lining up and taking a headcount, the students realized that six of them had died as well. Fortunately, their deaths were at the hands of the opposing guild, so they only lost 20% of experience points for their current levels.

Their opponents had it worse. Most of them died by Gu Fei’s hands, so they naturally each lost a level. This was especially true of Monologue under the Moon and the two other members of The Black Hand. They had way higher levels compared to the small guild’s men, so the total amount of experience points that they had lost was scarily high.

“Alright. Let’s head back to the city!” Gu Fei motioned for the students to line themselves up and continue to head back to Yunduan City in cadence. All of them were currently feeling very excited, so they were incessantly chattering on the way back to the city.

These students now knew what the philosophy about ‘living a life under the shade of a big tree’ meant after this encounter. Had it not been for their Teacher Gu Fei, none of them would have stood a chance against anything by themselves. Even Ah Fa, the most powerful player among them, was incomparable to Gu Fei just from his “Do you think you’re me” question.

The students felt extremely excited, so Gu Fei refrained from dampening their spirits and merely beamed brightly as he followed behind the troop of students.

While the students were feeling elated at the fight’s outcome, those players who had suffered a defeat at the hands of Gu Fei were not feeling happy in the least. Naturally, this was how competitive quests went; the losing sides would usually bemoan their inability to complete their quests and the losses they incurred from the fights and would not really feel resentment toward their opponents.

In fact, it was Monologue under the Moon and the other members of The Black Hand that were feeling resentful. Since they failed to help their clients accomplish their competitive quest, they had to not only return the deposit but also pay compensation in accordance to their mercenary group’s rules to maintain a good image.

Simply put, although the small guild’s quest failed, the The Black Hand’s compensation would at least ease provide some relief to their bruised egos. As for The Black Hand’s four players, not only did three of them had lost their lives, they also had to pay compensation. What was worse was that their group’s track record of a 100% completion rate had been lost.

In hopes of salvaging this loss, Monologue under the Moon tried negotiating with their client, the small guild’s leader, when the latter asked for refund and subsequent compensation, “Has the quest indicated you’ve failed yet?”

“Uhh… Nope.”

“Do you wish to complete it, then?”

“Of course, we do.”

“How about we gather more manpower and try again? The price would still be the same as what we have previously agreed on; how about that?”

The small guild could not ask for anything more, so they quickly agreed.

“Mmm… Head over to the Hall of Mercenaries and submit an employment request. We’ll do this through the system this time.”

The small guild’s men quickly departed for the Hall of Mercenaries. People would definitely choose to go through the system upon knowing that their quests were a competitive type.

Monologue under the Moon reported this matter on the mercenary channel. Upon hearing that their clients’ opponents had employed the help of Young Master’s Elite, quite a few members expressed their interest in the matter and volunteered to participate in the operation. A new team was once more gathered within Yunduan City.