Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 236 - A Little Bit of Mana

The Black Hand mercenary group! Gu Fei could not help but do a double-take at the people standing before him upon hearing that name. They were people he and the rest of Young Master’s Elite would be facing in the finals of the mercenary PvP tournament, after all.

Judging from their attire, Monologue under the Moon was a Priest, and the other three were a Warrior, a Thief, and a Mage. While the members of the small guild showed a fearful look on their faces upon learning of Gu Fei’s identity as the Insta-kill Mage, the four men had self-assured stances.

Gu Fei determined these four men’s intention and addressed the small guild, “Did you guys hire a mercenary group to help you? So you guys are confident of accomplishing this quest and don’t plan to give it up?”

“Aren’t you guys the same?!” the opposing guild retorted.

“We?” Gu Fei looked at his students and laughed bitterly. Not only was he helping these students complete their quest for free, he was also going to give them equipment when they got back... How was he a hired mercenary in this case?

Seeing that the other side was not willing to back down, Gu Fei simply pulled out his Moonlit Nightfalls and pointed it toward them, “Since this is how it’s going to be, I won’t be courteous then! Twin Incineration! Incinerate!” Gu Fei flicked his sword to his left and right. Two Thieves on Stealth faded into view with a surprised expression on their faces before disappearing once more.

Gu Fei saw a similar expression on everyone’s face whenever he managed to hit a Thief who was on Stealth. He really wanted to tell all the Thieves out there to stop trying to attack him while on Stealth, since it was useless against him. And if the Thieves chose to use Stealth still, they should at least careful on how they attacked him with it. “I have an item that can counter Stealth, so don’t—” Gu Fei was trying to tell these players about the redundancy of their action when he was interrupted by a cry from one of his students standing behind him. A Thief seemed to have carefully mixed into the crowd of students to stealthily dispose of the Brigand leader that was already in a critical condition. In the end, the Thief accidentally stepped on a student’s foot and got revealed.

This made Gu Fei’s kind words seem like a lie. Didn’t you just say that you have equipment that counters Stealth? Our man has already sneaked into your group without you realizing it, so what lie are you spouting?! Still, Gu Fei had indeed killed off those two Thieves that had been trying to sneak up on him. Everyone was baffled and went into deep thought about this.

What else could that lone enemy Thief within the group of students expect at this point? He tried to get out of the group, but the students were no pushovers, so he was very handily defeated by the joint attack of over twenty of them.

Although his death was tragic, he was still luckier than those two Thieves that that had died by Gu Fei’s attack. Ultimate Class 3 and the opposing guild were in the middle of a competitive quest, and only one of these two sides was bound to succeed in it. Since the only way to resolve this matter was through PvP, the game officials did not wish to be vicious with the players. Therefore, during the competitive quest, the PvP penalty for the players on either side would be under a different set of rules. Players who died during this PvP engagement would not lose a whole level but would instead lose 20% of their experience points. In addition, killing a player would not add PK value on either side’s individual.

As for Gu Fei, he technically did not belong to either side. Anyone he killed would be dictated by the traditional PvP rules. Hence, those two Thieves he had killed off just lost a level each as Gu Fei’s PK value had increased by 2 points.

On the flipside, those members of The Black Hand mercenary group shared the same condition with Gu Fei. Had they taken up this mercenary mission from the system, they would have enjoyed the exemptions of the competitive quest. Although they would suffer a slightly harsher penalty of a 30% experience loss instead of the 20%, it was still better than losing a whole level outright. Since The Black Hand and the small guild conducted this business deal privately, the four men would not experience this protection of the system for this mission.

The members of Ultimate Class 3 became bolder with the swift deaths of the opposing small guild’s three men and they began to clamor about taking down the opponents in one fell swoop.

“What are you making a ruckus for?!” Gu Fei bellowed at them. When all the students instantly became subdued, he commanded, “Line up and head back to the city!”

“Ah?!” the students expressed their shock.

“Leave this to me,” Gu Fei solemnly said.

“Sir!” All the students felt touched. Since they did not know that their teacher’s favorite pastime was to PvP, they were adamant about not leaving Gu Fei to his death while they got away unscathed.

Left with no other choice as he could not possible kill his students to send them back to the city, he could only helplessly say, “Retreat over to the side, then. Let teacher here give you guys a lesson on PvP.”

The word ‘lesson’ immediately gave the students goosebumps, and each of them showed an annoyed expression.

“Wait till you see teacher’s kung fu!” Gu Fei had long wanted to demonstrate his kung fu to his students, but he had regrettably never had a chance to do so in reality.

“Oh, no! Teacher has gone crazy again,” the students whispered this to one another.

“Teacher really knows kung fu!” Ah Fa seriously told his fellow classmates.

“Oh, my! Ah Fa has gone crazy, too!”

“Is this the side effect of playing Parallel World for long?” they began to wonder.

It was Gu Fei’s turn to give them a withering look. Thinking that he could only prove it to the students through his actions, he took two steps forward.

“Seems like we can only settle this through PvP.” Monologue under the Moon still had that faint smile on his lips. He had already carefully observed the enemies’ composition; besides Gu Fei, the other twenty-four players were very young and therefore lacked enough combat experience. He could not help but wonder about the nature of this group. Whatever the case might be, their only opponent right now was Gu Fei alone and the others could easily be dealt with after.

“Come on, then!” The small guild’s players did not move and merely looked at Monologue under the Moon and his three other companions.

Gu Fei was undoubtedly a formidable foe, and getting killed by him would cause them to lose level. They felt that they should not waste the gold coins that they had spent hiring these members of The Black Hand mercenary group, and they prepared to use the four men to hold Gu Fei down long enough for them to bully the kids.

The twenty-three men’s goal was to complete the quest by killing off the Brigand leader, after all, so they actually did not need to eliminate many of the enemy players. Whether they would continue to fight afterward or not would depend on their opponents’ reaction.

Gu Fei, meanwhile, already resolved to resist them. Since this PvP was for his students, Gu Fei abandoned his favorite method of diving head-first into the enemies’ ranks to fight them in close combat. Wielding the Moonlit Nightfalls in hand, he cast Descending Wheel of Flames and Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno.

Avoiding Gu Fei’s spells was simply a mind game. His current opponents scattered about when they heard him chanting. When nothing happened after Gu Fei had finished his chanting, they stopped running away and hesitated over whether to attack him or not. Before long, however, flames sprouted from beneath the ground and a circle of fire emerged in the sky. These enemies that faced Gu Fei for the first time were utterly dumbfounded at the scene unfolding before them. Those who had unluckily fled into the AOE of Gu Fei’s preemptively cast spell were expectedly insta-killed.

“YAY!” all the students cheered.

Gu Fei eyed Monologue under the Moon and the other three men of The Black Hand mercenary group. These four were indeed experts. Gu Fei had included them into his trap, yet they had very easily avoided his spell. Deducing Gu Fei’s intention was easy once an opponent had understanding of his unique points.

When Gu Fei was chanting an incantation, there was no need for a player to run away in a hurry. Instead, he or she should note where Gu Fei was pointing at. Walking away slowly from that spot would do. In fact, that was how Brave Surge had previously escaped Gu Fei’s AOE spell.

Looks like I’ll have to fight at close range, Gu Fei said to himself as he rushed over to them.

“Miles bro, you can probably only cast one spell, right?” the opponent laughed.

“You guys have a pretty good understanding of my capabilities,” Gu Fei commended. He had used Twin Incineration to kill the two Thieves from before. With the two AOE spells he had just unleashed, he only had enough mana to cast one last powerful spell.

“There are many of us here; are you planning to kill us all?” Monologue under the Moon asked while chuckling.

“That’s what I’m good at,” Gu Fei replied as he darted toward him.

“Arctic Whirlwind!” the Water Mage in the midst of the enemies’ formation unleashed his spell by waving his staff about. Circling over Monologue under the Moon, Arctic Whirlwind headed toward Gu Fei.

Monologue under the Moon was a Priest, so he naturally did not intend to stay in the frontline of the skirmish. He promptly retreated to the back, as the Warrior and Thief flanked Arctic Whirlwind’s left and right and dove toward Gu Fei.

Three separate attacks headed toward Gu Fei in quick succession. Gu Fei originally intended to insta-kill the two players using Twin Incineration while he dispersed Arctic Whirlwind, but the opponents did not give him the chance to do so. Truly, the four players of The Black Hand had a good understanding of Gu Fei.

Gu Fei took several steps backward, yet the enemies did not press on together. Gu Fei’s sword point flicked and he suddenly activated his Blink, appearing right behind the enemy Mage with a swish.

This action was still within the enemies’ realm of expectation, though. Monologue under the Moon promptly bestowed Heal on to the Mage and smilingly said to Gu Fei, “Blink? Doesn’t that mean that you’re out of mana now?”

Gu Fei smiled back at him as his sword lashed out, yet this attack was directed at the magic staff that the Mage was holding.

“Ah!” the Mage exclaimed, clearly not expecting Gu Fei to do such a thing.

Arctic Whirlwind was a spell that could be controlled if it remained channeled. Not only did the Mage who was controlling Arctic Whirlwind get interrupted by his move, Gu Fei also managed to close in on him. Batting the Mage’s magic staff askew instead of attacking him caused Arctic Whirlwind to lose direction and to hit the Warrior beside it.

Gu Fei turned around and raised his sword, “Thunderbolt! Strike!”

A crackle of lightning arced down and struck a Thief dead center, instantly killing the player.

Gu Fei looked at Monologue under the Moon with a bright smile on his lips, “I’ve still got a little bit of mana.” With that, he held Moonlit Nightfalls in his left hand and pulled out Sacred Flames of Baptism with his right hand.

Monologue under the Moon raised his holy staff to bestow Heal, yet the sword on Gu Fei’s left hand landed on him at this point. Although it did not do much damage, it nevertheless successfully interrupted his casting.

“You may have the mana, but can you cast your skills?” Gu Fei asked with a smile on his lips. The enemy Mage had received two slashes from him by now.

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