Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 195 - Getting Him to Reveal Himself

Gu Fei, Sword Demon, and Royal God Call were too fast for them, so Silver Moon commanded his men to focus on the other three slower opponents, instead. But as soon as Young Master Han, War Without Wounds, and Brother Assist started running away, Silver Moon realized that the three were simply too far away, so he let out a sigh and ordered his men to stop chasing after the three.

Silver Moon’s sigh did not escape Gu Fei, Sword Demon, and Royal God Call’s keen eyes. Gu Fei could not be bothered to converse with Silver Moon, while Sword Demon lacked interest in a war of words. Only Royal God Call was childish enough to make fun of Silver Moon for it, “Silver Moon bro, do we really have to continue this fight? Why don’t you people just kill yourselves to save us the trouble?”

“This sh*tty brat! What are you insinuating?!” Although their situation was indeed dire, Silver Moon’s fellow mercenaries refused to take Royal God Call’s insulting words lying down and immediately hurled back slurs at him. Silver Moon was actually the only one who had not responded to Royal God Call’s taunting and merely continued to ponder on a solution to their predicament.

Royal God Call was filled with despicable pride as he continued to wage verbal war with the enemies. Gu Fei steadily munched on his fruit, and Sword Demon relayed the information based on his use of Appraisal to Young Master Han, Brother Assist, and War Without Wounds.

Sword Demon had tried appraising Silver Moon’s golden sword for several times already, but he had failed to find out anything about the item in the end. For a weapon’s traits and stats to still remain unknown despite being appraised by someone with a high ranking for the Appraisal skill, it could only mean that the weapon itself was a higher level weapon like Gu Fei’s Moonlit Nightfalls.

“I’ll get closer to Appraise it myself!” Brother Assist was unwilling to let this opportunity go, especially since it was his passion to uncover the secrets of unknown items. He then proceeded to climb up the small hill with War Without Wounds and Young Master Han.

Silver Moon could not fathom why their three enemies were suddenly advancing toward them instead of fleeing, but it was actually a good thing for him, so he acted as if he did not notice their movement and averted his gaze to the acrimonious verbal exchange happening next to him. All the while, he was telling his companions on the mercenary channel to prepare themselves for a fight at any given time and to try and take down the enemies in one fell swoop.

However, Young Master Han and the two others only proceeded up to where Gu Fei and the rest were and explained Brother Assist’s intention.

“Is your Appraisal’s rank higher than mine?” Sword Demon asked.

“Maybe my luck will be better than yours,” Brother Assist replied, putting on the air of an expert. As long as a matter did not involve fighting, Brother Assist was more than willing to be boastful. “I’m off!” Brother Assist said this in a tone that sounded as if he was bound for a kamikaze trip. A certain distance was required for the Appraisal skill to work, and since he did not have the speed of Gu Fei or the other speed demons in Young Master’s Elite, he was not sure if he could make it back after getting close to the enemies.

“Must you be this persistent in finding out just what sword he is using?!” someone tried to dissuade Brother Assist from taking the risk.

“It’s a hobby,” Brother Assist smiled.

“We’ll cover you,” Gu Fei said, somewhat understanding the mentality of someone passionate over something.

Young Master Han, for his part, reacted indifferently, “Actually, you guys don’t need to assist him. We are currently ahead by 3 kill points against them. Giving them 1 kill point won’t affect our group’s victory.”

Everyone could not believe how indifferent Young Master Han was about the life and death of a comrade.

“What Young Master said makes sense. Plus, I haven’t been of much use in this match!” Brother Assist agreed.

“No can do! We’re friends, after all!” Royal God Call exclaimed emphatically. When everyone threw him a disgusted look, he asked perplexedly, “Did I say something wrong?”

“You didn’t, but—” Gu Fei began.

“—But as a group of adults, what you’ve said is cringe-worthy,” Young Master Han finished.

Even Brother Assist laughed at this and said, “It’s good to be young”, before walking toward Silver Moon.

“F*CK! It’s not like you guys are that much older than me!” Royal God Call exclaimed indignantly.

“The point is that we’re not as young and naive as you are!” War Without Wounds had on an expression as if he had seen much in life.

“F*ck off! You’re the old one, alright!” Royal God Call shouted at War Without Wounds.

War Without Wounds lifted his arm with a glare, but Royal God Call had already run off far from him.

The ones who really took actions to words were Sword Demon and Gu Fei. When each of them flanked Brother Assist’s left and right as they followed him toward Silver Moon, Sword Demon and Gu Fei could not help but smile at each other for doing the same thing. Young Master Han expressionlessly stared at the two, unimpressed by their action.

“There’s really no need...” Brother Assist persuaded the two to return to the group.

“I wanna try my luck again,” Sword Demon said.

“I need to train my Appraisal as well, so I can’t let this chance go,” Gu Fei said.

Brother Assist no longer insisted and just smiled at the two as they made their way up the hill together.

Atop the hill, Silver Moon continued to monitor the enemies’ activity below. He could not eavesdrop on the their conversation, so he had no idea on why the three men were making their way up the hill.

The members of Young Master’s Elite should logically be distancing themselves from his group to safeguard their victory for this match, yet three of them were actually heading this way. Just what were they trying to achieve?

Furthermore, there was a Knight among them. Silver Moon was a Knight himself, so he could say with surety that it was not a job class that could determine the match’s outcome.

Suspicion filled his heart and he hesitated over whether his group should attack or defend right now. The confidence he had to defeat his current opponents with his ability to buff his comrades had long disappeared ever since they managed to kill three of his men.

Compared to when Gu Fei approached them by himself earlier, Silver Moon and company felt even more anxious right now at the sight of the three men of Young Master’s Elite nearing them.

“Huddle up! Watch your backs,” Silver Moon barked this order.

The remaining seven men stood closer to one another, with the two Guardians bracing their large shields to the front, Silver Moon and the Priest occupying the center, and the three other Warriors flanking the sides according to instructions. One Warrior stood facing the right, another faced the left, and the last one faced the rear. This was done to prevent Gu Fei from catching them by surprise when he blinked himself anywhere around them.

“F*ck!” Seeing such a formation, Gu Fei and the others could only curse aloud.

With Silver Moon hidden behind the two Guardians’ raised shields, how was Brother Assist going to appraise him?

The trio moved to the enemies’ flank, but this only caused Silver Moon’s formation to turn in response. The three found themselves facing the two large shields in their general direction no matter which direction they moved, making even Gu Fei annoyed.

“Oi! Call Silver Moon out!” Gu Fei went from passive to active.

A gap appeared between the two large shields, yet Silver Moon did not show his face. Rather, he bellowed from behind the shield wall, “Miles bro, why are you calling for me?”

“To talk,” Gu Fei replied.

“Speak, then.”

“It’s better if you show your face first,” Gu Fei insisted.

“Oh? There’s nothing to talk about, then.” The more Silver Moon heard from Gu Fei, the more fearful he grew of showing his face, as he fully assumed that they had prepared some sort of trap to kill him off.

Gu Fei shrugged helplessly at Brother Assist and Sword Demon.

“Guess there’s no other way. Let’s leave,” Brother Assist sighed.

“What?! Why?” Gu Fei asked.

“Well... How can we appraise him if he’s unwilling to appear before us?” Brother Assist replied with a question.

“If he’s not showing himself, we’ll just create an situation that would force him to do just that!” Gu Fei declared resolutely.

“How can that be done?” Brother Assist asked.

“I’ll just kill everyone else,” Gu Fei pulled out his sword.

“Don’t be so rash!” Sword Demon and Brother Assist tried to stop him.

The two Guardians in charge of observing the enemies’ motion immediately exclaimed to the men behind them, “That Mage has pulled out his sword.”

“Pay close attention to your surroundings, everyone! He is about to use Blink!” Silver Moon hurriedly warned.

“Translocation! Blink!” Gu Fei chanted.

Gu Fei disappeared with a swish from his spot and instantly materialized behind the Silver Moon’s PvP formation, promptly stabbing his sword backward.

The Warrior behind thought that he had gained the upper hand when he saw Gu Fei appear before him with his back turned, but Gu Fei unexpectedly stabbed his sword backward without even turning around. This was Gu Fei’s fighting style that always strove to deliver the quickest and smoothest attacks possible, making him seem fast and indomitable.

The Warrior, who had tried to attack first, ended up blocking Gu Fei’s backhanded stab instead. Unfortunately for the Warrior, Gu Fei had just cast Twin Incineration while thrusting his sword at an angle that no ordinary people could defend against. The combination of the spell’s magic damage and sword’s physical damage had just ensured the Warrior’s death.

The other mercenaries of Silver Moon did not just watch their comrade die in vain, and they moved in to unleash their own attacks on Gu Fei. The two Guardians lifted their shields in an attempt to clamp Gu Fei down from both ends.

“Not this again!” Gu Fei hollered. Choosing not to evade the shields this time, he instead fished out Sacred Flames of Baptism from his dimensional pocket and positioned it before him horizontally.

The Chinese broadsword’s width was wider than a man’s girth, so it effectively prevented the two shields from trapping Gu Fei between them once more. He then stamped the two shields down with his legs to propel himself upward. Gu Fei’s meager Strength was of course not enough to kick the two Guardians away, but it was still sufficient to help lift his body upward, and he succeeded in leaping away to escape the two shields’ entrapment by doing that. Borrowing the momentum of his falling body, Gu Fei cleaved his sword downward to one of the Guardian, and the sound of metal cutting metal could be heard echoing in the next instant.

The damage inflicted on the Guardian by Moonlit Nightfalls’ basic attack was actually not much, but the deafening sound of Gu Fei’s strike fooled everyone nearby into thinking that he had managed to cut the Guardian in half. It was only when the Guardian turned around that everyone realized that he was still alive.

“Twin Incineration! Incinerate!” The cool-down time ended for Twin Incineration that he had cast earlier, so Gu Fei quickly cast another one and powered his sword slash to the Guardian and the Warrior beside him with it.

The Guardian survived the blow, but the other Warrior did not, and the latter disappeared in a flash of white light.

Actually, Gu Fei’s attack was not just powered by Moonlight Nightfalls’ Physical Damage and Spell Damage, but also by the sword’s ‘10% chance of dealing Fatal Blow’ trait. Moreover, Gu Fei had items that increased his chances of proccing the additional fire attack. It was when all these effects stacked together that Gu Fei’s damage could be viewed as powerful beyond belief.