Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Young Master’s Elite was supposed to be at a disadvantage in this six-versus-eighty match, yet the six instead found themselves easily sweeping through the PvP arena and casually slaying any enemies they encountered along the way.

The High Cloud’s core members tried to gather their forces, but they could only muster a team of up to eleven men. While such a team would be enough to deal with any average six-man party, they were currently up against a group of top gaming experts. Therefore, the eleven men did not elicit even a sliver of apprehension in Young Master’s Elite that had the indomitable Gu Fei in it.

Since the capable members of Young Master’s Elite hardly sustained any injury as they took down the enemies on their path, Young Master Han rarely had to bestow Heal on them, so he merely continued drinking liquor to his heart’s content as he littered the map with his empty bottles. While his fellow mercenaries had no question regarding his capability to hold his liquor, they could not help but wonder as to how much liquid his stomach could contain. In the end, they concluded that this must be another area of realism that the system had decided to ignore.

Out of all of them, War Without Wounds was the most depressed. Gu Fei, Sword Demon, Royal God Call, and he were the damage dealers of their group, but he barely got any chance to kill any enemies since he possessed neither ranged attacks nor fast speed like the other three.

In no time at all, the participating players of High Cloud mercenary group dropped down to thirty, as the other fifty players were sent out of the PvP arena by Young Master’s Elite. War Without Wounds only managed to earn himself two kill points all this time, while Gu Fei naturally attained the highest number of kills.

Gu Fei’s prowess, Sword Demon’s determination, Royal God Call’s opportunism, Brother Assist’s endless blessings, Young Master Han’s alcoholism, as well as War Without Wounds’ forlorn wails created the identifying image of Young Master’s Elite in the hearts of many High Cloud’s men.

Young Master’s Elite barely encountered any new enemies now after reducing High Cloud’s numbers. But with a score of 50 against 0, Young Master’s Elite’s victory was as good as assured, so the six men were not in a hurry to pursue the remaining thirty players of High Cloud. Since the enemies took it upon themselves to scatter all over the map, the six men did not waste effort on employing the Grand Kiting strategy as well.

“Argh! It’s been so long since we last saw anyone!” Royal God Call had become the unofficial scout of Young Master’s Elite due to his Eagle Eye skill, and he continuously scanned their surroundings as their group leisurely proceeded forward. Royal God Call would often irresponsibly take advantage of his skill and ranged attack to sneakily shoot an arrow or two first at any sighted enemies before informing the rest of the group about them. Gu Fei and Sword Demon eventually learned to work with this; they would ignore anything Royal God Call said but would instantly become alert for any possible enemy movement once they saw him lift his bow.

“Ah!” Young Master Han suddenly exclaimed, “I’m out of liquor!” His right hand came away with nothing after rifling through his dimensional pocket for a long time. As everyone gawked at him, he emphatically declared, “Guess it’s about time for our final showdown!”

“Oh?” the five men expressed their puzzlement.

Young Master Han looked behind him, “I’ve left a trail of empty bottles as we advanced. If they truly intend to deal with us, they’ll track us through those. Since the thirty of them have yet to show themselves before us, I suppose that they must be preparing for one final attempt to take us down.”

“Do you mean to say that our opponents no longer plan to fight separately?” Brother Assist asked.

Young Master Han nodded his head, “We’ve killed fifty of them. They should know by now that we are difficult to deal with separately. With thirty of them gathered together, it will probably take some time for them to organize themselves, since they have never worked together before.”

“So how do you know that they are about to begin their final assault?”

“I don’t. I’m outta booze right now. I want us to quickly finish them off, so I can buy some,” Young Master Han replied.

“Tsk!” everyone scoffed.

“So how are we gonna deal with them now that they have gathered together?” Brother Assist asked.

“Surround them!” Gu Fei declared as he flourished his Moonlit Nightfalls that had already taken the lives of many enemies in today’s match.

“That’s a pretty bold move...” Brother Assist critiqued as his eyes darted to the rest of them, mainly lingering over at Young Master Han.

“Surround them... Mhm. That’s a pretty good idea!” Young Master Han actually expressed his agreement to Gu Fei’s suggestion.

This almost caused Brother Assist’s eyes to pop out, “Looks like even you can get drunk.” With that, he looked at the others. Sword Demon, Royal God Call, and War Without Wounds were eagerly rubbing their fists with a malevolent expression on their faces. War Without Wounds even declared, “F*ck, yeah! I’ll make sure to properly earn kill points this time!”

“Hey, is this really doable? There are thirty of them and there are only six of us!” Brother Assist reminded everyone.

“Your fighting experience is really lacking, Assist. It’s not even at the level of this noob Miles,” Royal God Call was wiping his bow when he said this. His eyes were steely and his body was firm. He had adopted a disposition akin to a hitman assembling the parts of his rifle piece by piece right before he made his killing.

Gu Fei had a placid smile on his lips as he pointed to himself, “I’m a professional slayer.”

“It’s going to be fine, Assist. You’re being too cautious.” It was Sword Demon’s words that had finally assured Brother Assist, as he had the most faith in their party’s most honest and reliable member.

“Look! Is that them over there?” Young Master Han pointed to a certain direction. While no human figure could be distinguished, dust could be seen getting disturbed in that direction.

Royal God Call exaggeratedly looked at the indicated direction with his Eagle Eye for a while before saying, “Looks like men are heading toward us.”

“Let’s go!” All lifted their weapons as they moved to advance toward the incoming enemies.

“Miles, take the 9 o’clock direction. Sword Demon, move to 12 o’clock as you clear a path for Royal to take the 3 o’clock direction. Wounds and Brother Assist, the three of us are taking the 6 o’clock direction!” Young Master Han commanded everyone.

Gu Fei, Sword Demon, and Royal God Call headed toward their assigned locations.

“Brother Assist, give me Blessing of Health!” War Without Wounds growled. His expression grew serious once the enemies appeared in his line of sight.

“Gotcha!” Brother Assist nodded his head. A Knight actually held a more important role in supporting others during a PvP than a Priest. In Parallel World, every character could only receive one stat buff at a given time, so while any type of blessing was welcome, the blessing that would best increase a player’s combat capability was still preferred. Unfortunately, even the most experienced combatants would not usually know which blessings would grant them best effects during fights.

A Knight that had limited exposure to direct clashes would naturally be hard pressed to determine this as well. Therefore, someone like Brother Assist who had a good grasp of all the job classes was crucial to solving this problem. However, it was not enough to just have a superficial understanding of the job classes and a player would also need to be well-versed in it. Such a harsh requirement made any Knights reluctant to claim mastery of their job class. Truly, being in the service industry was not easy.

The members of Young Master’s Elite were fortunately experts that could tell what sort of blessing they needed at a given time, so each of them would inform Brother Assist of which blessing they wished to be given every time. Right now, Brother Assist was only focusing on blessing War Without Wounds, which should theoretically let him reach what every Knight always dreamed of: constant blessing swap.

Technically speaking, a Warrior would need Blessing of Strength when attacking, Blessing of Resilience when being attacked physically, and Blessing of Vitality when being hit by a spell... This way of providing support was theoretically possible but was realistically unattainable at present, so Brother Assist could only trail after War Without Wounds and grant the type of blessing the latter would request.

At this moment, the thirty men that were fast approaching Young Master’s Elite spotted three men charging toward them in an imposing manner.

“Royal, it’s time to act. What are you waiting for?!” Young Master Han sent out this message on the mercenary channel.

Royal God Call immediately began his assault. A small hillock was in his sight at the 3 o’clock direction. Assuming a half kneeling and squatting position, he intertwined basic attacks with his skills and unleashed an arrow on Snipe to the approaching squad of thirty men.

“Over there! Over there!” Royal God Call always targeted the weaker-looking targets with his Snipe, insta-killing a Mage this time with his high Physical Damage. Although the enemies were fearful of him, several of them still tried to rush toward Royal God Call.

“Don’t go there! Archers, attack!” Cirrus, High Cloud mercenary group’s leader, anxiously issued this order. The men who were about to rush toward Royal God Call hesitantly halted their steps, as their Archers began firing arrows at Royal God Call.

No matter how high Royal God Call’s Attack Power was, he was only one man. With the Archer job class restriction of only being able to shoot a second arrow after the first arrow finished its attack, Royal God Call could only use the Double Shot skill to fire off two arrows consecutively. Thus, he was easily suppressed by the opponents once they ganged up on him.

“Sword Demon,” Young Master Han called out on the mercenary channel at this moment.