Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“Hahahaha!” Deep Waters laughed in great delight up on that rooftop.

The trap Svelte Dancer had triggered was not his Snare Shot, but one of the Hunter’s traps that his comrades had placed, which lasted for over a minute. No matter how amazing her equipment was, he doubted she had anything on her that would resist traps. Now that she had been ensnared, Svelte Dancer indeed had no tricks up her sleeves to extricate herself from it, so all she could do was grit her teeth and bear it.

Deep Waters celebrated on his end while he fired off another shot over to where Oathless Sword’s foot was. Everything was going as he had expected: The NPC Todd they had been escorting mindlessly followed Oathless Sword’s own footsteps, so now that Oathless Sword was standing still, Todd was also obediently standing by his side, immobile.

The other Hunters had scattered all over the steps by now and were all drawing their bows and targeting Svelte Dancer with their shots. This lady had run them haggard the whole time, so it was only natural they wanted to vent a little.

In the end, despite having so many arrows embedded all over her, Svelte Dancer still managed to stand her ground and survive. Even Deep Waters could not help but take a sharp breath. Even though his comrades were all Hunters who focused on equipment that boosted their traps and were incomparable to Sharpshooters when it came to their attack power, the fact that they were unable to kill off this lone Thief Svelte Dancer, even with so many men firing, only showed just how insanely powerful her equipment was!

Everybody was amazed. There were even those who now harbored ill intentions, hoping Svelte Dancer would drop a few top-tier items upon death as they hurriedly fired their arrows in rapid succession. In the end, all Vast Lushness did was bestow a Heal upon the lady and Svelte Dancer easily got through this round of fire.

Deep Waters knit his brows and shouted, “Kill that Priest first!”

Vast Lushness was the only one out of the three that was free to move about. Given the vast amount of combat experience on her shoulders, she had long expected them to quickly change their target to her, so she had proactively taken evasive action before they could lock her down.

But before the enemy could even comment on the action she had taken, it was Oathless Sword who was the first to wail, “Sister, you can’t do that!”

Vast Lushness had been a woman of few words as the two of them travelled, yet Oathless Sword had never expected her actions to be so brazenly absurd, for she had actually hidden behind Todd’s meagre frame, essentially using their escort as a shield. While it was true that Todd managed to survive the concentrated bombardment back in Linyin City back then thanks to his humongous HP pool, the issue was no one had any idea how much HP the NPC had left after that devastating assault. Oathless Sword had tried to get Priests to heal him back then, yet it did not seem to have any effect. He had been really worried that Todd might have been dangling off just 1 HP, which only made the matter all the more tragic.

Throughout this exchange between their forces, Oathless Sword had been rejoicing over the fact that Deep Waters and his men had been focusing their attack on the players and were in no hurry to attack Todd. But in the end, Vast Lushness’ actions had drawn their attention back over to Todd as a result.

Since it was just a matter of time before they had to deal with Todd, these players did not relent in the slightest as they continued their rain of arrows, not caring if they struck Vast Lushness or Todd.

Oathless Sword’s heart would shudder with every shot that landed on Todd. Countless arrows had landed, yet Todd remained standing. Oathless Sword’s heart rate was already at a hundred fifty beats per minute at this point,which in turn caused the system to promptly issue a red alert!

[Due to the player’s heart rate severely increasing beyond the safety threshold, the user will be forcefully disconnected from the game if he or she is unable to recover back within the acceptable limits in the next three minutes.]

How could he let himself be forcefully disconnected at this crucial moment? Oathless Sword only became even more tense when he received this system prompt, his heart rate escalating to nearly two hundred beats per minute, resulting in the system sending out a warning yet again!

[Due to continued acceleration of the player’s heart rate, the user will now be forcefully disconnected from the game if he or she is unable to recover back within the acceptable limits in the next one minute.]

Oathless Sword hurriedly shut his eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling deeply as he told himself to keep calm. Todd’s invincible and will not die, he’s an immortal...

Meanwhile up on that rooftop, Deep Waters was also rather surprised. Vast Lushness having the audacity to use Todd as a shield was one thing, but the position that she took actually blocked the very angle he needed to continue firing off his Snare Shot at Oathless Sword’s foot.

Deep Waters quickly attempted to change his position on the roof, but soon discovered that the lady had her eye on him the whole time, moving in accordance with where he moved, stopping this move of his entirely. That lady even went as far as to wave her magic stave towards him in retaliation. A black fog formed on the tip of her staff, and Deep Waters suddenly felt a bout of dizziness overcome him and lower his HP.

“She’s a Dark Priest!” Deep Waters gasped to himself. That dizziness that overcame him had been applied when he was near the edge of the roof, but thankfully it had only been a fleeting sensation, so Deep Waters was able to quickly change his position after firing off his arrow.

Vast Lushness wanted to block that shot for Oathless Sword, but she was still slower by just one step. Just as Oathless Sword felt his foot loosen up, it was ensnared yet again before he could even open up his eyes. Vast Lushness had also taken an arrow shot because she exposed herself for that one shot, so she immediately cast a Heal on herself.

Seeing there was this experienced lady messing things up for them, Deep Waters figured they might be in a spot of trouble if any one of his arrows were to miss, so he quickly ordered his men, “Trap!”

Increasing the duration of traps was only one aspect which these Hunters sought to improve through their equipment. The other aspects their equipment helped improve was the number of traps they could place!. Adding that to their already high skill proficiency, each of them could easily place three or five traps of their own, each!

The streets in cities were mostly paved, making it impossible to conceal these traps. But since two out of the three were unable to move, while another was pinned behind Todd and did not dare to move, these men blatantly rushed up and filled the stairs with traps. There was really not that many steps by this flight of stairs in front of the Prison, nor was it that wide. After each of them were finished placing all the traps there, the entire stairs were packed with so many traps that it was a truly disgusting sight.

This was already an extremely disgusting execution of trap utilization, as the huge pile of gleaming traps laid out would make anybody’s skin crawl just looking at it. Anyone would already have the heebie jeebies just attempting to tip toe their way through if they were hoping to make their way across safely.

This was especially true for Svelte Dancer, whose most discernible advantage over every player was her fast movement speed! But now that the area all around her had been morphed into such a trap-filled scene, how could she even demonstrate this? She would most likely bristle with arrows like a porcupine by the time she managed to tip toe through and reach her enemies.

These men had studied the situation for a long time. It seemed they had littered their traps everywhere, yet the end product was an interesting mess that did not seem to have any path out. Meanwhile, all the Hunters immediately retreated out of the circle of traps they had set, as they were all ranged job classes! There was absolutely no need for them to be nearby.

“Hahahahaha! So, do the three of you still have any brilliant ideas left?” Deep Waters smarmily goaded them.

“What are you being long winded for! Hurry up and do it already!” A woman’s voice could suddenly be heard in the air. Oathless Sword, Vast Lushness and Svelte Dancer did not see who this voice came from, but they knew it must have been a Thief in Stealth.

“Let’s get to work, everyone! Shoot however you wish, creatively express yourself!” Deep Waters commanded as he took the lead to fire off an arrow, targeting Svelte Dancer with his first shot.

“That jerk! Didn’t he say he would appear at the most crucial moment?” Svelte Dancer chided.

Oathless Sword had been very surprised when he saw Svelte Dancer appear as she did, and had no idea there was still another savior out there. He hurriedly asked, “Who else could there be?” He sighed even as an arrow landed on the corner of his mouth. Players would usually not feel anything when an attack landed on them, but anything that struck their head, while also dictated under the same pain system Parallel World used, still had an instinctive psychological fear attached to it.

Who else could be coming to save them? Deep Waters could not help but feel anxious when he heard them. The situation right now was more or less under control, but they still had no idea how many HP Todd had left. They had already bombarded him once in Linyin City, and now that he had not reacted to the arrows they had fired on him, was it possible that his HP would automatically regenerate? Deep Waters’s heart shattered when this thought came to mind. If that spell bombardment from his group of Mages before were unable to kill him, just how long would he and his current team of Hunters have to fire? Who knew what sort of changes might happen if this dragged on! That whole mass of mercenaries from Luori City were still in a hurry to find their target!

Deep Waters had come out on this pursuit without bringing all his manpower with him. Furthermore, he had left another portion of his men behind in Linshui City. Back then they had originally planned to wait for the next ferry, but that changed the moment they heard a report about how the battle was going for the players of Yunduan City, with Oathless Sword quietly bringing Todd into the city, likely without anyone to impede him. Deep Waters and his men would surely be unable to catch up to them if they had to wait for four hours for the system’s ferry.

But how could they reach him without any boat? The barman by Linshui Harbor saw their anxious expressions and upon being informed of their situation, had instantly promoted the ferrying business some players had started.

This was not like the ferry business scam that Gu Fei and the two ladies had taken, but was a proper business that the bars by the harbor started by the guilds had opened in conjunction. This was originally a few boats that these guilds had prepared for their private use that they would occasionally use, but when they realized they would be idle for huge periods of time, they figured it made sense to make a business out of this that others might need.

Deep Waters had no choice but to accept it, but it was unfortunate that there was a limit to the number of players they could ferry. Even though it was not just a single boat, they had no means to ferry every single member in Deep Waters’s party across. So, he could only pick a handful of players to accompany him in an effort to continue his pursuit. Had he really waited another four hours to take the system-assigned ferry, everything would have been long over.

Deep Waters had departed late, but because they were all job classes with inherently high movement speed, they were able to reach the Prison before Oathless Sword and the others. Deep Waters had also brought Priests and Mages along, but because he was racing against time to catch up to them, he could only leave those players behind. That was the reason why they only had Hunters present here outside the Prison right now, since his Mages and slower job classes had yet to make it over!

Deep Waters’s heart beat in trepidation once he heard that the enemy was still expecting someone to save them. He was standing on high ground and could see quite a distance. He looked all around and only saw normal players, finding no one that looked to be conducting a rescue. But before he could even breathe easy, he suddenly heard the sound of a creaking door.

The place where the Prison was situated was very quiet. With both parties engaged in battle, one side being unable to retaliate while the other was only firing arrows, the only sound was the whistles made by the arrows, so this abrupt creaking was extremely audible and harsh.

Everyone subconsciously turned towards this sound, and across the street not too far from the Prison was an inconspicuous building where a door was being pulled open. A man dressed in a black Mage’s robe, holding a dark purple sword in hand, walked out. His eyes trained over to their direction in the blink of an eye. This man’s pace quickened as he raised his hand to wipe away his sweat, “What are you hurrying me for?! What’s the situation? Aren’t you all still alive?”

“F*ck, what took you so long!” Svelte Dancer was incensed. The trap she had stepped on just finished as she begin to walk over to this newcomer gingerly, but she soon found herself snared by a second trap in a moment’s folly.

“That guy I was hunting just now ran real far, I spent a long time hunting him down, but at least I’m here now!” The man closed in on them, the sword on his shoulder came slicing down, pointing out forward obliquely.

It was the gesture for a Mage’s spell!