With the instinct of an expert swordsman, Zoro knew that whatever Feng Bujue was about to unleash was not going to be a simple skill. Therefore, Zoro activated Busoshoku Haki and surrounded his upper body in a layer of silicon-colored armor just in case.
“Nitou-Ryuu-Saikuru.” Zoro took half a step back, looked up into the sky, held both his blades in the shape of a rhinoceros’ horn, and braced for the incoming attack. But something unexpected happened. Feng Bujue, who was flying toward Zoro like a torpedo, suddenly used a Geppo to change his trajectory and flew around Zoro.
What is going on? Zoro thought. Based on his stance, he was about to use some skill, and there was no fear or hesitation in his eyes, so why did he evade me at the last moment?
Zoro was startled.
Does the man have some predictive power that can see beforehand the result of the collision?
Zoro was half right. One of the reasons Feng Bujue abandoned his skill at the last moment was that he knew it would not end well for him. Based on the simulation from Soul’s Eye, even with the buff from Body Enhancement Spell, he would get himself injured, even if he could damage the enemy. Another reason for Feng Bujue’s last-minute change was because in just a few seconds, he had come up with a plan.
Feng Bujue suddenly laughed and made a provocative expression. He was clearly proud of the plan that he came up with.
“Hey, kid, what’s wrong with you? Have some screws gotten loose in your mind?” Even Zoro was confused. Feng Bujue ignored him, but he silently deactivated Body Enhancement Spell, and the red aura around him disappeared. Zoro turned around, raised his right arm, and aimed the tip of his blade at Feng Bujue. “Have you made up your mind to surrender and die?”
“No. I have planned to make my escape,” Feng Bujue said. “That’s why I ran around you.”
“You plan to abandon your partners? Humph.” Zoro scoffed. “And I thought you were a man of principle.” A murderous glint shone in his eyes.
“No. I will return soon enough,” Feng Bujue said as he took out an anti-gravity gun from his inventory. “But I can’t say the same for you.”
“Huh? What do you plan to do with that?” Zoro asked. The next second, he heard a splat, and he was covered in a slimy goo of rotten egg. Rotten Egg Bullet was not an object, but it was a one-time use skill that needed a gun-like weapon to unleash. So when the skill was activated, a rotten egg would be generated out of thin air. This exhausted one Stamina Point and caused no damage. The only effect was to ’create a large amount of revenge points to attract a target to come after you.’
“What the hell is this? It’s so smelly!” Zoro tried to wipe his face and shook his head. He glared at Feng Bujue. “What did you shoot at me!”
“Hmm… He could predict the fatal strike from Death Poker, but he couldn’t evade a rotten egg,” Feng Bujue mumbled. “Is it because it was shot from this special gun? Could the egg be a special kind of ammo that wouldn’t miss no matter what?”
“Ah… It’s so stinky! You b*stard… I’m going to kill you!” An indescribable fury surrounded Zoro, and he charged toward Brother Jue to attack.
“Oh well. As long as it works.” Feng Bujue turned and ran. Brother Jue knew how fast he could run. He could run at high speeds even without the Body Enhancement Spell. If he was this fast when he was on Hunter’s Island, he wouldn’t be chased like a headless chicken by Rainsford.
If we’re just comparing running speed, I still have plenty of Stamina Points, and he won’t reach me in a short amount of time, Feng Bujue thought. Zoro’s long-ranged attacks are air slashes made by swords and not homing missiles. As long as I keep my distance and keep moving, evading those attacks wouldn’t be too hard. So what’s left is…
“Don’t you dare run away! You b*stard!” Zoro roared from the back. “You dare to assault me with an egg? You do not wish to see the sun rise for another day?”
Feng Bujue was laughing, but he was afraid that the revenge point of the skill itself was not enough. To anger the simple-minded man further, he laughed loudly as he ran. He even turned around and said, “That was not just an egg! It was a rotten egg!”
“B*stard! Stand right there!” Zoro was so incensed, vapors were rising off him.
“Ha! Have you seen a person on the run stop simply because someone told him to ’stand right there’?” Feng Bujue continued to mock Zoro. “Also, please mind your choice of words.You are a kid in your twenties, so don’t go off calling me a kid when you are also one! At least I am already 24. That’s three years older than you, kid! Do you think you are a 150-year-old woman who has the appearance of a young woman like Rukia Kuchiki?”
“Ha? You sure sound like you know quite a look. Sounds like you have already found your calling, then let me help you take the ride to hell!”
Seeing the pair run away and slowly disappearing from their sight, Kenshin silently stood where he was, crossing his arms across his chest with his eyes closed. Sogou, who laid on the ground, flipped open the blinds. He narrowed his gaze and weakly told Kenshin, “Kenshin-san, Zoro-san is unlikely to come back now, is he?”
“Ah…That Mr. Feng would lead Zoro somewhere far and then turn a few corners to lose him, and then he will return here soon enough,” Kenshin said as he sighed helplessly.
“What if Feng Bujue shook off Zoro-san and really abandoned his partners and ran away?” Sogou said. “Or he ran back to get reinforcement and then—”
Kenshin suddenly interrupted Sogou as he slowly opened his eyes. “Reinforcements… have already arrived.”
“Oh?” Sogou was startled, but he soon understood what Kenshin meant.
“Tsk… this sure is annoying.” Sogou flipped into a standing posture. “When did Kenshin-san notice this?”
“From the beginning,” Kenshin replied calmly.
“That’s why you haven’t made any move?” Sogou asked.
Kenshin smiled and said, “I just cannot figure out what they plan to do, so before they show themselves, I plan to temporarily watch from the side to prevent myself from being surrounded from the back.”
“Do you hear that, friends from Classic?” Sogou raised his voice and shouted, “You have been discovered.”
Several seconds later, on the rack behind Kenshin, four shadows appeared and dropped from the sky.
Meanwhile, the battle on Xiao Tan’s end was quite exciting as well. Gourry was a highly skilled swordsman, and he had an impossible fighting experience. He had faced all kinds of foes before, from normal bandits, knights, mages, arcane warriors, demons, to dragons. Therefore, faced with the attacks of a player and two Transformers, he was able to handle it with ease with the aid from the Blade of Light.
Jazz and Nightbeat were cornered. Even though these two Transformers had gun-like weapons, they could only rely on their size and strength, which were their advantages, to keep up a close-range combat. If they knew that if there was an opening, the Blade of Light Gourry held could unleash a laser beam any time he wanted. To not give him any chance or time to use that skill, they had to keep up the constant pressure. Things were worse for Xiao Tan. At the start of the battle, he did take out Winchester’s Shotgun and tried to assault Gourry at a medium range, but Gourry moved so fast and Xiao Tan’s marksmanship was only at Level E, so almost all of his shots missed. In fact, none of his bullets hit the enemy, but a few shrapnel accidentally harmed his allies. Thankfully, Jazz and Nightbeat’s defense was so high that they did not mind this level of damage. Seeing how he was making things worse, Xiao Tan gave up on the gun and used the energy-storing Sanleng Thorns to fight.
Xiao Tan might not look like it, but he reached Level C in fighting mastery earlier than Brother Jue. Different from Feng Bujue, Wang Tanzhi’s gaming experience was more regular and like that of a normal person’s. Based on a normal gaming progression, when a player reaches Level 10, their main mastery would reach Level E already; when they were on Level 20, the mastery level would be at least D and at Level 30. Naturally it would be on Level C. If they were professional or expert players, the progression of their mastery would be faster than most. It was rare to come upon talented players who could fly past all the rest. For example, King of Shadows, who already had Level B mastery in summoning when he was only on Level 30, and Passing Rain who had achieved Level D mastery in fighting when she was only on Level 10.
Of course, even among top experts, other than general ability, they mostly specialized in three masteries at most: one main mastery and two support masteries. Casual players would focus on two, with one main and the other for support. A player like Feng Bujue was so rare that he was… the only one.
Xiao Tan was a quintessential casual player but he could be considered above average. He had two Level C masteries when he just reached Level 30, and that made him better than most players at his level. Even though this was a scenario generated from mixing all the players’ ability and Gourry was not a final boss, for a fighting-based player like Xiao Tan, there was no reason he could not handle such a challenge. With that in mind, Xiao Tan threw caution to the wind, tried to match his beat to Nightbeat and Jazz, and used his most familiar skill to surround the enemy. To be able to duel with an expert swordsman was definitely a gain for Xiao Tan. Ever since joining Thriller Paradise, he had not fought with many players, but in a fight with NPCs, he had more experience than Feng Bujue.
Feeling the power from the blade and focusing on the opponent’s every move, weaving in and out in a dance of death that could lop off your head in a careless moment—that was how one levelled up fighting mastery in this game. The only difference was that every player had a different affinity to it. A regular player might need ten battles to learn what a genius could learn in one battle.
“Phew…I am thankful I got these thorns from Brother Jue. I wonder how I’m going to face the Blade of Light if I were only armed with the Damascus Dagger. That store-bought item will probably crack under pressure.” After pacing back and forth, Xiao Tan did not feel like they were in any big advantage even though they were fighting three against one. The moment he lost his focus, he would be in fatal danger. Without the help of Nightbeat and Jazz, Gourry would have cut Xiao Tan into pieces using a normal rusted blade.
Just like that, the two men and two machines fought heavily, without time to pay attention to anything else. Xiao Tan finally noticed that Zoro and Brother Jue had disappeared around the time when Kenshin and Sogou finished their conversation.
At that moment, Jazz and Nightbeat suddenly stopped attacking. They both turned to look at the shadows falling from the sky. Gourry reacted one beat slower. It was not until his opponents had stopped moving that he asked in confusion, “Huh? What’s wrong?” He turned his head back and looked at the two Transformers.
He saw four large figures lined up in a row. The four wore four different-colored blindfolds, and they were armed respectively with nunchucks, staff, double swords, and ninja sais. They all wore oval-shaped turtle shells on their backs.
And they were…