Chapter 257 - Blossoming Crimson Lotus
The six men of Young Master’s Elite stayed hidden in the land depression for quite some time. Just as Young Master Han had surmised, none of The Black Hand’s mercenaries had come over to search their current location. Young Master Han jerked his head slightly when it was time and everyone proceeded forward.
The road truly brought the men right at the base of the mountain. This was when Young Master Han suddenly stopped.
“Well? Why did you stop moving?!” the rest hissed at him. Crawling on the ground after a while became very tiresome, so they were looking forward to reaching their destination fast.
Young Master Han pointed forward, “The blind spot ends in this stretch. We’ll be lucky if the enemies atop the mountain aren’t looking in this direction when we sneak over; otherwise, we risk getting discovered. Plus, the stretch is our blind spot for seeing what’s happening up there.”
“If that’s the case…” The rest turned their gazes on the two behind them.
Young Master Han also had a smile on his face when he turned his gaze on Gu Fei and Sword Demon, “You guys are pretty strong yourselves, so we’ll leave it to you two to settle things!”
“The pleasure is ours!” Gu Fei pulled out Moonlit Nightfalls and performed a sword salute. Bowing his head, his right hand firmly held the sword downward while his other open palm rested on it. He walked over to where Young Master Han was standing, chanted a spell, disappeared from his current position, and reappeared with a swish past the blind spot.
The ever stoic Sword Demon seemed to be rather excited as well. It was finally time for his Lasting Sentence Dying Breath’s opening act! Unlike Gu Fei, Sword Demon was a total gamer in every sense of the word and had all the characteristics an avid gamer would have.
After activating Stealth, Sword Demon silently passed through the blind spot. With the rest of them left behind, Young Master Han started issuing instruction on the two through the mercenary channel: “Alright. Just move according to my command!”
What followed this statement was a series of coordinates that Gu Fei and Sword Demon were very familiar with. The two followed the coordinates without hesitation and managed to make their way to the mountain, with nary a movement around them. The route Young Master Han had selected for them was truly marvelous.
“Just say it if you need help; we’ll surely come to your aid,” Royal God Call typed on the mercenary channel.
“Heh… I doubt there will be a need for your help,” Gu Fei arrogantly answered.
“Maintain a clean channel and keep your trash-talking away from here!” Young Master Han chastised.
The two continued down the route Young Master Han had given them with the final twenty to thirty meters no longer providing them any sort of cover. They were almost right under the enemies’ noses, and only a tunnel would provide them the longed-for cover.
“You’ll have to solve this yourselves!” Young Master Han said.
“Let’s just charge at them; what’s there to think about?” Gu Fei suggested. They could easily cover the distance if they sprinted. Gu Fei could even use Blink along the way to reduce the distance by five meters.
Sword Demon nodded his head in agreement. The two, who had their backs against a large boulder, exchanged looks and began counting in their minds:1… 2… 3!
The two darted from either side of the boulder. They could already make out someone’s figure on the mountain peak. The person was fortunately talking to someone beside him, so he was not looking in their direction. This provided the two a chance to cover the distance of ten meters in an instant.
That was when the person on the mountain peak turned his head over with a bright smile on his lips. The two men beside the person showed astonishment over their sudden appearance, yet they recovered themselves quickly; one of them raised his hand to fire off an arrow before retreating.
“Archers should be acting as lookouts of The Black Hand on that mountain.” Young Master Han had already anticipated this. Since Archers had access to Eagle Eye, were capable of ranged attacks, and had fast movement speed, they could at least escape the enemies’ attacks and stall for time in the worst-case scenario.
Indeed, the man atop the mountain was an Archer. Once he spotted Gu Fei and Sword Demon, the Archer even activated Homing Projectile right away. The arrow glowed white as it flew toward Gu Fei. It seemed that the opponent really intend to insta-kill the Mage first.
Unfortunately for the Archer, his feeble shot could not even hold Gu Fei back. Casually lifting Moonlit Nightfalls before his chest, Gu Fei employed his Gu Family’s sword style, Ye Zhan Ba Fang. Not only could this technique receive an attack from the front, it could also do so from other directions. The technique allowed him to instantly attack the enemy at the most efficient angle. This arrow coming straight toward him was struck off its course by a light twist of his wrist, not even slowing his forward momentum. Rather, it was Sword Demon who had unwittingly slowed his sprint for a bit to admire Gu Fei’s sword control. Nonetheless, the arrow did nothing to stop the two’s swift advance toward the mountain peak.
Three players were on the mountain peak, and they were prepared for any upcoming skirmish. Young Master Han’s assumption about the lookouts being all Archers was a little off; based on their equipment, the three players before them were an Archer, a Fighter, and a Mage respectively. What was odd was that these three men went as far as to cover their faces.
“Did that Archer have his face covered just then?” Gu Fei asked Sword Demon.
“I don’t know; I wasn’t focusing on his face!” The two were busy feeling elated that the Archer had his back on them just then, so all they saw was the whitish glow from the Homing Projectile skill when the enemy released it. As for his face… The more Gu Fei struggled to recall it, the more he felt that the man had a piece of cloth covering his face all along.
However, this was not the time to ask, “Why are their faces covered?” The two came here to launch a sneak attack on the three enemy players, so their priority was to end this fight as fast as they could. Only a fool would waste time asking unimportant questions at such a crucial moment.
Gu Fei and Sword Demon rushed toward the three men from left and right. The Archer and Fighter happened to be situated before the Mage, each guarding his sides. Instantly, the two moved to the left and right, as if they intended to trap Gu Fei and Sword Demon within by forming a triangle around them.
As a kung fu practitioner, Gu Fei could easily predict and discern moves beyond moves in great detail. While the two men’s action seemed to be done to surround them, the distance they created was further than necessary.
It made total sense for an Archer to distance himself from his targets to attack, yet it was difficult to understand why a Fighter would do the same.
With the Fleetfoot skill that granted him faster speed than Gu Fei, Sword Demon was able to close in on the Mage. He then unsheathed a glistening dagger, which Gu Fei could clearly tell was Lasting Sentence. It seemed that Sword Demon was very eager to begin his weapon’s opening act.
The Mage did not get flustered and merely raised his magic staff to cast a spell. The Archer and Fighter on either side stopped running, yet they did not attack either; instead, they turned to look at their Mage companion together.
Only the veteran combatant Gu Fei was able to register the minute discrepancy in their enemies’ movements.
A shocking thought flashed through his mind and he promptly warned Sword Demon, “QUICKLY RETREAT!” In the same instant that he said this, he uttered the incantation for Blink and teleported himself five meters away. This was when the Mage completed his chant; a flaming spark burst forth from his magic staff, and an intense fire blossomed like a flower the moment it touched the ground.
This was the signature spell of Parallel World’s number one Mage, Drifting: Blossoming Crimson Lotus. No wonder these men were covering their faces. It was so that Gu Fei would not recognize them.
The Archer and Fighter’s move to dart to the side when the fighting began now made perfect sense: they were leaving the AOE of Blossoming Crimson Lotus.
Gu Fei cast Blink seconds faster than Blossoming Crimson Lotus, allowing him to escape its burning deluge a few steps back. As for Sword Demon, without an instantaneous movement skill like Blink, his immediate retreat upon Gu Fei’s warning was still not faster than the unfolding petals of the crimson lotus.
Gu Fei chanted another spell once he saw Sword Demon’s perilous situation. In that very moment, an electrically charged wall erected itself right before Sword Demon. Gu Fei released this spell using the kung fu method for unleashing hidden weapons. Gu Fei instantly calculated the Blossoming Crimson Lotus’s movement and expanding speed and placed Electric Wall precisely between Sword Demon and the cascading flames.
The spell description says Electric Wall can block everything, right? Show me this blocking capability right now! Gu Fei anxiously yelled inside him. This was the limit of what he could do right now.
This sudden change was something even their opponents had not expected. Most spells would be out of the Mage’s control once they were cast. Blossoming Crimson Lotus was actually blocked when the flames collided into Electric Wall, creating a clear path behind it from what would have been a patch of raging flames three hundred sixty degrees of the Mage.
The skill description stated that the wall of electricity could last for twenty seconds, yet the relentless flames battering the wall only let it last for three seconds and swallowed it whole in the next instant.
Although the fire of Blossoming Crimson Lotus surged forth with renewed intensity after being blocked for three seconds and engulfed the empty space before it, it was already too late. Gu Fei’s Electric Wall bought Sword Demon enough time to escape the danger zone.
Gu Fei deeply exhaled in relief as he stood beside Sword Demon. The three men looked at the two in utter disbelief; the Mage in the middle of that patch of intense fire took off the cloth covering his face. Indeed, the man was Drifting.
“They said you’re a Close Combat Mage with exceptional melee capabilities; yet you’ve bested me from that exchange of spells just then!” Drifting spoke.
Gu Fei laughingly said, “That was close.”
“But it’s not over yet!” Drifting laughed as well.
“Of course!” Gu Fei abruptly turned around and sent his sword cleaving outward, causing a Thief to fade into view in an effort to dodge his attack. Gu Fei did not power his strike with a spell, so the resulting damage was only minimal despite the cleave connecting perfectly to the target.
“Looks like it’s not just rumors that you have a counter for Stealth,” Drifting remarked.
“Turns out that the players on this mountain peak are not three but four,” Gu Fei commented in return.
Left Hand of Love and Right Hand of Cool had also taken off the pieces of cloth covering their faces. The two-versus-four fight was on the cusp of starting!