Chapter 338 - Go, Linyin City’s guards!
Deep Waters almost vomited blood on the street at the sight of just one player sweeping clean half of the mage formation he had set up. He watched Gu Fei calmly walk over a roof’s edge and proceed to shove, bump, trip, or kick the Mages down. Deep Waters’ biggest wish right now was to get his hands on a mortar and level the entire row of houses with one blast to keep this entire business out of his sight and mind.
Reality was really harsh. With lack of any mortar in his hand, Deep Waters could only continue to instruct the Mages on how to face Gu Fei. However, even he, who was a capable commander, became no more than a joke when facing Gu Fei’s indomitable fighting prowess. Deep Waters could feel his heart shattering when his comrade Mages imploringly gazed at him for release.
“All of you, get down. Get the f*ck down now!” Deep Waters sent out this command via the mercenary channel as he ordered the Mages on the street. “Once our men get off there, I want you all to burn down that roof!”
The Mages seemed to have been pardoned with his permission, and each of them quickly jumped down the street. Gu Fei stood on a rooftop and waved at everyone below as he struck a victory pose, angering the enemies so much.
“Descending Wheel of Flames! Descend!”
“Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno! Arise!”
Up the houses and down the street, all the Linyin City’s Mages chanted spells together in a volume that reached over seventy decibels. It was quite an imposing sight to behold. However, Gu Fei simply waved his hand to the crowd and softly said, “Translocation! Blink!”
No matter how fast these Mages’ spells were, they were simply not faster than Blink. The roof was indeed engulfed in a sea of flames just like what Deep Waters wanted, yet Gu Fei was no longer there to burn with it and was once more among his comrades on the street.
“Perfect timing!” Gu Fei laughed at Vast Lushness.
Vast Lushness raised her eyebrows. “You’re lucky I was near you.”
“It’s now their turn!” Gu Fei said as he headed toward the other side of the street. Gale Force had been fighting on that side of the rooftops all this while. He could probably dish out a more consistent damage than Gu Fei if not for his skills being below par to the latter. While he did manage to catch his enemies by surprise when he first got on the rooftop and to show off what little skill he had for quite some time, he soon found himself encircled and collaboratively barbequed by the crowd of Mages. Oathless Sword had sent him two Priests, but it took a combination of four Priests to actually keep him barely alive. Had it not been for Gu Fei blasting away a large portion of the Mages, Gale Force would have most likely already lost his life.
Gu Fei had just used his Blink. As such, he had to wait for the spell’s cooldown to finish before he could use it again. Since he did not have Swallow Dropkick that could provide explosive leg strength, he could only borrow the other’s strength to get on the roof. He jogged toward War Without Wounds as he shouted, “Give me a boost!”
War Without Wounds was no stranger to this request as he had done this multiple times when they needed to climb trees in the mercenary PvP tournament. Getting into a half squat and folding his outstretched arms before his chest, he allowed Gu Fei to step on his arms and jerked them upward to propel the latter into the sky.
However, getting up the roof was not like climbing up a tree. Trees had branches that people could conveniently grab a hold of unlike houses that had flat walls. Moreover, enemies were currently on the rooftops, so if he dawdled too much, any of them could easily beat him back to the ground with a wave of a staff. Gu Fei figured he needed a bit more strength to get on the roof, so he cruelly stepped on to War Without Wounds’ shoulder, as though he were climbing up a step ladder, to get himself the needed force.
“Here I come!” Gu Fei shouted. Given how urgent matters were, he saw no need to show off his skills and felt it was better for the Mages to voluntarily leap off the rooftops themselves at the sight of him, allowing him to save plenty of time.
Evidently, the enemies would not back off that easily. These Mages wielded their staves threateningly at Gu Fei. Not bothering to hurl Fireball, each of these Mages unleashed Arctic Whirlwind on Gu Fei without a care for their comrades who might be in the way. These Mages knew that as long as they killed off Gu Fei, they could easily hold their formation on the rooftops.
Gu Fei saw a row of Arctic Whirlwind steadily covering the entire roof before him. He looked backward and saw another row coming from behind him. Realizing that he was cornered from both sides and that he could only escape by leaping down the street, he had no other choice but to do just that. This was when Descending Wheel of Flames came crashing right into the row of Arctic Whirlwind before him. Once Verdict was out for the two moves, an empty path was left behind.
Gu Fei darted right toward it, looked down from the roof, and saw Drifting slightly bow his body toward him once their eyes made contact. The speed at which Arctic Whirlwind moved was not slow in the least, so it was apparent just how impressively high Drifting’s level of control and exquisite deftness was from the way he neutralized that Arctic Whirlwind with one Descending Wheel of Flames.
The rest of the Mages lost their sense of security once Gu Fei zealously began engaging them in melee. Learning his lesson from being pressed from both sides, Gu Fei no longer pushed forward in an orderly fashion. Sending a blow to a side and a kick in another, Gu Fei burrowed deeper into the crowd on the roofs as he ran amok within their ranks. Not just Arctic Whirlwind, even the few Mages who had picked up the Lightning Affinity tree had difficulty targeting Gu Fei with their Thunderbolt.
Since the speed of Lightning Affinity spells was extremely fast, the system did not provide these spells any sort of target-locking assistance. After all, the Lighting Affinity spells already had 100% accuracy. As long as a Lightning Mage uttered the incantation, no one would be able to dodge the spell in time. However, if the target was moving, the Mage would be required to compensate quite a lot. Things like the trembling of the Mages’ hands might cause the spells to go askew. Gu Fei was currently darting within the crowd in an unpredictable manner, so the Lighting Mages could not get a lock on him and those that tried to cast Thunderbolt on him never found their mark.
Now that the enemy Mages on this side had been hampered by Gu Fei, the Mages from the other side began to reveal themselves. Having never left the area and seeing that Gu Fei was no longer there, these Linyin City’s players began climbing up the roofs on the other side again.
Gu Fei only had Blink and did not have any spells that could let him be in two places at once. Once he took care of one side, others would spring up from the other. He was currently out of mana and was merely employing kicks, punches, and weapons to attack the Mages near him. While it was easy to get them off the roofs like this, killing them would take a far longer time.
Everyone could tell that this situation was not favorable to Yunduan City’s players. Gu Fei could be said to be only harassing the enemies and was not actually eradicating them.
To solve this quandary and maintain his lethality, Vast Lushness would have to keep transferring her mana over to Gu Fei as he fought on. Such a thought made the members of Young Master's Elite shudder. If that happened, how many PK points would Gu Fei accumulate? Did it mean his PK value would break through to the triple digits by the time this battle was over?
While everyone was trying to find a solution to this, Linyin City’s players’ version of the archer formation suddenly burst into activity. Players yelled as dozens of fully armored Knights bearing swords and shields uniformly squeezed through the originally tidy archer formation and lined themselves up in an orderly fashion.
“What the actual f*ck?!” Linyin City’s players cursed. Their organized formation was coincidentally blocked by these NPCs’ arrival, interrupting the Archers from continuing their assault.
“Guardsmen!” When the squad finished lining up, they attentively stayed in their positions as a captain-like NPC began to speak. The Linyin City’s players that were blocked by these NPCs moaned. They tried to squeeze their way through, but these NPCs stood stock-still. The players dared not to be too forceful, either. After all, they could guess the result of attacking these guards. Of course, a few curious players here and there had tested this out, and death had been the only answer they got....
Not too long ago, Oathless Sword had personally experienced the Strength of Parallel World’s NPC guards. Just a handful of guards were enough to beat everyone up effortlessly and route almost seven hundred of his guild members. There was no logic once these men representing the system were involved. Provoking these NPC guards the first time around could be chalked up to curiosity, but provoking them a second time around would just be utter foolishness!
However, right now, these guards’ appearance became a blessing in disguise for Yunduan City’s players, as the NPCs were unintentionally blocking off Linyin City’s Archers from attacking them. Oathless Sword seized this opportunity to quickly order his troops to advance. When they got right up to these guards, the enemy Archers were only separated from them by a mere few steps. These Archers did not dare keep such proximity with their targets, and they either retreated or dispersed to put some distance between them and Yunduan City’s players. With the street entrance cleared from impedance, Oathless Sword and company managed to turn the tide of this battle and temporarily escape the quandary that they were in.
Deep Waters did not hurriedly send his men to give chase because he knew that they were about to witness a legend.
Once a player’s PK value reached 30 points, they would be executed on sight by the city guards, losing five levels in one go. This design had already been announced, yet not one player had challenged this limit. Today, someone had finally taken this historical step.
“For justice and honor, Guardsmen, to battle!” After saying this, the captain pulled out his sword and pointed it ahead. “Forward!”
People were either looking at the NPC guards or staring at the lonesome Gu Fei on the roof.
Deep Waters had already ordered his Mages on that side of the rooftops to retreat. He did not know how these guards would do the deed, so he could not guarantee his men’s safety during their capturing-and-executing process.
The Linyin City’s Mages that were on the opposite roof or down on the street visibly grinned at Gu Fei.
“What happened to your arrogance, twerp?!” someone taunted.
Gu Fei did not bother to answer this man. Taking out an apple, he slowly munched on it as he watched the city guards’ every move.
One step forward… two steps… three steps... The guards slowly drew closer to their target. Unlike the players who would sprint toward their targets like their lives depended on it, these NPCs just calmly marched forward in an easy but measured pace, clearly showing the absolute tyranny of the system.
The atmosphere grew heavy.
As the players from Yunduan City made their escape, they temporarily stopped and watched this scene from afar.
The Linyin City’s Archers, who had retreated a few steps away, came back in bits and drabs to watch the show.
Gu Fei was still calmly eating his apple.
The guards were still on the street, yet they were getting closer with every step. Mages from Deep Waters’ guild consciously made way for these guards as they looked forward to these NPCs tear Gu Fei into pieces.
The guards finally struck. A heavy-looking one-handed sword created a whooshing sound as it slashed.
The guards were still on the street, yet a Mage already fell.
The one who had fallen was a Mage from Deep Waters’ guild, but he did not lose his life. The guards proceeded to flip him face down and pin his shoulders down onto the ground to detain him.
Gu Fei guffawed. “Do you guys even know the rules when it comes to PK? Anyone with PK value above 20 points will still have trouble with the guards!”