148 Chapter 148 - 6 against 4 (1/2)

Gu Fei was happily running toward the hilltop when he noticed that there was someone beside him who was heading in the same direction. Turning his head to look, he saw that it was Sword Demon. ”Hey!” He pointed his sword to Sword Demon as a form of greeting and said, ”Let's go killin'!”

”Listen!” Sword Demon blocked Gu Fei's advance.

”What?”

”We'll likely head straight into an ambush if we rush to them like this,” Sword Demon replied.

”That's perfect! Saves us the time to find them; we can kill all the enemies in one go,” Gu Fei was currently experiencing an adrenaline rush and carelessly thought that all sorts of PvP maneuvers were useless before his absolute strength.

”Calm down. I know your Attack Power is high, but can you really face over ten enemies at once?” Sword Demon rationalized.

”If you shield me for a bit…” Gu Fei began to say, thinking of his coordination with Svelte Dancer yesterday.

”I may be able to shield you once, but there won't be a second time,” Sword Demon frankly said. Gesturing around them, he added, ”Take a look.”

Plains surrounded them, so they could immediately see the many teams of Cloud Herder mercenary group heading their way from various directions. Furthermore, Foe-herder was now provocatively pointing his claymore toward Gu Fei and Sword Demon.

Even if they rushed up the hill and eliminated Foe-herder, they would end up getting surrounded by the other members afterward. Uncaringly, Gu Fei lifted his Moonlit Nightfalls and accepted Foe-herder's taunt. ”We'll kill as many as we can!” With that, he continued his charge up the hill.

Sword Demon tried to block Gu Fei once more, yet his speed was no match for the latter. Despite being a Thief, Sword Demon's boots were not top grade. He knew that he would not catch up to Gu Fei even if he activated his Fleetfoot, so he could only helplessly follow him from behind.

Foe-herder remained unfazed when he saw that the two men had continued their charge toward him. With the enemies just three meters away from him, Foe-herder parted his two hands holding a claymore each and placed them on both sides of his body.

”Dual-wielder! He already went for his Job Class Advancement as a Berserker! Be careful!” Sword Demon shouted after Gu Fei.

When a level 40 Warrior advanced to a Berserker, the first skill he or she would learn was Dual-wielding Mastery, which would allow him or her to dual-wield weapons. Nonetheless, equipping weapons on a dominant hand and a non-dominant hand had some differences. While no changes would occur to the weapon that was equipped on the dominant hand, equipping a weapon on the non-dominant hand would only allow a player to access 20% of the weapon's Attack Power. This percentage would only increase when the respective mastery for the skill reached a higher rank. This skill was similar to Gu Fei's Spell Mastery, so players did not need to grind its proficiency. As long as they reached the appropriate level, they could level up the skill's rank from the relevant NPC over by the Warrior Encampment.

Foe-herder was at level 40 and he had a non-dominant left hand. Therefore, the sword in his left hand could only unleash 20% of its Attack Power. However, the Dual-wielding Mastery skill affected not just this.

”Cyclone!” Although Foe-Herder's current posture of hanging his claymores by his two sides was different to a Warrior's regular stance when unleashing Cyclone, Gu Fei could still tell his intention just from seeing half his body's posing.

What surprised Gu Fei was not the fact that a Warrior had activated this skill during a PvP; instead, it was the fact that Foe-herder had activated the skill early. Having fought with Warriors many times, Gu Fei no longer needed to take a defensive stance against it. Using his fast speed and high damage output advantages, he managed to insta-kill many opponents in the past just by guessing when they would start their attacks. At this moment, however, Foe-herder activated his Cyclone about three meters away – a distance Gu Fei had no means of attacking the other.

This small detail already decided the gap between an expert and an average player. Many Warriors could not use Cyclone against Gu Fei, yet Foe-herder's Cyclone was even starting to spin.

The change that Dual-wielding Mastery brought could directly be seen through this Cyclone alone. The speed of Cyclone produced by two claymores being held parallel to the ground was fiercer and gustier than the speed of regular Cyclone.

Players had long noticed this aspect of the skill and they had of course tried using both hands to unleash Cyclone before, but they ended up returning to using single weapons to perform the skill when they realized that their off-hand weapons did not generate any Attack Power. Putting this aside, there was also a possibility that a Warrior might unluckily push his or her opponent outside the Cyclone's attack range with their off-hand weapons. As a corollary, the attack from the dominant hand would get wasted.

At present, with the non-dominant hand finally able to generate Attack Power, this Cyclone was able to display the advantages of dual-wielding weapons.

Gu Fei's pupils contracted. He could tell at a glance that this doubly fast Cyclone was not something he could block! Nonetheless, Gu Fei still positioned his sword before him as he knew that doing something was better than just waiting for his death.

...And what awaited him was extreme pain!

The sword met the claymores and, as Gu Fei had expected, failed to block Cyclone. Grating against his body, Foe-herder's Cyclone successfully flung Gu Fei outward with a whoosh.

Sword Demon chased after Gu Fei's flying figure and cushioned the latter's fall by positioning himself behind Gu Fei. ”I'm alive!” Gu Fei gasped in astonishment as he stood up.

”His left hand holding a claymore only dealt 20% damage,” Sword Demon told Gu Fei. Having known Gu Fei for quite some time, his fellow mercenaries wholly understood that Gu Fei did not spend much time researching about the game's mechanics like them.

Gu Fei sighed in relief. Although he was not that knowledgeable of the game's mechanics, he at least had an understanding of this sort of concepts after playing Parallel World for over a month. It would indeed be an overkill if just 20% of a Warrior's Attack Power could insta-kill someone.