169 Chapter 169 - Black Clothed, Masked Man (2/2)
Cloud Herder Guild also called for its Archers to unleash their attacks, and a uniform row of arrows went sailing toward Amethyst Rebirth Guild.
The result of this exchange of arrows was quickly revealed: two ladies of Amethyst Rebirth died. Amethyst Rebirth's attack was weak and uncoordinated, which was a stark contrast to the opposing guild's attack. Both sides' Priests began to get busy. The two opposing sides were evenly matched in terms of numbers, yet Amethyst Rebirth's Priests were busier than Cloud Herder's. As such, quite a few of Amethyst Rebirth failed to be saved in time.
The distance between the two sides had entered the Mages' attack range, so the Mages of both sides made their way to the front of their respective PvP formations and chanted spells. The difference between the two forces was once more seen in this exchange.
The Archers of both guilds had adjusted their targets, beginning to fire off arrows at the opposing Mages to interrupt their spell-casting. The Amethyst Rebirth's once more earned some casualties from this exchange.
Meanwhile, the Warriors of Cloud Herder also moved to the front of their PvP formation to shield the Mages from the enemies' attacks, as the Priests continued bestowing Heal on them.
Amethyst Rebirth lacked awareness in this aspect, only copying Cloud Herder's action upon seeing it. The PvP was constantly changing at a moment's notice, so how could such hesitation not cost the lives of the players involved? By the time Amethyst Rebirth thought of employing the same move, the PvP had already advanced to the next stage.
A certain black clothed, masked man within the Amethyst Rebirth's formation drew the attention of Cloud Herder Guild. His attire is quite unique; wonder what he's up to? Cloud Herder's men thought similarly about the man, but they did not just focus their attention on him as all were moving according to their duties. Cloud Herder's teamwork was great, as its many Archers could instantly coordinate their attacks to target specific opponents.
Fortunately, Gu Fei had already expected this situation to unfold. Bellowing to a certain lady above the PvP din, he then calmly chanted, ”Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno! Arise! Descending Wheel of Flames! Descend!”
The two guilds' Archers released their arrows just as the Mages of both sides chanted. While the chanting of the Cloud Herder's Mages was uninterrupted, the chanting of the Amethyst Rebirth's Mages was promptly interrupted by the enemy Archers' rain of arrows. Hearing Gu Fei's bellow, Svelte Dancer used her swiftest speed to arrive in front of him. She deflected most of the arrows heading his way and simply tanked the others with her body when she could not stop them in time. Svelte Dancer had top-grade equipment with high defense stat, so taking a few arrows would not result into her death.
The Amethyst Rebirth's formation broke as all the ladies dispersed in every direction to dodge the incoming spells. The Cloud Herder's formation meanwhile remained in place. Gu Fei was the only Mage of Amethyst Rebirth who had managed to complete his chanting. One Mage's spells were not worth worrying about… was the mature assessment of Cloud Herder's men as they disregarded him entirely and focused their attention on making use of the chaos to take down the entire Amethyst Rebirth.
They did not even bother to move away as a flame wheel emerged above their heads and tiny flames sprouted beneath their feet. Only the Cloud Herder's Priests moved to ready their staves in response to the spell attack.
Hence... Once Gu Fei's two spells went into effect, a feeling of vacuity suddenly overcame Cloud Herder's many members
”How did our perfect fifty-man formation become so spacious and empty in an instant?”, ”My mate was just right beside me moments ago, why is he gone in the blink of an eye?”, ”Where are the others? They are no longer near me!” The remaining players of Cloud Herder could only see the vividly glowing fire around them while they were pondering questions like so.
By the time they realized that their guildmates were no longer around, they had already received the infallible system announcement. The system repeatedly updated its scoreboard until it finally announced the kill points of Cloud Herder and Amethyst Rebirth: 14 against 36.
The Amethyst Rebirth's ladies cheered, as the Cloud Herder's men were stupefied by this shocking outcome.
”Go!” Gu Fei nudged Svelte Dancer's back.
She nodded her head and sprinted toward the enemies. Gu Fei followed her closely behind as the fleeing ladies suddenly began to attack the opponents in their individual ways.
Gu Fei had casted his spells in the middle of Cloud Herder's formation, cutting the fifty-man group into just one column on either side. These two columns were still neatly lined up; the Cloud Herder's men were skilled in this field, after all. Before the enemies could regain their senses, Svelte Dancer and Gu Fei had already begun their massacre.
The scores were constantly getting updated. By the time the ladies that that had dispersed from their formation made it to the final skirmish, Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer had already killed off almost half of the Cloud Herder's remaining members. Gu Fei retreated to the side to eat a banana with his mana all depleted. Svelte Dancer's speed slowed as well with her Fleetfoot ending. Still, the ladies now held numerical superiority, so the Cloud Herder's members fell one after another. Finally, only Guild Leader Foe-herder was alive.
As an expert player, Foe-herder naturally remained calm and composed in the face of an encirclement of dozens of players. Extricating himself from the loss was impossible and wallowing about it was even more pointless. The black clothed, masked man was the only person in Foe-herder's mind right now.
His attire looked familiar, and the weapon he was holding… seemed to be a sword? If that was the case… Foe-herder tried his best to search for Gu Fei's figure amid the crowd, yet the latter had already distanced himself from the fight and was currently being shielded from view by the ladies as he ate a banana.
Just as Foe-herder was feeling aggrieved, he suddenly heard a man's voice come from within the crowd of ladies, ”Leave this guy to me!” A masked man came forward in the next instant and stood right before Foe-herder.
The black scarf on his face was still there, yet the man was no longer wearing a black robe. His Appraisal identified the man's new attire as the Flaming Robe. The weapon in his hand was no longer a sword as well, and it was now a Chinese broadsword. Appraisal of it indicated that it was called Sacred Flames of Baptism.
Was I mistaken? Foe-herder began to have misgivings. When a thought crossed his mind, he immediately asked, ”Why is your face covered?”
”It's a strategy!” Gu Fei honestly replied.
”Strategy?”
Gu Fei only nodded his head and firmly held the Chinese broadsword before him.
Foe-herder took a step back and dropped both his hands to his sides.
Cyclone! Gu Fei thought to himself. Battling up to this point, Foe-herder unexpectedly still managed to reserve enough Rage points to unleash Cyclone. His fighting experience was indeed not insignificant.
Foe-herder's Cyclone usage was unique in how he would activate it when his opponent was a little further than usual, preventing his target from preemptively interrupting his attack. The only drawback to this was that due to the increase in distance, the skill activation must be done earlier. This made it much easier for the enemy to dodge it.
How could Gu Fei still not know the crux to breaking this tactic? He had actually darted forward to entice Foe-herder into unleashing his skill, intending to dodge it at the last second and slay the latter after Cyclone ran its course.
Foe-herder who had indeed fallen for his feint rotated his wrists to activate Cyclone. Gu Fei could clearly see his action and readied himself to evade it. Unexpectedly, an even faster figure appeared behind Foe-herder and battered his nape with a stiff baton.
Foe-herder's skill execution instantly stopped as the person smiled at Gu Fei, ”This is a group PvP, why are you treating it like a duel?!”
Gu Fei helplessly smiled back at her as he waved to the ladies surrounding them, ”Everyone, all together now!” Fireballs, arrows, Gu Fei's Chinese broadsword, and Svelte Dancer's dagger landed on Foe-herder, turning him into a beam of white light. This was the scene that ended today's guild match.
Over by the teleportation array outside the Main Hall of Guilds, the Cloud Herder's members were dejectedly shaking their heads. All could tell that they had lost this match when Foe-Herder was teleported out.
M*th*rf*ck*r! I just got ambushed without knowing it! I thought it was a one-on-one duel! Foe-herder was crestfallen. Thinking that he was the main character in that setting, he had actually thought that Svelte Dancer's words were for him.
In a short while, the victorious Amethyst Rebirth was also teleported outside after the system finished calculating the match result and awarded each member accordingly.
Foe-herder had long been keeping an eye on Amethyst Rebirth's exit to the PvP arena. Upon seeing that they were finally teleported outside of the PvP arena, he immediately approached them and called out to Gu Fei, ”Hey, that brother over there!”
Gu Fei ignored his call and merely ran off with a brush of his sleeves. He was so fast that Foe-herder immediately gave up the thought of chasing after him and could only beseech the Amethyst Rebirth's ladies, ”How may I address that brother who has just left?”
All the ladies looked at one another. This man was obviously similar to Carouse's guild leader, looking to poach Gu Fei after recognizing his high Spell Damage.
”What are you trying to do?! That guy is from our guild!” Svelte Dancer directly revealed his insidious intention.
Foe-herder brushed off her accusation with a smile, ”I just wish to get to know him a little.”
”What's there to know about him? We can all tell what you really want! So back the f*ck off!” Svelte Dancer drove him away.
Foe-herder could only helplessly return to his guild's side and say to several members, ”Find out what you can about that Mage! It shan't be difficult to find information about the only male player of Amethyst Rebirth, right?”
”I've actually never heard of him before!” someone commented. Everyone was already aware that an all-female guild existed in Yunduan City after that incident with No Smile, yet no one knew that a male player was actually hidden within it until now.
”Hmm… Go ask the opponents Amethyst Rebirth met in the previous rounds. Information might be gathered from them,” Foe-herder changed his order, adding, ”Maybe these guilds will know more about him.”
Saying that, Foe-herder suddenly recalled something as he abruptly slapped his thigh, ”F*ck! When I was inquiring about how Carouse's players had lost their match, they did not even mention anything about such an OP Mage. Those m*th*rf*ck*rs are also trying to recruit him! We gotta move fast. Get the whole guild to find out more about that guy!”
The members of Cloud Herder hurriedly inquired what they could to whomever they could. In that instant, a new legend of another black clothed, masked man rapidly spread all over Yunduan City.A Chinese idiom that means 'overreacting due to one's fear/misconception'.Another Chinese saying that means something along the line of 'paving the road for others', just in a more personal way.