731 Chapter 731 - Place of Death (1/2)
As long as Gu Fei was around, there would always be something occurring that players could never imagine happening. This was exactly what was happening right now as a blinding flash of electricity sparked on the ground, intermingling with the blazing glow that came with the flames. Gu Fei's body came hurtling out in the air, first escaping the fiery embrace of the Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno on the ground. He brushed past several Descending Wheels of Flames as he flew forward, but they were not enough to insta-kill him.
The Homing Projectiles that were hurtling toward Gu Fei from every direction turned skyward, unerringly pointing toward him to the very end. Even though Gu Fei did not die to the Descending Wheel of Flames, he did not have much HP left after brushing against those flames that he could entrust for damage. Pulling out his Chinese Sabre with his left hand and his sword in his right, he first began to swat away the incoming Homing Projectiles that were gliding toward him from in front. In the meantime, the Homing Projectiles that were flying in from behind Gu Fei were actually slower than the speed that he gained when he repelled himself off the ground with his Palm of Thunder, so none of those would be catching up to him too soon.
The players who were lying in wait amidst the reeds were all dumbfounded, watching as Gu Fei leaped out from the sea of fire in such an inconceivable manner. Gu Fei borrowed the repulsion from his Palm of Thunder so as to lengthen the time he spent in mid-air so that he could avoid as much of the Blazing Trees of a Thousand Inferno as possible, but the skill's repel effect was not actually that fast in its repulsion. Now that everyone could see that Gu Fei was about to land back on the ground, a group of Mages was already prepared to receive him, rapidly unleashing their flames to heat the place where Gu Fei was landing like it was a branding iron in a furnace, with every intention of turning him into ash the moment he plummeted back down to the ground.
In the end, at the very second right before Gu Fei crash into the ground, he cast a single Blink. The row of Mages that were huddled in the reeds had been happily waving their magic staves when they suddenly saw a black blur in front of their eyes. That figure that was still about 6 meters away from them was suddenly right before them in an instant. Gu Fei had long since kicked out his two feet and had managed to send two Mages tumbling to the ground. Audaciously stepping on these two players as he normally did, he darted forward and cleared another two meters. At the same time, he did not even turn his head around as he lashed out with his Chinese Sabre in his left hand and slashed with his Moonlit Nightfalls to his right, cutting down two Homing Projectiles that were flying right at him.
”Blow him up! Keep at it!!!” It was unknown who was the one that shouted this, but the Mages discourteously began to keep casting their AoE spells at him. Even those who were in close proximity to Gu Fei had completely disregarded their own lives and were prepared to sacrifice themselves to take him down.
”That's how that guy does things alright..” This sort of method where 'the ends justify the means' was essentially Young Master Han's calling card, and Gu Fei had already expected this to be the case, which was why the direction that he had escaped in this time was not to where Svelte Dancer was at, but the exact opposite. Gu Fei's leap this time sent him deeper into the heart of the encirclement; he was going straight toward the log cabin.
From the time he started running, the downward strike with his Palm of Thunder that propelled him to fly forward mid-air, and the Blink before continuing his way after sending two players sprawling to the ground, barely a handful of seconds had passed, and a good number of the Homing Projectiles had not caught up with the speedy movement speed that Gu Fei possessed. At that moment, not only were these arrows nowhere near him, they were even flying toward him successively. The speed of the arrows themselves was nothing too fast to begin with, so as long as they were pelting him one after another, Gu Fei was very confident that he could bat each and every one of them away. Presently, he was making a beeline straight for the log cabin, so at least the spells that the Mages were casting would not be able to connect with him.
But how was he supposed to have guessed that the log cabin's floor would slowly begin heating up the moment his foot stepped in, and that was when he saw that there was already a small pack of Mages who were hiding inside the cabin.
”Sh*t!” Gu Fei could not help but curse. Young Master Han might not have any idea how Gu Fei had managed to escape in such a situation, but he did not underestimate his capabilities at the very least. He had also gone the extra mile to include the possibility of Gu Fei breaking out from such desperate circumstances. Furthermore, Young Master Han had already expected Gu Fei to run for the log cabin the moment he could escape. Given it was the only location where he could run to safely take refuge and avoid the encroachment of the AoE spells.
”DIE!!!” The Mages all yelled in unison, waving their magic staves. In the end, they watched as Gu Fei stepped onto the wall and propelled himself up in the air, making a single leap right for the table in the corner in front of him, taking another step on the wall after getting on the table, keeping his body sideways as he somersaulted up to the ceiling of the cabin.
”Do you think you're Spiderman?” Someone from within the group of Mages spat, but someone else had already realized the trouble they were in as he shouted, ”CRAP!!!”
When that man uttered out that cry, none of them had any recourse to save themselves. The log cabin was not particularly large, and several Mages' spells were already enough to cover it in its entirety. They had originally been prepared to perish together with Gu Fei, but after all the jumping around he had done, the man was now up on the ceiling of the cabin, and the position that he had taken up was even higher than where their Descending Wheels of Flames would form.
Descending Wheel of Flames would take a bit of time to form into shape. Would players take any damage if they were to come into contact with it while that was happening? Some bored players had tried testing this before, and they concluded that no damage would be dealt in such a manner. Thus, Gu Fei had used this short span of time before the Descending Wheel of Flames even ignited into form and leaped past the flaming wheel and getting himself on the ceiling.
Gu Fei was not Spiderman, so there was no way that he could stick himself onto the ceiling, but his execution was well timed to the point of it being almost extreme. Just as he made it past the Descending Wheel of Flames, each of the flaming wheels came rushing to the ground once they were fully formed. While Gu Fei was that bit slower in his descent, probably less than a second apart. But that was all he needed to avoid being damaged by the Descending Wheel of Flames.
”At least there's still our Blazing Trees of a Thousand Inferno! He will have to land on it, eventually,” The Mages knew that they would most definitely end up dead, so the only hope they held onto was for Gu Fei to drop into the inferno before that happened. In the end, right at the moment when Gu Fei was about to make contact with the ground, he kicked a leg out to the wall once more and sent himself flying above everyone's heads. He borrowed someone's shoulders and kept himself off the ground.
”What the hell!!!” The player who had been stepped on was naturally dissatisfied to be used in such a manner. He struggled, hoping to throw Gu Fei off him, but there was, in fact, no need for him to try so hard. All the spells were completed, and the player found himself burning into a flash of white light. In that instant when he disappeared, the player abruptly felt more weight being exerted upon his shoulders.
”G*DD*MM*T!!!” The Mage had seen Gu Fei borrow his shoulders and leap up once more before he died.
Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno does not last longer than 5 seconds, so could this guy really be thinking of challenging gravity, looking to land on the ground after 5 seconds? The Mage was curious about the answer to his question, but alas, he was already dead, along with those comrades he had been fighting side by side. Everyone had appeared back in the spawn point, asking the same question in unison, ”Is he dead?”
Nope! None of them were able to get the answer to their question at the moment, but the answer was no.
After using that Mage's shoulder for support, Gu Fei had leaped up in the air once more. There was not much space up on the ceiling; it was but a single log cabin, so the beam of the structure was quite prominently exposed. Gu Fei had aimed toward this target in mind and grabbed onto the beam with one hand and pulled himself up. He was hanging in the air before kicking both his legs out: the Homing Projectiles had finally arrived, and Gu Fei was kicking these arrows down from mid-flight. The 5 seconds had very quickly passed, and the inferno below him simmered down. Gu Fei let go of his hand and landed on the ground. With both his arms and legs free, he now had a much easier time dealing with the Homing Projectiles flying his way.
Gu Fei heaved a sigh of relief. The log cabin only had a single entrance, and he felt that he should be fairly capable of handling the situation with great ease unless these players were able to disassemble the cabin. Gu Fei had no idea if the system would allow this to happen or otherwise. In any case, since I'm already here, how about I complete this quest first? Gu Fei thought to himself, intending on speaking with Guillermo. But just as he turned his head around to look, he found Guillermo standing in the corner of the cabin, its face burnt black to a crisp and smoke emitting from its head.
”No way, are you dead?” Gu Fei yelled. How could this NPC be attacked? To actually be burnt to such a degree, this is such a weak NPC!!!
”I'm still alive,” the weak NPC feebly replied.
”Oh, it's good that you're alive. The Vigilante Corps had sent me to get you,” Gu Fei quickly progressed the quest as Guillermo looked like it was ready to die at any moment.
In the end, before the NPC could even say another word, Gu Fei saw a series of glowing flames appear from the window as Gu Fei quickly twisted himself to let it pass. It was a cast of Repeating Fireballs that came hurtling into the log cabin as several more Repeating Fireball came flying in from outside the door.
”Ah… I'm finished this time…” Gu Fei had tried his best; he had escaped the sea of flames, leaped away from the array of AoE spells, swatting away all the Homing Projectiles fired his way, but with several casts of Repeating Fireball zooming toward him right now, Gu Fei recalled something from long ago.
It was back when he had just joined Young Master's Elite mercenary group, and they were out on their first quest to kill the Bandit Leader Sooto. Gu Fei could still remember what Young Master Han had planned back then, intending to barricade the BOSS inside its small hut and rely on a Mage to whittle its HP down with Repeating Fireballs. Because the Repeating Fireball has a minor explosion effect, it would cause a bit of AoE damage, and in a tight space like the hut the NPC was in, there was no way for it to avoid the damage.
Gu Fei could swat away Homing Projectiles or extinguish single Fireballs, but when facing a spell like Repeating Fireballs, and not just one series of it, Gu Fei was ultimately just one man, and he had his limitations. Gu Fei was positive that there was no way he could extinguish so many Repeating Fireballs, so this time, he truly had no way out.
At least the quest would be completed, right? Gu Fei quickly moved closer to Guillermo. The explosion effect from the Repeating Fireballs was not really high after all, so Gu Fei felt that he should at least still be able to survive for a bit.
”Hey, I'm someone from Yunduan City's Vigilante Corps,” As the sound of the fireballs exploding was reverberating in the cabin, Gu Fei found himself shouting at Guillermo, only for the NPC to remain slumped on the floor, not making a sound. Gu Fei pulled it up to take a look, and even though NPCs were technically just programmed code, they would still breathe and their hearts would still beat in the game. Furthermore, they might even be more life-like than actual players sometimes. Take how players would die in white light and not leave their corpse behind, yet an NPC would often be turned into a corpse upon death. By the time Gu Fei had propped it upright, Guillermo was already a corpse and was no longer breathing nor did it have a heartbeat.
”No way, you've actually died before me?” Gu Fei was extremely dejected when he discovered Guillermo had actually died to the Repeating Fireballs exploding around them before he did.