Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
When the circumstances permitted, a medic would always have another defending them. This was a habit that these men had cultivated over their many years as veteran soldiers, and that had not changed a bit after entering the game. When Xiaochen was called over to perform triage, that Thief had promptly followed to defend him. What he had not expected that, though, was not only would he fail to protect Xiaochen, he would also end up joining him.
The whole bunch of them felt frustrated at this result. Although they knew that this was just a game, and were well aware that those three were back on their feet, alive and breathing, back at the spawn point by now, the loss of their three comrades consecutively incited these veterans’ anger.
Even during the most difficult mission they had undertaken back in the days when they were active, their squad had never once lost three lives at one go like this. They were merely pitted against a bunch of civilians in a VRMMO, yet they had just lost three of their fellow comrades one after another while in a situation where the situation was entirely in their enemy’s control. This was truly a devastating blow to their pride.
A torrent of arrows chased after Sword Demon. These ex-soldiers clearly saw their target turning into a pincushion by their arrows, yet the man simply did not die and even managed to coolly slide behind a rock for cover. They could feel great discontentment well up in them.
In the meantime, Ye Xiaowu no longer had someone coming to his rescue, and it appeared that his mana was about to run out. Once that happened, all that was left was for him to resign to the fact that his HP will steadily drop until he died. Even though he knew plenty of methods to resolve his current quandary, he did not have the means to execute them. Broken Water Arrow and Sniper God were the closest to him. Getting either of them to bandage him up would work, but the severity of Ye Xiaowu’s injury made the two hesitate. Since their medic Xiaochen was gone, they could only make do with their rudimentary medical skills. One of the ambushing Archers ran over to Ye Xiaowu’s side, clutching a blood-staunching bandage in hand, but when this man saw his broken arm, he was stunned for quite a while before saying, “This… Your whole arm is shattered; I don’t know how to bandage that!”
“Don’t worry; it’ll work as long as you staunch the blood,” Ye Xiaowu guaranteed.
“How do you staunch a wound like this?” the Archer asked.
Ye Xiaowu was about to faint. “Just bandage it as best as you know how!”
This Archer nodded. Randomly picking up a stick from the ground and splitting it in two to make a splint for Ye Xiaowu’s broken arm, he wound the bandage around the arm quickly, to secure the forearm within the gauze, casually tied a dead knot, and hung it around Ye Xiaowu’s neck.
“There’s bound to be sequela if I’ve made a mistake,” the Archer worryingly informed.
“Don’t worry! When the time comes, I shall visit the Healer NPC to make a full recovery.” Ye Xiaowu told the man.
With how crudely this man had set his arm back and bandaged him, it was quite miraculous for his bleeding to have actually been staunched. However, Ye Xiaowu knew that it was not due to his amazing handiwork but was mainly due to the aid players received from the system’s correction, just like how it would correct the aim when players were shooting their bow and arrows. The system did not care for absolute accuracy from the players in terms of their proficiencies, so it was fine as long as the gist of the work was done.
Now that the bleeding had stopped, Ye Xiaowu’s HP halted its drop, and two Heals after brought him back to full HP. He then hurriedly ate some fruit to replenish his mana. Once the Archer saw that Ye Xiaowu was fine, he immediately moved to return to the fray. With the firepower of the three Archers’ coordinated crossfire, they managed to extricate Broken Water Arrow and Sniper God from their respective close quarter combat with Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion.
After gaining some distance with their retreat, Sniper God and Broken Water Arrow pulled out their bow and crossbow, joining in to begin firing at once. The five Archers were now working together to bring their high mobility and marksmanship into play in this moving skirmish with the two kung fu practitioners. Gu Fei could still keep up with them as his movement speed was not too far off from theirs. The opposing party did not dare to be too wanton with him, but it was a different story for Eternal Dominion. He had a much harder time since his movement speed was not anywhere near any of those five Archers, and they were constantly on the move as their projectiles flew relentlessly. It was clear that they intended to kiting him to death.
Ye Xiaowu knew that he might become a burden at such a time, so he withdrew to one corner as he munched on his fruit, ultimately making sure neither Gu Fei nor Eternal Dominion would be within walking distance to finish him off.
On the other front of this battle, the pressure on Young Master Han and the others had alleviated with the departure of the three Archers, and all their fighting spirit surged after witnessing Sword Demon single-handedly eviscerate two of their ambushers at one go. Meanwhile, their enemies were also feeling uneasy after witnessing Sword Demon’s fierce assault when he appeared out of nowhere, so they sent out two of their men over to that white rock Sword Demon had hidden behind.
“It’s our turn now!” Young Master Han exhorted deeply.
“I’m sure everyone has already noticed it from Sword Demon’s action,” Young Master Han said. “These people are indeed indomitable when it comes to combat, but it is precisely because they are so indomitable that they are unable to adjust their mindset so quickly. When it comes to gaming, they are utterly inexperienced.”
“As for how you guys can capitalize on this, I’ll leave it to you all to act when the opportunity arises.” Young Master Han said, and everyone nodded.
The number of enemies they would be facing had already decreased. With three Archers gone, and two others leaving to hunt down Sword Demon, who had killed off two of their comrades, the originally sixteen men was now down to just nine.
“Over here!” Young Master Han commanded. Having identified an easy target to pick on, the whole lot of experts descended on the only remaining Priest like ravenous wolves.
“DEFEND!” Someone shouted from within the enemy formation. That Priest seemed to have gotten a realization of his own from Xiaochen’s sacrifice as he no longer stood his ground and waited for the enemies to come bully him. Quickly darting deeper into their formation, two Mages stepped out at the same time and clipped from the left and right, each swinging their arm out in a whirl.
This action was very mystifying. Even the Mage veterans, Royal God Call and Flame Singed Clothes, were unable to tell that it was actually them unleashing a spell, only making sense of what happened when they saw a flash of fire form above their heads.
“F*ck!” Everyone cursed and dove in every direction to avoid the blow. Some were struck by the spell while others managed to avoid it. Their Priests promptly restored everyone’s HP as Royal God Call glumly whined, “What sort of m*th*rf*ck*ng casting technique was that?”
“Grenade throwing…” Beside Royal God Call, Paddy Scent Pastures had already identified the arm swinging action the two Mages did. The two of them were holding their crossbows with their right hands, and their left hands were raised in a tossing motion while holding their magic staves. They looked like they were about to throw those staves in their hands out, but this was apparently the technique a grenadier would do.
“Old Lightning and Thunder, beautifully done!” The ‘grenades’ the two Mages had thrown scattered Young Master Han’s lot from converging on the Priest, and they were now receiving serious praise from their comrades for what they did.
“Charge!” Someone gesticulated. Young Master Han and the rest quickly went on guard against the two Warriors among the troops, only to find all nine of the enemies collapsing onto them as they came charging in.
“F*ck me! That’s a charge, too!” the whole lot of them cursed. As it turned out, that man was not calling for the Warriors to use their Charge skill, but for everyone to rush Young Master Han’s lot.
The misunderstanding that sprang from their cultural differences left them cursing like sailors, and just as these nine men got in position to engage them in close quarter combat, the intensity of the skirmish further escalated.
“Intercept them! They’re rushing over here!” Young Master Han shouted. Flame Singed Clothes finally had a chance to show a meaningful performance. Although he had lost and gained levels plenty of times before, he had not once lost any of his equipment and weapon, so that skill he had before could still be used. With a decisive wave of his magic staff, Flame Singed Clothes conjuring up a wall of flames as he followed it up with a Descending Wheel of Flames and a Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno without pause. A sea of fire raged, instantly isolating five of their enemies from the others. Even though this would only last for a few seconds, the advantage from this change greatly favored Young Master Han’s side. War Without Wounds and Southern Lone Blade led the charge as they Charged the enemy Warriors. Royal God Call and Glue kept up a fierce barrage of arrows at the other two remaining players, while Brother Assist and Unrivaled Lucky Star helped by bestowing Blessings to everyone even as they prepare to run in and engage with the enemies up close.
These experts were already aware that contending with these ex-soldiers in terms of PK techniques would be akin to suicide, so all they could do was resort to being more unprincipled. The whole lot of them ganged up on their enemies and surrounded them, making it impossible for their targets to escape. Everyone shall fight it out by relying on their superior equipment!
This was a method of fighting that these experts despised, but it had become the only option for them to achieve victory. If even Sword Demon was utilizing such a shameless measure, why would any of the others have any qualms about doing this? Aside from Gu Fei and the other kung fu practitioners that were on an entirely different plane, Sword Demon was the greatest expert among them all.
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One of the enemy Warriors came cleaving with his heavy sword in hand, but War Without Wounds did not evade or dodge the attack. He stood stoically and took the damage squarely on his head, while the two claymores in his hands impolitely made their way to the man.
This person turned his body to the side to avoid the two claymores, even as he used this chance to step in closer to War Without Wounds, tossing away the sword he was holding in his hand in favor of grabbing War Without Wounds by his throat. With that accomplished, the man lifted him up and threw him on the ground with a hefty swing of his arm. Brother Assist rushed from behind to provide assistance, but the Warrior simply sent his leg out and kicked Brother Assist to displace his balance. Young Master Han rapidly cast two Heals, one each for War Without Wounds and Brother Assist.
On his end, Southern Lone Blade Charged forward while he hid behind his shield; this other Warrior stepped aside and kicked out at Southern Lone Blade’s waist in the same moment that sent him stumbling all over the place. The man came bearing down on him. Surprisingly, the weapon this Warrior was holding was actually a dagger. It appeared that these ex-soldiers were far more familiar with handling this type of weapon that were convenient to carry. They had no choice; there were plenty of weapons available in Parallel World, but the dagger was the only weapon they would actually have equipped for actual combat in real life.
Just as the staggering Southern Lone Blade managed to find his footing, the Warrior, who was coming straight for him, had arrived with a punch, grabbing a hold of Southern Lone Blade’s left shoulder in the same moment and executed a stab accurately aimed at his heart. In the end, all Southern Lone Blade did was open both his arms and directly hugged the man tightly. This Warrior had allocated quite a bit of his stat points to Agility, so his Strength was no match for Southern Lone Blade’s, and that bear hug caused the Warrior’s dagger in his left hand to become stuck in the embrace, impossible to be extracted from within.
The ex-soldier, who struggled to break free, suddenly headbutted Southern Lone Blade. Blood spurted from Southern Lone Blade’s nose. Now angered, he slammed his head back at the enemy’s head in retaliation. Since he possessed more Strength by comparison, Southern Lone Blade ended up dealing more damage with his headbutt.
Their heads had turned into weapons as they kept madly ramming each other with them; it was a particularly tragic sight for all to behold. Young Master Han was pleased with himself as he stood within the formation, his Heal drifting over to Southern Lone Blade from time to time, even as he contemptuously gazed at War Without Wounds, who was still lying on the ground. “You’re such a waste of space.”
War Without Wounds had his arm twisted by the Warrior after he was slammed on the ground. It was apparent this was a specialized grapple technique as all War Without Wounds could do was lie there in the dirt right now, unable to use any strength in that twisted arm. He was still unable to turn his body around, and the only thing his other hand could grab hold of was air.
“I’ll have it out with you!” Seeing that Southern Lone Blade’s technique appeared to be effective, Royal God Call immediately stopped firing his arrows as he bolted over and went lunging at that Warrior.
This Warrior was also fast and agile. Spinning around with a punch, his fist made Royal God Call see stars when it connected as he lunged in mid-air, an ‘argh’ escaping his mouth when he landed on the ground. However, throwing out that punch gave War Without Wounds’ twisted arm a moment of reprieve. War Without Wounds quickly exerted strength and that Warrior, who had spent points to Agility just like his comrades, could only face tragedy against the barbaric War Without Wounds as he was pulled down to the ground with a ruthless tug right there on the spot. War Without Wounds then flipped this person around and straddled the man’s back. He did not have that technique the Warrior previous demonstrated which allowed him to keep someone down on the ground with a twist of the opponent’s arm, so the only thing War Without Wounds could do was rely on this rather shameless method of using his weight to pin that Warrior down.
That ex-soldier being straddled by War Without Wounds almost fainted over from his exasperation. His Strength was no match for War Without Wounds, and now that he was being ridden by the man, how was he supposed to get up?
War Without Wounds laughed uproariously. Unsheathing a claymore, he was about to chop down when a Thief came diving out from the side to stab him. War Without Wounds simply paid no heed to this attack; this Thief could stab his target, and War Without Wounds would stab his as well. This left the Thief feeling demoralized to the point he was faint with anger, lamenting about the situation that he was in.
Meanwhile, during the process of this chaotic brawl between both parties, the lack of a Priest actually doing his job among these ex-soldiers became a huge disadvantage these men had not foreseen. War Without Wounds and Southern Lone Blade were duking it out punch for punch, but they had the support of Young Master Han, allowing their HP to remain filled up this whole time. In contrast, although the ex-soldiers had Priests on their side, this was a job class that just happened to have no experience with, no matter how much actual combat experience they had accumulated. The only Priest they had among them was truly too much of a novice when it came to gaming; even having five of them would be incomparable to the efficiency that a single Young Master Han could demonstrate. Ye Xiaowu might be better than this Priest, but he was still quite a distance away, having only begun rushing over with his broken arm after he noticed just how dismal things were going on this end!
Besides these four, there was still another ex-soldier with the Fighter job class present who was busy punching Unrivaled Lucky Star, Paddy Scent Pastures, and Verdant Timber around. However, it was useless, since these were just merely punches, and that could not kill any of them. Two out of the three present were Priests, so even if he had a good handle over the fight and was able to interrupt the Priests’ Heals at the right time, there was no way he could interrupt both their Heals at once. Additionally, the amount of game experience these ex-soldiers had was tragic, and none of them were able to discern whether a Priest was casting their spells or otherwise.
“Quickly save them!” The fight was getting rowdy on this end, but those enemies that had been blocked by Flame Singed Clothes’ spells on the other end were finally able to circle over. They were currently out in the flat plains and not the streets, so there was no way that he could seal them off completely. Seeing the four men round about one after another, Flame Singed Clothes no longer dared to keep his spells up as he scrambled to join with the rest of the group.
These experts had never fought such a PK that was so lacking in conduct. Especially Southern Lone Blade and War Without Wounds; the former had his whole face bloodied from being headbutted, and the latter ate a face full of dirt. Fortunately, both men ultimately saw a huge reversal to their fates, and they managed to seize the two Warriors respectively through very shameless means, overwhelming the two ex-soldiers until their HP dropped to zero.
Flame Singed Clothes came running over to his comrades as two Knights and two Mages trailed after him. War Without Wounds and Southern Lone Blade were now brimming with confidence after their battle, with the former wiping off the mud and dirt on his face and the latter doing the same with his bloody face, exchanging a quick smile. “It’s good to have Strength!”
With that, the two men dashed right toward the four men with every intention to kill. This time, finding their weapons to be a hassle, they simply stowed them away into their pockets as they transformed into wrestlers, running toward their enemies in an effort to hug them.
However, having witnessed the miserable fates of their Warrior comrades, none of these four dared to be careless. Nobody gave these two the chance to get anywhere near them as they began to engage in a moving skirmish, throwing a kick, punch, or stab with their daggers every now and then. But since War Without Wounds and Southern Lone Blade had the benefit of a Priest’s support behind them, this method of fighting was no more than a waste of time as it achieved nothing.
The anxiety these expert gamers was feeling slowly eased, for this was not as difficult as they originally thought it to be. They could only blame the fact that Gu Fei’s existence had left them extremely deep psychological scars. Nevertheless, there was a very important truth here, and that was how none of them possessed anything like Moonlit Nightfalls, which meant that their enemies did not have the terrifying damage output that Gu Fei possessed. Priests were essentially made redundant when faced against the indomitable Gu Fei’s Attack Power, but because this battle here had Priests, they were more than enough to sustain and remain undefeated no matter how fatigued they looked.
“Target their Priests first!” Ye Xiaowu, who had managed to make his away at this time, felt helpless upon seeing how chaotic and divided everybody was.
Receiving this instruction, these ex-soldiers immediately realized the situation that they were in. If they did not take care of the Priests first, they would just end up in an endless fight. In the end, after making this decision, two out of the remaining troops asked, “Which ones are the Priests?”
“Singed, bombard away!” Young Master Han ordered.
Flame Singed Clothes was stunned, only realizing in the next moment. Young Master Han was attempting to fully press on their advantage of having Priests to the point of sheer shamelessness! With not a moment’s hesitation, he began blanketing the area in flames. He paid no heed to friend or foe and just enveloped everybody in the ensuing firestorm. War Without Wounds and Southern Lone Blade, who were inspired by this, rolled up their sleeves to begin executing their Cyclones. Slashing about recklessly, they no longer bothered with who would end up getting caught up in that dance of steel.
“F*ck, f*ck, f*ck!” Royal God Call, who nearly became a casualty of War Without Wounds’ whirling blades, broke out in a cold sweat as he ran toward Young Master Han. Royal God Call reckoned that no matter how impudent War Without Wounds was, there was no way he would dare to come slashing at Young Master Han.
The chaotic confrontation both parties were caught up in had already devolved to the point that it was just an indiscriminate fight to the death; even these ex-soldiers appeared to be helpless facing against such hooligans. Ye Xiaowu wanted to come over and lend a hand, but just as he was about to close in on them, Glue appeared from thin air and sent an arrow flying right at him, giving him quite a scare. That was when he realized that there was nothing much he could help with even if he was present.
He had never been much of a powerful expert, and considering how he was currently handicapped, and how exceedingly powerful all these experts’ equipment was, he could tell a casual stab from any of these expert gamers was all it would take to finish him off. His arrival would only create even greater havoc.
Ye Xiaowu was caught between a rock and a hard place. Seeing that his team would end up dying to this shameless hooliganism, he had no choice but to send a message to Broken Water Arrow. “The situation is no longer in our favor. Let’s all retreat first!”
Broken Water Arrow and the four other Archers with him were currently having quite an easy time dealing with Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion. Besides that time when a certain someone nearly got caught following Gu Fei’s use of Blink to cover the distance, none of them was, strictly speaking, in any sort of danger. Still, they could see with their eyes what was happening on the other side, and none of them had thought their comrades would have such a hard time engaging in a melee in-game. Broken Water Arrow could tell that they would not be making any headway if this continued, so after a short discussion with Sniper God, he made the final decision. “Let’s retreat!”
A protracted battle here would only make matters worse. Looking at things now, while they held a little advantage in this brawl as the ex-soldiers fought, the lack of decent damage output meant that there was no way they could defeat any of their enemies. With the order given, none of them should have any trouble extricating themselves. After all their men quickly congregated, Old Lightning and Thunder tossed out two spells, as if lobbing grenades again, and went over to carry off Ye Xiaowu like a handicapped person.
The five Archers, who were currently the best at demonstrating their strength, speed, technique, dexterity, and awareness, were tasked with bringing up the rear, firing arrows to prevent Gu Fei and the others from mounting any sort of pursuit even as they provided cover to the others to quickly withdraw from the battle.
“F*ck! Where do you think you’re going?” Royal God Call leaped to his feet and wanted to give chase, but Young Master Han merely threw the boy a side-eye. “You can go after them yourself!”
“Let’s all go!” Royal God Call was eager.
“We don’t have the Agility.” Southern Lone Blade said before he dropped to the ground and laid there. How tiring! Having been a gamer for such a long time, this PK was truly the most tiring battle he had experienced thus far.