Chapter 180 - 180. Close Combat Magician
The Ranger who had almost reached him was stunned by the display, his running halted for a second. Was he a fighter or a magician? He thought for a moment. While he was lost in his thought, Jack had stepped to the front of him. In his consternation, the ranger used Swift Stab, but Jack had already ducked to his side. His slow response had made him wasted the usage of his skill.
Jack spun his body and used the momentum to have his staff whacked at the Ranger's knee. His leg buckled and he went down half-kneeling.
Jack then left the incapacitated Ranger and went to meet the Fighter head to head. The Fighter was taken aback by Jack's fluidity and speed of movements, but he was not about to embarrass himself by losing a melee exchange with a Magician. He swung his swords wildly. The guy was highest in terms of level among the three, but the way he swung his sword carried no rhythm. It was clear that the guy was also like the Ranger, only an ordinary player with average skill.
Jack weaved and ducked through each of the guy's swings. He took an opportunity when the Fighter was making a wide swing, he used his shield to redirect his opponent's swing, making him lose balance and then sent a kick at his legs. This caused the Fighter to fall flat on his face.
Those spectating could not believe what they were seeing. A Magician fought two melee players at close quarter, and came out on top? Was the Magician a Fighter that dressed up like a Magician? Before they could understand what they were watching, the Magician left the fallen down Fighter and ran towards the Magician on the other side, Squid.
Squid was obviously not expecting to be facing the opponent directly. He was thinking this to only be a joking show, where he just threw one or two spells for show. His two melee comrades would be more than enough to take care of this Magician, he just needed to keep him distracted long enough to let the two of them approach him for a melee brawl.
Never in his wildest thought that he imagined the guy to incapacitate the two melee classes and went straight at him. And why was he dashing to him like this? Wasn't he a magic user too? Shouldn't he be throwing spells from afar and compete with him in range attacks? Why did he come onto him as if a melee player would do? And why was his pressure as suffocating as what he felt when he was getting chased around by an expert melee class?
All these wild thoughts slowed his response. His opponent had already covered half the distance before he snapped out of his trance and began to respond.
So fast! The others who were watching had the same thought. They were now thinking he was a Ranger disguised as a Magician, instead of a Fighter.
Squid aimed his magic staff and cast Mana Bullet. The bullet shot through in a straight line. Jack calmly ducked away and avoided the spell. Seeing his opponent effortlessly dodge his attack, he started to panic. He rapidly shot several standard range attacks out of his magic staff.
Since the standard range attacks traveled in a straight line too, Jack could easily predict their trajectories by paying attention to the direction his opponent's magic staff was pointing at. Jack moved away from the attack path once he saw the tip of the magic staff lit up, which indicated that it was about to fire.
Everyone was amazed by the movement skill that this unknown Magician had exhibited. His speed and reflex were unreal, how high exactly were his stats? Even those who were rangers were not confident that they could make the same maneuver in approaching a mage while kept on dodging the attacks.
When Jack got nearer, it became harder to dodge due to the shorter distance, the interval where he noticed the attack and dodging became shorter as well. So he compensated by using his shield and staff to block and parry. He could use Charge skill from the start to shorten the distance, but doing so would blow his cover. Using Parry however, was less obvious, people would just see the reduction in damage as a contribution from his outstanding defense.
When Jack was closed enough, he used a spell for the first time since the fight started. Squid was still firing his standard range attacks madly when Jack pointed his Magic Staff right at his face at point-blank range and cast Mana Bullet.
The light of the spell covered the entirety of Squid's vision since it was cast in such close proximity. It produced the illusion that he had been blinded. The spell crashed head on to his face. He was dazed for a second due to it, while a damage number of 148 appeared above his head.
After seeing the stranger casting a spell, the spectators were finally convinced that he was indeed a Magician and not a melee class player in disguise. But they were then shocked again by the damage number, especially the ones who had chosen the Magician class. When they used Mana Bullet, it would be lucky if they could cross the three digits mark. This guy took out more than half of their fellow Magician's HP in just a single Mana Bullet.
Jack didn't stop his attack after scoring a hit on Squid's face. He swiped his leg at Squid's legs while he was still in a daze, and caused him to fall flat on his back. He turned back and cast Energy Bolts at the other two melee classes who had gotten back on their feet and were making their way to him. While the five bolts rushed towards the two incoming enemies, he returned his attention back to Squid.
The guy was just about to try to get up, but Jack knelt down on him and put his entire weight to pin the poor guy down. One of his knees was on Squid's chest, while the other was on his hand which was holding the magic staff, preventing him to make an attack. Jack's strength stat was way over his opponent, hence the guy could not free himself despite his desperate struggle. Jack pointed his magic staff to the guy's head again. To his opponent's horror, he started to see the tip of the staff glowing up, then he can feel a sizzling pain on his face when the standard attack hit.
That attack took out 56 HP out of Squid's HP bar. Jack continued to fire off a second standard attack from his magic staff. Squid went stiff while still being baffled by what had just happened.
After finishing off the Magician, Jack stood up and faced his two remaining opponents, who had just break free from the Energy Bolts. They stopped dead on their tracks when realizing that one of their comrades had died. What exactly had happened? It was just a short moment. They found it hard to believe what they saw in front of them.
"Only three hits," one of the spectating Death Associates members murmured.
When the others were still in a stupor, Jack didn't let go of the opportunity. He shot repeatedly at the Ranger who had stopped his movement, thus scoring two free hits on him before he moved and evaded the third shot. Jack moved back while the Ranger tried to approach. It was now a standard tactic where range player kited the melee player.
The ranger was obviously not as skillful as Jack as he had much trouble avoiding Jack's range attacks. He was hit occasionally every other hit. And the most frustrating thing was, he could not seem to close in the distance. He was a Ranger who was supposed to be the fastest class, but the Magician who kited him remained at the same distance despite his effort.
Since Ranger class had a low HP pool similar to Magician, he soon found himself in critical condition. He quickly ran away to put a distance instead of continuing to try to charge in. He hid behind the Fighter who was slower and had been running behind him all this time, and took out a basic healing potion to drink.
"Hey, is using potion allowable?" One of the Death Associates spectators said.
His friend who was standing beside him knocked him on the head and said, "whose side are you on exactly?"