Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

A talent! This what what it meant to be a true talent!

There were some who supplemented themselves through their own diligence, others who had to constantly improve themselves to be ahead of the curve, and other people who would tell others it was possible to find success without any sort of talent. While these people were not wrong in the least, their success did not mean they could surpass the achievements of those who were just naturally gifted. It would merely be wishful thinking for these people who had achieved their own success through such means to assume talented individuals would not work hard themselves, as if such geniuses would merely stay stagnant in the forefront and wait for the others to catch up to them. Such thinking would not fly; anyone could work hard and achieve results, but talent was something not everybody could possess.

Eternal Dominion thought of all this and was once more caught up in memories from days before...

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Ten years ago, his father had visited the Gu Family, and actually lost to the fifteen-year old Gu Fei. Furthermore, it was an utter defeat, a undisputed loss on his part that was soundlessly accepted. Yet his father did not bear a grudge over losing to such a young opponent. However, from that day onwards, this name of Gu Fei of the Gu Family would be raised time and time again, and each time his name was mentioned, praises would undoubtedly follow.

“Look at that Gu Fei from the Gu Family...”

From then on, it was a sentence that Eternal Dominion would most often hear when his father mentored him. Gu Fei had became the primary model for Eternal Dominion when it came to anything about kung fu. His name was like a spectre forever near his side, looking down upon him condescendingly.

His father had hoped Gu Fei would become an exemple for his own son, yet it was apparent there were issues to his teaching method.

Not only did Gu Fei fail to become a good role model for Eternal Dominion, he would in fact feel dejected and sour whenever he heard the name.

Fortunately, Eternal Dominion was not like most of the children out there, abandoning themselves to despair and becoming even worse when he was constantly compared in such a manner. Instead, he had actually been incited into working even harder, training hard day and night, every single day. He had already set his ambition from that point, looking forward to the day when he would visit the Gu Family himself, challenge Gu Fei to a match, and proceed to defeat him. The next time his father begin to mention Gu Fei from the Gu Family, he could then lightly answer, “Gu Fei? Who the heck is that? Is that the guy I’ve already beaten?”

Eternal Dominion had fantasized such a scene countless times, feeling invigorated and excited whenever he thought of it, pushing him to work even harder towards this goal.

However, this wish he had was very childish. As he gotten older, fantasizing about this scene no longer stimulated him like before. However, the effectiveness of his hard work from those early years could be seen, for Eternal Dominion had improved extremely rapidly, something his father was extremely proud of. That statement that he loved to mention all those years finally fell out of favor, replaced with a proud yet somewhat regretful and sad comment, “Not bad. Not bad at all. It’s such a pity you do not have the talent that the Gu Family’s Gu Fei possessed, otherwise you would surely be up to par.”

In such circumstances, what else but melancholy could anybody feel, were they in his shoes?

Eternal Dominion was truly afraid that he would never get rid of the shadow of Gu Fei in his heart for the rest of his life, so he continued to train and strive for better. The day he was able to easily defeat his father, his father’s eyes to shone just as brightly as when he mentioned Gu Fei’s name.

“To think you could improve to such a level. Who knows what level that Gu Fei has reached after these ten long years. Perhaps, you should go look for him.” His father’s words were subtle, as actually he meant his son should confront Gu Fei and spar with him.

He may not have bared any grudge to that defeat ten years ago, but he was more than happy and proud to see that his own son stood a chance of standing up for him now.

Of course, Eternal Dominion had long awaited for such a day, but it was unfortunate that when he visited the Gu Family, Gu Fei was actually no longer around. After exchanging pointers with Old Man Gu, he felt that he was still lacking in many areas, and he temporarily abandoned his plan to challenge Gu Fei. Who would have thought he would coincidentally come across Gu Fei here in Parallel World? While Eternal Dominion showed a nonchalant expression, he was actually very surprised by this deep down.

Honestly speaking, as a result of his defeat at the hands of Old Man Gu, Eternal Dominion was already not too confident when he began to spar with Gu Fei. Having lost his sanctum of confidence, the ten-year-old shadow harassed him once more. Beaten into retreat after taking the chain of seven kicks from Gu Fei, the very fact that he sought to find a reason to explain his own actions could be seen as a manifestation of this shadow. He had no desire to lose to Gu Fei, not even one bit.

But Eternal Dominion was simply taken aback when Gu Fei proceeded to mention his adjustment to the 20 points of Agility. Eternal Dominion believed he would require quite a bit of time to train and find the appropriate tempo for that attack speed if he were to attempt to recreate the chain of consecutive kicks Gu Fei had executed. But if this man could truly make such adjustments in one go just based off the sensation he had, the disparity between their skills was clear just from this very point alone.

Eternal Dominion was still lost in his thoughts when he heard Gu Fei ask, “Did my father use this move against you?”

“Ah?” Eternal Dominion was now back in the moment as he replied, “Nope!”

“Oh, then let’s continue!” Gu Fei said, abruptly taking a slanting step forward. That step did not look stable, and his body was instead tipped to the other side.

Outsiders would find this move to look odd, but Eternal Dominion could distinctly tell what it was. “Shattered Jade Step!”

He was also proficient with this footwork, watching Gu Fei take a second step out for support even as his body pitched, twisting his waist to follow...

That’s the Black Dragon’s Tailwhip!, Eternal Dominion said to himself. He knew that, given how this move was executed, the two steps Gu Fei had taken worked to store power, allowing his body to stretch fully with a twist of his waist, ensuring the power of the sweep that followed was astonishingly powerful. The main purpose of this move was not to injure the opponent, but simply disrupt their balance. The real kill move would be the move that followed.

Since Eternal Dominion already understood all this, he obviously did not receive this move forcefully. He slanted his body to the side as he prepared to let the sweep go by, his right leg ready to go, prepared to kick Gu Fei down with his Emergence of the Black Dragon.

Unexpectedly, the kick that came forth from Gu Fei’s twisted body was entirely different from what Eternal Dominion had anticipated. The shadow of his kick followed a path that he had not considered, causing him to present his own cheek right to that kick as a result of his dodge.

Eternal Dominion was extremely surprised. The only option he had in his desperation was to move his hand in an attempt to block.

The moment his arm came into contact with Gu Fei’s leg, Eternal Dominion immediately sensed that the kick had a rising motion in it.

“Crap!” Only now did Eternal Dominion finally understood what was going on. He tried to retract his arm, but he was slow by that half a beat. As Gu Fei’s leg volleyed, his other leg had also closely followed as both his left and right legs criss-crossed and struck the blocking arm, with one going up while the other went down.

It was not the Black Dragon’s Tailwhip, it was Black Dragon Wrapping Around the Post! It was only at this moment that the thought registered to Eternal Dominion.

Eternal Dominion’s heart instantly disintegrated. To think he had made such an outrageous mistake in judgement! His arm could only struggle out, but that one wave had actually thrown Gu Fei himself away.

Gu Fei twisted in mid-air, not even appearing to have broken a sweat when he landed, smiling as he looked at Eternal Dominion, “You’ve got quite a lot of Strength!”

That was when Eternal Dominion seemed to have awoken from a dream..

This was an MMO game! How could Strength be as strong or weak in accordance to whatever their wish was? A move that drew upon the explosive strength of the player like Black Dragon’s Tailwhip was not something a Mage could use. But Gu Fei was clearly using the posture of Black Dragon’s Tailwhip, and for him to instantly change it into Black Dragon Wrapping Around the Post, the level of skill it would require... This was truly a severe blow to Eternal Dominion!

Aside from that, he had also deciphered the reason behind Gu Fei’s two attacks at this moment.

The first chain of seven kicks was to find out his attack speed and reflexes!

This Black Dragon Wrapped Around the Post was Gu Fei’s way of finding out how much Strength Eternal Dominion possessed.

As for himself, what had he managed to find out from these two attacks? The thought of it caused Eternal Dominion to break out in cold sweat... The first time he had been pleased in how he had managed to deal with his opponent’s seven kicks, while the second time around had him actually mistaking the move his opponent had made.

He could no longer let this man take the initiative!

Because Eternal Dominion had already exchanged glows with Gu Fei’s father, he had made the assumption that Gu Fei and his father would be very similar to one another in terms of how they fought, but he now realized how erroneous that was. While Old Man Gu was just over fifty years old, he was still staunchly on the path of toughness and ferocity, using explosive techniques and moves, a style that was exceptionally aggressive yet simple.

But Gu Fei’s style, on the other hand, was filled with technical skill and far more deceptive in nature. Take that Black Dragon’s Tailwhip and Black Dragon Wrapping Around the Post move he just used: they were both moves found in the Black Dragon Fist style, which in itself was but a branch routine within the overarching Dragon Fist style. Furthermore, Dragon Fist style was precisely what his Family (Eternal Dominion’s family) was best at. Eternal Dominion had practiced and picked up the various branches found within this Fist style since he was young, yet the move that Gu Fei just used had actually fooled him. Eternal Dominion would not have believed this possible, had he not personally experienced it himself.

Eternal Dominion admitted that this feint that Gu Fei had pulled was a wondrous display of fancy moves, but it was also why he believed he had found Gu Fei’s weakness from it.

He was convinced that the moves he had made were flashy, but without substance. That chain of seven consecutive kicks he had used, there would be no need for consecutively kicking out seven times if even one of those had connected.

Using such a kicking style, with both legs successively in the air, while it did look visually dazzling and impressive, the issue was that he would only be in contact with the ground for the briefest of moments. How would consecutive kicks like that maintain any sort of power?

This person must have been praised by everybody too much, and has probably won too many fights. His own execution of moves not only emphasizes effectiveness, he has even begun to pay attention to how they look, Eternal Dominion thought to himself. This guy has been taking the initiative in our exchanges, relegating me to passivity. If I were the one taking the lead, would he still be able to use these feints of his?

It seems like people who are often praised as geniuses will often have a bit of a shortcoming, which is that they are just not as down-to-earth as us common folks. This thought lingered as Eternal Dominion found confidence in himself once more. He gazed at Gu Fei and barked out a sudden laugh, “You took the initiative just then, so I suppose it’s my turn now!”

“That’s great!” Gu Fei accepted readily.