Are you actually a mage?

After letting Boss and the others know the situation, the brothers all decided to go and help Yuehua in the PK. After all, it was because of Lin Jia and the others that Yuehua had a falling out with Nangong Cangma’s gang in the past. Now that everyone was friends, it would be unrighteous not to go to the rescue. Even Righteous Thief expressed his willingness to help and asked if they needed to call over the brothers from the Past Alliance guild.

Lin Jia hurriedly declined. Nangong Cangma and his crew only had three people in total, and their conflict with Yuehua was probably just a chance encounter. If they had to summon the entire guild every time there was a PK, people would simply be too busy to keep up! Besides, the three brothers plus Righteous Thief and Yuehua were more than enough to take down Nangong Cangma's group.

Quickly heading toward the wasteland near the Skeleton Cave, Lin Jia used his right hand to control the mouse, steering his Mage character named "Crazy Shackle" forward, while using his left hand to type a message to Yuehua, who was likely in the middle of a PK: "Hold on! We're coming!" Yuehua replied, but without any text; he simply sent a blank message using his name to indicate he had received it.

Upon running near the Skeleton Cave, Lin Jia messaged Yuehua again to ask for his coordinates. After about a minute, Yuehua sent back a set of numbers that placed him right near Lin Jia's group. Following the coordinates, they soon heard the shouts and skill effects produced by players in combat.

Boss, Fourth Brother, and Righteous Thief rushed in without a word to help Yuehua tank the Nangong brothers who had been chasing him all over the world.

Having not seen him for a while, Nangong Cangma had actually leveled up again! Because the color of his skeleton was much more bluish than when they last saw it, Lin Jia felt a great sense of impending trouble! He hurriedly switched to group attack mode, seized an opportunity to rush near Nangong Cangma, and cast a Fire Burst!

As expected, it failed to push him back!

During their last PK, Lin Jia was level 24 while Nangong Cangma was level 23, allowing Lin Jia to barely push a level 23 Nangong Cangma. But seeing him this time, the opponent's skeleton had upgraded, which was clearly the level 3 Summon Skeleton skill that could only be learned at level 26! He hadn't expected that in just a few short days—while Lin Jia and the others were delayed by joining a guild—Nangong Cangma had caught up by this much. It seemed that there were still quite a few players in Legend who were secretly determined to push their levels to the limit!

When Nangong Cangma realized that the Mage pushing him away was Crazy Shackle—none other than Lin Jia—he went as wild as if he had eaten rat poison, likely harboring a deep hatred for this Mage. Abandoning Yuehua entirely, he lunged straight at Lin Jia, scattering red and green poison powder and talismans all over Lin Jia as if they cost nothing, while brandishing a Frost Sword and hacking fiercely at the close-range Mage.

Regaining a moment to breathe, Yuehua shouted, "Group!" Then he turned around and engaged in battle with Good Guy and Martial Hero, Nangong Cangma's two cronies who had been chasing him for ages. Lin Jia swallowed two bundles of Intense Healing Potions in rapid succession and dropped a Wall of Fire right beneath his feet. Then he initiated Lightning attacks to fight back head-on. At this moment, attempting to create distance and resume the fight would only result in becoming the vulnerable prey due to the recoiling delay after taking hits.

Lin Jia hadn't expected Nangong Cangma's reaction to be so intense. He had originally intended to step forward, cast Fire Burst, and immediately retreat if it failed. He hadn't anticipated that the moment Lin Jia got close, Nangong Cangma would stop chasing Yuehua and slash at him first. Once it hit, taking advantage of Lin Jia's recoiling stagger, he rapidly coated Lin Jia in poison and alternated between sword strikes and talismans to fight him to the death.

At this point, Lin Jia could only gamble: gamble that the damage from his Wall of Fire and Lightning spells would surpass Nangong Cangma's; gamble that Fourth Brother and Boss, who were not far away, would turn back to rescue him; gamble that his defense could withstand the opponent's attacks; gamble that Nangong Cangma would break under pressure before he did; and gamble that the five Super Sun Water potions he habitually carried in his pocket would help him last until the very end!

Lin Jia's defense was slightly higher than that of an average Mage by one or two points. If he hadn't worn the Overload Ring which forced him to swap out a 0-3 defense, 0-3 magic Iron Purity Ring, his defense would have been even higher. Moreover, the Magic Robe he had looted from Good Guy was an exceptionally good rare drop; a standard Magic Robe had 3-5 defense and 0-2 magic, but the one Lin Jia was wearing right now had 3-7 defense and 0-3 magic!

Lin Jia's Wall of Fire and Lightning also subjected Nangong Cangma to the restrictions of recoil stiffness, slowing down his attack speed, and standing inside the Wall of Fire caused him continuous damage. The power of Lin Jia's level 3 Lightning spell was nothing to scoff at, and the rate at which their health bars were dropping was neck and neck for a moment.

"Boss! Help!" Lin Jia shouted. Boss saw Lin Jia's battle, abandoned the plan to chase the enemy Mage Good Guy alongside Fourth Brother, and spun around to hurl a Soul Fire Talisman directly at Nangong Cangma, immediately followed by red poison to lower his defense. Meanwhile, Righteous Thief, who had been running behind Lin Jia, cast a Healing spell that landed on Lin Jia.

This was akin to two cars driving straight at each other in a game of chicken to see who would swerve first. In the beginning, they were evenly matched, but as they closed in, one side realized the other was driving a military-grade Humvee armored tank while they were driving a tiny budget car. One side was brimming with absolute confidence while the other had zero foundation left. Nangong Cangma, who had initially embraced the "let's see who dies first!" mindset, had no choice but to quickly back away and change tactics. After all, a wise man knows better than to fight when the odds are against him; his enemies clearly outnumbered him, and stubbornly staying to fight head-on would be pure idiocy.

Lin Jia breathed a sigh of relief. Watching his health bar, which had dropped to less than a fifth, rapidly climb back up, he wiped a massive stream of sweat from his forehead. It was fortunate that Boss and the others rescued him in time; had it been even a fraction of a second later... he had actually been preparing to turn tail and run. Fortunately, he had brought Super Healing Potions today, which restored health much faster than standard Medium Healing Potions. If not for the Overload Ring, Lin Jia usually only carried medium ones, but today, since he was prioritizing inventory slots over weight limits, he had extravagantly switched to intense ones. To ensure safety on the third floor of Woma Temple, Lin Jia had brought ten bundles of Super Healing Potions at once, planning to ask someone to deliver more Magic Potions directly if his blue potions ran low, which was why he had brought extra red potions.

Nangong Cangma had now been beaten into retreat twice by a Mage standing his ground, and he was so frustrated he was practically coughing up blood. He had truly never seen a Mage with the guts to stand toe-to-toe with a high-level Taoist without backing down. Ordinary Mages would panic and lose their composure when cornered by a Taoist in close quarters; either they were too busy casting Lightning to heal themselves, or too busy healing themselves to cast attacks. Either way, the only outcome for a Mage was death or escaping via recall scroll.

Yet this Mage named "Crazy Shackle" not only possessed high defense and abnormal magical attack power, but he could also steadily manage his health points during combat while dealing damage with accurate magical attacks. Worst of all was his erratic movement pattern of advancing and retreating, which made it extremely difficult for Nangong Cangma to land Soul Fire Talismans accurately in a mobile fight. And to top it all off, when he finally managed to catch the guy standing still and trading blows head-on, he couldn't even overpower a Mage?!

A Mage capable of going toe-to-toe with a Taoist?

Nangong Cangma was probably suffering from internal injuries due to sheer frustration. If not for the fact that a 2.5D game lacked voice chat, Nangong Cangma would likely have looked up to the heavens and roared: "What the hell! Are you even a Mage?! Why do you keep standing your ground? If you're so good at tanking damage, why didn't you play a Warrior instead?!"

Mind you, Taoists in version 1.04 were characters that players of the other two classes constantly protested as being absurdly overpowered! Not only could the level 3 Soul Fire Talisman rival a Mage's level 2 Lightning spell in power, but Taoists could attack, heal, and launch ranged assaults, all while backed by a powerful, grotesque personal bodyguard. Yet a Taoist in such a pinnacle state was forced to retreat by an equal-level Mage in close-range combat?

Faced with this situation, any Taoist player would undoubtedly ask that Mage: "Are you even a Mage?"

As mystical as it sounded, the reality was quite simple. Setting aside the assistance from Boss and the healing from Righteous Thief, Lin Jia's own base defense was higher than that of ordinary Mages. Although he had lost the 3-4 defense from his previous green Prayer Helmet and had today swapped out the 0-3 defense rare Iron Purity Ring—causing his defense to drop significantly—that rare Magic Robe gave Lin Jia two more points of defense than other Mages. Furthermore, winning a Mage PK boiled down to a battle of micro-operations and psychological resilience. The Mage class was inherently fragile and prone to death, but with good mechanics and strong mental fortitude, a player could completely pull off what Lin Jia did and repeatedly force Taoists to flee in retreat.

Lin Jia's micro-control skills stemmed from his past experience with the real-time strategy game *StarCraft*. Before *Legend* swept the nation, *StarCraft* and *Counter-Strike* were the hottest games monopolizing internet cafes. Back then, Lin Jia and Fourth Brother were also avid fans of this game that similarly emphasized mechanics and strategic skill, and they had even gathered a few friends to form a clan called "BT-L3". In their small town, young players in the *StarCraft* scene all knew of a clan called the "Perverted Maniacs"—not because they won every single battle, but because any *StarCraft* player who played a private match against them never wanted to play them again.

Because playing *StarCraft* against them meant that if the map was resource-scarce, you might arrogantly wipe them out quickly; but if it was a map with rich or infinite minerals, you might as well prepare to lose your mind! Their playstyle was utterly shameless and abnormal, as there was always a guy in their team capable of executing multi-threaded harassment tactics, or even triple-threaded harassment. Rumor had it that during their peak performance in 4v4 matches, that particular guy could flamboyantly pull off quadruple-threaded harassment. In other words, he could single-handedly harass four enemy bases simultaneously, as if fighting four opponents at once.

Of course, he couldn't possibly defeat four enemies all by himself, but the four enemy players could not avoid having their economic development slowed down and massive resources drained by his constant harassment. By the time he was finally exhausted by the four enemies and unable to continue, the other three members of the BT-L3 clan—who had remained completely silent from the start, neglecting even defense to focus entirely on maximizing troop production and technological advancement—would swarm out in full force to launch a magnificent, overwhelming counter-offensive against the four battered enemies.