The Card Apprentice

Chapter 193: A Fierce Battle

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The black-suited man in front of her was suddenly diverted by a powerful lateral force on his extended body floating in midair, and he flashed into the space between the buildings. The battle maneuver was very abrupt, and Butchie was nearly caught unprepared as she uttered a chill grunt and rose up in hot pursuit.

She felt pent-up frustration from her chest. Her adversary’s move was too abrupt! She put a huge force on her body as she powerfully changed direction herself. Her move also revealed her intentions.

Without any hesitation, the black-suited man responded with five wavy blades in his raised hand. The five silvery wavy blades left stunning, glowing trails, which stung Butchie’s eyes with their silvery flash. What awed her still more was that the five wavy blades were scattered all over, nearly sealing off any angle for escape.

The wavy blades were fast. The had already made it in front of Butchie before the whistling sound they made as they tore through the air reached her ears. Her reaction wasn’t slow; she just managed to deploy her orange-colored oval energy cloak to block them.

There was a light popping like rippling water as they hit the orange oval energy cloak, and then Butchie’s field of vision went blurry.

What she was then using was the “orange,” which came from a card master in the organization who specialized in energy cloaks. The orange was an unintended result of the card master’s experimentation. Because of its orange color, it was too easy to see when it was deployed in the dark, which meant no one wanted it. Butchie once saw it by accident and was deeply attracted by its soft, mellow orange. She immediately begged the card master for it. In her subsequent experimentation, the orange demonstrated excellent performance, which immediately got everyone’s attention. Moreover, the card master never made another one, so that orange-colored energy cloak became Butchie’s trademark within the organization.

Damn! Butchie’s expression changed. She hadn’t thought her adversary’s move would be so ruthless once she saw it. Reflecting to herself, it looked as though that little bout had gone too easily and that she had dropped her guard too much. She pulled together all of her energy, but because she had lost the initiative, she had fallen into a passive position without realizing it.

Then, the black-suited man gave her another surprise.

He basically didn’t have any intention of letting her go. Without any pause and just as she was raising her shield, countless silvery, moon-like wavy blades came pouring down from his right hand and just kept coming.

The silvery-moon wavy blades were raining down all over and pounding against the orange energy cloak.

The attacks were coming on too quickly. Her adversary wasn’t giving her any breathing space; she could only grit her teeth and hold out. There was no room for any counterattack.

She was full of fury, not knowing when she’d last been in such dire straits. Five years ago? She couldn’t quite remember anymore. But, she was certain it had already been a long time. Since she’d already lost the initiative, she could only stay on defense for the time being.

But, was it possible her adversary was going to give her the chance to fight back? The lethal silvery-moon wavy blades were as dense as rain and seemed inexhaustible enough fill a person with hopelessness.

With the energy in her apparatus rapidly depleting, the one staying down that day would certainly be her. Butchie didn’t lose her fight because of that. As a card artisan with rich battle experience, the more difficult things became, the more calm she would become.

Any look of impetuousness and contempt vanished from Butchie’s face, replaced by a deep calm with a hint of ruthlessness. Her snow-white, long legs were showing through her evening gown, which created a different kind of allure under the light reflected from the orange.

Now! Without the least hesitation, she suddenly made the same kind of high-altitude drift! Her energy cloak dimmed slightly since she was distracted by controlling her jet stream card, and the orange couldn’t avoid being influenced. When several silvery-moon wavy blades landed on it, the energy cloak shook violently.

Butchie’s face was as calm as water, and her eyes were fixed as her body lurched to the side from high speed.

Originally, one of them had been following the other between the buildings in high-speed flight. While such flight was actually quite dangerous—only those card artisans with outstanding flying ability would dare it—the kind of flying Butchie and the black-suited man were doing was still more rare.

Off in the distance, there were already quite a few card artisans who’d noticed the battle from the air. It was hard for the sensitive card artisans not to pay attention to the energy waves left by the black-suited man’s moves. But, no one dared to approach; the concentration of silvery wavy blades was enough to scare them half to death. Even those who weren’t afraid to die would still only dare to look from afar at the scene of the fierce battle. It had always been difficult to be able to watch a battle among aces, so to be able to see it in person would be of great assistance to their own improvement.

The card artisans floating in midair were staring fixedly at the battle scene as it unfolded for fear of missing a single detail. Among them, there was a youth with an elegant temperament watching the two, slightly surprised, while differently colored lights flashed in his eyes.

He suddenly heard someone beside him open up his communications card, panting, to say, “Hurry up! I’m in the northwest corner! There’s a war over here, and man it’s nice! If we could broadcast it live, good lord! We would spike our viewership! What? You say it wouldn’t be up to the war between the Gemini and the Chill Woman? Are you f**king kidding me? You think the battles among the Big Six are a bargain? They are all over the place. Don’t drag this out. If you don’t want this month’s bonus, I sure do. Bring the f**king stuff here now; the sooner the better!”

A bald fatty with a head full of sweat was facing the image on the communications card with spit flying. The youth next to him couldn’t help but smile.

A cold, neat sucking sound arose, and the youth was startled. He quickly returned his gaze to the battle. He could only see the orange glowing ball suddenly float directly into the space between the buildings from a high spot. The move made the youth’s eyes suddenly flash.

“Good lord! Is that guy nuts? Does he want to kill himself?” the bald fatty beside him was mumbling.

What he’d said wasn’t off-base. Given such high speed, to suddenly turn into the space between high buildings wasn’t much different from seeking death. There were two tall buildings level with the direction of her flight, and the distance between them wasn’t more than 100 meters. It had to be known that at such high speed it was basically impossible to stop within 100 meters. The only possible result would be to ram into the side of the building. Slamming into a building head-on at such high speed, she wouldn’t be safe even with her energy cloak to protect her.

Having missed their objective, the silvery-moon wavy blades were detonating like rain at the spot on the building where she would have been.

Pa, pa, pa, like a rainstorm on banana leaves, they left very clear, shiny marks on the windows of the tall building. All of the floor-to-ceiling windows on the building were made of high-strength, steel-reinforced glass that had excellent protective capabilities. They could resist most energy attacks. But, it showed how powerful the dazzling, silvery wavy blades were that they could so easily leave marks.

Many of the card artisans gathered around watching looked indignant. They hadn’t realized the black-suited man in front of them would actually behave in such a deadly manner in the city like that without any misgivings. If they hadn’t been restrained by how strong the black-suited man’s power was, they would have taken immediate action and beaten the crazy wrecker to a pulp.

Because of a what was happening in front of them, they were more concerned about the yellowish glow. In their minds, the black-suited man had already been turned into the villain, while the yellow glow was subconsciously made into the good guy.

Butchie’s high-altitude drift greatly exceeded what the black-suited man had expected, and he suddenly lost track of her. But, he never got flustered and never stopped; rather, he continued to maintain his rapid forward flight. The farther apart they got, no matter how his adversary responded, he still occupied an invincible position. He wasn’t the kind of person who would quibble, and that murderous woman suddenly appearing along the way had rather brought him up short. He wasn’t the sort to seek out the light, and the crowd gathered nearby had alarmed him, which quickly made him want to get out of there.

The spectators suddenly erupted into a burst of admiration.

“Too splendid!”

“Is that even possible?”

“My word, am I watching a ghost?”

* * *

That youth among them couldn’t help his startled look.

Butchie shot out like an artillery shell into the space between the two buildings. She closed the distance at a stunning rate, causing quite a few of them to helplessly close their eyes. When she was about 70 meters away from the building, everyone assumed that no matter how awesome the card artisan within the yellow glow was, she would be a goner for sure. But, just then, Butchie executed a maneuver the spectators would be reflecting on for some time.

She executed half a U-turn ricochet swoop!

The so-called U-turn ricochet swoop was the card artisan abruptly swooping straight down from high altitude and then suddenly pulling up very near the ground to make a high speed vertical climb. Because the flight trajectory would be U-shaped, it was called a U-turn ricochet swoop. It was a tactical maneuver with an extremely high level of difficulty that also made very heavy demands on a card artisan’s physical fitness and flying ability. The most difficult part of the tactical maneuver was how close together the swoop and climb were; the closer they were, the more difficult it would be. The standard separation was 200 meters.

What Butchie executed was half of the U-turn ricochet swoop, as well as half of the vertical climb. To see her suddenly climb at such high speed and then to stretch out such an exaggerated arc within a distance of 70 meters, and then afterward to stick so close to the glass walls of the building while she climbed straight up… And, that time, her distance from the building’s wall was less than 20 centimeters, which was beyond dangerous.

From there it could be seen still better how powerful she was! To execute a half U-turn ricochet swoop within the space of 70 meters was a piece of data sufficient to make a person’s blood fizz.

While the battle was raging between the two and when Butchie competed that gorgeous maneuver, Chen Mu was slowly opening his eyes in the pool.