The Card Apprentice

Yikes, wasn’t that the female card artisan from that day? Howie was paying rapt attention. Even though the girl had been completely covered by the orange energy cloak, his eyesight was good; he could still see what she looked like. He remembered very clearly the surprise he had felt at the time. For a female card artisan to have such power wasn’t common.

Butchie had changed into more casual attire that day, though Howie had still been able to recognize her at a glance. What kind of person was she? The crowd had attracted his attention. They were all on alert, and it was clear they were all wearing battle-style apparatuses. Among their behaviors could be seen signs of discipline. He was inwardly shocked that so many card artisans would suddenly come to Pomelo. What was really going on? Could it have something to do with what he was just in the middle of?

His gaze then fell onto the card artisan wearing a half mask, who was the leader. The female card artisan seemed to be rather respectful toward him, showing a kind of respect Howie was very familiar with. It was about the same as he was toward the chief uncle. Howie surmised the power of the masked man would be impressive. The other card artisans were no slouches themselves.

Hugo suddenly tilted his head, letting his gaze fall onto a street corner not far away.

“Do you know that man, Butchie?” Hugo asked.

“Which one?” Butchie thought it strange.

“That man wearing the white dress suit, about 20-something and looking rather refined.” Hugo was spitting out the words rapidly, though his piercing voice was hard to take.

But, Butchie was used to it. She took a look and shook her head. “I don’t know him. What’s up?”

Hugo groaned, and a chill settled on his face as he made a slight sign to the two beside him. The two card artisans immediately understood and pushed the pedestrians apart, walking over to the youth who was wearing the white dress suit.

Butchie’s face shifted. “Am I being followed?”

Hugo laughed lightly, and his voice became still more screechy. “I don’t think so, but he was just staring at you as though he knew you.”

“That can’t be! I definitely don’t recognize him.” Butchie shook her head while she couldn’t help her admiration for Hugo. They were about 50 meters from the white-suited man, and there was a street with incessant pedestrians intervening. It really felt inconceivable that Big Brother Hugo could still discern something odd about that person in such a situation.

“Don’t fret. We’ll find out in a bit,” Hugo said placidly.

Once Howie saw the two stalwarts walking toward him, he immediately knew things had gone bad. He’d thought he was sufficiently concealed, not that he would be found out at a glance by the adversary. Such acuity was too frightening! Howie became inwardly fretful, and without any hesitation he turned around to run. The masked man would certainly be more powerful than him.

He opened his communications card while he was running, while the two stalwarts behind him became more certain he was a problem as soon as they saw him run. The two looked at one another and simultaneously activated their jet stream cards, going at him with murderous intent.

“Damn!” Howie activated his own jet stream card while his expression transformed. He rose up into the air, unable to determine his direction while gathering speed pell-mell. To shake those two would be his best choice, and while he was pushing his jet stream card to its top speed, he was calling the chief uncle.

After a few seconds, the chief uncle finally opened his communications card.

“What’s up?” The chief uncle’s face appeared on the screen, and Howie couldn’t help but want to kiss him just then.

“Chief Uncle, Chief Uncle!” Howie wasn’t paying much attention to how gracefully he flew while he was nearly crying out, “Come and save me now!”

He then quickly described what he’d seen. The more the chief uncle heard, the more serious his expression became until he said very directly, “First lead them someplace, and we’ll get there. Announce your position at the right time.” Once the voice fell, Howie heard the chief uncle calling to a group of people.

Howie heaved a sigh of relief. While he wasn’t entirely powerless, he didn’t have a lot of real battle experience. With Hugo having shaken him up from the get-go, and then to chase him with those two ferocious looking, fiendish card artisans, he had gone into a panic. Hearing what the chief uncle just said quieted his mind.

Once he was calm, his actions become a lot smoother, and his flight speed increased. The actions he’d practiced daily made his movements more accomplished. By then he was no longer in a hurry to lose the two but had started to rhythmically draw them in until the chief uncle could come to rescue him. He kept his communications with the chief uncle open about the route they were taking in flight.

The two behind him could quickly discern Howie’s power. While they had a lot more battle power than Howie, they realized the two of them alone had no way to capture their adversary. To be able to match their strength, he couldn’t be anyone ordinary. The possibility he had some special objective was high. Thinking of that, they didn’t hesitate to communicate with Hugo to report what was going on.

Hugo understood the gravity of the situation.

Having just arrived in Pomelo, to have someone stalking them either meant their adversary had a lot of power and extraordinary intelligence, or it meant their adversary already knew their itinerary; that was what Hugo was most concerned about. Their operation was even secret with the organization, and if it had leaked, that would mean there was a mole in the organization.

No matter what the situation was, as far as they were concerned—and as far as proceeding with the operation was concerned—it wasn’t good news.

Hugo knew the power the two had. A card artisan with more power than the two of them had already been able to pose a threat to him. How many such card artisans did his adversary’s organization have? A whole series of issues had appeared in Hugo’s mind in a very short amount of time.

Without having thought so many situations would arise right from the beginning of the operation, Hugo remembered the big boss’s orders before they set out. Don’t get careless. Those were the orders the card artisans set out with.

Some card artisans had ascended into the sky. Under Butchie’s guidance, they flew off in the approximate direction of the two card artisans.

* * *

The northwest corner of Pomelo was a rather fuzzy concept. Its surface was no less than 100 square kilometers. To find a single person in such a large area, even with their signal balls, would be a rather difficult proposition. Kai was compelled to order everyone to scatter and to line up with 100 meters between them in order to form a “comb.” What they needed to do was to comb through the northwest corner of Pomelo. That primitive-seeming method was still the most assured and the hardest to get wrong.

Kai didn’t really care where the firm’s intelligence had come from. He was more worried about what Qian Mingyi had said—that the enemy who might appear could be anyone. To have made the higher-ups so worried, they couldn’t have been any ordinary goods. Though he didn’t want to run into them, he was more afraid of another fierce battle. He raised his head to take a look into the distance where there were innumerable tall buildings blocking his view.

Kai, Machida and Lu Xiaoru all suddenly lifted their heads to look ahead.

Three people were flying toward them, one in front and two behind. The ones behind seemed to be chasing the one in front. The sudden appearance of those three made the already uptight Kai and the rest suddenly alarmed. They were well-trained, and everyone had assumed the attitude of battle within a very short time.

The distance between the sides was rapidly closing. Kai, Machida and Lu Xiaoru could see the shock in each other’s eyes.

Although there was still some distance between the two sides, they had just been able to see clearly. The youthful card artisan wearing the white dress suit in front of them had even more skill than the three of them did. They still couldn’t see the other side, though their skill controlling their jet stream cards was brilliant. The white-suited youth looked to be about 20 years old. For such a young ace, no matter what power he was in, he was a highly trained target. There wasn’t any youth so talented in the youth training camp of the firm!

Although the power of the two card artisans chasing him wasn’t quite up to his, they still were not to be underestimated. They were more than one cut above the card artisans the three had with them. And, although those two had fallen to the lee, they still didn’t look flustered. The distance between the two had remained extremely constant. To provide such mutual support would effectively avoid them being split apart. That was enough to show what serious training they’d had; there wasn’t a wasted move among their every gesture.

Kai and the rest knew clearly what it meant that only those card artisans who had honed their training through countless experiences could have developed such practices.

The one escaping wasn’t flustered, and those chasing him weren’t in any hurry. To Kai, the situation raised too many doubts. More importantly, it was really a little coincidental for them to show up!

Seeing Kai and the others, Howie and the two card artisans chasing him all changed their expressions.

For such a gang of card artisans to suddenly appear in front of them in droves, and in what was almost a standard containment formation… Everyone had been scattered into a line, making its function self-evident, which was to impede their breaking through from that direction.

Could the two sides be together? Howie’s heart sank.

The gazes of the two card artisans behind him had become even more diabolical than his. Once they spotted Kai and the others, their first thought had been whether it could be a trap with Howie as the bait.

One of them immediately reported the situation to Hugo when something happened they had probably not anticipated; their actions had become the fuse for a battle!

They were calling for reinforcements! Kai, Machida and Lu Xiaoru all changed their expressions.

“But this time, they’ll let you attack first!”

What Qian Mingyi had said flashed through Kai’s mind, and without any hesitation, Kai gave the order to attack!

“We have all of them; choose your own targets among the three and attack!”

The fierce energy fluctuations in the air had heated up with alarming speed; a storm was brewing!