The Card Apprentice

The tailless shuttle was spinning merrily away as Chen Mu was now increasingly skilled in its operation. That not only reduced the time he needed to release it, but the tailless shuttle’s sound had also been reduced. Both of those things meant his ability to control energy by perception had been getting stronger and stronger.

But, the tailless shuttle still couldn’t avoid producing energy fluctuations. Even though they were small, Butchie felt them right away since the two sides were so close.

He’s there!

Almost without hesitation, the 15 tadpole energy bodies she had gotten ready earlier left her hand. They clustered together to form a long line, which flew off with a whoosh to where the energy fluctuations had come from. Just then, there was a weird whistling sound, together with a powerful thrumming. When that arose, the whoosh of the tadpole energy bodies fell right off.

Although Butchie was surprised, she didn’t fall apart. She was a lot more relaxed than she had been. What made her most afraid about her adversary was his hiding in the dark, which left her defenseless. Although that attack looked fierce, it had exposed his position, which actually destroyed his greatest advantage. Butchie had never been afraid of a clean battle between card artisans, whether it was positional or on the move.

Pa! Pa! Pa!

There was a series of dense explosions, and Butchie’s expression changed.

All 15 of the tadpole energy bodies had been destroyed! Each one of them had been specifically connected to her perception, and she had already known before the moment they were first destroyed. Fifteen energy bodies couldn’t even block that energy shuttle in the least. She was aghast at the destructive power of the energy shuttle’s attack!

He reaction was quick as she almost unconsciously raised the energy cloak.

The “Orange” changed her world into a warm yellowish-orange color, and she automatically felt safer. In all of her battle experience, the Orange had had never been directly breached by anyone, so she felt safe every time she raised it.

Ping!

Butchie only felt a large blow being transmitted as though she’d been hit head-on by a hammer, which slid her back. The Orange hadn’t been breached, but the normally dense color had become an almost transparent, thin layer.

Was that an energy shuttle? How could a tiny energy shuttle have such a terrifying impact?

A flash of terror was visible through the already transparent energy cloak.

Her adversary was within eight meters of her!

That was Chen Mu’s strategy. Although the tailless shuttle was powerful, it would be easy to discover because of the energy fluctuations. If he wanted to overcome a card artisan like Butchie by relying only on what his card could do, that would obviously not be realistic. But, by that time, Chen Mu had already realized power wasn’t just what a card could do; it had to fully benefit from other aspects of power before a victory would be achieved in that battle.

Using the energy fluctuations of the tailless shuttle to draw his adversary’s attention, his actual intention was shown by the move that followed. At the same time he let loose the tailless shuttle, he had bent his back like a cat and rushed at Butchie from the other side of the wall.

His mind was utterly clear the instant he came winding around the wall. His temperament then showed nothing of the tenderness of a novice. It resembled an experienced hunter instead, with every shot both deadly and dangerous.

He hadn’t expected Butchie to let him get so close that easily with how professional and experienced she was. More importantly, she was an ace.

So, he didn’t advance in a straight line. He took a roll and stretched his body to move silently along the ground with amazing agility. Those were the dodging skills he’d learned previously from the demonic woman. When he used them this time, they were untold times more powerful than before. He wondered what the demonic woman would think if she were to witness it.

In the instant he covered the ground, he suddenly bent his hands and feet into a weird pose like a four-point spring. Shooting up from the ground, he completely changed direction in a posture that give him a lot of room to maneuver and the ability to shoot off in any direction.

Such directional changes couldn’t be defended against. Just as his hands and feet left the ground, and Butchie was expecting him to go up, his body suddenly slid straight along the ground in a strange move contrary to common sense, as though there hadn’t been any inertial.

* * *

Butchie’s face went white!

Every move of her adversary went beyond anything she expected. Her eyes couldn’t keep up with his tempo. Although her perception could clearly discern his every move, she had no way to predict them. His moves were as quick a lightning, as well as weird and hard to gauge. Even for someone who’d seen every kind of card artisan, their frequency left her aghast.

Within the short space of seven or eight meters, her adversary had changed directions as many as 26 times.

Tossing out such data would be enough to create a sensation in the federation, to put any close-combat card artisan to shame, or to cause some top-notch wrestler guys to hit the wall and die!

Butchie’s gaze went slack. She didn’t understand how such a wimpy guy could withstand such an astonishing burden to his body. Within seven or eight meters, to complete more than 20 directional changes in less than a second was a frequency that would break an iron man into pieces.

How could the human body metamorphose to that extent?

The distance between them closed with shocking speed, and Butchie gritted her teeth. Although she’d taken a heavy blow to her self-confidence, she wasn’t about to surrender so easily. Even though there was no way to predict his next move, she still wasn’t without any strategy left to try. Having gone through the initial horror, she firmed up her slack eyes. She wasn’t going to give up!

Tadpole energy bodies went off from her hand in every direction like crazy. They didn’t have any target and were just indiscriminate attacks with her body at the center. Like a cornered porcupine insanely firing off all the barbs on his body, Butchie didn’t hold back right up to the last shot!

Chen Mu was in a really tough spot!

Damn!

He didn’t dare deploy his energy cloak; once he did that, his pace would have to slow. Even though that slowdown wouldn’t even be a tenth of a second, in the hands of such an ace card artisan, it would be enough to change the nature of the entire battle. His prior planning would also have been ruined.

Chen Mu had made a clear-headed assessment. While he might be prevailing, the biggest reason was the element of surprise. His style of fighting was quite different from that of ordinary card artisans. Once his adversary adapted to it, the two sides would be at a standoff, standing once again on the same starting line. The one defeated in the end would certainly be him.

He couldn’t retreat, and he couldn’t hesitate!

To retreat was to be defeated, and to be defeated was to die! Although to move ahead was dangerous, it had a much better success rate.

Chen Mu made a quick decision. He gritted his teeth, hardened himself and didn’t slow down in the slightest, boring headlong into the so-called thicket of thorns created by the energy bodies.

Without knowing whether it was because he’d been provoked, Chen Mu’s perception was exceptionally clear. Time seemed to have slowed around him. He suddenly seemed familiar with the setting. It was like an illusion where he had just entered into perceptual sensitivity training!

This time, in addition to having to perceive them, he would have to dodge them.

Every energy body was clear in his mind. He could even see their little tails. Having entered completely into the state, Chen Mu had a calm mind without any fear or nervousness. Everything around was far away from him. In his perception, there were only those merry tadpole energy bodies.

He pulled in his shoulders, pinched his waist and dodged a tadpole energy body! He spread his legs with a shout, and two energy bodies slipped by…

It was a really strange state. In his perception, those tadpole energy bodies were like one merrily wandering little tadpole after another, and his own movements were like slow-motion actions. However, those slow-looking movements had just dodged most of the tadpole energy bodies, which didn’t have any order to them.

But, there were just too many of them. Much of the time, Chen Mu could only choose to keep them away from his vital parts.

Zing! Zing! Zing!

Several rivers of blood appeared on his left shoulder, on the outer side of his calf and below his ribs. The most dangerous spot was his cheek. If he had been any slower in tilting his head, that merry tadpole energy body would have been just as happy to drill into his brain. Within the world of his perception, he could clearly “see” the entire process of the blood flowers blossoming on his own body and then splashing down through the air, all as though in slow motion. The pain from the wounds seemed to be transmitted at the speed of a turtle.

In Butchie’s terrified eyes, Chen Mu had broken through the thicket of thorns formed by the line of countless tadpole energy bodies! Chen Mu himself didn’t even know how many moves he had completed in that briefest of moments.

Phew! Right when he succeeded to break through, he immediately returned from the slow motion to reality. The sound of wind in his ears alerted him to how fast he’d been moving! At the same time, the pain from those wounds didn’t leave any room for discussion about rushing to his nerve center.

It hurt so much he wanted to suck in a breath of cold air.

The female card artisan was suddenly magnified in his eyes. By that time, there wasn’t much joy in victory. On the contrary, he could feel a chill to his mood. He didn’t know if it was the influence of that chilly feeling, but his movements didn’t change at all. He didn’t even utter a stifled grunt from the pain.

In the same way, the ashen look in his adversary’s eyes didn’t move Chen Mu in the least as he sank into the chill.

Peng! A punch with his fist made the gossamer-thin energy cloak break into a burst of pieces, which dissipated in the air.

Taking advantage of the speed of the blow, his right hand touched her warm, snow-white neck while his left hand had already plucked the apparatus from her right wrist!

Just then, Chen Mu’s face abruptly changed, and his body beat a retreat even faster than he had been moving just before.