Chapter 201: Looking Up in the Dark (1/2)
Chapter 201: Looking Up in the Dark
Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
When Butchie discovered him, Chen Mu also discovered her. His situation that day had gotten very strange, with his perception untold times more acute than normal.
Slightly squinting, he raised his head in the shadows. He recognized Butchie from the recent battle where he had discovered how breathtaking that female card artisan was. Her understanding of energy and her control of perception were something he could never overtake.
If he hadn't known his own perception had greatly increased during that time, he would have been afraid that even his perception was far from hers. Making the comparison with a cool head, Chen Mu stolidly found he wasn't her equal at that time. What was more, and what felt strange, was that he didn't feel any fear. He was a different person from when he'd just encountered Lu Xiaoru, with nothing to be seen of the novice's peculiar panic.
Chen Mu then seemed like a seasoned hunter, composed and without the least bit of panic, hiding in the shadows and watching his counterpart. He probably didn't even realize his mannerism of squinting was so similar to Wei-ah's.
The two of them looked at each other for a few seconds. In such a tumultuous battlefield, a few seconds was a long time. The air between them seemed to have turned solid, and neither was making a sound.
Chen Mu abruptly moved like an agile civet cat as he shot wildly out of the shadows, springing from his feet. The big mud fish card was pushed to its limits through a succession of erratic flitting moves, so he was lost among the wrecked walls in a breath.
Butchie's face turned white.
She was really stunned as she helplessly watched her adversary depart so easily without her making any response. For a richly experienced professional card artisan to respond that way was a fatal, low-level mistake. Yet, she had no such thoughts, remembering the scene just before that had given her a chill.
In the shadows, when her adversary had raised his head to look at her, that indistinct and weirdly breathing face with his two squinting eyes seemed to have been branded in her brain. She knew such a face was a mask, but whenever she thought about that painted face—that indistinct and weirdly twisted face slightly raised in the dark, and those two eyes—a chill would blast up from her tailbone!
The cool look he'd given her had also left a deep impression. Also surprising were his movements, or rather his manner of walking. Butchie had never seen such a strange walk; he had seemed to glide over the ground.
If he was using his physical strength, there would have to be some up and down motion, but he didn't have any. While he might have been using a jet stream card, Butchie had still seen him using the strength in his legs. His erratic walk was hard to predict. Butchie couldn't quite determine if she would be able to lock onto him once he'd made his move.
What a dangerous dude!
Butchie watched the place where Chen Mu had disappeared with lingering fear. She really didn't know what that guy had come there for; she just hoped he wasn't an enemy. Butchie was pondering absent-mindedly.
But, she quickly returned to her calm since the companions in front of her still needed her to rescue them. It wasn't any time for wild thoughts. She settled herself and continued on toward Lu Xiaoru.
After a few seconds she saw her.
Lu Xiaoru looked badly off with her left shoulder a deep red. Butchie was curious about who had actually wounded her. As she looked her over, she determined Lu Xaioru's skills were at about the same level as hers. Who could wound her on such a battlefield? Apart from herself, everyone else was in a raging battle. Ordinary card artisans couldn't have hurt her apart from a combined effort, in which case she should be covered in wounds.
Could it have been him? Butchie's heart pounded!
That slightly raised masked face from the shadows flashed through her mind unbidden, and she seemed to see a cold light flash from the two eyes in the mask just then!
When she thought about where he'd been ambushing just then, he would have been just able to see Lu Xiaoru, which felt about right to her.
She didn't make as much of a fuss as Lu Xiaoru did about a card artisan assassin. There was a specific department of assassination in the organization, and those in it were all such people. It was said that it was unlit even where they lived, as gloomy as could be. When such people went out, they almost didn't breathe. When in the assassin's department, you would never know how much time you'd spent there or even how many personnel from the assassination department had passed by.
Anyone who had ever gone to the assassination department didn't want to go there again. Although Butchie had never been there, she'd heard a lot of rumors about it. She'd asked Hugo about it and found that the way to promotion for such card artisan assassins was a lot more difficult than for ordinary card artisans. The things they learned were extremely complex, which would limit their later development. That was why truly top card artisan assassins could be counted on the fingers.
Hugo had said there weren't many card artisans in the assassination department who could do her harm, so she didn't have any dread of card artisan assassins. But, when she then faced a card artisan of that style, she finally understood the powerful sense of oppression, which was something ordinary card artisans wouldn't give off.
Would all card artisan assassins give such a powerful sense of oppression?
Such notions flashed through her mind. Having such unbridled thoughts in the midst of battle was something that hadn't happened to her for a long time. It seemed as though that card artisan had produced a pretty powerful attack, and Butchie smiled bitterly to herself. She then presented all of the fine psychological qualities of an outstanding card artisan, and she quickly swept away all of her unbridled thoughts. She put her attention on the battle that was just about to start.
She didn't attack, but she very slowly and quietly emitted the tadpole energy bodies. Her battle card was called the ”tadpole,” which was a three-star battle fantasy card. Once those energy bodies had been emitted, they were like tadpoles in the water, lively and splashing around strangely. But, because each of the energy bodies was so small, the energy fluctuations they produced were also quite small.
In order in increase the suddenness of the attack, Butchie deliberately slowed the speed of the energy bodies emitted, so they didn't seem so normal. Then, when they took the initiative to attack the target, they would be swimming around Butchie's body.
She'd spent countless hours on that card, having started to use the tadpole card ever since she'd gotten good enough to use three-star cards. As her strength kept increasing, the card wasn't actually so suited to her anymore. The big guy had specifically come to find her about that, but she still always insisted on using the tadpole card.
The power of the tadpole card wasn't so great because of her power, but it was because of how long she'd been using it. She'd already familiarized herself with the card to the point where she couldn't know any more about it. It was clear from the energy bodies near her how far her control of that card had advanced. She'd even realized some new energy compositions, which not only increased the tadpole card's power, but greatly improved its tactical diversity.
Hugo had said card artisans really only needed one card in their lives. The power of any card could be taken to the extreme once you understood its composition to the limit. All the cards that existed wouldn't be much different in their power once they hit their extreme.
She had seen how amazing that middle-aged man had been using the ultimate blue snake line card that day. It was a very ordinary kind of card, but not only did it have shocking power in the hands of that middle-aged man, it could transform endlessly. It was astonishing to see.
The energy fluctuations produced in the instant the card artisan had emitted the energy body had been the largest over the entire process of the battle. After the energy body had been emitted, its energy fluctuations would die off to where they were hard to discern.
Several dozen tadpole-shaped energy bodies concentrated at Butchie's side as though firmly drawn there by something.
Lu Xiaoru was tense and couldn't slack off in the least. She could clearly sense the signal ball's vibration through her fanny pack. The person was still nearby!
Where was he? Lu Xiaoru felt like she would go nuts. Where is the card artisan assassin actually hiding? There, in the shadows? Every shadow or dark place seemed to give off a ghastly chill.
Her eyes suddenly brightened. Rather than to stay here suffering, why not enter the chaotic battle in the sky? The melee in the air was unbearable, but in her eyes, it was still better than the shadows with dangerous, hidden places everywhere. That kind of invisible and pervasive pressure had nearly taken her breath away. It was like eyes in the dark, always staring at her until her scalp went numb.
She wanted to fly immediately to the fiercest part of the midair battle. Although it was dangerous there, she could get away from the guy hidden in the dark.
Glancing at the two card artisans not far away, she showed a chill smile from the corner of her mouth. I'm not going to play with you!
Just as Lu Xaioru was about to get them precisely out of the way, something suddenly happened, and her expression changed.
The guy finally made his move! At the same time, she breathed a sigh of relief. That's how people were. Just when the adversary wasn't making any moves, the pressure was the greatest; then, once the adversary made his move, the pressure would be released. Lu Xiaoru had all of her attention on the attack suddenly appearing behind her and put her fear to the side.