Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2908: Let’s Go!

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Western Region, Berg District, Scarlet Berg, Guild Association Mall

”What the heck are they doing? Putting on a circus?” Jaya asked while watching the Palace Guard Captain and his squad move in a bizarre synchronized pattern across the sky.

She understood they were trying to maintain a battle formation while advancing, something that was notoriously difficult even for highly trained card apprentices. Keeping a formation stable during movement required near-perfect coordination between every member involved. Even when using identical battle formation cards, a single mistake in timing, spacing, or energy flow could destabilize the entire formation.

But this... this looked ridiculous.

The guards advanced in a strange zigzag pattern that constantly shifted positions and angles, making their movement appear awkwardly distorted from afar. At times, it almost looked as though they were stumbling around randomly instead of charging into battle.

More importantly, they were painfully slow.

Jaya had never heard of a battle formation that sacrificed this much mobility. Compared to them, even turtles and snails would probably move faster in a straight line. The only reason she could tell there was some hidden logic behind the movement was because the formation itself kept subtly warping the surrounding soul energy currents as they advanced.

Still, no matter how she looked at it, the whole thing felt absurdly inefficient... at least on the surface.

And that was exactly what made her uneasy.

”I’ve seen a battle formation move like that before during the Southern Ruler’s birthday celebration in the Southern Capital,” Cervos suddenly said after staring at the advancing guards for a few moments. ”That’s an imprisonment-type battle formation.”

His expression gradually turned serious as old memories surfaced in his mind.

”In that formation, the moment you attack any one of the card apprentices forming the battle formation, you somehow end up trapped inside the formation itself. After that, they can forcibly teleport you to a predetermined location. Back then, they went all out because it was a major milestone celebration for the Ruler of the South.”

Listening to Cervos, Aurelia’s eyes instantly widened.

”Fuck... we need to get out of the city right now,” she cursed without hesitation.

Unlike Cervos, Aurelia had never personally witnessed the formation before, but her family had discussed imprisonment formations extensively during military studies. And from what she remembered, the version Cervos described was only the surface-level effect. There was a lot more to it.

If the battle formation being used by the Western Palace Guards operated on the same principles, then they were already in enormous danger.

”Hold on. Tell me what it is first.”

Just as Aurelia turned to leave the city, Jaya suddenly grabbed her wrist and stopped her in place, demanding an explanation before even considering retreat.

After all, as Aurelia herself had said earlier, this was the perfect opportunity to announce to the Western Region that the New Empire could stand against the Western Royal Family. Jaya wasn’t willing to run away blindly without understanding the threat first.

But the moment Jaya’s hand tightened around her wrist, Aurelia’s expression changed in shock.

No matter how much force she applied, she couldn’t move even an inch.

For a brief second, Aurelia simply stared at Jaya’s grip in disbelief before glancing toward the steadily advancing Palace Guards and then back at Jaya again.

A dangerous thought crossed her mind.

Should she activate her Unstoppable bloodline at full power just to break free and drag this stubborn idiot out of the city by force?

Shaking her head, Aurelia decided it was faster to explain and get the hell out of there.

”As far as I know, once every card apprentice in the battle formation completes a certain number of movement cycles, they can deploy something called an Imprisonment Field Card. The moment that field activates, anyone trapped inside it can’t escape unless every single member maintaining the formation is killed/dead.”

Her expression grew increasingly grim as she continued.

”But that’s the trap. The instant you attack even one of them, the formation automatically drags you inside it and teleports you to some predetermined location.

”It’s basically a no-win situation. If you don’t fight, you get trapped inside the imprisonment field. If you do fight, you get teleported into an even worse setup prepared beforehand.”

”Umm...”

After listening to Aurelia’s explanation, Jaya narrowed her eyes and stared intently at the Palace Guards’ battle formation for several seconds before suddenly saying, ”Hold on. Let me try something.”

”What the fuck? Did you not hear a single thing I just said?” Aurelia exploded the moment she realized Jaya still wanted to attack the formation despite everything she had explained.

Jaya risking her own life was one thing. Aurelia would never stop someone from gambling their life for battle because she expected others to grant her the same freedom in return.

But this situation was completely different.

It was obvious the Palace Guards weren’t trying to kill them outright. They wanted to capture them alive and use them as leverage against their lord. And that was the one outcome Aurelia absolutely refused to allow.

”You said it’s game over if I attack one of them, right?” Jaya asked while staring at the advancing Palace Guards.

Aurelia immediately felt a bad premonition rising in her chest.

Then Jaya slowly turned toward her and finished, ”So what happens if I attack the entire battle formation at once?”

Before Aurelia or Cervos could react, Jaya pulled back her fist.

A terrifyingly cold aura immediately began leaking from it. Frost spread across the air itself while pale blue mist spiraled around her arm like a storm being compressed into a single point.

Aurelia and Cervos suddenly felt violent suction pulling at their bodies as the surrounding wind rushed toward Jaya’s fist and swirled around it, straining the space itself.

Buildings creaked, shattered debris rose from the streets below, and even the clouds above began spiraling unnaturally toward her punch. The space around her arm started trembling.

Then she punched forward with all her strength.

BOOOOM!

A deafening sonic boom exploded across the city.

An enormous torrent of freezing wind erupted from Jaya’s fist like a divine blizzard unleashed upon the world. The attack tore across the sky in a straight line, instantly freezing everything in its path into a gigantic circular pillar of ice.

The air froze.

The clouds froze.

The moisture in the atmosphere crystallized instantly.

The Palace Guards, still maintaining their battle formation, didn’t even have time to react before they were encased solid within the expanding ice pillar. Their formation shattered apart under the overwhelming force as layers upon layers of translucent blue ice swallowed them whole.

The frozen pillar continued stretching forward for several kilometers, carving through the sky like the scar of a glacier god.

Below, the city’s protective array formation cracked and splintered from the pressure radiating off the attack while chunks of frozen debris began slowly falling toward the city underneath like pieces of a collapsing iceberg.

Aurelia and Cervos stared blankly at the apocalyptic scene before them, their minds struggling to process the sheer scale of destruction Jaya had unleashed with a single punch.

Before the gigantic ice mass could descend onto the city, Jaya instantly flew beneath it and raised one hand upward.

The enormous frozen pillar, large enough to crush entire districts, came to a complete stop on top of her single palm.

Hovering there while casually supporting the mountain-like mass of ice above her, Jaya looked back at the stunned pair and calmly said, ”Let’s go.”