The Master of Cards Chapter 39: Flame Talons

Alex quietly walked past the nests, when he discovered a group of three individuals running with panic in their eyes. Behind them, around twenty fiery scarlet birds chirped and flew with haste.

The birds looked like normal birds of paradise from earth, except their talons were made of flames. The birds were frequently swooping over those three individuals and their body had severe scars and burn marks to match them.

Alex sensed them early on and hid between a crevasse in the large rocks, quietly looking on.

"Sis, are we going to die here?" A young man called Bill cried out in despair.

"Shut up and run!" The girl admonished.

The both of them were terribly injured and the third person seemed to be their guide. "You two, run quicker. Otherwise we will die here!"

Bill looked at the guide with hatred. "If it was not for your shitty overconfident attitude, could we have ended in this situation? Penn, you were supposed to guide us through, I didn't think you would try to get us killed just near the shelter!"

Penn had a purple face when he heard Bill's rebuke. Bill's sister, Beth, had a helpless look. She shouldn't have depended on this man. "How do we get rid of these birds?" She asked in desperation.

Penn looked at the two and sighed. He really didn't know how they could escape, unless...

He looked at the two people with him and spoke. "We need to split up. That way we can reduce the birds on us and kill some birds and escape." Penn said.

Beth paled when she heard that. "How will Bill and I take on birds? We do not know anything about these birds!"

Penn showed an angry face. "I don't know. You two think of something. Split up now!"

Saying so he suddenly split from their general direction and the two were left stunned. The birds indeed split up. Half of them followed Penn, and half followed the other two.

Penn ran for his life and when he was far enough, he took out a Rank 2 Blood Burn Card. The Blood Burn was a one time use card that could burn one's blood to increase their speed rapidly, escape a long distance in a few seconds.

Penn, immediately coughed blood due to the blowback of using the card and then his speed increased like a rocket. He quickly overtook the birds and escaped towards the shelter.

The birds did not give up following him though, but there were still 10 birds following the siblings. The siblings looked absolutely helpless and filled with despair.

"Sis, we need to fight these birds, or we will die!' Bill said.

Beth nodded. Both of them activated their rank 1 cards, they were wind blade and wind fortification on both of them.

The two began floating in the air and fighting the birds. They sliced the blades, on the birds, hurting them but failing to kill them. However, they also suffered severe injuries. They weren't able to take on 10 of these flame talons.

Alex sighed. If he didn't do anything these two would die. But was it really worth helping the two? Eventually he thought of an idea. From within the crevasse, he slowly brought out his hand and grabbed the egg. Then he threw it in a long arc.

The egg flew far away and smashed onto a rock and cracked.

[You killed 1 ordinary Flame Talon Egg. You obtained x1 Fragment - Fire Blade.]

While Alex quietly let the fragment that appeared magically on his hand be digested, the birds suddenly went crazy and abandoned these two siblings, rushing towards the rock where the egg had been splattered.

At that moment, the siblings flustered, began running away. Alex came out of the crevasse and waved at the two. The two felt a wave of relief rush through them. They quickly ran towards him.

Alex whispered to them. "Do you have any one time use long range cards?"

Bill nodded. "I have Rank 1 Iron Bolt."

Alex nodded. "Use it now!"

Bill paled. "What if I miss? They will begin following us again!"

Alex shook his head. "Give it to me then." Alex snatched the two Iron bolt Cards and instantaneously activated them.

With his Energy Affinity, he could clearly target the fire essence of the birds, and activated the cards. Lile bullets, the cards disappeared and turned into two iron bolts that struck down two of the birds, killing them.

Immediately, the riled up birds began to scatter away. However, Alex did not stop. "Pick out isolated birds and kill them!" He yelled at the other two.

The three then quickly found individual birds and began taking them down. Alex began smashing the birds up with his stick, paralyzing the birds with paid. Soon, the birds became manageable and eventually all of the birds were killed.

The two siblings began to relax, but Alex looked at them seriously. "Do not relax. The remaining birds will return soon." He said.

The two immediately tensed up. Alex pointed towards three rocks. "Let's hide behind these rocks. If you have any other long range cards, give it to me. We will wait for the remaining birds." He said.

Bill and Beth nodded. Beth handed Alex three more iron bolt cards to Alex. The three then quietly waited for the birds to return. Sure enough, just like Alex said, the remaining birds returned and were immediately in chaos upon seeing the carcasses of the birds.

Alex was ready. He immediately, used an Iron bolt card with precise aim, two birds were shot down in a single arrow. Immediately after that another two arrows shot out which killed two more birds.

Once again the three sprang out and attacked the birds who were in chaos. The birds were a flock, but there wasn't a leader, once the birds were split up in chaos they became fodder. Alex used the basic military stick technique to smash each bird to their deaths.

[You killed 8 Ordinary Flame Talons. You obtained x2 Fragment - Fire Sword]

The fragments were constantly being digested by the vortex within his striped base card but Alex wasn't feeling any benefits. He simply shrugged.

Chapter end