Jinluan had finally figured it out: Lvnye was not a magical girl who excelled at head-on combat.
To be more precise, Lvnye’s frontal fighting ability was inferior to Jinluan’s, so she had to rely on unorthodox tricks.
First, she cast a spell around herself to slow down movement speed, creating a landmine zone, and then secretly used her Whip to attack from a very concealed angle, only then managing to entangle Jinluan’s ankle.
Upon noticing her ankle was caught, Jinluan reacted swiftly. She didn’t use instant movement or struggle, but deliberately swayed her body to make a small displacement without moving her left foot.
As expected, Lvnye flicked the rope, creating a new loop that nearly caught Jinluan’s neck.
But Jinluan’s small shift narrowly dodged it.
After avoiding that move, Jinluan swung the blade in her hand with a light charge, slashing at the Whip coiled around her foot.
Clang!
The blade bounced off, the Whip didn’t break, nor did the blade crack—neither side suffered any harm.
Luckily, Jinluan had dodged first and then tried to cut the Whip, rather than the other way around.
The difference was, after her failed attempt to cut the Whip, Lvnye was just starting her next attack.
With her left foot restrained, Jinluan chose not to dodge. Instead, she charged her blade lightly, slashed out, and sent the looped Whip flying back with a single blow.
Once again, she extricated herself from danger.
Perhaps the most outrageous aspect of a magic wand wasn’t that it granted magical girls the power to use magic, but its bizarre shapes and indestructible materials.
Can a Whip be considered a magic wand? Of course, dear.
Lvnye’s mastery of her magic wand was clearly far above that of other magical girls.
Seeing that Jinluan’s resistance was strong and she hadn’t lost mobility, Lvnye switched tactics.
She extended the Whip’s length to 20 meters, then whipped it violently, toying with Jinluan—whose left foot was snared—like flying a kite.
Jinluan was spun a dozen times through the air, seemingly on the verge of being subdued.
Suddenly, she broke free from the centripetal force and shot herself toward Lvnye. She could fly on her own power—she didn’t need a magic wand for flight.
This charge was so abrupt that within half a second, she closed the distance to Lvnye.
Lvnye remained on high alert, well aware that this golden-haired girl was a formidable opponent.
Seeing Jinluan suddenly launch herself forward, she immediately dodged, barely escaping by a few centimeters.
Jinluan’s blade tip sliced through Lvnye’s nearly shattered magic shield, and the momentum carried through, cutting a fine bloody line across Lvnye’s wrist.
She had probably intended to sever the hand altogether.
But Lvnye was wary and quick to evade, suffering only a light wound.
However, she instinctively withdrew her Whip, entering a defensive stance.
When Jinluan struck, Lvnye thought she was about to die; for a moment, she truly felt the threat of death.
She had dodged death, but Jinluan had broken free—the Whip that bound her left ankle was already released.
The two faced off again, separated by a distance of twenty meters.
Lvnye licked the saliva from her lips, her face brimming with excitement. She hadn’t been beaten down by adversity; if anything, she seemed even more thrilled.
“Jinluan, your posture is beautiful! Your strength excites me! My entire pituitary gland is going wild!” Lvnye played with the Whip in her hands.
“Maniac. Lunatic.” Jinluan leveled her weapon, no longer using the back of her blade, but preparing to use the edge.
“You call me a maniac? Aren’t you the same? You know what this Circle is, yet you still refuse to step out,” Lvnye pointed at the invisible Circle with a fifty-meter radius.
“I’ll finish you in three minutes.” Jinluan shifted her grip on the blade once more, her tone exuding confidence.
“I love your stubbornness!” Lvnye was the first to attack, twirling the Whip in her hands.
Its length extended to twenty meters, whipping rapidly, attacking Jinluan from every conceivable angle.
Jinluan’s quick blade could barely cope with these Whip strikes.
When the Whip targeted her legs, she swiftly knocked it aside with a slash.
When it came at her wrists, she also parried with her blade.
Their speeds were so fast, afterimages seemed to flicker before the eyes.
After a minute, muscle fatigue set in, and both fighters’ speeds noticeably slowed.
Lvnye’s physical attack power far exceeded Jinluan’s expectations. Jinluan felt she had been too arrogant—she shouldn’t have fought within the Blue Mana Absorption Field.
She decided the battle must end swiftly.
The Whip had some lag to its movements, unlike a blade, which was direct.
Lvnye, engrossed in her attack, must have poor defense right now.
Jinluan began to maneuver skillfully, flying in circles through the air, using her movement technique to dodge part of the Whip’s attacks.
Now, the force of the attacks she felt was only a third of what it had been before.
Her chance finally came. Jinluan sped in front of Lvnye, who was slack in her defense, and slammed a powerful kick into Lvnye’s lower back, smashing her down from the sky to the muddy park ground below.
Clearly, she could have used her blade, but Jinluan couldn’t bring herself to do it.
But the kick was ruthless enough—Lvnye was clearly hurt, her magic shield shattered, and she took almost the full brunt of the blow.
Lvnye lay on the ground, coughing blood, seemingly unable to get up for a moment.
Something didn’t feel right—was Lvnye really this weak? How had she dominated the West?
Were all Western magical girls this weak? Did Lvnye slaughter them all?
Jinluan broke away from the aerial Blue Mana Absorption Field and slowly descended to the ground, facing Lvnye from ten meters away.
“Is even the third-ranked magical girl on the wanted list not worthy of your full strength?” Jinluan probed, having guessed Lvnye was holding back.
Just as she finished speaking, Lvnye stood up, patted the dust off herself, and wiped away the blood from her nose.
Even after such a heavy blow, she still looked ecstatic, her expression even more twisted than before.
“Oh~ so beautiful, Jinluan! Every move you make drives me mad, my whole brain is going wild!” Lvnye shouted loudly, her dramatic gestures making her look downright frightening.
Jinluan stayed calm, steering the conversation back: “You absorb others’ magic power for yourself, yet even now you haven’t used any strong magic. So what do you need all that magic for? Are you still unwilling to use your power to fight me?”
“You want to see my magic? Fine, as you wish.” Lvnye grinned widely.
With a wave of her hand, an immense surge of magic erupted from her.
Two Fujitiao appeared out of nowhere, floating by her side.
At the sight of them, Jinluan immediately knew what they were for.
She frowned and shouted, “Is this all you know, these underhanded tricks?”
Lvnye: “What’s ‘underhanded’?”
She was an outsider; she’d never heard the term.
Jinluan replied, “It means things that can’t see the light of day, dirty tricks.”
Lvnye licked her lips again, her eyes gleaming, “I’m not so easily provoked, Jinluan. Very soon, I’ll get a taste of you.”