The Special Squad Leader didn’t use a gas mask. He endured the poison gas bomb with his bare body, held his breath, and sprinted into an abandoned house, kicking the door open.
This place was also blanketed in poison gas, and he wouldn’t last long here. If he took a single breath, he would most likely die; even if he didn’t breathe, his skin would probably absorb some gas, and he could still die.
Yin Lin didn’t see the leader leave the poison fog’s range. She knew he was still inside.
Even if he could hold his breath for 60 seconds, if he didn’t run out now, he might never have another chance.
‘Was he betting on something?
Betting that this house followed modern construction standards and had an underground shelter?’
In this era, housing had many construction standards. Besides high-rise buildings needing fire escapes, houses were required to have underground shelters.
But this was just a crude adobe house on the outskirts, roofed with tiles, half of which had fallen off. It was untended and long abandoned.
‘Would such a shabby house have an underground shelter built according to standards?’
If this house had no basement, then the leader, still hiding within the poison gas bomb’s range, would have no chance of survival. If he wasted time looking for a basement, he wouldn’t have time to escape the house.
Yin Lin grew even more tense. Then she thought it over and understood the Special Squad Leader’s current reasoning.
The ground was quite open. The only cover nearby was this house. Once he left that house, the leader would be dead for sure.
There was no way for his flesh-and-blood legs to outrun a Demonic Creature. Their physical abilities far surpassed humans.
The leader was clearly gambling with his life. If this adobe house had an underground shelter, he might survive.
The Demonic Creature was still hunting him. Its sprint slowed slightly, and its vision was also obstructed by the poison gas bomb.
Demonic Creatures didn’t rely entirely on sight to navigate. Even if they were blind or in pitch-black darkness—this was information written into Human Alliance textbooks—they could still sense even the faintest terrain.
After slowing down, it still left a clear path through the poison fog, then crashed into the adobe house, bursting through from the east wall to the west wall, going straight through.
In its eyes, this tiny adobe house was no different from tofu.
It returned to the adobe house and searched for the man, though it was unclear if it found him.
At any rate, Yin Lin, high in the sky, didn’t see the leader emerge from the poison fog. He was either dead inside or had found a place to hide.
After a while, the poison fog gradually dissipated, and the situation below became visible.
The adobe house had been mostly demolished, reduced to rubble. There was no sign of the leader’s body; he had likely survived, since the Demonic Creature was still searching.
‘So it really did have a fairly deep basement? And the leader had found it.’
‘Yin Lin suddenly recalled a line from some work: “This child must not be allowed to live, or he will become a great threat in the future.”‘
She felt like a villain in a story about a growth-focused protagonist. After viewing the leader from the perspective of a villain, she found his performance truly terrifying—he had so much potential for growth.
The Demonic Creature conducted a simple search and didn’t search underground. Its intelligence wasn’t enough to consider such a complex problem as a basement.
It also had no time to continue searching patiently. A death countdown was underway above it.
The mana Yin Lin had accumulated was too vast. The Demonic Creature’s fear gradually overcame its hunger.
It began the typical behavior of Demonic Creatures: first trying to attack, then using the tactic of throwing stones.
Unfortunately, Yin Lin was too high, and the stones couldn’t reach her.
After several failed attempts, the Demonic Creature started to flee. This was also common behavior, except its direction was toward the city center—was it still fixated on its mission?
Yin Lin followed leisurely, keeping herself right above the Demonic Creature.
When her charged attack reached 80%, the Demonic Creature’s spirit finally broke from fear. It no longer ran toward the city center but turned around and fled toward the border, returning to its reassuring territory.
When the people at the Countermeasure Center saw this, they also breathed a sigh of relief, knowing the battle in the north was about to end.
Earlier, when they saw the Demonic Creature was about to die but was still running toward the city center, they thought it still had a trump card, making everyone very nervous.
Now that they saw it turn back, they confirmed it was at the end of its rope.
Their attention returned to the south, where the battle between the Defeated Team and the Intermediate Evil Demon was also over. Two helicopters had crashed, and the members ejected and called for help.
They also encountered the parachute dilemma. The Demonic Creature was waiting for a “buffet.”
They were lucky. Even though they usually attacked Magical Girls, captured them, were arrogant and didn’t follow orders, and wasted many resources; even though they made Magical Girls hate them—this time, since Huan Hong was nearby, they could breathe a sigh of relief.
Jin Luan might cut them with nine slashes, Yin Lin might blast them with nine cannon shots, and Black Phoenix would definitely kill them all.
But if it was Huan Hong, as the person in Yiri City who respected the Magical Girl profession the most, she wouldn’t retaliate against the Defeated Team at this time.
The Demonic Creature drooled as it watched the parachutes in the sky, until it sensed Huan Hong’s movement.
With her feet on her transformed staff, she sprinted toward the Demonic Creature at over a hundred kilometers per hour. As she neared it, she recalled the staff to her hand and swung a super heavy blow.
Previously, she couldn’t perform this move, so she used “Fallen Heaven Strike,” using gravity to complete the super heavy blow.
This time, she could use magic wand flight to complete the strike.
The Intermediate Evil Demon didn’t dodge. It chose to take the hit head-on, mainly because the mana radiating from Huan Hong was too low—like an ant.
Demonic Creatures had outrageously powerful physical defense. They always looked down on weak humans and Magical Girls, and even dared to catch Yin Lin’s “Spear of Creation” with bare hands, so blocking Huan Hong’s staff was only natural.
The Demonic Creature certainly didn’t think that much. It simply looked down on Huan Hong.
The Demonic Creature caught Huan Hong’s staff with the palm of its left hand. As they collided, the violent impact even raised a shockwave that swept across an area over ten meters in diameter, kicking up sand, stones, and fallen leaves.
The Demonic Creature’s body was pushed back three steps. Then it steadied itself and flicked its hand, throwing Huan Hong away.
Huan Hong, in her girl form, flew over a hundred meters. After landing, she slid more than ten meters, unable to fully control her posture in the air, and eventually fell and rolled a few times before stopping.
“Hey, Xiao Huang, don’t you think Huan Hong is acting strange? She’s a bit different from usual.”
The physicist was eating and looked up to see Huan Hong’s valiant appearance.
Huang Yi had been looking down, lost in thought. Hearing the physicist’s reminder, he turned his attention back to the screen.
Huan Hong engaged the Intermediate Evil Demon again. The more Huang Yi watched, the more surprised he became.
Huan Hong was clearly different. She could even occasionally dodge the Intermediate Evil Demon’s punches and kicks—though it was barely, and she used all her strength just to dodge, unable to counterattack after.
Sometimes she had to follow up with a block after dodging to fend off the Demonic Creature’s continuous attacks.
The Intermediate Evil Demon’s attacks were no joke. When it punched, afterimages could be seen, and the human eye could barely track its movements. And Huan Hong could actually dodge?
The Intermediate Evil Demon’s fists were as heavy as a train collision.
‘Could she really block such attacks? Was this still the weakest Magical Girl in Yiri City?’