Gripping the nearly person-sized Great Katana tightly, Lu Xiaoling, her head shrouded by a hood, stood atop a pile of broken stones and rubble, gazing down at the ferocious face of the Hundred-legged Monster Centipede.
Its centipede-like body, with a hundred writhing, crawling legs, was enough to make anyone lose their sanity just by a single glance.
The spot where Lu Xiaoling had struck was oozing bluish blood, and the wound was expanding and deepening with every struggle of the Hundred-legged Monster Centipede.
Lu Xiaoling watched coldly.
Ever since her first slash failed to kill the monster, she had darted aside, not blindly rushing in to attack, but instead lying in wait like a lion watching its prey, ready to pounce the moment the Centipede showed any sign of exhaustion or tried to flee the scene.
Perhaps sensing the threat of death, the Centipede opened its jaws wide, letting out a series of mournful, wailing screeches.
Abandoning its attempt to return underground, it suddenly arched its body, countless legs frantically scraping at the ground, producing a grating sound that made one’s teeth ache.
Its head suddenly split open into four sections, revealing countless compound eyes, each one as large as a fish’s, reflecting half the world in their gaze.
All those eyes were fixed on Lu Xiaoling with a venomous glare.
“Xiaoling!”
Seeing this, Bini Ke frantically fluttered backward, shielding Lu Xiaoling with her body while anxiously reminding her, “Hundred-legged monsters are insect-type freaks. The biggest thing about insect-types is parasitism—be careful…”
Hiss—
A sudden, piercing screech drowned out Bini Ke’s words.
The Centipede’s body suddenly bulged with countless pustules, which burst at their peak.
In an instant, a rain of black, viscous fluid filled with swarms of eggs splattered in all directions, each droplet twisting in midair and transforming into tiny wriggling larvae.
All Lu Xiaoling could do was use her Miko Feather Robe to shield her body, preventing her pale skin from being exposed to the crawling creatures.
The splattering larvae exploded on contact with the Miko Feather Robe, turning into foul-smelling black smoke.
“That’s right!”
At this, Bini Ke suddenly realized: Magical Girl attire naturally possessed a certain level of defense, able to effectively ward off monster attacks within limits.
As long as the monster worms couldn’t burrow into one’s skin, parasitism could be avoided!
The only flaw in this plan was that, when the larvae couldn’t get through Lu Xiaoling’s defenses, they immediately turned their attention to Bini Ke.
“Huh?”
Realizing something was wrong, Bini Ke tried to escape at lightning speed, but before she could flap her wings to flee, countless larvae were already crawling all over her.
“Waaah! No, don’t come in… Not there… you can’t go there! If this keeps up I’ll get lice!”
Bini Ke flailed her claws, her face streaming with tears and snot, as she felt the squirming, tickling sensation of countless bugs.
Her mind wandered to a “magical girl who became a broodmare” she had once seen on a certain obscure platform.
Sometimes things like that happened in real life too—a Magical Girl would end up pregnant by a monster for various reasons, but afterward would receive a generous worker’s compensation and months of paid maternity leave.
Some could even retire to cushy counseling positions.
But that only applied to official Magical Girls and Magic Creatures. Blacklisted types like Bini Ke could never enjoy such benefits.
Thinking of this, Bini Ke regretted running away from Moxie.
If she’d known things would turn out like this, she’d have stayed at Moxie—in the worst case, she’d at least have gotten a subsidy when she became a “fat cat”…
“Waaah, don’t—don’t swarm me, I’m really not attractive at all, and any monsters I’d give birth to as a broodmare wouldn’t be strong either, waaa…”
Just as Bini Ke was bawling, Lu Xiaoling reminded her, “Bini Ke, these monster worms seem really weak.”
“Huh?!”
At her words, Bini Ke snapped back to herself.
Indeed, just as Lu Xiaoling said, though there were a lot of bugs crawling on her, not a single one could break her skin to burrow in.
Most only looked scary, and a few even got stuck in her black fur and died.
They really… are pretty weak?
Realizing this, Bini Ke remembered: Monsters were ranked from lowest to highest as b, a, s, and above s, the almost unheard-of [Disaster] level.
The Centipede looked scary, so she had instinctively rated it as an a-class threat.
Thinking it over, with the monster’s current performance, it probably wasn’t even b-class.
At this, Bini Ke felt deeply embarrassed. Even if she was a Magic Creature who’d run away from Moxie, she still had the responsibility to guide Magical Girls. To have her own Magical Girl remind her about the enemy… If word got out, where would her pride be?
Thankfully, under cover of night, her blushing face wasn’t obvious.
“Xiaoling!”
The more she thought, the more embarrassed she felt; the more she retreated, the angrier she got. Watching the Centipede trying to burrow into the ground, Bini Ke shouted, “Don’t let it get away!”
In reality, even before Bini Ke’s reminder, Lu Xiaoling had already begun moving. Just as the Centipede tried to burrow underground, she hurled her Great Katana—a flash of cold light sliced through the night!
Clang!
But just as it was about to strike the Centipede, a giant machete came flying out of nowhere, blocking the blow.
The machete drove through the Centipede’s relatively weak limb, pinning it firmly to the ground.
The Centipede’s legs froze stiff, falling silent.
The Great Katana spun in the air, humming, before landing at Lu Xiaoling’s feet.
Frowning slightly, Lu Xiaoling stepped back, fixing her gaze on the girl standing atop the Centipede’s body.
That girl looked a bit haggard, as if she hadn’t slept in a long time.
Judging by her outfit, her agile movements, and the giant machete—obviously not an ordinary weapon—Lu Xiaoling immediately recognized that the girl before her was likely a Magical Girl just like herself.
And an officially licensed Magical Girl at that!
Magic Girl Star-Splitter stood atop the Hundred-legged Centipede, staring steadily at Lu Xiaoling—the mysterious Magical Girl who had caused quite a stir in the city.
Her mood was anything but good.
Ever since the day she was defeated by the Black Mist Monster, all 20-plus Magical Girl Interns involved in the operation had been stripped of their Magical Girl Armaments and sent back to Magical Girl University for retraining.
As for Star Splitter, the instigator, her situation was even worse.
Owing money to the Eastern Building was a small matter—she could cover those debts by splitting them with the Magical Girl Interns, some more with insurance, and with her own savings, it was almost settled.
The real killer was the dreadful impact of a Magical Girl being defeated.
Some dog of a news agency, Hope Entertainment, had snapped a picture of her defeat and it had instantly gone viral.
The Moxie higher-ups saw the news and decided it was a huge black mark, but since the problem couldn’t be solved right away—or the person pointing out the problem—they chose to fix the “cause” of the problem instead: Star Splitter’s Magical Girl rank had been demoted from Leaf-Eater Rank to Sprout Rank!
All her previous benefits, the 500,000 reimbursement per battle, and the right to apply for a Buddhist Monk Magic Creature (a privilege of Seedling-level Magical Girls)… all of it had been revoked!
Star Splitter was so furious she nearly ground her teeth to dust.
She had worked diligently for years to reach Leaf-Eater Rank as a Magical Girl, and now she was bumped back down?
Leaf-Eater Rank! How many monsters would she have to slay to climb back up?
With this in mind, Star Splitter’s gaze toward Lu Xiaoling became even colder as she asked in a low voice, “You… Are you a new Magical Girl? Why are you sneaking around? Show me your Magical Girl employment certificate.”
Magical Girl certificate?
Bini Ke immediately broke into a cold sweat.
Neither she nor Lu Xiaoling had official status.
The demon-armament on Lu Xiaoling was something she’d stolen from Moxie when she slipped away—where on earth could they come up with a Magical Girl employment certificate?
“Xiaoling… Maybe we should just run.”
Bini Ke whispered while giving Lu Xiaoling a meaningful look.
But when she glanced to the side, she was shocked to see that Lu Xiaoling had already slipped away the moment Star Splitter uttered her first word!
“Hey!”
This was the first time Bini Ke had encountered a Magical Girl who broke all the rules like Lu Xiaoling.
She was left speechless, but she still flapped her wings desperately, chasing after Lu Xiaoling.
“Trying to run? Hah, I bet you’re a Magical Girl working without an employment certificate.”
On the other side, seeing Lu Xiaoling flee, Star Splitter wasn’t surprised.
She sneered, “You think you can run after stealing Moxie’s work? Jie Li, it’s your turn.”
“Okay~”
A sweet voice rang out softly.
At the same moment, the space around Lu Xiaoling twisted violently!
Several semi-transparent crystal barriers sprang up, with Lu Xiaoling at the center and Star Splitter as the radius, forming an unbreakable Magical Prison!