Chapter 62: Is like frying fish in a fish pond

It looked like Silverbell had only taken a punch, but it was probably not that simple.

There were already people sending SC paid messages in Liang Tai’s streaming room, introducing the terrifying power of that cadre-level Otherworldly Demon.

At the speed it had shown before, even if it just tapped someone’s face with its fingertip, the force would be equivalent to a bullet striking the face.

If it casually swung a fist, that would be like being hit by a subway train.

If it was a deliberately charged punch, it would probably be even scarier than getting hit by a supersonic jet.

Liang Tai nodded, so that’s how it was, but he still didn’t quite understand.

He just knew it was incredibly powerful.

Diamond had rolled far away and started coughing again.

Looking at the mess left behind at the scene, it was clear that among the three Magical Girls, only Silverbell, who had activated her shield, was qualified to withstand that punch. The others wouldn’t have survived even one hit.

They would have turned into minced meat on the spot.

Of course, only Silverbell couldn’t dodge that charged punch. If the others had just one second, Scarlet Lotus and Golden Luan could have dodged, and maybe even counterattacked.

Behind the screens, the experts of the Human Alliance immediately began analyzing the scene and quickly came to preliminary conclusions.

Lightningman was highly intelligent, no less than a human.

It had observed the Magical Girls for a long time and saw through each of their behaviors and abilities.

It knew it couldn’t charge up against Scarlet Lotus and Golden Luan, or it would be counterattacked.

It also knew it had to charge up against Silverbell, or it wouldn’t be able to break that heaven-defying shield.

It always struck at the weak points. This was a perfect strategy—strong in itself and able to counter its opponents.

But even for a cadre-level Otherworldly Demon, wasn’t this intelligence and caution a bit too high?

The experts started to debate fiercely and split into two camps.

Both sides agreed that this cadre-level Otherworldly Demon was special, with intelligence and caution far above the norm.

One camp thought it was just a bit special, since there were too few cadre-level Otherworldly Demons encountered to have a solid sample size. There were fools and geniuses among humans, so it was normal for there to be smart ones among the Demons.

The other camp believed something was directing this Demon behind the scenes. Their reasoning was that high-level Demons also showed signs of being commanded, so this cadre-level Demon might be under command too.

While the experts were debating, the battle continued.

There were some new developments.

Silverbell got back up. She had taken that world-shattering blow and survived.

She raised a new magical shield and started running away, looking quite battered, limping along the edge of the purple barrier.

She was hobbling as she moved.

Suddenly, she grabbed her twin staves and flew into the air. At the same moment, Lightningman sprang into action, its figure vanishing from sight.

But the Human Alliance’s experts could see everything clearly—dealing with Lightningman required high-speed cameras.

Lightningman was running and made a very interesting move. Facing Silverbell flying in the air, it didn’t take off—it didn’t seem to be able to fly.

Instead, it stepped onto the purple shield, just like a human doing parkour, running up a wall for a brief moment.

It ran up the purple shield and reached the dome, then kicked off from the top and smashed down at Silverbell, who seemed frozen in midair.

A direct hit sent Silverbell crashing to the ground again, but this time it didn’t break the shield—the attack wasn’t strong enough.

But it still left cracks in her shield.

Just as Silverbell landed and was still stunned, she raised a new shield.

She rolled a few times on the ground and took off again.

The experts watched the slow-motion replay. Silverbell flew again, and Lightningman repeated its earlier move, running up to the dome of the purple shield and smashing down from above.

This time there was a small difference—Silverbell turned slightly and slowed just a bit.

The landing point Lightningman calculated was off by more than twenty centimeters.

So this time, when Lightningman smashed down, it missed the vital spot and just grazed her, sending Silverbell flying dozens of meters away.

She was tough, and immediately raised a new magical shield and flew again.

Lightningman was still finishing its move, landing on the ground and leaving a deep crater.

The concrete floor was as fragile as tofu to it.

After landing and gathering its strength, it gathered its magic again and charged toward the slowly moving Silverbell.

It ran past one load-bearing pillar blocking its view, then past two…

It kept running, going dozens of meters, and as it rounded the last pillar, a bright light from that direction caught its attention.

Something was slowly expanding—that was a milky-white barrier, and everything it touched was destroyed and vaporized.

Whether it was the purple shield, the concrete floor, or the load-bearing pillars.

Only now did Lightningman realize—Silverbell had self-destructed.

So all her previous actions were to set this up, to open up distance and then fire the magic cannon at the spot farthest from her teammates.

That way, she could minimize the damage to her teammates. If Lightningman chased after her, it might get caught in it too.

Silverbell herself relied on her shield to endure it.

Lightningman braked desperately, leaving a deep gouge in the ground.

The milky-white explosion circle was getting closer and closer.

It used both hands and feet, gripping the ground tightly to stop itself.

When it was still a dozen meters from the milky-white barrier, it finally stopped, then quickly started running again.

Slowly picking up speed.

But the milky-white explosion circle was expanding too fast, and the shockwave came even faster.

It knocked Lightningman off his feet, sending him rolling across the ground.

At this moment, Silverbell had already been swallowed by the milky-white explosion circle—her fate unknown.

Lightningman scrambled up in a panic, now less than three meters from the explosion circle.

It kept running faster and faster, pulling away to four meters.

A few more steps, and it was five meters away.

Just as it was about to escape the blast radius, the world seemed to stop.

No, it wasn’t the world that stopped, but time within a few meters around Diamond had been stopped.

That little guy had somehow gotten ahead of Lightningman and was waiting for him.

It actually used the same move it had used against Silverbell at the start—Time Stop.

The time stop only lasted for an instant, not long at all.

But even that instant was almost fatal for Lightningman.

It was swallowed by the explosion circle, its whole body engulfed in the blast of the milky-white magic cannon, its body torn and sent rolling.

A surge of powerful magic erupted from its body, and its speed increased again, miraculously bursting out of the milky-white explosion zone, now charred all over, some of its flesh cooked—suffering severe burns.

It burst through the shattered purple shield and didn’t linger, running off.