Chapter 19: Things Falling Like Rain

The battle between the remnant beast and the magical girls was a process of ebb and flow; after the two magical girls exhausted a large amount of stamina and magic power on low-level coordination errors, the remnant beast, having gained a moment to breathe, gradually gained the upper hand.

The mucus on the surface of the cavity-type remnant beast and its amorphous body granted it strong regenerative capabilities, allowing it to slowly recover even while under attack. Thus, although this remnant beast remained in a state of passively taking hits, it never suffered fatal damage.

And as the magical girls' suppressive fire became less dense, the beast, its combat strength well-preserved, began its own counterattack.

The sign of this was that Lin Xiaolu, who had been maneuvering around the remnant beast, suddenly felt the range of the beast's ground-pounding attacks increase. She began to find it somewhat difficult to dodge its strikes.

She looked up and identified the cause: the remnant beast had covered its claws in a large amount of mucus, increasing the contact area during its strikes. This way, even if she wasn't hit by the claws, she would be stuck instantly if the mucus touched her.

Furthermore, as the remnant beast's attacks landed frequently on the ground, this mucus soon soaked the surrounding area, allowing it to slither forward at a faster speed. Its massive body gradually began to display unusual mobility, making it difficult for Xia Liang, who was providing long-range suppressive fire from the air, to hit the target.

If their magic power were sufficient, both Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang could have squandered their magic to forcibly increase their speed to keep up with the remnant beast's movements. But in the current situation, wasting magic power without being able to end the battle quickly would only lead the fight into an even more disadvantageous position.

Consequently, the two magical girls, who had previously been fighting on their own, had to start thinking about a plan for cooperation.

"Hey, you over there!"

While dodging the remnant beast's strikes, Lin Xiaolu shouted to Xia Liang in the sky: "Do you still have enough magic power?"

"Magic power?"

Firing off another beam of magic power that splashed onto the remnant beast's head, Xia Liang looked puzzled: "I have some, but do you have an idea, Xiaolu?"

"Don't call me so intimately, I'm not that close with you!"

Kicking off the ground where the remnant beast's claws were embedded in the asphalt, Lin Xiaolu returned to mid-air: "If you have magic power, I'll lure it into revealing a weakness, and you find an opportunity to blast it with everything you've got."

"Let me do the attacking?"

Xia Liang blinked, then revealed a knowing smile: "Ah, so you mean your magic power isn't enough to attack anymore?"

"You are truly the most annoying person!"

Lin Xiaolu retorted with annoyance, but she did not deny it. Although she disliked Xia Liang, she knew that some things took precedence. She immediately turned and flew outside the range of the remnant beast's strikes.

The cavity-type remnant beast had strong self-regeneration, but it was not without weaknesses; its common weak points were its mouth and abdomen. Because this type of remnant beast usually remained in a prone posture, it was not easy to attack the abdomen, so the most viable target was actually the mouth.

To bait it into revealing this weakness, the most direct method was to make it use its cavity to attack.

Once it used the cavity, due to the location of the organ, it would inevitably have to lift its head, open its mouth, and stop moving.

Holding to this line of thought, both Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang conserved their magic power, reduced their attack frequency, and stopped wasting energy. At the same time, they induced the remnant beast to attack more often.

This strategy soon took effect; when the remnant beast realized it wasn't taking much damage, its attack frequency became faster and faster, and it grew increasingly reckless in its own defense.

Until it completely abandoned its defense and, when Lin Xiaolu intentionally exposed a flaw, chose to use its cavity.

Lifting its head high, the cavity on the remnant beast's chest contracted, pumping body fluids from the organ like a powerful water pump, mixing them with a large amount of magic power, and converging them toward the nozzle at its lower jaw.

"Gwooooooo!"

Accompanied by a violent roar, several massive liquid cannonballs were fired from its lower jaw.

Thud! Thud! Boom!

Lin Xiaolu kept running near the ground, dodging the water cannons behind her; the missed shells struck the surrounding road and sidewalk, smashing out huge craters.

She turned her head and shouted to Xia Liang in mid-air:

"Now! Shoot your magic beam into its mouth!"

"Got it! Hmm... but, it feels a bit hard to control?"

Having already found her position, Xia Liang raised her magic wand high. Magic power far exceeding that of an ordinary-grade magical girl gathered before her, forming an extremely unstable ball of light: "Anyway, I'll give it a try."

Timing it with the remnant beast's water cannon discharge, she pressed her wand down. Taking advantage of the moment the beast finished its attack and its mouth was still wide open, she aimed and fired the magic beam in front of her.

The hibiscus-purple magic beam traveled at an extremely high speed; before the remnant beast could react, it had already shot to its front and then slammed heavily into its body.

Precisely because of this, it wasn't until the moment the magic blast hit that they realized the impact point was off.

Their original plan was to hit directly into the remnant beast's mouth to damage its internal tissues and cause irreversible harm.

But after the hit, they realized that this attack, which had exhausted almost all of Xia Liang's magic power, did not seem to have hit the intended spot.

"Ah, looks like I missed?"

Looking at her wand, Xia Liang smiled sheepishly.

It missed, yet it didn't.

This was the judgment made by Cuique, who was standing to the side.

Because this magic beam had struck near the remnant beast's cavity.

The remnant beast's cavity was covered in thick, tumor-like flesh and constantly secreting mucus for protection, so it was not a weak point.

But the position of this magic beam was strange; it didn't strike the outside of the cavity, but instead shot directly into the nozzle.

The cavity's nozzle, because it was a small target and hard to hit, was not considered a conventional weak point, but in reality, it was indeed the most fragile part of its body.

So it died.

A violent flow of magic power poured directly into the remnant beast's lower jaw nozzle; the hibiscus-purple magic emitted a blinding light, passing straight through its body and piercing it completely.

The remnant beast did not even have time to react before this magic beam destroyed all the tissues in its body, taking its life on the spot.

Without a doubt, although it deviated from the original target, the effect was still critical.

Cuique, standing to the side, thought to herself.

Even if there was a small accident along the way, they had successfully defeated the remnant beast in the end, so missing the target was understandable... right?

Her train of thought suddenly stalled.

As the magic power completely pierced the remnant beast's cavity, she suddenly remembered something:

The liquid in the cavity usually relied on the cavity's physiological activities and the remnant beast's magic power to be compressed within the body. So, once the remnant beast died and the cavity was damaged, losing its original physiological function, what would happen next?

Her pupils constricted, and an expression of disgust appeared uncontrollably on her face. Cuique immediately shouted to the two magical girls in the air:

"Idiots, get out of the way!"

Having said that, she did not linger; her magic power dispersed, and she leaped up. With a sound of breaking air, she retreated dozens of meters in an instant.

But the two magical girls next to the remnant beast were not so lucky.

Xia Liang had just exhausted a large amount of magic power to fire the beam and hadn't been able to regain her rhythm; Lin Xiaolu had been sprinting near the ground and not only failed to react to what Cuique said, but also didn't understand the current situation.

Thus, the next moment, the remnant beast pierced by Xia Liang exploded.

It exploded literally, its entire body bursting like a firework.

Following immediately after were the foul-smelling fluids that had been stored and compressed within its body, which were also sprayed into mid-air, only to fall back down like a torrential rain.

This mucus itself had no lethality; it only formed an effective attack after being compressed and fired by the remnant beast. So, even if it landed on a human body now, it wouldn't cause any damage.

The only problem was that, since this mucus was a mixture of undigested biological tissue and the remnant beast's body fluids, it had one characteristic: it was truly foul.

"Yaaaaaaaah—"

Under the scorching noon sun, the foul-smelling mucus splashed onto the two magical girls, triggering a chorus of miserable screams.