Chapter 207: Fierce Battle

The body of a Magical Girl is composed of mana.

Therefore, in their transformed state, they do not possess various vital points like humans do. No matter what kind of external injury, as long as mana remains, they can recover quickly.

To truly injure a Magical Girl, one must damage her true form; and to damage the true form, there are only three paths: either wait until the Magical Girl exhausts her mana; or directly attack her soul; if neither works, one must attack the mana source.

This was the action Yīng had just taken.

However, damaging the mana source is not an easy task. Once the mana source leaves the state of the Heart Gem and merges with the Magical Girl, it floats within the mana body in a semi-ethereal, semi-solid state. Its existence is extremely elusive, its position wavering and unstable; ordinary people almost have no way to locate it.

But in Senior Cuique's perception, her own mana source seemed to have been locked onto in that instant. Fortunately, the opponent did not succeed.

Had she not remained calm enough at the very last moment, mobilizing her mana under Yīng's attack to shift the position of her mana source, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

Even so, with her body pierced, the residual beast mana leaking from the Tang Dao still caused severe damage to Senior Cuique's mana body; in just a few short seconds, the wound created by the Tang Dao had turned into a huge hole and was still expanding outward.

The residual beast mana has an corrosive effect on a Magical Girl's mana; even at Senior Cuique's level, this suppression relationship still exists. Moreover, the master of the mana—Yīng—is unimaginably powerful, so the injury she caused is naturally exceptionally severe.

It was only at this moment that Asano Enka finally arrived.

The wand in her hand flickered, instantly transforming into a wine glass; the orange-red liquid within the glass glowed with fluorescence, and with her movement, it was splashed out toward Yīng's position.

This action, viewed purely visually, seemed to hold no threat, yet it made Yīng raise an eyebrow slightly; immediately after, she flashed aside, retreating to a place ten meters away.

And after she retreated, the liquid splashed from the wine glass all poured onto the ground; before long, like hot oil, a cluster of raging flames ignited.

Taking advantage of the fire, Asano Enka quickly took hold of Senior Cuique, carrying her in a princess carry and retreating to the rear.

Lying in Asano Enka's arms like this, Senior Cuique's face was pale; one hand covered her chest. The hole eroded by the residual beast mana was already larger than her palm, and scattered blue mana particles floated upward from between her fingers, but she didn't even glance at it; her gaze remained fixedly staring at Yīng not far away.

A circle of people had already gathered around her; whether it was Asano Enka and Hong Siyu, who were originally fighting alongside her, or the three little ones who had rapidly converged upon seeing her injury, everyone was on guard against Yīng's movements while simultaneously monitoring Senior Cuique's condition.

Among them, the most panicked was clearly Lin Xiaolu.

She stood beside Asano Enka, reaching out her hand to press down on the hollow in Senior Cuique's chest as well; her lips trembled, her breathing was rapid, but her tight throat prevented her from saying anything, allowing only incredibly dry sobs to escape.

She just looked into Senior Cuique's eyes, shaking her head desperately, not knowing what she wanted to express.

Senior Cuique could only raise her other hand and pat Lin Xiaolu's arm: "Don't panic; the mana source wasn't hit, it just requires consuming a bit more mana."

Seeing that Lin Xiaolu still looked as if she were on the verge of tears and simply didn't believe her, she could only helplessly raise her head, lean close to Lin Xiaolu's ear, and whisper a few words to her in an extremely tiny voice.

Lin Xiaolu's eyes immediately widened.

She struggled hard to catch her breath, squeezing a few words out of her throat, and asked with slight astonishment: "Do we really have to do this?"

"Mm, I've figured it out."

Senior Cuique nodded: "If everything is truly as I think, then the situation from now on belongs to our side..."

— "I can't pretend I didn't hear that! If you have a good plan, why not reveal a little to me?"

However, on the other side, Yīng had no intention of giving them time to settle properly.

Having finally used this opportunity to severely injure Senior Cuique, she naturally intended to consolidate her advantage; thus, her figure flashed within the black mist, and she had already charged back into the crowd, swinging her blade.

This time, her target was Hong Siyu.

Her logic was very simple: prioritize eliminating the three Magical Girls who serve as the main combat power, and the order of attack would be based entirely on her familiarity with them.

The reason she had relentlessly pursued Senior Cuique before was that, through several previous spars, she was more familiar with Senior Cuique's fighting style, could predict her movements to some extent, and thus find it easier to succeed. Attacking Hong Siyu this time completely continued this line of thinking, aiming to eliminate more trouble as quickly as possible.

And this time, without Senior Cuique's assistance, Hong Siyu was clearly somewhat helpless against this ferocious attack.

At the critical moment, a rather petite black shadow rushed out from the side.

Echoing Yīng's pitch-black mana, it was also black, but mixed within it was green mana spreading wildly; her dark dress was covered in green sinister patterns, and the petite girl used hands shaped like beast claws to block Yīng's Tang Dao.

That was Bai Jingxuan.

However, present was a Bai Jingxuan whom no one except Senior Cuique had ever seen.

Her sclera had also turned completely black, just like Yīng's; her surging mana far exceeded that of a normal Leaf-level Magical Girl. Standing opposite Yīng, although there was a huge height difference, her momentum was not much weaker.

Her eyes were overflowing with killing intent, making people almost dare not meet her gaze.

"... I see, so you are that 'Bai Jingxuan'?"

However, Yīng seemed to feel no perception of this killing intent; she simply clapped her hands with some delight: "So that's how it is, no wonder the Boss specifically ordered me to bring you along; it's really interesting!"

Bai Jingxuan had no intention of responding to her at all.

She remained silent, pushed off the ground with both feet, and rushed forward violently like a beast that had lost its reason.

In the darkness, two masses of mana, both with a black base, collided; the others around them could not immediately determine who held the upper hand.

The black-green beast frantically vented its mana, caring nothing for Yīng's offensive; whether its body was slashed by weapons or its mana was weakened by the mist, it paid no attention at all, adopting an attitude of seeking mutual destruction with the opponent.

This life-risking fighting style, combined with equally abundant mana, actually managed to tie down Yīng for a moment.

However, soon, Yīng found some pattern within this seemingly chaotic battle.

She was seen extracting herself from the frenzied attacks, drifting like a small boat in a giant wave, and then, at an extremely tiny opening, pressed her palm onto Bai Jingxuan's abdomen.

"Great potential, but still too young."

She evaluated it thus.

Immediately after, the pitch-black mana surrounding her suddenly paused; for an instant, it seemed to fade, and layers of black ripples suddenly spread outward in all directions.

A huge humming sound came from Yīng's palm; for a moment, it was as if the air itself had been shattered, and fine cracks spread out from beneath her palm.

"Bang!"

Then, Bai Jingxuan flew out.

As if struck by some immense force out of nowhere, she was launched like a cannonball; her speed was so fast that even the naked eye of an ordinary person could not capture it.

A piercing sound of tearing through the air swept past the ears of the few people; Bai Jingxuan's body flew on like this, and it was even visible that she was about to fall off the mountain, plummeting directly down the cliff.

Fortunately, Hong Siyu on the side acted in time.

She opened the notebook in her hand; purple-red mana formed a net in time along Bai Jingxuan's flight path, intercepting her.

Yīng naturally could not sit idly by while all this happened; at the very moment Bai Jingxuan was caught, she had already rushed to Hong Siyu's front once more; moreover, this time, numerous shadowy figures holding different weapons also appeared within the black mist, launching an attack simultaneously.

This time, it was Margaret's turn to save the day.

She timely used her wand to block the weapon swung by Yīng; amidst a brief explosion of sound, she inexplicably suddenly pressed her wand down a distance, blocking the second attack coming from within the black mist.

"Retreat! Pin her down with firepower!"

She shouted while pushing Hong Siyu backward, then her wand transformed once more into a goblet-shaped magical artifact; as the liquid inside splashed out, she engaged Yian in combat.

All of this was imprinted in Senior Cuique's eyes.

At this moment, she had been placed by Asai Madoka beside a tree, leaning weakly against the trunk, able only to watch the battle unfold.

The hole in her chest could be repaired with magic power, but the amount required was immense, so she had to reduce her movements now to let her magic power heal the wound as quickly as possible.

But being unable to join the fight did not mean she was helpless against the current situation.

Just as she had told Lin Xiaolu moments ago, in her view, "the situation already belongs to their side."

Because just then, in the instant she had taken a solid hit from Yian's attack, she seemed to have vaguely figured out part of the opponent's Fan Kai ability.

Unlike their first clash at the Extraordinary Strategy Bureau, this time Yian had not uttered a single word of nonsense, and had not mentioned her abilities after Beast Heart Liberation up until now.

Undoubtedly, she was also guarding against Senior Cuique's magical artifacts.

In their last encounter, precisely because Yian had easily revealed one of her core abilities, the existence of "Qi," she had been sealed off from that ability by Senior Cuique and ultimately lost. She clearly had not forgotten that incident.

And precisely because of this, Senior Cuique had not yet asked Hong Siyu for assistance to activate that extremely unstable second magical artifact.

Because she had to ensure her scissors were used in the most critical place.

Yian's Beast Heart Liberation, up to this point, had demonstrated abilities that were quite comprehensive; not only did it retain the ability of the magical artifact itself to transform into a weapon, but it also displayed enhancements in speed, strength, magic power, and multiple other aspects, even mixing with "Qi" to exert a certain suppressing effect on their side's ability performance.

Enhancing all of one's own attributes while weakening the enemy's combat capabilities could be said to be a very simple and brutal effect.

However, knowing this was not enough.

What was the magnitude of the ability? How large was its area of effect? Was it really worth activating the scissors? More importantly, to use the scissors to remove this part of the ability, Senior Cuique first had to understand the true nature of the ability.

And just now, she had seized that fleeting spark of inspiration.

When Yian's Tang Dao was about to pierce her chest, she realized—this was a risk, but also an opportunity.

The opponent's speed was extremely fast; their side could not even touch her trace using normal means, so effective attacks had not been possible before. But no matter how fast the speed, in the instant Yian attacked her, Yian could not perform large-scale movements.

That is to say, when Yian attacked her, it was actually the best moment to counterattack.

As for how to counterattack, it was actually very simple: use the threads connected behind her. Several threads connected to Senior Cuique, originally used to pull the body and assist in movement, actually had no fixed function; as long as Senior Cuique moved the position where the threads were connected to her body, they could transform from tools assisting movement into weapons causing damage to Yian.

So, where should the connection point of the threads be moved?

The decision Senior Cuique made at that moment was to move directly toward the location where the magic power source was locked.

Because in that instant, the Tang Dao thrust by Yian would inevitably head toward that point; in any case, the threads could simultaneously cut the opponent's arm.

This was what happened in that split-second flash of lightning and fire just now, and the facts proved her thinking was correct.

The moment the Tang Dao pierced through her chest, the sensation transmitted along the threads did not lie; Yian had been cut.

Even though this exchange was far from equal, the injuries she sustained and the magic power consumed during the exchange were far greater than the opponent's, she had successfully, for the first time, landed an effective attack.

Although the threads merely cut through without causing effective damage, what was important was that she discovered something, something far more important than all other exchanges.

—Yian hesitated for an instant; she seemed to be considering whether to endure this strike.

This was a quite intriguing display.

Yian's Beast Heart Liberation clearly involved not only increases in speed and magic power quantity, but even the external pressure resistance and defensive capabilities of her body had become extremely exaggerated.

That is to say, even if cut by Senior Cuique's threads, she would not lose too much magic power because of it.

Then, if that was the case, why did the opponent hesitate?

Senior Cuique could not find the truth based solely on this bit of information, but with this bit of information, it was already enough.

"Margaret."

At the same moment she figured this out, she raised her voice and spoke to Asai Madoka, who was fighting Yian not far away:

—"Activate Fan Kai."