Chapter 214: Wang Yue

Although most Magical Girls dislike discussing it, an objective fact exists: a Magical Girl's Magical Gear actually has different rating tiers.

Indeed, this is even a testing item for Magical Girl qualification certification within the Magical Realm.

This rating project is quite complex, judging based on the Magical Gear's capability specifications, range of effect, application fields, development potential, stability, and many other aspects, ultimately giving the Magical Girl's gear a comprehensive rating.

Of course, this rating can change, because the gear evolves alongside the Magical Girl's own growth; some gears that initially performed poorly may become quite powerful due to their owner's efforts. Among Magical Girls, anything is possible.

However, even so, after research on Magical Gear within the Magical Realm continued to develop, a hypothesis was still proposed as a universal solution: a Magical Girl's gear often has potential related to "complexity."

That is, the more "complex" the gear, the more likely it is to become powerful.

Although most gears present the appearance of a "single object," for example, Bai Jingxuan's gear is a music box, Bai Ji's gear is a fountain pen... among the massive sample size, there will always be some special cases.

On the basis of a single object, some Magical Girls' gears initially present a "paired" form, such as a pair of gauntlets, a pair of boots, or a pair of daggers.

This kind of "paired" gear is more "complex" than a single-object gear; in other words, such gear has relatively higher initial potential.

And since there are "paired" gears, naturally there are also "grouped" gears; for example, a Magical Girl from the Eastern Japan Domain once possessed a gear like "a bag of shuriken," and subsequently, other Magical Girls also awakened gear forms like "a row of test tubes" or "a pile of white paper."

On the basis of grouped gears, there are even more special gears whose form of expression is "a set," meaning multiple gears of different forms combine with each other; for example, some Magical Girls' gears take the form of "a painting tool kit" or "a makeup bag." Such gears are considered to have extremely high potential, because many famous Magical Girls in history possessed gears of similar form; even bringing history closer to the previous Queen's Year, there is the example of "Cornflower," further corroborating the value of set-type gears.

So, taking it a step further, is there theoretically a gear with more potential than "set-type" gears?

Semi had never thought about this question, because it had never seen such a gear before.

It had seen many exaggerated gear abilities in the hands of many Magical Girls; it had even seen from afar what Cornflower did during the Garden Defense War, so it was well-traveled and knowledgeable, and thus felt it should no longer be surprised by Magical Girls' gears.

But in fact, it is still very shocked right now.

Because it is seeing a gear capable of "transforming" for the first time.

Not to mention that the gear initially displayed the blasphemous form of a "scepter"—if the opponent's mana hadn't still been at the Bud to Leaf level, it would have thought another Gem Scepter had possessed her body—how can such a rebellious gear even transform? If it merely changed the gear's external form like Ibis, that would be one thing, but when the gear in the opponent's hand turned into a spear, it clearly felt that even the nature of the opponent's mana had changed!

In other words, the gear in the opponent's hand transforming is equivalent to her transforming once again!

What is she trying to do, bloom at the Bud level?

Such abnormal phenomena made Semi almost forget she was still in combat for a moment, thinking she was attending a presentation of the Realm Research Institute's latest research results—if the opponent hadn't tripped over the weapon in her own hand.

Only then did Semi finally realize that although it looked very flashy, the essence of the matter was simply that the opponent had completed ability blossoming, rising from Seed level to Bud level, and awakened her own gear.

Even if that gear's form was extremely blasphemous, even the Claw Marks wouldn't dare use such a gear form; even if the gear's shape was extremely blasphemous, it had never seen a gear that clearly had a fixed form yet could still transform; even if the ability displayed by the gear was extremely blasphemous, directly changing its own mana nature, equivalent to transforming once again... but regardless, it was just a gear.

The opponent was still just a Bud-level noob, while she herself had reached the "Remnant Beast" stage of Half-Molt; purely in terms of ability evolution class, her advantage was overwhelming.

Yes, the advantage is mine.

After convincing herself of this, Semi immediately readjusted her mindset.

A mere Bud-level, just having an extra gear; she still had many hidden tricks up her sleeve, simply exchanging trump cards; she had plenty of cards to play.

Thinking this, she raised her paw, looked down at Lin Xiaolu lying on the ground, paused slightly, and then fiercely swung her paw down.

Clang.

Fortunately, Lin Xiaolu on the ground hadn't fallen so hard she forgot she was in combat; she climbed up in time and blocked Semi's attack with her spear.

And this panicked parry caused her to be knocked flying by Semi's immense strength again, rolling on the ground for half a day before standing up again.

"Pah, pah."

While spitting mud from her mouth with a disgusted expression, she wiped the dirt from her face, struggled to hold the spear in her hand to maintain balance, but still gazed intently at Semi before her.

Clearly, the previous embarrassment did not make her feel any frustration.

Rather, precisely because she fell on the ground, she sobered up from her impulsive emotions, allowing her to re-examine her gear's abilities.

Wang Yue—Guard Form; since the name has the suffix "Form" behind it, that alone is enough to show that this "Form" is not singular; the fact is indeed so, at least now she already possesses two forms.

One is the basic form that appeared as a white scepter when first awakened; the other is the Guard Form currently being used, appearing as a spear.

And what surprised her most was that her gear ability also seemed to change along with the form's transformation.

The basic form of Wang Yue, that white scepter, had a very simple ability: when Lin Xiaolu materialized her gear, it could restore all the mana she had consumed previously; in other words, it was a simple, brute-force ability to fully restore status.

Of course, it was only useful upon the first materialization; it couldn't be triggered repeatedly by retracting the gear and materializing it again.

Although it sounded a bit monotonous, for most Magical Girls, this could be called an absolute strong ability, because mana is everything for a Magical Girl; possessing such an ability, while not simply doubling mana capacity, could definitely be regarded as significantly increasing sustained combat capability.

And besides that, the basic form had no other abilities. But fortunately, Wang Yue didn't have only the scepter form; after switching to the spear's Guard Form, her gear ability also changed accordingly.

As for what the ability belonging to the Guard Form was, Lin Xiaolu merely held the spear in her hand, briefly browsed the information in her mind, and then revealed a slightly bewildered expression.

Shortly after, this bewilderment turned into delight, excitement, and even eagerness to try.

Consequently, the way she looked at Semi also changed from previous hostility and anger to a gaze like looking at a target; although the hostility within was greatly reduced, the desire to destroy was greatly increased.

This gaze made Semi feel quite uncomfortable, feeling just like a punching bag being scrutinized by a boxer, or a fish on a cutting board being scrutinized by a chef—why did a Bud-level have the right to look at her with such eyes?

Even if the gear the opponent awakened seemed a bit more powerful, and her mana capacity seemed a bit larger, could such factors make up for the gap brought by the rules?

Thinking this, she boosted her confidence once again, all hidden worries in her heart vanished, feeling that the odds of victory were still on her side.

Then, she saw the Lin Xiaolu in front of her, as if trying to recall something, cradle the spear in her arm like a piece of firewood, open her palm, and struggle to move her fingers.

Between her constant squinting and eyebrow-raising, something gradually appeared between those moving fingers, from nothing to something, from shallow to deep, from short to long, slowly appearing before Semi in rhythm with her fingers.

Those were several threads of mana.

Composed of light blue mana, shimmering with faint fluorescent glow, yet making people unable to look away.

These threads were pulled longer and longer, wrapped more and more as Lin Xiaolu moved, finally like a spiderweb, in Semi's extremely shocked gaze—wrapping Lin Xiaolu herself inside.

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

One human and one fairy emitted sounds of bewilderment in perfect synchronization.

The blue moon in the sky shone quietly, the grass and trees on the ground swayed gently, the light blue mana web was magnificent, yet all these scenes were silent, leaving silence to the scene, becoming the only main melody.

Then, Semi was the first to react, speaking with slight confusion: "Is the ability of your gear to make others laugh?"

"None of your business, as long as it works!" Lin Xiaolu finally became somewhat angry and embarrassed, dispersed the threads around her, stopped considering using those flashy abilities, grabbed her spear, and charged forward once again.

This time, having learned from past mistakes, she dared not walk on the ground again, but flew directly into the air, even flying several meters high specifically to prevent the previous mistake from happening again.

Clang!

As the long spear and Semmi's claws clashed, the two once again locked into battle.

Compared to her previous tactic of retreating while fighting under the cover of mana bullets, relying only on a wand for defense before awakening her magical armor, Lin Xiaolu, now possessing her magical armor, was significantly more aggressive.

First, the strength of her magical armor had greatly surpassed that of her wand; even engaging the Remnant Beast's body directly, she was not at a disadvantage, even subtly gaining the upper hand. Second, her mana reserves had fully recovered; compared to Semmi, who had expanded its nest and utilized the rules, her mana condition was far superior.

Beyond that, there was also the issue on Semmi's side: its ability to defend against Lin Xiaolu's magical armor.

Because Lin Xiaolu had never revealed what her magical armor's ability was, it dared not counterattack with full force, instead retreating while fighting, always keeping a reserve for itself, waiting for Lin Xiaolu to reveal her ability during the battle.

Those strange mana threads instantly reminded it of the Cornflower; whether it was the Cornflower's record in the Garden Defense Battle or that battle with the Iris, all made it wary of the abilities of such thread-based magical armors.

If the opponent's ability was rather ordinary, then it could naturally counterattack with full force at any time; but if the ability was somewhat unfair, it could immediately retreat to prevent itself from suffering losses due to an information gap.

It had to be known that the one locked in its nest was not just a single person; after defeating this Sprout-level rookie in front of it, there were at least two Leaf-level enemies waiting for it to deal with on the side; suffering relatively heavy injuries here would be disadvantageous for the upcoming battle situation.

Thus, combining the different considerations of both sides, the battle situation manifested a rather bizarre scene: a Sprout-level magical girl who had just awakened her magical armor was pressing down on a Half-Transcendent Remnant Beast that had mastered a portion of the rules.

Lin Xiaolu was advancing triumphantly, while Semmi was retreating while fighting.

Of course, both sides knew that this situation could not continue indefinitely.

Lin Xiaolu did not consider herself a fool; although she had already seen her magical armor's ability clearly and even attempted to use a portion of it just now, she had not yet revealed her full hand. Continuously suppressing the opponent at this moment was also an attempt to force Semmi to reveal a flaw, so she could end the battle in one stroke.

Semmi was the same; it was also waiting for Lin Xiaolu to reveal her own ability. As long as the opponent revealed a portion of her ability, it could immediately formulate a corresponding strategy, rather than engaging in meaningless entanglement like now.

And this opportunity that both sides were waiting for arrived very quickly.

Perhaps because her experience in hand-to-hand combat was not rich enough, or perhaps simply because she was not proficient with the long spear, in short, under continuous reckless attacks, even though she had avoided it as much as possible, Lin Xiaolu still exposed a rather large flaw.

With a thrust strike missing, she had unknowingly placed her abdomen in an unprotected state.

Semmi had no reason to let this opportunity slip away.

Such a huge flaw, if it could seize it, would inevitably force the opponent to use more means to compensate; even if she could counter-attack, she would have to reveal even more, such as the ability of her magical armor.

So it decisively twisted its body, the two tails behind it swaying, accompanied by a sound of tearing through the air, like a long whip, lashing out towards Lin Xiaolu's abdomen.

At such a critical moment, Lin Xiaolu appeared not panicked at all.

She had not anticipated this current mistake, but in fact, she had long anticipated that she would make a mistake.

Making a mistake was not strange, especially when using a weapon one had never used before; what was important was how to compensate for the mistake.

On this point, Lin Xiaolu had actually already thought it through.

Suddenly, a shining mana thread appeared behind her; at this critical moment, it fiercely pulled her forward-moving body, then, like a marionette, dragged her backward.

Yes, this was exactly the move Senior Cuique had used in the battle with the Iris not long ago.

It was also one of the uses Lin Xiaolu considered first after discovering her magical armor could utilize threads.

She had imagined countless times what her magical armor should look like; if it were her just becoming a magical girl, she would undoubtedly have chosen the abilities of those characters in the animation as a template to imagine her own abilities.

But later, as her understanding of the identity of a magical girl deepened, the magical armor and abilities she wanted to possess changed again and again; even for a period of time, she dreamed about what her magical armor should look like.

But there was no moment quite like when she discovered her magical armor actually included the form of "threads," that kind of excitement from the bottom of her heart.

Undoubtedly, she loved threads.

Regardless of how she previously viewed this "weapon," at least after she met Senior Cuique and witnessed Senior Cuique's battles countless times, for her, threads were the best weapon in the world.

Furthermore, threads were also the weapon she was most familiar with now.

Even though she had never used it herself once, even though she had never thought before about fighting in this way, but the moment she extracted the threads from her magical armor, the matter of "how to fight with this weapon" had already had an answer in her heart.

Senior Cuique had taught her.

This reason surpassed a thousand words.

Of course, her control over the threads now was obviously insufficient; she could not possibly wield them as easily as Senior Cuique, but merely controlling just one thread to pull herself away from danger was more than enough.

This was the confidence that allowed her to dare to attack continuously, even knowing she might expose a flaw, yet still continue to attack.

Moreover, when she used the threads to remove herself from danger, and when she lured Semmi to attack her flaw, the balance of attack and defense had actually shifted for the second time.

Now, it was Semmi that had exposed a flaw.

The more decisive and unreserved the attack, the more it cut off one's own possibility of evasion.

And this was the opportunity Lin Xiaolu had been searching for all along.

Almost at the same time as she was pulled backward by the threads, she reversed the long spear in her hand, changing her grip to a throw, raising it high like throwing a javelin, and cast it out.

Such a throw naturally had no leverage to draw upon; theoretically, it posed no threat at all, and in fact, it was indeed so; the long spear she threw was limp and powerless, and was not even thrown in a straight line. The spear body swept through the air in an arc, like a silent mockery.

But before Semmi could even ponder the opponent's intention, this long spear thrown into the sky suddenly reversed its spearhead, suddenly turning towards it.

Whoosh.

As if attracted by a magnet, as if possessing its own soul, this long spear suddenly began to accelerate in mid-air, as if pushed by something, and shot explosively towards Semmi.

Unable to react any further, Semmi, still in the middle of its attack motion, could not even retract its move; it could only go with the flow, using the momentum of the attack to continue flipping its body, wanting to meet the long spear with its tail, thus hardening against the attack to neutralize it.

Its judgment was undoubtedly correct; if the long spear continued to shoot along this trajectory, it would certainly be able to block this attack.

But its judgment was also wrong, because this time, it finally had no time to attend to defending against Lin Xiaolu's ability.

In just an instant, at the same time Semmi changed its posture, the long spear thrown by Lin Xiaolu changed its trajectory once again. This time, the long spear, as if being guided by something, swept through the air in an arc, as if it had grown eyes, dodging around Semmi's tails, accelerated once more, and shot straight towards its eyes.

Why?

This question was all that remained in Semmi's mind.

And with the raising of this question, it began to re-examine its situation, and immediately noticed that a fine mana thread had stuck to its eyes, at some unknown time.

It was precisely this mana thread that guided the long spear not far away.

This was actually the ability of Lin Xiaolu's magical armor, the Key Guardian Form—Guidance and Piercing.

Wherever the thread connected, the long spear could reach, no matter where; wherever the thread anchored, the long spear could pierce, no matter what.

Although in reality this ability required the prefix "sufficient mana," obviously, bypassing two tails and piercing the opponent's eyes, which were originally a weak point, would certainly not exhaust Lin Xiaolu's mana.

This was the reason Lin Xiaolu had always hidden her ability until now, waiting only for a killing blow.

Only by using it at such a time could she force the opponent into a desperate situation.

Hit it, hit it.

Under the pull of the silk thread, she continued to fly backward. Lin Xiaolu opened her eyes wide, gazing at the receding Semy, and called out repeatedly in her heart.

For this was her most crucial trump card; once played, it had to take effect.

And amidst her heartfelt prayers, Semy, who had no way to avoid it, finally let out an angry "Meow," as if giving up on something, and his single eye suddenly closed.

Then, the massive form of the remnant beast flickered twice in midair and vanished from Lin Xiaolu's sight.