But Accidents Happen.

Massive amounts of gel erupted from Yi Ziling’s hands, spraying wildly in every direction. Ziling had chosen a wide-area carpet attack to maximize her chances of a hit.

However, the travel speed of the gel was far too slow. If Ran Jiuyi could evade Bai He’an’s heavy ordnance—which moved at far higher velocities—there was no reason she couldn’t dodge Ziling’s attacks. The scattered gel hardened instantly upon contact with any surface, but not a single drop touched Jiuyi. Had Ziling’s strategy failed completely?

No. Jiuyi noticed something. Among the seemingly random sprays, the gel hitting Bai He’an and Jiang Yunshu was different; it adhered to them but did not harden.

So, this seemingly wasteful expenditure of Mana was a feint. Her true goal was to coat her fellow magical girls in a substance with unknown effects. Jiuyi surmised the gel likely had healing or teleportation properties; otherwise, Ziling wouldn’t have gone to such lengths.

Jiuyi didn’t mind. In fact, this was a good thing for her—it meant she wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning up the aftermath.

Deciding not to drag the fight out any longer, she blurred across the distance, appearing within arm’s reach of Ziling. Sensing the danger, Ziling frantically sprayed and hardened gel around herself, forming a hemispherical bunker for defense.

It was useless against Jiuyi. With a single punch, a massive section of the gel disintegrated into shards, followed by a relentless storm of strikes. Although Ziling tried her best to replenish the shield, the speed of her production couldn’t keep pace with Jiuyi’s destruction. Within moments, Jiuyi broke through the line of defense and stood directly before her.

“Anything else you want to say?” Jiuyi asked.

Tears welled in Ziling’s eyes. Even though she was trembling with fear, she remained firm. “I won’t let a villain like you—”

“Then you’ve got nothing left to say. You fail too. And tell your mecha-girl friend: she failed as well.”

Just like before, Jiuyi knocked Ziling out with a swift hand-chop. “Also, the word ‘villain’ sounds too soft coming from you. It has no bite. Quite cute, though.”

Looking at the three magical girls lying on the ground, Jiuyi let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness there weren’t seven of them like in the Calabash Brothers legend, or this would have been a real headache.

“That’s all of them, then. These girls are even weaker than I expected. Is it because there aren’t enough monsters here to keep them sharp?”

Finally noticing her combat suit was shredded in several places, Jiuyi clicked her tongue and funneled a small amount of Mana into it to initiate repairs. Every time this happened, she wanted to ask: why are magical girl outfits so much more fragile than those of other transformed heroes? Was there some mysterious force governing this?

Dismissing her stray thoughts, Jiuyi repaired her suit and prepared to leave before the girls woke up. But her plan was interrupted by a bullet whistling through the air.

It was just an ordinary sniper round. Jiuyi caught it easily with her armored right gauntlet and looked toward the source.

I thought I took down all the magical girls. Who is attacking now? She decided to investigate. If it was another magical girl or supernatural being, she’d just knock them out as well.

A kilometer away, the man who had fired the shot was Meng Shan, who had arrived just in time. He was currently positioned behind his sniper rifle, continuously firing at Jiuyi as she closed the distance at high speed.

Despite having left the military over six months ago, Meng Shan had maintained his marksmanship and physical conditioning. Every shot was a precise prediction of Jiuyi’s path; even under rapid-fire conditions, he never missed.

But it was futile. Jiuyi swatted the bullets away with her right hand as if they were flies. She didn’t dodge—there was no point in dodging something that couldn’t harm her.

This was exactly what Meng Shan expected. Faced with a monster who had effortlessly dismantled three magical girls, he didn’t believe for a second that bullets would work. His only goal was to draw her attention away from the girls. In that, he had succeeded.

The next step was to stall for as long as possible.

Seeing Jiuyi approaching rapidly, Meng Shan activated two pre-set automated heavy machine guns. Entering sweep mode, the guns unleashed a frantic torrent of lead, indiscriminately shredding everything in their path.

Meng Shan knew this wouldn’t stop her. It wouldn’t even stall her for ten seconds. But he had no other options; in his haste, he hadn’t brought much gear. He was working with whatever emergency equipment was standard for his vehicle.

Dropping two proximity-controlled remote bombs near the machine guns, Meng Shan scrambled into his car and sped away. He had to gamble everything to buy just a few more seconds.

He hadn’t driven far when the sound of the machine guns cut out, followed immediately by a massive explosion and a pillar of flame. Unable to tell if the trap had worked, Meng Shan gripped the steering wheel tight.

Worried that Jiuyi might give up the chase and return to the girls, Meng Shan deliberately slowed down and watched the rearview mirror, muttering to himself:

“Come on, do something. At least let that thing get a scratch.”

The reality was harsh. Jiuyi burst through the flames. The explosion had caused no significant damage; it had only torn a small piece of her newly repaired suit. Seeing the car in the distance, she gave chase without hesitation. She was curious now—the methods of this attacker didn’t resemble a magical girl’s.

To ensure Jiuyi’s focus remained on him, Meng Shan kept his speed low. But due to a lack of intel, he had grossly underestimated her speed. Before he could even re-confirm her position, a heavy thud sounded from the roof of the car. A head leaned down over the front windshield.

“Found you…”

Seeing the driver’s face, Jiuyi froze. Isn’t this the guy from dinner? Meng Shan? What was he doing here? And why was he attacking her?

Seizing the moment of her distraction, Meng Shan grabbed an SMG from the passenger seat and opened fire at Jiuyi’s head. Again, it did nothing. Jiuyi blocked every round with one hand, effortlessly.

“Hello there. Who are you, exactly? Why are you helping these magical girls?”

Meng Shan didn’t answer. He threw a riot helmet onto his head and slammed his thumb down on a remote detonator.

Only then did Jiuyi realize that a directional shaped-charge had been planted directly under the roof where she was standing.

BOOM.

A massive explosion sent Jiuyi flying along with the entire roof of the car. Most of the blast’s power had been absorbed by the roof plating; this time, even her suit remained intact.

Sensing something, Jiuyi looked back toward the factory ruins. A pink trail of light was streaking away into the distance. It was Jiang Yunshu, carrying her two teammates away from the scene.

I see. Meng Shan was a decoy from the start. He wanted to pull me as far away as possible to give them time to escape.

But when did he contact them? They were in combat or moving the whole time; there shouldn’t have been a window for communication.

Wait… Jiuyi thought of another possibility. What if he didn’t know at all? What if he was just doing everything he could…

To put it simply: Meng Shan only knew the magical girls had lost. He knew nothing else—not the battle details, not the status of the girls, not Jiuyi’s power levels. He had gambled his life on a whim, betting that he could bait her away. He was trading his life for theirs.

By a stroke of luck, Yi Ziling had successfully applied healing gel to her teammates during the fight, waking Yunshu in record time. Whether it was coincidence or fate, Meng Shan and the magical girls had achieved a perfect coordination without ever speaking a word.

The only tragedy was that Jiuyi had never intended to kill them in the first place. Had Meng Shan known the details, he could have guessed that easily.

Brushing the dust off her shoulders, Jiuyi watched the mangled but stubbornly advancing car. She found herself admiring his resolve. Even with directional explosives and protection, Meng Shan stood a very high chance of dying in that blast. But he did it anyway, just to buy a few more minutes.

How rare, she thought.

Because she was a magical girl, Jiuyi had seen many people struggling on the line between life and death. Most of them, no matter how righteous they acted in daily life, turned into cowards the moment they smelled death. They would cower in safe corners, let alone risk themselves to save others.

Jiuyi herself had shrunk back once in the face of death.

It had been a very long time since she’d seen someone like Meng Shan—someone who would gamble his life for others without a second thought.

He’s even more interesting than I thought.

However, as a normal human, Meng Shan must have been severely injured by that explosion.

Jiuyi immediately took off after the car. A man this interesting couldn’t be allowed to die; his death would be a loss to her and the world.