“Too slow!”
Last night, when she was practicing ‘Fireworks’, Lulumiya had already realized that chanting magic held no advantage at close range.
Her speed surpassed Amy’s casting by a margin, and before the flames at the tip of Amy’s staff could gather into a ball, Lulumiya was already standing before her.
Even though Amy dodged away from Lulumiya’s charging path in advance, Lulumiya was no one-trick pony.
She stopped, clenched her right fist, pivoted her body on her left foot, and swung a punch directly at Amy’s startled face.
“Ugh!”
Amy’s cheek visibly warped from the blow, and her whole body was sent flying.
Even the orange-red fireball she’d formed dissolved in that instant.
She tumbled several times across the ground before finally coming to a stop against a tree.
Lulumiya, meanwhile, was panting heavily, staring at her right fist in surprise.
The strength was far beyond what she had imagined—not something a ten-year-old girl could possibly possess.
What Lulumiya didn’t know was that, even though she was a Young Dragon, she belonged to the Dragon race.
The inherent power of Dragons was incomparable to humans.
The note in ‘Feeble Young Dragon’—“Coma Threshold 50% higher than a normal Young Dragon”—was measured against the Young Dragon standard.
If it were against a human’s fragile body, even the hits Amy took on the ship would have left her incapacitated.
She wasn’t sure why, but in any case, it was a good thing.
Her fist tightened and then loosened.
The tension of fleeing and the exhilaration of vengeance tangled along Lulumiya’s spine, sending an unconventional excitement through her.
Amy had given Lulumiya a hard lesson.
On Earth, she’d been sheltered too well, losing her most basic sense of caution.
In this world, even a child with a harmless appearance could be deadly.
Letting down your guard would make you the helpless victim on the chopping block, just like on that ship.
“How does it feel now?”
Lulumiya sneered as she walked toward Amy, who was trying to get up.
That punch wasn’t enough to vent all the rage she’d bottled up from being beaten on the ship.
She grabbed Amy by the collar, yanking her upright, her emerald slit pupils staring at Amy’s hateful face like a venomous serpent.
“I’ll be blunt—the Lulumiya who bullied you isn’t the same person standing here now. The useless puppet you knew is already—”
Bang.
Before she could finish, Amy kicked at Lulumiya. But without leverage, the kick was powerless.
Not only did it fail to hurt Lulumiya, it only stoked her fury further.
But this was, in fact, Amy’s ploy to distract Lulumiya.
“‘Fireball’!”
“Boom!”
There was no time for chanting.
By the time Lulumiya realized, a head-sized orange fireball had already exploded between them.
It felt like being hit by a truck.
Her whole body went weightless, and then her vision spun madly.
She thought she was rolling across the ground, but at the same time, there was a disorienting sensation of bouncing among clouds.
Her mind couldn’t process the external signals at all.
A fierce ringing in her ears drowned out everything.
On the other side, Amy was also thrown by the shockwave from ‘Fireball’, but as the caster, she suffered only superficial wounds.
It hadn’t been a cast spell, but a Magic Scroll engraved with ‘Fireball’.
The tables had turned.
Amy spat out blood-tinged saliva, holding her staff as she approached Lulumiya.
At that moment, Lulumiya was sprawled on the ground in violent coughs, having taken a point-blank ‘Fireball’ that left her badly burned and unable to speak.
Even the ragged burlap she wore was singed, her whole body feeling as if it had been run over by a truck—her internal organs and bones all howling in pain.
Amy vented her rage with a kick at Lulumiya, her twisted face full of mockery.
“How’s that ‘Fireball’ feel? Even if I can’t cast, I’ve got plenty of money for Magic Scrolls. You know what those are, Magic Scrolls? Got it, you pauper?”
Seeing her victory assured, a crazed grin crept across Amy’s face.
“If you couldn’t even foresee this, you think you can compete with me? Do you know how long I’ve worked for this day? Every missing Magi-doll in the academy—those were all thanks to me acting as an informant. They begged me, cried to me, and every time I saw them grovel, it reminded me of you! If you ever knelt before me and begged for forgiveness, how happy I would be!”
“What’s wrong, cat got your tongue? Weren’t you all tough just now?! Talk to me!”
Amy pressed harder, as Lulumiya’s coughing at her feet started to subside, clearly regaining her breath.
She just wanted to see Lulumiya in agony, so she grabbed her by the collar, gripped her short staff, and stabbed it at Lulumiya’s stomach like a dagger.
But, unexpectedly, Lulumiya managed to shove her away.
Still has strength?
Amy nearly lost her footing, startled.
How could this useless, Level 1 puppet still be able to move after taking a point-blank ‘Fireball’?
Anyone else would have been half-dead.
But reality didn’t care about her expectations.
Lulumiya merely exhaled painfully through her throat—not only had she not collapsed, she was even starting to get up.
As Amy looked at the charred Lulumiya, barely half a step away, an inexplicable terror welled up.
The creature before her no longer felt like Lulumiya, but something else entirely.
Panic made her raise her staff and instinctively take a step back.
Then she realized how laughable her cowardice was—she knew Lulumiya’s limits all too well.
This was her turf; why should she be afraid?
She’d been bullied for so long that even when she held the advantage, she couldn’t help but flinch.
If she didn’t get rid of this idiot, she’d never be free.
Her expression grew more vicious—a mix of shame at her own weakness and the thrill of vengeance.
She brought her staff within half a meter of Lulumiya, the tip’s glow lighting up the surrounding brush.
And then—
“So childish.”
Squelch.
The sound of something sharp piercing flesh.
“Uh…”
Amy felt as if something had struck her, then a searing heat bloomed in her abdomen and her magical power dissipated from her hands.
She looked down.
Blood was starting to seep from her belly.
Then, she saw a pair of long, elegant black horns pressing against her.
She finally understood what had happened—her hand clutching the staff began to tremble.
Lulumiya had stabbed her with her dragon horns.
Agonizing pain erupted from Amy’s stomach, beyond words.
Terror of death and the rage at being wounded mingled, pushing her into hysteria.
She screamed, not even caring as Lulumiya’s horns cut her hands.
She used all her strength to kick at Lulumiya.
But as they separated, the wound only worsened.
Blood spurted in torrents from her belly.
Amy could even see bits of pink intestine and viscera mixed in.
“No… no, no…”
Terror rendered her speechless.
She staggered back clutching her abdomen, paying no mind to Lulumiya, who was standing again in the distance.
Frantically, she grabbed handfuls of Magic Scrolls from her storage tool, desperately searching for one that could heal her.
Then a voice rang out like a pardon from above.
“Amy!”
It was the man from the ship’s cabin—the one who’d stopped Amy from beating Lulumiya further.
Sword at his waist, he chanted a healing spell under his breath to stabilize Amy’s wounds, then narrowed his eyes at Lulumiya, who was shuddering in pain yet still standing.
“She did this?”
“Kill her for me, Kundo! I’ll give you anything, just kill her! Didn’t you want to retire? I can have my father grant you a fief—just kill her!”
Watching Amy’s hysterics, the man was silent for a moment, then shouldered his saber and turned to approach Lulumiya.
A murderous aura clung to him.
Even his presence was overwhelming.
I have to find a way to escape.
The agony of her displaced organs tortured Lulumiya with every breath.
She wanted to buy time with words, but her burned throat couldn’t utter a sound, so she simply turned and ran.
But the man was far faster than she could ever hope to be.
In an instant, he seized her arm. She couldn’t even see him from behind, yet she could feel the bone-chilling edge of his saber at her neck—she could even hear the blade cutting the air.
Is this…the end—
Or not?
The expected pain never came.
Instead, Lulumiya felt the man suddenly release her.
She didn’t know what had happened, but instinctively turned her head.
The man who’d just grabbed her no longer had a head.
A few steps away, neither did Amy.
Their necks were severed smooth as mirrors, and then, in an instant, crimson blood gushed out like a fountain, splattering all over Lulumiya’s face.
It was as if a bomb went off in her mind, freezing her thoughts on the spot.
…They’d been decapitated.
Thud, thud.
Two bodies hit the ground.
Then Lulumiya saw Amy’s wide-eyed head roll to her feet.
“Ah… ahh ahh…”
Her heart nearly stopped.
Goosebumps raced over her skin, and her pain vanished as if blown away.
Lulumiya felt her body freeze, totally out of her control, stiff as stone.
She swallowed involuntarily.
Gulp.
The next second, a cold wind swept over her, and a pair of strange blue eyes filled her entire vision.
Hot on their heels came an ecstatic, blood-streaked smile—a bloodthirsty, crazed grin.
Black wings flared behind her, and icy blue hair spun outward.
The figure looked like a demon born from a pool of blood and moonlight.
Those eyes clearly saw Lulumiya as the next prey.
The moment their gazes met, the demon was already nose-to-nose with her.
An overwhelming, irresistible force.
“You can die along with them.”
Her voice was nothing but icy cruelty.
The demon angled her gorgeous silver cross sword high.
This time, she really was finished.
A torrent of grievance and unwillingness welled up, blurring her vision with tears.
But before the demon could swing her sword, the relentless pain and trauma overtook Lulumiya, and everything went black as she crumpled like a puppet with cut strings.
“Hey, you—”
[Title lost: ‘Confident Transmigrator’, ‘Flutist’s Plaything’]
[Title gained: ‘Flutist’s Vanquisher’, ‘Little Endurance King’, ‘Lucky One’]
[Mindfulness: 10↓ (down by 29)]