“Tsk.”
Dragging Jiang Yao out of the way of the tentacle’s attack, Jiang Lingwei was nine parts out of ten dissatisfied.
Everything had been going perfectly fine—she was spending a joyful learning session with her daughter, making up for the lack of company in the past.
This was supposed to be some wholesome family bonding time, so who could have guessed that, just as they were about to leave, some troublemaking enemy would show up out of nowhere?
She was starting to wonder if she should have checked the almanac before going out. Why did something happen everywhere she went?
It’s not like she was that certain grim reaper elementary school student!
At first, Jiang Lingwei had only glanced out the window at the birds by chance, but then she noticed the birds were all shrieking and flying away, making her feel that something was off.
At this time in the early morning, in such a suburban wild place, not to mention an abandoned city district that had suffered a Dark Invasion—
Even the most reckless people wouldn’t come here at this hour.
Though it was possible that wild animals were causing trouble, Jiang Lingwei couldn’t let her guard down just yet. To confirm if there was an enemy, she immediately began scouting.
The so-called “scouting” didn’t even require using any magic spells yet, just a technique opposite to the Mana Compression Technique:
[Mana Dispersion Technique]
She spread out a minuscule amount of mana, expanding it in a nearly undetectable spherical net that radiated outward from herself.
The dispersed mana worked like electromagnetic waves, easily passing through walls—at most, just a little bit weakened.
The method was simple: wherever the “net” disappeared and a hole appeared, that spot was most likely where the enemy was.
This time, Jiang Lingwei had barely sent out her mana before she detected a “hole” right beneath her feet.
Like a fierce carnivorous fish accidentally trapped, it twisted its body and burst upward through the net—the hole instantly widened.
The enemy had already arrived silently, this close to her.
Staying vigilant was definitely the right call.
“Hmph, it’s just a tentacle.”
After dodging aside with Jiang Yao, she snorted coldly. Before the tentacle could attack further, Jiang Lingwei threw out a compressed blast of mana, hitting the target dead center.
The tip of the black tentacle melted in an instant, hissing with a sound reminiscent of grilled squid.
It seemed to possess intelligence. The moment it was hurt, it started shrinking back.
“Get away from me!” (Scram!)
Seeing the half-severed tentacle trying to escape downward, Jiang Lingwei pressed her fingers together like a sword and pointed straight down—
Aurora Finger Thrust!
“Shua—”
A flash of light shot past. No sound came from the tentacle’s direction; only a gaping hole remained in the ruined floor, with debris still trickling down below.
Jiang Lingwei looked down, stared at the hole for a moment, and said to Jiang Yao,
“Tentacles never show up alone. Crystal, let’s go—let’s get out of this building.”
“Okay.”
“Crack—”
Hitching up her little dress, Jiang Lingwei took the lead, kicking through the window in one swift motion. Jiang Yao followed closely behind, and the two magical girls landed at high speed on the school field.
“Say, if we just walked out the door, wouldn’t we get here all the same?”
The moment they landed, Jiang Yao suddenly realized.
There was a fenced courtyard outside the classroom—flying out was just as fine.
“Eh~ That’s not how it works.”
Jiang Lingwei replied confidently,
“Superheroes never take the door if they can help it. Otherwise, how would people know we can fly?”
She pointed toward a male student in a school uniform over on the field:
“Besides, this is the fastest way to get to the field from here.”
“Uh…hmm?”
Following her finger, Jiang Yao looked and at first saw nothing unusual. It was just a rundown, unattended field—until she noticed a student in a school uniform lying on the ground, eyes dazed and helpless, looking like he was on the verge of death.
“Uh…”
The girl’s mouth twitched, as if she wanted to laugh, but remembering that Aurora was still beside her, she composed herself and shuffled over, whispering to Jiang Lingwei:
“Aurora, don’t you think this monster is… kind of dumb…?”
“Who knows.”
Jiang Lingwei whispered back as well:
“Maybe it’s been stuck in this dump for years without seeing a single person, and it just picked up some outdated script and started acting it out.”
“Crystal, how long do you think before it calls for help?”
“Give it another five seconds.”
Jiang Yao answered.
“Alright, I bet ten seconds.”
The mother and daughter stood quietly on the field, watching as the guy on the ground struggled, then raised his head—a handsome, delicate face contorted with pain and helplessness.
He made an effort to reach toward the two magical girls, as if wanting to say something, but his hand dropped back down weakly.
Five seconds passed, and Jiang Yao folded her arms in slight displeasure:
“What’s he dawdling for?” (whispering)
“Don’t worry, he’ll call out soon.”
Jiang Lingwei replied quietly.
Sure enough, after a few more seconds, the handsome student raised his arm high, struggled to prop himself up, and, breath barely hanging on, tried to shout as loudly as he could:
“Is anyone… there?!”
“See?”
Jiang Lingwei clapped her hands, smiling smugly:
“Exactly ten seconds!”
“I lost, I lost.”
Accepting defeat readily, Jiang Yao spread her hands and said, “Not enough experience, next time for sure.”
Noticing neither of the two were moving to help him, the student got anxious, wobbling as he held onto a rusty horizontal bar to stand up:
“You two… you two students? I’m Ito Makamichi from Class 8, Grade 2. Are you… are you magical girls?”
“Pfft.”
Jiang Yao was fine—she didn’t quite get it at first.
But at the sound of that harem-protagonist combo name, Jiang Lingwei nearly lost her breath laughing.
Thankfully, she composed herself in time, forced herself to stay serious, and loudly declared:
“No! We’re not magical girls!”
“Ah…what…?”
“Ito Makamichi” was just about to nod, but realized Jiang Lingwei didn’t answer as he’d expected with “That’s right, we’re magical girls.”
This threw him off. Even pretending to be injured, he almost forgot himself as he anxiously asked,
“Then who are you?”
“Heh.”
Jiang Lingwei chuckled under her breath, pulled the still-bewildered Jiang Yao into the air, pointed down at “Ito Makamichi,” and shouted,
“Since you’ve asked so sincerely—”
Glancing at Jiang Yao, the girl finally caught on and quickly added,
“Oh, uh, then we’ll be merciful and tell you!”
“To prevent the world from being destroyed!”
“To protect the world’s peace!”
“To uphold the evil of love and truth~”
“Crystal!”
“You skipped a line… Whatever! Aurora!”
“We are those who traverse… [Light of Magic]!”
The staff Jiang Lingwei had hidden behind her was already brimming with mana; as she spoke, she brought it out and unleashed it instantly:
“Boom!!!”
“Aaaaaaahhh!”
Bathed in a pillar of light, Ito Makamichi knelt on the ground, black smoke rising from his body as he howled in pain.
“White hole, a white tomorrow… Huh?”
Jiang Yao hadn’t even finished her line before she saw Jiang Lingwei had already finished the attack.
“So we’re just going straight to blasting, huh?!”