Just as she drew her sword, Jiang Yao realized she might not be needed after all, and asked in surprise.
“Of course.”
Jiang Lingwei took the opportunity to say:
“Shuijing, remember this—once you’ve confirmed someone is the enemy, the very first thing you should consider is how to attack.”
As she spoke, she pointed at the wailing, now withered tentacle that had once been “Ijou Narumadou” and said:
“The more an enemy wants you to do something, the more you should do the opposite.”
“If it wants you to get close, that’s all the more reason not to.”
She pulled Jiang Yao up even higher and continued:
“Melee-type Magical Girls—like you, whose strongest attacks come from slashing with a sword—gain greater killing power, but also take on much more risk.”
“That’s why I consider [Mana Compression Technique] to be the most important foundational lesson. It gives you a way to attack from a distance.”
Jiang Yao seemed about to say something, but Jiang Lingwei suddenly put her hand on the girl’s shoulder:
“Wait. Things here aren’t finished yet.”
“Pa…””Puh!””Thunk!”
As soon as she finished speaking, the sound of something breaking through the earth rang out, and more writhing, clawing tentacles burst up from beneath the school field. Twisting and reaching skyward, they tried to drag her and Jiang Yao down.
And it wasn’t just that—some of the things rising from underground were all sorts of “students.”
There were boys and girls, all of them with handsome or beautiful, elegant faces. Some wailed and begged for help, some shouted angrily, questioning why the Magical Girls above wouldn’t rescue them, and others just wept silently, casting pitiful eyes their way.
“The real culprit still isn’t coming out?”
Seeing the image of humans being toyed with by such an unknown monster, Jiang Lingwei’s anger flared. “Looks like I’ll need to chop off more of its filthy paws.”
“Shuijing, give it a try.”
A blast of light shattered the tentacle reaching up. Jiang Lingwei spoke.
“Okay!”
The girl drew her sword, its blade now coated with layers of crystal.
She combined the magic she already knew with her newly learned Mana Compression Technique:
“Holy Knight’s Sword—Light Infusion!”
After some time, the field barely resembled its former self. Instead, it was riddled with the hollows left by emerging tentacles and scorched with the marks of magic.
There were also fragments of purple crystal scattered by Jiang Yao.
“I’m getting a lot more practiced at this.”
With each “shot,” the girl grew ever more confident in her skill.
“I knew it—Shuijing, you’re the smartest Magical Girl of all.”
Encouraging her daughter with a smile, she then turned, her expression instantly becoming stern:
“Come out already.”
Jiang Lingwei impatiently pointed her staff at the ground. “We’re in a hurry to get back for breakfast. If you don’t come out, I’ll blast you out.”
“Crack. Crack crack crack…”
As she finished speaking, the ground began to split apart. The entire ruined field collapsed, revealing a pit below.
“Ladies, I really don’t mean any harm.”
Climbing out was a young man with a gentle face, just like the protagonist of a gal game—someone you just couldn’t dislike at first glance.
He raised his hand in surrender, smiling helplessly as he spoke:
“Those things weren’t my intention. Thank you for destroying those tentacles. Please, believe me, I—”
“[Mana Burst]!”
Once again, without waiting for the enemy to finish talking, Jiang Lingwei incanted the spell’s name. In the next instant, several spheres of light appeared out of thin air around the youth, growing ever brighter in less than half a second, until—
“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!”
Aurora, he…
With her hand on her sword hilt, Jiang Yao hesitated. She really didn’t quite believe the boy who’d climbed out of the pit, either.
But to attack so decisively—she truly couldn’t do it.
She’d originally wanted to probe a bit more, maybe make a judgment, but Jiang Lingwei went straight for the kill.
“Don’t worry,” Jiang Lingwei said softly.
“Are we really supposed to trust his nonsense? Living with a bunch of tentacles for who knows how many years and no one’s noticed—no matter how steadfast and unyielding he might have been… uh…”
Realizing she’d said too much in front of her daughter, Jiang Lingwei awkwardly skipped over the rest and continued:
“Anyway, even if he really is a nice guy, there’s no way those tentacles are. Even if someone back then really was caught by them, after all these years, it’s questionable whether even a skin would be left.”
Soon, as the smoke cleared, the creature in the pit revealed its true form.
It was as if a brain had been extracted and turned into a demon. Its surface was ridged and blue, with several wart-like protrusions oozing pus.
A great slit—presumably a mouth—grew out of the front of its brain-shaped body. The whole sphere was covered with sparse, twisted hairs that looked nothing like actual hair.
Rather than a brain, perhaps some other organ below would be a more apt comparison—but for the sake of public decency and review, let’s just call it the “Brain Monster” for now.
At that moment, perhaps not expecting such a sudden attack, the Brain Monster foamed at the mouth, panting in pain.
Dark energy coiled around its body, healing its wounds.
But at the same time, at each “healed” wound, more pus and disease-like protrusions and blotches appeared.
And from beneath it, countless tiny new tentacles wriggled out.
Faced with this sight, the mother and daughter standing across from it felt an intense nausea.
Not the kind that would hinder battle, like being cursed by the enemy or having their sanity drop.
It was just truly disgusting.
The younger generation—Jiang Yao—couldn’t hold it in:
“I know these monsters are all gross, but this is just… so ugly… Just looking at it makes me uncomfortable.”
Even another glance felt like it might make her explode.
Jiang Lingwei, standing nearby, managed a nod:
“In terms of monsters I’ve seen, this one’s definitely in the top three for disgusting.”
To be honest, Jiang Lingwei had not only seen but personally killed plenty of things even uglier and more incomprehensible than this Brain Monster.
But those had long since transcended human understanding.
Once something gets ugly enough, higher or lower doesn’t really make a difference anymore.
It’s like… well, when something drops into a cesspit, no one really tries to distinguish which pile smells worse.
It’s all just filth!
Yet somehow, the Brain Monster happened to be right at that critical point.
Even an ordinary person could tell exactly where its ugliness lay, and staring at it wouldn’t drive them mad from a loss of sanity.
Should you use magic to block its psychic attacks? Apparently not needed.
Don’t use magic? But it’s just too ugly to ignore.
This Brain Monster was stuck—neither up nor down—right in the middle.
Ugly! Undeniably ugly!
At that moment, the Brain Monster, with many tentacles extending, opened its mouth—lined with tiny teeth—and vomited black sludge, while using a voice so deep it couldn’t possibly belong on this planet to speak human language.
“Ga… I am the protagonist… fresh young girls… I want…”
Even at this point, the monster was stubborn, lost in some delusion of its own.
Jiang Lingwei couldn’t help but suspect this thing had been hibernating under the school since the beginning of the Great Dark Calamity, writing its own galgames in its head, and now that she and Jiang Yao—the two bright, magical cakes—had finally come along, it was desperate to have its fun.
Makes sense. If all you have left is your lower half to think with, what sort of mental faculties could remain?
Did it really think that making a couple of illusions would make people obediently pick a dialogue option? Sorry, I’m a galgame expert! I skip all the dialogue!
Besides, Jiang Lingwei didn’t even like that traditional pretty-boy protagonist type—she preferred the more mature kind.
(Ahem.)
Turning slightly, Jiang Lingwei said to Jiang Yao:
“Shuijing, this thing is disgusting enough. Just right—I’ll cover you, and you try to finish it off. That way, you’ll have some experience for the next time you run into this sort of thing.”
This monster was clearly badly wounded and powerless; it would make a good training opponent for Jiang Yao’s resolve.
“Okay.”
Jiang Yao understood and stepped forward.
“Good, good…”
The monster grinned wide, revealing a terrifying “smile.” Yellow “saliva” and black sludge dripped from its mouth as it giggled stupidly:
“Hehe, hehe… Let her come, I don’t care about you anyway…”
Two points of light reflected in the wrinkles on its scalp—those must be its eyes, staring at Jiang Lingwei.
The Brain Monster stretched out its tentacles, preparing to face the sword-wielding Jiang Yao.
It even sneered:
“I can sense your thoughts… What I want is a girl… For trash like you, an impure married woman, I have no interest, you aren’t even—”
“Ahhhroooaaaargh!”
Before it could finish, the Brain Monster turned to light with a scream.
“BOOM!!!!!!”
When the thick pillar of light faded, only scorched marks and ash remained where the monster had stood.
“Whew.”
Clutching her staff, Jiang Lingwei let out a long breath, then smiled gently at Jiang Yao, eyes narrowing:
“Shuijing, I just changed my mind. There will probably be plenty of chances for this sort of training in the future. It’s getting late. Let me take you home.”
“Gulp.”
With a sidelong glance at the spot where not even a scrap of the monster remained, Jiang Yao swallowed and silently dismissed her magical armor.
“Okay.”
(Why did you have to provoke her…)
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