“Fei Xing, you go first.”
Xing Li gave the order decisively.
“Me—me?”
Fei Xing pointed at herself.
As the youngest junior, it was always her seniors who went first.
“Just give it a try,” Xing Li nudged her, “Aren’t you pretty skilled with your Fireball Spell now? Long-range attacks are perfect to counter it.”
Fei Xing was a C+ rated flame-type Magical Girl. Aside from her defensive Fire Cloak, the rest of her spells were nothing more than variants of small fireballs, large fireballs, and super-large fireballs.
Since the Head had called her out by name, Fei Xing had no choice but to step forward, take a deep breath, and clasp her hands together in front of her chest, doing her best to summon her magic.
“Watch this… Meteor Fire (Small).”
A fist-sized, flickering orange-red fireball shot from her palms, drifting slowly toward the vending machine.
But before it even got within a dozen meters of the vending machine, the fireball fizzled out with a soft pop due to unstable magic, leaving behind only a wisp of blue smoke.
“Uh… not enough range…”
Fei Xing’s cheeks turned red.
“Then increase the dosage.”
Xing Li continued to command.
“Okay, Head, watch this… Meteor Fire (Large).”
Fei Xing focused her magic again.
This time, the fireball was basketball-sized and much faster, whistling through the air as it flew toward its target.
The fireball actually made it to the vending machine, but just as it was about to hit the machine’s body, the vending machine seemed to sense the threat—the lower outlet abruptly popped out a can of cola.
“Rocket Cola” struck the fireball dead-on, and with a muffled boom, the collision erupted into a splash of Water Ball.
Both attacks canceled each other out, leaving only a scorched mark on the vending machine’s exterior—obviously, it hadn’t done any real damage.
“What do we do now? It can defend itself…”
“Keep increasing the dosage.”
Xing Li persisted in her command.
“Yes, Head. Watch this… Meteor Fire (Giant).”
Fei Xing gritted her teeth and raised both hands high.
A red glow spread around her, and a fireball several times bigger than before started to condense above her head, radiating waves of scorching heat.
But the pre-cast time for Fei Xing’s move was way too long and obvious—even the vending machine, well outside the attack range, sensed the danger.
“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”
Three cans of energy drink shot out in a V formation, aiming to interrupt Fei Xing’s spellcasting.
Even though Shui Hua reacted quickly and leapt into the drink cans’ path, their impact was still too much.
Shui Hua was sent flying, crashing into Fei Xing, and the magic was broken off, the fireball about to explode.
In a panic, Shui Hua shielded Fei Xing beneath him, covering her with a Water Shield in one hand, while conjuring a Water Ball with the other to try and block the flames.
The unformed fireball burst apart, evaporating Shui Hua’s protective Water Ball and roasting the fair skin of his forearm to a crisp.
Between all the sugar water and the grilling, Shui Hua almost thought he’d turned into some kind of roasted meat.
Shui Hua got up from Fei Xing and sat down on the grass, supporting himself with one hand.
The effect of Pain Suppression Magic was wearing off, and his forearm throbbed faintly with pain.
“Senior, are you okay?”
Fei Xing stood up in a panic, anxiously asking.
“I’m fine, just a minor burn.”
Shui Hua gently brushed his scorched hand, the blackened shell flaking off, revealing a perfectly healed arm beneath.
Xing Li, who had prudently ducked aside long before, finally came over, nervously checking Shui Hua’s arm, but showing the determined look of a leader.
“We really underestimated our opponent. Looks like I’ll have to take care of this personally as the Head.”
Xing Li’s magic was highly adaptive; she was a jack-of-all-trades Magical Girl, but her real specialty was plant control.
She crouched down, pressed both hands to the grass, closed her eyes, and let her emerald-green magic slowly seep into the ground.
“Growth, Binding Root!”
With her chant, several thick, spiked, green vines broke through the soil, slithering along the ground like giant serpents, rapidly weaving their way toward the vending machine.
“Go, Head!”
Seeing Xing Li so serious, Shui Hua thought he could finally take a breather, cheering from the sidelines.
However, as the vines got within about fifty meters of the vending machine, their speed noticeably dropped.
The tips started to droop and tremble weakly, wriggling forward like sluggish maggots.
“Uh… Head, your vines… don’t seem to be able to reach?”
Shui Hua couldn’t help but complain.
Sweat broke out on Xing Li’s forehead as she struggled to maintain her magic output, “Plant magic just naturally has a shorter casting range than normal magic…”
In the end, the vines stopped completely about thirty meters from the vending machine, collapsing powerlessly to the ground and unable to advance a single step further.
Xing Li, dejected, withdrew her magic, and the vines faded into motes of light.
“Longer reach than me, huh?”
Xing Li stomped her foot in frustration and started rummaging through her backpack, “Let’s see if it’s longer than my tools!”
She first pulled out a pitch-black handgun— the largest caliber Handgun issued by the Supernatural Department Magical Girl Administration Bureau.
She aimed at the vending machine and fired with a bang.
The bullet screamed into the vending machine’s shell, but only left a few shallow marks, not even breaking the outer layer.
“How is this thing so tough?”
Xing Li tossed aside the Handgun and took out a single-use scroll—
“Compressed Magic Cannon: Mass Production Type.”
She poured magic into it, the scroll unfurling in her palm and shooting out a thick beam of light.
“Boom!”
The beam struck the vending machine dead-on, raising a cloud of smoke and dust.
But when it cleared, the vending machine only had a few more scratches on the surface, still standing as solid as ever—not even shaking.
Xing Li was dumbfounded, “C+ class and it’s this tough? Even the Magic Cannon can’t dent it?”
“So what do we do now, Head…”
Fei Xing was on the verge of despair.
“Retreat, and report the threat as level A. Just say the earlier investigators made a mistake.”
Xing Li, as always, stuck to her policy of retreating when outmatched.
“I do have another idea.”
She pointed at the vending machine’s transparent display window, “Head, Fei Xing, did you notice? A few rows of drinks are already empty up there. It attacks us by using the drinks inside as ammo. So if we just use up all its drinks, it’ll be completely out of ways to attack.”
Xing Li and Fei Xing took a closer look and agreed, “It does… look like that, yeah.”
“So,” Shui Hua patted the now-dry, sticky syrup on his body, “Head, just put any defensive or Speed Magic you have on me. I’ll go up and eat all its ammo.”
“But… aren’t you afraid of pain?”
“Not really, since I have Pain Suppression Magic.”
Shui Hua shrugged, unconcerned.
Xing Li hesitated, but finally nodded, putting her hand on Shui Hua’s shoulder and stacking as much Defensive Magic and auxiliary buffs as possible.
“Watch this.”
Shui Hua took a deep breath and charged past the perimeter again.
With all those Defensive Magic spells, Shui Hua was unlikely to get blown away again, so he just crouched down with his head covered, bracing for the incoming barrage.
“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!”
“Bang bang bang!”
Drink-cans rained down like hail—cola, soda, energy drinks, fruit juice… all sorts of flavors exploded over him.
Xing Li and Fei Xing watched anxiously from behind the safety line, helpless as Shui Hua braved the onslaught like a little boat in a hurricane, slowly depleting the vending machine’s stock.
Finally, after a particularly feeble clack, only a single lonely bottle of mineral water rolled out of the vending machine, hit Shui Hua, and that was it.
The display window inside was now completely empty.
Shui Hua was now soaked in a rainbow of syrup and drink stains.
His Self-healing Ability erased all the bruises on his body.
He waved to the other two.
Only then did Xing Li and Fei Xing dare to rush over.
The three surrounded the now thoroughly silenced Awakened Vending Machine.
Xing Li stepped forward and sealed it with her Vine, even though it had long since lost any ability to fight.
“Mission accomplished…”
Shui Hua let out a long breath—even if all he’d done was get beaten up, “That was one hell of a battle.”
For once, Xing Li looked at Shui Hua with respect and wanted to pat her on the shoulder, but couldn’t find a single dry spot.
“Shui Hua, I’ll make sure you get credit for this back at headquarters.”
Fei Xing looked at Shui Hua with worship in her eyes, “Senior, you’re amazing! We couldn’t do anything to help.”
“Amazing, huh…”
Even though this was a complete and total victory, Shui Hua looked down at her Magical Girl uniform, now marinated in every drink flavor imaginable, and couldn’t help but think—if this were an S-class, it probably wouldn’t have turned out this messy.
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