Chapter 3: The Magical Girl’s Attack

Jiang Zhu had no time to process what was happening before the world flipped upside down.

Lian Ge pressed one hand against his waist and the other against his back, heaving him onto her shoulder in one smooth motion.

The next second, she kicked the window at the end of the hallway to pieces, lowered her body, and stepped onto the sill.

Shards of glass rained down as the two of them leaped out.

Behind them came the sound of brick and stone shattering.

Something had punched through the building’s wall and was closing in.

Jiang Zhu’s vision, jostled and blurred, barely caught sight of their pursuer.

It was a column of water no thicker than a finger, moving so fast it was almost invisible as it pierced the brick wall and sent rubble flying toward where they had just been.

Lian Ge maneuvered frantically through the air, changing her flight path constantly.

Carrying Jiang Zhu increased her exposed area by too much; she couldn’t fully protect him.

She pulled him tighter against her, tucking his body into the relatively safer interior.

Even so, the water column’s attack found its opening.

A tremendous force slammed into Jiang Zhu’s calf.

His entire body convulsed violently, and his face went pale in an instant.

Lian Ge looked down.

The water column had pierced straight through his lower leg, leaving a hole the size of a bean.

Blood immediately gushed out, dripping down from his dangling ankle.

“Brother Jiang Zhu!”

Jiang Zhu bit his lip to keep from crying out in pain.

There was no time to worry about that now.

He calmly directed her, “It’s fine, I’m fine. Draw its attention and set me down on the ground.”

Lian Ge immediately lowered her altitude and set him down.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, Jiang Zhu pushed away her supporting hand.

“I’ll retreat first. You handle it.”

Jiang Zhu turned and bolted.

Lian Ge wanted to prioritize his safety and escort him to a secure location, but the demon beast didn’t give her that luxury.

By now, the fleeing demon beast had squeezed out through a resident building’s window.

A lump of transparent liquid about one cubic meter in volume slid through the gaps in the shattered glass, gleaming wetly in the moonlight.

Its translucent liquid body made it nearly invisible in the darkness.

Only the refracted streetlight gave away its presence.

As it landed, countless tiny droplets detached from its main body.

An invisible force sent them shooting out like precise rays, heading straight for Lian Ge.

Each one was powerful enough to punch through brick.

These transparent attacks were almost impossible to track with the naked eye.

Lian Ge could only gauge the source from the direction of the magical power fluctuations.

By the time she sensed the magic, the rays were already right in front of her.

She dodged the enemy’s attacks as best she could.

For the ones she couldn’t avoid, she raised her arms to block, releasing magic from her palms to forcibly refract them in another direction.

On the other side, Jiang Zhu was lucky the demon beast didn’t target him.

Otherwise, he would have been forced to transform in front of Lian Ge and expose his identity.

Hopping on one leg behind a roadside tree, he used the trunk for cover while watching the distant battle between Lian Ge and the creature.

The thing attacking them was, without a doubt, a demon beast.

In this world, demon beasts were the most significant and deadly threat.

Their birth originated from a phenomenon known as “concept granting.”

For example, if a wild cat was granted the concept of “atavism,” it might grow into a saber-toothed tiger.

If a dog was granted the concept of “fictionalization,” it might become a three-headed hellhound.

These beings—endowed with powerful concepts and posing a massive threat to humanity—were collectively called demon beasts.

The art of manipulating this conceptual power was known as magic power.

The birth of magical girls also used the same principle.

Qiabi, the magical beast, granted concepts to humans, allowing them to gain the power to fight demon beasts.

This was the essence of the magical girl contract.

As for what Qiabi actually was, where it came from, and why it possessed such power—no one knew.

There were conspiracy theories that demon beasts were themselves created by Qiabi.

But given the lack of evidence and the fact that Qiabi’s methods for controlling demon beasts were indeed effective, humanity could only treat Qiabi as an honored guest and establish the Magical Girl Association with its assistance.

The puddle of liquid in front of them had most likely been formed by granting concepts like “slime” and “animation.”

Once on the ground, the demon beast’s assault suddenly intensified.

Countless densely packed droplets detached from the transparent main body.

Each droplet hovered in the air for an instant before shooting toward Lian Ge.

The attack looked like a water column, but it was moving so fast that at the end, it had become nothing more than blurry afterimages, appearing as streaks of light.

The trajectories crisscrossed, gradually weaving into a near-perfect web of firepower.

Lian Ge twisted and turned within it, but the space she could dodge kept shrinking as this almost tangible grid constricted.

She advanced while dodging the barrage.

For attacks she couldn’t avoid, she used magic to forcibly refract them, breaking through the net.

Every deflected ray whizzed past her body, carving bottomless holes into the ground.

Even with a magical girl’s constitution, taking a direct hit would likely pierce right through her.

But she showed no fear.

She extended her left arm and slowly advanced with her palm facing the demon beast.

Magic power released from her palm slowly gathered in the air, forming a shield that spread out like an unfolding barrier, gradually deflecting all incoming attacks.

Lian Ge’s granted concepts were “water” and “music”—making her an extremely rare dual-concept magical girl.

She could also exert control over objects that shared the same origin as water, which was why she could use magic to deflect attacks.

In theory, this demon beast made of water was also within her control.

Lian Ge advanced step by step.

As long as she could get close enough, she could use her magic to take control of it.

But the demon beast’s attacks only grew fiercer as the distance shrank.

The number of droplets increased, their speed rose, and the angles became increasingly tricky.

Eventually, the rays wove together into an impenetrable wall of water, like the fangs of a wild beast, ready to tear her apart.

By now, Lian Ge had no room to dodge.

She had to keep consuming magic power, gradually turning her shield into a barrier to protect all her vital points.

But such comprehensive protection consumed an astonishing amount of magic.

With each refraction, her magic reserves dropped a little more, plummeting to a dangerously low level.

Still, she closed in on the demon beast.

When the distance shrank to just a fist’s length, Lian Ge suddenly released all the magic power she could muster.

The crackling rain of water rays fell silent in that instant.

Time itself seemed to stop.

The droplets flying toward her suddenly froze midair, as if someone had hit the pause button, forming a scattered constellation under the streetlights.

Under the force of her power, the demon beast’s main body trembled violently.

Its irregular shape was forcibly compressed, eventually squeezed into a perfect sphere.

Though ripples of resistance still stirred on its surface, Lian Ge pressed both hands against the transparent orb.

Magic wrapped around it like chains, layer upon layer, until even the last trace of struggle was suppressed.

“Good thing I had the elemental advantage…”

Lian Ge finally allowed herself a sigh of relief.

This demon beast’s destructive power was only average, but its mechanics couldn’t be underestimated.

Most magical girls were glass cannons compared to the sturdy physiques of demon beasts.

Facing a saturation attack like this, they would easily suffer severe injuries.

Only she, with her element completely countering the enemy, could suppress this demon beast without taking damage.

But controlling it was enough.

If it couldn’t move, then next… wait, what came next?

Lian Ge looked down at the demon beast in her hands, only now realizing a belated problem.

She had thrown all her strength into controlling it, but only after getting close did she notice she had no way to dispose of it.

Currently, Lian Ge had only three attack methods: first, using her magically enhanced physical strength for close combat; second, condensing high-pressure water blades with her water control to cut; third, a last resort in emergencies—directly extracting the water-origin blood from inside the enemy.

But none of these methods seemed to work on this demon beast, which was immune to both physical attacks and water-attribute damage.

So it turned out the one who was countered all along was her.

The moment that thought flashed through her mind, an icy chill spread through Lian Ge’s entire body, making her tremble uncontrollably.

She wanted to retreat, but realized it was too late.

The close-quarters battle had consumed a huge amount of her magic, and forcefully suppressing the demon beast had drained her reserves to the bottom.

Now she was like a gambler who had staked everything on the table—no way back.

All that remained were her hands pressed against the water sphere’s surface, barely maintaining the last vestiges of control.

But her magic was almost gone.

Her hold weakened as her power thinned.

The perfectly smooth sphere began to ripple.

At the center of the ripples, the surface broke, forming countless tiny protrusions.

Those protrusions slowly elongated into dense spikes, all curving toward Lian Ge.

“No… don’t.”

Lian Ge tried her best to maintain the restriction on the demon beast with her hands, not daring to move her legs even an inch.

She knew that if she shifted even slightly, if her magic waned even a little, these slow-moving spikes would instantly turn into a cage and pierce her through.

Just as her life hung in the balance, a cyan figure slammed into her side from the flank, hitting her hard in the waist.

Lian Ge was knocked several meters away.

The spikes that had been restrained for too long shot out like springs, snapping shut on the spot where she had stood—but they only bit empty air.

Lian Ge tumbled across the ground, rolling several times before stopping.

She looked up at the cyan figure who had saved her.

“Feng Ling? What are you doing here?”