Lu Yuan’s words left Rose momentarily dazed.
What’s going on? Is this still the same Lu Yuan?
Rose looked at the black-clad magical girl before her. She had only become a magical girl less than a month ago, and her entire body was riddled with flaws… so why were her eyes so resolute, like those of a Canary Dog?
Once this dog attacks, it clamps down like a welded iron pincer. Unless it’s killed, it never lets go. Its fangs have torn through the throats of wild wolves and forced countless nations to outlaw its ownership.
Rose instinctively took a step back but, bound by pride, she immediately stepped forward again.
The weak are weak. No matter how powerful she is, there’s no way she could have evolved overnight! Why should I be afraid of her?!
Damn it, I actually got intimidated by Lu Yuan—how humiliating!
***
“Putting on a show!”
Rose roared, trying to dispel the unwelcome chill creeping into her heart.
Countless black, viscous tentacles suddenly shot out from behind her like a nest of snakes bursting from their hole, tearing up floor tiles and rushing like a storm to stab at Lu Yuan.
Facing an attack that could shred anyone to pieces, Lu Yuan’s steady gaze didn’t waver at all.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Lu Yuan fired her gun.
Several shots rang out, but instead of shooting the tentacles, she fired at the ground just to her left front.
The bullets exploded, sending shockwaves and flying debris that disrupted the trajectories of the two leftmost tentacles, causing them to collide and deflect.
At the same time, Lu Yuan used the recoil to dash sharply backward and to the left. The hem of her black battle suit fluttered in the wind, narrowly evading the densest cluster of piercing attacks head-on.
***
“Only running away? How do you expect to kill me by running?!” Rose shouted, refusing to stop her assault.
Her tentacles formed a chaotic whip-like net, striking from all sorts of tricky angles, smashing the ground and walls to send up clouds of debris for cover and secondary attacks.
Amid the dense onslaught, Lu Yuan searched for a gap.
Suddenly, a tentacle caught her off guard and pierced through her thigh, blood spurting out instantly.
Lu Yuan staggered, nearly falling.
Rose breathed a sigh of relief. She’d thought Lu Yuan might have some plan to kill her, but now, crippled, she didn’t stand a chance.
***
But just as Lu Yuan was about to collapse to the ground, Rose froze.
The black long spear in her hands transformed into a handgun pointed at her own head.
What was this?
What was she trying to do?
Did she mean to kill herself after getting her thigh pierced and realizing she had no chance? Or…
Lu Yuan’s blood-stained lips curled into a cold sneer as she whispered, “Rollback.”
Could it be…!?
Rose suddenly realized something and thrust out a tentacle to stop Lu Yuan’s suicide—but it was too late.
Bang!
The gunshot echoed.
Time felt like it was forcibly dragged backward as the scene rewound thirty seconds.
***
“Putting on a show!”
Countless sticky tentacles were about to burst from Rose’s back again.
This time, Lu Yuan acted ahead of time, moving before Rose’s tentacles fully launched their attack!
Like an actor who already knew the script, she acted before her opponent could even speak her lines.
Bang! Bang!
Two quick gunshots rang out—not at the ground this time, but precisely at the root nodes of two tentacles behind Rose’s right rear just as they were about to strike!
“What?!”
Rose felt her magic suddenly stall. The two main attacking tentacles lost their power source and collapsed to the ground, motionless, completely throwing off the rhythm of her entire assault!
Lu Yuan’s figure was already gone from where she had been!
Using the recoil from the gunfire, she slid perfectly to avoid the original most concentrated piercing route of the tentacles.
That very route had cost her a leg injury in the previous thirty seconds.
***
The attack had barely started before it was thwarted.
“You…!”
Rose was stunned and furious. She felt as if Lu Yuan could see right through her thoughts.
Lu Yuan didn’t give her a moment to think.
Her dash began. Her figure flitted like a phantom between the tentacles.
A tentacle pierced her arm.
“Rollback.”
A tentacle slashed across her eye.
“Rollback.”
A brutal strike shattered her leg bone.
“Rollback.”
Lu Yuan weaved through the tentacles, repeatedly rewinding time.
Until she no longer had to awkwardly dodge—because every tentacle strike, every scattering rock, had already played out countless times in her mind.
Bang!
Lu Yuan fired a shot at the subway station wall. The ricochet bounced at an impossible angle, precisely deflecting a sharp tentacle shooting from a blind spot.
She didn’t even need to look back.
Every step, every shot she fired, landed perfectly in the tiny gaps between Rose’s old exhaustion and new strength—a dance on a razor’s edge, but performed with calm and deadly intent.
***
Rose grew more terrified as she fought. It felt like battling a ghost. Every attack was predicted, every intention seen through. The opponent was clearly weaker than her but always one step ahead, blocking all her counters!
“How is this possible?! What did you do?!” Rose screamed.
Her attacks became chaotic, tinged with despair.
She tried covering all possible angles with wide-area strikes, but this only drained her magic faster and created bigger openings.
At last, a fatal flaw appeared!
As Rose grew impatient from the prolonged fight and tried smashing the ground with tentacles to create larger splashes of debris,
a cold gleam flashed in Lu Yuan’s eyes.
***
Now!
She slammed off the ground, her speed bursting to the extreme—not dodging anymore, but like an arrow loosed from a bow, plunging straight at Rose’s wide-open chest!
“Don’t even think about it!”
Rose instinctively called all her tentacles back to defend, concentrating their strike on Lu Yuan’s heart!
It was her strongest instinctive defense and counterattack!
Lu Yuan only had a handgun now. The recoil from the pistol made it impossible to adjust her position midair. She didn’t have time to transform it back into a long spear!
Checkmate! This victory was hers!
Confident, Rose plunged her tentacles forward, ready to tear Lu Yuan apart!
***
However, just before the tentacles closed in on Lu Yuan—
Lu Yuan did something Rose couldn’t understand.
She turned the muzzle of her gun toward her own thigh.
Bang!
A gunshot. The bullet tore through her own leg!
Pain surged through her, but it also caused a tiny yet crucial drop in her posture.
That slight difference made the dense tentacles that should have pierced her heart brush past her scalp and back, narrowly missing!
***
And because of that dip, Lu Yuan’s entire body crashed into Rose’s arms, which were wide open from full defense!
Point-blank range!
The girls embraced—like lovers, yet charged with deadly intent.
In Rose’s pupils reflected Lu Yuan’s calm eyes, filled with the overwhelming killing intent accumulated through countless brushes with death.
Lu Yuan raised the black handgun and steadily pressed it into Rose’s mouth.
This time, there was no flaw, no mistake, no time for reaction.
Lu Yuan’s perfect script, earned through countless deaths, reached its finale.
“Goodbye.”
Bang!
The deafening gunshot exploded through the subway station, accompanied by Rose’s anguished scream.
Rose’s eyes widened in disbelief. Her body froze mid-motion as a hole blasted through her cheek, cracks rapidly spreading over her face and body.
“No… no way…”
Her final voice was carried away by the wind.
The next second, her entire body shattered like a broken black statue, exploding violently before completely dissipating into the air.
***
The battle was over.
Lu Yuan knelt on one knee, breathing heavily. A bloodied scratch from a tentacle grazed her temple, and the gunshot wound on her thigh still oozed blood.
But she bore no other injuries.
She gazed at the dissipating Rose, pondering.
So it was another Mimetic Calamity, a Mimetic Disaster in Rose’s form… What a seasoned old fox.
Just then—
Bang!
A wave of piercing cold descended from above. Su Li’s figure appeared abruptly like the Ice and Snow Goddess herself.
The chill brought by her Scythe instantly dispersed some of the lingering blood and gunpowder scent.
“Lu Yuan!”
Su Li quickly embraced her, eyes rapidly scanning the battlefield but unable to find any trace of Rose.
“Where’s Rose?!”
Su Li’s tone was anxious.
Lu Yuan slowly lifted her head, her pale face stained with blood, and gave Su Li a weary smile.
“I killed her.”
Su Li’s gaze fell on Lu Yuan, who was nearly a bloodied mess herself. Her ice-blue eyes filled with shock and disbelief.
Although all the blood on Lu Yuan was Rose’s, Lu Yuan had taken down that woman almost unscathed.
Su Li stared at Lu Yuan, who had ended the battle alone, momentarily speechless.