Chapter 23
Screeeeech! Cutting through the wind, two magical girls flew across the sky. The red magical girl in the lead turned to speak to the golden-haired girl trailing behind her.
“Make sure you memorize the layout of the area. We’re luring an S-rank monster here. If you don’t know the terrain perfectly, it could end badly.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Hongryeon glanced at Reina. Then, as if sensing something, she dove sharply toward the ground.
“H-Hongryeon?!”
“Follow me!”
Reina had no choice but to follow the red magical girl down to the earth. After landing, she hesitantly addressed Hongryeon.
“Um, why did we land here?”
“Why? Didn’t I tell you? This mission is to help you grow.”
“What… what does that mean exactly?”
“It means this.”
Thud! Heavy footsteps approached. Not just one or two. Many—massive and weighty—footsteps.
“W-Wait a minute.”
Reina, now pale, looked at Hongryeon. But Hongryeon simply smirked seductively and then—
—took off into the sky.
“Wait! Hold on!”
“I’m not going to help you. You have to handle this on your own.”
“B-but how am I supposed to fight all of a sudden?!”
“Oh, and by the way, if you fail, I’ll kill you~”
With that chilling voice delivered with a sweet smile, Reina gripped her magic staff with a tearful expression.
By now, numerous monsters had surrounded her. There was no escaping unless she flew, but seeing Hongryeon floating above made it clear—escaping wasn’t an option.
Reina’s expression shifted to one of seriousness. This was her habit as a magical girl. No matter how unfair the situation, the moment a monster appeared, she would focus on stopping it.
The one silver lining was that the monsters around her didn’t seem all that powerful. At most, there were a few C-rank monsters mixed in with a horde of D-rank or lower creatures.
Then again, when had she started to think of facing a few C-rank monsters as no big deal?
‘I’ve fought too many B-ranks…’
After enduring months of overwhelming battles, this kind of challenge barely fazed her anymore.
And most of all, she wasn’t scared because—
‘I’ve already seen him.’
The Black Knight. A monster the likes of which Korea had never seen before. She had already encountered him several times. She had felt his overwhelming presence. There was no way she could feel fear over mere C-rank monsters now.
“Alright, let’s do this!”
Reina dashed toward the weakest monster first. As she swung her staff, golden magical bullets formed instantly and shot toward the creatures.
The plan was to break through the weaker ones and escape the encirclement. The D-rank monsters stood no chance against Reina’s firepower, and in an instant, she had broken free of their trap.
‘Good, now for the next…’
But just because she had broken through the encirclement didn’t mean the monsters stopped chasing her. Reina flew low to maintain her distance from the monsters and continued firing magic bullets at the ones behind her.
Pew! Boom! One by one, the weaker monsters fell. Reina’s firepower, despite her relatively modest magical energy, was remarkably potent. Naturally, the low-durability monsters stood no chance against her.
As they continued fighting, soon enough, only C-rank monsters remained. Now was when things would truly begin.
However, an unusual sign began to emerge among the monsters.
They stopped chasing her and halted their steps. Wiping the sweat off her forehead, Reina observed the situation.
The monsters gradually started moving away from her. Upon seeing this, Reina quickly realized their intention.
The monsters had figured out that they couldn’t catch Reina and that there was a higher chance of getting caught themselves in the process. So, instead of risking it by trying to capture her, they opted to lure her in.
Should she charge into the monsters, risking danger, or should she flee for safety?
There was no need to hesitate. What magical girl would run away with a monster in front of her? In an instant, Reina soared toward the monsters.
And just as if they had been waiting for her, attacks rained down. Reina grunted as she began evading the oncoming strikes.
Through the gaps between the attacks, golden stars dashed forward. Attacks that were impossible to avoid had their trajectories slightly altered by her magic bullets.
[W-What is this?]
[Kraaah!]
[Slippery little thing…!]
Though the monsters muttered in confusion, Reina didn’t miss a beat and cast her spell.
“Nova!”
Nova. The explosion of a dying star. Yet, paradoxically, its name signifies the birth of a new star. And just like its name, Reina unleashed her power in an explosive burst centered around herself.
KABOOM! The monsters close to the magical girl had no time to escape from the explosion of magic.
[Urgh—ugh…]
[———!]
Unable to even let out screams of pain, the monsters’ bodies were disintegrated into fragments by the massive explosion of light. As if they were sacrificed to the birth of a new star, their forms faded away.
“Haa, haa…”
By the time Reina gathered her breath, all the monsters around her had completely vanished, leaving not a trace behind.
She had used too much magical power all at once. Reina collapsed on the spot, utterly drained, her entire body feeling heavy.
And in that very moment—a monster that had hidden without chasing her was now in her sight. Seeing the magical girl weakened, it charged at her, thinking it was a prime opportunity.
However, it never reached Reina. The monster’s body literally “evaporated” in an instant, consumed by a flame shot from the sky.
With a soft thud, Hongryeon landed from the air. Reina, still breathing heavily, expressed her gratitude.
“Huff, thank, you, huff, very, much.”
“Forget it. From now on, even for low-grade monsters, make sure to stay vigilant.”
Hongryeon spoke bluntly, while staring quietly at the girl before her.
A magical girl with blonde hair and emerald-green eyes. Her skills… were beyond Hongryeon’s expectations.
She had heard Reina was still a C-rank, yet in the blink of an eye, she had dealt with multiple C-rank monsters all at once.
At this rate, who would believe she was only a C-rank magical girl?
Lifting Reina to her feet, Hongryeon opened her mouth.
“What was that?”
“Wh-what?”
“That skill, the one you called Nova. When the monsters swarmed, I didn’t see you using such a close-range technique before.”
The style that Hongryeon observed in Reina was typically offensive. She launched ranged attacks against the monsters from a distance, utilizing overwhelming firepower. Hongryeon had a similar style, and the artillery exemplified a grotesquely extreme version of that style.
However, Reina had chosen not to take the safe route of defeating the monsters from a distance. Using ranged attacks would take too long and require a detour. Ultimately, Reina faced the monsters in close combat.
In other words, it was a versatile style that integrated both close and ranged attacks. And as far as Hongryeon knew, there was only one person in South Korea with such a style… Bing Seol Hwa.
At that thought, Reina recalled the reason she had begun practicing hand-to-hand combat.
The vivid fear of the Black Knight still lingered in her mind.
But more memorable than that fear was the overwhelming power.
The magical power was something she could never hope to replicate. It was through defeating monsters that one’s magical power increased, not simply through practice. Therefore, there was only one thing she could imitate.
Close combat. The Black Knight’s fighting style left a deep impact on Reina. It involved swiftly closing in on the enemy, evading or blocking their attacks, and taking them down with a single powerful strike.
Then there were the two B-rank monsters she had fought. The werewolf monster and the turtle monster. Ranged attacks had done little to harm them.
Because of this, she needed a way to confront enemies that her attacks couldn’t penetrate… and the resulting technique was precisely ‘Divine.’
The risks were high, but so was the power.
As Reina pondered how to explain this, she chose to mumble instead, unable to admit that she drew inspiration from monsters.
“Uh, it just happened.”
Hongryeon, quietly observing her, let out a snicker.
“Right, good. Seeing you do it makes me think you’re better than I expected. So, you should be able to handle other monsters too?”
“W-What?”
“Move quickly. Time is of the essence.”
In an instant, Reina was pulled into the air by Hongryeon’s hand, and once again, she wore a distressed expression.
—
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