Chapter 39: The Eccentric

Boom!!!

The gunshot carved a rising wall of fire across the road, separating Ito Kyosuke and Hoshino Hikari.

The fire seemed to naturally counter the vines on his body.

Once the vines caught fire, they were hard to extinguish, and new vines kept growing, essentially adding fuel to the fire.

He could only continuously slap the burning ends against the road.

After a lot of effort, he managed to put out the flames on the vines.

On the other side, Hoshino Hikari was already being held in someone’s arms, constantly shaken, trying to wake her up.

“Hikari, wake up, focus. You can use magic to neutralize this poison!”

Hoshino Hikari opened her eyes with difficulty and saw Ziteng Sayaka.

“Senior, I’m sorry… I can’t keep going with you anymore. I will always be your junior…”

Ziteng Sayaka: ???

What nonsense are you talking?

You just got some miasma poison!

It’s far from life-threatening!

In all her years leading the team, no member had ever died before her eyes!

Seeing this, Ziteng Sayaka stopped trying to communicate verbally.

Instead, she pressed hard on her philtrum.

The latter immediately bounced up from her arms.

“Ow ow ow ow ow… Captain, stop pinching me.”

In just a few seconds, Hoshino Hikari was stimulated until snot and tears flowed out, but to be fair, this wake-up method was quite effective.

She instantly felt her head no longer clouded, and the headache and dizziness were greatly alleviated.

Hoshino Hikari had only been poisoned by some miasma.

If her combat experience were richer, she would know that this poison could be purified with magic.

Suffering from inexperience, she almost fell into the pit and died.

Ziteng Sayaka released her fingers and said, “You just got some miasma poison that causes hallucinations. Try using your own magic to purify it.”

Then she patted Hoshino Hikari’s shoulder and said, “Recover here for now. I’ll go deal with that thing up ahead.”

“Captain, you have to be careful. This person is very strange,” Hoshino Hikari warned worriedly.

Ziteng Sayaka nodded, picked up her spear, and stepped over the gradually extinguishing wall of flames.

If she wasn’t mistaken, the boy in front of her had probably merged with some kind of Magic Beast and become a “Strange Being.”

In all these years, she had encountered Strange Beings only a handful of times, because they were a very special kind of creature—a fusion of Magic Beast and human.

In most cases, low-level Magic Beasts would occupy a human body, lacking both skill and intelligence, essentially attacking other humans purely by instinct, making them relatively easy to eliminate.

However, the Strange Being before her was clearly different from any she had seen before.

When Ito Kyosuke clearly saw who the Magical Girl before him was, he was obviously stunned.

Although he already knew Ziteng Sayaka was a Magical Girl, seeing her like this still made him lose focus.

Other Magical Girls’ battle outfits were basically skirts, but Ziteng Sayaka wore a suit of armor.

Even in armor, this outfit didn’t feel bulky at all; instead, it brought out the youthful vitality a girl should have, exceptionally heroic and graceful.

The spear tip scraped sparks against the road, flames slowly reignited on her armor, and her bangs fluttered slightly with the heat waves as Ziteng Sayaka walked toward him step by step.

‘So beautiful…’

Ito Kyosuke sighed from the bottom of his heart.

If he could devour her completely, he would definitely gather enough nutrients, right?

Ito Kyosuke’s palm suddenly split open, and the red seed under his skin trembled uneasily, as if sensing extreme danger.

These days, he had been hunting girls frantically, darkening the seed’s color considerably, but it still had a long way to go before full maturity.

“Make me run away? What a joke. Am I not strong enough now?”

“I know you instinctively fear fire, but these are just small flames. I can snuff them out with a wave of my hand.”

The seed and Ito Kyosuke communicated silently.

The former’s opinion was to flee without hesitation immediately, but Ito Kyosuke couldn’t resist the temptation of killing a female classmate with his own hands and insisted on having a fight with the Magical Girl before him.

Seeing this, the seed stopped trembling and hid back under the skin.

Ziteng Sayaka studied the Strange Being before her, feeling that there was a familiar air about him, as if she had seen him somewhere before.

As the legendary Perverted Murderer, the police had been slow to find leads, largely because Ito Kyosuke had disguised his appearance.

As the number of girls he hunted increased, his strength grew, and now he could even change his appearance at will.

But no matter how his appearance changed, the chilling, sinister aura about him would not.

“So he’s merged with a mutated magic plant? No wonder he uses such insidious poison tactics.”

Magic Beasts had relatively high intelligence and would compete with humans for control of the body, so most Strange Beings were grotesque and often insane.

But magic plants were different. Although merging with humans was difficult, their intelligence was low.

Once successfully merged, they barely affected the Strange Being’s mind in the early stages, only making them bloodthirsty and cruel.

With the boost of human intelligence, a Strange Being’s combat power was only higher than that of an ordinary Magic Beast.

Facing the approaching Ziteng Sayaka, Ito Kyosuke’s face twisted into a grimace as he laughed loudly.

“Since you’re so confident, let me try to see exactly how capable you are!”

Swoosh—

Countless vines burst from the ground like a giant dark green hand, twisting and strangling toward Ziteng Sayaka at the center, quickly surrounding her completely.

But not long after, the airtight strangling formation of vines was pierced by a flaming spear.

Against the fire, these vines had no resistance at all, collapsing far faster than Ito Kyosuke could generate them.

Ziteng Sayaka had wanted to say the same thing to the Strange Being before her.

She was also curious about exactly how capable this Strange Being was, to dare say such things in front of her, a Fire-Affinity Magical Girl—almost the natural enemy of all magic plants.

The last time she carried out a mission, she had been so cautious because she was afraid of losing control of her power.

Even if she eliminated a King-level Beast, causing a forest fire would be an even bigger problem.

Now, she had no such concerns.

These vines looked menacing, but in truth they couldn’t even get close to Ziteng Sayaka; they were ignited by flames before reaching her.

Ito Kyosuke was stunned.

This counter relationship was far greater than he expected.

He was already strong enough that normal flames couldn’t touch him at all.

Why could these damned flames from a Magical Girl?

It could only be because he wasn’t strong enough yet—he needed more nourishment.

Ito Kyosuke gritted his teeth and sent even more surging vines to engulf the flames again.

Even if he couldn’t defeat her head-on, Magical Girls were still human, and humans had weaknesses.

The fact that the Light Magic Magical Girl, who was not weak, had been subdued by him earlier was the best example.

So Ito Kyosuke planned to use the same trick.

While surrounding Ziteng Sayaka again tightly, the tips of the vines began spewing large amounts of dark green miasma.

Once inhaled, she would quickly lose all combat capability and be at his mercy.

“Such tricks won’t work on me.”

The girl’s voice came from inside the vines, and then another spear strike swept the surrounding vines clean.

Ziteng Sayaka was covered in flames, the blazing heat able to purify all toxins.

“Got any more tricks? Bring them on.”

She didn’t want to finish quickly.

Having finally encountered a Strange Being, she wanted to play a bit longer, gather more information about it, and also set an example for her junior.

Ito Kyosuke sneered, “Then take a look behind you!”

Ziteng Sayaka whirled around.

A batch of vines had emerged from the ground, bypassed her position, and were attacking Hoshino Hikari nearby!

Hoshino Hikari was far from fully recovered; she could only barely force herself to stand.

She didn’t even have the strength to flee.

Right now, she had no ability to defend herself!

“Despicable!”

Ziteng Sayaka cursed.

The blazing flames on her body shot up several inches.

She raised her arm and swung forcefully, throwing the spear with flowing flame patterns from her hand.

At the critical moment, the spear landed precisely in front of Hoshino Hikari, annihilating that cluster of vines.

Ziteng Sayaka was truly angry.

The Strange Being before her wasn’t just intelligent—he was far more cunning and treacherous than an ordinary person.

She had been careless.

Every second wasted put Hoshino Hikari in more danger.

She couldn’t drag it out any longer.

Ito Kyosuke showed a smile of scheming success.

“Now, you don’t have a weapon, do you?”

Ziteng Sayaka’s heart jolted.

“Without a weapon, what are you going to block me with?”

Ito Kyosuke slammed his hands onto the ground, both arms sinking in.

At the same time, the ground began to tremble violently.

What burst from the ground this time was not vines, but thick tree branches!

The wild-growing branches intertwined, sharp twigs with barbs that would cause agony at a touch.

Even more terrifying, these trees were guided toward Ziteng Sayaka at the center, stabbing at her.

“Senior, be careful!”

Hoshino Hikari shouted anxiously.

She wanted to wave her staff again to help her senior, but the light of mana barely gathered before dissipating.

In her current condition, she couldn’t use mana.

Ziteng Sayaka stood quietly in place.

Then, silently, she took off her gloves.

From the day Hoshino Hikari had known her until now, her senior had never taken off her gloves—always wearing them.

This was the first time she had seen her senior remove them.

“The basic attack moves of a spear are block, catch, and thrust.”

“But I’ve observed your battles a few times. Although you use a spear, you never use these basic moves. Your preferred attacks are slash and sweep.”

“Then why do you practice the spear? Weapons like a staff or a heavy sword would suit you better.”

For some reason, at this moment Ziteng Sayaka remembered the question Yeyan had once asked her.

Damn it, calling me a novice with the spear—that’s because I only started practicing not long ago.

And he calls himself the strategist of the villain executives—can’t he even see that?

Ziteng Sayaka slowly lowered her center of gravity, held her breath, focused, pulled back her arm, and clenched her fist.

Then she punched.

The next second, a towering blaze tore a huge rift in the pitch-black sky.