Chapter 35 – Fortunately, My Defense Is High

She didn’t know how much time had passed. Kexin slowly stretched out her hand and propped herself up, trembling all over as she struggled to stand from the shallow crater she had made. She looked around and felt as if a thin mist had settled over everything. Even through her magic-enhanced vision, objects were blurry, and her head throbbed. Other sounds seemed cut off, unable to reach her ears.

What happened? That was her first thought. She had clearly been flying in the air, so how had she ended up on the ground so quickly?

She instinctively took a step forward, but the rest of her body didn’t keep pace. She lost her balance and fell again.

Lying on the ground, Kexin gazed up at the night sky, where a few bright stars were barely visible. She drew deep breaths, and at the same time, her internal magic began automatically flowing through her body, gradually clearing her mind.

In the night sky, a yellow streak shot across—a trace left by Qisi’s rapid movement to evade attacks. But scanning the air back and forth, Kexin saw no sign of the enemy.

The opponent had clearly concealed themselves, which meant this was no time to rest.

Almost simultaneously, the back of her body pressed to the ground felt a vibration—something was approaching from all directions. Realizing this, Kexin immediately became alert. She rolled over and used a nearby low concrete wall for cover, staying kneeling to conceal her body.

Peeking around the edge of the cover with one eye, she surveyed the area.

From the depths of the abandoned, half-finished buildings in this complex, black silhouettes nearly two stories tall surged out one after another. Pairs of red eyes glowed brightly against the surrounding darkness. Even without magic-enhanced vision, they were impossible to miss.

All Kexin could do was figure out what they were.

“Spiders again…”

Seeing the intruders’ forms, the pink-haired girl frowned. Compared to the mutated spider she had fought with great effort before, these were slightly smaller.

However, there were far more of them—easily over ten at a glance.

Kexin quickly holstered her handgun and manifested her magic weapon again, this time in the precise marksman rifle (DMR) form, while checking her other equipment.

The DMR mode was semi-automatic but offered higher single-shot damage and penetration, without causing the collateral damage of a sniper rifle form. After having just blown up a building tonight, she couldn’t risk causing more unintentional destruction.

Although a magic girl’s weapons only appear when transformed, they weren’t entirely made of magic. Most were manufactured to work with magical energy. Damage in combat was normal. Maintaining magic weapons consumed energy, and combined with armor and shields, the basic strain could be taxing even for veteran magic girls.

Fortunately, apart from her wireless earpiece, nothing else was damaged. Still, most of her equipment was limited in use against anomalies.

These spiders clearly sensed the magical energy Kexin was emitting. The moment she manifested her weapon, all their red eyes turned toward her.

Kexin, of course, wasn’t about to let them reach her. She raised her rifle and fired two quick shots.

Magic-charged bullets struck the head of one spider anomaly consecutively. Though large, the spider convulsed for a few seconds before its body disintegrated into an unidentifiable mass and a shattered crystal core.

Analyzing these fragments would yield complex and abundant results, but Kexin didn’t have the time.

After only two shots, the remaining spider anomalies sprayed corrosive magical fluid, erasing the area Kexin stood on along with surrounding structures.

Thanks to previous experience, she knew just how nasty this seemingly disgusting fluid actually was.

As the creatures began charging their mouths to attack, she anticipated what would happen next. The spiders could scale even vertical walls. Kexin saw one already climbing onto a rooftop.

But thinking about it, spiders climbing walls wasn’t unusual.

Then why climb up there? She had already put so much distance between herself and them, and the corrosive fluid didn’t reach that far—it wasn’t for sightseeing.

Kexin vaulted over a pile of construction debris, turning to shoot two pursuing anomalies with precise shots. As she prepared to take out the one on the rooftop, she noticed an unusual glow near its head.

Sensing trouble, she aimed at the light and fired—but the bullet disappeared mid-air. To observe the trajectory, she had deliberately modified the spell on her magic bullets to function like tracer rounds, even better than normal.

Why did it vanish halfway? And in her scope, there was no impact point.

Kexin was genuinely confused. The server of Earth OL hadn’t swallowed her bullets, had it?

She had no time to ponder. The magical energy radiating from the anomaly was growing stronger, ready to fire at any moment—or so she assumed.

Not knowing why her shot missed, she focused on clearing the other anomalies first.

Moving toward a denser cluster of buildings, she fired at a giant spider approaching her side.

Suddenly, she felt her shoulder hit something hard. This unexpected contact threw her aim slightly off. The spider leapt forward without hesitation—but collided with Kexin’s magic shield, which reshaped and enveloped the creature before exploding.

Debris and corrosive fluid splattered everywhere.

Even someone as seasoned as Kexin found it nauseating. Without her breathing filter, the stench would have been overwhelming—worse than walking all day in boots and black stockings in summer.

Kexin tapped the spot where she had collided with something, and sure enough, an “air wall” was present in what seemed like empty space.

Could Earth OL really have a bug?

The thought flashed briefly through her mind, but a more reasonable explanation was that the anomaly hidden in the shadows was controlling it.

Kexin immediately fired at the air wall, but the bullets passed right through.

Strange things were, well… strange. When dealing with anomalies, oddness was to be expected.

Unable to proceed this way, she sought another route.

The two-story anomalies she had first encountered were mostly destroyed. The next wave was smaller—no bigger than a large dog.

These smaller anomalies didn’t even have fully-formed crystal cores. One shot was enough to eliminate them.

Because of their smaller size, aiming required more precision, but their numbers seemed to increase.

Kexin switched back to her assault rifle mode. Damage was slightly reduced, but still sufficient.

For a moment, she felt like she had been transported into some sci-fi world battling alien insects.

Then she noticed something strange—the anomaly on the rooftop had gone completely still.

A plasma beam shot from its position. Any object in its path, concrete or steel, disappeared on contact.

After penetrating several buildings, the beam reached Kexin’s line of sight.

“Damn it.”

The immense power even obliterated the anomaly that fired it. The smaller spiders couldn’t survive even a graze.

The massive explosion engulfed Kexin again.

She was thrown into the dust and debris—but fortunately, her basic shield was thicker than most. When she realized the danger, the plasma attack had already begun to erode her shield.

She urgently poured more magic into maintaining it until the beam disappeared.

She wasn’t trying to tank the attack—she realized that while the front faced danger, the surrounding area was enclosed in the air wall. The plasma beam hitting her shield had ripped open a hole, giving her an escape route.

Seizing the opportunity, Kexin returned to the sky.

If it weren’t for her abundant magic, she likely would have died. Her equipment, like her combat armor, was tattered, revealing the fair skin underneath.

At this moment, Kexin no longer resembled the “elegant” image of a magical girl—though she had never really fit that concept anyway.

If Qisi were here, she might have commented—but she clearly had no time for that.

“Kexin, are you okay? Your look is great!”

Not entirely.

Qisi rushed over as soon as Kexin reappeared, nearly pressing herself against Kexin. Her tense nerves finally relaxed, and at least her expression wasn’t as grim.

“Look?”

For a moment, Kexin didn’t understand. Following Qisi’s gaze, she looked down—and her fists clenched.

She wanted to punch her so badly.