Chapter 56: The Truth About Tentacles and Magical Girls

No, ‘special attack’ wasn’t quite the right term. Many harbored a strong, preconceived notion about tentacles, believing these squishy, slick, and pliable creatures held a peculiar efficacy against magical girls. They were often considered a ‘special attack,’ a countermeasure engineered by dark organizations specifically to combat magical girls.

No matter how formidable a magical girl might have been, she was said to be no match for these adorable little creatures. Maidens who once cut heroic figures on the battlefield, striking down combatants and villains with powerful blows, would supposedly be effortlessly ensnared, restrained, and brutally hoisted aloft by these writhing tentacles, slick with viscous fluids. Their graceful figures would be displayed for all to see, before the narrative devolved into a kind of late-night television drama, unsuitable for viewing before midnight.

Such artistic works proved endlessly popular, seemingly predating the very concept of magical girls and remaining a prevalent theme to this day. Consequently, the pairing of magical girls and tentacles persisted as an exceptionally hot topic of discussion.

Their conversational cachet far eclipsed that of mere combatants, leaving Ling Xing feeling more than a little put out.

However, as an elite combatant who had once spent countless hours in close proximity to these ‘little things,’ Ling Xing was about to reveal a harsh truth.

“—Most magical girls, in fact, are rather well-equipped to handle tentacles!”

This wasn’t merely a disgruntled jab born of her own psychological imbalance, but a declaration rooted in genuine, firsthand experience.

If magical girls, capable of channeling magical power into vibrant barrages and unleashing bizarre close-combat spells, couldn’t contend with tentacles…

…then what hope was there for combatants like them? Combatants possessed nothing but the flimsy protection of their battle suits!

This was especially true for Ling Xing, a rogue-class combatant. With these things simply *there*, she couldn’t even discern where on the wet, slimy mass its sensory organs were, or what it might be observing. To speak of stealth or surprise attacks was utterly ludicrous.

Thus, Ling Xing felt compelled to clear the good name of these ‘adorable little tentacles’ and debunk those stereotypical rumors.

“Tentacles defeating magical girls isn’t some ‘special attack’ at all; it’s pure, unadulterated raw power! Put a combatant in there, and they’d be sent flying just the same by those tentacle ‘elbows,’ alright!”

“A monster that doesn’t require sight to observe, too slippery and sticky to grab or tear, completely soft with no discernible vital points, capable of self-regeneration, and, once caught without external aid, essentially a death sentence… it’s nothing short of a pure, unadulterated abomination!”

Nuonuo, who had been convulsing on the ground for what felt like an eternity, flinging sticky fluids and sweat across the floor, squirmed and writhed until she finally managed to roll over.

Her wheelchair lay overturned, and the already frail, sickly girl couldn’t even stand. She could only pitifully claw at the ground with her bandaged hands, dragging her slender body forward in a laborious crawl.

With a slow, shadowed crawl, she reached Ling Xing’s feet, extending a pale, small hand to grasp Ling Xing’s ankle, intending to convey her fervent expectations—

‘Ling Xing, hurry! Time is running out! Go up there and fight those tentacles for three hundred rounds for your poor, pathetic companion, who’s already in such a state!’

Alas, Ling Xing had spent far too much time with Nuonuo; she knew her all too well and wasn’t about to fall for such theatrics.

“Besides just *seeing*, what else am I supposed to do?! Can I ambush them, or steal something *from* a tentacle? Can I possibly sneak past something that senses through vibrations without eyes, or use my pathetic scraping weapon to harm a super abomination that has no vital points, regenerates naturally, and deflects blades with its slick surface?!”

Ling Xing irritably kicked Nuonuo’s small hand away, sending Nuonuo’s face—the only part of her that still retained a semblance of girlish charm—slapping onto the ground with a wet thud.

“Ugh—”

A rather adorable cry of pain escaped her lips.

‘…If the target weren’t Nuonuo, I might actually feel a pang of guilt.’

But given that the target *was* Nuonuo, that extraordinary individual whom Ling Xing had once fought tooth and nail to rescue from a failed biological experiment—a person who, despite being utterly mangled and covered in wounds, could still let out an idiotic giggle, a trickle of blood escaping her nose.

Ling Xing vividly recalled the moment she had finally pulled Nuonuo to safety; even then, her face pale and drawn, Nuonuo had still gasped heavily, shouting with exhilaration.

“So, so amazing, my experimental subject, huff, huh… it’s wonderful! It tore off my arm with such ease, like snapping a mere chopstick…”

Was her joy derived from the act of being brutalized itself, from the performance of her experimental subject, or perhaps from the sheer thrill of being assaulted by a creature of her own making?

Ling Xing neither knew nor cared to know. All she knew, and all she needed to know, was the undeniable conclusion that Nuonuo was decidedly not a normal person. That alone sufficed.

At that thought, any lingering guilt Ling Xing might have felt instantly dissipated. She even took the opportunity to step on Nuonuo’s still struggling hand, her toe symbolically pressing down on her wrist.

“Why don’t *you* make yourself useful? Didn’t you create this mess yourself? You can’t possibly expect me, a rogue-class combatant, to tackle this monster alone, can you?! Hey, Nuonuo—! If you keep playing dead, I’ll grab you by the ankle and toss you into the deepest part of that tentacle nest————”

Cupping Nuonuo’s grimy little face, Ling Xing wiped away a trickle of nosebleed that had stained the ground. She then proceeded to pinch, pull, and knead Nuonuo’s soft cheeks like a lump of dough, stretching and flattening them playfully.

“Gu wuwuwu…”

‘[Guh… Ling Xing has become so mean-spirited. She knows perfectly well I can’t help with anything, that there’s no difference between this and simply passing out… yet she still insists on exploiting a poor researcher who’s already in such a state.]’

Her ‘woe-is-me’ strategy having failed spectacularly, Nuonuo finally, albeit reluctantly, rolled onto her stomach, pressing herself against Ling Xing’s hand and attempting to crawl up inch by painstaking inch.

Observing their actions and dialogue alone, an uninformed bystander might easily assume some adorable little girl was being tormented by an evil combatant.

No, perhaps a beautiful girl? Or a magical girl? Ah, who cared, really.

Regardless, bullying Nuonuo felt entirely justified. Nuonuo was simply too wicked; she deserved every bit of it.

Ling Xing felt a soft, yielding bit of flesh beneath her fingers as she pinched Nuonuo’s cheek, a faint smile playing on her lips.

This was, after all, a problem Nuonuo had specifically called her to resolve—a problem neither of them could possibly tackle alone. Thus, it naturally demanded their combined, full cooperation.

These resilient yet ‘adorable’ new tentacles…

‘They absolutely *must* be devoured by evil magical girls, right? What sense does it make for combatants to be humiliated by tentacles?’

Ling Xing mused inwardly. However, even as her thoughts meandered—

The elevator behind her, quite unexpectedly, dinged to a halt on their floor.

As the elevator doors glided open, Ling Xing, still standing atop Nuonuo and playfully kneading her face, spotted a familiar figure.

“This is also part of the patrol route. After the organization’s surveillance was compromised earlier, we had no choice but to…”

A tall woman, her fiery red hair pulled back into a sleek, business-like ponytail, radiating an aura of vibrant enthusiasm, stepped out. It was Magical Girl Blazing Blade, accompanied by Chao Wu, who had only recently achieved D-rank magical girl status and was here to take over the patrol. They walked right into Ling Xing.