Chapter 22: Phantom Mirage

Ever since Luka charged into the bat-winged demons’ encirclement, only a few brief exchanges had passed before the situation on the field completely reversed.

Bat-winged demons were a flight unit without spellcasting ability. They always relied on numerical superiority and high-powered magic blunderbusses to surround and kill magical girls.

Once their numbers were nearly equal to or fewer than the magical girls’, the bat-winged demons, which had no shield protection, fell into total disadvantage.

After all, their bodies were far stronger than ordinary humans, but they could never rely on flesh and blood to block the power of magic bullets.

After several exchanges, Luka had already killed nine of the fourteen bat-winged demons with lethal efficiency. Only five remained.

If Moye and Alesia joined the battle, five against three, it would be a complete victory for the magical girls.

The outcome of this battle was already decided.

The bat-winged demons clearly realized this, too.

They were ultimately a relatively rare flight unit. Though their intelligence was far inferior to elite demons like the Spider-Slaughter Demon, they were much smarter than ordinary demon soldiers, who were foolish and reckless.

However, it was often only foolishness and recklessness that could give one the courage to fight to the death.

Once intelligence grew a little, one could easily be crushed by a desperate situation and do even more foolish things.

These few bat-winged demons were in exactly that state now.

Facing Luka’s unsolvable strange magic, with two Magica elites watching from afar, they had fallen into complete despair and felt they had no chance of victory.

For a moment, all five bat-winged demons turned pale. Their arms holding the magic blunderbusses trembled, and they almost lost the will to keep fighting.

The only reason they were still holding on was the fear of the consequences of mission failure, so their hearts wavered.

If Luka made any aggressive move, they might make up their minds and scatter in panic like a stress response.

Luka’s gaze swept across the five bat-winged demons one by one.

She had keenly sensed their thoughts through their expressions and demeanor.

Phew.

She couldn’t help but sigh in relief, and her tense nerves loosened slightly.

Sure enough, everything was going according to her plan.

Actually, her magic power was almost at rock bottom.

[Phantom Mirage]. That was the top-tier magic she had been using repeatedly just now.

According to the description she had learned from the mind space, its effect was very simple:

[Top-tier Illusion Magic: Phantom Mirage]

[Effect: Generates an illusion doppelganger at the current location, executing pre-set actions. At the same time, the user enters an invisible state. Once the user attacks, the invisibility is dispelled early.]

[One-star level estimated effect: generates 1 doppelganger, invisibility lasts 10 seconds]

At first glance, the effect of Phantom Mirage was incredibly plain.

Compared to top-tier magics that were lethal and also produced powerful sound, light, and electrical effects, it seemed utterly unremarkable.

Compared to a defensive top-tier magic like Invincible Barrier, which was said to withstand even nuclear bombs from a previous life, it looked even more pitiful.

However, this unremarkable top-tier magic was one of the most suitable magics Luka had chosen for the current situation. It was based on her own abilities, her understanding of bat-winged demons, and the experience gained from one death regression.

To save Alesia and eliminate all the bat-winged demons, she had to fight an extremely perilous “asymmetric air battle.”

Earlier, when facing the encirclement of four bat-winged demons, she had relied on the superb magic control from fusing with the magic flower seed. This allowed her to dodge and escape without taking damage.

If she wanted to fight back and precisely hit enemies moving at high speed, she had to get extremely close or stop and aim carefully.

Both situations required relying on her shield to endure the bat-winged demons’ high-powered magic blunderbuss attacks.

That was what Moye did.

But with Luka’s paltry magic power at one-star, first-tier, she simply didn’t have the ability to continuously resist two or three high-powered magic bullet attacks.

So she had to find a way to make up for it with magic.

Among top-tier magics, there were plenty of attack-type magics that could instantly kill fourteen bat-winged demons, or powerful control-type magics that could restrain them all at once.

Even defensive magics like Invincible Barrier could cancel out all attacks as long as the timing was controlled well.

If possible, she would also have liked to trade for such cheat-level magic.

But there was still that key problem: her magic power was too low!

At one-star level, these strongest and coolest magics were far from powerful enough to instantly kill all enemies.

Moreover, using them once or twice would completely drain her and leave her with no strength to resist.

So she had to find a magic that perfectly matched the scenario of being surrounded and fighting in the air, while also having low magic consumption.

[Phantom Mirage] was practically tailor-made for this situation.

Weren’t the bat-winged demons relying on numerical superiority and high-powered weapons to surround her?

Then she just had to make it impossible for them to attack her real body.

Weren’t the bat-winged demons hard to aim at because of their flight speed and agility?

Then why not just go invisible and fire the gun right in their faces?

It could be said that Phantom Mirage allowed her to completely avoid the dangers of air combat, and even handle encirclement with ease.

And as a top-tier magic, it naturally had its extraordinary points.

After the fierce battle just now, Luka had confirmed one fact.

That was, even with the abilities of two-star magical girl elites like Moye and Alesia, they simply couldn’t see through her illusion doppelgangers or her invisible state.

Needless to say, ordinary demon soldiers couldn’t either.

In addition, Phantom Mirage could be used frequently and multiple times.

In the battle just now, she had cast it five times in a row before her magic power ran dry!

If she hadn’t used the magic blunderbuss to fight back, she might have been able to cast it one more time.

This ability to create illusions above her level, combined with extremely low magic consumption, was the core reason Phantom Mirage was a top-tier magic.

‘With Phantom Mirage, I will take my first step toward becoming a strong one in this war!’

Luka was excited. ‘For its first appearance, I’ll use you bat-winged demons as sacrifices to the flag!’

She raised her magic blunderbuss and flew forward a step.

The bat-winged demons were startled and retreated several steps.

“What? Haven’t you guessed by now whether I’m a doppelganger or not?”

With a mocking smile on her small face, Luka said, “If you still can’t make a decision, then I’ll be the one coming over.”

Whoosh!

With that, she suddenly accelerated and charged toward the bat-winged demons.

“Squeak!”

This action was the last straw that broke the bat-winged demons’ morale. They screamed and scattered in all directions like a stress response.

This was completely within Luka’s expectations.

First, she had used Phantom Mirage repeatedly to reduce the bat-winged demons’ numbers and assault their psychological defenses.

Then, with taunts and feints, she deceived the enemies into hesitation, so they did not dare to attack rashly.

Finally, she completely destroyed the bat-winged demons’ will to fight, so they fled in panic with their backs completely undefended.

This way, even though her magic power was almost exhausted and she couldn’t use Phantom Mirage at all, she could easily eliminate the last few bat-winged demons!

‘This moment is the true hunting time!’

The corners of Luka’s mouth curled up excitedly, and a faint bloodthirsty light shone in her blue eyes.

In this battle, no, this hunt, where she fought against superior enemies and toyed with and humiliated them, she truly experienced a pleasure she had never felt in her previous life!

“Moye! Alesia! Listen to my command!”

Luka roared, and her young loli voice strangely exuded a fierce might.

“Follow me! Kill them all, leave not one alive!”

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