Chapter 47: The One-Second Chance

Luka watched the Sky Eye Demon writhe in agony as its severed tentacles twitched. The creature was in no real danger, and that made her blood boil.

The demon’s physical resilience was far beyond what she had expected.

Wasn’t the Demon Army Codex supposed to say its combat strength was nothing to fear?

Who the hell wrote that piece of garbage?

No time to curse out the amateur who compiled the codex. Luka’s mind raced, and a plan came to her instantly.

She activated Illusion Mirage again, restoring the invisibility she had dropped when she launched the attack, and pressed closer to the Sky Eye Demon.

She needed to get to point-blank range, right next to its enormous eyeball, and fire.

‘I refuse to believe this beast’s eyeball can stop a magic bullet.’

Luka pushed her magic to the limit, accelerating to maximum speed. She shook off the Batwing Demons on her tail and charged headlong at the Sky Eye Demon.

In a flash, she closed to within twenty meters of the Sky Eye Demon. The massive purple eye, half-hidden behind its tentacles, now filled nearly her entire field of vision. It was right there.

A little closer, and she could push the magic gun through the tentacles, stick it to that face, and blow apart its brain along with that disgusting eyeball.

But just as Luka’s morale soared and her heart raced, the edge of her vision suddenly went dark.

Swoosh.

A tremendous force wrapped in a gust of wind blasted into her side shield.

Crack!

The shield shattered on impact.

Then the massive force smashed into her body without any obstruction.

“Gah!”

Sharp pain like her bones breaking tore through her. Luka screamed as her flying body was swatted away like a ball.

Her body spun out of control in the air. Wave after wave of agony slammed into her brain. Her insides churned, and she vomited a mouthful of blood.

Through her spinning vision, she forced her eyes open and saw what had struck her.

It was one of the Sky Eye Demon’s thick tentacles!

The moment she entered within twenty meters, the Sky Eye Demon had lashed out with a tentacle, delivering a brutal blow. The strike was lightning fast, nearly impossible to dodge.

Caught off guard, Luka had been smashed so hard that her bones broke and her organs suffered fatal injuries.

The soul-tearing pain briefly cleared the daze in her brain. She realized the dire situation and instinctively tried to cast Illusion Mirage again.

But it was too late. Her body was still tumbling through the air, and she couldn’t dodge effectively.

The Batwing Demons seized the moment. They raised their guns and opened fire with screeches.

Bang bang bang.

A hail of magic bullets pierced her chest, belly, and skull. She became a tattered flower of flesh that burst open in midair.

Her vision went black.

Luka lost consciousness.

[Today’s Rewind Count: 3]

[Remaining Rewind Count for Today: 2]

The warning alarm in her heart went off. Luka opened her eyes.

Before her were dozens of Batwing Demons with blood-red eyes, sweeping past her. Behind her, Moye was carrying Alesia on her back, flying into the distance.

This was the scene from just a few minutes earlier.

It seemed the death rewind’s save point had updated.

After they had broken out of the safe house, the Magic Flower Seed must have judged that she was out of danger and automatically moved the rewind point to just before she engaged the Sky Eye Demon.

Whether this kind of temporary change was deliberate or random, she couldn’t tell yet.

Luka massaged her brow, trying to ease the nerves strained by the agony of death.

Maybe dying horribly so many times had raised her tolerance. Compared with the rewinds aboard the magic airship, she could now endure the pain of the death rewind better. She no longer felt dizzy or short of breath at the slightest thing.

But dying so often still weighed heavily on her, both mentally and spiritually.

Thankfully, that horrible death wasn’t for nothing. Those few minutes of intense battle had been enough to reveal the Sky Eye Demon’s traits and behavior patterns, and helped her come up with a winning strategy.

But even with more information, the Sky Eye Demon’s combat ability still far exceeded her expectations.

According to the Demon Army Codex, the Sky Eye Demon’s combat strength was a joke. If a Magical Girl cornered it on its own, it would be kicked to death like a stray dog in seconds.

That information made her misjudge the demon’s physical strength. She had assumed it was one of those classic fragile scout units from video games in her past life. One shot would pop it like a pimple, and it would burst into a mist of blood, dead beyond dead.

But thinking it over, this was reality, not a game. The Sky Eye Demon was a massive creature that had to endure freezing cold, biting winds, and thin air at high altitudes of several thousand meters for long periods. It also had countless thick, tough tentacles.

A creature that bizarre couldn’t be frail, even if its strength wasn’t particularly remarkable.

The codex said its combat power was nothing, probably because it was slow and had no ranged attacks. It couldn’t do anything to a Magical Girl and could only passively take hits.

She believed that as long as she stayed outside the reach of its tentacles and kept shooting off the ones protecting its body, she could kill it easily, given enough time.

But right now Luka had to deal with the Sky Eye Demon, ten hungry Batwing Demons, and an unknown group of reinforcements that was about to arrive.

With Illusion Mirage drastically weakened, she didn’t have the luxury of slowly whittling down the Sky Eye Demon.

It looked like she had to reduce the number of Batwing Demons before she could safely attack the Sky Eye Demon.

Reduce them to the point where she could maneuver unharmed under the remaining Batwing Demons’ fire without even using Illusion Mirage.

Then she would have enough magic to break down the Sky Eye Demon shot by shot until it died.

Her mind made up, Luka updated her objective: take out at least half the Batwing Demons first, then deal with the Sky Eye Demon.

She pushed her magic and flew forward quickly.

Just like before, the Batwing Demons were infected by the Sky Eye Demon’s anxiety and orders. They held nothing back, throwing themselves at her with fearless ferocity.

This time, once she reached engagement range, Luka didn’t intend to break through directly.

She began to try to tangle with the ten Batwing Demons without using Illusion Mirage, relying only on her magic pushed to the limit, pulling off a dizzying series of evasive maneuvers.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh. Her figure moved like a phantom, suddenly accelerating, then halting, then zipping in Z-shapes, then doing 180-degree turns. She was like a butterfly dancing in a web of steel cables, enough to make your heart pound.

For the first half minute, thanks to the magic boost from her advancement, she narrowly slipped past volley after volley by a hair’s breadth.

But as the Batwing Demons tightened their encirclement, closing around her, and gradually grew used to her movement patterns, the situation quickly became untenable.

Crack!

Finally, a high-powered magic bullet struck her. Her shield erupted with dense cracks and wobbled dangerously.

One more hit and the shield would completely shatter.

Luka frowned. She had no choice but to cast Illusion Mirage at once. In the one second before the Batwing Demons registered the telepathic message, she burst forward to create distance.

Then, in the next second, while the Batwing Demons turned their guns toward her but hadn’t fired yet, Luka raised her magic gun and aimed at the nearest Batwing Demon.

Her true chance of victory lay in that brief single second.

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