Chapter 144

Volume 4: Evil Magic City Tokyo: 137: Learning from Qi Xing's Good Example

Damn it.

A sharp pain in her chest, like a steel nail piercing through, burning like fire.

The moonlight carved into her flesh, bringing agony interwoven with cold and heat.

For a moment, Princess Black Needle's vision went white from the pain; even the outlines of the world were distorted by the agony.

She collapsed to the ground, and before she could even struggle to rise, she realized—she had truly underestimated the Magical Girl!

The first surprise Moonlight Arrow had knocked her down. Before Princess Black Needle could crawl up, Artemina's second arrow had blown the head off one of her enhanced combatants.

Artemina's arrow light was like freezing icy rain, continuous and relentless, each shot precise and without mercy.

This scene made Princess Black Needle's scalp tingle, a chill rising up her spine.

As one of the cadre-level monsters of the Rise Mora Group, her direct combat strength was actually not strong, nor did she like going to the battlefield in person, never seeking direct confrontation.

Hiding behind the scenes, manipulating combatants and monsters with black needles, then letting them gang up on the heroine, beating the heroine down before miserably toying with her and recording it into a film… This was what Princess Black Needle truly enjoyed.

She had always prided herself on being the one in control, the poison princess weaving a net of needles, an immobile hunter waiting leisurely, like a gorgeous yet cold carnivorous plant.

However, at this very moment, the Magical Girl Artemina had crashed into her lair, like a cold moon shining into the dark night.

She was not a prey caught in a desperate situation, but a hunter who had charged in head-on!

Facing this situation, Princess Black Needle finally realized her own powerlessness.

Her abilities were certainly suitable for operations and behind-the-scenes manipulation, but for this situation requiring head-on brawling, the effect was not ideal.

In this situation, what was needed was the brute courage of head-on combat, risking one's life. For Princess Black Needle, who disliked the battlefield and preferred watching others suffer rather than suffering herself, this was the most foreign thing.

Artemina was beating her subordinates. There were two enhanced combatants left alive, but if Princess Black Needle wanted to escape in the chaos, it was clearly too late.

Turning to run now would only result in her head being shot off from behind; she had to confront her head-on!

"You little… bitch!"

Standing up and raising her hand, with fear and anger, Princess Black Needle opened her ten fingers, and ten black needles as thin as hair instantly appeared, suspended in mid-air!

Artemina, who was beating up the combatants, immediately became alert!

She wasn't stupid; of course, she knew she should take down the monster cadre first.

But the two enhanced combatants had already crashed over with no regard for their lives. No matter how much Artemina wanted to deal with Princess Black Needle first, she really couldn't spare a hand!

Seeing Princess Black Needle conjure ten long needles, Artemina immediately tightened her nerves, ready to respond!

—The next thing that happened, however, exceeded her expectations.

Seven black needles flew towards Artemina, and a silver-blue portal immediately appeared under her feet, taking the Magical Girl away to dodge the attack!

With this move alone, Artemina could even handle a few moves from a Demon King-level technique!

…But she hadn't expected that two black needles would precisely pierce into the bodies of the two enhanced combatants who were still desperately fighting her from behind.

There was a third needle that plunged straight into the headless combatant's corpse's neck stump, silently piercing into the spine.

"I usually can't bear to use my needles like this, Artemina!"

Princess Black Needle sneered,

"You three, you must repay me well!"

In an instant, those three bodies twitched as if in a frenzy!

The first combatant's spine expanded, the back bones tearing through the skin like branches growing wildly, twisting and extending into two limb-like craggy bone blades, emerging from the shoulder blade ruptures, shining with cold light like dragonfly wing bones.

The second combatant's skin suddenly turned black, hair fell out, muscles swelled, and dense blood vessels pulsed under the skin. His jaw was forcibly elongated, and a circle of barbed teeth grew on both sides of the torn cheeks, as if he were some bloodthirsty alien monster.

And that headless combatant's corpse was now the most bizarre and miserable!

Princess Black Needle's needle went in from the neck stump and drilled into his heart. Immediately after, a black-red "flower" actually bloomed at his neck opening—

Flesh and blood intertwined, nerves tangled into petals, rolling and squirming like a vortex, with a "mask" sewn from human skin emerging in the center, looking like it was crying and laughing, as if it were a substitute for a head, or some parasitic organ of an alien life form! How terrifying!

"Catch her! I want to give her a good modification too, and make her into a futa slave with a █-stick!"

At Princess Black Needle's command! The three super-enhanced combatants rushed towards the Magical Girl together!

But Artemina just looked at them coldly.

With a sudden kick of her feet, even without using the Moon Portal to teleport, her figure was as fast as a beast, ejecting backward.

The Magical Girl Artemina's contract patron—the Moon Goddess Artemis, was the Goddess of the Hunt. Not only was she the hunt, but she was also worshipped as a mistress by the many beasts in the forest, capable of embodying all beasts.

Even without magic teleportation, she was the swiftest and fastest huntress!

Silver hair fell like moonlight, her figure agilely moving between the bar counter and seats, her steps light and fierce, like a wild wolf threading through the bar!

The first modified enhanced combatant rushed over, his spine blade slashing like a sickle, a shrill whistle exploding in the air, the wind like a knife grazing her face.

Swish—with a sweep, he had split the bar counter in two, broken wood and wine bottles spraying. The momentum didn't stop, and the bone blade slashed fiercely into the concrete wall, sparking fire.

But Artemina had already slid and dodged, supporting the ground with her left hand, kicking her right leg horizontally, and using the force to leap up again, cleverly avoiding the blade.

The second combatant followed closely and pounced, running on all fours, roaring like a dog, his skin pitch black and shiny, his muscles swollen to the point of splitting.

Seeing the Magical Girl leap, he also followed up and pounced, two big hands open, ten fingers like hooks, about to tackle her in one go!

But Artemina just frowned slightly, her body turning in the air, her right hand reversing the longbow—Swish!!

An archer without melee skills is not a good hunter. Turning the bow into a blade, with a horizontal slash, the Moonlight Blade drew a silver-white spark on the combatant's chest, forcing him down!

But the third one, that headless corpse with the blood flower mask, had already arrived.

Its back swelled violently, and suddenly with a pop, several bundles of neural blood whips burst out from within its body, carrying a shrill whistle and sticky stench, rolling straight towards the Magical Girl!

Artemina moved again, twisting her waist and spinning, about to dodge.

—But one of the whip-like nerves twisted and changed direction like a living snake, suddenly wrapping around her calf, and in a flash of lightning, tightened fiercely!

The Magical Girl's body was instantly pulled off balance. The two surviving combatants immediately attacked from the left and right, about to drag her directly into the encirclement of the three combatants!

Danger!

For any Magical Girl, this kind of encirclement and grappling is the most feared thing in battle!

But at this very moment, in Artemina's eyes, a determination shone through!

She released the bowstring, raised her left palm, and slapped it against the wall!

A circle of blue moonlight immediately spread from her palm, opening a portal. The next instant, she was sucked into the portal. The neural blood whip that had wrapped around her calf was instantly severed by the closing portal!

The three enhanced combatants pounced into empty air, and for a moment, they actually collided into a ball!

And as for Artemina herself, she had already appeared on the iron beam of the underground bar's ceiling, overlooking the scene below.

She had long since drawn her bow, ready to fire.

"—[Moonlight Rain]."

Countless Moonlight Arrows instantly poured down from the ceiling!

Explosive sounds, roaring, scorching light—the three combatants who had collided were unable to escape, unable to even emit a complete wail, before being nailed into flesh and bone by the rain of light arrows, exploding into residual flesh and scorching smoke.

Flesh and blood splattered in all directions, leaving charred and deep red traces on the bar walls.

"Looking down on me is your most fatal mistake, Princess Black Needle."

Facing the stunned Princess Black Needle, Artemina landed lightly, her gaze like ice.

"I've already killed my way to your face, and you're still thinking about 'capturing alive' instead of 'killing'."

"You are all the same, from the beginning you treated yourselves as the ones in control, and the heroes as prey that only deserved to be toyed with. Even when facing a Magical Girl of equivalent combat strength, what you have in your head is not how to win, but how to capture, how to humiliate, how to torture."

Her tone was cold, carrying an extremely restrained anger:

"Laughable! Only a fool among hunters thinks about the taste before catching the rabbit! You think you will definitely win, you think you are a big shot qualified to win, so you didn't treat this as a life-and-death battle at all, you didn't treat us as real enemies—"

"Very good! Like this, all of you will die by my hands."

After speaking, Artemina had already raised her longbow, aiming at her target.

Princess Black Needle was speechless.

…Actually, although Artemina scolded fiercely, these monsters of the Rise Mora Group were not without their grievances.

The Yatsufusa-kai and the Musk Pavilion and other villains might consider other benefits, but the monsters of the Rise Mora Group… they had no "wages".

Rather than an "evil organization", they were more like a large experimental team of mad scientists.

Dr. Daoxuanban Ailiao never gave them "wages". The so-called "modification" was itself a one-time "group entry benefit".

Once the surgery was done and the parts installed, it meant you owed the leader a life—from then on, the leader would instead ask them to repay this "gift" from time to time, such as helping to find new research materials, experimental samples, and so on.

Therefore, if these monsters wanted to seek some extra practical benefits, whether it was material wealth and pleasure, or spiritual and psychological satisfaction, or even just maintaining their daily expenses, even if it was just a bowl of hot rice, they could only rely on themselves to earn it.

Except for the Pluto having some requirements for them, when Magical Girls and heroes ran over to find trouble with the monsters, if the monsters directly killed them and beat them into meat paste… wouldn't they earn nothing?

Only by capturing them alive could they enjoy it, could they toy with them, and at least satisfy their emotional value. After all, when people live, it's fundamentally for happiness!

If killed, the Magical Girl would just be a corpse.

It's not like every pervert likes corpses. For the vast majority of monsters, if they don't capture them alive, there is no profit to be made.

Artemina was right, she was one of the strongest Magical Girls in Tokyo currently, with combat strength equivalent to any cadre-level of a dark organization, and even had a trend of surpassing them.

If she teamed up and coordinated with other top-tier Magical Girls, Artemina could even completely defeat the leader of an evil organization! Just like the children's shows that play every Sunday!

Princess Black Needle herself was just an evil cadre. Engaging in battle with a Magical Girl of the same level or even slightly stronger than her, and still wanting to capture alive instead of prioritizing survival and victory, was simply seeking her own death!

But on the other hand, even if she tried her best, miraculously turned the tables, and really beat Artemina into meat paste, killed her… what good would it do her?

Smashing the base to pieces, having a bunch of subordinates die, and finally getting a pile of corpses that couldn't even be used, for Princess Black Needle, no matter how you look at it, was a complete failure.

…Then again, it was precisely because of this mercenary, non-warrior mindset that determined Princess Black Needle's defeat.

At the critical moment, Princess Black Needle pulled out a needle and aimed it at her own neck!

She had one more move! A do-or-die gamble to come back from the dead!

This was her last resort that she had never shown anyone!

Just by stabbing this needle into her own spinal cord, Princess Black Needle could completely transform herself into a combat-specialized monster, stripping away all useless human structures, reshaping herself into a thorough killing machine, and gaining combat capabilities several times that of her normal state!

Even facing the Magical Girl Artemina, it wasn't like there was no chance of victory!

—However, just as the needle tip was about to pierce her neck, just as she was about to pierce her own skin, that momentary hesitation also pierced Princess Black Needle's heart.

…What if she failed?

…What if she still lost even like this?

Her originally so exquisite appearance—the beauty like a doll, the exquisite and elegant figure under the black gothic lolita dress, this pair of cute slender legs and feet…

Completely transforming into a combat-type monster meant never being able to change back to human form, back to the "beautiful girl" body she cherished.

She would lose the sense of taste for eating high-end desserts, lose the daily life of using perfume, using luxury cosmetics, and painting her fingers.

She would never again be able to enjoy essential oil massages, or the custom bows printed with her name on the newly arrived handmade black silk shoe uppers.

This bit of hesitation only lasted for a split second.

But a real life-and-death battle does not allow for a moment of hesitation.

The cold light had arrived!

The Magical Girl Artemina's rapid-fire light arrows flew by like meteors, precisely hitting her wrists!

"Ahhhhhhh?!!"

Intense pain swept through her nerves in an instant.

Princess Black Needle's two arms had already exploded into charred flesh from below the elbows, finger bones flying, fresh blood splattering on the bar's broken chandelier and the lace on her chest, almost like some kind of bloody art.

She stumbled and fell to the ground, losing the chance to insert the needle, and also losing any possibility of turning the tables and winning.

"You, you don't follow the rules, Artemina!"

But she still wailed and cursed in anger,

"What kind of hero interrupts an enemy's second-phase transformation?!"

"For a little brat like you who thinks breaking the rules is a clever scheme, we of the Rise Mora Group will definitely take thorough revenge!"

"All your family and friends will be kidnapped, tortured, and killed by us, and turned into zombie meat weapons!"