After eating and drinking their fill and getting some rest, it was already two in the afternoon. Kiana checked her dual guns, then checked her remaining ammunition, and said energetically, "Preparations complete. Ready to move out anytime!"
Yu Luo carefully looked over the effects of the many low-star Craft Essences he had drawn. Although most of them had only tiny effects, even a mosquito was still meat. In their current situation, every extra bit of strength was welcome.
"Let's go!"
With Yu Luo's words, the two walked out of the teaching building side by side. Kiana held two USPs in her hands, vigilantly scanning their surroundings. Yu Luo's weapon had already been upgraded: he had discarded the divine brick and replaced it with a table leg dismantled from a desk. A steel one, of course.
Although all of Sasaki Kojiro's combat experience had vanished after the Henshin ended, Yu Luo had still memorized a small portion of it during the brief battle. As long as his stamina did not hold him back, dealing with a few Zombie Girls would not be a problem.
"Get lost!" Kiana kicked a Penguin Girl flying, then fired two quick shots in reverse. The Penguin Girl immediately collapsed, unable to rise again. Kiana then rolled aside to dodge an arrow fired by an Archer Girl. Yu Luo had already sneaked behind that Archer Girl, raised the steel chair leg in his hand, and smashed it down with all his strength.
"Duang!" A clean, solid thud rang out, and the Archer Girl dropped without resistance. The two hurried onward. "Teacher, can I ask you something?" Unable to suppress her curiosity as they ran, Kiana asked Yu Luo.
"Hm? What is it?" Yu Luo replied while controlling his breathing.
"Were you some kind of wandering thief before? You're way too practiced at knocking people out from behind."
"..." Yu Luo fell into an awkward silence and tried to change the subject. "The dormitory building is almost here."
Kiana truly lived up to Yu Luo's nickname for her, White-Haired Idiot. Her attention was easily diverted, and she looked toward the dormitory building standing by the road ahead.
"Crash!" A dormitory window suddenly shattered, and an armored Zombie Girl leaped straight down, smashing into the road and kicking up clouds of dust. It was impossible to see what was happening at the center of it.
"Careful!" Yu Luo suddenly shoved Kiana away and raised the steel table leg over his head with both hands. A fierce gust grazed past Kiana's ear. Yu Luo felt an unstoppable force crash into his hands. He could not keep his footing at all, and his right knee slammed heavily into the ground.
Only then did Kiana see that the Zombie Girl who had jumped down was standing in front of Yu Luo. The table leg in Yu Luo's hands had been bent into a U shape. The unsheathed steel sword had sliced halfway through it, nearly striking his head.
"Move!" Kiana shouted. Yu Luo hurriedly let go of the table leg, rolled away from the unusual Kendo Girl, and ran toward Kiana while enduring the pain in his right leg.
"Bang! Bang!" Once Kiana saw Yu Luo leave the area, she raised her USPs and fired two shots at the unusual Kendo Girl. Yet all she heard were two sharp clangs. Amid sparks, the bullets were violently deflected by the Kendo Girl's armor.
"Your students can bring restricted weapons and bulletproof armor to school?!" Yu Luo stared in disbelief. Kiana rolled her eyes and explained, "She isn't an ordinary student. She should be the Kendo Club's ace, Berserker General Hoshina."
"She's that strong?! A mini-boss?" Yu Luo asked in amazement.
"No, an elite monster."
While the two chatted, Berserker General Hoshina stomped her foot, and her figure suddenly appeared before Yu Luo and Kiana. Kiana's pupils contracted as she stared fixedly at Hoshina.
"So fast!"
The two immediately retreated, dodging a New Year's sword swing. Looking at Berserker General Hoshina's armor, which even bullets could not penetrate, and the pitch-black greatsword in her hand, Yu Luo asked an age-old question:
"What do we do?"
Faced with such a difficult problem, Kiana rolled her eyes at Yu Luo and answered the profound question with a single word: "Run!"
The moment she said it, Kiana took off at full speed, her twin white ponytails swaying behind her. Only then did Yu Luo realize he had asked a stupid question. Without using a Heroic Spirit Card, the best option was obviously to run.
"Wait for me!" Yu Luo sprinted after Kiana with every ounce of strength he had. Though he was normally hopeless at physical fitness, at that moment it was as though Bolt had possessed him, and he ran beyond human limits.
"Teacher, I suspect you were faking those falls before!" Seeing Yu Luo match her speed, Kiana could not help doubting his earlier trembling legs and clumsy falls while escaping.
"Don't you know every Mikasa becomes the universe when running away?!" Yu Luo wailed nonsensically.
"That's exactly why you shouldn't say things I don't understand, Teacher!"
"Awoo!" Berserker General Hoshina also howled from behind them as if joining in the fun, continuing her pursuit.
"Pathetic ants!" A queenly, contemptuous voice rang out from above. "How painful it is to struggle on in life. Let me send you on your way!"
"Who?!" Yu Luo raised his head. What entered his sight was an exquisite young girl with waist-length purple hair, dressed in a purple gown. A pair of purple crystal-like wings extended from her back, and her blood-red eyes were full of disdain for lesser beings.
Yu Luo felt his heart tighten. In his mind, he asked the system, "I think I might be in love. What should I do?"
"It's fine. You'll get over it in three months," the system said casually, completely unconcerned. "You shut-in nerds replace a whole bunch of wives every season anyway."
Kiana seemed to recognize the girl before her and asked uncertainly, "Are you... Senior Mei?"
"Oh? You actually know me?" the girl said arrogantly. "Then I'll grant you a quick death, so you needn't struggle in this disappointing world any longer."
"Extremely close to the Source of Honkai. Survival probability decreasing. Survival rate: 0.0000001%!" Kiana's phone suddenly rang. The string of zeros displayed on the screen was shocking. How could Yu Luo fail to understand now that the mysterious girl who had suddenly appeared was the source of the Honkai phenomenon that had turned everyone into zombies?
"The final boss?!" Yu Luo licked his lips and nervously watched the mysterious girl named Mei standing atop the dormitory building. "What terrible luck. To run into the boss behind the scenes in a beginner village like this!"
Great Hero Arash's Heroic Spirit Card had somehow slipped between Yu Luo's fingers. The suffocating pressure coming from Mei made him realize that with his current bond with the Heroic Spirit Cards, he could not possibly wield enough power to defeat her. The only one with even the slightest possibility was the miraculous Great Hero Arash.
"Die! (Don't!)" Along with Mei's voice, the brightly sunny sky instantly darkened. Thick thunderclouds pressed down over the area, while dazzling lightning flickered unpredictably within the black clouds, making everyone's hair stand on end. Under this terrifying pressure, Berserker General Hoshina, who had been chasing the two, could only tremble and did not dare move at all.
But why was there such profound despair and sorrow in that voice? Yu Luo keenly sensed the grief buried beneath Mei's manic words, and doubt rose in his heart as he watched Mei flying in the sky.
"Don't let Honkai corrupt your mind, Senior Mei!" Kiana shouted toward Mei in the sky. Mei impatiently waved downward, and streaks of white lightning immediately fell like rain, one after another. Every place struck by a lightning pillar was scorched black.
"Holy crap, Divine Sword Art of Thunder!" Even in this situation, Yu Luo could not suppress his urge to complain. After thinking it over, he put away Arash's Card and switched to Sasaki Kojiro's Card.
"Henshin!" Yu Luo held the card between his fingers, pointed toward the sky, then forcefully swiped it across his chest. Brilliant silver light immediately enveloped him.
When the silver light faded, Yu Luo had long blue hair tied in a ponytail, a pale purple kimono, and a katana in his hand. His entire aura had changed.
"Interesting ant!" Mei controlled the lightning pillars, sending them crashing down one after another at the transformed Yu Luo. But Sasaki Kojiro possessed A+ Agility. With a light tap of his feet, he drifted like floating willow fluff—stepping, turning, spinning back, gliding forward, retreating—moving through the lightning pillars as though dancing, each strike narrowly brushing past him.
Not only that, Yu Luo even grabbed Kiana by the shoulder and carried her through the thunderstorm without a single scratch on either of them.
"Damn it! (Stop already!)" Mei said impatiently, then sent even more lightning pillars crashing toward Yu Luo, who wriggled around like a loach. As the lightning pillars fell, the black thunderclouds overhead visibly began to fade.
Yu Luo was not having an easy time either. To calmly evade the lightning pillars, he had kept Translucence B+ active to maintain the realm of [Serene as Water]. The energy he had already reduced to 40% was plummeting even faster.
The situation had become this: either Yu Luo's energy would be depleted first, ending his transformation, and since Billy the Kid's Heroic Spirit Card was completely unsuitable for evasion, he would have no choice but to take out Great Hero Arash's Card and risk his life; or the thunderclouds would vanish first, allowing Yu Luo and Kiana to live a little longer.
Kiana could only silently watch Mei in the sky. She did not dare make a sound that might disturb Yu Luo.
Before you continue