Things That Fell Like Rain

The battle between an Aberrant Beast and Magical Girls was a process of one side waning as the other waxed. After the two Magical Girls had wasted large amounts of stamina and mana on basic coordination mistakes, the Aberrant Beast gained a chance to catch its breath and gradually seized the upper hand.

The slime covering the Cavity-Melting Aberrant Beast's surface and its amorphous body granted it powerful regenerative abilities, allowing it to slowly recover even while under attack. So although this Aberrant Beast had remained on the defensive and taken blows, it had never suffered any fatal injuries.

And once the Magical Girls' suppressive fire began to thin out, the creature, whose combat strength had remained largely intact, started its counterattack.

The clearest sign was that Lin Xiaolu, who had been constantly darting around the Aberrant Beast, suddenly felt the area affected by its ground slams grow larger. She was beginning to find it difficult to evade its attacks.

She raised her head and took a closer look, only to discover that the Aberrant Beast had coated its claws in large amounts of slime, increasing the contact area whenever it struck. This meant that even if she was not hit by its claws, she would be stuck the moment the slime brushed against her.

Moreover, as the Aberrant Beast's attacks struck the ground more frequently, the slime quickly soaked the ground around it, letting it squirm forward faster. Its massive body gradually displayed unusual mobility, making it difficult even for Xia Liang, who had been suppressing it with ranged fire from the air, to hit the target.

If they had sufficient mana, both Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang could have freely expended it to forcefully accelerate and keep up with the Aberrant Beast's movements. But under the current circumstances, wasting mana without being able to end the battle quickly would only put them at an even greater disadvantage.

Thus, the two Magical Girls, who had been fighting separately until now, had no choice but to begin considering a plan of cooperation.

"Hey, you up there!"

While evading the Aberrant Beast's strikes, Lin Xiaolu shouted to Xia Liang in the sky, "Do you still have enough mana?"

"Mana?"

Casually firing another Mana Beam that splashed against the Aberrant Beast's head, Xia Liang looked puzzled. "I do. Xiao Lu, do you have something in mind?"

"Don't call me so affectionately! We're not that close!"

Running along the Aberrant Beast's claw, which had sunk into the asphalt, Lin Xiaolu returned to the air. "If you have mana, I'll lure it into exposing an opening. You find a chance and blast it with everything you've got."

"You want me to attack?"

Xia Liang blinked, then smiled in understanding. "Ah, so your mana is no longer enough for attacking?"

"You really are the worst!"

Lin Xiaolu snapped back irritably, but did not deny it. Although she disliked Xia Liang very much, she knew what mattered more. She immediately changed direction and flew beyond the range of the Aberrant Beast's strikes.

Cavity-Melting Aberrant Beasts had powerful self-healing abilities, but they were not without weaknesses. Their common weak points were the mouth and abdomen. Since these Aberrant Beasts generally stayed prone, attacking the abdomen was not easy, so attacking the mouth was the most practical option.

And the most direct way to lure it into exposing that weakness was to make it use its Dissolving Cavity to attack.

Once it used its Dissolving Cavity, its position meant that it would inevitably have to raise its head, open its mouth, and stop moving.

With that in mind, Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang both restrained their use of mana, reduced the frequency of their attacks, and stopped wasting it needlessly. At the same time, they guided the Aberrant Beast into attacking more often.

The strategy quickly took effect. Once the Aberrant Beast realized it was not taking much damage, it attacked more and more frequently, becoming increasingly careless with its own defense.

Until it completely abandoned defense and, when Lin Xiaolu deliberately exposed an opening, chose to use its Dissolving Cavity.

The Aberrant Beast raised its head high, and the Dissolving Cavity in its chest contracted, pumping bodily fluid through its organs like a powerful water pump. Mixed with a large amount of mana, it gathered at the nozzle beneath its jaw.

"Gwoooaaahhh!"

With a furious roar, several enormous liquid shells shot from beneath its jaw.

Boom! Boom! Rumble!

Lin Xiaolu ran continuously close to the ground, throwing the water cannons behind her. The missed shells struck the road and sidewalks around her, blasting out huge craters.

She turned her head and shouted at Xia Liang in midair:

"Now! Fire your Mana Beam into its mouth!"

"Got it! Um... but it feels a little hard to control?"

Xia Liang, who had already found her position, raised her wand high. Mana far exceeding that of an ordinary Seed Stage Magical Girl gathered before her, forming an extremely unstable-looking ball of light. "Anyway, I'll give it a try."

Timing it for when the Aberrant Beast fired its water cannons, she lowered her wand. Just as the beast had finished attacking and its mouth was still wide open, she aimed inside and fired the Mana Beam before her.

The Hibiscus Purple Mana Beam moved incredibly fast. Before the Aberrant Beast could react, it shot abruptly before it, then struck its body with tremendous force.

And precisely because of that, they did not realize the hit was off target until the moment the mana blast landed.

Their original plan had been to fire directly into the Aberrant Beast's mouth, damaging its internal tissues and inflicting irreversible injury.

But after it struck, they realized that Xia Liang's attack, which had exhausted nearly all her mana, seemed not to have hit the intended location.

"Ah, I think I missed?"

Looking at her wand, Xia Liang smiled sheepishly.

It missed, yet it did not miss.

That was Larkspur's judgment from the side.

Because the Mana Beam had struck near the Aberrant Beast's Dissolving Cavity.

The Aberrant Beast's Dissolving Cavity was protected by thick, tumor-like flesh and constantly secreted slime, so it was not a weak point.

But the Mana Beam had landed in an odd place. It had not struck the outside of the Dissolving Cavity, but had ultimately hit the nozzle.

The Dissolving Cavity's nozzle was a small target and difficult to hit, so it was not considered a conventional weak point. Yet in truth, it was the most fragile part of its body.

So it died.

A violent stream of mana poured backward through the nozzle beneath the Aberrant Beast's jaw. Hibiscus Purple mana flashed with blinding light as it burst through its body, completely piercing it.

The Aberrant Beast did not even have time to react before the Mana Beam destroyed all its bodily tissues and took its life on the spot.

Without question, although it had deviated from the original target, its effect had still been crucial.

That was what Larkspur, standing nearby, thought.

Even if there had been a small accident along the way, they had still successfully defeated the Aberrant Beast, so missing the target was understandable... right?

Her thoughts suddenly stalled.

As mana completely pierced through the Aberrant Beast's Dissolving Cavity, she suddenly remembered something:

The liquid within a Dissolving Cavity was normally stored and compressed inside the body through the cavity's biological functions and the Aberrant Beast's mana. So once the Aberrant Beast died, and its Dissolving Cavity was damaged and lost its original biological function, what would happen next?

Her pupils gradually contracted, and an almost uncontrollable expression of disgust appeared on her face. Larkspur immediately shouted at the two Magical Girls in the air:

"Idiots, get out of the way!"

As soon as she spoke, she did not hesitate. Mana scattered around her as she leaped into the air, and with a sharp rush of wind, she retreated dozens of meters almost instantly.

But the two Magical Girls beside the Aberrant Beast were not so fortunate.

Xia Liang had just expended a huge amount of mana to fire the Mana Beam and had yet to regain her rhythm. Lin Xiaolu, meanwhile, had been running close to the ground the entire time. Not only had she failed to understand what Larkspur was saying, she also did not grasp the situation she was in.

Then, in the next moment, the Aberrant Beast pierced by Xia Liang exploded.

It exploded in the most literal sense, its entire body bursting apart like fireworks.

What followed was the foul-smelling slime that had been stored and compressed within its body. It too sprayed into the air, then fell from the sky like a torrential rain.

The slime itself was not particularly harmful. Only after being compressed and fired by the Aberrant Beast could it become an effective attack. So even if it fell onto human bodies now, it would not cause injury.

The only problem was that the slime was, after all, a mixture of undigested biological tissue and Aberrant Beast bodily fluids. So it had one particular trait: it really stank.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeek—"

Under the blazing midday sun, foul slime splashed over the two Magical Girls, drawing out miserable screams.