Union

"You've transformed, you can continue."

Seemingly sensing Xia Liang's momentary hesitation, Mimosa did not make any further moves after transforming. She simply held her wand behind her back and calmly announced to Xia Liang.

Xia Liang didn't say anything more, but instead waved her magic wand and tentatively fired a few beams of Mana Beam forward.

As the most basic offensive method for magical girls, the Mana Beam is powerful yet doesn't require much mental effort, making it the best method for probing.

She didn't immediately use Spell Formula or Magic Armament —while this would allow her to quickly gauge the opponent's limits, it wouldn't actually be conducive to either side showcasing their abilities.

Ultimately, this battle is a contest, and there's no need to use extreme methods. While victory or defeat is important, allowing each side room to demonstrate their abilities is more in line with the essence of a "contest."

So, how would the opponent deal with the simplest Mana Beam? With this in mind, Xia Liang turned her gaze to the Mimosa after activating the Mana Beam.

According to her plan, most people would simply rely on their reflexes to dodge such a simple attack, or raise a barrier to block it. Those with exceptional skill and daring might be able to counter with their own Mana Beam... Regardless of the response, Xia Liang had already prepared a counter-attack plan. As soon as the opponent made a move, she could immediately employ her pre-thought-out strategy...

Unfortunately, when the Mimosa demonstrated its abilities, Xia Liang realized that these plans were probably useless.

She saw a scene that she would never forget.

How can one describe what they saw at that moment to others in the future? Even that seems to be a problem.

From her perspective, she could clearly see that her Mana Beam seemed to have been "crushed" by some completely invisible force.

First, it's important to clarify that Mana Beam, as one of the most basic attack methods of magical girls, is one of the four basic abilities that magical girls possess from the Seed level onwards, and is an extension of the "Mana Release" technique.

Flight, enhancement, Mana Release, and Mana Perception. These four abilities are the basic skills of every magical girl.

Regardless of the stage of Blossoming, these abilities that a species possesses from the beginning are the most frequently used, and a series of usage techniques are derived from these abilities.

This technique is not Spell Formula.

Using the human body as an analogy again, if Spell Formula are systematic fighting skills—such as how to attack, how to exert force, and how to strike vital points—then the skills for using these basic abilities are like "how to walk."

Yes, walking.

For humans, walking is a skill that most people inevitably acquire through learning, and often has a very high priority. This skill eventually becomes an instinct, to the point that there is no need to think about how to walk.

The same applies to the four basic abilities of magical girls. After initial learning and mastery, they become as simple as breathing, requiring no extra thought before use.

When ordinary people walk, they don't think about how to extend their legs, how to tense their muscles, how to make their entire foot touch the ground, or how to switch between the support phase and the swing phase. Most of the time, walking is just about "getting by." As long as they can walk normally, most people don't worry about how to accomplish it.

So, is there a relatively better solution for walking as a physical activity?

The answer is yes.

The rocking horse stance, the duck walk, pigeon toes, outward and inward turning of the toes... a large number of incorrect gaits precisely illustrate that many people do not actually know how to walk correctly.

However, whether the gait is correct or incorrect, the impact on the human body is not actually too serious. After all, the human body's shape is relatively fixed.

With a fixed body shape, movements using that shape naturally cannot deviate too much. For ordinary people, gait errors may only make walking posture less aesthetically pleasing, but in the long run, they may affect the shape of muscles and joints.

However, mistakes in magical techniques are far more serious for magical girls.

Compared to the human body, the True Form of a magical girl is actually more malleable, which means that in many cases, the way a magical girl uses magic does not follow a very conventional process.

During human walking, the muscle groups and joints that work together are ultimately fixed. In any case, walking is destined to be the result of the combined action of these bodily organs. No matter how outlandish the posture may be, most people ultimately walk on the ground using two legs.

But magical girls don't actually use magic like that.

The process by which magic originates from the Mana Source passes through its True Form, reaches the outside world, and affects reality doesn't actually involve many fixed steps.

This also results in magical girls using magic in ways that are far more different from human gait.

The idea of a person walking upside down using two fingers, walking while sitting using their buttocks, walking while half-lying on the ground using their elbows, or even cutting open their own abdomen to let their internal organs walk... is an absurd concept that is impossible for the human body.

However, the differences in how magical girls use magic are so vast.

Based on this, since magical girls' fighting styles differ from their True Form, there is no optimal solution to the question of "how to use magic." Often, strange phenomena may occur, such as "this person walks faster than others using only two fingers, but walks normally when standing up."

Given all of the above, the Mana Beam is actually a truly remarkable invention.

In terms of sheer power, it is certainly not that great; its speed, destructive force, and accuracy are not the best.

Even so, the modern structure of the Mana Beam has been gradually optimized and iterated by generations of magical girls, and has been refined in countless details, ultimately surviving to this day. Therefore, the greatest advantage of the Mana Beam is its "moderation".

No matter how you activate it, in what state you activate it, or what process you use to activate it, the power of the Mana Beam will always be "about the same".

Some magical girls use wands to unleash Mana Beam, some throw them with their hands, and some even simply open their mouths to spray them... But no matter how they use it, as long as the amount of magic power you put in is about the same, the power of the Mana Beam will always be about the same.

At the very least, if you had asked Xia Liang a few minutes ago to think about this issue, she would have given the same answer.

Until she saw Mimosa responded to her attack.

She was certain that her opponent had also used the basic ability of "Mana Release" at the moment of their counterattack. On top of this basic ability, the opponent's magic flow structure was extremely similar to that of Mana Beam.

No, then it should be Mana Beam.

As Leaf Rank magical girl, Xia Liang has an extremely clear Mana Perception in battle. The moment her opponent raises their hand, she can almost determine that their response is to strike back with Mana Beam.

This perfectly matches the attitude the other party had previously displayed. While it wouldn't be accurate to call it arrogance, it was undoubtedly quite confident—responding head-on with the same attack is precisely the most confident way to deal with an opponent. This is because such a method tests three abilities in the respondent: the ability to see the path of the attack, the ability to judge the power of the opponent's attack, and a high degree of proficiency.

If it only goes this far, Xia Liang wouldn't be too surprised. After all, it only shows that the other party's basic skills as a magical girl are quite solid, and it doesn't prove anything more.

However, the moment her Mana Beam was "cracked," Xia Liang's eyes widened in shock.

It wasn't just that the image of "crushing" seemed too unusual, but also because the outcome was beyond her comprehension.

Both were using Mana Beam, employing the exact same methods, and even their magical power was roughly the same, yet they ended up suffering a one-sided defeat?

She couldn't understand the outcome, so much so that she couldn't use any of the coping strategies she had prepared beforehand.

"It's my turn."

However, they were currently in the midst of a battle, Mimosa wouldn't give her a chance to process this information.

Almost at the same instant she countered Xia Liang's attack, she swung her wand, unleashing several pale red Mana Beam to return the attack.

This action not only made Xia Liang's heart tighten, but also made Lin Xiaolu frown.

Unlike Xia Liang, who was completely bewildered at the moment, she had already experienced this inexplicable phenomenon from White Thistle a week ago.

However, the contest back then wasn't on such a large scale; the two of them simply clashed with small balls condensed from magic, yet the result was their complete defeat.

Now, it's almost the exact same scene, but the people in the room have changed to Xia Liang and Mimosa.

How will we cope with the Xia Liang? Or rather, is there really a way to cope with the Xia Liang?

She subconsciously clenched her sleeves, her mind filled with complex emotions.

What Lin Xiaolu didn't know was that Xia Liang herself didn't actually have the answer to this question.

At least when the opponent unleashed the Mana Beam, Xia Liang's reaction was actually a beat too slow. Because in that instant, she had already formed a completely different understanding of the opponent's magic.

That should be considered something similar to the magic power of the Aberrant Beast.

The magic of the Aberrant Beast has a certain corrosive effect on the magic of magical girls. Therefore, when dealing with Aberrant Beast, magical girls will try their best to avoid their attacks. Even when they need to use a barrier to block them, they will not rely too much on the power of the barrier.

At this time, Xia Liang adopted this approach.

On one hand, she opened her hands and quickly condensed runes to form a barrier, rapidly releasing the Magic Barrier she had hastily learned. On the other hand, she leaped into the air and sprinted to the side.

This behavior may seem puzzling at first glance, but a little thought reveals its intention—she is testing the strength of the opponent's attack.

On one hand, they used Magic Barrier to deal with it, but on the other hand, they didn't expect the Magic Barrier to succeed at all, so they didn't hide behind it at all.

Her approach proved to be correct.

Just as Xia Liang narrowly dodged, the thrown Magic Barrier made a sound of being overwhelmed almost instantly, and then shattered into several pieces with a crash.

As for the Mimosa's Mana Beam, after shattering Xia Liang's Magic Barrier, it seemed to still retain some of its power, crashing straight into the wall of the training ground and leaving several charred craters.

"Good response, very calm, but this Mana Beam... after shattering the Magic Barrier, it still retained power close to that of a magic bullet?"

This made Larkspur raise an eyebrow and look up at Asō Madoka beside her. "Is this your team's secret weapon?"

Asō Madoka smiled without saying a word.

Not only did she smile without saying a word, but at that moment, the Mimosa in the room also slightly raised the corners of her mouth, as if she were smiling.

"Can I rest assured now?"

She looked at Xia Liang: "Give it your all."

Xia Liang was breathing slightly heavily at this moment.

Although she hadn't expended much magic in the previous exchange, her tense state of mind was undeniable. Even though magic True Form doesn't have a heart or respiratory organs, it didn't stop her from subconsciously taking deep breaths to try and alleviate the tension.

The opponent is very strong.

She realized this fact in just one round.

Not only has she been a magical girl longer than I have, thus possessing more abundant magical power, but her methods are also clearly more diverse than mine.

Xia Liang had no prior experience fighting magical girls, but logically speaking, in a battle between magical girls, the "variety of methods" is actually very important.

Even a magical girl of Flower Rank can only have her main combat strength broken down into a few major components: magical power, stamina, skill, Spell Formula, Wonderland, and Magic Armament. As Magic Armament and Wonderland are the two trump cards of a magical girl, they should definitely be postponed as much as possible to allow for a decisive counterattack.

Now, in the duel with the Mimosa, Xia Liang was forced to use Spell Formula in just one round, even though the opponent only used basic techniques, and still couldn't gain the upper hand.

This means that in the next clash of this contest, she will have to use more Spell Formula, or even bring out her own Magic Armament.

So, should we use Magic Armament?

Xia Liang began to assess the situation internally.

If I were to unleash my own Magic Armament — the Diversion —at this moment, I could catch my opponent off guard. I could even use their magic against theirs, which would undoubtedly resolve my previous disadvantage in the clash of magic.

But can simply using Magic Armament to bridge the gap between one's own and the opponent's magical power truly lead to victory?

The Mimosa is also Leaf Rank, so there's no doubt that she should also possess Magic Armament abilities and Spell Formula. Moreover, in terms of the time she's been a magical girl, her Spell Formula are likely more proficient than hers are now.

In other words, if you try to use Magic Armament to make up for the difference in magical power with your opponent, you will have no trump cards left. When your opponent brings out their Magic Armament, it's basically the time when you will be defeated.

At that moment, Xia Liang suddenly understood the reason why the other person told her to "use all her strength".

The Mimosa was right. Although only one round had passed, she was now in a situation where she had nowhere left to retreat.

Their basic abilities are temporarily suppressed, and the overall variety of their methods is also difficult to match. If they continue to fight by probing, they will only face a situation where they still cannot win even after using up all their trump cards.

If two people are playing a card game, and one's hand is worse than the other's, then the player with the worse hand must not play according to conventional rules to win.

From this perspective, it seems there is only one way to achieve victory.

--Play out all your cards and win the round by exploiting the information gap.

And the information gap is precisely what I currently possess.

This happened a few nights ago, when Xia Liang went to Larkspur to express her desire to learn the Spell Formula, and Larkspur told her this.

"I'll stop explaining the barrier techniques here for now. Just try to understand the basic principles first."

Putting away the Fawo Runes that represented Magic Barrier, Larkspur smoothed her loose hair. "If you want to win the upcoming matches, you might have to change the order in which you learn Spell Formula. You'll need to learn something else first."

"Other? What?" Xia Liang tilted her head.

"I made you a promise when you first awakened your Magic Armament."

Larkspur leaned back slightly in her chair. "Your Magic Armament is unlikely to be very lethal at the Bud Rank. If you want it to be effective, you'll need to wait until the Leaf Rank, where many Spell Formula can Magic Armament with it."

"I think that's what they said..."

After a brief moment of recollection, Xia Liang nodded. "So, does that mean we can learn those Spell Formula now?"

"Yes, but also no."

The Larkspur sighed softly, "The reason I asked you about your views on Spell Formula was precisely because of this. Your Magic Armament is so well-suited to certain Spell Formula that using Spell Formula would greatly increase your combat power in a short period. However, the knowledge behind those Spell Formula is often quite profound, and I'm worried that if you rush into it, you'll spend too much time on them."

"Isn't it a good thing to increase combat power?"

"No matter how exaggerated your combat power increases at the Leaf Rank, it can't compare to the power of your little finger after you master the Wonderland."

The Larkspur's eyelids drooped. "There's a saying, 'Don't pick up a sesame seed and lose a watermelon,' that's pretty much the idea."

"I understand, okay? Don't neglect your magic training, right?"

Xia Liang chuckled dryly, "I'm not a child anymore. I can't remember something after hearing it only once."

"Well, you'd better remember that."

Larkspur stared at Xia Liang for a long time, until Xia Liang's smile was about to fade, before slowly withdrawing her gaze. "Then let's start with the simplest Spell Formula. Within the entire Spell Formula system, Spell Formula with similar Spell Formula and mechanisms are grouped into the same category..."

Classification of Spell Formula.

This is also a very profound subject. In the entrance examination of the Magic Kingdom Research Institute, there is a classic true/false question like this.

Fireball Spell and Fire Wall Spell both belong to the fire Spell Formula, so they are the same type of Spell Formula.

This question was created by Emerald herself in the early days of the Research Institute. Centuries later, it was removed from the question bank by Emerald herself because it was too simple. But without a doubt, it represents many counterintuitive aspects of the Spell Formula classification system.

The answer to the question is "incorrect".

There are two reasons. First, there is no "fire" category in the Spell Formula. Rather, the words "water," "fire," and "thunder" in the Spell Formula only describe the appearance, not the essence.

Secondly, it's because Fireball Spell and Fire Wall Spell are indeed not the same type of Spell Formula.

Although both Spell Formula outwardly represent "flames" and present the image of fire, their underlying principles are completely different, so there is no question of them originating from the same source.

Therefore, the classification of Spell Formula in the Magic Kingdom often requires researchers to memorize them by rote, and sometimes they even have to personally look up the rune composition of each Spell Formula in order to understand the reason why it belongs to a certain category.

However, among these many classifications of Spell Formula, there is one outlier.

Unlike other counterintuitive classifications, the Spell Formula used in this classification are almost all so intuitive that you can immediately identify which category it belongs to, and you can get straight to the essence just from the surface.

Because the common Spell Formula is that it uses a large number of rune structures to assist in the compression and arrangement of magic power, thereby achieving high density and high energy level of magic power.

The official scientific name for this category is "High-Energy High-Density Class". Of course, no one would refer to this type of Spell Formula in normal combat; magical girls would just give it a more intuitive and memorable name.

"That's really quite intuitive..."

Gazing at the radiance formed by the runes in his hand, Xia Liang subconsciously let out a sigh.

She had unleashed everything she possessed —Magic Armament, magical power, Spell Formula —all in an effort to defeat her opponent in the next encounter.

There's no question of controlling the force, because she knows she doesn't have the luxury of controlling it right now; if she tries to control it more, she'll only lose.

She really didn't want to lose.

Therefore, the only option available was this move, which had only been conceived a few days prior and which even the user wasn't confident in its effectiveness.

Diversion had fully revealed its Magic Armament form, but at this moment, they were all lined up in a row, with all the mirrors stacked together, forming a long cylinder that was aimed at the training ground from the air.

The rune in Xia Liang's hand was pointed directly at a mirror.

The Spell Formula that the Larkspur taught her a few days ago was a rather uncommon Spell Formula. As a basic Spell Formula of a certain category, it was quite impractical. Not only could it only hit within ten meters of the user, but within those ten meters, it was also very easy for the user to be Spell Formula.

However, this wouldn't happen if we used Diversion program.

The ability to transfer magical power through the Diversion can infinitely extend the range of this Spell Formula, preserving its Spell Formula at close range while ensuring that it does not affect Xia Liang herself.

This Spell Formula, and the entire category of Spell Formula it belongs to, all have such a resounding name:

--"Explosion School".