Cestus

The next moment, Larkspur saw the magic wand in Sparrow's hand transform into shimmering, chaotic currents of magic.

She had sensed that the other party was closing in on her, and she also realized that Sparrow might have some kind of ability that could only be used at close range.

A sense of alarm immediately arose in her heart, but fortunately, Larkspur was prepared. As runes flew out from her sleeves to form a barrier, she began to retreat.

The direction she retreated was also predetermined, an area where she could leverage the power of her Magic Armament.

"Too slow!"

Sparrow sensed the Larkspur's intentions, pulled out a rather exaggerated claw-shaped Magic Armament from the turbulent current, and then swung the rope at its end, hurling it fiercely towards the Larkspur's location.

Almost at the same time, Larkspur felt his retreating speed begin to slow down.

The Magic Armament thrown by the Sparrow was a hidden weapon shaped like an eagle's claw, with four blades, three in the front and one in the back, and a rope attached to the base, the end of which was held in the Sparrow's hand.

In the Material Realm understanding, such weapons, or concealed weapons, are called grappling hooks.

As the Sparrow threw its grappling hook, the Magic Armament generated a strange attraction, drawing in living things around it like a magnet, causing the Larkspur, its target, to slow down.

Moreover, even though it wasn't aimed at the Larkspur when it was thrown, once the Larkspur was affected and its speed decreased, it seemed to have a mind of its own and changed direction, quickly swooping towards its direction.

In the blink of an eye, the grappling hook was already in front of the Larkspur.

Seeing that her attack was about to hit, the Sparrow's smile grew even more gleeful.

This is precisely why she was willing to use her Magic Armament only after shortening the distance between them: her Magic Armament has a dual effect of locating and attracting enemies within a certain range. In addition, it has extremely strong destructive power, so once used, it will definitely severely injure the enemy.

Following her gaze, the grappling hook aimed directly at the Larkspur's figure not far away, and soon a muffled "thud" was heard, as if it had hit something.

Everything went as she expected. The information gap between herself and the other side was not equal, and it was precisely this information gap that gave her a significant advantage in this battle where the enemy was in the light and she was in the dark.

"Haha! I told you, you can't escape!"

Laughing loudly, the Sparrow pulled back on the rope, trying to pull the talons at the end of the rope and drag the Larkspur back from a distance.

But as the rope was pulled and gradually retracted, she suddenly realized: there was nothing there.

Only a few strands of lingering magic remained clinging to the grappling hook's bladed toe, reminding her what she had caught.

"This is--"

Her eyes widened in surprise.

"It's a stand-in doll I made on the spot."

A cool, clear voice came from behind her.

Behind her, Larkspur had appeared at some point, and the Magic Armament in her hands had transformed into Masterpiece, becoming two giant gauntlets wrapped around her hands.

"Masterpiece, Part Two: The Cestus of Heavy Blow."

Without uttering another word, she muttered to herself, swung her boxing gloves, and delivered a heavy punch to Sparrow's back.

Before the Sparrow could even turn around, it felt a sudden, tremendous force coming from behind it.

Boom!

A tremendous sonic boom echoed through the air, causing countless passersby below to stop and look up in awe.

Then they saw a small figure fall from the sky and crash heavily onto an empty road.

Thump!

After the tremendous impact, what appeared before them was a road surface almost completely shattered by the collision, flying dirt and rocks, and a black figure lying at the bottom of a deep crater.

"Finally caught this guy. Next... let's notify the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau to come and arrest him."

Descending slowly from high above, hovering about ten meters above the ground, the gauntlets around its hands dissipated. Looking down at the potholes in the road below, the Larkspur sighed.

"However, this time it seems we really will have to bring the Investigation Institute."

The rebel organization called "Claw Mark" had indeed appeared in Fangting City, and they had even brazenly come to his door to challenge him to a duel. He could not possibly let this kind of incident pass by lightly.

Not to mention, according to the director of the Fangting City Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, this group of people is likely also related to the disappearance of the former Seeder "Nini"; even the mysteriously appearing Pupa Stage Aberrant Beast underground may be the work of related personnel. Even for the sake of her daughter's future safety, she has to eradicate these people's influence in Fangting City.

Having finally caught them by the skin of their teeth, capturing and expelling these swindlers is essential for the Fangting City Squad's upcoming operations.

The reason he sighed was that once the Investigation Institute got involved, the news of his comeback would truly be impossible to keep secret.

As the organization where he was seconded, the Investigation Institute had many connections with him, including many people he could call "old acquaintances." After the news of his comeback spread, he feared that his regular life of working and taking care of his child in Fangting City would be difficult to maintain.

To be honest, although she had been prepared to face these things ever since the day she decided to resign and even took out the Flower of the Heart from the closet, she still couldn't help but feel a little melancholy when she actually got to this point.

Let's not think about that anymore, let's call some people to subdue this guy first.

She was about to take out her phone to call Hong Siyu when her hand touched the phone and it started vibrating first.

Looking at the screen, she saw the words "Lin Xiaolu" displayed, and she couldn't help but raise her eyebrows.

Larkspur remembered the message Xia Liang had sent her in the group chat, saying that they suspected Moko had found a prospective magical girl but was keeping it a secret, and they wanted to investigate.

The reason for making this call now is probably because of this matter.

Logically, she should first explain the situation to Hong Siyu and the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, but after some deliberation, she felt that Lin Xiaolu's call was more important.

With this in mind, Larkspur raised her thumb to the screen, ready to press the call button.

But she didn't manage to press it in time.

"Whoosh!"

Because, almost at the same time, a black shadow suddenly swept past her wrist and swiftly struck her hand.

Larkspur caught a glimpse of this scene out of the corner of her eye and reacted quickly enough to withdraw her hand. However, because the target of the sneak attack was too small and came too fast, she could only manage to pull her hand back. The phone she was holding was knocked to the ground and fell into the bushes nearby.

Before she could check her phone, Larkspur immediately looked at the small, dark figure that had suddenly attacked her. After recognizing the figure, she asked with some confusion, "Sparrow?"

She wasn't calling out the enemy's code name.

It was not something else, but the tiny black shadow she saw—a small Sparrow flapping its wings.

Normal Sparrow shouldn't have such high flight speeds, and their flight endurance is relatively poor. How could they be so fast that even a magical girl like her couldn't react?

"... Ouch, that hurts!"

Just as the Larkspur began to ponder, despite being some distance below, the Sparrow's voice clearly echoed from the pit.

"I'm not dead yet! The fact that I can still think about making a phone call at a time like this... should I say I'm worthy of being a former Flower Card?"

Emerging from the pit once more, the Sparrow reappeared in the Larkspur's sight.

She remained conscious, and one could even say she still possessed the ability to fight, which surprised Larkspur.

She was well aware of the power of her Masterpiece's heavy blow: without using advanced Spell Formula or defensive Magic Armament, most Leaf Rank or even Blossom Rank magical girls would not be able to withstand such an attack.

Given a magical girl's physical abilities, taking a punch from Masterpiece would be...

Let alone the fact that this magical girl named Sparrow was attacked abruptly from behind, even if the Larkspur herself had stood still and taken the hit, she probably wouldn't have felt good.

Therefore, it is quite incredible that Sparrow can still maintain their mobility.

This magical girl who suddenly appeared claims to have been Letter Card before, so the stage of her ability Blossoming should be in the range of Leaf to Blossom Rank.

It's not that there's no Flower Rank among the Letter Card, but rather that those magical girls who Blossoming reached the Flower Rank but aren't qualified to receive Flower Card don't call themselves Letter Card; they feel it's beneath them to say they are.

Most importantly, Larkspur herself knows very well that she cannot defeat magical girls of the Blossoming to Flower Rank right now.

As magical girls' abilities Blossoming, each stage brings a significant bottleneck, starting with the Blossom Rank. Overcoming this bottleneck leads to another tremendous boost.

From leaf to bud, from bud to flower, with each leap, the magical girl's combat ability gains an important dimension.

Larkspur has a clear understanding of his current combat abilities.

That's why she could conclude that this magical girl who called herself Sparrow wasn't Flower Rank either.

However, after being struck hard by the Masterpiece Gauntlets, she fell to the ground in a much more disheveled state than before, and her magical clothing was torn in several places, indicating that she had suffered considerable damage.

Her appearance at this moment, however, puzzled Larkspur once again.

Because at some point, the Sparrow's left arm, which was originally human, had disappeared, replaced by a pair of magical bird wings with black backgrounds and yellow spots, which looked quite eerie.

Her eyes also underwent a change, the most obvious feature being that her iris became enormous, almost taking up the entire eye socket; the remaining sclera was no longer human white, but turned black.

"Never seen it before? You should be happy, since I rarely use my Half-Beast Form in front of others."

The Sparrow raised its head, revealing the purplish-black Heart Gem below its neck. Its eyes widened, and a look of excited, belligerent smile spread across its face, "Don't get distracted, the real show is about to begin."

She raised half of her body, which had transformed into bird wings. Her jet-black magical wings flapped, and the dissipating magic surged forth like a torrent, creating waves that even reached the onlookers. The magical waves elicited gasps and screams; many people cried out in agony the moment they were touched by the magic.

This kind of magic has a corrosive and harmful effect on even the magic of magical girls, let alone on ordinary people with weak magic. The corrosive and destroyed effect on the tiny amount of magic in one's body that is closely related to life is a pain that ordinary people cannot bear.

Originally, Larkspur was still observing the situation and planning to find her phone. She didn't have time to think about anything else and could only use her Magic Armament to make layers of silk threads appear from the intersection, blocking the black magic from rushing towards the pedestrians.

"Stop watching the commotion and get out of here!" she shouted at the passersby who were still bewildered.

"Didn't I tell you not to get distracted?!"

On the other side, the Sparrow chirped excitedly and took to the air again. This time, her speed was so fast that her trajectory was invisible to ordinary people.

Not only that, the little Sparrow that had previously ambushed the Larkspur from the shadows also took flight with her, several of them following her like wingmen in the air. These little Sparrow opened and closed their beaks, actually spitting out tiny magic bullets.

The tiny magic bullets, seemingly only the size of a mung bean and not particularly deadly, are incredibly fast, making them difficult to spot with the naked eye and easily hitting ordinary people.

The magic of black and blue intertwined once again in the air, and this time, blue was clearly in a passive position.

After transforming into what it called its "half-beast" form, Sparrow not only became stronger in terms of physical attributes and speed, but its magical power also suddenly increased to a higher level, completely suppressing Larkspur.

If someone knowledgeable were observing this battle, they would have noticed that while Larkspur was far superior to Sparrow in terms of combat intuition and planning in the use of magic, Sparrow's method at this moment was simply overwhelming force, firmly holding the upper hand in pure magic output.

However, Larkspur was not in a hurry; rather, she remained very calm.

Even though she was already on the defensive, she was conserving her magic, using the combined defense of her barrier and Masterpiece to block the Sparrow's fancy and frequent attacks, while looking for an opportunity to counterattack.

Why not unfold the Wonderland? Cornflower!

This one-sided defense also made the Sparrow feel very bored, as if it were just hitting a tortoise shell, with no fun in the battle at all.

So she unleashed her magic once more, taking out her grappling hook Magic Armament.

Dark magic spread from her right arm, and the tip of the grappling hook began to emit an ominous light. She swung her arm in mid-air, like throwing a spear, and forcefully slammed it towards the Larkspur.

The claw-wielding Magic Armament, also enveloped in dark magic, slammed heavily onto the Masterpiece formed by the Larkspur, but this time the force was far greater than before: although it still failed to pierce the Masterpiece, it sent it flying along with the Larkspur behind it.

"Or is it really as the rumors say...?"

Using her remaining right hand, Sparrow pulled back her Magic Armament and laughed freely again:

"During the defense of 'The Garden,' your Heart Gem malfunctioned because you used power beyond its limits, right?"

I've put the two chapters together, so I'm sorry I couldn't update at noon, meow. I'll try harder tomorrow, meow.