The Witch's Hair

The Witch, who had likewise failed to find Fu You, gave up searching and turned her gaze toward the five Magical Girls gathered together.

Her eyes swept over the five Magical Girls before finally settling on Huang Xing.

Though her hair was constantly being blasted apart by bullets, she showed neither panic nor anger. Still wearing that strange, wide grin, she calmly walked toward the Magical Girls step by step.

The hair covering the ground continued to spread outward. Whenever strands were severed, they quickly grew back. Though each clump of hair could be easily destroyed, it multiplied far faster than the bullets could fall.

Too much hair hung down, completely concealing the Witch's hands and feet. As she walked forward step by step, it was impossible to tell whether she was using her legs or the countless strands trailing across the ground.

Huang Xing tried firing several shots at her body. The magical gun fired bullets condensed from magic power, and the yellow spheres of light struck the hair before the Witch, leaving nothing but small dents.

The layers upon layers of black hair before the Witch were so dense that their true thickness could not be seen at all.

The Witch advanced toward the Magical Girls step by step.

Not only had her body lost its color, but the world around her was steadily losing color as well.

The ground she crossed and the walls she passed all faded like her body. The rear door of the classroom she had just gone past had already become yellowed and cracked from excessive decay, while the door itself had shrunk dramatically, as though it were about to wither away.

People could practically feel death passing through a single door.

The sickly yellow color made one's stomach churn the moment one's gaze touched it.

That was the scent of death.

Such a presence was not entirely unfamiliar.

Dead Zone—

One of the disasters that had descended upon the world alongside Fierce Beasts centuries ago.

Within a Dead Zone, all things withered. Every life would find its own end there, and only drifting sand and ashes could remain unchanged.

The air of a Dead Zone often contained a substance somewhere between dust and ash, like dried, burnt tree bark.

And now, similar ashes faintly drifted around the Witch.

Once humans entered a Dead Zone, they would age rapidly. As their organs continuously failed, even a young person would die of old age in less than a day. Research showed that as long as one remained in a Dead Zone for over ten hours, the body would irreversibly begin its countdown to death. Even if they left the Dead Zone alive, they would often die within a week.

And now, a Dead Zone had appeared across the ground the Witch had stepped on.

Though Dead Zones had no obvious boundaries or landmarks, any normal person could instinctively sense their unnatural aura.

With the Witch's footsteps, the Dead Zone spread through the campus.

It was nothing surprising for the Witches' Society to bring a Dead Zone with them. The world had long known that Dead Zones were creations of Witches.

If they could not kill the Witch here, then once she settled in, the entire school might become a Dead Zone.

There was only one kind of person in the world immune to the invasion of a Dead Zone.

Magical Girls.

"She's not moving fast. Everyone, spread out!" Huang Xing ordered.

The two younger Magical Girls nodded seriously, then left Huang Xing's side and circled behind the Witch, launching magical shells. Green Yi also leaped onto a nearby flower bed, drew her bow, and fired an arrow at the Witch.

Yet no matter which direction the attacks came from, they were dissolved by the Witch's hair the moment they struck her.

The Witch's body looked as though it had been pieced together from a tangled mass of distorted hair.

"What should I do?" Huali asked nervously.

"Stay back for now. If I get hurt, remember to heal me." Huang Xing smiled.

Even with danger right before her, Huang Xing's smile remained warm.

The Witch was not moving quickly. She walked step by step toward the streetlamp where Huang Xing stood, her hair continuously lashing toward Huang Xing.

As Huang Xing dealt with the Witch's hair, she spoke calmly with Huali. Her neat ponytail swayed with every agile leap, while her curvaceous figure gave off a powerful feminine charm as she kept jumping.

Not all Magical Girls were petite. Some, like Huang Xing, radiated the air of an older sister from head to toe.

Confidence was always highly contagious. Seeing Huang Xing's bright face, Huali immediately gained much more confidence.

Huali knew that Witches were not easy to deal with.

"You have to remember to protect me, okay?" Huang Xing said.

"Mm!"

Even though she had only just become a Magical Girl, she could still be needed.

No Magical Girl was unimportant.

After saying that, Huang Xing bent her knees and suddenly leaped into the air.

The Witch, already close to her, swiftly shot countless strands of hair toward her in midair.

Huali had previously tried dodging the hair in the air, only to be easily caught and left unable to move.

Yet Huang Xing, who had likewise taken to the air, hit the tentacles precisely with every shot from her gun.

Though it was clearly a flintlock pistol and she had not reloaded it, it continued firing bullet after bullet without pause.

When Huang Xing spun through a wide circle in the air and finally landed, the Witch's attention shifted along with her. The hair braced itself against the ground and lifted the Witch up. Countless strands became spider-like legs, suspending the Witch high in the air as she raced toward Huang Xing on legs made of hair.

"Eeya!!!!"

The younger Magical Girls beside them held hands. Working together, they used their wands to form a sphere of blue and yellow light and fired it at the Witch.

The Witch merely glanced at it and used her hair to scatter the sphere of light.

The two Magical Girls panted heavily. Just one attack had consumed a great deal of their magic power.

At that moment, Green Yi leaped to their side, embraced them from behind, and carried both of them several steps back.

At the same moment Green Yi pulled them away, several strands of hair pierced up from beneath the spot where they had been standing, missing them by a hair.

"Thank you, Senior!"

Green Yi smiled and said gently, "Be more careful, okay?"

"Mm!"

Huali gripped her wand nervously, her hand trembling slightly.

Her magic power had not recovered to begin with. After being bound by the Witch earlier, she had constantly felt empty inside. Even though she had done nothing but watch from the side, she still felt somewhat tired.

But seeing the other four Magical Girls busy fighting—even the two Magical Girls who were clearly much younger than her—only made her want to step forward and help.

However, she could also see that no one had been injured yet, so her Healing Spell was still of no use.

The combat techniques Fu You had taught her were close-quarters fighting moves.

Against something like a Witch, was close combat really possible?

With that endless mass of hair, wouldn't she be instantly drowned in it the moment she got close? Wouldn't she only be getting in everyone's way?