"Come to think of it, this move of Asta's..."
"It's not just amazing. It feels incredibly familiar, too."
"A magical girl... yes, that's it!"
A flash of inspiration struck the quick-witted Lin Chen.
It brought to mind many stories he remembered from his previous life.
But those things from anime worlds had all been fiction.
What was happening before him, however, was utterly real.
Watching the graceful young station manager before him,
Lin Chen suddenly felt that the contrast between Asta's abilities and her identity was truly remarkable.
Asta was clearly an accomplished astronomer.
Yet in combat, she was like a magical girl wishing upon the stars.
In the world of Honkai: Star Rail,
mysterious blessings intertwined with the gears of technology, always producing wondrous sparks.
"Roar!"
After driving Arlan back, the enormous uncanny monster
sprang into action again.
The black tide surged toward them in a whirlpool.
Rising amid the waves, the gigantic beast swung its razor-sharp claws.
It swept toward the group with crushing force.
Though its ability to heal itself was astonishing,
Arlan's brave assault just now
had thoroughly enraged it.
Faced with these few insignificant humans,
it wanted only to tear their bodies apart in the most brutal, savage way possible.
Then it would absorb them into its body and turn them into trophies.
"Coming at us? I won't let you get your way!"
"Arlan, let's attack together and wipe out this evil monster!"
With a light tap of her fingertips, a crystalline, iridescent arrow appeared on March 7th's bowstring.
"Time to get serious for once. Let me show you what I can do!"
Leaping high into the air, March 7th fired from above.
With the twang of a bowstring cutting through the air, the iridescent arrow shot forth.
It then transformed into a sky full of crystalline ice rabbits, which rained down densely on the uncanny monster's body.
In an instant, bitter winds raged and surged.
The black tide froze under the power of the iridescent ice crystals.
Thick frost also covered the uncanny monster's twisted, tumor-like body.
Its headlong charge slowed to a crawl.
That's March 7th for you. Even her combat moves are this cute.
Six-Phased Ice... a wondrous power capable of freezing everything...
Lin Chen watched the battlefield closely, his gaze keen.
He could not help nodding silently, seeing March 7th in a new light.
Though this was not his first time seeing those exquisite shards of ice,
Lin Chen still marveled at the wonders of Six-Phased Ice.
The temperature at the instant Six-Phased Ice was unleashed probably approached absolute zero.
It was one of the most extraordinary substances in the universe.
"Bear my wrath!"
"With the blade in my hand, I'll turn you into lifeless fragments!"
Seeing the uncanny monster briefly frozen,
Arlan abruptly vanished from where he stood.
He hurtled forward like an arrow tearing through the air.
Arlan swung his lightning-wreathed warblade furiously.
Horizontal slashes, vertical cleaves, twisting upward cuts.
In an extremely short span of time, Arlan unleashed hundreds of strikes.
The monster's severed limbs, frozen by Six-Phased Ice,
scattered into the surrounding black water like shards of a shattered mirror.
"Die! Just die!"
As he swung his blade tirelessly at high speed, Arlan's expression grew ever colder.
Brimming with fury and hatred,
Arlan had become so worked up that he no longer cared how he looked.
"Ah... well..."
So this is what Arlan is really like deep down.
He's a complete battle maniac!
Watching the young man swing his long blade like a windmill,
Lin Chen's face twitched slightly, shock stirring within him.
At the same time, Lin Chen suddenly felt
that he should not have entertained certain strange hopes and thoughts about Arlan earlier.
Setting aside whether Arlan was a boy or a girl,
this somewhat crazed display alone was enough to make him back away.
While Arlan attacked the uncanny monster furiously,
the two Pathstriders, March 7th and Asta, did not stand idle either.
Drawing her bow again and again, March 7th kept firing Six-Phased Ice arrows.
Every arrow that struck burst into a great bloom of ice shards.
They coated the monster's sluggish body in swathes of white frost.
Asta raised her astronomical telescope-shaped Staff high.
She guided streaks of crimson fire down from above.
With each burst of flame, the scorch marks on the uncanny monster's body deepened.
This battle is going much more smoothly than I expected.
Sure enough, even an uncanny creation can't withstand three Pathstriders fighting together.
Lin Chen, who had been watching quietly with his arms folded across his chest,
nodded silently, feeling relieved that he had made such a wise choice.
Had March 7th been alone,
the two of them would probably already have been done for.
With Arlan and Asta joining them, the unknown risks had diminished considerably.
"Roar!"
But their good fortune did not last.
Before Arlan could finish cutting the monster to pieces,
a furious roar rang out.
A black ring of light abruptly formed, then spread outward.
Arlan, still swinging his blade furiously, was blasted away.
The monster's twisted body darted about like a swimming fish.
The prison formed by Six-Phased Ice was torn apart in an instant.
"La la la..."
"La la... la la la..."
The eerie, piercing song erupted in their ears once more.
An instinctive sense of oppression followed close behind.
Watching from the rear, Lin Chen felt a faint stabbing pain in his head.
[Mental contamination incoming. Current resistance rate: 69.84%.] [Host, please remain cautious. Do not allow your sanity to fall below the normal range.]
The system's mechanical voice rang out in his mind.
It instantly put Lin Chen on edge.
Though he possessed the [basic mental resistance] talent,
at this moment, Lin Chen could distinctly sense
that mottled streaks seemed to have appeared in the world before his eyes.
The lights in the B4 Load Zone, which had been fairly bright,
also began to dim gradually.
It was like the first sign of nightfall.
Turning his gaze to his side,
Lin Chen was startled to discover that Arlan and Asta were in a bad state as well.
The dark blue Alloy Warblade was embedded in the alloy floor.
Arlan clutched his head with both hands, letting out somewhat hysterical roars.
Asta braced herself with both hands on her mechanical-looking Staff.
Her slender, curvaceous body trembled slightly, and she looked barely able to stand.
In the young woman's clear, lake-blue eyes,
her gaze began to grow unfocused and vacant.
"Asta! Are you all right...?"
"And Arlan, you have to stay calm!"
A somewhat familiar voice reached him.
Lin Chen saw March 7th standing there, clutching her longbow and shouting.
Her delicate brows were slightly furrowed, and her beautiful eyes flickered with unease. March 7th looked terribly anxious.
Huh? March 7th is completely fine?
Lin Chen, who could still maintain his reason, felt rather surprised.
Arlan and Asta, who were also Pathstriders,
were already showing signs that their sanity was being eroded.
Even he felt something wrong with his body.
Yet March 7th was not affected at all?
Before you continue