Chapter 70: Coercion

"I'll go right away!"

The maid bowed, then took seven or eight magical girls with her. Switching the SPG-A spear-launching cannons on their shoulders for rifles, they dashed down the mountain.

Their speed was extremely fast, covering five or six meters with every single step. Their clothes were already thoroughly soaked by the rain.

However, their fluffy short skirts and long-sleeved T-shirts did not hinder their movement, even when drenched.

The encirclement on the forested mountain continued. Amidst the continuous drizzle, the mud and wood fragments kicked up by every round of artillery fire reached heights of five or six meters.

Yet the trees in this mountain forest were not thick; if anything, they were rather slender, with the thickest being only as wide as an adult's arm.

Furthermore, the vines, weeds, mud, and rocks were all pitch black, making it impossible to distinguish them from the black char left by the explosions.

Maymoon, the white-haired beast-eared girl, galloped through the forest, gasping for breath. Agile and nimble, she ran like mad toward the depths of the mountain woods.

Her body was already covered in numerous scrapes and abrasions, some caused by snapped branches, others by shrapnel from the explosions.

She had no time to care, however. Her posture had shifted into an all-fours sprint, racing through the forest like a wolf.

She was also one of the cannon fodder captured by the Cwuh Blade.

However, her magic—the Frost Moon Wolf—allowed her to transform into a semi-beast form on all fours, making her extremely agile and well-adapted to the mountainous terrain, which was the only reason she had survived until now.

"Almost there. As long as I escape to the edge of this maze realm, I'll find a way out!" she thought to herself.

Bang—!

A shockwave struck. The trees behind her rustled violently, and a large swathe of branches and wood fragments flew through the air, carrying a powerful blast of wind that swept her running figure right off her feet.

In mid-air, she curled herself into a ball with all her might. Splattering mud, rocks, and wood splinters carved several new wounds across her back, before she finally smashed through a few finger-thick saplings and crashed heavily into a patch of mud.

She hurriedly scrambled up from the ground, her face caked in black muddy water, and looked back in terror to see that the Naked Fiend was only seventy meters away from her.

Naked Fiend was the name they had given to this defiled beast.

At that moment, a magical girl near the Naked Fiend was slashed diagonally across the body. Her severed upper half was sent spinning through the air, her eyes wide with a residual despair from her final moments.

Aside from her, only one other magical girl, thirty meters away, was still fleeing in panic.

"How could it be... how are there only two of us left so quickly?" Maymoon's eyes were filled with disbelief.

How long had it been? Out of seventeen magical girls, only she and one other remained?

In the brief moment of her pondering,

Splat~!

The magical girl thirty-meters away was shattered into several pieces, splashing crimson blood.

Rumble!

Almost simultaneously, that spot was engulfed by an explosion. Reaching columns of fire, white steam, pitch-black mud, and wood fragments shot seven or eight meters into the air together.

The flames dissipated first, while vast amounts of soil, wood splinters, and muddy water splashed in all directions. The steam turned into a lingering mist that hung heavily in the surroundings for a long time.

The blurred figure of the Naked Fiend became clear a few meters ahead.

This time, several ferocious gasps had been torn into its grim head by shrapnel, and a piece of palm-sized metal was wedged directly into its hideous mouth.

Aroo—!

It raised its head and roared, though it was impossible to tell whether the sound carried anger, pain, or a mix of both.

The Cwuh Blade members on the outer perimeter not only felt no fear upon seeing this, but instead wore expressions of joy.

After attacking for so long, this defiled beast was finally letting out screams of agony.

They pressed their attack with even greater determination.

Maymoon's mood, however, was the exact opposite. A profound despair washed over her like a tidal wave.

"No, I can't die here!" She gritted her teeth so hard she drew blood.

The magic power within her surged once more, her bones cracking audibly as she turned to run.

Yet she knew this was merely a dying struggle.

The Naked Fiend was very likely a mature-phase entity, existing in an entirely different dimension compared to the lesser defiled beasts they had encountered before. There was simply no way she could escape.

Swish, swish, swish~~!

She desperately wrung out every ounce of her potential, rocketing thirty meters away in a single burst.
Three seconds passed, then four, then five... The explosions behind her echoed endlessly, and the shockwaves whipped against her body.

Yet the cold embrace of death never arrived.

Unable to check her momentum in time, she glanced back and saw that the Naked Fiend had actually changed direction, fixing its gaze on... Shiraishi Kiyoshi, several hundred meters behind her!

"Why did this guy come here?" she thought in astonishment, finally halting her steps, her entire body caked in mud.

Yotsuba had originally been watching the battle from the thatched roof below when that maid, accompanied by several magical girls, had attacked her.

They attacked without a single word of warning.

Furthermore, it was a long-range assault, devoid of any explanation whatsoever.

They had sealed off all of Yotsuba's escape routes, leaving only a single gap open for flight.

Naturally, that gap led directly to the encirclement on the forested mountain.

Yotsuba had chosen not to meet force with force. Instead, following their design, she returned fire with her gun while fleeing through the breach into the mountain woods.

Rat-tat-tat...!

Magic power surged within her as she sprinted through the scarred and battered forest.

Mud splattered everywhere, coating her sneakers and the cuffs of her trousers in black grime.

The forest floor was terribly slick, obstructed by a chaotic maze of fallen logs and branches.

Whoosh, whoosh...

The whistling sound of rifle bullets tore through the air behind her. She could practically feel the kinetic heat of the rounds kicking up mud right at her heels.

The enemy was using gunfire to herd her up the mountain, driving her ever closer to the defiled beast.

Yet, this was precisely what she wanted.

Racing forward, the density of broken stumps and tangled tree trunks increased. With agile grace, she used the stumps as stepping stones, maintaining as straight a line as possible to shave precious seconds off her travel time.

Before she knew it, she had crossed into the Cwuh Blade's encirclement.

The magical girls forming the cordon were startled to see that Yotsuba was a male magical girl.

Male magical girls were exceedingly rare, and many were laying eyes on one for the very first time.

"That's far enough. He has entered the encirclement, and the Naked Fiend has taken notice of him. All squads, listen up—prepare for the next round of artillery fire!" said the maid, Cwuh Reiji—the very one who had driven Yotsuba into the trap.

As a retainer of the Cwuh family, she had originally been nameless, but out of absolute loyalty, she had been granted the family name by Cwuh Jizhao.

With her command issued, the tactical interface displayed on the communication devices worn over the eyes of every Cwuh Blade member updated with the combat order.

Simultaneously, their communicator screens zoomed in on the distant scenery without sacrificing clarity, angle, or any other critical detail.

A red inverted triangle marker appeared directly above the head of the rapidly moving Yotsuba.

The communication system even calculated the precise aiming angle, trajectory correction, and exact firing countdown for every single operative...

The magical girls bearing the SPG-A spear-launching cannons adjusted their barrels in accordance with the computed trajectories, locking their sights onto a spot fifty-seven meters ahead of Yotsuba.

Rustle~~!

The drizzling rain continued to fall from the overcast sky, and the mountain forest was thick with heavy mist. The moment Yotsuba plunged into the encirclement, the Naked Fiend sensed her presence.