Ling planted her unbound hand against the earth, and the girl’s dragon pupils snapped tight like shutters in a storm. Those eyes could see where magic flowed—currents from the little one’s core and the outside world rushed toward that braced palm, a flood denser than the earlier Magic Cannon, pooling under her hand like a brewing spring.

“Underworld of the Despair Magic Cannon—!!”

It was a placeholder name, but the meaning landed like a bell. Anyone hearing it would know it was shorthand; the full title was “an Underworld wrought by a magic laser cannon so terrifying you’d despair, a purgatory that shouldn’t exist on Earth.”

Magic released into the air compressed under that palm, then burst outward like a shockwave. A ring twenty meters wide lit with connected streams, and through the Dragon King’s piercing dragon eyes, the ground below showed a web dense as an ant nest.

A cold prickle rose first—bad, bad omen—and she dropped the plan to keep pressing Ling down. Elegance be damned; she blasted backward, body a streak retreating through dust.

She’d barely cleared two meters when heat licked up from her soles, subtle as a snake, and a faint tremor ticked her bones. No time to react—the earth underfoot punched open, and a pure green pillar of light swallowed the girl whole.

Pain. Of course it hurt.

Her body was tough, and a layer of magic clung to her skin like armor. She could tank it for a while, and in that brief while, she had to get out of the column’s reach.

Escape wasn’t hard if she found a foothold. The topsoil was ruined, but that didn’t mean there was nowhere to step.

This Magic Cannon only scorched the surface mud; the layer twenty centimeters down still held like a buried plank.

She dug a toe into that hidden shelf, and her body surged forward like an arrow loosed.

The so-called Magic Cannon didn’t have pull to hold her, so no surprise—she was half out already, and a little more would clear the beam.

Rumble—!!

A weird thunder rolled. She stared down at the churning dirt beneath her, shaking like a fountain about to break and rise.

Boom—!!

It betrayed her hope. Not water—another green pillar, no different than before. She’d slipped free for a heartbeat, then her front half got dragged back into the Magic Cannon’s embrace, and her cheek prickled under that furnace heat again.

It hurts!

It still hurt, but it wasn’t fatal. Before the beam seeped into her skin like acid, there was still room to run.

Stubborn fire flared. She’d try again, this time backpedaling.

These magic beams moved under that little one’s control. Panicked runners bolt forward; backing up breaks the pattern. On experience alone, that kid couldn’t outplay her.

“Hah—!!”

She juiced herself with a shout, choking down the nausea as magic tried to worm into her open mouth, a chili-sting that burned tongue and throat. Both feet bit into the earth and kicked hard, and her silhouette slid backward in a rush, clearing the column in a blink.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Ling. The girl who’d been prone was now standing, gaze locked somewhere else, not on her. Relief tugged a smile across her face—victory at hand—yet she missed the sly curve of Ling’s lips, a trap sprung.

Swish—!

She’d barely praised her own brains when another light column wrapped her again, and her whole body soaked in that scalding blaze once more, again and again and again.

It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!!!!

Ling poured in more magic, and the pillar’s power climbed like a rising tide. The pain rose with it, sharp as broken glass.

It hammered nerves, but her mind didn’t fold. Thought grew clear, spirit steadied; ideas spun faster, a loom clacking at full tilt. The price was simple and cruel—no rest for a brain stoked by pain.

She teased out her situation, thread by thread, peeling the tangle like silk from a cocoon.

Here.

There.

So that’s it… that’s how it is.

She bore the pain and admitted—unwilling, but honest—that two failed breaks had taught her enough.

That woven “magic network” under the soil? The little one laid it down to strike her from every angle, no blind spot, a net cast wide.

Magic raced along those threads to her fastest, then popped open into a beam. Waiting for a column to burn itself out wouldn’t work; the web shared its power, a river feeding every canal.

Whether that network could sense her position wasn’t clear. But one counter rose like a mountain in her mind—become the Dragon King again, grow a body that dwarfed this twenty-meter circle.

It was shabby, a bit shamefaced. She’d taken human form to fight Ling cleanly, and now she’d flip back over a “small” problem—felt like playing dirty.

But who cares? In battle, does anyone call survival a cheat?

She soothed herself and felt no guilt. Black smoke began to curl off her skin like storm mist—the omen before the Dragon King’s change.