Dragonkin

[Limit Temporarily Released]

[Dragon Heart Output 120%]

[All Weapon Free]

[Dragonkin Mode Activated]

The Magical Girl was the first to notice something was off.

Catching Alice’s form blurring just before the laser hit, she immediately stepped back and cast a detection spell.

‘Behind!’

When did she-?

No, that wasn’t important right now.

The Magical Girl threw a punch behind her.

Crunch!

Looking at her punch that was blocked so easily, the Magical Girl soon made a disgusted expression.

The silver claws digging into her arm, thickened arms, minute scales covering the entire body, vertically slit pupils.

Looking at the appearance that seemed to mix human and dragon, the Magical Girl muttered with contempt.

“So you weren’t a magical girl but a monster?”

“I told you from the start that I wasn’t, why won’t you listen?”

“How dare a monster like you impersonate a magical girl of justice! Unforgivable! Burn! You must be burned at the stake!”

“…You really don’t listen to others at all, do you?”

The Magical Girl ignored Alice’s words and firmly grabbed her hand.

Though close combat wasn’t her specialty, things were different when grappling like this.

‘I’ll burn you until not even ashes remain!’

The white flames that erupted from the Magical Girl spread along the arm and instantly engulfed Alice’s entire body.

She had no doubt this monster wouldn’t even be able to scream against the flames of justice that could burn not just material but even immaterial things.

“Ah, I should have lowered the intensity! What a mistake!”

“Why is that a mistake?”

“So you could suffer in pain for as long as possible! Dying instantly without feeling pain is too merciful…”

The Magical Girl who had been answering reflexively tilted her head as she realized something strange.

The monster who impersonated a magical girl should have turned to ashes and disappeared.

Then who was she talking to right now?

“That’s hot. But at this level, the shield can easily withstand it.”

The monster who should have burned to death was standing there completely fine, without even her clothes or hair being scorched.

The Magical Girl who had been blankly staring at this incomprehensible sight heard Alice’s emotionless voice.

“It’s my turn now.”

Crack!

“Hmph! Is this all you’ve got?”

Along with the sound of bones breaking, her wrist twisted in an unnatural direction.

Though it was a serious injury that would leave permanent disability in normal people, it was nothing to her.

If she could just let go, this level of injury would be…

Crunch!

The sound of flesh tearing and bones being crushed.

The Magical Girl saw her arm that had twisted completely into a grotesque shape almost too horrible to look at.

“…Huh?”

The human arm has limits to how far it can rotate in place.

But machines can exceed human limitations and achieve flexibility as much as their structure allows.

Just like now, when her arm was twisted like a pretzel after being rotated dozens of times in the blink of an eye.

Crunch!

The arm that had been twisted to its limit was simply ripped off with a slight pull from Alice.

Seeing the claws swinging toward her through the waterfall of blood pouring down, she bit her lip until it bled and threw herself backward.

‘I dodged-‘

Slash!

“Kyaaaah!”

A terrible scream burst from the mouth of the Magical Girl who hadn’t made a sound even when her arm was torn off.

It couldn’t be helped.

Anyone would scream if their body was split in half vertically.

“I don’t like you.”

The Magical Girl’s eyes filled with terror as she belatedly noticed Alice’s arm that had grown over half its original length and the five claws that touched her head.

She would die if that hand closed.

Clang!

What saved the Magical Girl frozen in fear of death was the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

After glancing at the Red Knight who had blocked her attack, Alice sensed the presence of the remaining three knights approaching from three directions and threw herself forward.

The Black Knight calmly deflected her two hands moving dazzlingly according to the combat patterns stored in her artificial brain.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were warriors who had surpassed mastery with pure martial arts alone.

It would take considerable time to subdue them fighting normally.

Crunch!

The Black Knight who had been exchanging fierce blows was sent flying back after receiving a strong impact to his armor and chest.

A tail in the form of a four-sided sword entered the Black Knight’s vision as he stiffened from the unknown strike.

The remaining three knights launched a combined attack to save the White Knight who was in danger.

A perfect combination where they covered for each other!

The three knights thought their opponent would retreat leaving the Black Knight, but Alice betrayed those expectations as if it was natural.

[Prediction Complete]

Lasers fired from her wings intercepted the formless arrows shot by the White Knight, her tail struck down the Red Knight’s sword, and her left arm twisted at an impossible angle perfectly caught the Blue Knight’s scythe swung from a blind spot.

In the instant the three knights stiffened at the unexpected situation, countless steel feathers explosively launched from the wings on Alice’s back.

Most of the thousands of feathers shot with precise calculations were too quick and tricky to block, embedding themselves in the three knights’ armor and causing intense explosions.

Boom!

Meanwhile, Alice who had infused plenty of magic power into Dragon’s Claw swung her right arm down from above.

The Black Knight tried to block with his scales but was cut as easily as tofu before the cutting power of Dimensional Slash activated with the Dragon Heart’s magic power.

Boom!

The fragmented Black Knight disappeared without a trace under the baptism of ultra-high temperature plasma and magic.

“That’s one down.”

“Y-you…”

“…”

The Magical Girl who had restored her body and the Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse who had lost their companion stared blankly at Alice showing a composed expression.

No matter how relatively weak the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were individually, they were still calamities with the power to destroy the world.

The impossible situation of taking down one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, while simultaneously fighting multiple calamities, threw everyone into confusion.

“…I guess she had good reason to boast.”

Alice quietly muttered, recalling Sophia who had insisted that the human body was not suitable for combat.

-The human body isn’t very suitable for combat. It doesn’t have hard horns, sharp claws, and there are clear limits to the muscle power and flexibility it can achieve due to its structure.

-Then what’s the most suitable form for combat?

-Tanks and airplanes.

-Stop joking.

-I’m serious though.

-…

-Hmm, well it depends on the situation. The more arms the better if you can handle the calculations and balance, multi-joint form is good for changes and flexibility, and quadrupedal form is good for speed. Anyway, what I want to say is that the human form isn’t suitable for combat.

-I see. But why are you suddenly saying this?

Sophia glanced at Alice’s expression as she held out her tablet.

On it were images of various forms – monsters with three heads and six arms, humans with quadrupedal forms, and even beasts that went beyond human.

-It’s nothing much, just wondering if we should make your body in one of these forms here.

-…No thanks.

-Come on, think about it again. If you get stronger, it ultimately helps Mr. Yuseong too, right? Just adding two more arms to use only for shooting would…

-Absolutely not.

Alice who absolutely hated having an inhuman body even if it wasn’t her real one firmly refused, and Sophia who wanted to create the ultimate combat unit using the Dragon Heart as a power source desperately tried to persuade her.

The form finally chosen as a result was the current half-human half-dragon form.

Though Alice hated it because it reminded her of the dragonkin who had rotted to death in glass tubes, and Sophia hated it because it only achieved mediocre combat power improvement, one thing was certain.

That it was at least more suitable for combat than the human form.

“Die!”

Alice who blocked the incoming heat ray by wrapping her body with her wings flew toward the nearby Red Knight.

In front of the irregular attacks created by both arms, both legs, both wings and tail, the Red Knight had no choice but to keep retreating.

Clatter! Clatter!

Of course, the other calamities weren’t just watching this.

Though one was missing, the three knights pressured Alice with encirclement so naturally that they didn’t feel the gap, and the Magical Girl fired heat rays looking for openings.

A combined attack by four calamities who had driven the world to destruction.

Even a master with abundant experience would have gotten confused with their hands and feet, but Alice who was receiving support from her artificial brain actively used her android functions to drive back the calamities instead.

‘This body is completely different from a normal human.’

No matter how flexible, the human body has inherent limits to movement due to the structure of bones, joints, and muscles.

Can a human rotate their neck a full circle?

Can they extend their arm over 180 degrees beyond the elbow joint’s limits?

No matter how much you train and master mystic arts, some things are fundamentally impossible while wearing the shell of a human.

A mechanical body made those impossibilities possible.

Crunch!

The Red Knight’s armor caught by Alice’s swinging claws was torn off like paper.

The Blue Knight’s ear twitched slightly.

Attacks would come head-on then instantly change to the opposite direction as the elbow rotated, and just when you thought you dodged, they would curve in tricky trajectories to connect as effective hits.

It wasn’t just the joints that were free.

Blades would suddenly protrude from elbows, knees and various other parts, the tail would split in two to aim for vital points, bullets would fire from fingertips, and lasers would unexpectedly shoot from eyes.

Unless you fought several times to build up experience, it was impossible to predict the movements.

“T-take this! Take it! Take it all!”

Even bombardment wasn’t very effective.

Alice easily avoided numerous bombardments with dazzling aerial maneuvers while using railguns and magic to counter-attack the Magical Girl.

Though some hits landed occasionally, they couldn’t pierce through the barrier maintained by the Dragon Heart’s output.

A full-power bombardment could break through the barrier, but that was impossible while entangled with the Knights of Apocalypse.

As a result, though luck and circumstances were on her side, Alice was able to not just buy time but gain the upper hand against four calamities.

‘Ugh, should I retreat for now? Those gloomy uncles are blocking so she probably can’t follow. For justice, taking a step back…’

Swoosh!

The Magical Girl and knights who judged there was nothing to gain from continuing to fight here began checking each other’s expressions with their battered bodies.

They planned to flee without looking back if even a small opportunity arose.

And that opportunity came from somewhere no one expected.

“Ah, what is this… now?”

The Magical Girl who raised her head at the suddenly darkened sky froze.

A mountain was falling from the distant sky above.