This meant that Leon was forcibly controlling and delaying the mana riot caused by the artificial extension of the transformation process, enhancing her combat power as much as possible.
The Apprentice Maid was decapitated the moment she appeared.
The remaining two were also turned into wood chips within five seconds, with Leon only paying the price of a few scratches.
Then came the third wave, the fourth wave…
Fists and kicks sliced through the air, and blazing trails of light illuminated the nearby darkness.
Nearly twenty Doll corpses were scattered in a full circle around her, with wood chips and limbs strewn everywhere.
Yet, Leon had no additional injuries other than a few scratches on her arms.
She felt the mana within her body becoming increasingly violent, about to break through the critical point once more.
She adjusted her breathing and turned to look into the deeper darkness.
Speaking of which, how many more enemies were nearby?
Could this be the lair of these Dolls driven by an unknown power?
Thud, thud, thud.
The dull sound of footsteps approached.
The fifth wave of enemies tore through the black mist.
Besides two seemingly standardized Maid Dolls, a huge black shadow appeared in the middle: a Carpenter Doll wearing greasy work clothes.
It held a hand saw with viciously serrated teeth in its left hand and dragged a huge cast iron sledgehammer in its right.
Although it looked like a carpenter, its aura was more like that of a butcher.
Feeling the mana within her body about to boil, a serious expression appeared in Leon’s beautiful eyes.
The ninth game, she had died at the hands of these three, unable to even make a final attempt at a full transformation.
The strategy had already been decided during the post-game review: prioritize taking out those two familiar Maid Dolls, then turn back and focus on dealing with it!
This time, Leon didn’t spare a single glance for that clumsy Carpenter Doll.
Her figure swayed slightly, utilizing her petite frame to pass directly under the Carpenter’s slow swing, her target fixed straight on the two accompanying Maid Dolls.
The red and white skirt twirled open in the air, the girl resembling a red butterfly flitting between the edges of blades.
First Maid, elbow strike, heart shattered.
Second Maid, side kick, head exploded.
Interference items cleared.
Only the Carpenter Doll dragging the sledgehammer remained on the field, having just turned around.
Its black button eyes moved, and it raised the hand saw in its left hand, seemingly only then realizing its teammates had all been wiped out.
“Next…” Leon took a deep breath, her toes touching the ground as her figure danced.
The first punch, a light tap to the chest, yet it unleashed an immense force.
“Clang!” The hardness was extremely high, and the recoil force traveled up her arm, but Leon was well-prepared this time.
She struck and immediately withdrew, her slender and beautiful body sidestepping the fatal sledgehammer by a hair’s breadth.
Whoosh— A heavy gust of wind scraped her cheek, and a fierce breeze whipped her long, cherry-red hair as the girl narrowly missed an attack that could have left her dizzy and dead.
But this time, she didn’t retreat.
At the very moment the sledgehammer struck the ground, when the old force had been exhausted and new force had not yet been born, the girl’s figure closed in like a wraith.
With the second punch, she leaped high, a Rising Dragon Fist slamming into the opponent’s jaw.
Thud!
The sound changed!
A slight loosening appeared in that indestructible texture.
Third strike.
Fourth strike.
The girl turned into a white afterimage, unleashing a frenzied assault around the clumsy Carpenter Doll.
Her attack frequency was astonishingly fast, each punch landing precisely in the gaps of the Carpenter Doll’s attacks, as if she were dancing on the edge of a blade.
The Holy Light enveloping the girl’s body began to turn red.
The saw swung horizontally, letting out a shrill scream like a malevolent ghost.
Leon crouched to dodge, a blazing-hot whip kick striking the opponent’s leg.
Fifth strike.
The sledgehammer slammed into the ground, sending chunks of dirt flying everywhere.
Leon dodged, a heavy punch striking the opponent’s lower back.
The Carpenter Doll’s originally indestructible overalls-style outer shell began to crack like a spiderweb, its movements visibly stuttering as if rusty gears were about to break down.
Just as it raised its iron hammer again, attempting to make another move— The fierce flame in the girl’s eyes flared brightly, seizing the flaw.
“It’s over.” Holy Light gathered on her right fist.
Instead of retreating, she charged forward, a one-inch punch slamming directly into the center of the crack.
Seventh strike!
Crack— Bang!
No clash of metal and iron.
The Iron Carpenter, which had left him utterly defenseless the last time, collapsed from the inside out in this instant like a detonated tower of building blocks, exploding into a sky full of splintered wood and components.
Clatter.
Countless fragments rained down.
Leon stood in the center of the ruins, shaking his slightly reddened fist, watching the empty depths of the black mist ahead, and softly exhaled.
But…
it wasn’t over.
Even more dense footsteps came from the deeper darkness.
Yet at this moment, because of the previous exertion and emotional surge, the critical point of transformation had already been silently crossed.
Blazing flames began to brew in her chest, bringing pain beyond her limits.
This meant she could fight with her life at most one more time before her journey would come to a halt here once again.
Yet the girl only showed a relieved smile: “ha…
I’m going to die again.” “Then…” (<ゝω·)~☆ BOOM!!!
– [Twelfth Descent] [Fourteenth Descent] […] [Eighteenth Descent] The black forest unfurled before her eyes once more.
The enemies of the first seven waves no longer held any secrets.
Although everything was a hundred percent real, identical to reality, for Leon, who possessed the [Precision Operation Engine], as long as she had memorized the attack patterns well enough, purely engaging the enemy was nothing more than a simple rhythm game.
The girl’s confident smile seemed capable of illuminating this darkness.
“Smile full marks!
Fighting Spirit, one hundred percent!” First wave, three seconds.
Second wave, seven seconds.
Fifth wave: shatter Carpenter Core, twelve seconds.
– The girl’s body, enveloped in Holy Light, danced a magnificent and cool routine among the enemy crowd.
Even the steps of her feet tapped out a certain kind of rhythm unique to high-end players, imbued with a sense of art.
The final Doll of the seventh wave collapsed.
Finally, the enemies of the eighth wave emerged from the black mist.
She was already quite familiar with this lineup as well.
In addition to two familiar maid-type enemies, there were three furballs with eyes bouncing on the ground, and an armored statue wielding a stone greatsword.
Six enemies!
Leon didn’t waste any words.
Stamping her foot, she burst forward.
The three balls that seemed to be “Kedama” were about to launch an attack, but Leon didn’t even spare them a glance.
In her calculations, the flight trajectories of these balls were already engraved in her mind.
The girl pivoted, lightly sliding sideways, then a red light flashed.
Several tufts of fur brushed past her cherry-red hair.
Leon had already flashed beside the “Apprentice Maid” holding a broom.
However, just as Leon ignored the greatsword-wielding statue and her fist was about to shatter the head of the Maid Doll…
Vrumm!
Black ripples spread.
An extremely nauseating sense of dissonance suddenly exploded from within the girl’s body.
The mana, which had been relatively obedient within the time limit, instantly became somewhat disordered, causing her movements to stiffen slightly.
This was the ability Leon called [Taunt].
If the Soldier Statue wasn’t prioritized for attack, the mana flow would be obstructed, making movement even more difficult.
Although this wasn’t absolute and could be forcibly broken through with willpower, doing so would likely disrupt the already difficult-to-control mana, bringing the critical point of losing control even closer.
Starting from the eighth wave, these enemies had actually acquired supernatural power, not just physical attacks!
And facing this disgusting mechanic she had already experienced, Leon didn’t even lift an eyelid.
It was all well within her expectations.
Instead of trying to forcibly resist the rules like she had the previous two times, she extremely smoothly used the stiffness caused by that chaotic mana, forcibly twisting her waist.
She took the punch originally aimed at the Maid, and using the momentum, swung it violently into the chest armor of the Soldier Statue beside her.
The reason she locked onto the Maid at first was precisely to make the Soldier Statue release this [Taunt] ability, preventing it from doing anything else.
After all, in the last game when she tried to attack the Soldier Statue directly, it actually acted as if it had intelligence.
Instead of using [Taunt], it simply swung its sword to slash, pointlessly letting the enemy save an action opportunity.
Clang!
The punch struck the statue, letting out a dull thud.
Leon used the recoil force to spin her entire body like a top.
The broadsword sliced past the tips of her hair, and her leg-whip had already accelerated again by borrowing this rotational force.
Red light exploded as that queued-up double-whip kick directly smashed the head of the Soldier Statue before it could even react.
Crack.