Chapter 277
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 277
Chapter Title: ...Girl?
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Yuna Kyung shuddered violently.
Through the ring-shaped item fastened around her ankle, she sent a telepathic message to Yeonhwa.
[……Princess sister, I feel chills for some reason.]
[It must be cold up high. Should I have lent you a windbreaker?]
[No, that's not what I mean—something feels dangerous! Aaack!]
Krarung!
Yuna Kyung reflexively warped through space.
She stared in horror as the thorn that had shot toward her like a cannonball shattered the railing where she'd been perched.
[Eek! I think they've spotted me!]
[Oh dear, so it came to that after all?]
[What's with the casual attitude? I'm about to die here!]
Pajing, pajing!
It wasn't an exaggeration.
In truth, Yuna Kyung had to spam space warps nonstop just to dodge Gula's attacks.
Yeonhwa was forcibly linking her psyonic senses to the Yeonhwa item to observe the situation in real time, so she couldn't possibly be unaware.
Yet even in this chaos, Li Chingwei responded calmly.
[It's not that surprising. Gula's pretty sharp, so I figured he'd catch on eventually.]
[Hold on! No one told me that! You said no one would pay attention to a little bluebird like me, so it'd be safe!]
[No, to be precise, I said it'd be safe unless something came up.]
[Now you say that—kyaaack!]
Kwang!
Perhaps annoyed by her constant fleeing.
Gula had started firing destruction beams from his eyes.
Thanks to that, Yuna Kyung—who'd nearly become roadkill for the bluebird—sped up her frantic escape and shouted.
[I'll settle scores later, so give me a plan first! A plan!]
[A plan...? You mean, like, words?]
[You saw this coming, right? So you must have prepared something!]
Yuna Kyung dashed along the railing before warping repeatedly, pressing the point.
From before the battle began until now.
She had followed Li Chingwei's commands more faithfully than anyone.
So in a pinch like this, Yuna Kyung unwaveringly believed Li Chingwei surely had a solution.
[No, I don't.]
[Pardon?]
[I didn't prepare any specific plan.]
[……Pardon?]
[Gula's reaching his limit soon anyway.]
Just stall a bit longer, and he'd collapse on his own—no need for a plan.
Simply keep running until then.
Yuna Kyung nearly faceplanted at Li Chingwei's brazen reply.
She barely dodged with a space warp and, while scampering away in panic, asked desperately.
[P-Princess sister? Do you have some grudge against me or something?]
[No.]
As if to say, What false accusation is this?
Li Chingwei answered immediately.
And with her usual beaming smile in her tone, she added.
[I'd never pull a mean prank like this just because you interrupted my quality time with my fiancé-to-be, right?]
[That's exactly why?!]
Yuna Kyung exploded.
Fine, she admitted it.
She'd butted in a few times because Rimon and Li Chingwei's lovey-dovey antics were so infuriating.
But that wasn't her fault.
It was karmic payback for Rimon and Li Chingwei flaunting their coupledom in front of a lifelong singleton like her.
She felt like a righteous thief turned wanted criminal for a bit of pilfering!
But Li Chingwei didn't bat an eye at Yuna Kyung's protests.
She just spoke lightheartedly.
[Now then, keep running hard. I believe you can hold out for at least an hour.]
[That's telling me to die! Right? You're trying to get rid of me now that I'm in the way of your romance with the team leader!]
[……Surely not.]
[What's with that suspicious pause before answering?! Princess sister? Hello, Princess si—!]
Kwang, kwang, kwang!
[Kyaa!]
Yuna Kyung screamed.
The building, battered by Gula's relentless bombardment, was finally starting to collapse.
With escape routes dwindling, Yuna Kyung gritted her beak.
[Argh, fine! You want me to last an hour? Think I can't?]
Was it pride?
Desperation?
Or fury at the couple?
Feathers bristling with surging emotion.
Yuna Kyung warped to the top of the half-collapsed building.
[Let's see, where did I stash that...? Ah, here it is.]
She rummaged through her down with nimble wings for a moment.
Pulling out a thread-like strand buried in her fluff, Yuna Kyung gripped it with both wings.
Kwang, kwang!
Judging direct hits on Yuna Kyung too tricky.
Gula targeted the building instead, unleashing thorns and destruction beams.
But Yuna Kyung ignored them.
She simply focused her mind.
[You insolent little bird! Dare to mock me?!]
Suddenly feeling dissed, Gula slammed his massive bulk into Yuna Kyung's building.
The result was devastating.
The structure snapped at the midsection, toppling like a rotten tree trunk.
[Heh heh heh, die!]
Gula's eyes gleamed.
The airflow from the crumbling building was storm-force.
No way a fledgling like Yuna Kyung could escape unscathed.
At least, he firmly believed so.
[Dia Ka.]
"Dia Ka."
"AuRa, Oum SuiTla……."
"―Zuiesz!"
⟨ Transformation Magic ⟩
Paaat!
[What the...?]
Gula squinted at the blinding deep blue light erupting from the dust vortex.
Then his eyes widened.
In the storm-whipped sky amid swirling dust.
A figure suddenly surged forth, slamming a fierce kick into his eye.
Wings spread in place of arms.
Feather garb covering only the essentials.
Even a white tuft spiking from her hair.
The half-human, half-bird woman oozed personality from every angle as she warped across space to land on the opposite building.
She struck a pose with one wing extended and declared coolly.
"Magical Girl Yuna Kyung, appearing!"
Ever since reincarnating as a bluebird.
Yuna Kyung had stuck close to Rimon.
But she hadn't just eaten and slept.
She checked on the orphanage kids, honed her space movement daily, and more.
She'd lived fulfilling days.
And amid that fulfilling routine, there were a few not-so-routine moments.
'Child, do you know what you were born as?'
She recalled the past.
The City of Mists, where she'd stayed briefly.
Memories from that eerie mage tower.
'I'm the bluebird of dreams and hope, of course.'
'A bluebird yes, but your breed is special among them.'
With intrigued amusement.
A fleeting chuckle.
'The Bluebird of Florine.'
'A lineage from a bird created as a familiar by a child named Florine long ago.'
'Meaning magic dwells in your body. A constitution that learns magic more easily than most.'
'Magic? Me?'
'A witch's familiar that can't cast a single spell? That'd be embarrassing.'
Joking?
Or serious?
Hard to tell, making it all the more suspicious—the crimson-black-haired witch, the most witch-like in the world.
'If you want, I could teach you a few simple spells... What do you say?'
An utterly random offer.
So half out of curiosity.
Half because it'd be fun.
She learned whenever she had time.
But the results were miraculous for a familiar's descendant bearing a human soul, trained by a legendary witch.
In just days in London, she could mimic a familiar, if not a full witch.
That let her stay with Cyr then.
And hold video calls with Li Chingwei across vast distances beyond even Yeonhwa's reach.
All thanks to that.
And now.
Yuna Kyung unleashed her accumulated efforts without restraint.
Pajing! Pajing, pajing!
"Eek, save the bluebird!"
......By running away, that is.
Her nonstop chatter and frantic wingbeats epitomized chaos.
A dizzying spectacle.
But Gula, chasing that frenzy, was driven mad.
'What the hell is this girl?!'
A bird using space movement?
Transforming into half-bird form?
He accepted it with a shrug.
As a monster-type player, shape-shifting humans or beasts weren't alien to him.
But even he lost it at what Yuna Kyung did post-transformation.
'Why is she so damn slippery?!'
"Yup, yup yup!"
She dodged thorns with aerial acrobatics.
Evaded beams by warping space.
Even kicked back when he tried to chomp her.
Her terrifying evasion and opportunistic counters left Gula grasping at air.
Of course, Gula couldn't go all-out either.
While pursuing Yuna Kyung, he endured combo attacks from sect-master-level experts.
Even accounting for that, her evasion was phenomenal.
Not just magic.
Cyr's transformation spell had two effects.
Flight capability.
And space movement as fluid as in her past life.
But that sufficed.
In life, she was a level 70s marquess-tier player.
Not far behind top-10 guild elites or Seven Dragon Society elders.
Crucially, as Rimon's PAB teammate, she was PvP specialized.
PAB agents were PvP pros.
Taught by Rimon himself.
Thus, Yuna Kyung was a top PvP master in the PAB.
Sure, giant-monster Gula barely counted as "human."
But his telegraphed, large swings let her read and evade swiftly.
'Ahh, feels good.'
Flipping past a massive maw, wind grazes her cheek.
She warps aside from a second head lunging from below.
After braking with wings to dodge thorns.
She accelerates arrow-like, stomping the eye prepping a beam.
Peok!
"Yuna Kyung Kick!"
[Kuh, you pea-brained wench!]
Sturdier than expected.
The eye twitched then fired another beam.
But she warped away.
The stray beam nailed one of Gula's other heads.
Kwang!
[Kruk!]
"Heh heh heh, judgment of justice! Divine punishment!"
A split-second late, and she'd be ash.
Yuna Kyung didn't care.
'Really, feels so good.'
This shiver of battle, long missed.
The fierce wind's touch.
The thrill of moving a human body.
Even in peril, it hyped her up.
'Yeah, now I get it.'
Sliding down Gula's long neck like skiing, enraging him further, Yuna Kyung grinned.
'What the team leader meant by past-life memories being a curse—this is it.'
Temporary magic transformation.
Arms still wings.
Yet running on her own legs felt freer than in bird form.
So liberating she'd mourn reverting.
This sensation too nostalgic.
Too fun...
Poof.
[……Oh my.]
[…….]
[Ahaha, whoops. Ten minutes up already. Guess I'll head out...]
Forgetting the spell's 10-minute limit amid the frenzy.
Back to bluebird mid-Gula's back, Yuna Kyung broke cold sweat and warped away.
[You XXX thing!]
[Mommy!]
Gula thrashed to catch her.
Just as he spewed venom overhead.
Kwaaaaang!
A massive explosion rocked Gula's bulk.
[Guh, what now—!]
Reeling from the unignorable impact, Gula froze mid-rage at the culprit.
He had no choice.
While fending sect-masters and chasing Yuna Kyung, the battlefield had shifted.
Green Dragon Clan elites who'd wiped Forest Guild were now encircling him.
But that wasn't all.
Dozens of combat helicopters filling the sky above the Green Dragon Clan.
Fighters flying in formation from the horizon.
And missiles on their wings emblazoned with "Made in Russia Khanate."
All left Gula dumbfounded.
[……What the X?]
Realizing he was screwed, Gula cursed and moved to act.
Kwagwagwagwang!
Dozens of missiles launched in unison, engulfing his colossal form in flames.