Chapter 106: Tempest of Pear Blossoms—Chaos in the Rain

He put away the special crossbow bolts, tucking them into the pocket of his white lab coat. Su Xiaoke then reloaded the magnetic gloves with a ring of much more ordinary-looking bolts before finally removing the arm guards and tossing them to Xia Youyou.

"I'm not happy!"

Cradling the pair of magnetic arm guards, the little girl pouted and acted cute. "The normal bolts aren't powerful enough. They can't hit Xiao Bai!"

Smack!

"What do you want?"

"How powerful do you want them to be?"

Once again, Captain Luo Fei slapped the back of Xia Youyou's head, scolding her. "Who are you trying to kill?"

Bai Yuxi broke out in a cold sweat—so this little girl was planning to use those formidable-looking weapons against him just now?

"Alright then! Anyway, I just want to test my new move!"

After a brief moment of disappointment, Xia Youyou bounced back, brimming with energy. She put on the magnetic arm guards, then pointed at Bai Yuxi with a flourish. "Xiao Bai! Come on! Let me show you the overlimit battle skill I just mastered!"

Bai Yuxi was taken aback. Was Xia Youyou asking for the magnetic arm guards from the academic goddess because she had just mastered an overlimit battle skill? Did such skills require special equipment?

Although he didn't quite understand, Bai Yuxi still cooperated, walking over to prepare for another bout with Xia Youyou.

But before they could begin, Maya, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly cried out in delight, "Ah! I did it!"

Everyone turned to look and saw Maya swing her staff, unleashing a curved flash of white light that streaked across the trajectory of her strike!

All eyes widened in astonishment.

"What were you doing in the training ground just now?" Luo Fei instinctively glanced at Bai Yuxi. "Why does it seem like each of them has awakened to something?"

Bai Yuxi had no idea what was happening and could only shrug helplessly.

"Hey!"

"Hey, Cow!"

Just as Xia Youyou was about to showcase her "new move," Maya stole the spotlight, leaving her furious. She shouted, "Couldn't you wait until I was done before showing off?"

"My name is Maya Ann Quist, not Cow!"

Maya, who was about to announce her mastery of the overlimit battle skill, was enraged by Xia Youyou's nickname and retorted, "You're the 4.5-inch tablet!"

"Who are you calling 4.5-inch?"

"Who are you calling a tablet?"

"You Latvian cow with two hot water bottles for horns!"

The little girl, struck in her most sensitive spot, went wild—like a bristling kitten, she pounced, intent on scratching. "Do you want to fight?"

"Fight it is!" Maya angrily raised her short staff. "You undeveloped washboard!"

"Ah!"

Xia Youyou had originally intended to spar with Bai Yuxi to test her new move, and was already fully armed. In addition to the two cross straps slung across her shoulders, which crossed over her chest like bullet belts filled with iron spikes, her slender waist was equipped with four hidden weapon pouches. Combined with the twenty-four bolts loaded into her magnetic arm guards, she carried hundreds of projectiles—twenty or thirty pounds in total!

Fortunately, as an exceptional individual, she possessed extraordinary physical strength; even though Xia Youyou was a petite, "burst-type" long-range fighter, she could easily handle the weight without hindering her movement.

Driven by anger, Xia Youyou moved with even greater speed. Her small hands whipped out, sending a dozen iron spikes flying, and once she started, she couldn't stop. Spinning and flickering her arms, she released volley after volley of sharp spikes, whistling through the air—within moments, the training ground was filled with her thrown weapons.

But Maya, the foreign girl, refused to be outdone. Clearly trained in some Western sword technique, she wielded her short staff to slash and parry, her movements deftly knocking down the incoming spikes. For a time, the two matched each other blow for blow.

Yet, with her new gear, Xia Youyou was riding high, showing none of the caution she usually displayed in battle. Each attack saw her throwing handfuls of specially crafted iron spikes as if they cost nothing.

After only a few dozen exchanges, she had already tossed away most of her hundreds of spikes, squandered with abandon.

It's important to realize that, for a mid- to long-range combatant like her, all her strength depended on the projectiles she carried; running out of ammunition meant losing her combat ability and made her heavily reliant on logistics. During missions, she couldn't afford to carry hundreds of spikes to waste as she pleased, nor could she simply pick them up afterward and start over. So at this moment, Xia Youyou's combat prowess was at its peak.

But the two girls were locked in a grudge match. Once Xia Youyou exhausted her ammunition, Maya certainly wouldn’t wait for her to reload as she would during formal training. When her arsenal was depleted, defeat was inevitable.

Girls their age are all fiercely proud—if a real fight broke out, Captain Luo Fei would have to start worrying about the team’s unity.

As Xia Youyou reached for her waist and found nothing left, Maya, who had been held at bay and unable to close in, finally revealed her exquisite face from behind her tightly guarded staff.

With a triumphant "Ha!", she stomped her foot, tossed the staff behind her, and leaned forward, assuming a posture for a powerful lunge.

The onlookers gasped—the foreign girl was about to unleash her ultimate move!

Luo Fei instinctively stepped forward, prepared to intervene.

But Xia Youyou, though out of ammunition, showed no panic. Instead, she flashed a sly, mischievous grin, as if her scheme had succeeded.

She spread her hands to either side, opening her stance as though surrendering, but then called out crisply, "Rise!"

Under the astonished gaze of everyone, as Xia Youyou raised her arms, the scattered iron spikes on the ground quivered violently.

They rattled and bounced across the floor, producing a dense, crisp sound like rain striking banana leaves, and then, incredibly, began to float and hover in the air!

Just moments ago, Xia Youyou had unleashed a barrage of spikes, covering almost the entire training ground.

With this sudden move, she surrounded the bewildered Maya with hundreds of floating iron spikes!

"Rainstorm Pear Blossoms: Chaotic Times Rain!"

With a low cry, Xia Youyou sharply crossed and swept her arms downward, and the hundreds of airborne iron spikes shot down in a fierce torrent!