Under the pitch-black night, on the broken and silent street, the tense and fierce battle temporarily fell into a brief lull and silence. Dorothy, dressed in a black robe, stood silently in the center of the battlefield, while the powerful threat was lurking at her feet.
Beneath the ground, the terrifying Stone Gargoyles were moving rapidly, circling around what he believed to be trapped prey, quickly closing in. At this moment, he was convinced in his heart that this battle had reached its end. The subsequent actions could not even be called hunting; it was merely the hunter harvesting the prey from the trap.
In this atmosphere, which was so quiet it was somewhat frightening, Dorothy, standing still, silently reached into her black robe. After fumbling for a while, she pulled out an ordinary Prit coin.
Holding the ordinary coin, which bore the likeness of the current Prit King Charles IV, in her hand, Dorothy took a deep breath. As if something had been touched, her slightly tense heart became completely calm at this moment. She silently closed her eyes, carefully using her ability to sense the iron sand underground and the movements of the subterranean enemy.
As time passed second by second, Dorothy felt the dangerous entity underground circling and approaching her, felt him slowly moving behind her, and felt him quietly emerging from the ground.
Behind Dorothy, the tall figure of the Stone Gargoyles emerged from underground without a sound. Ben Gecheer's sharp claws were raised high, directly engulfed in blazing flames. His stern eyes were fixed on the defenseless back. In the next moment, he would use these scorching claw blades to tear the enemy before him to shreds.
Just then, the figure in the black robe suddenly turned around. The delicate face of a young girl beneath the hood directly faced the silent attacker. With indifferent crimson eyes, Ben Gecheer couldn't help but be startled when he clearly saw the enemy's true appearance at close range.
'It's... a kid?!'
The enemy, who should have been completely restrained, suddenly turned around. This made Ben Gecheer feel a bad premonition, but at this point, he had no room to react. The flaming claws had already struck down, but faster than the flames and claws were the words from the girl's mouth.
"—Fus·Ro—"
Ancient words were softly uttered from the girl's mouth, yet this seemingly quiet language stirred up savage and powerful force. With a blast-like roar, a concentrated and powerful impact struck directly on Ben Gecheer's chest and abdomen. Even the incredibly heavy Stone Gargoyles couldn't help but be sent flying by this fierce impact, his legs leaving the ground as he flew backward. Ben Gecheer's eyes showed clear astonishment at this moment.
Relying on the power of the Dragon Shout, Dorothy instantly interrupted Gecheer's sneak attack and sent him flying nearly forty meters away in one go. However, relying solely on Unloading Force could not break through the powerful defense of the Stone Gargoyles, which even dynamite couldn't break. For Dorothy, the purpose of this Dragon Shout was not to directly defeat the opponent, but to create distance and suppress him.
The distance of tens of meters that he was sent flying by the Unloading Force... and at the end of the Unloading Force's effect, Ben Gecheer was still suppressed by the impact and unable to move. The state of being unable to make effective evasions with his feet off the ground was what Dorothy wanted now.
The moment the Dragon Shout was unleashed, the instant Ben Gecheer was sent flying, Dorothy, having completely turned around, extended her arm forward. Between her extended fingers, a coin was placed in a flicking posture. Dorothy's gaze was fixed on the Stone Gargoyles sent flying by the impact in the distance. An invisible force spread out, affecting the surrounding space, and fine electric arcs flickered around her.
While Ben Gecheer was still suffering the residual impact of the Dragon Shout, in the instant before his entire body landed, Dorothy flicked the coin in her hand. The moment the ordinary Prit coin left her hand, a powerful invisible force was applied to it, and then the entire coin shot out at an unbelievably high speed.
"Whoosh!"
Under the effect of the powerful force, the released coin accelerated incredibly fast in a way that people of this era could not comprehend. Before it had traveled far, the entire coin had accelerated to a degree where it could not ignore the air. The high speed caused the metal surface of the coin to rub violently against the surrounding air. During the process of air friction, the entire coin began to heat up rapidly. The surface of the coin became luminous and bright due to the high temperature, like steel just out of a high-temperature forge. Such a bright object shooting out at high speed appeared visually like a dazzling beam of light.
The dazzling golden-orange beam of light emitted from Dorothy's fingertip pierced through the street. The wind pressure generated by the high-speed shot swept around. After tens of meters of continuous acceleration, the heat accumulated by air friction had already started to melt the surface of the ordinary coin. Just as the coin was about to disintegrate, it hit its target, the incredibly solid chest of the Stone Gargoyles, and then pierced through it. This entire process took less than a second.
Before Ben Gecheer could react, the golden-orange glow had already penetrated his chest and pierced his heart. His solid skin, which could withstand rifles and dynamite, seemed so fragile under the unparalleled penetration power that far exceeded this era.
All of this happened too quickly. After Ben Gecheer's body was pierced, he didn't immediately realize what had happened. From his perspective, it just felt like the other party had suddenly shot out a beam of light, and his left chest felt as if it had taken another powerful impact. His entire body was pushed back a long distance again before he fell heavily to the ground.
Generally speaking, Ben Gecheer didn't care about this kind of beam-like attack, because in many cases, only skills like the Holy Blazing Beam of a Flame Elementalist had such a performance. However, he was not afraid of Elementalist, so when he got up after falling, he didn't take the previous blow to heart. For Ben Gecheer, compared to that beam of light, the impact that sent him flying earlier was more concerning to him. It wasn't until he stood up and felt a strange sensation in his chest, and found that he couldn't exert any strength, that he lowered his head to check. Then, his expression froze on his face.
At this moment, there was a not-so-large circular hole in Ben Gecheer's chest. Around the hole were cracks extending in all directions. The edge of the hole seemed to be faintly glowing because it had come into contact with an extremely high-temperature object. Inside the body within the hole, the flesh and blood that were originally protected by the solid outer shell had now been pierced through. The exposed parts had been burned to charcoal under the influence of high temperature, and wisps of white smoke were still rising from it. Ben Gecheer could also smell the scent of roasted meat.
His chest was pierced, but fortunately, because the high temperature had cauterized the wound, there was no major bleeding. However, for Ben Gecheer, whose heart was severely damaged, discussing whether or not there was bleeding was no longer very meaningful.
"This is..."
His eyes wide, with a look of disbelief, Ben Gecheer mumbled. However, before he could finish speaking, his vision gradually darkened, his consciousness began to blur, and his strengthless body fell to one side, his heavy body crashing to the ground.
Lying on the ground, Ben Gecheer felt the world receding from him. Under the gradually deepening darkness before his eyes, the last thing he saw was the figure of the girl slowly walking towards him from a distance. However, before the girl could reach his side, Ben Gecheer had completely lost consciousness, lying motionless on the ground.
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Dorothy, dressed in a black robe, slowly walked up to Ben Gecheer. Seeing Ben Gecheer, who had quickly returned to human form after ending his transformation, she used the power of Corpse Puppet manipulation to confirm that the other party was indeed dead, and then let out a long sigh of relief.
'Phew... Finally got it done. As expected, to deal with this kind of iron turtle, besides spiritual and soul-level power, you can only rely on this kind of method where great force creates miracles.
'Stone Gargoyles can block the bullets and mining dynamite of this era... But something like an electromagnetic cannon can't be blocked, right... After all, this is the signature skill of that Electric Princess.'
Looking at Ben Gecheer's body on the ground, Dorothy thought to herself, yes, the source of the move she had just used was the Level 5 Esper from Academy City in the A Certain Magical Index world, "Railgun" Mikoto Misaka. Dorothy had previously used her modified Plaral's Third Note to exchange for knowledge from another world, and what she ultimately obtained was Mikoto Misaka's Esper mathematical model.
In the A Certain Magical Index world, the espers developed by Academy City need to rely on their own calculations to achieve different expressions and releases of their abilities. Therefore, every esper there has their own calculation method, and they have all developed a set of mathematical models tailored to their abilities to facilitate precise control. Espers with stronger calculation abilities can release abilities more accurately, with more complex release methods, larger effective ranges, and greater power. Therefore, among the seven espers in Academy City, except for the Seventh, who is a Gemstone, all possess super-strong calculation abilities and their own unique calculation methods.
Mikoto Misaka is the strongest Electromaster in Academy City. After Dorothy obtained her Esper mathematical model, she could localize and modify it appropriately, then apply it to her Summoning Thunder Master ability.
As an Extraordinary of the "enlightenment", Dorothy also possesses considerable calculation ability. Through this set of mathematical models, Dorothy can also expand the release methods of her ability through calculation, greatly elevating her understanding and application of electricity.
The most intuitive manifestation of this was Dorothy's rapid progress in the application of electromagnetic force. Previously, after she first obtained the Summoning Thunder Master ability, she had also tried to use electromagnetic force to precisely control various metals to gain more combat methods, but the results of these attempts were not good.
For Dorothy, compared to directly releasing various currents, precisely controlling electromagnetic force with her ability was very difficult. Although she wasn't completely unable to control it, it was very hard to perform complex operations. Therefore, Dorothy had thought about whether she could get some experience and insights from electric ability users in other worlds to improve her experience, but she had never found a suitable secret transmission for exchange until tonight.
After obtaining Mikoto Misaka's Esper mathematical model, Dorothy's control over electromagnetic force has significantly improved. Now, she can not only freely control various metals to fly around, but also sense and control iron sand underground, and even perform advanced applications of electromagnetic ability, such as firing a railgun.
Mikoto Misaka's railgun is a method of using Esper ability by creating a magnetic field in space and using the magnetic field to accelerate metal projectiles to high speeds. The high-speed projectile obtained using this method, with its strong kinetic energy, can surpass conventional chemical energy artillery.
Mikoto Misaka's railgun typically uses coins as projectiles. This is because coins are the most uniformly textured, regularly shaped, and portable metal objects that are easily obtainable in daily life. They are more suitable as kinetic projectiles than other metals in daily life with strange shapes and varying textures.
The railgun fired by Mikoto Misaka using a coin can reach an initial velocity of Mach 3. During the subsequent flight, the electromagnetic field created by Mikoto in space continuously accelerates the coin, allowing it to accelerate to over Mach 10 within a short distance. At a distance of about fifty meters, the high temperature caused by air friction due to acceleration will cause the coin to start melting. Therefore, the range of a railgun using a coin as a projectile is about fifty meters.
Therefore, from this perspective, the statement of an initial velocity of Mach 3 is not entirely correct, because the coin is always under acceleration from the magnetic field after being fired. For a gun, it's like the bullet is always inside the barrel, being accelerated by the propellant gas behind it. For Mikoto's coin railgun, it is always in the process of acceleration by the magnetic field she created within dozens of meters after leaving her hand. If it were a normal firearm, it would be like the fired bullet is always in the barrel within dozens of meters, with the burning propellant continuously providing thrust. The true initial velocity for the coin projectile should be the speed after it completely leaves Mikoto's magnetic field, however, before it leaves, the coin projectile will melt and disintegrate due to air friction.
The reason for the previous Mach 3 record is that when Mikoto Misaka was undergoing Esper ability testing, a testing method designed for normal firearms was used. Mikoto Misaka herself was treated as the firing platform, and the speed measuring device was placed in front of Mikoto Misaka herself, not at the end of the magnetic field's influence, resulting in inaccurate data.
Therefore, this is also why Dorothy had to use Dragon Roar to pull Ben Gecheer away. Unlike normal firearms where the initial velocity and peak kinetic energy are achieved upon leaving the barrel, Mikoto's railgun requires a sufficiently long magnetic field acceleration distance. If the distance is not long enough and the acceleration is insufficient, it cannot penetrate the Stone Gargoyles' armor. Therefore, Dorothy cannot fire the railgun at point-blank range, but needs the opponent to be at a relatively moderate distance.
And the strong knockback and suppression effect of Unloading Force can achieve this. To ensure Unloading Force hits with 100% accuracy, Dorothy needs to strike when the opponent is closest and most relaxed.
Dorothy knew that the reason this Stone Gargoyles came here to fight her was, firstly, because his home was blown up by a little trick, and he was extremely angry. Secondly, because he initially appeared as a Fire Elementalist using a sniper rifle, he came over without much concern. Although he later found that she was different from a Fire Elementalist, she still couldn't threaten him, and he was always at a disadvantage in the fight, so he fought without worry.
Dorothy knew that with the Dark Gold Society's style, once the opponent finds they cannot win or are at a disadvantage, they will definitely not linger in battle and will run away immediately. In this complex urban environment, it would be too difficult for her to chase a Wall Walker. Therefore, in this battle, Dorothy must make the opponent think she is always at an advantage, and her counterattack must be a fatal blow. If her counterattack cannot defeat the opponent in one go, she can only watch the opponent escape.
And facing a Stone Gargoyles with high armor, elemental absorption, and incredibly high dual resistances, Dorothy, lacking means like mental influence or curses, had only one way to win: the railgun. All her previous work was in preparation for the decisive railgun shot, and ultimately, the power of the railgun did not disappoint Dorothy, directly using immense force to miraculously punch through the Tier 3 "Stone" armor.
"The power is great, but the consumption is also a bit outrageous..."
Looking at the corpse before her, Dorothy sighed again. What she had obtained was Mikoto Misaka's Esper usage method, not Mikoto Misaka's Esper ability itself, which was developed based on quantum mechanics to create her own reality. Dorothy's ability to use the railgun was still based on her own Extraordinary profession, her simulation of a Summoning Thunder Master, which is the inherent Extraordinary system of this world, and thus requires Spirituality consumption.
Firing that railgun shot required Dorothy to create an extremely strong magnetic field, directly consuming 5 points of "Stone" and 7 points of "enlightenment". This was already the result of Dorothy's efforts to optimize with calculation, and this level of output was only a relatively conventional level for Mikoto Misaka. In her Esper mathematical model, there were even calculation algorithms for greater output.
"Another wave of Spirituality bleeding heavily, I hope the reward from that Clockwork Man will be good enough later."
Dorothy murmured like this, then she habitually began to search the equipment of Ben Gecheer, who was lying on the ground. After manipulating his corpse to run into a dark place and letting him search himself for a while, Dorothy put away the harvested equipment.
Dorothy originally planned to search their lair again, but upon seeing the mansion in the distant courtyard burning fiercely, which had already attracted countless ordinary residents to gather outside the wall to watch, Dorothy gave up this idea and immediately moved to evacuate before the official Extraordinary arrived.