A chaotic clamor of footsteps rang out in the silent Forbidden Forest, the sound of trampled dry branches and fallen leaves painfully obvious in the dark night.
A massive figure, over three meters tall, struggled to squeeze out from the thickets.
Hagrid was gasping for breath, limping with great difficulty as he made his way through the woods.
He glanced back occasionally at the direction he had come from. Even though the enemy was nowhere to be seen, Hagrid didn't dare relax and continued to flee for his life.
Blood had soaked his clothes, and excessive blood loss caused Hagrid's vision to swim in waves of darkness. The thick scent of blood drifted through the Forbidden Forest.
That unknown enemy seemed to be enjoying this game of cat and mouse.
Clearly, a single Avada Kedavra could have taken Hagrid's life instantly, yet the enemy refused to use it, choosing instead to torment Hagrid with other non-fatal magic.
Hagrid leaned against a large tree, heaving great, ragged breaths.
Too much blood loss had led to a rapid drain of stamina; he could no longer run.
From the underbrush, a figure completely shrouded in a black cloak approached him at a leisurely pace.
Having had enough of his game, the dark wizard raised his wand and pointed it at Hagrid. Seeing that shimmering green light that represented the Killing Curse, Hagrid closed his eyes in despair.
But the imagined Killing Curse did not arrive.
A human figure had approached the dark wizard silently from above.
Rasengan!
The dark wizard only had time to tilt his head up slightly before a trace of blue light filled his vision.
In the next second, he was ruthlessly smashed into the ground by the Rasengan.
"I'm not too late, am I?" Kyle's figure appeared before Hagrid.
However, Hagrid couldn't answer. Heavily injured, he had been holding on by a sheer thread of will. Now, seeing that reinforcements had arrived, he relaxed slightly and immediately fainted.
Kyle scanned Hagrid with his peripheral vision. Judging by the forceful rise and fall of his chest, he wouldn't die anytime soon.
He wondered what Hagrid had been doing. He had clearly taught him the Eight Inner Gates; if Hagrid had just opened four or five gates, he wouldn't be in such a miserable state.
Two other figures quickly appeared beside Kyle as well.
Still hovering in the air, George piloted his armor and opened the ammunition bay on his back.
Dozens of bombs ejected from it, falling straight toward the location where the dark wizard had just been standing.
Kick him while he's down.
However, pure physical attacks didn't achieve much effect. A shimmering silvery-white barrier blocked all the explosions.
To think he could take a Rasengan to the face and still stand up—this made Kyle's expression turn grave.
He rapidly assessed the opponent's condition.
Although the black cloak on the enemy's body had become tattered because of the Rasengan, some silvery-white bloodstains could still be seen on it.
Borrowing eyesight enhanced by the Eagle Eye spell, Kyle noticed that the corner of the opponent's mouth also had traces of the same blood.
Just how crazy was this person to hunt unicorns and drink unicorn blood, despite the cost of being cursed?
If Kyle guessed correctly, the injuries caused by that Rasengan just now had all been repaired by the massive vitality contained in the unicorn blood.
That meant the opponent's current state was roughly similar to having the Creation Rebirth (Strength of a Hundred Technique) active—very troublesome indeed.
He didn't know exactly how much the opponent had drunk. If their magical power ran dry before they could deplete the vitality provided by the unicorn blood, they might get team-wiped.
An ominous, spectral green light burst forth from the dark wizard's wand, heading straight for Kyle.
He couldn't dodge!
Behind Kyle was the incapacitated Hagrid. If he dodged, Hagrid would undoubtedly die.
A wall of earth rose from the ground, blocking the Killing Curse.
Cedric and Fred launched their attacks simultaneously.
"Flash Burst!"
"High-Power Blast!"
Cedric used a modified Wand-Lighting Charm taught to him by Kyle; the good habit of throwing a flashbang before a fight was also learned from Kyle.
At the same time George threw a cluster of Explosive Clay, he also followed up with a powerful Blasting Curse.
Unfortunately, the dark wizard's combat experience was extremely rich. An omnidirectional Shield Charm blocked George's attack.
However, George's attack wasn't entirely ineffective; the massive roar of the explosion temporarily deafened the opponent.
And Cedric's flash worked too. The joint attack instantly deprived the opponent of two of his five senses.
That was enough.
A dazzling streak of lightning tore through the darkness of the Forbidden Forest.
Lightning Release: Chidori Katana!
Wielding Feng Qiuhuang, which flickered with lightning, and having already opened the first gate of the Eight Inner Gates, Kyle's figure dashed out from the shattered earth wall like a bolt of electricity, shooting toward the enemy.
The massive roar of thrusters also came from the sky.
Sprinting at full speed, George swung the sharp arm blades glistening with cold light, attacking the dark wizard's neck in a pincer movement with Kyle—one from the front, one from the back.
Lightning Release: Lariat!
If these two blades connected, no matter how massive the vitality the unicorn blood supplied to the dark wizard, it would be impossible for him to survive.
In the split second before the blades struck, two points of scarlet light suddenly lit up on the back of the dark wizard's head.
Kyle vaguely thought he heard a sentence: "Idiot! Let me take control of the body!"
Clang!
Two deafening sounds of metal clashing rang out in succession, less than a second apart.
If one looked closely, they would discover that both Kyle's Feng Qiuhuang and George's arm blade were blocked by a pitch-black film covering the dark wizard's neck.
The blades had only cut in a distance of one or two centimeters, and no blood flowed from the wounds.
Motherfucker! Armament Haki?
Kyle frantically retorted in his mind.
Of course, this wasn't Armament Haki; this was a high-level spell regarding Human Transfiguration within the branch of Transfiguration.
Converting the surface skin into some tough substance to withstand sufficiently lethal physical attacks.
Failing to kill with one hit, Kyle and George quickly widened the distance from their opponent.
After returning to Cedric and Fred's side, Kyle narrowed his eyes to observe the enemy.
Although the dark wizard's head was shrouded in a mass of black mist, if he guessed correctly, those two points of scarlet light on the back of his head should be a pair of eyes.
Then the identity of the dark wizard was revealed—Quirinus Quirrell.
And the one attached to the back of his head must be Voldemort.
Quirrell stood with his back to them, facing Voldemort's face toward the group.
"You are very good. I haven't seen young wizards with such talent in a long time," Voldemort spoke in a raspy voice.
However, no one paid him any attention.
Voldemort, residing on the back of Quirrell's head, grinned. A stream of fire spewed from his mouth, suddenly expanding into a fiery giant python over ten meters high.
A scorching heat spread through the forest.
Kyle's brow twitched. He recognized that this stuff wasn't ordinary fire, but Fiendfyre.
He quickly formed hand seals. Before the Fiendfyre python could strike, Kyle slammed his hands together heavily.
"Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
What could be called a massive volume of water appeared out of thin air, forming a monstrous water screen dozens of meters high behind Kyle, which surged forward to crush the incoming Fiendfyre python.
The fire serpent and the tsunami collided, generating a massive amount of steam that temporarily obscured Quirrell's vision.
Kyle knew that even though water overcame fire, his Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave couldn't possibly suppress Fiendfyre; it could only block it for a moment.
The best method was still a strategic retreat.
"Go!" Seeing that Fred had already molded a second giant clay bird capable of carrying Hagrid away, Kyle turned and ran without hesitation.
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