Chapter 495: So brave, I thought you were on the toilet!

Being able to attack freely without worrying about defence was an incredibly satisfying experience for anyone who enjoyed fighting.

Tom was certainly enjoying himself now.

Hidden behind Miravia, he did not need to defend at all. He simply hurled spell after spell at the enemy.

He was having a great time, but most of his spells were accomplishing very little.

After all, the people on the other side were no amateurs.

“Tom, can you focus on one target at a time? That guy just exposed an opening, but your spell flew toward someone else!”

While Tom was having the time of his life, Wade was watching from the side with his blood pressure rising.

Tom’s attacks were like someone blindly spraying a machine gun.

It felt great, sure, but actually hitting the target depended entirely on luck.

And he had the nerve to tell Wade not to steal his kills?

If Wade had not deliberately wanted Tom to gain combat experience, Miravia would have dealt with those people long ago.

She was a battle maniac, yet she had deliberately left several targets for Tom to practise on.

And this was how he was wasting the opportunity?

“It’s fine! I can cast fast!” Tom said enthusiastically.

“No. You’re wasting attack opportunities, and wasting attack opportunities will come back to bite you,” Wade said coldly.

Wade understood what Tom was doing.

He wanted to test the various spells he had learned one by one.

But this was a life-or-death battle.

Testing spells belonged on a training ground, not here.

A real fight to the death was not a game played at home, nor was it practice in a training field.

This was a battlefield where someone could die at any moment.

Look at the Alliance members.

Not one of them was joking around.

Even Miravia, who was clearly thrilled by the fighting, remained completely focused.

Tom’s attitude showed a lack of respect for the battlefield.

If he continued like this without any sense of danger, then this battle would teach him nothing.

So Wade made a “difficult” decision.

He grabbed Miravia by the arm, casually deflected several incoming spells, and pulled her to the side.

“Come on. There are more people over here.”

Tom tried to follow, but Wade kicked him away.

“Shit! Wade, what are you doing?!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Without Miravia protecting him, Tom’s situation instantly became dangerous.

He rolled across the ground several times in succession before narrowly avoiding multiple Killing Curses.

The Tom who had been so relaxed a moment ago finally experienced the cruelty of the battlefield.

Miravia understood what Wade was doing and immediately stopped paying attention to Tom, charging off toward another group of enemies instead.

Tom scrambled back behind Nagini’s cover in a miserable state, all traces of his earlier confidence gone.

“Use your brain when you fight, Tom! Use the most effective magic you have!” Wade shouted, then smoothly slipped behind Miravia himself.

“You bastard…” Tom was furious, but there was nothing he could do.

Still, after seeing the nearby Alliance members fighting cautiously, Tom finally came down from his battle-induced excitement.

Hadn’t he insisted on joining the battlefield because he wanted to prove he was better than these people?

If he kept hiding behind Miravia, how was he supposed to prove his strength?

Tom immediately adjusted his mindset and became cautious like the others.

Once he calmed down and began attacking in silence, he started noticing many things he had completely missed before.

Even the Alliance members he had disliked earlier had plenty worth learning from.

Wade followed behind Miravia and focused almost entirely on protecting others.

Not just Tom.

Whenever any of the Alliance members were about to be hit by a spell, Wade would immediately intervene and block it for them.

As a result, even though both sides appeared evenly matched, not a single person on the Alliance side had been injured.

“Can you stop following me?” Miravia suddenly turned and said irritably.

“What’s wrong?” Wade briefly pulled his attention away from Tom and the others.

Miravia replied unhappily, “Do you seriously have no self-awareness? Do you know how strong you are right now? Someone like you standing behind me makes me feel really unsafe!”

It had nothing to do with whether she trusted Wade.

A wizard as powerful as Wade standing directly behind her kept triggering her combat instincts, constantly warning her that there was an enormous “threat” at her back.

It made fighting extremely uncomfortable.

“Is that so?” Wade paused.

He had never really thought about that.

He only wanted to stay behind Miravia so he could devote most of his attention to Tom and prevent him from suddenly getting himself killed.

Miravia said nothing.

She simply flipped around and moved behind Wade instead.

Wade stared in surprise as he automatically took over the defence, deflecting several spells.

Then he immediately understood what Miravia meant.

The moment she stood behind him, every hair on Wade’s body seemed to rise.

It felt as though a razor-sharp dagger were pressed against his lower back.

“Understood… Have fun.”

Wade immediately ran away.

At that moment, the earthen wall in front of Tom and Nagini had just been blown apart by the enemy’s Blasting Curses.

With Wade covering them, Tom and Nagini were forced to retreat back into the formation.

Only with the help of the nearby Alliance members did they manage to withstand the concentrated barrage that followed.

A large-scale battlefield like this was completely different from a duel.

Unless you were a wizard on the level of Dumbledore or Grindelwald, no one would recklessly step out alone and face concentrated enemy fire.

Tom had simply gotten carried away earlier.

Seeing how fearless he was, Wade had almost thought Tom had suddenly switched over to his future Voldemort form.

Of course, if Tom really had been Voldemort, the other side would probably already have been drowning in blood.

Voldemort certainly would not care whether the magic he used was Dark Magic or not.

“Tom, you were far too reckless.” Dumbledore grabbed Tom by the shoulder and pulled him back.

Grindelwald also waved a hand.

The nearby Alliance members immediately understood and moved closer toward the centre, tightening the formation.

That reduced the pressure not only on Tom, but on everyone else as well.

“You should have scouted more thoroughly,” Dumbledore could not help saying.

Grindelwald shook his head. “We couldn’t get any closer without being discovered. You’ve seen it yourself. These people are no ordinary opponents. Every one of them is strong. This is far beyond what I expected.”

Dumbledore could not blame Grindelwald too harshly for that.

The Alliance was already far more elite than the Ministry’s ordinary Aurors.

Yet despite both sides having roughly similar numbers, Grindelwald’s people still could not gain much of an advantage.

That meant either this Scourer stronghold was a trap…

Or their understanding of the Scourers had been wrong all along.

“We can’t drag this out any longer…” Dumbledore drew the Elder Wand and calmly stepped out of the formation.

Grindelwald watched his back and suddenly remembered something Wade had once told him.

He had never expected that there would really come another day when he and this old fool would fight side by side.

Grindelwald sighed softly, a trace of nostalgia rising in his heart.

He silently drew his new wand and stepped out beside Dumbledore.

“Wade…” Dumbledore looked toward Wade, who had just slipped over beside Tom and was preparing to mock him.

“All right, all right…” Wade took out the Elder Wand as well and walked out beside Dumbledore.

Watching from behind, Tom’s eyes nearly turned red with envy.

If only he were that strong too…

Nagini gently patted his shoulder.

“You’re still young. One day, you’ll be able to stand beside them too. You already did very well just now, holding your ground at the front for several minutes by yourself.”

Hearing that only made Tom feel worse.

He tightened his grip on his wand, looking utterly dejected.

Then suddenly…

“Tom, what are you standing there for? Get over here!”

Tom looked up and saw Wade turning back and waving him over.

His nose suddenly stung.

Gripping his wand tightly, Tom immediately ran forward.

The moment he reached Wade’s side, he heard Wade say, “Watch carefully. In a group fight, the first thing you do is pick out the weakest target and crush them. Take that guy over there, for example. He looks like he’s barely standing. For the rest of the fight, aside from necessary defence, throw every attack you have at him.”

Tom silently nodded.

Then he raised his wand and immediately launched an attack at the man Wade had pointed out.

Sure enough, in less than ten seconds, between Tom’s extremely fast casting speed and the warnings provided by his Hydra ring, the man was brought down despite his nearby teammates trying to protect him.

“Good. And when you defend against enemy attacks, you need to use your head too. If it’s an ordinary spell…” Wade continued instructing him.

Dumbledore and Grindelwald beside them tacitly remained silent, allowing Wade to teach Tom.

They even deliberately left a few opponents for Tom to practise on.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

Following Wade’s advice, Tom calmly deflected several spells.

Then he flicked his wand, and several translucent sparrows appeared around him.

At Tom’s command, the tiny birds shot toward one of the enemies like arrows released from a bowstring.

The enemy quickly raised a Shield Charm.

But…

The translucent sparrows passed straight through the magical shield and pierced directly through the man’s wrist.

His wand fell to the ground.

A moment later, Tom hit him with a Stunning Spell and knocked him unconscious.

“Excellent! That’s exactly it. Use your brain and make full use of your strengths!” Wade praised.

Tom had indeed been clever this time.

Soul magic could pass through most magical defences, making it extremely useful for surprise attacks at critical moments.

However, Tom’s soul magic was still too weak.

So he had deliberately made the summoned soul puppets smaller.

That reduced the amount of soul power consumed, and by concentrating their strength into a smaller form, their attacks became significantly more powerful.

Seeing that Tom was gradually getting the hang of things, Wade stopped talking and finally began attacking in earnest.

He patted the small oil lamp at his waist.

“Finally! Muhahahaha!!!”

Lucifer burst out with a sinister peal of laughter, his flames rapidly expanding as they met the air.

A massive serpent of fire, radiating terrifying heat, lunged toward the enemy formation.

“Burn for me!! Mongrels!!”

Several people at the front were instantly burned to ashes by Lucifer.

While Lucifer rampaged through the enemy ranks, Wade began chanting under his breath.

Thunder gradually rumbled across the previously dark and silent night sky.