Brief Skirmish

The dark figure clearly hadn't anticipated this turn of events. As a result, he didn't respond immediately.

Suddenly, both sides fell into a silence that was, for a moment, quite awkward.

Finally, a low voice, clearly disguised, spoke up: "Who are you? Why are you here?"

Harley couldn't help but twitch the corner of her mouth. Shouldn't that be the question Harley asks the mysterious person standing before her?

On one side was a petite, cute girl in a pink bodysuit; on the other was a mysterious figure in a black cloak, with dried blood still staining the corner of his mouth.

No matter how you looked at it, they were the suspicious ones!

Even the owner of that hoarse, cold voice from earlier couldn't stand it anymore.

"Fool!" The voice appeared again, and Harley realized the sound was coming from the back of the cloaked man's head.

"You really are a waste! Why talk so much? Just kill her!"

"Yes, my master, your will is the direction I follow." The man bowed his body, finished speaking respectfully, and then pointed his wand at Harley.

But he saw nothing where she had been, because Harley was no longer there.

While the man in front of her was still talking to the mysterious voice, Harley had already begun her move.

She wouldn't be like this idiot, rambling on and on! On the battlefield, taking the enemy seriously is always the first principle!

Harley had used a deft flick to toss a Magic Mirror onto the grass in the distance, a smear of blood clinging to its surface—

Harley's hair suddenly grew long, slicing across her fair arm and spilling some blood.

At the same time, Harley used the extraordinary abilities granted to her as an Assassin to leap lightly, gliding through the air like a feather to strike at the man.

Two table knives were pressed tight against her palms, stabbing toward the man's neck like vipers.

Based on her observations over this period, most wizards were better at mid-to-long-range combat, making them "glass cannons" with high offense but low defense.

Therefore, Harley made the most correct judgment: close in and attempt a surprise attack!

But the man's reaction was not weak; something woven suddenly expanded from within his cloak, blocking Harley's strike and lashing out at her fiercely.

Harley tapped her knife against the woven material, using the force from the impact to drift back to her original position.

However, this defense caused the man's hat to slip off.

In the blink of an eye, by the moonlight, Harley saw the man's face clearly.

It was Professor Quirrell!

And what had blocked Harley's attack earlier was that large turban Professor Quirrell always wore on his head and refused to take off!

Harley immediately recalled the malice and spiritual warning she had felt when she first attended his Defense Against the Dark Arts class at the start of the term.

Professor Quirrell has malicious intent toward me, and he feels like a demigod! Harley's brain raced.

Combining the previous information, a demigod suffered heavy damage and is now possessing Professor Quirrell to recover its strength!

The unicorn's blood was drunk by Professor Quirrell for that demigod! How pathetic! Quirrell has to bear the curse, while the mysterious demigod reaps the benefits!

Harley's mind was racing, but her attacks were not slow.

She threw the table knife in her right hand like a throwing dagger, and at the same time, the wand she had purchased slid into her palm:

"Smoke-shrouding Charm!"

This spell wasn't difficult, nor did it have any offensive power; it only released a large amount of smoke.

However, after seeing this spell in a senior student's textbook, Harley had spent quite some time learning it.

When facing a powerful enemy, she could only find more opportunities if she made the situation chaotic enough!

Following the release of the smoke spell, the clearing in the Forbidden Forest was filled with white fog.

Inside the smoke, Harley heard Professor Quirrell's pained voice:

"I can't find her, Master! I can't find her!"

"Waste!" The snake-like, cold voice showed no mercy. "What use is a waste like you? Now your face has been seen by someone else!

Give your body to me! Let's end everything tonight! As for you, a waste has no value!"

A scream erupted from within the smoke, and then Professor Quirrell's voice vanished completely.

At the same time, a powerful aura suddenly emerged from the direction where Professor Quirrell had been standing.

Harley's heart tightened, realizing that the mysterious demigod was taking over Professor Quirrell's body.

She quickened her pace, rapidly increasing the distance between them, choosing not to attack along the way to avoid revealing her position.

However, Harley snapped her fingers, and a large tree at the edge of the clearing suddenly burst into Black Flame!

Harley quickly arrived beside the unicorn's head. Thanks to her earlier deft toss, the Magic Mirror had landed right next to the unicorn's remains.

Harley grabbed the unicorn's head, simultaneously pouring her spirit into the mirror, and leaped straight inside.

"Mirror Jump!"

As Harley jumped into the mirror, the blood on its surface instantly ignited, turning into Black Flame that burned the entire Magic Mirror into nothingness!

And that throwing knife Harley had tossed earlier was also stained with a trace of blood. Thus, like the Magic Mirror, the knife was burned to ashes.

Although it pained her to lose her equipment, Harley would not leave behind any items that could be used to track her to a demigod in an unknown field.

Within the mist, Professor Quirrell's body shuddered a few times before finally returning to normal. However, that face had now transformed into the snake-like visage on the back of his head.

He waved his wand casually, seemingly adjusting to the body. After a brief moment of adaptation, clusters of black flames erupted from the wand, devouring the surrounding fog!

These were not the "feeble" black flames Harley had released earlier, but rather the Fiendfyre, a cursed flame filled with destruction and death!

When "Professor Quirrell" retracted the Fiendfyre, he discovered that the area was already completely empty.

"Fool! Wasting my time!" Voldemort cursed angrily. He glanced at the unicorn carcass he had deliberately avoided earlier, then crawled onto it without hesitation and began to drink its blood greedily.

However, before he could take more than a few gulps, the sound of hoofbeats and a dog's barking echoed through the Forbidden Forest.

At the edge of the clearing, a massive figure appeared, holding a crossbow in his left hand and leading a black dog with his right.

On the other side, countless Centaurs held bows and arrows, aiming at the center of the clearing.

They had been drawn here by the black flames that had soared high up the tree Harley had ignited.

Upon seeing the scene in the clearing, Hagrid let out a roar:

"Despicable fly, shameless vermin, cockroach from the gutter! How dare you kill a kind unicorn!"

Fang also let out a few howls in coordination, though his body honestly hid behind Hagrid, daring only to poke his head out.

The Centaur herd did not curse like Hagrid. They were far more decisive; a rain of arrows was already flying toward the evil creature who dared to slaughter a unicorn.

Voldemort snorted in disdain. As for this rabble before him, if he were still in his prime, he could wipe them all out single-handedly.

But now, someone had already seen his face. To avoid further complications and to quickly obtain the Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort did not linger.

He released Fiendfyre once more, forcing back all the attacks. When the flames vanished, Voldemort had already disappeared.

He prepared to exhaust every ounce of life force from this body to seize the Philosopher's Stone in one fell swoop!

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