Ghostwalk

Spell Fragments (3/3)

You can now upgrade any one spell ability.

Without the slightest hesitation, Hoffa immediately used the upgrade on the Disillusionment Charm.

It was the only spell he could currently put to use.

In his mindscape, the three spell fragments radiating hazy light suddenly became clear. But before he could examine them closely, they fused together, forming an incomparably perfect equilateral triangle!

The triangle blazed fiercely, burning to ashes in an instant and merging into his bloodline.

Upgrade accepted!

A boiling sensation surged through his entire body, as though a shot of adrenaline had been driven straight into his heart!

A silver-bright star shone within his consciousness.

Ding!

The Disillusionment Charm has been upgraded.

Current Spell: [Advanced Disillusionment Charm—Ghostwalk]

Ghostwalk—(When you enter the shadow state, your movement speed increases greatly, and you become immune to all damage for ten seconds.)

Hoffa abruptly raised his head. He did not have much time to think.

Scorching heat rushed toward him. Turning around, he saw raging flames sweeping across the sky.

There was no time to savor the process of the spell's upgrade. Hoffa immediately activated the ability.

Ghostwalk!

At that instant, the dark wizard's magical flames descended upon him.

Yet his figure blurred, then vanished into thin air in the blink of an eye. He did not even need to chant a spell. This was far faster than the Disillusionment Charm.

Time seemed to slow.

In the dark wizard's eyes, the boy before him merely distorted for a moment before being swallowed by the raging flames.

But in Hoffa's eyes, his entire world had become nothing but gray and white. Buildings, dark clouds, the moon, goblins, and dark wizards—all had turned gray and white.

He heard an inexplicable wind howling ceaselessly. He saw the world rippling before his eyes, forming watery waves.

Then he looked at his own body!

He stood amid gray-white flames, his body rippling rhythmically. The flames had no heat and made no sound, as though they had nothing to do with the world he inhabited.

He had actually left the material world.

This might work!

Hoffa looked up, excitement flashing in his eyes.

He had dodged it!

He moved his feet and crossed more than three meters in an instant, leaving the range of the flames. He was as light as a feather.

The two wizards assumed Hoffa was dead and turned to leave.

The moment they turned around, Hoffa left stealth and lunged toward the goblin being dragged away.

One of the wizards saw Hoffa, his eyes widening. He had no idea how Hoffa had survived the flames without a scratch.

But that did not stop him from reacting. He decisively raised his wand!

A dangerous blue flash shot toward him. It was the Blasting Curse!

Without a second thought, Hoffa tapped his arm with his wand.

Ghostwalk!

He slipped back into the shadows and vanished once more.

The dangerous Blasting Curse passed directly through his body and struck the building behind him, blasting up huge chunks of rubble.

He had completely become something like a ghost.

Rubble pattered down. The wizard who had cast the blasting spell was dumbfounded. The boy before him had vanished completely into thin air. His spell had struck nothing at all.

He immediately turned his head and shouted, "Watch out, something's wrong!"

Schmidt, who was gripping the goblin's arm, abruptly turned around, but he saw nothing.

Within the fog, only his two companions remained.

In the instant he was distracted, the goblin flicked a finger.

Countless fragments of stone flew up from the ground and whistled toward Schmidt.

Now!

Hoffa moved.

He locked onto the dark wizard holding the goblin and charged forward, as fast as the wind.

Schmidt calmly whistled. The Swooping Evils attacking Yinduo's defensive spell all changed direction and shot toward Hoffa.

In the gray-white world, the Swooping Evils fluttered straight through Hoffa's body without causing him the slightest harm.

His magic was draining rapidly.

Seeing Yinduo being bound tighter and tighter by the dark wizard's magic, Hoffa grew anxious. He had not learned any offensive spells, so he could only imitate what he had read in novels. With a wave of his wand, he shouted, "Reducto!"

A feeble white light emerged from the wand, utterly powerless. Clearly, the incantation was wrong!

Hoffa could not help cursing aloud.

"Damn it!"

He put away his wand and, while sprinting, grabbed a brick from the ground.

Schmidt, who was locked in a stalemate with Yinduo, only felt a fierce gust of wind rush at him. Then a small figure suddenly burst from the thick fog and appeared right before him.

Hoffa ignored everything else. He leaped high into the air, his body tracing an arc through the night sky. Then he brought the brick down on Schmidt's head with all his strength!

"Die!"

Bang!

The impact of his speed mixed with inertia.

The brick, only two fingers long, shattered against the wizard's forehead.

It knocked back his hood, revealing loose gray hair and a Germanic face.

Except that ominous blood was now flowing from that face's nose.

A tooth mixed with blood and saliva sprayed from his mouth. Without thinking, he rolled twice and crashed heavily to the ground.

The magic binding Yinduo vanished instantly after losing its master's control.

Hoffa's wrist trembled, and blood flowed from the web between his thumb and forefinger. He was still young, and the recoil from that blow had not felt good either.

But this was not the time to care about that. Holding half a broken brick, he took several breaths, then tossed it away, rushed forward, snatched the stunned wizard's wand, and dragged Yinduo away at a run.

The tall man had not been unconscious for long. Soon, with the support of his arriving companion, he staggered back to his feet.

Holding the blood on his forehead, a rare trace of shock appeared on his usually impassive face.

"Follow him!"

Yet his tone remained steady, without the slightest emotion or fluctuation.

One of them released his grip and strode after Hoffa. This time, as he ran, he raised his hand and hurled his wand forward with force.

Hoffa glanced to the side and was so startled his eyes went wide. He had never seen a wizard throw away his own wand.

What was this guy trying to do?

The next second, he found out. The thrown wand rapidly transformed in midair, turning into a sharp cross-shaped sword that stabbed toward Hoffa like lightning!

It was Transfiguration!

The sense of danger made every hair on Hoffa's body stand on end. He scooped Yinduo into his arms and tapped his arm again with his wand.

"Ghostwalk!"

A spray of blood splashed out.

Yinduo and Hoffa vanished into thin air together.

At the very instant they disappeared.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three giant snakes dropped from the sky in succession.

Their gaping jaws bit down on the spot where Hoffa had been standing.

The three giant snakes crushed the rubble on the ground to pieces. Then they exploded with a thunderous roar.

The scene was a complete mess. Stone fragments and splinters flew everywhere, while firelight dyed the night sky red.

The force of the explosions made the dark wizards' robes flap wildly.

The pursuing dark wizard reached the snakes' former position and looked down, but still found nothing.

He raised his hand to catch it. The sharp cross-shaped sword transformed back into a wand and landed in his palm. Furious, he burst into an incomprehensible stream of curses.

Ghostwalk consumed an enormous amount of magic.

Ten seconds later, when Hoffa burst out of the fog again, a thin trickle of blood slowly seeped from his nose and mouth. His magic had been completely overdrawn, and he collapsed to the ground, deathly pale.

Yinduo hurriedly grabbed Hoffa's arm and dragged him up, only to discover that Hoffa's arm was covered in blood.

He had entered Ghostwalk half a second too late. A gash deep enough to expose bone had been left on his arm, blood pouring from it. He had nearly been killed on the spot by that dangerous Transfiguration spell.

Yinduo held Hoffa's arm, frantically rummaging through his pockets for several bottles of potion, about to apply them to Hoffa.

But Hoffa stopped him.

"Wait. Not here," he said weakly but calmly.

Yinduo looked at Hoffa in confusion.

Hoffa pointed at the bloodstains on the ground.

"Don't let the blood trail disappear outside Honeydukes. They'll follow it."

Yinduo understood immediately. He hurriedly supported Hoffa to a witch cosmetics shop across from Honeydukes. On the stone steps, he opened a bottle of white medicine—probably Dittany—and applied it to Hoffa's wound.

As he applied it, he muttered under his breath.

A burst of numb itching and stinging followed, along with a plume of pungent white smoke. The wound on Hoffa's arm quickly stopped bleeding, scabbed over, and healed. But the vitality his body had lost could not be restored anytime soon.

As he watched Yinduo's potion gradually heal the wound on his hand, Hoffa felt no other emotion—only calm.

For the first time, he had glimpsed the high-end fighting power of this world. There were far more tricks than the wand duels in novels and films.

Magical creatures combined with dark wizards.

That combination was truly formidable. Without Ghostwalk's powerful ability, he would already be a corpse.

He was still too weak.

Too young.

He needed to become stronger. He needed more power, more time.

After treating his wounds, Yinduo supported Hoffa as they hurried toward Honeydukes ahead.

When they returned to Honeydukes, the door had already been tightly locked.

Yinduo knocked on the lock, and the shop door burst open with a bang.

Once inside, he immediately locked the door behind them.

Inside the shop, the clerks and owner alike were sprawled across the floor in every direction, unconscious under the effects of the fog.

Yinduo asked, "Which way?"

"The basement," Hoffa said.

The two passed through the cellar and reached Honeydukes' basement.

Hoffa moved aside the basement trapdoor.

Without needing any reminder, Yinduo followed him underground.

Everything fell silent.

Hoffa's magic was nearly exhausted, and his physical strength had dropped sharply as well.

Yinduo saw how weak Hoffa was. He quickly slung Hoffa's entire body over himself, and the two limped toward Hogwarts.

An hour later, the entrance to the Hogsmeade witch cosmetics shop was in shambles. Several unconscious clerks lay scattered chaotically across the ground.

Three dark wizards gathered together. Two of them held up their wands and examined the bloodstains on the ground back and forth. Occasionally, they dipped a little onto their tongues before spitting it out.

Meanwhile, Schmidt sat on the stone steps, staring fixedly at a broken brick before him. It was as though he was not studying an ordinary brick, but some species he had never seen before.

Finally, one wizard examining the blood straightened up.

"There's no way to track them. Not even the Phantom Monkey can do it. This is already within Hogwarts' sphere of influence. There are too many protective spells."

Schmidt remained seated on the steps, wiping the blood from his face expressionlessly. After hearing his subordinate's words, he stood and gave a faint "Oh."

Another wizard cautiously asked, "Major, should we... go back?"

Schmidt raised his head and coldly swept his gaze over him. A swarm of Swooping Evils hissed and growled around his body.

The wizard immediately fell silent.

After wiping the blood from his face, Schmidt said coldly, "If you go back, you will die. If you stay, you can live."

Thinking of the terrifying presence behind Schmidt, the wizard lowered his head. "Yes."

A square-faced wizard beside him spoke up. "That kid is strange. Four or five of my spells hit him, yet he didn't react at all..."

"He must have some precious magical artifact on him. His identity is probably not simple," Schmidt said, enunciating every word. "Once we catch him, we can naturally pry the secret out of him."

"What do we do now?" one wizard asked.

"First, retrieve my wand. The British Ministry of Magic has certainly already noticed our intrusion." Schmidt stood and pulled up his hood. "That boy is a Hogwarts student. We will first find a way to enter Hogwarts."

"How is that possible?" one subordinate asked in astonishment. "That school is surrounded by countless defensive spells. How could we possibly infiltrate it?"

"It doesn't matter," Schmidt said coldly. "That school is not completely impenetrable either. Lord Grindelwald left a seed within that school. Now, it is almost time to harvest it."