Magic surged through Tom's entire body, drawing on the elements around him.
Then four ink-black Fiendfyre pythons emerged around him.
The four pythons opened their enormous, hideous jaws and roared skyward before lunging ferociously at the four squads, trailing blazing black fire.
The four squads hadn't expected the Dark Lord to be so ruthless this time, daring to play with fire in a forest. Apparently, the Dark Lord couldn't take losing.
It seemed they had pushed him too hard.
Watching the towering fire pythons charge toward them, they shouted in unison.
"Full defense! Use Finite Incantatem!"
Everyone bent their knees and hunched over, driving their wands hard into the ground as they shouted.
"Finite Incantatem!"
"Finite Incantatem!" × N
In all four directions, orange light immediately rippled outward like enormous flowers blooming.
The light swept over the Fiendfyre serpents like ocean tides, while also dissolving against the chain walls behind the squads with a series of hisses.
The four pythons were indeed stopped, their flames rapidly dying out from their heads onward.
Yet more Fiendfyre kept forming at their tails, keeping the black fire pythons locked in a stalemate.
Their controller, Tom, held a Magical Energy Storage Card in the palm of his lowered left hand, concealed within his silver sleeve.
Meanwhile, sweat had already beaded on every ambusher's forehead.
Useful as Finite Incantatem was, it consumed tremendous amounts of magic. An ordinary adult wizard would exhaust their reserves after just a few casts.
Without that drawback, the spell would have become a standard charm long ago.
They kept feeding magic into Finite Incantatem, but the Fiendfyre pythons continued writhing within the orange light without any sign of weakening. More than a dozen trees on the battlefield had already been reduced to ash.
Tom still looked completely at ease. They