#799 - All is fair in war

"Sorry, but I can't let you pass so easily!"

Just as Harry, Neville, and Cedric reached a position forty to fifty meters away from the artillery squad, Wood suddenly appeared, blocking their path.

"Stunning Spell!"

"Spiral Impact!"

"Ice Fog!"

Faced with Wood's obstruction, the three didn't waste any words. Harry and Neville took the lead, each firing two attacking spells.

Cedric immediately cast the Ice Fog spell, creating a cloud of cold mist, which not only obscured their figures but also attempted to affect Wood's movements with the chill.

At the same time, before the ice fog completely enveloped him, Cedric stretched out both hands and gestured to Harry and Neville.

The meaning was clear: he wanted the two to split up. After all, their mission was to eliminate the artillery squad, and fighting Wood head-on wasn't a wise move.

So it was better to separate and let the two find a way to break through Wood's blockade, while he would try to hold him back. This was also why he chose to use the Ice Fog spell, as obscuring the opponent's vision would be more conducive to their actions.

Upon seeing this, Harry and Neville immediately understood Cedric's intention. They gave Cedric a look of concern, then quickly crouched down and went around to the sides, left and right.

Faced with the three's actions, Wood's reaction was also very swift. He quickly cast a 'Protego Maxima' on himself, enduring the two attacking spells, and then used a powerful Hurricane spell on the fog in front of him, violently blowing away the gradually spreading ice fog.

After regaining his vision, Wood noticed Harry and Neville's small movements, which made him frown.

"Splitting up? Their reaction is really fast. I can't let their trick succeed, or it will be troublesome."

Wood muttered to himself, then immediately turned sideways and waved his wand sharply at Harry, launching a spiral impact spell with a surging aura.

Soon, five impact spell magic bullets flew towards Harry in parallel spirals, aiming with anticipation, meaning that if Harry continued to sprint forward, he would definitely be hit by the spell.

But when Harry saw this, he not only didn't slow down, but even exerted himself again, charging towards the artillery squad head-on.

This wasn't because Harry wanted to die, but because he was confident that someone would block this wave of attacks for him.

Sure enough, as expected, as soon as Cedric noticed Wood's actions, he immediately fired two Ice Blade spells at the impact spell.

The trajectory speed of the Ice Blade spell was obviously much faster than the impact spell, and it looked like it was about to intercept Wood's attack.

But at this critical moment, Wood suddenly raised his wand slightly, and the spiral impact spell followed his movement and made an upward turn, easily bypassing the trajectory of the Ice Blade spell and continuing to strike towards Harry.

"Damn, Wood actually knows the guiding spell technique." Harry recognized with a glance that Wood was using the high-difficulty technique from Finkel's Seven Spellcasting Methods—the Guiding Spell.

In this way, it would be impossible to block or parry with spells, and even dodging would be very difficult.

I don't know the Protego Maxima yet, so I can only find a way to dodge when the attack gets close enough!

Harry quickly thought of a way to deal with this technique, so he suddenly slowed down while running.

When the spiral impact spell adjusted its trajectory again and approached, Harry suddenly accelerated and lunged forward, narrowly avoiding the fatal spell.

"His reaction is really fast…" Wood cursed inwardly, then prepared to continue casting spells.

But Cedric, who was directly opposite him, wouldn't let Wood cast spells at will. He charged towards Wood and fired several spells at the same time, forcing Wood to block.

At this time, Wood also figured it out. If he didn't get rid of Cedric, he probably wouldn't have time to stop the other two.

As for the safety of the artillery squad while he was fighting Cedric, Wood wasn't too worried. After all, the four of them weren't wooden dummies, and they wouldn't be unable to counterattack.

Moreover, it's not certain whether the other two can even approach the artillery squad…

So Wood and Cedric started a passionate exchange of spells. Both of them were members of the club and were very skilled in combat techniques. They used various spells smoothly and accurately, and they fought fiercely for a while.

But Wood was two years older than Cedric after all, and gradually gained the upper hand, eventually forcing Cedric to block frequently, without even having time to fight back.

Without Wood's obstruction, Harry and Neville made rapid progress, and the artillery squad was about to enter their attack range.

But an accident happened at this moment!

Neville was already very fast, and with no interference at all, he had come close to the artillery squad. But just as he was about to launch an attack, he suddenly stepped on some kind of inexplicable hard object.

"Damn! It's a landmine!"

"Boom!"

Just as Neville realized what he had stepped on, it suddenly exploded under his feet, and the huge impact threw him away.

And this wasn't the end. The detonation of the first landmine also triggered the remaining landmines surrounding it.

Soon, deafening explosions rang out one after another, and Neville was tragically blasted into white light in such a chain explosion.

Harry, who was on the other side, was so frightened by this scene that he suddenly stopped. Obviously, Wood had also laid a large number of landmines on the other side of the position, and they were trigger-activated.

"Damn, this must be what they prepared to prevent us from attacking from the other direction." Harry quickly realized why there were landmines in this strange place.

But this didn't help him to pass through the minefield in front of him. Moreover, Cedric's situation on the rear was very critical, and he was about to be killed by Wood.

"There's no time to clear the mines now, and I don't know if the surrounding and behind are part of the minefield. The only thing to do now is…"

Harry anxiously thought for a moment, and then came up with a good idea. Then he unhesitatingly stretched out his wand and pointed it at the ground.

"Obstaculum!"

With his spell, a horizontal, invisible barrier quickly formed on the ground, and with this layer of floating floor shaped by the Obstacle spell as a barrier, he wouldn't have to worry about triggering the landmines by stepping on it.

However, with Harry's current level, creating such a large obstacle can only last for less than half a minute. Now he must pass through and eliminate the enemy as soon as possible!

Thinking of this, Harry jumped up without hesitation and rushed to the artillery squad as quickly as possible.

The four-man squad in front was already waiting in full battle array. They were not fools who only knew how to fire cannons blindly, so after seeing Harry approaching them, they took the lead in launching a counterattack.

"Stupefy!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

The four were divided into two groups, casting stunning spells and petrification spells respectively. They didn't directly attack the ground to detonate the landmines, mainly because they were confident that they could completely kill Harry with a round of volley fire, which would save the team a batch of resources.

However, because of this idea, they lost the best opportunity to defuse the crisis.

Faced with the attack of the four people in front of him, Harry neither dodged nor defended, but decisively released a Stunning Spell on the wooden box storing ammunition at everyone's feet.

This desperate attack that didn't care about his own safety at all, and the attack method of the Stunning Spell from top to bottom, completely exceeded the expectations of the four.

Four spells accurately hit Harry, turning him into white light on the spot, but the Stunning Spell that fell from the sky also hit the magma bomb in the ammunition box.

"Bang!"

The detonated shell exploded suddenly, and a large area of magma instantly submerged the four, and also triggered a large area of landmines buried around.

For a time, a series of deafening rumbles rang out deep in the defense's position, which even caused the wizards on the front line to look sideways frequently.

"Nice!"

Percy also noticed the movement in the distance at this time, and was immediately overjoyed. Then he suddenly thought of a good idea.

Then he saw Percy jump onto a sandbag wall, cast a Sonorus spell on himself, and shouted loudly to the surrounding area, "Our troops who are attacking from the enemy's rear have arrived! And their artillery has also been destroyed. Brothers, follow me and charge!"

The so-called troops attacking from the rear were naturally made up by Percy, but he knew that the battle between the enemy and us had entered a white-hot stage.

In addition to the number of people and the materials and equipment exchanged, the key factor affecting the final victory was morale.

The explosion in the distance was so obvious, and the dust raised made everyone unable to see the situation on the other side at all. At this time, Percy was so bewitched, so many people believed this statement.

"Kill! Victory is in sight, take the stronghold in one go!"

"Let these guys know how powerful we are. They dared to mock us at the beginning, it's just courting death!"

The attacking wizards thought that Percy had really arranged for someone to launch a sneak attack from Stronghold 3, and suddenly they were extremely excited, and fought more bravely than before.

"What? They have a second force?"

"Damn! There's no news from Wood. Could it be that he was killed and entered the resurrection time?"

"There's another team behind? Can the stronghold be defended?"

Among the defending wizards, obviously many people were bluffed by Percy, which made them feel a little hesitant, because everyone knew that there were not many people responsible for defending the rear except for some passive defensive weapons.

At the same time, the magma cannon suddenly stopped firing, which made them believe even more that the rear had been lost, so many people couldn't help but look in the direction of the explosion, trying to use their eyes to determine the truth, and even some wizards were anxiously rushing to the center of the stronghold, they were afraid that the position would be taken away by the attacking troops if they were a little late.

Being distracted in battle is a big taboo. A large number of distracted wizards were seized the opportunity to kill by the attackers, so the entire battlefield suddenly showed a one-sided situation.

As for Wood in the distance, he was also nervous. In fact, after discovering that the artillery squad had been destroyed, he was not particularly anxious.

After all, the battle has been going on for so long, and the large amount of merit points gained is enough to exchange for two more magma cannons, so the sacrifice of the artillery squad is a pity, but it is not a big crisis.

The real trouble is Percy's shout. Who would have thought that this guy is usually serious, but he is so cunning when he is bad, and he directly made their people panic.

Originally, after Wood discovered this situation, he planned to immediately imitate Percy and announce the truth to everyone to avoid everyone messing up.

But Cedric on the opposite side, the will to fight is really tenacious, he has been stubbornly holding on for so long without being defeated, and when he was just about to send a message to everyone, this guy desperately tried to stop him like a madman, so that Wood didn't even have time to speak.

Wood's long silence in the communicator deepened the panic of the defending wizards, and more and more people thought that the rear had fallen.

The attacking wizards on the other side also firmly seized this opportunity, forcibly broke through two lines of defense, and instantly pushed the battle line to Stronghold 2.

What's even more desperate is that at this time, in addition to a group of wizards, several giants exchanged by Percy with merit points also arrived at the scene, obviously preparing to take the stronghold completely in one go.

Wood was also anxious when he discovered this situation. Hermione's squad was sent by him to destroy the temporary resurrection point for a long time without any news. Most likely they were lost in the black fog. Now the stronghold is in critical condition, and all efforts will be wasted if he is not careful.

Although Wood finally became ruthless, used all his skills to completely kill Cedric, and Hermione also sent a message that the temporary resurrection point had been destroyed, he still failed to reverse the situation on the battlefield.

Under Percy's constant encouragement, the remaining attacking wizards still successfully attacked Stronghold 2.

Even if Wood returned in time in the end, he still couldn't stop the attacking wizards from starting to occupy the stronghold.

Finally, in the case of fighting to only a few people left, the attackers still narrowly took the position.

At this point, the first stage of the battle that lasted for more than 40 minutes finally came to an end, and after the stronghold was completely occupied, the defending wizards turned into white light and completely disappeared in the center of the battlefield.

"Huff…"

Seeing that his side finally won the victory, Percy, who had been keeping his spirit tense in the battle, couldn't help but breathe a long sigh of relief, and even slumped and sat down on the ground.

Originally, he thought that this battle would fall into a stalemate and last longer, but who would have thought that the development of the matter would be so comedic.

In the end, what broke the situation was actually a word that he made up to bluff people.

"Percy! Did we win?"

Harry and Cedric, who had just been resurrected and rushed back to the front line non-stop, looked at Percy in Stronghold 2 and asked in disbelief.

"That's right!"

Percy looked at the comrades who came one after another, and a happy smile appeared on his face. At the same time, he excitedly hugged Harry and Cedric's shoulders, "You guys are the great heroes of this battle. If you hadn't destroyed the two artillery pieces in time and held back Wood, we wouldn't have been able to win so happily!"