Chapter 79: Ambush: Tom's fight

Chapter 79: Ambush: Tom's fight

"Don't kill." He said to her before he turned on his heel until he was back to back with her and raised his arm with his palm pointing at one of the trees and with a vindictive smile added, "Just permanently maim."

The second Tom finished saying that, the tree at which he was pointing his palm had an alchemical circle appearing underneath it. Because of that in an instant, as if the tree became alive, from its trunk started to rapidly grow new branches.

The process was far too fast for a normal human to react and the wizard hiding behind that tree had both of his arms pierced by the newly grown thick branches near the shoulders, his eyes going wide as he released a blood-curdling scream while the small strands of flesh that still connected his arms to his torso snapped under the weight and his arms fell to the ground, blood gushing all around.

His first enemy dealt with, Tom instantly knelt on one knee and put his hands onto the ground, causing thick earth walls to rise in a circular formation in front of him.

He was just in time too as his enemies were already counterattacking and the second his sturdy earth walls rose, Tom could hear the impact of various spells breaking on them, among which even two or three Bombara spells.

Those were particularly dangerous.

Tom had a degree of conviction that he could resist something like Organ Liquefier since these kinds of spells caused damage by the caster's mana invading the victim and going crazy inside of the poor sod's body. He was almost certain he could with his own much more potent mana internally neutralize these kinds of spells.

But things like Cutters or Bombardas were the real trouble for him because these caused a physical effect, and through that, damage. There would be no internally snuffing these out and Tom had to block them as any normal person.

Well... theoretically he had a body powerful enough to tank these spells since the wizards he was fighting against were, at best, advanced low-tier to novice mid-tier power-wise. Tom surmised that even if he was hit by their Bombarda, he would probably just get a nasty purple bruise and a brief flight through the surrounding area due to the force of the explosion.

Not that he would do that. Acting cool like that was way out of character for him. He rather preferred keeping most of his cards secret.

A second passed and the noise of spells splashing against the earth walls ceased just as Tom stood up and put his hands on said walls, causing another alchemical circle to appear on them under his palms.

The walls abruptly 'shattered' forward with massive momentum, sharp debris flying at the masked wizards who were forced to take cover behind the trees. This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

The attack failed to hit even one of them but that was fine for Tom. It was just meant to distract them for a second anyway as Tom started to focus on his next move.

The wizards were about to restart their barrage of spells, keen on having revenge for their disarmed friend. There were nine of them and just one of Tom on this side of the 'battlefield' so their self-confidence was still high.

Unfortunately for them, just as they were raising their wands, three of them were grabbed by... massive muddy hands that rose from the ground underneath them and shrieked, disrupting the others.

The three guys caught in Tom's unfinished golem hands didn't get enough time to try freeing themselves with some spell as the hands swung themselves and brutally smashed their three prisoners legs-first against the tree they previously used for cover with enough strength to make it shake a bit.

Needless to say, these three thugs were out for the count as their legs were broken in multiple places, somewhere their bones turned to literal mush, making their legs helplessly dangling from their torso with multiple broken bones sticking out all over them as they screamed bloody murder from pain.

Tom winced. He might have overestimated the durability of wizards in that one blow and it came out much stronger than he intended.

Well, he left the golem hands half-finished in their muddy state because his control sucked and he was half afraid of crushing the guys to death the second he solidified them. Yet, even when he put a lot of care into it, he still overdid the attack.

Tom landed on the ground, went into a roll to stop his momentum, and sprang onto his feet before ducking behind a tree just as another Bombarda impacted the place where he landed, making the entire tree shake but it withstood it and fulfilled its role in shielding Tom.

Not wanting to be a sitting duck, Tom sprang forth, running through the wooded area and using trees both for cover and to confuse his enemies, often changing the direction of his running around to make it harder for them to predict his position.

Three more enemies remained and spells were still flying left and right, but now they were at random, the wizards just guessing where Tom was and with every ruffle of leaves, they instantly shot a spell in its direction.

Their nerves were running high but the last remaining trio didn't dare to huddle together, painfully aware of the fate of their last two comrades who were close to each other.

They also didn't dare to use trees as a cover, remembering how a tree grew new branches, disarming another one of their comrades.

Right now, they wished they could fly, the image of massive muddy hands growing from the ground fresh in their minds.

They stood away from each other in a small clearing, away from the trees, and fearfully looked around, trying to spot Tom who was using the trees and dark of the night as cover, while the trio was heavily sweating and fidgeting at every small noise.

Neither of them wanted to be the next one targeted by their target.

Tom had to say, he had fun spooking the daylight out of them and felt almost sadistic glee at seeing his would-be ambushers scared shitless. But he knew Natasha would be finished sooner rather than later and he couldn't drag this on for much longer. He had already spent three minutes with these dorks so it was time to end this.

Coming out of the foliage, spells half-calculated in his mind and ready for use in the final showdown... Tom blankly blinked when he saw the two youngest of his three remaining enemies twisting in a telltale sign of portkey use the second he appeared in front of them.

Obviously, the third wizard was as bewildered at the two little shits running away as Tom.

Yes, these guys were not trained for battle. They were thugs at best. They were just young, probably rich, morons that wanted to have fun hurting others and pretending to be a Death Eater because their parents were raising them in the belief it was something glorious.

It wasn't surprising they couldn't handle the pressure of fighting somebody who could and would fight back and even cripple them.

But still, Tom inwardly scolded himself for not thinking about that and letting them get away.

Nevertheless, he reacted in time when his last enemy, the oldest of the bunch and the one he was keeping for last, realized this fight was already lost and reached into his robes about to pick up his portkey too.

Before his fingers could grab it, a sharp twinge of pain surged from his elbow, and then... his entire forearm fell onto the ground courtesy of Tom's quick last spell, squashing his hopes to use his emergency portkey.

The man gritted his teeth, gasped, and grasped at his now forearm-less elbow, snuggling it in his lap as he fell onto the ground in pain, letting out muted whimpers.

Tom steadily approached him, still on guard, and when he reached the guy, he put his foot on his side and rolled him on his back so they could talk face to face.

"Now then, I guess it is high time we have a talk, don't you think?" Tom pleasantly smiled at the anguished, yet terrified wizard. Tom distasted torture but of course, these morons did not target them out of the goodness of their hearts, so, there were some questions that needed answering. "Let's start with something easy enough even for a monkey to answer, shall we? Who sent you?"