Newland froze for a moment.
He recognized that bag.
He had just seen with his own eyes Sigefin stuffing the gold coins he grabbed from the vault into this bag.
The amount of gold the other man picked wasn't much, and his expression and movements looked extremely reluctant, as if he were completing some sort of unpleasant task.
Newland hadn't cared much about any of that.
After all, whatever attitude the other man had toward Galleons had nothing to do with him.
But now, why was the other man throwing the bag at him?
Before Newland had time to think, Sigefin, after tossing the bag, simply walked a bit farther away, arms crossed, radiating a clear "stay away from me" attitude.
Whenever his eyes happened to meet Newland's, his face would even show a naked look of contempt.
As if saying, 'You're really going to bend down for that little money? What a pauper.'
Normally, Newland would definitely return a fake, hypocritical smile, then plan how to get back at him afterward.
But this time, no matter how he tried, he simply couldn't keep the smile on his face.
He looked at Sigefin with a complicated expression, hesitating for quite a while before finally gritting his teeth and stuffing all the treasure he held into the traceless extension bag.
At the same time, under Link's command, the main group had returned to the underground cavern in front of the Australian Antipodean Opaleye dragon.
The commotion here was no smaller than what they caused in the underground vault.
More than twenty hunters were following several old Saints, wands in hand, continuously casting magic in the cavern to break Gringotts' Anti-Apparition Jinx.
"How's the progress?"
Link came forward without a single wasted word, asking with an expressionless face.
"Sorry, young master. We had already broken through about 90%, but…" One of the old Saints wiped the sweat from his forehead. "But just now, for some unknown reason, the progress was instantly pushed back to 40%."
Hearing this, Link did not show disappointment or anger.
He simply raised his head to look at the vast darkness overhead, the corners of his lips curling into a vicious smile.
Under normal circumstances, the Anti-Apparition Jinx recovery progress should never reverse.
For something like this to happen, there was only one possibility, Scrimgeour and his Aurors must have begun resetting the Anti-Apparition Jinx on the underground vault the moment they entered Gringotts.
Link actually found himself admiring Scrimgeour a bit.
To be honest, there was a reason this man could become Head of the Auror Office and receive so much loyalty from Aurors and Hit Wizards.
Every decision Scrimgeour made today had struck Link's weak points precisely, especially his order to attack the underground vault directly.
But… so what?
As everyone knows, once a burglary is discovered, it is very likely to turn into armed robbery.
He hadn't brought so many elite Saints and hunters here just to play at being petty thieves.
"Everyone, attention! Execute Plan B, prepare for battle!" Link roared loudly.
Hearing this, the hunters and Saints all revealed ferocious expressions.
No shouting, no responding.
Silently, everyone extinguished the light on their wand tips, quickly spreading out to occupy advantageous positions in the cavern. Even the elite-of-the-elite dragon hunters pulled several dragon-hunting ballistae from their traceless extension bags and began setting them up.
Link had used these massive anti-dragon ballistae before.
Only, last time they were mounted on winged horses, and for the sake of mobility they used the weakest model.
But the ballistae being set up now were entirely different.
A fully-equipped dragon-hunting ballista stood an astonishing two meters tall. With internal power storage and transmission devices expanded several times over, its firing speed was reduced from one shot every five seconds (on the mobile version) to one shot every thirty seconds, but its power increased more than tenfold!
A normal adult fire dragon, if struck twice consecutively, would completely lose combat ability and be forced to land.
In a sense, these could no longer be called bolts or ballistae.
They were magic-powered cannons, plain and simple.
Newland and Sigefin were both stunned by the murderous atmosphere before them.
After experiencing the previous brief "picking up gold coins incident," their impression of these hunters had shifted from "bandits" and "killers" to friendly companions.
Now, the hunters' terrifying professionalism shocked them to the core.
And not just them.
In the neighboring cavern, the Australian Opaleye dragon was also lying at the entrance, observing every movement here.
Though its eyesight had degenerated, its ability to sense in darkness had not weakened but actually improved, allowing it to move freely and even perceive details around it.
This was something it was quite proud of.
But now, it deeply regretted honing that sense.
Because the moment it shifted its attention toward this side, a powerful killing intent, different from Link's earlier overwhelming aura, washed over it.
The main source of that killing intent was the dragon-hunting ballistae.
The countless fire dragon spirits coiled around them terrified it so badly that it curled into a corner, shaking uncontrollably.
———
Meanwhile, on the rail track built along the cavern ceiling above Link's group,
The First and Second Auror Units, led by Scrimgeour, were speeding downward in railcars.
The First Unit followed directly behind Scrimgeour's car, each Auror holding their wand high, minds fully focused, alert for any possible attack.
As for the Second Unit, they were concentrating fully on resetting the Anti-Apparition Jinx that the hunters had nearly completely broken.
Doing this while riding at high speed in a railcar made the task extraordinarily difficult.
Especially since Aurors weren't exactly specialists in this field.
After all, deploying large-scale Anti-Apparition Jinxes was the domain of the Department of Magical Transportation.
If these Aurors hadn't retained at least some of what they learned at Hogwarts, they wouldn't even know where to start.
Turning his head to look at the sweating, clumsily working Aurors, Scrimgeour let out a dissatisfied cold snort.
For him, this was already a very polite way to show anger.
He was a truly iron-blooded man.
Ruthless to enemies, and equally ruthless to his own people.
Otherwise he would never have been able to make the decision earlier, ordering the rest of the Aurors to resist the Death Eaters at Gringotts, while he led a squad to directly attack the underground vault.
If it were any other situation, he would've already started disciplining them, or slapped someone.
But this time, he couldn't blame these Aurors.
"Sigh!"
Scrimgeour let out a long sigh, his face showing rare frustration and regret.
In the end, today's Auror forces were simply too weak.
If this were the Auror Office during the Second Wizarding War, something like this would never have happened.
Back then, every Auror could be called a true all-rounder.
Reconnaissance, vigilance, tactics, potion-making, healing magic, large-scale charm deployment…
There was nothing the Auror Corps wasn't good at.
Especially Alastor Moody.
The legendary Auror who was said to have personally captured nearly half of all Death Eaters displayed almost omniscient talent and an iron will to fight.
Unfortunately, all that was in the past.
At the start of the Second Wizarding War, the Auror forces rose to their historical peak, becoming heroes of the age.
But once the war ended, they declined rapidly.
The culprits were the administrators represented by old Barty Crouch and Cornelius Fudge.
Scrimgeour and the older Aurors called them "shameless thieves who stole the fruits of victory."
These "thieves" coexisted peacefully with the Aurors for a short honeymoon period after the war, but soon raised the axe.
The Auror Office and the Hit Wizard Unit were subjected to massive downsizing and dismantling.
A large number of veterans were forced to "return to civilian life," and most of their funding was slashed.
From a leadership standpoint, Scrimgeour actually understood these "thieves."
The Aurors and Hit Wizards were simply too expensive.
Maintaining these units required an astronomical amount of Galleons.
During wartime, this didn't matter, everyone, from the Ministry to the old families, waved Gringotts cheques hoping Aurors would just take them, as long as they could resist Voldemort.
But in peacetime, this was problematic.
Infrastructure, commerce, education, public welfare, international relations, salaries and corruption among officials…
What didn't require money?
Why should everyone tighten their belts just so Aurors and Hit Wizards could have more?
Besides, after defeating the "dragon" that was the Death Eaters, Aurors themselves became a new "dragon."
With military strength that powerful, what if the Head of the Auror Office grew ambitious?
Wouldn't that spark a Third Wizarding War?
So from both the Ministry's and the public's viewpoint, cutting the Auror and Hit Wizard units was necessary.
But even if he understood, Scrimgeour was not only a leader, he was also an old Auror.
He could not stand those "thieves" throwing the troops aside once they were no longer needed.
Under the Ministry's long-term "economic restraints," the Auror and Hit Wizard units had fallen to historically low levels in equipment and personnel quality.
Worse, when downsizing them, the Ministry imposed many criteria, the most "reasonable" yet inhumane being age limits.
This forced large numbers of older Aurors and Hit Wizards out.
And after years of war, most of them, like Mad-Eye Moody, were disabled.
Yet the severance pay the Ministry gave them was pitiful.
How could anyone expect disabled veterans with no other skills to return home and survive on that tiny compensation?
Impossible.
The post-war economy hadn't fully recovered either.
Even if they wanted jobs, no one would hire them.
They truly had no other options.
Only a tiny portion of veterans lived honestly.
Most either joined powerful families (the Flamel family's hunter group rose precisely because many retired Aurors joined them), or ended up in Knockturn Alley, "turning bandit," becoming real dark wizards.
Thus, the situation Scrimgeour least wanted to see still occurred.
Comrades-in-arms of the past became enemies today.
Even just now, among the Death Eaters, Scrimgeour had seen several familiar yet unfamiliar faces.
The two sides met again on the battlefield, but now stood on opposite sides.
He had to admit, part of the reason he ordered the underground vault to be the first priority, aside from strategic necessity, was to avoid facing his old comrades.
Thinking this, Scrimgeour closed his eyes in pain.
But before he could sink too deeply into that agony, a violent explosion erupted beside him.
BOOM!
A powerful shockwave, wrapped in blazing flames, slammed into the railcars, nearly throwing Scrimgeour and the others off.
Scrimgeour's eyes snapped open.
The pain in them vanished, replaced only by resolve and severity.
"Attack from below! Judging by the intensity, it should be a fixed dragon-hunting ballista or a magic-powered cannon!" the assistant Auror reported loudly.
"Our descent route must be compromised. That attack killed two squads (six people, three per squad), and another squad is heavily wounded. The rest were knocked off their railcars by the shockwave, but didn't suffer major injuries, they can still fight!"
Scrimgeour did not answer. Instead, he reacted immediately, standing as he issued a calm, icy command, "All units, extinguish your wandlight. Advance silently in squads of three. Attack downward!"
The once bright, serpentine line of Aurors instantly fell into darkness.
They leapt off the railcars, hovering temporarily with Levitation Charms and Flight Charms, and the vanguard dove sharply downward.
The squads behind them continued moving while flinging spells toward potential enemy positions.
A rainstorm of multicolored spells fell from the sky.
Seeing this, the hunters below remained calm.
Link even curled his lips into a mocking smile.
From a tactical standpoint, Scrimgeour's decision was flawless. With enemies blocking the front (the hunters) and enemies pressing from behind (the Death Eaters), the only chance of victory was to pick a direction and break through.
His only mistake was overestimating the Auror forces, and underestimating Link's hunters and Saints.
In terms of individual skill, elite hunters and old Saints were not at all inferior to the "new" Aurors Scrimgeour had carefully chosen from Hogwarts' top students.
The hunters' and Saints' equipment, funded lavishly by the Foley and Beckman families, was also vastly superior to that of the Aurors.
Not to mention, Link himself stood among them, an overwhelming force.
The fate of Scrimgeour and his Aurors had long been decided.