Newland reacted very quickly.
Almost immediately, relying on the casting speed granted by the Mental Stimulation Elixir, he turned the ground beneath his feet into a swamp, and his whole body began to sink.
This was the best solution he could think of.
After all, Sigefin had already proven with his own example that no matter what you did, directly tanking that giant's throwing attacks was simply impossible.
The only problem was that his sinking speed was a bit too slow.
Before his entire body had fully sunk down, the giant Grawp had already finished charging up and was about to enter the actual throwing phase.
For a moment, Newland felt a sense of despair.
And right at that moment, something happened that completely stunned him.
He saw a monkey… or more accurately, a silverback gorilla nearly two meters tall, actually carrying a massive greatsword, suddenly leap out from behind the giant Grawp. It adjusted its posture in midair, raised the sword high with both hands, and viciously chopped down toward the giant's hand that was gripping the stone.
Buzz!
The giant Grawp still completed the full throwing motion.
But the scene of rocks flying everywhere that one would expect did not appear. What was thrown instead seemed to be nothing but a sky full of blood droplets.
This left the giant Grawp completely confused.
And what confused him even more was that the right hand he used for throwing seemed to be gone.
All that remained on his right arm now was a smooth, rounded stump.
"Roar!"
After a brief moment of stunned silence, the giant Grawp finally realized what had happened and began clutching his severed arm, wailing in agony.
Just like Grawp, Newland was also frozen in shock.
He simply could not believe his eyes.
A gorilla that could wield a greatsword had saved him?
The moment that thought appeared, he immediately rejected it, it was just too absurd.
Once that possibility was ruled out, only one explanation remained, Sigefin.
That guy… was an Animagus.
This actually made a lot of sense. After all, Sigefin's Transfiguration skills were obvious to everyone.
But given his show-off personality, why would he hide the fact that he was an Animagus?
Could it be because he thought turning into a gorilla was too embarrassing?
There was no time to think further. With a wave of his wand, Newland quickly emerged from the swamp. Three fireballs immediately flew toward the giant Grawp in a triangular formation.
At the same time, Sigefin had finished absorbing the impact and, holding the greatsword in reverse grip, slashed at the giant's ankle from behind in an extremely bizarre posture.
The next instant, the sound of an explosion and the sound of a blade cutting into flesh rang out almost simultaneously.
Driven by the blast from the fireballs, the giant Grawp, who had now lost another foot, fell backward.
Newland immediately threw out several chains.
These chains, taken from the alchemy laboratory, automatically wrapped themselves around Grawp's body, binding him tightly to the ground. Unable to move, he could only wail endlessly as blood sprayed from his wounds like a fountain.
Seeing this, a trace of excitement appeared on Newland's face.
He twisted his neck, producing a series of cracking sounds, then walked up to the giant Grawp and raised his wand, which was already flashing with green light.
"Avada..."
"Roar!"
The incantation had only reached halfway when a deafening beastly roar suddenly erupted.
Immediately after, a furry, massive hand shoved him straight aside.
"Sigefin!" Newland shouted angrily, almost hopping in place. "What the hell are you trying to do?!"
What answered him was an even louder beastly roar.
Unfortunately, the roar weakened toward the end, because Sigefin was rapidly transforming from gorilla form back into human form.
And it was during this transformation that Newland was shocked to discover that Sigefin's chest, abdomen, and legs were densely covered with crater-like wounds.
In his silverback gorilla form, these wounds had merely been compressed by powerful muscles, which was why they hadn't bled.
Now that Sigefin had returned to human form, the wounds immediately began to hemorrhage.
With a pale face, Sigefin staggered and leaned heavily against Newland.
In a weak voice, he said, "Don't… casually kill… kill."
Newland froze for a moment, then immediately burst into furious curses.
"Are you f***ing stupid?! At a time like this?!"
As he cursed, Newland quickly pulled two bottles of concentrated dittany extract from the Undetectable Extension Pouch Sigefin had given him, which was hanging at his waist, and poured them over Sigefin's wounds.
Hiss!
Like hydrogen peroxide, the dittany extract instantly produced countless fine white bubbles upon contact with the wounds. The pain twisted Sigefin's face as he reached out with trembling hands to stop Newland from pouring more.
"Don't use dittany… Are you doing this on purpose, to get back at me? I-I... I've got blood-clotting floss in my bag. Use that!"
Hearing this, Newland's face instantly flushed red.
Heaven knew, he had not the slightest intention of getting revenge on Sigefin.
These two bottles of concentrated dittany extract had cost him a long time's savings, they were the best healing potions he had on him.
He hadn't even been willing to use them on himself before.
And now Sigefin was actually treating them as cheap?
For a moment, anger surged in Newland's heart and boldness overcame his fear. He slapped Sigefin's hand away and straightforwardly poured all the remaining dittany extract onto Sigefin's wounds.
"Ahhh!"
At once, Sigefin's shrill scream echoed throughout the entire Forbidden Forest.
Even the snow on the treetops was shaken loose and fell down.
"You... you're definitely getting back at me!" Sigefin said shakily after a long while, finally recovering. "I just saved your life! You ungrateful bastard!"
"Heh!"
Newland sneered, crossed his arms, and deliberately turned his head away.
Seeing this, Sigefin could only spit fiercely, then limp over to the giant Grawp and begin pulling out various healing and bleeding-stopping potions from his waist pouch.
"Hey! You're not planning to use those on him, are you?" Newland frowned and said.
Without even turning his head, Sigefin replied, "Of course. Otherwise, he'll bleed to death."
Newland said, "Are you seriously crazy? This guy almost killed us just now! If you ask me, we should kill him! Anyway, Lord Flamel didn't say we had to keep him alive, he won't blame us!"
That alone was bad enough, but the moment Newland said this, Sigefin's expression instantly changed.
His hands kept applying the medicine, but his eyes locked onto Newland as he said darkly, "I haven't even asked you yet! Why do you know the Killing Curse? That's an Unforgivable Curse! Do you want to be locked up in Azkaban?!"
"Hah! Azkaban? Who's going to arrest me? The Ministry of Magic? Don't make me laugh!" Newland shouted hysterically.
"That bunch of trash has already been beaten into collapse by Lord Flamel, how would they have the energy to come after me?!"
Sigefin raised his voice as well, "Don't change the subject. I'm asking where you learned the Killing Curse."
Newland's eyes turned bloodshot. He stepped forward and shoved Sigefin aside.
"Where did I learn it? I'm not like you, young master, who can casually go learn whatever spells you want! Look at you, an Animagus! Such an advanced ability, and you still managed to learn it, didn't you?"
"And me? A Mudblood with no connections and no money, where do I go to learn? What am I even allowed to learn?"
"Being able to learn the Killing Curse is already pretty damn good! And you still want me not to learn it, not to use it? Do you think I have the luxury of picking and choosing? Do you think I'm supposed to use low-level spells for the rest of my life?"
Sigefin stared blankly at Newland. Slowly getting up from the ground, he said calmly, "Don't use it anymore. And don't study Dark Magic either. You've got money now, haven't you?"
"Go buy some proper magic books to read. If that doesn't work, then whatever spell you want to learn, just come tell me. I'll always find a way to get it."
The moment he said this, the rage-filled expression on Newland's face froze solid.
He looked at Sigefin in disbelief. After a long while, he suddenly turned his head away and said harshly, "My business doesn't need you, you damn gorilla, sticking your nose in!"
"I'm warning you! Don't call me a gorilla! Or I'll really get mad, you..."
Sigefin raised his eyebrows and shouted, but before he could finish his sentence, a crimson beam of light arced through the air and precisely struck his wrist, knocking the potion bottle and his wand flying out of his hand.
The next instant, Newland flashed forward and rushed straight in front of him, then swung his wand hard.
Buzz!
A burst of silvery-white magical light from Spell Rebound exploded outward as Newland roared, "Enemy attack, prepare to counter!"
The moment Newland's voice fell, several more spells shot in from the distant hillside.
At the same time, several figures wearing Hogwarts robes appeared in the sight of Newland and Sigefin.
Sigefin finally reacted.
He didn't bother searching for the wand that had flown off somewhere. Instead, he grabbed the longsword and slammed it hard into the ground.
As a flash of light swept across the blade, a wall of earth burst up from the ground, protecting the two of them, and the giant Grawp, inside.
A series of explosions rang out, shaking the earthen wall violently, but it never collapsed.
"They're Umbridge's volunteers! I saw the armbands on their arms!" Sigefin shouted loudly.
Newland, standing in front of him, did not reply. Instead, he charged straight out of the earth wall's protection.
Anyone sent to capture the giant Grawp was obviously no weakling.
The moment Newland exposed himself, several spells shot toward him from different directions.
Seeing this, Newland remained completely calm. With a wave of his wand, all the attacks were blocked. For a time, the flashes of Spell Rebound and the sounds of explosions echoed continuously through the forest.
Not only that, but Newland also kept launching counterattacks in the gaps between his defenses. Although these were likewise blocked by the enemy, he still managed to fight the group on the other side to a standstill.
On the side, Sigefin also raised his longsword.
Unlike usual, he didn't shout to summon a large group of puppets to charge forward. Instead, he stood back-to-back with Newland, vigilantly watching the forest on the other side.
Sure enough, before long, two black-clad volunteers who had sneaked around behind Newland emerged.
Without a word, they immediately launched their attack, only to have both strikes blocked by Sigefin's longsword.
Judging by the effect alone, Sigefin was actually producing something similar to Spell Rebound using nothing but his blade.
The commotion behind him also caught Newland's attention.
He glanced over with the corner of his eye, the corners of his mouth lifting into a satisfied smile, and once again increased his firepower, resuming a fierce exchange with the main group of volunteers in front of him.
For a time, the situation reached a deadlock.
———
High up in the treetops not far away, Link and the others were watching everything unfold.
Seeing that Newland and Sigefin had not only subdued the giant Grawp but had also held off the encirclement of more than a dozen volunteers, both Link and Emily nodded in satisfaction.
The difference was that Emily's satisfaction lay in the fact that the relationship between Sigefin and Newland had finally become less sharp and hostile.
The two of them could even fight side by side now.
That was the kind of relationship companions within the same organization should have.
Link, on the other hand, was purely satisfied with Newland and Sigefin's combat strength and tactical intelligence.
Especially Newland.
This child from Spinning Street, who had grown up breathing toxic fumes, followed a very traditional wizarding path, a combat system focused on high-intensity, high-density spellcasting.
This was, in fact, a kind of helpless choice.
Because, just as Newland himself had said earlier, a Mudblood with no money and no connections like him had almost no chance to learn truly advanced spells in a wizarding society where knowledge was heavily monopolized.
Reaching his current level of strength was already the result of both hard work and exceptional talent.
More importantly, his combat intelligence was outstanding.
His use of the War God's Roar Elixir and the Mental Stimulation Elixir was a particularly typical example.
The effects of these two potions were actually very simple, one increased spell power, and the other reduced cooldown times.
For ordinary people, even if they used them, their fighting style wouldn't really change. At most, they'd just become faster and stronger.
But Newland was different.
After learning the effects of the two potions, he immediately switched his combat style, starting to use low-level spells at extremely high density.
This tactic almost pushed the effects of the two potions to their absolute limit.
That was why he could, all by himself, hold off so many volunteer quasi-graduates.
When it came to potion usage, Sigefin was clearly much worse than Newland.
He was even worse than the average person, he hadn't brought out the potions' effects at all. Drinking them or not made almost no difference.
But Link couldn't really blame or look down on Sigefin for that.
Because Sigefin didn't follow the traditional turret-style wizard path at all. Instead, he followed an ancient dueling-wizard path, a transfiguration-based mutation focused on mid- to close-range combat.
In such a combat system, the War God's Roar Elixir might still have some effect, but the cooldown reduction from the Mental Stimulation Elixir was something he truly didn't need much.
After all, swinging a sword or summoning puppets didn't have any cooldown to speak of.
And he had also proven with facts that he was not weak.
After incorporating Transfiguration, this long-obsolete combat style had clearly gained new life.
Especially Sigefin's Animagus transformation, which boosted his physical strength to the extreme while maintaining his agility.
In the fight against the giant Grawp earlier, Sigefin had very clearly been the absolute main force.