Thomas Prest: A Simple Magician

"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.

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.

Wryly smiling, Tom inwardly chuckled, 'I really need some extensive control training.'

This was the downside of cheating. His lack of control was the result of increasing his mana reserves to very, very early Ultimate-level without having decades of mana control practice under his belt like everyone else at this level did.

Right now, Tom was all mana brawns while struggling with finesse.

Of course, he was not idle while these thoughts were passing through his mind. He was already moving when his golem hands were swinging the three poor sods into the trees and thanks to that, he managed to sneak attack another one of his remaining six enemies who were too busy being shaken at the unexpected brutality of Tom's previous attack.

The wizard Tom was targeting had barely enough time to widen his eyes as he noticed a magical circle rapidly forming under his feet. The thought of getting out of it hastily passed his mind but it was too late and before he knew it, his legs were forcefully swept from under him in a way that he started falling backward.

What he didn't notice was the second magical circle that formed behind him and as he was falling, it activated, sending the same bludgeoning force into his back.

Neither of these circles was gentle by any stretch of the word and both were pushing parts of his body in opposite directions. The wizard quickly found his chest speeding past his legs while his body was rapidly and forcefully bent in an unnatural way and a crack resounded from his lower back, causing a flood of pain to wash over him as his spine broke like a twig and he screamed, helplessly flopping onto the ground and breathing hard while squeezing his fists in an attempt to lower the agony pulsing through his body.

Barely seven seconds passed since the fight started and with the fall of their last comrade, the minds of the five remaining wizards finally realized that Tom was indeed a threat and they should take him seriously.

Not even properly aiming, the wizards started to desperately shoot all manners of spells in Tom's general direction, not caring if it was the Unforgivables, various dark spells, or something else, they just wanted to outnumber and outgun him, not keen on being the next to be targeted.

Tom didn't expect such a desperate reaction and he thought it a pity he didn't have the time to put down more of them before they finally got a grip. Alas, it was not to be, and right now, he was not particularly close to any tree that he could use as a cover as he was caught under the spell bombardment of his foes.

The spells were quite fast and Tom was caught off guard by the sudden counterattack. There was not enough time to calculate a defensive spell so Tom needed to use something that was freshly calculated in his memory.

Hastily putting together the same kind of circle he used to break the last guy's spine, he cast it under his feet and used it to push his body high into the air, evading all the spells by 'flying' over them.

Very aware that he was currently in a vulnerable position, Tom took out a small gem from his pocket. He usually used those for his wards but a desperate situation called for desperate measures.

Forcefully feeding the gem his mana until it was about to burst... which didn't take more than two seconds since the gem was really small... Tom threw it at two of his enemies who were standing close to each other all the while he cast another 'Force Push' circle next to him.

The gem quickly closed onto the two wizards, its surface cracking before it even reached the ground, and just as they cast Protego spells in front of themselves due to either a bad premonition or caution, it exploded with the full force of overloaded mana inside of it, smashing through their paltry Protegos and sending them flying back like ragdolls, breaking bones and snapping muscles.

Honestly, this was the very first attack Tom threw that could be lethal since he didn't have enough leeway to be careful with it.

The advantage of having a massive mana pool compared to his enemies was that Tom could use much more mana in one instance than his enemies could dream of. With his current reserves, he could feed more mana into the gem in these two seconds than the wizards had in their entire bodies... hence, their Protegos shattering like a glass battered by a battering ram.

This kind of 'ka-boom' tactic didn't need much control since he was aiming for the gem to destabilize and go out with a blast anyway but because of that, there was no way to control it and Tom really didn't know if the two half-mangled guys whose bodies finally stopped several tens of meters away from the impact zones were still alive.

He didn't have time to check anyway. The second he threw the gem, he was pushed to the side by his spell, making him evade another volley of spells mid-air, idly pondering how the wizarding offensive spells were really limiting with their usual colorful bolts needing to hit the target to have an effect.

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?"