Thomas Prest: A Simple Magician

"Don't kill. Just permanently maim."

Hearing that, Natasha inwardly grinned.

She generally disliked violence but she also wanted to be useful to Tom, to show her worth, and in her opinion, fighting for him was the best way to do it.

Even if he reassured her again and again that he didn't care about that, she saw this matter differently. It was how she was raised and while she was aware it was the Red Room that instilled this need to prove her value in her, it was still a part of her. One that she had a hard time ignoring.

Unfortunately, Tom didn't get into trouble very often and when he did, he usually made damn sure it never reached the stage where her particular talents would be required.

It was the source of some seriously mixed feelings for Natasha.

She absolutely loved how peaceful her life became since she had met Tom but she hated how useless she felt at times. There was nothing where she could be helpful to Tom in their everyday lives other than making him her special hot chocolate.

It was really grating sometimes.

All these feelings were piling up and up inside of Natasha... so much so that now, when she had a clear enemy in front of herself, one that was vying to hurt her Tom, she couldn't bring herself to care about all the violence she was about to unleash onto them. In fact, she wholeheartedly welcomed it.

After getting permission from Tom, Natasha slowly but steadily advanced, raising one of her pistols and aiming it at her first victim, without any hesitation, she fired the first shot...

The fool-hardy wizard could see this coming from a mile away but he didn't even try to dodge, just casting Protego and believing in his pureblood superiority. He recognized the silly muggle weapons Natasha held but there was simply no way that his mighty wizardly shield could be penetrated by such pathetic contraptions!

Alas, that... was a mistake of an overzealous fanatical young mind.

Natasha's magically-created bullet imbued with her Power of Destruction tore through the Protego as if it didn't even exist and before the wizard's mind could even compute what just happened, his world exploded in pain as the bullet tore itself a path through his muscles, lodging itself deep into his right upper arm.

And then, when the wizard finally realized his mighty pureblood magic failed to protect him and his expression was full of incomprehensible disbelief, the primary function of the Power of Destruction imbuement activated and the bullet exploded.

With a mild squelch, the wizard's upper arm where the bullet was located burst with a crimson burst of light before everything below the elbow of his arm was sent flying away while his whole upper arm was blown out of existence, leaving the shrieking wizard only with a bloody stump gushing out blood as he flailed it around due to panic and pain.

There would be no healing that arm even by wizarding means. From what Natasha heard, wizards had a lot of powerful healing spells and that's why she decided to 'erase' a part of his arm so the rest could not be reattached back later on.

Just as Tom wanted, the man was now permanently crippled considering wizards still could not regrow entire limbs.

The wizards were very distracted by the sight of their comrade falling to a muggle weapon and most of them were too stunned to react. Natasha would not let this kind of opportunity let go and her second pistol was being lined up with her next target when one of the wizards shouted, "Take cover!"

The wizards quickly came out of their stupor and obeyed, making Natasha irritated as she attempted to land her second shot despite this complication. Unfortunately, she was a second too late, and instead of a wizard, her bullet buried itself into the tree that was behind him as he threw himself onto the ground.

The tree experienced the same thing as the previous wizard's arm only with more force as Natasha didn't consciously try to limit the output of her magic bullet, and with a crimson explosion followed by a creaking crack, its lower trunk was blown up, causing the tree to slowly but noisily start falling down.

The wizards quickly realized that Natasha was a much bigger threat than they previously thought and there would be no playing and having fun with her. All intentions of capture were erased from their minds and Natasha was instantly being pelted by tens of lethal spells.

Natasha proved why she was the best Red Room had ever trained as she weaved through the spellfire with apparent ease, sidestepping the spells with a slight margin while nearing the treeline where she would be finally able to take cover all the while she was also returning the fire with her two pistols.

Sadly, her control of the Power of Destruction and magic was not all that good yet and obstacles line trees were enough to prove too much for her bullets. She could not shoot through them and her opponents were using that to their advantage.

On the other hand, evading their spells was almost laughably easy. Their spells were quick... but they were a far cry from the speed of a bullet.

Natasha finally reached the treeline and ducked behind a tree of her own, getting a small reprieve and a few seconds to think about her situation. She instantly realized the problem with the trees and decided to quickly change her tactics. She no longer tried to hit the wizards themselves, instead, she was going to go all environmental on them.

Now that she was hidden and wasn't shooting back as much, her opponents' spellfire only intensified. But... despite dangerous spells flying left, right, and center at her, Natasha was slightly smiling, not bothered or nervous at all.

It wasn't so bad to be back in action.

A few seconds later, she got the opportunity she needed to restart her own offensive. During a small waver in the spellfire, she ran out of her hiding place and started shooting back once again while heading toward another tree, her previous one quite damaged by various spells with its trunk more or less ruined already.

Natasha's bullets were no longer aimed at the wizards, and now she was aiming at the trunks of the trees they were hiding behind, making these trunks explode. She also tried to control the explosions in a way that would pelt her attackers with woody shrapnel from the explosions.

Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not, and sometimes her opponents had the presence of mind to use shielding spells to protect themselves, but Natasha was pretty satisfied with taking out three more people during her run towards the next tree with just this.

One guy was unlucky and woody shrapnel hit him right in the eye... so in Natasha's opinion, that also counted towards the permanently crippled status... and the guy was now screaming and rolling on the ground while holding his right eye.

The second guy stood too close to the tree when it exploded. He was practically leaning on it so the explosion propelled him forward... and made him faceplant into the ground so hard he didn't get up afterward.

His loss of consciousness was probably for the best, considering how several jagged wooden pieces were sticking out of his back.

And the third guy was unlucky enough to be hit in the leg with the woody shrapnel, which prevented him from escaping in time as the tree he was hiding behind fell on him. The guy managed to save his life by shifting his body at the last moment, only getting everything below his thighs crushed by said tree.

Natasha was especially proud about that last takedown. When luck and skill join hands, it is simply beautiful.

Before the remaining wizards could waver due to the loss of their comrades, the guy who previously ordered them to take cover once again shouted out an order, restoring the morale.

"Quick! Use area of effect spells!"

Natasha wryly smiled, knowing it was an amateur mistake for them to not use these right from the get-go, especially in a fight where trees are being used as a cover, but she didn't dwell on it for long because she knew she had to react fast... and hard.

She ran from behind her tree, sprinting towards the apparent leader of her enemies, just as a Bombarda spell impacted the place where she was just five seconds ago, blowing it up.

Another wizard was peering from behind his tree, his wand raised and he was about to also use some kind of spell, but Natasha noticed him in time and rapidly shot three bullets at him, no longer in a mood to play with them.

The lower trunk of the tree was not only blown up, but the explosion of the second bullet propelled it through the air, right at the wizard who was previously hiding behind it. The flying tree trunk only slightly glanced at the wizard's side but it was enough of a distraction to make him stagger and Natasha's third bullet found purchase in one of his legs.

But Natasha was not paying overly much attention and therefore did not restrain the subsequent explosion, hence, the result was a tad bit worse than his comrade who lost only his arm. This time, when the bullet exploded, it was strong enough to destroy both of his legs.

He was lucky he got shot in his calf instead of the thigh or it would have been his whole lower body. Well, Natasha was sure the screaming guy didn't see it that way nor did he appreciate her mercy.

Natasha weaved through the spells once again as she ran towards her target, no longer just side-stepping them, but using her speed to make sure she was far away when the spells went off behind her.

Explosions reverberated from behind her.

Various transfigured animals chased after her.

Various debilitating area-of-effect curses actually affected her body.

Yet, it was all for naught and Natasha started to realize why the rest of the supernatural world looked down on wizards. Right now, her body was nothing special by supernatural standards. But...

She was fast enough to outrun their spellfire. Definitely faster than the transfigured animals. And the curses had almost no or very negligible effect on her because of her own potent mana reserves.

Maybe if these were trained fighters, the battle would have been much harder but she was not fighting battle-hardened veterans. These people were at best comparable to street thugs rather than soldiers.

In almost no time at all, she reached the leader, both of her pistols disappearing from her hands back into her pocket space while she grabbed him by his neck, raising his body into the air as she slammed his back against a tree.

Unsurprisingly, the spellfire ceased the second she got near him, the other wizards not knowing what to do in this situation.

Before Natasha could speak or even decide how to cripple this wide-eyed one, he blurted out, "V-vampire!"