Chapter 93: Desperate Battle

Professor Quirrell cast a spell, but it missed everyone; Allen and Harry both found places to hide.

"Delay him! Our reinforcements are almost here!" Allen shouted at Harry.

After the recent barrage of spells, he realized how powerless he was against an adult wizard; because Harry was present, the Unbreakable Vow bound him, preventing him from using the Dark Arts he had learned, and aside from the Dark Arts, his strongest offensive spell was merely the Petrification Spell, which could not shake off Professor Quirrell's armor spell.

He and Harry had just cast at least five or six Petrification Spells at Professor Quirrell, all blocked by the invisible armor surrounding him.

And if they were hit by even one of Professor Quirrell's spells, they would instantly lose all combat capability.

The disparity in power was so vast, yet they could only fight a desperate battle now.

"Allen, think of something!" Harry shouted, also realizing the situation on the field.

Professor Quirrell approached their hiding spot with a cold sneer, saying mockingly, "Come out, my students; death is but an instant. I guarantee my spell will let you feel no pain."

Allen was hiding behind the Mirror of Erised; his mind raced, yet at this moment he could not think of any spell he had mastered that could threaten Professor Quirrell, simply because the spells he had mastered were too few.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him, recalling an attempt he had made earlier to use the Transfiguration spell in combat.

Back then, lacking any means to learn more spells, he could only develop applications for the spells he already knew in combat, so that he would have a tactic to handle danger when it arose.

In the end, his gaze still fell upon the Transfiguration spell; although the Transfiguration spell required a long preparation time and was prone to failure, its upper limit was the highest among all the spells Allen had mastered.

For this reason, he had brainstormed many applications for the Transfiguration spell and made many attempts, but later, with Professor Quirrell's guidance, he gradually put aside the development of the Transfiguration spell.

What Allen thought of now was one of his earlier attempts with the Transfiguration spell; at that time, he had only mastered using the Transfiguration spell to turn one object into another, and during his attempts he discovered that the transfigured result possessed great potential energy without significantly increasing the difficulty of transfiguration.

To illustrate: transfiguring a spring and a compressed spring is actually about the same in difficulty, yet the compressed spring possesses immense elastic potential energy.

Allen believed that this elastic potential energy was the key to breaking through the invisible armor on Professor Quirrell.

But Professor Quirrell's footsteps were approaching; Allen had to act quickly.

Allen felt his palms very damp; he knew many hunting traps were built around elastic potential energy, but now it was too late to construct such a trap; to ensure success, he could only choose the simplest, most brutal method.

He waved his wand and cast the Transfiguration spell on the stone tiles on the ground; under immense pressure, he actually succeeded on the first try.

What he transfigured was a steel rod slanted into the ground, bent upward to its extreme deformation; this steel rod was blocked by the mirror, so Professor Quirrell could not see it at all.

Just as Allen succeeded in the transfiguration, Professor Quirrell happened to step behind the mirror; his mood was relaxed, for he did not believe this first-year young wizard could pose any threat to him.

But the moment he turned around, he saw a dark shadow rapidly slamming down at him; the invisible armor before him shattered like an eggshell, the steel rod hesitated only for an instant, then continued slamming toward Professor Quirrell...

Yet that brief hesitation still bought Professor Quirrell some time; he barely twisted his body aside, but the steel rod still struck his left arm, and his left arm went limp, hanging down...

Allen had no time to regret; seizing this opportunity, he quickly moved to Harry's side.

"I'm completely out of options; that Transfiguration spell just hit Professor Quirrell by luck! Next time he'll definitely be on high alert! Do you have any ideas?" Allen said rapidly to Harry.

Harry shook his head quickly, but soon he thought of something.

"Quirrell seems especially afraid of touching my body; just now, when his hand touched my skin, it blistered up!" Harry shared the information with Allen.

Allen keenly noticed burn marks on Professor Quirrell's palm...

And at this moment, Professor Quirrell was thoroughly enraged; he never expected a first-year student to inflict such great harm upon him.

He stared fiercely at the Shi Zhu where Harry and Allen were hiding, first casting a Shield Charm on himself, then waving his wand and aiming at the Shi Zhu to cast the next spell:

"Expelliarmus!"

Hearing the incantation's prelude, Allen immediately sensed something was wrong; he shoved Harry aside, shouted, "Run!" and then rolled to the side himself.

Under the assault of the blasting curse, that pillar snapped in response, breaking into several sections, with shattered stones flying everywhere...

Allen and Harry crouched with their heads covered on one side, but this was only the beginning...

Professor Quirrell kept casting blasting curses at places where they might be hiding; Harry and Allen were driven to scatter in panic by wave after wave of explosions...

Finally, a chunk of shattered stone slammed heavily onto Allen's back; Allen felt darkness before his eyes, and his whole body collapsed to the ground, his wand slipping from his hand and flying far away...

Allen struggled to get up, but then he heard the sound that filled him with despair—he heard Harry's scream!

He suddenly lifted his head toward the direction of the scream and saw a scene that made his eyes bulge with rage—Harry lay powerless on the ground, blood gushing from his body...

Now Allen was truly and utterly despairing; he knew he had exhausted all his means, and his last hope was actually Harry.

Because he knew Harry was the protagonist of this world, the kind of person blessed with various kinds of luck; if a miracle could happen today to defeat Quirrell and Voldemort, then that miracle would surely occur through Harry!

But this hope had now been completely shattered!

He struggled to his feet and stumbled toward Harry, not even glancing at his own wand; he knew Quirrell certainly would not let him retrieve it.

Quirrell also stopped casting spells; he looked with smug satisfaction at the two youths who had completely lost the ability to resist...

Allen suddenly knelt before Harry; with trembling hands he tried to stop the gushing blood from Harry, but it was all in vain; warm blood flowed through his fingers, soaking his trousers and robes, yet he could not stop it no matter what...

This was the first time in two lifetimes that Allen had seen so much blood, and it was his friend's!

Allen felt Harry's life force slowly draining away, and his own heart sank...

Harry's lips turned pale and continued to tremble; Allen noticed Harry seemed to want to say something, so he carefully brought his ear close to Harry's lips and heard Harry whispering in an extremely faint voice:

"It hurts so much! I'm so cold!"

Allen felt his heart shatter...

He suddenly raised his head and looked at Professor Quirrell, saying:

"I surrender!"