After hearing Jobberknoll's suggestion, Fwooper also nodded helplessly; this was the only solution now, as they couldn't just abandon all their efforts. At the same time, she looked worriedly at the battlefield before her. Although their morale was good, the outcome would be unimaginable once Seth recovered.
Fwooper sighed irritably, not knowing if Thunderbird would arrive in time, then turned her back, slightly lifted a corner of her mask, and took out a bottle of potion from her person, taking a large gulp. In truth, she had lied to Jobberknoll; in her current state, she certainly didn't have half her strength left. Her internal organs had been injured by the aftershocks of the explosion spell, and she couldn't even guarantee a successful spell, let alone continue fighting.
On the front lines, the fierce battle between the two sides had reached a fever pitch. Although the club's wizards seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack, the Jacobsen family wizards, as local powerhouses in Northern Europe, were clearly more familiar with fighting in cold environments. However, the Death Eaters led by Otis Yaxley and the werewolf wizards commanded by Fenrir were all extremely bloodthirsty individuals. These two groups, under the cover of the North American collaborators in the rear, had already advanced dozens of meters, entering the woods outside the clearing. They were now using the trees for cover to launch a counterattack against the Pure Land Society wizards.
"Avada Kedavra!" Otis, using the trees for cover and keeping his body low, moved laterally between several cover points, finally finding a good opportunity. He aimed at a Jacobsen wizard who was sideways to him and unleashed the Killing Curse!
"Expulso!" Just as Otis's spell shot out from his wand, a Knockback Jinx quickly shot from beside his opponent, pushing the Jacobsen wizard away and allowing him to narrowly avoid Otis's Killing Curse.
"Damn it!" Seeing his sneak attack foiled, Otis snorted coldly, then looked in the direction from which the spell came, wanting to see who had ruined his plans. "You! Is that you? Igor Karkaroff?" Otis thought he had seen wrong and deliberately widened his eyes, only then confirming that it was indeed the former Death Eater Karkaroff who stood before him.
"Long time no see, Otis. I didn't expect you'd still be so fond of sneak attacks." Karkaroff sighed helplessly. He hadn't expected that despite all his efforts to hide, he would still encounter a Death Eater head-on.
"You damned traitor, die! Avada Kedavra! Avada Kedavra!" Upon recognizing Karkaroff, Otis's expression instantly turned savage. Karkaroff's betrayal of the Death Eaters had long been public knowledge, and it was this scoundrel who had caused his brother, Rory Yaxley, to be imprisoned in Azkaban. Today was truly a case of enemies meeting on a narrow road, so Otis immediately charged out from behind cover, barraging the other party with one Killing Curse after another.
Seeing the frenzied assault launched by Otis, Karkaroff dared not take it head-on, quickly ducking behind a large tree nearby for cover.
"Bang! Bang!" Due to Karkaroff's evasion, the Killing Curses Otis continuously fired missed their target, but two of them directly struck his cover, causing the large tree to shake violently, sending wood chips flying and simultaneously shaking off the accumulated snow from its canopy. Immediately, debris and dirty snow drifted in the air above the battlefield between the two, making the duel appear exceptionally desolate.
"Come out! You coward, don't hide! If you have the guts, show yourself and face me head-on!" Otis roared in anger when he saw Karkaroff crouching and hiding, causing his Killing Curses to repeatedly miss. "Reducto!" Upon realizing that the Killing Curse couldn't directly resolve the opponent, Otis immediately switched spells, preparing to use a Blasting Curse to break the trees blocking his path.
But Karkaroff, who had been secretly hiding, though cowardly, was not foolish. He understood the importance of cover. Upon noticing Otis's actions, he immediately peeked out, countering with a shield charm to block the attack, and even retaliated with a Killing Curse, launching a counterattack against Otis.
Otis became instantly furious upon seeing Karkaroff dare to retaliate, but he couldn't possibly avoid the Killing Curse. Fortunately, the environment was very complex, with rocks and trees everywhere. He lunged sideways, rolled, and ducked behind cover. Then, these two began fighting like children in a snowball fight—one hitting with a Killing Curse, the other shooting a Blasting Curse—and for a while, they were actually going back and forth.
However, this situation did not last long. The Pure Land Society wizards' organization and coordination were, after all, stronger than others, not to mention Seth personally assisting. Therefore, the club wizards' counterattack was quickly repelled by Seth and his people, and the club even left several corpses behind as a result.
After tangling with Karkaroff for a while, Otis also realized that something was amiss. Initially, it was only Karkaroff fighting him, but now more and more people were supporting the opponent's attack. He was now pinned behind cover, unable to even peek out.
"What's going on? Why aren't those two Silver Spears leaders coming to support us? Isn't Fwooper very strong?" Otis felt a chill in his heart. He had charged out first after Fwooper's loud call, completely unaware of the situation with the two leaders. Now, after careful observation, he realized that Fwooper and Jobberknoll hadn't followed along to join the battle at all.
"Damn it, these Silver Spears people are treating us like cannon fodder." Otis gritted his teeth in silent resentment, but the situation before him was becoming increasingly tense, leaving him no time to dwell on these matters. "No, I must first break out of this encirclement." Thinking this, Otis seized a lull in the enemy's attack, poked his head out, and fiercely flicked his wand.
A gust of wind was summoned by his magic, simultaneously carrying a large amount of wood chips and stone debris, sweeping toward the Pure Land Society enemies. Seeing this, the Pure Land Society wizards, including Karkaroff, assumed Otis was preparing a final desperate counterattack, so they all cautiously retreated behind cover. However, Otis seized this opportunity to cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself, then fled toward the camp without looking back. By the time the Pure Land Society people reacted, he had already escaped far away.
When Otis returned to the camp, safe and sound, he found that many of the wizards who had previously attacked had also retreated. Most of them were injured, and even those without visible wounds looked disheveled and covered in dust.
"Amicus, where are our people? Why are there only a few of you left?" Otis approached the Carrow siblings, who were also Death Eaters, and then asked the brother. He noticed that among the Death Eaters who had come with them, including himself, there were only six people; the remaining four had disappeared.
"They're all gone. Seth's magic is incredibly domineering; ordinary shield charms simply can't block his spells. We had just launched our offensive when he completely suppressed us with his absolute power. Everyone who is alive now is all of us; the rest all fell on the battlefield." Amicus Carrow shook his head sadly. His own situation wasn't good either; his ribs seemed to have broken after being grazed by an Oppugno spell.
"Otis, where did you run off to? Why didn't we see your support for half the battle?" Alecto Carrow, the sister among the Carrow siblings, looked at him with a stern face, clearly displeased that Otis hadn't acted with them.
"I was originally trying to circle around and ambush one or two enemies, but I happened to run into that traitor Karkaroff, so I ended up fighting him and was dragged into the heart of the battlefield." Otis's combat area was relatively deep, and it was precisely because of this that he encountered Karkaroff, who was slacking off.
"Karkaroff? That bastard is in Norway? And he's with the Pure Land Society people?" Alecto's expression immediately turned savage upon hearing this. They had all been hardliners among the Death Eaters; otherwise, they wouldn't have been reduced to fleeing to Northern Europe.
"Absolutely true. That guy recognized me too, but unfortunately, I couldn't personally kill that rebel on the spot." Otis spat in annoyance at the thought, then something else came to mind, and he focused his gaze on Fwooper and the others not far away. "You all rest here for a while; I'm going to settle accounts with the Silver Spears people!" Otis instructed, then walked straight toward Fwooper.
As soon as he approached Fwooper and Jobberknoll, he began to curse loudly, "What exactly are you two thinking? Weren't you the ones clamoring to launch a counterattack? But then, after everyone charged up, where were you two? Why couldn't we even see a shadow?"
"It's not that we didn't want to help, it's… *cough cough*, it's that we had to prioritize the safety of the goods." Fwooper knew why Otis was so agitated, but now she could only try her best to calm him down.
"You?" Upon hearing Fwooper's cough, Otis's heart instantly tensed, and he immediately lowered his voice and asked, "Are you injured? Were you forcing yourself earlier?"
Gridlocked by the fact that her condition could no longer be concealed, Fwooper could only nod helplessly, "Seth's explosion spell is extraordinarily powerful."
"Damn it!" Otis's expression instantly turned extremely ugly. "Since you're already this injured, why did you still make us launch a counterattack? You should know Seth's strength, plus the silent one next to him; how could we, with just these few people, possibly stop them?"
"There was nothing else we could do." Jobberknoll, who had been guarding Fwooper, also turned his head. "Our reinforcements will arrive soon, so we had to buy some time, didn't we?"