Chapter 190

"Begin the assault!"

 Although few of the not-so-bright wizards didn't like the fact that they had to obey Harold's words, they had no choice but to swallow their pride at least for now, because after all, he was the one chosen to represent the union. 

And at that very moment, after the loud order of the Minister of Magic, hundreds of beams of light rushed into the building at incredible speed, illuminating the entire space under the dome with a multi-colored glow, and many explosions were heard behind it.

But the barrier surrounding the base of the "Steel" squad managed to withstand the first attack without any particular problems and at the same moment, in place of the open windows behind which the wizards in leather robes stood, holes appeared for a second from which various elemental spells burst out, threatening to destroy the wizards in the front rows.

But "Protego Maxima!" three voices sounded simultaneously from different sides, one of which belonged to Yaxley, the second to the captain of the Aurors, and the third to an unknown person from the gangs. 

And, in front of the wizards, three transparent walls appeared, joined together in the form of a triangle, protecting them from more than eighty attacks and as soon as the barriers disappeared, on the previously empty street between them, there were many black marks, small, ice walls and pieces of icicles, dents and cuts, and in some places there were deep holes. 

If the wizards fell under any of the spells used earlier by the enemies, death or serious injury was inevitable. 

But, this did not frighten the majority of the inhabitants of Magical Britain at all, but only further provoked their fighting spirit and they again began to shower the house with spells. 

Not only regular spells were used, but also the unforgivable ones, which the Death Eaters sent furiously into the barrier, because they were much more effective than regular ones, especially Avada Kedavra, which easily passed through the building's defences.

Seeing this, the gang leaders who noticed this also ordered the use of unforgivable ones, although not all of them could use the unforgivables, only some, but this was also able to ease the pressure on them. 

But the workers of the Ministry of Magic and ordinary wizards who joined this battle were having a hard time. 

After all, to use the darkest spell, in addition to knowing the formula and a wand, required a strong intent to kill, as well as only negative emotions towards the target, this magic could only be used by truly dark wizards, whose hands were elbow-deep in blood and who were not afraid to dive head-on into it. 

For this reason, "light wizards" could not use it, and those who still could, did not use it, because it would immediately show that they were not so good, and not many wanted to ruin their reputation. 

Therefore, they had to rely on more ordinary ones, but at the same time, a small group switched to "Bombard" to quickly weaken and destroy the barrier, and then break into the building. 

Albus and Voldemort did not enter the battle yet, but only silently watched it, waiting for the moment when the protection would fall. 

A couple of minutes had passed since the battle began, but already about twenty wizards from the enemy side had lost their lives, having fallen under Avada Kedavra, while their side was doing much better, because they mainly used the tactic: "hit-defend", simply not giving the enemy a moment to hit them, while constantly changing the rhythm so that the opponents could not predict when the barriers would fall again and continued to shower them with spells without ceasing. 

The dome itself surrounding the building looked as whole and unharmed, but it was clear to the naked eye that its colour had faded a little, which indicated that it had weakened slightly. 

Severus,watching this "battle", recognized the correctness of such "turtle" tactics, but he still felt that it was quite boring. 

After all, he expected a much more exciting battle, but at the same time, the Prince was still a little glad that it did not develop into a massive wall-to-wall slaughter, in which it would be much more difficult to keep track of a certain people. 

But Eileen was very excited watching this clash, because for the first time in her life she saw so many wizards in battle. 

At the site of battle, seeing the effectiveness of this tactic, especially thanks to Avada Kedavra, the minister showed a certain hand gesture to the Dark Lord and the temporary leader of the gang union, so that they continue in the same spirit, because before entering into direct confrontation, it was worth thinning the ranks of the "Black Star" as much as possible. 

Tom snorted indifferently in response and turned his gaze back to the building, and the second leader only nodded silently. 

Normally, Riddle would have ignored him and simply killed him, but now was not the time for his arrogance and contempt, because the most important thing here was to destroy the main enemy, and only then deal with the Ministry of Magic, and why should he be against it, when the losses were mainly suffered only by "light wizards".

The man was quite willing to stretch this exchange of "pleasantries" for an hour. 

After all, in just four short minutes, the minister's side lost seven people, and he only one, and such an exchange more than suited him, since after this battle they would still have to clash again, and therefore, the fewer enemies they had left, the better. 

Harold also understood this perfectly well, but he simply had no choice. 

First of all, for the reason that it was unknown how many people the "Black Star" still had left, and the exchange of twenty-odd for ten was more than reasonable. 

Albus himself could not help but sigh sadly at the sight of the wizards falling to the ground, many of whom were not even twenty-five. 

Although the old man was not the "goodest" person, he always tried to avoid casualties or reduce them to a minimum, and seeing young people who had never seen life lose their lives only made him bitter, even after participating in the war started by his best friend Grindelwald, where there were many more deaths. 

Dumbledore wanted to help them, but he could not, because the old man was a restraining factor for Tom. 

First of all, the wizard had to watch him and if he tried to do something that could harm the others, he had to stop him. 

Still, the headmaster, like no one else, understood that he was not omnipotent, especially after meeting Amon and keeping track of all the wizards was simply impossible for him and therefore, of two evils, he had to choose the lesser evil.

After all, if Riddle were left unattended, there could have been many more victims... Another ten minutes passed until the first crack appeared on the barrier,which almost immediately lit a spark of hope in the eyes of the others. 

In this short time, the number of victims on the part of the "Steel" squad increased to over forty, and the Union to twenty-seven, which forced them to change strategy at the eleventh minute and increase the pressure on the barrier. 

However, they still could not hide their shock, because the defence of the building turned out to be much stronger than they expected. 

From the very beginning, the minister and the others assumed that the battle would drag on for a maximum of ten minutes due to the small territory and they would simply overwhelm them with numbers, but no one has expected such an outcome, when in as many as fourteen minutes, they managed to make only one crack.

And finally, two "Masters" joined the battle in the form of Albus and Tom. 

Using some of their strongest spells: from the wand of the first, a red beam burst forth, emitting incredible heat, and the second - gray, cold, filled with darkness. 

As soon as they encountered the barrier, then almost immediately, it trembled, which did not escape the views of the other wizards and, of course, the enemies, who immediately chose the two wizards as their target, because they simply could not allow them to destroy the dome before the arrival of reinforcements. 

But, both the "Death Eaters" and the Aurors also could not allow them to be hindered, therefore, they immediately stood up to protect their leaders, and faced an incredible flow of elemental spells, which even "Protego" could not always save them from, because of which, in a short minute, the number of victims on the part of the union increased from twenty-seven to thirty-nine. 

But after this short time, the previously left crack quickly began to grow, which of course could not help but cause real awe and reverence in the others, because these two monsters did what took them fourteen minutes and many began to understand why they are called the strongest wizards in Britain. 

Already in the second minute, the number of victims increased by another ten, but the "Black Star" also lost five people who tried too hard to stop Dumbledore and Voldemort, from which they lost their lives, from five Avada Kedavra.

And after that, with each passing second, the cracks began to grow and increase in size, until in an instant, a small piece of the barrier under a hail of spells flew to the side, from which the faces of the Black Star members suddenly lost all colour, since their enemies morale rose again and now they fully concentrated on this hole, using only joint "Bombards", the power of which was enormous. 

And the two "Masters" stopped the attack and only silently watched, because it was only a small matter, just a couple of good hits on it, they had already lost a lot of people, almost twice as many since entering the battle. 

Tom no longer wanted to so stupidly lose servants, of which there were already few left, and Albus also did not want even more wizards to die defending him. 

And finally, after thirty seconds, five wizards from the Ministry of Magic pointed their wands towards the hole and simultaneously exclaimed: Maximus Bombarda ! 

And an incredibly powerful shock wave burst out of their wands, throwing them back and rushing into the barrier, and at that moment, a transparent wall appeared in front of all the wizards…

"Maxim's Bombard" was several times stronger than a simple "Bombard", and the fact that five people used it put not only their lives at risk, but also the lives of the others, because between them and the barrier were a measly fifteen metres, but they discussed this with Harold and he gave the go-ahead for such a dangerous step. 

And, a moment later, the spell collided with the dome:~ BOOM!!! 

An explosion thundered and the shock wave that followed it was so powerful that it absorbed almost the entire barrier from the inside, throwing all the wizards back, but they were able to achieve what they wanted. 

As soon as the dust settled a few seconds later, an incredible picture opened up to them, the dome, which had withstood a huge number of spells, was simply torn to pieces from the side of the light 

But, not only did it suffer, but the left side of the building itself collapsed , burying many members of the "Steel" department under it...

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