The Butcher of Hogsmeade

"I think I heard something?" Gideon's gaze was no longer on the phoenix guardian above his head, but rather on the depths of the dense forest on the hillside ahead; alerted by his words, the group members quickly realized what was happening.

The ground trembled slightly, and a dull thud came from afar, first felt by the soles of their feet, then picked up by their hearing. A massive object was slowly moving towards their location, and considering their current mission, the identity of the object was obvious.

Soon, not only their hearing but also their sense of smell alerted the wizards; a mountain breeze swept by, bringing with it an indescribable stench. Moments later, the canopies of the trees atop the hillside began to sway violently, and a massive figure, nearly four meters tall, emerged from the dense forest, appearing before the wizards' eyes. The low shrubs and grass on the slope offered no concealment of its size.

Then came the second and third equally enormous figures; judging from the density of their footsteps, one could imagine that there were many more of their kind in the dense forest behind them.

Even now, the phoenix guardians above the wizards' heads have not completely dissipated, yet they have encountered the giant at the most inopportune time, amidst widespread panic.

Upon seeing the wizard, the leading giant stood frozen in place for a long while; with its intelligence likely no greater than that of a three-year-old child, it took at least a minute to decide how to handle the current situation.

The decision was very simple, just one sentence: Pick up a stick and beat the hell out of them!

These wizards stole the tribe's supplies; they intended to starve and kill all the giants.

With the first troll leading the way, all the trolls abandoned all thought and followed suit, swinging their clubs. Fierce roars were the signal to their companions behind them, and more and more trolls emerged from the dense forest, wielding their clubs and charging towards the wizards.

Thirty creatures, each weighing an average of about one ton, gathered together and charged from a height at a speed exceeding thirty kilometers per hour. Each of them carried a large club capable of easily crushing a person's skull and spine, creating an overwhelming sense of oppression.

In an instant, the ground on the entire hillside began to shake.

"Signal!" Gideon ordered the memory eraser and the invisible task force in the center of the group; at that moment, a striker, unable to withstand the pressure, fired a spell at the giant before the order could be given: "Obstacles!"

With a "pop," the invisible magical barrier was stepped on by the giant, but the biggest effect was only to make the leading giant stumble and be overtaken by the other two giants behind it.

"Hit them on the head, that's their weakness!" Gideon wished he could send that reckless striker back to Hogwarts to relearn Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Spread out to the left and right, don't block their charge," Fabian warned simultaneously, while he also cast a stun spell on the giant at the front.

Only a few were able to keep up with Gideon and Fabian's reaction speed. In fact, the rugged terrain and dense vegetation made it difficult to find a foothold, which affected the pace of the other team members as they dispersed to both sides, making it much slower than expected.

Then it was Shen Hou's turn to make a move. With an Iron Armor Spell, an iron wall was erected out of thin air at the foot of the hillside, blocking both the charging and rolling giant monsters on the other side of the wall.

The trolls' small heads were clearly insufficient for them to react in time. When blocked, they didn't know how to find a way around, but instead stubbornly and continuously struggled against this invisible iron wall.

The violent impacts were sharp and piercing. Each ramming of the giant and each pounding of its club was like a powerful curse, shattering the iron wall in the blink of an eye.

"Damn it, no wonder they're so stupid they can still be ranked four stars!" Shen Hou muttered to himself. He had previously used the Iron Armor Spell to block the charging giants, with good results, and the giants' speed of destroying the iron wall was only slightly slower than that of the giants; perhaps it was because the giants were charging as a group at this moment, unlike the giants who were used to fighting individually.

Fortunately, the iron wall was not ineffective. After this delay, the wizard group, which was originally cramped at the bottom of the hillside, was able to spread out to both sides of the hillside, and the warning signal was sent out in time.

In this way, the terrain advantage between the two sides was instantly reversed. The wizards stood on relatively high ground, while the giants rushed into the ravines below the hillside, where they were located at a low level and huddled together.

"The buildings collapsed and the ground caved in!" Gideon shouted "Deprimo" several times in a row, creating a series of interconnected deep craters at the outer edge of the area where the trolls were concentrated. Then he shouted to his teammates, "Restrict their movement and try not to let them scatter."

Fabian and his brother, working in perfect harmony, had already followed suit before Gideon could even warn them, blasting the same deep crater in another direction. The crater they created was neither too big nor too small; its width made it difficult for the already clumsy giants to leap over it in one bound, while its depth was just enough for them to jump in and climb out.

As a result, the not-so-bright giants jumped into the deep pit on their own initiative, and then clung to the other side of the edge to climb up with great effort; at this time, they had to temporarily put down the big clubs they were holding on the ground, and at the same time expose their bald heads to the wizards.

The wizards, positioned high above, faced a row of nearly stationary bald heads, ensuring that even inexperienced strikers wouldn't miss. A volley of five or six stun spells followed, and after two rounds, a third of the giants lay unconscious in the crater.

During this time, Shen Hou used the Iron Armor Spell to erect a high wall, blocking the gap between the two deep pits, while marveling at the Pwitt brothers' pre-battle response.

No wonder the Death Eaters needed five men to ambush the Prewitt brothers and had to arrange for an ambush; no wonder Fabian was confident that the Ministry of Magic could crush the Death Eaters in a direct confrontation, with the only condition being that Dumbledore hold off Voldemort.

The Auror Office indeed houses the most elite and battle-hardened wizards in the magical world.

The battle quickly took another turn. The unconscious giants filled the pit, which paved the way for the remaining giants. They stepped over their companions without hesitation to cross the pit and rush towards the wizard. Shen Hou even saw one of the giants misplace its foot and step on the head of an unconscious giant, almost crushing the latter's small head, causing brains to splatter instantly.

Other giants bypassed one end of the iron wall and circled around the pit from the other side, also attacking the wizard from both sides.

An even more serious situation arose in the dense forest where the giants first appeared. One after another, some figures emerged from the forest that were slightly shorter than the giants, but still nearly half the height of a human.

Those were the females and underage members of the troll tribe.