Lewis's mission of following Lucius and marking the rioters had come to an end.
He had no intention of directly joining the fight among the enemy, so he teleported straight to Shirella's side.
The scene before Lewis was horrific.
Several black-robed wizards were rolling desperately across the ground, trying to extinguish the flames burning across their bodies.
One male wizard endured the pain and lifted his clothes. Aside from an obvious penetrating wound, his body was covered in burns. Large blisters covered his skin, while patches of flesh had been burned completely black.
A middle-aged witch was screaming in agony. One of her arms had been frozen solid like a block of ice, covered in cracks as though it could shatter at any moment.
Most horrifying of all was a male wizard whose face had been half corroded, leaving it pitted and deformed. Most of one eyeball was exposed.
One rioter who had already fallen onto the ground and appeared to be surrendering secretly reached toward the wand in front of him.
Shirella noticed him immediately.
She raised her hand and swung her sword, striking him across the back.
Blood sprayed everywhere as powerful electricity surged through his body, causing him to convulse violently and tremble uncontrollably.
When Lewis teleported to Shirella's side, he happened to witness that clean and decisive strike.
"Don't look at me like that. I controlled the strength. He won't die."
Seeing Lewis suddenly appear, Shirella first guiltily took half a step back, then widened her eyes and put on an innocent expression.
Behind Shirella, an extremely old woman with graying hair and sparse teeth trembled as she gave Penelope a thumbs-up.
Under Shirella's attacks, none of the rioters dared provoke them again.
"Thank you, young lady. In you, I see the spirit those Aurors had when I was still a little girl."
The old woman praised her sincerely.
However, not all of the people under their protection were as broad-minded as the old woman.
Many people trembled in fear when they witnessed Shirella's ruthless methods.
After confirming that none of the rioters were still capable of resisting, Shirella snapped all of their wands in half.
Then she revealed a gentle smile and began treating the injured Muggles.
Lewis noticed that the Muggles' clothes were torn beyond recognition, their bodies covered in blood.
More than that, their eyes were vacant, and they looked dazed and foolish.
They had clearly been subjected to the Cruciatus Curse.
"Lewis, our squad needs to go support Kingsley Shacklebolt."
Shirella raised her chin.
During the battle, she had noticed several rioters abandon their fight with her and head straight for Kingsley.
Lewis nodded and followed her gaze.
Kingsley was struggling under the combined assault of three rioters.
"That guy is always supporting Moody's views, thinking my methods are too dark and brutal. I really want to see the look on this veteran Auror's face after I save his life."
Shirella couldn't help smiling.
Her entire body instantly transformed into silver mist, and she appeared on the new battlefield in an instant.
The Aurors under her command remained behind to treat the injured.
"Lewis Green?"
A deep voice with a slight foreign accent sounded beside Lewis.
Viktor Krum had followed him over.
Lewis looked at him in confusion.
Although Krum walked with slightly bowed legs, he wasn't slow at all.
"Green, do you know where Hermi... Hermione is?"
Krum got straight to the point.
He was clearly worried about Hermione's safety.
"She's somewhere safe."
Lewis suppressed the trace of displeasure rising in his heart and answered quickly.
After thinking for a moment, he couldn't help adding,
"If I may be frank, Krum, you and Hermione aren't close enough for you to call her by her first name."
"You kissed that woman in front of everyone. What right do you have to interfere with who Hermione associates with?"
Krum glanced at Penelope beside Lewis.
With his front tooth missing, his slightly breathy voice gave his foreign accent an oddly amusing quality.
"That's none of your business."
Lewis stopped paying attention to Krum and quickened his pace.
The situation on Kingsley's side looked extremely bad.
He was struggling to defend himself as various spells intertwined around him.
Fortunately, Shirella arrived in time and cut down a rioter who was trying to ambush him with a single sword strike.
"[Chain Lightning]!"
Lewis casually summoned his wand.
A bolt of lightning as thick as an arm shot from the tip and struck a rioter who was frantically casting a powerful spell.
The rioter immediately convulsed violently as electricity coursed through his body. Smoke even began rising from him before he collapsed to the ground, already beyond saving.
But the lightning didn't stop there.
It passed through his body and jumped to the second and third wizards.
Because the first rioter had acted as a resistor and weakened the lightning's power, the second and third victims weren't killed by the electricity.
However, both began foaming at the mouth before collapsing to the ground, their bodies curled up and twitching violently.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Kingsley and two of Shirella's subordinates subdued and arrested them.
"Oh, thank you..."
Kingsley tried to express his gratitude, but Shirella ignored him completely.
"Excuse me. Move aside. I need to provide emergency treatment to the injured."
Shirella coldly walked past Kingsley.
Then she gave the injured elderly wizard behind him a gentle smile. The silver longsword in her hand transformed back into the shape of a wand, which she pointed at the man's wound.
Soon, the old wizard's wound had undergone preliminary healing.
But the severely shattered and deformed fracture left Shirella with a headache.
She wasn't particularly skilled with healing spells and had no way to deal with such a serious injury.
Seeing this, Lewis stepped forward and took over the treatment.
He forcibly straightened the old wizard's arm, then placed both hands over it.
Natural power surged forth.
The Druid's [Rejuvenation] took effect on the old wizard, rapidly healing the fracture.
Seeing the two of them acting as though no one else was around, Kingsley, as their senior, couldn't help feeling embarrassed.
"Why did you only come now..."
He began grumbling.
"Did you really have to wait until civilians were injured before lending a hand?"
Hearing him push all the responsibility onto them, Shirella immediately became angry.
She turned around and spoke sarcastically.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought Mr. Kingsley could handle the situation by himself. I heard that Mr. Kingsley is recognized by the Aurors as the strongest duelist."
Lewis was somewhat surprised by Shirella's reaction.
She had always been straightforward when she spoke.
Who had she learned this kind of sarcasm from...?
Looking at the Black wizard in front of her, who was so angry that he was practically glaring through his beard, Shirella's sarcasm didn't stop.
"Obviously, you weren't capable of protecting them. You couldn't even protect yourself, and now you're blaming me instead. Don't you think that's ridiculous?"
Her words nearly made Kingsley lose his composure.
This veteran Auror simply couldn't accept being criticized like this by a young woman.
"Hmph. You make it sound so easy."
Kingsley said angrily.
"We're all Aurors, yet even you trainees reacted so quickly. Clearly, you were prepared in advance. We didn't receive any information whatsoever. There must be some kind of conspiracy here."
After saying this, Kingsley stared directly at Penelope, refusing to miss even the slightest change in her expression.
Although it was only speculation, Shirella had to admit that the veteran Auror had hit the nail on the head.
She had participated in Lewis and Gianna's entire plan and knew the truth behind the incident very well.
They had indeed received the information in advance.
However, they hadn't informed the others.
Instead, they had secretly organized and trained a group of Aurors loyal to Gianna in preparation for this very moment, using it as an opportunity to challenge the existing structure of law enforcement.
But on the surface, Shirella naturally wouldn't admit any of it.
"The reason you're in such a miserable state is because your training is too outdated. You're still playing the old spy game."
Shirella finished speaking and looked at the subordinates beside her.
"And we rely on advanced equipment and clearly defined team training. We're capable of handling any sudden situation."
At the end, she loudly declared,
"You've already fallen behind the times."
Everyone around them heard her final words.
The young Aurors proudly puffed out their chests.
Shirella shook her head at Kingsley, who was still fuming.
"Looks like you have a problem with what I said. Then I'll leave the rest to you. Aren't you best at calming people down?"
"I'll leave a few people here with you. You're injured anyway, so stay here and help the wounded. Don't delay our battle."
With that, she waved her hand.
Several young Auror trainees stepped out from the formation.
Kingsley's expression became extremely ugly.
But Penelope didn't linger.
She spoke quietly into her badge, then quickly walked over to Lewis.
"Tonks has ordered everyone to assemble."
Shirella simply informed Lewis.
Lewis nodded and reminded her,
"That bald guy will definitely report his suspicions to Scrimgeour today."
"Rufus Scrimgeour is a decisive man. Most of his energy since joining the Ministry has been devoted to fighting Dark wizards. He'll definitely like what we did tonight. In fact, he previously clashed with the pro-Dumbledore faction over this very issue."
Gianna Proudmoore had discussed this matter internally long ago.
As an Auror, Shirella was fairly familiar with her direct superior.
"As long as you two know what you're doing."
Lewis nodded and said nothing more.
He had never paid much attention to these bureaucratic details.
His role was to oversee the situation as a whole while providing the necessary magical support.
If he had to worry about every single matter himself, then why would he need so many companions?
If you want to read 60 chapters ahead of the public release, head over to: Patreon.com/RedString