"Got it. Why is it always me who has to sacrifice myself!" The other Shadow Clone complained before revealing himself and actively attacking the white-haired boy. This proactive attack had two main purposes: first, to cover the other Shadow Clone's retreat, and second, to die in battle to pass information to the original body.
"Bi-big brother?" Marie stared blankly at the Shadow Clone who seemed like a savior.
"Consider yourself lucky. The original plan wasn't like this. Remember to treat the original body to Ichiraku when you get back!"
"Ichiraku? Original body?" Marie was confused.
"Oh, it doesn't have to be Ichiraku. Ramen from Rebecca's restaurant will do. As for the original body, you'll understand when you grow up!" The Shadow Clone said as he fled at high speed.
"Yeah! I'll remember that, big brother!" Marie nodded vigorously, her eyes fixed on Asta's profile. Something unexplainable seemed to have taken root in her heart.
"It's... it's an enemy. This cloak, it's from the Magic Knight Squad, and there are two of them, brother!" Seeing the Shadow Clone coming to his death slowly walking towards him, the white-haired boy finally saw the figure clearly. Just now, it had been so fast it was just a flash!
"Useless, you useless fool! How did you lead the Magic Knight Squad here? Hurry up and kill him!" A stout man wearing a black and white robe and glasses shouted in panic from another cave.
"There's another target..." The Shadow Clone noted their appearances, then looked at the retreating white-haired boy and said, "Hey, do you have any other accomplices? Confession leads to leniency, resistance leads to severity!"
"Brother, what should I do?" The white-haired boy ran to the side of the stout young man in a panic.
"Hurry up and use magic! In any case, don't just sit there and wait for death!" The stout young man was even more anxious than the white-haired boy. How could he be so brainless? He waited for orders for everything, and didn't even know how to fight when the enemy came!
"Yes, brother!" After hearing the stout young man's order, the white-haired boy immediately took action. "Snow Magic: SNOW-CRY!"
A massive amount of Snow Magic power immediately rushed towards the Shadow Clone like a white dragon!
"Too slow, too slow. Although I only inherited ten percent of the original body's strength, the enemy is just too weak!" To the Shadow Clone, this Snow Magic, which looked like a rapid shockwave to others, was easily dodged as if it were in slow motion.
"I can't hit him at all!" Because the white-haired boy was nervous, his Snow Magic was already below standard when cast, and combined with the Shadow Clone's extreme movement speed, he couldn't help but panic.
"This won't do. There are so many children here; it will hurt them. Looks like I need to move the battlefield!" The Shadow Clone immediately charged towards the white-haired boy and his brother.
"Useless fool, hurry up and block this monster!" The stout young man shoved the white-haired boy forward and ran quickly towards a spacious cave filled with scientific instruments.
"Let me see!" The white-haired boy fought while retreating, opening his grimoire to find suitable magic to fight back, while also backing into the spacious cave.
"Very good, I've forced them to retreat. Now, all I need to do is stall these two as much as possible so that the original body can arrive in time for the rescue!" Having made up his mind, the Shadow Clone began to focus on stalling, because he only had ten percent of the original body's taijutsu, making him easily dispersed by magic.
"Snow Creation Magic: SNOW-FRIENDS!" In his panic, the white-haired boy finally found a very suitable area-of-effect magic. The moment the mana was released, more than half of the cave was covered in bone-chilling white snow!
"Good thing the battlefield avoided the children, otherwise it would be terrible!" The Shadow Clone suddenly felt quite clever for having preemptively avoided the risk of hurting the children!
"Awoo!" The white-haired boy's magic wasn't that simple. After the white snow covered the ground, tall snowmen crawled up from the ground and charged towards the Shadow Clone like aggressive zombies.
"Go, my friends!" Seeing so many snowmen, the white-haired boy's nervousness finally dissipated.
"Wow, their jumping ability is so high!" The Shadow Clone had intended to dodge the impact by jumping high, but who would have thought these snowmen would follow him up, and their height was only half a meter lower than his? That distance was enough for the snowmen to swing their fists and smash at him!
"I'm going to surpass my limits!" The Shadow Clone shouted and began to use his movement skills to dodge and kill the snowmen. Soon, the first batch of snowmen was wiped out by the Shadow Clone, but these snowmen seemed inexhaustible; killing one would just result in another regenerating, making them extremely troublesome!
Just as this Shadow Clone was falling into a crisis, Asta and the others finally arrived in front of the cave and encountered the Shadow Clone rushing out of the cave carrying Marie.
"I'll leave it to you!" Upon seeing Asta, the Shadow Clone immediately self-destructed, primarily to pass accurate information to Asta.
"Two big brothers?" Marie was stunned.
"Marie, don't be surprised. The one holding you was just a Shadow Clone of mine!" Asta smiled and rubbed Marie, who had survived the ordeal. This gentle gesture undoubtedly touched young Marie.
"It's so good that you're okay, Marie. Are the other children alright?" Nun Granny Theresa walked up to Marie and said with relief...
"Nun Granny, I'm fine. When I came out, everyone else was still okay, just controlled by magic from a bad white-haired brother. Now everyone has lost consciousness. Let's go save them quickly!" Marie said anxiously.
"Do you still know where they are hiding?" Theresa looked at the intricate and complex cave passages. This was more complicated than imagined, which was a bad situation. Every second they delayed now meant more danger for those children!
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