Chapter 168: Gone, Just Like That
Regulus didn't retreat. His wand came up and a Protego unfurled before him.
The masked figure closed the distance and drove a fist into the barrier, knuckles sheathed in dark-blue light.
The impact boomed.
The Protego shuddered violently, ripples racing across its surface, but it held.
The defense performed as expected. The method of attack, though, caught Regulus off guard.
He could feel the force behind that punch. Physical impact, yes, and abnormally strong, but that wasn't what had made his shield tremble like that. The real threat was the magic layered over the fist: dense, saturated with penetrating force, as though purpose-built to crack a Protego.
This was combat utterly unlike anything mainstream wizards practiced.
Condensing raw magic or spell effects directly onto the body, then delivering them through close-quarters strikes. Regulus had toyed with the concept himself but never committed to developing it. It belonged to an older era, back when wizards fought without wands.
Efficient, direct and brutally dependent on the caster's control over their own magic and body.