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Chapter 90: T-80 vs. Troll
Just as Arthur had written in his letter, Molly really had put serious effort into studying various recipes.
However, the vague instructions like "a little" and "an appropriate amount" gave her quite a headache.
Fortunately, the food turned out delicious. After all, Molly was a professional housewife with over twenty years of experience—her skills were excellent.
Rick only felt that Mrs Weasley's cooking tasted a bit different from Momo's.
The red-haired boys, however, were extremely satisfied with their mother's new dishes.
Fred: "Today's new dishes are amazing. If we could eat like this every day…"
George: "We're willing to reduce our pranks on Ron by 10%!"
Ron: "Thanks a lot," he said, "but Mum's cooking today really is brilliant."
Percy: "Didn't you notice Mum has been preparing this for two whole days? If she cooked like this every day, she'd collapse!"
Bill: "…Delicious."
Ginny: "Big brother's right, but… what's that? A brain? Ugh…"
In short, Molly felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment from her first attempt at Chinese cuisine, receiving unanimous praise. After everyone finished eating, she happily went off to clean up.
Taking advantage of the moment, Arthur quietly leaned toward Audrey.
"Audrey, I made a few modifications to that tank, but there are still many things I don't understand. Could you explain them to me?"
"Sure!"
Audrey had no objection—but Rick's eyes widened immediately.
"Tanks? Did I hear that right? Mr Weasley is talking about tanks, isn't he? Audrey!"
Audrey smiled. "A tank only costs a few million US dollars. If you want one, I can get you one."
That's not the point at all, okay?!
"Mr Weasley…"
"Audrey, you can call me Arthur."
"Alright, Arthur," Audrey waved casually, "let's get inside the tank. I'll show you."
The moment they heard they were getting into a tank, everyone rushed outside.
Even Ginny, the youngest, was no exception. That strange vehicle had been sitting there for ages, and her father always forbade her from touching it—naturally, her curiosity had exploded.
A standard T-80 tank had a crew of three: commander, gunner, and driver.
Trying to squeeze nine people inside should have been a nightmare.
But this was the wizarding world.
With an Undetectable Extension Charm, Arthur had expanded the interior space enough to host a small party.
Audrey naturally took the driver's seat.
She had started learning how to drive a tank ten weeks ago—purely for fun—and had spent a full month practicing.
The tank rolled out of the garage.
Everyone inside was thrilled—especially Rick, who felt like he had suddenly become the king of land warfare.
Audrey noticed two new buttons beside the control panel.
"Arthur, did you install these?"
"Yes!"
Arthur was visibly excited. He had previously tried modifying tanks the same way as flying cars, but they were far too heavy—whether flying or driving, they were painfully slow. Seeing it move so smoothly now made it impossible for him to stay calm.
"The red one is invisibility, and the blue one is flight. But it's too heavy—it can only rise about thirty feet."
Audrey nodded and pressed the red button.
From the outside, the tank vanished instantly—though the deep track marks on the ground still betrayed its position.
Driving farther away from the village, Audrey asked, "Where should we go?"
Arthur thought for a moment. "How about Mr Lovegood's house? He's the editor of The Quibbler."
After travelling for a while, Arthur suddenly asked, "Audrey, what are those steel pipes on top for?"
"That's the turret."
Rick, still very much a young man at heart despite his fame, blurted out excitedly, "That long tube is the cannon barrel! It fires shells!"
"Shells?"
Arthur was completely confused—and so were the Weasley children, except Bill.
"No explanation beats seeing it yourself."
Audrey smiled and stopped the tank.
They were in a remote valley—no need to worry about Muggles seeing them.
She switched to the gunner's position, loaded the shell smoothly, aimed, and fired.
A shell shot out from the 125mm cannon like a streak of light and slammed into the hillside.
BOOM!
Dust exploded into the air as two massive trees collapsed, leaving behind a huge crater.
Inside the tank, the Weasley family fell silent.
Bill had seen tanks before—he'd once witnessed a Muggle military exercise in Egypt—but they hadn't used live ammunition. Compared to this, that display was nothing.
At that moment, the Weasleys—who already held a favourable view of Muggles—became even more convinced that wizards and Muggles should coexist peacefully.
"Audrey…" Arthur stammered, "tanks like this must be extremely rare in the Muggle world, right?"
"No," Audrey replied calmly, "there are over 1,200 tanks in Britain alone. This isn't anything special."
That single sentence completely stunned every wizard present.
After all, there were only about three thousand registered wizards in Britain—and fewer than a thousand of them had combat capability.
In that context, someone like Lucius Malfoy could easily rank in the top hundred.
BOOM!
BOOM!
Two massive boulders suddenly crashed down from the sky, slamming into the ground in front of the tank and sending mud flying everywhere.
"Ah—!" Ginny screamed.
Audrey immediately jumped back into the driver's seat and reversed at full speed. Just as expected—two more boulders smashed into where they had been moments ago.
"There!"
Ron pointed toward the left viewing port.
On the hill stood two enormous figures.
Two mountain trolls.
Unlike the one that had rampaged through Hogwarts at Halloween, these two were larger, bulkier, and far more muscular.
They wore metal armour that pulsed faintly with red light—like it was breathing.
"Damn… Goblin metal collars."
Audrey muttered under her breath.
A century ago, goblins had used collars forged from their metal to control trolls and dragons—and these two were clearly under that control.
With no more stones to throw, the trolls grabbed their clubs and charged forward.
"George! Take the gunner's seat—use that pedal to control the turret!"
"Fred! You handle observation and aiming!"
"Arthur, Bill—open the hatch and use magic to slow them down!"
Audrey reversed rapidly while the turret rotated under George's control. Fred operated the targeting system.
The twins picked it up instantly—their talent for this kind of thing was almost unfair.
"Damn it! The barrel's too high—the autoloader can't feed the shell!" Audrey complained while continuing to retreat. "If that's the case…"
"George! Level the cannon!"
"But if we lower it, we won't hit them!"
"Just do it!"
George obeyed.
As Fred adjusted the aim, Audrey slammed the blue button.
The tank slowly lifted into the air.
George and Fred shouted in excitement.
"Good! Good! Almost there!"
Two seconds later—
"Now!"
Arthur and Bill used magic to hinder the trolls, turning them into near-stationary targets.
BOOM!
The shell struck one troll directly in the chest.
For first-time gunners, the twins had done incredibly well—on par with soldiers who'd trained for months.
As the smoke cleared, the troll's entire upper body was gone.
Its lower half staggered for a moment before collapsing and rolling down the hill.
"YES!!"
The twins high-fived.
"Ron! Did you see that? This is way better than a wand!"
Ron grabbed George's sleeve. "George! Let me try too! I want a go!"
Rick stared at Audrey.
It was his first time seeing a creature like a troll. He should have been terrified.
Instead… he felt excited.
So it was true—fear came from insufficient firepower.
Sitting inside the tank, all he wanted to do… was fire a shot.
"Audrey… can I try too?"
But Audrey had already landed the tank and was climbing out.
"We're not fighting anymore."
Her expression turned serious.
"If we kill this one too, we'll lose the trail to whoever's controlling them."
She looked toward the remaining troll.
"I want to capture it alive."