Chapter 399: Fire Dragon (Part 2)
Chapter 399: Fire Dragon (Part 2)
Cedric's premonition was correct. The Aussie Protean was generally mild-tempered, but with an Azure Eagle constantly provoking it and then a Leopard joining in, even the most patient creature would lose its temper.
But before it could do anything, a burly Wizard ran up to its feet. Despite his considerable size, it all depended on who he was compared to.
It extended a claw to crush him, but he transformed right under its nose, turning into an African elephant half its height. The elephant suddenly accelerated and charged at it. The long tusks pressed against its scales, and the massive momentum knocked it off balance. Then it felt a searing pain at the base of its wings—
It actually stepped on me!
The Aussie Protean lost control and fell over. The elephant added more force, first trampling its head wildly to extinguish the fire the dragon was about to breathe, then jumping onto its fragile wings and repeatedly stomping on them.
Dragon egg? It had long forgotten about the dragon egg. All the Aussie Protean wanted now was to tear this sudden elephant to pieces, bit by bit.
"Elephantus! You can withdraw now!"
The female Warrior from Wagadu shouted, transforming back into human form from her Leopard shape. She held the dragon egg at a distance, but Elephantus was trapped. The Aussie Protean's claw clung tightly to his elephant leg, and the magical barrier on the leg flickered and rapidly dimmed, the protective charm weakening quickly.
The Azure Eagle swooped down, catching a glimpse of the boy on the broom who had been coordinating with the Golden Phoenix suddenly disappearing. Without hesitation, it transformed back into human form mid-fall and quickly cast a spell—
Blinding Curse! Just like Krum's strategy, but his move was more daring.
A wave of shock swept through the stands as they watched him about to crash to the ground—
But at the last moment, he transformed in mid-air, flapping his hands back into wings to pull himself up, drawing a curve in the air and turning to observe the results.
The effect was minimal!
The Aussie Protean howled in pain, spewing fire wildly, but it still didn't release its claw, clinging to the elephant like a nail. Cedric and his team kept a safe distance, happily carrying the dragon egg away.
On the other side of Wagadu, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, with the speed of the Firebolt, the blinding effect of Luminos, and the self-sacrifice of the Golden Phoenix, had the Hungarian Tree Hornet thoroughly frustrated. It took a few steps forward, one foot leaving the dragon's nest.
Harry seized the opportunity and Apparated—this area was within the Forbidden Forest, unaffected by the school's restrictions—his figure suddenly appeared beside the Hungarian Tree Hornet, grabbing the dragon egg and pushing off to take off on his broom.
But a spiky tail lashed out, and Harry gritted his teeth, one hand gripping the Firebolt and the other holding the dragon egg. He used Apparition a second time. When he reappeared, he was standing beside Ron and Hermione.
Ron was struggling to control the beam of light aimed at the Hungarian Tree Hornet's eyes, sweat pouring down Hermione's face, her eyes almost unable to stay open. "We need to leave!" Harry shouted, noticing a gash on his shoulder, unsure if it was from the Hungarian Tree Hornet's spiky tail or the result of Apparition—though he didn't really care, just urging them on.
The three of them kept retreating, and a blue flame shot towards them from the side. Ron lunged forward, and they tumbled into a deep pit they had dug earlier, watching the blue flame pass overhead with a shudder. "That was close", Ron said.
After a moment of silence, Harry tried to raise his head. "No!" Ron stopped him. "The dragon is going crazy, let's go underground!" They began casting the Earth Digging Spell, digging holes in the ground. The three moved quickly, soon digging a tunnel.
"Should be about right", Ron estimated.
They raised their wands, and the ground broke open with a large hole. Looking up, they saw Dumbledore's smiling face peering down from the judges' stand.
Harry climbed out, feeling embarrassed and covered in dirt. They might be the first group to dig a tunnel, he thought.
"You did well", Dumbledore said. "You are the second successful team."
"But Wagadu—"
"Ah, they encountered some trouble", Dumbledore said.
On the field, the Wagadu warriors indeed faced difficulties. The transformed African elephant was firmly held by the Aussie Protean, and worse, it had freed its head and aimed at its prey.
Scorching fire, like molten lava, clung to the magical barrier outside the warrior, hissing menacingly. The other two warriors were helpless, casting spells with frantic gestures, but the fire dragon shook its head, and the spells hit its round scales like mosquito bites, doing nothing.
The Aussie Protean opened its mouth, fire building up, this time a more vivid color. They could almost hear the sound of lava flowing—
"Zap!" A fierce red beam descended from the sky, striking its head.
"It's the safety officer. He judged that the Wagadu warrior was in mortal danger and stopped the fire dragon. This might affect their score. Wagadu is the second team to secure the dragon egg, just after Hogwarts! But this mistake might impact their ranking!" Bagman loudly explained.
Others quickly approached, and the red light dissipated. The Aussie Protean had fainted, along with the elephant, which was gradually returning to human form. His skin was badly burned, looking terrifying.
"Be very careful. Besides fire, the fire dragon's strength is also astonishing. Few magical creatures can match it", Bagman added belatedly.
"Nice words." Ron grumbled unhappily from the stands.
On the field, three teams remained: Beauxbatons, Ilvermorny, and Durmstrang. A few minutes later, the situation became clear—
Beauxbatons' three champions, with Fleur clearly in the lead, had a strategy to rely on her unique magic to hypnotize the green dragon while one protected and the other quietly retrieved the dragon egg. It was a good plan, but the interference from Ilvermorny's team often caused the Welsh Green Dragon to wake up at critical moments, repeatedly thwarting their efforts.
Durmstrang's situation was slightly better. Krum, with his excellent reflexes, managed to hit the fire dragon's eyes twice in quick succession, driving it into a frenzy. Their challenge was figuring out how to retrieve the shattered dragon egg fragments from under the enraged fire dragon's feet.
They were unsure whether to continue, but the task was to retrieve the dragon egg and safely escape from the fire dragon. With the egg already broken, they felt they should at least get a couple of larger fragments.
Both teams faced their own challenges, but the real trouble came from outside—just as Bagman had said in the temporary tent, the champions needed to be "aware of all directions" and also guard against the increasingly powerful black fire vortex that the Ilvermorny champion seemed unable to control, though they were struggling to maintain it.
"Byers, don't stop me!" Victor Graves shouted urgently. "If we can't get the dragon egg, we'll stop others from getting it."
Byers' face turned red, but he remained silent, silently struggling with Graves for control of the magic.
He knew Graves' actions were wrong, and they shouldn't go further down that path.
From the sidelines, it was clear to him that Ilvermorny's biggest problem was their lack of a method to get close to the fire dragon, and their magic wasn't powerful enough to completely defeat the Hebridan Black Dragon. The black dragon had noticed this and kept spewing fire from a distance, making the vortex even more uncontrollable. They were in a difficult position.
At that moment, the black dragon seemed to have everything under control, occasionally showing off the row of shallow but razor-sharp spines on its back, its pair of purple eyes gleaming as it watched them.
As the situation on the field worsened, Victor Graves came up with a devious plan: to disrupt the other teams.
His options were limited. The three teams directly in front were out of reach and had already left the field. So, he targeted the two nearby teams, and Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were the unlucky ones.
This was why the three teams had dragged on so long.
Karkaroff and Madame Maxime were pacing anxiously, glaring at Ilvermorny's Headmaster, who maintained a stern expression for ten whole minutes until Ilvermorny's team completely lost control of their magic, causing a black fire rain to fall from the sky. Only then did he stiffly request assistance.
The dragon trainers and Ministry of Magic staff stepped in to provide protection, and Ilvermorny's team left the field in disgrace. However, the remaining two teams—Durmstrang and Beauxbatons—refused help. Fleur barely extinguished the fire on her clothes and seized the opportunity to cast the hypnotizing spell again.
Meanwhile, Krum from Durmstrang finally managed to grab two dragon egg fragments in the chaos and stumbled out.
Only Beauxbatons' champions remained on the field.
The other fire dragons, having lost their eggs, roared, making the arena even more chaotic. After several attempts, the green dragon in front of Fleur's eyes drooped, but it wasn't fully asleep.
In any other situation, she would have continued trying. But now, with only their team left in the arena, she was growing increasingly anxious as the team captain.
She signaled to the other two members, but they were already terrified of the fire dragons, especially when the Welsh Green Dragon let out a loud sneeze, spewing a narrow stream of fire. They dared not move forward.
With no other choice, Fleur had to take the lead. She cautiously approached, with the Hebridan Black Dragon and the Hungarian Tree Hornet tilting their heads to watch her. Everyone held their breath for Fleur.
The stands were deathly silent, and Harry couldn't help but admire the witch's courage, even though she often seemed haughty and called him a little boy...
Felix descended from the sky, circling overhead. When the Hungarian Tree Hornet saw him, the fire dragon, which had been interested in Fleur, lowered its head and obediently lay on the ground. Felix scratched his head, unsure if he was interfering with the competition... but he hadn't anticipated this situation. With only one team left, focusing on them was reasonable.
Finally, Fleur grabbed the dragon egg and hurried back, the magic quickly fading. The Welsh Green Dragon let out a loud sneeze, its eyes half-open, and a small flame caught on her clothes. She quickly cast the extinguishing charm.
A wall of fire blocked her path, cast by the Hebridan Black Dragon. This fire dragon was intelligent; it only blocked Fleur, giving the Welsh Green Dragon time to break free from the spell's hold. It glared at Fleur with its large eyes, fire building in its mouth.
Fleur threw the dragon egg away, shouting, "Take it and go!" She simultaneously cast a Shield Charm.
The magical barrier melted like ice. She smelled the burning of her hair, and then a cool sensation spread over her body. She saw a blood-red shield in front of her, and looked up to see Felix calmly holding his wand.
The dragon trainers moved in unison, casting extinguishing charms, and the flames on the field quickly died out.
"Alright, the last team has completed the challenge! Although it's a bit unfortunate, they undoubtedly retrieved the dragon egg, and the champion's spirit of sacrifice might offset the points lost due to the safety officers' intervention... She looks injured, so please have the staff take her to the tent for treatment. The judges need to deliberate and score."
(End of Chapter)
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