Chapter 86
Bang!
The wooden door closed behind them, and the four stood at the entrance of a long, narrow corridor. Surrounding them were gray stone walls, and in the dim light, the torches on the walls crackled and sparked, casting a gloomy shadow over the passage.
The corridor was very quiet, yet it was filled with a strange atmosphere.
Daphne, being the boldest, walked in front; Meredith followed closely behind, while Astoria lagged behind the two. Soren, the strongest, brought up the rear, responsible for guarding their backs and looking after everyone.
As they walked, the air became increasingly damp, and soon a thick fog appeared in their line of sight.
Daphne murmured, "Lumost!" The tip of her wand emitted a milky white glow, bright like moonlight but not blinding, much brighter than a regular lumos spell, yet visibility still did not extend beyond three feet.
Meredith was about to cast a fire spell when Soren stopped her, "Mer, it's very unwise to recklessly cast fire in an unknown situation. Just think, what if there's a pile of flammable substance ahead? We could all be blown up!"
Daphne had a flash of inspiration and exclaimed, "Use wind! Wind can disperse the fog!" Then she showed a distressed expression, "But I haven't learned the spell yet... and to clear the entire fog, my magic output might not be enough..."
Soren shook his head, "I can cast the Windy spell, but there's actually a simpler way to handle this situation—Avis!" The tip of Soren's wand made a soft sound, and a small sparrow materialized, chirping cheerfully as it flapped its wings.
"Crescere!" The small sparrow suddenly became enormous, larger than a golden eagle, with wings spanning ten feet. It flew into the fog, its flapping wings creating a gust of wind that dispersed a small area of the fog, revealing the path ahead.
The three girls were left speechless, amazed that the Flock of Birds spell could be used like this?
Daphne was about to step forward when Soren pulled her back, "Don't rush. The fog may have cleared, but how do you know there isn't something else hidden within it?"
This time, the three girls looked puzzled. What did Soren mean? The path ahead was visible, and there was nothing in sight!
Meredith was the quickest to react; she pointed her wand forward and shouted, "Reveal yourself!"
Then came Astoria's startled voice, "What is that?"
Standing ahead was a tall creature with silvery-white fur, resembling a small, skinny bear, standing on its hind legs and extending its abnormally long arms toward them.
Meredith said uncertainly, "Is that a Hidebehind?"
Soren nodded, "That's right. The Hidebehind is a hybrid of a Demiguise and a Ghoul. It can not only become invisible like a Demiguise but can also contort its body, making it very adept at hiding and ambushing. This creature likes to hunt humanoid beings, including us wizards. Everyone, be cautious."
Soren was somewhat surprised; this was only a medium difficulty encounter, yet a four-star Hidebehind had appeared, and it had created fog to conceal its form. If he hadn't followed them in, there might have been trouble just now. It could only be said that the Silver Spear was indeed formidable.
The Hidebehind was very agile, dodging all the spells cast by Daphne and Meredith. When it couldn't evade, it twisted its body, skillfully avoiding attacks like a common yoga practice seen among Indian Muggles.
Daphne cast a Sticky Spell, covering the terrain around the Hidebehind with a thick paste. The Hidebehind accidentally stepped into the paste, momentarily halted, and Meredith seized the opportunity to cast a Transfiguration spell on the sticky paste, causing four arms to suddenly extend from it, tightly gripping the Hidebehind's limbs.
"Now's our chance!" Daphne and Meredith shouted in unison.
Astoria raised her wand and shouted, "Stupefy!" A beam of light shot from her wand, accurately hitting the Hidebehind's head and knocking it unconscious.
"Well done!" Soren praised sincerely. The two girls had coordinated perfectly, creating a perfect opportunity for Astoria to attack, and Astoria's spellcasting was impressive in both accuracy and speed.
As they continued forward, they arrived at a circular room with two exits ahead, and in the center of the room stood a statue of a wyvern.
In the wizarding world, dragons are just a general term, under which there are actually various sub-dragon branches. In his past life, Soren knew of two types— the wyvern killed by that mad Gryffindor knight, Cadogan, and the little firedrake that appeared in the Fantastic Beasts movies.
The creature that appeared in this room was a sub-dragon known as the amphiptere, which Soren learned about from ancient books in this life.
The amphiptere closely resembles the occamy and is one of the most beautiful creatures in this magical world: it has a serpent-like body of deep blue and a pair of wings that shimmer like a rainbow.
The statue of the amphiptere in this room is nearly 15 feet long. Its eyes are set with two bright red rubies, seemingly glowing as they watch the few people present.
"What do we do now?" Daphne frowned. "Do we have to go through it? Will it come to life?"
"It shouldn't," Soren wasn't too sure either. To be honest, if a medium difficulty challenge required passing a single amphiptere, he couldn't imagine what a hellish difficulty level would entail. "I think it's likely that we need to discover the secret of the amphiptere statue to proceed; otherwise, it might attack us."
"That makes sense. But for a medium difficulty test, it shouldn't be that hard. Let me give it a try—" Meredith raised her wand. "Aparecium!"
"Aparecium" and "Revelio" are not the same spell. Revelio is used to reveal invisible or transformed objects, while Aparecium is used to uncover hidden writing. Other similar spells include "Revelio" to reveal invisible people and "Trace Reveal" to find magical traces that have just disappeared.
Sure enough, an orange-yellow glow emerged from the amphiptere statue, slowly revealing an ancient runic symbol—Soren recognized it as Eihwaz, which means "yew tree," and represents "defense" and "protection" in the wizarding world. In legends, the amphiptere corresponds with the three-headed dog, guarding the gates of heaven and hell. Of course, this magical world has no heaven or hell, so they generally represent two meanings: fortune and disaster.
After Soren explained the meaning of Eihwaz, Astoria tilted her head and said, "Could it be that we need to follow the guidance of this ancient rune to find the correct exit, where one will be dangerous and the other safely leads to the next level?"
Using an ancient runic symbol to cast a spell?
Soren had also studied how to use ancient runes for spell casting—after seeing it firsthand in the secret passage on the fifth floor of Hogwarts, he had a lot of ideas. In Ravenclaw's heritage, there were also some records regarding this.
However, ancient runes are vast and profound; even in the Muggle world, there are Germanic, Norse, Celtic, and other systems. In the wizarding world, as far as Soren knew, there were at least twenty different systems, and the corrections between each system are complex, so so far, he hadn't made much progress in studying the use of ancient runes for spellcasting.
Soren didn't want to give up on this challenge. When it came to it, he had to give it a try.
He took out the Crown of Wisdom from his pocket and put it on, fully activating the Eye of Magic. For a moment, the Crown of Wisdom and the Merlin's Robe radiated a faint rainbow glow.
Soren used his wand to draw the complete Eihwaz rune in the air. Suddenly, a warm sensation came from the grip of the Night Steed wand, and at that moment, the wand seemed to come alive, vibrating on its own. Soren's pupils suddenly turned as blue as a deep pool of water, rippling with waves.
The amphiptere statue seemed to come to life, stiffly twisting its body and emitting a long, mournful cry that resembled both a phoenix and a sea serpent.
The ancient rune that appeared on it suddenly transformed into a beam of fire, shooting into the left exit.
"Go!" Before Soren could say anything else, the group rushed toward the left exit as quickly as possible!
Daphne was the first to enter, followed by Meredith, then Astoria, and finally Soren. Just as Soren stepped into the exit, the amphiptere statue fully revived, pecking fiercely at him, but collided with a transparent barrier at the exit's threshold. The impact caused the barrier to burst forth with dazzling blue light, radiating ripples of light from the point of impact.
Realizing that the amphiptere statue could not enter the exit, the group finally began to breathe heavily in relief.
"Soren, did you just successfully cast a spell in Ancient Runic?" Meredith couldn't help but ask. The Ancient Runic magic had been lost for several centuries, and if it truly reappeared in Soren, everyone present understood what that meant.
Soren shrugged and replied ambiguously, "Maybe! But at most, it's just a prototype of a casting method; it still needs more refinement..."
"That's amazing!" Daphne exclaimed. "Even so, that's a terrifying achievement. It is said that ancient sorcerers could cast spells using Ancient Runic, that ancient Egyptian sorcerers could part the Red Sea, and that ancient Babylonian sorcerers built floating cities..."
Soren shook his head. "To be honest, today, there may not be many who understand Ancient Runic, but there certainly aren't few. But why has Ancient Runic magic still been lost?"
Meredith hesitated and said, "Could it be that certain conditions need to be met first..." She thought of the unusual appearance of Soren's pupils earlier, "Like awakening a special ability hidden in one's bloodline, similar to snake speakers, prophets, or metamorphosis mages..."
"Yes," Soren said seriously. "Although I can't be sure, I think so too."
The group fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts, contemplating various possibilities.
With no interest in conversation, they quietly continued forward. This time, they encountered a large number of ghouls, at least thirty at a glance.
Newt Scamander's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" is merely a beginner's textbook suitable for third-year young wizards, with content still at an introductory level, and many obscure creatures are not included. The creatures listed only provide records of common examples and do not encompass all types of the species. For instance, while the book mentions sea snakes, it does not include the variant Selma.
Although the book contains records about ghouls and classifies them as two-star dangerous creatures, that doesn't mean one can let their guard down upon seeing a ghoul. In Lockhart's "Travels with Ghouls," there is a record of an extremely dangerous, highly aggressive variant of ghoul—the Chameleon Ghoul.
Unlike the gradually devolving ghouls, the Chameleon Ghoul has regained the nature of its ogre ancestors, craving the flesh of the living, and has also restored the cunning nature of ogres. They can shape-shift and disguise themselves as everyday objects to avoid detection, then suddenly launch an attack when someone approaches.
Although the Chameleon Ghouls before them were numerous, they had revealed their true forms, so Soren had nothing to worry about and let the three girls handle them.
"Exardescere flammae!" After three semesters of diligent practice, Daphne's magical power and spell-casting skills were stronger than her peers. She unleashed a vast expanse of orange-red flames, creating a wall of fire in front of them, radiating incredible heat.
Meredith cast a transformation spell, extending over thirty fiery arms from the center of the fire wall, reaching out toward the ghouls to grab them.
Astoria took out several bottles of blue flame potions, throwing them into the corners and gaps that the flames had not yet reached, leaving the ghouls with no escape. If any ghoul attempted to force its way through the flames, Astoria would use a barrier spell to slow them down; as long as she could buy some time, the ghouls would be consumed by the flames completely.
In just a short while, more than thirty Chameleon Ghouls were eliminated.
This time, Soren was very satisfied with their performance. The three did not act independently or recklessly cast spells at the enemy; instead, they cooperated seamlessly, first compressing the enemy's movement space with flames, then one person responsible for precise attacks while another covered the gaps and flaws. The intelligence of the Chameleon Ghouls was not low, but even with their adaptability and speed, they could not break through such tactical attacks.
Even though they eliminated the ghouls so easily, it was because the strategy was well arranged, and there were no execution errors. If the ghouls got close, it would not be a pleasant situation; the ghouls' teeth, claws, and blood were all highly toxic, and once contaminated, it would be difficult to treat. Lockhart's "Travels with Ghouls" includes examples of extracting chronic poison from ghoul bodies.
****
Want to read more of this fanfic [25+ chapters], and support me :- Patreon.com/Theuntamed0 [Character's arts are uploaded
there, you can check them out if you like.