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Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 295: The Nundu
A feline-like creature with dark leathery skin walked out of the recently opened hole. It had bright eyes that pierced the darkness of the cavern and a pouch around its neck with spikes all over its surface. As the creature moved and breathed, green poisonous smoke came out of its mouth.
Any person who inhaled that smoke would be dead in mere seconds. Despite its relatively small size compared to other dangerous magical beasts, the nundu was considered one of the worst, and a full squad of two dozen trained wizards was the minimum recommended to deal with this monster.
"This is the security measure the goblin was talking about?" Daphne asked.
"No wonder he was so scared…" Xeno said.
They only lifted their eyes off the nundu for a second, and that was all it needed to lose it in the darkness.
"Where d—" Daphne heard a loud sound on her left side and was startled to find the nundu had almost reached her but ended up clashing against a powerful barrier.
Harry did not waste time using his strongest defensive spell. "Don't take your eyes off them!" he warned.
"Them?" Xeno then saw something moving a bit further away.
There were two more creatures like the first one; they were slowly walking out of the opening.
"Three nundus?!" Daphne exclaimed. She had read terrifying tales about what a single one of these monsters could do.
"Petra… Tredecim Hastae!" Harry did not want to give the nundu any time to recover after hitting its head against his shield and went on the offensive. Thirteen sharp stone spears formed from the ground beneath it and shot toward the target.
This was one of his most efficient transfigurations and the same one he had used to kill a basilisk before.
But against the nundu, it was useless. The spears were fast and their aim was true. But the magical feline was too nimble and quick. It managed to squeeze between the stone spears and escaped without suffering any damage.
Harry frowned. He had hoped to end this quickly.
The chamber was too small to use any of his most destructive spells without the risk of collapsing it. And with three nundus filling the limited space with their deadly poison, time was of the essence.
In the next instant, his wand was replaced by his goblin steel staff. 'Good thing I took precautions.'
"Libera…" Seven of the nine arks in his body became active and gained a bright shine.
Harry's eyes changed color to a bright blue as his body was overwhelmed by a massive surge of magical energy.
The nundu remained at the spot where it had landed and stared at Harry, as if waiting for his next move.
The other two did not show any intent to join their brother in the fight. Nundus were very prideful lone hunters. They would never share prey unless they intended to steal it.
Instead, they moved their attention to the other two people in the room, who were still behind Harry's barrier.
Harry had finished his short preparation and went back at it.
"Let's see how you dodge this!" He conjured a hundred steel blades all around the nundu in front of him.
The beast made a startled expression; it clearly had not been expecting a single wizard to be able to do something like this.
The blades began to move almost immediately after being conjured, not giving it time to adjust its position. With so many of them flying from every angle, it didn't matter how fast the nundu was...it could not escape this time around. Dozens of sharp steel blades impacted its body with tremendous force.
Harry expected to see the creature become completely skewered, but the result was much more disappointing than that. "Are you serious?..."
Speed was not the only thing that made a nundu hard to kill. Its leathery skin had magical properties that made it as resilient as the strongest metal.
Harry's conjured blades had only managed to inflict superficial cuts. But it wasn't like they accomplished nothing.
The nundu roared in anger while glaring at Harry. It had been too long since anyone had managed to make it feel this much pain.
'This is bad…' Harry saw the other two creatures charging at the barrier protecting Daphne and Xeno.
He had confidence in his defenses, but those sharp claws would eventually be able to damage the runes and take them down. And even if they didn't, the deadly toxins exuded by these two would start to seep through the barrier.
'I can't fail again… the next attack, I have to kill it no matter what,' Harry thought.
The nundu stared at Harry and growled. The creature was not only arrogant but also had a high level of intelligence and understood that this person was very dangerous.
As an apex predator, it is rare for it to find an opponent that would force it to get serious, but it knew that this was no time to hold back and went on the offensive. Its eyes shone with more intensity, its leathery pouch became more inflated while green toxic smoke escaped its mouth.
And then… it disappeared from its spot.
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