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A colossal troll with a stride spanning three or four meters charged towards them, closing the distance to less than thirty meters in a flash. Neither barbed nets nor other defensive traps seemed effective against it. Its clay-like body could harden or soften as needed. When it encountered their heavy pressure trap, its excessively long legs stretched like noodles, extending to seven or eight meters—almost as tall as the creature itself. In a single bound, it vaulted over the trap, showcasing its ability to contort, warning everyone not to underestimate the appearance of this shape-shifting slime.
While kelpies specialize in transformation, this slime is a master of mimicry!
"What are you all waiting for? Run!"
As the towering clay troll swung its massive club towards them, Chris kicked Wood in the rear. "Don't tell me you're planning to use Wingardium Leviosa to lift its club and knock it out?"
"Cushioning Charm!"
Without hesitation, the young wizards leapt from the six-meter-high walls and landed safely, their Cushioning Charms softening their falls. As they raised their wands, their ready-and-waiting Nimbus 2000s zoomed into their hands.
Behind them, the sturdy castle wall shook with a deafening crash, fragments of rock scattering like bullets. The protective barrier covering the castle grounds overloaded and shattered in an instant. The invisible shield disintegrated as the clay giant's brute strength ripped it apart.
Twenty-some figures shot into the sky with a swoosh, while the walls that had once provided them safety collapsed into a heap of rubble under a flurry of relentless blows.
The young wizards, still shaken, had never witnessed such violent destruction before. Perhaps only those few legendary magical creatures at the top of the food chain could unleash such raw power.
At school, the most dangerous creature they had studied was the Chimera. While Chimeras with spellcasting abilities sacrificed some physical power for their fire-breathing, their strength was no match for giants. In raw strength alone, they barely outmatched trolls.
The slime below, however, disguised as a troll, displayed a disturbing level of power thanks to its eerie shapeshifting abilities.
A kelpie's transformation could only mimic the outward appearance of other beings and couldn't replicate innate abilities. But this slime…
Who would ever believe a glob of goo could be this strong?
Once airborne, the young wizards' teamwork visibly improved. On the ground, they had relied on individual spells, with little real coordination. Now, high above, they found themselves on familiar ground, working in near-unison.
Their battalion's training had focused on fitness, discipline, and, of course, Quidditch. Harry had emphasized the sport as much as any standard combat drill. After months of training together, the battalion had developed a unique bond, a camaraderie that now translated into a mutual understanding in battle.
Without needing orders, they moved into a tight "V" formation, resembling a bird in flight. Defensive members took the front, while the offensive "shooters" settled into covered positions. Though it wasn't a classic Quidditch formation, it suited the current battle. At the time, they hadn't understood why they practiced this formation, but now it made sense.
The Iron Armor Charm shields deployed, and the students on their Nimbus 2000s raised their wands.
A synchronized volley from seven wands aimed directly at the chest of the clay troll. Petrify, Shatter, and Blast—a powerful sequence of testing spells. The troll's shapeshifted club was as sturdy as iron, but the young wizards had no doubt that this clay monstrosity was wearing a thick layer of armor.
As the spells hit, Cedric, the sharp-eyed one, noticed something peculiar: the Petrification Charm didn't work. The slime seemed immune to it. Yet the Shatter and Blast spells unexpectedly caused significant damage, blasting a massive hole in the troll's chest, large enough to bathe two people.
The assumed solid defense didn't hold; the clay troll crumbled as if it were made of ordinary mud.
"Did we… defeat it?"
A hopeful cheer echoed.
"No, the spells didn't seem to work," Cedric said, rubbing his eyes as he observed countless small mud blobs bouncing back onto the troll, filling the hole and reforming it. "I think slicing or smashing spells have limited effect on it."
Cedric swallowed hard. "Slimes are aggregate creatures. Each blob is an individual, yet together, they act as one. That thing below is immune to petrification; I didn't see even a single gray spot appear."
"Because it's mud, right?" the twins chimed in, looking equally troubled.
"Maybe, but I think we need to—Wait, it's shifting again!"
Cedric's exclamation came as the mud slime underwent yet another transformation. A pair of massive wings unfurled before them. Although the wings weren't fully formed, their impressive twenty-two-meter wingspan left everyone stunned.
"Merlin's beard, what is that thing?" Marcus muttered, his eyes widening. "Can slimes… really fly?"
"Why don't you try ramming it back down?" Wood grinned. "Do that, and the first thing I'll do back at school is shout to everyone that you, Marcus, are a true hero."
"Sod off!"
Marcus's face darkened as he grumbled, "I'd have to be crazy to try something that stupid."
"Blast its wings off! We just did it a moment ago!"
With sudden inspiration, Marcus raised his wand, aimed at the creature's wings, and fired. Though his spellcasting left something to be desired, he managed to land three breaking spells on the creature's massive wings. But this time, the spells fizzled as if they had struck steel; not a single spark flew, and the clay wings remained untouched. That supposedly fragile structure held firm, with no sign of the damage they'd expected.
A volley of a dozen more breaking spells quickly followed, all equally ineffective. Meanwhile, the mud slime had completed its transformation: a massive hippogriff with an eagle's sharp head, a muscular horse-like body, powerful wings, and razor-sharp talons now glared at them, its dead, clay-like eyes fixed upon the airborne group.
With a strange, gurgling cry, the mud-hippogriff beat its wings, kicking up a fierce, dust-laden whirlwind as it defied the laws of nature and took flight!
"Buy me some time!"
Cedric's face had gone pale, but he bit his lip and shouted, "Professor McGonagall taught me something... I've only learned the theory, but it might just work!"
Without hesitation, the twins flanked Cedric on either side, while the others swiftly shifted into formation. They adopted a sharp, arrowhead-shaped formation used in Quidditch for breaking through defenses. Now, pushing their Nimbus 2000s to the limit, they broke away from the mud creature as fast as they could.
The twenty-two-meter wingspan of the makeshift hippogriff carried it at terrifying speed. Whether it was rockets or other wizarding gear, their flight tools couldn't outpace magical creatures in raw speed. Although this imitation hippogriff lacked the swiftness and agility of a real one, it matched their Nimbus 2000s stride for stride.
In fact, its acceleration initially outstripped that of the Nimbus 2000, and the violent air currents from its wingbeats disrupted their broomsticks' flight. The sky flashed with spell lights—Obstruction, Cushioning, Immobilization—but these spells, capable of halting a speeding car, barely slowed the clay creature, causing it to dip just a meter or two before shrugging off their effects. Its high magical resistance rendered ninety percent of their spells ineffective. Grindelwald had classified mud-splitting slimes as XXXXX-level creatures, a lethal grade that only an advanced wizard could manage.
"Cedric! How much longer?"
A hairpin turn helped the group evade another pounce from the beast, and they wiped the sweat from their brows in relief. Only their intense training and disciplined basic flying skills had saved them from casualties in that first attack.
"I'm doing my best! The configuration for this Transfiguration is complex. Even if I memorize it, there's no guarantee it'll work, especially while flying!"
Cedric, drenched in sweat, struggled to steady his magic. Transfiguration required an additional step beyond other spells: a structural reshaping of the target. In most cases, envisioning an outline would suffice, but Cedric's task required constructing a highly abstract shape.
He was attempting to transfigure air—a spell Professor McGonagall had mastered beyond her usual animated transformations, one of the few Transfiguration spells almost no one could wield. Cedric showed remarkable talent in this unique art.
Atmospheric Transfiguration—this foundational skill was one of the reasons McGonagall became a Transfiguration master and was among the most challenging spells in the magical world.
"Wronski Feint! Climb and dive! Let's dump this monstrosity into the sea!"
Their stretched-out formation climbed rapidly, soaring to five or six hundred meters. Honestly, maintaining control at such high speeds was difficult, especially as the Nimbus 2000s approached their 300 km/h design limit. In a dive, they could exceed even this, making broom stability a serious challenge.
"Lumos! At thirty meters, pull up—everyone got that? This beast isn't as sharp as us; remember to add a Muffliato charm as we go so it'll crash right down!"
The gurgling cry grew louder as the squad, now at the necessary altitude, angled sharply downwards toward the dark sea below at a dizzying sixty-degree descent. Aside from the hovering Cedric, everyone was fully on edge.
In a full dive, the mud-hippogriff's speed outmatched theirs! The forty-to-fifty-meter gap shrank to twenty meters within seconds, its excited gurgles becoming alarmingly clear.
"Now!"
Leading the charge, Wood shouted, "Now!" and then abruptly pulled up, executing a modified Wronski Feint. Typically, players would pull out of the dive just ten to twenty feet above the ground, but with their speed, even thirty meters flashed by in an instant.
"Impact spell!"
Twenty hurried spells shot towards the creature, with only half hitting their target. The mud slime jerked downward, losing control and slamming into the sea below, sending up a massive spray that reached the fliers even at their height.
"Did we get it?"
"No way—a slime afraid of water?"
"Good point—ah, no!"
From beneath the sea, a gigantic whale shot up, breaching the surface in an improbable leap. In mid-air, the creature sprouted strange fleshy wings, and the twins immediately recognized it from Hagrid's hut.
"It's a dragon!"
The fleshy wings gave way to an intricate layer of mud scales as an enormous mud-formed dragon launched itself into the air. Its fierce head was bristling with fangs, and its spine was lined with intimidating spikes.
"A spiked-back dragon? Did that slime consume one of those dragons?"
"Who cares what it ate! Cedric, are you ready yet?"
"Just help me finish the last part! I can't do it all alone!"
Cedric's forehead was drenched, and he looked like he was nearing his limit, almost steaming with effort.
"What do you need us to do?"
"Shield charm barrier! We need to trap it inside!"
"Back to camp!"
Although the previous shield barrier at camp had been shattered, it wasn't entirely dependent on their spells. Seven simple alchemical Iron Guard arrays had been set up around camp, designed to maintain the shield barrier for extended periods. Otherwise, they'd have to continually renew the spell to prevent it from weakening and failing.
The spiked-back dragon flew in hot pursuit, its salt-water breath attack nearly knocking them off their Nimbus 2000s. Luckily, it only attempted the attack once, or they wouldn't have made it back in time.
"Protego Maxima!"
Twenty spells converged, and a translucent magical barrier enveloped the castle. The young wizards left a massive opening at the top, through which the distant dragon soon rushed. Once it was inside, the group quickly rose out of range, their gazes focused on Cedric.
"I thought this was a spell I'd only master by fifth year."
"Tighten the shield barrier!"
Cedric managed a pale, confident smile. "Atmospheric Transfiguration—Cloudburst!"
In an instant, a thin mist filled the shield barrier, followed by countless bright flares flashing like stars in the fog. Deafening blasts shattered the night's calm. Cedric's spell had transfigured the air into a volatile, combustible mist. While the transformed material would revert once the magic dissipated, Cedric only needed it for this brief moment.
The explosions' sheer pressure could crush steel like clay, and the 3,000-degree instant temperature was contained within the barrier's shrinking dome, causing the entire cliff beneath the castle to collapse in moments.
The explosive flames flickered only briefly, but they lit up the entire seaside cliff, illuminating the young, resolute faces of the students.
In this fledgling battle, they had given everything they could muster.
(End of Chapter)