106 Chapter 105
For the next half an hour, sitting comfortably on the top of a tree, supporting himself with the help of wind magic, Severus watched the battle of the titans of the inner part of the "Magic Jungle".
Several times, he was almost hit by stone and wood and he would've fallen over if he had not put up a barrier in advance.
But still, the battle looked a little strange: the tiger tried to tear apart the black hound or fry it with lightning, the bear tried to hang the tiger on its horns and beat it with its paws, and the black hound basically only evaded the attacks of both, while still leaving several rather deep wounds on the body of the first, although she herself was caught off guard a couple of times, from which she limped on one paw and smelled of burning.
Of these, only the bear looked the healthiest, with a wound crossing the entire chest left by the hound for a damaged paw. And even now, they did not stop fighting, although not as fiercely as at the beginning, the area around them was in real chaos, under their attacks, not a single tree could survive, and a fire started in a small part of the forest.
And almost everywhere you could see the remains of their furs and blood flying around.
"Hmm… it's still kind of strange, where did such a strong hatred between them come from?" Thoughtfully watching them, Severus was slightly perplexed, while not forgetting to feed Nagini with scrambled eggs and drinking coffee from a thermos.
"Maybe one of them ate the other's cub? After all, there could be no other reason to fight so fiercely."
" It may well be so, but still, how could everything turn out so well that the second attacked the first, and the third attacked the second, and by the look of the hound, I can say for sure that she herself did not understand what was happening, so she was too passive in the beginning," remembering how the black shadow in the form of a wolf only evaded the attacks of the tiger and howled in bewilderment, Severus took another sip of coffee and put the dirty dishes in his pouch.
"Did someone deliberately decide to play them off?" the snake asked in surprise, "And if so, who needs it?"
"The people, of course, the carcass of a hound is estimated at about one hundred and twenty thousand mouro, a bear - one hundred and five, and a tiger - one hundred and twelve, imagine if you sell them all at once?
Enough for a few lifetimes ahead, and it seems that someone has done a very good job." Stretching, he continued to watch the battle.
Snape wasn't about to intervene in this battle yet, because it would be much easier to grab them when they were exhausted, and those who started all this would also show up.
Still, he wondered what they had stolen from these two monsters, causing them to go berserk and ready to tear each other apart.
For the next ten minutes, the pace of the battle only slowed down as the magical creatures' bodies became covered with more and more wounds and gradually weakened.
The white tiger fur was almost completely covered in blood, and the bear was already hardly moving its paw and therefore mainly tried to hook them with its horns, and only the black hound still kept pace, although due to a broken paw, the speed of course was not the same, but even this was enough to evade the attacks of the others.
The peals of thunder also disappeared, only occasionally the tiger released lightning from the body, but it was almost ineffectual, but thanks to its enormous endurance, it could still hold on to its legs, although it was slapped a couple of times by the bear and was even hung on horns once, but he was lucky it didn't hit any vital organs.
The battle was truly bloody. In addition to them, Snape also noticed his targets, a group of twenty wizards hiding forty metres from the battlefield.
Each of them was wearing a cloak almost completely masking their presence, perhaps if those monsters had not fought so fiercely, they would have been able to sense the intruders watching them.
"When are you going to intervene, since they could die from so many wounds?" Nagini asked, watching the monsters, who could no longer stand normally.
"We do not have to hurry." Severus calmly replied, "If I intervene now and destroy those idiots, and then capture the exhausted monsters, I will not achieve the desired result, and they will hate me, thinking that I started it all."
"That's it! Now I realised that you're a scoundrel!"
"But you still love me."
"Hmph! Why ask when you can easily read my emotions."
"That's why I didn't ask," the Slytherin replied with a grin, receiving a poke in the side from a disgruntled snake, "Okay, enough games, the pieces have finally begun to act,".
The wizards hiding in the forest, looking at each other, slowly, trying not to make noise, went to the monsters.
Six of them immediately took out simple-looking pipes, a few more steel balls, and the rest were holding sticks.
Even Snape had to admit that these people acted very well, the long preparation was immediately visible, and the mere fact that they were able to deceive these magical beasts spoke volumes.
Although the monsters were very exhausted after such a long battle, they still managed to notice the approaching wizards, which made them even more angry, because some weak people dared to interfere with their battle.
And when the tiger was about to scare them away with a thunderbolt, one of the wizards waved his wand and at the same moment fog covered them, and after that, pops began to be heard that knocked down the monsters who did not understand what was happening, but at the same time, they immediately became alert and their awareness was not in vain, because the pops were followed by strange balls that the bear tried to beat off with the help of a tree lying nearby, but he did not have time to do this, because as soon as they approached almost close to them, they exploded sharply, blinding them.
But in addition to the bright light, shining chains escaped from the fog, entangling the limbs of the creatures in a few seconds, and then biting directly into their backs with a point, from which they growled even more furiously, but in addition to anger, pain could also be heard in these roars.
And as soon as the monsters fell to the ground, the wizards quickly got out of the bushes into the open area and surrounded them, at the same time they used spells that created golden ropes, with which Snape once stopped Lupin, who tried to attack him, and closed the mouths of three creatures that stared at them with rage, but due to the fact that the monsters had almost no strength, they could not break chains, which pissed them off even more.
"Not bad, not bad, which is to be expected from the kings of the inner part of the Magic Jungle, even with such wounds, you can still move." Laughing out loud, a man with long, dark hair, the right side of his face was covered with scars, entered the clearing. His pupil had an unnatural white colour and did not move at all, but at the same time, he emitted a very dangerous aura, which surprised Snape a little.
Previously, because of the cloak, Snape could not properly sense the power of wizards, but now that they have disabled the hiding function, he looked at them with mild surprise.
After all, almost every one of them was a "Master" of the highest rank, six at the peak and two more were "Masters", one of which, namely the same man, emitted an aura even more terrible than Dumbledore's, and this was not surprising.
After all, the old man spent almost all his life in England and developed by reading books, whereas this man constantly hunted and every day was on the verge of death, developing, in addition to magic, the body.
It was like comparing an indoor flower and a wild plant living in nature. But such people had one problem - they cannot be controlled.
"Take out the cages, when we return to the outside world, we will immediately get rich!"
"Yes, boss!" other wizards exclaimed with anticipation, one of whom took out three huge, steel cages from a pouch on his belt,
Although the monsters tried to resist with all their might, it was unsuccessful, the chains were too strong, and there was almost no strength. After a few minutes, the magical beasts were all stuffed into the cages, they were delayed for so long because of the bear, whose body was very heavy and even ten wizards found it too difficult to drag him, and the fact that he also resisted was doubly difficult.
"But still, I could not have imagined that everything would be so simple," one of the hunters looked with admiration at the man with scars.
"Boss Fernando is a great man," the second nodded proudly, examining the three huge monsters that were staring at them with fury, "What are you looking at ?! Going to gouge out my eyes, huh?!" The man kicked the cage.
The tiger's gaze became even sharper, and a growl was heard from its closed mouth. He understood human speech well and, having listened to them, the beast finally realised that it was all a trap, these little people played them off like some kind of dogs.
But what angered him even more was his own stupidity, he fell into such an obvious trap, succumbing to anger and not even trying to think it over.
Most of all, in that second, he wanted to break free and tear apart these miserable little people.
"Stop playing," the leader looked indifferently in their direction, and then began to inspect the destroyed area and traces of blood, "Those damn ants may soon run here and then there will be no laughing matter."
"Sorry boss!" The boss, in response of the apology only snorted, darting his eyes sharply to the right, experiencing some strange feeling, as if someone was watching him from somewhere afar a few seconds ago, and after thirty years of hunting, ten of which were spent in the inner part of the jungle, he was used to trusting his feelings.
"I don't like this…"
"Hey, what's wrong with you?!" Hearing the surprised exclamation of the man who kicked the cage earlier, the group leader turned around and saw the second wizard slumped to the ground.
Rushing towards him, the leader quickly grabbed the man's arm and used a scanning spell, but Fernando found nothing.
His subordinate was not poisoned or under the influence of some kind of spell, he seemed to have taken a sleeping pill and just fell asleep.
Almost immediately, he felt some strange smell in the air, from which his consciousness was clouded for a moment, but still, decades in this dangerous place taught him to always be ready for such things, a grass resembling a nettle appeared in his hand, which he quickly stuffed it into his mouth and after chewing several times, the influence of the strange smell disappeared and he could think sensibly again.
But the rest were not as "dexterous" and did not possess his sense of smell, therefore, after a few seconds, the hunters began to slowly sink to the ground and only a few of them were still on their feet, but at the same time they were still swaying from side to side.
Among them, there was also the second "master", who had already drawn his wand and was surveying the surroundings.
[Note: Second Master= The guy who kicked the cage.]
Five more stood back to back, because they did not have time to eat the invigorating grass, so they were still falling asleep.
And after a few seconds, they heard clapping and through the thick foliage, an unknown man in a robe came out to them, whose face was impossible to see, but by the hands, Fernando, he immediately realised that the person standing in front of them was quite young and was not a lover of edged weapons , because his palms were too "gentle", like that besides the wand, they never held anything heavy.
"Who are you and what do you need?" the wizard asked gloomily, joined by the second "Master" who also has a couple of scars on his face and blond, curly hair.
"And here I thought you would attack right away, but since you are ready for a dialogue, then I am very glad," with notes of fun in his voice, Severus folded his arms, "Who I am, of course I won't say, but what I need is just animals behind your backs and what you stole from them."
"Just…" The Second "Master" grunted angrily, gripping his wand tightly, and the leader of the group hardly changed his face, as if expecting something like this. "What if we refuse?"
"I'll take it by force," pushing back the robe, Severus touched the hilt of the sword with his palm, "Well?"
"Can you even use that?" the second "Master" asked with a grin, to which five more subordinates approached.
"Okay, we'll give them away." the rest, their eyes bulged with shock at Fernando, who simply gave up putting his wand back in his holster, and after touching the bag, a small cage appeared in front of them in which lay a small tiger cub, growling towards a group of wizards, and next to it was a strange, red fruit the size and shape of a human head dotted with green spikes.
At the sight of the cub, the tiger growled and stared at the group of hunters with primordial fury, already breaking free from the chains with a vengeance and ignoring the pain from the hook pierced into the back.
"Oh, I'm glad to hear that, thanks for your cooperation," Severus without any fear, headed towards them, from which the rest were a little freaked out, not understanding what was happening at all, but lowering their eyes, they saw only one thing on the back of their leader word: "get ready" and finally it dawned on them that he had not gone crazy, but only wanted to, to bring the victim closer.
Having overcome the miserable thirty metres separating them, Severus stopped in front of the cage, while ignoring the enemies standing a metre away.
"As you expected, this is a cub," said Severus, watching the tiger cub huddled in the corner growling in his direction, and then he looked at the fruit and tilted his head to the side in puzzlement, because this is the first time Severus saw such a fruit for the first time, but the magic in it was twice as much as in the "miracle fruit", and after looking in the direction of the bear, which incinerated him with his gaze, Severus grinned and touched both, he moved them to the wallet, "And now …"
And as soon as Severus looked up, in an instant all the wizards surrounded him from all sides and put sticks to his head, and Fernando - a small sword. "I take back my words, now rder your men to get out here and stop hiding or I will kill you."
"Eh… I wanted to settle things peacefully, even offer something in return for them, after all it's still ugly to take away what you managed to catch with such difficulty…" As soon as Severus raised his head, there was a sound of a collision, followed by a rattle.
After all, as soon as the leader noticed the movements of Severus, he immediately felt the danger and instinctively tried to plunge the sword into Snape's head, but the barrier that appeared managed to block the attack, but he did not stop there and waved his palm from the bottom up, hands grabbing Severus by the legs broke out of the ground and Fernando struck again with his sword, but like last time, the leader couldn't even scratch the barrier.
The others, just as briefly thinking at the same time, tried to use an attack spell, but to their horror, they could not even budge.
"Not bad, you lasted quite a long time." shaking off, Severus destroyed the shackles.
Passing by them, Severus approached the cages and began to inspect the monsters, who looked at him very unkindly in response, especially the tiger. "Hmm… even though I'm not a vet, I can say for sure that the wounds are very serious, urgent help is needed here, otherwise they can die…" taking out a box from his pouch, he looked at the nervous animals with a smile, "I'm not going to kill, so behave yourself and get back what was taken from you…" Hearing his words, the huge bear and tiger looked surprised, but at the same time they looked at the person with distrust, but the black hound, on the contrary, was saddened and even offended.
Because all this had nothing to do with her, she did not even touch anyone and "Bang"; she was beater, her paw was broken, she was almost killed, she was chained, they wanted to kidnap her and sell her and now they demand that she "behave well", she more looked like a beaten dog more than a terrifying hound of the inner forest.
"Okay, let's not talk about sad things," clearing his throat, Severus transferred them to a box and sent the house elf to them to take care of first aid until he finished with all the affairs outside, he also sent the tiger cub there, and he decided to keep the fruit for the time being and study it better later.
And finally, having finished with them, the stranger turned to the frozen wizards. "And what am I to do with you?".
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