Chapter 56: Frost Tyrant (Part 2)

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Harry leapt down from a height of four or five meters, rolling on the ground to absorb the impact. As he got up, he swung his backpack onto his back. Even though the thin layer of snow had covered his tracks from the previous day, Harry still remembered the direction he had come from.

Despite his wild sprint, seemingly without any regard for conserving energy, he couldn't shake the unknown danger closing in. Hedwig had already swooped down several times from the sky, each time more frantic than the last.

"We can't keep running," Harry panted, his breath misting in the cold air. "No ordinary animal could scare you like this. Something's changed."

A cold gleam flashed in Harry's eyes as he drew out his Invisibility Cloak. He also grabbed his Firebolt 2000, which had been tucked inside his backpack.

"Disillusionment Charm."

Harry intended to use the charm to make the Firebolt invisible, but he quickly realized his mistake. The broom came equipped with anti-magic safeguards, designed to prevent players from cheating or from someone tampering with it during Quidditch matches. Unfortunately, this feature now put Harry in a tough spot.

"Damn it," he cursed.

While he could still cover the broom with the Invisibility Cloak, doing so would force him to lie flat on it, a position that was not only uncomfortable but also slowed him down considerably. If he needed to engage in combat, flying in such a posture would be impractical.

"Why do I always feel the need to fight something?" Harry muttered. "This is a bear hunt, and killing anything else doesn't score points. Maybe it's best to just avoid trouble for now."

Having come to his senses, Harry released Hedwig and carefully wrapped both himself and the Firebolt 2000 in the Invisibility Cloak. His sturdy frame made this a bit of a tight fit—if he were a smaller person, maneuvering would've been much easier.

Completely invisible, Harry slowly rose to a height of about ten meters. He stayed close to the pine trees without getting too near. His hand gripped his ivory wand, prepared for anything. If he was facing a magical creature, a Muggle laser weapon wouldn't be as effective as his wand.

Within less than a minute, the rumbling grew deafening. The trembling pine forest released a cloud of snow, while the creaking and crashing of trees being toppled filled Harry's ears. Whatever was approaching was massive, and undoubtedly magical.

A strange excitement surged through Harry. Despite knowing that he likely stood no chance against such a thick-skinned, powerful beast, his days of outdoor hunting had ignited a longing to face a formidable opponent. If he weren't physically unable to wrestle a bear with his bare hands, Harry might've set aside his weapons and gone for a fistfight instead.

The howling wind carried icy shards, and faint traces of blood mixed with the cold air. Suddenly, a massive white figure burst from the forest and charged into the small clearing where Harry hovered in the sky. It was a gigantic white bear—its snow-white fur gleaming, but its sheer size was utterly unnatural.

The largest known brown bear, the Kodiak bear, can grow up to 2.8 meters long and weigh about a ton—a massive creature in its own right. Yet compared to this white bear, a Kodiak bear would look like a child standing next to Hagrid.

This white bear was at least five meters long and weighed an estimated four to five tons. Its bulging muscles, visible even under the thick fur, were terrifying. Its front paws were monstrously mutated, with claws almost half a foot long. The claws gleamed with a cold, steel-gray sheen, and with a mere tap, they gouged deep cracks into the ground.

The scent of blood Harry had caught earlier came from this beast. Several gashes, nearly three feet long, marred its back, and its white fur was charred in places, as if by an explosion. But unlike the cute and cuddly pandas, this creature exuded a menacing aura of violence, even while gravely injured.

Harry's mind raced. Thanks to Hagrid, and his own desire to venture into the Forbidden Forest, Harry had developed a keen interest in magical creatures. His roommate Rolf had also given him the latest edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Harry had a general understanding of the known magical creatures in the world.

"Frost Tyrant!" Harry gulped silently. Newt Scamander had mentioned this species briefly in his book, but the records were sparse. It wasn't that Newt didn't want to explore the Arctic, but rather that he couldn't.

As one of the two remaining habitats for frost dragons, the Arctic has always been an extremely dangerous, forbidden zone. It houses a natural wonder larger than Hogwarts' Forbidden Forest, and equally rich in magical energy—the Eternal Ice Field. This vast, frozen landscape is home to the frost dragons, but they are not the sole rulers of this realm. The Frost Tyrant is another apex magical creature that dominates the top of the food chain!

Like the giants capable of hunting dragons, these massive white bears, which resemble polar bears by ninety percent, possess the terrifying strength needed to hunt frost dragons. They are creatures with the kind of raw, brute force that could challenge Hagrid in a contest of strength.

Despite having only a small population of roughly a thousand, they are more than deserving of the title "Tyrant." Their long lifespan, which stretches up to five or six centuries, compensates for their low birth rate.

However, the Frost Tyrant standing before Harry was likely no more than a century old. Every hundred years, these creatures develop a layer of armor harder than steel over parts of their bodies. Judging by its only partially mutated front claws, this one was likely just entering its youth.

Yet even this juvenile Frost Tyrant was far beyond Harry's ability to defeat! He had no reason to believe that the spells from his Ebony wand could cause any harm. His wand wasn't advanced enough, nor were his spells refined enough. He had much room for improvement—so many areas where he still needed to grow.

Suppressing a mixture of excitement and tension, Harry slowly increased his altitude. His instincts warned him that the current location wasn't safe.

The Frost Tyrant below seemed to sense something as well. It suddenly stopped, though not due to fatigue or the need for rest—it had detected something. Its nose twitched, sniffing the air for lingering scents. Even regular brown bears have a sense of smell seven times stronger than a bloodhound, easily able to detect different scents within a kilometer radius, especially the scent of food.

From the very start, this beast had been tracking Harry! Its injuries required nourishment for recovery, and while ordinary meat could fill its stomach, only food rich in magic power could truly replenish its strength.

The inferior version of the Sunlight Elixir Harry had consumed earlier contained an abundance of life force. The unicorn blood, voluntarily donated, held immense power unique to this magical creature. While extending life was a mere side effect, the real treasure was the elixir's ability to nourish the body and enhance one's potential.

It had only been half a day since Harry drank the third bottle of potion, but to the Frost Tyrant, Harry's presence was as irresistible as an ice-cold soda to a traveler lost in the desert!

"Not good!"

Harry, lying on his Firebolt 2000, realized something was wrong the moment he saw the Frost Tyrant's nose twitch. The growing sense of danger made his hair stand on end.

The Invisibility Cloak, inherited from his father, was certainly a treasure, but magic wasn't omnipotent, and magical artifacts weren't flawless!

While the Invisibility Cloak, one of the Deathly Hallows, could completely hide the wearer's appearance—rendering them invisible to the naked eye and even magical detection—it wasn't perfect.

The Cloak couldn't conceal the wearer's life force. It couldn't mask any sound the wearer made. Nor could it suppress the wearer's scent!

In the instant after the Frost Tyrant sniffed the air, its enormous, copper-colored eyes locked onto the seemingly empty sky.

There were many creatures in the magical world capable of becoming invisible, and in the Eternal Ice Field, there was no shortage of such stealthy, magical beasts. Clearly, this young Frost Tyrant had been carefully taught by its elders how to deal with such adversaries.

"ROAR!"

The roar, mixed with shards of ice, caused the snow on the treetops within a few hundred meters to collapse. The terrifying soundwave rippled outwards like a tsunami, announcing the presence of the Arctic's ruler, the master of the Eternal Ice Field.

In the face of such a roar, no prey could hope to hide!

(End of Chapter)