172. Lessons

"Duck, don't look it in the eye," Magnus shouted to him.

But, Duck actually didn't even feel threatened by this snake. He was looking straight into the eyes and all he felt was a tickle on his body that was soon washed away. He did not understand why Magnus was telling him not to look.

"HISSSSS!" The Basilisk slithered towards him.

Duck, with the pride of a mighty dragon, just waited for the snake to come close. He was not a simple dragon, after all, he was different from the rest. All others were wyverns, but everyone called them dragons. Those were foolish yet prideful beings. But not as strong.

While Duck was a full-fledged great dragon, with four limbs, intelligence and power. He was a mystery in this world.

*PAAAA*

As soon as the Basilisk got closer, Duck turned around in quick speed and whipped his tail directly at the Basilisk's head. The snake screamed in pain, as this was a purely physical attack.

Duck did not give up, he flew over the snake and slammed his hind leg on the neck of the snake, while with his forelegs he held the head tightly.

In a quick move, he opened his mouth and threw flames directly down at the snake's head, "GRHAAAA..."

It was a great fight, and Duck's mock battles with his big friends in Camelot was coming to use here.

The snake finally felt pain now and tried to get out of Duck's hold.

...

At the same time, Magnus had taken out a small vial of Phoenix Tears. He quickly poured it on his wounds, and soon it started to magically heal.

"You were overconfident and not careful, just as the case in that duel and right now. I told you your overconfidence will get you killed." Merlin's voice resounded in his head.

Magnus knew Merlin was right. He finally realised that he was getting too cocky and that his power was getting to his head.

"A king is no king if he's always flying in the sky with ego, and history is known to bring down such kings with a very damaging force. You are supposed to be a people's person, like how Arthur was. He loved his people and never stopped being vigilant." Merlin lectured him.

"Think about them. Your body is stronger than an average human, but what about them? They are normal kids, and you brought them here? To fight a beast known to be the most dangerous? A beast to whom many master wizards have died without even realising what killed them, you brought children along?

"LOOK AT THEM! They are afraid, but they are fighting because of YOU. You are their leader. You are the king. The round table is your responsibility, their safety is your responsibility.

"You yourself couldn't defeat the Basilisk alone, what made you think they could? So stop being stupid and cocky, and start acting responsibly. Because death often comes secretly. If you aren't prepared, you wouldn't even know what hit you. Now do as I say if you want to stop that Basilisk"

Magnus sadly looked down at his healing arm. ~This could have been my neck, nobody could have saved me then. It would have been instant death.~

His face turned white realising this. No, he didn't want to die so early. He had never felt this much fear till now because in all his previous fights he could overcome with his mastery over Charms. But here, the Basilisk was immune to magic attacks. His charms didn't matter at all.

He glanced at the unnerved Ragnar and Severus. They were barely holding on. ~They are so courageous, to have come with me. Heh... they should have been in Gryffindor.~

But he was very sorry, to have put their lives in danger. Sure, they were members of Round Table and meant to fight alongside him, but they were not ready yet, and neither was he. He was still too naive.

He got up, still not looking at the Basilisk's eyes.

*CLANK*

He took out his swords. If the magic was useless on the snake, perhaps this was the time to get physical.

"DUCK! HOLD HIM RIGHT THERE!" He commanded.

Next thing, he dashed at full speed. Duck, as if knew what was going to happen, moved his big tail towards Magnus.

Magnus didn't stop and climbed it, continuing to run. He reached the head of Duck and from there he leapt down at the head of the snake with his sword, Despair, plunging it into the snake's skull.

But killing the snake was not Magnus' agenda. He had stopped the sword just 1 inch from the brain. Now, he started talking in Dragontongue. Only the Basilisk and Duck could understand him.

"Stop, if you move even an inch, you will die," Magnus warned the snake.

The snake did as asked, knowing his life was at risk. It looked at Magnus with his tilted eyes, but Magnus avoided it.

"Now, I did not come here to kill you. So why are you attacking me?" Magnus inquired.

The snake slowly slithered his tongue and replied, "You are not pure! My master has ordered me to kill the likes of you."

Magnus did as he was instructed by Merlin. He cut his palm and poured his blood into the eyes of the snake. Of course, he kept his own eyes closed all the while.

"Feel that? Do you recognise this blood now?" Magnus asked him.

The yellow fierce eyes of the Basilisk slowly lost their colour and started to turn dark green. Maybe Salazar had put some kind of mind-control magic on him, that could be the only reason why only the heir of Slytherin control him.

"Do you recognise that blood now?" Magnus asked again.

The Basilisk carefully nodded and replied, "Merlin?"

"No, Merlin is dead, just like Salazar, but I am Merlin's descendant. Now tell me, do you still want to kill the muggle-born students of this school?" He asked.

The snake sounded confused, "Why would I? I was just sleeping all this time."

~So he does not remember anything that happened during his mind control phase.~ Magnus concluded and pulled his sword up.

"Duck, release him." He ordered.

Soon, the Basilisk slowly rose up, the pain from the lashing he received from Duck was still hurting him though.

Then the Basilisk slowly brought his head down, near Magnus to see him and talk to him. Magnus softly lifted his hand, trying to touch his face without looking in the eyes.

"Don't look at any of us with your eyes. Wait, let me fix those goggles on your face. Reparo!" He used the charm to fix and broken glass.

"As long as you keep that on, nobody will be harmed from your eyes, understood? Now, what do you want to do?" Magnus asked the snake.

"I don't know. I am very hungry. It's like I have not eaten in years. Can I eat that bird?" the Basilisk pointed at Summer.

*BAM*

Duck slightly slapped the Basilisk with his forelegs and talked with the snake "Don't dare to even think. Summer and Chad are families. We don't eat our friends and family. About your hunger, I know a place where you can get food and not have to fight over it."

"Really? Then take me there. I don't like this sewer." the Basilisk replied excitedly.

"WAIT! Duck, you can speak, why didn't you tell me?" Magnus realised that Duck was making such complete sentences.

Duck looked at Magnus and nodded, "Yes, but you never tried to talk to me."

It was true, he never tried to talk in Dragontongue, and neither Duck. He always Quacked.

Magnus sighed, this was all for the good, everything was coming to an end, this could have been a tragic day today if not for Duck.

The mind control was lifted from the Basilisk, and true to words, a Parsletongue could talk to him.

"Do you have a name?" Magnus asked the Basilisk.

The big snake nodded and replied, "Yes, Merlin gave me one, he used to call me Cuddles because I liked to hug him a lot, but he would then get angry and say his bones would break."

Magnus facepalmed, ~Now we have another idiot in the group.~

"Get inside that suitcase, I will take you to the new home. And remember, you are banned from taking those goggles off and eating anybody but the food given to you." He warned him with a threatening tone.

Cuddles scratched his head with the tip of his tail and felt the wound where Magnus had thrust his sword. He felt that Magnus might really kill him if he messes up.

"I got it, no cuddles and no eating friends." he agreed.

Next, Magnus went to Severus and Ragnar, "Sorry, guys. I dragged you into such a risk. Let's go to Camelot, I will treat you to a meal there."

"THAT WAS SO AWESOME!" Ragnar all of a sudden exclaimed, jolting Magnus.

Severus nodded, "You did well. We couldn't even move due to fear of mistakenly looking in his eyes in the water reflection by mistake."

"And what kind of name is Cuddles? Seriously, your name sense came from Merlin, it seems." Ragnar made fun.

Magnus chuckled, "Hehe yeah, Cuddles, as a name for a snake is really... scary but appropriate at the same time."

[You can see Magnus petting snake and the goggles on my Discord - https://discord.gg/DgHkrAn OR see them on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mister_immortal_novel]

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