Chapter 340 Manticore (2 in 1)

"It's true that I created that Chamber of Secrets, but so many years have passed since the castle was built that the structure and facilities inside should have been renovated and refurbished an unknown number of times long ago."

The old, monkey-like Slytherin whispered from the walls of Dumbledore's headmaster's office, which were hung with portraits of past headmasters.

"However what I am sure of is that the location I gave to this young girl at the beginning was not wrong, the entrance to that chamber I had designed at the beginning was a circular movable sliding portal that could be successfully entered by simply uttering open in Parseltongue."

In the face of Slytherin's words, Dumbledore simply waved his hand.

"I have not doubted that there was a problem with the information you provided, Salazar. There are many possibilities for Hermione not finding the entrance, besides he already knew you had joined us in the first place, so naturally he would have guessed that you would be able to give us the exact method of entry and location of the Chamber of Secrets, and with the vigilance, he has shown over the years; if that Chamber really did hold something that very important to him, then he would certainly have made some changes."

Hermione looked at Dumbledore with an unwavering gaze.

"So, are we going to keep looking? Professor."

At this, Dumbledore said with a nod.

"Of course, the more he hides, it would mean that there is greater value to this place we are trying to find, but it would also mean that the risk you would face personally would be much higher, and since he was able to change the location of the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, he would have already made some different preparations in the Chamber."

"I'll be ten thousand percent more vigilant." Hermione said in a soft voice.

Dumbledore looked on with a slight smile.

"And I certainly never questioned your abilities, Hermione, but I think the other piece of information you got last night might be more worthy of your time to explore. You said you saw a boy on the map who had left the castle privately through a secret passage?"

Hermione didn't hesitate for a moment to nod her head.

***

"Petrificus Totalus!"

The red beam sliced through the kindled trees and grass in the surrounding area, leaving a stream of magic in the air!

Jon once again shifted his upper body sharply, dodging the spell from Emil, while stepping forward and casting a spell in return.

"Expelliarmus!"

Emil was dodging too, but he was not dodging the attack with anywhere near the ease as Jon.

As soon as the shield charm he had been maintaining on his body shattered, he reapplied another layer of protection at the first opportunity, but even then, he didn't dare to take another of Jon's spells any longer easily.

The power of Jon's spell was so great that even after it had shattered his shield charm it didn't stop, and the aftermath of the spell nearly knocked him to the ground.

He took an awkward donkey's roll on the grass covered with ash, which was a messy process, but it allowed Emil to avoid Jon's spell and put some distance between Jon and him.

But Jon had no intention of letting him off the hook, taking another step forward while casting the spell and never stopping to put pressure on him with his mouth.

"I've fought many Death Eaters, including the aunt and uncle you despise, but to be honest, compared to them, your spell casting is too crude, the timing of your spell is not right, the speed of your recitation is not quick enough, and even the swing of your wand is not decisive. So not even one of your spells made me feel the pressure of needing to make a defence, is that what you have gained from having studied magic for three years longer than me?"

"Stupefy!"

Emil gritted his teeth and flushed red, as he resumed his counter-attack against Jon, with obvious indignation on his face.

The difference between the two was not only in terms of spells and magical power but also in terms of experience in wizard combat.

The gap between Emil and Jon was not bridged by passion or anger, Jon had steadily overwhelmed him and if Emil did not find a way to escape, it was only a matter of time before he was defeated.

Finally, Emil was not able to hold his ground any longer, and under Jon's another disarming charm, he ended up at a place where he could not dodge.

He pressed himself against a wide tree, surrounded by bushes set ablaze by the dragon's breath, and the orange-red firelight reflected on his face, causing his face to look as white as it could be.

But the more the victory grew closer, the more alert Jon became.

If he kicked Emil out of this task at this point in time, it would mean that both participating champions under Voldemort would be eliminated, and none of them would finish the first task of the tournament to get a result.

Maybe it didn't represent the final outcome of the tournament, or maybe they had other turnovers planned for later, but did Voldemort really not anticipate a situation where Jon would be thrashing his champions in the Forbidden Forest?

Jon had his doubts, but his doubts didn't stop him from swinging his wand, as he always did, and this time he even omitted the incantation to speed up the process.

But before the tip of his wand could glow red with the spell, a huge figure suddenly burst out of a hidden corner and lunged at Jon!

It was so fast and agile that even if Jon had reacted, there would have been no room for him to dodge!

A light blue glow suddenly lit up and then shattered with a bang, interrupting Jon's original casting, while the fierce and huge creature, having shattered the shield charm with a single lunge, didn't even have the slightest intention of stopping, continuing to press its body down and closing its two claws towards Jon's head, as if it wanted to crush his head outright!

Jon was of course prepared for such an unexpected situation, he aimed at the creature's empty abdomen and reached out without holding his own wand, without reciting the incantation, the magic on the ring just activated straight away!

The next moment, his whole body flew into mid-air, and the lion-like creature pounced on the ground with a paw that once again fell short.

The next moment, Jon was in mid-air, and the creature's paws once again missed and hit the ground. Emil took advantage of the moment and made good use of the opportunity to turn around and run through the sea of fire that was all around him while Jon was being held back.

Jon saw Emil's back as he fled, but didn't go after him right away, instead focused his attention on the creature that had suddenly come out of nowhere to stir up trouble.

This creature had a human head, the body of a lion, and a scorpion tail.

Its name was just as straightforward as its appearance - a human-headed, lion-bodied, scorpion-tailed beast - Manticore; an XXXXX-level dark creature with a reputation for being more dangerous and infamous than a Lethifold while being more feared and hazardous than a Dragon.

The creature stared dead in the air at Jon with its green-grey eyes, and the scorpion tail, which in legend would kill you instantly with the slightest touch, swayed slowly from side to side.

The hideous woman's face opened its mouth at Jon, revealing three rows of sharp, pointed fangs on the top and bottom.

"Is your task to protect him, or to kill me?"

Jon was not intimidated by its ghastly appearance, but locked eyes with the creature and asked indifferently.

The human face, with its mouth wriggling, did not utter a human word but rang out a sound that resembled a mixture of flute and trumpet.

Seeing that his question was not being answered, Jon narrowed his eyes and didn't ask any more questions, instead, he gripped his wand tightly with both hands together and, in a strange wielding manner, raised it high above his head using both hands together.

"The rules say you can't inflict lethal damage on a fellow participant, but you don't fall into that category, do you?"

As if sensing a wave of danger, the Manticores fur, which was even fierier red than a lion's, tensed up and its scorpion tail, which was constantly swaying behind it, swung out abruptly!

In a flash, countless poisonous stingers pierced the air and shot towards Jon, who was floating in mid-air with his wand raised high!

Jon's odd wand swing didn't stop there, but his body rose up in response by levitating at the same time as the toxic stingers were shot out, and as he dodged the creature's attack, he swung his wand down, holding it with both hands at a downward slant followed by a horizontal swing!

"Sectumsempra!"

"Buzz!"

The second Jon's incantation was uttered, a humming sound like steel vibrating in the air was heard!

A gust of wind blew through the flames, lifting the hem of Jon's robes, and with the wind, countless invisible things swept through the air in a flash!

The Manticore was already in a state of extreme agitation as Jon recited the incantation, and hissed as it leapt up from the ground, swinging its body sideways, trying to fling its tail so that the toxic sting on it could reach Jon's calves.

However, the next moment the wind blew, and a roar of pain erupted!

The ground, the trees, the grass, the rocks, even the burning dragon flame, were all split in half by an invisible edge of the swords at that moment!

The Manticore's own thick fur, which could even rival that of a dragon in terms of magic resistance, blossomed with countless bloodstains. The scarlet blood instantly stained its entire body, and the residual magic from those wounds continued to deepen and corrode, and almost every second that passed, the wounds on the creature's body would get worse and more blood would flow out!

The huge injury caused it to look at Jon with resentment, then turned back and went into the bushes.

The Manticore was certain it would not survive unless it could find a wizard behind it who could help it counter the Invisible Sword Curse.

If it had actually killed that boy now, then the whole situation would have been much simpler as they would 100% help it, now it could only leave it to chance.

This enhanced version of the Invisible Sword Curse drained a lot of Jon's stamina.

It was a spellcasting technique he had learned from a forbidden book in his ring during the summer holidays, increasing the flux of magic to the spell by holding the wand in both hands together, as a way of giving the spell an extremely powerful boost of magic.

It is very practical to use with ranged damage spells such as Invisible Sword Curse, but because of the high consumption and the long casting time, it is not too practical in a real one-on-one battle.

But it's much more effective when dealing with extremely resistant magical creatures like this one, especially if Jon has the advantage in terms of aerial combat.

Otherwise, Jon would not have played such a child game with Emil and would have used a killing curse to force the Manticore or other enemy to come out.

The appearance of such a dark creature also confirmed Jon's suspicion that in the Forbidden Forest, Voldemort's own territory, he would not be unprepared.

At least the current situation showed Jon that Voldemort still had some regard for the outcome of this tournament, otherwise, how would he possibly care about Emil and Draco's lives given his character?

Jon thought as he picked up a few golden flying snitches from the ground that had been destroyed by the dragon's breath, trembling with metal wings but no longer able to fly, something that Emil had dropped when he was rolling around.

Putting them into his pocket, Jon was ready to get down to business about the tournament, there were only so many dragons in the Forbidden Forest in any case, and as long as Emil wanted to keep improving his results, then they would run into each other again sooner or later.

Jon blew a whistle and soon Hoss appeared beside him with a naive look on his face.

"Come on, let's start with the Norwegian Ridgeback we marked out this morning first, one at a time."

The rules for this task to seize golden flying snitches from a dragon might have taken a lot of work and brainpower for other champions participating without the ability to fly, but for Jon, there was no great risk at all.

After all, he could fly himself, and he could also use his ring to seize the magic in alchemical items.

As long as he flew up and got close to those golden flying snitches, and used the second gem in his ring to absorb the magic power on those golden flying snitches, he would be able to catch those things with incredible ease.

And the dragons posed no threat whatsoever at all to Jon either with the restriction imposed on them.

So from the very beginning, after learning the rules of the first task, Jon didn't have much concern. As long as he competed normally, it would be easy to get a high score in this task. The only thing he needed to take into account was whether Voldemort might set up any arrangements against him in the Forbidden Forest itself.

Because of this, Jon had made plans to find Emil and try him first, and if there was an arrangement to be made, the odds were that it would be on him higher.

Now that it had been confirmed that the arrangement consisted of nothing more than magical creatures, Jon could let loose.

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