Chapter 197 - Dragon Race (3)

Seeing Newt's silence, Dumbledore let out a tired sigh, but remained silent for a moment. The Hogwarts principal knew that this would be an extremely life-threatening mission, to say the least; Newt could even end up facing a Special Grade Wizard during the mission. And the chances of this fight ending badly for Newt were high.

Unfortunately, Dumbledore couldn't personally investigate or even send anyone on this mission. Investigating such an ancient and secret organization was too dangerous for any weak wizard.

Newt was perfect for the mission, Dumbledore could trust him and above all, Newt had the power to protect himself should anything go wrong during the mission.

"Don't worry, Professor. Although my bones are a little rusty, they still work as strong as dragon muscles." Perhaps noticing the worried look on the Hogwarts Headmaster's face, Newt commented with a light and unconcerned tone.

For a brief moment, Dumbledore seemed to see the same eccentric boy in his fifth year at Hogwarts towering over the old man in front of him.

"I'm just worried about you, Newt. If you feel something is wrong, don't hesitate to run away." Dumbledore spoke with a terribly serious tone, leaving no room for any words of refusal on Newt's part.

The world's most famous Magizoologist looked embarrassed, but nodded hesitantly, agreeing with Dumbledore's words.

Showing a satisfied expression on his face, Dumbledore got up and stood in front of the audience, which had calmed down completely at his arrival.

Scanning the people in the stands, he could see the anticipation and excitement for the tournament on the faces of these wizards and witches. Dumbledore began his words with a joke. "I think we're all excited about what's going to happen. And just between you and me, I am too. I always dreamed as a child of seeing a dragon race."

Laughter rang out in the stands as some shouted that they had similar dreams as children. Who hasn't dreamt of riding on a dragon and saving the princess?

Clearing his throat, Dumbledore continued. "The race will be divided into three main areas, land, water and area. The dragons and their riders will have to pass through natural and artificial obstacles to reach the finish."

Dumbledore's words caught everyone's attention, especially the competitors.

A land and air race was normal, after all, dragons could run and fly, but a water race?

Dragon and water could never be mixed in the same sentence without causing strangeness in many people's minds.

How in Merlin's name could a dragon swim underwater?

That was the thought of almost everyone, including Asterion. He couldn't understand how Dumbledore could think of creating such a strange race in the first place.

As if reading the doubts of talented young wizards and witches from various countries, Dumbledore replied in an amused tone. "Life is an experience full of surprises, be they good or bad."

As to what the surprise prepared for them was, Dumbledore didn't say and gave no hint as to what it might be. The participants were speechless, knowing that the race couldn't be as simple as it seemed.

"Is it hard to ask for just a normal race?" Asterion heard a young Asian-looking woman next to him mutter to herself. Her English was very good, there was hardly an accent in her voice.

The young woman's dragon was a Chinese Fireball, which was lying next to her in a very lazy manner.

Asterion didn't blame the young woman, the Game of Kings was a rather stressful competition for countries other than Hogwarts. The Chinese team in particular collapsed with its male members being enslaved by Fleur.

Perhaps noticing a look about her, Ling Zhang turned and found a pair of red eyes staring at her with a hint of curiosity. She knew who it was, there was no way not to know who the young man in front of him was. One of the World's Thirty-Three Special Grade Wizards and the youngest of them all. The slayer of two other Special Grade wizards

Asterion Black, The Black Prince.

In all honesty, Ling Zhang felt that she could brag for a lifetime about taking on a Special Grade and coming out of the attack practically unscathed. How many people had the luxury of facing a Special Grade Warlock and coming out alive? As far as she knew, not many.

"Lord Black." She spoke, greeting the Special Grade Warlock politely.

"Good race." Asterion nodded and replied back, then went back to focusing on Ancalagon.

Ling Zhang was speechless, she had hoped to have a little chat, but seeing his obvious detachment, she shook the gourd helplessly and focused on the dragon itself.

Without caring if anyone was watching or not, she took a vial out of her bag and opened the stopper that covered the glass vial. Bringing the flask close to the dragon's nose, Ling Zhang made the dragon smell the smoke escaping from the flask and as if by magic.

The whole dragon seemed excited again, its frenzied eyes staring at its surroundings with a bestial gleam.

"Calm down, girl."

Suddenly, that bestial, cruel look calmed down when it heard Ling Zhang's voice and it lay down on the ground with its reptilian eyes staring at Ling Zhang.

This made Asterion next to her turn his head and look at the bottle in the young woman's hand with an interesting look.

Asterion knew that the contents of the bottle were just some kind of extremely potent anesthetic in the form of smoke, probably created by the Chinese over the centuries, but the main reason the dragon accepted the Chinese girl's command was her voice.

Something that Asterion assumed was her Innate Technique, and she used her voice to hypnotize the Chinese Fireball. Of course, the young woman definitely wasn't strong enough to control the dragon with her own strength, so the dragon was completely drugged to the point where it couldn't move on its own.

Something like that would greatly affect the efficiency of the dragon's flight, but compared to not being able to ride the dragon, that was a price many competitors didn't mind paying easily.

"I must be careful..." Asterion thought, an innate technique like that could hypnotize the enemy was problematic, especially for beings who had no defenses for this kind of attack. He didn't need to worry about that, Baskerville was in his shadow and he was completely safe.

But Ancalagon was an unknown, Asterion didn't know if Ancalagon had inherited some of her power from Morgan, which he found difficult to do.

"All competitors must get on their respective dragons!!!"

Hearing Dumbledore's voice, Asterion put those thoughts aside for the moment and climbed up Ancalagon's neck to the saddle located at the base of the dragon's slender, long neck.

Attaching the kill hooks to his saddle belt, which would prevent him from falling from a high altitude, Asterion settled into the dragon's saddle and couldn't help but notice that his angle of vision was very high at this point.

The warm touch and smell that reminded him of sulphur made his nose twitch gently, strangely he liked the pungent smell.

Stroking the reddish-black scales at the ends, Asterion muttered to himself. "Let's have some fun together, big boy."

Ancalagon opened his eyes and let out a guttural roar as his huge body rose from the ground, towering far above the other dragons.

Dumbledore looked at the huge, particularly eye-catching Ancalagon and couldn't help but twitch his lips unnaturally, the dragon was definitely a very clear variation of a Hedridean Black.

How Asterion had managed to do this in less than a week, even he had no idea. He knew dragons very well, and if it were so easy to create a variation of a race, there would be many more dragons than the world currently had.

Dragon DNA is extremely xenophobic and proud, preferring to decay by mixing with other DNA, so Asterion being able to create a variation of the Hedridean Black was a real doubt in Dumbledore's mind.

Letting out a weary sigh, Dumbledore took a deep breath and shouted through the magical microphone.

"Get ready!"

--------------

Author's thoughts:

Support me to write more and read chapters ahead of all regular readers! 

P-atreon.com/HPSCB

(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)

Next Chapter Second Volume: Chapter 198 - Dragon Race (4), Chapter 199 - Dragon Race (5), Chapter 200 - Dragon Race (6), Chapter 201 - Dragon Race (7), Chapter 202 - Dragon Race (8), Chapter 203 - Golden Path (1), Chapter 204 - Golden Path (2), Chapter 205 - Golden Path (3), Chapter 206 - Battle in Desert City (1), Chapter 207 - Battle in Desert City (2), Chapter 208 - On the Night of the Storm (1), Chapter 209 - On the Night of the Storm (2), Chapter 210 - On the Night of the Storm (3), Chapter 211 - On the Night of the Storm (4), Chapter 212 - On the Night of the Storm (5), Chapter 213 -At the Highest Point of Heaven (END Dragon Race), Chapter 214 - The Spark of Chaos (1).