Frey stared dead ahead.
The beast was slowly pulling its massive head back, the silver-scaled muscles of its neck tensing inch by inch into a dangerous S-curve.
Since childhood, he had dealt with countless snakes of all kinds.
He knew that the moment this beast stopped pulling back, a thunderous, lunging strike would follow.
He couldn’t take it head-on.
Frey calculated furiously in his mind; his Shield Charm would never block those long fangs.
A lunging strike could only go in a straight line, with no way to change direction.
He decided to leap to one side, then try his luck with his best spell, Incendio, to see if this serpent was afraid of fire.
The serpent moved.
In that split second, Frey felt the surrounding primeval forest begin to melt.
The towering giant trees turned into distorted, dark-green pixel blocks, and the ground beneath his feet became a whirlpool.
His vision and sense of balance were scrambled into mush by some unseen force.
The serpent’s massive body uncoiled as expected, as fast as a bolt of silver lightning.
Enduring the sharp pain of sensory distortion, Frey forced his body to roll to the right.
But in physical space, his sense of direction was completely inverted.
Instead of dodging, he executed a backward roll, landing himself right in the path of the serpent’s attack.
“Damn it! It’s an illusionary interference!”
Teetering on the edge of life and death, Frey exploded with an incredible will to survive.
Clockwise, ninety degrees.
Calculating rapidly in his head, he raised his wand to his left and cast: “Depulso!”
The powerful spell slammed into the serpent’s head dead ahead.
With a deafening bang, the massive recoil sent Frey scraping a long trench through the mud.
The serpent’s head crashed down a mere half-foot from him, splashing mud all over his face.
Frey felt like his backside was smoking, but he had no time to feel the pain—the serpent’s whip-like tail was already sweeping toward him.
Left and right were both within range of the tail sweep.
Going forward meant facing the serpent’s gaping maw, so Frey could only roll backward.
Armed with his previous experience, Frey leapt with all his might to the right.
But in that instant, he realized he had actually rolled right toward the tail sweep.
“I’m doomed!”
Too late to dodge, Frey curled his body and cast: “Protego!” intending to leave the rest to fate.
At this critical moment, a black shadow charged in from the side.
It was Long Jiu!
Frey was knocked dizzy, rolling several times on the ground before managing to steady himself.
However, as soon as he looked up, he heard a dull thud.
After ramming Frey away, Long Jiu had no time to brace herself.
The serpent’s tail struck her ribs dead center.
The black beast-like silhouette, like a kite with a broken string, instantly crashed through several large trees behind them, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
“Long Jiu!” Frey’s eyes nearly split with rage.
The phantom serpent had no intention of giving them a moment to breathe.
It roared and leaped, its front claws glinting coldly as it launched a brutal pounce at the downed Long Jiu.
“Accio fur!” Frey bellowed the Summoning Charm with agonizing desperation.
The Summoning Charm could not be used on living things, but Frey was currently casting it on the beast’s fur.
The magical pull yanked Long Jiu’s massive form back, dragging her away from the deadly claws just in time.
Even so, the phantom serpent’s claws left a shocking bloody scratch on the Taowu’s shoulder.
The black fur was instantly dyed crimson.
The edges of the wound tinged with a lifeless gray, identical to the wound on the little monkey’s leg.
In the split second Frey turned his head to look at Long Jiu, the serpent vanished.
The Taowu forced herself up and roared toward the diagonal front.
“Is it there?”
The Taowu gave a weak nod.
At that moment, the little monkey in Frey’s pocket poked its head out tremulously, pointing its tiny finger at itself while letting out a pitiful whimper.
“It’s after you?” Frey looked down at the golden fluffball.
“Don’t worry. As long as I’m breathing, it won’t take you. In the business of rescuing magical creatures, we Scamanders are professionals.”
Before he could finish, a foul wind rushed toward the back of his head.
Frey threw himself to the right with all his might.
As he rolled, he whipped his wand blindly toward the previous direction: “Incendio!”
Flames erupted.
In the dancing firelight, a portion of the giant serpent’s body abruptly materialized.
Frey felt a surge of confidence: Just as he thought, as long as he didn’t look into this beast’s eyes, he wouldn’t be affected, and fire was the ultimate counter to its mimicry!
Ordinarily, if a snake missed its strike, it would have to retract its body before attacking again.
However, this giant serpent was no ordinary snake.
Instead, it rolled sideways, the row of serrated bone spurs on its back acting like a massive meat grinder as it rolled toward Frey.
“What the hell is this monster?!”
Frey’s soul almost left his body.
He had no desire to be ground into mincemeat.
He turned and sprinted into the dense forest.
As he ran, he pointed his wand at a large boulder ahead and cast: “Wingardium Leviosa!” using the floating rock as a springboard to leap onto a high branch. Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping . com.
He swung desperately through the slippery branches like Tarzan.
Just as his strength failed and he was about to fall, a long, black tail wrapped around his waist.
It was Long Jiu’s tail.
Boom!
The massive tree behind them, thick enough for two men to hug, was shredded into a flurry of flying wood chips by the phantom serpent’s bone spurs.
Before he could even catch his breath, Frey pulled the little monkey out of his pocket and stuffed it into the thick fur of the Taowu’s back.
Frey glanced behind him.
The giant serpent had vanished again, having apparently recovered from the earlier burns.
“Its target is this little thing. Long Jiu, take it and run. Hide. I’ll find a way to deal with this snake.”
The Taowu turned her head and nuzzled Frey’s leg with her wet nose.
“Go! Trust me, I won’t die!” Frey growled.
Long Jiu gave him a look, finally turned, and vanished in a ripple of air.
The little monkey also turned invisible.
Only the sparse drops of blood on the ground marked their rapid departure into the depths of the forest.
The giant serpent immediately turned to pursue the trail of blood.
“Hey! Big worm! Look over here!”
Standing high in the canopy, Frey leaped forward, spreading his arms wide in midair.
The nine-meter-long Icelandic Blue-Ridge roared into existence at canopy height.
“Roar!”
The shockwave of the dragon’s roar sent leaves rustling and shaking across the canopy, scattering countless startled birds.
The giant serpent, which had been hurtling through the jungle, screeched to a halt.
It slowly turned, its body coiling loop by loop into a massive mound.
Its silver scales shimmered, and its slit pupils locked onto the sovereign of the skies that didn’t belong to this latitude.
Meanwhile, at the lakeside camp.
“A dragon?” Hermione stood up abruptly, her notebook dropping into the mud.
She looked up toward the silver-blue silhouette and its iconic long wings rising in the distance, her voice trembling slightly.
“An Icelandic Blue-Ridge? That North Atlantic sovereign… how could it appear in a tropical rainforest? This goes against ecological common sense!”
The stirring rod in Newt’s hand jerked, and the once-clear potion in the cauldron instantly turned a muddy black.
The old man put the lid back on the cauldron, feigning composure.
“Hermione, forget about species distribution. Listen, pack up everything right now. Put the workbench and everything useful into your backpack. Hurry!”
“But Frey is still in the forest! He’ll be in danger!” Hermione cried.
Newt had already begun quickly packing the tools, shouting without turning back, “The best thing we can do is not become a burden to him. Move! When he returns, we are leaving!”