Chapter 343: The Entrance of the Valley (2 in 1)

Chapter 343: The Entrance of the Valley (2 in 1)

"Someone from Palmer Sports Magical Item Supply wrote to complain that our final payment has not been settled, urging us to pay them the rest of the galleons quickly since the tournament has started."

The night after the official start of the first tournament task, Matthew was in the common room Voldemort had prepared just for him in Hogwarts Castle, listening to the assistant beside him give him a briefing on the preparations for the tournament.

"Tell them to wait two more days, when the first tournament task is completely finished, the final payment will naturally no longer be owed to them. Also, why have I never heard of this Sports Magic Firm before? Shouldn't the normal supply of tournament items be provided by the official Department of Magical Games and Sports?" Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

Faced with Matthew's question, the assistant showed a difficult expression but ultimately answered.

"Regarding the competition equipment for the first tournament task, it was Mr Rahman who took the initiative to contract this business, and he said that this Palmer Sports Magic Item Supply Firm was owned by a friend of his, and the quality of the goods provided were all guaranteed."

Matthew frowned.

"That's the nature of these Middle Easterners, they want to do business no matter where they are. Why wasn't I told about this earlier?"

"You weren't in charge of the purchasing side of the tournament before, sir, but of course, if you need to investigate that information now, I can go and prepare it now."

"There's no need for you to make preparations now, but you'd better go and alert Rahman first thing in the morning that if anything goes wrong with the first tournament task that was not meant to be, he'll have to expect my impeachment in the Confederation."

***

The place that Cedric had brought Jon to was indeed a remote area at the very edge of the Forbidden Forest.

In front of them, the Ukrainian Ironbelly was positioned exactly in the direction of a valley entrance, and to enter the valley, one had to either pass through this dragon's territory or climb the steep mountain rocks.

For a human with dexterous limbs, climbing is not an impossible task, and with the aid of magic, a wizard can, in just a short time, circumvent the dragon and climb up to the other side of the valley.

However, the same could not be said for the Centaur, whose upper body resembled that of a human, but whose lower body resembled that of a horse, whose four hooves might be able to walk on flat ground, but it was difficult to climb the mountain.

"There are three exits like this one, and apart from this one which is occupied by an Ironbelly, the other two are guarded by another Ukrainian Ironbelly and a Norwegian Ridgeback respectively."

As Jon surveyed the terrain, Cedric also informed Jon in full of what he had found here last night.

"Just three exits in total, and they all happen to be blocked."

Jon cupped his chin and looked at the Ukrainian Ironbelly lying a short distance away through the moonlight, obviously maintaining a certain amount of suspicion at such a coincidence.

But suspicion aside, Jon didn't give up on his promise to Cedric that he would act.

He looked at the Ironbelly as he slowly jerked his wand around.

"If we want to get this exit open, then the least we can do is get this dragon out of where it is now, and then immobilise it,"

Cedric subconsciously swallowed as he looked at the behemoth in the moonlight.

"Last night, I tried to lure it away from here for a while and then contact Firenze, so he could escape from the valley with the rest of the Centaurs, but the dragon seemed so lazy that my spell didn't seem to bother it at all, and it didn't even open its eyes to look at me for a moment when it was hit."

There was a clear note of frustration in his tone, but Jon wasn't surprised by it.

The dragon hide's magical immunity ranked at the top even among all other magical creatures, like the Manticore he had fought off during the day, which had also been known for its extremely magic-resistant hide defence, only suffered a few physical wounds from Jon's enhanced version of the Invisible Sword Curse, which would have shredded a normal magical creature to pieces.

Even if Jon ignored the fact that a judge would use a Prior Incantato charm on his wand after the tournament to check for used spells, using a killing curse directly on the behemoth in front of them would still be unlikely to kill it.

So when resorting to brute force didn't do the trick, Jon had to find a way to outsmart it.

"You said earlier that in addition to the two Ukrainian Ironbellys, there is also an entrance that is occupied by a Norwegian Ridgeback?"

Cedric nodded.

"Roar!"

It roared as it rose from the ground, the ground trembling around it, and Jon's two Patronus appeared very dwarfed in front of a behemoth like it.

The Ridgeback Dragon was flanked by dozens of golden flying snitches, fluttering their alchemical wings and flying around it at speeds inscrutable to the naked eye.

Jon patted Hoss, whose body jerked under the dragon's roar and subconsciously tried to find a place to hide first.

"Don't be afraid, I'll hold the dragon back, you take Cedric and charge into the valley and find the Centaur, or at least make contact with them first."

Hoss turned his head to look at Cedric and couldn't help but snort, his small and big eyes clearly revealed his dislike, and his body, which was several times larger than Jon's, actually leaned towards him in a small birdlike manner.

This caused Jon to slap him on his bald head.

"You don't like people anymore! Don't blame me for not reminding you that almost all the Centaurs hiding in this valley are children and women right now, they just need an extra push to breed, maybe one of the pretty young maidens will take a liking to you if you show up like a hero?"

At the sound of Jon's enticing words, Hoss's eyes lit up, his powerful fantasies already making him think about whether his future child with the pretty young maiden would have a horse head and body or a human head and horse body.

Cedric, on the other hand, looked at Hoss, who was suddenly very active and agitated, he had only thought that this Pegasus was just a little bit unique looking, but he had never thought that it could play so... Fancy.

Before he could get back to his senses, Jon had already started urging Cedric to get on Hoss's back as well.

"You go ahead and find those Centaurs, I'll be right behind you."

Cedric wasn't thinking about abandoning or not abandoning at this point in time, he was clear enough to know that he wouldn't be of much help to Jon here, and on the contrary, might be holding him back.

"I'll find Firenze and get some help from them."

He rode on Hoss's back, and before he could finish his sentence, Jon waved his wand and smacked Hoss's horse's bottom, causing it to turn into a gust of wind, then the man and horse together, making a dash in the direction of the Ridgeback Dragon that was being pestered by the two Patronus.

In a blink of an eye, Hoss passed the Norwegian Ridgeback and took Cedric into the valley.

And Jon came out from behind the trees at this time and looked over at the dragon that was being entangled by the lion and the badger.

For a dragon that would be considered to be at the top of the food chain, even if the Patronus Jon had summoned had the strength and aggression of a normal animal, it would hardly be able to do any effective damage to it.

But Patronus are not exactly real creatures of substance, and even if Jon's Patronus can do physical damage, in the end, they are both still conjured by a charm made up of magical power.

No matter how much the Norwegian Ridgeback tried to tear them apart with its claws or spewed out dragon breath to roast them, it never got any results from the battle.

Even if the lion and the badger were unable to do much effective damage to it, they still made it feel sick as if they were two flies that could not be swatted.

Just as its attention had been all drawn to the two Patronus, Jon raised his wand and aimed it at the Ridgeback's eyes!

"Confringo!"

Instead of using a Conjunctivitis Curse, Jon went straight for the curse he could cast with the fastest speed, the Blasting Curse!

A huge explosion rang out directly around the Ridgeback Dragon's eyes, its extremely fast reaction speed made it close its eyelids the moment the explosion was created, but as the weakest part of its defence, even with its eyelids closed, the spell still caused damage to it.

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