jdhmnovel Chapter 311 - 311: 312: Who exactly were these goblins?
Chapter 311 - 311: 312: Who exactly were these goblins?
The Wampus's glazed, vortex-like eyes locked onto Sagres, the magic within them almost seeming to solidify.Even without making direct eye contact, Sagres felt a slight wave of dizziness.
The Wampus's hind leg muscles tensed, and in the next instant, it lunged at the pair with a speed so great that most wizards would not even have time to complete a spell.
However, Sagres reacted even faster.
He did not cast a spell directly. Instead, he pointed his wand at an ancient vine-covered tree beside him.
The old tree seemed to be infused with wild vitality. Its rough bark emitted an unpleasant creaking sound, like teeth grinding together.
Several thick aerial roots and hanging vines suddenly came alive. Like giant pythons, they twisted and expanded, transforming into tough, wood-grained tendrils that lashed out at the Wampus in mid-air.
The Wampus's reflexes were terrifying.
Faced with the sudden attack, it did not attempt to break through head-on. Instead, at the very instant the first wooden tendril was about to touch its fur, it pushed off the tendril with its powerful hind legs.
Using the recoil, its streamlined body performed an agile mid-air turn that seemed to defy physics itself, landing lightly in an open area nearby.
But just as its four paws were about to touch the ground, another trap awaited it.
The solid earth beneath the layer of fallen leaves and humus abruptly changed.
The firm ground seemed to lose all support and transformed into a dark, bottomless expanse of water.
Caught completely off guard, the Wampus instantly "fell" into it.
Its momentum carried it beneath the "surface," leaving only the tip of its tail and its frantically struggling hind legs exposed, as though some invisible force were dragging it down.
It was Nightingale.
Her wand was steadily aimed at the patch of ground, her gaze completely focused.
With a silently cast advanced Transfiguration, she had transformed the earth into an invisible quicksand trap.
Yet the Wampus's strength far exceeded expectations.
Even trapped in the suddenly fluid ground, it struggled violently, seemingly on the verge of forcing itself free through sheer strength.
Sagres, however, had no intention of giving it another opportunity.
The moment the Wampus's head emerged above the "surface," his wand moved once more.
The flowing ground instantly solidified.
Its colour darkened, and its texture became smooth and elastic.
In an instant, the entire patch of earth transformed into a gigantic mass of rubber.
The Wampus had only just managed to free most of its body when it found itself firmly trapped within the suddenly hardened rubber.
Its powerful body was tightly bound by the rubber. All of its strength was absorbed and dispersed by the soft yet highly resilient material, leaving it unable to exert any force.
In the end, only its magnificently marked head remained exposed. Its enormous eyes were wide with anger and disbelief as it glared at the two wizards who had subdued it, letting out a series of threatening growls from deep within its throat.
For the moment, it was under control.
Ignoring the Wampus's hostile growls, Sagres calmly stepped forward beneath the fixed gaze of its vortex-like eyes.
With a slight flick of his wand, several whiskers shimmering with faint magical power detached themselves from the Wampus's face and floated neatly into a small glass vial that appeared out of thin air.
He then lightly tapped the top of its head with his wand. A small tuft of its uniquely patterned fur was cleanly shaved away and placed into another container.
The entire process was completed in the blink of an eye. The Wampus barely had time to react before letting out another furious snarl.
Then Sagres casually snapped off a branch from a nearby bush.
The branch twisted and reshaped itself in his hand, instantly transforming into a transparent magical syringe, complete with a slender metal needle.
Without hesitation, he inserted the needle into one of the Wampus's blood vessels and drew a full tube of dark red blood.
After finishing, he seemed to remember something and turned towards Nightingale.
"Do you need anything?"
Nightingale's eyes swept over the restrained Wampus before she shook her head.
"No, thank you. It belongs in the forest, not on my workbench."
Sagres nodded, showing no further reaction.
After neatly storing away the collected samples, he pointed his wand at the ground beneath the Wampus.
The rubber immediately turned fluid once again.
Caught by surprise, the Wampus swallowed several mouthfuls of muddy water and thrashed violently, but it quickly managed to dog-paddle away from the pair.
After dragging itself ashore, it vanished into the forest without looking back.
Sagres wasted no more time. He turned his attention towards the direction in which the Diricawls had disappeared and raised his wand, beginning to trace the faint magical remnants lingering in the air.
"They were badly frightened. Their consecutive Apparitions are much more random now, both in direction and distance," Nightingale observed.
She crouched beside him and placed a hand on the ground, likewise casting a spell to aid the search.
"It doesn't matter. As long as they're still in this region, we'll find them," Sagres replied with complete confidence.
As he spoke, he decisively set off in one direction.
"This way."
Nightingale immediately followed, and the two figures quickly disappeared into the hot, humid depths of the rainforest.
The chaotic Apparition trails left behind by the panicked Diricawls were difficult to follow, but Sagres remained confident in his sense of direction.
After making their way through the dense jungle for some time, a sharp and urgent exchange of voices, accompanied by several weak and pitiful coos, drifted from behind a thick cluster of ferns ahead.
Sagres halted his spellcasting gesture.
At the same moment, both he and Nightingale slowed their pace and silently approached.
Pushing aside layers of giant leaves, the sight before them made Sagres frown slightly.
The two adults and four young Diricawls, all six of them, had been trapped inside a net woven from fine metallic threads.
The net appeared to possess magic-suppressing properties. The birds repeatedly attempted to Apparate, but all they could produce were faint spatial ripples within the confines of the net. They were unable to escape.
Several of the younger birds had exhausted themselves after repeated attempts. Their beaks hung open as they panted helplessly.
And those who had captured them were not wizarding poachers, but several unusually dressed goblins.
These goblins looked distinctly different from the grey-skinned goblins of Gringotts.
They wore crude garments woven from tough vines and brightly coloured feathers, while eerie white paint covered their faces in patterns resembling bones, giving them a primitive and savage appearance.
Among them stood a taller goblin clad in robes, whose stature noticeably exceeded that of the others.
Sagres's eyes instantly sharpened.
He had seen this style of dress before.
On Derry Island, where they had discovered the Quintaped, the extremely aggressive goblin they encountered had been dressed almost exactly like the tall goblin standing before them now.
What caused his pupils to contract even further was the object tightly gripped in the apparent leader's hand.
It was a wand.
A crudely crafted wand made from some unusual material.
A brass wand.
Who exactly were these goblins?
How had they appeared in the tropical rainforests of Mauritius?
And why were they using wands to capture Diricawls?
Sagres had no answers.
But he knew one thing.
Their purpose was far more complicated than simply hunting the birds for their feathers.
He and Nightingale exchanged a quick glance, both seeing the same confusion and seriousness reflected in each other's eyes.
Without a word, they raised their wands in perfect unison and lightly tapped themselves.
Their figures quickly blended into the hot, humid surroundings, becoming little more than transparent distortions in the air.
The advanced Disillusionment Charm had taken effect.
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