The sky was nearly dark.

  Surrounded by the forest, the patchy sky above the dense woods had taken on an eerie red hue. A gust of wind blew through, lifting a few dry leaves that swirled in the air before nding at Hoffa's pant cuffs.

  He turned and looked up, and only then did he realize that the tree canopy was thick with over a hundred spiky fruits.

  Just as the two were struck with shock, one of the fruits slowly opened. It spread its green wings, revealing its dark purple and green body hidden inside.

  Hiss!

  It extended its long tongue and flicked its forked tongue at Hoffa.

  It was that!

  Hoffa immediately understood why the creature seemed familiar.

  A Winged Serpent, Schmidt Rutroff's pet, a dangerous creature that feeds on brain fluids. Why was this creature here?

  If it's here, could Schmidt be far behind?

  Joey asked, "What's going on? Why is a level 4X dangerous creature here?!"

  "Remember the st attack on Hogsmeade?" Hoffa's face turned pale, his voice trembling slightly.

  "Attack... what? The dark wizard with dangerous creatures actually hid in the Forbidden Forest? Are you sure? Who told you that?"

  Joey asked multiple questions, but Hoffa didn’t answer any of them. He couldn’t stop backing away.

  Hiss, hiss!

  From the canopy above, several Winged Serpents unfurled their wings, their green, hungry eyes glowing in the dark.

  Thinking about the letter, Hoffa gritted his teeth.

  Damn it, this is a trap!

  A deliberate trap!

  Hoffa looked at Joey, who was just as stunned and horrified. Joey nocked an arrow, gnced to the side, and said, "You take the girl and go ahead. I'll cover you."

  Hoffa didn’t hesitate. He rushed over and yanked Agia to her feet. She had been reading by the rock and had no idea what was happening.

  "What's going on? Do you have any idea how important what I'm interpreting is?" she said angrily.

  "Shut up! Sherlock," Hoffa snapped, cutting her off harshly. He dragged Agia toward the horses. He didn’t know where Schmidt was, but he had to leave before the dark wizard appeared.

  But just as they reached the horses, Hoffa noticed that Agia’s horse was staggering in pce, swaying like it was drunk.

  Agia was very worried and immediately tried to check what was wrong with the horse.

  However, Hoffa noticed the horse's tail twitching at the back of its head. His expression changed, and he immediately grabbed Agia’s wrist.

  At that moment, a blood-soaked Winged Serpent broke through the horse's skull, spraying brain matter everywhere.

  "Ah!" Agia screamed loudly, covering her head.

  Thud!

  An arrow flew through the air, pinning the attacking Winged Serpent to the tree trunk.

  The poor horse’s entire brain was pierced, and with a loud crash, it fell to the ground, twitching before it died.

  "Don’t worry about it, ride the other one," Joey called out.

  Agia had never seen anything like this. Her face went pale, and she trembled all over.

  Hoffa remained calmer. He pulled Agia toward another horse, drew his wand, and said, "Get on the horse."

  Agia tried to climb onto the horse’s back, but after several failed attempts, she couldn’t manage it.

  Hoffa had no choice but to lift and push her onto the horse’s back, holding her steady as she trembled. Once she was on, Hoffa leaped onto his own horse.

  Now, in the dark forest, the hissing and fpping sounds were unrelenting.

  Hoffa turned the horse around and galloped quickly back the way they came, needing to leave the area as soon as possible.

  He didn’t look back at Joey, knowing that if he hesitated, it would only cause more trouble for them. He was an adult wizard and had been a gamekeeper for many years—his own survival was not a problem.

  Sure enough, Joey was shooting arrows one after another from behind him. One by one, the Winged Serpents were shot down midair.

  Purple-blue blood rained down in spshes.

  However, more and more Winged Serpents appeared from all directions, fpping through the trees, and the arrows began to run out.

  Joey noticed this and quickly pulled a magical gss orb from his pocket, throwing it violently into the air.

  Boom!

  A huge explosion.

  The gss orb collided with the Winged Serpents, exploding in the sky.

  Hoffa, still on horseback, heard the intense explosion and saw the fmes shooting up from behind him.

  He gnced back and saw the entire forest behind him had turned into a sea of fire. The tree trunks at the center of the explosion were instantly reduced to dust. The shockwave sent leaves and dirt flying, stinging Hoffa’s face.

  There was no time to worry about Joey. As the shockwave pushed him forward, Hoffa saw several Winged Serpents tumbling through the air, crashing into the trees in front of him.

  These creatures had incredible vitality. After shaking on the ground for a moment, they quickly stumbled back to their feet and flew toward Hoffa at high speed.

  Hoffa didn’t dare look back, praying to just get out of the Forbidden Forest and return to the school.

  But just as he rode furiously, two Winged Serpents grabbed Agia by the colr of her shoulder and pulled her off the horse. The creatures were small but shockingly strong.

  “Bach!”

  Agia only had time to scream as she was yanked into the air, flying several meters away.

  Damn it!

  Hoffa didn’t have time to grab her.

  He quickly turned the horse around.

  Drawing his wand, he shouted, “Petrificus Totalus!”

  A red light shot from his wand, and both Agia and the two Winged Serpents were instantly petrified in midair.

  But things didn’t get better. After being petrified, Agia and the Winged Serpents plummeted from nearly ten meters in the air.

  The ground was thick with brambles and thorns!

  Falling from that height would surely mean death or crippling injury.

  What to do?

  "Wingardium Leviosa!" Hoffa shouted desperately, casting the levitation spell.

  But the levitation charm didn’t work on living creatures. The white light struck Agia, but she continued to fall.

  Damn it!

  Hoffa's mind was racing—think, think faster!

  Suddenly, a spell cut through the fog in his mind.

  Hoffa raised his wand and flicked it forcefully.

  "Suspensio!"

  A golden light fshed.

  Just as in the Half-Blood Prince’s description, the spell was simple and reliable.

  Agia, caught off guard, was yanked by the neck and flipped upside down, her head hanging down in mid-air. Her underwear and stockings were exposed under her school robe, which covered her upper body completely. Hoffa wasn’t in the mood to admire the scene.

  The two petrified Winged Serpents fell to the ground. These creatures had high magical resistance, and within moments, they began desperately struggling and bouncing up.

  Hoffa jumped off his horse, quickly running to where Agia was hanging. He kicked away several of the sharpest thorns, and at the same time, stomped hard on the struggling Winged Serpents, crushing them.

  "Finite Incantatem."

  Hoffa waved his wand again, finishing the spell and catching Agia as she fell.

  The force of her fall caused Hoffa’s arm to buckle, and they both tumbled together. Her long robe tangled around him and the thorns.

  "Stupefy!"

  Hoffa cast another spell, halting the situation.

  As soon as the petrification was lifted, Agia immediately grabbed Hoffa’s neck from inside her school robe.

  “I’ll kill you, Hoffa Bach! What the hell kind of spells were those?!”

  She screamed, her voice sharp enough to rupture eardrums.

  Hoffa, shocked that after he had worked so hard to save her, she immediately turned on him, pushed her away angrily.

  “If you think your dignity is more important than your life, then don't drag me into your mess!”

  Agia didn’t say anything. Her face turned red to her neck, her teeth clenched in fury.

  Hoffa wasn’t in the mood to comfort her. He didn’t care about anything else and tore off her robe quickly, flipping up and leaping into the air.

  It was pitch bck around them, the light extremely faint.

  Hoffa, still holding a furious Agia, tried to rush back to the horses.

  But the little bck horse he had spent a month with seemed to sense something—it panicked, looking around, then bolted away on its own.

  “Damn it!”

  Hoffa cursed angrily. Suddenly, he slipped and had to grab a tree to steady himself. He had stepped on something sticky.

  The smell of blood filled his nostrils.

  Instinctively, he bent down to look. On the ground, a winding stream of red slowly flowed. It was hard to see clearly.

  "Illumino."

  Hoffa lit his wand.

  The blood was everywhere, already forming a small stream.

  He swallowed nervously, pushing Agia behind him and retreating. But the more he retreated, the stronger the stench of blood became.

  As they passed through a row of cold pines, Agia suddenly elbowed Hoffa. At first, he was angry, but as he turned around...

  The scene before Hoffa made his blood run cold.

  Following Agia's trembling finger, he saw, in the pale light of the newborn moon, rows of centaurs standing like stone statues in the forest.

  Their heads were held high, staring at the sky, and there were at least a dozen of them.

  They varied in color, their fur smooth yet dull. Their postures seemed proud, yet their arms hung lifelessly at their sides.

  Drops of blood trickled down from their foreheads, running down their tall, muscur bodies before slowly dripping onto the ground.

  The breeze ruffled their manes, causing their shadows on the ground to sway slightly, intermingling to form eerie and tragic scenes.

  All of the centaurs—more than a dozen—were dead.

  Though they were creatures with knowledge of the future, they still couldn't escape their doom. On each of their raised heads, several Winged Serpents were sucking the brains from their skulls.

  The air was filled with the unsettling sound of feeding.

  Hoffa took a step back, bumping into Agia, who clutched his arm tightly, unable to stand steadily.

  Centaurs were magical creatures, but they were as intelligent as humans, and in some ways, even superior.

  For so many of them to fall without resistance, there was no doubt that only a powerful dark wizard could have done this.

  Schmidt Lutroff was definitely nearby.

  "Don't make a sound, and stay close to me," Hoffa whispered in a low voice.

  Agia nodded. In the shadow of death, she no longer cared about the distance between herself and Hoffa.

  The two of them, wands in hand, slowly began to retreat in the opposite direction.

  Just then, the darkness in front of them seemed to part.

  A tall figure slowly stood up from the woods behind the centaurs and stepped into the moonlight in the clearing.

  This time, he wasn't wearing a hood. His long Germanic face showed no emotion at all, and as he walked slowly, he murmured:

  "I thought these mules were of some importance. But it seems I was mistaken. No one cares about these inferior species."

  He reached the center of the clearing, and several Winged Serpents crawled out from the centaurs' skulls, nding on his shoulders.

  Schmidt tilted his head slightly and said indifferently, "We meet again. I've been waiting for you for a long time."

  His tone was as casual as if he were greeting a neighbor.

  But Hoffa felt as if he had fallen into an ice pit.

  There was no doubt—he had walked right into a trap.

  Schmidt Lutroff had been waiting for him all along, poised and ready.

  Hoffa retreated to the edge of the clearing and said, "Isn't it better to just quietly leave Engnd? Why come to a dangerous pce like Hogwarts?"

  Schmidt spoke softly, "I would like to leave, too, but I still have important work to finish. Besides, little boy, you still haven't returned what you took from me."

  Hoffa hadn’t even had a chance to react before Agia cried out in arm.

  "Watch out!"

  A sense of danger immediately overwhelmed Hoffa’s mind. He saw strange lights fsh on both his left and right.

  A spell was coming!

  In the moment when Schmidt distracted him, his two companions simultaneously unched an attack on Hoffa.

  (End of Chapter)

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