Chapter 399: The Civet Cat in the Gold Treasure Chest and a Group of Scorpion Tailed Beasts
In the center of the maze, Aaron yawned, a little bored.
He sat by the pedestal, not looking at the trophy, but at a golden treasure chest placed in the corner, a hint of disdainful smile appearing on his lips.
He wasn't sure what magical creatures were inside the golden chest, but he was certain there would be a more detailed Marauder's Map.
But he had already reached the finish line; he could completely wait for the others, persuade them with emotion and reason to cooperate with him, and everyone could jointly be champions of the Triwizard Tournament—it would be beneficial to all.
As for the unpredictable golden chest, the farther away it was, the better; only a fool would open it.
Just as Aaron was thinking this, a scream broke the surrounding silence, and from the sound, it was clearly someone fleeing in a panic.
"Holy crab! This woman must be doing it on purpose!"
Aaron suddenly stood up and immediately used Alohomoraon the golden chest.
At the same time, he made up his mind that he would never casually make a 'flag' again; now he was the fool who would open the golden chest.
But there was nothing he could do; he had thought of everything except the champions' abilities.
Not too many major accidents was also one of Adrian's conditions; if he really stood by and did nothing, he would have to dutifully go home for a blind date after the holidays.
The chest opened, and no behemoth appeared inside; instead, a black cat, the size of a lion, with a pointed mouth, fangs, and eerie blue light in its pupils, sprang out.
"A Spirit Cat, this must have been borrowed from the Ministry of Magic!" Aaron felt extremely speechless; this was definitely Adrian's doing.
It wasn't that he looked down on Fudge, but the Minister for Magic never made any serious decisions.
The Spirit Cat looked at Aaron in front of it, baring its fangs, and pounced after a running start.
"Stupefy."
The blue light hit the Spirit Cat, but it split into three upon landing.
The three Spirit Cats glared menacingly at Aaron, slowly approaching him from three directions.
"If it were normal times, I'd really want to play with you, but not now, I'm in a hurry."
Aaron said, waving his wand, and three earth cages rose from the ground, trapping the Spirit Cats inside.
He then quickly ran to the chest and pulled out a Marauder's Map from inside.
As expected, this map was incredibly detailed, recording not only the various routes of the maze and the exact locations of the champions but also the positions of various dangerous magical creatures; most importantly, this map had no so-called time limit and remained effective until the end of the competition.
"As expected of a golden chest, the items it yields are reliable, but... hiss... are these people really this competitive?"
Aaron quickly glanced at the map and couldn't help but gasp.
He saw more than twenty Dementors, two Blast-Ended Skrewts, seven Boggarts, six Acromantulas, three giant crabs, and five Trolls on the map.
This maze was converted from a Quidditch Pitch; it wasn't too big, nor was it too small, but accommodating so many magical creatures was still a bit of a stretch.
The champions would encounter a magical creature almost every few turns; if it was a Dementor or a Boggart, they could deal with them using specific spells, but if it was a Blast-Ended Skrewt or a Troll, creatures with magicresistance, they would have to run immediately.
After all, their magic wasn't infinite, and subduing a behemoth was too strenuous; if they ran out of magic when encountering other dangers, they would only be able to wait for death.
But to find the correct route, they had to keep opening chests, and the number of dangerous creatures would continuously increase, making the longer time spent, the greater the danger.
Aaron found Fleur's position on the map; she was sprinting through the maze and, by chance, was actually the closest to the center.
The magical creature marked behind her was a Manticore, a hybrid of a crab, a lobster, and a scorpion.
"Not too far." Aaron silently calculated the distance and followed the screams and the map's guidance.
However, before leaving the center of the maze, he unlocked the three cages holding the Spirit Cats and cast several spells at them, increasing the number of Spirit Cats several times over.
After all, he had to defend his champion position, and setting up a barrier would definitely be too late.
Besides Fleur, the other three were also not too far from the finish line; Harry and Cedric seemed to be walking side-by-side.
If someone else snatched the prize while he was saving someone, he would truly have nowhere to cry.
Left turn, right turn, then left turn again, then straight... Fleur's screams became clearer and clearer, and besides that, there was a dense sound of footsteps, which sounded creepy.
The Lumos spell illuminated the path ahead; Fleur, wearing a blue tracksuit, rushed over, her face covered in sweat, looking disheveled and clearly panicked.
"Run, hurry and run." Fleur shouted hoarsely, "Behind..."
"I know, Manticores."
"No, it's not... just run, quickly."
"Just one Manticore, even if it's big, how big can it be? I can still..."
Mid-sentence, Aaron swallowed with difficulty.
He finally understood why Fleur was so disheveled; what was behind her wasn't one Manticore, but a swarm of Manticores, hundreds of them, densely packed.
Each Manticore was the size of a crab, and coupled with their certain magic resistance, adult Wizards would only be able to run if they encountered them.
"What kind of luck do you have?" Aaron asked, leading Fleurtowards the finish line.
"How should I know?" Fleur said, on the verge of tears, "I just opened a silver chest, and then a group of monsters came out, harder to deal with than the Grindylows underwater.
Never mind that, let's run, quickly; if we get caught, we'll definitely be gnawed to bits."
"I have a way to deal with them, but there's one small condition."
Fleur froze, her expression changing to one of displeasure; she was very aware of what made her most attractive to boys.
"You should know that you can't shake them off with just your speed." Aaron continued, "How about it? Consider it?"
Fleur hesitated for a moment, then quickly kissed Aaron on the cheek, blushing as she said, "Satisfied now!"
Aaron was instantly dumbfounded, stopping in his tracks, bewildered.
It wasn't that he couldn't accept it, but it was too sudden, catching him off guard.
At the same time, hundreds of spectators outside the arena also witnessed this scene, with varying expressions.
Draco's eyes widened, and he silently gave a thumbs-up to the screen; Ron looked at Aaron with envy and jealousy, unconsciously touching his own face—he had never been kissed by a pretty girl in his life, while Hermione, sitting next to him, had fire in her eyes, her breathing somewhat labored.
Adrian and Geins exchanged glances, a playful curve on their lips; they hadn't expected such an unexpected bonus from just watching a match—they rarely got to see their younger brother's (young master's) embarrassed look.
"Don't wait, they're catching up." Fleur shouted anxiously.
"Um... actually, my condition wasn't that." Aaron said, a little embarrassed.
"Aren't you too greedy!" Fleur said, somewhat displeased, "As for kissing, it's not impossible, but you'd have to officially date me, be boyfriend and girlfriend."
Upon hearing this, Aaron's mouth twitched slightly.
"I'll let it slide that you took advantage of me just now, I won't argue with you, but can you please not dream of such a good thing right now?"
"You..."
"I'll explain later, let's deal with the current trouble first." Aaron said, snapping his fingers, using an illusion to conceal their figures, and simultaneously projected their illusions onto the corridor.
However, the illusions did not run away; instead, they made exaggerated movements, and as their limbs twitched, the Manticores mimicked them, being led in a completely opposite direction.
"That's... solved?" Fleur was somewhat incredulous; she had been made incredibly disheveled by this group of creatures.
"If you read more, you'd know that Manticores mimic human movements, but this only stops them from attacking; truly getting rid of them isn't that easy."
Fleur also came back to her senses, looking at Aaron and asking, "What was your condition earlier?"
"Give up the championship, or... strictly speaking, it's not really giving up." Aaron said bluntly, "My meaning is for all five champions to touch the trophy together."
"Hmm?" Fleur's pupils widened slightly, and she immediately understood his plan, saying with a complex tone, "This is your plan?"
"Everyone is co-champion, and I can fulfill all the conditions; no one loses out!" Aaron said earnestly.
"This... I still want to try a bit longer."
"Hey, hey, hey! Are you really going to be so uncooperative?" Aaron wasn't surprised by her attitude and directly showed her the Marauder's Map in his hand.
"This is... which chest did you find this in?" Fleur asked, surprised and uncertain; if she had this map, she might have already won the championship.
"The finish line. I waited for you all for a long time; if I hadn't heard your scream, I wouldn't have come over.
So... in a sense, I'm already the champion."
Fleur was silent for a while, "Okay, I agree to your condition, but the others..."
"I will persuade the others; if it really doesn't work, then I'll just have to beat them into submission.
However, I can only give you half of the one thousand Galleon prize money, because I've been spending quite a lot recently and am really struggling to make ends meet."
Fleur forced a smile and returned the map to Aaron.
"Ah, oh! I think we need to speed up; Harry and Cedric are only two turns away from the finish line." Aaron pouted, but he wasn't particularly worried.
After all, when he left the center of the maze, he had already increased the number of Spirit Cats several times, which meant there were a dozen powerful and swift beasts guarding the trophy.
The two of them alone would definitely not be able to subdue those Spirit Cats anytime soon; if they used magicattacks, their numbers would double, and then they would be too busy saving themselves to contend for the trophy!