Chapter 18: 018 // MC conquers the first obstacle!
A movement caught his eye and he stared at the being he was trying to avoid as the being looked around sensing something disturbing its peace.
It was defiantly sundown by now as the Vampire called out, "who disturb me?" in a dialect of barely recognizable German Sirius hadn't heard before.
Sirius thought about what he should do now as he stood entirely still, not even daring to breathe. The Vampire was dangerous and must be hungry from what he did know about general vampires. Honestly, this vampire wasn't the healthiest looking, must be due to the long sleep he had woken from.
He raked his mind for something to save his hide in this delicate situation. This vampire won't be expecting something that would let him escape easily and cleverly. He remembered a fairy-tale his nanny used to tell him a few years ago.
A wizard was raiding an ancient Egyptian tomb and he had come face to face with a horde of vampires protecting the tomb. The wizard had used an advanced form of Lumos and used fire to subdue the vampires he was surrounded with.
He could follow the example and use some kind of lightning spell to weaken the creature and then stun him quickly. This would consume a lot of his magic to work. If he used his staff for light and wand for stunning, then he might just defeat his foe.
He silently flicked his wrist and his wand slipped into his hand. He already had his staff in the other hand and the cloak would have to come off quickly for this to work.
He prepared himself as the price of failure was death.
As the vampire was peeking down at stairs probably thinking his prey was there, Sirius quickly removed his cloak using his mouth, closed his eyes and shouted,
"Lumos Solem" as the vampire lunged at him.
When he heard a loud shout coming from too near, so he opened his eyes quickly and sent powerful stunners at the vampire. He didn't stop until he heard the thud of a body falling on the ground and still didn't snuff the light.
The vampire was about to grab him, it was at an arm's length. Using a variation of Lumos was a good idea, his spell was working.
He could now see the vampire lying on the ground with spots on his skin looking deadly red and black, which were increasing. The vampire's eyes looked blood red and were glaring at him maliciously.
"Accio Key" he chanted, not wanting to lose his eye on the vampire but the key must've been charmed to summon proof as it didn't fly to him.
"Immobulus, Incarcerous" He then chanted in succession aiming at the vampire buying himself time to search. He didn't want to become a meal for his hungry creature.
The Immobulus spell worked on both living and inanimate so it would work on the living dead and Incarcerous was just a precaution.
He looked around the room he was in properly for the first time and finally saw that he was in some kind of entrance hall with inanimate portraits, old broken furniture, a bookcase, a coffin, various kind of growth which he didn't even want to know about and some small trunks. He moved towards the trunks keeping one eye firmly on his foe.
"Alohmora" and the chest opened,
"Merlin's balls!" He swore it was a god honest pirate chest.
Damn, this vampire was really old!
He opened 2 more chests present and all of them had some kind of treasure, he tried 'summoning charm' again and the key didn't come out of the open chests.
He looked in the coffin and it was empty except for an unvarnished wand. He pocketed the wand and moved towards the bookcase. There were about 70 books in 7 rows altogether and they looked old and rare. He hadn't seen them before, and their titles were too good to ignore.
For now, he didn't touch any of them.
His last choice was to search for the vampire, who he was trying to avoid touching but that can't be helped, so he checked for pockets, but there were no pockets visible. Then he searched around the neck, and he finally found what he was looking for.
There were 2 keys tied around the vampire's neck in a cord, one was gold, and one was bronze.
He pulled the cord and put both keys in his satchel.
Now, what to do with the vampire Sirius pondered.
He didn't want to leave an enemy alive, or undead in this case as it would come to bite in his ass later. Last time he had his grandfather handle the fallout, but this time he couldn't take the risk.
He could see the vampire's eyelids fluttering, so he sent another stunner at him.
Tempus told him that it was after 7 in the evening and not a great time to be in a forest.
With a heavy heart, he braced himself.
He had decided what to do, he had to secure himself. Leaving an enemy alive would be a mistake.
He sent a Diffindo on the vampire's neck. There was no blood, but he still couldn't bear to look.
He sent an incnedio at the head and the smell of something rotten burning was overpowering.
Still, he didn't stop and sent another incnedio at the body and then used a bubblehead charm on his face.
The vampire's corpse was a charred skeleton now. He sent a vanishing spell on it, and it disappeared. The vanishing spell was a 3rd-year spell, and he was glad that he learnt it.
Still, He had to move fast, his emotions were causing havoc, so he slammed his occlumency shield for now
He summoned the chests, carefully put them in his satchel, and then started storing the books he had seen in the bookcase.
As he was removing a book to keep in his bag, the bookcase moved, and he got alert instantly. The bookcase slid to the side to reveal a corridor.
Sirius could feel a light breeze on his face coming from the corridor, clearly an exit.
He quickly put the remaining books in his bag and moved ahead. He snuffed his light spell and applied a night vision charm on his eyes again.
There could be more danger ahead or more vampires.
He donned his cloak again and walked slowly ignoring whatever was under his feet. After walking for a few minutes, he came across another staircase.
As he climbed the staircase. The airflow was increasing so he was going in the right direction. He found the exit sealed with a wooden door with a heavy bronze lock on it. His alohmora didn't work so he took out the bronze key he had taken previously.
A twist later he was on a roof, full of plants and could see the ruins of a stone structure. This wasn't a prison but the vampire's home. He felt sick that he had invaded a creature's home and killed it.
He realised what belonging to 'the Black family' meant for the first time.
He remembered the words his father had said to him before leaving for Germany.
'Blacks don't show mercy.'
As he breathed in the forest air, he felt something wet on his face. He had killed for the first time. He was a man from the progressive 21st Century. A man who had never advocated for violence in his previous life had killed a creature. Even if it was a dark creature, he had snuffed the light out of it.
He gave himself 3 minutes to pity himself and then moved forward.
He wasn't a modern man of the 21st century now! He was the Heir of Illustrious and Ancient 'Black family'. He had been attacked and he had defended himself. He had ended the enemy to save his back.
He put his wand and staff back in their places and focused on his link with Pearl.
He had artificially bonded with the abraxan before leaving for Germany when he was told that he would need a flying creature for the first challenge. The ritual was an old one, used generally when a soldier was going in the battle, to bond with their ride or similar situations like he was in.
He tugged at their faint bond and a few minutes later, a magnificent flying beast landed in front of him.
Pearl neighed looking at him and Sirius felt happy to see his familiar safe.
He climbed atop Pearl and took out his map to see a safe location to rest.
The safest location was the valley near the forest where he had taken a stop before.
They reached the valley in under an hour by air and Sirius set his camp after securing an ample perimeter to stay in with multitudes of spells and basic wards he knew.
He conjured water for pearl and remembered the rabbit he had killed. He couldn't digest any meat in his current mental condition, so he gave it to pearl. Pearl was an omnivorous creature, able to eat anything and survive in various environments. Even the bloody cold one they were in currently.
He took out another pre-packed meal for himself and ate silently sitting in his tent.
It was beyond cold, and he had to use warming charms every 10 minutes to not freeze. He was thankful that Donato had prepared him well for this excursion. He wore all the layers he had in his bag.
Sirius laid awake buried in blankets staring at the canopy of his tent.
He had lowered his occlumency shields and he felt numb now. He remembered the time he was kidnapped and the next day when he had sentenced his kidnappers to definite death. He had been a coward then and had left revenge upon his grandfather.
He hadn't given much thought to what must have happened to them and had continued with his life. He had nightmares that night after a long time, featuring screams and red eyes of the vampire, the faces of his kidnappers, cold hard expressions on his grandfather's face, and his siblings lying in the infirmary.
He turned and twisted the whole night and fell into a restless sleep.
-Day 2-
Sirius woke up startled. Pearl was neighing. He opened the tent and saw something peeking from beyond the ward he had set up. After looking carefully, he saw that it was just a bunch of Horklumps.
They were pink fleshy creatures resembling a mushroom, with no discernible purpose. He ignored them and checked the time; it was nearing dawn.
He started preparing for the second day of this suicide mission.
He packed his tent, fed Pearl, ate something, and removed some layers. They would be a hindrance if he needed to fight. His wandless warming charms were getting perfect with the multiple uses every few minutes.
He thought if he should remove the charms and wards but decided to do so once safely in the air, as he could see that magic was tempting some creatures to find the clearing. A few more creatures had woken up and joined Horklumps in looking for a way inside the barrier.
He studied the crude map they were provided with and thought about his challenger. He didn't know how and where Christopher was. They had chosen different first locations on the map as their first destination. Sirius had seen him flying towards the nearest location to the starting point, which was a lake in the valley, while he had chosen the farthest one on the map, one near the tallest mountain. flying for 8 hours yesterday.
The next location nearest to him was roughly 4 hours away if there were no distractions.
As they took off from the ground, Sirius dispelled all the wards and charms and then they chased the dawn together.
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A/N - Hello my dear readers!
My apologies for the delay in posting, I had to rewrite the chapter a few times as nothing was clicking. hope you enjoy this and suggestion for what MC should face next are welcome in comments!!
next update would be sooner!!
xoxo
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