Harry Potter: The Ring Maker - Chapter 552: Second task(2)

Krum finally recovered from his panic though and cast a wide range attacking spell that the golem couldn’t dodge. One needed to keep in mind however that these golems weren’t the ones that almost perfectly imitated the real thing but were instead heavily nerfed representations. Otherwise Krum wouldn’t have even made it this far as the real creatures would have long since killed him for his carelessness and reckless use of energy. Still the guy managed to defeat the golem eventually and rescue Hermione who wasted no time at all scolding him and telling him what he could have done better.-

Krum looked a bit like a child that had been scolded by their parents under her admonishment and everyone found it rather funny. Even Karkaroff had a wry smile at the scene since he was aware that her strong willed nature was the reason Krum was so interested in her to begin with. Some men just liked women like that after all so who was he to judge? The task came to an end shortly after that as the chamber kicked them out after counting out the number of treasures collected and golems defeated.-

Honestly speaking Krum didn’t do all that bad as he collected twelve of the fifty treasures and defeated twenty eight of the forty golems in that environment. The judges then started to grade his performance based on other factors that served additionally as pointers on how to improve. He got a seven across the board which Nick admitted was fair all things considered. Unlike in the canon Karkaroff didn’t show blatant favoritism this time and truly judged it fairly. There was a brief break after which it was time for the next champion to enter the chamber.-

Nick smirked when he noticed the look of disbelief on Fleurs face when it was revealed that Harry was not in the forest like Krum was but rather was in a desert. ‘Looks like he got one of the easy environments , lucky him.’ Nick thought as he watched his friend look around in confusion. Like any real desert there was not really a bunch of places one could hide stuff besides under stuff or in the sand. As a result the golems for this particular environment had been bumped up in terms of difficulty to compensate for the ease that would come from finding treasure.-

‘Speaking of golems here comes the first set now.’ Nick thought seeing the shifting sand heading in Harry’s direction. Harry also noticed it and sent a quick Reducto at the golems forcing them out from under the sand with the blast. The creatures that they were based off of were known as scorpiochs and were basically giant black scorpions about a meter in length. Unlike acromantulas they were naturally creatures and not dark in nature so they were hyper intelligent but highly territorial. They also hunted in groups of three by burrowing under the sand to catch their prey off guard.-

Harry immediately figured out their weakness however and hit them with a glacias spell that froze them solid. As insects the creatures had no way to thermoregulate so by dropping the temperature around them so drastically Harry effectively killed them in an instant. He quickly made his way to the large rocky structure in the distance while fighting the various golems that showed up as he collected treasures left and right. Unlike Krum however Harry took his time so he not only got more treasures but he also got far less injuries.-

Finally reaching the rocky structure Harry carefully checked the surroundings before trying to sneak in and grab his hostage in the form of Ron who looked quite calm given that he was being guarded by a mirage viper nest. Mirage vipers were considered xxx graded dangerous creatures by themselves but the trick was that they VERY rarely were by themselves. They were a rainbow scaled type of serpent that had illusion based magical abilities which was where they got their name from and usually lived in a nest of a breeding pair and three offspring. They were also highly venomous and not the biggest fan of intruders in their nests.-

Ron knew that this was a part of the trial and remained silent as Harry got attacked from five different directions the moment he stepped foot in the area. The boy barely managed to create a shield around himself that stopped the snakes before they faded away and repositioned themselves for another attack. Harry attempted to use parseltongue to get out of fighting the serpents but unfortunately they were golems and not actual snakes so the ability fell flat even if the attempt earned points in Nicks opinion. Avoiding unnecessary fights is always a good choice so it was a good idea on Harrys part even if it didn’t pan out.