Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 202, Section 201: The Sudden Attack by the Basilisk

The number of ghosts queuing up for Harry's surgery increased so much that their once quiet corner was no longer quiet, and the ghost queue stretched all the way to the door of the underground classroom.

It wasn't crowded, and there wasn't a long wait, because Harry's surgery was incredibly fast. He even transformed the scalpel, which was made of soul power, into the shape of an axe, cutting one after another... Before long, the entire underground classroom was filled with ghost heads rolling around on the floor.

He was extremely skilled, as if he did this every day.

The ghosts' agonizing screams as they were beheaded mingled with their excited shouts afterward, turning the entire underground classroom into a scene of utter chaos.

The wizards' chaotic nature seemed to continue even after their deaths. Just as a group of ghosts were tossing and kicking their freshly severed heads around, suddenly, twelve ghost horses emerged from the walls of the underground classroom. Each horse was ridden by a headless rider. After rushing into the center of the classroom, they stopped in unison, then stood upright on their hind legs and charged forward—only then did they realize what had happened.

"Merlin's socks, and your heads?!" The burly ghost with a thick beard, who was the leader, suddenly jumped off his horse and shouted incredulously, "Nick! Have I mistaken you for someone else? Your head should be hanging properly on your neck!"

“Oh, Mr. Patrick, of course you haven’t mistaken me for someone else.” Nick greeted him with a broad smile, his voice brimming with a sense of pride, having retrieved his head. “As you can see, my head has finally left my body—so can I join the Hunters now?”

“A clean, distinct hunter, head and body separated,” Nick emphasized.

“Yes, of course you can,” Patrick nodded repeatedly, looking around at the heads rolling and flying all over the place. “...Well, maybe more people will be willing to join us...Ha! It seems the Headless Hunters team is about to see an expansion in manpower.”

“Look!” Ron whispered in Harry’s ear, “This is the first time I’ve ever seen Nick so happy. He’s always so gloomy—wait, is that a sound?”

Ron turned his head and looked around.

Boom! !

He wasn't the only one who heard it; many ghosts also heard the muffled sound. The ceiling was shaking slightly, and some accumulated dust fell down, indicating that it wasn't their imagination.

"The walls are shaking." Harry frowned slightly. "Is the castle under attack?"

Boom! ! !
The sound grew even louder, so loud that—whoosh!!!
There was no time for the people and ghosts in the underground classroom to think. From the first sound to the accident, there were less than two breaths. Suddenly, one wall of the underground classroom cracked and exploded from the inside out!

Just like last year when Harry blew up the water pipe in the underground corridor, at this moment, the water pipe buried in the wall of the underground classroom also burst open, and a large amount of water was gushing out from it. Broken brick fragments flew like cannonballs, passing through the bodies of the ghosts amidst their screams.

No, many more ghosts couldn't even utter a scream.

An enormous monster burst out of the broken wall. It was it that smashed through the pipes buried in the castle and destroyed half of the wall of this underground classroom with its own flesh.

As the ghosts looked at the monster one by one, trying to figure out what had caused the disruption and destruction of the banquet, they stopped thinking and moving.

The ghosts' milky-white, pearl-like bodies turned gray at a visible speed, like solidified plaster. They no longer floated freely in mid-air, but instead, astonishingly, seemed to regain their weight in the real world, falling onto tables or the ground, indistinguishable from stone statues.

Even those ghosts whose heads had separated from their bodies underwent the same change. The remaining ghosts who did not immediately look at the monster screamed and darted through the ceiling of the underground classroom, disappearing without a trace in just a few seconds.

Ghosts can freely pass through physical objects such as walls, but living people do not have this ability.

"Don't look up! Don't look over there!!"

Forcibly pressing Ron and Neville's heads down, Harry blocked Hermione's view with his own body and shouted, "Hurry up! Keep your heads down! Go down the wall into the corridor! Go find Dumbledore!!"

He had already 'seen' what had attacked the underground classroom. The moment the monster broke through the wall and savagely rushed into the classroom, Harry was ready to fight. The warnings from the fallen ghosts and his instincts and spirit prevented him from directly searching for the enemy, especially the reminders echoing in his ears from the elements.

Using the omnipresent elements, Harry peered into the sudden enemy through the power of vision. However, even though the scene he saw was a reflection of the elements, Harry's soul was already severely damaged when he saw the pair of bright yellow eyes on the enemy's head.

It was a curse, a wizard's curse originating from black magic. Even if you didn't look directly into those eyes, but only saw them indirectly through other means, you would be cursed by this black magic. This unreasonable attack could even spread along invisible connections.

Harry recognized the attacker with just one glance: a basilisk, enormous in size, covered in dazzling green scales, its back and head covered in vicious bumps and spikes, its long fangs bared as it hissed, and every ghost that met its gaze fell from the sky as if dead.

When Harry first entered the wizarding world last year, he had already looked up the most famous dangerous magic or dangerous creatures in wizarding society. Among all the dangerous creatures that could potentially kill people, the Basilisk was one of the most prominent, so he remembered it vividly.

Purify your soul

Harry didn't hesitate to cast a dispel spell on himself. This spell could remove all curses and magical effects from the target, and it did have some effect. At least Harry could clearly feel that the feeling that his soul was about to wither and turn to stone had disappeared a lot.

Even so, tears of blood welled up in Harry's eyes, and crimson blood dripped down his face.

"Harry! Your eyes!! My God!!" As if she hadn't heard Harry's cries, Hermione's scream was like a knife stabbing Harry's eardrum—thud!!
Without time to explain further, Harry immediately slammed his forehead into Hermione's head. The intense pain somewhat jolted the girl out of her panic at the sudden noise.

"Quick! Don't look! Tell Dumbledore it's a basilisk!!"

Harry was already in a state of kicking and punching his friends away, and the situation didn't allow him to react any further. He only had time to kick Ron and Neville away, and also throw Hermione away. Then, he was hit by a snake tail that lashed out straight at him and was sent flying.

"Harry!!"

Ron, who had been kicked out, was still dazed and didn't understand what had happened. Just moments ago, everyone was watching the Headless Hunters' performance, but in the blink of an eye, the classroom was shattered, and ghosts were falling to the ground like rain.

"Don't look up! Ron!" This time it was Hermione who shouted, forcefully pulling Ron's hair and shoving him back down. "Looking into the eyes of the Basilisk will kill you! Let's go! Don't hold Harry back!"

Despite the pain in her body and forehead, the clever girl quickly determined what she should do.

But having never experienced such a life-or-death moment before, they were more prone to making mistakes the more nervous they became. Neville did indeed obediently run towards the door, but because he was too flustered, he didn't notice what was under his feet and stepped on a piece of rotten cake that had been thrown out, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Neville!!" Ron, who was the fastest runner, turned around immediately after hearing Neville's cries. Without thinking twice, he gritted his teeth and ran back to try and pull Neville up.

"It hurts!" Neville cried out. "I think I twisted my ankle!"

As if things weren't bad enough, before Hermione and Ron could even drag Neville out, the basilisk lunged at them, clearly knowing which smaller creatures were easier to kill.

As Harry stood up from the rubble of the broken wall, clutching his chest and abdomen, he could feel that one of his ribs was broken. He only had time to cast a Healing Surge on himself before he saw the basilisk pounce on his friends.

Look at me!!!

The sound was like a thunderous roar, but the basilisk seemed not to hear it, and opened its blood-red maw to bite Hermione and the other two.

In the blink of an eye, the wall next to where Hermione and her two companions were standing began to peel away rapidly, and the huge stones that made up the castle walls came to life on their own, transforming in the blink of an eye into two thick arms that stood between the three of them and the basilisk.

Fighting in a confined space like a castle was far too restrictive for Harry. The absence of an earth elemental realm in this world forced him to use this method to urgently transform into an earth elemental body. This action, along with the basilisk's earlier destruction of the surrounding walls, made the underground classroom shaky and the ceiling above seemed ready to collapse at any moment.

"Hurry! Ron!" Hermione's voice cracked with excitement as she and Ron desperately pulled Neville, who was lying on the ground, away from behind the earth elemental.

But the basilisk still wanted to continue the pursuit. Besides its gaze that could kill anyone who looked into it, the basilisk's strong and huge body was also its best weapon. It suddenly turned its body and spun the earth elemental away, quickly moving across the ground in an attempt to continue chasing Ron and his companions.

[Ascension]

Without further hesitation, and enduring the physical pain, Harry gritted his teeth and transformed into his Air Ascendant form.

In an instant, Harry's physical body vanished completely, replaced by a surreal storm element that had fully materialized into his form. Strands of electricity crackled around him amidst booming thunder, and a spear formed from lightning appeared in his hand, which he then hurled with tremendous force!

Destructive Lightning!!
Stab! !
A flash of blue-white lightning struck the basilisk's body, but the monster's scales acted like shields. While the lightning did have some effect on it, it didn't cause any real damage; it was more like the monster's body paused slightly.

Harry was quite certain that this basilisk was unusual, not only because its body was much larger than the basilisks described in the books, but also because of its green, almost glowing scales—which provided excellent protection against magic and external damage.

A basilisk that lives in secret in Hogwarts is very likely a basilisk that was specially modified and bred by wizards for a special purpose.

It completely ignored Harry's presence. This basilisk seemed to have some deep-seated grudge against Ron and the others, but Harry was certain that Ron and the others could not possibly inflict any damage on such a giant magical creature that it would remember—the basilisk seemed to know what it was supposed to do, and it was indeed acting resolutely.

Just then, a phoenix cry suddenly rang out, and a ball of flame appeared out of thin air, accompanied by Dumbledore.

There was no need for Ron and the others to inform him; perhaps the message was sent by the ghosts who had escaped earlier. In any case, as soon as Dumbledore landed, he solemnly waved his wand, and a stone that had fallen to the ground instantly transformed into a majestic rooster—which began to crow.

For basilisks, the crowing of a rooster is their most fatal weakness; hearing it will kill them instantly.

To Dumbledore's surprise, the rooster he had transformed into was indeed crowing, but the basilisk seemed not to hear him and continued to chase the three children—the earth elementals that Harry had summoned were almost completely drained away.

Finally, after being repeatedly ravaged, the ceiling of the underground classroom collapsed, and the broken stone slabs and blocks splashed up dust. The desks and items placed in the room on the upper floor also fell down, leaving a mess.

He suddenly released his clenched fists forward, and a ball of molten lava slammed towards the basilisk!
Now that the castle has been damaged to this extent, Harry no longer needs to hold back.

(End of this chapter)