Hogwarts Wasteland: The Witch from the Borderlands

Chapter 76 Still the Cellar! (Second Update Since Release)

But after a fierce sandstorm, they encountered nothing.

The two wizards scanned their surroundings, focusing their defenses. Their earlier shouts had been loud enough for the people in the cellar to hear, and once James and the others came up, the advantage would be on their side.

But the next moment, the surrounding mist suddenly surged and gathered from all directions. In addition to carrying extremely high radiation, this mist also contained ice crystals, which stuck to the stone wall and made a crisp clanging sound.

At the same time, the trapdoor on the ground popped up on its own, locking the cellar exit tightly. The surrounding rocks grew like locks, completely sealing the trapdoor shut.

"Damn it! Break down the door!" a wizard said, waving his staff to create another whirlwind to fight against the gathering, chilling fog.

The other wizard aimed his wand at the trapdoor and unleashed a thunderous explosion.

However, fearing he might injure his own people behind the door, he controlled the power, which resulted in the trapdoor not being blown open; in fact, the rocks continued to cover the door panels at an even faster pace.

Hermione ignored the situation and, to catch the thief, she focused on capturing the leader. Relying on her senses, she located the enemy the second time they used magic.

"Meteor Shower!"

A burst of dazzling light shot out, heading straight for a rock ten meters away, shattering it to pieces.

A small figure raised his arm to block the flying pebbles.

"House-elves!?" Hermione was taken aback. She had seen these creatures when she wandered into the kitchen at Hogwarts, but weren't they servants of wizards? Moreover, she remembered reading in a book that house-elves had an ironclad rule etched into their blood: they could not harm wizards.

"Unless, he received a higher-priority order from his master!" Her eyes narrowed, and with the aid of levitation and gravity magic,

Protected by the Ironclad Spell, he took a step and rushed into the fog.

The little elf's eyes were bloodshot, and his body was covered in blisters and sores from radiation burns. When he saw Hermione rushing over at incredible speed, his large eyes were filled with fear and madness.

Dobby must kill Hermione Granger!

He yelled and vanished with a snap, reappearing a second above Hermione as she charged forward at high speed, wielding a tattered triangular cone and swinging it down.

Hermione noticed that the tip of the triangular cone gleamed with the luster of goblin metal. Not daring to use the Ironclad Charm to block it head-on, she narrowly dodged away. Sure enough, the Ironclad Charm was punctured as easily as paper, but Hermione had already nimbly retreated several meters away.

"Come back quickly!" the two wizards from the pioneering team called out to her urgently, but Hermione remained unmoved.

"Your name is Dobby? Who is your master?" Hermione asked.

But Dobby didn't answer. Whether it was because the radiation had damaged his brain or something else, he hunched over, holding a triangular cone, his eyes filled with murderous intent, yet also with confusion and fear.

With a gentle wave of his other hand, the shattered stones flew into the air, as if they had eyes, and hurtled towards Hermione.

"Pyroxene Curve!"

A bright blue, arc-shaped blade of light sliced ​​through the rocks, clearing away most of them. Hermione jumped back to avoid the remaining stones.

"Pyroxene Meteor!"

"Phoenite Swift Demon Gravel!"

Back in Cherokee, even without a wand, she could still cast spells with her bare hands amidst the high concentration of radiation around her. Now, in such a high-concentration radiation environment, with the aid of a wand, Hermione doesn't even need to expend much of her own magic to cast spells. She maintains a high frequency of spellcasting speed, exchanging magical blows with the crazy little elf named Dobby in front of her.

However, her opponent possesses the ability to teleport at will, often appearing beside her and launching sneak attacks with a triangular cone infused with fairy metal, forcing her to be on high alert.

"boom!"

At the Bob's house ruins, the sealed trapdoor was finally blown open, and James and the others quickly climbed up.

Dobby became even more anxious upon hearing the noise.

"Dobby must! Hermione Granger must be killed!"

He Apparated behind Hermione again, abandoning all defenses, and pounced on her.

Hermione swung her staff horizontally, and the blue light of the Kalia Swiftblade suddenly shone brightly. But Dobby neither dodged nor avoided it. After breaking through the Ironclad Curse with his Trident, he didn't care at all that he would be cut in two and rushed forward to kill Hermione.

"Disarm you!"

The next second, Hermione's free left hand glowed red, and at such close range, Dobby had no room to react. The triangular cone was instantly knocked away and fell into the girl's hand.

She had always taught Harry to be ready to perform tactical rolls and cast spells while maintaining the offensive capabilities of his magical weapons. The same principle applied to the Swiftblade of Kalia. With her proficiency in Brilliant Stone magic, it wouldn't be difficult for her to free up one hand to cast other spells.

Dobby was disarmed, but he didn't give up. He charged at Hermione, and since they were about the same height, he opened his mouth wide as if to bite her to death.

The two lost their balance and fell to the ground.

"Hermione Granger, come here!" It was James's Summoning Charm. He climbed up and immediately cast the spell to pull the girl over.

Feeling the magical pull of her allies, Hermione did not resist and obeyed the magic to fly away. The other wizards were already chanting spells to distort the surrounding environment in order to completely surround and trap the attackers.

Meanwhile, the experienced ones began casting spells to seal off the surrounding space and suppress the pixie's Apparition effect. However, it would be too late for them to completely lock down the pixie's most proficient magic in a short time, but they could still have an effect on it.

But just as Hermione was about to fly away, Dobby, who was holding her tightly, snapped his fingers again.

The next moment, the familiar dizzying sensation came over Hermione. She felt the pulling force on her body suddenly disappear, and she and Dobby tumbled in the air without any force, before suddenly falling and crashing heavily to the ground.

It's Apparition!

The house-elf took her with him on the teleportation.

"Damn it, even if he's affected, how could he still complete the apparition so quickly!" she thought to herself.

The moment she regained her balance, she kicked away Dobby's hand, which was still gripping her, and nimbly got up after a tactical roll, cautiously observing her surroundings.

The fog was still thick, and there were many rubble stones around that looked like building ruins, suggesting that they were still inside the valley.

However, the alarmingly high radiation levels around her made her realize that this was the epicenter of the nuclear explosion, the heart of what was once the village.

"I was too careless. Was it because of my recent complacency and smooth sailing?"

"Thankfully, the wizards' spell worked, and he couldn't take me any further." Thinking of this, Hermione felt a wave of fear. If the elf had been a little weaker, they might have been split in two instead of just being exposed to high radiation.

Moreover, with the staff protecting her, the radiation here still cannot harm her, but the protection range has shrunk to the size of a person. Even the demon core metal is struggling to process the radiation.

She looked at Dobby lying on the ground. He seemed to be somewhat delirious and was vomiting blood. The radiation concentration here was too high. He probably wanted to teleport her to the lair, but the prolonged radiation made him unable to control Apparition well. In addition, the effect of the Pioneer Squad curse caused him to fall into an even more deadly area.

"Dobby must—kill Hermione Granger!"

"Kill you! Kill you!"

He struggled to his feet, as if casting a spell with his life on the line, unleashing wave after wave of magic even more intense than before.

Hermione frowned. In this situation, even if she did nothing, the little elf would die on his own if she delayed any longer. But he was clearly just a tool sent by the enemy and did not know the real culprit. The little elf's death would be meaningless.

"We must find a way to incapacitate him and find a place with lower radiation levels to hide. If this continues, he won't last until I take him out for interrogation."

Looking around, everything was bare. The nuclear explosion years ago had destroyed everything on the ground. It seemed we would have to dig a hole!

Having made up her mind, Hermione continued to exchange blows with Dobby's spell while using the dust and smoke to create temporary platforms that provided leverage. With the help of gravity magic, she easily leaped several meters between the platforms.

Leaping through the air above Dobby's head, she wielded her staffs in two, slamming the ends downwards: "Shatter the rock!"

One of Realucalia's Shining Stone spells involves channeling magic into the end of a staff, piercing it into the ground, and creating a magical shockwave in the surrounding area.

The mining magic used by the pyroxene miners in the Crystallization Pit was considered a sign of backwardness by the Academy.

But magic must have its value; blasting rock is extremely efficient at chiseling rocks.

Dobby wasn't Hermione's real target; it was the ground beneath his feet.

Before the already confused elf could react, Hermione trampled him underfoot, her silver staff piercing the hard ground.

The next moment, a fluorescent blue light exploded from underground, instantly shattering the dry and hard ground that had been baked by the nuclear explosion.

"Wait, something's not right!" Hermione noticed the problem the moment the staff pierced the ground. The magical energy was only about half a meter thick, and it seemed like there was nothing below it!

Rumble—.

The rock strata broke apart, and a large hole appeared in the ground, where Hermione and Dobby fell in together.

"Whose cellar is this?" That was Hermione's only thought before she fell.