Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 53 Hunting the Giant

After sharing his thoughts with Daphne, a complex emotion flashed in Daphne's eyes.

She had, of course, heard of trolls, these wondrous creatures.

It is enormous in size, with thick skin and extremely low intelligence. To call it as stupid as a pig would be an insult to pigs. The worst score in the wizard exam was even named after it.

Fighting a monster twelve feet tall and weighing over a ton—it would be a lie to say I wasn't afraid. But wasn't all that useful and magical magic I learned from Rice meant to come in handy in a situation like this?

Daphne took a deep breath and nodded vigorously, ready to participate in the practical trial.

The two silently followed Chief Gemma, but gradually slowed down, falling to the back of the group. Then they found an opportunity to break away from the group and hide in a deserted corner.

"The problem is, how are we going to find that troll?" Daphne had prepared herself mentally before realizing that Hogwarts Castle was so big, where were they going to find the troll that had broken in?

If you blindly wander around the castle, the probability of encountering a professor is much higher than the probability of bumping into a troll. In that case, the professors might mistake you for a little troll and arrest you.

"That's easy." Rice took out his wand, and the next second dozens of small snakes, each the length of an index finger, emerged from the tip of the wand, fell to the ground, wriggled, and scattered away.

Looking at the scene before her, even Daphne, a Slytherin student, couldn't help but get goosebumps.

"It's a very useful spell. I'll teach it to you later if you want to learn it."

"No need!" Daphne refused Rice's "kind offer" outright.

Rice paused for a second, then defended his magic, saying, "It doesn't necessarily have to be a snake; it can be a sparrow, a crow, or something similar."

Daphne then reluctantly accepted Rice's spell.

A moment later, Rice found the troll that had broken into the castle. However, while searching for the troll, he also made some interesting discoveries, such as the view he saw at the entrance to the right-hand corridor on the fourth floor of the castle.

It seems there's something unusual hidden behind that corridor, otherwise a dean wouldn't have rushed over to guard it. Rice's eyes narrowed slightly.

He originally thought that the corridor was closed because something had happened inside, and he was even thinking of repairing it sometime in the future. He never expected that Headmaster Dumbledore would use it for something else.

Shaking his head, Rice dismissed the fourth-floor corridor from his mind and led Daphne straight toward the troll.

Upon reaching the second floor, a stench assaulted their nostrils, followed by heavy footsteps and low grumbling. Rice looked towards the source of the sound and saw a colossal figure at the end of the passageway on his left, gripping a thick wooden stick and walking towards him in the moonlight.

The behemoth was over twelve feet tall, and Rice recognized it as a mountain behemoth from its granite-like, grey skin. Such behemoths were more defensively capable than those in a group of behemoths.

The moment Rice saw it, he knew it was an excellent test subject, powerful enough to suppress Daphne, yet he himself had the ability to kill it with a single blow.

The big, clumsy creature didn't notice Rice and Daphne at the end of the corridor. Perhaps because they shared a similar stench, it crawled into the toilet next to the corridor.

"Did you know? Trolls were once known as wizard killers. Because of their excellent defense, countless wizards have met their demise after getting close to them." As the troll lingered in the toilet, Rice whispered to Daphne about the characteristics of the troll.

Finally, he added a sentence that sent chills down Daphne's spine: "Trolls like to eat live food, so when they catch a wizard, they start by eating his limbs, then his arms and thighs, and then they start eating his belly. This process often lasts for ten minutes to half an hour. During this time, the trolls are very careful to keep their food alive as much as possible."

The captured wizard will hear the sounds of its bones cracking and muscles being torn apart. After its limbs are eaten, it will tear open its belly and rip out its internal organs to devour. At that point, even if you fainted from the pain, you will be jolted awake by the agony. Fortunately, after this stage, the pain will become very brief…

As Rice vividly described the scene, Daphne felt a chill run down her spine.

"Alright, stop talking." She interrupted Rice, trying to banish what she had just heard from her mind.

"By the way, I must remind you beforehand that this is your practical training, so I won't intervene. Even if you get caught by the troll, do you understand what I mean?" Rice said coldly, seemingly unintentionally.

Daphne's face drained of color instantly, and Rice's words flashed back into her mind. She glanced at Rice and saw that he was expressionless; Daphne couldn't tell if his words were true or false.

"It's not too late to regret it now."

"..."

Having found nothing in the toilet, the giant dragged its heavy steps back into the corridor, where it saw a small, silver-haired creature standing in front of it.

Looking at her fair and tender skin, the troll couldn't help but swallow hard: This little wizard looks really delicious, I must catch her, peel off the skin that affects the taste, and savor her slowly.

It reached out its hand to Daphne, only to miss.

The giant looked around blankly on the ground, not understanding why the delicacies that were just here had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

At that moment, a beam of light from above struck the giant's broad back, leaving a wound that almost ran across its back but was no more than two inches deep. Foul-smelling blood seeped from the wound along with the giant's screams.

The wounds looked horrifying, but to the trolls they were just superficial injuries.

The giant suddenly raised its head, its tiny head, no bigger than a cocoa bean, looking at Daphne floating in mid-air, its small eyes flashing with hatred.

The next moment, it swung the wooden stick at her, making a loud cracking sound as it cut through the air. Daphne narrowly avoided the attack, but it still managed to leave a wound on the giant's body.

Unfortunately, the wound left by this attack was not as large as the first one.

The giant was completely enraged, and its attack became even more ferocious.

Rice watched Daphne's battle with the troll without a trace of emotion. In his view, Daphne still had a long way to go. If she had aimed her first shot at the troll's head, the battle would have been over long ago. Daphne's performance in her first real combat was hampered by nervousness.

To be fair, Daphne has done a remarkable job. How many young wizards would dare to or be able to confront a troll head-on at her age? Moreover, Daphne seems to have the upper hand.

Suddenly, the battle turned, and Rice's hand, hidden in his robe, instinctively gripped the handle of his wand.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

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(End of this chapter)