Sword is equal to Wand, Chapter 21

The tunnel was surprisingly dry and well packed, so neither the ground nor the walls seemed to be giving way at all.

Yet the walls themselves weren't covered in webs or anything. Then I recalled that the teachers and such had been culling the driders... So maybe their methods destroyed the easily seen webs?

Still, I pushed deeper into the cave as I held my sword spear in one hand. And in the other, I held my wand aloft with an orb of light projected outwards so I could see.

Then, as the tunnel expanded, I paused as I entered a large open 'room' that was so tall that the light from my wand cast deep shadows in the stalagmites above my head. And I couldn't even see the end of the large atrium.

'What kind of room is this... Is this where the Drider's kept their prey?' I shuddered as the haunting silence was making me painfully paranoid of some horrible spider monster lurking just outside my wand's light.

Slowly moving around me, skittering across the rock and compressed dirt in total silence on too many needle hair-covered legs.

I knew it was my human hindbrain screaming at me that the darkness was bad. But after training in the almost void-like darkness of the simulated training grounds in the Room of Requirement. 

I kept my composure as I knew that the steep cliff leading to the surface from the tunnel I came from was something I couldn't make my way through.

As it's not like I could fly or anything... Yet anyway.

My footsteps rang out as a crackle of displaced gravel rang out as I reached another long tunnel. And then as I reached the tunnel and began making my way into it... A stench hit my nose.

A terrible stench that clung to the back of my throat as I breathed.

And for a moment, I paused as I realized the stank resembled the vile blood that was spilled by that other drider that was killed in front of me.

But there was one important thing as well. How was the scent being carried to me? And that was simple. There was a draft carrying said scent towards me!

"Hopefully this isn't the latrine," I muttered with a sigh as I made my way into a tunnel that was actually sloped upwards! 

And it turned out... It was worse then just being the spider monster's shitter.

I couldn't help but wretch slightly as I saw a pile of half-eaten corpses, driders, other spirit beasts, and what looked like a couple of humanoid spirit beasts as well. All torn up, torn apart quite literally, and smelling of shit and despair.

My shirt went over my nose so all I could smell was my own body's scent, and then I lowered my wand light as I saw in the distance, along the line of corpses was a heavily sloped wall leading upwards with shaded light streaming in through an entrance.

I made my way towards the corpse stringing pile, and I just... Focused on getting back to Hogwarts and its under-spiced British food that won't upset my stomach.

I focused on the memory of Lavender Brown's bountiful tits and Cho Chang's fantastic ass. NOT the corpses I was stumbling over.

But as I made my way over a larger pile of corpses, like three bodies thick, something caught my ankle, and I fell into the corpses with a grunt.

For a brief moment, I froze before I clapped my hands, powerfully sending a shockwave that knocked everything around me away.

Heavy thuds rang out as the corpses smashed into the nearby wall, and I froze with my wand held upwards as a low, weak groan rang out to my side.

I looked over... And I blinked at seeing. I didn't know what the fuck I was looking at.

The thing had a raggedy silver ram's head on its left side with golden horns, and on its right it had a head of a lion with matted red and gold fur, while also having the main body of a horse that had a serpent tail and massive eagle-like claws instead of hooves.

'The fuck is that.' I wondered as no spirit beast or mythological animal came to mind... Until it hit me as I put together the many different animal parts at once. A Chimera, a Greek Chimera to be specific.

"How are you alive?" I asked rhetorically as the Chimera's taloned claws reached for me again weakly. And it showed how weak it was when it grabbed me with only a weak human-like grip compared to the crushing strength it normally had.

After a moment... I sighed with a wry smile as I swished and flicked the fuck out of the Chimera as I muttered under my breath. "Wingardium Leviosa."

And the Chimera floated gently up into the air under my magical power, and I realized that its own innate magic was all but drained, as it didn't have the innate magic resistance that made spirit beasts equal to most monsters.

Still, I floated the large creature out of the tunnels as I knew that as students of Hogwarts. We weren't supposed to hurt any spirit beasts beyond defending ourselves as we had a... VERY strong bond with said spirit beasts at the higher levels.

'A chimera, though... If it was actually in top shape, I wouldn't be able to even take it's trial or test honestly.' I thought as I could tell the Chimera was no child, like many spirit beasts that cultivators would bond with.

In order to build a very strong relationship with. A relationship that is 'equal' due to the human raising and caring for the spirit beast. The said spirit beast would almost always end up in a submissive role in the bond's relationship.

Well... I hoped the chimera wasn't a child. This thing was fucking heavy and draining my magic quickly!

Still, after a bit of rock climbing up the steep gravel path leading up to the surface... I was free!

"And now... What do I do with you now?" I asked quietly with a frown as I took in the wounded Chimera that had tainted blood leaking from it's form. Particularly around it's hind leg area's which had clearly been drained by the driders.

And by drained. I meant, the Drider's clearly used the digestive spider venom to turn the Chimera's leg bones, muscles, and other organic parts into a slurry for it to slurp up like 'normal' spiders did to its prey normally.

Finally, I shook my head, and I held up my wand and whispered. "Icendio!" And I shot a fireball into the air that broke through the thick tree line above our heads and, with a boo,m exploded into a smoky fireball.

The forest around me went quiet at the explosion, and I looked back down at the now clearly unconscious Chimera, who had gone limp. Probably exhausted, but still clearly alive from its short breaths from its large chest clear to my eyes.

Then a hum rang out behind me, and without a moment of hesitation I flipped my sword spear around and a tornado of wind blades shot forward from the tip of the sword spear's point.

But then I felt the skin of my palm break and pain ran through me as Mavuika casually ignored all the wind blades that broke on her form as well as grabbed the point of the spear with her leather glove clad hands.

"Good reflexes Jake!" She said with a grin before she knowingly gave my hand a glance as I cupped it and she flicked a hand that sent golden flames that engulfed my hand in a soothing warmth, even as she looked down at the Chimera below me.

"Hmm, a good-sized late adolescent stage Chimera. Particularly of the Olympian Greek variety... From the purity of the goat head, its lineage was blessed by the Huntress no more than five hundred years ago. And hmm... Probably closer to a thousand years ago, her lineage also got blessed by either the Olympian or Titan sun god." 

All the while as she was speaking, I could feel the split skin and the messed up muscles that were hurt by the magical rebound of her far... Far stronger form quickly healing before Mavuika spoke again thoughtfully.

"So did you just find this lovely creature just now?" 

To which I shook my head and pointed at the hole near a broken tree that made Mavuika's eyes tighten and she said flatly. "You... Went into a Drider. No, that's not a drider tunnel, it has no trap door. Still! Dumbass, I literally saw my TA help you, why would you go into a tunnel!"

My face twitched, and I said helplessly. "I didn't mean to. I fell through a trap door, and I couldn't make my way back up with the rock overhang. It's not like I can fly or anything." 

Mavuika just shook her head with a sigh. "And you couldn't just shoot sparks out of the tunnel to get our attention? Not even that, all of you students have trackers on you as well. It's how we keep track of you all."

But then Mavuika said more firmly. "But you are safe and whole, which is what matters. Now. As for this Chimera... It needs extensive healing, possibly surgery, and at least weeks of extensive care."

I shrugged and said helplessly as those same healing flames gently engulfed the Chimera, which gave a low groan again. "I just figured, regardless of anything... Leaving it in the corpse pile down there as it was left to fade away would be a horrible fate." 

Then I refocused as Mavuika's previous words... It technically had a lunar and solar alignment, even if the solar alignment was especially weak after a millennium of the bloodline blessing from either Apollo or Helios had worn thin.

So, honestly it was the best match I have found so far for a familiar!

But for now, it was clearly too weak and damaged to make such a soul contract bond.

Mavuika then hummed before she said. "Well, I will need to take this to one of the Spirit Beast King's deeper in the forest for it to be healed."

The beautiful teacher put a finger to her lips and whistled sharply, and from above a large winged serpent broke through the tree line.

It was covered in crimson and emerald green scales and it's gaze fell on us with clearly human-level intelligence, with Mavuika saying casually. "Jake, this is one of the followers of my partner. Take this human past the edge of the forest and put him down on the grounds of Hogwarts."

The winged serpent nodded and flew down allowing me to see it's massive flying form that had several ridges along it's back with Mavuika saying in amuesment. "Get on, and hold onto his ridges so you don't fall off... Well even if you do, Kythenios will catch you before you hit the ground haha!"

Then, with a blaze of fire Mavuika grabbed the Chimera and clearly teleported away in the flash of fire... Leaving me with the giant flying serpent.

'Well. That was something.' I thought before I took a deep breath and carefully climbed onto the large serpent whose width was even greater then a horses chest so it was hard to get comfortable on to say the least.

"Alright. I am stable." I said with the serpent giving an all to human hum of agreement before it slowly moved through the air.

Clearly giving me a chance to feel for it's movements before it sped up and I ducked under the bone armor ridge on it's back as we pushed through the thick leaves above us and into the air.

And all too soon, the flying serpent brought me out of the forest without any fuss, and I made sure to give the serpent a light bow and say respectfully. "Thank you for the help, Kythenios."

With the flying serpent giving a slight chuff and my form stiffened as an older male voice reached my mind. "It twas Lady Mavuika's orders. If thine feels of deep gratitude, ye may secure me a bounty of frozen mice for mine to sample upon your next visit to the Haven."

My lips twitched at that, and I said honestly. "I... I will see what I can do."

Carrying a cooler filled with dead frozen mice wasn't exactly on my damned to-do list for my next Spirit Beast class. But having a powerful Spirit Beast having a good opinion of myself. Was a fine enough reason to go out of my way to find a bunch of normal mice.

"Well... There is the storage building." I muttered as in the distance I saw the metal building, along with what looked like my fellow students from the class were hanging about.

So, obviously needing to put the borrowed swordspear away. I made my way over, and I saw that all my other fellow students were in various states of being a total mess.

Well, that and the girls were just putting away their stuff, grabbing their bags and hurrying back to the castle to use the first floor's bathrooms and showers to get cleaned up.

"Yeah, I am going to head on back up to Gyrffindor Tower to get cleaned up and changed. Thankfully, this was the last class of the day." I said helplessly to Devon who nodded in agreement.

As he himself was a total mess as he said helplessly. "I got caught up in some giant bird whose idea of a test consisted of throwing branches at me from above and seeing if I could block them from out of nowhere!"

"That... Is just dumb. Did anyone actually make a contract?" I asked curiously, with Devon shaking his head in seeming denial before he said.

"Highly unlikely man, most of us just got our asses kicked and had to get pulled out of situations by the TAs. Especially the girls who haven't gotten private training lessons. A lot of them just froze up as a beasty came roaring out of the fog." 

And you know what. That was fair enough. If it wasn't for the Library of Heavens Path allowing me to train inside of my mind, I would have been flipping the fuck out at seeing that snake and other spirit beasts testing my combat skills and magical aura.

Still now with that class done for the rest of the day, I gave Devon a pat on the shoulder and said with a grin. "Well, come on. Let's get cleaned up before we stuff our faces. I am looking forward to some steak, and hell, I don't know. Some pizza to drown out the trauma for today."

Well, I was going to keep my little run-in with the drider to myself. I didn't need Rosaria and Ginny getting on my ass for it.

And thankfully, it seemed that Dorea and Daphne had also run straight to the castle so I didn't need to worry about that weird cat fight thing they had going on in wanting my lessons.

'Hmm, on that note. I should also sign up for the new year tournament so I can smash the rest of my first year students.' I mused with an evil grin.