Chapter 15

Checking his gear for one last time, Sirius realized that there was no reason to stall any longer. A sense of apprehension was building inside of him, his heart hammering in his chest. What he was about to attempt would be classified as suicidal by many. The quarry he set his sights on was not a creature that ever found itself classified as such.

It all started when some of the creatures in one of the territories he set up started disappearing. A variety of local animals have been assaulted and dragged off in seconds, never to be seen again. This pattern inevitably repeated for a couple of weeks, despite the tight security. All the accidents happened in the dead of the night, with house-elves on high alert, but somehow unable to sense the attack until it was too late. They were stamped as to what was responsible for the killings, having never seen or heard anything.

Sirius was eventually informed of what was happening, and after a brief investigation, he was certain he knew the culprit. This whole scenario was practically a signature of a barghest. They hunted exclusively at night and used their unique abilities to strike down their prey in one hit and transport it back to their lair.

These creatures were incredibly dangerous - they had a form of a bulky black dog with a disproportionally large front body and almost entirely covered in a dense black aura. They were able to control shadows, naturally able to sense everything within them and freely travel between any locations shrouded in them. Moreover the cloak of darkness they utilized further enhanced their already impressive natural abilities and quickly corroded anything it came in contact with.

Considering the sizes of creatures killed, a fully grown barghest had somehow slipped through the wards. It was probably It must have somehow sensed the massive congregation of magical creatures in the area and decided to use it as a hunting ground. Clearly, the existing protections did not hold up against its powers over darkness.

It was a problem that would have to be taken care of, as the barghest was causing too much damage to the local environment either way. As such Sirius decided that it would be a perfect creature to power his first ritual. Its ability to travel between shadows enabled it to dissolve its body into shadow and reform it from scratch in milliseconds. Beyond that the barghest were reportedly able to manipulate the aura instantaneously, even covering their claws in aura mid-swing. Those kinds of feats required a ridiculous magic manipulation speed.

They were considered an apex predator, but due to their low population and solitary nature were left largely alone. The barghest hadn't had any natural enemies, ever, as far as anyone could tell. They avoided any direct confrontation, not because they were intimidated, far from it. There was just no historical need for it, so their instincts evolved in such a way as a result. Whenever they were contested in any way, they just changed to a different location or target, as easy as that. Despite needing a lot of sustenance, its abilities enabled it to choose its prey very carefully. Sensing it over long distances and being able to travel to and from instantaneously made hunting incredibly easy. So it made sense for the barghest to follow the path of least resistance.

There weren't any recent sightings of them as far as he was able to find out, as they mostly struck lone targets, taking them back to their lair. Most of the information on them was actually based on the scenes of attack and following deductions, rather than any first-hand accounts.

Sirius actually found no confirmed records of any wizard killing one, but he found one recounting of an encounter that seemed legitimate. The wizard in question had reportedly been attacked almost immediately after he apparated into a clearing. Sirius reasoned that he must have stumbled upon the lair of the beast, aggravating it enough to warrant an attack. Suddenly feeling threatened it felt the need to act and lashed out, going against its base nature. Instead of attacking some big game after stalking it in the darkness of the night, it struck during the early morning hours for a purpose different than satiating its hunger.

That was probably what saved him. The beast itself probably had no idea what to do. The wizard was able to keep it at bay by firing a bunch of concentrated light rays at the creature while keeping the area around himself brightly illuminated. They had no real effect on the creature, but it seemed vexed and somewhat pained. After a few unsuccessful attempts at getting closer, the creature skulked away, without really looking any worse for wear.

The guy probably had more luck than anything, but there were some things to take away from it. The timing and the place aligned quite well to weaken the barghest. Sirius would also plan so that he faced one in an open space and in the middle of the day.

The reason for Sirius's confidence in achieving the unprecedented in successfully slaying the creature was the fact that he had now located its lair. He had the elves plant an enchanted ring on its favorite prey - the lox - large hairy creatures, very slow but quite strong, with high physical resistance and great endurance. He only had to wait a few days until the barghest struck next.

Now, in the early hours of the morning, with the plan of attack clear, Sirius was ready to begin. With all the masking and concealing charms he could think of active, he snuck towards the clearing. He started setting up wards on the perimeter of the area within a 3-mile radius from where he sensed the tracker. He started with containment wards, ones that would inhibit the creature's magic and even a few experimental ones that should, in theory, disperse aura manifestation. Then he cast wards that basically turned every point in space into its own light source, effectively preventing any shadows from forming. Finally, he added all the wards he could think on that nullified modes of magical travel, just for an added layer of safety precautions. He obviously keyed himself into all of them, as apparating would be crucial in this encounter.

Sirius took one last time to check if everything was in place. Steeling his nerves, he switched the ward scheme on and all of the wards he so painstakingly set up fell into place.

There was a moment of tense silence, while Sirius remained stock still listening for any noise. After a few long seconds, there was a screeching howl, that turned into a growl mid-way through.

A bear-sized black beast came barreling towards Sirius from within the cave. The barghest might have been distant cousins to the testral, with a sinewy build, without an ounce of fat on its frame and the same coloring. But the build was where the similarities ended.

The barghest was similarly built to a dog, but the front of its body was disproportionately large. It was really wide at the shoulders, with a thick, muscly chest and arms, but its hind quarters were visibly smaller. By Sirius' best estimation it was barely a third of the front's size, mass-wise. Its head was also comparatively huge, with a lower jaw that moved as if it was completely detached, hanging down and filled with multiple rows of teeth. Possibly the most terrifying body part of all was a freaky cluster of worm-like tentacles, that were moving randomly within it, seemingly serving the same function as a tongue would.

Thanks to the lighting you could see every sinew of its muscles, even through the short fur covering it. When it tensed in preparation for another leap, its arms flexed to the point where it seemed like they were ready to burst through its skin. They were ended in lengthy claws, at least five inches in length and metallic looking, which raked across the earth with every move. Overall it made for a terrifying sight.

It wasn't really running, at least not in the traditional meaning of the word. In fact, it was more like it was punching the ground with its bulky front paws, digging its claws deep into the ground and immediately pulling forward, effectively propelling itself with great speed. Looking at the way it was moving, it was clear that the hind legs were only useful for the sake of keeping balance and traction, not for generating any power.

Its aura was clearly being constricted, to the point where it could only repeatedly fluctuate weakly, for a split second, before flickering out. Despite that, the barghest remained black as night and faster than its stature would suggest. It was closing the distance at an alarming speed.

Once it was only a split second away and getting ready to pounce, Sirius swiped his wand in a semi-circle causing a wave of force to emerge from his wand. The barghest had no way to dodge in time, it tried to jump over it, but was caught in the hind legs and practically face-planted the ground.

Sirius apparated behind it, to avoid the tumbling beast, and immediately unleashed a beam of highly concentrated light, aiming for its head. The beast scrambled madly, trying desperately to get out of its path as fast as it could, not realizing the futility of such an approach. It seemed like it was already trying to escape, but had no idea how to do so, with its ability to teleport blocked. This suited Sirius just fine as he just kept adjusting his aim. After a solid couple of seconds, the barghest seemed to be under increasingly intense pain as it was screeching loudly and pawing at its flesh.

Just when Sirius thought this would be enough, the creature roared and a mass of black aura suddenly exploded outwards from within it, negating the effects his spell had on it. It was almost immediately extinguished, but that split-second reprieve was enough for it to get back on its feet. Apparently hitting a second wind of sorts, the barghest got back on the offensive with twice the ferocity it did before. Sirius was forced to cancel his spell and keep apparating around. The various charms and curses he threw in the meantime had little to no effect on the beast, not even slowing it down.

The single upside of the situation was the beast's obvious inexperience in fighting. As predicted, it was used solely to ambushing and assassinating its targets. It never found itself in such a disadvantageous situation, where it was unable to use its shadow manipulation skills. It was clearly over-reliant on those since all it did without them was repeatedly throw itself at Sirius head-on, swiping its paws at his face in the same exact way.

Finally, seeing this was getting him nowhere, Sirius knew he would have to take a risk. The time was not on his side here, since there was no way he would outlast this thing. Deciding on a course of action, and praying it would work, he poured a significant amount of his remaining magic into a transfiguration, causing massive rock spikes to emerge right behind him. As the beast did its usual pounce, but this time it was met with a sharp end of a spike instead of empty air.

Its huge momentum ensured the barghest was deeply impaled on a couple of spikes. It immediately started thrashing, but one of the bigger spikes went clean through its shoulder, heavily restricting its movement. Capitalizing on the opportunity, Sirius summoned a bunch of thick, barbed metal chains from the ground to bind the beast and pin it down, keeping it in place. He paid special attention to sealing its jaws tight together, hoping limiting its oxygen access would lessen its energy to struggle.

Utilizing his occlumency proficiency to the fullest, he partitioned his mind to help him with multi-casting. He started building up magic in his wand, while he traced runes of binding and strength with his left hand reinforcing the chains. Meanwhile, he was still controlling the chains and feeding magic to them.

When he felt ready, Sirius unleashed a massive bolt of white lightning into the bound creature. Keeping up the spell, a stream of electricity constantly flowed through it. It was not regular though, based on its description it would also infuse the target with white magic. Sirius was going all out on this spell, betting on the beast's weakness against these particular elements, hoping their combination would prove deadly.

Feeling his strength fading, Sirius poured all his remaining power into one last burst. As the extra powerful blast left his wand, his legs gave out beneath him and he collapsed to the ground. Trying and failing to get back on his feet, he gave up and fell back on his ass. Taking big gulps of air he looked up to see the beast was just laying there, unmoving.

Only his desire to complete the ritual allowed him to remain conscious. Getting up he felt like an old man. Shuffling his feet towards the carcass he called on one of his house-elves. Luffy the elf popped in, his eyes bulging at the sight, but Sirius preemptively interrupted any inquiries by giving him curt commands.

"... be particularly careful with the fur and the skull." Sirius finished, realizing belatedly that apparating in his current state would be quite risky. As there was no reason to tempt fate, he simply had another elf transport him. Looking around the ritual room he had personally constructed, Sirius started mentally preparing for the next part.

"I want that vial of blood to be here within a minute." He called to Luffy, knowing the elf would hear it despite the distance, and trudged towards his spot in the ritual circle. Falling to his knees had never been so easy in his life. He gulped down a modified pepper-up potion, knowing he could not afford to faint, or lack the necessary power, in the middle of the process. It would spell disaster. Mustering his willpower, he proceeded with the ritual.

Taking out the knife, he cut his hand and let it flow down into an elevated bowl, which then distributed it around the etchings on the floor, slowly but surely filling up the runic circle. When he judged it was enough he held out his uninjured hand and a second later the requested vial of barghest blood was deposited on top. Unscrewing it he let the decidedly blacker liquid flow out, mixing with his own blood, and resulting in all the runes being completed.

With that done, Sirius let his hands drop to his knees and fell into a meditative state, relying on his proficiency in the mind arts. Deep within his meditative state, he calmed down his magic, willing it to accept any changes that might happen. He focused on the intent of the ritual and started a chant, that he designed to help further guide his magic and expedite the process. Slowly he flooded the array on the ground with a small amount of magic, gradually increasing the output, until he felt it activate completely. Keeping it at that level he focused solely on the chant within his head.

The occlumency had allowed him to tone down any discomfort he might have felt. He would have probably been in excruciating pain throughout the process, if not for the fact that he consciously disconnected from his senses. He could not afford any distractions at this crucial moment.

It did not however stop him from passing out sometime later.

END