AN: Yo, new part. Tried to make things interesting. Let me know what you think. If the turnout is bad, I can always edit. This part ended up over 8K lol. I was aiming for 3.
New title went up!
ALSO – I went back to make minor edits to the romance parts in the QQ version. Fanfiction is more annoying about editing. For here, I edited 5.4 to make it smoother. On QQ I edited 4.4: Romance, 4.9: Safety, 4.10: The Truth, and 5.4: Bonds and Charms 2.
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Disclaimer: I own no source material.
Chapter 5.5: Silk and Centaurs.
Long limbs, black as night, sought their prey with vicious accuracy.
A snarling form twisted between them and clawed out at the emotionless eyes tracking him.
The Acromantula pulled back with a screech, allowing its other two brethren to enter the space and launch forward with dual hisses, venom dripping from their raving jaws.
Jin growled and pointed his palms forward, summoning water like a geyser to push the two back. The spiders smashed into each other and flipped over with broken limbs, but he wasn't done just yet.
His hands hit the ground as he channeled a softening charm into the muddy water as the soil beneath gave way, and the spiders sank under their own weight.
The first one to back away screeched and shot a globe of venom at him. His eyes widened, and he rolled to dodge. 'That's new.'
The spiders thrashed in the mud and got in each other's way as he backed up to a tree and swiped at it. Wood chips were gouged out, and his hands flashed once more in a spell chain.
A Freeze Charm froze the chips in place in the air, a Hardening Charm increased the wood's density, and a Banishing charm launched them like a buckshot shower at the creatures.
Hardened wood sank into flesh as they screeched in agony.
His tiger spirit roared in approval as he suppressed a pleased smirk. 'Don't sink into the pleasure of causing pain, that's not you. Focus on the thrill of the hunt, focus on the logic, focus, don't let go.'
He circled the spiders as they began to launch silk to the web above, but a well-aimed Severing Charm cut them back into the mud. 'Acromantula silk is highly mana conductive and tear-resistant, but it takes thirty seconds after ejection to gain those properties, and then they continue to strengthen with time. Cut them down before they toughen, and it's no better than strong string.'
He eyed the writhing creatures and noted he had a minute to prepare. 'Good as time as any to test out the new spell.'
Blue flames, extremely dim in lighting, almost like a blue haze only seen from a dozen feet away, ignited in his palms, and he took a second to marvel at it. 'I tried dozens of times to recreate this spell, but who knew the piece of the puzzle I was missing was unrelated to fire at all.'
Jin spent his free time trying to recreate charms with minimal success. It was far easier to adjust or combine charms he already knew than trying to re-create charms he didn't as they usually had building blocks related to charms he also didn't know.
The Hardening Charm, for example, was not the opposite of the Softening Charm, but it was close. It took him weeks to figure out the connection. But thanks to Fleur's gift, he now had access to a whole new building block for his spell combinations.
The Bluebell Flames Charm was not simply fire. The Flame Summoning Charm summoned real fire. Magically summoned, but still an actual fire that could set something aflame and require no extra mana to keep the flames burning. Just as the Water Summoning Charm summoned actual water that would not fade after the mana was pulled away.
Bluebell Flames were made of mana. They had no physical blunt force, did not burn what was not intended, and could stay alight as long as they had mana to keep their shape. But pull the mana away, and they snuffed out instantly.
And despite its nickname, Cold Flames, it was anything but. Blue was a color associated with cold, but when it came to heat, blue burned far hotter than orange or red. The name Cold Flames came from the color, as well as how it would never burn what wasn't intended.
Most importantly of all, the light aspect of the Charm could be adjusted on the fly to extreme dimness, while retaining the heat.
Jin flexed his hands and watched in silent appreciation as the ghostly flames burned around his palms without any damage. His instinct was to panic, but his logic focused on how it wasn't harming him. His magic wouldn't hurt him.
'Now add mana.' The flames pulsed and writhed as he fed it, and a javelin began forming in his hands. Inches at a time, it grew and grew as he fed it. Twenty seconds later, he held a six-foot-long flaming javelin of blue fire with no physical weight but intense heat.
Sweat dripped from his brow. 'That took half my tank just to form one.'
He shook his head and took a stance before throwing it with all his might, the javelin whistling through the air to pierce the magic-resistant hide of two spiders like a blade of plasma.
No explosion went off, but as the spiders screeched in agony, the javelin continued to burn their innards as it rapidly cooled without a supply of mana keeping the temperature high. It vanished seconds later as it burned out like a dim spark, leaving behind two dying spiders with roasted insides.
Jin panted and bent over as he watched the results. 'Ok, that was very effective, but not worth the cost. There has to be a better way to go about this.'
He flexed his hands once more to summon another spark of blue flames. 'It doesn't take much mana to cast the spell or keep it alive. But the price skyrockets when I increased its size and temperature.'
His hand touched the ground where he left a burning flame on the earth, not harming the grass in the least but staying in place all the same. 'I barely felt that.'
He tried again but increased the temperature. Still nothing burned, but he could feel the heat radiating off it as it sucked in his mana. The second he cut the supply, it rapidly cooled.
'So it's pay to play here. I can keep the flames around without a high cost, and just increase the temperature when I need to. Can I control it if it's not touching me?'
The first flame he put on the grass remained, so he tried to move it with his mind without success. 'Hm…can I summon it?' He cast the Summoning Charm, and it flew back into his hand, where he increased the temperature by feeding it mana again. 'Ok, I can work with that.'
A hiss from the mud got his attention as he eyed the still-living spider standing atop its dead brethren and staring at him with the same emotionless black eyes they always had. 'Do they even have thoughts? They always feel like empty murder machines.'
He shook his head and readied himself as it used its dead siblings to hop to dry land. The blue fire still remained in his palm. 'I just need to increase the heat on impact huh….let's give it a try.'
The Acromantula hissed and charged, and he met it with a snarl. One step, he was feet away. Two steps, he was among its seeking deadly limbs. Three steps, his claws sung through the air alight with blue flames rapidly increasing in temperature. Four steps, his arm pierced straight through its head and popped its brain like a balloon from the extreme heat.
Jin growled at the weight on his arm as he quickly pulled back and let the creature fall to the earth with dying twitches. Blood and gore dripped from his arm as he eyed his work. 'Gross, but effective.'
He eyes the blue flames still in his palm and heated it up to burn off the grossness without harming his clothes. 'Very effective. There was definitely a cost when I heated it up, but it was minor compared to that javelin. I could do that twenty times for the cost of a single thrown weapon. Still three times the cost of a regular charm, but more than manageable.'
His constant fights, and consistent actions of draining his mana core every night, even in the months before he began fighting, steadily grew his mana pool with every passing day. He was years away from a true magical powerhouse like Dumbledore or Voldemort in terms of mana, unless he found an external method to push his growth, but that mattered little as long as he could do what he had to.
If he wanted to grow, Jin needed to fight the spiders, and he finally had a weapon he could use to a lethal extent.
'Now I need to get creative.' He shook off his arm, more out of reflex than need as the blood was burned off, and took out his journal from his storage to write down his thoughts. 'Start combining Bluebell flames with other charms, see what works and what doesn't. Severing Charm = Flaming Severing Charm? Gouging Charm = Tunneling burn effect? Growth Charm, would it work on the flames? Bubble-Head Charm….combine fire with water?...'
Thoughts exploded in his mind after his first test experimenting with the flames. The fire was his greatest weapon so far on the spiders. Every other spell he could cast would just splash over their magic-resistant skin, forcing him to use alternative means. Being creative and planning was good practice, but it meant little if he had to fight a horde of spiders.
Minutes passed in silence as he wrote down his inspired ideas before he nodded and shut the book. He glanced around the clearing, and his hand glowed as a pill formed. 'Who would have thought the Presence Revealing Charm was a temporary enhancement to eyesight.'
He swallowed the pill, and his eyes sharpened as distant red outlines appeared in his gaze. 'Far, I should still be good for now. I took care of the nearest perimeter guards.'
His gaze traveled to the three dead spider corpses before moving on. 'My scouting has proved my hypothesis. The spiders territory is one super massive circular spider web. They post guards at intervals on a grid over the entire expanse of their territory. The closer you are to the edge, the more spread out they are. Any large damage to the web summons the entire sector of spiders. If you fight one, two more will soon appear. Kill all three without disturbing the web above and you can rest for a time before anything notices.'
Before he launched his fire javelin, the spiders had been attempting to connect to the web above by shooting strings. 'They weren't trying to save themselves; they were trying to send out an alarm.'
"How noble of you." He walked past the corpse and kicked it in annoyance. "You weren't trying to save anything; you just wanted me to die and get eaten. Fucking dicks."
The constant fighting and killing had given him perspective on death, and he found that he actually cared. 'I'm not getting an urge to kill everything. I think I avoided the psychopath cliché. Or maybe I am one, considering I keep coming out here? Great, now I'm talking to myself out loud in a creepy giant spider nest; maybe I did lose it?" He pondered that for a moment, ultimately shrugging. "Whatever, I'm just taking this day by day; no need to set my morals to a bar or something. One day at a time."
His eyes traveled up to the dark treetops above and the thick webbing covering it like an umbrella. 'Right, I'm here today for a reason. Aside from fighting.'
Jin approached a tree and stabbed his claws into the bark as he rapidly climbed dozens of feet into the air. 'Tigers might not prefer climbing, but that doesn't mean we can't.'
He approached the web above and came to a pause without touching it. 'Alright, now we're here. I didn't really think this far ahead, how do I harvest this stuff without summoning the horde?'
The nearest tree was about sixty feet away, and he ran through his options before pointing a palm at it and casting the Seize and Pull Charm. A magical rope of mana launched from his palm and wrapped around the trunk before connecting to itself in a hoop. He gave it a tug to be sure and moved around his own tree to secure it there as well. 'Such an interesting Charm, it actually has a few aspects I don't recognize. I can't tell If it's an original creation or based on something else, but it's not a conjuration.'
He gave the rope a hard pull to test it before he crawled on and moved to the center of the rope. A few more casts to surrounding trees, and he had a simple network of ropes to move across. 'Touching the web is a bad idea. It's still sticky, and I don't have the biology the spiders have to avoid getting stuck.'
Spiders typically spun sticky and non-sticky silk for their webs, but Acromantula only used sticky silk. Their bodies secreted a kind of oil that let them glide over, and their legs had claws on the end to move fluidly over it.
'Not to mention this shit is tear resistant. Good thing I got this spell, Fleur, I owe you one.' His hands lit up with blue flames as he began moving over the rope, trailing his hands an inch off the silk and drawing a large rough circle in blue fire. The flames didn't harm a thing and stayed still, flickering like a dim candle in the darkness whose light didn't penetrate more than a dozen feet.
Only when he had completed the circle, and the flames were all connected did he stop and retract all the ropes except one. 'Alright, here goes nothing.'
Mana funneled from him like a river as he pumped it into the bluebell flames, causing them to rapidly heat up and burn into the silk it was touching without causing any true fire to sprout. 'Come on, come on.'
Sweat soaked his shirt from the heat and mana expense, but the silk was taking its sweet time burning. 'This damn things too thick, come on!'
Jin worriedly glanced at the surrounding web undulated as silk thread snapped in mass and caused numerous vibrations. Seconds passed like hours to his mind before the sound of hundreds of skittering legs hit his ears. He growled and pumped more mana. 'COME ON!'
The flames hit extreme temperatures, and the thick silk threads were burned through as a large tarp of silk fell to the earth below.
'Yes!' Jin cheered and kicked off the rope as he chased after the falling silk. It hit the ground before him, but he didn't care as he grabbed it and quickly opened a spatial door to throw it in before he froze. 'Fuck! The door isn't big enough!'
The rules of his warehouse stated the door would always be twice his size in height and width. The tarp of thick Acromantula silk was at least a hundred yards across. 'Shit.' He shut the door and shouted. "Gol!"
His house elf appeared in a pop to his side. "Yes si-.." Jin pointed at the silk and shouted. "Quick! Take this back to cabin!"
Gol took in the object's size in seconds and gave him a worried look. "Sir, it's too large to make two trips."
Jin waved his hands and started moving away from the coming horde. "Its fine! They won't follow me past the border, just take it and go, I'll be back later!"
Gol lifted a hand to stop him, wanting to suggest calling Sil or Bron, but his master had run off without waiting, and the sound of hundreds of clattering legs was close enough for even him to hear. The little house elf took one look at the approaching horrors and promptly chose to follow his orders as he vanished with the silk. 'I'm not paid enough for this shit.'
Jin rushed out of the spider territory with a wide grin as he internally cheered. 'Fuck yeah. That was way too close." He didn't stop till he passed the silent zone to catch his breath with a wheezing breath. 'Goddamn, that web was insane. How many generations of spiders have thickened that damn thing? With my experiments and that shit, I'm pretty much spent for the day; best to get ho….' He froze at the sound of skittering reaching his ears and turned wide-eyed to see the trees shaking. 'What?! They never followed me before!'
Acromantula burst through the brush in the dozens as they hissed and charged at him with the most emotion Jin had yet to see on them. 'Do they care that much about their web?'
He took off like a bat out of hell and threw his hand back to cast his new Smokescreen Charm. Smoke funneled out of his palm in an explosive cloud to cover his retreat as he fled.
Only for the spiders to charge right on through without seeming bothered as they continued to zero in on his fleeing form.
Jin's eyes widened as they kept up the chase. 'How are they finding me?!' All he needed was ten seconds to hide and call Sil or Bron, but house elf apparation required a passenger to be standing still and took multiple seconds. When a wizard or elf apparated themselves, it was faster, but with an extra, it took precious few seconds more.
So his options were only to fight or run, and fighting without a mana supply against more than three spiders was not welcome odds.
Thankfully, he wasn't the only thing in those woods that wanted to spill spider blood.
A war horn shook the air, and Jin roared in agony as he held his hands to his ears and collapsed. He was focusing on the sounds of his pursuers to evade them and the horn reverberated in his skull.
Jin tumbled from the speed he was moving at to slam back first into a tree. Dizzy eyes could only look up in horror as an Acromantula lunged for him, and his instincts screamed to act only for something, or someone, to beat him to it.
An arrow plunged deep into the spider's eyes with enough force to throw its massive body through the air, and Jin suddenly found that he wasn't as alone as he thought.
The ground shook, and the snow fell from branches in clouds as Centaurs burst into the clearing armed with steel and met the wave of spiders. Jin looked on in shock at the sight. 'Did I hit my head too hard when I fell?'
His pondering only lasted a second before his instincts reacted and pushed to the front. He was the predator, and he was forced to flee like prey. His inner tiger wanted its pound of flesh and centaur or not; no one was taking that from him.
Half deaf and likely concussed, Jin growled and joined the fray with a roar.
00000
Watching from the back with a taut bow, chieftain Tyreus looked on curiously at the young creature fighting alongside his people.
Dressed strangely, not like the wizards, yet similar. The chieftain could easily see the mark of magical protections of the wizard's castle on the lad, for he had no hair on his chin to make him a man, yet what he was doing out here, he did not know. The ancient treaty enforced his clan's hand to not lay an unjust hand on one of their students, but his people would never act in such a way.
Centaurs were a proud and stubborn race connected with nature and warriors to a fault. But the treaty gave him no reason to offer aid. No, they fought to rid their lands of these abominations that feed on their young and all the rest of the forest folk.
So he shot his arrows and helped the warriors under his command while keeping an eye on the young one.
The lad fought on four limbs and moved more like a beast than man, swiping with claws and lunging like a fierce predator. But there was no grace to his attacks, no thought-out patterns. He was wild, wild and foolish.
The warriors in the melee had to go out of their way to stay their hands for risk of hitting the lad who jumped in their way to attack.
Tyreus eyed a spider aiming for the young one from above and launched an arrow. 'You are no foal, young cub, but this is not where you should be.' The chieftain thought with mirth, only to blink in the next second as the lad seemingly sensed the coming assassin and ran up a tree trunk to kick over his attacker.
The arrow sunk into the spider's soft underside at the same time that claws ignited in sudden blue flames and pierced through its skull like butter as the lad roared.
Tyreus blinked and had to stifle a laugh. 'Cub he may be, but he has the instincts of a warrior on him. Crude, wild, untrained, but a warrior nonetheless.' He shook his head and turned back to the fight that was soon over.
His warriors encircled the young one with raised weapons as he growled back at them, but Tyreus was quick to put a stop to that. "Stand down! The lad has the mark of the castle!"
The warriors shifted uneasily, and one snorted while stabbing his sword in the dirt. "This thing fights like no wizard Chief! No wizard fights like a warrior. And I almost cut this one in twine. He's more beast than man."
Another raised his axe. "Aye! Who jumps in the way of a blade ya fool! I almost lost me life killing you, them protections woulda backlashed on me!"
More warriors raised complaints, and Tyreus saw the lad tense. "Enough! He is untrained and wild, but he shed the same blood you all did. Give him a modicum of respect for that."
The centaurs eyed each other and snorted or huffed but kept their word. Even the first to speak stayed silent but gave Jin a dirty look that was returned in force.
Tyreus walked forward and stood before the lad. "Whats your name young cub?"
Jin shifted his gaze away from the centaur he was having a death stare with and wearily turned to the leader. Idly noticing the lack of clothes, long thick beard, and tanned skin. "Jin." He was only a step away from calling Gol if he had to, but Jin wasn't sure if he would be attacked until he heard the chief's words saying something about protections. 'McGonagall. I asked her for permission to see the castle, and she gave me student ward rights. I need to send that woman a gift basket, or a bottle of Firewhiskey, probably both.'
Tyreus acknowledged the name. "Jin, my name is Tyreus, and these are my tribe's warriors. What are you doing all the way out here? We are far beyond the wizard's territory, and Firenze's tribe usually stops wayward students."
Jin blinked at that. 'So that's why I kept hearing the sounds of horses galloping when I went traveled. I thought it was more Thestrals or Unicorns and kept my distance.'
Outwardly, he shrugged. "You're the first Centaurs I've met, and as for what I'm doing out here." He jerked his chin to the spider corpses. "I was gathering silk."
The gathered centaurs lit up at that.
"Silk?! He ventured into the abominations lands!"
"Lies! No one returns from there!"
"He dared go in there?!"
"Dared and returned! Ha! I told ya I like him."
"You just cursed him a minute ago."
"Yeah! That's how you know I like someone."
Tyreus twitched and raised his arm. "Silence!" The herd quieted, and he turned back to a confused Jin. "You ventured within their web for silk and returned? Did you truly enter?"
Jin nodded unsurely. "Was I not supposed to or something? I thought everyone hated the spiders?"
There was a round of cheers at that, but Tyreus waved them off. "Aye, they are creatures of the dark that care not for anything but their next meal. It's not that we can't go in, but no one ever returns. Their webs block out the sun and leave us in the dark. Any light bright enough to see within their land brings them upon us in droves. And you cannot sneak past them no matter who has tried." He looked down and studied Jin's form. "Yet, you claim to have gone in. Do you hold proof?"
Jin scratched his cheek and shrugged. "I mean yeah, I grabbed some silk. Think I can call my house elf without anyone getting stabby friendly?"
Tyreus blinked at the terminology but got the idea. "Er…no. No harm shall befall your household if you call them."
Jin studied the man and nodded. His instincts were calm at the moment from the fight, but he felt that he had generated a feeling for understanding the general intentions of others by now. A measure of body language, perhaps. "Gol."
His dutiful elf appeared without missing a beat and looked around calmly. "Sir. You are feeling particularly adventurous today."
Jin rolled his eyes. 'I blame Fleur for describing French butlers to my head house elf.' "Can you cut off a piece of silk from the roll and bring it here?" He looked at Tyreus. "A piece is fine right? I'd rather not bring the whole roll."
Tyreus blinked. "No, just a torso sized piece is enough. Their webs have been thickened for decades, even taking a small piece is an accomplishment."
Jin gave Gol a nod and the house elf popped off to appear ten minutes later, wiping off his face with a handkerchief in one hand and holding the rolled-up silk in the other. "Sir, that was frighteningly difficult to cut."
Jin winced and waved a hand in apology. "My bad, its naturally tear resistant."
Gol's deadpan stare was not friendly as he handed over the silk, and Jin silently apologized as he passed it to Tyreus. "There you go. One torso sized silk piece."
The warriors had watched along and began to push forward to see the silk with exclamations of surprise. One centaur even smacked Jin on the back with a laugh. "Ya really got it!"
Thankfully, months of spider fighting and working under Hagrid made him immune to being bothered by blunt-force trauma to his upper back. "Yeah, I did."
Tyreus rubbed the silk with a deep gaze and passed it along to focus back on Jin. "How did you get it? It should have been an impossible challenge."
Jin opened his mouth to answer but thought better of it. "Look, not that I don't appreciate the save, but I spent a lot of mana and fought three battles in the last hour. Think we could sit down somewhere?"
He was tempted to tell them to wait another day, but knowing they couldn't harm him thanks to an ancient treaty was enough to cool his cautiousness while his curiosity bloomed. 'Centaurs are an entirely unseen magical race from canon aside from that stuff with Harry meeting Firenze. Goblins have their talents, so what do they have?'
The prospect of benefits, as well as open curiosity about a new culture, made him toss his cautiousness overboard to an extent.
Tyreus ran a hand through his beard and eyed him. "Very well. You did seem to be….wasting energy in the last battle."
Jin's brow twitched as he went on and signaled his men. "We're going back! Claim your spoils from the fallen and return the young cub his silk."
The centaurs cheered and broke off without complaint at the order. The one who had been giving him the stink eye since the start roughly shoved the silk back at him and stamped off.
Tyreus sighed from Jin's side. "Excuse Orios, he has old scars with your kind."
"With wizards?"
"Aye. Constant hunts for magical creatures for their potions and magical focuses have strained our relations. And a few years ago, a family of Unicorns were slaughtered by one from the castle for the cursed immortality their blood provides. Orios's good friend was among them."
Jin hummed at that. 'Must have been Quirrelvort in Harry's first year.' Outwardly he shrugged. "I can't apologize as I wasn't around, but I won't start trouble if he doesn't start it with me."
Tyreus chuckled and slapped him on the back as he moved passed. "Maybe you got some foal in you yet, lad; stubbornness will help you with our kind."
Jin growled in annoyance. 'Why the fuck does everyone keep slapping me on the back. I'll start wearing Bluebell flames on my shirt at all times, lets see them touch me then.'
For the following ten minutes, Jin watched in interest as the centaurs expertly raised up each spider and stripped them of everything of value. The fangs, eyes, venom sacks, and an assortment of parts were removed before Tyreus set them ablaze.
"Aren't you all worried about harming the forest?"
A passing centaur scoffed. "We harm nothing but the abominations. The fire shall not harm organic life, and the ashes of these things will feed the forest the nutrients it needs. Watch." He pointed to the side where a female centaur removed some reed pipes and began playing.
Roots sprung up from the trees and wrapped around the burning corpses before pulling them beneath the ground. Jin looked down uneasily at the sight and the same centaur laughed. "Ha! Remember boy, nature always wins."
Jin's response was to flip off the mouthy centaur to much laughter.
Tyreus returned and pointed in a direction. "Get on my back young cub, we shall bring you to our village."
"…..I'll walk."
Tyreus scoffed. "And we will be waiting forever. Come, you think we would leave our young where anyone could reach them?"
Jin wanted to argue his point, but he was suddenly grabbed by the back of his shirt and tossed on the back of none other than Orios. "I'll take this little wizard chief, if he can make it that far that is."
Tyreus shook his head in amusement and waved his men forward while Jin sat up with a growl. "You wanna say that again you bastard?"
Orios grinned unkindly. "What? Can't take a challenge, little wizard?" The mocking tone of his voice set Jin's annoyance to a new high.
"Let's fucking go you damn pony."
Orios laughed and shot off into the woods while Jin hung on for dear life. 'Holy shit they're fast!'
The centaurs moved like a blur through the trees, and Jin didn't have the time to focus on his surroundings. Orios's mocking laughter came back over the wind. "Hang on, or don't, I may not be able to harm you, but fall damage doesn't count!"
'Two can play at this game.' Jin's hand shot forward as a rope launched forward and wrapped around Orios's human waist as he pulled himself back into the center of the centaur's back.
Orios narrowed his eyes at the human. "You think some rope will help you?" The centaur's speed picked up dramatically, and Jin was buffeted by intense wind. 'Can't….breathe…'
A hand came up to his neck as he cast a bubble head charm. The harsh wind was blanketed in white noise as he breathed deep breaths and flipped off the horse again. "What you got now huh?!"
Orios neighed in anger and started moving erratically like a world-class bull moving at high speeds. It only took two hits to Jin's nuts before his own roar of anger responded.
Twenty minutes later, Tyreus shook his head at the collapsed form of Orios wrapped in a ball of mana rope covered in sweat, as well as a groaning Jin holding his groin. "Was this really necessary, boys?"
""F-fuck…him.""
Tyreus chuckled and turned off. "Yes, well when you recover I'll be in my tent. Someone fetch the two some ice." He walked through a tree and vanished without a trace.
Jin accepted the ice and got back to his feet while growling wildly at the rising centaur. "I won."
Orios threw off the last of the rope and hmphed. "For now." He pushed past Jin and walked through the same tree, although with a noticeable limp.
Jin looked around at the snow-covered forest around him. 'It all looks like normal trees; I can't stop a landmark.'
His curiosity pushed him on, and he stepped through the tree to come to a fantastical sight. "Wo."
The wintry dark forest outside swapped for a more friendly spring-covered land inside. Flowers bloomed, green, red, and orange leaves pocketed the trees, fruit hung from branches, and a dirt path led a winding path down into an open prairie. 'How is this all part of the forest?'
He walked along the path and caught sight of the warriors he arrived with talking to other centaurs while they pointed at him. He waved back to a couple curious young centaurs who laughed and ran off.
Down in the prairie, he moved passed a wooden gate where one of the guards stopped him. "Wizard, the chief said to head to his tent, follow the path straight to the end, you can't miss it. No lollygagging."
Jin nodded distractedly. "Right, thanks."
The walk through the village was like stepping into a fantasy native american reserve. Tents lined the sides in rows, and Centaurs went about their lives. Most carried weapons of some kind, regardless of age or gender; even the young ones carried wooden training gear.
Many stopped to gawk at him, but no one got in his way as he passed peacefully to the end, where a large tent stood taller than the others. 'Big tent, right, can't miss that."
The flap was held open, and he walked in to see Tyreus speaking to two older warriors in leather armor. They stopped talking when he arrived, and Tyreus waved. "Ah, Jin. Come, I'd like to introduce you to my advisors." He pointed to the left at the dark-skinned bald-headed man with a scar down his cheek. "Rakor, he runs the logistics of the camp." The guy nodded silently, and Tyreus pointed to the other. An aged and muscular woman with a Viking braid. "Magnie, our head nature mage."
Jin waved a hand in greeting. "Yo, names Jin. You know Tyreus, when I asked if we could sit down to talk, I meant somewhere in the woods. There was no need to bring me back to your tribe."
Rakor huffed at that. "I agree with the lad chief, this is foolish. We cannot trust one of their kind, no matter how young they are."
The chieftain chuckled. "Relax old friend, I have shared my reasoning."
Magnie stepped forward and looked down at Jin severely. "You truly invaded the abominations nest?"
Jin's instincts reared their head at a challenge, and he met her gaze. "If you consider the outer edges their nest, then yes. They make for good combat training."
Magnie held her look for a few more seconds before scoffing with a smirk. "You got balls kid. If the chief vouches for you I got no complaints. Just no funny business or I can make a tree plants its roots up your ass and keep you around to feed it."
Jin wasn't the only man there to wince, and the other two centaurs backed off a step. "Noted."
Tyreus coughed into his hand and directed them to the side where some cushions were. "Right, warm welcomes aside, let's talk Jin, I think we have a chance to help each other."
Jin raised a brow at the man but complied for the moment. 'Do they hate the spiders this much? Or am I missing something here.'
They sat in a half circle around the chief's larger seat as he went on. "What do you know of the Acromantula situation in this forest, Jin?"
"I know they live here."
Magnie grunted. "Great observation."
Jin shrugged. "Hey, I got attacked, so I attacked back. Don't expect a history lesson from me."
Rakor shot him a grin at that, and Tyreus took back the focus. "Apologies, I wasn't sure if those from the castle were truly aware. To make it brief, the spiders had always been around in a small corner and didn't disturb the peace outside their territory. But then, around five decades before, a change came over them, and they began expanding rapidly with alarming numbers.
It came out of nowhere and caught everyone off guard as entire tribes were lost. By the time we rallied who we could to drive them back, they had retreated into their stolen lands and built their web. Blocking out the sun and laying their traps to blind, ensnare, and sneak attack any who entered before drowning them in numbers.
A dark few years followed as attempt after attempt to push into their territory was made. But with an eighth of the forests lands in their claws, they had all the space and food they needed to hatch more waves."
Jin shivered at the mental image of thousands of them coming out of nowhere. 'It's one thing to invade the nest myself, its another to get caught with your pants down by dozens of them.'
"And it's been like that for fifty years?"
Tyreus shook his head. "The first few years the battles were fierce, but eventually things calmed down and they only rarely left their territory. Since then, we have only had to deal with the occasional hunting party, but no one forgets how much pain and suffering they spread. Even now, they often target our young for a meal without any remorse. And there is nothing we can do unless they leave their webs."
Tyreus paused to take a sip of his drink while Jin digested that. 'That's a fucked up story. Just thinking about thousands of those fuckers makes my skin crawl. And that was fifty years…..wait.' Jin blinked. 'Didn't Hagrid get expelled for raising his pet Acromantula, who was thought of as the monster of Slytherin at the time, that went on to be the spider leader Harry and Ron met….Hagrid….did you start a fantasy war between species with your hobbies?!'
Tyreus mistook Jin's constipated look for imagining the tale and nodded gravely. "We have attempted to raid them numerous times to cut out the source, but their lands are unassailable to us. No matter who the mighty warrior or mage we send, they are overcome by the dark shadowed lands in the end."
Jin listened to the end of the tale before speaking. "Not that it's not an interesting history and all, and its pretty fucked up. But what does this have to do with me? Was it such a big deal that I harmed the web?"
The three centaurs laughed loudly at his words, and Jin noticed Rakor's arm raising behind his back and shot the man a fierce look with blue fire in his palms. 'Don't test me.'
Rakor thankfully got the message and lowered his arm with a chuckle as Tyreus answered. "We have tried for fifty years to harm the web, Jin. Any attack on it summons hundreds of them. It resists our weapons. It's strong and thick enough to hold up the trees if we cut them. And our magic is weakened in the absence of sunlight. We are one with nature, and nature has been harmed greatly by the spiders."
"Is that why you call them abominations?"
Magnie grunted with force. "Aye. They desecrate the forests. They poison the trees and the soil. They are a blight on life. The trees you see in their lands still stand due to their ancient strength and size reaching up above their webs to the sun. Anything young or small enough has long since died."
Jin hummed and tapped a finger on his arm. "Ok, did you ever ask the wizards for help?"
All three scoffed in unison, and Rakor answered with a disgusted look. "The wizards are just as bad as the abominations. One hunts us for food, and the other hunts us for reagents for their potions and magical focuses. We would invite the tiger into our home to fight the lion."
Jin couldn't help the amused twitch of his lips at the comparison, and Tyreus caught it with his own half-smirk. "Indeed. The treaty with the castle is older than you may think. It was the founders of the school that made peace with the residents of the forest and formed the treaty. Their descendants do not live up to their name."
Magnie snickered. "Ain't been a warrior of Gryffindors standing in generations."
"Wait, you knew the founders? That was a thousand years ago."
She waved a hand lazily. "Nah boy. We are long lived but not that long. My grandmother knew him. She swore she laid with him too hahaha, said he was the promiscuous sort."
"Uhuh…..ignoring that."
"What, shy boy?"
"No, my girlfriend is a Veela. I just don't want to imagine what a millennia-old dude fucked."
"Ha! I like ya lad. Want to meet my granddaughter?"
"I just said I had a girlfriend."
"And? She the alpha?"
Tyreus cut in before Jin could defend himself. "You can discuss your mating habits later. Let's focus on the topic at hand."
Jin shot Magnie a look. 'This isn't over.' She winked back.
"Jin, are you planning to continue your hunts?"
Jin focused back on the chief and nodded. "Yeah. I didn't know they would attack past their territory if I harmed the web, but now that I know I'll take measures against it. Why?"
The chief met eyes with the other two centaurs and had a silent conversation before he went on. "We would like to offer a trade."
Jin raised a brow in curiosity. "Go on."
"We are willing to offer our aid to you in exchange for spider silk."
"Why the silk?"
Tyreus raised two fingers. "Two reasons. One, the more you bring us, the more damage you do. We couldn't attack because, by the time we were ready, their webs were too thick. If you can make a path forward for us, even if they repair it, they won't have the time needed to thicken it. It matters not about the numbers; it takes time for the quality to rise to its current state.
Two, if we equip our warriors with armor and cloth made of their silk, we can save hundreds of lives fighting them."
Jin scratched his chin in thought. 'I would have to improve my fire control to harvest silk faster but its not impossible.' He looked up. "And what do I get in return?"
Tyreus pointedly looked at him. "For starters, perhaps some true combat instruction? Who taught you to fight? You have the body and instincts of a warrior and yet move like foal who found their parents wine."
Jin bristled. "Oi! I never had a teacher alright. I've been taking things one day at a time."
The three centaurs chuckled while Rakor rumbled from the side. "Yet you have done what we were not able to. Take pride in that."
Jin grumbled and waved a hand. "It's not that impressive. My form gives me natural night vision and enhanced hearing and I have the knowledge of wizards magic to counter them."
Tyreus shook his head. "I know I told you to be stubborn, lad, but being stubbornly humble is not what I meant." Jin shrugged, and the chief went on. "No matter. We offer you at the least some basic combat training."
Jin perked up at that. 'Would be nice to actually know if I'm doing the right thing or not.'
"Not that I don't want it, but that doesn't seem like much for a trade."
Tyreus looked up and rubbed his beard. "Truthfully, there is little we can offer in the way of material possessions. We do not deal in gold like your kind. We are skilled in combat, nature magic that is unique to our race, rituals, and divination. Although the last one is limited to a rare few born to it."
"Wait. Rituals?"
Tyreus looked back at him with a raised brow. "Aye. We have many ways to empower one through the gifts of nature. Is it to your interest?"
Jin tried to suppress his excitement. "It depends on what you have. And don't rituals always have a cost?"
Tyreus gestured for Magnie to speak, and the impatient gruff woman slammed a hoof down. "You only gotta pay a price when ya are forcing the natural order against itself! You can't just slap a bunch of fancy shit down and give yourself wings! That's against the natural order!" She huffed angrily and looked at him. "The more you ask for that is not compatible with yourself, the higher and more dangerous the cost. But that don't mean I don't got a cost, ya hear?"
Jin blinked at the heated rant. "Um, ok? What do you want?"
She smirked and pulled out a binder from a bag on her back. "Fangs. Bring me the fangs of those abominations that took me ma and pa from us, and I'll give ya a boost. Three hundred fangs a pop and we got ourselves a deal."
Jin looked down at the book of some kind of animal leather before him and raised a finger. "So I pay in silk and fangs and get combat training and rituals. I also have to aim to make a path for you to invade while risking my hide. Is this really fair?"
Rokar scoffed. "Boy, you are going to hunt them on your own either way, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then consider this a bonus. Bring us the fangs of the spiders you kill, and the extra silk you don't need, and we pay you for your goods. Don't overthink it."
Jin thought about that for a moment and shrugged. "Well, I guess so. But if making a path is to dangerous then I'm backing out. I can take the silk from the edges just fine."
Tyreus nodded his head. "We have been fighting them for five decades, we don't expect you to fight our battle for us. We just want the queen dead. The king too if we can reach him."
Jin nodded at that. "Alright, I can agree to that."
The chief grinned widely. "Then we have a deal. Discuss the rituals with Magnie. I shall allow your household elves to enter our wards and bring you to and from." He reached his arm forward, and Jin met him in a warrior's shake, only for the chief's thick forearm to flex. "But betray the deal made between us and the terms of the ancient treaty will not stop us from hunting you down."
Jin met the chief's severe stare evenly. "You have nothing to worry about from me."
Tyreus held the stare for a long moment and broke off with a smirk. "You have courage, young cub. Never lose that." He sent the three out of the tent with a wave of his hand, where Magnie threw a muscled arm around his shoulders with a sharp grin.
"So, let's talk business boy. Which rituals do you want. Fair warning, you can only do three a decade. I won't be violating natures laws for you."
Jin raised a brow and ignored the woman's thick BRIC abbs and looked at her over the watermelons on her chest. 'Fucking hell, she was easier to look at sitting down.'
"Considering the cost is so high, lets just focus on one for now, alright?"
She smirked and pulled back. "Aye. Best to keep it simple. Well, go on and take a look. I'll be in the blue tent on the left side of the camp." She winked and slapped his back faster than he could react.
Jin snarled and flexed his clawed hands. "Can people please stop fucking doing that!"
She laughed and walked off with a wave. "Learn how to keep your head on a swivel boy, or it could be a blade instead of a hand."
Jin huffed and rolled his shoulders. 'That's it, I'm really going to wear blue flames from now on.'
He pushed his annoyance aside and opened the book to look at the rituals available with a growing smile. 'Oh yeah, I need some of that.'
Chapter end.
AN: Thoughts? Added a couple pictures on the QQ version.
VOTE!
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Remember he only gets three!
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Rituals = It makes sense that the Centaur's are very good at Rituals. Better to do it with them than with the goblins. The price for a ritual is to kill a certain amount of spiders and bring their fangs back. Or other parts if they need it for ritual parts.
Ritual Options: #1 is happening. The other two are up for vote.
#1: [Animal Spirit Strengthening – All around 1 level boost to physical stats. Hybrid mode gains fur. Increased instincts] [Tribe gives him herbs to smoke and calm himself until he gets a handle on things.]
#2: [Mind Protection – creates a solid mental bubble protection around the mind fueled by mana. Mostly Passive. No Mental Palace, No Thought Process Increase, No Memory Organization]
#3: [Minor Health Regen – For times when he gets injured and his skin can't be healed by magic. Gives his bloodline the boost, the regen is 100% from his body, not his magic.]
#4: [Weapon Bonding – the weapon of choice will only ever be wielded by you.] [He will gain an evolvable axe from a goblin smith. Starts simple, will grow stronger with each world.]
#5: [Poison Resistance – Anything up to the scale of a basilisk will no longer harm him.]
#6: [?] – Feel free to recommend something new.
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Please remember to review the chap with the vote. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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Response to Reviews:
/:Guest – Thanks :)
/: KleptoPlasmaXD – I did clarify tho? In chap 1 I said he's on an unstoppable train in dif words a few times. As soon as his times up, he's getting yanked away whether he likes it or not. As for going back, I did make a comment in chap 1 about him possibly going back if he goes far enough. Time duration will always remain according to the jump rules until he breaks the chain of his jump, also the time he can go back. No time shenanigans! None! Screw that noise! Way to complicated. From the point the MC enters any world, 1 minute in the new world matches 1 minute in the old worlds. There will be no relationship drama in my story. What happens I wont say for spoilers, but there are no negative feelings to be had.
Thanks for the feedback :).
/:TehStorm – Thanks! I also love writing fluer. I went back to edit all the romance parts to make it more smooth, but that's only on the QQ version of the story. Fanfiction is really annoying about fixing anything already posted.
/: Mr Brown Optometrist – Thanks as always!
/: OoOXylionOoO – Hello to you. I'm glad you enjoyed. And the story title is a go.
/: haseosamaa – I hope you enjoyed.
/: Sakra95 – Someone mentioned this on the QQ side as well. I'll start by saying I'm 100% expanding on a concept, but here is my thoughts on why.
The problem with this is that the canon author pulled something out of her ass to make it. The spell is nowhere in the curriculum for all seven years. The way I formed the HP world was that outside the curriculum, charms are hoarded, and you would have to buy/trade/steal/etc. to get more.
Bluebell flames by definition is magical flames. the Flame summoning charm summons real orange fire. But Blue flames are hotter than red or orange, meaning they are far more deadly. But as mana created flames, they only burn what the caster intends them to. They can grow hotter by burning more mana, and they will retain whatever its temperature or shape is until it runs out of mana. They are not true flames, but magic flames, meaning that they could also be put in a glass jar without issue. I hope i could specify the difference here.
/: kevans9912 – what? That was such a random comment I can't recall if I actually made such a mention in the story or not lol. Where did I say that?
/: randomguy9005 – Thanks for the idea! I leaned toward Traveler but it was a tough vote.
/: NastySquire – I'm glad you enjoyed the story but there isn't much I can do about your dislike for the romance. I did go back and make slight edits to smoothen the interactions on the QQ version, but if you disliked it that much, I'm not sure it would help you. Either way, glad your sticking around for the rest! Please try not to be to intense with your dislike.
/: Lazymanjones96 – Thanks! Hope you enjoyed.
/: DimensionalFish – Thanks again man! I always appreciate the detailed reviews.
/: Shooter312 – Thanks for the review.
/: 2005born – thanks! Hope you enjoyed.
/: Azai Jin – Thanks for the review! I love writing the two having their moments. Fleurs mom will get a future POV. Mama Delacour arrives like a storm. Fair on the earring, there are very few options that Jin can wear that won't get in the way of stuff. but I saw some manly images with earrings that made me warm to the idea. Could still do a necklace maybe. Thanks for the opinion on the title, it's going up!