Chapter 145. Hogwarts Professors' Emergency Rescue
"Just charge straight ahead, and I'll block the spells from both sides," Duncan said in a low voice.
Although the best choice now should have been to withdraw decisively, people are creatures of emotion; there are times when they won't be rational.
If he forced Kray to leave, Kray would certainly obey, but he might harbour some resentment.
In the past, Kray had helped him more than once, disregarding life and death.
Now it was his turn to repay Kray, and he certainly could not retreat.
"Thank you, Duncan." Kray's expression was solemn as he desperately stirred the magic stored within his body.
The clouded sky grew even darker.
Heavy ink-black clouds pressed over the gorge, and a stifling mood spread through the air.
Thunder rumbled, and thick bolts of lightning threaded through the clouds, ready at any moment to obey a command and strike those damned people.
"Interesting." Swathed in black, Bishop Charles raised his wand high, and a blinding beam shot straight at Kray.
Duncan took a deep breath to steady himself, used Transfiguration to draw upon the rock faces on both sides, and stones surged out to form a shield before Kray.
Boom after boom exploded by Duncan's ears; the immense force travelled into the cliffs on both sides, and the whole gorge seemed to tremble.
"This old fellow is really strong!" Duncan used every ounce of strength to maintain the rock shield, not daring to be distracted at all.
But two more wizards came hurtling on broomsticks toward an angle he could not cover, wanting to attack him from there.
Seeing them raise their wands, Duncan hurriedly shouted, "Mori, it's your turn—take care of those two!"
"Kray, never thought I'd see you in such a sorry state!" Mori let out a playful chuckle and sprang from Duncan's neck.
First it turned into a small bird, slipping past the spells that were fired.
When it neared the two, it changed again into a massive fire dragon.
Its appearance was identical to that of the Hungarian Horntail.
It roared in excitement and swung its gleaming sharp talons with abandon.
The two were terrified.
Though they tried their utmost to dodge, unfortunately they were too close to Mori and their movements were flustered.
One wizard's broomstick was brushed inadvertently by the tip of Mori's claw and burst, with a bang, into flying splinters.
The wizard astride it flailed arms and legs, trying to pull off a miracle and hang in mid-air, but he failed and could only scream as he plunged to the ground.
The other had it worse, struck full-on by Mori's paw and sent howling into the cliff face at the side.
Mori set a claw flat to its forehead and squinted to look.
After a moment it wore a look of not wanting to watch, quickly looked away, and then called to Duncan for credit: "Duncan, I finished off both of them—easy as anything, didn't cost me a bit of effort!"
"Beautifully done!" Duncan praised loudly.
With its ability to change shape, Mori's performance in a surprise attack was like that of a ghostly assassin.
Not far away, Bishop Charles, seeing he had yet to break through Duncan's stone shield, grew angry.
The power of his curse climbed swiftly; in the blink of an eye it exceeded several times over the first spell he had fired.
"Damn it!" Duncan ground his teeth.
Although he tried to hold it, numerous cracks still opened in the shield before him.
Worse, a wash of brightness lit up the whole gorge; Bishop Charles's robes were whipped and billowed by the surging magic.
Purple beams poured ceaselessly from the tip of his wand, crashing with terrifying might against the rock shield Duncan was holding up with great effort.
The beams were like a ravenous, hungry beast, devouring the shield madly and closing on Duncan and Kray at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Kray, I'm about to give out!" Duncan's face went a dark iron-blue as he ruthlessly squeezed the magic within his body.
While steadying the shield, he called up from the ground a giant python of rock, wanting to break the old man's offensive.
"I'm ready—damned old codger, watch me strike you dead!" Kray finally finished casting and roared in excitement.
The ink-black clouds suddenly turned snow-white; the whole gorge shone like daylight, and lightning poured down from above as if the entire sky were about to capsize.
The witches, wizards, and magical creatures fighting in the gorge were all stunned by this awe-inspiring scene.
Involuntarily they stopped moving and looked up.
Bishop Charles's expression turned sullen.
After a brief assessment of his own strength, he felt he might be unable to withstand it.
He seized the last moment to smash the rock shield Duncan had Transfigured, then, unwillingly, flickered away to the distance.
Duncan, drained of all strength, collapsed onto Kray's back; the hand holding his wand trembled slightly, as if it no longer belonged to him.
"Brilliant, Kray—don't let that fellow run! Quickly, guide the lightning to chase him!" Duncan called with the little strength he had left.
"Right—today I must strike him dead!" Kray panted heavily yet shouted with full confidence, beating his wings to give chase.
But very soon Kray added, his voice on the verge of tears, "Duncan, this is bad—I can't control the lightning that's coming down!"
"What?" At this, Duncan jerked upright on Kray's back, eyes wide at the lightning pouring from the sky.
If they couldn't turn the lightning aside in time, even if it hurt that old man, Newt and the others at the bottom of the gorge would certainly be caught up in it.
And, most crucially, he, Kray, and Mori were all directly beneath the lightning, and none of them could Apparate.
At Kray's flying speed there was no hope of outrunning lightning.
Whichever way he thought about it, it seemed they had only the option of being struck where they were.
Duncan used his last strength to try to make the lightning turn, but his magic, faced with mighty nature, was of no avail.
"I don't know if the case can withstand this bolt," Duncan muttered under his breath.
He wondered whether Newt, foreseeing this sort of thing, might have placed a charm on the case in advance to ward against lightning strikes.
"Duncan, what should we do?" Kray asked anxiously.
It had never used magic this strong before.
Today, stirred by emotion, it had only thought of striking that hateful old man dead, never expecting that the power gathered would exceed its control.
Now it could only barely slow the descent of the lightning, to win Duncan a little more time to think.
"Into the case," Duncan said helplessly.
They could only stake everything on this last method.
But as he was about to open the case, with a soft whoosh a spark appeared and swiftly expanded into a ball of fire.
Albus Dumbledore stepped from the flames with a grave face; Fawkes on his shoulder chirruped merrily in greeting to Duncan.
But the next second it noticed the silver-white lightning falling from the sky, and its feathers stood on end in fright, puffing it up into a round ball.
Fawkes tried urgently to Apparate away but failed; Dumbledore remorselessly yanked it back by the ankle.
"Professor Dumbledore, you're here too—the lightning in the sky…" Duncan asked in delight.
"I fear that by myself I could hardly withstand it," Dumbledore said, head tilted back, in a deep voice.
The lightning before them had already surpassed the bounds of magic; one could say nature had been successfully teased by Kray into displaying its great might.
"Then we—" said Duncan.
"Do not worry; fortunately I came prepared and had the other professors come as well," said Professor Dumbledore.
As his words fell, a group of broom-riding witches and wizards flew swiftly in through the mouth of the gorge.
At their head was Professor McGonagall; Snape, Professor Flitwick, and others flanked her on either side.
They flew together to hover around Professor Dumbledore, raised their wands at the same time, and cast spells.
A semi-transparent protective shield formed in mid-air over the gorge.
The lightning slammed upon its surface and erupted into a deafening crash.
The electric current spread across the shield at great speed, like a vast river of stars flowing across the upper face.
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