Lynn continued along the path, entering a rather narrow lane.
The lane sloped gently downward, underground. The hedges around him gradually thinned, giving way to rough earthen walls. The air grew damp, carrying a mixed scent of soil and humus. The ground softened underfoot, leaving shallow footprints with each step.
He ran into no danger along the way, just a few potholes. Lynn carefully skirted around them and kept moving.
But when he reached the far end of the lane, the path ahead was blocked solid by a mass of crisscrossing, thick white strands.
A giant spider web. Its scale was staggering, stretching from the ground up three or four meters, sealing the entire passage shut.
Each strand was as thick as rope, arranged in neat, orderly lines, gleaming silvery-white beneath the light of his Lumos spell.
Lynn's eyes lit up.
If he could collect this, it'd be worth a small fortune.
His gaze traveled up the web, finally settling on its center.
An unusually large spider perched there.
An Acromantula.
Its body was pitch black, coated in coarse bristles. Its eight legs bristled with dense barbs, each as thick as a finger.
Most unsettling was its head—where there should have been eight eyes, only seven remained. One socket held nothing but a hollow, healed-over scar.
And it was missing one of its chelicerae too.
The fearsome-looking Acromantula dropped down from the web, its eight legs landing on the ground with soft thuds.
It stood before Lynn.
In the stands, the students instantly tensed up.
"An Acromantula!"
"Danger!"
"Lynn's about to fight again!"
Some had already clenched their fists, bracing to watch a fierce battle unfold.
And then—
the Acromantula spoke.
Its voice came out hoarse and grating, but the words left everyone stunned.
"Ma... Master Lynn," it stammered, "you're in this competition too?"
The stands dropped into dead silence.
Everyone exchanged bewildered glances.
Ma... Master Lynn?!
Lynn stood in place, looking the Acromantula over, and arched an eyebrow thoughtfully.
"Now that you know, why haven't you moved out of the way?"
His tone stayed flat, but the Acromantula shuddered all over at the sound of it.
Without a word, it turned and scuttled back.
Reaching the giant web, it raised its front legs and—slash, slash, slash—tore its own carefully spun web to shreds in a few quick strokes.
The sound of snapping silk rang out one after another, priceless spider silk scattering across the ground.
Once it had cleared the way, it turned back around, bending its eight legs into something like a gesture of invitation.
"Master Lynn, please, come through."
The sheer humility of its posture and the fawning tone left the students in the stands nearly speechless with disbelief.
Lynn nodded, satisfied, and stepped forward.
Just as he took a step—
he stepped right back.
The Acromantula froze in place.
It looked up, watching Lynn warily with its seven remaining eyes, unsure what its master wanted now.
"D... Do you need something else?"
Lynn said nothing at first.
He simply looked the Acromantula up and down.
From the missing eye on its head, to the missing fang in its mouth, all the way down to its eight faintly trembling legs.
Wherever his gaze landed, the Acromantula's trembling ticked up a notch.
It felt its skin crawl under that scrutiny.
Finally, Lynn spoke.
"I remember you," he said. "You run pretty fast."
The Acromantula blanked for a second, then started nodding frantically.
Its head bobbed like a pestle grinding away in a mortar, impossibly fast.
If it hadn't run fast, it thought privately, it wouldn't just be missing a fang and an eye right now—it would've been dead ages ago.
Of course, it wasn't about to say that out loud.
It forced out something like a smile—as much of one as that hideous spider face could manage—its voice growing even more obsequious:
"Give me any order at all! I'll walk through fire and water without a moment's hesitation!"
Lynn waved a hand.
"Nothing major," he said. "Just be my ride for a while."
"No problem at all!" it agreed instantly, without a moment's thought. "It would be my greatest honor!"
The students in the stands watched, helpless, as the massive Acromantula eagerly crouched down at Lynn's feet.
Lynn swung a leg over and climbed on.
"Go."
The Acromantula pushed off with all eight legs at once and shot forward with a whoosh!
Eight legs, it turned out, really did move faster than two.
In no time at all, Lynn had already covered hundreds of meters.
The night wind whistled past his ears, the walls on either side rushing by. The Acromantula moved incredibly fast, yet remarkably steady; with its eight legs striking the ground in alternating rhythm, there was almost no jolting at all.
Lynn sat on its back as comfortably as if he were out for a joyride.
Ludo Bagman's voice rang out, laced with confusion. "Uh... ladies and gentlemen... it appears Mr. Lynn has... tamed himself an Acromantula as a mount..."
He paused.
"According to the rules, this isn't a violation... since the rules only ban flying items, not riding magical creatures..."
A tangle of murmurs rippled through the stands.
"That's actually allowed?!"
"What did he even do to that spider?!"
"Didn't you hear? It called him 'Master Lynn'!"
"That title... sounds like they go way back."
"What kind of history scares an Acromantula that badly?!"
—
Inside the maze.
Lynn sat on the Acromantula's back in good spirits.
The ride was every bit as steady as his own broom. If it kept this pace, he figured he'd reach the finish line in no time.
He patted its head. "Not bad. Keep it up."
Encouraged, the Acromantula picked up even more speed.
And then—
Ludo Bagman's voice cut in again. "Wait! Lynn's heading seems a bit off!"
On the giant screen, a holographic projection of the maze appeared, marking the position and movement of every champion.
The light dot representing Lynn zipped rapidly across it.
But it wasn't heading toward the center of the maze.
"He's heading straight for the other champions!" Ludo's voice climbed. "What's going on here?!"
The stands erupted into chaos at once.
"Is he going to ambush people?!"
"Another fight?!"
"Where's the Durmstrang champion right now?!"
Lynn, too, was starting to sense something was off; going by distance alone, he should have reached the finish line already.
He patted the Acromantula's head.
"Hold on, stop a second."
It stopped.
Lynn looked around. "Where are we?"
The Acromantula looked around as well.
"Uh..."
It went quiet.
Lynn: "..."
"You don't know the way?"
The Acromantula's voice shrank smaller and smaller. "I... I usually just stay in the Forbidden Forest... never been out here before..."
Lynn took a deep breath.
He looked down at it.
Those seven eyes avoided his gaze, its eight legs trembling faintly again.
Who could have guessed the Acromantula he'd chosen as a mount had absolutely no sense of direction!
All that running, entirely for nothing.
Lynn rubbed his brow and patted its head again. "Keep going. Just go wherever."
The Acromantula felt as if it had just been granted a stay of execution, and its eight legs started moving once more.
This time, though, it had learned its lesson; its pace slowed considerably, and it kept glancing around as it went, trying to get its bearings.
...
Among the audience, the students who'd bet heavily on Lynn now looked ready to kill that spider themselves.
In the Gryffindor stands, a third-year boy clutched his head and let out a wail of pure despair.
"I saved my pocket money for an entire year! Put it all on Lynn! And now he's riding around lost on some directionally-challenged spider?!"
The girl beside him had gone pale, murmuring, "First time I've ever seen a spider with no sense of direction... it's just bizarre..."
Meanwhile, Ludo's commentary carried on.
On the giant screen, the view quickly cut to what the other champions were up against—
Fleur was mobbed by a swarm of Cornish Pixies, the little things trying to braid her hair. She waved her wand to chase them off, but there were too many; drive one batch away, and another arrived right behind it, driving her to distraction.
Roger Davies had walked into a dead end and turned to backtrack, only to find the way he'd come had somehow sealed itself shut. He stood there, utterly bewildered.
Ryan Sanderson had run into a Sphinx. It posed a riddle; he got it wrong, and now he was being chased.
Amina Okoro stood at a fork in the path, closed her eyes, and picked a direction at random, as unbothered as if she were out for a casual stroll.
Harry Potter was fleeing a swarm of Blast-Ended Skrewts, running pathetically with several scorch holes already burned into his robes.
Cedric Diggory strolled along without incident, his luck good enough to be genuinely enviable.
Chloe of Beauxbatons had gotten captivated by a singing mushroom and stood frozen in place.
Daniel of Castelobruxo was chasing a Niffler that had made off with a Galleon, the two of them tearing through the maze in pursuit.
Nema and Wanjiru of Uagadou had gotten separated again shortly after finding each other, calling out across a gap that only kept growing wider.
Finally, the view cut to Krum.
He walked through a dim passage, steps steady.
A faint song drifted toward him from up ahead.
The melody was lovely, moving, carrying a charm that was hard to describe, echoing softly through the narrow passage.
Krum stopped, frowning.
The singing drew nearer.
A figure rounded the corner.
A woman.
She wore a sheer gauze dress, her figure graceful, her curves exquisite. Her waist swayed gently as she walked, her skirt fluttering with each step, carrying an indescribable allure.
A thin veil of gauze covered her face, blurring her features just enough to invite the imagination further.
Krum gripped his wand. "Who are you?"
The woman said nothing.
She simply kept coming, swaying with every step, her singing unbroken.
She walked right up to Krum and lightly rested a hand on his shoulder.
That hand was pale, slender, soft as though boneless.
Leaning close to his ear, she whispered, "Come with me... there's somewhere lovely..."
Her voice came out soft and sweet, dripping with allure.
Krum's eyes began to glaze over.
His hand dropped, wand tip drifting toward the ground.
The woman took his hand and led him toward a hidden cave off to the side.
Krum stepped forward to follow.
Just then—
a gust of wind blew, lifting the gauze veil off the woman's face.
Krum saw what lay beneath.
Pale, sagging skin, deep wrinkles, a collapsed nose, crooked yellow teeth, and a pair of cloudy, dead-fish eyes.
Krum's daze vanished instantly, replaced at once by terror.
---
Enjoying the story?
Read up to 40+ chapters ahead on Patreon.
Patreon: patreon.com/mrfanfiction140
Be sure to leave a review!!! And read my other novels as well.
[ Naruto : Multiverse Adventures. ]
[ Hunter x Hunter : The Alchemist. ]
[ One Piece : Reincarnated As A Genderbent Charlotte Linlin. ]
[ Warhammer 40K : Bounty Hunter. ]
[ DC : Dio Brando. ]
Happy Reading!!!