Chapter 684
It's a Magical Puppet
Chapter 684 It's a Magical Puppet
Clementine's ears twitched suddenly, and she jerked her head up, her wand instantly pointing towards the source of the sound, her face still covered in breadcrumbs.
"Something's approaching!"
Hope immediately dropped the water bottle, rolled away from where she was, and grabbed her wand.
The bushes rustled and shook, and out emerged Natalia, disheveled and covered in blood.
Seeing the scene before her, she quickly changed her steps from forward to backward, pointing her wand at Clementine, while the trees beside her blocked the angle at which Hope was about to fire a spell at her.
Hope raised an eyebrow slightly, moved slowly, and stared intently at the corner of her clothes peeking out from between the bushes.
Three wands faced off in the dim forest, the air seemed to freeze, and a battle was about to break out.
Just then, Clementine suddenly smiled and put down her wand first.
“Calm down, Natalia, I have no intention of being your enemy.” She said sweetly, “Why don’t we both put down our wands and have a proper talk?”
Natalia tilted her head and said, "Don't tell me you didn't know there was only one champion this time."
“I know perfectly well! You’re not the only one who’s following the rules of the competition.” Clementine shrugged, puffing out her cheeks. “But do you think the chances of the three of us winning are high?”
Natalia fell silent, and her tense expression softened.
“I know you are well aware that compared to you and me, Wade Gray, Jabari Weaving, and Viktor Krum pose a much greater threat.”
Clementine said helplessly, "Even that little Harry Potter feels dangerous to me—he's not called the savior for nothing; he might have some trump cards that we haven't even figured out yet!"
Her gaze swept over the bloodstains on Natalia's body, and she said, "It looks like you've been injured. Instead of wasting your time with the two of us, how about the three of us form an alliance? We'll help each other until we reach the Goblet of Fire, and never betray each other. If we really make it to the end... then we'll see how we each perform. What do you say?"
Natalia said, "That sounds reasonable."
Clementine smiled: "So your answer is..."
"I'm sorry," the blonde girl said expressionlessly, "I'd rather rely on my own abilities, even if I lose, I won't complain."
Clementine looked into her eyes, sighed helplessly, but still didn't pick up the wand.
She made a gesture of surrender and said, "Okay... but at least we don't have to be enemies, right? Just dealing with the dangers in the Forbidden Forest is enough."
She tilted her head and smiled, saying, "Between us... we shouldn't have any grudges where we'd risk getting injured or even eliminated to kill each other, right?"
Natalia nodded slowly, her wand finally lowering slightly. She took a few steps back to create some distance, then suddenly spoke:
"I advise you two to be careful—the puppets created by Vader have been deployed, and I just encountered a gorilla."
Clementine's smile froze slightly as she asked, "One? You were injured because..."
Natalia nodded: "Don't think of all puppets as just toys from a store. At least the gorilla I met was very smart and dangerous."
After saying that, she walked into the forest without looking back. The sound of the leaves rustling quickly faded away, and Clementine's expression had become very serious.
"It seems that this time, Vader Gray is not going to focus on quantity, but instead on improving the quality of the puppets."
As she spoke, she turned around and said, "Hope, I'm afraid we have to..."
The girl's voice abruptly stopped.
Hope was just standing there providing support, but now the place where she should have been is empty, with only her backpack lying on the ground and her overturned water bottle leaning against a rock, still dripping water.
Clementine suddenly felt a chill.
"Hope?"
She shouted, her voice echoing through the forbidden forest. Suddenly, the girl realized what was happening, her body trembled, and she quickly grabbed her backpack from the ground, ready to run away!
"Whoosh!"
A slender tongue suddenly shot down from the treetops, striking her back squarely, but at the moment of contact it seemed to hit some barrier, bouncing violently back and tracing a bright arc through the air. "I knew it!"
Clementine turned and raised her wand, shouting, "Shatter to pieces!"
The tree branches were blasted into the air by the spell, but the canopy above was empty, with no gorillas or monkeys in sight.
"What the hell!"
Clementine quickly changed positions, but dared not run into the forest easily. She was panting heavily, her eyes scanning her surroundings nervously.
"rustle……"
Catching the sound of the plants swaying, the girl turned around quickly: "Crush to pieces!"
"Bang!" A charred mark was blasted into the tree trunk.
"Crack!"
It looked as if some animal had crushed the branches.
"The flames are blazing!"
A fire ignited a pile of leaves in the forest, but the flames only burned for a short while before gradually dying out due to lack of sustained firepower and damp ground.
"Shh-"
"Rustling, rustling..."
"Click..."
"boom!"
The irregular sounds seemed to come from all directions, but Clementine's spells only hit the surrounding trees in vain, sending up a cloud of sawdust.
Her breathing became more and more rapid, and she felt extremely tired all over.
"We can't keep dragging this on..."
Clementine gritted her teeth and muttered to herself. Suddenly, she feinted, swaying her body as if she were about to escape to the left. After hearing the sounds in the woods seem to move as well, she swiftly unleashed a Flash Charm, the blinding light instantly illuminating the entire area.
It's right here!
Taking advantage of the opportunity, the girl ran in the direction Natalia had left, not caring that her clothes were torn by thorns, and even losing her backpack.
The rustling sound seemed to be rushing towards her from behind; she flicked her wand backward, casting a spell:
"There are many obstacles!"
A muffled thud came from behind him. Clementine didn't turn around. He quickly waded across a stream before glancing back.
That one glance sent a chill down her spine—
A huge lizard lay on a rock by the stream, its visible body parts alone measuring two meters long. Its jagged back was lined with serrated teeth that gleamed with a cold metallic glint, its sharp claws were tightly gripping the crevices between the rocks, and its yellowish, cloudy eyes were fixed on her, reflecting the trembling expression of its prey.
—Is it a puppet, or a magical creature from the Forbidden Forest?
The question had barely crossed Clementine's mind when he noticed that the monster's scales were patterned with plant motifs, and there were several smooth stones where its claws met its body.
So... it was a puppet...
As she was stunned into silence, the lizard slowly crawled back a few steps, its body blending completely into the surrounding aquatic plants until it disappeared from sight.
Clementine shuddered violently.
(End of this chapter)