— — — — — —

In the Dragon Pit’s location, several champions arrived one after another.

On the blue side, everyone except Nassim was present. He was still completely absorbed in farming the jungle.

The red side only had Jauncey and Ariana.

They were already short-handed to begin with, and Kamio had been heavily suppressed by Fleur during the early game. She lagged far behind in both experience and gold. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

After weighing her options while Fleur was away, she decided to use the opportunity to catch up on farming.

Whatever was happening over there didn’t matter. As long as her powers were fully unsealed, she wouldn’t have to fear any danger.

So at that very moment, Kamio was still diligently pushing minion waves in the bottom lane.

"ROOAR!"

A long, resonant dragon’s roar suddenly echoed from the void. A powerful gust swept through the canyon, and the mist surrounding the pit scattered instantly.

To everyone’s surprise, when the fog cleared, what stood before them was not a fearsome fire dragon.

Instead, it was a giant Transformer over three meters tall, its body gleaming with cold metallic light.

The countless intricate mechanical components created an overwhelming sense of pressure.

Quinta and Jauncey both unconsciously took several steps backward.

Fleur and Daphne were equally stunned, though for entirely different reasons.

Both of them had noticed the words painted across the Transformer’s shoulders: Cyber-020.

"You’re kidding me, right?" Fleur stared in disbelief. "Tom actually put a Number 20 Transformer in here?"

"Twenty?" Ariana tilted her head curiously. "Is that number important? Does it mean something?"

Seeing that the Transformer showed no signs of activating yet, Fleur forced herself to calm down and turned toward Ariana.

"You know what Transformers are, right?"

Ariana nodded.

Of course she knew.

Back in the study space, she had even seen Tom modifying and upgrading Transformers. She just hadn’t encountered one in real life before.

This time, Daphne explained, "Tom likes assigning serial numbers to his creations. For products that get sold, those numbers are basically just item codes."

"But Transformers aren’t sold to anyone. The lower the number, the more effort he put into it, which usually means it’s stronger. And he built more than a hundred in his free time."

As she spoke, Daphne’s expression grew increasingly miserable.

"So Number Twenty..." She waved her wand gloomily. "If we weren’t sealed, it’d be one thing. But in our current state? We’re getting demolished."

Ariana understood immediately.

The other two did as well.

The Transformer standing before them was most likely the canyon’s final boss.

"So what do we do now?" Quinta asked.

Everyone knew about Daphne’s relationship with Tom. If even she thought this thing was troublesome, Quinta was already considering retreat.

Coincidentally, retreating from unwinnable situations happened to be one of Daphne’s greatest talents.

The young lady had just opened her mouth to suggest running away when a low mechanical hum echoed through the pit.

The Transformer’s eyes snapped open, glowing crimson.

Then a cold, emotionless voice echoed in every champion’s ears: "The team that defeats the Canyon Dragon will receive a large amount of gold. Overall wand-unsealing progress will increase. Special status effect granted: Light as a Swallow. Duration: five minutes."

"Dragon?" Fleur frowned, looking the Transformer up and down. "What does this have to do with a dragon?"

Daphne nodded vigorously.

They shared exactly the same thought.

They would rather face a real fire dragon than deal with anything Tom had built.

Because nobody knew how many horrifying tricks he had hidden inside his inventions.

The very next second, however, everyone understood why this humanoid machine called itself the Canyon Dragon.

A rapid series of metallic clicks echoed through the canyon as the Transformer began an incredibly complex transformation.

In barely two or three seconds, its humanoid frame reshaped itself into the form of a massive mechanical dragon.

"Watch out! Move!"

The instant the transformation was complete, a blue glow lit up at the tip of the dragon’s snout.

Daphne reacted first and immediately turned to run. The others weren’t much slower.

A thick energy beam erupted from the dragon’s nose and slammed into the canyon wall opposite them, blasting out a huge crater.

Everyone thought they’d be safe once they reached the river. Unfortunately, before they could even catch their breath, the dragon came charging after them.

Fleur fired several probing spells at it.

The spells struck the dragon’s metallic armor and produced nothing more than a few sparks.

"Run!" she shouted.

Then she turned and sprinted without even looking back.

"Wait!"

Ariana suddenly noticed something.

On either side of the dragon’s long snout, glowing numbers had appeared: (99.9%)

"I get it now."

Her eyes lit up.

"We don’t actually have to destroy the dragon. We just need to reduce its progress bar to zero."

The moment she finished speaking, Ariana spun around and snapped her wand forward.

"Ossifragor!"

Green light burst from her wand.

A powerful shockwave slammed into the dragon’s body, interrupting its pursuit. Its massive frame shuddered and twitched irregularly.

It was a Dark Magic spell taught to her by Grindelwald, a Breaker Hex that drove destructive force into the target’s body, shattering bones and damaging internal organs.

Ariana had been watching closely.

The number beside the dragon’s snout dropped from 99.9% to 98.5%.

"...Just as I thought."

She licked her lips, excitement flashing across her face.

This dragon was perfect. It looked intimidating enough to be thrilling, but it wasn’t overwhelmingly powerful like Grindelwald or Andros, whose strength left her feeling hopeless.

This was a worthy opponent.

"You guys can leave." She grinned and pointed her wand at the dragon. "I can handle this thing myself."

With that, Ariana ran in a different direction, luring the dragon into her team’s jungle.

Fear often comes from the unknown, and from seeing everyone else run.

Once someone takes a stand and fights back, it can inspire others to do the same.

That was exactly what happened.

Seeing Ariana confront the dragon head-on made Fleur and the others feel that perhaps it wasn’t so terrifying after all.

One after another, they followed after her.

Besides, nobody could really die here.

Since they were already here, why not give it a shot?

Just like that, the canyon’s theme became a classic tale: Heroes & Dragons.

The battle inside was thrilling.

And the spectacle outside was even more entertaining to watch.

What reassured everyone was that while the dragon was powerful, it wasn’t invincible.

Its movement speed wasn’t especially fast, and its attacks weren’t particularly frequent either.

Daphne and Fleur were familiar with Transformers and knew why.

The dragon was still in its cruising mode. It wasn’t fighting at full power yet.

So while they chipped away at its health, they also stayed alert, wary of the moment it would enter its second phase.

Sure enough, after a lengthy struggle, the dragon’s health dropped to 50%.

Instantly, the red glow in its eyes intensified. Its speed increased dramatically.

With a violent swing, its enormous tail lashed toward Daphne.

"Shield!"

The young lady remained perfectly calm. She raised her wand and cast the spell—but not the Shield Charm.

The next moment, a human-shaped figure suddenly flew in front of her, directly into the path of the incoming tail strike.

Smack!

The unfortunate victim was launched through the air.

The canyon’s protection mechanism activated immediately, placing him into a "death" state.

Bathed in blue light as he was lifted toward the sky, Jauncey wore a blank, bewildered expression.

Wait...

The shield she summoned... was me?

Weren’t... Weren’t we supposed to be fighting together? Ahwoo... why is it always me who suffers?

...

..

High above, Tom had been watching the entire show unfold.

Seeing this, he nodded in satisfaction, "Excellent."

A pleased smile spread across his face.

"Now that’s the Slytherin spirit. When you’re selling out your teammates, hesitation is unacceptable."

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