Level 25 [p4]. Traveling and Hunting

Pack of wolfs were cornering their prey. It was a small human, with enough fat to not be considered fit. With no weapons whatsoever, he was shaking in fear, eyes darting from one wolf to another, praying inside to all gods. His glasses were lying somewhere before him, but eyesight was his last worry in the current situation.

*Screech*

Both the pack and the human were startled by a sound similar to the eagle's cry. Everyone, turned their heads in direction sound came from. However, they didn't see a thing. After staring for a few seconds alpha decided that there was nothing dangerous and made a sound to his pack to continue the hunt. The whole pack turned back to watch their prey and continued cornering him.

One of the members of the pack jumped at the human, but midflight it felt air moving in his direction from the right. Such senses were beyond human. Nevertheless, it didn't help in any way, because the enemy was just too fast.

Giant grey eagle, big enough to press grown wolf to the ground just by stepping on its body crushed into it and using its claws it mangled the body to the point of no return.

A combination of sharp claws and flight momentum was enough to crush even bear, what to say of the wolf.

Eagle raised its head while standing on the dying body of its enemy and cried into heaven.

*Screech*

Wolfs were both scared and surprised by such a sudden attack. After all, describing it takes a lot of time, but in reality, the time it took for a wolf to jump and get stomped was less than 2 seconds.

Dying wolf tried whimpering but as soon as the sound came out of it, the eagle lowered his head to look at it and shut his right claw which was still holding its neck.

*Crunch*

The sound of a neck being crushed was quite loud in the quiet atmosphere of the forest. Especially, because it wasn't a short sound of a neck, breaking, it was a sound of something being continuously crushed into small bits.

Then the eagle looked at the rest of the pack and fully uncurled his wings. It was an equally magnificent and horrendous experience because its wingspan was unbelievable 7 meters. Moreover, after uncurling giant shadow was cast upon them and the moment the entered that shadow, was the moment death reaper came to get their souls.

When shadow covered the most pack members, they started retreating but it was too late. Eagle's eyes opened wide and he flapped his wings, however, the shadow from uncurled wings remained on the ground as if drawn on the ground. But nobody noticed that, because as soon as the wind coming from that flap reached the pack, giant thorny pikes started thrusting from that shadow straight up the sky, piercing anything they met along the way, including members of the pack.

Nothing was spared. Trees were destroyed, animals were pierced and very air was fluctuating due to the sheer speed and force of these pikes.

Suddenly, the surroundings became a beautiful yet scary painting with blood particles slowly moving in the air, organs spilled on the ground and pikes colored red and black. Air was full of intestines smell intermixed with the freshness of the upcoming sunrise.

Eagle curled his wings back and turned its head to the human, who was close to insanity if not fallen into it already. The bird has unclenched his claws and started moving towards the human. During his movement shadows around him became alive and started encasing its body, after which that giant ball of shadows slowly turned to male humanoid. He was quite tall, which was only accentuated by how thin he was. Overall, this monster gave a terrifying vibe. Why monster? Well, how otherwise would you call a creature who had no face? It had neither eyes nor mouth nor even nose. It was calmly walking towards the youth lying on the ground. On his way he heard crunch under his feet, so he looked down and slowly picked up the glasses he just stepped on. Then he moved closer to the man and slowly squatted down before him, before giving glasses to the teen.

However, the boy was so scared that he didn't understand what to do with these glasses. The creature just put glasses on the legs of the sitting boy. Suddenly surroundings changed, but boy didn't notice anything.

The youth mind was overwhelmed by ups and downs during the last 2 minutes, so he lost consciousness.

After that, the monster tilted his head and disappeared with a loud *pop* sound.

...

*A few seconds later, around 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) away from the bloody scene*

...

I was sitting and enjoying the moment I had a few seconds ago. As usual, I was training my Animagi form, when I noticed that some teenager was running from wolves. Thus, I decided to intervene and have some fun. And indeed I had fun to the fullest. Shame, that wolf pack were such weaklings.

It was a week or so since I went rogue. First few days, I was on my way to France, while going through the wildest zones. I had enough of provisions and wasn't in any need of a bath or shower, because I have a cleaning charm, so I mostly stayed in the forests or other wild zones. For some reason, I felt better in free and wild surroundings.

In two days I made it to Hastings. I and Bucky rested there for 5 or so hours, before starting our crossing to France. The closest location, based on the map, I bought in London, was Boulogne-sur-Mer adjacent to another foresty area. Distance to fly was under 80km(~50 miles), so I knew we can make it in a few hours of uninterrupted flight. Distance from London to Hastings was only 100 km or so, yet it took us 2 days and that only because I was making often stops to collect herbs, look for magical creatures and stuff like this.

It took us around 4 hours with our normal traveling speed. I told Bucky to conserve strength "just in case". No need to fly with the fastest speed and waste stamina, because you never know what can attack you from water. I mean magical creatures are real, and I don't want to be ambushed by some overpowered Kraken or whatnot.

Anyway, currently, we are halfway to Italy, somewhere in the middle of France.

That's was one of the reasons, I was excited when I met a pack of wolves in there. After all, wolves were extremely rare in this part of Europe. But then again, that's another Universe. Anything is possible.

As for the boy in the wilderness. Well, I don't care at all about him, but I do believe in doing good deeds, if convenient. So, I apparated with him to the closest city. Thankfully, the boy lost consciousness halfway so I left him there and apparated back to the place I was staying at.

I put off my newest creation, "Faceless Mask", that can both block any magic directed at mind or face. Although it didn't have any holes for breathing or sight, it was enchanted with sight and air circulation.

Moreover, the mask was thin and fitted face perfectly, so it looked like a face itself. This can work miracles on human psychology by triggering it into doubting if I was a human being, so this headset served like a perfect terror instrument.

How was I able to cast 3 enhancements on 1 item? Well, first of all, "Magic Theory" of 58 was no joke and mask itself was more of a helmet, because it covered both head and neck. Moreover, materials for this mask were high-quality cloth made from some kind of magical creature.

Overall, that was my best artifact so far.

While traveling I was researching new spells and magic computing, both of which helped with my "Magic Theory" and during resting periods I was crafting and enchanting stuff. Although that sounds as grinding, it's actually more fun, because in Hogwarts I was constantly reading and studying, but now I am doing what I want and research what I am interested in. The fact that it helps with skills is a nice bonus.

Overall, I was having fun. Plus whenever I didn't have a mood for tinkering, I was turning to my Animagi form and fly around. I was quite proficient with it, after all, I was using it for nearly a year already. However training this form in Hogwarts extensively was impossible, so now I am can try anything I want.

That was why I was so happy whenever I met strong animals such as packs of wolfs. Testing my capabilities on them was both exhilarating and useful. Plus, I already more or less mastered changing my size. What I attacked the pack with was my maximum size so far. But I think, the maximum can be extended with an increase in magic channeling or talent or both.

Thankfully, I was quite light in my Animagi form, because it was mostly pure magic and shadows in the form. However, that made me quite weak. So in pure strength, for example, I will lose to a bear, but thanks to momentum and velocity from the flight I can crush any bear. Especially with incredibly sturdy beak and claws. Plus, I can use shadows to brace myself before striking the enemy, which will make sure I won't be damaged from counterforce.

In addition to this, my latest move in an Animagi form, I called "Shadow Impale" can be used to one-shot most normal enemies without problems.

As for plans, I had none. I was just traveling towards Greece, mostly to get Manticore skin. That was an incredible beast, who had absolute resistance to all known charm and curses. The only way to fight it is to use physical magic or some type of defensive magic like Patronus.

Other than skin, it has other useful alchemical ingredients I can sell or use.

The idea of visiting other schools came to my mind, but the exact location is always hidden by a ton of charms and masking enchantments. So, unless you visited them prior, entering them is a pipe dream. Plus, not all schools are useful to visit, because most of the schools in Europe follow the same system of magic mostly.

I would rather visit schools in Japan or Africa or China if it has one. Because some countries, when it comes to magic prefer to remain hidden. That goes to countries like Russia, China and some countries of Central Asia.

In any case, for now, the focus is on Greece. Later I can visit other locations. Thanks to my memory I clearly remember locations we visit, but I also bought an enchanted camera to take pictures and have them as refreshments for the future apparition. So, now I have quite a few pictures or how I call them, "Fast Travel Markers".

I finally exited my thoughts and looked at sleeping Bucky. I took out a pillow and lied near him.

'To a dreamland, I go...'

...

*Progress*

『 Alchemy 36 ➔ 37 | Sneak 27 』

『 Speech 36 | Studying 45 | Wand Making 32 』

『 Herbology 36 ➔ 37 | Magic Channeling 61 』

『 Magic Chanting 40 | Magic Gesturing 40 』

『 Magic Theory 57 ➔ 58 | Astronomy 35 』

『 Riding Expertise 15 | Crafting 30 ➔ 31 』

『 Playing Games 15 | Enchanting 38 』

『 Cooking 22 ➔ 23 | Training 24 』

『 Physical Activities 17 | Programming 25 』

『 Dancing 0 | Legilimency 26 』

『 Occlumency 31 』