Ch90. Juma...

Ch90. Juma...

"The road is blocked." Juma said, eyeing the people barricading the road with a frown on his lips. "This is not good. These people are probably bandits." He wasn't really sure about that because they were hiding their identity by sitting in the car. Suddenly, a loud voice resounded, saying something in a native tongue. Juma frowned even more as he turned to Hadrian. "They demand we get out of the car. Let me go alone and ask what's going on." Juma told Hadrian who instantly shook his head in disagreement.

"These people don't seem to be a reasonable sort." He started. "I'd rather be out of the car if a fight breaks up." Hadrian said and narrowed his eyes. His magical perception was flaring, telling him these people were magical and it didn't bode well for... them. The only reason why magical people would barricade the road in wild Tanzania was some nefarious purpose. Which meant fight. Which meant they would be getting massacred. Not that they knew it yet but Narcissa already got that small smirk which might be almost unnoticeable but it still told Hadrian she was getting excited. Even Dora knew something was wrong with the current situation and she was also getting antsy. "Well, girls, prepare for a fight... I guess." Hadrian said and Juma saw it was useless to argue so he nodded and they got out of the car together.

The more they approached the men, the more was Juma distraught. He now knew who they were and cursed himself for agreeing to the trio exiting the car. He could see the men eyeing them and his mercenary senses were certainly tingling. His eyes clouded as he was sure the fight was inevitable but nevertheless, he would first try the peaceful approach. When they finally came sufficiently close, a tall black man with a bony necklace clad in brown shirt and trousers shouted at Juma who sighed. He turned to Hadrian and said. "They want to talk to me first. Wait here for a second, please." With that, he left the group and went towards the man where he started exchanging words with the man. They talked in their native tongue so it was impossible for Hadrian to understand but he could see Juma's mood souring no matter how good the man was at concealing his body language.

In the end, Juma came towards the group with a bitter expression. "They said I can go but they want you to stay." He told them.

"Us to stay?" Narcissa asked with an amused undertone as if this was just an attraction in an amusement park but Juma mistook her tone for a worried one and gave her a reassuring look which made her even almost snicker.

"Yes... I could have negotiated to make it only women but I knew Hadrian would never accept that so I didn't even try. We will have to fight our way through." Juma stated and Hadrian tilted his head in curiosity.

"An idiotic question it may be but I will nevertheless ask. For what do they want MY women?" He narrowed his eyes, already thinking which transfiguration will he use to show them the wrongness of their path. Juma blinked at Hadrian before he understood what he asked and only then realized Hadrian nor the girls knew who stopped them.

"Ah... they belong to the Kurmia tribe. They practice more... unorthodox rituals." Juma started, making Hadrian's frown widen but the next sentence made all three foreigners speechless. "They are the local cannibals." Juma scratched his cheek awkwardly as he said that. All three of Hadrian's group dropped their jaws at that.

"How are they still alive." Narcissa mumbled to herself but when she saw Dora's inquisitive look, she decided to elaborate. "Similar to necromancers, the cannibals were also killed off a few centuries ago. They were not dangerous per se but they were inhuman in their practices even compared to dark wizards of this era. It might seem ridiculous but the reason why humans see eating other humans as inhuman is from the big part the achievement of wizards of the past when our worlds weren't yet separated. Sometimes it was necessary for survival and a good neighbor was always a welcome change in the menu. Meat was meat, after all. But this changed when people started forming bigger civilizations and food became more abundant. Wizards started too and some practices started to be abhorred and later, banned. The easiest way to do that was to do it through laws and so, cannibalism became 'outlawed'. China, the Roman Empire, Persia, Ancient Greece... all of these countries did it. It became a necessity as these wizards weren't exactly the shining beacons of a good example for the community. They had to be dealt with." She summed up.

"Now then..." Hadrian started with a smile. "I think this is where we will part ways, Juma." That made Juma instantly on guard but he was too late.

"Avada Kedavra." Resounded from his right side, and before he could even turn around, the spell hit his side, killing him instantly. Narcissa huffed as Juma's dead body landed on the ground. She then half-turned towards the bewildered Kurmia tribesmen who were processing what just happened. "Well... but honestly. That guy was an atrocious actor." She smirked towards them. "I mean... you see powerful wizards who don't care about killing in a plane full of people and the first thing he does is approach us?"

"To be perfectly fair... if you didn't learn the basics of their tongue, I doubt we would know the man approached us on the plane only to 'sell' us to the Kurmia tribe." Hadrian offhandedly stated, preparing for a fight as he watched the Kurmia tribesmen getting agitated.

"Not really, the man was an open book for my Legilimency." Narcissa snorted. "It was just convenient to have him as a guide." She shrugged.

"Uh... am I the only one who is startled and GREATLY disturbed that Aunt Cissa cast an unforgivable into the man's back?" Dora asked quietly to herself but was ignored. She let out a loud whine but too prepared her wand for a fight.

The battle started as the trio found themselves under the fire of something Hadrian thought he would never see. Fireballs... wandlessly conjured at that started flying at them, making him frown. Narcissa quickly threw a paper containing a rune on the ground while charging it with magic with her wand. As the fireballs were above the rune, they quickly dissipated, not reaching the trio. The Kurmia tribesmen were bewildered but not for long. Hadrian was happy to see their usage of fire so he decided to show them his own. His hands burst with an emerald-green flame. With a flick of his hand, these flames were molded into two spears of fire and thrown onto his enemies who barely scrambled out of their way. But this proved to be quite a wrong move as Dora wasn't idle either and they found themselves being flung by banishers of hers.

The men weren't pushovers however and soon enough, they spread around. Hadrian was conjuring earth shield after earth shield to cover the fire of fireballs from sides while Narcissa's runes were covering the front. The trio was slowly pushed towards the car which they used to cover their back. The spells might have been strong enough to injure a human but the van would prove to be quite tough to breach even for their spells. The trio could actually use the van to escape but they wanted to try their new spells in a 'safe' environment and these thugs would do. It was infinitely better and most importantly safer than trying it on Bellatrix... who was the only willing participant for these kinds of activities.

Narcissa smirked as a new rune suddenly lit up in front of her in the air at the wave of her wand, she pulled her wand arm back and then fiercely jabbed her wand forward. The rune started growing until it was as big as her body and that's when the show started. The men were still furiously spamming fireballs at the trio, so much that Hadrian actually started to grow bored and wondered if this was their only spell, but as the fireballs impacted Narcissa's new rune, they... got reflected. Two out of the eight men got roasted by their own fireballs which startled the rest and Dora used that opening to give her own input to the clash. She quickly cast a charm of her own making and three more men started floating briefly before being pulled into each other with such a force, Hadrian clearly heard a deadly loud crack. He almost cringed at how disgusting that sound was but noted Dora didn't notice due to smirking at Narcissa in victory.

The remaining three men were now panicking and for the first time, it wasn't a fireball they used. They cast one spell together and a huge fire elemental rose in front of the trio, plunging its hand onto them. Hadrian barely managed to create a massive hand from the ground and stopped the hand of the elemental. The elemental and Hadrian's transfigured earth hand started wrestling for a few moments but it was obvious the stalemate would continue. Hadrian might have learned battle transfiguration spells and him being able to hold three wizards off by himself was commendable but he was still a kid and his magic wasn't fully developed. Narcissa and Dora quickly decided to help him and two of the men who were conjuring the fire elemental started to promptly feel all ticklish due to the girls' tickling charms which disrupted their synergy. Something nobody expected instantly happened and the elemental exploded with a violent boom and flurry of flames, sending dust, debris, and earth flying all around.

The dust started slowly clearing, revealing charred ground in the surroundings. Even the trees nearby were for the most part nothing but ashes... "Damn..." Hadrian coughed out as he released the earth dome he transfigured over them.

"Damn right..." Narcissa said exasperatedly as she released the runic shield that was right under the earth dome.

"Seriously..." Dora also joined in with their dry remarks as she canceled the cushioning charm she cast on all three of them. "What the heck was that!" She exclaimed, making Narcissa turn to her.

"That, dear niece, were wizards who played with unstable elemental spells..." Narcissa deadpanned, and then started slowly laughing. This made Dora also laugh as she looked around the devastated surroundings, spotting the tree charred corpses of the idiots who almost blew them up. Hadrian snaked his arms around the girls' shoulders and embraced them while also laughing in relief.

"Well, that was enough for an adventure, I think." He said. "Time to go home..." The girls leaned into his embrace and both nodded into his shoulder. No matter how they wanted to have a test run of their new spells, they didn't think it would result in almost being cooked up! Hadrian smiled and uttered. "Kreacher!"