Is it Saturday today?

Cedric managed to retrieve the golden egg while smiling despite a few missing teeth, but he was left covered in severe burns, half-meter-long scratches, a couple or six broken ribs, and his hair and eyebrows were completely gone.

Pomfrey diagnosed that it would take at least a week to patch him up good as new!

The spectators were speechless at the confrontation they had just witnessed.

From Ilulu's fuel acid attacks, to using Cedric's protective shield as a punching bag or a whetstone, and the "less-than-moral" use of her charms to distract him when he was casting several spells, causing them to fizzle out halfway more than once.

Although this last part had Tonks laughing uncontrollably, which spread to Barnaby and the people around them. Several of them even fell out of the stands from laughing.

But Cedric managed to transfigure a pelican from one of the broken rocks and had it collect the golden egg in its beak, barely managing to escape when Ilulu got distracted thanks to a mirror image spell.

Later, under Barnaby's instigation, Cedric's stretcher was wheeled past the tent where the other champions were waiting to "remind" them of what could happen if they didn't steel their determination.

"You know, it's odd that Rita hasn't made an appearance to write a scandalous article about the champions or you and your creatures," Tonks remarked, recalling the hated journalist she saw earlier when she arrived. "It's not like her. I was almost expecting her to sneak into the champions' tent to try and get an exclusive or something."

"Maybe she doesn't want to offend three magical schools, who knows?" Barnaby responded, not too concerned as long as he could avoid her. "It's Durmstrang's champion's turn, let's see how he does," he said, turning his gaze back to the field.

Viktor Krum was a bit frustrated because the preparation he had gone through based on their "discoveries" wasn't really useful, but as a famous Quidditch player, he quickly adjusted his mindset. While he was surprised by the condition of the original Hogwarts champion, at least he was certain that it wasn't impossible to get the egg if he tried hard enough.

That reassurance calmed him a lot.

He stepped out carefully, observing his surroundings, and the first thing he noticed was that there were no traces of any battle around, clearly restored to its original state.

The golden egg was right in the center, but he didn't rush forward; he wanted to know first where and what kind of creature he was dealing with. But strangely, there didn't seem to be anything else around…

He frowned and suddenly heard a faint, high-pitched sound that was gradually getting louder, as if something was rushing towards him at great speed…

The next thing the spectators saw was a blinding flash.

"Night Fury!" was shouted from the loudspeakers. "That's the name of the dragon pair the Durmstrang champion is facing in this task, known as the Light Fury. It's a beautiful breed that reminds us a bit of the Antipodean Opaleye. Very stealthy, with the ability to launch explosive plasma blasts and also control the timing of those blasts. Not only that, it can turn nearly invisible by passing through its own blasts due to the heating of the silicates in its scales, which gives them a mirror-like function."

The spectators were amazed and quickly understood the main point. If the first creature was focused on brute strength, this time they had to face a more agile and cunning creature.

Krum was already sweating when he saw the hole in the melted rock six meters behind him, feeling very glad that he maintained strict physical fitness. Otherwise, he didn't think he would have been able to dodge that attack at the last moment.

He could still feel the heat on his right ear…

Having discovered that the enemy was invisible, he shot smoke from his wand, dense enough to notice movement through the air current, but not thick enough to block his vision.

Seeing the smoke on his left suddenly part, he rolled to dodge the charge and shot a stream of water to try and reveal the creature's shape while attempting to move closer to the center to retrieve the golden egg.

His plan worked, and it revealed an elegant kind of dragon, with light colors and shimmering textures including white, blue, and pink. With light blue eyes, a rosy nose, its claws seemed quite small compared to the rest of its body. Instead, the size of its mouth seemed to take up much of its head.

The Light Fury realized that its camouflage had been blown and leapt, but not at Krum, rather towards the nest, circling it while growling at the Durmstrang champion.

Krum frowned, realizing that the creature wasn't like the dragons that only acted on instinct, but had a level of intelligence and hadn't forgotten its purpose.

This complicated things, as he couldn't deceive it as easily as a brainless beast.

He couldn't hide his amazement when he noticed that the creature's steps were completely silent, warning him not to lose sight of it or he'd have a big problem.

"Accio golden egg!" he shouted, realizing a perfect solution.

He kept his wand pointed forward, unchanged.

The Light Fury looked him up and down, with a very human-like expression of concern that seemed to say: Are you okay?

Karkaroff smacked his forehead in embarrassment, while Krum tried to act like he hadn't spectacularly failed, despite his reddened face.

Obviously, there were measures in place to prevent taking the easy way out!

Hearing the familiar sound, Krum reacted to see the Light Fury preparing to launch more plasma blasts and started running in a zigzag pattern among the rocks, trying to use fire spells to hide his figure from his opponent.

The confrontation lasted forty minutes before Krum managed to snatch the golden egg by using the momentum of an explosion to catapult himself towards the nest and then fled towards the exit, holding a powerful shield charm to deflect the incoming attacks.

Although he didn't end up as badly beaten as Cedric, the Light Fury still managed to land some heavy blows and a big bite on his arm during a surprise attack, where the teeth marks were clearly visible as blood oozed from the flesh.

Fleur and Harry paled at the sight of the bite mark and all the blood dripping to the ground, trying to imagine the creature that had made such a mark on a champion.

At least Krum was able to walk through the tent on his own feet and not on a stretcher, which made the Durmstrang students proud of such a display of strength.

They selectively forgot that embarrassing Accio and eagerly awaited the performance of the next champion, Fleur Delacour.

Or to be more precise, they wanted to see what she would face!

As everyone waited in anticipation, Barnaby's expression changed as he realized a problem he had overlooked.

"Damn, I forgot today is Saturday! Kuro has to work at the Nekoya restaurant and won't be able to attend the task," he thought, panicking a bit as he realized that one of the dragons he had invited wouldn't be able to attend due to his oversight.

Knowing her, there was no way Kuro would give up her curry chicken for today's event!

That meant…

He had to find a replacement dragon, and he had to do it fast!

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