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Just as everyone in the stands was drawn to Uagadou's method of entering the water—
On Lynn's side, he had encountered a bit of a "small problem."
Deep within the Black Lake.
The surrounding light had dimmed to the point where one could barely see a hand in front of their face, with only occasional glimmers of light filtering from deeper below, illuminating this silent stretch of water.
Lynn continued to dive deeper.
He passed one giant underwater boulder after another. Some were as large as houses, others the size of millstones, standing silently at the bottom of the lake, their surfaces covered in a layer of slimy water plants and moss.
Everything was very quiet.
Quiet to an unsettling degree.
Lynn didn't pay it much mind. He continued to swim, his gaze scanning the surroundings for any signs that might indicate a Merperson settlement.
As he passed another giant boulder—
Peters Jolt went off.
The sensation came so suddenly and violently that it was like someone had rung an alarm bell inside his head. The hair all over his body stood on end, and a chill ran down his back.
Lynn didn't have time to think.
He instinctively lunged upward—
Splash!!!
Eight massive tentacles suddenly lunged out from the shadows of the boulder. Accompanied by surging waves, they slammed shut right where he had been moments before!
The force was so great that it sent the surrounding currents rolling violently.
Silt from the lakebed was kicked up, instantly obscuring Lynn's vision. Only a murky grayish-yellow remained before his eyes; he couldn't see a thing.
Lynn hovered above, his heart racing.
That was close.
He had almost been wrapped up.
He narrowed his eyes, staring at the churning silt below.
What was that thing?
To be that large and hide so well that even his early warning barely reacted in time—
His wand was raised.
A beam of light shot into the silt.
Boom!
An Explosion Charm went off at the bottom of the lake, kicking up an even larger wave of silt. But besides the mud, nothing was hit. The owner of those tentacles had already vanished, using the murky current to reposition itself.
Swoosh—
A tentacle struck from the side!
Its speed was astonishing, and the current it dragged along was as sharp as a knife.
Lynn was already prepared.
With a wave of his wand, a massive sphere of water instantly enveloped him.
The water sphere wasn't meant to trap the enemy; it was for self-protection. The outer layer of water rotated at high speed, forming a sturdy barrier.
Duang~~~
The tentacle whipped hard against the water sphere, sending out ripples visible to the naked eye.
Lynn was sent flying quite a distance by the massive force, tumbling several times through the water before stabilizing himself.
He shook his numb arm and looked in that direction.
The silt gradually cleared.
He finally saw the thing that had attacked him.
It was an octopus.
But not an ordinary octopus.
Its size was staggering—more than three times larger than a Giant Pacific Octopus. Its eight tentacles stretched out far enough to cover a small house. Every tentacle was densely packed with massive suckers, and the edges of those suckers were lined with sharp barbs.
The most striking feature was the series of deep-blue rings on its skin.
Those rings were densely distributed, emitting a faint blue glow in the dim water, looking like countless eyes staring at him.
When the octopus entered its hunting state, those blue rings became brighter, flashing with an eerie beauty.
A Blue-Ringed Giant Octopus.
Lynn recognized the creature.
The Muggle world had Blue-Ringed Octopuses, which were incredibly venomous but pitifully small. The wizarding world had a distant relative, which was the creature before him—the Blue-Ringed Giant Octopus.
Its size was magnified hundreds of times, its toxicity magnified hundreds of times, and its danger level naturally magnified hundreds of times as well.
Books said this thing's magic resistance was ridiculously high; ordinary spells hitting it were like tickles. It could even make detection spells fail on it—meaning you couldn't find it at all using Accio or Revelio.
Its skin could also automatically simulate the surrounding environment; lying next to a rock, it could become a rock. Diving into a patch of waterweed, it could become a clump of weed.
Its intelligence wasn't low, either.
It had an extremely strong sense of territory, a powerful hunting instinct, and a very vengeful nature.
If Lynn hadn't reacted in time just now, he would already be a corpse.
The Blue-Ringed Giant Octopus hovered in the water, its eight tentacles swaying slowly, those deep-blue rings flashing.
It stared at Lynn.
Those eyes were cold and cruel, as if looking at dinner.
Lynn stared back at it.
He was considering a question: should he fight back for revenge?
This kind of creature had an extremely strong sense of territory. He had already intruded, so even if he ran now, it would chase him. Rather than being passively attacked, it was better to take the initiative.
But the problem was that this thing wasn't easy to kill.
High magic resistance, fast speed, and capable of camouflage.
He had to think of a way—
Lynn's gaze suddenly froze.
He stared at the octopus.
More accurately, he stared at something tangled within the octopus's tentacles.
That object was tightly gripped by several tentacles, half-buried among those massive suckers. Its color was a bit dull, and its shape somewhat familiar—
A fishing rod.
Lynn's expression froze for a moment.
His gaze changed.
Before, it had been caution, assessment, and the hesitation of "should I fight?"
Now—
"Damn it," Lynn spoke, his voice carrying through the water, "that's my fishing rod that was dragged into the lake."
The Blue-Ringed Giant Octopus tilted its head, and a strange light suddenly flashed in those cold eyes.
It wasn't the confusion of a beast.
It was—understanding.
It understood.
It understood Lynn's words.
Those eight tentacles swayed slowly, and one of them—the one wrapped around the fishing rod—slowly lifted upward.
In the dim water, under the glow of those deep-blue rings, the fishing rod was held up in front of the octopus.
It looked at the fishing rod, then looked at Lynn again.
There was an indescribable meaning in that gaze—was it provocation? Mockery? Or pure malice?
The next second.
That tentacle suddenly tightened.
Crack.
A crisp snapping sound spread through the water.
The fishing rod that had accompanied Lynn through countless battles snapped into two pieces, the break jagged, wood splinters drifting through the water. The two halves fell from the tentacle and slowly sank downward.
Lynn's pupils contracted sharply.
He stared at the two sinking halves of the fishing rod, his entire body seemingly frozen in place, motionless.
Silence.
A deathly silence.
Only those two pieces of the fishing rod were slowly sinking, creating tiny currents.
The Blue-Ringed Giant Octopus hovered there, its eight tentacles swaying slowly, those deep-blue rings flashing.
It was waiting.
Waiting for this human's reaction.
Lynn raised his wand toward the surface, his eyes turning a brilliant white, burning with boundless rage.
"You have found your way to death!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he violently swept his hand.
The water sphere enveloping him instantly exploded, turning into countless streams of water scattering in all directions.
Lynn's figure instantly vanished from where he stood.
The next second—
Above the Black Lake, the sky changed.
Without warning, the previously clear sky began to fill with dark clouds. The cloud layer came too fast, unnaturally fast, as if dragged from all directions by an invisible giant hand, obscuring the entire sky in the blink of an eye.
The sunlight disappeared.
The entire Black Lake was shrouded in gloom.
Rumble—
Dull thunder rolled deep within the clouds, one after another, growing closer and louder. That thunder carried an indescribable sense of oppression, as if something were brewing, accumulating, and waiting for the moment of eruption.
The teachers and students in the stands looked up in confusion.
"What's going on?"
"It was a clear sky just a moment ago!"
"Is it going to rain?"
"These clouds... why are they so dark?"
In the Gryffindor stands, Seamus Finnigan's eyes widened as he pointed at the sky. "This, this isn't right! Why do those clouds look like they're gathering from all directions?"
Several senior Ravenclaw students looked at each other; no one could explain the scene before them.
In the Hufflepuff section, Hannah gripped Ernie's arm tightly, her face pale. "Why do I feel... a little scared?"
Edgar sat there, staring at the sky, his lips trembling slightly. "It couldn't be..."
He glanced at William, who returned an equally worried look.
Ollie remained silent, only silently clenching his fists.
At the judges' table, several Principals stood up simultaneously.
Madame Maxime's eyes widened as she looked at the sky in disbelief. "Is this... Weather Magic?!"
Piquery shook her head, her brow furrowed. "Impossible. The range of Weather Magic isn't this large. And this power—"
Karkaroff opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but nothing came out.
Dumbledore did not stand up.
He simply sat there, head tilted back, looking at the darkening sky.
His silver-white beard fluttered slightly in the wind, and behind his glasses, a flicker of complex emotion passed through his eyes.
He vaguely sensed that some kind of emotion was contained within those cloud layers.
This wasn't a natural phenomenon.
It was man-made.
But—
Why?
What happened underwater?
He glanced at the large screen, but it was still showing Uagadou's perspective, providing no useful information.
Before Dumbledore could figure it out—
The horizon suddenly brightened.
A white light pierced the gloom, illuminating the entire cloud layer. The light was so blinding that many students instinctively closed their eyes.
And then—
BOOM!!!
A massive pillar of light connecting heaven and earth tore through the clouds.
The pillar was shockingly thick, shockingly bright, carrying a momentum that seemed capable of destroying heaven and earth as it crashed straight toward the Black Lake!
It was too fast for the eye to follow.
Plop—
The pillar of light vanished into the lake water.
There was no explosion.
No shockwave.
No towering waves.
The thunder, which seemed powerful enough to split mountains and tear the earth apart, simply vanished into the Black Lake in complete silence.
And then—
It disappeared.
As if nothing had ever happened.
In the stands, there was a deathly silence.
Everyone stared blankly at the still-churning clouds and the now-vanished pillar of light, their minds completely blank.
After several seconds—
"Merlin's beard..."