14 The First Task. Jake's Struggles 2

Jake rapidly cast bombarda after bombarda at the Horntail. Shockingly, even with its house sized body, the beast was doing its best to dodge all of his spells! Frustrating Jake immensely. Only about one in five of every blasting curse he fired actually connected to the beast, and even then, none of them landed on any fatal areas. Jake could also feel his vast magic pool draining at a surprising rate! This was the first time he'd ever truly pushed himself magically in his whole life!

The Horntail was growing incredibly frustrated at the tiny red-haired human who was actually managing to hurt it! Whenever it tried to make any moves closer towards Jake to try and bite him, smash him with its powerful tail, or swipe its sharp claws at him; the spells became much harder to dodge up close! They would hit the dragon a lot more frequently, hurting the beast a lot! Despite its massive size, the Horntail still had the small brain of an animal and therefore it equated being in close range to Jake's rapid casting as equaling more pain. So, it had to keep its distance, and the only way it could fight back was by firing flames at Jake whenever he had to take a breather from firing too many spells so rapidly.

Up in the stands, among the cheering crowd of humans, Grok the goblin was watching the magical slugfest while nervously biting his long fingernails. "When the hell was that bloody potion supposed to kick in?" he muttered to himself in annoyance. Grok had bribed the dragon handlers over 1000 galleons in order for them to give his potion to the dragon right before it entered the arena. The potion was supposed to be instant with humans or goblins, but due to the dragon's size, it was clearly taking a lot longer to kick in than Grok was comfortable with. His life was on the line here!

Finally, Jake, who was on the verge of exhaustion from constant spellcasting, managed to successfully land a Bombarda right on one of the dragon's wings. It shredded a decent chunk of its leather-like flaps and caused it to shriek in rage and pain!

However, at that moment, something strange started occurring with the Horntail. It started to transform! Its brown scales, covered in blood from constant blasts, suddenly turned jet black. Its black eyes became an ominous, glowing dark red. What's more, Jake, who had felt he was on the verge of a hard-won victory before, suddenly felt a renewed sense of incredible danger! Unbenounced to Jake, devils were tenacious beings would had fought against the forces of Heaven itself for thousands of years! Their instincts were honed to perfection and most younger devils were always taught to listen to them!

"What the hell!? Did that damn dragon just evolve like a freaking Pokémon?" Jake asked himself as he was panting from near magical exhaustion. The crowd, witnessing the most epic battle of the tournament yet, was also confused as to what was going on with the Horntail. Can dragons transform? Was that even a thing?... Apparently, it was because it was happening right in front of them!

Grok finally felt his nervousness slip away as he smiled with a nefarious vindication. The boy was sure to die now, and Grok's job and life would be secure!

Jake fired another Bombarda that connected with the now jet-black Horntail's scales. However, instead of blowing a chunk of them off with his powerful blasts like before, this time nothing happened! His spell did absolutely no damage to the now black dragon! Everyone watching in the stands was also shocked at that.

Jake immediately felt a sense of panic wash over him as the dragon seemed to come to a realization that his spells were no longer effective against it! Faster than Jake thought possible, the dragon charged right at him, smashing any rocks or boulders in its path as it lunged for him, jaws hanging wide open, trying to bite his head off! Right before it reached him, Jake dove out of the way and fired another Bombarda point-blank right at the dragon's face! The spell connected, and as dust kicked up , his own blast's shockwave sent Jake flying back over ten feet.

The watching audience members held their breath as Jake landed with a painful "oomph." He felt as if the wind was knocked out of him...

When the dust from the blast cleared, the dragon was revealed in all of its terrifying glory once again, unharmed…

The spectators were dumbfounded and left speechless. That is, until Ron shouted out, "What the bloody hell is going on!? He had that dragon on the ropes, and now it's suddenly immune to magic. It's cheating! Somebody's cheating!" Other members of the audience also started voicing their agreements and concerns. Something was clearly wrong here.

The dragon reared back its head, and Jake, who knew what was coming, leapt behind a large boulder just as a torrent of fire was unleashed at his previous location. The flames now appeared to be much hotter and stronger than before. The stone it touched started to liquefy into magma much quicker than before, showing that not only had the beast gotten much tougher, but its magic had also drastically increased! Jake leapt behind another boulder just as the previous one he'd hidden behind was fully liquefied by the flames.

He was in serious trouble now...

Up in the audience stands, Dumbledore was sitting next to Severus Snape as they observed the drastic change in the dragon.

"Severus, you're more versed in the Dark Arts than I am," Dumbledore spoke. "Do you have any idea what happened to the dragon? Even in his over 100 years of life, he'd never seen such a transformation."

"It has nothing to do with the Dark Arts," Snape replied. "It's the Berserker potion." Dumbledore, not an expert on potions, had never heard of it before and asked Snape what the potion was.

"The Berserker potion is incredibly rare, and only an absolutely desperate, suicidal moron would ever actually take it. But in this situation, its effects are going to prove absolutely devastating. What the potion does is amplify the ingester's internal physical attributes and magic by over five times," Snape explained. "When ingested, the side effects are obvious for all to see. The skin immediately blackens, just like the dragon scales have, and the eyes turn bright red, completely bloodshot, even the pupils themselves. The worst side effect, however, is that within 20 minutes of the potion taking effect, the magic inside whatever ingested it will rampage, and they will die from internal hemorrhaging of all the organs shredded by the rampaging magic." He explained.

"So, all the boy has to do to survive is wait out the effect of the potion, and the dragon will die?" Albus asked as he watched Jake dodge away from another close call of rock-melting flames.

Snape simply sneered. "The boy looks ready to keel over from magical exhaustion. I doubt he'll last another two minutes, let alone 20."

Serafall, watching the battle from the top of the stands and not privy to the conversation between Dumbledore and Snape, was shocked. "What the hell!? Wyverns are supposed to max out at mid-class in power. This wyvern is easily at the peak of high class in strength! That shouldn't be possible!" She exclaimed with shock. She was going to have to intervene immediately, or Jake would be killed! Jake wasn't ready to face such a strong opponent yet, not without some proper training and real spells in his arsenal. Not those weak and magically draining wizard spells he'd been throwing around nonstop!

The dragon, tired of Jake dodging its flames, rushed at him once again and went for a claw swipe. Jake barely managed to roll under in just in time to avoid being bisected! Before Jake could make another move, however, the Horntail's namesake—its spiky tail—slammed right into Jake's torso. He was momentarily impaled before being lifted off the ground by the tail's momentum, and Jake was flung away to the other side of the arena.

The majority of spectators were horrified at that hit!

"Oh my God, Jake!" Harry shouted in fear for his new friend's life from the stands.

"Somebody save him!"

"Oh God, I bet so much on him!" An asshole audience member shouted out. He received glares from the people around him, who were disgusted by his lack of care for Jake's wellbeing.

Grok, the Gringotts goblin who had orchestrated Jake's deadly situation, smiled in glee!

...As Jake lay on the ground bleeding out from a gaping wound in his torso, he finally realized something about how he'd been acting ever since he'd arrived at Hogwarts and found out he could do magic. Something most teenagers don't realize until later in life. Something none of the other champions (except Harry) had realized either until they'd faced the first task themselves. Jake had been acting way too arrogant and cocky. And now, here he was on the verge of death at only 16 years old...

"Roooooooaaaar!" And there was the dragon Jake was facing, a couple of dozen meters away from where Jake lay. It roared in victory for having defeated the annoying red-haired man whose spells had injured it!

"Man, what a lame way to die... *cough*," Jake mumbled from the dirt where he lay collapsed and nearly bleeding out.

*Chirp chirp!!*

Flying down from the stands, Jake's tiny familiar Blaze rushed to his master as fast as its little wings could fly. Blaze landed next to the heavily injured Jake.

*Cough* "Hey, buddy. I'm a bit banged up right here, as you can see," Jake painfully chuckled to himself in lamentation.

His familiar hopped onto Jake's chest and put his little head right over the gaping wound in Jake's chest. Then Blaze started crying...

*Cough* "Hey, no need to cry for me, pal," Jake said. "I'm gonna be o— whoa!" Jake's words were interrupted as his feathery buddy's tears made contact with his wound, which immediately started healing rapidly! Within just a few seconds, the gaping hole in his chest had completely sealed shut and healed over as if it was never there! "Whoa, that was absolutely amazing, Blaze!" Jake exclaimed as he sat up, completely healed. Blaze chirped back happily at Jake's praise!

"Oh my God, is that a phoenix!" Hermione yelled out from the stands.

"I thought phoenixes would be bigger?" A younger student questioned loudly.

"I think that's a baby phoenix. This guy literally has the luck of the angels on his side to get an actual phoenix as a familiar!" Someone shouted out.

Serafall, who was ready to storm the arena and shove some Phenix tears (not to be confused with Phoenix tears) down Jake's throat to save him, sighed in relief. She also felt that the comment about Jake having the luck of the 'angels' was pretty ironic.

"Roooooaaaarr!" The black Horntail roared in outrage at Jake still being alive. It looked like it was getting ready to attack him again.

Jake's momentary excitement of being saved was squashed as he focused back on the dragon that was about to unleash fire upon him once again. He scrambled to his feet, preparing to move away when suddenly, from right above the dragon, an enormous chunk of ice—over three times the size of the dragon itself—slammed down on top of the beast, instantly crushing it into the dirt!

"…"

Everyone watching was once again momentarily stunned into silence. Where the hell did that giant ice cube of death come from!?

"What the hell was that!?" Malfoy shouted in outrage. "I just lost 1000 galleons to an ice cube!?"

The dragon was thoroughly smashed beneath the massive chunk of ice. It wasn't getting back up… Jake, realizing that the dragon was truly beaten, finally felt the adrenaline that had been with him most of the fight start to leave his system. He then felt his vision go dark as he fainted from exhaustion.

-end chapter-

And that brings this chapter to a wrap. Feel free to leave some comments or reviews. I'd love to get some more responses!

A special thank you to my Hero Team Patron(s): William G.

If you'd like to read (5 or more) chapters ahead of time visit me @ p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m/ FiveStarTomato