Blood-Soaked Succession Chapter 16 (Patreon)

Chapter 16:

Arachnacide

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Harry led the trio of Centaur towards Hogwats, and closer to the larger acromantula nest... hive... whatever. He was going with nest.

"We need to stop and retrieve our equipment." Firenze told Harry.

He looked back at the man.

"Where?" He asked.

"A bit further and to the right. We put it all in a cache before approaching Mosag." Bane told him.

Harry motioned for him to take point and he did so, leading to a patch of wild thornbushes filled with doxxies. He was surprised to see that the swarm was nonplussed by the centaur's approached and allowed him to reach into their home and retrieve three leather bundles. Two were identical, one was as long as Bane was tall.

He passed the largest one to Firenze and one of the smaller ones to Ronin. They each unfurled their packages to show that the two smaller ones were bows and well-stocked quivers. The large one contained a wooden spear with a bone tip, and what looked like an obsidian buckler. The mental image of some poor sod getting past Firenze's spear for a closer strike only to be bitch slapped with the buckler amused Harry greatly.

"We are ready for war, your dark lordyness." Bane said in what passed for humor from a centaur.

Harry actually snorted at the joke. First time somebody had made it and been funny with it. Maybe that was just the juxtaposition of the stoic Bane using such childish humor and language.

"Let us be on our way." Harry ordered.

He took point again and walked it what he knew was the direction of the hive. After visiting it once you never forget it, and after getting lost in the forest a dozen times over the years you eventually learn your way around.

They arrived in seemingly no time at all, standing before an entire hectare of forest roped off by thick webbing like a tarantula's nest. An hectare was probably understating it, to be honest. The single opening, like that of a trapdoor spider, stood in front of them.

"Strategy?" Harry prompted.

"Trap them inside." Bane advised. "Light all of the webbing surrounding it on fire, if you can manage."

Harry accepts the challenge to his prowess and raised his wand high into the air.

"Insendosortia." He incanted slowly, keeping the image of a cobra firmly in his mind.

A whisp of flame like a ribbon rose from the tip of his wand. It grew by two meters, then ten meters, and once it reached its' full height it broke off at the tip into two fanged jaws. The neck beneath it widened into the signature hood of an Egyptian cobra. Then he removed his respirator to ensure his command was clear.

"Go, consume the entire outer edge of this enclosure. Wrap around it like a rat and burn it to nothing." Harry hissed in parseltongue before putting the respirator back on.

It obliged, flying away from him like an eastern dragon and skipping along the surface of the web dome like a rock. Wherever its slithering body touched the decades of dried leaves, twigs and dust erupted in flames of their own until the entire den was alight with orange and red flames.

"Now that they are trapped, they shall either try to flee through the entrance or try and hole up." Ronin said.

"In the first case we shall cut them down two by two as they charge towards us in our own recreation of Thermophylae. In the latter we go in after them for a full blown mosh pit." Harry concluded their strategy.

The first case turned out to be the hand they were dealt, as a stamped of acromantula came tumbling through the narrow opening into their loving embrace. The chittering of their mandibles and stomping of their bladelike legs on the ground was enough to incite a bit of arachnaphobia even in him. But he and his companions began their onslaught all the same.

It really was pitiful, like lions picking off the stragglers of a herd of antelope. Every arrow from Bane and Ronin hit true, directly in the middle of their eight bulging eyes. Firenze stood back with his spear intent on impaling any unlucky enough to get past the barrage of arrows and spells, but Harry ensured none did.

"Percussio! Incarcerous! Sectumsepmpra! Locomotor Mortis!" Harry incanted in a spell chain.

Each spell flowed easily into the next, with the final wand movement of each being the first of the next. Each he had specifically picked mentally on the way there as a good counter to acromantula. He aimed directly between the eyes with his piercer to mimic Ronin and Bane's arrows, the legs with the uncancerous to wrap them up in ropes and chains, and outright bisected them in one go with Snapes best invention. The leg locking curse he added almost as joke but was actually devastating on creatures with six limbs to bind together.

Soon enough the small opening serving as there Thermopylae pass filled up with piles of dead acromantula and none more could pass through. Harry was tempted to stand back and let it all burn, but they couldn't be certain that those remaining inside would die from the fire.

"I will be going inside. Firenze, Bane, Ronin. You three go to the north, west and east edges of the hive and stand guard." Harry ordered. "Should any manage to escape through the webbing, shot or run them down."

"As you command." They all said as one before trotting off.

Alone at last, Harry twisted the stone on his finger nine times, uttering a name at every third turn.

"Alastor Moody. Sirius Black. Regulus Black." He summoned one at a time.

As each name escaped his mouth the shades of the men in question appeared before him.

"Advise me as I go into battle, and be the eyes on the back of my head." Harry asked more than ordered.

They each nodded.

"Always." Sirius said sadly. "Wait, what the hell even is this?"

"Acromantula nest I'm clearing out in exchange for invaluable new allies." Harry said simply as he walked forward.

Harry flicked his wand and lazily stepped aside, allowing the mountain of dead arachnids to roll past him and out of his way. The opening leading into the nest was empty of further acromantula, dead or charging, but was burning just as nicely as the rest of the exterior. He walked forth, unafraid, layering on a host of flame-retardant and cooling charms over his cloak as he did so.

Thus, the flames licked at him harmlessly as he entered the wide-open meadow where Aragog once called home, and there he saw the remainder of his brood huddled together at the center of the inferno. As he suspected, they were planning to wait out the fire as far away from the exterior as they could manage and flee. He could not afford to allow a single one to escape. All eight hundred or so eyes landed on him the moment he entered the moment he entered.

"Sure isn't smart of them to huddle up like that. How's your explosive hex?" Alastor asked.

Harry smirked beneath his respirator.

"Bombarda!" He cast into the very center of the mass of spindly limbs.

The effects were immediate, as those near the center were turned to mush and the remaining were sent flying outward like a wave in a pond after a pebble was thrown in. They each made a beeline for him. He responded by merely stepping backwards into the burning entrance, where the flames hung low and they hesitated to advance further.

For him, the bright orange and red flames licking at him were like a warm summer breeze, for them it was life -threatening heat that could boil them from the inside-out by being too close. He removed his respirator and flicked his wand at several points in the burning overhang.

"Dinner time." He whispered in parseltongue.

Every part of the flames he pointed at gave birth to fully-grown cobras. Scratch that, oversized cobras made of hungry flame. They flew towards the remaining enemies to bite at and wrap around their would-be pray. The now familiar screeching of dying acromantula filled the meadow. He wondered how much of the screeching was their voices, and how much was the sound of their insides boiling, like with lobsters in a pot of water.

As he focused and commanded the serpents with his wand the shades of regulus, Sirius and Alastor circled around the meadow, searching for threats. Regulus reached the far side where Aragog once buried himself and called out to him.

"Um. There's a bigger one in here!" Regulus called out.

Harry turned his wand towards the opening and advanced, ignoring the dying smaller ones he passed along the way. When he was roughly ten meters away the larger acromantula burst forth in a display of aggression, snapping his pincers together threateningly. The last of Aragog and Mosag's first-born, it would seem.

"Harry Potter." It said. "I remember yo- AGH!"

Harry interrupted it's attempt at conversation with a full-force piercer to one of its eyes.

Though people may be accusing him, seriously and in jest, of being a dark lord there were a few things about him that would forever preclude him from earning the title. One of those was that he did not monologue. He acted. To hell with the flirting and pomp, you die now. If he were ever caught throwing barbs and insults, it would be for stalling or other such strategic purposes. Such tactics were not necessary here.

Instead, he favored his earlier tactics of wrapping this larger ones' legs with chains and plucking out each eye one by one. Seeing as they were the only parts of it that any quick and simple spells could damage, he continued this until he completely blinded the creature. And so, blind and immobile, it fell weeping back into its hole, pitifully.

Checking to ensure the remaining acromantula were indeed, dead, Harry swished his wand in a circular pattern and aimed into the burrow it fled into and the half six remaining serpents of flame rushed in after it to finish the job.

The walls around the nest had burned through at this point and their remains sagged to the ground. The fuel spent, the trees holding the webs and debris up crumpling, the wall of flame fell to the ground. so too did the circular entrance behind him. And so, he stood there, silently and patiently as the last of the flames burnt down to a cinder. One minute passed, then two. Sometime later the last of the bright light of his flames died away and he was left in the pitch darkness of night in a forest made silent by the horror he had unleashed upon it.

This silence was broken by the sound of approaching hooves from three different directions.

"Go to Mosag." Harry ordered the three of them. "Console here."

"Why?" Bane asked.

"She is a mourning mother, and just watched us slaughter her children in a massacre that should have been avoided. And could have been easily so." Harry answered.

"How are you so sure she watched with her farsight?" Bane asked.

Harry looked at him pointedly.

"Because she is a mother. Go to her now. I have no use for warriors who cannot show humanity to their allies, no matter how effective they are. I will return for you, her and her surviving children the moment I can." Harry explained.

Seeming to accept his reasoning and his orders, the trio trotted away in the direction from whence they came. Leaving him alone with the dead.

"Why did you call on us?" Sirius asked. "It seems you could have handled all of this on your own just fine."

"A combination of my habit of constantly underestimating myself and overestimating my enemies." Harry told them.

"It is a good habit. Keep it." Alastor advised.

Harry nodded, internalizing his words so that he may never forget them. It was wisdom he had already acted o nfor some time, learning from Voldemort's constant mistake of underestimating him in particular.

"You may go now." Harry commanded.

And so, the shades of the dead left him alone surrounded by smoldering ash and coals. Even through his respirator he could taste the sickly-sweet smoke of the burning spider flesh. It was like a combination of lobster with burning hair and tires added to the mix.

What a waste of life. Each and every one of them could have been somebody. Each had the intelligence of a human, but unlike Aragog had not been raised as such. What lives could they have had if not sequestered away in the forest? If they lived in a society where they could learn, and make friends, and write stories and create magic. He wasn't delusional enough to think they could live in a society where eight-foot spiders and humans sat around a campfire singing koombaya, but one where they had their own communities within wizard society like goblins? That seemed plausible.

But no. They had to live in such a dumb world, where mer and centaur and acromantula sequestered themselves in the wild. This stupidity led to him having to put them down like the rabid animals they had become. Just as he would do to many a witch and wizard.

"Such a waste." He bemoaned.

He then turned around and continued his trip to Hogwarts.

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"Gotta go back to that Dung guy to get more soon." Albert told Wesker.

Indeed, their bag of skunk was just about to run out and their smoke breaks would have to go back to being nicotine-based instead of THC breaks. Problem being the weed smelled offensive enough to keep most of the creatures of the Forbidden Forest away. Tobacco seemed to attract a few of the nastier sort, so they would rather not go back to cigarettes.

"Well hurry up with that." Wesker told Albert. "This is the only thing that works with the knee pain that doesn't make me useless."

"Is it any good for surgery pain?" A third voice joined them.

Albert and Wesker both leapt to their feet and turned their wands towards the voice, but they were caught unawares and far too slow.

"Sectumsempra." The voice said in an almost bored tone.

The last thing Albert saw was a pair of bright, green eyes in the darkness.

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Harry stepped over the two grab-ass-playing Ministry Aurors as they and the two bisected trees beside them tumbled down to the ground with a crash. He didn't even care to destroy or search the piles of limbs and robes. They were just far enough inside the forbidden forest that nobody would come across them before the Thestrals or some other denizen therein picked the bones clean.

He hiked the remaining twenty meters or so of forest between where he'd encountered them and the grounds proper, and when his feet reached the grassy fields of Hogwarts he removed his respirator. Taking in a deep breath through his nose he devoured the smell of the wet spring air and sighed in pleasure as he gazed upon the castle. The lights were all off save those behind windows he knew belonged to teachers. The moonlight did sparkle beautifully off of the other windows all the same.

"I'm home." He whispered to himself.