In the Shadow of Power - Hogwarts Legacy

Chapter 15

The knight's large sword came crashing down as Alayna dodged behind one of the nearby pillars. She pressed her back up against it, breathing heavily.

"Merlin, why did they put one of these in here?" she shouted. "It's five times the size of a troll!" No matter that she was going to have to figure out how to defeat this thing anyway. Would her spells even work against something that big? Only one way to find out.

Running between two of the pillars, Alayna fired off two Confringo spells. The blasts of fire impacted hard against the knight and while they did not appear to do much damage, they did knock it off balance.

"Okay, okay. That worked," Alayna muttered as she hid behind the next pillar. "Maybe..." She peeked around the pillar to see what damage she had inflicted and ended up with barely enough time to duck as the sword came crashing down toward her again. The pillar cracked above her from the impact. One more hit and it would likely collapse. If she didn't figure something out, she would eventually run out of pillars to hide behind.

"Think, Alayna, think." She placed her hands on her head thinking of all she had in her arsenal: ancient magic and the spells she knew. Ancient magic seemed like it would be the most useful here, if she could think of a good way to use it.

The sword dragged along the ground as the knight picked it back up and prepared for another swing. Staying behind her current pillar was not a good option, so Alayna made another dash and fired Confringo at the knight. With its sword raised, it halted before swinging and slowly turned towards the next pillar she hid behind. As she ducked behind it, she eyed the last one and the cracks that had formed along it. It was already weakened, maybe she could pull it down on top of the knight or throw it at it. She wasn't sure she could lift something that heavy, but there was always a chance.

Alayna stepped out from behind the pillar and focused her attention on the cracks, imagining them splitting apart further. Ancient magic flowed through her down to her fingertips, through her wand, and then latched onto the pillar itself. There was a creak of stone on stone while the knight prepared to bring its sword down on top of her. As it swung, the top portion of the pillar broke free from its base. Alayna did her best to fling it in the knight's direction, but let gravity do the rest of the work as it crashed down on top of it.

The knight fumbled under the impact of the pillar, falling to one knee and dropping its sword. Alayna saw the opportunity and redirected her ancient magic towards the sword. Already, her power was waning and she struggled to lift the sword just barely. She focused every ounce of power she had into one final throw. The sword cracked through the chest of the knight and as Alayna nearly fell to one knee herself, it burst into pieces that melted away. She breathed heavily, watching as an archway formed in the middle of the platform.

"Haha, take that!" she shouted and laughed. She wished Professor Fig had been there to see it. Although, she was exhausted now and hoped that would be the last of any fighting she would be doing for a while.

Through the archway was another large room. Straight ahead was an enormous statue of Percival Rackham's upper torso wrapped around a pensieve. It looked like he was protecting it, but as Alayna stepped closer she watched as a familiar silver thread formed from one of the statues eyes and dropped into the pensieve below. Another memory then.

As Alayna stepped closer, however, a swirl of ancient magic emerged from the pensieve and floated above it. In the center was a glowing, morphing ball of something, not quite ancient magic, but something else. Not sure what else to do with it, she reached out to take it in her hand. It felt odd, like holding a beating heart in her hand as it wriggled and squirmed.  She tucked it away in her pocket for now, hoping she would get more answers about it later. Although considering how many answers she'd gotten so far she wasn't expecting much.