Oh!
Fairy Lotus clapped her hands excitedly, saying,
“This will be much more fun now. So, what have you all encountered so far?”
The situation is like this, there are a total of four secret realms here, which should be established for four teams. After conquering each secret realm, one should be able to obtain something that can melt the ice blocks.
So, they only need to choose a relatively easier challenge center to conquer.
"So, who would like to share first?"
The proposal was adopted by the group, and Wiktor became spirited. He said eagerly.
"Let's start with us first--"
Harry also said eagerly, he really wants to figure out how to deal with the two terrifying stone giants.
Hermione did not object to Harry; she waved her hand at the others.
"You can come with us into the secret realm. This will make it clearer."
So, following Hermione and Harry, the group moved towards their stone door.
A flash of light, and the group appeared in the duel arena, even Fairy Lotus came to see the commotion.
"There are two huge stone giants over there. Oh, we can go up close and take a look, as long as we don't attack it, it won't move."
Harry said, leading the group close to the stone giant.
The slippery ice surface made Cedric and Luna struggle to move, but Wiktor and Fairy Lotus seemed to walk on it as if it were flat ground.
"Oh, we spend most of our year in such an environment."
Facing Hermione's confusion, Wiktor explained.
"I'm very good at ice skating."
Fairy Lotus raised her nose and smiled, saying.
When the enormous body of the stone giant came into view, those seeing it for the first time all drew in a breath of cool air.
"How do you plan to deal with them?"
Cedric asked in awe.
"There are two ways the stone giants attack. It will launch stone eggs at those who attack it, a total of three times, then it will lift up the ground and raise a large ice block to strike people, also a total of three times. There is a five-second interval between each attack."
Harry said, pointing to the higher wall,
"Hermione has thought of a plan. We climbed onto the wall, so the stone eggs can't reach us, and the ice blocks aren't hard to dodge. Just pay attention to its movements."
"So, how did you fail?"
Fairy Lotus asked out of curiosity.
"We did indeed defeat one of the stone giants."
Harry frowned in confusion and said,
"But the stone giant quickly returned to its original form and entered a state of madness. In this state, it will continue to use the ground to raise ice blocks to attack, without any pause. After it has recovered, it will start moving, and before that, it will remain stationary."
Everyone imagined the terrible situation when the stone giant enters a state of madness, and they couldn't help but shiver slightly.
"There's a possibility..."
Wiktor furrowed his brow and slowly said,
"You have to deal with two stone giants at the same time. I mean, beat them both?"
Harry's eyes widened immediately, and he seemed to understand everything.
"After experiencing the failure just now, I have indeed thought of this possibility."
Hermione's expression didn't show any surprise, she pursed her lips and her eyes showed sorrow,
"Defeating them simultaneously means that Harry and I need to take on one each. Considering we also have to dodge the stone eggs and ice blocks, the time we have for attacks will be reduced, and the magical energy consumption will increase. It's probably difficult to solve them within the time it takes to replenish our warmth."
The group nodded in agreement, approving of Hermione's words.
But Wiktor looked carefully at the two stone giants distributed on both sides of the axis, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"So--"
After a long time, Wiktor sighed,
"Let's go to my realm."
The group then went to the secret realm Wiktor had chosen.
The portal stone door sent them to a rough, snow-covered mountainous terrain.
Between a pile of rugged stones and tall snow cedars, there was a circular area with a flat stone brick of about fifty feet in diameter. There were also several winding and twisted mountain roads leading to the square on one side and into the foggy snow on the other.
In the center of the area is a circular stone platform, and in the center of that is a lighthouse slightly taller than Cedric, with a candleholder lit on top.
"Oh, don't go up there!"
Curious Harry wanted to climb onto the stone platform to get a closer look at the lighthouse, but Wiktor pulled him back,
"Once you step onto the platform, they will appear!"
"They?" Harry widened his eyes, "What are they?"
"There's everything!"
Wiktor said irritably,
"House-trained gnomes, fairies, centaurs, werewolves. Oh, and some others, I'm not sure if they are vampires or not."
Seeing the shocked expressions of the crowd, Wiktor quickly explained.
"Oh, they're not real! I mean, they're all created with transformation magic—moving ice sculptures. They will appear from these paths around the square, one wave after another, increasing in number!"
"What have they done?"
Fairy Lotus asked out of interest.
"They will attack the lighthouse."
Wiktor's eyes were dark and his tone was melancholic.
"As soon as the lighthouse completely collapses, the challenge is considered a failure, and the stone platform will sink into the ground, requiring a five-minute wait before attempting the next challenge."
"It seems like you're supposed to protect the lighthouse?"
Cedric gave his own judgment.
"That's correct--"
Wiktor nodded.
"But if you attack those ice sculptures, just wait and see, they will immediately release some of their own to counter you. Their attack methods are diverse, believe me, it's not going to be easy!"
"But how can we win?"
Hermione asked with a furrowed brow.
Wiktor shook his head, but pointed to the half-candle inserted into the candleholder on the lighthouse.
"I haven't succeeded, but I guess it's from the start of the challenge until the candle burns normally."
Wiktor described once again the never-ending number and attack frequency of the ice sculptures that launched the attacks, making everyone wince in pain.
There is no doubt that this challenge can't be completed by a single person, it requires several people to cooperate. Unfortunately, Demsterland is left with only Wiktor, which is why he has to seek cooperation.
"So, it's our turn now."
Cedric sighed and said.
The group rushed through scenes again and arrived in the secret realm that had tormented Cedric and Luna to the point of being 'half-dead'.
After entering the stone door, a stone pillar carved with lions, hedgehogs, eagles and snakes was the first thing everyone saw. A basketball-sized orange orb was suspended above it.
"I heard that Professor Brain taught Defense Against the Dark Arts for Professor Lupin last year. That was when he taught you how to deal with Hinkypunk, right? Did he teach you to use those small boats?"
Cedric turned to Harry and Hermione, asking, and after receiving affirmative answers from the two, he sighed and pointed to the small boat moored on the shore of the lake behind the stone column.
"I guess that's the right one."
They were now at the lakeside, where the sky was dark as if it were night, and the lake was also enveloped in darkness, illuminated only by an undefined blue orb floating on the water surface in front of them.
This blue orb changed every so often, spreading out to a distance that their eyes could no longer see, like a winding and crooked glowing path.
"What do we need to do?"
Harry looked at Luna.
"Oh, it's actually quite interesting!"
Luna said in a cheerful voice,
"When we touch the orange orb on this stone column, it will float towards the lake, and all we have to do is follow it."
"The orange orb will move forward along a fixed route, see -"
Cedric pointed to the slightly swaying blue orb floating in the air,
"We need to keep up with the orange orb; if we fall too far behind, we will fail. I think the distance is about thirty feet."
"What happens if we fail?"
Harry was engrossed in listening.
"The orange orb will return to the stone column, and this boat will also automatically return."
Cedric said, noticing the hesitant expression on Harry's face and smiled weakly,
"It doesn't sound too difficult, does it? Well, the energy cost to make the boat move forward isn't that much. But if we encounter whirlpools or strong winds that can overturn the boat along the way, some aquatic creatures attacking us from below, believe me, Harry, falling into the water under such weather conditions is not pleasant."
