As more and more Acromantulas swarmed in from all directions through the dense forest trees, their clicking pincers were creating a nightmarish, chittering noise, Ron was already far too frightened to even speak. His mouth opened and closed repeatedly, moving like a fish out of water.
Hermione's wand hand trembled despite her very best attempts to keep it steady and controlled. Cold sweat appeared on her forehead.
And even the relatively experienced Harry who had faced numerous dangers from Dragons to Dementors felt a distinct chill run down his spine like ice water being poured. He had never, ever seen such a massive colony of Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest before in all his previous visits and adventures here!
The sheer number was overwhelming, almost incomprehensible. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds seem to be approaching through the shadows.
This was genuinely his first time dealing with so many enormous spiders simultaneously at once, and the sheer overwhelming number of gleaming crimson eyes surrounding them from every direction made his stomach clench with dread and his heart pound against his ribs.
And his friends were behind him, depending on him for protection and survival.
He quickly said to Hermione standing tensely beside him, trying desperately to keep his voice calm rather than revealing his own fear. "Protect Ron! Keep him behind us at all times!"
Ron's greatest fear in the entire world was spiders, Harry had always remembered that fact. He couldn't even look at pictures of spiders in textbooks without going pale and shaky.
Just as Harry calmly raised his wand to cast a powerful area-effect fire spell that might scare them back, a massive black shadow suddenly lunged at him with terrifying speed from the left through the air with a whoosh like a thrown boulder.
Too fast!
Far, far too fast for something so large and heavy!
This was clearly one of the giant colony leaders!
With Ron behind him and no room to maneuver in the tight space between trees, Harry couldn't dodge or sidestep without completely abandoning his friend to the spiders.
He could only hastily cast a Shield Charm with a desperately shouted "Protego!"
The transparent, shimmering magical barrier barely managed to hold the massive spider back temporarily, though the creature's enormous weight pressed hard against the shield.
Harry could feel the crack and strain. But immediately after, before he could possibly reinforce the weakening spell or cast another, more black shadows surged forward aggressively in a pack attack.
"BOOM!"
The ground suddenly shook with tremendous force, nearly knocking all three of them completely over. Several thick, sharp objects resembling tree roots burst explosively from the earth showering the area in dirt and stones, impaling three of the leading giant spiders.
The spiders screeched horribly, their eight legs curled and turned as they died quickly.
Then, three giant figures emerged from the depths of the darker forest beyond where the trees grew thicker, striding forward with large, earth-shaking steps that made the ground tremble and sent birds fleeing from nearby trees.
Treants!
The one in the very front leading the other two was unmistakably Bart, though his body appeared even larger and more imposing than Harry clearly remembered from their previous encounter.
The other two treants following behind him were slightly smaller in overall height but were still absolutely massive and their general appearance closely resembled Bart's.
"Bart!" Harry called out in delighted surprise and immense, overwhelming relief. "Thank Merlin you're here!"
The thick roots that had just brutally impaled the attacking spiders with such precision were undoubtedly the treants' magic.
Bart didn't respond immediately with words or rather, he responded with instant action.
His thick, branch-like arm swung in a wide, powerful arc, directly sending two lunging Acromantulas flying more than ten meters away through the air like rag dolls. They crashed brutally into distant tree trunks with teeth-grindingly sharp cracking sounds.
The other two treants accompanying Bart lifted their massive root-entangled feet and stomped down heavily crushing several more spiders into pulp with wet, squishing sounds that made Ron turn even paler.
The violent battle between the treants and the aggressive spider colony was almost entirely a one-sided slaughter, barely qualifying as a legitimate fight at all.
The Acromantulas' venomous fangs and pincers could barely scratch or damage the thick bark of the treants' bodies, while each of the treants' attacks, whether stomping, swinging, or impaling with roots, claimed at least one life every single time.
In just a few brutal, efficient minutes of ferocity, the aggressive spider colony suffered absolutely devastating casualties. Not a single spider remained alive in the area or managed to escape into the forest. The treants were clearly intent on complete and total extermination, showing absolutely no mercy at all to the invading creatures.
After efficiently dealing with all the attacking spiders in the area, Bart turned his wooden head toward Harry with an honest smile. "Hello there, Hairy Potter! Good to see you!"
Harry breathed a sigh of relief.
This was indeed Bart himself, he hadn't mistaken him for some other, possibly hostile treant.
He hurried forward eagerly, stepping carefully over spider corpses. "What's going on here? Why are there so many Acromantulas gathered in this area? They're usually much further east!"
Hermione also cautiously lowered her wand and walked over more slowly, pulling along the thoroughly shaken and pale-faced Ron who seemed barely able to walk on his trembling legs. She likewise looked up at the tall treant with questioning eyes that were already trying to understand the situation.
"We're driving them out!" Bart explained lightly, as though discussing something as simple and ordinary as weeding a garden.
"Treants need their own proper, secure living space to grow healthily and thrive properly. Master says the spiders are completely useless creatures that serve no ecological purpose and only bring chaos, danger, and death to the forest, so we're cleaning up our home territory section by section."
Ron stared blankly up at Bart with something like religious worship in his expression. "I completely agree with absolutely everything you just said. You'd better eliminate every single one of those horrible spiders. Every last one of them."
"That's exactly what Master said," Bart responded, seeming genuinely pleased and validated by this enthusiastic agreement. He waved his leafy branches at his two companions standing patiently behind him. "Take all the corpses back to the clearing."
Harry naturally had absolutely no fondness for Acromantulas either.
By comparison, Bart was obviously far, far friendlier, more trustworthy, and considerably safer to be around.
At least the treant wouldn't want to eat them alive or wrap them in sticky silk for later feeding.
"Have you successfully eliminated all the spiders in this entire section of forest?" Harry asked with interest and a bit of awe as he watched the two smaller treants begin using their flexible branches to drag the massive spider corpses with surprising ease despite their weight.
"There are terrifyingly many spiders living here. Do you need any help?"
"These are actually the very last ones in this territory," Bart's tone remained relaxed and entirely unconcerned about the scope of the task.
"The large nests and main colonies have already been completely cleaned out. Only a few hiding stragglers remain scattered about in the deeper parts. Oh, right... you should definitely come with us to the settlement. Master is currently in our territory right now, probably waiting."
Harry nodded agreeably, curious to see what Adrian was doing.
Adrian's frequent presence in the Forbidden Forest didn't surprise him at all anymore as recently, when Harry went to the office looking for him during free periods, half the time or more Adrian was mysteriously absent, presumably here in the forest doing exactly this kind of work.
The three students followed Bart carefully through the treant-controlled area, while Ron felt deeply grateful that he wouldn't have to face those terrible spiders again anytime soon, possibly ever.
The three humans weren't moving very fast on foot through the rough, uneven terrain littered with roots and rocks, so Bart simply reached down and hoisted them carefully onto his broad shoulders for the journey, settling them against his trunk.
Bart's shoulders were surprisingly quite comfortable for sitting, even equipped with soft, leafy cushions that seemed deliberately placed for passengers, it was probably Adrian's doing.
Unfortunately, Harry could still faintly smell the lingering unpleasant odor of spider corpses and their fluids on Bart's bark from recent battles, which made the pleasant journey considerably less perfect.
About five minutes later of walking through the forest.
The three visitors finally arrived at the edge of a small, remarkably clear lake that reflected the canopy above like a mirror. There was an extremely wide clearing here stretching out in front of them which was much, much larger than when Harry had last visited this general area.
It was as if some invisible powerful force had forcibly expanded the clearing out.
The ground was remarkably level and well-maintained, clearly worked by many hands or roots, with only some scattered weeds growing here and there in patches. Besides that natural growth, there was only exposed dark, rich soil that looked fertile and some scattered wood debris from construction or clearing work.
But most absolutely shocking and attention-grabbing were the numerous moving figures visible throughout the clearing, working on various tasks.
Treants of various sizes and shapes, some tall and willowy like birches, others short and thick like oaks, were walking back and forth here, engaged in what looked like organized community tasks.
Undoubtedly, these treants all belonged to the same tribe or extended family as Bart.
"These are the treants you mentioned to me?" Ron asked in an awed whisper, patting Harry's shoulder with a shaking hand. "There are far, far more of them than I expected from your descriptions."
"Um... there were only two the last time I personally visited," Harry answered honestly while looking around in pure amazement at the bustling, organized community.
There were at least several dozen treants visible here now working on various tasks.
Needless to say, this must certainly be Professor Westeros's recent handiwork, no wonder he could never be found in his office during daytime.
"I have an important taxonomical question," Hermione suddenly spoke up with interest. "Are they a completely new tribe or perhaps even an entirely new species? Should they be properly classified as animals or plants in standard taxonomy?"
"Bart definitely photosynthesizes during the day," Harry shrugged. "Apart from some fertilizer and water for nutrients, they don't actually eat anything at all."
Hermione nodded thoughtfully and continued carefully observing the treants with fascination.
From time to time, treants carrying massive, still-twitching Acromantula corpses on their shoulders would silently pass by them, piling those spine-chilling trophies in a designated corner of the clearing.
"These are all Bart's subordinates and followers," Bart announced with pride, lifting his head high, if the trunk counted as a head, nearly throwing the three off his shoulder with the sudden movement. "That one over there carrying logs is Groot, the one working in the far corner is Moras, the one that just passed by us is Shalala..."
Bart rattled off enthusiastically a long string of simple names, each one seeming quite casual and straightforward.
Harry figured with reasonable certainty that Bart must have named them all himself, possibly based on sounds he personally liked or found easy.
"Where is Professor Westeros?" Harry asked, looking around carefully for the familiar figure. "Is he actually here?"
"Oh, you mean Master?" At the mention of Adrian's name, Bart excitedly shook his entire leafy canopy strongly, creating a loud rustling sound. "Master went to visit the neighbors about an hour ago. He said he'll be back very soon."
'Neighbors?' Harry thought with confusion.
He was slightly taken aback, then automatically looked toward the growing pile of Acromantula corpses nearby.
If the neighbors weren't these aggressive spiders being eliminated, then what other creatures could they possibly be in this area?
Harry's unspoken question was quickly answered just moments later.
Because the very next second, Adrian appeared casually from between the trees not far away, and beside him walked a... centaur?
The neighbors were centaurs?
That actually made more sense!
Harry nodded slightly in understanding. He knew that there was a centaur tribe living somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, and he had seen various traces and tracks of centaurs a few times before during his visits.
However, when the man and the horse gradually approached closer, coming into clearer view, Harry couldn't help but freeze completely in absolute shock at what he saw.
The centaur had reddish-brown fur covering his body, but his thick mane and chest were now heavily splattered with dark, blackened blood that had dried.
Even more horrifying and immediately noticeable was that he only had a left arm remaining intact.
Where his right arm should have naturally connected to his shoulder, there was now a massive fresh wound which was terrible to look at.
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