The Admiral of Hogwarts

"My dear Admiral, you are currently heading southwest of the Magic Institute," Enterprise began, reporting Hugo's tracking data after discussing the specifics of the competition.

"If there are no unforeseen circumstances, the final destination of the third match will be located in the Philippines. However, given the numerous islands there, it's difficult to pinpoint the exact location of the competition venue."

"The most concerning wild magical creatures in the Philippines are the Acromantulas, followed by a variety of snakes and insects with magical abilities."

"If everything goes as expected, the competition venue will likely contain multiple large Acromantula colonies, coupled with those dangerous monsters of the tropical region, to create enough trouble for the participants."

"Sounds quite terrible indeed." Hugo recalled the books he had read and quickly retrieved information from his memory regarding the distribution of magical creatures in the area.

"Although most of the wild creatures primarily engage in close combat, considering that using wands for magic during the competition will result in point deductions, they won't be easy to deal with."

"By the way, what are your plans for this competition? Will you be staying at the Magic Institute?" After a brief discussion about the competition venue, Hugo inquired about Enterprise's arrangements.

"Of course not. We will depart for the competition venue in two hours," Enterprise said, looking at the competition schedule that had just been handed to her.

"Also, the sisters have already set off. Because everyone is traveling on carrier-based aircraft, support forces will arrive at the destination within 15 minutes of your arrival."

A little over an hour later, the flyer carrying Hugo and the others successfully arrived on an island in the central Philippines, landing on a lake within a jungle.

On the shore of the lake, several colorful tents stood, presumably to house the spectators during the competition.

"Alright, let's go to the common lounge for half an hour," the Federation official announced to the competitors inside the flyer after it docked.

After he finished speaking, Hugo followed the others along the temporary pier, went ashore, and entered the tent to prepare for the competition.

"We have arrived, dear Commander," Hornet's voice came through the Admiral Network after completing the inspection. "We will now split into two teams, approaching the island from two directions to ensure safety."

Traditionally, the first team is known as Task Force 77, with the veterans of Pearl Harbor leading Shropshire and four German destroyer ship girls into the complex and narrow waters of the island's west, ready to respond to potential attackers launching from the western archipelago.

The second team, known as Task Force 79, centered around the aircraft carrier ship girls Formidable and Hornet, patrolling about 30 nautical miles off the eastern coastline of the Philippines.

Their area of responsibility is much larger than that of Task Force 77, so only more manpower and sufficient carrier-based aircraft can ensure that attackers do not infiltrate from the vast ocean east of the island.

"Thank you for your hard work these past few days," Hugo said through the Admiral Network, extending his gratitude to the ship girls around the competition venue.

"It's nothing. For us, being able to help you, Admiral, is enough to satisfy everyone," Hornet, who was leading the team, said. "Besides, for most of us, it feels good to revisit old grounds."

"Revisit old grounds?" After hearing Hornet's words, Hugo was initially taken aback. Then, with Enterprise's prompting, he realized that this place was the former site of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

No wonder the ship girls took such codenames after splitting into two groups, because these codenames were the call signs of the fleets that participated in the battle back then. Even the veterans of Pearl Harbor had previously used these call signs to complete the last fleet battle in human history in the Surigao Strait.

"Sounds like a good omen indeed," Hugo said in the Admiral Network after clarifying these matters. "At least we were on the winning side back then, weren't we?"

A little over two hours later, all the spectators had arrived at the competition venue. After a brief pre-match explanation, with a golden spark exploding in the air, Hugo and the other five participants were all randomly teleported to a location in the surrounding jungle by a magic array.

"Bang—Bang—" Not long after entering the jungle, Hugo used the pistol in his hand to take down two calf-sized Acromantulas that had charged at him.

This pistol was an electromagnetic pistol he had previously created using alchemy. Although electromagnetic weapons cannot be put into use in the ordinary human world due to materials, batteries, and a series of other reasons, these problems can be easily solved with magic.

In fact, since discovering that he was in the magical world of Harry Potter, Hugo had been trying to create various firearms combined with magic.

Unfortunately, the firearms created now are more like magical weapons shaped like various guns and cannons, similar to the ship girls' ship equipment, and are still limited to wizards, just like wands.

Compared to wands, these alchemical weapons are functionally simple, costly, and have a fixed upper limit. Therefore, they do not have a large market in the magical world.

However, even so, this gun is enough to deal with most enemies during this competition.

After blasting the heads off two Acromantulas with two shots, Hugo stepped forward, used a test tube to extract some venom from the Acromantulas' fangs, then took out a compass to check the direction and continued eastward.

Shortly after Hugo arrived on the island, the ship girls determined that the location of the competition was Leyte Island, an important battlefield in World War II, so they directly transmitted the detailed maps in their hands to Hugo through the Admiral Network.

And because he realized that there might be some huge troubles in this competition, Hugo immediately headed towards the nearest coastline after determining his teleported location, to ensure that he could receive support from the ship girls.

The dense vegetation of the tropical rainforest almost filled every inch of the surrounding space. Even though it was a sunny day, only a few rays of golden sunlight could penetrate the gaps in the plants and sprinkle on the ground, forming golden patches on the ground.

At the same time, because the dense vegetation has a strong sound-absorbing effect, Hugo could only occasionally hear one or two bird calls or the sound of the wind blowing the plants, in addition to the rustling sound of walking and his own panting.

Whether it was because of good luck or because the density of magical creatures around was not high, he did not encounter any dangerous creatures in the next hour of the journey, except that he felt more and more tired.

However, just as he came to a stream to relax for a while, he suddenly heard a loud noise behind him.

At the first moment of hearing the noise, Hugo raised his pistol and aimed at the place where the noise came from. As a result, he saw a girl from Beauxbatons scrambling out of a thicket, with smoke rising from several places on her body.

"Help—" Seeing Hugo suddenly appear there, the girl's eyes lit up, and then she immediately rushed towards the position where he was standing, while shouting for help, as if there was some terrible monster chasing her.