In the end, the helpless Harry and Ron decided not to go upstairs and disturb Kasenhis's sleep.
Of course, if they had gone upstairs, they definitely would have alerted Orlant, who was teaching, and Thomas, who was being taught.
The former would have been fine.
But the latter...
Letting your duelling opponent find out that you had secretly come to a professor for private tutoring in the middle of the night would be incredibly embarrassing!
With no other choice, the two returned to their dormitory...
"Looks like we'll have to keep learning magic from the Half-Blood Prince," Ron sighed helplessly.
"That's not necessarily a bad thing, is it? If I hadn't accidentally lost my Potions textbook when I bought my books before the start of term, I never would have found the Half-Blood Prince's book in the used section. Our Potions grades wouldn't be this high, and I wouldn't have anywhere else to learn magic either," Harry said with a relaxed shrug.
"That's true. What kind of tricks do you think Orlant will teach Thomas?" Ron suddenly asked.
"Orlant is Professor Kasenhis's student. Probably some kind of alchemical magic?" Ron stroked his chin as he answered.
"But didn't Professor Kasenhis say alchemical equipment wasn't allowed?"
"Professor doesn't really use much alchemical equipment when he fights either. Doesn't he basically conquer the world with Alchemy itself?"
"...No. I need to hurry back and study! If I lose this, I'll be completely humiliated!"
...
Half a week passed in the blink of an eye, and Friday soon arrived.
The house-elves had specially rearranged the tables and chairs in the Great Hall into something resembling spectator stands.
The food had also been changed into convenient finger foods so the young wizards could simply grab something with their hands and put it straight into their mouths without needing cutlery, allowing them to keep their eyes fixed on Harry and Thomas's wizarding duel the entire time.
It could be said that everyone at Hogwarts was looking forward to this duel, regardless of year or House.
Harry's Defence Against the Dark Arts grades had never been low from his first year all the way to the present, and when it came to his very unofficial, in-person fights with other Hogwarts students, he genuinely had never lost once.
No matter who the opponent was, even older students had never gotten an easy win against Harry.
The reason was simple.
Their fighting styles and objectives were completely different.
The goal of an ordinary young wizard in a duel was to defeat the opponent while protecting themselves.
Harry's combat philosophy, however, was to kill the opponent at any cost, even if he had to die with them.
Naturally, there were some adjustments in actual practice.
For example, "kill the opponent" could be downgraded to "beat the opponent half to death."
He occupied the ecological niche of the maniac who wasn't afraid to die, the kind that even reckless people feared.
Thomas, meanwhile, was one of Hogwarts' many hardcore overachievers.
He learned quickly and mastered things thoroughly.
Although he hadn't spent most of his first through sixth years constantly brawling with classmates and matching wits against professors and Dark wizards like Harry had, he had still mastered plenty of highly destructive magic.
Watching this duel was basically equivalent to attending two Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons.
A raised platform had appeared in the centre of the Great Hall early on.
Kasenhis had specially built it out of Netherite blocks.
At the moment, he was standing right in the middle, waiting for Harry and Thomas to come up while eating a burrito.
A little dry.
So he took out a bucket of milk, hugged it against his chest, and started gulping it down.
Before long, the bell rang from the centre of the constantly rotating gyroscope hanging above the Hogwarts Great Hall.
Harry and Thomas simultaneously stepped out of the crowd and climbed onto the platform.
"Observe proper wizarding etiquette. Bow to each other to show respect," Kasenhis said after finishing the last bite of his burrito.
The two obeyed.
Kasenhis then pulled a small golden bell from his pocket and struck it with a clear clang.
The very next instant, Harry revealed that he had inherited the shared true technique of every Dark Arts master throughout history.
A zero-frame opening attack!
The red light of Expelliarmus shot straight toward Thomas and was blocked by his Shield Charm.
At some point, Kasenhis had already left the platform and was now standing among the professors.
"Who do you think will win?" Dumbledore asked leisurely.
"If we're talking purely about magic and ignoring combat intelligence, then I'd say Thomas. Because I never want to know just how many decapitation spells Orlant has taught him during this period," Kasenhis replied slowly.
"You don't sound very confident," Dumbledore said, raising an eyebrow.
Kasenhis nodded.
"Because you never know what kind of head-losing stunt Harry might pull either!"
While the two of them were talking, the platform was suddenly split into two separate areas by multiple Impediment Jinxes, while Harry kept using Confringo and Finite Incantatem to remove the obstacles.
However, Thomas had apparently modified the obstacle magic somehow. A single Finite Incantatem could only remove one obstacle at a time.
If Harry relied solely on Finite Incantatem to clear a path, there was no telling how long it would take.
In the end, Harry simply transformed into Patrick Star and fully embraced the principle that art was explosion.
One Blasting Curse after another went crashing into the obstacles.
Thomas, meanwhile, calmly began chanting.
Runes from the enchanted book flowed out through the movements of his wand.
Essentia from the Thaumic Age was continuously summoned from the void, while various elements combined with the runes and essentia to form an intricate magical array resembling a gyroscope.
In the end, ring after ring of magic evenly settled around his wand.
The killing and explosive aura radiating from them was so intense that even a first-year with the lowest magical sensitivity could feel it.
"This spell..." Dumbledore frowned. "Shouldn't we stop this now?"
Kasenhis raised an eyebrow.
"You might not understand the spell, but I do. Relax. It's only a moderately powerful single-target spell."
"Can Harry block it?" Dumbledore asked.
Kasenhis shrugged.
"I can."
The instant he finished speaking, Harry finally cleared out an open space in the obstacles.
Panting heavily, he was completely exposed within Thomas's line of fire.
The next moment, a brilliant crimson beam shot straight toward Harry.
Boom!
On the platform in the middle of the Great Hall, Thomas remained standing on one half with his wand in hand.
The other half of the platform, however, could no longer be seen at all.
A pitch-black sphere of light had completely enveloped it.
"Did Harry die?" Ron muttered blankly, his mouth hanging wide open.
"Don't talk. Professor Kasenhis isn't standing beside Dumbledore anymore!" Hermione hurriedly reminded him.
Sure enough, the black sphere covering half the platform suddenly began to shrink.
Smaller and smaller.
Smaller and smaller.
Until finally, it became a marble-sized black glass sphere resting in Kasenhis's hand.
"First round, Thomas wins."
After saying that, Kasenhis waved a hand.
The nearest window opened.
Then he flicked his finger and sent the tiny black sphere flying into the sky.
BOOM!!!!!!!
"Didn't the sun already set?"
Steve, who had been telling stories to the portraits, stared blankly out the window at the sun that had flashed into existence for a brief instant.
"Oh. Maybe I imagined it."
...
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