"Mm. By layering enchantments and essentia, he amplified an ordinary flame to that scale. The quality is a little thin, but there's no doubt that it would make an excellent defensive spell," Grindelwald commented as he watched the huge fireball outside the window slowly fade away.
"Hogwarts really is... full of hidden talents and budding geniuses," Dumbledore said with a raised eyebrow.
"Dumbledore, do you think Harry might lose?" Hagrid slowly squeezed his way over to Dumbledore and asked quietly.
"This is a normal, fair wizarding duel. No matter which young wizard wins, we should applaud them."
"And there's a saying in the Muggle world: speed through the corners is real speed. Anyone can accelerate on a straight road. The same applies to wizarding duels."
"True strength lies in defeating your opponent as quickly as possible. Anyone can eventually produce a high-powered spell. Thomas's magic is extremely powerful for someone his age, but the wind-up is too long, so he has to use Impediment Jinxes to create the conditions he needs to cast it," Dumbledore explained softly.
Hagrid nodded thoughtfully.
As for Kasenhis on the duelling platform, he didn't care about any of that.
What was he supposed to say?
Thomas's move barely even needed aiming, while Harry had simply suffered the consequences of underestimating his opponent.
He was already in sixth year!
And he still opened with Expelliarmus.
If he didn't suffer for that, who would?
"Professor, I'm fine. Let's start the next round," Harry said after taking a moment to catch his breath.
"Mm-hm."
Kasenhis returned to the little bell and tapped it lightly.
This time, Harry had absolutely no intention of holding back.
Three consecutive Blasting Curses shattered Thomas's Shield Charm, and an Expelliarmus followed immediately after.
Without the slightest warning, Thomas's wand flew from his hand and landed steadily in Harry's.
The outcome was decided.
Even though this duel technically allowed two carbon-based lifeforms to passionately beat each other one-on-one, Thomas still had no chance of winning.
They were standing too far apart.
Maybe Barry Allen could have pulled it off.
Kasenhis took the wand from Harry's hand, inspected it briefly, then returned it to Thomas.
Thomas's face, however, had gone so dark that it looked like Lee Jordan's ancestor's face at noon on a blazing summer day when his family first crossed the sea and arrived in England.
If he had lost fair and square without any room to react, that would have been fine.
If he had been defeated by some overwhelmingly powerful spell, that would have been fine too.
But getting eliminated by what was basically a four-hit sneak attack combo...
Kasenhis didn't say anything.
Powerful magic could be learned by anyone, as long as they studied and weren't Squibs.
But defeating someone before they even had a chance to counterattack?
That really did require talent.
"Third round, begin."
He returned to the little bell and rang it with a clear chime.
This time, Thomas had learned his lesson.
Just like Harry had done before, he opened with a barrage of easy, low-difficulty spells with zero-frame starts, forcing Harry to focus entirely on dodging and leaving him no chance to counterattack.
The effect was extremely good.
Harry had excellent combat instincts, but when it came to spell application and the sheer depth of his spell repertoire, he really couldn't compete with Thomas.
After all, Thomas was one of those rare monsters who could somehow spend twenty-five hours a day in the library.
Most of the young wizards watching from below weren't particularly surprised by what they were seeing.
After all, Marcus's huge move in the first round had looked far too intimidating.
Ordinary students who had never seriously fought classmates of their own year under high-intensity conditions were very prone to one misconception:
Tall meant strong.
Big meant powerful.
And Thomas's magic was tall, strong, big, and fierce.
Harry, meanwhile, was using perfectly ordinary spells that they themselves knew how to cast.
Compared side by side, Harry's style simply looked far less impressive.
"Dumbledore, is Harry going to lose?" Hagrid asked anxiously.
"At the moment, Thomas has taken control of the tempo. If Harry wants to win, he'll have to consider staking everything on one desperate move. But this is only an ordinary wizarding duel. It isn't worth that," Dumbledore explained.
Hagrid's face visibly fell.
Seeing this, Dumbledore continued to reassure him.
"Of course, there is another way. If Harry can use a spell that is both extremely fast and extremely powerful to attack Thomas directly, then the outcome is still uncertain."
"But Harry doesn't know that kind of spell," Hagrid sighed gloomily, as though Harry's defeat had already become inevitable.
Harry on the platform, however, seemed to have somehow been reminded by Dumbledore from outside the central magical formation.
At this point, any spell with a noticeable wind-up would simply be interrupted by the machine-gun barrage of spells flying toward him.
As for spells without any wind-up, they were either too weak or their magical purity was too low. They would be disrupted by Thomas's magic and dissipate before even reaching him.
Fortunately for Harry, he happened to know one spell with a short wind-up, high power, and high intensity.
"Sectumsempra!"
The moment the words left his mouth, the entire Great Hall fell silent.
Thomas was already lying on the platform.
Harry had deliberately controlled the spell's power, only causing bleeding external wounds across Thomas's body without damaging his internal organs.
However, the blood continuously pouring from those wounds made Harry's attempt to reassure himself rather difficult.
Perhaps because this was his first time slicing someone open, Harry didn't know that even so-called superficial wounds could still make someone bleed to death.
By this point, Kasenhis had already appeared beside Thomas.
He gently helped Thomas sit up and fed him a healing potion.
Although Thomas's vitality strengthened somewhat, the wounds showed absolutely no sign of closing.
"Alright. Besides the potion, you also need... milk."
Kasenhis spent quite a while working beside Thomas before finally getting the unlucky wizard back onto his feet.
"Best of three. Obviously, you lost, Thomas," Kasenhis said softly.
The rules had already made that clear, but teenage pride was a fragile thing.
Especially when jealousy and romance were involved.
Kasenhis was genuinely worried that the boy might lose his head, pull out his wand, and start blasting Harry.
"I know, Professor. I'm going back to change my clothes first."
Thomas didn't make a scene.
He simply looked somewhat dejected and left the Great Hall at an extremely fast pace.
He had been the one to challenge Harry to this duel, and it had ended with his own defeat.
Clearly...
He no longer had the heart to remain there.
...
(～￣▽￣)～Read 12 Chapters ahead:
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