Chapter 223: Wizard Legends
Before long, eight champions had been decided.
The first-year champion was naturally Ron Weasley from Gryffindor. The remaining winners, however, came from every different house.
Second year champion: Cho Chang of Ravenclaw.
Third year champion: Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff.
Fourth year champion: Mason Crawford of Ravenclaw.
Fifth year champion: Percy Weasley of Gryffindor.
Sixth year champion: Felix Rosier of Slytherin.
Seventh year champion: Gemma Farley of Slytherin.
As for the professors' division, the champion was unsurprisingly Minerva McGonagall.
All of them were visibly excited, eagerly awaiting the rewards promised by the Dark Moon Circus.
Truthfully, compared to the Galleons, what interested them even more was the mysterious grand prize.
Everyone knew that whatever the Dark Moon Circus considered a "special reward" was bound to be worth far more than fifty Galleons.
Ron, however, was the exact opposite.
Though he was curious about the mystery prize too, the main reason he entered the tournament had always been those fifty gold Galleons.
As host, George led the eight champions onto the award platform. One by one, he handed them heavy bags filled with fifty gold Galleons, along with beautifully wrapped boxes.
"Go ahead and open them," George said with a broad grin, already imagining the uproar that would follow.
Unexpectedly, after opening the boxes, most of the winners looked confused instead of excited.
Cho and Cedric had already heard about the product beforehand, so neither seemed particularly surprised.
The others, however, had absolutely no idea what they were holding.
After all, the wizarding world had never seen anything like it before.
"What is this?" Ron asked curiously, lifting one of the cards from the top of the stack.
"It looks like… cards?"
The artwork depicted a heroic warrior clad in shining armor, wielding a wand in one hand and a ruby-encrusted sword in the other.
More astonishingly, the figure wasn't static.
Like the portraits in wizard photographs, the warrior constantly moved—casting spells one moment, then swinging his blade to cut down enemies the next.
"This," George announced proudly, "is the Dark Moon Circus's newest product."
"It's called Wizard Legends—an entirely new battle game."
"In the base set, there are currently four playable characters."
"The Four Founders of Hogwarts: Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin."
"You can play as any one of them and battle against other players."
The Slytherins looked slightly displeased that Slytherin had been introduced last, but the moment they heard they could actually play as Salazar Slytherin himself, they immediately craned their necks to get a better look at the cards.
"As for the champions' rewards," George continued, "each winner receives a prebuilt deck themed after their own house."
"Of course, if you're unhappy with your deck, you can exchange it with me."
Although he said that casually, nobody dared take him up on the offer in public.
Who would willingly insult their own house in front of the entire school?
"So this one is Gryffindor, right?" Ron asked, holding his card high.
"Exactly," George nodded. "Gryffindor specializes in transforming courage into raw combat power."
"Though just explaining it probably isn't enough for everyone to understand."
"So Fred and I are going to give you all a proper demonstration."
Fred Weasley and George carried over a massive table covered by a dark cloth.
When they pulled the cloth away, the crowd gasped.
Beneath it stood an exquisitely crafted battlefield board.
George's side resembled a land of erupting volcanoes, rivers of lava glowing beneath jagged black stone.
Fred's side, meanwhile, was a frozen tundra covered in snow and ice.
Fire and ice.
Two completely opposite worlds facing one another.
"For this demonstration," George announced dramatically, "I'll be using Hufflepuff."
"And Fred," he said with a grin, "will be using Gryffindor."
The two of them stood on opposite sides of the board, laughing and joking as they slid their cards into the card slots before slamming down the character cards that represented their chosen classes.
"Each player's deck contains thirty cards," George announced.
A lion's roar erupted across the hall, followed immediately by the deep cry of a badger.
The figures of Godric Gryffindor and Helga Hufflepuff leapt out from their cards and materialized before the twins like living beings.
The crowd exploded into gasps of astonishment.
"To pull this off," Hermione Granger muttered in awe, "you'd need advanced Transfiguration and knowledge of alchemy at the same time… Merlin, I still have so much to learn."
As usual, Hermione's attention focused on entirely different things than everyone else's.
But the entrance animation wasn't over yet.
With the sharp metallic ring of a sword leaving its sheath, Gryffindor drew his blade and pointed it toward Hufflepuff.
"The first flame of Hogwarts shall be lit by the sword!"
Not to be outdone, Hufflepuff raised her wand as the sounds of rustling wheat fields and bubbling cauldrons echoed through the hall.
Green plants swayed gently around her while she stirred the potion brewing before her.
"Food and potions alike are powers meant to heal the world."
Above both characters floated glowing numbers representing their health totals: thirty.
The numbers blended naturally into their backgrounds.
Hufflepuff's health, for example, was wrapped within twisting vines.
"As everyone can see," Fred began explaining, "each player starts with thirty health. If your health reaches zero, you lose the match."
"Each player begins by drawing four cards. The player who goes second gets an extra card, as well as a special Magic Galleon that grants one temporary mana crystal."
A golden coin suddenly appeared in midair, spinning rapidly before landing face-up on Gryffindor's crest.
"My turn," Fred Weasley declared as he drew a card.
"At the start of your turn, you draw one card."
A glowing star immediately appeared beside Gryffindor.
"This is a mana crystal," Fred explained. "Mana crystals are extremely important. Players start with one, gain one more each turn up to a maximum of ten, and all spent mana is fully restored at the beginning of your next turn."
Russell's original design had been intentionally conservative, modeled after the early versions of Hearthstone before the expansions.
Fred revealed a card depicting an armored knight.
In the top-left corner was the number one.
At the bottom were two additional numbers: one and one.
"The number at the top shows the mana cost needed to play the card," Fred explained. "The bottom-left number is attack power, while the bottom-right number is health."
"Go forth, clumsy knight!"
Fred flung the card into the air.
A streak of light landed before Gryffindor, materializing into a slightly awkward-looking armored knight.
"Newly summoned followers can't attack until the next turn," Fred continued. "So I'll end my turn here."
Then, as though suddenly remembering something, he turned toward the gathered students with a grin.
"Oh right, almost forgot. The characters can also use emotes."
He tapped the "Greeting" option with his wand.
"Tighten your grip on your sword, my friend!"
Gryffindor nodded toward Hufflepuff in salute.
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