19 19 - Discovering and Improving

"Mode 5" I spoke out in a clear voice.

The 5 puppets came alive which I have seen so many times that I could describe what they look like better than myself.

They all started throwing spells at me at a faster pace than the previous mode, so quickly jumping out of the way of 4 and ducking the one that was shot right after, I fired a high-power 'Incendio' followed by a 'Stupefy' and then a 'Reducto', and this time tried a new move, I pivoted my right hand onto the ground, cartwheeled my way to the right but instead of continuing with my left hand, I pushed myself off of the ground and landed onto my feet, avoiding 3 more spells while quickly casting a shield spell that lasted longer and was easier to cast than a protego at the cost of a weaker shield, blocking 2 spells.

The first set of spells that I shot were all aimed at one puppet and while it blocked the incendio while moving out of the way of the stunner, the reducto hit it in the arm causing it to crumble and stop working.

Trying my new spell that I made, I shouted 'Diffarda!' followed by a 'Confringo'. The puppet tried blocking the first spell but when it hit the shield, it blew up causing the shield to crack into pieces, leaving it vulnerable to the next spell which blasted it to pieces, a piece hitting one of the other puppets causing its spell to miss its intended location.

As soon as I had shot those spells though, I quickly swatted another spell that came at me while side-stepping to the left while creating a shield that blocked two more spells. 'Bombarda! Confringo! Reducto! Diffarda!' the puppet tried to dodge and block them but the 4 explosive spells overwhelmed the puppet and blew it to smithereens leaving 2 remaining puppets.

Sighing, I just cast a spell that I found that created a large slash of fire. Casting it, the two puppets blocked but had their shields broken, leaving them open to a Reducto and Confringo that him them right after the slash of fire.

After beating all of the puppets, I absentmindedly walked over to Archie who was playing with some transfigured butterflies and brought him into my lap as I sat down, after a few seconds he lay down and started purring.

I was currently deep in thought, 'The puppets are useful and all but they're really easy to beat if I just use a strong AOE spell, fighting against real people and puppets are just really different once you get to the advanced parts. If I were to just cast a powerful spell that affected them all at once and lasted for more than a few seconds, they'd all just die, for example if I used fiendfyre.. well I don't know if I can actually cast it yet.. I probably could at the cost of most of my power but I highly doubt i'd be able to control it, but if I did use it, they would just burn to death in an instant, or if I use unforgivables, the puppets aren't able to transfigure and no shields can block something like the killing curse which I haven't figured out why yet.

Instead of just increasing my skill and power with normal spells I think I should focus more on my Aeritongue abilities. Considering almost nobody knows about Aerimagic in the first place, It would definitely be hard to defend against, it'd also pretty much be unique to me . From what I've read, I doubt there are more than 5 aerimouths currently alive in the world.'

Meditating and going into my mindscape, I looked around.

I've always been thinking of ways to improve my shields, I know it already had very strong defences but there's no harm in improving things.

I've made an intent ward which I'm surprised actually worked considering I can't seem to get any wards to work in real life, but this ward basically treats anybody there without my permission as an enemy and all of my defences will automatically activate without me willing them to.

So far, I have sentry guns that shoot explosive bullets at the rate of a machine gun with the magazine holding a discreet expansion charm that is full of ammo allowing it to shoot for hours without running out.

I have multiple of them in different places of my mindscape but that's not all, I worked on creating the hottest substance I could possibly create which eventually got me to the point where my flames can melt most metals in seconds, I then did the same but made the coldest thing that I could make and made it so that any intruder of my mind that makes it into my the room of my memories will be burned and frozen at the same time until they realise that they better leave my mind.

While defences in a mindscape don't work in the physical world, pain is a very real thing there, well.. if you're good enough I suppose you could cut off your feeling of pain or at least significantly reduce it so I also made it so that anybody that somehow makes it to the point of finding my memories, they'll be hit by multiple sense-enhancing spells followed shortly by cruciatus curses that, while a puppet in the real world couldn't do, in my mind they work just fine. This will cause unbearable agony for most people but if that's still not enough, I made it so that anybody who opens a book that contains a memory, will not only be attacked by cursed fire but will also be hit by a confundus charm that was as strong as I could make it which makes the person forget why they are here and want to leave.

I've also gotten better at creating fake memories which would be convincing to all apart from only the best legillimens who are specifically looking for something in particular from my mind.

To put it simply, my mind has good enough protections for now so I won't worry about my memories being found anytime soon.

..

My duelling abilities are good but that's only on a platform that has no obstacles or distractions, what I need is to add some variety into my training, I wonder if the room can do something like what i'm thinking.

'I need a place to improve my duelling' I thought 3 times and when I opened my eyes, to my delight, I was in a forest and surrounded by trees.

'I wonder if this works like the duelling arena'

"Mode 1"

All of a sudden, a spell came at me that I recognised as a stunner, quickly moving backwards and out of the spells way, I looked around for what shot the spell but found nothing.

A second later, another spell came from behind which I heard being shot and also felt it coming at me instinctively.

Ducking, I didn't have time to think before another stunner came flying from in front of me that appeared seemingly in thin air.

At this point I decided to start running, using the trees as cover.

'There are no puppets to shoot at this time, I wonder what I have to do to win.

Every couple of seconds I was shot at from random directions with stunners. This lasted for 5 minutes before I found myself back in the room I was in previously.

'Phew, that was a lot more fun than the puppets, if I increase the difficulty I'll definitely start improving at a faster rate than before. The ROR is even more impressive than I thought, I wonder how it emulates a natural outside environment, it felt completely real as if I was in a forest.'

Skipping mode 2 and 3, I directly activated 'Mode 4' and found myself in a similar forest as last time. Not letting my guard down for even a second, I kept my senses peeled for even the slightest glimpse of a spell.

A second later, a purple bolt came at me at a very fast speed which if not for my honed reflexes and good physical agility and strength, definitely would've hit me in the head, without even a pause, another spell that was a pale blue came at my knees which I quickly spread apart, causing it to fly between my legs.

At this point, I decided to start running through the un-level and rough terrain. I continuously, weaved, ducked and blocked spells while concentrating on every bit of my surroundings to make sure I don't get hit.

This lasted for 8 minutes before I was back inside the room, panting heavily. 'This is so much more exhausting than the duelling platform.'

After 30 seconds of controlling my breathing, I got back up and activated 'Mode 5'

Another part of the forest that was definitely slightly different than last time greeted me where I was immediately forced to dodge an unknown spell, without waiting any longer I ran through the trees, trying to move the most optimal course that gives me the most cover from spells that would be hard to dodge or block while constantly on the lookout for anything coming at me at high-speeds.

This time, I lasted 4 minutes and 30 seconds before I tripped over a tree stump while I tried to block a spell. One purple spell hit me causing me to become confused temporarily which only lasted for a brief moment as I came back to myself with my master level skill in occlumency, though I had no time to dodge or block before another spell hit me blowing me back and causing me to slam against a tree and finally another hit me in the chest which befuddled all of my senses.

When I came back to myself, I realised I was lying on the floor in the middle of the room which I like to call 'My Study' and Archie was lying on my stomach, purring away.

'I am completely exhausted.'