Chapter 213: Duel with Strife

Hermione finally witnessed what it was like for a top-tier Auror to fight.

Her quick casting and continuous spells were not without effect on her opponent.

However, despite her rapid casting speed, her opponent was not much slower than her.

Strife Graves truly deserved his reputation as a top-tier Auror. He had done his homework in advance.

Upon learning that his casting speed could not match the girl in front of him, he immediately cast the Shield Charm at the start of the battle.

Hermione quickly used the Disarming Charm, followed immediately by a Stunning Spell.

However, these spells seemed to hit an invisible wall upon reaching Strife, blocked in front of him.

Thus, the Auror stood there, shielded like a turtle in its shell, deflecting Hermione's attacks again and again without moving an inch.

Hermione, being inexperienced, encountered such a resilient opponent for the first time.

While attacking, she pondered how to break through this layer of defense.

However, in a moment of hesitation, her opponent seized the opportunity. 

Taking advantage of a brief pause in Hermione's assault, Strife swiftly launched a counterattack. 

Disarming Charm, Stunning Spell, Full Body-Bind Curse, these spells shot at Hermione like raindrops from Strife's wand.

Hermione's distraction lasted only a moment, and she quickly realized the shift in the situation.

Despite feeling a bit flustered by the sudden reversal, Hermione was equipped with strong defensive techniques taught by Alaric.

This prevented her from disgracefully losing to a simple barrage of continuous attacks.

Swinging her wand like a skilled swordsman deflecting arrows, Hermione parried Strife's spells one by one.

She also moved swiftly, gracefully dodging some wayward spells while counterattacking.

This forced her opponent to defend while attacking.

At this moment, Hermione and Strife resembled two gunfighters in a shootout, only their bullets were far more powerful than ordinary bullets.

Occasionally, deflected or missed spells hit the ground, creating small craters.

The intense battle drew gasps from the audience. This was a truly spectacular wizard duel!

Though only two people stood on stage, the barrage of spells made it seem like a grand melee.

Ordinary wizards couldn't last even two seconds in such a situation, yet the two on stage navigated the flying spells with ease.

The severely damaged arena showed the spectators how thrilling this wizard duel was.

"Haha! You certainly have the talent of an Auror," Strife said, casting spells silently while talking to Hermione.

"How about reconsidering my offer? I am very sincere."

"I don't need it," Hermione retorted, dodging and counter attacking.

"If you can't even defeat me, stop talking nonsense about becoming your apprentice!"

"Is that so?" Strife shook his head. "Do you think this is my full power? Then watch this!"

He quickly took two steps, dodging Hermione's Petrificus Totalus, and forcefully swung his wand at the ground.

Immediately, sharp stone spikes rose from the arena floor, extending towards Hermione.

Such terrain-altering Transfiguration spells gave Hermione a headache. 

The Shield Charm couldn't block such an attack, and it wasn't possible to transform into a dragon to fly away.

However, within a second, Hermione found a way to respond.

"Duro!"

She cast a Hardening Charm on the ground before her. 

The advancing stone spikes halted instantly.

"A brilliant counter," Strife shook his head, "You're not only good at dueling but also know many ordinary spells."

"At Hogwarts, everyone calls me 'Miss Know-it-All.'" Hermione flipped her hair, sneering.

"Seems I live up to the nickname, while you, as an Auror, are a bit overrated…"

In the midst of the intense battle, Hermione's sharp wit and skill added to her charm.

If other Hogwarts students were present, they wouldn't believe that the girl fighting so gracefully was the famous bookworm, Hermione Granger.

Female spectators were screaming, even Professor McGonagall was no exception.

"Alright, girl, I must admit, any Auror would find difficult to beat you." Strife's tone became serious, "So I have to use some more dangerous spells. Be careful."

The next moment, he flicked his wand forcefully, and a bolt of lightning shot out, striking towards Hermione.

In this world, most wizards used ordinary spells for offense and defense in battles.

More advanced techniques combined complex spells with Transfiguration.

Direct elemental attacks were rare because they consumed a lot of magic and were not easy to control or had a limited range.

In this world, magic itself was active, but elemental forces were not, and there were no elemental planes.

This made elemental combat techniques rare, usually limited to fire spells.

Hermione had never seen a direct lightning attack before.

Such an attack was indeed hard to deal with.

Lightning moves at incredible speed, almost at the speed of light in the air.

Hermione couldn't dodge it conventionally and had to rely on the moment Strife's wand flashed to predict where the lightning would strike.

Unfortunately, due to the erratic path and constant branching of lightning, she had to treat it as a wide-area attack to dodge, making her look quite disheveled.

This wouldn't work.

Hermione thought, the so-called prolonged defense leads to defeat.

Constantly dodging on the battlefield would eventually lead to a slip-up, and getting hit by lightning would instantly incapacitate her.

She needed to find a way.

Of course, such a spell would consume a lot of magic, and her opponent likely couldn't sustain it for long.

Hermione looked at Strife.

However, Strife still appeared relaxed, showing no sign of depleting his magic.

No, she couldn't rely on her opponent running out of magic.

She needed to find a way to counterattack.

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