Chapter 82: The duel

I thought for a bit. Should I or should I not? Because I sure as hell won't lose purposefully in consideration of not hurting her pride or something.

Even Dumbledore isn't here, so need to hold back in case of not wanting exposing my capabilities to my enemies. I can even show off upto 10% of my skills if I want.

Taking my pause as a sign of hesitation, Fleur shook her head in disdain.

"It is not as easy as it looks. You're still a little boy—"

"Alright."

"What?"

"Alright. Lets duel." I said, getting up from my seat.

Fleur smiled triumphantly, as if her provocation had worked.

It had kinda worked actually. But that can't be counted as anything good for her.

I didn't like being called a little boy—Even if I am one.

The adults didn't interfere as they watched curiously—Except my mom,

"Uh, honey, you don't have to do this. They don't teach dueling in Hogwarts. It is only right to decline-"

"It's fine mom. You don't have to worry. Dad won't let anyone get injured, right dad?" I said, shifting all the responsibility to Durant.

I saw Camille giving Durant a look seemed to be saying—'If he gets hurt, you'll be sleeping on the couch.'

I got up from my seat, taking off my jacket. I was only wearing a sleeveless t-shirt underneath. My trousers were also easy to move in.

I cracked my neck muscles as I lightly jumped up and down on my toes, rolling my shoulders back and forth. 'Girl, you've just unleashed the beast.'

My body wasn't buffed, just lean and compact muscles with explosive power.

I came to stand opposite to her in the dueling ring.

"Get ready". Called out Durant, who was refereeing.

Fleur took a stance with her wand held up in front of her and stood gracefully in a proper dueling stance.

Why does she have to always look so sophisticated and refined even while dueling? Does she always pay attention to how she looks, or is it a veela thing?

One way to find out.

I made it look like I was trying to copy her stance and took a similar stance to her— except, if stuck out my butt exaggeratedly looking quite comical. Fleur subconsciously straighten her hips, thinking that her stance look something similar to mine.

Gotcha!

I laughed and got into proper stance this time as Fleur glared at me for mocking her stance.

Out of the corner of my eye, i saw Camille trying to hold back her laughter, while Appoline laughing openly.

But, then I focused.

"One"

"Two"

"Three!"

"Urtica!" Fleur immediately sent out a stinging hex at me.

Let me be very clear, stinging hexes is no joke. If casted well, It can actually hurt and causes an angry red welt on the area it is casted. If you don't put much will into the spell, the victim would only feel like an ant biting, like the ones Camille fired at Durant continuously. Or the ones that Dora used to cast on me. But, the one Fleur casted was clearly the welting and bruising type. The intensity of it light was the proof.

But—

I casually bent to one side as I didn't move from my position. The spell passed a few inches by me shoulder.

[For the past 6 years, I've been practicing my body, mind and magic daily. In the morning, I went to long runs, to build up my stamina]

"Expulso!" Fleur fired another spell almost immediately after I had dodged the first one. This one was aiming at my feet.

I spread my feet apart and it struck the floor behind me.

[For the past 5 years, I have been doing 100 Push-Ups; 100 Sit-Ups; 100 Squats daily... along with other exercises.]

I jumped up and down on my feet lightly, waiting for more.

Fleur looked at the ease with which I was dodging her attacks and decided to get serious.

"Stupify! Expelliarmus! Impedimenta!" This time, three spells were fired on mid section one at my chest, and other two either side of me to prevent me dodging.

"Stupify!" A fourth one was fired immediately afterwards at the feet, blocking the only option available if I had to dodge the three—ducking.

Do I need to use my wand now?

Naaa. No need.

Gathering the power in my legs by bending my knees , I did a high jump backflip as the spells passed by from below me. I could hear the whistling sound in my ears as they whizzed past my head.

As soon as I landed, I tilted my head to the side. Forming a circle with my thumb and forefinger, I lifted my hand to the side of my head as a petrification charm, Fleur's fifth spell, passed right through the small hole I created with my finger and thumb.

[ And... for the last six years, I've been training the most important thing of all. The reflexes and instincts for reacting to the situations spontaneously. Especially for the last year with Dora.]

*gasp*

*Gasp*

Right then, I heard gasps, so I looked to the side to see the wide eyed Camille standing up and Appoline, also wide eyed with both of her hands on mouth in disbelief.

Fleur was like, 'It can be done like this too?'

Durant also looked pleasantly surprised. Wait, Durant is also surprised?? Umm... did I overdo it with the last one?

What can I say? I wouldn't have been able to do the finger-hole thingy if my trigger wasn't already active and hadn't increased my reaction speed. My trigger has been active since the beginning to continuously stop the allure from pitching a tent inside my trousers.

It's good that super trigger blue isn't activated.

Anyway, who thinks that this much ability is OP. There's clear counters to my inhuman dodging.

When Fleur seemed have been overwhelmed by my last insult, (dodging her spell and making it pass from right between my fingers), Durant spoke up to her in a Stern tone.

"Don't loose focus. Analyze the situation calmly. They're a hundred way to block the opponents mobility."

That seemed to have lit up her bulb as she started to conjure oil at the ground near my feet.

If I can't stay balanced, how would I be able to dodge? Too bad she was already too late. I had now decided to end this.

While she was busy conjuring the oil, I jumped and sidestepped through the area that had been covered in oil.

We didn't have much distance between us to begin with. As soon as I had picked up my speed and started zigzagging randomly while making my way towards her, her spells' accuracy decreased by a lot.

In the end, realizing that I wasn't using magic and was coming towards her. She started to not care for her defense and sprayed oil directly all around her and started firing spells at me.

Damn. Now I can't end this in close range without slipping on oil.

Or ... can I?

I increased my speed as I dodged the last few spells that could be dodged while I wasn't in oil.

Then I stepped straight onto the slippery path. Fleur was surprised and quickly managed to fire two spells one after other as I slid straight into her direction with a great speed.

We both knew the disadvantage of slipping towards her on oil— I couldn't change my direction. Even jumping is almost impossible.

The spells two she fired were aim at my torso and my legs. And this time, I can dodge sideways, nor upward.

As the spell was fired close range, I had started reacting already by seeing her wands trajectory. I bent backwards 90 degree to dodge the first one. For the last one, that was going to hit me in the leg, I raised my wand, intersecting it's path.

My wand broke in half as I finally reached Fleur. But my momentum was too much to stop now. Gripping her waist by her waist, lifting her, to stop myself from tackling her and we spun around twice before I decrease my forward momentum before I stopped the both of us with my one hand support her back and other pointing the jagged half of the broken twig on her throat.

"Do you surrender?" I asked.

"...." Fleur's eyes were wide open as she seemed process what just happened and how she ended up like this.

"Chris wins." I heard Durant's deep voice from the side. Then I saw that he had already casted cushioning charms where we were about to fall, and his wand was pointed at the twig in my hand, just in case it got too close to Fleur's throat.

I felt the heat of allure hitting me at full force as I gently let Fleur settle on the cushioning charmed ground and backed off quickly while I threw away the twig in my hand.

Durant picked it up and examined it.

"Transfigured wood stick— You were playing with your dragon with this earlier." he said. Surprise evident in his voice.

I just nodded as I laughed and laid down on the ground.

The reason I didn't use magic from beginning to the end—Is because, I was dueling without a wand. It was just a stick I transfigured to play fetch with Nyxie.

Afterall, There's no fun in simply ending it with a few nonverbal spell in rapid fire.

Looking at Fleur's blank look as she faxed into emptiness, I frowned in worry

'Did I break her?'

****

A.N.: How is it? Do I deserve my powerstones?

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