Chapter 488: Pickley's Duel Practice

"start!"

Graves immediately retreated a long distance behind, his steps were agile, and his torso remained stable during the rapid movement. After all, he was a person who could face the fire dragon with his athletic ability, and his movements were very neat.

This time he planned to practice at a safe distance, and then use various magic spells and transformation techniques to let his friend, who was three years younger than him, see what a real duel was.

However, when Graves took his position, he looked up and saw that the person opposite him also took a few steps back, widening the distance between them. The distance between them was nearly 30 feet.

Graves narrowed his eyes slightly. This distance required higher accuracy for the spell. During the casting process, the wand was slightly offset, and landing 30 feet away was already a huge error.

It seems that the new friends don't know any common sense about dueling. The magic level of the two parties is too different, so they can only find flaws through close combat.

"Okay, let's first show the opponent the exquisite coordination of magic spells..."

Graves thought about teaching his new friend a lesson, and quickly raised his wand: "[Retreat the enemy three feet]"

Loren's eyelids trembled slightly, and a dim crystal blue light floated in his eyes. He saw that the magic power on Graves was already quietly flowing, and his spell casting speed was faster than most 17-year-old wizards he had seen. Not only It was just a repelling spell, but more spells had been connected behind the first one. Whether he avoided it or met it, it was followed by the second and third attacks.

He was in the direction pointed by the tip of the staff, and felt that the movements of the people around him and the magic power on his opponent slowed down. A quiet and wonderful perception spread out from his mind, spreading silently in all directions.

He could clearly see the emerald green light of the repelling curse accumulating little by little, and he could even see the landing point of the curse, just below his left rib.

A strange feeling arose in Graves's heart. This new friend's movements were too slow, and there was no movement to resist or dodge until he finished casting the spell.

You don't think about giving up if you can't win anyway, do you?

"call out!"

The air around the tip of the staff vibrated slightly, and the magic light shot forward.

But something unexpected happened to him. The magic spell that was supposed to hit the opponent and knock him back or even knock him over didn't even hit the target. Instead, he hit the tip of the wand on the opposite side and hit an invisible and smooth wall. On the transparent wall, not only is there no merit, it is even reflected back.

"[Armor Protection]"

"Iron Armor Curse!"

Graves' pupils shrank and he chose to use his strong body to resist.

As a warrior of Ilvermorny, his body can withstand the dragon's tail flick.

"Bang!"

There was a dull crash.

Graves was knocked back by his own curse. He originally wanted to give up defense and dodge, resist the curse and take advantage of the opportunity to counterattack, but when he wanted to open his mouth to recite the curse, a faint green light flashed in front of his eyes, and then It was countless slight crackling sounds in the air.

Before he could take a closer look, he saw densely packed and almost invisible repelling spells coming continuously.

There was no time to react.

Graves had just been knocked back and could not stand still. His center of gravity was unstable and he had nowhere to rely on. He could only protect his head with both hands and turn his body sideways to reduce the area affected by the blow.

"Pengpeng..."

There was a dull crashing sound.

In the blink of an eye, Graves completely lost the opportunity to defend and counterattack. These fine repelling spells were not very powerful, but the continuous offensive like spring rain made him retreat continuously, and he was knocked back a few inches each time. The cow leather soles were There was a hissing sound on the floor.

The warrior's body is indeed strong. He only felt slight pain from such an attack and was not injured at all.

When he came to his senses, his back was already pressed against the stone wall at the back of the classroom, and he was unable to retreat.

Graves put down his hands, rubbed his sore arms, and glanced at Principal Fontana with a complicated expression.

Headmaster, there is a big difference in the teaching standards between Ilvermorny and Hogwarts.

Principal Fontana was a little silent, and glanced at Professor McGonagall calmly, with the same complicated expression.

The three little wizards standing nearby had tense faces, and the corners of their mouths twitched slightly, suggesting that they were trying hard to suppress laughter.

Professor McGonagall stepped forward and patted Graves's robe with a tenderness that Hogwarts students had never seen before. She cleared her throat: "Morgan's experience is very special, and her magic power is stronger than that of little wizards of the same age." You are powerful and very talented in spells, so you learned a lot of advanced spells in advance. Pikli, you were a little careless and were surprised..."

Graves was silent.

Thank you Professor, I was comforted.

"..."

Loren clicked his tongue silently. Professor McGonagall was so partial. His student was called Morgan, and someone else's student was called Pickley.

"It's not carelessness, it's arrogance and underestimation." Principal Fontana patted Loren on the shoulder like a commendation, as if Loren was a student of Ilvermorny. "I think Loren is younger than you, so I take it for granted. He was sure to win, thinking that his magic power was stronger than his, and his magic skills were better than his, but he was beaten so hard that he couldn't hold his head up.

"Isn't this a lesson learned, Pickley?"

"yes……"

Graves was so ashamed that he couldn't even lift his head.

Principal Fontana looked at Professor McGonagall: "In the next scene, let the two warriors Harry and Pickley do the demonstration, okay, Professor McGonagall?"

"Of course." Professor McGonagall nodded and smiled.

Harry scratched his head, held his wand and stood in the middle of the classroom, in front of Graves who had rested, raised his wand and prepared to practice.

Principal Fontana instructed Graves: "Duel practice in a narrow field is a competition of speed, casting speed, reaction speed, decision-making speed... Excluding the unexpected factors of sneak attacks and group attacks, Pickley, as long as you can concentrate and control when to cast spells and attack, and when to defend and dodge, you can basically control the rhythm of the battle, which also means victory is in your grasp."

"In a stalemate with him, your age advantage is a magic advantage; in a constant exchange of offense and defense with him, you can use spells that he has not learned yet... Even basic Transfiguration, you have more application experience."

Graves nodded solemnly, indicating that he understood.

After speaking, Principal Fontana looked at Professor McGonagall, hoping that he would also explain some duel experience to Harry.

Professor McGonagall nodded happily and said in a deep voice: "Principal Fontana is right."

"..."

Did I ask you to say this?

Fontana's eyes twitched slightly.

"Begin!"

The crowd behind them suddenly became excited. If the two professors were not there, they might have cheered.

Ron stood at the front. He couldn't wait to see the warrior on the opposite side being knocked over by the disarming spell.

In the middle of the classroom, Graves had quickly accumulated the first spell. His casting speed was very fast, and coupled with his high concentration, the spell was almost shouted out at the command.

"【Retreat the enemy three feet】"

The battle must be ended cleanly and beautifully!

Graves silently made up his mind, because the shameful incident of being beaten and unable to raise his head because of underestimating the enemy must never happen again.

No exquisite spell coordination, no transfiguration, steady and steady, back and forth.

In the blink of an eye, the emerald green repulsion spell had been launched.

Whether the opponent used spells to counter, dodge, or resist, Graves had already prepared the follow-up response.

None of the expected scenes happened, and the opponent triggered a strong disarming spell.

"【Disarm】"

"Bang!"

A muffled sound.

The emerald green light collided with the red beam, and the disarming spell trembled violently for a moment, but it still crushed the repulsing spell and shot towards him.

Grevis' scalp tingled. It was obviously the spell that he had accumulated power in advance and activated first, but it was directly defeated by the disarming spell that the opponent hastily counterattacked. Is Ilvermorny's education really okay...

Seeing the oncoming red light, Graves quickly gathered his mind and quickly dodged to the side.

"Bang!"

The disarming spell hit the wall behind him, making a dull sound.

Principal Fontana frowned slightly and warned again: "Pickley, don't underestimate the enemy."

Grevis's expression was numb: "I really didn't."

"..."

After a short rest, Graves launched an attack again. As a representative of Ilvermorny's contact students, he had mastered most of the spells in the textbooks, and he had a strong and agile body. He could even occasionally take one or two spells in exchange for an attack opportunity, but these were useless in front of the unreasonable disarming spell.

"【Faint】"

"【Expelliarmus】"

"【Million Bullets】"

"【Expelliarmus】"

"..."

Ten minutes later, Graves's face gradually became solemn. He thought that such a strong spell was very energy-consuming, and he tried to use a tug-of-war to drag Harry until he was mentally exhausted and had a flaw, but the battle continued until now. He didn't know whether Harry was tired, but he felt that he couldn't hold on.

He cast a hard disarming spell to kill him before he lost his ability to fight!

Graves made up his mind. When facing the thick red beam coming towards him, he stopped dodging and waved his staff forward and shouted in a deep voice: "[Petrify All]"

He narrowed his eyes slightly, as if he had seen his wand slip out of his hand, and Harry on the opposite side was petrified and lost his ability to fight.

"Bang!"

At the moment when the spell came, Graves felt a strong impact, as if a wild bull hit him, and directly knocked him out. He hit the stone wall behind the classroom and fell to the ground with a thud, and even bounced on the ground.

"Ahem..."

Graves climbed up with difficulty while coughing, and took the wand handed over by Harry in a trance, and unconsciously muttered: "What spell is this?"

Harry was stunned for a moment: "Disarming spell."

"Is this a disarming spell?!"

"To remove your weapons, yes, it is a disarming spell."

"..."

Graves looked at his headmaster in confusion. From his dull expression, it can be seen that this warrior of Ilvermorny is now a little skeptical about life.

Principal Fontana was silent.

Professor McGonagall was also a little silent.

Only Ron grinned foolishly.

He even pretended to comfort Graves, imparted a lot of experience on resisting the disarming curse, and praised his strong body loudly. He could stand up after coughing twice after being hit by such a strong disarming curse and hitting such a strong wall. He would have to lie down for more than ten minutes.

It would have been better if he didn't say anything. When he talked about this, Graves covered his stomach and turned pale.

In order to prevent Ron from aggravating the injuries of the friendly school warrior, Loren hurriedly stopped him from talking.

Professor McGonagall took the opportunity to explain the two duels just now. While speaking, she was very sure that Graves suffered a loss because he did not understand his opponent. The main reason for the bad start today was that Loren and Harry were different from ordinary little wizards. They would adapt after practicing a few more times.

Loren didn't know how much Graves believed, but his face looked much better when the get out of class was over.

Leaving the abandoned classroom, it was already dark outside. A moon hung on the top of the north tower, the light was cold, and the moon and stars were sparse.

There was still some time before lights out, so Harry and Ron went back to the common room, and Loren and Hermione went to the north tower to take astronomy lessons.

…

The cool night breeze blew across the platform at the top of the tower. A boy with black hair and black eyes sat by the wall. His two feet were stretched out of the wall and hung naturally, and were gently swayed by the wind.

A beautiful girl was lying next to him, her head resting on his thighs, and her clear eyes were filled with the glimmer of stars.

"In fact, I think Graves is already very powerful, and Harry's disarming spell is also very powerful. Even if you accompany me to practice, I think my dueling ability is only a little better than them, and... I may soon be unable to beat them."

In the cool night breeze, the little witch's voice was a little melancholy: "Loren, I seem to be a nerd who can only memorize by rote..."

"Classmate Granger," the boy's voice was solemn and serious, "It is an extremely powerful ability to be able to read and recite the knowledge in the book. It is not rote memorization, and it is not a nerd!"

"But my dueling ability is very average. I am only a little better than them after practicing for so long."

"I will practice with you all the time, and you will always be better than them."

Hermione looked at his lower face quietly, the stars in her eyes began to ripple, and a touch of joy appeared at the corners of her mouth.

"Professor Morgan is really reliable..."

Hermione slightly turned sideways and buried her face in his stomach, and her two hands wrapped around his waist from the side, tightening it. When she breathed slowly, she could smell the smell of laundry detergent on his robe, and her forehead and cheeks could still feel the warm body temperature.

Loren felt a little itchy in his belly, but he didn't move.

A soft voice sounded, blending into the not-so-dark night and drifting away with the wind:

"Do you think Graves will be unable to sleep tonight?"

"It's better if he can't sleep."

"Huh?"

"I'm worried that he will dream of disarming spells when he falls asleep."

"..."

Hermione couldn't help but snorted and laughed, but then she realized that it was a bit offensive to make fun of someone behind his back. She couldn't be as bad as someone, so she pursed her lips and hugged him tightly.

Speechless for a moment.

The gentle wind blew away the clouds, and the starry sky outside the tower became more brilliant, and the moon was full.

In the quiet night, it seemed that the two of them sitting and lying here in silence was the happiest thing.