( Later That Day )
"Come on old man, you can do better than that!" Harry lightly mocked with an arrogant smirk on his face as he side stepped and dodged a trio of spells sent by his dogfather, before nonchalantly batting a missed stunner to one side with his wand, resulting in his godfather giving him a rather stunned look at his use of 'wand deflection,' an advanced duelling technique normally only seen in a duelling competition.
At his level of experience and power he could simply deflect the spell off to the side in an almost entirely undirected manner, making the technique rather dangerous for fighting with allies nearby. True masters of the skill though could send spells (at least those capable of deflection), anywhere they wanted, including back at the person who cast it at them.
Spell deflection at that level required the wizard to make the spell cast at them their own by injecting their own magic into the spell matrix once it made contact with their wand, in a sense changing the spell's 'ownership,' then using that enhanced control over the spell to 'cast' it at the target of their choice.
It wasn't absorption though, as that could be quite dangerous, more like adding magic to the limit of the spell's matrix and taking control of it that way. Thus it wouldn't work if cast by a stronger wizard as the spell would have likely been sent at max power. In that case, simple deflection is all that's possible. In a mastery level deflection, the deflected spell was largely being fuelled by their opponent, rather than themselves.
This had to happen in the barest fraction of a second though, thus why minor changes in the path of the spell to avoid being hit were the most common use of the technique, especially in those instances where dodging or traditional shielding wasn't possible. He merely smirked back at Sirius, who was panting deeply, trying to catch his breath as droplets of sweat ran down the dog animagus' face, whilst he was barely sweating.
Not wanting to give his godfather a chance to recover his breath, he went on the offensive once again, as he started the first of his spell chains that he had recently developed with Tonks, the spells chosen specifically and cast in a specific order so that one spell's wand movements would flow seamlessly into the next for fast 'chain casting.'
The first pair of spells to leave his wand were simple, but quick to cast prank spells that many of his classmates used as friendly jokes on one another, 'Rictusempra, Tarantallegra,' but they were meant to be a distraction, an opening move in a long duel.
Whilst neither the tickling charm nor the dancing spell would cause any harm, if they weren't dodged or shielded against then they could easily tip the duel into Harry's favour. While Sirius was avoiding these throwaway spells, he could cast something more useful with a greater chance of it landing while Sirius was distracted, like the quick, but accurate, stunner that he had just shot from his wand.
Predictably his godfather dodged and/or shielded the trio of fast onrushing spells, even as he started the next volley of silent spells. 'Flipendo, Avis, Petrificus Totalus, Expelliarmus.' The next four spells had a far greater chance of ending the duel and leaving Sirius defenceless, but were slightly slower to cast.
The overpowered pushing jinx aimed at Sirius' upper chest, to hopefully take the man off his feet, crashed with Sirius' own retaliatory stunner, the two spells cancelling each other out in mid air with a bang, as a flock of conjured birds flew through the air towards his godfather, only to be incinerated at the last moment with a quick, but accurate and overpowered incendio charm cast in an arc like a flame thrower. The last pair of spells were quickly shielded against.
"I thought this was meant to be some light duelling practise Harry?" Sirius asked between haggard breaths. He confidently smirked back in amusement.
"This is light duelling Sirius; don't tell me that you're tired already? Tonks is barely winded at this point in our duelling these days," Harry shot back at the former star auror, with a light trickle of sweat running down the side of his face. He had missed this, he missed duelling with Tonks, he missed the excitement, the dance of combat, as each duellist tried to overcome and subdue the other with all their power and wits. "If you want to stop or need a break, just say so. There's no shame in admitting you're getting old and/or your godson is awesome."
Sirius' reply came in the form of a quick disarming charm shooting across the makeshift duelling room, followed closely by a powerful stunner which he easily avoided simply by leaning back, the powerful spell shooting harmlessly over his shoulder.
He knew that his godfather was holding back on his choice of spells, like Tonks would do until he either learnt the spell himself or learned the counter spell needed to defend against it. Expecting that kind of forbearance in real combat was, of course, utterly ridiculous, but it allowed both combatants to work on the fundamentals of magical combat. Besides, even simple spells like they were using could be used to great effect with just a bit of creativity.
Returning the favour, he decided to use one of his more dangerous spell chains he had recently learnt, that swapped basic, underpowered jinxes for combat curses, 'Bombarda, Furnunculus, Reducto, Confundus, Locomotor Mortis, Stupefy!' the six spells rushed towards his godfather, who quickly summoned a sturdy shield to absorb the powerful muti-coloured barrage of spells, before spinning on the spot and disappearing in a loud 'pop,' before reappearing in an equally loud 'pop' to Harry's left.
Recognizing the new duelling tactic his godfather was using from his reading on duelling tactics, he hastily cast his own shield charm to block his godfather's spell. "No fair Sirius," he replied with a hint of annoyance, as another spell shot past him, just for him to retaliate against his godfather by sending an even more powerful blasting hex back at his godfather, who lazily shielded himself against the spell.
"Ah, well you were the one who wanted to play with the big dogs pup," his godfather replied in a cheeky tone with an even bolder grin, before disappearing again in another loud 'pop,' as a spell flew through the air where Sirius had been previously standing only moments before.
He knew from his reading that there were three commonly accepted ways to counter this annoying, but highly effective tactic of multiple, quick apparitions to different points on the battlefield; either erect an anti-apparition ward over the battle area using warding techniques, use the anti-disapparition jinx, which he couldn't perform effectively yet, or don't try to prevent apparition at all, but use wide area-of-effect spells to hopefully catch your opponent in the moment or two they were vulnerable upon reappearing.
Warding wasn't an option; he had no knowledge of how to erect an anti-apparition ward over the room even in the best of conditions, much less on the fly in the middle of a duel. He had read about and knew the incantation for the anti-disapparition jinx, but he neither had the power yet to cast it effectively nor did he have the intimate understanding of apparition needed to pull it off.
He couldn't apparate, yet, but he'd practice the jinx until perfect after he'd been apparating for a while and his magical core had grown enough to actually stop an adult wizard from simply overpowering the jinx. However, he did know one or two area of effect spells he could easily cast now due to his extensive duelling with Tonks.
Using apparition also had one big limitation; it required intense concentration to be used safely, especially when used in quick succession, otherwise body parts could easily be left behind. A hastily put together plan formed in his mind.
He discreetly cast an 'Impervius' charm upon his lower body, before quickly flooding the room with several powerful 'Aguamenti,' charms, even as he dodged and shielded against his godfather's spells, and sweat started running quickly down his face and back at the effort to do even that.
Just as Sirius went to apparate once again, he turned to face the direction he expected his godfather to reappear, whilst dropping to one knee as he called up his magic and mentally envisioned the water cooling and hardening into ice, the inner atomic structure losing energy and cooling.
"Aquarium Gelu!" he shouted, using the spell verbally for the first time during this duel as he jabbed his glowing wand tip into the water. Frosty ice blue lightning erupted from his wand, the ice lightning expanding across the flooded floor turning the water to hardened ice just as Sirius reappeared on the newly formed ice field.
The result was both instantaneous and comical, as his godfather suddenly found himself slipping on the magically made ice, the expensive dragon hide boots he wore finding no grip as his arms began flailing around like a madman.
He desperately tried to regain his balance, but failed miserably, due to the forward spinning momentum of standard apparition. In these comical moments, Sirius' arm spinning in circles like a windmill, it was child's play to hit him with a quick disarming charm, the man's wand shooting from his hand easily.
He smiled darkly at his godfather's hilarious plight, as a spur of the moment plan bore fruit. "Stupefy!" he shouted in victory, the stunner shooting forward quickly, much to Sirius' horror.
"Fuck!" Sirius exclaimed as the dazzling scarlet stunner hit him square in the junk.
"Cat beats dog," he announced rather childishly to the room, but as he was the only one conscious to hear it, he felt free to act his age for once.
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A/N : if we get 400 power stones by the end of the week, I will release an extra chapter ;)
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