Pre-Chapter A/N: More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Experimenting with two chapters a week, we'll see how long I can keep this up for.
The rest of my qualification duels passed without note, and I took note of the Leaderboards as the second day wore on. At the beginning of the day, there were several of us on perfect 4/4 records. By the end of it, only about eleven of us out of the chosen sixty-four had perfect 9/9 records. That didn't mean they were all on my level, though. It also didn't mean that those with less-than-perfect records were very far off. Several of them were on 8/9. In fact, only three out of the chosen sixty-four had less than a 7/9. That probably said more about the difficulty level of those blocks than it did about their skill levels… or lack thereof.
So I stood now in a line with eight other contestants. There were eight such lines as the opening theme of this year's duelling tournament played. It was good music, I thought. Very grand, very orchestral, all that. We patiently waited for the music to end, and then Russo was back again on the stage.
"Witches and Gentlewizards, please join me in a round of applause for our top 64," he said, pausing briefly to allow said applause to reach a crescendo. The noise of the crowd was something else. The stadium's roof had come down during the music, and it seemed like the crowd's noise was trapped with us in the center, an echo chamber, if you would.
"From this point on, the duels will proceed one at a time. Today, we can expect each candidate who makes it to the end of the day to duel twice. Once to cut us down to thirty-two contestants, and another duel to take us down to sixteen. From the last sixteen, we should have a single duel a day for four days. On the final day, two will remain, and one of them will end the day a champion. The rules remain the same as for allowed spells, but there will be a single twist when compared to the qualifying rounds. Meet ECSR: The Environmental Condition Simulator and Replicator. Every duel, apart from the finals which will happen the old-fashioned way, will take place in one of five pre-selected environments. Powerful enchantments will replicate the chosen environment so perfectly that neither the duelist nor we, the audience, would be able to differentiate it from the real deal. As for what the environments are, well, we'll leave that as a surprise. Now let's applaud our duelists once again as we prepare for the first duel of the day," he said, lifting his hands in the air. He was such a showman. He had one of those smarmy smiles that you could just tell belonged on television. It was too perfect.
But it spoke of a hidden malice to my instincts. And they were screaming at me once he began speaking about that ECSR thing. It was going to matter a lot more than he was letting on, I could tell.
The first duel was called, and I went up to the competitor's box. Unlike with the qualifiers, there was no option to just retreat to my own box to watch the duels. There was even a rule against it. Apparently, the spectators were going to be getting a special kind of view that would give me an unfair advantage in the matches if I used it as well. I called bullshit, but who was I to argue? Quickly, I marked one of the seats near the front as mine and moved to it even as the others began to socialize among themselves. What a concept. These were my competitors. As far as this tournament was concerned, we were enemies. What business did I have socializing with them? What did I care for where they were from or their hobbies? Maybe I could have used it as a form of information gathering, but I knew I was their better.
With how far the chasm between us stretched, trying to get any other advantage to use against them would probably qualify as some form of bullying. When the bell rang, signifying that the duel was about to start, the socialization taking place behind me died a quick death as everyone moved to find seats of their own. I watched everything below me with rapt attention. It wasn't about the duelists competing now… what did they matter to me?
It was the arena. That ECSR thing. Something told me it was going to matter way more than Russo had let on, so I watched to see it in action. A wheel sprung up on the screen. It had five sectors, each one equal in size, but beyond each one being a different colour, there was nothing to be gleaned from it. Still, the wheel began to turn. It started slowly at first, until it accelerated to the point it became a dizzying kaleidoscope of colour.
When it stopped, the colour was blue.
"Harry Potter, right?" I heard a voice to my side. It was feminine. I lifted a single hand, telling the speaker to hold on as I watched. This was important. The blue sector glowed, and then the entire wheel turned blue.
"The chosen environment for this duel is water," I heard Russo speak, and then the ground beneath us began to rumble. I flinched, almost grabbing my wand before I realized that the rumbling was more likely than not coming from the arena floor rather than the stadium itself. I'd missed part of the transformation. The platform on which both participants had stood on opposite sides shrank until it was about a third of its former size. And then the grass around it began to change. It was a slow process, but a thorough one.
I pointed my wand at myself and cast multiple finites, but what I was seeing did not change. They were now somehow in the middle of a lake. The whole thing screamed with magic, even to my ill-developed magical senses. It was a powerful enchantment for sure. I couldn't even begin to theorize how it worked.
A white line burned itself into the water, forming a circle around them—about double the size of the previous stage. Other platforms rose from the water around them as well. They had mobility, but it was clear that their choices were between jumping from platform to platform or swimming the way there. I noticed there was nothing that said they couldn't get in the water itself. It wouldn't be a completely bad strategy: submerge and wait for your opponent to let down their guard before striking.
Of course, if any dared try that against me, I would smite the arena with lightning, and we'd see how resistant they could be.
"The white line marks the boundary of your duel. Crossing it will eliminate you. Good luck," Russo said, and then the duel began.
"Going to answer me now?" the person that had spoken before said again. I turned to look at them. Black hair, black squinted eyes, high cheekbones, pale skin. They looked Chinese. I guessed they were Chinese. They'd probably pass as Cho Chang's cousin back in Hogwarts or something. Both women looked little alike in truth, but to people who didn't see Chinese people regularly, they'd be nearly identical. It was an interesting quirk of the brain.
"What do you want?" I asked, taking note of her appearance and returning to look at the duel.
Both of the competitors, to their credit, had taken stock of the new environment and decided to fight like it didn't matter. They exchanged spells at blistering speeds, deflecting, shielding, and counter-cursing where they could not dodge. The smaller size of the platform made dodging a near impossibility.
And then, almost as if the organizers were not finding their duel interesting enough, the waters began to bubble.
"Did I forget to mention that the water environment comes with a few surprises? Be careful about stepping in there, gentlemen. Those things bite," Russo's voice sounded again. Still, they kept exchanging spells like they hadn't even heard him.
"My brother told me how you beat him," she said. I looked over at her again. Yeah, she did share a fleeting resemblance to the boy I'd beaten in qualifying. The one with the Legilimency. He had been talented, but nothing special in truth. Not when I'd fought off the Dark Lord's Legilimency even under torture. Still, I kept my shields up, just now noticing the presence that was poking at them. It was assessing, probing, not trying to get in, it seemed. But that did not lull me into a false sense of security. There was no guarantee that if I gave her the barest chance, she wouldn't find her way in.
"I don't know how you do things back where you come from, but here in Europe, that's very rude," I said, referencing the probe.
"Apologies, Harry Potter. I just had to check."
"Try it again and they will be mopping up what remains of you," I said, seething. She seemed taken aback by my visible rage, but instead of dialing it back, I leaned into it. Drawing closer to her, we met eyes again, and I shoved myself into her mind with all the subtlety of a baby in an airplane. She was reeling, scrambling to raise her own shields. She was better than her brother; it was clear. When my probe broke against her mind, it became clear that she was better than even I was.
And now she knew it, straightening to stare down at me imperiously. A mistake. I did not need to enter her mind to cause damage. I took all the rage I felt, every drop of it, and forced it against her shield. She bent over, weathering it. As she did so, I turned back to the duel, even as I found myself unable to concentrate on it.
"You're a monster," I heard her whisper in my direction but did nothing but internally scoff. I'd love to show her what a monster could do with a wand in his hands. My prayers went unanswered as the duel ended, and the next set of names revealed themselves. Thankfully for my patience, one of the names was mine. The only issue was that the name I was matched against was most definitely not hers. I turned, searching the room with my gaze until I found the one person standing and staring at me. All things being equal, that was most definitely my opponent. She looked like it as well. I gave her a nod, one that she returned.
She turned, leaving the room, and I did the same. When I opened the door of the competitors' box, I found that she had waited for me at the entrance.
"Harry Potter. The boy who cannot be killed, yes?" she asked. The translation enchantments around the city were so good that I could not even detect the faintest sense of an accent. Where the Chinese girl had made an attempt to speak English, this one did not. She spoke her mother tongue with the casual expectation that it would be understood. That kind of confidence wouldn't have come from the wards here. We hadn't been here for long enough. No, more likely, she had both grown up and lived somewhere that using her mother tongue was not an issue.
"The boy who lived is a more accurate depiction. I am quite mortal, I fear," I said with my most charming smirk. She tossed her blonde hair behind her back, revealing even more of her face. Her skin was pale, like she saw the sun once a blue moon, and even then, it was optional. She was beautiful, though; that much was obvious. Her pronounced cheekbones, tall frame, and blue eyes didn't give her much of a choice in the matter.
"A shame. I would have loved to test that out. So I must hold back so you do not die, yes?"
And there it was, the arrogance that came so naturally to everyone here. First, it was that girl—I hadn't gotten her name—and her audacity in trying to enter my mind without permission. No, not even her; the first had been the guy who I had tried being nice to who had basically spat it in my face. I noticed he had made it to the top 64 as well. I would enjoy duelling him again. This time, his cheap tricks would not catch me by surprise, and neither would he. I barked a sharp laugh.
"Even if a dozen of you tried, you would never lay a scratch on me. You see this scar here?" I asked her, pointing at the lightning bolt on my forehead.
"It's the last time anyone landed a wound on me unanswered. Come and do your best, Anya Kuznetsova. I will enjoy tearing whatever pitiful village magic you think you have mastered apart and sending you back home in despair." With every sentence, I had stepped closer to her until I was now face to face with her. She did not back off as I would have expected. Instead, she gathered herself to speak again, and that was when we were interrupted by the door opening. It was the Chinese girl again.
"They'll disqualify you both if you don't make it to the field in a minute," she said, not meeting my eyes. I turned to Kuznetsova, finding her already scurrying down the hall. I nodded my thanks to the girl and made my way down as well.
When I reached the field, it had returned to normal. The grass yielded beneath my feet like the soft topsoil of a well-cared-for garden. Looking at it, it was impossible to tell that the grass had been replaced by water just mere minutes earlier. Kuznetsova had made her way to the platform already, and I hastened my steps to join her.
"Now that the duelists are finally here, let's spin the wheel, shall we?" Russo called, and the wheel appeared on the giant display to the side. The wheel of colours began to spin, but I noticed very quickly that the deep blue had been greyed out. So they wouldn't use the same environment twice in a row? Interesting. A stylistic choice to keep things vibrant or a limitation to the enchantments?
My opponent had her hands clasped and eyes focused on the screen as she murmured to herself. The chatter of the crowd made it difficult to pick up what she was saying. Even when I fully focused on her, all I could make out were words of what sounded like a prayer. Interesting. Very interesting. So she cared about the environments that much?
The wheel came to a stop: light blue. The word 'Blizzard' appeared on the screen. I watched my opponent straighten up, looking like a young boy that had found the perfect stick to beat his siblings with.
XXXXXX- ANYA KUZNETSOVA
She stared at him for a few seconds, considering and patiently waiting for the referee to start the duel. The chosen environment—blizzard—was guaranteed to play to her strengths. She could already feel the temperature dropping, leaving the sizzling and stifling heat for a more comfortable chill. The chill she had been born under—born into. The chill metamorphosed, creating tiny raindrops at first, and then they hardened, becoming snow.
Snow that fell heavily on her skin—a familiar, comfortable weight. It had only been a few days since she'd left home, and she already missed it. It was the weather. It was the people. It was everything. And the boy—for he was in truth a boy and not a man across from her—made all the things come rushing to her mind. Even in Navim, they knew him. The boy who could not die. Survivor of the killing curse. She would defeat him today and make her village proud, she swore. She would do it for all of them.
A spark flew into the air to signal the start of the battle. She was moving before her mind could catch up, trusting her instincts. They were right in this situation. He sent a spell at her; she did not recognize it, but she knew enough to know it was not something she wanted to hit her. With a flick of her wand, the temperature in front of her cooled even further, forming a single block of ice. The spell hit it, blasted a chunk from it, but her block remained. She took a breath in, feeling the oxygen enter her body, and then cooled it within her body. She breathed out through her wand, sending a blast of cold air that froze into an icicle she sent at her opponent. He diverted it, but that was just the first step. She sent a blast of magic now, ice magic in its purest form, straight at him.
He formed a tight circle with his wand, and a gleaming gold shield spell appeared. He made the same mistake all the others did. Shields were useless against her magic. Even the boy who could not die would fall to her magic now. She felt her magic hit the shield, and then instead of trying to pierce the shield, her magic did what it did when it was faced with any sort of obstacle. It froze it. She felt his magic try to fight, but it was futile. She began to freeze the shield, knowing the fight was all but over.
A/N: We jump POVs a bit because I wanted to explore what dueling Harry felt like from an outside POV. A bit of a cliffhanger—but not really. No chance the main character loses in the fucking Round of 64, lol. Would be funny if I pulled that off, wouldn't it, though? Next four chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.