A cheer erupted from the stands, and soon after, the second challenger stepped into the arena.
Harry pressed his duelling badge into the stone tablet, and the moment the selection was confirmed, the tablet suddenly sank into the ground.
A cold, clammy air instantly closed in around him.
The surroundings plunged into complete darkness, the abrupt loss of light making him pause for a split second.
"Lumos!"
A pale glow barely cut through the darkness, illuminating the slick, sticky mud beneath his feet.
Harry found himself standing in a vast, gloomy cavern, the light at the tip of his wand his only source of illumination.
When he looked up, he saw the domed ceiling bristling with menacing stalactites. When he looked down again, a pool of foul, dark green sludge lay not far away, reeking of decay.
Spiny, tough vines dangled from the high ceiling like dead pythons.
And the instant the light appeared, a sharp whistling sound ripped through the silence.
Harry relied purely on his Seeker's reflexes and threw himself sideways—
Whoosh!
A thick, razor-sharp stalagmite skimmed past his hair and slammed deep into the mud where he had been standing a moment earlier, splattering filth in every direction.
"Hiss… hiss…"
A spine-chilling hiss drifted down from above.
Still shaken, Harry looked up. By the light of his wand, he saw a figure with dull, rough skin and long, slender limbs clinging to the cavern wall.
It clung to the jagged rock like a gecko, its cloudy yellow eyes glowing eerily in the darkness as they fixed intently on Harry.
From the stands, Sagres's cold, steady voice cut through the audience's gasps. "Carpathian Cave Troll. Highly adapted to darkness, with excellent night vision. It possesses exceptional wall-climbing ability and prefers to use complex terrain for ambushes."
The students immediately understood. So it was a troll—they had thought it was some kind of four-legged spider.
Down in the arena, Harry's heart was pounding, and the disturbance beneath his feet gave him no time to think.
The sludge pool beside him suddenly began to churn, and several thorny, venomous vines shot out of the muck, wrapping tightly around his ankles.
Cold sweat drenched Harry's back.
He drove his wand down toward the ground. "Incendio!"
A searing tongue of flame burst forth, instantly engulfing the writhing vines. The air filled with the acrid stench of scorched plants and burning sap.
For a brief moment, the flames lit up the entire cavern, and only then did Harry catch sight of another figure—green-skinned, entwined with parasitic vines—standing in the shadows at the edge of the pool.
The flames also briefly illuminated the Venomous Vine Troll's face, which was covered in knotted growths and looked like a rotting tree root.
Sagres's voice added, flat and emotionless, "Balkan Swamp Venomous Vine Troll. It attacks using the venomous vines parasitising its body and can release a short-range paralysing poisonous mist. However, its own defences are weak."
Down in the arena, the sudden burst of light completely enraged the Cave Troll clinging to the rock wall.
It roared and leapt down from above, its massive foot slamming into the mud and sending filth splashing everywhere.
As Harry turned to evade, he saw that it had seized a sharp stalagmite, wielding it like a stone hammer as it charged at him in a frenzy.
Relying on his slender build and Seeker's agility, Harry scrambled awkwardly across the slippery ground and between the dense stalagmites.
The heavy stalagmite whistled through the air, grazing past him before smashing into a nearby rock pillar, shards of stone exploding outward.
"Impedimenta!"
The barrier Harry hastily conjured shattered under the Cave Troll's brutal strength, only making it stagger for a brief moment.
Harry's thoughts raced, sweat and mud streaming into his eyes.
He had to separate them.
Spotting a relatively open area riddled with dark green sludge pools, he steeled himself and deliberately sprinted in that direction.
As expected, the Venomous Vine Troll swung a thick, venomous tendril like a whip, lashing fiercely at Harry from behind.
Hearing the rush of air, Harry stopped short and ducked low, the vine snapping past him by a hair's breadth.
Using the momentum, he spun around, his wand steady as he aimed at the cluster of stalactites hanging directly above the Cave Troll's head. "Reducto!"
Crack—!
A thunderous explosion rocked the cavern.
The stalactites, struck precisely at their bases, shattered, and massive columns of stone came crashing down.
The Cave Troll's roar and the Venomous Vine Troll's hoarse cries were cut off at once, and Harry saw a flash of white light.
Without pausing for a moment, he used the cover of dust and debris to quickly reposition himself.
Within the swirling smoke, the remaining Venomous Vine Troll panicked. It opened its moss-covered mouth and spewed a pale green poisonous mist, carrying a cloying, fishy stench, straight toward Harry.
"Tempesta!"
Harry slashed his wand forcefully, and a powerful gust of wind sprang into being, instantly tearing apart and dispersing the poisonous cloud.
He had not been idle in the meantime. His near-defeat in the duel with Malfoy at the start of term had driven him to stay up night after night, mastering several new, practical spells.
Seizing the fleeting opening, Harry snapped his wand toward the Venomous Vine Troll. "Incendio!"
Bang!
Flames instantly engulfed the Venomous Vine Troll. It let out a brief, piercing shriek and tried to dive back into the mud.
Harry gave it no chance. He cast a Freezing Charm, instantly turning the mud to solid ice, then followed up with several precisely aimed Stupefy spells.
Red beams struck its chest in rapid succession. The Venomous Vine Troll let out a feeble whimper, toppled over like rotting timber, and vanished in a flash of white light.
"Haah..."
Once again, silence settled over the cavern, broken only by Harry's ragged breathing echoing between the stone walls.
"Huff..."
He leaned back against the cold, slick rock face, his robes smeared with mud and gravel, almost unrecognisable beneath the filth.
Raising a mud-streaked hand, he wiped his face roughly. In his exhausted green eyes, a bright spark of triumph shone.
"Passed!"
…
Next came Draco Malfoy.
His opponents were the Caucasian Ice Plain Frost Mane Troll and the Ural Mine Cave Crystal Cluster Troll.
The instant the environment formed, a biting chill pierced straight through Malfoy's robes.
It was an ice cavern, its walls bristling with sharp ice formations and radiating cold. In the corners lay massive clusters of mineral crystals, shimmering with magical light.
Malfoy took a single step before the slick ground sent him sliding, nearly knocking him off his feet.
"This wretched place!"
He scowled and muttered under his breath.
His complaint immediately drew a response.
A hulking figure emerged from the icy mist—the Caucasian Ice Plain Frost Mane Troll.
Its body was covered in long white fur crusted with frozen ice crystals, as though it were clad in natural ice armour. In its hands, it dragged a massive pillar of ice.
With a single glance, its cloudy eyes locked onto Malfoy. Heavy footsteps thundered across the frozen ground as it charged, a biting wave of cold rolling ahead of it.
Malfoy's expression tightened, and he darted behind the nearest large crystal cluster.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
The spell shot out and struck the Frost Mane Troll, but it merely shattered a few ice crystals in its fur. The troll's advance barely slowed.
And that was only the beginning.
The commotion roused another presence within the cavern—the Ural Mine Cave Crystal Cluster Troll.
The crystal formation Malfoy was using for cover began to vibrate violently. Then a tall figure rose up, its back turned to him.
It turned clumsily, and the clusters of large and small crystals embedded in its dark brown, mineral-like hide flared to life.
Malfoy lifted his wand and fired a "Stupefy."
But as the red spell approached its target, it was strangely refracted by the glittering crystals covering the Crystal Cluster Troll's body.
The red beam whistled past Malfoy's ear and exploded against the ice wall behind him.
"—!"
Malfoy's face drained of colour as his heart lurched.
He instantly realised the source of the problem—the clusters of crystals covering the troll's body.
A ruthless glint flashed in his eyes. He swung his wand up and aimed at the Crystal Cluster Troll's head. "Reducto!"
The explosion burst against the Crystal Cluster Troll, but only blasted off a few small crystal shards.
That, however, was enough to enrage it completely.
The light within its body flared, and dazzling, iridescent colours burst forth, catching Malfoy off guard and blinding him for an instant.
Temporarily robbed of his sight, Malfoy faltered, panic rising as he heard heavy footsteps drawing closer and closer.
He retreated awkwardly, and the moment his vision partially returned, he threw himself behind another crystal cluster.
No sooner had he caught his breath than the Frost Mane Troll brought its ice pillar crashing down.
At the critical moment, Malfoy did not aim at the troll. Instead, he snapped his wand toward the mirror-smooth ice beneath his feet. "Glacius!"
The surface became slicker than glass. Malfoy kicked hard against a jutting crystal cluster, using the recoil to send himself sliding away in an instant.
The charging Frost Mane Troll slipped as well, its massive body losing balance and skidding forward across the treacherous ice.
As the troll slid toward him at increasing speed, Malfoy snapped a Repelling Charm at its back, sending them skidding off in opposite directions under the force of the spell.
"Immobulus!"
He cast the spell on himself to halt his slide, then followed up with several more Glacius charms, turning the ice between himself and the trolls into an impassable barrier.
Only then did he finally allow himself a breath of relief.
At the same time, a surge of gratitude rose within him for Professor Lumina at St. Mungo's Hospital.
Thanks to her "Black Lake Ice Surface Obstacle Race and Magical Combat Championship"—the name was admittedly unwieldy, but the training had proved undeniably effective.
He would have to find time to visit her at the hospital with his parents.
Steadying his breathing, Malfoy gathered himself and began launching long-range attacks.
The two trolls continued to charge across the slick ice, but each attempt was thwarted by precisely timed Repelling Charms that sent them sliding back. He also avoided the Crystal Cluster Troll's blinding flashes by turning away in advance.
At last, using a massive crystal formation as a focus, he unleashed several Boulder Impact spells, successfully forcing both trolls back into the stone tablet.
He brushed imaginary dust and clinging ice shards from his robes and straightened his silver-green tie, which had been knocked askew during the fight.
Though his face was still pale and his breathing had yet to fully steady, he squared his shoulders as best he could, a cold, self-satisfied smile settling on his lips.
________
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