Link raised his wand vertically in front of his chest.
Seeing this, Dumbledore smiled knowingly and made the same gesture.
Then the two waved their wands, bowed to each other, and slowly stepped back.
After completing this set of standard wizard dueling etiquette, even Link himself couldn't help but laugh.
For someone with Dumbledore's status to cooperate with him in doing such overly dramatic moves was really giving him a lot of face.
But a laugh was a laugh. Seeing that Dumbledore had no intention of attacking, Link still turned his wand first.
A vast amount of curse power surged from the tip of his ebony wand, turning into two invisible blades that shot toward Dumbledore.
The blades carried sharp tearing sounds through the air. Their power was so great that even the air itself was cut with visible traces.
Not long ago, this level of power would already have been about eighty percent of Link's normal output.
But now it was just a simple test.
This was one of the changes brought to Link after his total magic power increased.
The huge amount of magic power not only improved his endurance in battle, but also made the magic circuits in his body adapt to stronger impacts, allowing him to release more magic at once.
Dumbledore clearly also had a method similar to Link's Super Perception Spell to observe the changes in Link's magic.
He casually waved his wand twice, knocking away the two invisible blades before saying, "Truly unbelievable."
"The magic power inside your body has increased by nearly half in just a few days. What's even more amazing is that you've already adapted to such a huge change. How did you do it?"
Link slightly raised the corner of his mouth. Instead of answering directly, he spun his wand and said, "When asking that question, I think you should worry more about your own safety. My Severing Charm isn't quite the same as ordinary ones."
Hearing this, Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.
He quickly understood what Link meant.
Because the two invisible blades that had just been knocked away suddenly made a large turn in midair and flew back toward him.
"Perfect magic control. Your mastery of the Severing Charm is even greater than Severus, who created it!"
Dumbledore praised him while raising his wand again.
This time, he didn't use the flashy counter-spell technique from before, but simply released a surge of golden magic power.
The vast golden magic was like a curtain wall, instantly crushing the invisible blades that collided with it into particles of magical light.
Link bowed slightly to Dumbledore again as a response to the earlier praise, then smiled and said, "Then the warm-up is officially over. Next, please be careful!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a dark green beam shot straight from the tip of Link's wand.
Dumbledore's eyebrows lifted.
What Link had just released was undoubtedly the Killing Curse.
But there had been no incantation, no wand movement, no charging, and not even the unavoidable flash of light that usually came with casting it.
This was no longer just a simple silent or wandless spell.
This was a complete rewrite of the Killing Curse's casting rules, an optimization of its underlying logic, making it more hidden and more dangerous.
So what about its power?
Bang!
The golden curtain wall in front of Dumbledore was instantly pierced.
The green light continued forward without losing momentum.
Dumbledore quickly raised his wand, creating another pale golden energy shield.
But perhaps because it was prepared in a hurry, this shield was much smaller than the previous curtain wall, more like the round shields used by Roman warriors.
Small as it was, according to Link's Super Perception Spell, the magic strength of this pale golden shield was nearly twice that of the previous curtain wall.
But so what?
"Heh!"
Link chuckled softly as his free left hand suddenly clenched.
Then a shocking scene unfolded.
The dark green beam, already so fast it was nearly invisible, suddenly shrank several times mid-flight.
From the thickness of a wrist it became as thin as a chopstick, and its color became even deeper.
The pale golden shield performed even worse than the previous curtain wall. Like a sheet of thin paper, it was instantly pierced.
BOOM!
In the end, an even more powerful surge of magic erupted from Dumbledore's body, finally neutralizing the strange Killing Curse.
This kind of sudden defensive burst was already the most desperate emergency option.
Because it would cause some damage to the user's magic circuits, making later magic flow slightly less smooth.
Although the effect on a legendary wizard would not be too great.
Still, using this move meant Dumbledore had already been pushed to a certain point.
Dumbledore looked at Link in the distance, who had not continued attacking but instead stood calmly with his hands behind his back, and nodded slightly.
The answer to his earlier question was now clear.
Link's optimization of the Killing Curse's underlying logic was comprehensive.
The Killing Curse Link now used surpassed the original version in casting speed, concealment, and power. And Link had even strengthened its controllability, allowing it to "mutate" mid-flight to increase penetration.
This was simply…
"Genius!", Dumbledore couldn't help saying.
Hearing this, Link's smile widened.
After a long time exploring his abilities, he had actually discovered that the development direction of the high-level spells given by the system was influenced by his own intentions.
For example, when he first raised the Severing Charm to LV6, what he lacked was a comprehensive method that could both attack and defend.
So the system gave him control over curse power.
The same situation applied now.
Link's understanding of the Killing Curse was actually very simple.
Pure single-target killing power and shield-breaking force.
So based on this concept, after upgrading to LV6, the Killing Curse did not gain abilities like the Severing Charm or the Refill Spell that were almost like "natural-type Devil Fruit" powers.
Instead, while keeping its original attack form, it received specialized improvements in offensive power.
At present, in terms of direct shield-breaking attack power, the Killing Curse had already surpassed every other spell Link knew.
This time it was only because Dumbledore had rich combat experience, and Link hadn't combined it with other spells.
Otherwise, if it were a slightly weaker legendary wizard, facing Link's specialized Killing Curse ambush would have meant certain death.
"Next, Fiendfyre!"
As Link finished speaking, a nearly transparent giant butterfly-like creature suddenly formed with a swing of his wand.
The little creature called Yoyo, which had been hiding around Link's neck, couldn't help poking its head out.
Because this transparent creature looked far too similar to it.
In fact, this thing was indeed a Fiendfyre creature Link created based on Yoyo's form.
And it wasn't just similar in appearance.
It also inherited some of the same traits.
For example, extremely high mobility.
Whoosh!
A sharp sonic boom suddenly rang out as the Fiendfyre creature instantly disappeared from sight.
Dumbledore's expression changed as he immediately raised his wand in caution.
There was no need to ask. This was clearly another Fiendfyre spell whose casting logic had been optimized.
Dumbledore had already noticed that Link seemed to really enjoy doing this kind of modification.
The Severing Charm was like this. The Killing Curse was like this. And now even Fiendfyre had been changed.
Not only that, but the power of these optimized spells was ridiculously high.
Just from the distorted air caused by the heat when the Fiendfyre first appeared, Dumbledore could already tell its temperature was even higher than he had imagined.
'Must not let it get close!'
Thinking this, a golden light appeared in Dumbledore's eyes.
With the help of this golden lens, he seemed to catch the movement path of the Fiendfyre creature. With a sharp point of his wand, several dazzling golden swords of light appeared and stabbed directly into its body.
Screech!
A sudden cry sounded.
Dumbledore looked toward Link in surprise.
Because that cry had not come from the Fiendfyre creature, but from Link's side.
To be exact, it came from the real Winged Serpent hiding around Link's neck.
Being stared at by Dumbledore, Yoyo became embarrassed.
It scratched its head with its claw and shyly crawled back into Link's clothes.
It had only cried out in sympathy just now.
Realizing this, both Link and Dumbledore couldn't help but find it a little funny.
But when Dumbledore turned his head back, his eyes became serious again.
Because the Fiendfyre creature he had just restrained was now crazily gnawing on those golden light swords.
This was almost impossible.
Those golden light swords were made of pure energy.
And highly destructive energy at that. Ordinary creatures, even energy-type beings, would explode just by touching them, let alone biting them.
Yet this Fiendfyre creature had done exactly that.
Under its gnawing, the golden light swords were shrinking at a visible speed.
At the same time, its body was getting bigger and bigger.
Until after reaching a certain critical size, it suddenly twisted and split into two Fiendfyre creatures of equal size.
Clearly, this was another specialized optimization.
Devouring energy was Fiendfyre's instinct, so although Dumbledore had seen it consume such high-intensity energy earlier, he had not been surprised.
At most, it showed that the curse power Link used to cast Fiendfyre was also extremely strong.
Strong enough to greatly enhance the creature's devouring ability.
But this splitting ability truly surprised Dumbledore.
Greed and selfishness were natural instincts of living beings.
Especially in low-intelligence creatures like Fiendfyre beings, which lacked higher mental control, these instincts would expand endlessly.
This was why Fiendfyre endlessly devoured and expanded in size, one of its most terrifying traits.
But this Fiendfyre creature, after absorbing energy, had not chosen unlimited expansion. Instead it split?
This either meant Link was using mental power to force it to do so, or that this Fiendfyre creature already possessed intelligence similar to dolphins or orcas, able to suppress individual instinct for greater benefit.
Between the two, Dumbledore leaned more toward the latter.
And in the battle that followed, his guess was confirmed.
Because the two Fiendfyre creatures actually began launching staggered cross attacks against him.
This tactic might have been crude, but it was still a tactic.
Combined with their nearly invisible speed, trying to precisely block them was almost impossible.
Realizing this, Dumbledore did not hesitate. With a swing of the Elder Wand, an enormous amount of magic burst out.
Under this powerful magic fluctuation, even the space around him became slightly distorted.
The two Fiendfyre creatures were instantly crushed.
The next moment, Dumbledore also changed from passive defense to offense, controlling the golden magic filling the sky like a tidal wave crashing toward Link.
Link showed no fear.
Mist armor engraved with complex patterns covered his whole body as he charged straight into the torrent of magic.
Seeing this, Dumbledore frowned.
In his view, Link had clearly gotten carried away.
Or perhaps he had gotten used to Voldemort's blood lightning attacks and thought Dumbledore's attacks would be similar.
But in reality, although both were veteran legendary wizards, Dumbledore's fighting style was completely different from Voldemort's.
Voldemort preferred overwhelming attacks with extreme destructive force.
Dumbledore, however, preferred precise micro-controlled attacks.
At first glance, his attack looked similar to Voldemort's, but in fact every strand of golden magic within the crushing wave was under Dumbledore's control, able to change form midway and become countless highly penetrating attacks like the earlier Killing Curse.
Link's mist armor couldn't be said to have no resistance against this kind of attack.
It would be more accurate to say it would shatter on contact.
Shaking his head slightly, Dumbledore prepared to hold back a little.
Just injure Link lightly, let him suffer a bit and learn something.
If he seriously injured him, with Link's stingy personality and how confident he had been earlier, he might be too embarrassed to handle it.
Sigh!
Dumbledore let out a long sigh, deeply feeling how difficult his situation was.
As a sparring partner, he even had to take care of his opponent's emotions. Truly professional to the extreme.
Thinking this, Dumbledore quietly lowered his wand's power.
But the next moment, something changed.
While sprinting forward at high speed, Link suddenly stretched out both hands, crossing his ebony wand and his free left hand, and a strange ferocious smile appeared on his face.
Burst!
BOOM!
The air in front of Link suddenly exploded.
Under this pure physical explosion, the golden magic torrent rushing toward him instantly collapsed, blasted into countless particles of light.
And Link did not slow down, still shooting toward Dumbledore like a bullet.