'It finally worked...'
Seeing that, Avada could not help letting out a sigh of relief in his heart.
To be honest, if he were not worried that performing too outrageously might alert Barty Jr. and the other extreme pure-bloods hiding in the shadows and push them into doing something even more desperate, he would have been tempted to analyze the magical structure of the dragonfire and that charging pillar on the spot, then manually reproduce the charging magic himself and throw four shots upward in one go. But doing that would have been practically the same as publicly announcing that he possessed magical perception.
'Still, this works well enough too!'
Avada flicked his wand again, causing thick mist laced with an irritating smell to once more envelop the entire arena. At the same time, he kept his magical perception fixed on the ground while firing spell after spell around the area—spells that produced violent explosive noises—to guide the dragon's movements...
"A second success!"
"Ludo Bagman" shouted excitedly from the commentator's stand. "It seems Mr. Ken has now grasped the rhythm of the dragon's attacks and found the secret to victory! And this success was obviously even more skillful than the last one—he practically predicted the dragon's movement in advance, then perfectly timed both the rise of the pillar and the gap in the dragon's motion to interfere at exactly the right moment, forcing the dragon to unleash another breath attack!"
"Originally, during the first stage, the champion had to keep maneuvering around the dragon while guiding it to release its breath, all while preventing its charges from destroying the pillars. But now the situation seems to have reversed. Aside from that one pillar that was destroyed by accident earlier, Mr. Ken has looked completely in control the entire time. Up until now, neither his movement speed nor his casting frequency has dropped in the slightest, and he hasn't even used any of the restorative potions he obtained during the match. He's like some kind of perpetual-motion machine..."
"But... look, that Ukrainian Ironbelly is already beginning to show signs of fatigue. A dragon like this already has to drag around a body weighing well over a hundred tons. While its endurance is naturally formidable as well, it still can't withstand this level of constant interference and near-continuous movement forever. That should make Mr. Ken's second stage go much more smoothly... Oh! Look! Another charging pillar has appeared! Can Mr. Ken succeed again this time!?"
"The pillar has five... four... three seconds before it retracts... Success!"
"He completed two charges in under a minute! It seems Mr. Ken's bad luck has run out, and from here on everything is going smoothly for him..."
'Tch.'
Listening to Barty Jr. outside crazily piling debuffs onto him with his commentary, Avada curled his lips and continued focusing on dealing with the dragon's attacks. Just as Barty had said, the dragon really was starting to look tired now, and even the power of the dragonfire it spat was noticeably weaker than at the beginning.
He estimated that if not for the "enrage dragons" curse still lingering on him and continuously stimulating the dragon's urge to attack, the beast would have already given up, flopped down, and ignored him no matter how much he provoked it.
'Fourth time...'
'Fifth!'
At last, after the pitiful Ukrainian Ironbelly had been provoked past the limit of its patience, and with its limbs constrained by magic badly enough that it could barely move, it finally chose to vent its fury by unleashing another savage blast of dragonfire—only for that breath to slam squarely into the charging pillar that had just emerged from underground.
A final stream of special magic shot from the top of the pillar straight into the sky, striking the platform floating above, the one whose base was still displaying the number "4." The moment that strike landed, the number below finally changed to "5," then flickered a few times before going dark.
"Mr. Ken has completed the first stage of the challenge!"
"Bagman," as usual, adopted an excited tone as he continued the commentary. "Although there were a few twists and turns along the way, Mr. Ken has still, through his excellent magical skill and sharp insight, successfully completed the charging of the golden egg overall. But next, he will have to face the ultimate fury of a dragon that has regained its power of flight—and has been building up resentment toward him for quite some time!"
"Can he defeat the colossal beast before him?"
Clack... clack...
Before "Bagman" could even finish posing that question, a harsh and grating sound had already begun echoing across the entire arena, like someone trying to force a rusted machine back into operation—a metallic shriek filled with pain.
The sound came from the dragon's wings.
The iron chains that had been binding those wings were snapping apart one by one, allowing that pair of sky-blotting wings to gradually see the light of day again. Once fully unfurled, the wingspan of the Ukrainian Ironbelly, whose body alone measured more than sixty feet, stretched to a full hundred feet. The various ancient magics attached to them rapidly changed the dragon's body as well, making it lighter, more agile...
"ROAAANGH—!"
With a long, piercing dragon's roar, the beast reared up, lifting its head and half its body upright. Its enormous shadow instantly swallowed up Avada's pitifully small figure. In his field of vision, it was as if a hill had suddenly risen from the ground before him—and then two crimson lights flared to life at the summit.
Those were the dragon's eyes, now stripped of their shielding and laying bare their full ferocity to the air.
Whoosh!
A violent gust blasted straight at him, nearly throwing Avada off his feet and knocking his raised wand sideways, causing the unexpected Eye Hex he had cast to miss its mark. The gale made him shut his eyes instinctively, but in his magical perception he could still see an incomparably brilliant mass of crimson life force soaring upward at an unbelievable speed.
The ruler of the skies had finally returned to its rightful domain.
Which meant that next...
"Protego!!"
Avada practically had to shout the incantation aloud in order to produce a Shield Charm strong enough to block the dragonfire descending from above. After returning to the air, the dragon's breath now covered several times the area it had before, making it much harder to dodge. And the sturdy pillars that had occasionally risen to give the champion precious moments to breathe during the first stage had completely vanished into the ground in the second.
At this point, he could almost only rely on the raw strength of his own magic to collide head-on with the dragon's breath.
'A flying dragon really does have quite the oppressive presence...'
Avada felt a primal fear, buried deep in his blood, trying to creep into his heart—the instinctive terror of facing a giant predator. It made his legs tremble slightly, but with a shift of thought he suppressed the feeling once more, regaining the ability to think clearly.
'It's flying a bit too high. Without using Dark Magic, bringing it down won't be easy. I'll have to think of another method and try to end this stage as quickly as possible...'
(End of Chapter)