Chapter 54.6- Doom Days

“Winner: Álvarez” The referee announced, and then his name and picture were displayed on the screen. Mateo Álvarez. I would remember that name. Something told me he was going to be on my path to victory. Maybe I’d even meet him in the finals. He was definitely at the higher end of what I would expect a participant here to be capable of. Probably good enough to win the whole thing if I wasn’t here.

Of course, the universe would not be the universe if it did not make me eat my words mere minutes later. The next pair were called. An Egyptian wizard and a South African witch. Every other fight had taken one of two veins. Theirs was determined to buck the trend. The duel was called, and before the referee had dropped his wand, three spells had flown across the space between both parties. The Egyptian began with a piercer, the South African with a gouger, and where the South African witch had twisted her shoulder to avoid his spell, the Egyptian wizard had deflected hers. She jumped over the spell and they were at it again. In a similar vain to the first duel it was a pure slugfest, but where the first two had fought with enthusiasm and middling skill, these two fought like master fencers— it was equivalent to comparing a fencing match at your local gym to one at the Olympics.

Every spell was crisp, sharp, and simple. Every parry was designed to buy time to cast another spell, and shields were barely used. In two minutes of dueling, I only counted a single shield charm that had been collapsed the second after it absorbed the offending bone breaking curse. The chosen environment, a sandstorm barely mattered. Neither was all that inclined to use it to their advantage, and since they’d both activated bubblehead charms relatively early, they were in no danger from swallowing sand or anything. The charm even covered their eyes so there was no risk of the sand affecting them thus.

The South African danced to the left out of the way of a trio of cutting curses before countering with a conjured arrow. It cut through the air like a missile, only to smash into a conjured shield. A silver shield in the vein of a medieval knight’s. The Egyptian twisted his wand, the shield turning on its side until it shot at his target like a frisbee. She jumped over the spinning shield that had been about waist height in a display of athleticism. As she fell to the ground, she did so with three spells aimed at her opponent. They all missed as he twisted through them before tapping his wand on the platform. In a second, it shattered to a thousand pieces, as dust rose from the ground and he vanished from view— a disillusionment charm. Those pieces rose and began to form a construct of some sort. The South African countered with several blasting curses that forced the construct back to square one. The Egyptian kept focusing on it for as long as he could but all he was able to form was the lower. Body before his body lit up in a red outline.

Four piercing curses buried themselves into the ground he’d been on top of as he barely managed to roll away. The sudden movement dispelled his disillusionment. He rose to his feet, but unsteady. He’d been caught. With a twist of her wand, the witch forced him to hang from the air by his ankle. He dropped his wand during the abrupt movement. “Stupefy” She enunciated clearly thinking the duel was over, only for him to wandlessly summon said wand and deflect the spell right at her. It hit her squarely in the forehead and she dropped like a sack of stones.

“Winner: Mansour”