Chapter 28.2- Doom Days

She formed a massive mage shield that blocked my next salvo of spells and then stretched out her left hand, transferring control over to it ion an impressive display of magical control as she turned her attention to the snakes. She started by banishing them, sending them only a few feet backwards which was made useless as I banished them right back at her. She twirled her wand and created a whip of bright blue flames. I narrowed my eyes. That wasn’t a spell I was familiar with. Perhaps a darker variation of the standard fire whip?

Either way, when she turned it against the snakes, she cut through their stone skin with ease, leaving them in pieces. I barely managed to step backwards and to the side in time to dodge a massive spell that struck the wards with a gong. I flicked my wand, turning the snake pieces around her into birds that flew around her, harrying her and distracting.

The mage shield I dealt with by releasing a series of blasting curses. Each one flowed after the last. It managed to take three before collapsing against the fourth. She managed the magical backlash better than most and kept her wits about her as she set two of the birds on fire. She fired two spells off at me even as two more birds swooped down on her. I flicked my wand, sending tooth growing hexes at each of them, forcing the spells to ricochet wildly at twice their initial speed. I deflected the one that came my way, fast as it was, my eyes could still track it. That as clearly one of the benefits of the ritual.

Jones, on the other hand, was much too busy cursing at and destroying a bird that had latched on to her hair to react in time. The tooth growing hex hit with instant effect, and her front teeth began to grow.

I sent another dueler’s hello she was forced to turn her attention into deflecting instead of fixing her teeth. They’d grown past her chin in a matter of seconds. She formed a larger shield, but I smiled and called out my incantation in warning. “Fulminis” It was a less powerful lightning spell than the fulgur I’d called against the Hellhound but was still nothing to write off. She reinforced the shield and was still sent skidding backwards from the force of the spell. Her teeth had grown down to her waist now and was clearly beginning to affect her balance. She could tell I wasn’t going to let her turn her wand on herself if she could help it and turned two quick piercing curses in my direction. I nailed them almost right as they were leaving her wand with tooth growing hexes. The Densaugeo hex had something unique about its arithmetic structure that made it react that way when it came in contact with other offensive magic, and I took full advantage of it in this case— Flitwick had a memory where one duelist from France had used the same strategy so it wasn’t something originally, but it worked.

The four spells flew in random directions. I dodged the two that came my way smoothly. Jones managed to dodge the second tooth growing hex to come her way but the piercing curse nailed her in the shoulder, spearing straight through like a bullet.

“Blood” The other examiner called out, and the timer came to a halt. Three minutes fifty-five seconds, I noted.