Chapter 27.6- Doom Days

And the first one to head to the stage was a man who looked to be getting into his middle age. He was easily the oldest one here. The others looked like seventh years. Probably graduates of various wizening institutions who wanted to do some work either with the ICW or in a foreign nation. Every nation part of the ICW had to recognise the ICW exams as if they were the equivalent to the ones taken in their own nation, after all.

The man started the duel on the back foot. He had waited for the Hitwitch to strike first, and she did it with a flick of her wrist and a burst of flames. The curse clattered against his shield and shattered it in one go. He took a step backwards, visibly gathering himself. She allowed him to do so. There was a timer right behind them, and it counted up to three seconds before she struck again. This time, the man managed to deflect the piercing curse but could do nothing as she sent the deflected curse back at him again with two more joining it. He jumped to the side and slipped on ice that she had laid there after her first spell. He shot off the platform after taking a disarming charm to the face. He landed on the wall. And his wand flew into her grip.

He rose, no worse for wear— wizards were a hardy lot thanks to innate magic and walked towards the hitwitch with a smile on his face.

“Maybe next time will be the charm, Steve” The examiner said, and the man who had obviously just failed the exam took the encouragement with an easy smile. The kind of smile that told stories.

“Who wants next?” Jones, the Hitwitch said, turning towards us with a smile. Before I could step forward, another boy did. He was in his late teens and had strawberry blonde hair with high cheekbones and striking blue eyes.

“Dimitry Zinchenko. Remember the name” He said to us before smirking and jumping onto the platform.

“Confident, I see. Please do last longer than two seconds” Jones said.

“I can go all night, babes” He replied easily. Her smirk tightened almost imperceptibly.

He struck first, and that was the only remarkable part of his game. The first spell was a bludgeoner, and he managed to cast it with a whispered incantation and even shaved off the last flick of the wand movement. She spun, the spell tasting nothing but air, and struck twice. Both piercing curses shot through the air like bullets.

“Fuck” Zinchenko swore as he dropped down to avoid the curses. Jones smiled and swung her wand through the air like she was releasing a bowling ball and he rose from the ground in a nigh-uncontrollable ascent. Next, she stabbed her wand, and the disarming charm shot him off the stage and his wand into her grip. “Nineteen seconds” The examiner said with a whisle.

“I call that one alley-oop. Now, off you go pretty boy” She tossed his wand back at the rising Zinchenko with a satisfied smile on her face.

“Who got next?”

“I’ll give it a shot” I said, stepping forward this time when it was clear no one wanted Zinchenko’s treatment.