#123 - Win or Lose

But Higgs was different. His spells were all fired in straight lines, the trajectories basically aimed at his current position, with no attacks designed to preemptively block his movements. This made it easy for Charles to dodge, even giving him the opportunity to close the distance. Furthermore, the spell's firing rate was only average; he could predict the landing point very quickly after the projectile had traveled only a meter. After deflecting several spells, he realized their power was nothing special.

So, after a few exchanges, Charles' confidence soared. He continuously used his nimble footwork to evade the attacks and then launched a rapid offensive, forcing Higgs into a flustered defense.

Higgs, who had initially stood in place like a turret, now felt immense pressure. Watching Charles get closer and fire more frequently, he couldn't help but retreat several steps backward.

An opportunity!

Seeing Higgs finally moving, and retreating in a straight line, Charles was overjoyed. This was the simplest kind of uniformly moving target! Anduin had stopped giving him practice with these kinds of targets half a year ago.

Quickly noticing Higgs' weakness, Charles took advantage of the gap in the other's movement to fire three consecutive spells, then rolled to the side to dodge several incoming spells. As he stood up, he cast two Disarming Charms, aiming at a point just behind Higgs.

Higgs, seeing the three spells coming, hurriedly used a Shield Charm to block them. But just after blocking the three spells, two more spells appeared from the side. He didn't have time to use a Shield Charm, so he had to concentrate his magic like Charles, using his wand to deflect one. However, the other Disarming Charm hit Higgs squarely, the powerful force pushing him back several steps until he landed on the ground with a thud, his wand flying high into the air and landing in Charles' hand.

"Phew..." Charles exhaled deeply, then looked at the captured wand in his hand, cheering excitedly to Anduin, "I won! I won!"

Vivian, standing beside him, was also excitedly yelling, "Charles, you're amazing! What a wonderful duel!"

"Alright, calm down!" Anduin frowned, walking forward with a sports timer in his hand. "Your footwork is noticeably slower than at the end of last semester, and your reaction time after casting spells is too long. Do you have to watch to see if the spell actually hits the enemy? Don't you know to act in advance? And the pre-casting animation is too long. Many times, you could have cast four spells in the time it takes you to cast three. Tell me honestly, did you slack off during the summer? You definitely didn't practice according to the schedule I gave you. And you still had the nerve to write to me complaining?"

Charles hadn't expected that winning the duel would be met with a torrent of scolding from Anduin, making him nervously scratch his head. Vivian, who had been cheering for Charles, also quieted down, though her face was still flushed with joy.

Higgs, standing nearby, looked at his disarmed right hand, his heart filled with mixed feelings.

Seeing this, Charles quickly broke away from Anduin, walked forward, and helped Higgs up from the ground, returning the disarmed wand to Higgs' hand at the same time.

Higgs looked at the wand he had recovered and couldn't help but ask Charles, "You are very strong. I concede. But I still want to know, does Anduin have the same strength as you?"

"Am I very strong?" Hearing Higgs' praise, Charles felt embarrassed. "But Anduin always criticizes me for being weak. And I'm nowhere near as strong as Anduin. If it had been him fighting me just now, I would have been blown away long ago."

Higgs couldn't help but gasp when he heard this. Anduin, who was in the same academy as him, was already this ridiculously strong? He knew he was one of the best among his peers. He wasn't even afraid of facing Wilkes, but today he was easily defeated by a younger student taught by Anduin.

Thinking about it, Higgs looked at Anduin and said firmly, "If you can have this kind of strength, then I am willing to support you. Tell me, what are you planning to do?"

Charles, hearing Higgs' words, didn't understand what he meant and couldn't help but look at Vivian.

Vivian told Charles everything that had happened in the past two days, and after hearing Vivian's introduction, Charles' face turned red with anger. He quickly said to Anduin, "Those guys are really too much. They're practically trying to create a new Death Eater organization at Hogwarts. Anduin, I support you too. Let's teach those arrogant guys a lesson."

Hearing the expressions of support from the others, Anduin only smiled slightly and said, "Don't get so excited. They're just a bunch of clowns."

Then he looked at Higgs again. "What you need to do, Senior, is very simple. I don't plan to have you engage in direct combat with them. You only need to clean up the mess after I defeat those guys."

"What?" Higgs felt incredulous after hearing Anduin's words. "What do you mean? You're planning to deal with them alone? Are you crazy?"

"Don't worry," Anduin said calmly. "I have been preparing. I am very confident in cleaning them up. It's just that the pure-blood faction has already stirred up opposition in Slytherin, so someone will need to stabilize the academy at that time."

"This..." Higgs frowned and thought for a moment, recalling the previous battle. Perhaps he really could fight those guys. So he said firmly, "Okay, what do you need me to do?"

"Currently, there is nothing you need to do. Now we just need to wait," Anduin said calmly.

"Wait, you mean..." Higgs seemed to have thought of something.

"The Slytherin creed is to protect oneself. Without oppression, some people will only watch coldly. Those guys are making such a mess in Slytherin, it will definitely provoke conflicts. As far as I know, there are quite a few half-blood wizards in our academy," Anduin said with a cold smile.

"That's right. The true pure-blood wizards in Slytherin only account for a third, and that's just what they claim. The rest of the wizards are more or less mixed-blood, but although they are mixed-blood, they are basically members of well-known families in the wizarding world. Like Vivian, although she is mixed-blood, she is also a legitimate heir of the Bulstrode family," Higgs nodded.

"Then let them make a fuss. Let the bullets fly for a while. When those mixed-blood wizards can't stand it anymore, Senior, you will need to come out and uphold justice for them. Winning them over is your mission. I will deal with those radical pure-bloods," Anduin said.