#146 - duel

Just as he was promising ‘Shunfeng’ an extra meal after these few trips, the door of the cabin was knocked. Read more М

Opening the door, he saw Charles and Velen. Anduin looked at them, puzzled. Recently, their training had become routine, and they no longer needed him to supervise them. He only checked on them every few days to collect experimental data. Did they have something to discuss today?

"What's wrong?" Anduin ignored ‘Shunfeng’s’ emotions, stuffed a stack of envelopes into its mouth, and turned to ask the two.

"It's like this," Velen said first, "I've been training for more than half a year, so I want to have another duel to test the results of my training."

Charles nodded in agreement.

Oh, so they want a rematch because they're not convinced? I didn't realize they were so competitive, Anduin thought, seeing the fighting spirit burning in their eyes.

After a moment's thought, Anduin nodded. "Alright, I'll take this opportunity to see how good you've become."

Hearing Anduin's agreement, the two perked up. After so much training, they were very confident in their abilities, especially Velen. He was two grades above Charles and always felt that his loss last time was due to his poor dueling skills. He was ready to get his revenge, and he had initiated this duel.

Charles, on the other hand, had gained enough confidence from the last duel. In his eyes, the so-called upperclassmen were nothing special. This time, he was ready to let loose and test his skills.

The three of them walked out of the cabin together to the open space next to it. Vivian, Bill, and Ib were already prepared with candy, drinks, and small stools, waiting to watch the show.

Looking at the three onlookers, Anduin said speechlessly, "You three should also be serious. This is a good opportunity to observe. Once your training progresses further, I will arrange sparring matches for you too."

"Mmm, mmm, mmm," the three replied, their eyes shining, paying little attention to Anduin. Bill even took out a large lollipop and started munching on it.

Hmph, you'll be begging for mercy later, Anduin thought to himself before turning to look at the two standing in the arena.

"I won't add any restrictions to this duel, but be careful to stop when necessary. Now, you may bow," Anduin shouted to the two in the arena.

The two acknowledged with a nod, then drew their wands and gave a standard dueling bow.

After the dueling bow, their expressions became solemn, clearly placing each other on equal footing.

"Langlock!" "Impedimenta!"

As soon as the battle started, the two chose different spells to begin. Charles used 'Langlock' to launch the first attack with this highly flexible spell. If he could launch a successful sneak attack, he could directly block Velen's incantations. Even if it wasn't effective, he could use this spell with its extremely fast trajectory to disrupt Velen's rhythm.

Velen chose 'Impedimenta' because he knew Charles was agile and wanted to use this spell with a wide area of ​​attack to force Charles to move.

After casting the spells, the two moved instantly. After so much training with Anduin, they were able to cast spells relatively freely while moving. The two intersecting spells missed each other.

What followed was a series of continuous spell exchanges. Both showed considerable skill in casting spells, with very tight attack intervals. Often, several spells were fired from both sides within a few seconds.

After nearly ten seconds of spell exchanges, neither side had gained any advantage. However, in Anduin's opinion, there were still many differences between the two. Charles was obviously less accurate in casting spells than Velen. Velen often used sudden stops and starts to prevent Charles from anticipating his movements, so few of the spells were blocked head-on by Velen. Most were dodged. Although this was very tiring, it was very easy to establish an advantage.

Although Charles was very agile, he was easily caught off guard by Velen's high-precision aiming, so he often had to delay his attacks, raising his hand to deflect the spells fired at him. Therefore, after a period of back-and-forth, Charles fell into a stalemate of attacking less and defending more.

Vivian, Bill, Ib and the others were enjoying the show, watching the two constantly dodging spells by moving left and right, and reacting quickly to deflect spells with their wands when they were about to be hit, then immediately counterattacking with spells. The three were stunned by this instantaneous reaction speed. At this time, they also understood the purpose of the training programs that Anduin usually arranged for them, such as jumping back and forth, practicing fast spellcasting, etc. The results of these training programs were very clearly displayed in this duel.

Looking back at the two in the arena, both felt a little tired after a highly tense exchange of spells. Velen's constant shifting and sudden stops were very exhausting, and he was already slightly out of breath. Charles was also very uncomfortable being suppressed. Charles understood that he would definitely lose in the end, after all, he was two years younger than Velen, and his magic reserves were definitely not as good as his opponent's. If this continued, he would run out of energy before Velen.

After thinking it over, Charles slowed down his attacks and prioritized defense. Then, in a gap between defenses, he pointed his wand at Velen's feet and cast a Transfiguration spell.

Velen, noticing that Charles had given up attacking, thought that his opponent couldn't hold on any longer. Coupled with the constant sudden stops, he stopped to catch his breath.

As a result, Charles suddenly cast a spell, and several hands made of mud suddenly stretched out from under Velen's feet, tightly grabbing his feet.

Seeing that the Transfiguration spell was effective, Charles was overjoyed and quickly took the opportunity to fire several spells to attack, 'Stupefy!' 'Knockback Jinx!' 'Expelliarmus!' The spells were fast and urgent, ready to take down Velen directly.

Velen was slightly flustered when he realized that his feet were trapped, but he quickly forced himself to calm down.

'Lapifors!'

Velen was not disrupted. Instead of hastily parrying the incoming spells, he took the lead in using Lapifors to stir up a cloud of sand and dust towards Charles. He had used this spell before to try to interfere with Charles's vision, but it didn't work well because Charles would use his movements to avoid the range of the flying sand, but now Velen wanted to force Charles to move to buy himself time.