Chapter 210: “The Dueling Class”
Chapter 210: “The Dueling Class”
The dueling training class in Nurmengard is somewhat different from the dueling club in Hogwarts. Hogwarts is more about teachers teaching students how to duel with others, while Nurmengard is more about actual combat among students. The professors mostly just show a demonstration and watch from the side.
Of course, Hogwarts’ Dueling Club has since been suspended after Tom Riddle’s incident. They tried to do it again, but a senior student held a private session for practicing a duel. A boy had a flower blooming on his head, and the flower had to be picked every day, or it would absorb all of his energies in the body.
Madam Pomfrey acted as the gardener for half a month, and the boy recovered after Snape developed the antidote. Because of this, the Dueling Club barred off from anyone.
After all, without a teacher’s supervision, if a spell is cast incorrectly, it may lead to serious consequences. Nurmengard’s dueling class was added to the student’s curriculum not long after the school was established.
Everyone was surprised when Sean and the others walked into the dueling classroom.
It is a circular room with bright chandeliers hanging from a vaulted ceiling. There is a huge stone platform in the center of the room, and a fence with defensive spells is set on the edge so that it is convenient for the students to watch the duel and not be accidentally injured.
There are many dummies neatly placed in the corner of the room. These dummies vary in types, such as those that can move back and forth, those wrapped with dragon skin with extremely high magic resistance, and even special practice dummies.
This kind of dummy seems to be some kind of alchemy product. It can distinguish the power of the spell when the wizard hits it. The dummy will glow red if the spell kills the target or is not strong enough. Letting the student know that they did with the wrong magic output.
Not only that, Nurmengard will send at least eight teachers to watch the class to prevent accidents. After all, this is a big class that all grades will have together. The personnel in the infirmary will also be on standby all the time.
This is the advantage of the large number of people working in a school institution. The professors at Hogwarts simply cannot do that, and the school infirmary has only one employee, Madam Pomfrey.
This time, the professor in charge of the class is Fannish Goodman, Nurmengard’s Charm teacher.
Professor Goodman looked very old. He was close to two meters tall, but he was as thin as a bamboo pole. His hands were larger than normal people, dry and slender, with protruding joints.
With a sullen expression on his face and a monocle over one eye, he looked like a skinny vampire.
“The first dueling session after Christmas is starting now.” Professor Goodman’s voice was rough, and his hoarse voice showed no emotion.
He waved a long, rough tan wand, and the railing at the edge of the dueling stone lit up.
“The defensive spell has been activated.” Hermione whispered.
“This looked amazing.” Sean nodded. He could feel the powerful magic power flowing in front of his eyes.
Professor Goodman squinted one eye and scanned the crowd through the monocle with the other.
“There are new students here. I will demonstrate with other professors this time. Remember to analyze the duel process and observe carefully.”
After saying this, Professor Goodman called Professor Gurley up. Sean happened to be behind Goodman. He saw that the professor on the stage had his hands behind his back, and spells had been silently attached to his body one by one.
Moreover, a wooden box was opened and placed to his waist on the back. It can be seen from the fingers that Goodman is secretly doing something. Professor Gurley walked onto the stage with a grin on his lips. He seemed to like to show this kind of smile particularly.
“Professor Goodman, I won’t show mercy.” He rubbed his hands excitedly.
“That would be great.” Professor Goodman nodded expressionlessly.
“Then, salute.”
Just as the two bowed to each other, Goodman’s fingers began to outline symbols in the air.
The two looked up at the same time, and Professor Gurley let out an excited cry. His wand was instantly raised, and a red light went straight to Goodman. To everyone’s surprise, Professor Goodman stood motionless, as if he had no intention of evading.
The red light hit Goodman very quickly, but a silver-white transparent barrier appeared around his body, and that barrier blocked him from the spell.
It seems that all this has been expected long ago, and Goodman painted the last symbol without changing his face. His symbols were sketched out, and the runes flickered in the air.
A silver circle appeared under his feet. Immediately afterward, Goodman issued a nonverbal spell to cast the same red light.
Gurley was about to cast a defensive spell on himself. He was shocked to see the red light and rolled around.
The red light hit the railing on the edge of the stone platform, and a huge barrier materialized. Sean didn’t even hear the explosion, and the spell disappeared. However, the strong vibration revealed the power of this spell.
“The ancient magic outlined by that rune symbol has the effect of increasing the power of the spell?” Sean looked at Gurley, who was tossing and turning on the stone platform.
Gurley has been looking for a chance to cast a defensive spell on himself, but the circle of ancient magic is just like the accelerators. The spell passing through the circle becomes bigger and faster, but Goodman doesn’t give him the slightest chance at all.
At the same time, Sean saw an even more astonishing scene. Goodman kept casting spells with his right hand and began to outline symbols with his left hand dipped in gold powder.
After he outlined three new symbols, Professor Gurley finally found a chance to counterattack.
He dodged a spell nimbly, holding his wand high. A huge light lit up, and the dazzling white light blinded the students for a moment. When they opened their dry eyes, they found that Gurley rushed straight towards Goodman.
The two were only one step away, and Gurley could almost see the pores on Goodman’s face.
But Goodman had been prepared for a long time. The moment he came over, he just finished drawing the rune symbols needed for the second magic.
The rune shone again, and the magic turned into something like transparent water and moved onto Goodman’s body. Sean knew nothing about ancient runes and was dumbfounded.
Gurley finally found a good opportunity. His wand moved out and hit Goodman. But Goodman just swayed a little and cast a counterattack spell.
The enhanced spell was so powerful Gurley avoided most of it but was still hit by the last spell. His body suddenly became dull and slow, and even his thoughts slowed down.
Goodman didn’t stop at all and shot out several spells in succession. At the same time, he stood in the circle without moving once.
Gurley was slowed down and obviously couldn’t escape. With a sigh of unwillingness, he dropped his wand to the ground and was instantly petrified.
“The outcome has been decided.” Goodman’s expression remained unchanged.
He untied Gurley’s curse and then looked at all the students, “During this battle, who can answer me about what I did?”
Hermione was hesitant to answer. She had only learned a bit of ancient runes by herself and hadn’t quite figured it out yet. As for Sean, his rune talent was really bad. He couldn’t understand the magic performed by Professor Goodman at all.
A senior student from Nurmengard raised his hand. Looking at the uniform, he should be a seventh grader.
“Mr. Booker, do tell.”
Booker’s voice was loud, fast, and clear, “Professor Goodman, you prepared yourself before the duel and used your superb rune skills to complete the runes without the opponent noticing. Casting a defensive spell on yourself in advance to ensure that the opponent’s first spell won’t knock you down, launch a counterattack after completing the first rune magic. I don’t know much about the magic, and it seems to have enhanced its magic power?”
“That’s right. I didn’t have enough combat ability for a face-to-face encounter, so I took this approach.” Professor Goodman didn’t seem to think that it was wrong to plan in advance before the duel. “I used my strengths, and the offensive spell I chose is a slow spell that can be cast quickly. At the same time, I am creating a defensive magic to ensure that my opponent’s blow will defeat me.”
“I didn’t stop casting spells when he dropped his wand. Because I have to consider the probability of the enemy doing wandless magic…”
Professor Goodman said a lot, all of them are his dueling experiences. Sean summed it up, which can be explained simply, never underestimate your enemy, let your guard down, and prepare for everything.
This is similar to Sean’s way of thinking. Real battles were like this. Professor Goodman’s simple explanations have benefited him a lot. No wonder the students in Nurmengard fight so much better than Hogwarts, and no wonder they always win the Goblet of Fire.
“Hey, Sean, did you see that man just now?”
Sean turned his head. It turned out to be the Weasley twins. They didn’t know when they mixed into the crowd of second graders.
“Which one? Oh, Booker?”
“That’s right, it was him,” Fred gritted his teeth, “The group led by Booker beat up George and me.”
Sean looked over from a distance. Booker had yellowish-brown hair with a smile on his face. The seventh grader led a large group of students to beat up two fourth graders. It seems that Booker would steep that low.
George and Fred were still discussing their revenge matters.
“How about a big dung egg and a love potion? Then lock those guys in one room?”
“I’ll have to buy some big doses of love potions. How about I order another live goat to send them over?”
“You’re a disgusting person,” George said with disgust and then nodded again, “but I like that idea. You’re indeed my brother.”
The corner of Sean’s mouth twitched. The revenge plan of these two brothers is really disgusting.
However, Sean is not confident to win against a seventh-grader like them. It would be great if he could do a sneak attack. Of course, using magical animals was probably not a good idea. He also wanted to know if he compared to the Nurmengard students.
As for revenge, Sean already had some plans.
He bumped the arms of the two, “I don’t know who he is. You can plan out your revenge, and I’ll take care of it in like two days.”
“Sean, I know you are a good man,” Fred put his arm around his shoulders, “but that guy is a seventh grader. We went to ask around today, and Booker’s strength is quite good. It is said that at last year’s Goblet of Fire tournament. Booker was still a fifth grader at the time, he almost entered the competition team, but there were too many strong players among the seventh graders in Nurmengard, and they were all abnormally strong. Although he was good, but he was replaced by an even stronger candidate.”
“Obviously, he has become one of the greatest students in the seventh grade now.” George shrugged and spread his hands helplessly.
Sean waved his hand indifferently, “Don’t worry, I have a solution.”
“Really? Don’t think you can just do something stupid and vent your anger randomly.”
“Really, you will know when the time comes.”
After reassuring the twins, Professor Goodman’s explanation paused.
“Now, practice in groups of two. Don’t worry about getting hurt. The professors and medical staff are always on guard.”
“You have only one goal, and that is to make the opponent completely lose the ability to cast magic,” Professor Goodman said, “If anyone wants to perform a duel in this stone platform, you are free to do so.”
Sean heard this and immediately walked over. Goodman raised his eyebrows and glanced at him.
“Hogwarts second grade? Whom are you challenging?”
“Anyone that is up to it.”
“Not bad for a second-grader. Do you accept the challenge from Nurmengard’s second-year student?”
Sean blinked his eyes, “I accept, and not only the second graders but also the third and fourth graders.”
Goodman finally showed another expression. He squinted his eyes and looked at Sean as if thinking about where the student in front of him got his confidence.