Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 182 Finals
Speaking of the contestants participating in this duel competition, each and every one of them is so silly and cute.

The school uniform robe that covers the feet is obviously not suitable for fighting, but the competition has been going on to the finals, and no one wants to change clothes. Mike really wants to laugh about this, although he didn't think of this until the finals.

Mike originally planned to buy a bulletproof vest, but after careful consideration, he gave up the idea.

After all, a normal bulletproof vest usually weighs more than 3kg, which is more than 6 jin. This weight will affect the speed of an adult man, not to mention Mike.

And so, Mike, wearing a desert camouflage uniform, stepped onto the corridor leading to the competition venue.

Mike has walked through this corridor many times and is very familiar with it, so even though the lighting in the corridor is very dim, Mike does not feel uncomfortable at all. On the contrary, Mike feels that this dim environment makes his originally nervous heart relax.

“Tick, tick.”

The military boots made crisp sounds on the stone floor, and the sound echoed in the corridor.

Along with the echoing footsteps, the road in front of Mike became brighter and brighter, and an arched light gate appeared in front of him.

The corners of Mike's mouth curved up, and he continued to move forward.

"Shh!"

The moment he passed through the light gate, the world in front of Mike's eyes suddenly became bright. Since the final was specially chosen on a sunny weekend, the light Mike saw this time was different from the cold light emitted by the magic lamps in the past. The golden sunlight sprinkled on Mike, warming his whole body.

Mike and Cedric arrived at the stadium almost at the same time, which made the audience in the stands excited, and Lockhart in the suspended attic also began the pre-match commentary in time.

"Dear audience! The much-anticipated finals of the dueling tournament are finally about to begin! You can see that our two contestants, Mike and Cedric, have already arrived at the arena. Let's cheer for them!" Lockhart was intoxicated as he listened to the applause from the audience. "In addition, in addition to Headmaster Dumbledore, we have also invited two special guests, namely the Director of the Department of Physical Education and Sports, Mr. Ludo Bagman, and Cedric's father, who is also the head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Mr. Amos Diggory!"

As soon as these words were spoken, applause broke out again in the stands, but compared to when Mike and the other man came on stage before, the applause was obviously much weaker now.

In fact, only Hufflepuff students and a few students from other colleges were applauding in the stands. The rest of the people were not too impressed with the two people invited by Lockhart. Many Slytherin students even laughed.

In their eyes, Bagman, the Director of the Department of Sports and Physical Education, was a mean man obsessed with money. As for Cedric's father, sorry, he was just a team leader of the Department for the Control of Magical Creatures, so they really didn't take him seriously.

Lockhart and the others in the suspended attic obviously chose to ignore the ridicule of the Slytherin students. Lockhart continued, "Well, first of all, Mr. Diggory, do you think your son can beat Mike and become the champion?"

"There is no doubt about it. I think my son is definitely the best student in the entire Hogwarts, both in terms of ability and character. Of course, this is not to say that the other students are not good, but Cedric is just too good.

You know what, Mr. Bagman? Cedric has been talking about how great a little wizard Mike is at home. He is such a gentleman!"

"Of course, I am confident that Cedric can beat Mike. Also, you can just call me Ludo."

……

Listening to Diggory and Bagman praising each other in the hanging attic, many Ravenclaw students in the stands began to protest loudly. In fact, not only them, but also Slytherin and Gryffindor students soon joined the team of condemnation. Even many Hufflepuff students remained silent this time. What Bagman and his friends said was really disgusting.

At this moment in the stadium, listening to his father's flattery and the cursing of his classmates in the stands, Cedric felt his face burning and he wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

"Has he always been like this?"

Mike asked, looking at Cedric oddly.

"Yeah, he's just, uh, he's just a little bit." Cedric said awkwardly, "Mike, I'm so sorry, really, my father, he, uh..."

While Cedric was still organizing his words, Lockhart and others in the hanging attic finally stopped flattering each other and announced the start of the duel etiquette.

Mike and Cedric had to stop talking and started to greet each other.

When the two of them were bowing, Cedric wanted to say something to Mike, but was retorted by Mike.

"No need to say more, Cedric, let's see what happens."

Looking at Mike who turned and left, Cedric opened his mouth but finally said nothing. He just looked up at the suspended attic above his head helplessly, and finally shook his head and returned to his seat.

To be honest, he has experienced this embarrassing scene countless times since he was a child.

His father, well, how should I put it.

To use a word Mike often says, his emotional intelligence is very low.

Every time there was a classmate or family gathering, his father would say something that made both parties present very embarrassed, but he himself was very happy. This is why his father was only a small team leader despite the wealth and power of the Diggory family.

As for Mike, it would be a lie to say he wasn't angry at Cedric's father's undisguised derogatory remarks. Although Mike is not the kind of person who will take revenge, he is definitely not a broad-minded "good man" either.

But he would not just talk like Lockhart and Cedric's father did, he chose to slap them in the face with actual actions. Seeing that the two people on the field had already taken their positions, Lockhart in the suspended attic finally announced the official start of the game.

"Alright! We can see that contestants Mike and Cedric are ready, so... let's get started!"

"boom!"

The moment Lockhart announced the start of the game, Cedric used Transfiguration to transform the flagstone floor of the venue into thick stone walls, protecting his entire body inside.

After creating more than a dozen stone walls in succession, Cedric, perhaps feeling somewhat safe, began to transform the rubble brought out by the stone walls into ferocious beasts.

After a while, three cheetahs and two lions appeared on the field. At Cedric's command, the beasts howled and rushed towards Mike across the field.

However, Mike's attack also arrived at this time.

I saw a purple compressed fireball that was still constantly expanding, melting through a dozen stone walls with a whistling sound, and finally exploded on the last and thickest stone wall in front of Cedric.

With a huge explosion, a miniature mushroom cloud rose up. The place where Cedric was originally located immediately became a deep pit, with dark red magma flowing freely in it.

"Cedric!"

Mr. Diggory in the suspended attic no longer had the calm and confident look he had before. He shouted and stood up from his seat, staring at the mushroom cloud below for a long time without saying a word.

"Well, there seems to be something unexpected going on at the scene. Mike's fire spell is very powerful." Lockhart stammered, "But since the professors on the sidelines did not intervene in the game, then Cedric should not be in any danger, right?"

Hearing the uncertainty in Lockhart's words, Mr. Diggory wanted to die. Not only him, but also many spectators in the stands were staring wide-eyed at this moment. No one expected that Mike would use a magic spell like Compressed Fireball at the beginning!
Unlike the others, Mike didn't have a relaxed look on his face at this moment. On the contrary, he became even more alert.

Using compressed fireballs at the beginning was a tactic that Mike came up with after careful consideration. Cedric's magic capacity is higher than Mike's, and coupled with Cedric's superb transformation skills, if the game time is dragged out, Cedric is likely to use transformation skills to turn the entire arena into a swamp, an environment that is not suitable for Mike to fight at all.

It can be said that the longer the battle with Cedric drags on, the more disadvantageous it will be for Mike.

So instead of being slowly worn out, it is better to use the ultimate move at the beginning and defeat Cedric. Even if you cannot defeat Cedric, you must injure him in order to end the game quickly.

What Lockhart said was actually not wrong. The professors on the sidelines had not taken action yet, which meant that Cedric was not in danger of life. Now Mike just hoped that the compressed fireball that consumed nearly half of his magic power could seriously injure Cedric.

Just when everyone on the field thought that Cedric was in great danger, the black smoke suddenly rolled up, and then countless feathers emerged from the smoke and attacked Mike.

Mike remained calm in the face of the rain-like feathers. He quietly released the armor protection spell blessed by multiple spellcasting techniques, and in just a moment, several layers of translucent shields enveloped Mike.

Listening to the crisp sound of feathers hitting the shield like an arrow hitting a shield, Mike's eyes were fixed on a corner in the thick smoke. There seemed to be some creature moving violently in the smoke. After a while, the smoke there was blown away, revealing Cedric inside.

But Cedric looked completely different now than he usually did.

I saw that its originally upright body was completely covered with feathers. Its long legs had turned into a pair of sharp eagle claws, and its arms had turned into a pair of huge wings with a wingspan of 7 meters. Cedric had turned into a monster with a human head and a bird body!

Perhaps because he was injured in the explosion, Cedric now had countless wounds of varying sizes on his body. Not only were his originally white feathers dyed gray by the thick smoke, but even his pair of huge wings were covered with wounds. As he flapped his wings, blood could be faintly seen falling. One only had to look at the painful expression on Cedric's head, the only part that retained its human shape, to know how seriously he was injured.

"Animagus? No! That's not right! It's Transfiguration!" said Professor McGonagall. "He's crazy! He dared to transform his entire body! If he's not careful, he'll stay like this forever!"

Hearing Professor McGonagall's exclamation, the other professors nearby also showed shock in their eyes, especially the Headmistress of Hufflepuff House, Pomona Sprout. This kind old lady's face was already full of worry at this moment.

Looking at Cedric's figure hovering in the air, Mike was frightened at first, but he quickly adjusted his mentality. No matter what kind of monster he turned into, he raised his hand and shot a bone-crushing curse at him.

Cedric, who transformed into a bird with a human head, had amazing mobility and speed. With just a few flaps of his wings, he moved sideways more than ten meters and avoided the spell shot by Mike. However, judging from the twisted look on his face and the large amount of blood falling in the air, Cedric's current physical condition could not sustain such high-intensity displacement for too long.

Mike on the ground watched Cedric's actions in the sky, a smile of success appeared on his face. At the same time, he thought about it and saw that the spell that Cedric had dodged suddenly turned around in mid-air and continued to shoot towards Cedric at an exaggerated speed.

Cedric was shocked when he saw this and quickly flapped his wings to continue moving, but the red-glowing spell was gnawing at him like a leech.

As time went by, the wound on Cedric's wings became bigger and bigger as he flapped his wings vigorously. Blood kept falling, and Cedric's movement speed became slower and slower. Finally, the crushing spell finally caught up with Cedric under Mike's control.

The shattering spell in mid-air suddenly split into two slightly thinner beams of light, which hit Cedric's wings hard.

Suddenly, blood splattered.

Cedric's gray wings broke apart, and he cried out in pain and fell from the sky.

"No!"

Mr. Diggory in the hanging attic cried out and rushed towards the exit, but Professor Sprout at the edge of the field was faster than him. With a wave of his hand, without even using his wand, a vine in the center of the field quickly grew out of the ground, just like the legendary Babel that could reach the sky. It grew to dozens of meters high in an instant and steadily caught the falling Cedric.

(End of this chapter)