The Rune Mage Starting at Hogwarts

Sirius walked halfway around Rizzo's location, his eyes very cautious.

At this moment, Lu Ping also did not forget to check Sirius's judgment from the side.

"Only twenty seconds left, Sirius. How much longer do you want to continue observing?"

“Shut up, Lymus. I can afford to buy you a drink. Now let me think this through. I’m sure I can break this spell,” Sirius gritted his teeth, his gaze quickly scanning Ryze’s surroundings.

“It is indeed very deceptive, Ryze. The spell you developed is much more interesting than I imagined. If we were in a dark alley, I might actually be fooled by this trick,” Sirius said as he slowly walked next to Ryze.

Then, as soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly waved his wand, pointing it at an empty space about three feet to Ryze's side.

"But here, the light is too bright. Although the illusion you created is perfect, you seem to have forgotten about the shadows beneath your feet. A human figure is appearing!"

A spell flew precisely towards the open space.

On the other side, Ryze also looked cautious.

Just as the spell was about to reach that location, Rizz's voice rang out from another direction.

"But the problem is, shadows can be deceiving, Sirius."

"This shadow itself is a flaw that I deliberately revealed."

As the spell failed, Ryze, standing on the other side, immediately launched an attack, brandishing his wand.

"Except your weapons!"

From Sirius's perspective, Ryze's wand was pointing in a strange direction, seemingly aimed at Rupin.

However, his expression changed the next second.

The moment the red spell streak shot from the tip of the wand, it did appear to be heading towards Lupin. But then, in mid-air, the spell seemed to hit an invisible mirror, violently refracting to the other side. It then rapidly adjusted its position several times in the air until it deflected towards him at a distance of only five feet, at which point its speed slowed down.

"What?" Sirius was also taken aback by the strange trajectory of the curse.

He knew that many spells could adjust their direction in the air, and some even had tracking effects, but the spell that Ryze displayed, which allowed him to fly around randomly in the air, was something he had never seen before.

Fortunately, he had prepared in advance and cast a protective spell on himself.

With a "snap," the red disarming spell struck the invisible barrier, creating a violent ripple.

Sirius only needed to sense it briefly to know that Ryze's current curse was no different from the one he had in fifth or sixth grade.

Then several different spells came toward Ryze with unpredictable trajectories from his hands.

Fortunately, there was a twenty-year age difference between the two, and even though Sirius had wasted ten years in Azkaban, the magical power in their bodies was not on the same level at all.

Even though Ryze's spells were difficult for him to dodge, he could generally withstand them with protective charms.

His counterattacks completely missed Ryze's true location; either the spells were distorted, or they passed right through Ryze's body.

After barely reaching the next spell, Lu Ping announced that one minute had passed.

"Time's up, Sirius. You've lost your bet with me. Do you want to continue?"

Ryze stopped his attack at this moment, smiling as he looked at Sirius: "How about it, the spell seems to be working pretty well, right?"

Sirius exhaled, his gaze fixed intently on Rizzo's figure.

The trajectory of that disarming spell was completely contrary to his understanding of the magic.

Generally speaking, even the most elite Aurors can only make spells faster.

He had never heard of such a skill before, which involved hurtling around in mid-air and changing direction multiple times.

“Is this some new spell-casting technique developed by Philius? It certainly has a significant impact on the way wizard duels are played,” Sirius, naturally aware of the technique’s effectiveness in actual combat, asked cautiously as he moved his feet. “It seems you’re determined to win this year’s Wizarding Duel Tournament.”

Lu Ping smiled and said, "Didn't I tell you? This technique, and even this dueling style, was first conceived and used by Ryze. From the birth of this technique to its current perfection, only two months have passed."

"Really only two months?" Sirius frowned, seemingly thinking that time was too exaggerated. "That's only enough time for most children to learn how to quickly turn a match into a needle."

It wouldn't be surprising if a wizard of Dumbledore's caliber spent half a lifetime researching this technique.

Rizz has only been in the wizarding world for less than a year, how could he possibly be in charge of such profound technique research?

“Of course, I have no reason to lie to you about something like this,” Lu Ping said, suppressing a laugh. He didn’t explain how this seemingly fancy but actually very simple technique, so simple that even other first-year students could master it with a little effort, was all about. “Although Professor Flitwick did give a lot of advice, the core idea was actually Ritz’s own idea.”

Sirius instinctively sensed that Lupin and Ritz's expressions were somewhat strange.

“No, there’s something strange about the expressions on your faces. I have a feeling something’s wrong.”

Sirius still didn't believe that a first-year wizard could develop such advanced attack methods.

He looked at Ryze: "I'm going to get serious."

He knew that if he continued to use this spell to test her, he would only be completely fooled by Ryze's strange spells and techniques.

Since we can't see the other party's true location or grasp the trajectory of the spell, let's just go for something bigger.

Thinking of this, Sirius suddenly waved his wand, no longer pointing it at any specific target, but instead swung it hard in front of him.

"Sand and stones flying!"

As the incantation was finished, a sudden gust of wind howled through the room.

Dust and scraps of paper on the floor were swirled into the air, forming visible vortexes.

Under such a violent storm, the originally perfect illusion still showed a slight flaw.

The light could no longer maintain a stable refraction in the murky air, and Ryze's figure, which had previously looked incredibly realistic, began to shake violently.

This is the biggest problem with light deflection magic nowadays; spells that can interfere with light refraction greatly reduce the magic's concealment effect.

However, Ryze never intended to rely solely on this move to win, since there is never a guaranteed winning dueling style.

Except for the Unforgivable Curse, all other magic can be countered with corresponding anti-curses.

"Got you!" Sirius Black keenly caught this, noticing the unnatural distortion in the airflow, and pointed his wand sharply to the corner on the right. "You're right there, Ryze!"

Chapter 181: The Duel Ends

As Sirius finished speaking, a knockout spell was released from his hand at an extremely fast speed.

However, Ryze was not met with a dodge by the spell, but with a blindingly bright white beam of light.

Ritz's voice rang out in the bright light, sounding unusually calm.

"Final Flash!"

He had already begun to gather his strength when Sirius released the flying sand and stones.

Under Sirius's astonished gaze, the beam of light, as thick as a bucket, struck his knockdown spell with overwhelming force.

Without any stalemate, the light of the knockdown spell shattered completely the moment it touched the pillar of light.

As the beam of light approached him at incredible speed, Sirius had already erected a double protective spell in front of him the moment he sensed the threat posed by the pure white beam.

He had analyzed the Ultimate Flash Charm for Ryze during his vacation, so he knew that ordinary protective charms couldn't stop this magic.

Therefore, the double protection spell he cast first formed a semi-transparent armor in front of him, and then a blue light emanating coldness covered the surface of the armor spell.

It was some kind of advanced ice-based protective spell, which instantly condensed a thick layer of ice shield on the Ironclad Spell.

"Boom!"

The pure white beam of light slammed into the two barriers, producing a piercing hissing sound. The impact also forced Sirius to stagger back several steps.

The intense heat from the beam of light caused the ice to melt rapidly into large amounts of water vapor, but it also slowed down the speed at which the beam of light broke through.

“The power of this magic you developed is truly astonishing, Ryze. If you hadn’t mentioned it to me before, I probably would have lost by now,” Sirius shouted through the thick fog. “But you can’t move while you’re maintaining this magic, can you?”

Moreover, because this magic is so bright, it will also obstruct Ryze's own vision.

As soon as he finished speaking, Sirius used the beam of light and steam in front of him as cover and rolled to the side before his shield was pierced.

Then a red light drew a beautiful arc in the air, bypassing the side of the room and heading straight for Ryze's shoulder.

"boom!"

Ryze felt a tremendous force pushing against his shoulder, and then Aery appeared in front of him, blocking the attack.

The moment Lupin saw Ellie appear, he declared the duel over.

"The duel is over, stop!"

As Lupin finished speaking, Ryze, knowing he had lost, stopped channeling his magic.

The pure white beam of light that pierced through the room instantly disintegrated, turning into countless tiny specks of light that disappeared into the air.

He looked at Ellie helplessly. Without Ellie's help, he would have already been hit by Sirius's Disarming Spell.

Although he possessed some wandless spellcasting ability and could continue fighting Sirius for a while, a wizard without a wand was destined to fail sooner or later.

It can only be said that his current strength is still quite different from that of elite adult wizards like Sirius Black.

Ellie also bounced lightly twice beside him before merging back into his body.

Sirius Black also got up from the floor.

He actually looks rather disheveled right now.

The once neat robe's cuffs were scorched by the high temperature, and the exposed skin on the arms was slightly red.

Although the Ultimate Flash failed to break through the protective spell, the heat emitted after the light beam evaporated the water vapor still slightly burned him.

Sirius, slightly out of breath, glanced at his protective spell, which now had only a small layer left.

The combined defense of the Ironclad Charm and the Ice Shield Charm only lasted for five seconds.

The breakthrough ability of this Ultimate Flash Charm is truly astonishing.

Sirius shook his slightly hot hands: "I must say, Ryze, that move of yours was really powerful. It almost turned me into roast meat."

He took out a small bottle of white safflower essence from his body and applied it to the areas where he had been burned.

Feeling the cool sensation on his skin, Sirius shook his head with lingering fear.

"I feel that using this move in the junior division of the wizarding duel tournament is a bit of a waste of its potential. Even those well-known dark wizards would probably suffer a great loss if they encountered this move for the first time."

Rizz rubbed his shoulder: "Yes, this spell works very well against wizards who haven't seen it before, but its deterrent power decreases a lot after they know the effects of the spell."

Ritz has been trying to find a way to remove those defects for the past two months, but it's been very difficult.

At least until this duel, there's no way to make major adjustments; it can only be used as a last resort.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Ryze,” Lupin walked over, waved his wand and cast a refreshing spell, clearing away the lingering steam in the air. “You’re only a first-year student, and you can already use magic that can threaten adult wizards.”

He smiled and looked at Sirius: "And I bet Sirius still hasn't figured out what your previous magic was all about. He just stumbled upon it by sheer luck."

"A blind cat stumbled upon a dead mouse?" Sirius's eyes widened, looking quite unconvinced. "Remus, that's pure slander. That was my intuition, you know what intuition is?"

However, Sirius thought for a long time but still couldn't explain what method Ryze had used.

He could only sigh and ask Ryze, "So, what exactly did you guys research? And what's with that Disillusionment Charm and the technique for making spells fly around? I think it must just be a special kind of illusion. You, a novice wizard, couldn't possibly have researched such advanced spellcasting techniques."

Ryze smiled: "It is indeed just a very simple trick, but it works very well in actual combat."

As he said this, Ryze drew a circle with his wand, and Sirius immediately felt that the light in the house seemed to have changed.

It seems like the lighting in the room has become more even.

The next moment, Ryze began to back away, maintaining a distance of about seven feet from Sirius.

As Ryze retreated, Sirius was surprised to find that another Ryze had "split" out of Ryze's body.

"Is this the Split Body Curse?" Sirius said subconsciously, but he quickly realized the problem.

The two Ryzes were now moving and looking exactly the same, as if they were looking in a mirror.

“The Split Man Charm is a very advanced transformation technique, I can’t do that right now,” both Ryzes said at the same time, but Sirius noticed that the voice came from the Ryze on the right. “It’s actually just a very simple light refraction technique.”

Chapter 182: Seamless Spellcasting

It took ten minutes to explain the principle of the magic. After Rhett used Transformation to create several mirrors, Sirius finally understood what all those fancy tricks were all about.

“I see,” Sirius said, looking at the mirrors floating in the air as a demonstration. “Those spells are actually flying in a straight line, but they only make so many curves in the air because of the refraction of light… Interesting, really interesting. How did you come up with this idea?”

As Sirius said this, he also tried out some simple methods as Rizzi suggested.

Although he was new to this skill and not very proficient yet, after a few attempts, he managed to create a spell that refracted 90 degrees in the air.

Sirius Black whistled as he watched the red light abruptly turn a right angle in mid-air, appearing quite excited.

Ryze explained from the side, "This is because, under the influence of this light deflection magic, when we use magic, the arc of the spell flying in the air will appear very strange. So, in order to cover up these problems, we have come up with many ways to deal with them."

He demonstrated again the spell's effect that made it appear to bounce around randomly under the refraction of light: "We finally figured out this technique. Although it's very simple, the visual effect is excellent. It would be very impressive to use it in a duel tournament."

Rizzi also demonstrated the effects of making the spell spiral forward and splitting and then merging again during flight.