The Rune Mage Starting at Hogwarts

Not far away in the Beauxbatons seat, Fleur Delacour remained the center of attention.

Rizz saw several upperclassmen from other schools trying to invite her to lunch, but clearly no one could get the high-flying beauty of Beauxbatons to join them.

“That girl’s charm is too much for a kid your age. Wait two or three years before talking about it,” Sirius suddenly appeared out of nowhere, holding a bread sandwich filled with thick smoked meat, and sat down next to Ryze without any regard for his image. “Come on, listen to the information I’ve gathered.”

Ryze looked at Sirius: "What information did you find out?"

"Your opponent in the first round this afternoon, Jean Pierre from Durmstrang, I just looked at his information at the registration desk and also asked him about it. That guy is a combat wizard, and I heard that his style is very tough. He is good at using a continuous stream of offensive spells combined with close combat to suppress his enemies."

Sirius shook his head at Ryze: "Your light magic isn't very effective against wizards who like close combat, so you have to be careful not to let him get within three feet of you."

In the past week, he has basically mastered the characteristics of light magic, and it works very well at a distance of more than ten feet, making it almost impossible to distinguish between real and fake light.

But once you get within five feet, the effect becomes very poor.

"A melee wizard..." Ryze pondered.

This style is definitely not seen at Hogwarts.

Durmstrang's aggressive playing style is indeed very threatening to students who lack practical experience.

However, Ryze does have an advantage in close combat.

After all, close combat demands a higher level of reaction speed, and Ryze, with his speed boost, should be more agile.

Moreover, in close combat, spells are more likely to hit the opponent.

His "Light Them Up!" rune requires a slow search for opportunities to trigger when facing conventional wizards, but against enemies of this style, a single close-range hit with a spell can directly detonate the mark on the opponent, causing damage.

Chapter 188: The Duel Begins

At two o'clock in the afternoon, sunlight shone through the magical barrier above the manor onto the dueling arena, but it was not dazzling.

Because of the interference from the French Ministry of Magic, the venues where they will hold their duels for the next two weeks will have good weather suitable for watching the matches.

This is a privilege that even the Quidditch World Cup doesn't offer.

After all, the weather during a Quidditch match is also one of the highlights of the game, and the worse the weather, the more it can show the difference in strength between the two sides.

After a short lunch break, Ryze and Sirius watched the game together from the sidelines.

These young wizards from all over the world may still be quite inexperienced, but they have all shown their own unique characteristics.

The witch from the Japanese magic academy was very sharp, wielding a cherry wood wand. She was skilled at using attack magic with shorter, more concise sounds, and defeated the student from Castelobusch, Brazil, in just two minutes.

The students of Vagado also demonstrated the ability to cast spells without a wand. Under equal conditions, the advantage of using a wand is indeed greater than that of casting spells without a wand.

However, the student from Vagado successfully defeated the student from Skodosdorez, Russia, in the first round by using the concealment and flexibility of hand gestures to cast spells.

The duel started much faster than Ryze had anticipated.

The shortest match only takes a minute, and even people of similar skill levels can usually be decided within a quarter of an hour.

The results at Hogwarts were pretty good. Students in their fifth year and above all won the first round, while students in their lower years had mixed results.

Even Anthony, after five minutes of struggle, relied on the basic skills he had honed since childhood to steadily defeat his second-year opponent.

At 4:30 p.m., it was Reese's turn to play.

"Please come to the stage, the twelfth group of contestants, Rizz White of Hogwarts and Jean Pierre of Durmstrang!" The referee's voice echoed throughout the arena through the Loud Voice Charm.

Amidst the cheers of the Hogwarts students who had already finished their matches, Rhett patted the wrinkles in his robes and stood up.

Sirius, meanwhile, was giving instructions from the side: "Remember what I said, don't let him get close."

Ryze nodded to indicate that he understood, and then stepped onto the dueling ring.

His rival, Jean-Pierre, was already waiting there.

This Durmstrang sixth-grade student was much taller and stronger than Reiz.

He already knew that his opponent was a first-year student from Hogwarts, so he seemed somewhat nonchalant.

When he saw Ryze's youthful face, a mocking smile crept onto his lips.

These are first-year wizards from Hogwarts who came to get a feel for the atmosphere.

He was only considered slightly above average in Durmstrang's sixth year, but his performance was so good that he was essentially guaranteed a spot in the next round.

After the referee checked their bodies and confirmed that they had not taken any illegal drugs or were carrying any other alchemical items, he even told the referee that they should not check Ryze at all.

Even if a first-year wizard had the legendary Elder Wand, he didn't think he would lose to his opponent.

The Durmstrang students in the audience chuckled softly after hearing Pierre's words, clearly agreeing that Pierre had won too easily this round.

Ryze did not react emotionally to the other party's provocation.

He simply walked calmly to the designated spot and let the referee check his body.

After completing the examination, Ryze also bowed slightly in accordance with dueling etiquette.

“Please bow to each other,” the referee called out from the side of the table, reminding Pierre to return the bow.

There are still people down there, practicing their bows for over half a year. Don't keep them waiting!

Upon hearing this, Pierre gave a perfunctory bow and looked at the students below: "I'll finish the fight in half a minute."

After bowing, he leaned forward slightly and lowered his center of gravity.

This is their school's starting stance.

As a battle wizard trained by Durmstrang, although he underestimated his opponent, he still took the duel quite seriously.

Ryze was slightly disappointed, as he had thought the other party would show gentlemanly manners and let him, a first-year wizard, make the first move.

It seems there's no way to simply blind the opponent with ultimate fluorescent flash and easily win this round.

Seeing that both sides were ready, the referee in the audience waved his hand and said, "Begin!"

No sooner had the referee finished speaking than Pierre moved.

Instead of standing still to exchange fire or casting protective spells like a conventional wizard, he suddenly took a step forward, rapidly waving his wand and sending a red beam of light towards Ryze.

As expected of Durmstrang's battle wizard, he can easily cast silent spells, and the hand gestures for casting spells have also been greatly reduced.

But Reiz is faster.

With the rune "Light them!" which enhances the effects of light and fire magic, and thanks to Ryze's seven months of arduous training, he had long since mastered the Illumination Charm.

Especially the ultimate spell, Flashing Light, which is the starting point of their school of thought; in terms of spell casting speed alone, Ryze's speed is only slightly slower than Professor Flitwick's.

In an instant, a beam of light a hundred times more dazzling than sunlight suddenly burst forth on the dueling platform.

Not only was Pierre on stage thrown off course by the bright light, but even the unprepared audience members were momentarily blinded by the glare.

"Damn it!" Pierre groaned.

He was certainly aware of the Ultimate Fluorescent Start dueling style. In fact, although this dueling style was not considered mainstream, it was still frequently used by people today when others were off guard.

He had no idea that this first-year student had also mastered silent spellcasting, and that the spell "Ultimate Flash of Light" was even faster than his Disarming Spell.

Completely unprepared, he was exposed to a bright light and his eyes went blind for a brief period of time, and tears streamed down his face uncontrollably.

But with his extensive combat experience, he knew how to handle such situations.

The instant he disappeared from sight, he instinctively stopped abruptly and dodged backward, while simultaneously waving his wand rapidly in front of him.

"Armor protects you!"

"Brightens the eyes and purifies the mind!"

He released the two spells very quickly.

A transparent barrier quickly protected his body, followed by a warm light covering his eyes, relieving the stinging pain from the bright light.

As Pierre managed to regain a sliver of vision and prepared to deal with Ryze's subsequent spell bombardment, he was stunned by what he saw before him.

A gasp of surprise rang out from the audience.

Because Ryze didn't distance herself from him, but instead waved her wand to cast Lightness Charm and Protection Charm on herself, she rushed towards him at full speed!

Chapter 189: Light Them Up!

This unusual behavior drew gasps of surprise from the audience.

It's already rare for a first-year student to use Ultimate Flash so quickly; tactically, this first-year student has already gained an advantage.

If he maintains distance from his opponent and engages in offense and defense, he can at least hold out for another minute or two.

But now he's actively approaching the other person. Is he trying to engage in melee magic?

How dare this first-year student at Hogwarts be so bold?

Even Sirius Black couldn't help but scratch his head.

Ryze, that guy, knew that the other was good at close combat, yet he still took the initiative to get close to him. Although he and Lu Ping had indeed taught him a lot about close combat, the size difference between the two was undeniable. If Ryze's reaction speed was even slightly slow, the other would probably seize the opportunity.

However, he continued to stare intently at the stage, wanting to know what Ryze was planning to do.

With the Lightness Charm, Ryze appeared exceptionally light on the dueling ring.

Although Pierre cast a vision-enhancing spell on himself, the spell didn't heal very quickly; his vision was still blurry and doubled when he was crying.

The only thing he could confirm was that the first-grader actually dared to get close to him.

He angrily raised his wand, attempting to attack using sound and the blurry figure before him.

"Crushed to pieces!"

"He collapsed to the ground, completely unconscious!"

Pierre unleashed two powerful spells in quick succession, which flew toward the figure in front of him.

However, the figure in front of them was completely unaffected, and even the protective spells in front of the figure remained unchanged.

Clearly, due to the obstruction of vision, both of his spells missed.

The Durmstrang students in the audience clapped their hands in regret. The intense light had a huge impact on their vision. If Pierre had been prepared, he would have been fine, but now it would take him at least half a minute for his vision to fully recover.

“Who is this first-year student at Hogwarts? I think his spell casting speed is no slower than that of a fifth or sixth-year student, and the power is great. Look, Pierre’s armor was shattered by two of his Shattering Curses!”

This power is not much different from their spells.

But they are at least four or five years older than Ryze. Ryze is only just entering his magical growth period. Most wizards only start to have their magical power grow rapidly when they are 13 or 14 years old.

Although it was only two rounds of attacks, Ryze's performance was enough to make them want to find out about Ryze's origins.

Meanwhile, on Pierre's side...

He naturally knew that his protective spell had been broken, and he couldn't help but feel a little flustered.

His panic wasn't because his armor charm was shattered; it's common for protective charms to be shattered in duels, and all he had to do was cast a new protective charm before the opponent's attack came.

As the user of the protective charm, he was actually more aware of his spell status.

It did appear that two shattering spells had indeed destroyed his armor spell, but between the two spells, he could sense that there was a special force in between that was damaging his armor spell.

However, neither he nor the audience noticed what kind of attack Ryze used between the two Shattering Curses.

If he doesn't understand this, then he won't be able to defend against the opponent's unseen special attack.

But by this time, Ryze had already rushed to within three feet of him, a distance that was extremely dangerous for a wizard.

"Stay away from me!"

Pierre now knows that this first-year student is not as simple as he thought.

This wasn't a guarantee that he'd advance to the next round; rather, it was a reminder that the Wizarding World Championship was full of hidden masters, and that he couldn't let his guard down no matter what kind of opponent he faced.

He didn't know what would happen if he let the other get close, but his instincts told him it was best not to let Ryze get near him.

So he quickly created an armor spell in front of himself again, followed by a knockback spell, trying to knock Ryze away when he got close.

However, Ryze, who was already very fast, became even more agile with the Lightness Charm. He simply lowered his head and turned to the side, and the knockback spell flew past his hair and crashed heavily into the protective barrier behind him.

By the time Pierre realized this, Rizzi had already moved to his side where there was no armor protecting him, and at the same time, Pierre saw the bright red light on the other's wand.

"Except your weapons!"

Rizz's voice was very soft, but the spell was released at an astonishing speed.

Pierre had tried his best to control his armor transfer and turned his body to avoid being hit by the spell on his wand-holding hand.

The final armor spell only managed to block a small portion of the red light; the remaining red light still struck his left arm heavily, causing him to stagger back several steps from the impact.

Fortunately, resistance to the Disarming Charm is something they start practicing from second year. As long as he isn't hit directly in the head or in the hand holding the wand, the wand won't easily slip from his hand.

This first-grader still lacks experience. The release speed of the disarming spell is indeed very fast, but it is also because of its speed that it is easier to deal with than other spells.