Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 332 Dilemmas and Breakthroughs

"Mr. Krum has slowed down; the distance between him and the fire dragon is gradually decreasing!"

Bagman's voice still echoed in the arena: "I guess he did that to lure the fire dragon to attack him with its teeth or claws, rather than with those hundred-foot-long flames. That distance is enough to make most magic lose its accuracy on a violently shaking broom. Mr. Krum probably realized his disadvantage... but closer distance naturally means greater danger, but clearly Mr. Krum has that confidence!"

"The dragon is breathing fire again! It's only thirty feet away from him! By Merlin, it's like he has eyes in the back of his head. The dragon just opened its mouth when he made a very beautiful dodge, letting the flames pass right under him. No wonder he's a professional Quidditch player..."

"Wait, it looks like he stuck a mirror to the broom?... A clever move!"

On the field, Krum naturally couldn't hear Bagman's forced attempt to save face. At that moment, he only felt a rush of blood to his head, the whistling wind filling his ears and the low roar of the fire dragon behind him. His eyes were fixed on the mirror, observing the fire dragon's every move, while his right thumb gripped his wand tightly, waiting for a fleeting opportunity...

Closer, closer...

"That's about right. If I get any closer, I'll have a hard time dodging the next dragon flames, but this distance is barely enough... Three... Two... One..."

"Thunderous explosion!!"

As he keenly sensed that the flames behind him were gradually dying down and the fire dragon was about to stop its breath attack, Krum suddenly turned around, brandished his wand, pointed it at the fire dragon's gaping maw that had just finished breathing and hadn't yet closed, and loudly chanted the incantation for the Explosion Charm!

If he could just shove that Explosive Charm into the dragon's mouth and blow off its jaw, Krum was confident he could bring that enormous flying creature down with a single blow! With its hundreds of tons of weight, its current height of several hundred feet above the ground, and the power of the Explosive Charm exploding in its mouth... that would be enough to decide the outcome of the match!

"roar!"

However, this fire dragon seemed to have an amazing keen sense of observation. Almost the instant it saw Krum turn around and show his wand, it immediately turned its head at a speed disproportionate to its huge size and folded its wings, changing its flight in a very short time—and the confidently unleashed explosive spell missed its mark.

"...It seems the organizers still have some conscience after all."

After witnessing this, Avada finally felt much better. Pointing at the fire dragon, he turned to his classmates who were still shouting about the terrifying scene and explained, "The fire dragon that Krum was facing clearly had experience fighting wizards. It knew what a wizard's wand meant and roughly how far a typical spell's effective range was... That's why it chose to breathe fire so frequently. As a result, Krum's advantage in the first phase became the most troublesome problem in the second phase... Overall, the difficulty is still relatively balanced."

"And what about you?"

A seventh-grader who had previously worked with him to solve the cave puzzle poked his head out and asked, "If you were facing this fire dragon, what would you do?"

"Well..."

Just as Avada was about to blurt out "soul leaving body," his strong survival instincts stopped him in time: "Probably we'll weaken him slowly with some subtle curses first, and then launch a full-scale attack when the opportunity arises."

"But a strong attack won't be easy."

Cedric had been moving the dragon around without saying much until now, when he finally frowned slightly and interjected, "That dragon is consciously protecting its weaknesses—when Krum pulled out the wand just now, the first thing it did was turn its head away so that its eyes and mouth weren't facing the wand directly."

"It is a bit troublesome, but dragon skin is not completely indestructible. We can just use a few more powerful spells. Besides, this competition doesn't prohibit black magic..."

"This is Ukrainian Iron Belly! The thickness of its skin and the intensity of the magic on it are far greater than those of a typical fire dragon—do you think everyone can unleash such concentrated firepower like that Delacour?"

"Then let's use Transfiguration... Speaking of which, why has almost no one used Transfiguration in the previous matches? Isn't it the most convenient technique for dealing with large magical creatures?"

"The competition venue must have been upgraded, otherwise the difficulty would be too low..."

……

"Damn it... how can this dragon be so slippery?!"

After several failed attempts to entice it, even the seasoned Krum couldn't help but waver: "It runs away as soon as I turn around and draw my wand, and then it starts attacking when I have to focus on controlling the broom. I can't beat it with a direct attack... Even with the broom's help, the disadvantage in aerial combat against a fire dragon is still too great..."

"This has been dragging on for too long...it seems we'll have to take something more risky!"

He lay prone on the broom, head bowed, took a deep breath, glanced at the fire dragon behind him in the mirror, then abruptly stopped mid-air, simultaneously drawing his staff with incredible fluidity and turning around…

"Oh my god!"

This series of actions startled everyone, including the commentator in the stands, Little Barty: "He stopped abruptly! But the fire dragon behind him can't stop so easily... They're going to crash!!"

"roar!"

The giant dragon relentlessly pursuing Krum seemed startled by his actions, unsure how to react. However, the rapidly closing distance didn't give it much time to react. Finally, when it was only a few dozen feet away from Krum, the Ukrainian iron-bellied dragon let out a low growl, sparks flying from its teeth…

"At this distance, dragon breath is almost impossible to dodge!"

Bagman's voice trembled with excitement: "Even if he uses the Ironclad Charm to block it, the broom beneath him will probably malfunction temporarily due to the drastically increased temperature, causing Krum to fall back to the ground and then be completely suppressed by the fire dragon in the sky... My God! Just like that!!"

As Little Barty had said, at such close range, the dragon's breath was unavoidable for Krum. Faced with the surging flames, he could only hastily unleash a silent armor spell, but the pitifully thin barrier shattered almost instantly under the close-range dragon's breath, buying Krum only a little over a second to activate his broom and change his stance...

"Oh my god! His clothes are on fire! And the broom too!"

"Bagman," his face flushed, roared, "He's starting to fall! Although this dragon breath didn't directly trigger the portal key on the cloak, it's clear the situation has become extremely tricky for Mr. Krum! Unless he secretly does something during this close-quarters battle that can instantly turn the tide, otherwise..."

boom!!

His words were caught in his throat by a loud explosion.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the flames that were spewing towards the falling Krum suddenly stopped as if they had been cut off. Then, the flames in the dragon's mouth suddenly became several times more intense, forming a huge fireball in its mouth—and then, after reaching a certain critical point, it exploded violently from it!

(End of this chapter)