Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 333 The Second Project Concludes

"Yugadimurleviosa!"

Seeing the ground rapidly enlarging in front of him, Krum hurriedly cast a levitation spell on the poor, already burning broom, slowing his descent slightly before crashing to the ground with a thud at top speed...

"Well!!"

Instantly, a piercing pain shot through his brain from the leg that first hit the ground, turning his face deathly pale and causing beads of cold sweat to trickle down his forehead. But that wasn't all; as his entire body and broom slammed into the ground, the same sensations shot through his left arm, his other leg, and part of his chest. This feeling was all too familiar to Krum, a seasoned Quidditch player—that fall had probably broken several of his bones.

This is considered mild—if his Levitation Spell had been even a fraction slower, it wouldn't just be these few bones broken by now.

Looks like I'll be losing a lot of points...

Feeling the several fractures and the dull pain emanating from the dragon's breath burning his back, Krum, unable to get up, couldn't help but give a bitter smile. Then, enduring the excruciating pain, he managed to lift his head and saw the fire dragon that had been relentlessly chasing him falling at a slightly slower pace, trailing a wisp of black smoke. He couldn't help but force a smile that was a mixture of joy and pain.

He still won after all.

That dragon was cunning. Just moments before, as it closed the distance to Krum, it instinctively turned its head to avoid the Eye Disease Curse, while simultaneously opening its mouth to gather dragon breath, thus preventing its attack from being interrupted by the wizard with the wand in front of it—a very clever move.

But this also means that Krum will disappear from the dragon's sight for a moment—and in that moment, Krum will silently attach a curse to the dragon's tongue.

In the current wizarding magic system, there are quite a few spells that cannot be cast from a great distance. Some of them don't even produce any light from the incantation. The most typical example is the levitation spell that Krum just cast—no light, no sound, it takes effect immediately as soon as the incantation is uttered, but the effective distance is quite short... and the same applies to all sorts of random little curses.

So, in that instant when it was out of the dragon's sight, the curse was unknowingly attached to the dragon's tongue, and the effect of the curse was that after three seconds, the dragon's tongue would harden and expand, completely covering its throat... And what happened next was what everyone saw: three seconds later, the remaining dragon breath was blocked by the dragon's tongue and exploded directly in its mouth.

"It was mostly a success... If only I had been a little faster, I might have completely dodged that breath attack, and I could have watched the fire dragon fall from the sky..."

Krum struggled to raise his wand and hastily cast a few healing spells on the broken bone, easing the pain somewhat before managing to stand. He looked at the dragon not far away—its scales above its neck were charred black, its wings drooped limply, and it was completely still. The barrier enveloping the arena finally dissipated completely, allowing the roar of the spectators and Ludo Bagman's excited shouts to flood in instantly.

"Mr. Krum finished the race in an unexpected way!!"

Amidst a wave of incredibly excited shouts, Bagman had to yell at the top of his lungs to make sure his voice was audible only to himself: "He made the dragon's breath explode right inside its mouth! And then he ended the match in one fell swoop! I bet he used a pretty brilliant curse to do that... Look! He's standing up!"

Besides Bagman, the dragon trainers who had just arrived at the arena were also tense—Krum's blow was far too brutal for the dragon. Even with the world's largest and most physically robust dragon, they weren't sure if it could survive such an explosion and fall.

However, as the examination progressed, their interview quickly relaxed again—it seemed that this iron-bellied man was not only alive, but in much better condition than they had imagined…

"That was fantastic, Viktor!"

A Durmstrang professor rushed to Krum with a floating stretcher: "You'll definitely get a high score—but before grading, I need to take you to the first-aid tent; your injuries are a bit too severe..."

"I can even walk there myself."

Krum joked casually as he collapsed onto the stretcher, seemingly on good terms with the professor: "I've had much worse injuries before..."

As he lay on the stretcher, he watched Ludo Bagman jog past the referee's table in the stands, quietly exchanging notes with the other four referees. He wasn't writing or drawing anything in his notebook; he was probably evaluating his final performance.

"I wonder how Ken and Furong did... They're both hiding something, so their scores probably aren't worse than mine."

He thought to himself, "But Ken's last mention of the conspiracy still makes me uneasy. If it's not this hurdle... then it's most likely the third project. Luckily, I've filled up that golden egg; perhaps I can study it beforehand... Should I discuss it with them later?"

……

"Now, I will announce Mr. Viktor Krum's score in this match!"

After Krum entered the first-aid tent and healed all his wounds in less than a minute, Ludo Bagman's voice rang out again: "Based on the scores given by the five judges, Viktor Krum's final score is..."

"Forty-six points!"

This result did not cause much of a stir – after all, the audience had seen the performance of the three warriors and knew that the scores given by the referees were generally appropriate.

Of the three warriors, Ken finished the race the fastest and was not injured. His only penalty was breaking a power pillar—but everyone knew that it had nothing to do with Ken's performance; it was just bad luck.

The second warrior, Hibiscus, broke a stone pillar with her own strength, and it took her the longest to complete the level among the three. However, after observing and analyzing for a considerable period of time, she suddenly emerged as a dark horse, demonstrating an amazing skill in manually charging the stone pillar, and her absolute dominance in the second phase earned her a significant bonus.

As for Krum... although his luck seemed to play a significant role in this round, and he was quite seriously injured in the end, he was the only one of the three who managed to preserve all three stone pillars. He also finished the game slightly faster than Hibiscus, and his excellent aerial combat performance in the second phase, as well as his battle against the cunning fire dragon, were also evident to all... Overall, this score is not biased.

(End of this chapter)