Glancing behind him, George violently pulled back on his broomstick, causing his broom to pitch up at a sharp angle into a post-stall angle of attack.
Kyle saw through George's intention in an instant—the Pugachev's Cobra maneuver.
However, right now he didn't have a Bludger nearby to use as a projectile. Aside from committing a foul by throwing his Beater's bat to hit someone, he had no other way to stop George.
To avoid being given a red card and sent off by Madam Hooch, Kyle had no intention of fouling. Instead, maintaining his speed and direction, he charged straight toward George.
George, currently in a post-stall maneuver state, was quickly overtaken by Kyle.
As their broomsticks crossed paths, using the curtain of rain as cover, George sneakily raised his elbow, intending to plant an iron elbow right into Kyle.
At this speed, even if George merely held his elbow out in front of Kyle's head, the resulting collision would be enough to give Kyle a severe concussion.
But who was Kyle?
During his six years as the Dark Knight in New York, Kyle had seen every dirty, underhanded combat move under the sun.
Moves like the Antelope Leap, Cat Shower, Cat Turning, Tornado Destroys Parking Lot, Angry Crow Takes Flight...
Those were all moves that he, Black Tiger Ah Kai, had used to death.
The only reason he didn't use them during regular Quidditch matches was because simply unleashing his Monster Strength to blast Bludgers straight ahead was enough to blow every opposing player off their brooms. There was no need to engage them in close-quarters combat.
Having opened the first three gates of the Eight Inner Gates, Kyle was able to control his body with one hundred percent precision now that his brain's safety limits were removed.
Even though George's elbow was already less than ten centimeters from the tip of his nose, Kyle was still able to unhurriedly lean his upper body backward in such a situation, letting George's elbow graze past just above his nose in a hair's breadth escape.
Yanking his broom handle horizontally, Kyle maneuvered his Firebolt into a spiral drift in mid-air.
As George's Cobra maneuver entered its latter half, the spiraling and drifting Kyle slammed a kick right into his broomstick.
"Third Foot!"
Crack...
Crack!
If George hadn't managed to use wandless magic in the nick of time to cast a Shield Charm in front of his broomstick, his Nimbus would have been forced into retirement after playing in just a single official match.
Yet even so, after Kyle's incredibly powerful kick shattered the barrier formed by the Shield Charm, it still connected with the Nimbus broomstick he was riding, right before George's agonized eyes.
It hadn't snapped, but the broomstick was left with several cracks.
George's heart bled with sheer anguish.
With that single kick, the repair costs would easily run up to at least three hundred Galleons!
Even though the twins were rolling in money now, their family had been working-class Ministry employees for three generations. They were traumatized by poverty.
Three hundred Galleons wasn't something he couldn't afford, but George still felt a stabbing pain in his chest so intense he could barely breathe.
Ignoring George's heartache, Madam Hooch sharply blew her whistle.
Ever since a few years ago when Kyle—highly proficient in wandless casting—began sneakily applying the Eight Inner Gates and Monster Strength to Quidditch matches, the methods of fouling in the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup had become increasingly elusive.
In all Quidditch matches, players from both sides as well as the spectators were strictly forbidden from casting any form of magic.
Once discovered, the offending player would be sent off immediately, or the victory would even be directly awarded to the opposing side.
However, certain spells, like the Waterproofing Charm used during stormy weather, were almost impossible to detect and could still be used under the radar.
This kind of magic didn't significantly impact the fairness of the game.
Besides, if they didn't use the Waterproofing Charm in a torrential rainstorm, it would be practically impossible to keep playing.
When everyone could barely see anything, how the hell were they supposed to play?
Therefore, Madam Hooch turned a blind eye to it.
But Monster Strength and the Eight Inner Gates were an entirely different story; those things were just straight-up cheating.
A Bludger traveling faster than the speed of sound—who could possibly catch or hit that?
To better catch the little Dark Lord's foul play, Madam Hooch had put an immense amount of effort into improving her ability to sense magical fluctuations.
Yet even so, she still couldn't detect any magical fluctuations whenever the little Dark Lord used his abilities.
Take that subsonic Bludger from just a moment ago—anyone with eyes could tell that it wasn't a ball a normal human could ever hit.
If it were someone with the physique of a half-giant like Hagrid, it would be reasonable.
But when it came to Kyle, it was completely and utterly wrong.
Madam Hooch desperately wanted to throw this miserable brat out of the game, but she couldn't.
In Kyle's own words:
"Aside from the referee, the linesmen, the judges, the organizers, and the sponsors—every single unit is made up of my people. How can you compete with me?"
Thus, without direct evidence, Madam Hooch could only pretend not to see Kyle's violations.
However, the Shield Charm George had just cast was a different matter.
George's magic control wasn't nearly as profound as Kyle's. When casting wandless magic, he still couldn't properly conceal his own magical fluctuations.
This immediately allowed Madam Hooch to catch him red-handed.
Yet Madam Hooch didn't throw George out directly. After all, Kyle had also covertly used magic; she just couldn't catch him doing it.
As the referee, Madam Hooch could only penalize Kyle for his "dirty kick."
In the end, she merely gave both of them a mild, toothless warning.
The match continued.
Not far below, Cedric and Harry lost track of the Golden Snitch once again due to their fierce dogfight.
Meanwhile, in the highest airspace, the cracked broomstick George was riding clearly began to suffer performance issues.
During the clash between the Beaters, the coordination between George and Fred suffered a glaring disconnect.
As the Yellow Flash of Hogwarts, it was impossible for Kyle to miss such an opportunity.
"Fourth Foot!"
A Bludger shrieked as it tore through the sky, hurtling toward Harry like a descending hammer of justice.
Sensing the vicious wind behind his head, Harry violently flattened his body against his broom, barely managing to dodge the Bludger at the absolute last second.
"Fifth Foot!"
This time, Harry didn't even have time to react before he fell unconscious and plummeted headfirst off his broomstick.
Dumbledore stood up and, with practiced ease, pointed his wand into the distance toward the sky. Harry's downward momentum instantly halted.
After doing all this, he glared fiercely at his own son. That miserable brat had absolutely no sense of restraint when striking.
This was already the fourteenth time in over two years that Harry had been knocked unconscious by a Bludger on the Quidditch pitch.
Separated by the curtain of rain, Kyle failed to catch Dumbledore's glare.
Hovering in mid-air on his broom, Kyle deactivated the Eight Inner Gates Formation and stretched his somewhat exhausted body.
Sure enough, the physical strength of a normal wizard, even with Lightning Release body tempering, still couldn't compare to Hagrid's half-giant physique.
Under the condition of opening the Fourth Gate, firing only five times...
No, wait, swinging the bat with full strength just five times had nearly drained Kyle's body completely empty.
Glancing at the battle below, a smile surfaced on Kyle's face.
Fortunately, his hard work had paid off.
With Harry shot down, Gryffindor's morale instantly plummeted to rock bottom.
Even though the point gap between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff had widened to seventy points, without their most crucial Seeker, any further points they scored would be completely all for nothing.
After all, the initiative to end the match lay entirely in Hufflepuff's hands.
Seeing this, Hufflepuff sounded the horn for a counter-offensive.
George and Fred exchanged a helpless look; under the current circumstances, their only option was to surrender.
The match finally concluded as the Golden Snitch landed inside Cedric's palm.
The final score was frozen at 110 to 260.
Today's point gap was already considered small.
In the current Hogwarts, Gryffindor was the only team capable of trading blows back and forth with Hufflepuff.
When Slytherin and Ravenclaw faced Hufflepuff, it was an absolute, one-sided slaughter.
As for Ravenclaw, considering their Head of House could be counted as their Captain Cedric's semi-father-in-law, Hufflepuff generally refrained from being too brutal on the little eagles.
But when it came to thrashing Slytherin, the little badgers had absolutely no reservations.
The score differences always started at a minimum of a thousand points.
————
Supporting me on Pa-treon to gain early access to advanced chapters and enjoy expedited updates. Your support is greatly appreciated.
pat-reon .c-om/Dragonhair
(Just remove the hyphen - and space, to access Pa-treon normally.)