Tver watched with amusement as the students' smiles stiffened. He knew their magic was still stuck at basic use; anything deeper was out of reach for now. Otherwise, he wouldn't have split them into three roles or made them form teams.
"Don't worry. Magic's full power takes practice, and you can't manage that yet.
But since you're in teams, you can use cooperation to achieve much stronger results."
His reassurance finally lifted their spirits, and they looked at him with renewed excitement.
"Alright then, same as before. I need one team to demonstrate," Tver said with a smile.
The moment he finished, everyone turned toward Crystal.
Percy and Charles exchanged helpless looks, while Crystal wore an apologetic expression.
"Sorry… I think I keep saying the wrong thing."
"It's fine. We'll do it," Charles said, trying to comfort her.
"Of course. We're the strongest, after all!"
Percy shot a glance at the classmates snickering nearby, then led the other two to stand before Tver.
"So, Professor, what do we do?" he asked, tilting his head.
"Just don't die."
Tver gave a low chuckle. His figure vanished, replaced by a new statue.
It held a chain hammer in one hand and a shield in the other, and its face looked a little like Tver's. On top of its head crouched a nasty-looking little imp, staring down at them with a cold grin.
"Oh no. This is the smartest and strongest statue here!"
Percy shouted before the cold sweat on his forehead could even fall.
He'd seen the training dummies last year and had talked privately with Tver. He knew the strongest form was the one with a tiny imp made from a wisp of soul perched on its head. Which meant this statue had a full thirty percent of the professor's power until it ran out of magic.
Charles and Crystal didn't need the reminder; they could already tell this statue wasn't something they wanted to mess with. Because it had already started attacking.
Silently.
The chain hammer looked ferocious, but in the statue's hands it spun like a ball of yarn, light and effortless. To Percy and the others, though, it came down like a Killing Curse.
"Protego!" *3
The hammer crushed the first shield instantly, slowed at the second, and only stopped after hitting the third.
They didn't get a chance to breathe. The chain hammer twisted like it was alive, looped once in the air, and came crashing down again.
Percy tried to raise a block, but his teammates yanked his robes and dragged him backward. Only when the statue's shield swept past his face did he realize the previous strike had been a feint. If he'd tried to block that with Protego, they would've been finished on the spot.
"Thanks," Percy muttered, still rattled.
Charles used Transfiguration and the Impediment Jinx with practiced ease, slowing the statue just enough for them to recover a moment.
"This isn't the time for that! We need to figure out how to beat this thing!"
Percy abandoned his attacker role and helped Charles hold the statue back.
Crystal had been watching the statue closely from the very beginning—every part of its body, every tiny motion—trying to find a weakness. But as it drew closer and closer, she still found nothing.
"Its attacks are too tight," she said as she dodged out of its range with the others.
"It keeps enough strength in reserve to defend at any moment. It doesn't leave a single opening. And I'm certain it's not even using its full speed. It's just waiting for us to slip."
Her words instantly made Percy and Charles realize the same thing.
"Could the professor be going easy on us?" Charles guessed hopefully.
"Instead of hoping he'll hold back, think about how to beat him!" Percy snapped.
This was only thirty percent of the professor's strength. If he couldn't even handle this statue, how could he ever hope to serve the professor?
With a sweep of his wand, the soil under the statue's feet softened into mud, making its movements heavier and slower.
"That's the statue's weakness—actually, the weakness the professor left on purpose. It can only fight at close range!"
Crystal's eyes lit up at Percy's realization.
"We spread out! Attack from three directions. No matter who the statue goes for, the other two can hit its back with everything they've got!"
They rushed to their positions around it.
By the time they were set, the statue had already dragged itself out of the mud. The spell had only been temporary, and deforming ground that Tver reinforced himself had taken everything the three of them had.
But instead of picking one of them to attack, the statue planted itself firmly in place, shield raised and chain hammer ready, blocking spells from all three sides.
After several rounds, Charles stared at the statue—now resembling a giant turtle shell—with growing frustration. Just holding his wand was making his arm ache.
"What do we do? We can't even—"
"Don't stop casting!" Percy shouted.
"What?"
Before Charles could lift his wand again, the statue suddenly vaulted high into the air, blotting out the sun like a dark cloud. The chain hammer in its hand expanded in his vision like a falling star.
The roar of wind and the terrified gasps from their classmates left his mind blank.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
"Charles, Accio!"
"Boom!"
Both spells hit at once, just barely yanking Charles out of the hammer's crushing path and sending him flying toward Crystal. A spiderweb crack spread across the ground where he'd stood.
Seeing the statue frozen mid-recovery, its back still turned, Percy immediately fired a Blasting Curse.
With its previous strike spent and its next attack not yet ready, the statue took the hit cleanly. Smoke burst from its back and it staggered forward.
Charles and Crystal regained their footing and didn't waste the opening, unleashing a relentless volley of spells. As some of the strongest sixth-years, their combined power wasn't something to take lightly.
Dust and stone fragments burst from the statue as the barrage disrupted its movements. It turned with difficulty, its stone shell peeling away at the back to reveal an even tougher inner core.
But the imp atop the statue finally showed anger for the first time. It flicked its tiny hand toward Charles and Crystal.
The statue lunged forward with explosive force, pounding across the ground like a furious Erumpent.
Even its swing carried the same destructive force as an Erumpent horn going off.
From a distance, the statue slammed its chain hammer into the floor.
A quake rolled straight toward Charles and Crystal. This time, they were the ones staggering.
That moment of imbalance kept Percy from reaching them. The statue's shield swept across the ground and slammed both of them away.
The Shield Charm absorbed the damage, but it couldn't stop the impact. They were thrown like cut kites, drifting helplessly toward the edge of the arena.
They hit the ground beside Tver.
"Now it's just you, Mr. Weasley."
"Alright," Percy exhaled sharply. "I can handle this on my own."