The corridor was relatively obscure, in one of the deeper parts of the castle, unlike the ones that are at the edges with windows or balconies.
The only sources of light were the magical torches that were lit 24x7, illuminating the paints and suits of armors in the corridor, along with Lucas and his masked assailants.
'Finally.'
Lucas had been waiting for this for a while, having made several plans based on this scenario.
But…
'Seven people? Really?'
He wasn't expecting such generous treatment as a fourth year student.
The numbers wouldn't really matter if he could go all out. But since he's only supposed to show 'reasonable' abilities, this fight might be a bit tough.
"Not so brave now, are we Castillin?" Asked the hooded figure positioned slightly behind the others.
"Seriously Alec? You're talking about bravery while attacking a fourth year with seven people? It's like a house elf laughing at a wizard for not having enough clothes."
Of course, Lucas's taunt was too intellectual to be funny, so only one of the goons laughed. But it did infuriate Alec. His wand jerked up, as if to attack. But he looked at his goons instead.
"Subdue him fast. I have business with him."
Flow State: Activate
Magic started to flood Lucas's body and mind. His vision sharpened, his thoughts flowing freely and the muscles underneath his robes bulged.
Six people raised their wands, reading to fire.
At the same time, Lucas finally moved. He bent low, launching off in the direction of a purple masked assailant to the far left.
This guy was the only one who had brazenly laughed at his joke. Combined with his overall demeanor, it was safe to assume he was either extremely confident, or one with a deep background.
His assumption proved right as this person had fired a non-verbal spell, the jet of light leaving his wand faster than the others.
The spell had whizzed past him, along with another as soon as he had ducked. Two more spells arrived from others when he launched himself.
"What the–?"
But his speed was much faster than they had anticipated, only hitting his after image. The purple mask tried firing another non-verbal just as the last two spells arrived.
There was an audible grunt and a wand was sent flying. It was from the guy wearing the purple mask. Lucas had yanked him by his extended wand arm, using him as a shield for the incoming spells.
Lucas peered over the now stunned guy's shoulder. "Stupify is fine, but an expelliarmus? I haven't even drawn my wand yet." he said, waving the wooden sword.
"Don't hold back! Hit him right now." Alec Rosier commanded, and Lucas had to give him credit for his quick and accurate judgement. He had deduced from one bout that Lucas was not an easy opponent to deal with. It's either that or he's a really big coward.
The goons attacked again, this time with much more lethal force and Lucas hid behind the purple mask. The poor guy was hit by a bone breaking and blood boiling curse.
"Surround him!"
Despite the hostage situation, Alec and goons showed no sign of hesitation in attacking. And they had even started to encircle him again, which would make his goon-shield even more useless.
Lucas's mind processed everything, eyes darting around- taking in the wand movements and lip movement of each of the assailants.
Just as they fired the next volley, Lucas shoved the purple mask in the line of fire of two of the goons. At the same time, his hand moved in a sharp, whipping motion. The wooden sword shot out like a bullet, hitting the chest of the next best caster, breaking his sternum.
He ducked, dodging another spell. But the last one - an expulso - caught him in his ribs, sending him tumbling into one of the metal suits of armor stationed in the corridor.
"That's it!" Alec exclaimed triumphantly, even casting a binding hex to finish the fight - apparently no longer concerned about minimizing his involvement.
But a metal shield from the suit of armor blocked his spell at the last moment. In the next moment, a leg-locker headed in his direction, which he barely managed to block.
Lucas rolled over to his feet, a shield in one hand and a wand in the other. A few of his ribs were broken and he had a head injury, blood trickling down the side of his cheek.
"Alright." He grinned. "Now I'm armed."
"Use wide area spells! I'll get everyone new wands!" Alec Rosier yelled, firing another spell. But Lucas could clearly detect the obvious panic and impatience in his voice.
"Tabesmundo!"
A ripple of grey energy erupted from Rosier's wand while the others also brought out their big guns. With this, Lucas's abnormal mobility and reflexes, and his shield was no longer enough.
The intent was clear: These hot blooded teenagers no longer cared about the consequences.
'Good. Lethal mode: On.'
Magic gathered in the muscles of Lucas's left hand and shoulder and the metal handle of the shield in his hand audibly creaked.
He launched the shield - Captain America style. It cut through Alec's bizarre spell before getting him vertically right across the middle of his face, making a sickening crunch.
At the same time, his other hand created an exaggerated wand movement.
"Protego…. Maxima!"
His Thestral-core wand thrummed with power and a white energy wall spread out between him and assailants.
Multiple high powers spells hit the shield, their magic and the resulting force overlapping. And then…. there was an explosion. A huge one.
Lucas temporarily lost his hearing. And he was thrown back several meters.
The mixing of powerful explosive dark spells, combined with such a narrow corridor, where the force can keep ricocheting… yeah, not a good idea.
Lucas shook his head. There was a ringing sound in his ears and half the corridor was half destroyed, with stone debris lying around him.
His cloak had been torn in many places, oozing blood and his face had minor cuts and bruises.
But… he was still locked in. Powerful magical intent gathered as he raised his wand.
"Accio Swords!" He shouted, at the same time pushing himself sideways for incoming spells. But… none came.
Through the dust, he only saw two of the goons checking over Alec, who was convulsing, his hands over his face. The others were hunched on the ground with obvious injuries, affected by the large explosion in the narrow corridor.
The ringing in his ears lessened and he could now barely make out the horrible screams of Alec.
When they saw Lucas move, they finally reacted - the two guarding Alec casting shields while the other two tried to cast spells again.
"Confrigo!"
"Crucio!"
One of them went for another explosive spell but another one seemed to have had enough, directly going for the unforgivables.
Lucas's wand was still using the summoning magic, meaning he couldn't shield. He side-stepped the Crucio and threw a large rock in the air, which met the Confrigo and exploded mid-air. But a fragment of the stone came back at him, embedding in his shoulder.
"Now you've done it."
That was when it happened. A sword whizzed past the cloaks of one of the goons, headed in Lucas's direction. Its speed was so fast that the wind generated actually blew his cloak. Another one hit the other person in the leg, taking him down.
The four of them looked behind, only to witness dozens of swords leaving the sheaths of the suits of armor, heading in their direction, summoned by Lucas.
Abandoning the ones who were down, the remaining three assailants ran in Lucas' direction, casting shields behind them.
Gathering a burst of magic in his injured body one last time, Lucas rushed forward to meet them. He grabbed a sword out of the air that had flown through a gap between the three shields and hacked at one of the goons across his wand arm.
There was a heavy, satisfying crunch similar to cutting vegetables as the dull blade broke the arm while cutting halfway through.
He swung in a semi-circle and caught another one across his midriff, causing another blood fountain, followed by another rapid sweep that broke his wand and his fingers.
From the corner of his eye - Lucas saw students appearing in the corridor so he quickly cancelled the Summoning charm lest they caught strays.
The explosion just now was MASSIVE, so of course half the castle was already on its way here.
The last remaining assailant - the one who used the Cruciatus - turned around, aiming his wand.
Lucas could have already ended it by this point by simply chucking the sword at the guy. But now that there was an audience, he decided to go about it in a slightly more… graphic way.
The guy fired another spell but Lucas flicked his wrist, swatting it aside. He stepped forward, swatting away another spell.
'Petrificus Totallus!' Lucas chanted in his mind. It was the one and only non-verbal spell in his current arsenal.
Such a close range, a non verbal spell while still in the middle of casting another spell - the guy never stood a chance.
He went down, fully bound.
Lucas finally reached him, and still bloodied, started raining kicks on him, making adjustments to the topography of his face and other vitals.
Lucas finally stopped and looked over when he felt students holding him down and saw their lips moving, looking at him with terrified expression. It turns out that they had been yelling at him to stop for a while.
He slowly turned in a full circle, wand drawn, as if daring anyone else to come forward.
His gaze travelled to the assailants.
Each and everyone of them was unconscious. Alec Rosier had most of his face darkened and bloodied, as if it had rotted. The shield he had thrown lay behind his head, also half corroded.
Lucas recalled the grey colored magical waves the guy had used. The shield had travelled through it, right before hitting Alec's face.
He glanced at his shoulder and saw similar symptoms - some of the spell had caught him as well, but obviously hadn't done as much damage since most of it was absorbed.
Then checked the other goons. The mildest was the one who had one of his arms cut half-way through. But even he had various injuries from the explosion.
Overall, it seems that his work here was done.
He turned his attention back to the students. A large crowd had gathered by now, and the professors must be on their way as well.
Lucas looked around at the girls surrounding him while checking on his injuries or trying to pull him while gesturing upwards. He could barely make out the word 'hospital wing'.
He shook them off. Wiping his bloodied face using his sleeve, he started to walk forward with a slight limp. The crowd parted, making way for him as he made his way towards the Hospital wing.
He glanced at his shoulder, which was already getting better.
'Better to keep it real.'
Among the magic residue he had absorbed, he recognized Alec's dark spell and spread it over his shoulder, all the way to his hand and stopped controlling it.
Instantly, excruciating pain shot through his hand that was hidden under his large sleeves.
He then checked the rest of his injuries, all of which he had gotten on purpose. Yes, the fight didn't have to be that difficult. With his reaction and movement speed, he could have countered it all. But he didn't. Because…
"This… should be enough to get me two loyal helpers, right?"
...
Adeline reclined in a chair at the Owlery, stroking her owl Abby. With the arrival of connecting mirrors, rarely anyone visits this place, making it a perfect place for an introvert like her whenever she wants to be alone.
She wiped her tears as she Occlumency to lock away this memory.
"Addy, how could Harry do this? Can't he understand how much I've already compromised for him?"
Adeline wasn't completely clueless. She had noticed through Lucas's offhanded comments that he and Gabrielle had likely come to Hogwarts through connections to escape the blood purists at Beauxbatons.
And even here, they weren't completely safe since a few students of the Dark factions had arrived through the delegations as well.
From all this, she could easily infer that it must be the reason why he and Gabrielle were trying to fit into her group - Because she was a Dumbledore. And Hogwarts is ruled by Dumbledores.
But despite knowing this, she had let them leave their group. Because Harry didn't want them there. He must have been uncomfortable or jealous with Lucas's presence. She wouldn't have wanted Gabrielle near Harry either, had the girl not been completely focused on Lucas.
If she didn't feel guilty enough about that, Lucas had also risked his life for her brother.
The tasks are unpredictable and dangerous as they were, and the Durmstrang Champions were mostly likely in on the Death Eaters' plan. In that situation, removing Alec Rosier's threat was much more helpful than it sounded.
And it might have put him in a much greater danger.
Even after all this - Harry still has a problem if Adeline tried to even help Lucas remotely. And he punished her for it.
'If he's this petty and immature, then I don't like him at all,' she thought.
She now realized how stupid she had been. Obviously, the helper of her brother was much more important than some immature and spoiled brat.
To think she had let Lucas suffer alone in order to accompany those two...
'Hopefully, he won't blame me too much.'
Now that her lovebrained phase was gone, all she wanted was to make things right with Lucas.
But just then, she heard an explosion that sent the sleeping owls into panic, flapping their wings while hooting.
Adeline stood up.
"What… was that?"
...
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