"Diffindo!"
Adrian's cutting spell hit the troll's arm joint exactly where he aimed. The creature's grip went numb right away, and its huge club slipped from its fingers. The weapon's own speed sent it flying past Adrian's head, the wind making him squint while Hermione went pale with fear.
CRASH!
Just like Adrian had planned, the club fell harmlessly behind them, hitting the stone floor with a thunderous bang.
Losing its weapon didn't slow the troll down at all, if anything, it got angrier. The two small humans were close enough to grab now, weak enough to crush with bare hands.
Five meters!
Blood-hunger gleamed in the creature's tiny eyes as it got closer. Hermione shut her eyes in despair, but Adrian calmly pushed her aside while pulling a small bag from his robes and throwing it forward.
At the same time, he fired a burst of pure magical energy at the bag. Under the light from the magical explosion, dozens of tiny iron spikes expanded to hand-size and scattered across the floor.
The magic burst trick was something Adrian had learned by accident during Transfiguration practice. Since his Transfiguration had almost reached Level 3, reversing simple shrinking spells was pretty easy.
Originally meant as an escape plan to slow down the troll if it chased him, the spikes had now become weapons.
With Adrian's careful aim helped by his sped-up thinking, one iron spike landed directly under the troll's coming-down right foot. As the massive weight came down, Adrian clearly saw the creature's ugly face twist in pain and surprise.
Taking advantage of the troll's wobbling, Adrian backed up while firing another cutting spell at its weight-bearing thigh. Skin and muscle split under the spell's edge, and the troll's huge body couldn't support itself anymore. It fell forward, completely losing balance.
The creature's massive body fell straight down, directly toward where its club had landed.
Adrian had already moved to a spot just inches behind the wooden weapon. With a final wave of his wand, he cast one last transfiguration spell. During the casting, he faintly heard his system chime with a spell upgrade notification.
The troll's dim brain couldn't understand why iron spikes had appeared on the ground, just like it couldn't understand why its dropped club had suddenly turned into a sharp, upward-pointing spike.
Luckily, it no longer needed to figure out such mysteries. The changed spike pierced straight through its eye into its brain, and bright red blood mixed with gray matter flowed slowly down the makeshift weapon.
In its final moments, the troll stared at the strangely-dressed little human with its one remaining eye, showing only endless confusion and a touch of fear.
Adrian stood less than a foot from the troll's dead body, slowly lowering his wand.
Hermione stared speechlessly at the dead creature, despair and terror still written across her face. The entire fight had lasted just seconds, yet the scary troll now lay still before Adrian.
Adrian breathed slowly, appearing calm despite having pushed himself to his absolute limits during those crucial moments.
Without the sleeping potion's initial delay and his pre-prepared spikes providing the perfect help, beating the troll so efficiently would have been pure fantasy.
[Challenge Quest: Defeat (or eliminate) a mountain troll : COMPLETED]
[Quest Evaluation: Excellent]
[Quest Reward: Blood Fusion Potion Formula (distributed)]
The completion notification sounded as expected, but before Adrian could check his rewards, rapid footsteps echoed from behind.
"Dear Merlin, what happened here?"
Professor McGonagall, first to reach the corridor, found a scene beyond her imagination. The hallway was scattered with debris and iron spikes, walls pitted and cracked, and a mountain troll lay before Adrian with a massive hole punched through its skull.
Yet Adrian and Hermione, whom she'd been desperately worried about, appeared relatively unhurt. Apart from dust on their robes, neither showed serious injury.
Professor McGonagall wondered if she was seeing things. Snape, arriving moments later, seemed equally stunned by the sight.
Quirrell was most shocked of all. He momentarily forgot his act, walking directly to the troll's dead body to confirm it was indeed the creature he'd released.
"Well, it seems that in addition to our famous Boy Who Lived, we have another prodigy this year. Doing what some fully qualified wizards couldn't manage, and in their first term no less," Snape observed with his usual emotionless delivery, though his words dripped with unmistakable sarcasm.
Quirrell had gone back to his usual timid act, trembling as he looked at the scene. When Snape spoke, he just flinched without any other reaction, as if the "qualified wizards" weren't a reference to him at all.
Professor McGonagall's voice cracked with a mixture of concern and anger, "Blackwood! Would you care to explain exactly what happened here?"
Though Hermione was there, everyone could tell Adrian had been the main person in this drama. Hermione's tear-stained cheeks and lingering look of horror made that much obvious.
"As you can see, Professor, I simply happened to run into a mountain troll while walking through this corridor," Adrian replied with carefully practiced innocence, spreading his hands.
"Happened?" Professor McGonagall's tone suggested she wasn't buying it for a second.
Snape looked at the scattered iron spikes and added his own observation, "I suspect our Mr. Blackwood may have been playing hero. Otherwise, how does one explain being so thoroughly prepared for such a lucky encounter?"
With no time to clean up the evidence, Adrian struggled for a believable explanation.
"Adrian came looking for Hermione, Professor! We can vouch for him!" Harry and Ron emerged from behind a suit of armor in the corridor.
They'd actually arrived much earlier but had watched Adrian's display of tactical brilliance from hiding. Apart from mentally shouting variations of "Woah" and "that was incredible," they'd been too stunned to help.
"Harry, Ron," Professor McGonagall turned her stern gaze on them, "I was under the impression you should both be in your dormitory at this hour."
High above them, perched on a windowsill that overlooked the corridor, a large black crow watched the scene unfold with unusually intelligent eyes. It tilted its head, studying the dead troll and the young wizard who had defeated it with what seemed like keen interest. After a long moment, the mysterious bird spread its wings and flew silently into the night, disappearing into the darkness beyond the castle walls.