NOVEL WEB Chapter 27
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Chapter 27– Hard Work Pays Off.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for the grand finale. It has been a long night, but finally, after all the great battles we have seen tonight, we are now going to witness the ultimate battle. These two individuals have fought long and hard throughout the night to get here, and you can sure as shit, bet that they are not going to give up now. So give it up, for Blackwood Duelling Competitions final two contenders!" I listen to the roar of the crowd, the energy and electric atmosphere lighting up the whole place.
But even so, my body is still, and my blood is calm. I am unflustered in the face of it all, having gotten used to everything in the countless matches and competitions I have participated in. Day in, day out, practising, duelling, fighting. Again and again and again. Only ever taking breaks to deal with anything urgent that comes up, and with Andromeda in charge, that hardly ever happens. Countless wins, around the same amount of losses, no matter the outcome, I kept coming back for more.
And now, finally, my efforts have paid their dues. I stuck to it and saw it through, and now I am finally seeing the dividends. I have made it to the finals, and I am going to win. It is my first time making it this far, and I am going to go all the way. Like a teenage virgin that finally had his first kiss and first grab of boob, I am going to keep going as far as I can until I have to stop. I have finally got a glimpse of the areola, and I want the whole nipple... I should stop coming up with stupid analogies (or are they metaphors or innuendos?) and actually go and win this fucking thing.
Seeing my cue from the nearby staff member, I stand up from the bench I was waiting for and walk up to the black curtain. So used to how this goes, I need no further instructions or help, and neither does anybody offer any, having gotten very familiar with me over the last few months. But, man, am I glad that I took all of that guy's hair and that I, for some reason, read his mind and learnt his name and address, making him readily available for even more Polyjuice Potion. I am a bit attached to this person now, and I will not rest until the enormous dick is known as one of the best duelists in the world.
"And now, our first finalist this evening! Brandishing a wand, nine inches made of cherry with a dragon heartstring core! A formidable wand is often thought to be purely aesthetic, but such a wand is very powerful, only to be wielded with exceptional control and strength of mind! He really needs no introduction since we have gotten to see so much of him lately, and he has made a few of you a lot of money! Edward. N. 'Quick' Stick," The announcer or referee says, prompting me to walk out and onto the stage and move to join him at the centre. Cheers and jeers rang out together at my entrance.
Moving towards the centre of the stage, I try my best to ignore my new epithet. Not only does it ruin the secret meaning of my name when used, but it is a title earned because of defeat. Well, defeat and impatience. I am quick because I used to go all in on my matches and just drain myself by putting my all into my battles, making me a fast shooter that only wins the first match and then doesn't progress much further.
Needless to say, that is rectified now, though the name has stuck, and people call me Quick Stick. Instead of an enormous dick, I now have a quick dick. I have to change that. Even if this is just a fake identity, I am not willing to leave it with such a pathetic title. The world will watch in awe of Edward N Stick, and when he fades away from the public eye, they will wonder, where did enormous dick go?
"And our final finalist, this evening. A man that needs no introduction since we have seen him time and again make it to this stage and, more often than not, walk away as the champion. Give it up for the one, the only, six-time winner of the Blackwood Duelling Competition, Pioter Rasputin!" A synonymous cheer rings out at this guy's entrance, a direct opposite to the welcome I was given. Probably because I was very inconsistent in all my matches since I was still learning and trying to adjust to duelling.
Needless to say, no one really liked me in these competitions, and that was because people couldn't predict whether or not I would win or lose a match. After figuring out my problem of going too hard and devoting myself entirely to battle, I tried to learn moderation and hold back and try to win using strategy and the least amount of effort possible. Suffice it to say, this method was hard to tune and was, therefore, something that made me very unlikeable to the betting viewers. I was unpredictable, winning and losing matches at random, still trying to achieve my new goal.
Controlled overwhelming power is what I was aiming for. Overpowering your enemy and destroying them entirely but in a controlled and efficient way. I have had some success with it, but in the end, I have realised that it is not attainable for me. I am not a smart, intelligent fighter that can plan ten moves ahead. No, I have decided that experience and instinct are my paths forward.
I am just going to keep on going ham until, eventually, there is no one left. This is how I have made it to this final, though the other stuff does help. My plan now is just to keep fighting, and with time I will beat them all. I really tried to be clever about it and all, and while I can do some tricks here and there, I want to win on my own skill.
"Alright, begin." I perk up and snap back to reality when the referee speaks, and I realise he has moved off of the stage and in front of me is a handsome man nearing his thirties. His face is clear except for the blonde goatee on his face, which informs me of his status as a douche.
Used to this after all my matches, my hand moves and holds my wand in front of my chest as he does the same, and then I bow my head a little bit as he offers me the same courtesy with a confident grin on his face, which seriously pisses me off. After all, he and I have been in this neck of the woods for a while and have faced off multiple times over the last couple of months, and I have only ever won against him once, which even I didn't know how I won. That win was so unexpected and was clearly not due to my own abilities, so I don't count it. Something must have been off with him that day.
Snapping my wand back to my side, I spin around, and I can hear him do the same behind me, and then I start walking over to my end of the stage. All the while, I think about how much I am going kick this guy's ass and change that fucking moniker of mine. And this time, it is not going to be some random one-off fluke that clutches me the win, not in the fucking finals. So I will destroy my quick title, but even so, I thank my luck that the one guy who was calling me 'Fiddle Stick' didn't manage to catch wind and make it stick.
I start to quickly cypher through my memories and all of my duelling experiences. This was something I learned after a while, and once I realised that my best talent was the mind arts. Using the mind arts, I can supplement and improve all other aspects of magic that require knowledge and memory. Charms, transfiguration, potions, alchemy and pretty much everything else, including duelling. I figured that I had gained enough experience battling people without any prior knowledge, and I could do that at other duelling competitions as well, so I decided to start paying attention.
Using my mind arts, I have begun to compile knowledge, or rather memories, of my opponents when I fight them, recording our battles and then assembling them inside my mind space. Using this, I had made something I called the Hyperbolic Dueling Chamber. I don't care that hyperbolic might not actually apply because it is a cool name. It is a giant Romanesque coliseum to the side of the village inside my mind, and in it, I can select each of the people I have ever faced for battle inside the coliseum.
Of course, I don't have perfect replicas of the people I have faced, but with time and experience and every battle I have against them, I add and make their persona in her more accurate. This is how I have been training in my spare time since duelling tournaments are only sometimes being held. I face opponents at games, record their moves and abilities and spells and then face them all later in the comfort of my own mind.
Not only does this help me to train and get used to these opponents, gaining experience, but it also allows me to expand my own repertoire and skill because with each of these move sets in my mind, I learn more. Of course, while I can replicate the moves in my mind, I don't know all of the spells they use or their chants. However, with time I can research and narrow it down, helping me to learn more combat spells.
With my mind Hyperbolic Duelling Chamber at hand, most of my training time was spent there facing a single opponent, I had tried to take two at a time, but it was still too early. I got my ass obliterated, unable to contend with two skilled opponents trying to beat me. That is for the future me to master. However, with most of my training taking place inside my mind, that left my body to deteriorate and wither away as it was not in use.
Well, maybe that was an exaggeration, but essentially my body was getting rusty while my mind was getting sharper, which meant, as a whole, I was out of sync, and only when my mind and body are both in optimal condition will my power be at its greatest. So with that in mind, I had taken up regular exercise and training, hiring a muggle professional and taking some lessons from him at a nearby gym.
With my strong mind, the training wasn't at all straining except for on my actual muscles, and that was easily solved with potions which I got Andromeda to source for me. My current body was aiming to be lythe and fast. I will try and look into rituals and other esoteric magic to improve my physique soon, but I thought it better to perfect what I already have before adding on top of it.
Also, sidebar, the other great thing about Occlumency? Apart from all the other things that it can help me to achieve, and how great it is at enhancing my mind and all my other abilities. It also allows me to have whole conversations and monologues inside my own mind, with hardly any time passing in the outside world. It certainly helps me to tame my Lockhart quirks since I do still have the tendency for flashiness and showing off, so I curb it by monologing super fast in my head a lot. But, of course, being flashy all the time is not flashy. It needs to be appropriately paced, such as in this moment.
Reaching the end of the stage, I spin around and take my duelling position. My right leg forward, my left leg behind, ready to spring in any which direction. My torso is to the side, leaving me less exposed to attacks, and my right-hand hold my wand in front of my chest close so as to minimise the area I am exposing, and my left arm is tucked behind my back since it is useless right now, though if I need it while dodging, it will come out. Opposed to my first match all those months ago, my whole body is light, ready to move at a 1moment's notice.
My eye looks across towards my opponent, observing his own form and positioning. I have faced off against this man multiple times before, constantly losing except for that once, but I did not walk away with just the loss. I also walked away with the experience as well as the memories, memories which I forged into an opponent precisely the same as the man opposite me, and I had trained against him multiple times. Right now, he was either going to use a large-scale transfiguration or a widespread spray of stupefy.
Of course, I can not rely solely on my experience and my training because anything can happen, and so while I am prepared for those two options, I also prepare myself to react in case he is trying something new. I don't have time to dally on it any longer as the referee to the side looks at both of us and confirms that we have taken our positions before nodding his head and beginning his countdown.
"One. Two. Three!" Immediately I lashed out with a bombarda, sending the dangerous spell straight towards my opponent, aiming for the floor in front of him because while it is all well and good to know how he might act, acting first is always the better option. As much as I want to win against him and use my training to make a counterattack, this is not training. However, with the bombarda, the spray of debris will give me some cover while also blocking any possible spells of his for the moment.
It seems, however, that my opponent was faster than I gave him credit for as three beams of red were heading towards my side of the stage before my spell had even impacted the ground in front of him. So, while my spell makes a big explosion and blasts debris everywhere, I quickly manoeuvre myself to the side and into a position where the three Stupefys bypass me and clash into the barrier behind me.
Readying myself to send a similar spray of stupefy at my opponent to try and clip him in the storm of rubble, I realise that the master of transfiguration in front of me had taken the opportunity I had given him and ran with it. So, instead of sending my own spray of spells, I instead prepared myself to intercept the swarm of swallows darting towards me that Pioter had transfigured from the rubble I had made.
Swinging my wand forward, I unleash a tornado of fire that swallows all of the swallows and reduces them to cinders, but of course, in a duel, you can't just make moves with only one objective in mind. So, after destroying the transfiguration, I move forward and send the swirling tornado of fire towards my opponents. With this being the final, I am okay with expending all of my energy, and right now is the time for being flashy.
With the torrent of fire covering my views, I prepare myself to cast a Protego in case he sends something through the fire. Evidently, I had proven myself right as four separate knives flew forth through the fire, becoming flaming knives that fired across the stage towards me. Holding tight while also keeping my eyes peeled for anything else, I ignore the sudden rush of water erupting to combat my fire at the other end of the stage as I cast a Protego at the exact right moment to deflect the blades away and dispel my shield right afterwards.
The knives tumble to the ground as the water on the other side of the stage starts to engulf my flames since I am no longer supplying it with my magic, the water quickly squashing out the flames but also producing a large amount of steam. Eyeing the already transfigured knives just lying there, I decide to make use of them and not expend any more of my magic than needed and quickly levitate them up and banish them at my opponent. The knives, now thankfully without the fire since that would have given them away, streak forward through the cloud of steam.
I hear a scream echo out a second later and know that my attack has found purchase. However, I did not have time to smile and enjoy my small victory as my opponent had not taken my attack well and replied in kind with rage. Surprising me, for the first time ever, I had found an opponent that had shown me something I had not thought of before, and I realised that Pioter truly was a master of his craft.
I find myself a bit daunted as the man across from me waves his wand, and all of a sudden, the steam fogging up our arena begins to swirl and condense in on itself before coalescing into multiple spears made of wood. It was my first time seeing a gas be transfigured in such a way in the heat of battle and so quickly into numerous objects. But, unfortunately, I don't have time to appreciate the fact that this is really widening my horizons as the wooden spears blast off towards me.
Now, while I do not claim to be quite as skilled as my opponent in the art of transfiguration, with the steam now being wood, wood which I can easily manipulate, I don't cower. Swishing my wand in front of me, all of the wooden spears transfigure into bees just as they reach me, and I quickly direct them to fly back at my opponents. While my opponent deals with them, which I am sure he will do easily, I quickly take my opportunity and decide to make use of the leftover water left on the stage.
Swishing the wand in front of me multiple times, I send several vertical slashes of water at my opponent, making sure that each of them is touching the stage. And then, implementing the next part of my plan, I quickly direct my wand at the ground in front of me, and with an overpowered Glacius, my surroundings begin to freeze very quickly.
Only the water on the floor surrounding me is frozen over as planned, but with how quickly I implemented each of my spells, the freezing spell quickly spreads forward and reaches the slashes of water that I had sent on ahead, freezing them. However, even frozen, the momentum does not stop, and the several ice slashes dart forward at my opponent. I quickly ready myself to make another move and press my advantage when I look over and realise that my opponent, for some reason, is struggling to defend himself from the bees.
He is only managing to do so in time to try and defend himself from my onslaught of ice, but he is panicking and getting some injuries for his late response. Confused at why my skilled opponent had such problems dealing with a bunch of bees, I push that aside and focus purely on victory, quickly scanning multiple disarming spells forward at Pioter.
He manages to dodge a few of them while also dodging and defending himself from the icicles. Finally, however, in a particularly perilous situation, he has to dive to the right to avoid being impaled, still managing to evade my spells. Still, one of them just manages to clip him on the side of his arm, sending his arm up and his wand flying into the air towards me as he collapses onto the stage.
I stop, still not believing that that actually just happened. To think it had ended so fast when I had been preparing myself for a long, arduous, drawn-out fight, with each of us not willing to give each other a single inch in our pursuit of victory. Even in my mind training, this was the first time I had won this fast, and that was based on past performances by him, so this victory was definitely unexpected.
Finally, though, his wand finishes traversing through the air and as my body moves automatically and my hand snatches it out of the air, as I had done countless times before. However though it was my goal to make this event happen, I had somehow thought I would forever struggle to win a duelling competition. I look down at the unfamiliar wand in my hand, realising that I have actually won, and then I look up to find the entire crowd just as stunned as me at my victory. Hardly anyone actually thought I would win, even with my previous fluke win.
I look at them as they look back at me, and then I look at the wand in my hand. Then, still unbelieving, I raise my hand high to bring it closer to my face, getting a closer look at it. My hand doesn't stop, and then I raise it high above my head in pride, holding it aloft to showcase my glory to the entire world. Silence reigns for a moment, but I don't give a shit about their reaction. I am doing this for me, my ecstaticness at my win, to best someone who is a professional. It is all I can do to keep from roaring out in victory. And then the cheers erupt.
"Holy fucking shit! Did you fucking see that!? He fucking won! Quick Stick won!"
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! He wasn't supposed to win! This was supposed to be easy money! He never goes all the fucking way! Godamn, Quick Stick! You fucker!"
"I- I don't fucking believe it! He won! He fucking won! By Merlin's big saggy hairy fucking balls, he won! I just made a goddamn fortune! Thank you, Quick Stick, you inconsistent fucker!"
I listen as the crowd goes absolutely wild, and people are both happy and sad about my victory. However, they all unanimously seem to curse and swear at me. At this very moment, these people are all shouting for me. I am in the spotlight, and this moment is all mine, and all the attention is on me. I relish in the feeling, enjoying and getting high off of their roars like it was some kind of excellent fucking drug that was sending my mind into overdrive.
This feeling was so unfamiliar to me, having never received even a minutia of this kind of response in my previous life. Yet, at the same time, it is so familiar, Lockhart receiving such adulation pretty much every day of his life from his fans... for his fake achievements that they all praised him for. Suddenly, all of these cheers and adulations seem cheap. They are easily bought and gained, which means they are very much worth nothing.
I quickly lose all feelings of satisfaction and ecstasy from their cheers, realising that they are just as easily lost as they are gained. Essentially, they mean nothing. I am glad that this happened now, and I realise this now. Otherwise, things could have gone quite badly for me down the line when I listened to anyone that sucked up to me. I am glad to have squashed this part of Gilderoy's psyche out.
The constant yearning for attention would have gotten in my way, while the need to be flashy and awesome is just fine. The two aren't synonymous with each other since I can do things in a striking way, just like the sound hashira from that one anime. So I will relish in my flashy victory and not the applause that follows after it.
I lower my hand and throw the wand onto the floor since it is not mine, and someone will probably give it to him later. It is also then that I realise that there are wizards across the stage, and I quickly realise that they stopped my attacks after my opponent was disarmed, and now they are checking on his condition. It is also then that I look down at myself, and I realise that while I am drained, there is not a single injury on my body that was caused by Pioter, different from my other duels.
"Can you believe it! Edward. N. Quick Stick is our new champion of the Blackwood Duelling Competition!!"
I want to talk more with you guys, so I am starting to leave little notes at the end of each chapter like this.
This week, I finally got around to finishing the Tomo-chan Is a Girl anime. It was good. I am not usually one for those lovey-dovey romance anime, but this was a good one. It was funny throughout and entertaining. Misuzu-chan was my favourite. I also finished Don't Bully Me Nagatoro second season. Again, it was good, but not as good as the first, I think. What should I watch next? Any recommendations?
Also, I lost my Netflix. I was on my cousin's. Damn, you, Netflix! How will I watch my feel-good shows and extraordinary sagas now!?
If you want to chat more about this or any other topic, come to my discord through the link.
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That is all for now. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I will see you in the next one!
Stay safe, and have fun!