Deep within the Forbidden Forest, in a narrow clearing where trees formed a natural amphitheater, the most intense and ferocious confrontation since the beginning of the competition had begun.
Luna and Astoria—one a third-year Ravenclaw, the other a second-year Slytherin were engaged in a dazzling offensive exchange that had the spectators on the edge of their seats.
Meanwhile, Cedric's remarkable one-against-two defense had the watching crowd erupting in admiration.
As for Neville Longbottom...
The moment the ambush trap snapped shut around them, Neville understood what would happen next.
Three against five!
Given that neither team held a decisive advantage in individual dueling ability, achieving a crushing, decisive victory was simply impossible. Even maintaining a prolonged stalemate would prove extremely difficult, draining their magical reserves with each passing second.
Neville's mind had been racing since the first spell flew.
Based on the positions of the five Slytherins when the duel erupted, he had originally hoped that Luna's unique magical style combined with Cedric's raw power could overwhelm Astoria in the brutal opening barrage.
If they could eliminate even one opponent in those critical first moments, being down just one person wouldn't be an insurmountable disadvantage.
But unexpectedly, the young Slytherin girl had weathered the most dangerous initial assault with composure. Her defensive birds had scattered and reformed, absorbed impacts and retaliated, buying her precious seconds to establish her position.
That resilience immediately plunged Neville's team into a dangerously disadvantageous position, the scales of battle were tipping away from them with each passing moment.
If Cedric hadn't also performed with excellence, channeling every ounce of his skill into his defense, they would already be surrendering their wands, admitting defeat with heads bowed in shame.
Neville's jaw clenched as another curse whistled past his ear close enough to singe the air.
In this unfamiliar section of primeval forest with its complex terrain, escape was impossible. They could only fight to the bitter end!
The current stalemate couldn't last much longer. Although Cedric was temporarily holding off Draco and Pansy. He couldn't sustain this level of exertion for more than two minutes.
Their only chance of victory lay in whether Luna could break through Astoria's defenses and directly defeat her, or whether Neville himself could take down either Blaise Zabini or Theodore Nott before Cedric's stamina exhausted completely.
These thoughts flashed through Neville's mind in the span of a single ragged breath.
The wavering uncertainty in his eyes transformed into steely resolve. Gripping his sword—a weapon quite incongruous in a wizard's hand, Neville felt his muscles tense like springs. With explosive determination, he pressed forward with maximum force toward Blaise and Nott!
With his current abilities, maintaining a safe distance while trading spell-fire with the two Slytherins would be suicidal. He wouldn't fare any better than Cedric was doing now. His chances of defeating them, slim as they were, depended entirely on whether he could close the distance and bring his sword into play.
With a sharp Z-shaped movement pattern that had the dead leaves crunching beneath his boots in rapid staccato, Neville successfully crossed the thirty-foot safety perimeter.
Amid the torrential storm of multicolored spell-light that turned the clearing in flashing light, his gaze locked with focus on Blaise and Nott, tracking their movements, anticipating their next attacks.
"You think you can defeat the two of us alone, Longbottom? That's pure fantasy!" Blaise's voice rang out with disdain.
His eyes were sharp and calculating behind strands of dark hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, Blaise slashed his wand down in a vicious arc.
A burst of blazing fire erupted from the tip. The magical inferno instantly evaporated the moisture pooling on the forest floor with an angry hiss of steam, and the ignited carpet of fallen leaves transformed into a roaring wall of fire that cut off Neville's direct path forward.
Tilting his head sharply to dodge a curse shot by the grim-faced Nott, Neville swept his silver sword in a horizontal arc. The blade's tip expelled a blast of white frost that struck Blaise's fire head-on, immediately weakening the flames' intensity until gaps appeared in the fire wall.
"Won't know unless I try, will I?" Neville's voice was steady, as he leaped over the low fire line
The instant his boots touched earth again, he was already sprinting into an unpredictable S-curved pattern that made targeting him nearly impossible.
As elite members of Slytherin's current year group, Blaise and Nott could clearly read Neville's intention.
Once he achieved close combat range, it was obvious which weapon posed the greater threat—a wand that needed a second to aim and speak incantations, or a sword that could also channel spells while being swung in devastating arcs through flesh and bone.
The moment Neville's body cleared that rapidly dying fire line, leaving footprints in his trail, Blaise and Nott exchanged a lightning-quick glance.
They now faced two choices, each with its own risks.
First, they could split up in different directions, flanking wide. The advantage of this choice was clear—it would force Longbottom to divide his attention between two separate threats, potentially creating an opening.
But the disadvantage was equally obvious: if Longbottom succeeded in closing distance with one of them, the other wouldn't dare launch offensive spells in close-quarters combat for fear of hitting their own ally.
The second choice was for both of them to retreat in the same direction simultaneously, maintaining formation. This option would allow much better coordinated attacks to keep Longbottom at bay through superior firepower.
But if Longbottom did somehow break through their barrage and get close, a single devastating sword strike could potentially incapacitate them both in one blow.
There wasn't much time to hesitate. Neville was closing fast.
Through their exchanged glances, Blaise and Nott made their decision. The two began alternating their attacks in a disciplined rhythm, one firing while the other prepared, while simultaneously retreating in cycle.
They moved deeper into the forest before beginning to circle along the edge of the strip-shaped clearing, beginning to "kite" Neville in a classic tactical maneuver!
Advancing aggressively through an open clearing and crossing treacherous forest terrain while under magical bombardment were completely different challenges.
The complex, obstacle filled environment and the continuous stream of attacks immediately slowed Neville's pace. He had to devote far greater attention to dodging incoming spells while simultaneously avoiding missteps on the uneven ground.
"Cunning Slytherins!" Neville cursed silently in his heart, his teeth was gritted with frustration.
He had the determination to charge forward fearlessly into the teeth of their assault. But he had underestimated Blaise and Nott's craftiness!
In less than two minutes of frantic combat, the scales of victory were already beginning to tip toward Slytherin's side.
He needed to make a change quickly, needed to disrupt their rhythm before it was too late!
A flash of determination crossed Neville's face.
Analyzing the pattern even as he dodged, Neville realized that Blaise and Nott's attack rhythm, while consistent, wasn't particularly intense or overwhelming.
Clearly, these two weren't trying to defeat him quickly with aggressive overwhelming force. They were content to pin him down, to neutralize him as a factor while their allies finished other battles.
As for Luna and Astoria's ongoing duel, overall Luna was maintaining an offensive posture. Although she couldn't take down the surprisingly resilient Astoria in the short term, at least Luna wouldn't lose.
The reason Blaise and Nott felt confident enough to employ this patient strategy was obvious. They too could see that Cedric couldn't hold out much longer under the storm-like assault from Draco and Pansy.
Draco Malfoy...
At this critical moment when a single mistake would cascade into total, crushing defeat for his entire team, Neville's racing mind unexpectedly drifted to memories of past.
Without question, without even a moment's hesitation, Draco Malfoy was the student who had most terrified his former weak, trembling self since that first train ride to Hogwarts all those years ago.
He couldn't even begin to count how many times he had suffered humiliation and mockery from Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle. Countless nights he had curled up beneath his covers in the Gryffindor dormitory, silent tears streaming down his face, heart broken and spirit crushed by their torment.
From the corner of his eye, catching a glimpse of Draco's pale, furious face twisted with concentration as he attacked Cedric, Neville raised his sword in a sharp diagonal sweep. The blade intercepted and deflected two curses aimed at his torso, sending them spinning harmlessly into the trees where they exploded against bark.
He took a deep, steadying breath that filled his lungs.
Now was the time to bid farewell to that shameful, cowering past once and for all.
His decision was made. Neville's gaze immediately sharpened to a razor's edge. His entire body suddenly wavered for a single disorienting instant as the silver sword in his hand thrust straight forward with sudden, explosive speed.
This highly misleading combat movement made Blaise and Nott immediately assume that Longbottom was about to unleash his "ultimate move,".
Hurriedly, the two each retreated behind the tree trunks, seeking cover from whatever spell was surely coming.
Over the cold, gleaming sword blade, a flow of concentrated silver light gathered and condensed. Then it separated from the frost-rimed tip shooting across the battlefield like a meteor trailing flame of pure white magic!
This strike was perfectly timed to catch the precise moment when Blaise and Nott's vision was completely blocked as they took cover behind their respective trees, while simultaneously exploiting how Draco and Pansy, locked in intense focus on dealing with Cedric's increasingly desperate defense, failed to perceive this new threat amid the chaotic clusters of flashing spell-lights.
Only one person immediately sensed the gathering magic the very instant Neville made his move, Luna!
As the only student in all the physical education classes personally invited by Professor Watson to join, Luna possessed gifts that others simply couldn't understand or replicate.
Her keen perception of magical fluctuations and energy flows far exceeded that of ordinary wizards!
The moment she registered and understood that Neville was coming to assist her, redirecting his attack to support her own assault, she immediately waved her wand in a graceful spiraling motion.
The colorful musical notes that had been circling around Astoria in her signature spell-pattern answered Luna's silent call like trained birds, gathering together in a sudden rush to form a dense, swirling cloud that completely blocked Astoria's vision in a curtain of dancing symbols.
The suddenly merging and condensing notes made Astoria's expression grow solemn. Before she could mobilize her defensive flock of conjured birds to counter this new threat, before she could even begin the wand movement, a shrill, piercing whistle reached her ears.
In a moment that seemed almost frozen in time, the colorful musical note wall obscuring her vision slowly rotated to reveal a narrow gap in its swirling pattern.
Through that perfectly aligned opening, a silver meteor trailing streamer of white flames passed at a discordant, incredible speed, appearing directly in front of Astoria's startled face in mere instants—too fast, far too fast!
Astoria's expression changed drastically. The thought of dodging, of throwing herself aside, flashed through her mind and was immediately, ruthlessly abandoned!
Too late!
Astoria instantly realized this terrible truth.
This split-second moment of mortal danger didn't shake her resolve or shatter her composure. The only thing filling her pure blue eyes, even in the face of seemingly certain defeat was calmness.
In the eternal yet fleeting milliseconds as the silver light bore down on her, Astoria's wrist trembled and blurred with rapid movements. The defensive birds she'd positioned in the silver light's path threw themselves one after another directly at the incoming meteor with suicidal devotion, then annihilated in bursts of light as they made contact.
A cold, rational part of Astoria's mind calculated probabilities even as disaster approached.
Longbottom couldn't possibly be trying to kill her.
When her desperate interception failed and Astoria realized with sinking certainty how extraordinarily powerful this concentrated silver light truly was, her first thought was that he only wanted to incapacitate her. So—
With a decision made in fractions of a second, Astoria suddenly sprang from the ground with every ounce of athleticism her training had granted her. She curled her body as tightly as possible into a defensive ball, using both arms to protect her face!
The silver light broke through Astoria's final defensive spell with devastating, overwhelming force.
Under Draco's widened eyes with shock and fury, the concentrated magical projectile crashed down with thunderous impact!
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