When Lucas first used the sword, Hermione and Adeline had stood up, completely unable to believe it.
"When… did he learn to fight like that?" Hermione murmured, her eyes dazed after having watched Lucas dispatch 4 spiders in a row.
Adeline was also quite stunned herself. She could understand what he was doing was not much different from the sword combat books they had given him - the perfect sword transfiguration, the vibration saw-blade, and the slashing and movement techniques.
But to actually use it in a live tournament - against creatures like Acromantulas - right after a month of learning… took courage to a level further than the usual flamboyant Gryffindor daring. Not to mention he had done it more creatively and masterfully even compared to the books.
Also, she couldn't recall the vibration-saw spell being that dangerous. Otherwise, everyone would have been using it, right?
But. Adeline's mind forgot all these things when she saw the thousands of smaller arachnids launching themselves at Lucas.
"Oh no, OH NO! Castillin is surrounded!" exclaimed Bagman. "He was just starting to show some very great and innovative fighting style!"
"NO!"
"Darn it! He's done for!"
"How can they move so fast!"
"What is the fire girl doing?!"
"Not so soon, it was too much fun to watch!"
In the arena, when Lucas was surrounded by the smaller spiders, the crowd let out collective expressions of disappointment.
"Wait! CUT DOWN! HE CUT THEM ALL DOWN! There were no incantations! No wand movements! And yet, everything around him was severed through! What kind of spell work was that?! Some sort of cutting hex?!"
Hermione jumped up and down, her teary eyes filled with relief, excitement and surprise. "Was that the wide area Severing spell we gave him?! I don't recall it being THAT powerful?"
"It's not only that. He's using everything we gave him much, much better than their usual limits."
"Castillin has sped up! He's taking advantage of that 20 meter gap he created! But WAIT! He still has the biggest acromantulas yet to deal with! Merlin's Legs! LOOK at that SIZE!"
"Cutting hex again - it completely bounced off! That's why they're called the Armored Acromantulas!"
"What is he going to do?! Where is Fleur?!" Exclaimed Hermione. "God, I hate her SO much! How COULD she leave Lucas alone like this?!"
Adeline also couldn't understand what Fleur was playing at. Lucas clearly just wanted to do the task stealthily and safely. He only even participated to remove Rosier from competition. So obviously, this reckless mess of a plan was all Fleur's idea. Then the question arises, what the hell was she doing?!
'I… hate her too.'
"AND THE PRODIGAL FLAME RETURNS! Castillin really needed that, too!"
Thankfully, the white flames started to burn away the spiders closing in on Lucas after he yelled for Fleur.
But the handsome champion did not wait for the quarter veela to catch up, instead speeding up. And then Adeline saw his face. He had a slight smirk tugging at his lips, his wand hand drawn back in a precasting position.
Seeing him, for some reason, Adeline gasped, feeling a slight disorder in her breathing.
Lucas brought his arm forward. And slapped the whole world.
Three powerful jets of beams shot out of his wand once after another which resulted in explosions that rocked the nearby camera and damn near drove everyone deaf from the enhanced sound.
"BY MERLINS LUCK! Those explosion spells were VOLCANIC! Castilin actually packs quite a punch, huh? But is it enough to get through the armor!?"
"It… wouldn't be, right?" Asked Hermione, biting her lips. They had all the information about the spiders. And the Bone Queen and her royal guards were the must avoid category. Because even their bellies were armored.
But even then, Adeline had different thoughts. Unlike Hermione, she could see more. Like the travelling speed of that spell. Only extremely powerful wizards, or those who have complete mastery over a spell can achieve such speed.
It's what decides the outcomes between the duels between those who know almost all-spells, counters, and spell-chains.
The youngest person who was known to have achieved that speed… was her brother.
When the scene cleared they saw the scene of carnage. The two armored Queen's guards were almost dead.
"WHAT?! Was it really an explosion spell?! Castillin has taken the Guards! And even Queen Skraal seems injured!"
"Lucas successfully enters the cave!"
….
As soon as he entered the cave, the first thing he felt was the smell.
Despite having dabbled through various potion recipes, Lucas had never thought there existed a smell that could make him pass out through its sheeeer foulness.
He didn't even know how to explain it. Maybe if one made a cocktail of rotten eggs, all types of fecal matter, dead and decaying flesh, and a lot of garbage... maybe some of this could be achieved.
Still not breathing, he used the bigger dried bones as stepping stones to avoid the bad slurry on the floor and finally, snagged the egg. The dark shell felt cold to the touch, and was covered in unknown substances - not that Lucas had the leisure to care about that.
As soon as he exited the cave, the egg secured to his chest through acromantula silk, he sensed danger.
Looking up, he saw a massive silhouette looming over him.
"NOT MY TROPHY!!!" Skraal raged.
Lucas's heart skipped a beat, his mind and body going into overdrive. A high pressure jet of liquid was sprayed at him by the Spider Queen, who seemed to have already recovered, looming over him.
A magical shield formed in the air, blocking the incoming liquid just as Lucas vaulted himself to the side.
'Fleur!'
The liquid burned through the shield before hardening into a solid. 'So I do have a teammate!' Thought Lucas in relief as he started bounding straight towards Skraal, who was covering his exit.
"Kill!" Skraal screeched, unleashing its massive mandibles, shooting out webs at the same time.
But white Flames appeared in the area, burning away the web while attacking the monster's 16 eyes.
Skraal screeched again, but this time it was due to pain. Acromantulas don't have eyelids, and whatever natural protection their eyes had was apparently not enough against Fleur's flames.
"RUN! I'll hold it back!" He heard her yell, and Lucas didn't need to be told twice. But Skraal started shooting out venom and digestive cartilage randomly, its large limbs also stomping the ground while it tried to shake offf the fire.
Lucas weaved through the barrage, barely escaping the Queen's attack range in a sorry state - only to be welcomed by a collosal swarm of Arachnids.
Now Lucas was in a pinch. His wand didn't have any offensive magic left.
All he had were just some utility based emergency spells - which he now realized he shouldn't have wasted the space on - and a few charges of the vibration-saw spell.
'But... it's fine.'
With the biggest threats already gone and the task already completed, Lucas stopped holding back.
He absorbed all the remaining magic into his body and inserted his wand back into his holster, now only armed with a sword. Then, he took a deep breath, and… locked the fuck in.
With the sword held in a duel handed grip, he charged head-on at the massive horde of spiders. He combined the vibration-saw magic and molded it while willing the vibration frequency to rise to the maxxx while keeping the wavelength extremely low.
The sword in his hand vibrated, it's blade blurring. But slowly, it's range of movement lowered and lowered until it was only vibrating in one place.
The sound of headache inducing tinnitus started ringing from the blade just as he reached the massive horde.
He by-passed the very first waist-sized spider directly with a lunge and used it as a foothold to leap past the densest part. Two spiders sprang at him from different directions but Lucas did a front 360 twist flip - mid-air while extending his sword - slicing through them like butter.
He hit the ground between three Acromantulas, his lead leg coiling - muscles and tendons straining to absorb the impact - before snapping straight, catapulting him forward again.
He weaved past two spiders in zig-zag, their limbs falling from his two handed slashes angled perfectly through their joints.
Then Lucas's figure disappeared through from the view, obscured by the sheer number of arachnids that jumped him.
Only clean, crisp sounds were heard, similar to that of a sharp knife cutting paper as Lucas appeared several meters ahead, the spiders collapsed into a screeching, twitching heap.
He was drenched in spider blood and webs, and several more gashes and stabs on his body, but he was grinning. This free use of his physical body was exhilarating… intoxicating. He could never really 'move' freely like this in the past life.
His eyes darted around constantly, reading, analyzing and then - predicting. Yes, no matter how fast and dangerous, they're still bugs, and he was beginning to recognize all attack patterns of these bugs.
He ducked, letting the spiders fly past him, barrel rolled, slashed forward, killing another two, and his right hand immediately shot back, stabbing another. his other hand lashed out, grabbing the leg of the one that attack from left side and he smashed it into the right with a twist, his right hand simultaneously hacking the sword in a wide arc.
All spiders once again disappeared, and this time the camera captured how he had previously achieved the feat.
And then, flames lit in front of him, creating a path. Feeling the scorching heat, Lucas snapped out of his killing spree and looked up.
There, at the top of a tree not far ahead, he finally saw Fleur appear out of her disillusion, her face completely devoid of color and eyes full of urgency.
"KILL!" With the flames not protecting him again, Skraal had started charging towards them again, though now it was blinded, thus getting bogged down by the giant trees.
"Let's go!" He saw Fleur mouth. "FAST!"
"Jump!" He shouted back. And so she did. Lucas caught her in a princess carry and swung her to his back to break the momentum.
The flames created the pathway again, and before the Spider Queen could catch up, Lucas ran for his life with Fleur on his back.
'Huh?'
He felt a peculiar dampness in the hands holding her thighs. And maybe the cold sensation on his lower back where fleur's legs wrapped around him wasn't from spider blood.
"Did she really…?"
He couldn't smell anything over spider blood, organs, and fluids but he was pretty certain that the proud veela had actually pissed herself.
….
A.N.: Yeah, so vote whenever you get the stones.
Also, Veela domination finally starts