"It seems you've already met Mr. Calhoun."
"Bryce was a very good Hufflepuff. He was excellent at Quidditch. I thought he would become a professional Quidditch player," Dumbledore said with a sigh. "But I didn't expect that I wouldn't see him on the pitch again."
"When we are young, we still have a choice, but as we grow up, many things make us helpless, unless you can give up enough and endure enough pain."
"That is true..." Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "To be honest, since you came to Hogwarts, you've shown me many things I hadn't seen before. I'm starting to feel like Tom isn't a problem for me anymore."
"When you look at the same thing from different angles, you can get a different answer. It's just that many people have been blinded by his terrifying methods," Victor said slowly, then turned to face Dumbledore. "So, Professor, is there something special you came to see me about?"
Victor could tell from Dumbledore's expression that he had a serious reason for coming. He didn't think Dumbledore would just come to chat about Voldemort.
As expected, Dumbledore, realizing Victor had noticed his intentions, said, "You can't fool me. In fact, I came to see you because..."
A few seconds later, Victor learned of Dumbledore's intentions and was stunned. He frowned and asked in disbelief, "Professor, are you sure you're not joking?"
"Yes, I'm sure," Dumbledore replied expressionlessly.
"Well, alright. Although I don't know what made you suddenly decide to do this, I agree! When do you want to set the time?"
"During the summer. I'll have Fawkes inform you…"
The lunch break was over quickly. As soon as the afternoon session began, the competition became even more intense.
"Holy! They have skilled players, too?!"
Victor was shocked. As soon as he returned to his exclusive viewing spot, he saw that apart from his guild's arena, the four other Houses had suddenly launched a crazy counterattack, directly driving the Fairy Tail members off their respective arenas.
At the Gryffindor arena, because George's Spirit Magic wasn't fully developed yet, he had a hard time multitasking. His attacks weren't as precise as he would like, and when he faced too many concentrated attacks, he couldn't react in time.
He had previously won his offensive duels because his opponents didn't know his magical items' abilities and characteristics. Now that the young lions had discovered his weakness, they immediately sent in a sixth-year to launch a spell-bombardment. George was quickly driven off the arena.
At the Slytherin arena, the defender, Malfoy, was simply overwhelmed by a large, fourth-year student who was wearing advanced enchanted armor and had drunk an unknown potion. The student, using a brute-force approach, pushed Draco off the platform while enduring various curses.
The young eagles of Ravenclaw were still holding their ground. The young Hufflepuffs, on the other hand, had knocked Luna unconscious with sleeping spores grown by their Head of House, Professor Sprout.
Zoe tried to get revenge for Luna, but her face was immediately covered in a fiery haze from exploding peppers. This type of exploding pepper was supposedly bred specifically for this tournament by Professor Sprout. Whenever they were squeezed by an external force, they would explode and release a peppery mist.
So now, the tournament had returned to its starting point: each House was holding its own arena, and their spirits were high.
"Help, Master!" Zoe was lying on a bed, crying out for Victor's help. She looked miserable. The hotness of the exploding peppers was no different from regular chili peppers, which left her face flushed, her eyes watering, and her tongue hanging out. Luna was wiping her face with milk to help ease the pain.
"Oh my…" Victor quickly used a spell to wash away all the capsaicin from Zoe's body.
As soon as Zoe recovered, she hugged Luna and burst into tears. "Wahh! I'm alive again! Thank you, Luna! You have to get revenge for me!"
"Hold on, hold on… I'm the one who healed you, aren't I? Besides, you were the one who ran onto the Hufflepuff arena to get revenge for Luna, weren't you?" Victor retorted.
"I don't care! Wahh~" Zoe buried her head in Luna's arms, and Luna tilted her head, stroking Zoe's hair just as Victor would do.
"The other Houses have started to fight back, and they've figured out the characteristics of our magic," Cedric said, looking troubled. "We haven't fully mastered our magic circles yet. They can only barely be used in a duel. And when it comes to curses, most of us don't have an advantage. If this continues, we'll be too passive."
Although Victor was the Guild Master of Fairy Tail, he hadn't interfered too much in his members' duels. Cedric was in charge of the actual strategy, and now that they had all been driven off the arenas, he didn't know what to do. He looked at Victor for help.
"Don't look at me like that. You're the team captain for this tournament," Victor said, crossing his arms. "I'll only tell you this: Fairy Tail has to win the arena battles, and we have to win all five arenas!"
"Alright…" Cedric said with a wry smile, then he fell into deep thought.
The four Houses had their own strengths. The young lions of Gryffindor were unpredictable and had incredible stamina. They liked to use a war of attrition to tire out the arena's defender, so they needed someone who could withstand them.
After being trained by their Head of House, and with the guidance of the Duelling champion, Professor Flitwick, Ravenclaw was the strongest team besides Fairy Tail. They were even more difficult to deal with than Slytherin, so the only way to beat them was through a head-on battle.
Slytherin had a strong foundation and used ruthless tactics, but if they were met with a similar approach, taking them down would not be a problem.
Hufflepuff was also tricky. They carried all sorts of strange plants that could catch their opponents off guard.
After much deliberation, Cedric immediately suggested, "Neville, Scarlia, please go outside and call everyone back. I need to reassign the attackers."
"Okay!" Neville and Scarlia agreed, and ran out of the camp.
"Look, the Fairy Tail members are retreating." People in the stands noticed that the Fairy Tail members near the four Houses' arenas had all suddenly left.
"Are they just giving up? No way. There are still two hours left!"
"How could they? They're probably going back to discuss strategy!"
"Actually, with Fairy Tail's strength, if they want to win, they only need to hold on to three arenas. Why are they trying so hard to take all five?"
"I think it's obvious. Geniuses are arrogant. I think they were going for a clean sweep from the start!"
"That's a good point. Who wouldn't want a glorious victory in such an important tournament?"
At the Fairy Tail camp, after calling everyone back, Cedric began to lay out his strategy. "This is how we'll do this. Penelope, Scarlia, Cho Chang, Justin, Neville, you will be responsible for defending our arena. Your skills are more than enough to defend it. For Slytherin, Hermione, take Fred and George. Have the Weasleys take the arena and hold it for as long as possible. If they can't, you go in as a last resort. Your Sky Magic is both offensive and defensive, and you can fly. I believe you're more than capable of taking down Slytherin."
"For Hufflepuff, Sonia, Zoe, and Luna, you go there. Although Professor Sprout's plants are a pain to deal with, your magic can counter them more or less, so I'm counting on you."
"I can handle Ravenclaw by myself. As for everyone else, go to Gryffindor!"
"Excellent," Victor said, very satisfied with Cedric's plan. He stepped forward, took out his pocket watch, and looked at it. Then he faced everyone and said, "There are less than two hours left until the end of the tournament. I want you to take all five arenas in that time and achieve a perfect victory. Do you have the confidence to do that?"
"Yes!!!" everyone shouted in unison, raising their fists with a fierce look on their faces.
"Tell me why?"
"Because we are Fairy Tail!!!"
"HOORAH!!!"
"HOORAH!!!"
The people in the stands were startled by the sudden, impassioned shouts. Many of them looked at each other, their heads full of exclamation points and question marks.
"What's that all about? Are the Fairy Tail members possessed by spirits?!"
"They must have worked out their strategy. Look at the faces of the students from the other Houses. They're starting to look nervous."
"This tournament is getting more and more interesting. I think it's even better than the Quidditch World Cup I watched two years ago!"
"It's not that good. The last Quidditch World Cup, the two Seekers flew around for over ten hours and still didn't catch the Golden Snitch. I was sick of it by the end!" a passionate Quidditch fan retorted unhappily.
"It's still not better than Quidditch!"
"Stop arguing, the match has begun!"
The first to be attacked was Slytherin, by the challenger: Fred Weasley (Fairy Tail).
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