As William's words fell, the previously noisy arena suddenly fell into silence.
Most of them didn't know about the retest. They thought getting the ring meant they passed, but unexpectedly, another retest was waiting for them, leaving everyone caught off guard and turning their heads, starting to look at each other.
If there's no surprise, their next opponents are likely each other?
As for dueling William... Are they crazy?
Because most of them didn't know about the existence of Dream Magic, although they found the stone statues with rings in the forest very strange, the combat abilities of these golems were actually not strong. As long as they maintained distance, attacked three times and retreated once, the intimidating Sword Dance couldn't cause any real damage—
This was certainly because William deliberately lowered the difficulty. After all, if those golems fired at full force, solving a single adult wizard wouldn't be a problem at all.
But even with these weakened golems, these young wizards needed some tactics and luck to defeat them. However, since the difficulty wasn't too high, not many truly faced "death" at the hands of these statues; out of over three hundred participants, only close to forty. After undergoing some simple psychological counseling, these individuals were sent out of the classroom.
After all, William directly minimized the realism of death. In the eyes of those little wizards, they only saw a flash at the time.
As for the rest, after all rings were found, they were all forcibly pulled back to reality by William.
Although to increase fun, William threw in plenty of props similar to the duel cards Malfoy used, in the forest, but in the end, not many found and used them—perhaps they were too well hidden?
And just as everyone began to look at each other, preparing to make a choice, William's voice suddenly rang again, "Perhaps there was a misunderstanding in the rules, the meaning of this second choice is that all those who choose this option only need to withstand my attack for ten minutes together—
"And let me emphasize again, it's everyone who chooses, together."
"?!"
As William said this, the little wizards, originally gathered to register in front of Professor Flitwick, paused their steps instinctively. They turned their heads in surprise and uncertainty, only to find that they weren't alone in hearing that ridiculous requirement.
So it wasn't a hallucination?
"What if all of us choose your side?"
Suddenly, someone in the crowd asked.
"Then, you all come at once."
William smiled, with no change in his expression.
Following these words, the scene became uproarious. The little wizards who were initially gathered around Flitwick swiftly changed direction, quickly ran to William, and stuffed the newly handed registration forms into the box in front of him. Only a dozen or so hesitant little wizards remained—
Of course, there were still quite a few who firmly chose Flitwick, like Cedric, Harry, and Malfoy...
Although the details in the minds of these three differed, all their reasons were the same—the notion of actually waving a magic wand against William was simply asking for "death," wasn't it?
Even with many people, what difference would it make?
And the choices made by these few also influenced many people. Ultimately, those standing in front of William included over twenty students, mostly fifth and sixth graders, with the Weasley Twins among them—yes, most of the older students chose to challenge...
No, to be precise, in their eyes, it was completely "ganging up on" William, compared to the purely luck-based draw duel, they obviously favored this side more.
The reason was simple, because no matter how strong William was, they were nearly thirty people!
Thirty nearly adult wizards, among whom were excellent students with good grades, such as Percy Weasley, who had achieved high scores on the O.W.L. exams. He was directly elected as captain by the crowd—
The biggest contributors to this were Fred and George, for which Percy was greatly touched and decided to treat his two supportive brothers better in the future.
But Fred and George, after hearing this, froze for a moment but quickly reacted, and the three put on a show of brotherly harmony and family bliss together.
"...They're definitely planning to use Percy as a human shield."
Beside Harry, Ron said decisively after just glancing twice, his words filled with certainty.
"What a pity, those involved are oblivious, they're going to be in big trouble..."
Cedric, standing on Harry's other side, looked at the young wizards excitedly discussing how to defeat William with strategies, his face showing three parts pity, three parts mockery, and four parts schadenfreude—after hearing Cedric's words, Harry nodded emphatically.
"... Is William really that strong?"
The speaker was Neville, whom Harry had just stopped. Earlier, he too had instinctively wanted to challenge after hearing William's rules, but Harry had pulled him back. After brief contemplation, he thought Harry must have reasoned well, yet listening to the conversation between the two, he still wondered if it might be overly exaggerated?
After all, one person fighting a group didn't seem very possi—
"Drawing lots, drawing lots—"
Without waiting for an answer, they saw Hermione approach carrying a box of tickets, the girl yawned and handed the lot-drawing box to Harry—"Aren't you going to duel?" While drawing a slip with a number from the box, Harry looked at the girl with some curiosity.
"Ah, no need, William said I've already advanced..."
Hermione's reaction was slow, seeming as if she wasn't fully awake, she frowned as she spoke.
"Why!?"
Cedric asked forcefully, ready to loudly protest this bias...
"Because he said I helped him collect information, so it's an employee benefit, and I was given a few days off..."
Hermione said with an unusual expression, "He also said that if you're dissatisfied, you can appeal to him, as long as you meet the workload, you can ask for any benefits."
"Alright, then it's nothing."
Upon hearing this, Cedric instantly quieted down, indicating he hadn't asked anything, fully aware of how lazy he'd been recently.
After drawing lots, Cedric ran over to where Cho Chang was standing not far away. Yes, Cho Chang had successfully obtained a ring too, and at that moment the two were comparing their slips, upon discovering their numbers were different, they immediately celebrated.
Cho Chang...
Harry's gaze inadvertently drifted from the two standing together not far away, over the past few months, he had gotten along well with Cedric, and those youthful heartbeats had gradually subsided due to various reasons.
Now, he was able to treat everything with a clear mind...