Chapter 99 - Crossed Wands Pt. 2
***** Regular Chapter ***** A/N: Moved back to the city Sunday since its my birthday week and I want to spend it with friends, so this Chapter is running late. This is Sundays Chapter btw.... Was gonna post it Yesterday, but when i was reading it over, it just seemed too.... plain. Literally brainstormed a new 'sequence' to make it play out a bit more 'realistic?'..... I'll explain more at the end.
As a side note..... Ive been hearing news that WB might make the Hogwarts Legacy Sequel a live service game? Honestly.... after the failure of Suicide Squad, especially coming from the same company that game us the Arkham games, im not feeling very optimistic about the live service model, and them continuing the Hogwarts Legacy story properly.... I dunno.... I was really pleasantly surprised with Hogwarts Legacy, but at the same time, I can see them really fucking it up..... But I guess we can only wait and see... *****
"Welcome to Crossed Wands!" Khan announced dramatically before continuing to address his class. "Now, from what I understand, in your first year, the Defense teacher at the time, attempted to introduce his own 'dueling club', yes?"
Khan was naturally referring to Lockhart's attempt to make his own dueling club two years ago, to which they all nodded, before he continued. "Very well.... I suppose you all may now be wondering what exactly Crossed Wands is?"
His face took on a small smile, as he teased his students curiosity, while getting lost in memories of his own Crossed Wands experience.
Originally introduced to the 'not so' secret dueling club by Sebastian in his first week of school, Jordan eventually joined the club dueling against multiple students, and competing for the title of Hogwarts' top duelist.
Partnering with his best friends Natsai or Sebastian, Khan battled against his numerous classmates and fellow students, sometimes even taking them on four vs. two.
And being quite gifted in combat, Jordan of course make it to the championship round, eventually battling solo against his year mates Leander Prewett, Nellie Oggspire, Charlotte Morrison, and Eric Northcott, to become the school champion for his year.
And while four vs. one might seem unfair, truthfully Khan was thankful for Crossed wands. Not only did he end up winning against his classmates four on one, it also successfully prepared him for his multiple adventures, and eventual fights against even more numerous opponents.
Smiling in remembrance of his memories, his various female students swooning at his handsome face, Jordan proceeded to slowly and silently move into one of the dueling rings.
His smile however, much to the watching girls dismay, was slowly fading away, his face slowly turning more serious, the more he made his way into the ring.
The students themselves, could feel the shift in attitude of their student teacher.... Almost instantly he had gone from happily introducing them to Crossed Wands, to completely serious, not even saying a word.... They even eventually all began to feel like the temperature around them had dropped.
And looking around the room, they soon figured out why, much to their mounting excitement.
You see, waiting for him, inside the dueling ring were his two mentors themselves, Prof. Moody and Prof. Flitwick!
Evidently while Prof. Khan was addressing the watching class and had their complete attention, his two Mentors had moved to wait for him inside the dueling ring....
'Wait..... Were they all going to fight?' The class were all slowly figuring out what was going on...
Khan slowly moved to stand across the ring, directly facing his two mentors, before coming to a halt.
Taking out his wand, he then flashily transfigured his outfit, to his regular battle outfit (Merlin's Battle Cloak), before putting his hood over his head, and taking up his typical dueling stance.
'Wait..... was Prof. Khan really going to fight Prof. Moody and Prof. Flitwick at the same time?!'
The students soon began to work themselves into an excited frenzy, watching the situation play out before them.
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Taking out their own wands, the two Professors themselves assumed their own dueling stances, their own attitudes mirroring Khan's.
And although Khan had brought this exhibition match up with them beforehand, as a way of displaying exactly what a high level wizards duel would look like, they had every intention on taking this seriously.
They each had their own reputations to uphold after all.
Moody had faced down numerous Dark Wizards, and had come out victorious, to the point that he was one of the most feared Aurors in the British Ministry.
And Flitwick himself, was a previous World Champion for Dueling, earning respect amongst his peers, even as a half-goblin.
So even though Khan had displayed impressive magic power during the Triwizard tasks so far, even at points equal to their own as fully mature wizards, they were each fairly confident in their own magical abilities that they would at the very least, be able to put on a good performance for their students.
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After a lengthy stare-down, they all finally launched into action.
Wanting to probe his skills for themselves, the Professors made their moves first, launching out various non-lethal spells at different speeds and timings, to see if Khan would react as they had come to observe.
And sure enough, utilizing his signature 'flash-dodging', Khan proceeded to avoid most spells thrown at him, casting Protegeo to block spells that he couldn't avoid, and even following that up with his own return of spells, firing off Stupefy almost instantly after deflecting the various spells off his casted shield.
Due to his experience with the spell, utilizing it numerous times in his adventures in the past, the stupefy was returned very suddenly, surprising the two professors, and almost catching them off guard..... Almost.
Flitwick dodged instantly, relying on his inherent Goblin abilities, and avoided the spell, appearing to almost be jumping through the shadows, a move Khan himself had witnessed fighting Ranrok's Goblins in the past.
Moody, being relatively immobile due to his wooden leg, and not able to dodge the spells as Khan and Flitwick did, casted his own quick protegeo, blocking the Stupefy and causing it to bounce off harmlessly.
Unfortunately, Moody soon learned, that was a mistake.
"Flippendo! Descendo! Depulso!"
Keeping him on the backfoot, Khan counter attacked, casting and launching spell after spell at the now shielded Moody. And although his spells bouncing harmlessly off the protective shield that Moody had up, it also forced him to be unable to counter attack as he was forced to hold his protective barrier against Khan's onslaught.
This however, was just a feint.
You see, Khan, thanks to his ancient magic vision, could see that Moody's protegeo was a translucent yellowish color. Which meant, he also knew.....
"Levioso!" Khan yelled, pointing his wand and insta-casting the spell at the shielded Moody.
.... How to Break it.
Surprising everybody watching, Moody's Protegeo, which had blocked and deflected every single one of Khan's spells so far, had shattered under Khan's spell!
'And it wasn't to some overpowered and unblockable spell... it was due to a Levioso?!'
The watching class was stunned!
It was a two on one, and Prof. Khan currently still had the upper hand?
As Moody dangled helplessly in the air, Khan began to juggle him, keeping up with basic spells (as he had just showed in his class) and was about to knock him off the dueling ring with a follow-up Depulso, before he was suddenly interrupted, his battle senses screaming at him to dodge.
"Bombarda! Bombarda! Bombarda! Bombarda!"
And not a moment too soon.
Flitwick began to light up the dueling arena, blasting rubble everywhere, and chasing Khan around spamming the Exploding Charm, as Khan continued to Flash dodge away in haste.
Thankfully his Divination-empowered battle sense was still working, allowing Jordan to sense just when and where to dodge the destructive spell.
Which is why what happened next, completely floored him. Literally and figuratively.
"Bombarda!"
Having just come out of a 'flash-dodge' in between Bombarda launches by Flitwick, Khan once more heard the same spell get cast out, and prepared to once again flash-dodge, trusting and relying on his battle senses to let him know when and where to dodge.
However, this time, it actually didn't go off! His trusty battle sense, that had never let him down through all his previous adventures, had actually failed?
Not having much time to think, he flashed dodged backwards, relying solely on his eyes and vision to dodge the explosive charm.
*BOOOM*
Impacting the ground in front of where he was just standing, the Bombarda actually missed him, in turn blasting up rubble from the floor in the process.
It seemed that Flitwick's barrage was not yet complete however, as before Khan could even gather his bearings, he soon heard his mentor follow up with more spells!
"Levioso! Depulso!"
And once again, just like previously, his battle sense didn't go off!
'What the fu- Oooooof.'
All of a sudden, one of the flying pieces of rubble that had come from where the bombarda had just impacted, slammed into him, knocking the air out of his lungs, and himself off his legs, completely surprising him.
Flitwick seemingly had fired the spells not at him, but at the rubble instead!
'Was that how he hi-' Khan found himself wondering, before he was interrupted once again by Flitwick.
"Portus!"
Suddenly he felt a pulling sensation, followed by the sensation of himself falling briefly, before he suddenly hit the ground unsteadily, falling to his knees in the process. He was quite disoriented after all.
'Did I seriously just get portkeyed?'
Shaking his head, Jordan looked up, attempting to figure out exactly what just happened.
However, what he found instead was Flitwick, standing over him, his very own wand clutched in his mentor's hand, as he pointed it at Khan's exposed neck.
Unblinking, Flitwick stared down emotionlessly at Khan, completely at his mercy.
Complete silence surrounded the Large room.
Then.... after a few uncomfortable seconds, Flitwick broke the silence and in complete contrast to how he just looked, asked in his typical cheerful and squeaky voice.
"Do you yield?"
*****
The class all buzzed with excitement over what they had just watched.
A two vs. one! With Prof Khan taking on both his mentors at the same time! And Even though their student idol had indeed lost, he had put up a very impressive showing, showing off his flashy dodging skills, not to mention also somehow managing to breakthrough and destroy Moody's Protegeo!
Needless to say, every single one of his students were now very inspired with all the skills they had seen, to say nothing of the auditing visiting students.
In the future, the gossip of this duel would grow out of control and become something of a Hogwarts legend, with every single student in attendance for it, bragging and often times exaggerating, to anyone who would listen.
Meanwhile, the professors all busied themselves, casting various Reparo spells, in order the repair the damage caused by their little exhibition match.
Khan was feeling a little disappointed, reflecting on the duel, as he absentmindedly casted his own Reparo at some nearby rubble. 'To think my battle senses could actually fail.... Is it because Prof. Flitwick didn't actually target me directly?'
Truthfully, Jordan had grown overly reliant on his Divination improved battle senses.
And it was this reliance that Flitwick utilized to win.
Realizing from the various probing spells he launched, Flitwick eventually figured out that Khan could sense/predict when and where a spell would hit.
Thus, instead of targeting Khan directly with a spell, Flitwick instead began to target him, indirectly.
And boy, did Flitwick have just the plan to do it.
First using the Bombarda spell, he fired it at the ground by Khan's feet instead of directly at him, causing him to react slower than usual and jump back a little delayed.
Then using the rubble created from the Bombarda impacting the floor, Flitwick then casted a quick Levioso/Depulso on multiple pieces, causing it to fly out and impact Jordan.
However, Flitwick still wasn't yet done. Almost immediately afterwards, he casted 'Portus', causing the rocks that were still in contact with Khan, to turn into a Portkey!
'I really had no idea that a Portus spell could be used in combat like that.... Prof Flitwick truly deserves his reputation as world champion duelist.' Jordan couldn't help but remark to himself, especially after having reflected on everything just now. 'Still have a lot to learn.'
Soon enough, the room was back to normal, and Khan was once more addressing his class, now ready to officially restart Crossed Wands in this current era.
"Well..... That was just a little example of how a wizards duel goes..... And before anyone asks, yes! Sometimes there are duels or battles in which it is indeed two on one, or even four on one! Remember, evil and dark wizards will not hesitate to attack, especially when you, yourself, is at a numbers disadvantage. Remember whats out there!"
"CONSTANT VIGILENCE!" Moody cut in, with his signature phrase, before Khan continued.
"Yes... exactly. And in line with what I have been preaching all year, that Practical Application goes hand in hand with mastery of your spells, Crossed wands at its core, will be it's own dueling club. Run primarily by its students, it will provide you all with a place safe to practice and master your spells and various other dueling skills, against your friends and peers!"
Using his old club as a reference, wanting to essentially revive his dueling club during this current era, Jordan continued to explain the various rules and procedures that they themselves used back in the past, the students all eagerly listening intently.
Needless to say, they were all excited to get started, especially after watching that exciting and action packed dueling match between their teachers.
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A/N: So I always had an exhibition match planned for this Crossed Wands introduction..... but like the way this match turned out is much better. Like I wanted to show Flitwick as a powerhouse in his own right, and since he was a 'world champion duelist' after all. But my issue was.... I didn't really want to give him any crazy magic OP power or something, and just have the power scale get out of control, especially since the fight between Voldy and Dumbles in the Ministry in book 5 doesn't really show anything THAT impressive in terms of magical abilities (especially when you consider that they are supposedly the top two magical powerhouses in Europe).