Chapter 76.5- Doom Days

“Okay then, come along” he said, waving me forwards.

I drew a rune in the air with a flex of my magic before pushing out with my wand. “Ventus maximus” I whispered, creating a massive gust of wind that practically lifted up the entire wasteland in front of me, sending it right at my opponent. I sagged in on myself, struggling to keep my feet as I felt a sense of emptiness fill me.

I was oh so fucking tired. Using the runic version of any spell seemed to take a minimum of double the amount of magic. That one had taken more like twelve times what a standard ventus would have. And adding that to the mess that had been the fulgur tempestas I’d unleashed earlier and what had been close to fifteen minutes of dueling on top of that meant I was literally on my last legs.

The wind died down, and in front of where Nicholas had been standing was a wall. It was made of what looked to be solid stone, and glowed with runes placed on it. I watched it as part of the wall crumbled to reveal the man looking little worse for wear.

“Impressive. If I hadn’t add the impenetrability ward to the wall, you’d probably have tossed me straight into the sea” he said with a smirk, as he pushed off against the ground and floated over the wasteland between us to reach my side of the wasteland between us.

“How’d you even cast a ward that quickly?” I asked, relaxing and allowing myself fall back on my arse. Today wouldn’t be the day I beat Nicholas, but I could feel it coming. Eight months of dedicated magical progress was showing. I could do things now that would have been a dream to me earlier. Even Grindelwald had been forced to admit that I was stronger than any of his teachers back at Durmstrang— even the Highmaster had been.

“I didn’t.” He said.

“And yet there was a ward on the wall regardless” I observed.

“Exactly. I am sure you will tell me all about it during our classsroom lesson today” He said. I nodded. That tended to be how things worked these days. He couldn’t do dedicated lessons anymore as I’d passed that level so now we worked on bits of magic I felt I wanted to work on, or alternatively he would show something during our duels and then he would challenge me to figure it out before our lesson and I would present my best guesses.

“Sure. Right after I figure out how you never manage to get tired no matter how much I push” I said, recalling one of my earliest inquiries. There had to be some trick to it.

“The explanation that I might just be that much more powerful than you are still proving insufficient?”

“Considering you never outright say it and only imply it says even you don’t think that is the case” I said.

He shrugged, hand in his pocket, and turned back to the beach with his other hand— wand hand— raised.