Duelling Beta Test Match 4 - Emma vs. Meenauh

While Emma felt simply defenseless, she didn't feel helpless. There were only two choices she could pick from, and only one of them made sense. She was not going to sit around and wait for the spell to ignite her in flames. 

As she tried her best to evade to the side, a gasp could be heard from over the bustling flames darting directly for her. That wasn't long. She drew her wand once again and without hesitation cast another spell, hoping for success this time. Well, like last time as well. There was a small chance her spell failed again, right?

"Rictusempra!" She bellowed, not a grin nor a smirk on her face. She didn't want to play around, especially if this was some game to her.

Action » Cast Rictusempra

"What was that smirk about?", her thoughts seemed to get organised in some kind of an inner dialogue, which was a new thing to her. Her head was heating up because of the little time for making decisions.

"Well, she started it first and wanted to play with fire!" the second voice in her head appeared, which was probably responsible for the smirk, "And I suggest continuing to blaze her until she'd feel it."

"What?! But you were never aggressive! You promised to yourself that you'll only use spells for protection and control!" the first voice responded. It was clearly an argument between the two of them, and they were basically responsible for the direction of the duel on the Meenauh's side.

The fire show was a bit more than Meenauh actually expected to be capable of. She tried to concentrate on her genuine feelings towards it all. She didn't want to decide based on quick decisions or snapping. The fire-desirous voice wasn't what Meenauh knew about herself. Bringing someone to understanding by causing harm sounded very dark to her. Very...

"Oh, right!"

She focused her eyes on her opponent, who recovered from the dodge and was already in the middle of her incantation. Meenauh thrust forward with her wand and tried to finish the incantation at the same time as her opponent:

"Obscuro!"

This match uses a Spell DC of 12.

Player 1: Emma Hill	Player 2: Meenauh Silmataurea
Player 1 HP: 700/700	Player 2 HP: 400/400
Player 1 Stats: Stamina: 7 Evasion: 8 Strength: 3 Wisdom: 5 Arc Power: 8 Accuracy: 9	Player 2 Stats: Stamina: 4 Evasion: 8 Strength: 2 Wisdom: 10 ArcPower: 7 Accuracy: 9
Player 1 Abilities: N/A	Player 2 Abilities: N/A
Player 1 Buffs And Debuffs: Emma is blindfolded.	Player 2 Buffs And Debuffs: N/A
Player 1 Actions and roles: Attempts to cast Rictusempra. 1d20: 9+5=14. Spell succeeds. Accuracy vs. Evasion Roll: 1d20: 7+9=16 vs. 1d20: 12+8=20. Spell misses.	Player 2 Actions and roles: Attempts to cast Obscuro. 1d20: 8+10=18. Spell succeeds. Accuracy vs. Evasion Roll: 1d20: 4+9=13 vs. 1d20: 4+8=12. Spell hits.

The Round

When Elaine had started the duel she hadn't imagined it so proceed as it ow did. Usually duels between First and Second Year students only lasted a couple of rounds as the duellists were inexperienced and prone to beginner mistakes. So far she hadn't seen any of that in this match – instead the two girls were proving to be two evenly matched, rather talented duellers. Miss Silamataurea had landed more hits, but also been unable to take advantage of handicaps placed on her opponent so far, while Miss Hill had shown an excellent dodge even though she had'd problems casting her first spell correctly.

The students around the podium started to get into the duel, now that they had realised this wouldn't be over with two or three spells. Groups of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws had begun cheering for their champions, while the studenst from other two houses had their alliance more or less evenly distrubted between the two duellists.

Their casts were quick and precise, but the Ravenclaw's Tickling Charm missed her mark as Miss Silmataurea's moved out of the way in time. Again her opponent also showed a great ability in evading the incoming Blindfolding spell, and Elaine thought it would miss her, but this time Miss Hill was just a second too late.

The Gryffindors cheered as a blindfold wrapped itself around the Ravenclaw's eyes.

Meenauh to post first.

Meenauh was afraid. The thought of having some dark side inside her was blocking her from thinking rationally and clearly. Her opponent's silvery spell almost hit her and she was a centimetre away from bursting with laughter. Meenauh was hard to tickle, but as she remembered it didn't matter and the tickling affects anyone. She was glad the spell missed.

Her blindfold was conjured just fine and Meenauh was thinking whether was that a dark spell or not. By 'dark' she meant the affection to the freshly discovered supposed dark side of herself.

"Well, not quite a dark spell, but I would prefer something more offensive. You have all the chances to show off yourself," that was the new side speaking with her own voice with an unusual tint.

"But you can't hurt people. That's against your nature! That's against everything you're fighting for!" her own voice almost screamed inside her.

That was the decision. She couldn't hurt a person unless that person would try to hurt her first. But there was no war or no real danger. That was a duel and she was duelling a person, who was just one year older than herself — still a child. And the duel had to continue. And Meenauh decided to bring that duel to exhaustion. Ready to be hurt, but not hurting back. Let the best (she hated to say 'the best' in any context, to be honest) spellcaster win.

She watched the blindfolded opponent and any spell in her arsenal felt like an unfair one. So she sighed, raised her wand, and while executing the gesture with precision she let it go:

"Rictusempra!"

Nothing felt better than being hit with your own spells, she was beginning to get annoyed. Whether it was the lack of creativity the Gryffindor displayed or the lack of spells she issued from her wand, apparently luck wasn't in her favor today. If everything, it seemed to be more like karma if anything else. 

With annoyance, she ripped off the blindfold and prepared herself for the next spell. To no surprise, it was the tickling charm. She only hoped that it wouldn't last long, she was a very ticklish person, shown by last year's summer camp. This should be fun.

Action » Remove Blindfold

This match uses a Spell DC of 12.

Player 1: Emma Hill	Player 2: Meenauh Silmataurea
Player 1 HP: 580/700	Player 2 HP: 400/400
Player 1 Stats: Stamina: 7 Evasion: 8 Strength: 3 Wisdom: 5 Arc Power: 8 Accuracy: 9	Player 2 Stats: Stamina: 4 Evasion: 8 Strength: 2 Wisdom: 10 ArcPower: 7 Accuracy: 9
Player 1 Abilities: N/A	Player 2 Abilities: N/A
Player 1 Buffs And Debuffs: - 1 Accuracy (1 round) - 10 HP (1 round)	Player 2 Buffs And Debuffs: N/A
Player 1 Actions and roles: Unties the blindfold.	Player 2 Actions and roles: Attempts to cast Rictusempra. 1d20: 3+10=13. Spell succeeds. Accuracy vs. Evasion: 1d20: 14+9=23 vs. 1d20: 2. Spell hits. Damage: 50+7*10=120

The Round

With the blindfold slowing her down Miss Hill unfortunately had no chance at evading the spell cast at her person this time. The silver light of the Tickling Charm hit the Ravenclaw just a moment after she had managed to finally remove the black cloth that had obscured her vision. A groan went through the assembled children at the first drect hit of the match.

The Gryffindor student had managed to perform the spell correctly, as Elaine could see from the way it was affecting her opponent. Convulsing with laughter surely would interfere with Miss Hill's ability to cast further spells at the other student. Still, Miss Silmataurea was far from having won the duel yet. One spell rarely decided a match, at least in formal duels such as this one.

Emma to post first.

As Emma took off the blindfold, a jet of silvery light hit her abdomen and she braced herself for the assault on her stomach. Theoretically, it was only one person tickling her, right? It wasn't going to be worse than the traditional sleepover, but even then, her thoughts weren't very convincing even to herself. Nevertheless, she clutched her stomach and let out a series of laughter, her stomach getting weaker each second the silvery light worked its magic.

She rose her wand with the opposite mindset of her opponent, of course she wanted to win, but she didn't mind causing an injury that could be fixed in less than a few minutes. Hogwarts had a hospital wing for a reason. "Flipendo!"

Action » Cast Flipendo

"If you think of this duel as of an exam, where you just have to cast spells properly, then it might be easier to go with the hurting spells," the first voice started it again after the silvery spell hit her opponent, causing her to convulse in bursts of laughter.

"Huh? But what's with all that 'I don't want to hurt people'?" the second voice mocked the certain phrase in the most unpleasant way.

"If we just keep controlling the flow of the duel and shoot back the same spells, conjured perfectly, that would demonstrate who is a better witch, wouldn't it?" the inner voice falteringly asked herself as if not quite believing the reasoning behind it.

And then both voices were silent. The inner dialogue stopped as if it accomplished its mission and it was crystal clear how the duel should proceed. Actually, not clear at all. But Meenauh sighed and took a deep breath, took a defensive stance, ready to dodge the incoming spell. And while doing that she drew the snail-like symbol in the air and shout out:

"Expelliarmus!"

This match uses a Spell DC of 12.

Player 1: Emma Hill	Player 2: Meenauh Silmataurea
Player 1 HP: 570/700	Player 2 HP: 220/400
Player 1 Stats: Stamina: 7 Evasion: 8 Strength: 3 Wisdom: 5 Arc Power: 8 Accuracy: 9	Player 2 Stats: Stamina: 4 Evasion: 8 Strength: 2 Wisdom: 10 ArcPower: 7 Accuracy: 9
Player 1 Abilities: N/A	Player 2 Abilities: N/A
Player 1 Buffs And Debuffs: N/A	Player 2 Buffs And Debuffs: N/A
Player 1 Actions and roles: Takes -10 health from Rictusempra. Attempts to cast Flipendo. 1d20: 13+5=18. Spell succeeds. Accuracy vs. Evasion: 1d20: 16+9=25 vs. 1d20: 9+8=17. Spell hits. Damage: 100+8*10=180	Player 2 Actions and roles: Attempts to cast Expelliarmus. 1d20: 1+10=11. Spell fails.

The Round

Miss Hill predictably doubled over with laughter when the Tickling Charm hit her, but the effect of spell obviously wasn't as potent as it could have been as it wore off just in time for her to respond to the Gryffindor's attack. Miss Silmataurea had picked one of the few spells that could indeed end the duell rather fast, but lucky wasn't on her side: a light shone at the top of her wand when she pronounced the words Expelliarmus, but it died down immedately. A failed spell, such a shame really.

Meanwhile her opponent didn't have the same problem. Once she'd recovered her spell was potent and on point. The Gryffindor didn't manage to evade her Knockback Jinx in time and pushed back a few steps by the force of the spell. That one must have hurt.

The students clapped and hollered. "Moderate your volume, please," Elaine addressed the crowd when the noise continued on. She didn't want them to distract the duellists too much with their cheering.

Meenauh to post first.

Just knowing about a spell, memorizing its incantation and gestures were definitely not enough. You had to feel it. You had to understand the spell. It took a bit more than intelligence. It was about feelings. You had to feel the magic.

And as if she didn't mean it, the spell flickered a bit and fizzled. Exam failed. And then she felt the magic. The magic felt like a boxer's uppercut right into the middle of her chest. It threw Meenauh a few steps back and she landed on her knee and one hand on the ground. She stopped breathing for a second as if there was no air around. The blood was boiling from a shock. It felt like she never experienced pain before. On the second thought... she never quite experienced physical pain before. So that was how magic felt.

The whirlwind of thoughts was set free by a simple Flipendo and she started to hear a lot of voices of different volume, but one was very distinct:

"SET"
"HER"
"ON"
"FIRE!"

Meenauh wavered. That wasn't her voice, was it? Was it?! But where was the second voice? The rational and forgiving. She felt betrayed. As the sudden pain faded away, she stood up very straight. Eyes glistered with scarlet and gold as if reflecting the tints of her robe. She drew the wand very aggressively with a certain gesture and shouted:

"In-"

"Irrational," the second voice came in without knocking and sounded like it was correcting the incantation, "That won't make you neither a better witch nor a better person."

She froze in the middle of her incantation, switched the gesture to a different one and shouted once again, that time for real:

"Expelliarmus!"