2024/25, Stage 3 Gryffindor VS Hufflepuff: Match 4

Credit to Alyssea Brown for the amazing banner!

It was a quick start, and Emma fought to keep her feet, curling her toes in her shoes as if it were possible to grab the floor. Still, it must have helped as she was able to keep her feet firmly planted, only feeling as if she had gotten bowled over by the strong wind. Not delaying too long, she shot the spell that came to mind first at the first target she saw on the Gryffindor team, a blindfold shooting from her wand and thankfully hitting it's mark.

She grinned as the dark cloud formed over the other team, glad that while the the Hufflepuff's had been taken by surprise by the wind, at least they had managed to land some of their hits.

Word Count: 125/50

(Thanks to Alyssea Brown for the banner!)

Axyen was unsure of what to expect from his upperclassmen, but he knew there was no more time to mess around, it would not take too long before Axyen was able to come up with an idea of what he would do to help out his team and hopefully get Gryffindor into some trouble later on. Axyen took a deep breath, he could no longer hear the sound of the spectators watching over the match anymore; he didn't even see them either, as long as he blocked them out mentally in his head, he didn't have anything to worry about! As a matter of fact, he got this; he made mistakes before and he learned from them, he just needed to take that experience and actually make it count for something and that was something he knew he was capable of doing. 'I got this... no matter what, we are going to win!' Axyen mentally shouted as he his grip on his wand tightened, spells were now flying across the stage and Axyen braced himself to both dodge and take a hit; unfortunately for him, it was the latter of the duo. Axyen watched, or rather felt the incoming gusts of winds approach him at fast speeds.

'Dodge! I have to somehow dodge the incoming attack, whatever it is I am even looking at it, or feeling or whatever; wait, is it a tornado?!' Axyen internally panicked as he failed to dodge the incoming wind spell, but despite stumbling about and struggling to find proper footing, Axyen didn't allow himself to fall over and lose his balance. Instead, he would continue standing although notably it felt like he could fall over at any second, it might take a second or two before he properly adjusted himself to whatever just hit him. 'I panicked... I can't go doing that...' Axyen thought to himself as he looked to see how his teammates were doing—maybe in the past Axyen would've been hit harder, but from his last duel, he learned how to take a few more hits. Axyen took a deep breath to try and keep focusing, taking deep breaths were surprisingly more effective for dueling than he imagined. Looking to his two teammates who he had worked with before, Emma and EmmaLee, he could see that just like him, they got hit by the same attack that got Axyen as well.

With that in mind, Axyen wouldn't let that be the thing to stop him, as a matter of fact, the Blazing Badgers were ready to send off their own attacks in response! EmmaLee tried to cast the Dancing Feet Charm at Rose, one of the sixth year Gryffindors, but unfortunately it didn't seem to reach its target. Fortunately, Emma managed to cast Obscuro and the blindfold successfully hit Rose meaning that she would be unable to see for a period of time. Axyen however wasn't going to idly watch this all happen, as he himself was preparing for a spell of his own, but he wasn't aiming at any one person in the Gryffindor team. Instead, he happened to be... Aiming above them?

Axyen mentally prepared himself as he imagined a great mighty thunderstorm of some sort as he moved his wand in the shape of a claw and then pointed it directly above the Gryffindors...? "Metelojinx!" Axyen said in a clear voice, admittedly his wand motion with the spell could use some more work but it worked nonetheless anyway. What he was more worried about however was whether or not the spell would be effective enough to do him any good. Only time could tell, but the reason he wanted to use this spell was because he saw it do good for him before. So, what he needed to figure out was whether or not he cast the spell well enough for it to do him and his team any good—only time could tell...

A cloud was over team Gryffindor and assuming all went well for him, they would be met with a surprise very soon. However, Axyen remained cautious for other spells as well since this duel was simply just now getting started—they still had a long way to go before this duel ended. Well, hopefully they did, it would be a shame if they somehow lost the duel almost straight away, but Axyen had good faith that that wouldn't be the case at all here. Being in numerous duels gave him a ton of experience and those experiences would hopefully somehow catch up and give him the advantage in someway, he didn't know how it would exactly happen yet. He watched the cloud for a few moments before readying himself for whatever happened to come next.

Now, the only thing to do was to watch for anymore incoming spells, he had a good feeling about this duel though he didn't particularly know what it was. Especially given the fact that he initially felt outclassed just a few moments earlier, he was curious to see where this would all go. 'I am starting to think there might be a chance after all!' Axyen thought to himself and he realized where this newfound confidence was coming from. It was the fact that including Axyen himself, Hufflepuff was still doing fairly decently. Axyen initially imagined that he would be out of the match in an instant, but here he was.

It was because of that, that Axyen had a good feeling that they could actually get a win from this duel. Axyen prepared himself, thinking for a few moments about what he was going to do with everything that has happened so far. This was the fun part about dueling, trying to figure out what you would have to do next and trying to think fast since time was limited, you couldn't just stand still during the process. It was very far from a mindless sport of just casting spells at your opponents, it required a good bit of strategy and thinking, reckless moves were actually probably not the best choice of action as you could quickly find yourself out of the match for it or even worse, you find your own spell turning against you; something that Axyen was unfortunate enough to deal with in the past as he got hit by his own Flipendo once. However, Axyen knew better than to let that happen a second time... hopefully, maybe, probably; duels were just unpredictable like that he supposed.

Information

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Stats

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Stamina-7
Evasion-6
Strength-2
Wisdom-9
Arcane Power-15
Accuracy-8

Abilities

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Beast Master (Pygmy Puff) - Non-applicable in this duel.

Prodigal Defense Against the Dark Arts Learner - Able to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts 1 year ahead of their actual school year. You may only choose a spell taught in DADA classes. At end game they learn 1 restricted spell. This can also serve as an alternative means to learning spells besides earning them through DADA class.

Wand Maker (Phoenix Feather Core):
• 10% chance that a random spell known by the caster will be cast in addition to the spell that they have already cast. The spell will target the same target the caster had attacked/aided with a spell that round. If the spell cast had no target, then a target is assigned randomly with no consideration of friend or foe. The second spell still has to go through the normal targeting mechanics, it would not be an automatic hit or anything.This effect will not take place if the wand is not drawn.
• In duels the wand only chooses from the list of official duelling spells.
• +2 accuracy to spells cast.

There's less than 24 hours left until the deadline. Posts still required from @Rose Moon, @Kim Sato and @EmmaLee Dames.

Round 2

Emma VS Rose

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Emma casts Cracker Jinx at Rose

Wisdom DC - 14
Wisdom check - [d20: 5] + 10 = 15 → success
Auto-hit - [d20: 3] → no auto-hit
Chance to hit Emma - [d20: 1] → hits her as well

Emma Accuracy - [d20: 7] + 10 = 17
Rose Evasion - [d20: 2] + 0 = 2
[17 > 2] → Hits!
Allister evasion - [d20: 10] + 11 = 21
[17 < 21] → Misses!
Kim evasion - [d20: 18] + 13 = 31
[17 < 31] → Misses!

Blast damage - 50 + 10 × 15 = 200
Radius damage - 20 + 10 × 8 =
Duration - [d3: 3] → 2 rounds

Effect - Rose loses 200 HP and has -3 wisdom for 2 rounds, and Emma loses 100 HP and has -3 wisdom for 2 rounds

EmmaLee VS Rose

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EmmaLee casts Flipendo at Rose

Wisdom DC - 11
Wisdom check - [d20: 12] + 8 = 20 → success

EmmaLee Accuracy - [d20: 8] + 10 = 18
Rose Evasion - [d20: 11] + 0 = 11
[18 > 11] → Hits!

Damage - 100 + 9 × 15 = 235

Effect - Rose loses 235 HP

Axyen VS Rose

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Axyen casts Flipendo at Rose

Wisdom DC - 11
Wisdom check - [d20: 14] + 9 = 23 → Success
Auto-hit - [d20: 4] → No auto-hit

Axyen accuracy - [d20: 17] + 10 = 27
Rose Evasion - [d20: 1] + 0 = 1
[27 > 1] → Hits!

Damage - 100 + 15 × 15 = 325

Extra spell chance - [d20: 14] → No extra spell

Effect - Rose loses 325 HP

Allister VS Axyen

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Allister casts Confringo at Axyen

Wisdom DC - 17
Wisdom check - [d20: 15] + 15 = 30 → success

Rebound (rebounds on a 1) - [d20: 17] → no rebound
Auto-hit - [d20: 2] → No auto-hit

Allister accuracy - [d20: 10] + 15 = 25
Axyen evasion - [d20: 16] + 6 = 22
[25 > 22] → Hits!

Damage - 150 + 13 × 15 = 345

Effects - Axyen loses 345 HP

Rose

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Rose takes off her blindfold

Effects - Rose can cast spells again next round

Kim

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Kim casts Ventus

Wisdom DC - 11
Wisdom check - [d20: 4] + 8 = 12 → success!

Effects - The cloud is moved over to Hufflepuff.

Metelojinx VS Gryffindor

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Rose
[d20: 4] → no lightning strike

Allister
[d20: 11] → no lightning strike

Kim
[d20: 9] → no lightning strike

Saturday, 3rd of May
Day 1 morning slot

Hufflepuff had taken full advantage of the fact that one of their opponents couldn't see, landing blow after blow on Rose who was in the process of taking off the blindfold that had been placed over her eyes the previous round. But even with the barrage of spells hitting her she somehow still managed to stay standing, although looking a lot more hurt than she had been previously.

One of the spells that had been thrown her way seemed to create quite the splash, Kim and Allister having to dodge some of the crackers that had landed near them but not hitting either of them in the process.

Allister had seemingly decided that the floor needed a remodelling, as the spell he had cast quite literally exploded the floor beneath Axyen's feet. The duellist not having quite enough time or reflexes to move out of the way, and even if he had Mylo was pretty sure some of the shards that came loose would have hit him regardless, quite the ruthless spell.

All the while Gryffindor seemed to have quite the luck with the cloud above them, as menacing as it seemed it hadn't struck down lightning on any of the duellists. Although it seemed that Kim was hoping that it would do so soon, although not on his own team as he used the same spell as the previous round but this time used it to give Hufflepuff their spell back.

Seeing that Rose had gotten her blindfold off Mylo knew that she would be a lot harder to hit now. But anything could happen and that was the fun of a duel.

Information

1. You have 96 hours from this post's timestamp to owl your moves to me (Mylo Atkins) and to make your 50+ word post.
2. Do not hint at your move in your post, as this can give an advantage to the other team.
3. Remember to send your move and make your post before the deadline. If either of these are not completed in time, your move will be void.
4. I may mod early if all posts and actions are sent in before the allotted time frame has passed. If you do not want me to do this, please send me an owl.
5. Your stats, abilities, and spells are considered locked for this duel. If any are added to your trunk since 25 April 2025, they may not be used.
6. If you have any questions or feedback regarding this match, please feel free to owl or DM me.
7. Handy links: Duelling Rules, Duelling Spells, and the most recent patch.
8. Good luck and happy duelling!

The spectator thread for this duel can be found here.
Come cheer for your House and friends!