2020, Stage 1 Group B: Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw

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Once again, the dodge was for naught. Honestly, they weren't the disappointed—seeing they'd spent seventy-five percent of the match with their wand tucked away, they'd be more surprised if the spells has come their way every single time. Their opponents weren't that stupid.

Still, dodging was getting tiresome. Mars skidded to a stop just before the end of piste, rocking back on their heels. A thud came from behind them—a grin spread over their face as they turned to see Katrina once again frozen on the floor. The Gryffindor was going to have bruises when this was all over, both of them would.

"Nice shot~" they called to Cel, gait lazy as they sidled back up to her. Calanthe was still on her feet, spell whizzing harmlessly past their partner, but she was looking a little worse for wear. Mars felt a little bad—duelling with a runny nose couldn't be fun. But then... looking at Cel, they figured the stakes were even.

Time to get on with this, for once.

Throughout Calanthe's mind was a fervent call for this duel to just be over already. On her last legs, the witch realized she would have preferred to keep going. Katrina slumped to the floor just as she felt a strong wave of nausea wash over her. Helplessly, she clasped her wand, ideas for a last effort struggling to make their way through her head.

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Even as waves of nausea swept over her and she blinked the haze of sickness out of her eyes, Cel's spell hit true, knocking right into her opponent and snapping her rigid. Her moment of victory was interrupted by a strong urge to sneeze, but apparently her stumbling back saved her just in time for Calanthe's knockback jinx to hit the floor harmlessly. If they won this, she was going to praise whatever decided how much luck they got to the ends of the earth.

Her partner wasn't doing badly, either, though there was nothing to dodge—at least they weren't hurt, and definitely at the ready to cast if they had to. At least one of their opponents was disabled now. Nodding at them, Cel raised her wand again.

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Round 11

Katrina

Reducio

Katrina attempts to Break Free.
Strength DC: 11 base 10 + 1per 5 ArcP of caster(10-3=7; MaN)
Strength Check: [d20: 18] + 3 = 21
→ Success
Effect: rejoins Duel, -3 Evasion for the rest of the duration (1 more round)

Calanthe vs Celynne

Reducio

Calanthe cast Flipendo at Celynne.
Wisdom DC: 9
Wisdom Check: [d20: 18] + 7 = 25
Accuracy Check: [d20: 11] + 9 – 2 = 18 MaN
Evasion Check: [d20: 4] + 10 = 14
→ Hit
Damage: 100 + 10 × (ArcP – 2) = 100 + 70 = 170 MaN

Mars

Reducio

Mars is dodging.
Evasion: 7 + 5 + 2 = 14 Eva+DodgeBonus

Celynne

Reducio

Celynne cast Reparifors on herself.
Wisdom DC: 11
Wisdom Check: [d20: 7] + 12 = 19
→ Success
Effect: faint delayed by 2 rounds, debuffs reset to -1
Heal: 10 + 5 × (ArcP – 3) = 10 + 5 × 7 = 45 MaN
Health: 430 Flipendo + 45 = 475

Channeling her frustration seemed to have paid off as Miss Walker broke free of her paralysis with what looked to be a quite grumpy expression on her face. Her partner was equally successfully. Miss Choi managed one last hurrah before keeling over – hitting Miss Gray with a Knockback Jinx. She would be safely removed from the duel stage. Miss Gray hit herself with a healing spell a split second after getting jinxed. Mars T'ien was still more intent on evasion then attacking.

One down, three still in the game. Zahid could not help but be curious if this would be the beginning of the end of the duel or if the Gryffindor would manage to pull a 180 on her opponents.

OOC info:

Reducio

- The minimum WC for this duel is 50 words.
-You now have 72h to post your next (reaction) post.
- During these 72h send me (Zahid al-Benghazi ibn Masoud) your (team's) actions per owl. Do not post any action in your post. You can rp your (re)action after every Modpost.
- If you do not post in the alloted 72h, your action is void. (If you require an extension, you can do so in an owl addressed to me before the next modpost. You will be given, at most, twenty-four (24) hours' extension in addition to the original 72.)
- Your spells, stats and abilities are locked for the duration of this duel.
@Katrina Walker
@Calanthe Choi
@Mars T'ien
@Celynne Gray

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Right as the circle of purple sparks showered down on her, taking the nausea down a notch and refilling her rapidly draining reservoir of energy a little, something hit her in the chest, knocking her backwards with a surprised oof. When she'd blinked the shock out of her system, the jinx smarted where it hit, but the bruising feeling that came with it had started to lessen already, partially healed by the lingering effects of her spell. Oh, well, at least she hadn't fallen on her face and missed the effects of the reparifors entirely—she was still quite a while away from giving up, as crappy as she felt.

And Calanthe had fallen unconscious, this time with no prompting from them at all, just the effects of the Curse of the Bogies that Mars had put on them at the beginning of the match. Cel grinned at them through her weariness—as much as they'd been dodging recently, she still wouldn't have been able to win this without them. Though maybe next time they should actually talk before getting on the catwalk.

Katrina was free again. She would've preferred another round to compose herself, but that was all right. After all, they only had one source of danger left to watch out for now. As Calanthe was safely removed from the stage, she took a deep breath, steadying her stance.

-

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Again Mars skidded to a stop without a flash of light following them. Their opponents had caught on to this little game of theirs. Sighing, they spun, just in time to watch Celynne get smacked in the chest by a Flipendo.

"Cel!" they shouted. The Fourth Year stumbled back a bit, but with the purple sparks showering down around her, she didn't seem too worse for wear. They sighed, coming to her side again.

"Careful, careful," they shook their head, "I kinda need you out here, y'know?"

Glancing back at the Gryffindors, an evil sense of satisfaction bloomed in them. Calanthe was finally out. Now they really only had one person to worry about.

"Not to brag, but I think we got this," they said to no one in particular. Spinning their wand out in front of them, they rapped their knuckles against the cherry wood. Better safe than sorry. Better lucky than not. They were in the home stretch now—just had to finish it off.

Round 12 – Ravenclaw wins

Katrina

Reducio

Action voided. Neither sent an action, nor posted.
Effect: Fainted Missed posting for the 2nd time.

Mars vs. Katrina

Reducio

Mars cast Flipendo at Katrina.
Wisdom DC: 9
Wisdom Check: [d20: 17] + 7 = 24
Accuracy Check: [d20: 16] + 8 – 1 = 23 Opponent's Charmer
Evasion Check: [d20: 19] + 8 – 3 = 24 leftover Petrificus Totalus effect
→ Miss

Celynne vs. Katrina

Reducio

Celynne cast Obscuro at Katrina.
Wisdom DC: 10
Wisdom Check: [d20: 2] + 12 = 14
Accuracy Check: [d20: 12] + 10 – 1 = 20 Opponent's Charmer
Evasion Check: [d20: 12] + 8 – 3 = 17 leftover Petrificus Totalus effect
→ Hit
Effect: Blindfolded until end of duel technically.

It had been the beginning of the end. Maybe she was still weakened from her paralysis, maybe she had simply given up upon seeing her partner faint, maybe the stress of the duel had gotten to her, maybe it was the fact that Miss Gray had once again managed to hit her with a spell even if it was a simple Obscuro... For whatever reason, Miss Walker collapsed moments after her partner had done the same. Mars T'ien's spell sailed over her crumbling form.

Seeing the second Gryffindor collapse in such a way, Zahid called for an end of the duel and congratulated the Ravenclaw team on a well earned win. Their strategy had turned out to work quite well. Like her partner before her, Miss Walker would be safely removed from the duel stage to get checked over and healed up, as the case may be.

OOC info:

Reducio

- The minimum WC for this duel is 50 words.
-You now have 72h to write an exit post if you so wish.
@Katrina Walker
@Calanthe Choi
@Mars T'ien
@Celynne Gray

Eligible for Rewards:
To be eligible for rewards, your team must have won the duel and you can't have been disqualified.

@Mars T'ien
@Celynne Gray

Please link to this post in the trunk updates if you are eligible for rewards and wish to claim the +1 stat point from this duel.

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Mars grinned as they raised their wand for real this time, the breathless "Flipendo!" already on their lips. Finally, finally, after all this time they got to—oh.

They watched in half-dismay, half-satisfaction as Katrina fell, already unconscious by the time she hit the floor. Merlin's beard. They sighed, spinning their wand around a finger. What a waste of a good spell. Ah, but!

Not a second later and Mars was grinning, running over to Cel's side. They resisted the urge to pick the Fourth Year up and squeeze her, instead holding their hand up for a high-five. It wasn't the prettiest way to win, but—win they had! They couldn't help the giddy chuckle that sprung to their lips.

"We did it!" they exclaimed, adrenaline rushing through every bone in their body, "Well, you did it mostly, I just stood and ran around and drew fire, but still! We won!"

My gods, my gods. Mars had a feeling they'd remember this moment for the rest of their life. Their first duel and they'd actually won. It'd been just as fun as they'd imagined, ducking under the beams of light, mind whirring as it tried to remember to wand motions, the curl of the incantations. Ah, they were about to get hooked, weren't they? They were about to get hooked to this, breathless and wide-eyed, the feeling of satisfaction emanating through their bones.

Mars looked down at their wand. Lord. They ran a hand over the groves in the cherry wand, memorized each of the cracks and crevices, thanked it in their own special way. Sure, the thing performed wonderfully in classrooms, during Charms and DADA and the occasional History of Magic class, but they'd never felt so—close to it. Weird that they could feel close to a stick of wood, but whatever it was was there. It'd come alive, they reckoned, in the heat of the battle, twirling and flirty against the rush of the atmosphere. It made them crave more, eager to see it in this state again, to push themselves and their wand to the best of their abilities over and over and over.

When was the next match happening?

They laughed, vibrant and excited. Then, they leveled a look at their duelling partner. She'd really done well, hadn't she? Again, there was an instant gratitude that they'd been paired with a Fourth Year, and a talented one at that. Mars grinned, pearly white gleaming. Still, for all they'd been effective...

"Y'know, this was great, but I reckon things might be a bit better if we actually talked beforehand," they quipped. Ah, it felt good rolling off their tongue, probably the last one for a while. Funny how they already missed it, the playful spark in their eyes already dimming slightly.

After nudging Cel for a bit, Mars finally decided it was time to leave. They really needed to hit the showers before the others got there. Humming, they slotted their wand into the holster attached to their belt and flipped the robes back over. With that, they hopped off the piste, footsteps already headed to the West Tower. Absentmindedly, the last thing they thought was: I'm stronger now. I'm nearly there.

Thread Left.
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As her blindfolding charm sailed right on target, she was surprised to see that Katrina hadn't moved to take it off—another waste of the spell, unfortunately, but she knew it was a gamble from the start. Actually—actually, she hadn't moved at all, not to dodge or to cast... she'd slumped to the floor unconscious. Well, that was unexpected, but it was their first duel, after all, maybe it'd all been a little too much, especially after her partner had fainted.

Shrugging at the same time as she sneezed, which made for quite an ungraceful combination, Cel lowered her wand, flipping it up into her sleeve—she really needed to get a holster sometime. Nausea still swam around in her head and her ribs still smarted from the knockback jinx that she'd been hit with, but all in all she felt... pretty good, actually, and proud of herself. They'd gone up against two very good duellists, after all. Normally she'd greet them after the match for the sake of good sportsmanship, but, uh... well, looking at the figures currently being removed from the stage, that didn't seem to be an option at the moment.

She almost forgot that she had a partner. "Drawing fire is still important," she placated with a smile. "And you did hit a couple of times. They were both very good." Really, she was glad she'd gotten matched with them—while they didn't have the most power behind their blows or as much experience as she did, they seemed to work together remarkably well, dodging when they needed to and taking into acccount her own actions.

They'd probably do better if they planned, though. She wasn't in the habit of writing out everything she did in fifteen-minute time slots, but she liked to at least have a general direction that she planned to go in. Oh, well, she'd gotten caught up reading yesterday, and it would be a while before their next tournament—that was plenty of time to get things together. "We do have a few weeks, at least. That should be ample," she agreed. "I do wonder who we'll be up against next tournament."

After all, she'd been willingly dragged out of the library for this, and she had to admit that it had been fun. It was an extra chance at practicing on the field, anyway, and if she was going to do this, she was going to do it well.

Another wave of nausea reminded her that she still had a curse on her. Adjusting her robes from their disarray, she turned and made her way off the stage, heading for a Pepperup Potion—that mucus ad nauseam was no joke.

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