Insurmountable Odds Closed

Had Ming asked for volunteers when informing them of the standoff against a fifth-year duellist he'd arranged, Liana wouldn't have stepped up. Not because she feared getting knocked out or otherwise hurt - after all, that was exactly what duelling entailed, and that part of it she was ready for. What she was not ready for was her spell exploding in her face twice in a row, or multiple attacks missing a single target that wasn't even experienced in magical combat. She didn't want any more failure - it had taken her the better part of November to get out of the morose state that had captured her, and she was still avoiding contact with her peers because it felt like a single conversation would immediately drain the low reserves of energy she maintained nowadays. Therefore, she managed to stay out of any such competitions for over a month. But Ming didn't ask who want to take on Delilah Stewart - he merely told them where to be at what time. Withdrawing from this contest would have taken more effort than the redhead was willing to expend at that moment. And so she was standing here now, her spirits already low before anything even started, looking at everyone gathered and feeling strangely disassociated.

She wasn't going to fool herself and think that the strongest duellists from among the first-year Slytherins were selected for the challenge. No, more like Ming decided three people were needed, and merely picked the last three to remain standing in King of the Hill, which was a lazy way to make decisions because one of those people was Liana. And she clearly didn't deserve the third place, one only needed to look at how many spells she missed or failed in a single event. Well, at least she could serve as cannon fodder while the other two did the fighting. That is, if she didn't blow herself up the moment they were allowed to cast, which seemed rather likely given her performance history.

Action: As strategized.

@Liana Kerr | @Avery Chen | @Maggie Hawkins

[font=times new roman]This certainly was going to be fun. She had been approached by Ming, a young student who she had met at the beginning of the year. She couldn't tell if his proposal was meant to be his test for duelling in general, or specifically a test for her. Or was it even a challenge for the first years she was about to face? She had no idea, she hadn't asked questions at the time, although she was curious, maybe she would ask him later, but she couldn't during the duel, this was going to require all of the attention she could possibly bring... like exam sitting level focus.

“You all know why we’re here. Do try to keep this clean and professional. I’d rather not get into trouble with the professors.”

Delilah nodded, "Don't worry, should be fine." She tried to reassure the first year as she walked onto the stage, facing her were 3 first years, actually all shorter than her for once. It was mildly embarrassing to Delilah to almost always be the shortest person in the room even if nobody else even questioned it. Her biggest insecurity, although right now, she felt pretty great, not necessarily confident, but great in herself.

Generally, she thought this duel would go pretty well, even if she didn't win, she would just have fun and learn. After all, someday she may have to defend herself from an actual threat of more than 2, and she may be alone.
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@Liana Kerr | @Delilah Stewart | @Avery Chen

Since Maggie's first experience with dueling, she'd honestly anticipated it being her last. The King of the Hill event for Hui Ming's Wargames had just been a favor, a way to support a friend who wanted to try and help his friends out in learning the mechanics of dueling while also exercising his administration prowess. But he still wanted his friends to be prepared, or something, a sense of moral purpose that Ming felt necessary to implement. Or maybe he'd gathered the best duelists among his friends, the final three in his Wargames, and decided that putting them up against an upperclassman would be simply hilarious. Funny to watch the little kids struggle to hold off the big kids, you know?

That was something Maggie would probably never know. Whether or not this duel was out of a sense of honest, genuine concern, or it was just a way to see how badly you could watch your friends get beat up.

Maggie's main concern right now wasn't that; it was Liana Kerr, her fellow duelist. Since her loss in the last game, Liana just hadn't been right. For most of November and a good chunk of December, Liana had been silent. Absolutely nothing from her, not a peep, and nothing that indicated good mental health. Maybe she truly had cared about the games, about winning, and her loss came as a great disappointment and failure on her part. A bit of Maggie felt bad about it. Did she have a right to do better than Liana, who had come with the sole intention of actually winning? Was that something Maggie should feel bad about? Or was it something that couldn't be helped?

No matter. With luck, the duel would go better for Liana this time and encourage her to speak up, to start talking again. To get rid of the rain cloud that hung over her head everywhere she walked.

Delilah Stewart stood before them, the three first-years, and Maggie offered her a little grin as she raised her wand. "Lovely meeting you. Shame it had to be under such crappy circumstances, though."

ACTION: doing as strategized

ABILITY: Calming Presence
ALLIES: Liana Kerr & Avery Chen

━━━━ ROUND 1 ━━━━

━━━━ SUMMARY ━━━━

Ming suppressed the ghost of a smile at Avery’s reaction to his opening statement. It was, very obviously, meant to needle the generally jovial boy who had pulled off a rather devious scheme in his last duel appearance. With mild amusement, Ming stepped off the stage as the duel commenced with a volley of spells from the first years. The reaction from the senior Ravenclaw was unexpected. Instead of attempting to dodge out of the way or cast back, Delilah dug her feet in and cast a spell Ming had never seen before.

She made no attempt to move out of the way of the incoming spells, and the reason was made obvious in but a moment. Instead of impacting her, Avery’s jinx dissipated and Liana’s blindfold dropped to the ground.

Ming narrowed his eyes, trying to understand the mechanics of the senior’s spell. Was that a disabling spell? He had not seen the seniors of the Viridian Vipers use this spell in practice. Was it just something that Delilah had invented herself or…?

And then the spell did something unexpected. Instead of dissolving the Green Sparks that were cast at her by Maggie, the spell actually sent them right back!

Ming narrowed his eyes in contemplation. So it was some kind of shielding spell, though he had no idea how it worked or how long it would last.

Well, it appeared that the snakes were not the ones who were up to mischief this time around!

OC Notes:
1/ Remember that this duel follows the duelling system outlined here
2/ deadline for posting actions and owling action to both moderations (in this case me and @Opeila Winters) as well as making a post of 200 words or greater is Saturday, January 1.
3/ If you notice any mistakes or errors, please feel free to owl the moderators

All of their spells were cast with splendid accuracy - it seemed to go like that every time at the beginning of the duel, at least for Liana. The first cast turned out to be extremely successful, the following ones increasingly worse, until her accuracy and wandwork got so bad she may as well just turn the wand on herself and cast a Knockback Jinx straight into her own face. But now, unlike in the other duels she had taken part in, the opposition utilized a defensive spell rather than attacking or trying to dodge. Avery's and her own spells were easily blocked, and Maggie's attack bounced right back at her.

''Are you alright, Maggie? The sparks can be nasty, but you'll be able to see soon enough,'' she assured her ally, having had first-hand experience of being blinded by emerald lights herself. ''This was a Shield Charm, but don't worry, it's too complicated and energy-consuming for her to keep using it forever,'' the young prodigy explained quickly, just in case her teammates were wondering what in Merlin's name had happened. Both of them came from the Muggle world, after all, and had not heard about a lot of spells. Protego was an advanced one, too - if not for her interest in DADA, the redhead might have been confused as well.

Action: As strategized.

@Liana Kerr | @Avery Chen | @Maggie Hawkins

[font=times new roman]She felt like this would happen, the 4th year spell she had casted shocking the younger students with an exception of Liana. When Delilah had first found out about this spell in class she did find it to be quite useful, although never having used it in a duel until now, maybe she would try it sometime soon. Seemed pretty handy. Since this was an unofficial duel, there weren't staff around.

"After the duel I'll help heal you guys don't worry about it. You guys will be fine" She seemed almost rude in her own head saying that to Maggie who had, unfortunately, ended up with green sparks to the face. It didn't seem pleasant, she was just trying to reassure them that they wouldn't end up too badly hurt, after all, duellists do this for real 3 times a year plus practices.

If these 3 planned on becoming duellists, she didn't want to make it easy for them, she wanted them to see the true reality of duelling, it was fun, but sometimes it hurt like a bitch. It was all worth it though to see the faces of her duelling buddies when they all got together and Delilah got to tell them she had won. Even if they didn't win them all, when they did, it was worth it.
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@Liana Kerr | @Delilah Stewart | @Avery Chen

Ugh! Great! A backfired spell. Great start to her second duel ever. Maggie yelped when the green sparks flared up in her own face, affecting her ability to see and sending her reeling. She stumbled back in both surprise and the effects of the spell itself, duel momentarily forgotten. Yikes. Sure, she'd braced herself for someone else's spell to go careening her way, but this? The way that it backfired almost immediately and flipped itself on her head? Not anticipated.

A speedy recovery was required, though. For the sake of the duel and the sake of her friends as a whole. Or whatever. Honestly, Maggie wouldn't mind being taken out early; a nice nap would be really nice right about now. "I'm good, I'm good!" Maggie called out in response to the concerned teammates. Perfectly fine, save for the fact that she couldn't really see at the moment. Green sparks were a nightmare. "A shield spell?"

Huh. A shielding spell? The upperclassman sure was pulling out all the stops to ensure her win, using one that Maggie had no knowledge or understanding of right out the gate. Not that it wasn't a good plan of action; using something to fend them off early on to try and wane their spirits and wear down their energy seemed like a good plan, at least from Maggie's limited viewpoint and understanding.

"Appreciate it," Maggie returned to Delilah's offer. "Won't be necessary, but thanks."

ACTION: doing as strategized

ABILITY: Calming Presence
ALLIES: Liana Kerr & Avery Chen