Evans vs. Flores PV Closed

He had a new "chaperone" of the duel, Mr. Yornikovych. It was supposed to be a pleasant change from Rosier, but it only heightened his nerves, hearing that the giant of a Professor would be observing his every move with his nose tipped to the sky and his pupils reaching down towards the boy. He was facing what should have been the Beauty of it all, but his duty today was to have the boy recognize that the beauty was in dueling.

God, he got sidetracked and caught up in the image. In front of him stood a relatively small dark-haired girl, familiar from the trophy room. "Hey," he said with an equally small wave. Even his voice sounded small. "Sorry if I hurt you during this. Best of luck?"

Looking back to Sergei's impatient eyes, he shuddered a little and decided to cast his first spell, clutching the wood tight.

"Rictusempra!"

ACTION: Defensive Stance - Cast Rictusempra.

Cel's heartbeat sped. She could feel its movement in her chest. Thump. Thump. Thump. With each beat, the click of her shoes against the floor of the Dueling Club sounded: the heel of the left foot, the toe of the same, the heel of the right foot, the toe of the same. Focus, Cel, she told herself firmly, abandoning her counting of steps to race anxiously through all the spells she knew she had a chance at attempting, admittedly not very many. Oh, gods. What if I end up losing and embarrassing myself in front of this professor and everyone else too and--

Her nervous hurricane of doubt, apprehension, and regret froze for a moment, the eye of the storm, just enough to pick up her opponent's words. This was... yes, she had seen this boy before-- Anatole or whatever, from the Trophy Room. Something about competition...?

Thinking of the word charged her: more adrenaline than before ran through her, the rapid storm of thought only sped, and the fingers on her wand tightened, but her consciousness relaxed and the blizzard wreaking havoc in her mind concentrated on a goal. Ah, the heat of competition. Cel nodded, still friendly-- why should competitiveness make her a blackguard like so many others?-- and murmured, just loud enough to be heard, "And the same to you too, Anatole." 

She shifted under the boring gaze of the Transfiguration professor-- not so much as disliking her, she presumed, but not like Professor Wright either. The girl blinked, the torrent of thoughts slowing as it concentrated on the more useful spells she might use. Mucus Ad Nauseum. Incendio. Periculu-- never mind, useless. Rictusempra. Flipendo.



She could hear Professor Scheinberg's voice in her mind, as clear as the light of day-- admittedly not clear, as there weren't any windows near-- perhaps the candlelight instead? "The knockback jinx is a grade two spell, allowing the caster to - well, knock people or objects back. This can be targeted, which is common among most grade two spells." Yes, it seemed to be... fitting for now.

The girl could see evidence of Anatole's nerves, from his less than obstreperous wave to his quiescent voice. All the better, Cel told herself decidedly. But play it safe for now... don't be a termagant, a brute. As soon as she saw Anatole's want twitch, she raised her wand as well, moving its tip in the checkered shape of the wand gesture.

"Flipendo!" Cel vocalized. Not obnoxiously loud, not inaudibly quiet. She had positioned herself fairly defensively, not wanting to be too passive nor too aggressive. If Anatole wished to be on the defensive, she would match his desire, if only to even the odds.

Action: Defensive Stance- Cast Flipendo

A few minutes prior to the start of the matches, Serena had silently walked in and greeted the Professor with a nod of her head and a smile towards him. She could feel the nerves in her stomach, making her feel a little nauseous. She had moderated a few duels on her own, already but this time, it was different. This time, she was not alone. Her task today was to help assist with the moderation. In a way it made it better to have a Professor around, just in case something went horrendously wrong. She had definitely been scared a student would end up starting a fire to the whole room and there would be nothing she could do to stop it. All she could do in that situation was scream, a lot. Having a Professor would be a lot safer. They could handle the situation with ease. 

However, this Professor was not just any Professor. It was Sergei Yornikovych, the stern man who taught a subject that she was terrible at. He had asked her to assist but she was definitely sure he would regret his decision very soon. The smart stern Professor with the babbling moron. Oof. She stood a few metres away from Sergei, trying not to behave like an utter idiot in front of him. He really did not need to know how bad she was at Transfiguration and staying off his radar was something she would much rather do. Besides, he was the Head of the wisest house, apparently. They were on completely different ends here. 

Nervously standing there, Serena observed next two students, Anatole and Celynne, according to the names being called out, come to the stage. She recognised the Gryffindor instantly but couldn't recall seeing the Ravenclaw girl before. It would be interesting to see them duel, that was for sure. She watched as the two began their duel...

MODERATOR NOTE:
To help speed up the duels, I'll be assisting Sergei in the moderation of this duel. For ease, both Serena and Sergei are watching the duel and we will take turns moderating the rounds.

I'm just posting this now because, if you want to edit your posts and change your action or stance with any new spells or anything then now is your chance to do so. I'll try to roll the results for this on Sunday, so you have until then if you plan to make any changes.

Serena observed both of the students immediately jump into defensive stances. They were smart. It made them harder to hit in this stance, reducing their opponent's accuracy. They had increased their chance of survival and of making it to the next round. It was a good tactic, they would be able to continue this duel for a little longer it seemed.

Anatole apologised in advanced, on the off chance he hurt Celynne. But he did not need to. His spell fired directly at her but her stance made it easy for her to dodge the incoming attack. Unfortunately, he could not say the same about her attack. Whilst distracted, it hit him square in the chest. Anatole felt the sudden flipendo hit him. The strong impact of the spell made him fall backwards. The Gryffindor boy found himself sitting on the floor, feeling a bit winded from the attack. Serena flinched a little as she watched him get flipped over. It looked painful but he appeared to be stronger than he looked. It took a lot of stamina out of him but he was still strong enough to continue. Celynne remained standing at full strength.

Nodding, Serena remained silent and watched the duel continue...

ROUND ONE RESULTS:
Anatole misses Celynne. Celynne successfully hits Anatole with flipendo.
Anatole is hit for 220 Damage and is now down to 480 HP.
Celynne remains at full health, 400 HP. 

Wrote this reply at 2 AM, don't judge if it's bad. Oh, so this is why Anatole might lose the duel!
It was like Anatole had always imagined but was never prepared for; it was like a joust of two knights or magical fencing between two (hopefully) trained students. Just standing paces away from Celynne, Anatole had noticed what all Adam's hype was finally about. With a simple nod to acknowledge his opponent's well-wishes, Anatole cast his first spell.

His confidence had soared once he gripped his wand, reciting the incantation and pointing the wood to where he thought the girl was. There was a rush in his chest when he cast it, watching it fly towards her, but eventually flying off and fizzling down beside her. His instantaneous reaction was the subtle frown of defeat. He huffed, losing confidence for a split second -- and letting his guard down in the process -- before it hit him.

No, not an idea. A spell. Her spell. A frenzied shout echoed from her direction, and before Anatole could anticipate any reaction, he was whipped off his feet and suddenly on the ground with a grunt as small as the boy was. It hurt like heck and he lost the wind out of him, but he opened his eyes to realize he was alive. Thank whatever forces that be.

"I'm...okay..." The Gryffindor remarked with a wheeze, pushing himself back up to his feet. His back hurt a little from the sudden collapse, but he wasn't in enough pain to surrender...just yet.

His mind raced through what he knew. All those painstaking hours in class couldn't be in vain, could they? There had to be something, but in a final moment, he remembered an old adage. Fight fire with fire. Yes, certainly she hadn't even used Incendio yet, but no one said that the pain she had caused him couldn't equate to that phrase? Finally regaining his breath, Anatole placed his non-dominant hand in front of him, envisioning it was stuck in a Devil's Snare. He squinted, keeping his focus on Celynne in front of him. Taking a risk, he whipped his hand away at the last moment before casting the spell. "Incendio!"

Hopefully, it didn't hurt her too bad. Celynne was a nice girl.

A breath she didn't realize she had been holding whooshed out of her lungs in relief as she leaned quickly to the side, the Tickling Charm missing wide, and she returned to her original stance, watching in nervous triumph as her spell hit Anatole flat in the chest, knocking him over and onto his back. Oh, dear-- the Tickling Spell. Good thing she wasn't hit by that, deodamnatus-- cursing in Latin now, are you? she wondered to herself, the meaning of the word being a mild damn it-- for physical pain she could endure, but tickling... Cel shuddered. No way.

But now was no time to relax with a victory dance, not that she would ever dance at all; the thought terrified her. Thoughts running much too fast in her head, as they did on adrenaline/sugar rush, she could not read them all at once quickly enough to decide. Tempus fugit, time flees, not flies, as it was often mistranslated. Growing more frantic for a spell to decide on, she sucked in a breath to hear her opponent's shouted, aggressive choice of spell with a spike of anxiousness and whipped her arm out in front of her instinctively.

On a visceral whim, she repeated the same motion as before, the same incantation as before. "Flipendo," Cel articulated again, thoughts racing to get ahold of what she was doing. She was casting the Knockback Jinx again, she was on Defensive stance again-- and a moment later her mind pondered why her body had responded in this way, deducing it to be a not-so-stupid move after all, though she rarely trusted her gut. After all, it was clear that Anatole was on the aggressive-- had she made him mad, perhaps, or upset in some way?-- and this would work to her advantage... but what if she should have cast a defensive Smokescreen Spell instead...?

But, of course, it was too late to change anything. Automatically she saved the thought in her mind for later, idly wondering how so many thoughts could happen in one mind in such a small duration of time as she waited, nervousness filling her, for the result of the billowing fire that might surely come blasting out of his wand. Maybe it was a bad thing to make others upset, but this was a competition, one that she wanted to win, and after all, having an upset opponent might give her an advantage... just might.

Action: Defensive Stance- Cast Flipendo

Serena hesitated for a moment as she watched the students assume the next stance and position themselves to continue the duel. Anatole looked a little winded, which concerned her. But he quickly reassured her that he was fine and launched into a much more aggressive attack than earlier. He went for it, this time, with less of an apology. Not only did he take an aggressive stance, he used a very offensive spell. The Gryffindor was serious about winning it seemed. His whole demeanour had changed from defensive to offensive. At the other end of the stage, Celynne took the exact opposite approach. Neither her stance nor spell changed. If it worked before, why couldn't it work again? That was her logic and this time, the logic paid off. If something is something well, why would you bother to change it?

Serena watched as Anatole got hit off his feet again, backflipping in the air. The impact on the ground looked more painful than it had before. It would definitely hurt more. But the boy was stronger than he looked too. Despite the attacks, he still looked strong enough to continue. The exhaustion had yet to get to him. His revenge was given in a form of an aggressive incendio. Celynne took her first round of damage as the fireball hit her. It would sting, for sure. It would hurt, there was no doubt about that. She wouldn't be able to take another hit like that again... Unfortunately, her non-wand arm sleeve was caught on fire too. She would have to put it out if she did not want to stay lit.

RESULTS OF ROUND TWO:
Anatole is hit, taking 264 damage and is down to 216 hp.
Celynne is hit, taking 258 damage and is down to 142 hp. [A sleeve is also on fire]
Duel continues...

Moderator Post

Apparently both of the players could no longer continue. Both Anatole Evans and Celynne Flores seemed to have taken a hit far larger than they could handle. Neither of them chose to attack, neither chose to continue the duel. Or perhaps rather, neither were capable of duelling. Sighing, Serena shrugged as she watched the fire die down. "Alright, let's end it here." She called out, ending the practice duel. No winner was declared, the duel ended in a draw it seemed. "Rest up, take it easy and perhaps we can try this again another time." Serena concluded, encouraging them to tend to their wounds and take a break for now.

With that, Serena watched them leave the room and turned to the next participants.