Finished Battle of the Odds Unofficial: Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor

banner by the amazing lucia fox

Alyssea was beginning to enjoy duelling. It worked as a way to practice the spells she had learned in class and let off some steam. Even if there was nobody in the club some days, the training dummies were good enough.

So, for a splendid Monday, just five days before the ball was set to start, Alyssea headed to the Fourth Floor after class. During her First Year, she came to this floor for the Rehearsal Room. Now, it seemed her interests shifted. Alyssea made a note to herself to visit the Rehearsal Room once in a while.

It seemed other students also had the same ideas as her as she caught sight of Raizel and her fellow ball planner, Estelle. Alyssea also found Rodney. She grinned. So, he was taking her advice about using duelling to use spells, huh? No shame in that. It was good to see more people other than duellists up here.

Then, a voice called out to them and Alyssea got onto the piste. A Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff duel? She didn't quite expect to be in a match so quickly, but she was gonna take it. Alyssea waved at Raizel from across the floor then turned to Rodney. "We got this."

action: sent.
sta 6 | eva 7 | str 6 | wis 8 | arc 6 | acc 7
abilities: prodigal transfiguration learner | evasive maneuvers

pings: @Atlas Anderson, @Rodney Hughes, @Raizel Voltrouz, @Estelle Nyx
i wanted to use my duelling banner for the first time; love you lucia if you're reading this

It had become a part of Raizel's daily routine to be in the dueling club during her free time. Sometimes she's just watching others practice, observing them to increase her knowledge about dueling, strategies and spells that she could learn and other times, she is doing her own practice against the training dummies scattered around whether to try out new spells or just when she feels like it. If not, she's just here to clear her mind and being somehow brings calm into her when things get the better of her just like this time.

If there are things that get to this Gryffindor girl that usually has a friendly smile and a playful nature, it'd be her declining performance when it comes to casting spells and dueling. Lately, she isn't satisfied with the results of her practice duels aside from the one with Lea though. That one was fun. The others though, they were bad. Questions were beginning to fill her mind, about what she was doing wrong and why did she even let the bad things get to her.

Raizel had been sitting there on one of the benches with those thoughts circling inside her mind until someone familiar catches her eyes. Alyssea Brown, 2nd Year, Hufflepuff aka Ms. Lucky Heels. While she doesn't know her that well, just seeing someone familiar with positive memories attached to her had somehow lifted Raizel's mood a bit. She recalls Alyssea's first duel and that's something she won't forget that easily. Fun Duel, that one was.

Now this is where the fun starts. Looks like Alyssea was up for some dueling and who is she to decline that offer. They will be joined by other students. A first year Hufflepuff that Raizel doesn't know so this is probably a good time to know him and a fellow Gryffindor who is also a 2nd year, Estelle Nyx. Despite being classmates and in the same house though, Raizel doesn't exactly know her that well. She's not good in remembering names either, especially those that she rarely interact with. Their mod is a Slytherin, First Year and hopefully, more tolerable than her previous Slytherin mod.

Guess she will know more about her now as she is her duel partner in this practice duel and wasn't she also in the dueling team of their house? That made Raizel scratch her head. She needs to work on that memory of her. "Let's have some fun, shall we?" She said to her partner with a smile as she stood there on the opposite side of their opponents, giving Alyssea a wave back before drawing her wand.

⌞WC: 439/200⌝

Action: Will soon be knocking on your window

Dialogue: #03733b

@Atlas Anderson

@Raizel Voltrouz

@Alyssea Brown

@Estelle Nyx

Monday, October the 2nd, 2023

Spending time in the Dueling Room had become something I did more than I thought I would ever since I met Alyssea. In fact, visiting the Dueling Room had become something of a habit for me, with me trying to go there every Tuesday and Thursday, with some more days sprinkled in throughout the week if I felt like it. One of the reasons for why I liked coming here, is because while I had a good memory, and therefore theoretically knew how to cast a number of spells pretty well, when I actually tried to cast those spells, I sucked. Not because I would cause all sorts of bad things to happen like having my arm chopped off, but because I wasn’t used to casting multiple spells in a short period of time. Sure, I could think fast, but casting a spell requires one to do much more than just think, it required one to concentrate.

But that’s what the dueling room was for. It was a place where one could learn to concentrate better, it was a place where one could learn to rapidly fire spells one after another without the spell doing something it wasn’t supposed to, it was a place, where one could perfect the art of spellcasting. I had heard somewhere that “The master has failed more times then the beginner has ever tried”, and as far as I was concerned, that was true. That was one of the main reasons for why I kept coming back here. It didn’t matter how many times I failed, only that I tried, because in the end, I would still be better than someone who hadn’t tried at all.

So now that you have a little bit of background information, it’s time for you to hear the actual story. Remember how I tried visiting the Dueling Room every Tuesday and Thursday with a few days sprinkled in between? Well, today was a Monday and I was in the Dueling Room, so you can figure what that meant. Yeah, I was casting spell after spell (carefully of course) at a few training dummies. I was taking my time since I wasn’t in a real duel, and there was no opponent actively trying to put me in the Hospital Wing for a few hours. But it didn’t take me long to get an opponent, in fact, I got two. Essentially, the would be moderator just started asking around for anyone who wanted to duel, and I was one of the people to respond.

The two people that became my opponents were people I had never met before. The person who was on my team was Alyssea, the person who had gotten me into dueling. I had only known her for two weeks, but I had already dueled her, and now, I had the chance to have her on my team while dueling others. As we both stepped onto the dueling piste, I heard Alyssea tell me “We got this.” “Yup.” I replied. ‘Nope.’ I thought. ‘No, I shouldn’t’ve lied, I should have told Alyssea the truth.’ I thought to myself. The guilt of not doing so was pretty big, especially because I hadn’t exactly done it for any good reason, that I could see. So now I had a tough choice to make, do I tell Alyssea how I really feel, and bring down the team spirit, or do I keep it to myself? I decided that I could always tell Alyssea later instead of being selfish, and perhaps dooming us to certain failure.

date: 2nd October time: at some point... location: duelling club

mentions: Reducio @Atlas Anderson, @Rodney Hughes, @Raizel Voltrouz, @Alyssea Brown

languages english: #490085 spanish: #0b0085 thoughts: italics

★ ☆ ✦ ✩ ✫ ✬ ✭ ✮ ✯

Estelle was nervous. She had never duelled before, even though she was on the team, and hoped she wouldn't mess this up. Still, if she did, at least she would only have let herself and her partner down and not the whole Gryffindor team. She knew the duel was good practice for the duels to come. Duelling had seemed awesome to Es ever since she discovered it - it was one of those things that she had seen in films but was still amazed that it could be done in real life. So when Es was asked if she wanted to join a duel, she immediately said yes. She was not missing this opportunity. Estelle was partnered with a girl called Raizel. She had only seen her around - she'd never talked to her, let alone duelled with her before. Still, she hoped that Raizel would be a strong ally for the match. As Estelle walked into the room, she was humming the Pirates of the Caribbean theme. Obviusly it was the wrong song for the weapon type - she was fighting with a wand, not a sword - but it was perfect for matching Es' excitement and drive to win. She was imagining herself at the stern of a pirate ship, wand pointed at the enemy, ready to attack. Es took her place and bowed with the others. She couldn't wait to start the duel!

★ ☆ ✦ ✩ ✫ ✬ ✭ ✮ ✯

★ ☆ ✦ ✩ ✫ ✬ ✭ ✮ ✯ ✮ ✭ ✬ ✫ ✩ ✦ ☆ ★

Round 1

Alyssea vs Raizel

Reducio

Alyssea casts Rictusempra at Raizel
Wisdom DC: 9
Wisdom Check: [d20 : 1] + 8 = 9
→ Critical failure!
Duration: [d6 : 4]= 4, 2 rounds
50 + 6 × 10 = 110 HP damage, suffers -2 accuracy and -25 HP for two rounds

Rodney vs Raizel

Reducio

Rodney casts Flipendo at Raizel
Wisdom DC: 9
Wisdom Check: [d20 : 15] + 7 = 22
Accuracy Check: [d20 : 11] + 7 = 18
Raizel's Evasion Check: [d20 : 2] + 7 = 9
18 > 9, → Hit,
Raizel takes 100 + 6 × 10 = 160 HP dmg

Estelle

Reducio

Estelle casts Metelojinx
Wisdom DC: 12
Wisdom Check: [d20 : 19] + 7 = 26
Alyssea and Rodney have 10%chance to get hit by lightning until nullified

Raizel vs Rodney

Reducio

Raizel casts Incendio Duo at Rodney
Wisdom DC: 12
Wisdom Check: [d20 : 8] + 8 = 16
Accuracy Check: [d20 : 2] + 8 = 10
Rodney's Evasion: [d20 : 8] + 5 = 13
10 < 13, → Raizel misses

Lightning vs Alyssea and Rodney

Reducio

Note: 10% change to get hit by lightning, success on 19-20

Alyssea
Dice Check: [d20 : 7] = 7, → failed

Rodney
Dice Check: [d20 : 17] = 17, → failed

The Slytherin youngster watched as potential duelists from other houses readied their magic wands and appeared to be ready to engage in duel. Everyone was prepared to demonstrate the potential that the their houses had, and today's duel, like any other, would be the determiner.

The Slytherin kid cheered, "Ayeeeeee!" as multiple charms were chanted and thrown on one another. Both teams appeared to have been really ready to bring their A-game. It was difficult for him to tell who was doing better as he watched and oversaw the match. But, both teams had an equal chance of having a teammate get hit. However, if he were to make a statement about who would have had a better chance, he would name someone like Estelle. The members of the Hufflepuff team came extremely close to being struck by lightning thanks to the girl's potent spell, which unfortunately missed, leading to the Hufflepuff team to survive.

Lucky and unlucky were two word used to describe the Hufflepuff girl who appeared to have been affected by a Rictumsempra charm that went awry and backfired. That spell, a curious one, was deemed to be a minor jinx. As the spell took hold of Alyssea, she began to laugh aloud, and Atlas couldn't help but join in. The concept was not as horrible as he had imagined, and just now, he could need a good laugh more than anything.

But when one of the contestants found herself flipendo'd, Atlas raced over to see how she was doing and found that she appeared to be doing just good. "That was a lovely start," he grinned. "Do your best guys, go hufflepuff, go Gryffindor," he cheered.

Information

1. You have 120 hours (5 days) from the time of this post to post at least 200 words and owl me your actions. [Follow all site and duel rules and regulations]

2. Please don't hint at your move inside of your RP, as it gives the other team an advantage.

3. If you don't post before the deadline, your move will be void.

4. If you have any questions, or notice anything wrong in the moderation post, please don't hesitate to send me an owl me, I am a noob at this XD.

5. Your stats, abilities, and spells have been locked for this duel. Any new abilities added to your trunk after this duel started cannot be used.

6. For your convenience, here are the duelling rules, the duelling spells, and the latest patch. (Note: Most recent patches posted will not apply.)

7. I am completely new to this, I'm learning. However Good Luck!.

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After a few more (unofficial) duels, Alyssea figured out what a decent strategy would be. A simple Rictusempra ought to do the trick. And since Raizel had moderated her first ever duel, she was the most likely to know Alyssea's thought process throughout this duel. Better to impair her first. Alyssea mentally apologized to Raizel.

I'm not wearing heels this time, she reminded herself. However fun duelling in heels may have been, she hoped she would still be as nimble and agile without them.

But it seemed the odds were against her today as light touches graced her belly. Great. She hardly did anything to stifle her laughs as they came out. Alyssea always liked to think her coping mechanism for pain was laughing, so maybe laughing now would help her endure some more later considering there was now a gigantic black cloud overhead. When did that get there? Besides, at least it wasn't the dancing-feet spell. She had just about enough of that one.

Her partner, on the other hand, fared much better than she did being able to hit Raizel. The knockback jinx was always a bit of a hard hitter, one that could knock your air right out of your lungs.

action: sent.
sta 6 | eva 7 | str 6 | wis 8 | arc 6 | acc 7
abilities: prodigal transfiguration learner | evasive maneuvers

pings: @Atlas Anderson, @Rodney Hughes, @Raizel Voltrouz, @Estelle Nyx

date: 2nd October time: at some point... location: duelling club

mentions: Reducio @Atlas Anderson, @Rodney Hughes, @Raizel Voltrouz, @Alyssea Brown

languages english: #490085 spanish: #0b0085 thoughts: italics

★ ☆ ✦ ✩ ✫ ✬ ✭ ✮ ✯

Estelle grinned as the duel began. She always found that acting confident made her feel more confident and this was no exception. She ran through the list of spells she knew in her mind. it would be very fun to cover her opponents in condiments, but she wanted to win the duel and doubted that that would do much, except make her laugh. What other spells could she do? Flipendo may be helpful but it only really did singular damage to one person. She wanted a longer-lasting spell. Both opponents seemed to be targeting her partner and Es felt that she needed to hit both of them rather than focusing on one. It made sense. Finally, as if a light bulb had been lit above her head, Es remembered the perfect spell. Metelojinx. She had only just learnt it, but had been practising it frequently. It was such a fun spell! You could use it to create small clouds, rain and even snow. She still couldn't believe that she could create snow in the summer. Estelle took a deep breath and cast the spell, using her whole arm to swirl her wand. A thundercloud formed, getting bigger and bigger until it was large enough to form bolts of lightning. They nearly struck her opponents but missed. Luckily, the spell was long-lasting and would probably continue for most of the match - unless of course her opponents performed the counter charm. That was the point of the spell. If she had cast an instant spell it would only have lasted one round. Now she was free to cast any spell she liked, safe in the knowledge that her rain cloud was swirling above her, causing chaos.

★ ☆ ✦ ✩ ✫ ✬ ✭ ✮ ✯

★ ☆ ✦ ✩ ✫ ✬ ✭ ✮ ✯ ✮ ✭ ✬ ✫ ✩ ✦ ☆ ★

Wands at the ready!

All the other duellists seem eager to get this duel started, all with their wands drawn and ready to fire whatever spells come into their mind. In that brief second of preparation after the official beginning of the duel was announced, Raizel caught the glimpse of their opponents, wands seemingly aimed at her. Yes, both of them. It's just the first round and she already found herself being focused on. There is only one thing she could say to that though.

"Bring it!" That's right, she'll face them head on. This is gonna be painful if both spells hit but she'll just have to bear it and if those two are focusing on her, then that's gonna give her partner to focus on her own spells in which she did. Estelle had managed to conjure up the storm clouds above the Hufflepuff team which hopefully, would help them in this duel. Raizel made her move during that time as she's not just gonna stand here while she gets targeted.

Perhaps because of how she had a bit of panic when she casted that Incendio Duo with her thinking on how to avoid the spells closing in. Her own spell missed her target and one of the Hufflepuff's spells went zooming in on her. That Knockback Jinx made her gasp and tumble back but lucky, she didn't get knocked off of her feet. She was expecting one more spell to hit her as she doesn't have enough time to react for a second attack but that was when luck struck her and bad luck moved over to the other side. Alyssea's spell backfired which was a relief.

Raizel heard footsteps, making her look over towards their mod who was probably gonna check up on her, showing him a grin to signify that she could still continue. This is just the beginning after all. "Ow." She winced as she stood up straight, changing her stance once more to prepare for the second round. "I'm still in this game!"

⌞WC: 340/200⌝

Action: Look out for the owl that couldn't land

Dialogue: #03733b

@Atlas Anderson

@Raizel Voltrouz

@Alyssea Brown

@Estelle Nyx

Monday, October the 2nd, 2023

I looked over at Alyssea and noticed which girl she was aiming her next spell on, and that’s who I pointed my wand to as well. “Flipendo!” I said. I had practiced this spell a lot over the past few weeks, and while it had never actually backfired on me, I was currently in a situation that put me under pressure, which gave me much less time to think, so the chances of messing a spell up were much greater. This is exactly what happened to Alyssea as her own spell backfired on her. I knew this because just as I cast my spell, I saw out of the corner of my eye how Alyssea cast hers, and it was pretty easy to tell what had happened. Poor girl.

But I couldn’t spend any time worrying about Alyssea, because while I had cast my spell at one of the Gryffindor girls, she cast a spell right back at me. This made sense, targeting the youngest of the flock, and it made me even more sure of the outcome of this duel. What also made sense, was that she used a fire-conjuring spell on me, since those things would hurt pretty badly and would likely get me out of the game faster. But at the same time, I hated fire-conjuring spells with a vengeance. They’d cause one serious burns that would take a while to heal, and those burns hurt.

So now, I wasn’t too fond of this girl. Not that I was going to really do anything about it. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Get revenge by setting her on fire? No, I had already decided that Incendio would only be used as a last resort, when I had no more options left. And as of right now, I had plenty of options. It seemed that the girl had taken a little beating from my Flipendo, but overall, she remained standing. In fact, all she even said was a weak “Ow.”. I was expecting a little bit more, but I was still a first year after all, so it wasn’t surprising that my spell didn’t do the girl than much damage.

But that Incendio (Duo?) was only one of my concerns, because the other Gryffindors girl had cast some big black cloud over us, that shot some bolts of lightning down. Even though one of the bolts came very close to hitting me, luckily, neither me, nor Alyssea got hit. But now I had a chance to be struck by lightning for the next portion of the duel. Of course, the lightning bolts probably didn’t even have close to the amount of energy a normal bolt of lightning had, because otherwise, this spell would’ve been banned from use in dueling, but I could only imagine what it was like getting hit by the lightning from the cloud.

So, what spell to use now? I had quite a few at my disposal and I went through the list as I tried to decide what to choose. Flipendo definitely hit the hardest, but then there was the question of whether or not I wanted to hit my next tatget with the hardest spell? Perhaps I wanted to deal a bit less direct damage but also disable her for a bit. Or maybe I wanted to deal the raw damage of a Flipendo instead. Time was ticking, and the more I thought, the bigger the chance was that I’d mess this up. Oh, and I was probably going to be the sole target for the next round.