2023/24, Stage 2 Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff: Match 7

Round 3

"There's a triple threat from House Hufflepuff as drama overtakes the field from within their own team!" Piérre's voice boomed again with a spin of delight, as three knockback jinxes flew across the stage. Perhaps it was enough to scare something into Beatrice's cast, as when she came to sling the item, it spiralled off from its intended target and instead popped high overhead of Axyen. The only way that any of team Hufflepuff could have dreamt of being hit by such a wayward spell was if they had felt the need to jump!

"Spells are fickle things, aren't they?!" Crowed Piérre, extending a hand to the audience in acknowledgement and baring a bright smile of mischief as he encouraged their cries and catcalls. "It seems that every round we've had at least one oopsie! Let's have someone in the back there keeping count, shall we?!" He pointed at a random student, who nearly fell out of their seat in surprise and then quickly fumbled for a quill and paper. "Thank you for your service, my fine friend!" He offered a two-finger salute in their direction.

Meanwhile it had seemed that the once shellshocked Cassian had suddenly found his stride, as while he did take a blow from the healing Hufflepuff, he seemed to twist just out of the way of Axyen's spearhead, and dance his way around Clark's, which would have likely been a cause of impaired pain if the goblin hadn't been dancing still. Not long after the attempted strike, though, the boy would find himself able to regain control of his limbs. The curse of dancing until you dropped had finally ended, it seemed.

"Two gone and one connect. Pop goes the weasel, one, two, three!" A flipendo from Cassian flew past in a rebuke. "Four! OHHH! AND WHAT A CLEAN HIT!" As the powerful, almost hissing with magic, knockback jinx struck true and likely sent Axyen spinning. "The dragon's been sent scrambling again! Let's hope he catches his tail, he has a horde and a pride to protect!"

Meanwhile, Zach would find himself digging deep and reciting some muscle mantras--to a success as he would fight through the binding nature of the body-bind curse and slowly get to his knees, and then to his feet, wand still petrified in hand. He was slow, and quite sluggish... but he was now standing. "What a battle! The petrified one stands again! He's gonna feel marbled for a little while yet, though, methinks!"

He spun to the audience again. "Come on now! Cheer with me! Hu-ffle-puff! Ra-ven-claw! Hu-ffle-puff! Ra-ven-claw! Yeahhhh! That's it! Let's get excited! WAHOO!" He spun back to the stage. "You all better not be ready to throw in the towel yet! We haven't even hit half-time!"

Information

1. You have 96 hours from this post's timestamp to owl your moves to me (Piérre Marchonné) 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 will try to moderate early if all actions and posts are in before the deadline. If you do not wish for me to do this, please owl me.
5. Your stats, abilities, and spells are considered locked for this duel. If any are added to your trunk since 25th January, 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!

Thanks to Lucia Fox!

Everything was going to be fine if Axyen gave it his all, that was what Axyen believed roughly a few seconds ago. Cassian's Flipendo made sure that Axyen was out of that mindset. "Flipendo!" Axyen said, doing the needed wand movements to cast the spell. He missed his intended target, which was bad. Up above was that spell again, luckily Axyen wasn't hit by it. A Flipendo was sent back in Axyen's direction and sadly for Axyen, he was hit. Axyen had to get up, he couldn't fail Hufflepuff. He wasn't going to give up, he simply could not.

The question was what was he supposed to even do in this situation? He would have to think fast if he planned on continuing to duel. Everything felt so intense, perhaps even too much for some people. Maybe even too much for Axyen, but he had to get through it, no matter what he would see this duel through the end. The moderator said something relating to Axyen and pride. 'I can't be under that kind of pressure, not now!' Axyen thought to himself. From what Axyen saw, he was the only one that got injured, so he simply just had to keep hoping that his teammates would at least do good and Axyen would focus on trying to do good himself.

Information

• Action: Doing as planned.
• Abilities:Prodigal Defense Against the Dark Arts Learner | Beast Master
• Stats: Inside signature.
• Wand:
  • Cherry Wood
  • Phoenix feather

banner by the amazing lucia fox

As it turned out, someone heard Alyssea's prayers and listened. Another Cracker Jinx came and everyone on the team knew what to do this time. Still, Axyen took a hit which didn't look pretty. Considering the odds which they walked in with, it went more or less how Alyssea expected. How long could they keep this up?

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

mentions: @Axyen Dragonclaw, @Clark Baird

The boy finally stopped dancing, finally happy to regain the control over his own body. He decided he would cast a spell against the opposing Ravenclaw, the one with short brown hair and gray(?) eyes. He needed to ensure that action was done, and with that he would hurl a Flipendo his way...


Only for him to dodge it. Speaking of dodging, he heard the incantation of the cracker jinx and attempted to fling himself out of the way so he wouldn't be caught with it. Man, his team was dropping like flies.

Action: As strategized
Abilities/Race: Part Goblin Y1, Prodigal DADA
Stats: Sta 7 | Eva 10 | Str 0 | Wis 7 | Arc 6 | Acc 8
Wand: [not wandmaker] Walnut Wood | Phoenix Feather

The Hufflepuff girl responded to Cassian’s hit from before, casting her own powerful Knockback Jinx right back at him. Cassian stubbled backwards, staggering a bit. He supposed he deserved that. More instinct than anything, Cassian felt more danger awaiting him. A powerful spell from the Dragon Kid came whizzing his way and Cassian barely had time to dodge it. Two attacks on him? He figured he couldn’t complain, no one had targeted him thus far into the duel. But before Cassian could process anything else, a third Knockback Jinx flew towards him, from the Goblin Kid. Cassian couldn’t catch a break. Miraculously, he was able to dodge the third attack. Honestly, Cassian was the newest and youngest member of the Ravenclaw dueling team. And this was his first ever duel! Well, nothing like jumping in headfirst.
Feeling the energy of all the Knockback Jinxes cast, Cassian decided to cast another of his own. He put all he could into the spell, including the current pain he was still feeling from the hit from the cute girl.
“Flipendo!” he cried for the second time in this duel. The powerful jinx was thrown out of Cassian’s wand and it almost seemed to hiss with magic. With satisfaction Cassian watched it connect cleanly with the Dragon Kid and he heard the commentary from the moderator.
Glancing from side to side, Cassian watched Bea compose herself and he saw Zach break free from his Body-Bind. Good for him. Now with Ravenclaw’s three duelists back, they were prepared for anything.

Action: as strategized
Abilities: Prodigal DADA Learner
Stats: Stamina: 6 | Evasion: 8 | Strength: 3 | Wisdom: 4 | Arcane Power: 10 | Accuracy: 9

Mentioning/Interacting with: @Beatrice Langstreth,@Zach Zaphiere, @Pierre Marchonne, @Alyssea Brown, @Axyen Dragonclaw, & @Clark Baird

This cool banner was made by Pericles Dralt

Zach was struggling to break free from the spell. He wiggled his body, up and down, right and left, until eventually he succeeded in breaking free. "Haha! I'm free," he said. The boy jumped up from his position. Well, he wasn't actually free. There was a defect that he had to deal with after trying so hard - his body felt wiggly. But what could he do?

Action: as strategized
Trunk

Round 4

He liked it when teams that were down never felt as if they were out. Indeed, all that was needed for a good advancement was simply a good streak of luck.

Or, as it would seem in this case, a very very incredible fluke of bad luck. While Alyssea sent a softening spell towards the marblesque Zach--which he did quite impressively avoid while throwing back a Flipendo jinx at Alyssea, which she also avoided--Beatrice seemed to be having the time of her life. Er... well... maybe not the time of her life, but certainly a time in her life.

The cracker jinx once again was invoked, and Piérre watched with great curiosity as the larger and more grandiose movements needed to encourage a more powerful iteration of the spells were performed fluidly and with rather impressive control... but something went terribly wrong as the spell suddenly 'escaped' from its casting binds and instead of spraying outwards towards the Hufflepuff team instead snapped, whizzed, and banged loudly and violently red all over the Ravenclaw stage. Beatrice herself got the worst of it, prone to the main blast's full power and blindsiding her with the brilliance of the best that the firecrackers had to offer; but Zach also was hit with a bit of the extra stuff that flew off wildly from the eldest Ravenclaw girl's wand, something that compounded not very nicely with the already infuriating effects of the petrification curse that he was still recovering from.

Piérre nodded back at the kid in the back taking tally. "Add another one to the count! This is the second catastrophic spell failure of the duel! One and one for both sides, it seems like either nerves are getting to them or they're realizing that neither side is going to back down without a proper brawl!"

Cassian fired off another powerful knockback jinx--a spell that was quickly seeming to become a staple of his--towards Axyen, but just as it seemed that either party would succeed in hitting or missing, there was instead a lighter contact as the spell whizzed merrily on to strike a wall. A clip it was on Axyen, enough to throw his shoulder out for a second, but nowhere near as bad as it could have been! "Another clip! A pacing like this and our dragon may no longer be with us!" Piérre bit his lip nervously. Alas, that was the part about duels that he hated most. If there was anything he could do to avoid such a thing, he would have done it... but...

"OH DEAR!" Piérre cried out as a Mucus ad Nauseum and a Steleus struck Beatrice just as she was trying to recover from her own spell's plight. They seemed to strike at the same time, and indeed no sooner had they made contact that an itching in her throat would begin, which would then transform into a more intense pressure in her sinuses and a slight creaking in her lungs as a wet cough would rise to the surface. This would in turn trigger a powerful and unexpected tickle in the back of her throat that would transform into a powerful and uncontainable sneeze--a sneeze that would produce magically induced thick yellow mucus to fly from her nose and coat her lips and spatter the ground. Thick and viscous, and in Muggle circles would have indicated a particularly bad sinus infection due to its nature and color, bubbles would form with every breath she took and would begin to make proper annunciation and complete incantation without a sneeze interrupting every few seconds near impossible to achieve.

Oh that headache... it was enough to split the skull with how painful it was. The feeling of lethargy would wash over and would beg for the girl to take even so much as a moment's respite from the awful sneezing and mucus that was all that could be noticed. "Mucus ad Nauseum. A personal least-favorite of mine in terms of effect!" Piérre rallied up the crowd again as noises of disgust washed around. "Combined with Steleus at that! A shame that the Bat Bogey Hex isn't taught until fifth year! What a menacing thought that would be; snotty bats flying everywhere, hahaha!"

Information

1. You have 96 hours from this post's timestamp to owl your moves to me (Piérre Marchonné) 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 will try to moderate early if all actions and posts are in before the deadline. If you do not wish for me to do this, please owl me.
5. Your stats, abilities, and spells are considered locked for this duel. If any are added to your trunk since 25th January, 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!

banner by the amazing lucia fox

At this point, all Alyssea could do was hope and pray she could survive until the end. It was a miracle she didn't drop dead just now. Hearing Nec Divinos Crepitus was starting to get on her nerves. Luckily, the thing didn't blow up in their faces again. Spongify wasn't something she used often, evident by the fact it missed, but at least Clark and Axyen had better luck with their own spells.

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

mentions: @Axyen Dragonclaw, @Clark Baird

Thanks to Lucia Fox!

Axyen was nervous, everything was now happening in a flash. He tried to dodge out of the way of an incoming Flipendo, but it hit his shoulder. That definitely hurt, but that didn't mean he was out of the match yet. Axyen needed to do his best and continue dueling, even if it did kind of hurt. Axyen needed to focus if he wanted to his target, in this case it was Beatrice. Mucus ad Nauseum!" Axyen said, doing the required wand movements and then sending it towards the Ravenclaw. The spell and Clark's spell managed to hit her, and the effects were not pretty at all, but Axyen had to keep his head in the game.

Every single action counted. Axyen also didn't want to fail his team, so he had to block out whatever that moderator was saying. Axyen just needed to think, everything was like a massive risk to him. How he moved all of a sudden mattered more than ever, even how much he looked around to make sure his teammates were still with him felt like too big of a risk. Axyen just needed to help his teammates defeat these people, he would try his best to not be useless.

Information

• Action: Doing as planned.
• Abilities:Prodigal Defense Against the Dark Arts Learner | Beast Master
• Stats: Inside signature.
• Wand:
  • Cherry Wood
  • Phoenix feather