Chapter 37.

  The st event was the spell petition.

  Dumbledore waved his wand at the Book of Merlin once more, and suddenly the Book of Merlin smmed shut with a thud. A faint whispering sound emanated from the book, and a wisp of smoke slowly rose from its cover, eventually transf into a vague-looking middle-aged wizard. What was most striking were his deep, wise eyes, which bore a striking resembo Dumbledore's.

  Soren couldn't help but excim, "Merlin?"

  The man smiled slightly at the six testants. "Heh, I never expected that after all these years, I would have the ce to be summoned again. Six talented young people, tell me, are you the challengers for this trial?"

  What? Challengers? Isn't this a friendly match? When did it turn into a trial?

  Percy quickly replied, "Respected Merlin, greetings. We are students from Hogwarts, currently participating in a friendly petition called the Trial of Merlin. May I ask if you are the final challenge of this petition?"

  The man pondered for a moment, gazing at the professors' table, and exged a brief gh Dumbledore. Dumbledore subtly ined his head, and the man turned back, gently saying, "A school petition? Iing... Young ones, you sider me as Merlin; I am a fragment of his memory, sealed within the Book of Merlin, quietly waiting for the challeo arrive. You are correct; I am ihe final hurdle of your... how should I put it, this petition. You must duel with me. Of course, you do not o defeat me; you only o successfully take the wand from my hands. You approadividually ht together, using any means necessary."

  After speaking, the man's hand waved lightly, and a small dry branch flew from a distanding in his hand. Under his gaze, the branch rapidly transformed into a wand at a visible speed. Then, the man lightly tapped himself with the wand, and his body slowly materialised from a shadow. The testants could see lifelike skin and hair appearing on him.

  Merlin's appearance could not be called handsome, but he had an indescribable aura, with eyes as deep as the starry sky and facial features that seemed chiseled, giving a sense of profound wisdom.

  Cassius and Gemma exged nods and stepped forward to challenge. Cassius was not weak in dueling; his quick spell-casting teique was very profit, capable of casting three spells simultaneously while ensuring curved and blind spot attacks. Gemma jured fe, menag snakes from thin air, attag Merlin from all four dires.

  juration is an advanced branch of Transfiguration that create something from nothing through magical power, transf magito physical form. It is a plex aremely difficult form of magiterestingly, for unknown reasons, the bird juration spell "Avis" and the snake juration spell are exceptions, as they are much easier to perform, allowing some excellent lower-year students to cast them.

  Although Gemma's juration was not of high difficulty, it was stable in effect, with the jured creatures being mile and sting longer. Additionally, juring fe s once demonstrated her exceptional Transfiguration skills.

  Merlin was simultaneously attacked by fe snakes and three spells but did not appear flustered. He pointed his wand to the ground and lightly tapped it; the entire ground seemed to tremble slightly, and an invisible wave of air radiated outward from Merlin in ripples. The force of the air wave was astonishing, and even the audience seated dozens of feet away could faintly feel the wind on their faces.

  The fe snakes jured by Gemma were overturned by the air wave, turning into smoke and vanishing; Cassius, being closer to Merlin, was blown up by the gust and fell hard.

  Cassius and Gemma tried several more times but ultimately had to cede defeat.

  , the couple Perd Penelope stepped forward in perfeison to challenge.

  Perherited the magical legacy of the Weasley family and the magical talent in his bloodline, possessing keen bat abilities—every member of the Weasley family is a born warrior, as evidenced by Bill and Charlie joining the Order of the Phoenix shortly after graduation.

  Penelope es from Ravend hails from a Muggle family. Although she is smart and diligent iudies, her magic leans more towards schorly research rather than practical bat.

  Percy first used the Transfiguratioo jure a eagle, intending to swoop down from above to snatch Merlin's wand, or at least create a distraeanwhile, Penelope tinuously murmured spells, frequently casting charms to alter the terrain. A sturdy and thick stone wall rose up in front of them, clearly to guard against Merlin's airwave shockwave attack.

  Merlin waved his wand lightly and shot out a spell that accurately hit the eagle summoned by Percy. However, he did not expect this to be a trap set by Percy. Ohe eagle was struck by the curse, it would automatically activate its subsequent transformation spell, produg an explosion-like sound and transf into a swarm of small birds that chirped as they desded from the sky, surrounding Merlin.

  Merlin smirked and softly said, "Not a bad idea..." He suddenly swung his wand downward and drew a circle, the movements flowing seamlessly without any gaps. A circur blue wall of fire ignited around him, seemingly with a sciousness of its own, skillfully targeting the flock of birds to devour them.

  Soren reized this move—Protego Diabolica, one of Grindelwald's signature teiques from the Fantastic Beasts movies!

  While everyone was still amazed by the visually stunning fmes, a barely perceptible red light shot through the fire wall from a hidden er towards the wand in Merlin's hand. It was a silent spell cast by Percy!

  This sneak attack caught Merlin off guard. He had just unleashed a powerful spell, and his wand was still straining to trol the magical fmes. Before the fmes stabilised, Merlin could not interrupt the spell he was casting.

  However, as a battle wizard from the Dark Ages, Merlin's bat reflexes were not parable to those of wizards from peaceful times. He raised his wand-holding right hand, and without knowing what trick he had performed, the wand suddenly seemed to e alive, deftly shaking in his hand as if dang. When the disarming spell hit the wand, Merlin was knocked back five steps by the powerful recoil, but he still held onto the wand tightly, not letting it be taken away!

  Most people weren't able to notiything unusual, but Soren's magical eye clearly saw the magical fluctuations flowing around the wand. It seemed to be a disarming spell that could be cast in a very short time. Although it couldn't pletely e the power of the ining disarming spell—Merlin was indeed knocked back—it was enough to ensure he wouldn't lose his wand.

  Having lost the initiative to defend against Percy's sneak attack, Merlin found himself in a situation where Penelope seized the opportunity to tinuously cast disarming spells.

  Although Penelope's total magical power had reached the level of a senior student, her magical characteristics leaowards the delicate and agile, so she did not excel in spell power. However, under her graceful movements, her long wand danced skillfully up and down at her nimble fiips, creating ripples with eaent. The e between spells was fwless; often, just as she finished casting one spell, the wand was already in motion to cast the .

  In this of attacks, Merlin found himself in a passive position, forced to defend with the shield Charm while uo terattack.

  Meanwhile, Percy's big move was ready.

  The ground trembled violently, and the grass where Merlin stood transformed inte hand made of mud, reag from behind to grab him. Merlin was still busy fending off Penelope's attacks and had no time to dodge, ultimately being tightly ensnared by the muddy hand. Just then, Penelope aimed at Merlin's wand to cast her final disarming spell. Merlin, immobilised by the rge hand, could not evade, and victory seemed within reach.

  Unfortunately, Perd Penelope fot about wandless spell-casting; as a renowned duelist, Merlin clearly uood how to cast without a wand. Just as the disarming spell approached Merlin, a silver-white light shone, and the shield Charm he cast without a wand successfully intercepted the disarming spell. The muddy hand that held Merlin also began to crad slowly disie into the ground.

  Perd Penelope felt the little magic power left in their bodies and decisively chose to give up. Although they did not succeed in seizing the wand, the audieill gave them warm appuse for their outstanding performance, and the judges at the professor's table also cast appreciative g the two.

  pared to the previous performance of Gemma and Cassius, it must be said that this couple, Perd Penelope, were clearly more excellent in both the use of spells and their teamwork.

  To be fair, if Merlin had not relied on his strong magic poowerful wandless casting skills, Perd Penelope would have already achieved victory.

  At this moment, Gemma and Cassius were sulking, their faces filled with jealousy and unwillingness.

  Seeing the two so narrow-minded, Sorely shook his head and walked over to gratute and admire Perd Penelope.

  Percy proudly stated that he was ae of the Weasley family and kindly advised Soren to study hard, saying that as long as he did well in the OWL exams and became a prefect, he could easily achieve ercy did today. Penelope, oher hand, humbly deed Soren's praise, g that she was merely taking advantage of being in the upper years.

  Soren smiled slightly, but deep down, he a question that puzzled him: how did this pair of trasting personalities end up together?

  The remaining testants were Cedrid Soren. Cedric suggested that they team up, but after careful sideration, Soren decided to politely dee. After all, they were strao each other and had no rapport, and Soren's magicluded many rge-area attacks that could easily harm a teammate. He felt that fighting alone would be more advantageous.

  Having watched Perd Penelope's performance, Soren realised that for young wizards still studying at Hogwarts, it was impossible to disarm Merlin and seize his wand. Merlin's proposition that "seizing the wand means victory" was a misleading goal, and Perd Penelope had made that mistake by stantly aiming for the wand in Merlin's hand. In Soren's view, to seize Merlin's wand, one must first defeat him!

  The lessons learned from Perd Penelope provided Soren with good references, and he also realised that the powerful and wandless-caster Merlin could not be defeated through physical restraints; defeating Merlin had to be approached from a mental level.

  Soren sorted out his tacti his mind, calcuted the situation of the venue and the distaween both sides, then took a few deep breaths to calm his nervous aed heart before stepping forward to issue a challenge.

  As soon as the duel began, Soren did something that no one expected!

  Soren, like a cheetah, pushed off the ground, and his figure transformed into a blur as he rushed towards Merlin, seemingly intending to take him down and snatch the wand in close bat!

  Soren's physical advantage from his regur training was now evident, creating a rushing wind as he ran. In Merlin's surprised gaze, he had already entered within three feet of Merlin. Unhurried, Merlin pointed his wand to the ground, and an invisible wave of force surged towards Soren, but the prepared Soren pointed his wand at himself, and to everyone's astonishment, he actually flew up!

  ****

  Want to read more of this fanfid support me :- Patreon [I've uploaded few character's photos there, you check them out if you like.]