Dueling? No, This Is Combat!

Professor Flitwick's attack had absolutely no effect on Josh. It could even be said that it did not affect Josh's Void Shield in the slightest.

The Void Shield could block damage, but since Professor Flitwick had held back, it had not even stirred a single ripple. That showed just how weak his attack had been. Of course, Josh understood what he meant—if he could be knocked over so easily, he might as well go back to school and study properly. But if he could block it, that meant he had some ability.

However, the effect Josh produced was a little too shocking!

"H-How is that possible?!"

Professor Flitwick looked somewhat stunned. He had held back, but that did not mean just anyone could casually withstand his magic. Moreover, he could see a faint silver magical energy wrapping around Josh. What was that? Could it be the Magic Shield from novels?

It was not just Flitwick who found it unbelievable. Aside from Dumbledore and the other two, everyone present wore the same expression. What had they just seen? Sectumsempra had been blocked outright, and Josh had remained standing there completely unharmed? And what on earth was that silver thing?

It was no wonder their expressions were so dramatic. This world truly had no such thing as a Magic Shield. The strongest defensive spells were only three—Impedimenta, Expecto Patronum, and Protego—but those spells merely weakened magical attacks. There had never been any claim that they could block a spell completely.

Besides, Sectumsempra was considered one of the strongest offensive spells apart from the three lethal Unforgivable Curses. Snape had invented it during his student days, and after so many years of modifications and improvements, its attack power was basically no weaker than that of the Unforgivable Curses. Even if Professor Flitwick was obviously going easy on him, the result should not have been like this.

"Thank you for your consideration, Professor Flitwick." Josh stood where he was and shrugged. "But I think you should listen to me and go all out. That way, you can truly know what my level is, can't you?"

"What an outstanding young man." Professor Flitwick nodded, acknowledging Josh's words. Then his expression became solemn. He slowly walked up to Josh, raised his wand before him, and bowed in respect.

"..." Josh stared blankly at Professor Flitwick.

Josh knew this was the etiquette of wizard duels in this world. But he thought it was complete nonsense. Instead of wasting time saluting each other, why not just ambush the enemy with a spell and take them down to end the fight? He truly could not understand that mindset.

Of course, Garen had influenced him as well. Although Garen was a noble, he came from the military and had enlisted from a young age, participating in countless battles large and small. In daily life, he might maintain the bearing of a noble around you, but once battle began, you would learn what a true rogue was!

He would stop at nothing—ambushes, deception, even grabbing a handful of sand from the ground and throwing it into your eyes. As he put it, maintaining a noble's bearing on the battlefield was no different from courting death. Josh strongly agreed with that statement and had basically followed Garen's example.

"You know, Professor Flitwick, if this were a real fight and I had fired a spell at you, I think you would already have left this world."

Just as Professor Flitwick was wondering why Josh was not returning the salute, Josh's words stunned him rigid. Launching a sneak attack while someone was bowing in respect? How crude and vicious did one have to be to have such a thought?

"Don't find it strange, Professor. You are here to test whether I am qualified to teach Combat class, so let's do it my way." Josh directly reframed the matter of him voluntarily asking Flitwick to attack him into Flitwick testing his abilities.

"Combat is not some Dueling Club. I do not do that sort of thing. So-called combat means encountering an enemy while you are alone outside. What would you do? Even if your enemy had the courtesy to have a duel-like battle with you, once he lost, do you really think you could still get away?"

Without caring about Flitwick's or the other professors' thoughts, Josh continued, "So Combat class requires you to seize every opportunity. If I had truly launched a surprise attack just now, then as I said, you would already have lost. And if the opponent had used an Unforgivable Curse, you would already be dead."

Professor Flitwick's expression turned somewhat ugly, but he quickly recovered. After all, he was an exceptionally accomplished figure. The magic within him was still fairly abundant, already reaching the Second Tier. Reaching such a level without the aid of meditation showed that he was a genius to begin with.

He immediately understood everything Josh had said, though he still felt there was no need to be so harsh on students. Just as he was about to say something, Dumbledore spoke first.

"Filius, do as Josh says. This is not a peaceful era."

Professor Flitwick nodded helplessly. He immediately put some distance between himself and Josh and cast several defensive spells on himself. Yet he noticed that Josh did not seem to react at all, as though it truly had nothing to do with him, just as he had said.

Naturally, Professor Flitwick would not let that opportunity pass. He immediately cast Sectumsempra, Petrificus Totalus, and Expelliarmus at Josh. He intended to teach this careless—or rather, arrogant—boy a lesson, but the next moment, he felt that perhaps the arrogant one was himself.

Josh still stood in place without making any movements, though his Magic Shield finally rippled slightly. Of course, the Void Shield was not broken, so Josh did not even need to replenish its magic power. In truth, he fully understood that this gap was entirely due to the quality of magic power, just as it had been with Dumbledore before.

"I think this should prove that I have no problem serving as the Combat class instructor, right?"

"Y-Yes, of course."

Professor Flitwick sounded somewhat drained. He had cast three spells in succession, and he knew that he had basically not held back. Yet even under such circumstances, this young man had remained utterly unconcerned, never even moving as he directly blocked all of Flitwick's magic.

Flitwick found it difficult to accept. In fact, it was not just him. Of the nearly ten professors present whom Dumbledore trusted completely, perhaps only Snape and McGonagall could accept this. Was this not simply unbelievable? They even wondered whether the young man possessed some special magical protective equipment that had blocked Professor Flitwick's spells.

"That silver energy constantly protecting you—is it a magical item, or a new spell?" Professor Sprout looked at the Magic Shield around Josh with confusion. After hesitating for a moment, she asked the question everyone present wanted answered.

"You mean my Magic Shield?" Josh glanced at the silver energy surrounding him and asked in return. He did not know Professor Sprout, but he seemed to remember that this witch taught Herbology and was apparently that boy Crouch's Head of House.

"This is a spell, not a magical item. It is merely a way of using magic power," Josh explained casually. He had not used elemental magic at all. Although he had tried to imitate the structure of elemental magic by replacing it with Void element, the results had been extremely poor.

"It is formed by condensing magic power together with Magic elements. It is nothing remarkable."

"That is very difficult to do, child." Professor Flitwick completely disagreed with Josh. "As everyone knows, magic power is difficult to condense completely, and aren't Magic elements something that only exists in novels? I have never seen such a thing."

"That is because your magic power is too diffuse, and its quality is far too low." Josh knew that Dumbledore had not yet told them, but he intended to let these people understand what the quality of magic power truly meant.

Josh pointed his wand, and an arrow-like spell radiating a faint silver glow immediately appeared at its tip. It was Sectumsempra. Josh had long mastered this spell, and his proficiency was high enough that he could cast a Baleful Phantasm within it with almost no consumption.

With a light flick of his wand, the spell shot toward a wooden table nearby. Then, aside from Dumbledore, the other two, and Garen, everyone else was dumbfounded! The silver spell struck the wooden table in an instant, and the entire table immediately shattered into pieces. Those fragments then vanished into the air, leaving only a small hole about a meter deep in the ground.

They were all stunned. Every professor present was stunned! Only one word remained in their minds: shock! They all knew how to use Sectumsempra, but not one of them could unleash the spell so casually to such an extent. Not even its creator, Professor Snape, nor Dumbledore could do it!

They could not help swallowing. Everyone could see that Josh had barely used any magic power to cast that spell. It had seemed as easy to him as drinking water. Yet this spell, so utterly simple for Josh, was a height they could never reach in their entire lives!

Dumbledore naturally took in the professors' expressions, and he found it somewhat amusing. He seemed to see himself from two months ago, equally shocked and fearful. Of course, he was still shocked now, but he was confident that he would be able to reach that level in the future as well.

"Alright, everyone." Dumbledore clapped his hands at the right moment, pulling them back from their shock. He said kindly, "Josh is right. This is the gap in the quality of magic power. Our magic power is too diffuse, and its quality is far too poor. Even mine is the same."

After pausing for a moment, he suddenly smiled. "But now, this problem has been solved. Lord Josh comes from another world. A great noble—yes, you heard correctly, he comes from another world, so he has brought knowledge from elsewhere. These things may be ordinary to them, but to us, they are incomparably important—more important even than our lives!"

"Lord Josh's magic power is immensely powerful. Neither I, nor Voldemort, nor anyone else in this world can compare with him! But because Lord Josh cannot return to his world for the time being, he will remain at Hogwarts for quite some time. This is our honor!"

"Everyone! Let us welcome our guest, our new professor, and our new Deputy Headmaster in the warmest way possible!"