Duel

Lin Du revealed an almost icy smile.

He slowly drew his wand. The movement was elegant and unhurried, yet it carried an invisible pressure.

"Very well," he said softly, casually pointing his wand toward the open space in the center of the classroom. "I'll give you a chance."

"The eight of you, together."

Lin Du's gaze remained calm. "Three minutes. Any spells, any methods."

He paused, then announced clearly, word by word:

"As long as any one of you, with any spell, can touch me—even if it only grazes the hem of my robe—"

He swept his gaze across the room, looking at the eyes widened in shock.

"I will immediately resign as Hogwarts' Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts and never set foot here again."

A deathly silence descended over the classroom.

Then came the anger that nearly erupted, mixed with disbelief at being so thoroughly underestimated.

"Are you serious?" Anthony Goldstein's voice was full of disbelief.

"I never break my word." Lin Du remained where he stood, the hem of his robes stirring without wind. "Now, start the clock."

The instant his words fell—

"Stupefy!"

"Expelliarmus!"

"Immobilus!"

Spells of every color shot toward the lone figure in the center of the classroom from all directions like a raging storm!

Yet Lin Du did not even move his feet.

He merely tilted his head slightly, and the first Stunning Spell flew past the tips of his hair.

With a flick of his wrist, his wand precisely tapped the red light of the second Disarming Charm, and the spell vanished soundlessly like water breaking against a reef.

Facing the third binding spell, he did not even block it. He simply turned aside, allowing the rope-like magical energy to sweep past him uselessly.

"Too slow," he calmly commented, his voice perfectly audible amid the whistling spells.

The students' expressions changed, and their attacks became even more intense.

At that moment, Lin Du raised his wand for the first time.

"Impedimenta."

An invisible force field instantly unfolded before a Ravenclaw boy. His charge was abruptly halted, and he staggered back several steps as though he had slammed into a transparent wall before falling onto the floor.

"A misjudgment, Mr. Wilson. Rashly closing in when the enemy's capabilities are unknown is foolish."

Immediately afterward, he lightly tapped his wand, and a precise Leg Locker Curse struck a Slytherin girl preparing a complex spell.

Her legs went weak. Her elegant posture vanished entirely as she dropped straight to her knees.

"Your casting windup is too long, Miss Davis. In real combat, your enemy will not wait for you to finish reciting a spell."

He moved as though strolling through a storm, every action precise and elegant.

As he turned aside to evade a Stunning Spell, a silent Levitation Charm from his backhand lifted another student's feet from the ground, sending him down onto the softened floor with a cry of alarm. Lin Du had quietly altered the floor's material before the duel began.

"Loose coordination. Fighting separately," he continued to assess as his wand tapped in rapid succession.

"Protego" deflected a spell, and the rebounding force sent its caster sprawling.

The ropes from "Immobilus" deftly wrapped around a student's ankle, suspending him for half a second before gently setting him down. It was still enough to throw him off balance and send him tumbling.

A Hufflepuff boy tried to launch a sneak attack from behind, but without even turning his head, Lin Du sent him flying with a silent Obstruction Charm. He rolled twice across the floor before stopping. It did not hurt, but it was exceedingly humiliating.

The three minutes passed swiftly amid the shriek of spells and Lin Du's calm commentary.

Fewer and fewer students remained standing in the classroom, while more and more had fallen.

They had been removed from fighting condition in various ways—tripped, leg-locked, bound, levitated—and lay scattered across the floor. Though no one was hurt, every one of them looked disheveled, their faces filled with disbelief and frustration.

When Lin Du calmly announced, "Time's up," the final student still standing—

Anthony Goldstein—had his center of gravity subtly shifted by a clever Gravity Shift Charm. He stumbled over his own feet and finally dropped to the floor unwillingly.

All eight students were down.

In the center of the classroom, Lin Du still stood where he had begun, his breathing steady. There was not even a wrinkle on his dark green robes.

The circle beneath his feet was as clean as ever, standing in stark contrast to the students sprawled across the surrounding floor.

He put away his wand and calmly swept his gaze over the scene of "carnage."

He put away his wand and calmly swept his gaze over faces filled with shock, frustration, and a trace of barely perceptible awe.

"Now," he said, his voice breaking the deathly silence in the classroom, "does anyone still have questions about this course's content and level of difficulty?"

The classroom was utterly silent. Even the proudest Slytherins lowered their heads.

"Good." Lin Du gave a slight nod and flicked his wand. All traces of the battle vanished from the floor in an instant.

"Then take out your copies of Advanced Defensive Theory and turn to Chapter One. Today, we will discuss how to use the environment and basic spells to construct an effective defensive system when facing multiple enemies—something obviously far more practical than certain flashy but ineffective joint assaults."

The students silently opened their textbooks, settling down for the first time to genuinely prepare for the lesson.

After what they had just witnessed, no one dared question the young professor's abilities again—

At least not until they found a way to truly hit him.

After effortlessly crushing the sixth-year advanced class, the seventh-year N.E.W.T. class was unusually quiet.

These soon-to-graduate students had clearly heard the news. They looked at Lin Du with cautious respect.

Lin Du did not make things too difficult for this group—their magical systems had already taken shape, and forcibly remolding them would only be counterproductive.

His method was simple and direct: massive numbers of past exam papers, high-intensity mock tests, and precise guidance on test-taking techniques.

The objective was clear—to enable as many students as possible to achieve outstanding results in their final examinations.

At the same time, he formally announced the "Monthly Exam" plan to all students from third to seventh year.

Unexpectedly, they could barely accept it for now.

Apparently, because Quirrell served as such a negative example, their tolerance for monthly exams had increased considerably, though most of them had not realized what that represented.

By the end of the first week, Lin Du's reputation had unexpectedly turned positive.

And within the sixth-year advanced class, that positive assessment underwent a subtle consolidation—

News that Lin Du was the mysterious wanted criminal "who had defeated several teams of Aurors" somehow quietly spread among the eight top sixth-year students.

"Merlin's beard! Did you hear?" a Slytherin student whispered to his companion. "Professor Lin... before this, he took on several teams of Ministry of Magic Aurors all by himself!"

"No wonder..." Anthony Goldstein of Ravenclaw pushed up his glasses. The frustration and unwillingness on his face had been replaced by belated horror. "We actually dared to question him... and challenge him? It's Merlin's blessing that he didn't turn us into garden gnomes in a fit of rage!"

Thinking back to those despairing three minutes in class, and the ease with which Lin Du had dealt with every attack as though taking a leisurely stroll, everything now had a far more reasonable explanation.

They had challenged not merely a professor, but a ruthless figure who could send official Auror teams back in defeat.

Their earlier "overestimation of themselves" now seemed like dancing on the edge of a cliff.

A lingering fear, mixed with deeper awe, spread through their hearts.

Any lingering thoughts of defiance completely vanished. Some even began to feel that being able to learn under such a powerful person might... have been a bargain for them.

Thus, when Lin Du next entered the sixth-year classroom, what he felt was an almost reverent silence.

Every student sat upright, their eyes holding no more doubt—only awe for absolute strength.

They were now utterly convinced that this professor was more than qualified to teach them. He might even be the most formidable person Hogwarts had managed to hire for this cursed position in many years.