40 End

The match finally ended at noon, with Slytherin House emerging as the victor.

The course of their victory was rather unbelievable as well.

After Gryffindor and Hufflepuff joined forces to take down Ravenclaw's commander, Ravenclaw's elimination meant that only three House teams remained in the Hogwarts Honor Tournament.

Gryffindor and Hufflepuff seemed determined to join forces and eliminate Slytherin House, because among the four Houses, Slytherin was by far the most hated.

This House did not have particularly good relations with any of the other three, so Sherlock ordered the vanguard scouting squad to retreat for now. At the same time, he instructed Kirk, their strategist, to gather as many Strategist Cards as possible while carefully avoiding the combined Hufflepuff and Gryffindor forces.

Kirk was given only thirty minutes to collect them. Once those thirty minutes were up, regardless of how many Strategist Cards he had found, he was to return immediately to the Slytherin commander for the final battle against Hufflepuff and Gryffindor.

Sherlock was on the Slytherin side as well. He had not expected that, in his first time playing the Mofilo game, he—Mofilo's planner and creator—would play worse than two groups of rookies who had never played before, and even be forced into such a dangerous situation by them.

"Mr. Sherlock, I only found seven Strategist Cards: one with a one-minute damage immunity effect, one group concealment effect, one obstruction effect, 'No Passage,' two healing effects, and an ambush scatter-arrow card with relatively high offensive power."

Sherlock sighed. With these seven Strategist Cards, they might still have a chance at holding their own against the other two teams. But those teams might also have collected a large number of Strategist Cards, and Sherlock could not guarantee anything.

Just as Sherlock was preparing to retreat to the Slytherin House common room, something unexpected happened. Earlier, Dandeni had set a trap with a slowing effect in one of Hogwarts Castle's grand corridors. The trap caught the Hufflepuff team walking in front: five vanguards, two doctors, one archer, and one thief.

Seeing the entire Hufflepuff team caught in the trap and moving sluggishly, the Gryffindor team immediately attacked. The slowing trap lasted for fifteen seconds.

Fifteen seconds was enough for Gryffindor to take out Hufflepuff's five vanguards, two doctors, one archer, and one thief. Gryffindor happened to have an archer as well, and killing Hufflepuff's thief was effortless.

When Hufflepuff's commander saw the vanguard team advancing alongside Gryffindor being picked off one by one by their allies, the magical marks representing the Hufflepuff vanguard vanished rapidly from the map one after another.

"Damn it... Rim! You actually dared to stab us in the back!"

"Sorry, Saqila! We want a one-on-one showdown with Slytherin!"

Rim was Gryffindor's commander, while Saqila was Hufflepuff's commander.

Commanders could communicate with any opposing commander through the magical marks. In other words, commanders could use the magical marks to speak to one another.

At first, Sherlock did not know that Hufflepuff and Gryffindor had fallen out. After all, those innocent, kind little badgers had probably trusted their allies too much. Perhaps the Hufflepuffs had never imagined that Gryffindor would one day do something only Slytherin would do.

Meanwhile, all the students in the Great Hall watched everything unfold on the enormous map. The Hufflepuff students had originally been seated right next to the Gryffindor students, and both sides had cheered for their allied teams, hoping to eliminate Slytherin as quickly as possible.

But Gryffindor's actions immediately caused every Hufflepuff badger to regard the Gryffindor lions with hostility.

Ravenclaw simply forgot that their commander had been killed by a Hufflepuff thief and joined in the hostility toward Gryffindor. McGonagall, seated at the professors' table, wore a remarkably colorful expression.

Slytherin's little snakes had put their scheming nature to work, somehow pulling Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw into their camp and having them cheer for the remaining Slytherin team, urging them to quickly defeat Gryffindor. No one had expected it.

Hufflepuff's commander, Saqila, also took the initiative to contact Sherlock and suggested that they join forces to eliminate Gryffindor. After all, Gryffindor's actions had shattered the little badgers' pure, pure, pure little hearts.

"I never expected Gryffindor to do something like this. I deeply regret your grievous losses, Saqila. So, how many people do you have left?"

"I'm the commander. On my side, there's one archer, one strategist, and three vanguards—six people in total!"

"Good! Then we'll send everyone out as well and entangle Gryffindor's vanguard team first. I estimate that once Gryffindor sees all of Slytherin mobilized, they'll definitely fight while retreating. Then Hufflepuff's six people can cut off the vanguard's escape route, and we'll wipe out the remaining Gryffindors in one stroke!"

Saqila agreed that it was indeed a good plan.

Slytherin's full mobilization did indeed catch Gryffindor's vanguard team off guard. After Kirk used a scatter-arrow Strategist Card and several Strategist Cards with support effects, Dandeni, Slytherin's thief, was the first to capitalize on the advantage. The sudden fierce assault kept Gryffindor's archer too busy to look after himself, let alone protect the team's doctor.

The moment the doctor died, the Gryffindor team immediately retreated. After losing half their men, they ran into Hufflepuff, who had come to cut them off. Following Hufflepuff's fearless assault and Slytherin's pincer attack, Gryffindor's vanguard team was wiped out in an instant. Hufflepuff, meanwhile, was left with only its commander and strategist.

"Good! Let's keep going and eliminate the remaining Gryffindors, Young Master Sherlock!"

Saqila said happily, seeing his great vengeance avenged.

Sherlock remained silent. Dandeni's dagger was his response.

Saqila lay paralyzed on the ground, and Hufflepuff became the second team to be eliminated after Ravenclaw.

"I'm sorry, Saqila. But after all, I'm Slytherin," Sherlock said calmly.

Saqila thought miserably, I was such a fool. First I trusted the lions, then I trusted the snakes!

All the Hufflepuff students in the Great Hall whom Slytherin had drawn into their camp no longer knew whether they should cheer for Slytherin or Gryffindor.

As for the little snakes who had sweet-talked them, they slowly returned to their seats and sat down quietly. Such a cunning nature truly was worthy of Slytherin.

The remaining Gryffindors were then defeated by the undefeated Slytherin team without any suspense.

The first Hogwarts Honor Tournament ended with Slytherin House, led by Sherlock, claiming victory.