Strength and Willfulness

No one thought Ye Ting had a chance. His defeat seemed inevitable.

But the moment they collided, Roger finally understood why Ye Ting had dared to confront him head-on.

Roger's left shoulder slammed into Ye Ting's left shoulder.

The collision of flesh and blood, amplified by their speed, actually produced a muffled bang—

Then Roger felt an irresistible force surge into him through his shoulder, smashing him and his broom away.

Pain engulfed him in an instant.

Stars swam before his eyes, and his body felt as though it were falling apart.

He could no longer hold onto the ball. The Quaffle was sent flying far away by the collision as well.

At that moment, he felt as if he had not crashed into a freshman smaller than himself, but into a towering wall.

He remembered the scenes at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, when foolish Muggles, after seeing wizards pass through the wall into the platform, had curiously tried to imitate them, only to slam hard into the wall.

At the time, he had thought those Muggles both stupid and laughable.

But now, he felt that he was no different from them.

He began to feel fortunate that he had turned sideways and avoided a direct collision.

If he had truly taken that hit head-on, he might have been knocked straight off his broom. That would have been utterly humiliating.

Being sent flying was already the best possible outcome.

It took all his willpower to stabilize his broom and avoid an even worse accident.

But by then, the Quaffle had long since fallen into the hands of Ye Ting, who had won the clash.

In other words, this round ended in the failure of Roger's attack.

Only after quite a while did the referee, still dumbfounded, announce the score.

The spectators had already erupted into an uproar.

To Ye Ting himself, the outcome of the head-on clash was only natural, but to the onlookers, it was entirely unexpected.

Including the girls supporting Ye Ting, no one could believe their eyes.

Who could have believed that seemingly frail Ye Ting had sent the much larger Roger flying, while remaining completely unharmed, as though his opponent had not exerted any force at all?

Could there be a dragon hidden beneath that exquisite cloak?

The girls immediately burst into even louder cheers. Their male idol had been hiding such an advantage—he was actually this strong.

Some of the older girls, in particular, simply could not get enough of Ye Ting like this.

Hermione and Penelope hugged each other as well, though it was impossible to tell whether they were happier over Ye Ting's victory or his being unharmed.

Among the Ravenclaw players, it was no longer true that everyone had fallen silent because of Roger's defeat.

Ravenclaw's Quidditch team had always been a team dominated by girls.

When Roger lost the first time, they had held back out of consideration for their relationship with him and did not dare show too much excitement. But after Ye Ting defeated their captain again, all the female players could no longer contain themselves. Together with Cho Chang, they loudly cheered for Ye Ting.

Their genius, their male idol, really was incredibly strong.

After the second round, no one believed Roger had victory in the bag anymore.

As a newcomer, Ye Ting not only possessed outstanding flying talent, but his physical qualities were also remarkable.

In the eyes of the Ravenclaw players, with his physique, he was already capable of going up against Slytherin's Flint on the pitch and would not be suppressed by Flint's foul tactics.

That meant that, against such a genius, Roger's only remaining advantages were his Quidditch skills and the experience he had gained from playing for several more years.

As far as the deciding factors went, the two sides were now evenly matched. If Ye Ting could make full use of his advantages, he still had a chance to claim the final victory.

Even the boys put aside their jealousy of Ye Ting and began cheering for him of their own accord.

When two people were close in ability, the one behind would envy the one ahead. But when the gap became great enough, all that remained was admiration.

That was simply how people were.

Although their cheers were still somewhat scattered, it proved that Ye Ting had won their recognition through his performance just now.

At the very least, no one dared sneer that Ye Ting was a pretty boy or a sissy anymore.

Of course, it was also possible that they feared Ye Ting's strength and had no choice but to change their words for fear of receiving a physical warning.

On the pitch, Roger finally recovered from the feeling of having no strength anywhere in his body and gradually regained his ability to move.

He nodded to the referee, indicating that he was fine.

Thus, the next round began.

This time, it was Ye Ting's turn to attack with the ball.

Roger was now thoroughly tense. He stared fixedly at his opponent's movements, not daring to let down his guard in the slightest.

Since his opponent surpassed him in both flying speed and strength, he had to fully display his skill to contend with him.

"Come at me!" he shouted at Ye Ting, while also trying to bolster his own courage.

"You don't stand a chance. I'll show you what real Quidditch skill looks like!"

This time, Ye Ting said nothing. He truly did not want to trade trash talk with Roger anymore, because he knew Roger was about to slap his own face again—even in a contest of skill, Roger might not be able to beat him.

After all, Ye Ting could perform stunt-flying maneuvers. With those moves, he could offset Roger's flying skills, and combined with the football and basketball techniques he knew, they might not be unusable in Quidditch.

Moreover, the techniques he had developed through his own analysis were things Roger had never heard of or seen before. Roger's experience would be utterly useless.

That meant his disadvantage in Quidditch skill and experience was no longer much of a problem.

So this time, he decided not to use his superhuman strength or speed, but to defeat Roger through skill.

Defeating him in the area where he excelled most—that was just how willful he was.