Sivan Rosier vs. Tom Riddle

"Come on, Rozier. I want to see where you are better than me," Riddle said loudly, looking at Xiwen with his bright eyes.

"As you wish." Xiwen chuckled softly. He then gently patted Abraxas's shoulder, indicating that he would no longer be challenged and could relax.

Then, Xiwen slid his wand out of his sleeve, held it in his hand, and slowly walked onto the third-year dueling platform.

Riddle, facing a formidable opponent like Xiwen, dared not be careless in the slightest. He cautiously picked up a bottle of mana-restoring potion from the shelf beside the steps, drank it down in one gulp, and then stepped onto the dueling platform.

"Both of you bow!" Professor Merrythought said, watching the two stand on the stage.

Xiwen and Riddle simultaneously held their wands upright in front of their chests and smoothly swung them diagonally downwards, then pointed them at each other at the same time.

The two wands, which were quite different in shape and color, faced each other like needles.

Xiwen's wand was made of 14-inch straight-grained pine with a rare Unicorn Horn Nerve core. A ring of luxurious sapphires encircled the straight grain of the wand, carved into the shape of a blue enchantress, making it quite beautiful. Riddle's wand, on the other hand, was made of 13 and a half-inch yew with a core made of a tail hair shed by the Fawkes. The wand was as pale as a skeleton, and the handle extended outwards like a joint.

The instant Professor Merrythought called for the start of the match, a red Disarming Charm shot from the tip of Xiwen's wand toward Riddle.

His consistent attack style can be seen as Xiwen's way of showing humility towards his junior, despite being a senior.

As expected, Riddle, like Moody, had anticipated that Xiwen would use Disarming Charm to start the duel. The moment the match began, he immediately fell to the side, barely dodging Xiwen's attack.

Then, as he fell to the ground, he chanted the incantation of the Cloud Mist Spell.

"The Nebulus (Nebulus)."

Suddenly, a thick fog rose up over the dueling platform, temporarily obscuring the view of Xiwen and the audience below.

The students in the Great Hall were very dissatisfied and shouted that the thick fog should be removed.

At this moment, Riddle was completely focused on the duel and didn't notice the shouts from the audience. He then continued chanting the next incantation without stopping—

"Serpensortia (Serpensortia)!"

Hearing Riddle's voice from within the mist, Xiwen nodded approvingly and said, "To have learned the Serpensortia in your second year is truly remarkable."

There was no response from the mist; instead, a hissing sound could be heard.

Xiwen knows that Riddle has started communicating with the summoned snake using Parseltongue.

"Use fog to block my vision, then use the infrared senses of snakes to pinpoint my location?" he pondered. "A good idea, but the prerequisite is maintaining the fog on the stage!"

Then, Xiwen pointed his wand in the direction from which Riddle's voice came and chanted the Hurricane Charm—

"Ventus!"

A sudden gust of wind blew by, instantly dispersing the fog on the stage and clearing the audience's view.

This action lifted the audience's spirits again, and they began to watch the duel between the top two and third-year students with great interest.

Just after the thick fog dissipated, Xiwen suddenly discovered that the summoned giant snake had come to his feet, ready to devour him, its tongue flicking in and out of its mouth.

Xiwen instinctively dodged to the side, avoiding the serpent's fangs, and casually waved his wand, casting a counterspell to the Serpensortia.

"The Vipera Evanesca (Vipera Evanesca)."

Miranda had demonstrated this spell to him before, and Xiwen remembered it very clearly.

The giant serpent vanished in a flash of light following the counter-curse, but the danger was far from over. Another curse from Riddle was about to strike—

"The Deprimo caved in!"

The spell didn't strike Xiwen; instead, it hit the ground beneath his feet.

With a loud "boom," a huge hole was blasted into the dueling platform beneath Xiwen's feet. A moment's carelessness could cause someone to fall through and lose the match.

"That's a clever, unconventional strategy, very good." Xiwen easily anticipated the approach of Riddle's spell before it even hit, leaping lightly into the air as he spoke. "However, this spell is generally more effective when paired with another spell aimed into the air."

As he spoke, Xiwen cast a small Floating Charm on his school robe, which floated lightly in the air for a short time.

At the same time, he quickly used Transformation on the floor beneath his feet, causing the ground to rise and become just high enough to catch Xiwen.

"You see, I only need to jump up to neutralize your attack. This is the consequence of not coordinating with the spell to strike into the air," Xiwen said, looking at Riddle with a smile.

As Riddle listened to Xiwen's explanation, a sense of despair rose within him. He finally understood how Alphard Black had felt when facing him earlier.

The coaching duel might not have mattered much to Alphard, but for the ever-competitive Riddle, it was more like a sign of disrespect, which only fueled his competitive spirit.

"Stupefy!"

He shouted loudly, while simultaneously casting a very powerful Stunning Spell that shot straight towards Xiwen.

Not to be outdone, Xiwen retaliated with another Disarming Charm.

The two spells, one red and one purple, collided violently, creating a stalemate between the two.

Xiwen's relaxed and carefree expression suddenly turned into one of astonishment. He discovered that Riddle's total magical power and quality were in no way weaker than his own before he fused with the Blood Curse, and were even slightly stronger!

Originally, the body that Xiwen came into this world with was that of a young wizard from a Pure-blood family, whose magical talent was already quite good, at least much better than most of his peers.

However, a year ago he did not have nearly as much total magic power or magic quality Riddle!

Just how high was Riddle's talent? Was he comparable to Grindelwald and Dumbledore of the same era?

Fortunately, after Xiwen fused the Blood Curse into his bloodline, his talent for magical growth also increased significantly, and he finally gained the ability to compete with the top geniuses.

Therefore, having grown an extra year, suppressing Riddle's magic in this duel should not be a problem!

Thinking of this, Xiwen's eyes narrowed, and he increased the output of magic power into his wand.

Riddle struggled, trying to squeeze out every last bit of strength from his body to resist, but in the end he could only helplessly watch as the red Disarming Charm pressed down on him inch by inch, until the purple Stunning Spell was completely forced back to the tip of his yew staff, fully touching his wand.

Riddle's wand spun in an arc before being caught by Xiwen, who was standing on high above.

"A wonderful duel, Riddle," Xiwen said to Riddle as he slowly descended from the small hill that had Transformation from the stage.

"Thank you, Rozier," Riddle said softly, taking his wand with a somewhat dazed expression.

Riddle always took winning and losing very seriously, and now he still couldn't quite believe he had lost so easily, even though this duel was meant to be a lesson from Xiwen, and he already knew the vast gap between Xiwen...

Xiwen patted Riddle on the shoulder, stepped off the third-year duel platform that looked somewhat unsightly due to its Transformation, and headed towards the fourth-year section.

Just then, Ignatius came over and put his arm around Xiwen's shoulder.

"Xiwen, for my sake, could you give Lucretia some face during your duel later? Just a close victory would be fine," he whispered to Xiwen. "She's a bit proud and won't be able to accept a crushing defeat to a junior."

Xiwen looked completely bewildered. "You're so confident I can win?"