Testing Strength on the Dueling Platform

"Ambition?" Xiwen's eyes flickered as he looked at Dumbledore. "I think I need to test whether I have the ability to control those ambitions."

Dumbledore chuckled and asked, "So how will you test whether I have enough strength?"

"I'm here to test my strength, Miranda." Standing on the seventh-grade dueling platform, Xiwen smiled at Miranda.

Before they knew it, a month had passed and it was November 30th, the second monthly challenge match between higher-level Dueling Class.

This time, Xiwen didn't stop at challenging Charlus Potter, who was ranked first on the sixth-year leaderboard. Instead, he overcame all obstacles and went straight to the seventh-year dueling arena, where he challenged Miranda was ranked first on the seventh-year leaderboard.

His duel with Charlus Potter this time did not seem difficult. In fact, driven by the Maledictus Blood Curse deep within his bloodline, the magic power within Xiwen was constantly increasing and refining. Almost everyone could clearly feel that he was much more composed in this duel than he had last month.

Potter, who was originally on par with him, no longer had the initial advantage he had in the duel last month. He was on the defensive almost from beginning to end and finally admitted defeat to Xiwen.

After all the grades except seventh grade had been defeated by this third-year wizard, all eyes in the Great Hall were on the seventh-grade dueling stage.

Miranda smiled slightly, stood up from her seventh-grade seat, and gracefully walked towards the dueling platform.

"You seem to have been looking forward to this day for quite a while?" she asked, a smirk playing on her lips.

"Yes, I've been preparing for almost a month to test my true strength in this duel," Xiwen said with a smile. "So don't let your guard down today, Miranda!"

Miranda casually tied her silver-gray hair, which was draped over her shoulders, into a ponytail, then pulled out her wand from her pocket and stood facing Xiwen on either side of the dueling platform.

"Don't worry, we may be familiar with each other, but when it comes to a duel, I won't hold back!" Her face radiated confidence.

At Professor Merrythought's command, the two bowed to each other and then simultaneously raised their wands.

After counting down to three, Miranda immediately used the Accumulation Charm and the Stacking Casting to simultaneously cast two different spells on Xiwen.

Xiwen didn't care about the two spells, which were somewhat weak due to being cast hastily. A layer of blue-purple snake scales appeared on his left palm, and he immediately swept the two spells away with his bare hands.

At the same time, he waved his wand, turning the entire dueling arena into a swamp, thus restricting Miranda's movement.

A pair of pure white wings suddenly unfurled from behind Xiwen, propelling him into the air, completely unaffected by the swamp.

Miranda pointed her wand diagonally, using Untransfiguration to keep the area around her unaffected by the Transformation, then looked up at the Stunning Spell that Xiwen had cast from above.

"Avis (Avis)."

Miranda extended her wand, summoning a Legion of flapping birds. These birds flew towards Xiwen's Stunning Spell like moths to a flame, until the pale purple Disarming Charm had exhausted all its magic.

Just after using the Avis to break the Stunning Spell on Xiwen, Miranda suddenly turned around instinctively and immediately used a Shield Charm to shield herself.

The moment she cast the Shield Charm, a silent Stunning Spell struck from behind, slamming into the transparent shield that Miranda had just cast.

Xiwen's figure suddenly appeared in another direction in the air above the Great Hall.

"When did you learn Nonverbal Casting?" Miranda raised an eyebrow, looking at Xiwen who was floating in the air, and asked curiously. "And I didn't see you use it in the previous duel. Did you hide it for so long just to sneak up on me with this trick?"

"Too bad, you blocked it, didn't you?" Xiwen shrugged, saying helplessly. "As expected, the number one duelist at Hogwarts isn't so easily ambushed."

"Of course," Miranda said with a smile. "Use whatever other tricks you have up your sleeve, or you're doomed to lose!"

"Then you'd better watch carefully," Xiwen said with a smile as well.

At the same time, his form rapidly changed, transforming from a little wizard with wings on his back into a snake with wings on its back and blue-purple scales.

Having broken free from the limitations of his human body, Xiwen's flight speed became extremely fast and agile, easily dodging Miranda's many spells and flying straight towards her.

"Impedimenta!"

Seeing that the spell was not easily effective against Xiwen's Animagus Transformation, Miranda immediately changed her strategy, shouting the incantation for the Obstacle Charm, creating a huge obstacle in front of herself.

While flying in the air, Xiwen immediately felt strong resistance in front of Miranda and had no choice but to revert to human form and land on the ground.

However, the instant he landed on the ground, a powerful Disarming Charm suddenly struck him head-on!

Unable to dodge in time, Xiwen was unintentionally struck by the Disarming Charm, and his wand flew out of his hand, heading towards Miranda.

Miranda looked at Xiwen's wand soaring into the air, a slight smile playing on her lips, and said, "Xiwen, you're still a bit too young. Given more time, you might actually surpass me!"

However, even Professor Merrythought thought that Xiwen had no chance of winning and was about to announce the final result of the match when Xiwen suddenly moved.

He reached out to the wand that was flying through the air and, using the basics of Kamar-Taj's Telekinesis, pulled his wand back before anyone could react, making it look as if he had used a silent and wandless Summoning Charm.

"What is this?" Miranda's expression froze for a moment.

Surprised as she was, she didn't slow down at all. Instinctively, she raised her wand and cast another Disarming Charm forward.

At the same time, Xiwen received his wand and pointed it at Miranda—

"Lightenio!"

A beam of blue and yellow lightning suddenly collided with the red Disarming Charm fired from Miranda's wand, and the two spells remained locked in a stalemate, constantly scattering countless magical sparks of different colors.

This intertwined blue and yellow lightning bolt is a spell that Xiwen has successfully fused together over the past month. The blue lightning comes from the thunder in the Weather Charm, while the yellow lightning comes from the Borsat's Lightning in Kamar-Taj. The two lightning bolts intertwine, bringing a large amount of lightning energy, which can also cause great destruction.

Moreover, under Xiwen's control, the lightning could dissipate at any time, retaining only its weakest paralyzing effect. Therefore, it could even be used in everyday sparring.

While the two different colored spells were locked in a stalemate, Xiwen and Miranda were not idle either.

Miranda, without her wand in her left hand, pulled a small pebble from her pocket—something she usually used for practicing spells—and comically tossed it at Xiwen's head, seemingly trying to disrupt the spell Xiwen was controlling.

Xiwen chuckled and turned his head to the side, dodging Miranda's physical attack.

The next moment, another pebble hit Xiwen hard on the forehead.

Xiwen: "..."