The Dueling Club's "Iconic Scene" (6)

Following the direction of his finger, the tallest stakes in that wooden wall had already reached the lowest beam of the Great Hall's vaulted ceiling. They had not merely brushed against it—they had rammed into it solidly.

Stone dust sifted down from the beam's surface, only to be caught by the Great Hall's magical array and suspended in midair like a shower of gray snow.

Carved into the enormous beam running through the entire vault were reinforcement runes laid down jointly by the Four Founders a thousand years ago—at that moment, those runes were flashing desperately, trying to resist the pressure from below.

But the wooden stakes paid them no heed. They simply continued growing upward, slowly and irresistibly.

As if alive, after piercing halfway through the vault, the stakes seemed to sense the sharp curse before Madara. A portion of them instantly crossed, layered, and intertwined, forming an incomparably thick wooden barrier covered in ancient, profound patterns!

The barrier appeared with flawless timing! It stood directly in the path of Sectumsempra!

Sss—!

The invisible Sectumsempra, carrying terrifying cutting force, slashed fiercely into the dark-brown wooden barrier!

There were no flying wood chips as expected! No roaring explosion of energy!

That killing curse, powerful enough to rip apart dragon hide, vanished into the thick wooden barrier like a clay ox sinking into the sea, instantly absorbed!

The intricate patterns on the barrier's surface glowed faintly for an instant and squirmed like living things, completely dissolving that incomparably sharp cutting force! It left behind only a faint white mark, so shallow it was almost negligible—and even that mark was vanishing at a visible rate!

The entire Great Hall fell into unprecedented silence! Other than the faint sounds of cracking coming from around the hall, one could have heard a pin drop!