On the very evening after the Quidditch tryouts concluded, Cedric dragged the newly recruited team members along to begin the Hufflepuff Quidditch team's traditional specialty—hellish boot camp.
Inside the Quidditch training grounds that Grindelwald had custom-built for his son, the veterans and rookies of the Hufflepuff team stood facing each other in two starkly distinct rows.
Unlike the nonchalant veteran players, the new members were absolutely stunned by their team's sheer extravagance.
To expand a single suitcase into a Quidditch training ground spanning dozens of square kilometers required an extraordinarily high level of mastery over the Undetectable Extension Charm. Furthermore, there was such a massive, permanent Weather-Modifying Charm keeping the inside of the suitcase looking so bright and sunny.
Among the new recruits, only Rolf Scamander—who had seen his grandfather's suitcase-turned-magical-menagerie—managed to keep his eyes from widening in shock.
"Even though you all already know me, I still need to make a formal introduction."
Cedric stood with his hands on his hips and a completely serious face, fully exuding the aura of a drill sergeant forged through military training.
"I am the captain of the Hufflepuff team, I play as Seeker, and I am also your future Quidditch coach!"
"I have gathered you all here tonight to train you!"
His voice suddenly spiked by thirty decibels. "We veterans are your best big brothers!"
Cedric's sudden roar startled the rookie players. The reflexes they had developed during prior training kicked in, making them instantly snap to attention and look straight ahead.
"If there is anything you don't understand about Quidditch, you can ask us! We will kindly explain it to you!"
Cedric's gaze slowly swept across the faces of the row of newly promoted players before him. He was quite satisfied with their upright attitude.
"Now, please introduce yourselves." He extended his hand and pointed at a girl standing on the far left of the row. "Starting! From! You!"
The girl who was pointed at blanked out for a moment, then spoke up a bit self-consciously, "I am Susan Bones, a third-year student."
"Can't hear you!" a voice rang out from the team.
Kyle stepped out from the back row of the crowd, heckling, "I can't hear you at all!"
Zacharias, Summerby, and Cadwallader followed Kyle's footsteps like a trio of lackeys, stepping to the front of the line as well.
"Say it again! Start over!"
"You expect to play Quidditch with a whisper like that?!"
Riled up by Kyle's heckling, Susan Bones's competitive blood was stirred. She thrust out her budding chest, took a deep breath, and bellowed with the absolute maximum volume she could muster in her entire life:
"SUSAN BONES! THIRD-YEAR STUDENT!"
"Good! Next!" Cedric was highly satisfied with the rookies' energy and spirit.
This was so much better than the bunch of weaklings from back when he first joined the team. The previous captain had always looked utterly spent from overindulgence, looking as if he would never fully wake up. How good could the teammates he trained possibly be?
"WAYNE HOPKINS!" With Susan as a precedent, Wayne also cranked his volume up as loud as he could. "THIRD-YEAR STUDENT!"
"Good! Very spirited! Next!"
After the brief round of introductions came the trial session that the veterans looked forward to the most—or rather, the veteran players' designated time to flex.
Cedric took the crate handed over by Zacharias and looked up at the many new members. "I assume I don't need to introduce the rules of Quidditch to you again, do I?"
As he spoke, he squatted down and opened the crate, revealing the four balls of varying sizes inside.
"The tryout test you went through on the Quidditch pitch this morning was just the most basic phase."
Unbuckling the leather straps on the Bludgers, Cedric quickly and deftly pinned down the two Bludgers that tried to shoot up into the sky with a whoosh.
"The next phase is to guide you through the various positions in a Quidditch match, which will make targeted training easier later on."
Kyle took one of the Bludgers from Cedric. Hooking his fingers slightly inward, he effortlessly brought the Bludger—which was constantly struggling to break free—under complete control.
"Let's first test whether you have the talent to become a Beater," Kyle said, his free right hand pointing toward a row of targets fifteen meters away.
His heterochromatic eyes narrowed slightly, locking his gaze onto a target much further away.
The distance: three hundred meters.
Wind speed, temperature, air humidity—in the face of absolute power, all of them could be entirely ignored.
Target, locked!
Kyle picked up a Beater's bat. With a wandless cast of Transfiguration, he instantly converted it into a titanium alloy material.
Tossing the Bludger into the air with his left hand, he swung the bat violently with his right hand, smacking it away.
Brute force creates miracles!
A streak of black light shot out in a straight line like a bolt of lightning. The mere shockwave from the displaced air plowed a shallow trench across the flat, green lawn.
Like a cannonball blasting out of a barrel, the black Bludger instantly smashed the target to smithereens. Its momentum undiminished, it crashed violently into the stands behind, effortlessly leaving a tunnel blasted straight through from front to back.
The rookies on the training grounds stood dumbfounded, frozen like wooden statues.
Was this really something a human could accomplish?
"Accio Bludger."
Kyle beckoned with his hand. The furiously speeding Bludger was instantly frozen in mid-air, then rapidly flew backward right into Kyle's demonic clutches.
The corner of the little Dark Lord's mouth curled into an arc. "You don't need to reach this level."
Handing the Bludger back to Cedric, Kyle walked over to the row of targets fifteen meters away from everyone. "You only need to hit these targets."
Rolf Scamander finally snapped back to reality. A glint of excitement shone in his eyes. Just like his restless grandfather, Rolf possessed a heart that was itching to stir up trouble.
He volunteered, raising his hand. "Captain! I want to try!"
Led by the veterans, these newly promoted reserve players took turns experiencing three different positions on the Quidditch team.
Regrettably, none of these players showed the talent to take over the position of an aerial fighter jet.
Power wasn't the issue. As long as they mastered Monstrous Strength, anyone could manage to smash a Bludger hundreds of meters away. The biggest issue was striking accuracy. Without accuracy as a prerequisite, it was utterly impossible to knock every single player on the opposing team off their brooms.
Kyle glanced at Hannah beside him. By now, the little Iron Girl already exuded about forty to fifty percent of Tsunade's style.
Cough. The "style" here didn't refer to size, but rather to Monstrous Strength and medical magic.
"Do you want to try out the Beater position?"
"Eh?" Hannah pointed at herself in surprise, asking a bit cutely, "Me?"
For over two years, Hannah had always served as the team doctor for the Hufflepuff squad, never once stepping onto the pitch. Compared to becoming a force that slaughtered everyone on the field, the relatively mild-mannered Hannah preferred to quietly serve as logistics and support behind the scenes rather than playing herself.
But if it was Kyle's request...
The little Iron Girl nodded vigorously. She took a few steps forward and picked up the metal Beater's bat leaning against the crate.
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