'...Forget it. I can't be bothered to argue over this anymore.'
Avada shook his head hard, throwing all those messy thoughts out of his mind. He could, after all, just cast an Imperius Curse to take control of that dragon directly, then publicly crack the arena magic responsible for making the pillars rise and retract, order the dragon to breathe on the charging pillars five times in a row, and finally finish it off with a single Fiendfyre.
The whole process would take less than ten seconds.
And it would guarantee a perfect score, with no point deductions anywhere.
But other than earning three extra points and instantly making Barty Jr. and the other pure-blood conspirators still lurking in the shadows raise his threat level to the same tier as Dumbledore—thereby drawing a huge amount of completely unnecessary fire onto himself—what use would that actually serve?
At the end of the day, his enemies in this tournament had always been the pure-blood families, not the other two champions. In fact, to some degree, they were even his allies.
Of course, the championship still had to be won.
That concerned the reputation of both of his camps—Hogwarts and Leach University.
Especially Leach University. If his guess about Grindelwald's scheme was right, then Grindelwald was almost certainly planning to ride the wave of attention from the Triwizard Tournament, pull his original body into the university ahead of schedule, and then, the moment he won the championship, make a high-profile appearance and achieve a huge publicity effect in one stroke.
And if that was really the plan, then if Avada dared intentionally not to win, who knew what kind of "special tutoring" the former Dark Lord would arrange for him afterward?
So Avada simply stopped thinking about whether someone had rigged the match and focused on watching Krum's performance instead...
"Mr. Krum truly is a professional Quidditch player! He can dodge dragonfire as easily as he would dodge a Bludger on the pitch, and his movements are full of clear intent—he's trying his best to wear down the dragon's stamina and create an advantage for himself in the second stage!"
The Ludo Bagman played by Barty Jr. was still passionately commentating from the stands.
"And his style of attack is clearly much more aggressive than the previous two champions! I've already seen no fewer than five spells that are close to Dark Magic—or have already crossed the threshold into it! But let me clarify something here: Durmstrang does not encourage students to cast Dark Magic freely. However, Mr. Krum is facing the largest dragon in the world, after all, so naturally he must bring out every bit of skill he has..."
"Another fragile pillar—but this time Mr. Krum isn't shattering it himself. On the contrary, he's trying to lure the dragon over. Did that previous Confringo consume too much of his strength, making him decide to conserve energy from here on?"
In the arena, after Krum fired off several clearly provocative spells in succession, the dragon finally lost patience and kicked off with all four limbs, charging furiously toward the direction Krum had maneuvered himself into.
And yet, facing a dragon thundering straight toward him, Krum's expression did not change in the slightest. He even showed a faint smug smile.
Then, after watching the distance between them shrink to a certain point, he flicked his wand and sent a Confringo crashing neatly into...
...the fragile pillar beside him.
Boom!
The powerful spell instantly shattered the section it struck, while the entire upper half of the pillar collapsed with a crash.
And under Krum's deliberate control, the direction the pillar fell was exactly where the dragon was about to charge through!
Bang!
"ROAR!!"
The dull impact of the pillar striking the dragon's back and the dragon's furious howl rang out almost simultaneously.
"...What a pity."
Krum, who had already taken shelter behind a Shield Charm, let out a quiet sigh.
What he had originally wanted to test was whether he could use the collapsing pillar to strike the dragon's head or neck.
For a thick-skinned Ukrainian Ironbelly, getting hit on the back by something weighing over ten tons was not, in itself, particularly serious damage.
But the head and neck were a different matter.
If that blow had achieved the effect Krum wanted, then not only would the pressure he faced in the second stage be greatly reduced, it would also ensure that this dragon would never dare approach any pillar again during the rest of the match.
And if that happened, then no charging pillar would ever be destroyed.
Obviously, Krum still did not know that charging pillars could potentially rise directly beneath the dragon's backside.
'...So this is Krum's real fighting style.'
From the stands, Avada nodded inwardly.
By watching the previous two fights, he had already more or less grasped Fleur's and Krum's battle styles.
If Fleur's style was one of using her powerful and comprehensive bloodline gifts to openly overwhelm the enemy head-on, then Krum's style, by comparison, could be summed up in one word—
Insidious.
Within what looked like a steady, measured way of fighting, every single step was actually a trap laid for his enemy, drawing them unknowingly into his rhythm. It stood in striking contrast to his own rough, burly appearance.
And clearly, he also possessed extremely fast reactions and long-term tactical planning. Almost everything he was doing right now was in preparation for the second stage—whether it was trying every possible way to weaken the dragon, stockpile items, or, like Avada, guide the dragon's mentality in order to conserve his own energy...
"I'll try it again later and see if I can hit the dragon's head directly."
Krum quickly replayed in his mind the dragon's charging speed and the timing with which he had blown apart the pillar, and within moments found a way to refine the tactic. The thinking sharpened on the Quidditch pitch let him formulate battle plans with great speed.
Then, before leaving, he glanced at the broken fragile pillar again, planning to pick up the item hidden inside it while he was at it...
And then he froze—
Together with everyone outside the arena.
"...What am I looking at?!"
It was only after several seconds that Bagman's roaring voice jolted everyone back to their senses.
"Merlin's beard! Mr. Krum has pulled a flying broomstick out of the pillar!!"
"There is only one flying broomstick among the dozens of pillars buried under the arena! And of all people, it's the single most suitable item for Mr. Krum! This is unbelievable! He actually got his hands on that broomstick!!"
'...'
Avada remained petrified for a bit longer than everyone else.
In the end, he took in a deep lungful of freezing air before gradually calming himself down.
At this point, he could say with certainty:
This match was absolutely rigged.
And the purpose... perhaps it wasn't to stop him from winning.
But it was definitely to screw with his mentality.
Could this be Barty Jr. deliberately messing with him in advance??
(End of Chapter)