"Mr. Krum is slowing down, and the distance between him and the fire dragon is gradually shrinking!"
Bagman's voice still echoed over the arena. "I'd guess he's doing this to lure the dragon into attacking him with its teeth or claws instead of that hundred-plus-foot stream of flame. At this range, violent turbulence on a broom is enough to throw off the aim of most spells, so Mr. Krum has probably realized his disadvantage as well… But of course, a shorter distance also means greater danger. Still, Mr. Krum very clearly has confidence in himself!"
"The dragon's breathing fire again! From no more than thirty feet away! Merlin's beard, it's like he's got eyes in the back of his head—he made a beautiful evasive maneuver the instant that dragon opened its mouth, letting the flames sweep beneath him. As expected of a professional Quidditch player…"
"Wait, did he stick a mirror onto his broom? …A clever move!"
Naturally, Krum could not hear Bagman desperately trying to save face. At this moment, all he felt was the blood rushing to his head, the wind howling past his ears, and the dragon's growls behind him. His eyes remained fixed on the mirror, watching the dragon's every move, while the thumb of his right hand pressed tightly against his wand, waiting for a fleeting opening…
Closer. A little closer…
That's about enough. Any closer and it'll be hard for me to dodge the next blast of dragonfire—but at this distance, it should barely be workable… Three… two… one…
"Confringo!"
The instant he sharply sensed that the flames behind him were dying down and the dragon was finally about to finish this round of fire-breathing, Krum spun around, raised his wand, pointed it straight at the dragon's massive mouth—which had just finished exhaling and had not yet closed—and loudly cast the Blasting Curse!
If he could just force this Blasting Curse into the dragon's mouth and blow off its lower jaw, Krum was confident he could send this gigantic beast crashing out of the sky in one move!
With a weight of over a hundred tons, a height of several hundred feet above the ground, and the power of a Blasting Curse exploding directly inside its mouth… it would be more than enough to decide the entire match in one strike!
"ROAR!"
However, the dragon seemed to possess astonishingly sharp instincts. Almost the instant it saw Krum turn around and draw his wand, it snapped its head aside at a speed completely at odds with its enormous body, folded in its wings, and altered its flight pattern in an instant—
And Krum's confident Blasting Curse missed.
"…Looks like the organizers still have at least a little conscience after all."
Only after seeing that did Avada finally feel somewhat more balanced inside. Pointing at the dragon, he turned and explained to the classmates beside him—who were still shouting in alarm over that dangerous moment:
"That dragon clearly has experience fighting wizards. It knows what a wizard's wand means, and probably has a rough idea of the effective range of ordinary spells too. That's why it keeps choosing to breathe fire so often. In that case, Krum's advantage in the first stage actually becomes his biggest headache in the second stage… Overall, the difficulty is still pretty balanced."
"What about you?"
A seventh-year senior who had previously explored the cavern puzzle with him leaned forward and asked, "If you were up against that fire dragon, how would you deal with it?"
"Well…"
Avada had just been about to blurt out the Imperius Curse when his powerful survival instincts seized control of his mouth in time. "I'd probably use some subtle curses first to weaken it little by little, then go all in once the opportunity came."
"But an all-out assault won't be easy."
Cedric had been watching the dragon in silence for a while. Only now did he finally cut in with a slight frown. "That dragon is consciously protecting its weak points. When Krum drew his wand just now, the very first thing it did was turn its head aside so its eyes, mouth, and nose weren't facing the wand."
"It is a bit troublesome, but dragonhide isn't completely indestructible. Just hit it with a few more high-powered spells. This competition doesn't ban Dark Magic anyway…"
"That's a Ukrainian Ironbelly! The thickness of its skin and the strength of the magic on it are far greater than those of ordinary fire dragons—you think everyone can put out firepower as dense as that Delacour girl?"
"Then Transfiguration… come to think of it, why has hardly anyone used Transfiguration in the earlier matches? Isn't that the most convenient trick for dealing with giant magical creatures?"
"The arena must have been reinforced somehow. Otherwise, the difficulty would be way too low…"
…
"Damn it… why is this dragon so slippery?!"
After several failed attempts at luring it in, even a battle-hardened Krum could not help but feel his composure waver a little. "The second I turn around and draw my wand, it pulls away. Then the moment I have to split my attention to control the broom, it starts exploiting the opening to attack. If I try to overpower it head-on, I can't break through its defenses… Even with the broom's help, fighting a fire dragon in an aerial battle still puts me at too much of a disadvantage…"
"This has dragged on long enough… Looks like I'll have to take an even bigger risk!"
Flattening himself against the broom, he lowered his head and took a deep breath. After glancing at the dragon behind him in the mirror, he came to a dead stop in midair—and then, in one impossibly smooth motion, drew his wand and turned around.
"Oh my God!"
That single sequence of actions startled everyone, including the commentator in the stands, little Barty. "He stopped dead in midair! But the dragon chasing him can't stop so easily… They're going to crash!!"
"ROAR!"
The giant dragon that had been relentlessly pursuing Krum seemed to be startled by his move as well, almost as if it did not know how it ought to respond. But the rapidly closing distance left it with very little time to think. In the end, when it was only a few dozen feet from Krum, the Ukrainian Ironbelly finally let out a low growl, and sparks once again spilled between its teeth…
"At this distance, dragonfire is almost impossible to dodge!"
Bagman's voice trembled with excitement. "Even if he blocks it with the Shield Charm, the broom under him will probably malfunction from the sudden spike in temperature and send Krum back to the ground, where he'll be completely suppressed by the dragon in the sky… Merlin—just like that!!"
Just as Bagman had said, at such close range, there was no way for Krum to evade the dragonfire. Faced with the surging flames, he could only hurriedly cast a silent Shield Charm. But that pitifully thin barrier barely flashed once before shattering under the ultra-close-range blast of dragonfire, buying Krum barely a second to restart his broom and change posture…
"Merlin! His clothes are on fire! The broom too!"
Bagman roared red-faced, "He's starting to fall! Although that blast of dragonfire didn't directly trigger the Portkey on his cloak, Mr. Krum's situation has very clearly become extremely dire! Unless he secretly did something while using this chance to close the distance—something capable of overturning the whole battle in an instant—otherwise…"
Boom!!
His words were cut off by a tremendous explosion.
Under the shared gaze of everyone present, the stream of fire aimed at the falling Krum suddenly cut off as if someone had pinched it shut. Then the glow inside the dragon's mouth flared several times brighter, swelling into a massive fireball trapped within its jaws—
And once it finally reached a certain critical point, it exploded violently from the inside.