As soon as he finished speaking, Alan's gaze sharpened. He stared at the ten men opposite him, his mind firing with the speed of a high-end processor as he dissected the battlefield.
*Ten targets. Two rows—five in front, five behind. I saw several of them being dragged into this by Avery; their fighting will is inconsistent. To win quickly, I cannot give them time to coordinate. I must strike before their formation spreads.*
With a surge of magic, dozens of ravens erupted from beneath his long robes, swirling in a frantic, cawing vortex around him. This was his improved **Avis**—the Flying Raven Spell. The black cloud obscured Alan entirely, leaving his opponents able to see only a vague, shimmering silhouette at the center of the storm.
Avery scoffed, "Childish parlor tricks. Do you really intend to duel with birds? How ridiculous."
"Come on, Avery, just get it over with," a wizard in the back row urged, his voice laced with boredom. "It's embarrassing enough to bully a student. I'm only here to fill the slot; you handle the heavy lifting."
"I don't have the stomach to gang up on a kid," another echoed, lazily drawing his wand as if he were merely going through the motions.
Avery knew he couldn't count on the back row for a coordinated assault, but he wasn't worried. The front row alone would be more than enough to crush the boy.
"**Petrificus Totalus!**" "**Stupefy!**" "**Expelliarmus!**" "**Impedimenta!**" "**Diffindo!**"
The front row unleashed a barrage of spells, each one fast and lethal. They weren't holding back; they were looking for a decisive, bone-shattering end to the "hero's" career. But as the spells struck the cloud of ravens, the birds reacted with eerie precision. For every incoming hex, two or three ravens intercepted it, perishing in bursts of feathers and sparks to protect their master.
Behind the shield of his familiars, Alan's primary spell reached full charge.
"**Aguamenti!**"
Avery and his companions were preparing a second volley when a massive, pressurized jet of water erupted from Alan's position, surging toward the group like a tidal wave.
"**Impervius! Protego!**" Avery barked.
He had consulted with Yaxley and knew Alan favored a water-and-ice combination. He was prepared. He cast a wide-range **Impervius** to keep the group dry and shielded, while Lucius stepped forward to raise a solid **Protego** and the others cast **Impediment Jinxes** to break the wave's momentum.
"You've done your homework, haven't you? Analyzed my past fights?" Alan's voice drifted through the clearing, cold and mocking. "But you've miscalculated. I'm not using my old tactics today. Today, I'm going to crush you in front of everyone."
The water struck the shield like a heavy sea hitting a sea wall. Ordinarily, it would have splashed back, but under Alan's relentless Transfiguration, the water defied physics. It climbed the invisible barrier like liquid tentacles, cresting over the top and wrapping around the sides, spreading toward the men.
"Scatter!" Avery shouted. He didn't understand why the water wasn't freezing, but he knew he couldn't let it touch them. He cast a **Humanoid Iron Armor Curse** on himself, a metallic sheen covering his body to repel the liquid.
The others weren't as fast. The water clung to the front row, sticking to their robes and skin despite the **Impervius** charms, as if the liquid itself had become sentient and adhesive.
Then came the sound: a sharp, high-pitched *zzzzzt*.
Electric flashes arced through the water. The men in the front row began to spasm violently, their bodies locking up. Lucius Malfoy crumpled instantly, hitting the floor with a dull thud. The electric current, conducted perfectly by the magically pressurized water, had paralyzed them.
Alan had been diligently studying basic lightning runes. While he hadn't yet cracked the primordial thunder rune from the Travers book, his affinity for the element was naturally high.
"As I thought, the voltage of standard lightning runes is a bit low—it only causes paralysis," Alan noted with a hint of dissatisfaction, though his follow-up was merciless.
"**Stupefy!**"
A quick succession of red beams slammed into the paralyzed wizards, finishing them off before they could recover.
The Atrium erupted in gasps. Reporters scrambled for better angles as five wizards were neutralized in the first exchange.
"How is that possible?" a reporter cried out. "They had **Impervius** charms! The water shouldn't have stuck!"
"Because the **Aguamenti** was subjected to Transfiguration," a high-pitched, knowledgeable voice chirped from the reporter's feet. It was Professor Flitwick, his eyes gleaming with professional pride. "The water wasn't just liquid; it was shaped to grapple. Then he used the conductivity of the water to deliver a lightning-based stun. Remarkable application! Simply brilliant!"
Avery, the only one in the front row still standing thanks to his iron armor, finally realized the depth of the trouble he was in.