The Ilvermorny team glared furiously at the Runespoor, grinding their teeth.
"What are you doing?!" they shouted.
Sean waved his hand helplessly.
"What choice did I have?" he said.
"If we kept the trophy, you'd definitely ambush us. So I figured we might as well let Uagadou keep it for now."
With that move, Ilvermorny had no choice but to cooperate with Hogwarts to deal with Uagadou.
Together with Matthew and Jerry, the situation instantly turned into three teams against one.
The Runespoor twisted its terrifying body and began slithering toward the forest exit.
The six members of Uagadou followed behind it like guards.
"You just wanted our help, didn't you?" Egilbert shouted.
"Well, you got it."
"What are we waiting for? They're getting away!"
"Split into two groups," Sean said quickly.
"One group handles the Runespoor. The other deals with the Uagadou team."
Ilvermorny still had all five members.
Hogwarts had four.
Castelobruxo had two.
After a quick decision:
Matthew, Charlie, Egilbert, and four others—seven people in total—would fight Uagadou's six members.
Sean and Claven would stay behind to stall the Runespoor until reinforcements arrived.
"Try not to get eaten by the snake," Claven said as he walked past Sean.
"I won't bother saving you."
"Likewise," Sean replied calmly.
Behind them, Matthew and the others had already engaged the Uagadou team.
Matthew fought Vanessa.
Meanwhile, Omar was forced into a two-on-one fight against Charlie and Egilbert.
The Runespoor, however, showed no interest in helping Vanessa's group.
It simply continued sliding forward.
"Reducto!"
Claven immediately attacked one of the snake's heads.
Through the Magic vision, Sean saw the spell strike the head directly.
But the snake didn't even move.
It was just like when Sean once tried to draw blood from Fluffy with a needle—he couldn't even break the skin.
"A seven-framework spell did absolutely nothing?" Sean muttered.
He raised his wand while running.
"Blazing Heartfire!"
It was the ten-framework spell he had secretly copied from Omar during the second round duel.
Back then, it had badly injured a giant jungle python.
The red-gold flames struck the Runespoor's body.
For a moment, fire burned along its scales.
But only seconds later—
it extinguished as if cold water had been poured over it.
"That magic resistance is ridiculous," Sean muttered.
"No wonder dark wizards like keeping these things as pets."
"This beast has absurd magical resistance," Claven said.
"Ordinary spells won't work."
"I'm about to break the rules."
"Make sure your mouth stays shut."
He sprinted ahead of the snake and cast a new spell:
"Blood Bats."
Through the Magic vision, Sean saw the spell clearly.
Twelve magical frameworks.
Although the Magic vision couldn't distinguish dark magic from ordinary magic, Claven's warning made it obvious—
this was illegal dark magic.
Dozens of bats burst from the tip of Claven's wand and slammed into the snake's scales.
Each bat exploded into clouds of black mist.
"Did that work?" Sean asked.
The scales struck by the bats began bleeding slowly.
The Runespoor felt the pain.
Its three heads twisted violently, hissing in a piercing chorus.
The middle and right heads glared at Claven with cold reptilian eyes.
The left head turned toward Sean.
Claven bared his fangs, crimson eyes blazing.
"Be a good snake and spit the trophies out."
"Don't make me cut you open."
The Runespoor roared.
It seemed to understand the threat.
Suddenly—
all three heads lunged at Claven.
At the same moment, three streams of dark green liquid sprayed from their mouths.
"Watch out! Poison!" Sean shouted.
Claven cursed and dodged the toxic spray.
Luckily, he had partially transformed, greatly increasing his speed.
The poison struck nearby tree trunks.
Within seconds, the wood corroded rapidly.
The venom's power was comparable to mid-level dark magic.
Even Sean felt a chill watching it.
"Are you just watching?!" Claven shouted while dodging.
"Do something!"
Sean quickly assessed the situation.
"The poison attacks are too fast. I'm not as agile as Claven."
"Looks like I'll have to fly."
While the Runespoor focused on Claven, Sean activated the Flying Charm.
He rose into the air and aimed his wand at one of the snake heads.
"Sectumsempra!"
Sean didn't want to use this spell in front of others.
And he couldn't yet cast it silently.
So he had no choice but to say it out loud.
"Hope your mouth is tight too," Sean called down to Claven.
Claven rolled his eyes.
"Hmph."
The struck snake head jerked violently like it had been electrocuted.
Blood slowly seeped from beneath its scales.
The wound was tiny.
For a creature of this size, it barely counted as an injury.
But Sean smiled.
"It works."
Sectumsempra was the strongest spell Sean currently knew—aside from the Killing Curse.
If even that failed, he would seriously consider using an Unforgivable Curse in front of Claven.
The wound was small.
But Sectumsempra had a terrifying trait.
Without the proper counter-curse, the wound would never stop bleeding.
"Let's see how long you last if I keep adding cuts," Sean muttered.
He flew through the air, dodging jets of venom from below.
But the spell consumed enormous magic.
Sectumsempra had twelve frameworks, and Sean still had to maintain the Flying Charm.
"Four casts is my limit," he thought grimly.
"Any more and I'll fall out of the sky."
After casting four times, Sean felt completely drained.
He flew farther away to create distance from the snake.
"Claven, hold it off for a bit."
"I need to recover."
Claven watched Sean fly away and cursed loudly.
"You idiot!"
"You pissed it off and now you're running away?!"
"We pissed it off together," Sean shouted back.
"Relax. I'm not running."
"Give me five minutes."
Sean pulled out the magic recovery potion Zach had given him.
It would take about five minutes for his magic to return to full strength.
Just then—
a red signal flare shot into the sky.
Someone had chosen to withdraw from the competition.
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