Chapter 146 The Duel Competition Begins

Mike almost choked on his food when he heard this, and coughed for a long time before he recovered.

The scarf Penelope mentioned was a Christmas gift Penelope gave to Mike. The scarf was made very roughly, and it seemed that Penelope should have sewn it herself.

Although the scarf was prickly and uncomfortable to wear, Mike still liked it very much and would wear it around his neck whenever he went out.

"Let go! Don't pinch me." Mike shrank his neck and took out a khaki scarf and said, "Look, isn't it here? I wear it every day."

Seeing that Mike was carrying the scarf he knitted himself, Penelope's hand strength was relieved.

Mike took the opportunity to finally finish all the food on the table, took a long breath, and then took Penelope's hand to the venue of the duel competition.

Unlike the first duel demonstration before Christmas, the official venue of the duel competition was set at an open space behind the Hogwarts Castle.

This was originally the training ground for the spell application and practical class, or practical class for short.

The practical course was originally an elective course at Hogwarts. It is said that this course was a popular course at Hogwarts and was very popular among young wizards.

However, because this course was too dangerous and there were even several serious deaths, Hogwarts had no choice but to cancel this course more than 200 years ago under the protest of many parents.

Instead, it was replaced by the Defense Against the Dark Arts course, which was also an elective course and a niche course. However, after absorbing some of the content of the practical course, it became a popular course and became a compulsory course after the rampage of the Dark Lord Gellert Grindelwald. After

the cancellation of the practical course, the dedicated practice field for the practical course was naturally abandoned. Although it had been abandoned for more than 200 years, fortunately, there were originally a large number of protective devices that could release magic shields on the field. After a little modification, it became the best venue for this duel competition.

The game had already started when Mike and Penelope arrived. On the huge field, there were circular arenas with a diameter of about ten meters. Pairs of students were fighting fiercely on the arenas. There were audiences in groups of three or four below the arenas, clapping or booing from time to time according to the performance of the players on the stage.

In the center of the field, Lockhart and a group of logistics personnel of the duel club were recording the victory or defeat of each duel. Next to Lockhart, there was a senior student holding a magic loudspeaker. Whenever an arena was vacant, he would start calling out the names according to the list that had been prepared long ago. The students whose names were called had to rush to the designated arena to duel.

Since Penelope's game had not started yet, the two kept shuttling between the arenas to watch the excitement.

It would have been better if they hadn't watched it. Mike wanted to laugh as soon as he saw it.

The duels between the first to third grade wizards were like a comedy movie, such as Ron's match against a Hufflepuff wizard.

The two people on the stage held their wands tightly, staring at each other seriously. An invisible sense of tension spread. Driven by this impending atmosphere, many audiences in the audience also swallowed their saliva silently.

But when the referee announced the official start of the duel, the situation changed 360 degrees.

The two people on the stage released a "front teeth stick" (a curse that can make people grow huge front teeth), and I released a "tarantella dance" (a curse that can make people spin and jump non-stop).

Then the two people on the ring who had not yet learned to protect themselves with armor were cursed. One danced awkwardly and could not wave the wand, and the other grew huge front teeth and could not recite the spell, which caused a burst of laughter from the people in the ring.

Since both of them had lost their ability to fight, a senior student who acted as a referee was also very embarrassed.

Fortunately, Ron's wand was broken by the Whomping Willow when he and Harry drove the flying car to school at the beginning of the term, so the duration of the spell was reduced sharply, and the dancing person stopped soon, which made the referee relieved and announced that Ron lost.

Ron almost cried after stepping down. His long front teeth stuck Ron's upper and lower jaws, making him unable to close his mouth.

It was difficult to swallow without closing his mouth. Poor Ron couldn't even swallow his saliva, and could only watch a crystal saliva slowly slide down from the corner of his mouth.

Harry looked at Ron's saliva and his mouth twitched constantly. He patted Ron's shoulder to comfort him, trying to hold back his laughter, and quickly turned around and covered his mouth. Looking

at Harry's crazy shaking shoulders, Ron really cried this time.

Many senior wizards' duels were not much better. Although the spells they used were no longer prank spells, but were replaced with offensive spells with real lethality, such as disarming spells, fire spells and explosion spells, most senior wizards were too lacking in practical experience.

This led to the battle between them becoming a turn-based system commonly seen in RPG games. You cast a disarming spell and I block it with my armor, then I cast another fire spell and you block it with your armor... There

were the fewest spectators under these arenas, and even their referees yawned out of boredom. Compared to their boring battles, the duels between junior wizards were obviously more interesting. Just as

the two were strolling around the venue, Penello's name was called in the center of the venue, which indicated that Penello's game tonight was about to begin. When Penello

heard her name, her body obviously stiffened. Mike, who felt Penello's abnormality, pinched Penello's little hand and signaled her not to be nervous.

Penello smiled with a far-fetched smile to show that she was fine, and took Mike's hand to the designated arena.

Although he said it was okay, Mike could still clearly feel Penelope's nervousness. It was already early January, but the palms of their hands were full of sweat, all from Penelope.

When the two came to the designated ring, Penelope's opponent had already come to the ring and waited. The moment she saw her opponent, Penelope's expression was obviously relaxed.

Because her opponent was Hermione! A second-year wizard.

Hermione's expression on the ring was extremely ugly, which formed a sharp contrast with the ease on Penelope's face.

But what was surprising was that when Hermione saw Penelope coming to the ring hand in hand with Mike, her expression turned into gnashing of teeth, and anger was burning in her eyes. She looked at Penelope and Mike as if she wanted to burn them to death.

This situation became more serious after Penelope intentionally or unintentionally lifted her long hair to reveal the emerald earrings on her ears.

Penelope walked onto the ring calmly and couldn't help but laugh at the anxious look on Hermione's face.

The referee in the audience saw that the two contestants were in place, so in order to save time, he did not let them perform the wizard duel ceremony and directly announced the start of the competition.