Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

Chapter 303 I'll Beat You Up

Bella's spell power jumped a notch, and she began to fight with unrestrained force.

Three consecutive shattering spells, from the same direction and at the same angle, struck Regulus's armored spell.

Upon impact, the silver barrier shook violently, ripples spreading outward from the point of impact, and the entire spherical shield trembled.

The second impact followed immediately, and a crack appeared on the surface of the barrier, extending outward from the point of impact with a crisp sound.

For the third time, Regulus didn't replenish his magic to repair the barrier. Instead, he changed the shape of the Ironclad Charm, making it concave inward, like a saucer.

The third shattering spell was deflected upon impact, flying diagonally and exploding into a distant corner of the wall with a loud bang, causing half the wall to collapse and raising a cloud of debris and thick smoke.

This is the limit of his regular Ironclad Curse. Without incorporating the protective imagery of Betelgeuse, Bella's three full-force Shattering Curses are the upper limit of his ability to withstand head-on attacks.

enough.

Bella's output has reached this level, which means her mana consumption must also keep up.

His Ironclad Spell consumes far less energy than her attack; defense is always more cost-effective than offense.

Bella was also moving, her steps faster and her spells more frequent.

She began to use the environment, tapping her wand on the ground, and stone spikes emerged from the cracked floor, one after another, stretching from her feet toward Regulus, turning the ground into a mess.

Regulus used the Sidestep Spell to dodge the stone cones, and upon landing, he used the Sprint Spell to accelerate, cutting straight to Bella's side.

Bella reacted extremely quickly, leaning back as she swept her wand horizontally, unleashing a shattering blade.

The incantation, like a shimmering, tiny blade, spun rapidly and flew out with a hissing sound as it went.

Regulus drew an arc in front of him with his wand, and the shattering blade struck the armored charm, clanging and clattering. The magical blades scattered, and several pieces became embedded in the stone pillars beside them.

He weaved through the aftershocks of the debris and unleashed a slashing spell with his backhand.

The thin, silvery-white line pierced through the gap in the shattered blade, swift and precise, slicing towards Bella's right shoulder.

Bella turned to the side, and the Cutting Charm flew past her ear, severing a strand of black curly hair that floated in the air and slowly fell.

She glanced down at the hair lying on the ground, then looked up at Regulus.

Regulus stood amidst the rubble and dust, wand in hand, unharmed, his robes spotless, and his breathing steady.

Bella's robe had several holes burned in it, her left arm was still bleeding from a wound, a section of her hair was broken off, her face was covered in ash, and her forehead was sweaty.

She smiled, said nothing, and raised her wand again.

Those around could see it clearly: the battle was escalating, but Regulus was not at a disadvantage and was not even injured.

Bella had already suffered cuts to her shoulder and burns to her arm; the scorch marks and tears on her robe looked more like her true appearance than when she was standing and giving her speech.

Rodolphus stood beside the doorway, his right hand already gripping his wand, his face expressionless.

Regulus was able to fight Bella to this extent.

A twelve-year-old wizard, a second-year student, and the heir to the Black family, caused Bella to bleed.

He glanced at Orion by the fireplace. Orion was in his prime, his eldest son had secured a place in Gryffindor, and his younger son had such abilities.

The Blake family is about to rise up.

He looked back at the center of the field, at Bella.

He knew her better than anyone else. She was still using regular spells, and the power of them was already very high, but they were still within the realm of non-dark magic.

Dark magic is her true method.

The Black family was all there, and Orion was standing by watching, which made it impossible for Bella to use dark magic on Regulus, even though he had already tricked and hurt her.

But if this continues, and Regulus continues to suppress her with regular spells, her injuries will worsen, she won't stop, she'll go mad.

And when Bella goes mad, no one can say for sure what she might do.

That's a Black family matter; the Lestrange family matter has already been resolved.

He continued to watch silently, but a question inevitably lingered in his mind: how exactly was the youngest son of the Blake family raised?

Such ability is simply outrageous.

Bella's spells were no longer cast one by one, but were poured out in large quantities.

A barrage of fireballs—seven or eight fist-sized compressed fireballs were thrown out in one go, each one exploding into a wall of fire upon hitting an obstacle.

Following closely were the Shattering Curse, the Exploding Curse, the Cutting Curse, and the Piercing Curse, one after another, with intervals so short they almost overlapped.

She cast spells while moving, her feet and hands never stopping, like a magical turret that had been set ablaze.

She began to make sounds: hissing laughter, short shouts, and muttering to herself.

"You keep dodging, you always dodge, can't you just stand there and catch it?"

She called out as she moved, her voice carrying a hint of coquettish grievance, and with a flick of her wand, cast a Stone Spikes spell. The ground cracked open, and three stone spikes emerged, piercing straight at Regulus's feet.

Regulus used the Sidestep Spell to move sideways, and the stone spike emerged from where he had just been standing, its tip hitting the ceiling and sending rubble falling.

Her voice rose, her tone filled with provocation and madness, as if she were teasing or pressuring someone.

She had given up hope of Regulus responding, but she just couldn't stop talking.

The incantation was delivered simultaneously with a series of rapid attacks, several times more powerful than at the beginning.

The explosions created craters in the banquet hall, sending floor tiles and rubble flying. Some of the debris was struck by the next spell before it even hit the ground, shattering into smaller fragments in mid-air.

"Only girls hide, Regulus, are you a girl?"

Bella shouted again, her voice rising with a laugh. With a flick of her wrist, she unleashed a combination of Shattering Blade and Piercing Spell. The Shattering Blade obscured her vision, while the Piercing Spell, hidden within the blade, flew towards her.

Regulus pushed his wand forward, causing the surface of the Ironclad Charm to tremble. The Shattered Blade was deflected, revealing the Piercing Charm, whose pale beam flashed through the gaps between the scattered fragments.

He used his wand to deflect the piercing spell by two inches, causing the beam to graz his shoulder and strike the wall behind him, burning a charred hole.

Regulus began to fight back.

His spells remained as powerful as ever, just like at the beginning, but they became faster and more accurate.

He alternated between lateral movement and sprint spells, drawing a smooth arc in the banquet hall.

Each time he changed positions, he would unleash a spell, with no two spells being the same angle or direction. Every time Bella blocked one, she would find that the next one was already flying in from another direction.

Then he began to incorporate the imagery of Betelgeuse.

But he didn't melt every single one; instead, he stuffed in one every few.

An ordinary blast spell flew out, and Bella was deflected, sending debris flying. The next spell was also an blast spell, and Bella was about to deflect it again, but this one was different.

As the spell left the staff, the air ripped apart, the temperature in the area it passed through soared, leaving a scorched mark on the stone slab, and tiny, deep red specks of light flickered at the core of the beam.

Bella's wand touched it, and the impact propelled her back three steps, leaving two white marks on the gravel beneath her feet.

She blocked it, but her arm was numb, and the bones in her wrist felt like they were about to be shattered.

She didn't have time to think about why this spell was different from the previous ones; the next one had already arrived—a regular cutting spell with the same power as before, which she blocked.

Next one, the Shattering Curse.

It's different again.

The yellow light was at least three times brighter than a normal Shattering Spell. It struck the Iron Armor Spell she had hastily erected, shattering the barrier. The Shattering Spell passed through and struck her right shoulder.

The fabric on her shoulder crumbled into powder and floated outwards, revealing the skin underneath, its surface covered with shallow, spiderweb-like cracks that, while not bleeding, looked terrifying.

Bella swayed slightly, stumbled half a step, and then regained her balance.

She glanced down at her shoulder, then looked up at Regulus.

She discovered that he had hidden the truly threatening spells within other spells, and she couldn't tell when it was a powerful attack and when it was a regular one.

This means she must treat each spell as if it were at its maximum power to block or dodge; she cannot gamble.

This consumes a lot of energy.

Magic consumption, stamina consumption, and mental consumption are all doubled.

Bella licked the blood off her arm, her tongue touching the wound. She hissed, then gave a ferocious grin, her lips twitching to their widest extent, revealing her teeth.

Her attacks intensified, unleashing a barrage of explosions, cutting spells, piercing spells, stone spike spells, and fire spells, one after another, slamming into Regulus as if she wanted to bury him alive with firepower.

Regulus countered each move with a counter-move.

He dodged the Explosion Curse with a Sidestep Curse, then countered with a Shattering Curse at the spot where she landed.

The cutting spell was used to pry open the pillar with the wand, and the thin thread cut off the direction of the cut.

Stone spikes emerged from beneath his feet. He used a sprint spell to cut through them, his body passing through the gaps in the spikes. As he landed, a fire spell was unleashed.

This dish incorporated the imagery of Betelgeuse, with incandescent flames hissing in the air. Bella dodged, and the flames struck the stone pillar behind her.

The surface of the stone pillar melted instantly, like dripping lava flowing to the ground, making a hissing sound and emitting white smoke.

Bella felt it; she was being pushed along.

Her spells grew more and more powerful, but Regulus could block them, dodge them, and even counterattack, and his counterattacks made her increasingly uncomfortable.

Each strike hit her right after she changed positions and before she had a firm footing, or during the gaps in her spellcasting.

Regulus didn't give her time to think. The next Explosive Curse arrived, and then another, and another.

They relentlessly pressured her, giving her no respite, each attack landing on a position where she had to exert all her strength to cope.

Bella braced herself against the two attacks with her Iron Armor Spell, causing the barrier to tremble violently, and her heels began to recoil backward.

Before the third strike hit, she managed to unleash a piercing spell to push it back. Taking advantage of the gap created by Regulus deflecting the piercing spell, she tapped her wand on the ground in front of her, casting a stone spike spell.

A row of stone spikes protruded from under the floor tiles, forcing him to retreat. Taking advantage of this opening, she took a deep breath, and the barrier flashed and popped open again.

Regulus dodged to the side, and after landing, he didn't immediately cast the spell, deliberately delaying for half a second.

That half-second window was just enough for Bella to point her wand at him again.

The next fireballs appeared in quick succession, followed by two consecutive Shattering Curses, and the Piercing Curse emerged from the light and shadow of the fireballs.

He calmly dismantled the fireball, the cutting spell slicing through its center, the exploding flames sliding past his sides, the shattering spells deflecting one and being deflected by him, and the piercing spell being sidestepped.

He continued to press forward, unleashing a devastating blast from the front, a flank-blocking spell to impede her movement, and then another devastating spell aimed at the spot where she had retreated.

Bella dodged to the side, but before she could regain her footing, another blast spell struck near her feet, forcing her to activate her armor spell once more.

Two explosive spells crashed into the barrier one after another. She gritted her teeth, shook her arm, and repaired the barrier—that's what she saw.

Regulus was leaving her an opening, every single time.

He would press down twice, then release for a moment, letting her replenish herself and maneuver, before pressing down again.

He was controlling the frequency of her magic consumption; he was using her as a moving target to practice rhythm.

Her expression cracked in that instant; the smile still lingered on her lips, but her eyes flashed with anger at being mocked, a humiliation deeper than anger itself.

Her fingers trembled on the wand, and an unstable light began to emanate from the tip of the wand, a fluctuation of magic she could not suppress.

Regulus gave her another opening.

Bella caught it, raised her wand sharply, charged up for a moment, and fired a piercing spell, faster and more concentrated than any of the previous ones.

With this single strike, all possibilities of subsequent combos were abandoned, and all magic power was poured into this one spell, focusing on a tiny point.

Before the trail of the torn air could spread, the spell had already traversed most of the distance between the two.

Regulus raised his left hand, palm facing forward, and a circular magical barrier condensed in front of his palm, less than a foot in diameter, smaller than his head.

The piercing spell crashed into it.

The Ironclad Curse didn't shatter, but it was pierced through. A pale beam of light burst from the back of the barrier, stretching into a weakened but still deadly translucent ray that shot straight into his right eye.

He turned his head, and the ray grazed above his right temple, breaking off a few strands of hair. The broken hairs were carried upwards by the magic of the spell and then dispersed into the air.

The next moment, his entire arm, from the shoulder down, along with his wand, vanished into thin air.

Illusion Spell, partial view.

Bella's pupils contracted slightly.

She saw Regulus standing there, his left hand still there, but his right hand was empty. She didn't know where the wand was or which direction the tip was pointing.

The next instant, a spell flew out from the air to her left.

Without a trajectory, without a starting point, without the light from the tip of the staff as a precursor, it simply appeared out of thin air two feet to her left and then smashed down.

The Explosion Spell, incorporating the imagery of Betelgeuse, tore through the air, and a deep red dot of light flickered at the core of the beam.

Bella didn't have time to fully activate the Ironclad Charm; she only managed to hold her wand horizontally in front of her, creating a thin barrier that barely protected her.

The explosive spell shattered the barrier, and the impact threw her away.

She flew out, four or five meters away, and crashed her back into a stone pillar, causing cracks to appear on the pillar and rubble to fall down.

She sprang off the pillar, staggered forward two steps, and knelt on one knee, supporting herself with one hand, her wand still clutched in her hand.

She looked up, her curly hair falling across her face, revealing an incredulous gaze, burning with extreme anger.

She was blasted away.

She didn't care about her previous injuries, ignored the cuts on her shoulder, and licked the blood off the burns on her arm, but this time she was sent flying.

She was knocked away by a twelve-year-old wizard.

Regulus lifted his right foot and stepped over the edge of a broken tile, his arm reappearing, holding his wand.

He stood there, watching Bella push herself up from the ground.

Before the smoke of battle had cleared, he walked toward Bella through the gray fog.