Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

Chapter 416 Hermes' Stress Reaction

In the afternoon, on the seventh floor of the castle, at the Room of Requirement.

Regulus walked back and forth three times along the empty wall opposite the Barnabas Tapestry before emerging from the door.

Pushing open the door, the familiar training ground automatically unfolded before me, with dark wooden floors, runes embedded in the stone walls that absorb magic, and several training dummies wrapped in thick leather stuck in the corner.

Avery, Alex, and Hermes came together.

Alex leaned closer and reported on the important matter first.

Lina and Samuel are making good progress; they've been following him closely, practicing magic manipulation and perception in the abandoned classroom.

"Lina wants to practice real combat," he said, looking at Regulus with a relaxed tone. "I didn't mention this place or this house to them. They don't know anything about it, so I thought I'd ask you first."

Regulus nodded: "Bring it."

Alex received confirmation and turned to leave.

He didn't care about two more people. The Room of Requirement wasn't some big secret; those who knew, knew; those who didn't, didn't.

The group consisted of only a few people. Lina and Samuel had been with them for a while; they had been locked up together, fought together, and he had even taught them magic perception in the Forbidden Forest.

There's nothing to hide. Besides, the Requirement Room operates on a per-slot basis, with no limit on the number of people. Just come and join.

Regulus understood this perfectly well.

Lina's little schemes started when she was confined in the Forbidden Forest, and she began to gravitate towards Alex.

The desire to practice real combat is genuine, and the desire to use this practice to get closer to Alex is even more genuine.

Two people of mixed race, if they want to go up, there are two directions.

Lina made the right choice. She recognized that Alex had a clear role and would not have a low status in the future. By getting in touch with him, she could secure her position in the team.

Samuel chose to follow the rules, not to steal the limelight, not to squeeze into the core, and to quietly understand the system thoroughly. When the team grows larger, those who secured their positions first will naturally be at the forefront of the rules.

Neither is inherently more effective. In fact, when the team is small, focusing on the people is more direct and effective than focusing on the system.

If Lina can really win over Alex, it will be a case of internal integration, and Alex's role as a unifying half-blood will come to fruition.

Whether Alex actually understood Lina's feelings is hard to say.

He's observant and should have noticed, but this guy is only thirteen. Boys at that age are usually a bit less perceptive than girls of the same age, so it's normal that he didn't see it.

But it doesn't matter, I'll take my time.

Just like Sirius Black steals Eleanor's leaves, let the young people do what they want.

Avery raised an eyebrow, about to speak.

Regulus glanced at it and then shut his mouth.

Avery, of course, also realized that when Alex reported, he only mentioned Lena and not Samuel, which was Lena's idea, and Samuel had come along.

This guy is cunning, and in terms of pureblood manners, he's far superior to Alex.

Alex is on the edge of purebloods, while Avery is at the core of purebloods.

In this small group, he usually acts like he's unreliable because if he's too serious, no one will notice.

Who is it for, Regulus?

But in another setting, he is quite presentable.

Hermes remained silent throughout, shrinking into a corner as soon as he entered, his back pressed against the stone wall, his usual lazy and gloomy expression gone.

He was a little nervous at that moment, frozen in place, like a dog that knew the stick was going to fall but didn't know when it would.

Regulus has been targeting him lately. When he comes to the Room of Requirement, no one else will do it, but he gets targeted.

The people in the room didn't understand why Regulus had been targeting Hermes so relentlessly lately.

Hermes remained silent, enduring each blow until he could no longer get up.

Not long after, the door reopened, and Alex led Lina and Samuel in.

The two stepped inside, slowing their pace and looking around nervously.

Lina was the first to react, and greeted Regulus politely, "Black."

Samuel lowered his head and said, "Blake."

Regulus nodded in response.

A light slowly lit up in Lina's eyes as she realized what it meant to be able to enter this place.

This was a further step in acceptance; a secret base, a place known only to their own people, and she had entered.

She couldn't resist strolling around. The dark wooden floor beneath her feet had a slight springiness to it, and the stone walls on all sides were smooth, with runes carved on them if she got close.

In one corner were several training dummies covered in thick leather, and in another corner was a wooden table with several books and training gear on it.

They were all ordinary things, but she got excited just looking at them, and she couldn't suppress the urge to smile.

Samuel was more reserved, following behind Lena. He wasn't as outgoing, but he was only thirteen years old after all, and his eyes followed her around, looking here and there.

The two followed Alex toward the edge of the training field, talking in hushed tones as they walked.

Regulus turned to Hermes: "Come here."

Hermes' face twitched, and he straightened up instantly, slowly inching his way from the base of the wall, his steps unsteady.

Regulus stared at him without much expression.

Hermes tensed up at the sight.

This guy is the tough guy in the group. He doesn't think things through, he's good at fighting, and he didn't even flinch after being hit by black magic.

At this moment, I felt a bit unwell, my legs felt like they were about to tremble, but I still stubbornly walked over.

But he was somewhat stressed when facing Regulus.

When he was about ten meters away, he took a deep breath, raised his wand to his chest, and assumed the standard dueling stance.

Regulus raised his wand.

At the edge of the training field, Lena was squatting next to a mannequin, touching the leather texture on it. Samuel stood two steps behind her, while Alex explained things to them.

The three of them were still distracted until the first explosion drew their attention to the center of the field.

A thin, white beam of light, fast and straight, shot out from the tip of Regulus's staff—a piercing spell.

Hermes didn't dare to catch it and lunged to the side. The white light grazed his shoulder, struck the stone wall, and carved a fist-sized hole, with stone chips falling down with a clatter.

Before he could even steady himself, Regulus twirled his wand, and several spinning stone spikes, radiating intense heat, rose from beneath his feet.

Hermes dodged with a somersault, the stone spikes grazing his robe and emitting a burnt smell.

Hermes braced himself with the Iron Armor Spell, trying to catch his breath.

There was absolutely no chance.

Regulus stood still, simply waving his wand, casting a cutting spell.

An arc of silver light slashed down diagonally. Hermes raised his armor spell to block it, but it didn't work, and the barrier shattered.

Hermes leaned back, and a flash of silver light swept across his chest, severing a few strands of hair that hadn't yet fallen.

Lina stood up from beside the mannequin, her mouth slightly agape, her eyes filled with shock.

Samuel took a few steps forward, then stopped in his tracks, his eyes unblinking.

Hermes abandoned his defense and turned to run.

Completely unstoppable, his Ironclad Curse was practically made of paper in front of Regulus.

He already knew that when it came to Regulus's curse, one should only block it if there was absolutely no way to avoid it, and one should definitely try to avoid it if possible.

But he just wanted to try again, and after trying, he found that he was right.

Counterattacking is useless; we can only run.

He ran frantically around the field, changing direction, stopping abruptly, flipping over, and using his wand to shoot spells at the ground to bounce himself up and keep running.

The wooden floorboards creaked underfoot, the hem of his robe swung behind him, and his hair, damp with sweat, clung to his forehead.

Regulus's spells chased after him and exploded, the blasting spell landing at his feet, the shockwave sending him flying forward.

The Shattering Curse struck the dummy behind him, shattering the thick leather into a pile of shreds, startling Lina so much that she quickly crouched down and covered her head.

A line of high-temperature fireballs shot towards us, with more than a dozen head-sized white fireballs trailing a foot-long tail of flame.

Hermes ducked between the two fireballs, his shoulder brushing against the edge of one of them, and his robe sizzled.

Regulus let him run for a while, and after running a certain distance, he suddenly swung his wand to the side, and the Flame Whip was thrown out.

It's not the Li Huo version, it's just the regular one, I'm not really going to slap him.

The whip lashed out in an arc through the air, its tip tearing through the air with a loud crack.

Hermes, startled by the noise, lunged to the side.

The whip didn't actually hit him, but its power was no less. The tip of the whip swept past his back, and if he had slowed down even half a step or relaxed even slightly, the whip would have landed squarely on him.

Hermes knew Regulus wouldn't really kill him, but the moment the spell and fire whip came down, he still had to dodge. His body was more honest than his mind; he had no choice but to dodge.

He ran around the field with great enthusiasm, never giving up.

Hermes wasn't mindless; he was trying to find patterns.

The order in which Regulus casts his spells, the direction the tip of his staff points, and the trajectory of the spells.

Normal wizard duels are like this: those with good eyesight watch the tip of their opponent's staff, and wherever the staff tip points, the spell flies in that direction.

He finally managed to spot the tip of Regulus's staff amidst the chaos, and seeing that it was slightly off to the left, he immediately dodged to the right.

The spell didn't come from the left; it appeared out of thin air on the right, blocking the direction he was hiding.

Hermes was caught off guard and was hit on the shoulder, leaving half of his body numb.

He was momentarily stunned, then quickly adjusted himself, this time not looking at the tip of the cane, but dodging by instinct.

But the more he tried to think, the harder he was beaten. Just when he figured out a trick, Regulus would change his approach.

The spell points east but hits west; what was clearly coming this way is instantly transported to the other side.

Once, he watched as a cutting spell emerged from the tip of his staff, heading straight for his face. He swerved to the left, and the spell vanished in mid-air.

The next moment it popped out close to his left ear, in the direction he had turned away from.

A cold sweat instantly broke out on his back. If that movement had been any bigger, he would have been hit squarely and his head would have been pierced through the hole.

All of Hermes' judgments and predictions came to naught.

The more he tried to figure out a way to dodge, the more he ended up getting himself attacked.

He knew this was Regulus's spatial manipulation technique.

Before I could think any further, another spell came.

Hermes had just dodged that attack when his foot sank again.

Regulus cast a Polymorph spell, turning the floor beneath his feet into quicksand, and half of his leg sank in, unable to pull it out.

There was no time to cast a spell, so he directly used magic to control the speed increase. He didn't think much about it; it was just a desperate act. He poured all the magic into his legs and forcefully pulled them out of the sand.

This time, the magic manipulation has been tested; it works, so it's alright.

But just as he pulled his leg out, a pressure spell came crashing down on him.

The black magic, invisible and intangible, pressed down, causing Hermes to hunch over, his knees buckling, and he almost collapsed to his knees.

He gritted his teeth and held on, channeling his magic to push back the pressure.

He was panting heavily, his chest heaving, and he also had to keep an eye on Regulus's Legilimency, which could strike at any moment.

That's the most uncomfortable thing; you're running and someone suddenly bumps into your brain.

Regulus didn't look inside, he just stirred it, which made Regulus dizzy, his mind went blank, and his legs wouldn't obey him.

He quickly activated the brain blockade technique, following the three steps he had learned, and forcefully blocked the intrusion from the outside.

The timing and effectiveness of the sealing technique were also tested in this way.

This is exactly what Regulus wanted.

The spell forced Hermes to deal with it with all his might, then suddenly stirred it into his brain to see if he could withstand it.

If you held on, it means all that training wasn't for nothing.

Hermes held on, but that was all; his mind was focused on minimizing the number of blows he took.

But whether he can suffer less is not up to him; it's up to Regulus.

Regulus decided to let him take a few more hits.

Avery was staring at the wall, his teeth aching from the sight.

He felt sorry for Hermes and couldn't understand why Regulus was so cruel.

He leaned against the wall, speaking in a low voice, afraid that Regulus would hear him and drag him out: "...This is going to be fatal."

Alex covered his face, unable to bear to look.

Lena and Samuel were stunned, having never seen anything like this before.

So this is how the core members of the small group usually practice for duels?

Let Regulus take turns dismantling them one by one?

Upon thinking about it, both of them started to tremble.

Lena moved closer to Alex, and as she did so, her hand tugged at his sleeve.

I was genuinely scared, but there was something else going on. Holding onto his sleeve, being closer made me feel a little more at ease.

Samuel was different; his whole body stiffened, and he couldn't bear to blink.

More intriguing to him than the scene itself was the way Regulus stood there without moving an inch, yet still managed to make Hermes run all over the place.

But both of them were nervous and scared.

They weren't mindless people either. Looking at Hermes on the field and putting themselves in his shoes, they knew that if they were in his shoes, they probably wouldn't be able to withstand it even once.

Forget about carrying him, their sheer presence alone wouldn't give them the courage to stand opposite Blake.

They were unaware that Regulus had held back; had he not, Hermes would have been finished in an instant as well.

But as it stands, Hermes, though in a sorry state, hasn't been knocked down all at once; he's still running and still blocking.

This made the two newcomers even more frightened; if they hadn't been knocked down after all that beating, they must be incredibly sturdy.

The house was badly damaged, as if it had been bombed. The ground was cratered, the walls were cracked in several places, and the mannequins in the corner were either leaning or lying down.

Fortunately, the House of Requirement can fix itself.

Hermes scrambled through the mess, having long since given up any thought of fighting back. He still held his wand in his hand, but it was of no use whatsoever.

All I could do was hide and run. If I couldn't run, I could try to block, but I couldn't block at all. I ended up in a sorry state.

Regulus stood still the whole time, only raising his hand to wave his wand.

After fighting for a while, Regulus stopped.

The last spell dissipated in mid-air, and the room fell silent, with only Hermes' heavy breathing remaining.

He slumped to the ground, leaning against a cracked wall, feeling as if he had been shaken inside and out, and it took him a long time to recover.

Regulus looked at him, his breathing steady and expressionless, and said, "I didn't even move myself."

Hermes knew what Regulus meant by the matter of transformation.

He knew it from the first time Regulus tried to kill him.

Regulus was telling him, "I haven't even touched myself, so dealing with you is child's play."

The answer lies in wanting to take shortcuts, wanting others to do the work, and refusing to put in the effort yourself.

He understood, but he didn't say it, because Regulus didn't give him a chance to speak.

They didn't give them a chance to admit their mistakes or express their opinions.

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

This is the third time in just one week.

Hermes was unusually calm at this moment.

He slid down from the wall, lay on the ground, looked at the crumbling ceiling, and breathed his last, long breath.

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