Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

Chapter 417 New Trick, Spatial Trap

Regulus ignored Hermes and turned to Alex: "You train them."

After saying that, he turned around and walked inside, entering the small training room that had been partitioned off.

The door closed behind him, shutting out the noise from outside.

Regulus went into the hut, and the others outside breathed a sigh of relief and became more lively.

Lina let out a long sigh, patted her chest, and her whole body went limp.

She genuinely believed that she was going to be punished like that too.

Samuel visibly relaxed, his stiff body gradually slumping down.

The two looked at each other, but neither said anything.

It's good that I survived.

Lena's eyes started darting to Alex again, while Samuel's eyes kept glancing at the door of the cabin.

Avery grinned and crouched down next to Hermes, poking him with his finger.

He first peeked at his face to make sure nothing was missing, then reached under his nose to feel it. Hermes looked at him expressionlessly.

"Hey," Avery said with a mix of schadenfreude and genuine confusion, "what did you do? Why did Regulus hit you like that?"

Hermes remained as still as if he were dead, silently turning his head to the other side and continuing to pant heavily, ignoring him.

"You must have done something," Avery nudged him again. "He's dealt with you before, but not this badly. This time he's beating you to a pulp. Did you provoke him?"

"Say something, stop playing dead," Avery said, walking around to the other side and bending down to look at his face from below. "Tell me, what did you do to him?"

"Shut up." Hermes' voice was muffled, but at least he spoke.

"Then tell me!"

"There's not much to say."

Hermes fell silent again.

"You really won't tell?" Avery got excited and reached out to grab his arm. "Get up, get up. What kind of look is this, sprawled on the ground like that?"

He dragged Hermes up and moved him to a bench to the side.

Meanwhile, the walls and floors of the training ground are automatically repairing themselves.

The craters in the stone wall created by the piercing spell were slowly filling in, and the scorch marks on the floor created by the blasting spell were fading.

The wrecked mannequin was pieced back together, and the scattered debris seemed to have been swept into a corner and disappeared by an invisible hand.

The "always-available" house cleans up its own mess.

Avery pressed Hermes down onto the stool.

Then he straightened up, crossed his arms, and said, "Fine, you're stubborn. Next time he punishes you, I'll be there applauding you."

.

Hermes didn't even look at him directly.

"I'm just wondering," Avery sat down again, staring at his face, "You're usually so capable, you don't even whimper when you get beaten up, why are you so listless today?"

Regulus attacked you for no reason? No way.

Hermes lowered his head, closed his eyes, and didn't utter a single word.

"The less you tell me, the more I want to know," Avery leaned closer, his voice sly.

Hermes tilted his head to the side to avoid him.

Alex also came over and sat down on the other side of Hermes, looking him up and down with a hint of mockery in his eyes.

He figured Hermes must have done something to displease Regulus.

However, the fact that Hermes survived such a beating suggests that his abilities have improved.

It didn't get killed instantly; it's quite resilient.

"You," Alex said in a softer tone than Avery, more like he was advising, "did you do something wrong? If you did something wrong, just admit it."

Regulus isn't an unreasonable person. Admitting your mistake and talking things out is better than stubbornly resisting like this.

Hermes opened his eyes, glanced at Alex, his lips moved but he didn't say anything, and then closed them again.

What could he say?

Is it that I want to admit my mistake, but Regulus won't give me the chance?

Why didn't he give them a chance?

If he says I deserve a beating, then why should I dodge when he actually does?

If he's reasonable, then what am I?

You think I got beaten up because I wanted to take shortcuts? That's even more shameful.

You'd better shut up.

Hermes sat on the bench, his arms propped on his knees, staring at the floor, still silent.

Alex looked at him for a moment and didn't ask any more questions.

Avery crossed his legs and glanced sideways at Hermes: "Let me tell you, you're just stubborn. Stubborn is one thing, but at least be stubborn enough to do something meaningful. You always let him beat you up like this, why don't you fight back?"

Hermes raised his head, stiffening his neck: "I've returned it."

Avery shrugged: "That's fighting back? You can't even lift your wand."

Hermes glared at him, a rare occurrence, before looking away.

There's not much to say. Avery is right; he can't even lift his wand.

But he didn't believe that anyone else could be much better than him; no matter who stood opposite Regulus, they wouldn't be able to lift their wand.

Avery snorted and didn't ask any more questions, knowing he wouldn't get any answers; Hermes' mouth was as tight as if it were under a spell.

But he really couldn't understand it. Regulus had been getting increasingly ruthless towards Hermes lately, specifically targeting him and beating him to death. This guy must have done something.

Regulus didn't say anything, nor did Hermes, so he could only guess from the sidelines, and the more he couldn't guess, the more anxious he became.

Lina moved closer to Alex, glanced at Hermes on the bench, and then at the closed door.

Her eyes shone with undisguised admiration as she whispered, "Alex, are you this amazing too?"

Her calculations were quite simple: Hermes hadn't fallen after all that, so even if Alex wasn't as good as Regulus, he should be about the same as Hermes, right?

This is a huge misunderstanding.

Alex felt uncomfortable under her gaze, and when she asked him that question, his mouth opened and he forgot to close it.

Avery chuckled beside her, and even Hermes glanced at Lina, his expression unreadable—as if he were looking at a fool or a rare animal.

Lina scratched her head, looked around, and couldn't understand what they were laughing at.

Alex quickly waved his hand: "No, no, I don't have that ability."

He changed the subject and began practicing duels with Lina and Samuel, leading them to the other end of the training field.

He first had the two people warm up, with basic movements, how to hold a wand, and adjustments to their posture.

Lina and Samuel practiced these techniques in Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and they also practiced them on their own.

The two of them were able to take down Peter Pettigrew, even though that guy was even worse. But these two are not without skill; they're not completely useless.

Alex explained the requirements in detail: keep your center of gravity low, don't stand with your feet together, move your back foot first when moving, and immediately change position after making a move. Don't stay in one place to see where your spell is flying.

He demonstrated as he spoke, moving slowly so the two could see clearly.

He has trained with Regulus countless times in the past two years, and some things have become muscle memory.

Compared to Hermes, his spells were far less powerful, and his speed and accuracy were also inferior, but Regulus had said that he was meticulous and suitable for leading people.

He didn't think it was a particularly high compliment, but since Regulus had asked him to take care of Lina and Samuel, he would do his best.

"Let's try it out first. Lina will face me, and Samuel will watch from the side," Alex drew his wand and stood opposite him. "Disarming spell, go first."

Lina took a deep breath and pointed her wand at Alex: "Disarmament!"

A red light shot out from the tip of the staff, moving quite fast, indicating preparation for casting a spell.

Alex dodged to the side, the spell grazing his chest: "Again, just enough hand gestures, nothing else."

Lina bit her lip and aimed again.

Alex began to retaliate, using basic spells throughout.

A disarming spell slowly shot towards Lina, not using its full power, giving her time to react.

Lina dodged to the side, managing to avoid the attack, but her posture was a bit flustered.

"Don't look at the tip of the wand," Alex said, pointing at her as he cast the spell. "Look at the whole person, look at his center of gravity, look at where his wand is pointing."

Lina responded, gritted her teeth and fought back, casting a Barrier Spell, which Alex easily deflected.

"Too slow to retaliate," Alex added. "You have to follow up immediately after dodging. Dodging is for the next attack, you can't just dodge."

After several rounds, Lina's forehead was covered in sweat, showing that she had made progress.

Alex, being mild-mannered, simply praised, "Not bad."

Lina's face lit up with a smile, and her eyes brightened.

Alex then asked Samuel to come up and try as well.

Avery didn't participate in their practice. Instead, he found a training dummy, set up a pattern, and the dummy began to move, shooting spells at him from different directions.

Disarming Charms, Barrier Charms, and red and purple discs of light swirled towards him. Avery dodged and fought back, muttering, "This thing's faster than last time, isn't it? Don't hit me in the face!"

Before he could finish speaking, a Barrier Charm struck him on the shoulder, causing him to stumble back two steps and nearly drop his wand.

He shook his arm, cursed under his breath, and pounced on it again.

Hermes sat on the bench with his head down, not moving an inch.

Inside the small house, a dim light shone overhead, and the stone walls were narrow, only a few steps away from the top.

Regulus sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, his hands outstretched, palms facing up.

A blurry mass of air hung above, and when light shone on it, it was distorted and deformed, making it look as if there was a heat wave behind it.

He condensed his magic into fine threads, which passed through the elastic gaps in space and parted to both sides.

The distorted air began to change shape, first stretching from a sphere into an ellipsoid, then narrowing into a spindle shape, with several concave faces, becoming a polyhedron, which slowly rotated in the palm of the hand.

After spinning for more than ten seconds, the fingers moved slightly, and the middle part of the spindle-shaped space began to collapse inward, while the two ends stretched in opposite directions, finally twisting into a spiral.

The spiral is not stationary; it is in motion.

Space slowly rotates along the spiral pattern, with each rotation exhibiting a different degree of distortion.

The outermost circle had only rotated less than a quarter of the way, but it rotated deeper and deeper into the inner circle. At the very core point, the space was twisted almost half a circle.

He flipped his palm over, letting the spiral space float to his fingertips.

Professor McGonagall demonstrated spatial distortion in her office, taking the elasticity of space as a target of the distortion technique, layering the two distortions together, and he has been practicing ever since.

Initially, it could only make a palm-sized deformation, which lasted for less than ten seconds.

Later, it was able to twist a quarter turn and break off the wooden dummy's head.

Later, he extended the duration to several minutes, and the deformation range stabilized within a half-foot square.

The spiral in his hand has been holding for almost five minutes without dissipating.

Unlike his previous forced resistance, the relationship between his magic and space was no longer one of resistance like compressing a spring, but more like weaving something.

Magic is the shuttle, and the elasticity of space is the warp. He weaves the shuttle through the warp, and the woven space will not bounce back.

Professor McGonagall was talking about elastic deformation; the approach he found was gentler, letting it dissipate on its own.

He pushed the spiral space half an inch forward, suspending it in mid-air, and then raised his wand.

A beam of light shot out from the tip of the staff, and a tiny ball of light floated toward the spiral.

The light sphere was pulled in the moment it touched the outer ring of the spiral, and slid inwards along the spiral's texture.

The sphere of light spiraled deeper and deeper into the folds of space, along the spiral lines, stretching the light into a thin thread that wound around the center of the spiral.

After spinning three times, it stopped, embedded in the crevices of the folds, like a firefly frozen in amber.

It became.

It wasn't that the spell was shattered upon encountering the warped space; that was at the level Professor McGonagall demonstrated.

What he's doing now is making the folds created by the deformation of space directly wrap around the spell.

The ball of light was stuck in the ravine, still glowing, but it had stopped.

The spell was bound to the moment before it was triggered by the structure of space itself.

This is different from letting the spell circulate in the spatial network. This is about directly twisting a trap into the spatial structure, with the spell stuck in the folds, only to be triggered when it is touched.

Whoever touches this twisted space will trigger the things embedded within it.

The orbs of light are nothing; what's truly useful are the spells that can inflict damage.

But not all spells can be inserted; Fiendfire is an exception.

Through the folds of space, his will couldn't reach it; the fierce fire needed to be continuously suppressed, requiring him to communicate with it using his will.

Once it's embedded in the folds, it's like loosening the reins.

The Fiery Blaze won't stay inside waiting to be triggered; it will burn through the folds and emerge from who knows where.

You can't do that at Hogwarts, but outside, if it's just a short-lived trap that lasts for a few seconds, then Fiendfire is a good option.

Throw it out, burn it clean, no need to recycle it.

But it needs a sufficiently open environment to ensure that even if it leaks out from the folds, it won't burn anything that shouldn't be burned.

Even the Killing Curse didn't work; after the green light embedded itself in the folds, the surrounding spatial patterns began to darken, as if space itself had been killed.

The folds themselves lose their elasticity, turning from supple creases into brittle cracks, gradually dying out and unable to survive.

However, these two spells are not absolutely necessary. The greatest value of spatial traps lies not in the level of the spells, but in the location of the traps.

Place a piercing spell close to the back of the head. Triggering it means a hit, and a hit means it's effective. For those with poor skills, one shot is all it takes.

Placing a shattering spell in the same spot also has a good effect.

From another angle, embed a cutting curse at knee height; if it touches the knee, it can slice off the entire leg.

There are too many uses.

He held the spiral space to his fingertips and gently flipped his wrist.

The twisted space sank down in the direction it was flipped and disappeared from sight.

But it didn't dissipate; it simply disappeared into the normal spatial texture.

The wrinkles are still there, the light sphere embedded inside is still there, but from the outside, there is nothing there.

Visually, that area blends perfectly with the surrounding air; even light passing through it doesn't bend.

The spatial texture covers this fold. Space has its own texture direction. If you flip it along the direction, the fold will be hidden by the texture.

What you can't see is what constitutes a trap.

He lightly tapped his finger, dissolving the deformity.

Space bounced back to its original position, the folds unfolded, and the light sphere embedded inside slid out of the ravine, floated a few times, and then went out.

The last trace of distortion in the air was smoothed out, leaving nothing behind.

Outside, Alex had just finished a round of sparring with Lena Samuel.

Both of them were at their physical limit. Lina was bent over, panting with her hands on her knees. Stray hairs clung to her sweaty forehead, and her face showed a mixture of exhaustion and satisfaction.

She glanced at Alex, her lips curling up slightly before she quickly closed them again.

Samuel sat against the wall, eyes closed, breathing calmly, his fingers tapping lightly on his knees as he reviewed his actions.

Avery spent the whole afternoon arguing with the dummy and cursing at it.

"Is that all you've got? Come on, come on, ouch!"

A disarming spell struck the back of his hand, and the wand flew out and rolled into the corner.

He swung his wrist to pick it up, but as he bent over, he was hit by another Obstacle Curse on his back, causing him to stumble forward and nearly hit his forehead against the wall.

He picked up the wand, turned around and glared at the mannequin, then gave himself an excuse: "It's four o'clock, I'm not practicing anymore."

Hermes didn't move all afternoon, sitting on the bench with his arms propped on his knees, occasionally glancing up at the other people's training before looking down again.

The door to the small stone house opened, and Regulus stepped out, glancing around the training ground.

Lena and Samuel leaned against the wall, panting. Alex was putting his wand back into his sleeve, Avery was rubbing his forehead, and Hermes stood up from the bench.

"Let's go, time for dinner," Regulus said, heading towards the door.

Avery was the first to follow, but after a few steps he found Hermes still standing in front of the bench. He turned around and waved to him, "Come on, let's eat. You're not hungry, but I am."

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