NOVEL NEXT Chapter 313: Participant One.
With Fleur on the pitch, there was a lot of noise to welcome her which slowly died down as everyone became curious as to why she was showing such a cautious expression as she looked at the Baby Totem that was sitting on the floor like a toddler in a diaper and staring at the gate to the underworld.
But instead of going towards the totem, she picked up the golden chalice which she planned to steal the soul using.
"Come on! Why's she being such a sissy!? Is she even a champion!?"
"BOOOOOOOOooooo!!!"
Taunts and jeers filled the stadium and they successfully got to Fleur since her lips morphed into a frown.
But Fleur managed to retain her sanity as she slowly walked towards the Gate of the Underworld that the baby totem was guarding.
As soon as Fleur stepped into a ten-metre radius around the baby totem, its eyes on its head turned around their sockets to all focus on her.
Fleur *gulped* and looked at the small unassuming creature with caution as she made her way towards the Gate.
*SCREECH* *GREK* *KREEAACHH*
The Baby Totem made slightly annoyed noises, as if trying to shoo away the girl but Fleur kept walking and soon stood side by side with the totem.
And with a single step further, she vanished into the gate.
"What? It was so easy?"
"What even is the point of that little thing if it won't fight her?"
"Is this partiality!?"
"If it was so simple why didn't they allow people under seventeen to participate!?"
"How easy! Anyone can do such a thing. I'd have just given it a clean upper cut and then a left-right jab and then a quick duck before it'd get knocked out with a punch-!"
Not even a minute after Fleur entered the Gate everyone started to cuss at the competition judges.
Professor McGonagall sat there embarrassed at the way the students of her school were behaving but did her best not to say anything in spite of the glares she got from several students of her own house who wanted to participate and have a shot at winning the thousand galleons.
Suddenly, attracting everyone's attention was the little two feet Totem which *SCREAAAAACCCCHHHHEEEEDDDDD* loudly as if it had suddenly spotted the world's worst crime happening.
Almost instantly, as soon as Fleur stepped out of the gate, the Baby totem grew to be twenty feet tall, dwarfing Fleur and making her look like a small meal.
Fleur's eyes fell on the Baby Totem which had now grown to dwarf her as she started to run. The eyes of the Totem started to follow her almost instantly as the audience instantly fell silent, no one daring to drag the attention of the Totem towards themselves.
The small reddish skin that existed before was now looking bloody, as if the totem had taken a dip in the blood of its enemies as it followed Fleur.
The Totem lifted its leg and attempted to squash Fleur's figure underneath its foot but Fleur was faster. She pulled out her wand and flicked it in the air.
A small spherical mass emerged out of her wand and was flung all the way through the air towards the Totem's head.
The Totem ignored it and allowed it to get closer thinking that the small ball of darkness wouldn't be able to do anything to it, but it underestimated Fleur's plan.
The ball of darkness detonated soundlessly and covered the entire head of the Totem.
Suddenly blinded both in sound and vision, the Totem stepped randomly creating tremors that caused Fleur to fall and tumble once or twice as it tried to escape the fog.
But much to the Totem's dismay, even as it shook its head vigorously, the fog followed its head around as if it was stuck to it.
Just as Fleur crossed the halfway mark towards the red round mark where she had to place the chalice with the soul in it, a sudden blue fiery tongue, lashed out and stopped her in her tracks.
The hard rocks that had just been lashed at, shattered and bombarded Fleur but she managed to put a Protego shield between her and the rock shards.
Unfortunately for her, the Totem used this short delay to open its mouth wide and take a deep breath in, sucking away all the dark fog that was ruining its visibility into its tummy.
Its eyes reemerged from the darkness and locked onto Fleur once again.
Fleur's body shivered but she managed to use her skill as an assassin to perform acrobatics to jump around as the Totem lashed at her using its tongue.
And in a few seconds, suddenly without anyone having expected it, the Totem seemed to have come up with an ingenious method to catch the slippery eel that looked to be good at escaping from its attacks as it flicked its tongue like a whip.
There was a loud *CRACK* that tore through the air because of the speed of the Totem's flaming tongue before it landed on the ground with a loud *BANG*.
A sudden wall of ice was erected on Fleur's path to the spot where she had to deposit the chalice.
Fleur instantly became confused when she saw the ice instead of fire since she'd prepared extensively to fight fire and not ice. But she immediately adapted to the situation as an assassin and flicked her wand again.
Fleur transfigured steps out of the shattered rocks around her and began to climb over the wall of ice that had been built to encase her.
Her plan was flawless until the Baby Totem threw a tantrum, literally.
It jumped up and down in its spot causing the entire arena to experience heavy tremors which knocked Fleur out of her railing-less staircase.
She fell on the ice and to her shock and everyone else's horror, she found herself being encased in ice as soon as he touched a little bit of it.
But showing her determination, Fleur pulled herself up, tearing away a part of her dress sleeves and her skin as she rushed toward the ring where she dropped the chalice for the round to end.
Almost as soon as Fleur placed the chalice within the ring, several Beyonders in disguise and Aurors emerged from everywhere around the area and stormed into the 'stage'.
The soul in the chalice was immediately exhumed by the Beyonder Loki had seen earlier at the grounds a while back as he walked to the Baby Totem and handed it over, causing the furious baby totem to become small once again as it tossed the soul in the chalice back into the gate and sat in front of it like an unassuming toddler.
Except, the scenes had been imprinted into everyone's minds.
They had become a sort of traumatic memory that kept them quiet before erupting into loud *cheers* that were heard even by the participants in their rooms inside the temporary tent.
'I guess Fleur finished her round…' Loki thought while looking at his pocket watch.
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A/N : First extra chapter of the year!!! Let's gooo!!!! Thank you for reading and donating powerstones!
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