Robs511
patreon
A Revised scene (Spoilers!)
🕑 Added 2022-03-11 16:19:29 +0000 UTCHey all, and welcome to....quite a unique post actually. I haven't done this before but then again, I've never gotten so many complains in a single chapter by you guys. There's a first time for everything.
So in my SOW Ch.14, the fight scene seems to have been a little underwhelming to some. Mostly due to Harry 'spoilering' on his own. Well, I've re-written the fight scene and while Harry still 'spoilering' on his own, hopefully this one is better
If you didn't get it already...Spoilers ahead! I'm butchering the scene a lot to avoid too many spoilers, but still, read at your own risk. Normally I wouldn't do something like this but I don't have anything special planned for everyone so have some Elder-level restricted stuff ;)
Hope you enjoy!
---------------------------------
Chilling wind howled through the Dartmoor forest, the trees bristling under its might. The night's darkness spread thickly— dominating the lands, bringing with it a silence that cannot be broken easily.
But deep within the forest, surrounded by dense thicket, there lay a large clearing—almost a kilometer wide— that seemed to defy this natural state.
Charred and smoking debris littered the clearing, its once-green grass now blacked, all of it blanketed by a thin layer of smoldering water. And amidst the pieces of wood and stone—large and small—four cloaked beings danced between a shower of spells.
The silence was the easiest to break. The unnatural whooshing and crackling sound of their spells made sure that it had no room to exist.
The darkness on the other hand, was broken by multiple sources. One hung high in the sky, a bright ball of light that illuminated the entire clearing.
Second was a multitude of colours that tore through the air, throwing their own hue of light around that mixed well to defeat the darkness.
The spells that were cast—unleashing the multitude of colours—came from only the three however. The three who moved together, fighting against their lone enemy that held strong against their relentless onslaught stubbornly.
That loner's name was Harry Potter, and he produced the third source of brightness.
A net of thin pointed rocks, like arrowheads—alit with fire—hung around him like a shield, all tightly bound under his control. They revolved around him slowly, blocking any incoming spells from his enemies, striking them down with bullseye accuracy. The arrowheads burnt with such intensity, that their glow turned to be the final nail in the darkness' coffin, thoroughly vanquishing it from the area.
But that wasn't the only thing the arrows would be nailing tonight.
The team of three did their best to keep their enemy on the defensive, launching spells after spells, hoping to overwhelm him with their number, combined power, and skill.
And yet, they couldn’t pierce through the sphere of fire and light.
Harry dealt with all of their attacks as if a child’s play, his fiery stoneheads keeping pace with the enemy’s casting as they struck down spells after spells, intercepting their paths precisely.
His Occlumency enabled him to divide his mind in two; one kept account of spells aimed at him, the other patrolled any spells wanting to change his environment. Transfigurations weren’t allowed to happen, conjured objects were pierced by dozens of arrowheads, and when the trio of dark wizards finally had enough and decided to wash him over with their own fire, he let go.
His control over magic wasn’t great enough to manipulate the storm of flaming arrowheads while casting spells at the same time.
Thus, the moment one of his opponents stepped back to create their own inferno, he rained down death upon them.
Together, as one unit, the arrowheads stopped circling around him and moved forward to form a wall at his front. Then, keeping the unity, they sped through the air for his enemies—bearing down upon them like glowing needles.
"Stick to the plan!" Screamed the woman, having taken the leadership of their group.
A large blue shield materialized into being, curving around the group to cover them behind a small semi-spherical dome.
Two of the three tied themselves into maintaining the shield, the woman and Mathew, while the remaining member—Krafft the crippled—kept shooting annoying spells to keep Harry busy.
The flaming arrows smashed against the blue shield, hiding it under their orange glow. He could see cracks slowly forming along the surface, increasing ever so slightly with every impact.
Harry decided to give it a final nudge and crack it open. He stepped forth absently, letting the cripple’s spell fly over his head. Without having to maintain the storm of fiery stones, he was free to cast magic again.
A small dotted shield formed at the tip of his wand. When the next spell chased after him, he hit it right in the middle, sending it back to its caster who jumped behind his teammate’s shield with a curse.
Now free of the annoyance, Harry let loose a quick half-assed Bombarda right in the middle of the splintering shield.
“Krafft!” The alarmed woman screamed a second before the spell struck.
The Bombarda exploded upon impact, its powerful flames mingling with the peppering of arrowheads to pop open their shield like a pinata—which died down in motes of blue light.
A second shield formed barely in time to block the last round of flaming arrows, but it was powered by a single wizard. And a wizard who’d barely cauterized his recent dismemberment, no doubt still distracted by the pain. It was simple to conclude that no matter how good of an occlumens he may be, Krafft wasn’t at his finest.
And the attack the trio of dark wizards faced demanded their finest.
The newly formed shield strained against the onslaught, and Harry launched another shower of spells. Overpowered Bombardas, Confringos, and Reductors headed straight for the barely holding shield.
One thing he was certain about in this fight was thus; As long as Harry took down one of them completely, the tide of this battle will quickly turn to his side.
That did not come to pass however as at the last moment, the other male wizard shakily raised his wand and transfigured the ground in front of Krafft into a wall, tenaciously hanging onto the battle.
The earth wall that rose up from the ground hid the rest of the scene behind it from Harry’s eyes. By the time his spells tore it down—Reductors cracking the wall open while the explosive spells completely smashed it away—Harry was revealed to the scene of a sorry bunch of wizards struggling to their feet, the last round of arrows having been successfully defended.
A sense of muted annoyance broke through his occlumency, welling up in him as his enemies straightened again, all three standing together now, their wands held ready with frustrated determination glinting in their eyes, looking like dark chitinious marbles in the night.
The fight hadn’t gone for long yet, but to Harry—who was counting every second as being away from the people who needed him—it might as well have been a life time.
Then, they began casting. And for the first time, Harry faced the might of all three auror-level opponents at once—this time properly.
The one-armed man started first, almost pettily stepping ahead of his peers, his wand slashing down with a sickly green glow. The other two joined him next. The woman gave birth to a firestorm again, big and powerful— though not quite what he'd witnessed from Dumbledore. The last one targeted Harry's surroundings, and he could sense a sharp command to change, within the spell.
Alone and outnumbered though he may be, this wasn't the first time he was facing such a situation. And he dealt with it as ever—with the precision of a surgeon.
He slipped past Krafft's killing curse calmly, his wand shooting a powerful Depulso overhead—aiming towards the fire that had just finished taking form of a horned serpent. He didn't bother seeing the results, turning blithely to shoot two quick Reductos at the rapidly transfiguring stone. Which had just began taking form of a lion.
The stone cracked, interrupting the magic; the fire scattered over his opponent—his Depulso strong enough to break the woman's control; and Harry calmly ducked under another killing curse from the cripple.
"Merlin take you!" The woman screamed—angered and frustrated—as she hastily shielded her group from the wild fire's reach.
But the other two were there to cover her guard, this time working in a much better tandem as they pinned him down under an onslaught of spells. The crippled one was noticeably slower than before, but he still cast faster than most people Harry knew.
The spells ranged from lethal Killing curses, Bone-breakers, and Entrails Expellers to the more mundane Stunners, and Disarmers. Harry danced through them adroitly, fast and dexterous enough to avoid or deflect most of them.
But the only attacks from his own side were the occasional enemy spells that he sent right back to them. He dared not shield against even a single volley, for he knew exactly what fate awaited him there. If he became a turtle against three highly skilled opponents, escape would be nigh impossible. Especially with the route to Apparate completely cut off.
Thus, he did his very best to put up a solid defense without his shield, even taking a page out of his enemies book to launch tiny pebbles at them before hitting them with Engorgio—turning pebbles to boulders and monoliths that deflected a full round of spells.
But the tide shifted thoroughly when the woman joined them. She was the best out of them three. Her spells were quick and powerful, and she seemed to prefer bending the nature to her will when casting magic.
And she was adapting quickly. Just as he was.
In no time, he was facing the same boulders he'd launched earlier—only, now they were raging with fire.
The woman had utilized his own attack strategy to create problems for him.
'Smart woman.' Harry frowned. 'But so very irritating.'
The two men were now casting non-lethal spells rapidly, intending to divert his attention from the boulder. If he responded to them, he would be crushed alive underneath the heavy stone. If he responded to the stone though, he will be stunned and disarmed in no time.
He needed something to answer both the attacks.
So he ran.
Why? Because he had one more advantage no wizard would count on: His physique. If he got his hands on them, they may just as well be the same as Malfoy and his group: Helpless children.
He skipped between the spells, occasionally smacking one or two back to their owners as he closed the distance. The ground was wet, his boots splashing droplets of water around as he nimbly made his way towards his enemies.
The boulders were too heavy for the woman to direct properly—especially alit with fire as they were—and in no time his feet were running directly underneath the stones, letting them soar away overhead.
But just as he was about to duck underneath the last one, it shifted. It was sudden and jarring; too unnatural to be real. One moment it looked to follow after the monolith, the next it struck down—directly towards his head.
A pale shield popped into existence in an instance, blocking the flaming boulder from splattering his Fried-brains all over the wet ground.
That slight moment of delay was all he needed to escape, diving away from his rapidly cracking shield, letting it fall to the ground.
The boulder slammed down with a deep thump, sending vibrations through the land that climb up his feet, to his stomach and chest. The fire sizzled down from underneath it as it lay upon the sheen of water, releasing smoke and mist.
Harry had no time to taste success however, as a three way attack suddenly started streaming down at him.
He was alive and unharmed, successfully dealing with enemy attacks—but he'd lost his momentum. And the shower of spells reached him faster than sound, all aiming to tie up his movements.
There was no time for Harry to think, no chance of dodging.
So he shielded.
'Protego Maxima!' He bellowed in his mind, his wand cutting the air vertically to form a blue shield glowing with powerful blue intensity, stopping all three streams of spells at once with no trouble.
Knowing the risk, he tried dismissing the shield to get away, but there was no point. They clamped upon his forced mistake and proceeded forward victoriously with brute force, all three attacking with feverish intensity. Their combined might made his hand shake slightly, needing all his attention in maintaining the shield.
Yet, slowly but surely, he pushed back as well.
Harry Potter may be trapped, but giving up was not in his veins.
'The boulder.' A sudden burst of inspiration whispered. 'Shift towards the boulder, then take cover behind it.'
A brief moment of respite was all he would need to get back in the battle. And hiding behind the boulder was as good a plan as any.
'No.' With his occlumency running strong, his mind quickly cracked through the plan. 'A simple push from that woman, and I'll be a pancake under the stone.'
He will constantly need to fight off her magic if he wished to make the round boulder his cover, which defeated the entire point of the plan.
Worse, if a combined Depulso from all three hit the boulder, he doubted anyone could help him from being crushed underneath it.
For the first time in this fight, Harry Potter was well and truly trapped, with no straight way out of it.
‘Fine.’ He readied himself for an arduous battle of will and power, setting his feet wide as he held against the tide strongly. ‘A long struggle shall be, but I’ll come out the victor.’
It doesn’t matter if he was trapped or not. Doesn’t matter if he could attack or not. As long as he closed the distance between them, they were dead.
One moment. All he would need is one moment of distraction, and he could tear them apart bare handed.
And thus, he pushed. He pushed, pushed, and pushed further back. At first it was a struggle to take even a step, with three chains of spells bearing down upon his shield. He kept hoping one of them will be foolish enough to stop aiming at his shield—perhaps to distract him through transfiguration, perhaps through conjuration—yet it never came.
-----------------------------------------
Aaaand that's it! Sorry for cutting it short but you'll have to wait for the rest. The following is too spoilery, revealing previous chapters events. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this, butchered though it was.
Chapters will be released tomorrow as usual, though I might take an extra hour or two to get it out.
That's it for today, take care and peace!
Comments
Robs511
I wasn't going to change anything at the start honestly. But then I re-read the chapter and realized that Stormlight archive had really made me diverge from my original planning, so thought you lot might have a point this time. And about the double posting: one is for Elder gods, other is a butchered version for the rest.
Ilay Hyams
I appreciate you taking the feedback, while I would not want you to always bend to the whims of readers as we are an annoying bunch I do think it is important to take it into account. Also for some reason I have the revised version posted twice, it is not a big deal but I though I should mention it.
