Krum, as a professional Quidditch player, had flown many times, but this was the first time he had been thrown into the air with a single blow.
As Tom approached, he first struck Krum's Protego Charm with his magic staff and then hit Krum's shield, producing a resounding "boom" that echoed in the eardrums.
The Protego Charm couldn't provide perfect defense. The kinetic energy from the hippogriff's attack was transferred to Krum's small shield through Tom's magic staff, generating an enormous impact force that sent him flying.
This scene was faithfully recorded by the screens and transmitted back to the Quidditch field.
The audience in the stands let out a gasp of surprise.
Anyone could see that resisting such a blow was not pleasant at all.
Krum got up from the ground, feeling that his arm, which had held the shield, had lost all sensation. His reaction had been almost perfect; he had managed to withstand Tom's charge almost flawlessly. However, the price he paid was that his arm was completely numb.
He was sure that if the shield hadn't been attached to his arm, the earlier blow would have sent him flying along with the shield.
"Curse it, I shouldn't have confronted this big guy head-on..." Krum reflected on his earlier action and realized he shouldn't have resisted the monster's charge.
At that moment, Tom also changed direction and prepared for his second charge.
"Madman!" Krum cursed to himself as he raised his own wand.
"Impedimenta!"
Faced with such a "clumsy" target, Krum decided to block it with a Impediment Jinx and then...
But there was no "then"!
Krum's spell struck the knight's chest directly but was instantly repelled. The intensity of his spell wasn't enough to break through the enhanced Protego Charm incorporated into Tom's armor. Even if Tom had had enough time to react, he didn't even bother dodging Krum's Impediment Jinx.
Tom thought that anyone who could break the Protego Charm attached to this armor could apply for a teaching position at Hogwarts. Strictly speaking, what was attached to his armor wasn't just the Protego Charm, but an improved version of that spell. Tom called it "Multiple Protego Charm."
Usually, if the armor isn't thick enough and is easily penetrable, what do you do? Muggle engineers choose to add covers, increase the armor's thickness, or use sloped armor. Tom was inspired by this.
What do you do if the defense of the Protego Charm isn't sufficient? You simply stack multiple Protego Charms. That's why his armor was so challenging to construct: he had to overlay multiple layers of Protego Charms so that when the armor was attacked, multiple Protego Charms would automatically activate. The stacking of multiple Protego Charms maximized the defense.
Faced with Tom's Multiple Protego Charm, Krum's spells were just tickles.
Master Krum, please stop scratching!
Krum was dumbfounded. He couldn't believe this creature had such high magical resistance. How was he supposed to play now?
While he was stunned, Tom didn't remain idle. He struck Krum's shield again with his wand, causing it to fall to the ground. This time, Krum's forearm shield cracked directly; it had clearly become useless.
Once the charge was over, Tom controlled Buckbeak with the reins to spin quickly, while Krum, lying on the ground, had lost the will to resist. Lying there, he looked like a dead fish without hope.
"It's over." Tom approached Krum and waved his staff toward his head.
In the next moment, the magical staff struck the ground with force, creating a small crater, and Krum, who lay on the ground, disappeared completely.
Hogwarts' transmission perspective was interesting; it was based on the champion's first-person view. Therefore, what the young wizards on the field saw and what Krum saw were almost indistinguishable.
So, when Tom's staff fell, everyone nervously held their breath. It sounded like a gust of wind was whistling in their ears. Some girls even closed their eyes, not daring to witness what was about to happen: wouldn't his head explode like a watermelon after being struck by a metal stick like that?
But most people exclaimed in amazement. At the last moment, Krum grabbed the Portkey and was transported back to the Quidditch field.
The three commentators were also shouting from the stands.
"Oh my God, that was extreme! I feel like that last blow was less than five centimeters from Krum's head! If the Ministry of Magic's rescue team had taken a bit longer, Krum would already be dead! I have to say that Krum is overestimating himself a bit," Lee Jordan quickly rattled off like a machine gun. "Speaking of which, I haven't asked him for an autograph yet..."
His mood at this moment was quite complicated. On the one hand, as a Quidditch enthusiast, how could he not feel anything for Krum? But on the other hand, he was a Hogwarts student and naturally supported his school, being an enemy of the other two. This distorted his commentary style a bit.
"It's great that player Viktor is back safely. Now, let's turn our attention to Fleur, it looks like she's obtained an interesting treasure..."
"The Ministry of Magic's emergency doctors are already on the field. Let's hope Viktor's injuries don't affect his future performance," the Durmstrang commentator had an unpleasant expression. His champion had been completely defenseless against that creature, leaving him internally frustrated. He could only secretly hope that the other two would fail here.
Krum lay on the grass of the field, breathing heavily, and sweat soaked his clothes. He was sure the golden-armored monster hadn't held back at all. If he hadn't grabbed the Portkey... Krum shuddered, feeling a chill.
But luckily, he made it... Krum looked up at the blue sky and breathed a sigh of relief. Madam Pomfrey, the Hogwarts nurse, and the Ministry of Magic-appointed doctors rushed to him, removing the damaged shield and conducting a quick physical examination, healing the wound on his arm.
"Are you sure you don't want to rest a bit more?" Madam Pomfrey looked into his eyes. "Your condition is unstable."
Krum shook his head. He had lost a lot of time being sent back to the "starting point," and if he rested a bit longer, the gaps between the other two champions would be even larger.
The Forbidden Forest experience had made it clear to him that the longer he wandered through the forest, the more treasures he would collect, and the more his combat power would increase. And that was just from opening the boxes prepared by the organizers. If he gained the support of neutral characters, the difference in combat power would only widen further. Krum didn't dare to imagine what would happen if any of the champions gained the recognition of the golden-armored creature he had just faced.
He couldn't afford to stop for even a moment!
His shield had been damaged in the previous battle, which meant his progress had been reset to zero. He couldn't afford any delays.
After receiving a new Portkey from a Ministry of Magic official, Krum immediately launched himself into the adventure again.
Krum's analysis was correct. While he was being pummeled by Tom, Cedric had managed to defeat the troll.
The spell he used was very classic: the Stunning Spell. After Cedric's spell hit the troll's head, it became stunned, and after Cedric hit it with two more spells, the troll, as big as a mountain, finally fell.
To avoid any problems, Cedric also took care to cast a series of spells on the troll: the Petrification Spell, the Leg-Locker Curse, the Blindness Curse... He also took out a rope and tied up the troll.
After dealing with the troll, Cedric realized that on the large stick the troll was holding, there was a golden fragment the size of a fingernail.
"Is this a fragment of the magical bracelet?" Cedric plucked the fragment and examined it carefully.
Cedric's actions were transmitted to the Quidditch field, causing the young wizards of Hogwarts to erupt in cheers.
"Congratulations to Cedric, he becomes the first champion to obtain a fragment of the magical bracelet in this competition! A great start!" Lee Jordan was beaming with happiness. The champions from the other schools hadn't obtained anything yet, while his champion already had one. Could there be a better sign than this?
"Congratulations to Cedric, the treasure that Fleur has obtained is really interesting."
"..."
The Durmstrang commentator hadn't said anything for a while, while the Beauxbatons girl struggled to shift the focus to Fleur, but with little success.
But she wasn't lying; Fleur had indeed found an interesting treasure. It was a scroll.
[Professor McGonagall's Transformation Scroll: When this scroll is opened, it allows the caster to perform the transformation spell to turn an object into a wolf, which can then fight alongside the champions. Please note that the existence of the wolf is limited and can only last for one hour.]
Fleur's eyes lit up as she read the scroll's description: this is great! She can immediately summon a great ally, whether for attack support or to attract enemies; it's truly excellent.
Without a second thought, she opened the scroll and transformed a nearby rock into a giant wolf nearly two meters in length.
"Let's go!" With the enormous silver wolf by her side, Fleur was in high spirits. She decided to make the most of the giant wolf's presence and use the time to loot the chests in the area and strengthen her own abilities.
Fleur had already opened three chests and obtained various useful items. The only downside was that so far, she hadn't found any pieces of the magical bracelet.
"I have no idea where those pieces have gone," murmured Fleur as she walked away.
"It's boring..." Tom stood under the Whomping Willow.
After defeating Krum, his area had become quiet, and there was no one in sight.
It wasn't surprising. The volunteers who had entered the Forbidden Forest didn't dare to venture far from their safe zones, and there were only three champions who needed to move freely. The likelihood of Tom encountering someone was very low, so it wasn't surprising that he felt bored.
"There are no rules in the competition that say NPCs have to stay in one place, right?" Tom realized a loophole in the rules.
"Ummm, NPCs that move freely can also test the champions' adaptability..." Tom managed to convince himself. So, he mounted Buckbeak and left.
After a quarter of an hour in the Forbidden Forest, he heard an unusual sound: the roar of a dragon.
Somehow, Tom felt that this dragon's roar was familiar...
"Buckbeak, let's go check it out." He moved Buckbeak's reins and headed in the direction of the dragon's roar.
The Forbidden Forest not only had trees but also other terrains and features like lakes and wetlands.
After walking for a while, his view suddenly opened up, and he saw a small pond, tens of meters in diameter, in front of him.
A fire dragon roughly the size of an African elephant was crouched by the lake, sipping water. Tom recognized this Norwegian Ridgeback by the spines on its back.
"This dragon is a bit small," Tom examined the dragon by the lake and felt that it really wasn't large. An adult dragon should easily reach several dozen feet in length, like the black dragon from the Hebridean Islands in Britain, which can grow up to thirty feet, or the Ukrainian Ironbelly, which averages sixty feet in length, or eighteen meters.
The dragon in front of him had a length of only a few meters and definitely didn't look like an adult dragon.
When Tom discovered the dragon, the dragon also noticed him.
When Tom saw the dragon's face, he realized that this individual seemed very familiar. Finally, the image of a chubby dragon appeared in his mind.
"Norbert?" Tom tentatively pronounced the name of the dragon in front of him.
The dragon tilted its head, looking a bit confused.
Such a familiar name...
"Are you Norbert?" Tom lifted his visor, not expecting to encounter a known dragon in a place like this.
He could have said, "I held you when you were a baby!"
The dragon drinking by the lake was Norbert... or Norberta, the Norwegian Ridgeback that Hagrid had secretly raised. After its identity was discovered, Dumbledore urgently contacted Newt to take her away. After spending some time with Newt, Norberta was transferred to Ron's older brother, Charlie, and taken to Romania.
Although she was three years old, Norberta still hadn't reached adulthood. Therefore, in the reserve, she couldn't compete with the other dragons and, without family, was forced to live hungry for three days and only eat every two days. But she didn't mind; at least, she had gained her freedom.
It wasn't until the start of the Triwizard Tournament that the Ministry of Magic urgently sent a group of non-adult dragons from dragon reserves around the world to Hogwarts, to release them into the Forbidden Forest.
Here, food resources were abundant, and each dragon could easily fill its stomach.
As for why they chose these young dragons, it was naturally because adult dragons were too dangerous, and there was a possibility that the champions would be killed in a single encounter before they had a chance to use the Portkey. To ensure the champions' safety, the Ministry of Magic used this group of young and less threatening dragons.
Of course, even young dragons were still dragons and represented a considerable threat.
After seeing Tom, Norberta breathed out a burst of fire as a greeting, trying to turn an acquaintance into a friend.
Tom blocked Norberta's fire breath with a Protego Charm and then took some water from the nearby pond and threw it in Norberta's face.
"Behave!" Tom tapped the ground with his staff. "If you keep misbehaving, I'll use my staff to spank your behind."