(Two Weeks Later)
*Thud*
*Thud*
*Thud*
The sound of flesh hitting stone echoed through the damp, dimly lit cave. Each impact reverberated off the walls, creating a rhythmic beat. Harry's knuckles, bruised and bloody, pounded relentlessly against the unforgiving rock surface. Blood splattered across the floor with each strike, forming small crimson pools that soaked into the dirt.
*Thud*
*Thud*
His breath came in ragged gasps, the pain in his hands a distant sensation. Harry's mind was a whirl of thoughts, in his mind each punch brought him closer to freedom, closer to Grindelwald. He would grow stronger, faster, more resilient. He had to, he couldn't fail again.
*Thud*
*Thud*
He paused for a moment, his hands throbbing with a dull ache. Blood trickled down his fingers, mixing with sweat and dirt. He clenched his fists tighter, the pain a reminder. But something made him pause—a shift in the air, a presence behind him. Instinctively, Harry spun around just in time to see Yuki launching a surprise attack. Her foot sliced through the air with blinding speed, aimed straight at his head. Harry ducked, barely avoiding the strike, and rolled to the side, coming up in a defensive stance.
"Always expect to be punched," Yuki's voice was a harsh whisper, her eyes gleaming with a mixture of annoyance and humour.
"You didn't punch me..." Harry replied as he brought his fists up.
"Semantics." Without a moment's hesitation, she followed up with a rapid series of strikes. Her hands moved in swift, controlled motions, targeting Harry's centerline. Harry managed to block the first few blows, but her speed was overwhelming. She landed a punch to his ribs, knocking the wind out of him. He stumbled back, gasping for breath, but she was relentless. Her stance shifted, and suddenly her knees and elbows were like hammers. Harry barely managed to avoid a knee aimed at his stomach, but her elbow caught him across the jaw, sending him sprawling to the ground.
Rolling to his feet, Harry's vision swam. He wore his blindfold as it would interfere with his learning though his vision was still excellent. His body wasn't always quick enough to respond. Ignoring the pain, he clenched his fists and rushed at Yuki with a flurry of punches. His style was still raw and unrefined, he had been banned from copying her, and she had told him if he wanted to improve then he'd make his own style. A hit landed on her shoulder, and another on her side, but she absorbed the blows with minimal reaction. Her expression remained calm, almost detached. Pivoting on one foot, she swept his legs out from under him with a swift kick. As he fell, her strikes became more lethal and direct. She aimed a series of precise blows at his vital points. Harry blocked a few, but her fist connected with his solar plexus, driving the air from his lungs and leaving him gasping on the ground.
"Get up, you're not done yet," Yuki ordered, her voice cold.
Harry pushed himself to his feet, his body screaming in protest. Wiping blood from his mouth, his eyes never left Yuki's form. It didn't matter how outmatched he was, he would keep running at her until his body failed and he passed out; Yuki could see that and for a moment her facade broke and she looked concerned. Yuki came at him again, this time with the throws and holds of a grappler. She grabbed his arm, twisting it behind his back and throwing him to the ground. Harry hit the dirt hard, pain flaring through his body. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself up once more.
His reactions were faster now, his movements more calculated. Dodging a punch aimed at his face, he countered with a quick jab to her ribs. She blocked it effortlessly, but he followed up with a kick to her thigh, making her step back slightly. For a brief moment, he saw an opening and lunged forward, aiming a punch at her jaw. Yuki's hand snapped up, catching his fist in mid-air. She twisted his arm, spinning him around and locking him in a chokehold. Harry gasped, the pressure on his throat intense. He struggled, clawing at her arm, trying to break free. With a sudden burst of strength, he drove his elbow backwards into her ribs. Yuki grunted but held firm. Harry twisted his body, using the momentum to loosen her grip just enough to slip out and stumble forward, gasping for breath.
Yuki didn't give him a moment's respite. She launched herself at him, leaping into the air and executing a flawless spinning backkick. Harry barely managed to duck under it, feeling the rush of air as her foot passed inches from his face. He retaliated with a wild swing, but Yuki sidestepped. She followed up with a swift palm strike to his chest, knocking him off balance. As he staggered, she grabbed his wrist, twisting and flipping him over her shoulder. Harry crashed to the ground but quickly rolled to his feet, using the momentum to spring back up. He blocked a rapid series of high and low kicks, deflecting her strikes with his forearms. Yuki, undeterred, shifted her weight and launched a knee towards his ribs. Harry sidestepped, countering with a swift jab to her midsection that landed with a satisfying thud. Harry had been working his fists constantly for two weeks, with the nerves in his knuckles dulled from constant abuse he could hit a lot harder than a boy his age should.
Yuki's eyes narrowed as she pressed the attack. She launched a flurry of punches at Harry's head, forcing him to backpedal. He ducked under a hook, stepping inside her reach and driving an uppercut into her stomach. Yuki grunted but quickly recovered, spinning around and delivering a sidekick that sent him stumbling into the cave wall. Harry rebounded off the wall, using the momentum to deliver a powerful Superman punch that Yuki narrowly avoided. She responded with a spinning elbow aimed at his temple, but Harry ducked and followed up with a sweeping leg kick that knocked her slightly off balance. Yuki immediately regained her footing, launching herself at him with a flying knee. Harry blocked it with his forearm, grimacing at the impact. He retaliated with a sidekick to her thigh, trying to slow her down.
Their movements became a blur as they exchanged blows, each attack met with a counter. Yuki executed a flawless roundhouse kick that Harry narrowly dodged, countering with a swift jab to her ribs. She absorbed the hit, grabbing his arm and flipping him over her shoulder. Harry landed on his feet, pulling her arm and attempting to twist her into a lock, but she broke free with a sharp twist of her wrist. Yuki's face showed a flicker of admiration before she renewed her assault. She leapt into the air, using the cave wall to propel herself into a spinning kick. Harry ducked, the force of her kick creating a gust of wind above his head. He retaliated with a corkscrew punch to her midsection, but she twisted away, countering with a hook kick that clipped his shoulder.
Harry staggered back, shaking his head to clear the haziness from his vision. He barely had time to react as Yuki closed the distance, she ducked under a straight punch he sent towards her and grabbed the extended arms, she then pivoted sideways kicking both his feet from underneath him, he was sideways in the air before she ended her move by delivering a double handed palm strike that sent him crashing against the cave wall.
"Holy shit!" Miguel exclaimed from the side, he and Yaga had been sitting there watching the entire spar while they had lunch. "Do you think he's okay?" Miguel asked Yaga with a nervous chuckle.
"Would you be?" Yaga replied.
Their fight continued in a deadly dance of strikes and counterstrikes. Harry launched a powerful straight punch, but Yuki slipped to the side, delivering a knee to his ribs and an elbow to his back. He stumbled but quickly turned, catching her with a low kick that sent her reeling. She recovered swiftly, lunging at him with a rapid combination of punches and kicks that forced him to backpedal. Harry found an opening and landed a solid hit to her side, but Yuki countered with a spinning back fist that splattered blood from his face. He shook off the daze, retaliating with a headbutt that caught her off guard. They both stepped back, breathing heavily but neither was willing to give in.
Yuki moved first, executing a series of flips that ended with a flying kick aimed at Harry's head. He ducked, using her momentum to grab her leg and throw her against the cave wall. She rebounded off, flipping in mid-air and landing a kick to his chest that knocked the wind out of him. Harry gasped but kept his footing, launching himself at her with a knee towards her midsection, followed by an elbow to her jaw. Yuki blocked the knee but took the elbow, staggering slightly. She retaliated with a heavy punch hitting Harry right in the sternum, she then executed a series of swift but powerful blows straight at Harry's chest and face. Harry absorbed the blows, gritting his teeth against the pain. He swung a wild punch that Yuki ducked under, countering with an uppercut that snapped his head back, but he refused to fall. He drove forward, catching her with a body lock and slamming her into the cave wall.
They grappled fiercely, each trying to gain the upper hand. Yuki broke free with a well-placed knuckle strike to Harry's ribs, but he surprised her by leaning forward and biting her shoulder. Though surprisingly they didn't yell out with pain but rather let out a rather girlish moan. Harry paused for a moment and moved back, Miguel and Yaga looked at Yuki in surprise. Yuki's face when red and she flipped backwards connecting her foot with Harry's chin almost making him do a 360. He rolled to the side continuously as Yuki stomped the ground behind him; he then managed to flip things around as he grabbed her arm and pulled her onto his feet, throwing her over his body
When they got up they both circled each other, Harry was bloody and bruised, and the only thing keeping him going at the moment was his unyielding will, Yuki on the other hand was relatively okay though she was pretty bruised as well. Yuki lunged at him, her fist aimed at his face. Harry blocked it, countering with a punch to her ribs. She grunted, but twisted, delivering a brutal kick to his side. Harry felt something crack, pain flaring through his body, but he didn't stop. He couldn't stop. Harry's body screamed in agony, but he fought through it, landing a punch to Yuki's face. She responded with a dropkick that sent him crashing into the cave wall. He slumped to the ground, struggling to breathe. Yuki approached, ready to finish him off, but Harry forced himself up, his legs trembling.
Unwilling to lose like this he took down his blindfold allowing him to use the full extent of his six eyes, he managed to see Yuki in much more clarity now her movements slowed down considerably, he blocked a high kick and countered with a punch to her stomach. Yuki doubled over, and Harry followed up with a knee to her face. She stumbled back, blood dripping from her nose, but quickly regained her composure. She took a deep breath before looking at Harry, she had been fighting him constantly for two weeks and could tell he wouldn't go down without being knocked out.
She spread her legs and got into a solid stance, she hadn't used this move on him yet, she hadn't used it on anyone. As Harry approached her to take advantage of her perceived weakness her muscles started to twitch as she drew back her arm in what looked like a karate punch. In her mind, she envisioned a simple domain that stretched as far as her reach. As soon as Harry stepped within range all her muscles contracted at once and she threw a punch that was too fast for him to dodge or even block.
*CRACK*
The sound of a whip echoed out through the cavern, Miguel sat there with his eyebrows almost flying off his face. "Yaga my friend... what the Fuck?" He said looking at the man who chewed on a dry piece of meat.
*Thud*
Miguel looked back and watched Harry collapse to the ground his body finally giving up. Yuki reached down grabbed Harry by the ankle and dragged him over to the stone table that Miguel and Yaga sat at before taking a seat herself.
"Is he going to be okay?" Miguel asked looking at the large purple mark where Yuki had punched Harry.
"Probably," Yuki said with a shrug before she started eating.
"Did you punch him at the speed of sound?".
"Yeah," she said she continued to stuff her face.
"Weren't you only supposed to be sparring?"
"Do not worry Miguel, Harry's eyes allow his magic to move throughout his body albeit a great deal slower, his magic will heal him in the next few days," Yaga assured him.
...
Harry nursed his pained ribs as he sat down in front of Yaga, since he had been here he had been forced to mediate by Yaga; all in an attempt to find his animagus form. He hadn't made much progress though, for some reason he couldn't focus enough to enter a meditative trance. At least that's what he told Yaga, in truth, he could do it, but he just didn't want to. Every time he sunk into his mind his thoughts would drift to things he did not want to think about, things that hurt.
"Perhaps we should take a break," Yaga advised. Harry opened his eyes and nodded before standing back up.
"You have made much progress in your combat ability, but it will not mean much if your mind lags behind," Yaga stated.
"My mind is fine," Harry replied as he began to slam his fists against the cavern wall. Yuki and Miguel were off patrolling the corridors today as well as looking for anything they could use, this left Harry with no sparring partner so he focused on toughening up his body.
"A troubled mind will only hold you back," Yaga said again.
"My mind... is fine," Harry insisted as his fist connected with the rock wall almost cracking it.
"Very well, then we can only keep meditating and attempting to discover your animagus form," Yaga said as he sat down on his knees.
Harry started to get frustrated "Why! I've seen how strong Yuki is, she could disarm the guards and kill them in a second, we could escape if we got enough people together," Harry said turning around to face Yaga.
Yaga did not respond for a moment and instead drank from a stone cup a he had carved himself. "Have I told you the story of how me and Tsukumo came to be here?" He asked.
"No," Harry replied. Yaga gestured for him to sit down in front of him, reluctantly Harry did so.
"It all began over a year ago when I was asked by the higher-ups in Jujutsu society to investigate a new group that had appeared in Japan," he explained as he took a sip again.
"This group seemed to know about Cursed Spirits and sorcerers, and yet they were regular humans, not a single sorcerer among them," he continued.
"The Knights Templar," Harry commented.
Yaga nodded "Japan is relatively excluded from the rest of the world when it comes to magic." Harry didn't find that so surprising, from what he knew about muggle Japan they were rather xenophobic so to see it translated into their magical world was kind of expected.
"When the Templar showed up and started to kill curses we took note of them but did not make any moves against them."
"However sorcerers from our southern branches started to disappear and very soon the whole branch was wiped out, at the time we didn't know who was responsible which was why I was sent to investigate with one of my students."
Yaga scratched his beard before letting out a sigh "Our investigations took us out of Japan and into Europe. Needless to say, it didn't end well for us and we were beaten and thrown in this prison."
Harry frowned, he had seen how strong Yuki was and even if Yaga wasn't as good as her in hand-to-hand combat his magic would've been stronger. It didn't make sense how a muggle would've been able to defeat them both and throw them into this place.
Yaga chuckled lightly "You must be wondering how we were both defeated despite having access to our magic."
"Which brings us to the reason for this tale, from our investigations into the order we discovered many things."
"For example, in camps like these, they have magicals on the surface making enchanted weapons and armour for them."
"But more importantly we discovered who leads the Knights Templar."
"They are a group of people that call themselves the Round Table, I'm sure I don't need to tell you who they base their name off," Yaga stated.
"Arthurian legend," Harry commented.
"Exactly, it was one of these people that we ran into and it was one of those that beat us so utterly," Yaga said his voice taking on a grim tone.
"He introduced himself as Lancelot, he had what we call a Heavenly Restriction, that combined with his enchanted weapons and armour... he slaughtered us; his shield negated our cursed techniques and his sword cut through any defence we tried to summon..."
"Why are you telling me this?" Harry asked.
"Because Lancelot's home is on the surface, he's up there now as we speak."
"We'd all be killed as soon as we made it up to the surface, that's if we can get passed the guards and knights protecting the elevator."
Yaga then cleared his throat. "So you see the only route to escape is through stealth, when you first achieve your animagus form it will release a burst of magic from the connection your soul makes, I believe that will be enough to destroy the shackles."
Harry sat in silence thinking about all he had told him, if what he said was true and the leaders of the Knights Templar were truly that strong then there truly was no other way. "I'll try harder..." Harry simply said, Yaga nodded at this with a look of approval.
It wasn't long after that Miguel and Yuki returned. "I hope you're ready Harry, I've signed you up for your first death match," Yuki said with an amused grin on her face.
"I'm sorry my friend I did try to stop her," Miguel said a little deflated as he nursed a bruised eye.
Harry didn't much care though "When?" He simply asked.
"Two days," she stated.
"Do you not think it's a little soon Tsukumo?" Yaga asked.
Yuki shrugged "If he dies he wasn't worthy of being my student," she replied.
"It's fine," Harry cut in before anyone could talk. "I'll win," he simply said. He had watched Yennefer deteriorate over the past two weeks, it was only the constant food she was getting that managed to keep her strong, he needed to get her something more or she'd perish, he wanted to move her here but he wasn't sure if she could handle the journey.
Miguel looked concerned for Harry, he had just come back from watching one of the death matches and it was brutal. A werewolf by the name of Fenrir Greyback pinned someone to the ground and pulled his arms back until they snapped like a chicken bone, but he didn't stop there, he continued to pull until he yanked them clean off. After his opponent was dead he took the corpse back to the southern sector to feast on. Miguel knew he wouldn't want to be fighting anyone like that.
Yuki wasn't too worried, as much as she put on a front of dislike to the two new additions to their group she was quite astonished at Harry's rate of growth. His martial talent was simply incredible, and combined with his unyielding will led to a combination that was downright terrifying. It pissed her off, she was meant to be the prodigy, she was sixteen and she'd mastered several different martial arts and had a powerful Cursed Technique that she was getting good at using. She'd have to start training even harder, she wouldn't let a kid three years younger than her get overtake her. Even if that kid happened to be a Six Eyes user.
Harry decided not to condition his knuckles and spend the next two days recovering, he did however start to shadow box, pretending to fight various people of all shapes and sizes. He didn't know who he'd be fighting in a few days but it didn't matter.
He'd win.
(AN: So a little backstory on how Yuki and Yaga ended up there. As well as some more information about the Knights Templar, and if you want to know all members of the round table have a heavenly restriction however not all of them are the same. And yes Excalibur exists. Anyone wanna have a guess at what Harry's Animagus form will be. Anyway next chapter will be the first death match, I don't wanna stretch this mini arc out too much so I'm gonna try and shorten it and have Harry out of this place in 3 more chapters I think.... Don't hold me to that. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.)
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