Daphne struck first with a kick. Rose easily defended against the attack with her arms while delivering a punch towards her opponent.
Daphne swiftly dodged, shifting slightly to the side. She then stepped back and looked at Rose with a dignified gaze.
Fast. That was Daphne's initial thought about Rose's strikes. Her second thought was that there was no hesitation or fear in Rose's movements. If it weren't for the extraordinary perception she possessed because of the Greengrass House's Inborn Technique - [Heart of Nature], it would have been difficult for her to evade the attacks of the girl with white hair.
"Looks like someone's good at dodging," Rose taunted with a smile on her face.
The Greengrass heiress coldly huffed and swiftly approached her, delivering quick and precise punches.
Completely relaxed and unconcerned, Rose, with her hands behind her back, easily dodged the attacks with an extremely provocative smile. She circled around Daphne and leaned back as she whispered,
"I'm going to show off a bit for your boyfriend, hope you don't mind."
Daphne's eyes nearly instantly began to gleam with a cold light, a green aura spreading around her like an ethereal flame burning silently. The smell of ozone filled the classroom, and flashes flickered around Daphne. The thunderous sounds of thunder echoed.
The Greengrass House's Inborn Technique - [Heart of Nature] - involved controlling natural phenomena, such as natural disasters, at the highest levels of mastery of the Inborn Technique.
Daphne manipulated the lightning bolts as if wielding a weapon, aiming them at Rose, who still smiled nonchalantly. Without hesitation, she fired.
Clearly, Rose easily dodged the attack and continued to evade the dozens of lightning bolts fired at her sequentially.
Rose could have used The Limitless to become invincible, but she chose to dodge all the attacks to further irritate the Slytherin blonde.
"Princess, you need to aim properly, otherwise you won't hit me." Rose pointed to the center of her own forehead and taunted while dodging a lightning bolt that nearly grazed her right cheek.
Daphne stopped shooting lightning and focused on the atmosphere around Rose, making the air thin and heavy until she essentially created a vacuum in the space around her, wanting to see what Rose would do without air.
Rose noticed the change in the atmosphere almost instantly. She didn't intend to let Daphne do as she pleased and reached out, then clenched her hand tightly. The space around Daphne suddenly contracted, locking the Slytherin blonde in place.
Daphne tried to break free from the spatial prison, but she couldn't move. It was as if there was a barrier around her skin, preventing her from moving a muscle to free herself.
The vacuum zone she wanted to create dissipated without her support, causing the air around Rose to return to normal.
"That was risky, Princess. Well, risky is a strong word, but let's just say it was amusing." Rose walked up to Daphne and spoke provocatively. Their faces were dangerously close.
Daphne's eyes practically gleamed with fury. In her life, she had never been so angry as she was at this moment. The most frustrating part was that she couldn't punch that smiling face of the white-haired witch.
Irena approached and praised aloud, "A great fight, you both have excellent reflexes and speed, but I recall saying it was a friendly match."
She looked at both girls and spoke sternly, "You two are disqualified. You both lost."
Rose didn't care; anyone could see that she was the one who won. She didn't need someone to tell her whether she had won or lost.
Giving Daphne a provocative kiss on the cheek, Rose laughed at the furious look on the girl's face and returned to the Gryffindor girls' group, humming a pleasant tune.
"I'm going to kill that witch!!!" Daphne, free from the spatial confinement, spat out each word through clenched teeth.
"Good luck with that," Irene said, noticing the tension between the two, likely an adolescent love triangle that she was too lazy to inquire about.
Daphne turned and went back to the Slytherin girls' group. No one dared to speak, noticing the cold and murderous aura she emanated. However, her power certainly surprised everyone, solidifying her status as one of the strongest in Slytherin, so the loss to Rose was not without gains.
The girls' fights continued, nothing as shocking as Daphne and Rose's fight, but still very good fights, especially Luna Lovegood's, who defeated her opponent simply by dodging with erratic and unpredictable movements.
Dorea Malfoy's fight was also interesting, but she ended up being disqualified for using her Inborn Technique - [Wheel of Fortune] - to make her opponent stumble at every step, bringing misfortune to the Hufflepuff girl.
A truly intriguing Inborn Technique.
When all the girls finished fighting, the boys finally began.
Theodoro was the first, fighting none other than Ron Weasley. Well, calling it a fight was an understatement; Ron seemed to only have talent for Wizard's Chess, as he couldn't land a single blow on Theodoro Nott, who constantly mocked him. In the end, Ron lost in a particularly embarrassing manner.
Although this fight didn't garner much excitement from the bored audience, everyone became excited for the next match.
Asterion Black vs. Neville Longbottom.
"How in the name of Merlin did that Squib get into Hogwarts as a student? Shouldn't it have replaced Finch?" Theodoro asked his shocked companion.
At least in England, Neville was famous, famous for almost wiping out the main branch of the Longbottom House. If Neville's son didn't possess magical abilities, the main branch would be officially declared extinct, and the side branch would take over the Longbottom House. It could be said that all pure-bloods knew Neville, not in a very good way.
"His grandmother must have spread her legs for Dumbledore," Draco sarcastically remarked, eliciting laughter from everyone.
Asterion looked at the indifferent Neville. He could hide his emotions well, but the Black heir could sense the negative emotions ready to explode at any moment.
As for the match with Neville, it was obviously rigged. Asterion used tiny Cursed Spirits he used for spying to hold onto the slip of paper containing Neville's name inside the box. Then he waited for his turn and picked the paper.
"Everyone to the ring," Irene said, feeling a bit impatient with the incessant murmurs around.
Asterion walked to the center of the arena with calm steps while checking to ensure his gloves were firmly secured on his hands.
Neville also walked to the center of the ring with a particularly cold look, hiding a faint murderous intent behind his seemingly indifferent gaze.
"It's been three years, Mr. Longbottom," Asterion greeted him, flexing his fingers, opening and closing them repeatedly.
Neville didn't speak and continued to stare at Asterion with a cold gaze.
"You know, I can feel your hatred towards me, but I'm confused," Asterion said, unconcerned by his silence.
"I haven't done anything to deserve your hatred, yet you want to kill me," he spoke calmly. "Although I believe your hatred is against my family, I sense that you particularly want to kill me."
Neville's eyes grew colder with each word from Asterion. His muscles tensed and became firmer; the teenager was ready to fight him.
"So, I've realized. You hate me because I represent everything you're not. It hurts to look at me and see your opposite reflection," Asterion continued speaking, unfazed by Neville's subtle movements.
When Asterion finished speaking, Neville rushed towards him. His speed seemed like a fleeting shadow to the other students, even to Irene, who widened her eyes in shock.
Neville reached Asterion in 0.1 second.
He clenched his fist and punched with all the force he could muster.
Asterion didn't move a muscle to dodge.
"How rude to attack someone unprepared," Asterion spoke, looking at the fist that missed, passing beside his shoulder.
Neville seemed shocked; he knew he couldn't miss, especially with the superhuman reflexes he possessed.
But seeing that he had missed, Neville attacked again, but the same thing happened, and he missed the blow once again. The teenager didn't stop and continued to rain down punches on Asterion, but without exception, they all missed, and Asterion hadn't even moved a muscle to dodge!
In the Gryffindor girls' group, Hermione opened her mouth, witnessing the incredible scene, punches that they couldn't even see the trajectory of, seemed to deliberately miss Asterion, who was still standing in the same place without dodging once.
"What's going on?" She murmured to herself, still confused.
Rose beside her glanced at Asterion's wrist, where a small silver snake was biting its own tail. She didn't need to be a genius to know it was a cursed spirit.
Asterion, who was looking curiously at the punches, calculated the force behind each punch from the wind they caused. About five tons or less, he wasn't a physicist to calculate something like that accurately.
But it was an incredible strength for a human body with not a drop of magical energy. Neville wasn't and couldn't use Reinforcement Magic to strengthen his body, so this was the pure strength of his body.
An amazing achievement, but this wasn't the universe of One Punch Man, where Saitama could defeat everything with one punch. In most anime and similar universes, physical strength always took second place, losing only to the energy of the universe itself.
In this world, it was no different. No matter how much strength you had, in the face of an energy capable of changing reality itself, human flesh was nothing.
For example, Asterion stood still while using Ouroboros to manipulate fate, changing the fate of each of Neville's punches, causing him to miss each one.
Certainly, Asterion himself admitted that using Ouroboros to manipulate the fate of mere punches... was at the very least... futile. But, he was childish on some occasions, so he opted to use a Special Grade Cursed Spirit intended to be used against a monster named Rose Potter.
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Next Chapter: 59 - Magical Self-Defense Tactical Training Class (4), Chapter 60 - School Council, Chapter 61 - Mission (1), Chapter 62 - Mission (2), Chapter 63 - Mission (3), Chapter 64 - Mission (4), Chapter 65 - Mission (5), Chapter 66 - Consequences of the Attack (1), Chapter 67 - Consequences of the Attack (2), Chapter 68 - Invasion of Hogwarts (1), Chapter 69 - Invasion of Hogwarts (2), Chapter 70 - Invasion of Hogwarts (3), Chapter 71 - Invasion of Hogwarts (4), Chapter 72 - Invasion of Hogwarts (5), Chapter 73 - Invasion of Hogwarts (6), Chapter 74 - Invasion of Hogwarts (7), Chapter 75 - Invasion of Hogwarts (8), Chapter 76 - Invasion of Hogwarts (9), Chapter 77 - Invasion of Hogwarts (10), Chapter 78 - Invasion of Hogwarts (11), Chapter 79 - Post-War (1), Chapter 80 - Salazar Slytherin's Heir (1), Chapter 81 - Salazar Slytherin's Heir (2), Chapter 82 - Salazar Slytherin's Heir (3), Chapter 83 - Salazar Slytherin's Heir (4).