As Asterion took down Alexei and his dragon, Luna stared at the third member of the Russian team, the famous Quidditch player, Victor Krum, riding a Ukrainian Ironbelly, about eight metres long, looking especially strong and powerful flying against the strong winds of the storm. His dark hair fluttered in the wind, and heavy rain beat against his face.
Unlike Asterion, who had attacked head-on without hiding, Luna couldn't attack head-on, not when her dragon wasn't in perfect condition and not as strong as the greatest dragon race in the world.
So she did what every weak person in the world did, she ambushed the strong man and attacked at his weakest moment, a strategy that surprisingly worked most of the time, considering how arrogant strong men and women were. After all, who in their right mind would attack someone as strong as they were?
Taking advantage of the storm, a perfect element to hide and disguise her tracks, Luna followed Victor Krum like a wolf stalking its prey in the shadows.
Poor Victor didn't even notice a pair of silver eyes staring at him in the shadows of the night. The young Quidditch player continued to search as fast as he could for anything that might point to the second portal.
He knew he was in a race against time and that other teams could arrive at any moment. At the same time, he prayed to some ancient deity that he wouldn't run into the Hogwarts team at this delicate moment.
It wasn't just his dragon that was tired, he was too. During the first part of the desert, he'd been attacked several times by other dragon riders and had injured his arm, not too badly, but still affecting his coordination.
The movement of drawing his wand was stiffer than usual, and he began to feel some pain in his injured arm and some hives at the site of the wound. That's why, in addition to finding the second portal, finding an island was of the utmost importance to him.
Finding the second portal, however, was proving more difficult than expected, especially as his dragon's speed was slowing, and even using the air currents to conserve energy, the dragon was becoming increasingly tired.
This was bad news for him, and Victor knew it, for while he was searching for the Second Gate, he was also searching for an island where he could rest and perhaps heal his wounds. Unfortunately, fate seemed to be cruel to him, as there was no island, natural or man-made, as far as he could see.
At the same time, he couldn't help but complain about the stinginess of the Russian team, potions could have helped his situation enormously, but unfortunately, apart from the potion bottles given in the King's Game, the potions given for the Dragon Race were not enough.
Especially when fighting was extremely frequent and the chances of getting injured were extremely high. Unfortunately, he did not have any potions with him at the moment, all of them having been consumed during the first part of the race. He had the misfortune of having to fight three times in a short space of time, which depleted his supply of potions.
As Victor worried about his injury and fatigue, he didn't realise that a worse fate awaited him. Luna, who had watched Victor long enough, put her worries aside and decided to attack, seeing her enemy's dragon growing weaker and weaker as it fought against the storm.
And that's exactly what she did, she drew her wand and turned her wrist, a blue spell came out of the tip of her wand and shot towards Victor, completely unaware of the attack. It was an Expelliarmus, but the result was not at all what Luna had hoped for, for the spell had been cast wrongly!
The Ironbelly had descended slightly and was moving sideways like any normal bird in the world, meaning that Luna's spell had missed Victor by a wide margin. This must have alerted the young Quidditch prodigy, because when a spell passes you by, you have to notice it.
Concentrating on finding an island or the second gate of the second part of the race, Victor was stunned to see the blue light pass over him. The blue glow and the remnants of magical energy in the air were simply unmistakable to the eyes of any witch or wizard.
Knowing that he was being attacked, Victor quickly drew his wand and glanced over his shoulder to the side and quickly spotted a dark figure flying behind him, although he couldn't see it clearly at the correct distance of twenty metres, he knew it was the shadow of a dragon, there was no other option given the competition he was taking part in.
Without hesitation, he unleashed a flurry of spells at the enemy, who quickly moved away, leaving Victor completely defenceless as he no longer had the enemy's field of vision and could now be attacked from all sides. Basically, he was in the light and the enemy was in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to attack.
To be honest, the situation was quite unnerving, as the seconds passed, seconds that seemed like hours to him, the more Victor felt that he was being watched by the shadows and he knew that his instincts weren't wrong, there was an enemy hunting him in the shadows.
Knowing that he couldn't stay in this extremely dangerous situation, he did something that his team captain had ordered him not to do. Raising his wand to the sky, Victor didn't hesitate to shout loudly. Lumos Maxima! A huge ball of white light emerged from his wand and soared into the sky.
Everything within a hundred yards lit up as if there were a second sun on Earth, dispersing the darkness of the night and revealing everything that had been hidden.
Victor, who was prepared, quickly spotted the blue dragon about thirty metres away, and although he didn't know how the enemy could follow him at such a distance given the weather and the night, he quickly approached, casting spell after spell without hesitation.
Luna, blinded by the sudden Lumos Maxima, had no time to react and felt buzzing sounds pass through her, then she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, she didn't need to hear her bones breaking to know that some of the bones in her shoulder had been shattered by a Diffindossum spell.
But the pain was nothing compared to what she had felt when Albion had tortured her, so, quickly distracted by her vision, she raised her arm and did not hesitate to cast the same spells on the Russian team member, taking him by surprise with such a swift counter-attack.
It was like a Star Wars battle, but instead of special battle cruisers, there were dragons and the cannons were the witches themselves.
Luna, seeing that Victor was trying to close the distance between them, wasn't stupid and stepped back, keeping him at a distance of several dozen metres. She delayed the time it would take for reinforcements to arrive. Because of the Lumos Maxima, it could be said that practically everyone within a kilometre radius had seen the spell, she just had to wait for Rose or Asterion to arrive and finish off the Russian team member.
Whether Rose or Asterion could find her in the middle of the storm wasn't her concern, she knew from the words of both Special Grade wizards how sensitive they were to magical energy, so she wasn't worried at all about being located.
Victor, on the other hand, was in a completely different state than Luna, apart from using countless spells to illuminate the area in order to locate the enemy accurately, he had to keep his concentration and dodge any spells that were cast at him, and he had to admit that the enemy was cunning and would cast spells at moments when he lost his concentration or even made a mistake. Although the question of how the enemy could see him from so far away, in a storm and in the dark of night, still remained a mystery in his mind.
However, he had better things to concentrate on than solving this mystery, for his dragon was not only consuming a great deal of magical energy, but was also becoming increasingly tired from the all-consuming battle, especially on his part from chasing after the enemy.
Victor was at a great disadvantage at the moment, for if he stayed and fought the enemy, he would be bombarded with spells and exhausted to exhaustion, and if he decided to run, he would be chased and bombarded with spells from afar in the same way. He also didn't think he could escape with a tired dragon and the enemy could see him from a distance.
In short, he was completely screwed and his only option was to pray that someone from his team would come to his aid, which soon proved to be the exact opposite as his fear of attracting the other members of the enemy team came to fruition.
As he cast a random spell in one direction, trying to illuminate his surroundings so that he would not be ambushed again, he caught a glimpse of a vague figure in the distance, and although it was vague and almost impossible to make out, he saw that it was a dragon!
When asked if it was an enemy or a friend, he quickly answered as he caught a glimpse of the Ukrainian Ironbelly, who was rapidly approaching him. In the Russian team, he was the only one with a Ukrainian Ironbelly! Without hesitation, the young Quidditch prodigy decided to abandon the fight and run as far away as possible.
As Victor's despair grew, the smile on Luna's face widened as she saw Rose coming towards her in the future. She didn't let the Russian get away when she finally had the upper hand.
Rose, who had spotted the Lumos Maxima from afar and hadn't fought anyone yet, quickly arrived on the battlefield and saw the spell exchange, as well as Victor Krum trying to run away from the battlefield, something she obviously didn't want to do.
'You're not going to run away. ' The white-haired girl flashed an excited smile and took control of Oberon, not hesitating to attack at high speed, using large amounts of magical energy to propel Oberon forward.
Victor only felt his world spin as the dragons collided in the air, clawing and biting each other brutally. Quickly recovering from the initial shock, he glanced over and what he saw instantly extinguished his hope.
Rose Potter was smiling at him as she pointed a wand at him. 'Diffindossum!
Blyad!" was the only thing Victor said before he was brutally thrown from his saddle and dropped from a terrifying height without a parachute. His chest sank with the impact as he saw his dragon still fighting Rose's dragon.
Quickly casting a levitation spell, Victor felt the darkness consume his mind before he hit the water.
Rose, seeing that Victor was still OK, albeit unconscious, went back to watching the dragon fight with great interest; both beasts were simply brutal. They didn't care about their own injuries and concentrated on hurting each other as quickly as possible.
Knowing she couldn't wait any longer, Rose decided to help Oberon by aiming her wand at the enemy dragon.
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Next Chapter Second Volume: Chapter 213 -At the Highest Point of Heaven (END Dragon Race), Chapter 214 - The Spark of Chaos (1), Chapter 215 - The Spark of Chaos (2), Chapter 216 - The Spark of Chaos (3), Chapter 217 - The Spark of Chaos (4), Chapter 218 - Ancient Artifact (1), Chapter 219 - Ancient Artifact (2), Chapter 220 - The Last Moment Before Chaos (1), Chapter 221 - The Last Moment Before Chaos (2, Chapter 222 - The Labyrinth of Cnossos (1), Chapter 223 - The Labyrinth of Cnossos (2), Chapter 224 - The Labyrinth of Cnossos (3).
Next Chapter of the Third Volume: Chapter 225 - A Dark Day (1), Chapter 226 - A Dark Day (2), Chapter 227 - A Talk Between Two Monarchs (1), Chapter 228 - Preparations for War (1).