The Tale of Swagrid

Chapter 6

"Depulso" yelled the silvery man. The magma hurtling through the air was thrown to the side, soaking one of the nearby homes in liquid fire. It burnt ferociously, and drops of the scorching rock were splattered across Micheal's face, melting the flesh, and burying themselves, never to be removed. He screamed, ripping at his skull to remove the incinerating shrapnel buried deep within, forgetting that he could draw out the heat with a simple spell. "Lucius, help me!" He whimpered, accepting the excruciating pain that now had overtaken his entire face.

'Lucius,' thought Grawp, "I'll remember that." He'd need to. He threw another rock at Lucius. The man did nothing. When the boulder was a foot away from his face though, he dissipated into a dark cloud of smoke, and soon reappeared a few metres away from his original position. He smiled menacingly. "That won't work on me, giant." He flicked his wand, and four spells shot forth.

One was red, one was blue, and one was green. The other was invisible, and only the wizards present could see it. Under this barrage, Grawp quickly retreated into his mind, and, in the split second that the spells streaked towards him, he calculated what to do. Lucius had cast them silently for this exact purpose, but that therefore meant they weren't his most powerful. He could block them with rocks and his tree club, but only two of them, one per held object. So, he'd take two and block two. Now to figure out which.

A variety of spells are red, as are blue, green, and invisible, so Grawp had to guess. Red spells were usually for direct assault, like stupefy. His skin could take that. Blue was often tactical, such as binding curses and magical nullifiers. Those were too dangerous. The rock would take that. Green spells are often darker magics, or hexes, such as the unforgivable curses - which were ruled out, having specific auras of their own - and petty curses, like 'Eat Slugs', not not activity commonly endorsed when dueling. A hard choice.  Especially with an invisible spell.

Invisible spells cover a huge range of styles, from tracking spells to transfiguration. Grawp decided it was most likely an invisible battle spell, like Repulso or Confrigo. It was a close call, bit Grawp chose to block the invisible spell.

He raised his tree. He raised his stone. Lucius watched, more interested in Grawp's reaction than his demise. The red spell hit his stomach with a glancing blow, and bounced onto the nearest house. The roof shattered. Just as Grawp had deduced; A battle spell. He hoped he'd stay right. Now the blue spell came. Grawp, an accurate thrower, flung the rock at the blue spell. Upon contact, the rock froze as if time had stopped. The blue spell linked over the rock, binding it with four rings of magic, before the slammed back together, cutting the rock easily into eighth's. Definitely one to block. Then, simultaneously, came the green and invisible curses. Grawp watched the invisible one travel forwards, beelining straight into the tree, while the green flew for his flat stomach. "I'll survive", muttered Grawp.

" Probably."