Duelling Tournament Term Six: Final Group Duel

Duelling Tournament: Final Round Instructions


Welcome to the final round of the duel! As we are so close to the end of term, this duel will only last for just over two weeks.

Instructions

The final duel is one big duel where each remaining participant works alone. Battle your fellow duellists so we can discover this term's champion! Each duellist should make up to six posts - but no more than six. Take note of the duel location and set up as follows:

-The duelling arena is a large, dusty ballroom with mirrored walls.
-There are no windows and no door.
-The ceiling is high and suspended from it are 12 large gilded bird cages.
-Each player finds themselves in one of the cages, and must find a way out in order to begin dueling.

You will be marked on the following:

* Eye for surroundings
* Defensive and offensive spells (both what spells are used and how well they are used)
* Knowledge of spells
* Eye for detail (both your own posts and others posts)
* Inventiveness and creativeness as a whole

One sentence posts will not be counted. Try to develop your duelling posts into more than one paragraph. See the howler in the main forum for more information on how to duel successfully.

The duel begins now! Good Luck!

Only those listed below are eligible to participate. Scores will be high, so be sure to be creative!

Pink ribbons were floating all around her, each scrap of cloth being chased by a bouncing, cackling orange. As she reached out her hands to grasp the flying objects, June suddenly became aware of a dull ache in her neck, shoulders, and legs. She dismissed the strange pain; it was just another weird thing about the place she was in. Why was she trying to catch ribbons and oranges anyway? Her hands dropped down to her sides and – BWONG…

June stiffened as she suddenly awoke. As she became more aware of her surroundings, June realized that the sound that had awoken her had been almost like metal hitting something, except… softer. Like a squishy pancake… except not. Huh. June blinked open her eyes and raised her head. She was sitting wither her arms around her knees, leaning against what felt like metal bars. June unfolded herself while wincing when she stretched her aching muscles and slowly stood up. She stood in what appeared to be a gilded bird cage, complete with a locked door, suspended in the air. Turning and staring, June realized that beyond the golden bars of the cage, other Junes turned and stared as well. “Mirrors,” she whispered as she realized that mirrors covered the walls. She half-grimaced; this would certainly make things more interesting. June assumed that she had been transported into the last duel; if she was wrong, then she was in big trouble. But for the sake of a clearer story, let’s assume that June was right.

June took out her wand, glad to feel the familiar wood under her fingers, and pointed it at the lock to the cage. Right now, the top priority was getting out of this constraining – albeit beautiful – prison. “Alohomora,” she said. It didn’t work, as expected; that would be way too easy. “Alohomora maximus,” she tried, though that spell produced the same results. “Reducto!” June cried, hoping to blast the lock open. Nothing happened. It was around this point that June started getting irritated. “Depulso,” June muttered through gritted teeth, trying to Banish the lock away. Once again, nada, nilch, nix on the results.

She lowered her wand and closed her eyes, taking deep calming breaths. Gradually, her hands unclenched and her heartbeat slowed as she began to think more rationally. Obviously, nothing could really be done about the lock, so she would have to get out of the cage another way. For a few minutes, June just stood and thought. Suddenly, she had an idea. It was risky and she might get hurt in the process, but she couldn’t really think of anything else at the moment. June reached up and pointed her wand at the top of the cage. “Cogo (compress, Latin),” she said, crouching down. The spell worked and slowly, the top and bottom of the cage pressed towards each other, forcing the bars of the cage outward. As the top of the cage came closer and closer to June’s head, she began to panic; if this didn’t work, then she’d become a squished Gryffindor and not much use at all in this duel. Her heart pounding, June stared at the bars, trying to judge when to stop the spell. Now. “Finite Incantatem!” June cried.

The cage came to a jarring stop, the top only a centimeter away from her head. June breathed a slow sigh of relief and crawled to where the bars had bent, their middles pushing outward. Carefully, June grasped two bars tightly and slowly let herself down until she was sure that her torso could pass between them. When she was satisfied with that, she strained to pull herself up again before sitting back and looking at the bars. Getting out of the cage had been hard; this was the easy part. “Morsa e corda (grapple and rope, Italian),” June said, waving her wand. She conjured a pronged metal grapple that she securely hooked to the bottom of one of the bars. Attached to the grapple was a long length of rope which she let hang down towards the ground in the space between two bars. June tried to keep calm as she grasped the bar with the grapple on it and let her torso slide into empty space. She caught the hanging rope with her legs and slowly put her hands onto it. She began to shimmy down the rope towards the ground.

Five minutes later, June hopped from the end of the rope to the ground with a huge sense of relief. She was all for heights and flying, but hanging from a solitary rope high in the air just couldn’t compare with the security of having both feet firmly on the ground. June looked around the room, her wand in hand. A few feet away, a molten rounded thing of metal with sharp protrusions on it rested on the ground. That must have been what had woken her up. June began to walk towards it, her wand held out in case anything happened, but she was stopped in her tracks as metal fell down and entrapped her with a loud clang. June jumped and spun around. She blinked. No way… Whoever had previously occupied this cage had spelled it to fall down and trap someone. This cage with half of a bar gone and, from the appearance of it, melted, was supposed to trap her. Okay then… Hoping there wasn’t a catch to this, June pointed her wand at the still-warm and malleable bar and said, “Piegare (bend, Italian).” The ends on either end of the empty space bent outwards until June was able to step through, unharmed.

June looked around for the other free duelist, but the mirrors didn’t reveal anything obvious. June shrugged; she’d just have to wait until the dueler revealed themselves. Waving her wand around herself, June said, “Blóðvökvi skjöldur (plasma shield, Icelandic).” This produced a clear plasma-like shield that surrounded her in a bubble-like fashion. Bendable and reminiscent of a malleable plastic, the shield would make spells hitting it rebound towards the caster while also letting June cast through it. June followed up that spell with “Muffliato” to protect her words and she walked to the nearest mirrored wall.

“Souhaiter à voyons (wish to see, French),” June said as she tapped the mirror. Now, all the mirrors on the walls would show the viewers whatever they themselves wanted to see. It wasn’t what it sounded like: For example, if June wanted to see where a duelist was, the mirrors would show her the duelist, not where they actually were in the room. The spell was a hindrance instead of a help and produced hopefully-confusing illusions. June couldn’t make herself immune to the spell’s effects, and as she walked away, she reminded herself not to use the mirrors as a guide.

This duel is now closed, winners will be posted shortly.