208 The Chinese Fireball

A full sensory assault awaited Oleandra on the other side of the tent flaps; momentarily blinded by the early afternoon sun's rays, she raised a hand in front of her face to shield her eyes. Disoriented by the light and the loud sounds of the crowd, Oleandra could only wait for her senses to adapt. Also, was that burnt flesh she could smell?

"And here comes our next-to-youngest champion from Hogwarts, who will be attempting the first task without a wand!" cried Bagman. "She will be facing a Chinese Fireball; a subspecies especially adept at breathing flames!"

Oleandra took a look at her surroundings; the stage was surrounded by tall stands, filled to the brim with the faces of students happily looking forward to a bloodbath. Directly opposite her was the judges' table, where Bagman was doing his commentating. At the centre of the stage lay a crimson-red Dragon surrounded by scorch marks. Upon further examination, Oleandra discovered it was sitting on some sort of nest made out of boulders; the golden egg had to be under the Dragon.

'A nesting female dragon; perhaps the most dangerous creature after a nesting goose pair… Goose, Dragon… Heh, a dragon that lays golden eggs… Wait, this is not the moment for wisecracks. Focus, Oleandra!'

Oleandra stepped forward and clasped her hands together in the hand sign of the ram.

"CAMBIO EXUVIA!" Oleandra cried.

Thankfully, Quick-Change Charm worked on her first try. A gentle glow spread out from Oleandra's arms, quickly engulfing the rest of her body from head to toe. Her robes quickly unravelled in a spiralling motion, fabric and cloth separating into a series of narrow strips; like rings floating around her limbs and body in an exploded-view drawing. A moment later, the rings rotated by half a turn and tightened, reforming into Oleandra's Basilisk-skin combat robes.

"What a transformation!" Bagman's voice boomed. "Performing wandless magic at her age! Must be a timesaver to change out of your pyjamas in the morning!"

Oleandra instantly retrieved the Ice Potion from a pocket and downed it in a single gulp. Wincing slightly from the feeling of her veins turning to ice, she retrieved her wand from its holster.

"Ready, Cloak?" Oleandra murmured into her clothes, and she shot into the air, putting the sun between her and the Chinese Fireball. "Banana Hanger."

She cut quite the gallant figure in midair, sash wrapped tightly around her waist, the hem of her robes and her cloak fluttering heroically in the wind. Not to mention the complex runic sigils revealing themselves on her exposed skin, giving her quite the mystical air…

It was time to test the waters! Oleandra threw out a bunch of acorns marked with the Berkana rune all around her and watched them cover the entirety of the playing field. She had briefly considered using them to inflict damage upon the Dragon from the inside, but she had soon realized that repeating what she had done to Fluffy would never work: the acorns would turn to ashes the instant they entered any of the Dragon's orifices.

"She's airborne!" shouted Bagman, squinting up at the sky. "It's just as I thought; unsupported flight! Miss Greengrass has achieved something no other Wizard or Witch has ever done!"

Oleandra suddenly crossed her arms in an X shape in front of her and dived straight down, accelerating herself to greater and greater speeds with the aid of both Cloak the Lethifold and gravity itself! In response, the Chinese Fireball reared back, opening its mighty maw to devour her whole!

"She's going to crash into her Dragon!" cried Bagman. "I can't bear to watch; someone call the Mediwizards!"

But Oleandra didn't have the slightest intention of turning into a fine red mist; she brushed her fingertips against the Sigil of the Pleiades on her right shoulder, causing it to glow fiercely.

"Sevenfold strike of the Pleiades!"

Seven magical arrows; one for each of the seven sisters, that was the constellation spell that Daphne had devised! It was extremely simple, and yet it invoked the magic of the most powerful number: seven. Individually, each one of the arrows was rather weak, but together, they could pierce anything! In theory.

One, two, three, four, five, six magical beams arced from Oleandra's body, twisting and turning jaggedly in the air until they struck true, each one consecutively hitting the Dragon's head, causing it to cry mournfully. Unfortunately, Oleandra had slightly misjudged her timing. The instant before she crashed into the dragon's awaiting jaws, she was forced to use the Tree-Porting runes on her other shoulder.

Her view, which had been filled a moment earlier with the Dragon's gaping maw and pointy teeth, was suddenly replaced with that of the hard ground. Despite teleporting to one of her acorns, her momentum had been conserved, flinging her parallel along the ground and sending her tumbling head over heels across the stage.

Oleandra tried to stand back up, but she ended up falling on her behind, too dizzy to tell up from down. She had to get moving before the Dragon roasted her alive! But that was easier said than done, her vision was still spinning wildly.

Still stunned, Oleandra watched as the Chinese Fireball reared up its head; its thorax and throat beginning to glow red as it summoned fire into its airways. She was about to find out first-hand what the Chinese Fireball's iconic fireball looked like!

'Cloak, take me up!' Oleandra mumbled incoherently.

But before she could rise more than a few feet into the air, the Dragon beat its wings, generating a gust powerful enough to send Oleandra back to the ground! Physically, she was still fine, only slightly dazed. Her combat robes were of excellent make, and Cloak had taken care to shield her exposed skin from cuts and abrasions during her little tumble.

Luckily for her, she had landed about as far away from the Dragon as she possibly could have. The mother Dragon unwilling to leave its nest, it could only resort to long-range attacks; and with the distance separating it from Oleandra, it needed to breathe in as much air as it could for its flame breath to reach her!