51 Chapter 50: Unexpected Problems

Severus was slowly letting the fatigue, aches, and bruises do the work of putting an end to Neil.

Maybe if Severus wanted to he could find a way to end the duel sooner, but he knew that Neil was losing his mind due to the suffering and exhaustion of the duel.

His crazy and brutal way of dueling was efficient against wizards weaker than him, but against Severus, it was his biggest flaw.

His aggressive and constantly offensive way of dueling was similar to Ethan's, only more unbalanced.

Neil couldn't hold himself steady much longer and Severus wanted to wait until this happened to humiliate him.

Everyone in the stands began to watch the duel with surprise due to the intensity and brutality of both duelists.

It was shocking to see Severus and Neil dueling, both had terrifying personalities that chilled everyone's skin.

Neil for being just like a psychopath and Severus for being so calm about it, it was almost as if he was expecting to kill his opponent at any moment.

In the stands, Severus' group watched the duel with different thoughts.

'I hope Severus is alright' Freyja saw the intensity of the duel and worried that Severus might end up hurt, despite seeing Severus as an incredibly powerful and intelligent wizard, she still didn't want to see him in danger.

Gwen, on the other hand, only smiled because she knew that it was only a matter of time before Severus defeated his opponent.

Sasaki thought the same as Gwen, he did not doubt who would win the duel.

While Hermione knew that Severus was looking to humiliate his former Slytherin partner.

If it were anyone else Severus' opponent, Hermione would surely reprimand him for doing this, but Neil represented everything Hermione hated.

Unbalanced, brutal, inelegant, obsessed with blood purity for no logical reason.

He had all the nasty traits she had seen in death eaters.

And Hermione really couldn't feel any sympathy for the Slytherin.

"Sectum" crazily shouted Neil looking to cut Severus off.

"Protejo" defended Severus and countered "Flipendo!"

Neil was thrown into the air and landed on the hard floor of the platform.

When he got up he was furious and even more out of control than before, his eyes were bloodshot.

"Bloody blood traitor, Bombarda Maxima...!" said a desperate Neil without caring that in this competition this spell was not allowed for being able to kill a mage or make him lose a limb.

The duel referee was about to intervene and stop the duel.

"Impedimenta" Severus nullified Neil's spell before the referee could do anything and even before the audience could become concerned about the situation, leaving Neil stunned for a few seconds with his spell.

But Severus took advantage of this opportunity, he would not let anyone stop the duel, he had waited a long time to humiliate his opponent.

Suddenly, Severus' wand broke the air.

"Petrificus Totalus, Levicorpus" Severus quickly cast two spells in sequence, completely paralyzing Neil and leaving him suspended in the air without being able to say a single word.

Neil watched him from the air in anger unable to move or even speak.

Severus just gave him a mocking glance.

But before anyone could do or comment anything else, a loud explosion was heard.

Moments later several wizards appeared inside the building wearing very peculiar clothing.

They were about 17 wizards wearing long black tunics or cloaks of the same color, along with black masks with slits through which their eyes could be seen.

"For Lord Voldemort!" shouted the 17 men in black and began to cast spells and brutally attack people in the facility without even waiting for anyone to say anything else.

Instantly several adult wizards watching the competition jumped out of their seats along with the referees, judges, and several Ilvermory professors who settled in to defend the audience.

"Evacuate the installation immediately and take everyone inside the Ilvermory castle, they will be protected there," said one of the Ilvermory teachers quickly as he saw the dangerous situation.

The others nodded and began to gather people together to avoid as many casualties in the conflict as possible.

"Not so fast, everyone, purge the blood traitors!" shouted one of the men in black casting a hex that was stopped by one of the judges.

Most of the wizards and witches who were inexperienced in dueling began to run in panic around the installation.

While a few tried to help restrain the wizards wearing black tunics and masks.

Currently, all the people were gathered in 3 sectors of the building.

Most people were on the two platforms where the duelists who reached the quarterfinals were dueling.

And the minority formed by the judges and some teachers were on the podium in the center of the building.

On the platform where Severus was, seven of the wizards in black appeared.

The referee along with some adult wizards tried to restrain them while the teachers escorted the rest of the people out of the facility.

Unfortunately, the referee and several of the wizards who had intervened died due to brutal attacks with dark magic from the wizards in black.

Severus on the other hand was caught in the middle of the conflict.

The wizards in black also attacked him without letting him retreat.

Severus had lost control of his spell on Neil because he had to defend himself from the attacks.

After a while, he was left alone Severus surrounded by 5 of the dark wizards.

"I told you, Snape, I was the only one interested in participating in the competition, but the others already had other plans," said Neil amused.

"Death Eaters" replied Severus calmly as he looked at the 5 wizards surrounding him.

"That's right and you could be one of us now," said Neil as he showed him the tenebrous mark on his arm.

Severus opened his eyes in contemplation, he hadn't expected Voldemort to actually try to kill him in the USA.

He might be a psychopath, but he was still very smart.

Doing this would only complicate whatever plans he had in Britain.

"You think doing this will win you favor with the Dark Lord?" scoffed Severus as he understood the situation.

"Tch, you always were clever Snape, too bad you were a blood traitor, now die," Neil said disgustedly as he prepared his wand to strike.

"Expelliarmus" was suddenly heard and instantly Neil's wand went flying.

It had been Hermione who suddenly appeared along with Gwen, Ethan, Freyja and Sasaki.

Severus wanted to curse them for being so impulsive but refrained from doing so and took advantage of the situation to attack and unbalance the Death eaters around them.

Quickly Hermione's group joined him.

They all began to cast spell after spell.

It had been planned, they were looking for Severus.

Just as Hermione had thought might happen.

She had tried to stop Severus from participating in the competition, but he had been stubborn.

She knew that there were no Aurors open in the competition, so it was the perfect time to attack him.

But Severus said that the Dark Lord wouldn't dare create a conflict at this time against MACUSA,

Hermione should have convinced him and insisted more there, but Severus was too confident to see his reason.

And now here they were, fighting for their lives against the Death eaters.

Several spells hit the ground near the group, leaving many scorch marks and sizzling rocks behind.

Everyone thrust their wands, casting spell after spell, trying to defeat the Death eaters.

But the dark wizards had a lot of experience and greater magical power, so they stayed on the offensive at all times.

Only Severus, Ethan, and Hermione managed to keep up with the death eaters.

But Gwen and Sasaki were having a hard time, both had stayed in front of Freyja to protect her while she helped them from behind.

The group relaxed when they saw that more adult mages had joined in to support them, however, these Dark Mages were more than capable and were slowly killing them all.

Severus' group found themselves playing defense, dodging and ducking, throwing shields left and right, barely surviving.

It had been going so fast this whole conflict, it was a back and forth of spells between everyone.

Hermione had been dueling with three death eaters alongside with Severus, while Ethan was staying very defensive against one, constantly backing away, he was losing bit by bit.

Sasaki, Gwen, and Freyja were also dealing with one of the death eaters, when they were separated by a large explosion of a Bombarda Maxima from one of the death eaters who had apparently finished dealing with the mages who came to help the group.

The young Sasaki prodigy quickly got to his feet, casting a Protego against the flurry of spells sent their way.

While Gwen and Freyja kept at it, using their small statures to their advantage.

"Stunner!"

side-step

"Protego"

step-forward

"Stupify"

side-step.

Again and again, the group dueled with these masked dark wizards.

Severus and Hermione had managed to push back the three wizards they were facing, gaining the advantage.

Until one of the three death eaters was finally taken down by quick consecutive stunners.

Severus and Hermione were smart and understood each other perfectly, both had been patiently waiting for them to get used to their dueling timing, knowing that they would underestimate them because of their ages.

However, they hadn't realized how far behind their friends they were in the process of defeating the dark wizards in front of them.

Their backs were to the two remaining death eaters, and all around them bursts of color illuminated the large building as all sorts of spells were cast.

They both heard a loud cackling behind them.

"Kill them all for the glory of the Dark Lord!" they were heard to say to the remaining 5 dark wizards.

Now only Severus' group was left alive on the dueling platform.

The rest of the people had either escaped in despair or had died in a duel against the 7 death eaters.

Luckily there were now only 5 dark wizards left standing, while two had been stunned.

Neil had just killed the last of the wizards who came to help Severus' group.

So he took the opportunity to cast spells on each and every member of the group that he could see.

It was in the next moment when Neil raised his wand over Freija, with his back to Gwen and Freyja who were unsuspecting.

Sasaki who was nearby quickly freed himself from the death eater he was dueling with and moved to help Freyja quickly.

"Expelliarmus!" he shouted, his spell flung the wand from Neil's hands into the darkness.

Neil rounded on him, a furious rage on his face, "Bloody blood traitor!" he roared, lunging towards Sasaki.

"Filipendo!"

Sasaki didn't expect Neil to have another wand in his hands and be able to defend himself.

"Protego" Neil managed to defend himself to Sasaki's surprise and followed that up by casting another spell but silently towards Freyja.

This surprised Sasaki who tried to do something but was obstructed by the dark wizard he was facing before.

Freyja was hit with a sharp force from Neil's spell, which knocked her to the ground.

"Freyja!" shouted Sasaki and Gwen drawing the attention of Hermione and Severus who turned to see what had happened.

As they turned around they saw Freyja lying on the ground and both were noticeably concerned.

But Severus and Sasaki instantly went mad and cast all kinds of dark magic without caring about the implications of this.

So far no one had used dark magic besides the death eaters.

But they no longer cared if they got in trouble for this, they were both consumed in anger.

The dark mages in front of them were able to stay on the defensive for a few moments, but they were slowly falling back and losing ground under the attacks of Sasaki and Severus.

Ethan and Gwen were shocked by what they saw.

Neither of them had expected Severus and Sasaki to know so much dark magic, let alone at that level.

Hermione on the other hand, already expected that this could happen with Severus angry, but she didn't expect it from their partner, the young man named Sasaki.

"Gwen!!!, go look at Freyja, we'll take care of this!" shouted Hermione to him, making her react quickly and go to see Freyja's wound without a second thought.

Ethan on the other hand was still in shock and very doubtful about what he was seeing, but he also moved shortly after and went to support Gwen in case there was any unexpected trouble.

Severus and Sasaki hit the death eaters with many dark spells, one after another, and began to brutally damage their opponents.

Neil was shouting insults as he fought back and cast every spell he could think of to stay on his feet.

Hermione continued to confront them as usual, but now that Severus and Sasaki had no qualms about hurting or killing opponents, things had noticeably equalized.

Both were adept in the use of the dark arts, especially Severus who distinguished himself by being able to deal with two death eaters at once with ease.

"Bloody blood traitors!" Neil was heard to shout.

They fought for quite a while as Gwen and Ethan watched Freyja.

Severus and Sasaki took down Three of the remaining 5 death eaters.

One of these was Neil who was knocked down by Severus.

Neil crawled across the platform like an animal on hands and feet in search of the wand, grabbing it and turning to Severus in a last-ditch effort to kill the Severus.

But Severus did not hesitate and swiftly hurled a curse at the Slytherin.

"Sectumsempra!" cast Severus without hesitation on Neil's neck.

A shocked expression crossed Neil's face before his head rolled off the platform.

Severus looked at him with his cold, dark eyes for a few seconds in contemplation but quickly went back to dealing with the rest of the death eaters.

A few moments later they had finally managed to deal with the group of dark wizards.

Severus and Sasaki had no mercy at all and cold-bloodedly murdered the five death eaters they had been confronting and then also killed the two who had been stunned by the people who came to help them.

They did all this despite Hermione's refusals not to murder an unarmed and stunned person.

After this, they quickly went to see Freyja who was still standing next to Gwen and Ethan.

When they arrived they saw Gwen who seemed to be applying healing magic on Freyja's body while Ethan was keeping an eye out for danger.

"Gwen how is Freyja?!" asked Severus looking worried as he saw that Freyja was still fainted.

While Sasaki quickly went to Freyja's side to use her own healing magic even though it wouldn't make any difference from what Gwen was already doing.