HP: The Arcane Thief

"WOAH! DID YOU SEE THAT?! FLIPENDO?! DID HE JUST TOOK DOWN MAHOUTOKORO'S MOST POPULAR SEEKER WITH A FLIPENDO?!"

Travis laughed, "Axel has really Mastered the art of flipping someone off!"

Jin was rather serious. "He isn't as helpless as everyone thought. Dodging those wind blades is no easy feat."

Axel couldn't relax after dealing with Enzo. He had to quickly plunge low. In the next second, a bolt of lightning whizzed by him, courtesy of Takeshi.

By then, his teammates began blocking the Mahoutokoro players with spells of their own.

Patricia cast a disarming charm on a girl who was just about to cast a [HeatBlast] on Axel.

Another teammate directly bumped into a Wind affinity ninja, steering him in another direction. He was, in the end, a Slytherin. Being annoying came to him naturally.

Looking at all teammates rushing protect him, Axel was a bit surprised. 'They're actually decent,' he realized.

For this important match, Patricia had chosen the best witches and wizards House Slytherin had to offer. All seventh year students who are about to graduate. Hogwarts' standards have gone up a lot in the last decade. They're talented students with prominent family backgrounds from all over the world, who've had external training along with Hogwarts curriculum. They can already qualify as trainee Aurors.

Axel clicked his tongue. This won't do. If it kept going like this, his teammates would only end up taken down in order to protect him. Usually, others are holding him back, but this time, due to all the handicaps he has put on himself, he… might actually be holding them back.

'Alright, let's try this.'

Stopping in mid air, he waved his wand.

"Efficio Fumus... Maxima!"

This was a modified version of one of the very first spells he had learnt, [Efficio Fumus] (produce smoke). Back then, he was only able to learn the most simple of spells due to his damaged nerves. Needless to say, even the modified version wasn't that difficult to cast so he wasn't exposing anything major.

Dense smoke rapidly began spewing out of his wand, quickly spreading out in a 2 meter diameter. Axel had once again disappeared from everyone's vision. But this time, he was covered under dense smoke.

[Arcane Eyes]

With his Arcane eyes activated, he could see everything clearly even in this condition.

A barrage of stones hit the area where he was before, but he had already moved aside under the cover of the fog.

The smoke began spreading rapidly, making Mahoutokoro players stop their attacks.

"Akira! Clear it quickly!"

Akira, the wind affinity ninja who had been delayed due to being steered off the course, cursed as he flew back after leaving behind Axel's teammate. By the time he reached the place, the smoke had already covered a 10 meter area. He quickly made hand seals.

"Windstorm!"

Axel shook his head. He just continued spewing smoke out of his wand in all directions.

A storm of wind was created. But...

"What the—"

The players panicked. Instead of being cleared up, the smoke only ended up spreading even further.

Axel smirked.

'It's not ordinary smoke, you idiots,' he thought, looking at the smoke that was still continuing to come out his wand.

"Akira! What the hell are you doing?!" Takeshi was furious at Akira, who couldn't even accomplish a simple task.

"It's not my fault. This smoke... it's too dense!" Yelled back the Wind Mage.

Takeshi gritted his teeth. "Everyone! Fire everywhere in the area! If we can't see him, he can't see us either!"

Takeshi got it right. That was what the weakness of this spell was. Even if you block your enemy's sight, so what? You can't see anything either.

Thus, random Jutsus were launched into the smoke in hopes of hitting the target. The Hogwarts players tried their best to stop them, but it was a bit difficult since there was no target to protect.

Takeshi also launched a stream of lightning in the area, just for good measure.

"No!" Yelled Patricia, rushing into the smoke to find Axel. Rest of the Hogwarts players followed.

"Did we get him?" Asked Enzo, who had returned after being humiliated by Axel.

"The smoke has stopped spreading," someone observed.

"The lightning stream must have parallelized him. He'll fall any time," said Takeshi, panting due to the difficult Lightning spell.

Though, even after a few seconds, they didn't see Axel falling down at all.

"Enzo, Akira, clear the smoke! Don't let the bastard recover!" Ordered Takeshi, gritting his teeth. And thus, a strange situation followed where both the teams were searching for Axel together.

"Uh… it seems that the teams have temporarily entered an unspoken truce in order to find Axel. Such a thing… I don't think it has ever happened in Quidditch history!" said Travis.

"But the question is, can he continue playing the match or not?" Asked Lee.

"It'll be difficult," said Jin. "The lightning stream is a wide area spell that also inflicts heavy damage. If he is hit, he will be down."

Travis was amazed. "It's good that Lightning Affinity users are so rare."

Since the smoke had already stopped increasing, Enzo and Akira were slowly able to clear it after a few continuous tries. But the sight that greeted them was quite shocking.

"Where is he?!"

"Merlin's broomstick! Axel is nowhere to be seen in the whole pitch!" Exclaimed Jordan.

"Damn it! Not again!" Takeshi was pissed. "Continue the game. We need to get back the points. The rat will come out sooner or later!" He yelled.

"AND THE GAME IS BACK ON! Mahoutokoro has suddenly started their counter! Kyoichi passes to Shin... and Shin launches the Quaffle from a great distance! He's now forming handseals, wow! HE STEERS THE BALL INTO THE GOAL WITH GREAT WIND CONTROL!"

"Mahoutokoro gains ten points, bringing the score to 60-10, with Hogwarts still in the lead!"

"Captain, what do we do now?!" Asked Diana, one of Hogwarts' chasers to Patricia, who was still worrying for Axel.

Patricia snapped out of her daze as she looked at the Mahoutokoro players starting to play. A glint appeared in her eyes. She was furious. Furious at the Mahoutokoro players for targeting Axel like that. "Now...? We fight!" She declared. She hoped Axel was alright. But right now, it was time for some payback.

"Don't forget. This isn't Quidditch. This is magical combat and dirty play. Their incredible mobility advantage is gone. We all have the same speed. Our spell casting is much faster than their handseals, so we're at an advantage, you all understand?"

""Yes!"""

Alright, then let's go get them!"

"Oh! And it looks like the Hogwarts players are back in the game! Patricia fires a disarming charm, snapping the Quaffle AND Broomstick right out of Megumi's hands… OUCH! And she also hits her with an Expulso just for good measure! Patricia passes to Anderson... OH! Anderson is attacked by Kyoichi's needle rain... He casts a shield, passes to Diana. Akira making hand seals... but Diana gets him first with a stunning spell which manages to hit his leg! He's going down!"

"Diana blasts the Bludger to Patricia, and whoa! WOAH! PATRICIA SOMEHOW ENCHANTED THE BLUDGER TO GO AROUND THE KEEPER'S EARTH WALL! IT'S A GOOOAAAALLLL!!!! What an amazing match this is turning out to be! Hogwarts players are going toe to toe with the Mahoutokoro players!" Said Lee.

"Hm... much better," muttered Axel, who was leisurely sitting in the stands, watching the match. If he had just stayed in the match, his teammates would have simply been taken out protecting him while he would have had to run around the whole place. This is much better. He'll just wait here for while.

"The Hogwarts players seem really determined for revenge after Mahoutokoro's relentless pursuit of their seeker," said Travis.

"I didn't give the Hogwarts players enough credit. I didn't think they'd be able to put up a fight since Mahoutokoro had dominated the friendly duels that had happened between the students," said Jin, voicing many people's opinions.

Everyone was so focused on Axel that they ignored the fact that the school he represented had the reputation of being at least the top 5 magical schools in the world. They can't be that helpless.

"That's understandable." Travis analysed. "The ninjas are train with exceptionally high agility compared to wizards who duel while being mostly stationary. That's why ninjas have an advantage when fighting at ground. But this fight is in the air. Everyone has almost the same mobility, so that advantage is gone. Plus, most spells have shorter casting time than jutsus, even though the latter packs more power. So I'd say, the field has been evened out."

"Damn it, I'm excited! Let's see how Mahoutokoro responds to this attack by Hogwarts!" said Lee.

Takeshi, who was relaxing after taking out Axel stopped his break as he gathered his teammates. After giving out instructions, Mahoutokoro started their play again.

"The game resumes with Mahoutokoro in possession! Megumi has the Quaffle, and she's racing straight towards the goal posts. OH! She is hit by a vicious bludgeoning hex that comes out of nowhere! Patricia was under disillusionment! What a Slytherin move!"

"The Quaffle drops! Picked up by Anderson... and what?! Dropped again! Anderson is in a lot of pain!"

"Megumi seems to have heated the Quaffle, burning his hand! Amaya, the rare ice affinity user catches Quaffle! Of course it doesn't affect her! She passes to Akira instantly! Akira is attacked… a great block by Amaya's ice walls! Akira has suddenly sped up! That wind affinity in air is really a cheat! AND... HE SCORES!!!! TEN MORE POINTS TO MAHOUTOKORO! WHAT A MATCH THIS TURNING OUT TO BE!"

The match was extremely intense. Slytherin was playing with a lot of tricks but Mahoutokoro players had Quidditch skills and experience. Spells and Jutsus were fired everywhere. The best healer of both the cultures were working nonstop to patch up the player and send them back to fly.

Overall, the store after 44 minutes since the start of the match ended up being a massive 220-230, with Mahoutokoro in the lead. That's because Endo had managed to catch the snitch once. Both the teams lost a player each, unable to continue playing due to a serious injury.

Both the teams were playing exceptionally well. But right now, everyone had only one question…

"Where the fuck is he?!" Shouted Anderson while panting.

Yep, where is Axel Hunt? And is he alright? The guy had simply disappeared at the start of the match and hadn't even come to the healers. Where did he disappear to.

"WE WANT HUNT!"

"WE WANT HUNT!"

"WE WANT HUNT!"

Even though the match was very interesting, things just weren't the same without Axel. That's why, a majority of the audience were clamouring for Axel to be brought back.

"Well…" Looking at the stubborn audience calling him out, Axel slowly got up and stretched lazily.

Playing the match with so many bugs trying to sting him was annoying. He couldn't be bothered to keep dodging them for so long. And he couldn't just finish them one-sidedly within a few minutes either. The whole ninja world would have been his enemy if he just annihilated Mahoutokoro within the first few minutes since the start of the match, not to mention both the Principal's would have been dissatisfied too. So, he had decided to wait it out. Give both teams the chance to show off. Of course, anhilation is still a must, not matter what.

Right now, the match was at a critical moment. Endo was about to get the snitch again. Axel decided to get up. It was his time now. It was time to show those bugs just who they were targeting.

"And it seems that Endo has spotted the snitch again! If he catches it, Hogwarts will be in trouble! Oh! The Slytherins are all going after Endo now and Mahoutokoro is protecting him! It's exactly what happened in the beginning with Axel! Enzo stretches out his hand—"

*BOOM*

At this moment, everyone heard a familiar explosion.

"WHAT?!!!"

The sound. It was unmistakably… a launching boom.

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