Blurred Lines Mods (blurred_mods) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-08-31 17:29:00 |
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FINAL BATTLE [25/29]
THE FINAL BATTLE [01] [02] [03] [04] [05] [06] [07] [08] [09] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] The last death eaters Aeneas vs Gina There is a duty that I'm sworn to do, Aeneas Nott thought, his feet trodding heavily on the plush Hogwarts grass. I will see this justice done. He commanded himself not to think of the others, the weaker death eaters who turned away, their true loyalties finally showing. He did not acknowledge the disappointment he felt, instead he channeled his energy into determination for the task ahead of him. He would not give up - he would kill each and every one of these terrorists himself if necessary, and even without the Dark Lord they would continue to control the government and see to it that the world - no, the universe - that they envisioned would be created. A flash of red caught his eye - was it Lily Potter, the woman who had caused so much trouble as one of those silly vigilantes and helped to land him in Azkaban all those months ago. No, he realised, it wasn't her - she had already been killed - but it did not matter. She would do. He laughed, raising his wand to her. "Avada Kedavra!" The Death Eaters were falling back. Their dark lord was dead and their ranks were falling apart before their eyes, and Gina could not have been happier. She'd lost at least two months of her life to these people attempting to brainwash her into becoming one of them. It was about time for Voldemort's followers to be the ones feeling helpless. Gina only barely noticed the flicker of motion out of the corner of her eye that would have taken more than just two months from her life had it gone undetected. She dropped to the ground, the blast of green only just missing its target as it shot over her head and smashed into a wall. Not hesitating even long enough to realise who it was who'd attempted to hex her (because it didn't MATTER once Killing Curses were getting tossed around), Gina shot a diffindo and a Glacius curse at Aeneas in quick succession before she'd even gotten a good look at him. The new Minister for Magic, huh? "We'll see if you're still laughing while getting kissed by a Dementor," Gina spat at him, firing off an Incarcerous. How sweet would that be, throwing that phony into one of his own jail cells? Aeneas had been too focused on simply killing the woman (and not focused enough on anything else, to be quite honest, since the revelation of the Dark Lord's death and Severus' betrayal) to think to put up a shield before he cast the Killing Curse, so he was grateful he had just turned slightly to the side so as her slicing charm hit him right in his non-wand-arm shoulder and the freezing charm hit his same thigh. He muttered an obscenity under his breath as he raised his wand to counter her last spell then just as quickly moved to cast his own. "Crucio!" he shouted, letting himself yell to increase the effect of it. No, this woman no longer deserved a quick death - she would suffer. And Gina had been too focused on seeing the Minister attacked, throwing spell after spell at him rather than concentrating any force on protecting herself (a mistake that sent her back to her first year of Auror training, when all too many made the same error). An Incendio had only just left her wand when Aeneas's Cruciatus Curse, and Gina dropped, the curse ripping through her body as her legs gave way beneath her. Any training she'd had on how to fight off the spell seemed to have vanished from her mind, victim of too much time in the Rehabilitation Centre and round after round of Crucio until she'd cooperated as Travers wanted. She screamed and sobbed for him to stop, embarrassed that she was falling apart but not able to concentrate on anything but the pain. He did stop, but for Aeneas it was not on purpose. Once again he had attacked without a shield charm and once again the auror's spell had hit him, the flames catching his outer robe so that his concentration was blocked as he scrambled to take off the burning piece of cloth. He whipped it off his arms and threw it onto the ground, stomping on it once for good measure - it wasn't like he need it anyhow, not in the middle of the day in August. Protego, he finally cast voicelessly, then turned back to continue where he had left off - and hopefully she would not have been able to recover too quickly. "Crucio!" he yelled again, though this time with less intensity as he began to feel slightly fatigued, blood leaking out of his shoulder. While Gina hadn't been blessed with enough time to completely recover from the Cruciatus Curse, the moments that Aeneas spent stripping himself of his robe had been enough for her to weakly throw up a protego horribilis around herself to mirror the Death Eater's shield. (Fool her once, shame on you; fool her twice...) She didn't, however, have the strength quite yet to peel herself from the ground after being cruciated on top of all the other injuries she'd received in the battle, and so instead cast a halfhearted slicing hex and an oppugno full of sharp rocks and sticks in Nott's direction while she attempted to gather her wits and thanked her lucky stars that she hadn't been hit by the second Crucio (despite the spell completely destroying her shield as it shattered against it). Aeneas felt the witch's slicing hex trying to penetrate his shield and he began to chuckle, but not even did the laugh escape his mouth when the hex did penetrate his shield. While normally the Death Eater's shields were strong, his emotions made his spellwork sloppy, and the nonverbal spell was not nearly as strong as his usually were. He cast another shield charm which protected him from the rocks and sticks, then looked at the woman the ground, unable even to pick herself up. Well, if anything, she could say she didn't give up even until the very end. "Avada Kedavra!" he shouted and the woman stopped moving, her grey eyes staring up into the bright afternoon sky. Bella vs Moody & Rufus Fending off the barrage of attacks that had been thrown at her in Bellatrix's fight against the Mudblood and the others had taken its toll but there was far too much unsated anger and adrenaline running through her veins to allow her to succumb to exhaustion or pain. Despite her injuries and general state of disarray, despite having lost everything, still she carried herself as haughtily as ever, with no concept of the part she had played in the downfall of the Death Eaters that afternoon. Or the state of her appearance. Her robes had been discarded at some point along the lines that she could not even remember, leaving her in trousers and a blouse that were stuck to her form by blood that was largely not her own. Dirt was streaked across her face and clothes and her hair was missing in several quite noticeable patches. It was fitting, perhaps, that the state of her appearance was quite similar to the state of her mind. Fractured. Chaotic. Which is how she ended up storming straight towards Rufus Scrimgeour and Alastor Moody when she spotted them across the grounds. Anyone with any sense of sanity or self-preservation would have taken the sight of the two most skilled fighters among the vigilantes together as reason to turn the other way, but not Bellatrix. Spells were flying from her wand as soon as she was close enough - a streak of green and two red flashes of the cruciatus. Back to basics. She was no longer interested in being creative or some prolonged torture. They would suffer and they would die. In which order, she did not care. Rufus knew the battle wasn't over, not really, because there were always obsessive psychopaths -- oh, hello Bellatrix -- who did not know when enough was enough. He and Moody were together, now, at the end, assessing the damage and keeping an eye on the scattering of fights still going on now that the death eaters had retreated. He didn't miss the wild-haired figure of Bellatrix Lestrange storming across the grounds -- and with a shove, he put himself and Moody into action. The Avada was side-stepped; if one was paying attention, it was hard not to notice a violent streak of green speeding through the air -- and he let off a sectumsempra and a blasting hex before the explosion of stone behind him threw him off-kilter enough to take the crucio right to the chest. He was on the ground and screaming before he had a chance to see if his spells had even hit, and there was anger mixed with the pain in his throaty howls of pain. He clawed at the earth, trying to make his wand work, but there was not enough presence of mind to manage a shield spell, and he got only a few feet before giving up. It figured Bellatrix had a knack for the cruciatus, and the rage that managed to swamp his brain promised him that he'd repay her in kind before this was over. Moody almost balked at having been shoved, turning to Rufus with furrowed brows. "Now is really not the time for your schoolboy ga--" He was cut off rather abruptly by the appearance of a bright line of green, at which point he stumbled backward, away from his friend while trying to aim his wand at the nearest possible threat. It didn't take him long to notice Bellatrix, whose instigating existence had been a thorn in his side for far too long. He wasted no time with the Blasting Curses and various hexes he might have used on the now-deceased Dark Lord's more incompetent minions -- Lestrange was about as mental as they came and Moody somehow doubted that any simple Ministry-magic was going to defeat her. With both a glare and growl, he flicked his wand in her direction. "Avada Kedavra!" The sound of her own heart pounding filled her ears like a steadily beating drum and Bellatrix snarled as she deflected Rufus's sectumsempra with a furious slash of her wand. But as angry and as determined as she was, her reflexes were not as they should have been. Destruction was her only thought, not defence and the blasting curse slammed into her chest, sending her flying back through the air. (And out of the path of the killing curse, mercifully.) She hit the ground hard and ground her teeth together as pain shot up her already injured back and even through her clenched jaw, she could not hold back the sound of protest that tore from her throat. But she would not be stopped that easily, and it was only a moment before curses were once again flying from her wand in jets of fire and flashes of red light. "I WILL BURN YOU ALIVE," she shrieked as she was on her feet again and stalking back towards them. With another crucio cast for good measure. Rufus was grateful for the reprieve, and by grateful he really meant out-fucking-raged, and when he crawled to his feet, every stupid nerve suggesting strongly that he fall right back on his ass, he used Moody as a bolster, one spell knocking the bitch's crucio away from them in a shatter of red magic, and another lifting the broken stone from behind them. He transfigured the ruined chunks into razor-sharp spears and with all the anger and strength he had, he sent them hurtling towards Bellatrix Lestrange. "WOULDN'T YOU RATHER BE GOING TO HELL TO JOIN YOUR DARK LORD?" He bellowed back at her. At the sight of red, Moody waved his wand in the witch's direction and deflected the first of the spells she had sent toward him before casting his own Sectumsempra. He was mid-snicker at Rufus's comment when one of the red curses caught him full-on in the side and sent him to the ground, roaring practically like an animal in the throes of complete agony. His bones were too old for this -- he didn't know how people like Aberforth did it when they were, what, twice his age? Too old, anyway. His muscles weren't equipped for this. "For fuck's sake, KILL HER," he shouted at Rufus, grinding his teeth against the pain. "ONLY ONCE I HAVE SENT YOU THERE FIRST," she screamed, dodging and deflecting their attacks with far less grace than usual. One of Rufus's spears tore at her side and she stumbled back with a howl of pain, distracted by the momentary struggle to keep on her feet as she was thrown off-kilter before she was launching herself towards the two men yet again. There was very little thought that went into the curses that she threw. No consideration of strategy or skill. Just raw, violent magic as killing curses were followed by blasting curses; an incendio followed by an entrail expelling curse. With no rhyme or reason, she cast anything that came to mind. Anything to destroy. The sight of Moody on the ground sent an edge of malice through Rufus; he didn't think it possible to be angrier than he had been a few seconds prior but (surprise, surprise) Bellatrix had a knack for aggravating the shit out of him. Eyes narrowed, he dragged up anything around them -- clots of grass, chunks of the castle, shrapnel from other spells gone terribly awry -- to use as shielding between them. The remnants of a gargoyle flew into the line of the crucio torturing Moody, and then Rufus set his sights on Bellatrix proper. Avada Kedavra! Yes, he was angry enough. And another, and another. Jets of green flew from his wand without regret, without second thought, and he narrowly missed his guts flying out as the world around them exploded into burning grass and castle-dust. His breath was clotted with the taste of stone and dirt, but his mind was clear. They had to kill her. They had to. Moody was barely able to lift himself up off the ground (thank god for his walking stick and its unfailing support) after enduring one of Bellatrix's Cruciatus Curses, but he shot a thankful glance at Rufus anyhow and made the best of it. By the time he'd straightened up, the air around them was thick with flashing light, debris and the incantations of curses being delivered so fast, he could barely make sense of them. But he had to help, somehow -- they had to defeat this monster. Sweeping up whatever he could with his wand, Moody sent the clods of grass, stones and gargoyle toward Bellatrix with an Oppugno before taking a few steps closer to Rufus and casting a Shield Charm around the both of them. Now was not a time to abandon basic defense. He hoped that the blaze of green from the end of Rufus's wand would be enough to end this for all of them, but he wasn't taking anything for granted -- this was Bellatrix Lestrange, after all. He'd known her to walk out of worse without batting an eyelash. So he charged with his own string of green and red, fury and adrenaline easing him through in spite of his injuries. Bellatrix paid very little attention to the debris now flying towards her. Some of it was deflected, some of it hit - chunks of stone smashing into her shoulder and leg with a pain she barely noticed - but most was caught in the onslaught of curses she continued to send flying at the two. More blasting curses, sectumsempras, a giant ball of fire... And then there was a flash of green that was not from her own wand. That was not a spell she would simply take. A sweep of her wand tore the earth up between them as Bellatrix erected a thick wall of earth to absorb the killing curses now flying at her. She might have realised it was not the best of plans had she been in her right mind, but instead she was only further enraged as the wall exploded in a violent burst of dirt and grass that knocked her down and half-buried her under her own defences. As Moody's magic flew through the air and Bellatrix did stupid things not even worth note, Rufus leaned closer to him and grabbed his arm, not for attention but support. His wand was no longer pointed at Bellatrix but at the distant greenhouses, and with a concentration so hard that it hurt, he dragged his wand through the air in a heavy arc. From afar, the glass structure lifted up, tearing itself from the ground and shuddering midair (leaving a slew of plants unprotected from the fights still raging on), and then soared over the grounds. He shook as he guided it above where the bitch was hiding in her dirt fort, and with a sharp downstroke, let it crash down towards her. And Moody did nothing. His jaw was hanging slack at Rufus's latest so that he couldn't have formed proper words if they'd even come to him. It was the fireball crashing against their shield charm that both snapped him out of his stupor and inspired his next move. With a deviant grin, he aimed his wand up at the greenhouse that Rufus had managed to pull from its fucking foundation and cast a Fiendfyre like he'd never imagined himself capable -- not only was the structure thrown up in a blaze, but beasts that he did not have the energy to identify soared around it, following it to its target -- that wretched bitch, Lestrange. Of the things that Bellatrix expected to have flying at her in the midst of battle, a flaming greenhouse did not even come close to making the list and there was a moment of shock, and perhaps even something vaguely akin to fear (a feeling she did not recognise) as she stared. And then impulse and instinct took hold and she scrambled free from the dirt of her demolished shield and began firing expulso after expulso at the greenhouse, demolishing it into so many pieces. And then a furious oppugno to send the ruined, burning chunks of rubble back at the two men with the flaming beasts that went with it. But there was too much of it and she was not quick enough to deflect it all. Blasting curses flew from her wand in a desperate attempt to send the rest of the greenhouse flying anywhere but at her even as shards of glass began to tear at her arms and chest. A mercifully still flame-free section of what used to be a wall crashed into her, knocking her back to the ground and pinning her under its weight as more of the rubble rained down all around her, burying her under so much flaming ruin. Rufus's wand was whipping forward as fiendfyred glass did a 180 into their direction. "I HOPE YOU KNOW HOW TO GET RID OF THAT SHIT YOU IDIOT," he yelled, though he didn't really need to yell with Moody's ear about three inches from him. It seemed the thing to do, however, with impending doom speeding towards them, and right now he was a bit preoccupied to ignore his baser instincts. He was fairly sure the shield charm he cast around them was not enough to keep hell fire at bay, but he pretended he was an optimist for a few minutes while sending out glacius after glacius to hinder the flame. A bit useless really and he hoped Moody had a better plan, since he was turning his attentions back on Bellatrix. Fuck if he was going to let an opportunity pass them by. Confringo and the killing curse left his wand, and he hoped the psychotic wench couldn't free herself in time to avoid both. By this point, Moody was holding onto Rufus as much for support as he was holding onto him, the task of concentrating on the task of controlling the enchanted fire he'd conjured -- naturally, without thinking ahead to the task of getting rid of it. With a sweep of his wand, he tried to summon the flaming serpents between them and the opponent, now buried somewhere under a flaming greenhouse. Though most of the flaming creatures soared along their intended path, obliterating much of the debris coming toward them, one swept so close that it might have taken off their heads of Moody had not ducked and dragged Rufus along with him. Knowing that he could not maintain the spell -- at least not successfully -- for much longer, Moody tightened his grip on Rufus's arm and used the rest of his energy and concentration in a final push to send the flames back to the greenhouse, where they could finish burning the damn thing down, if nothing else. Under glass and dirt and flaming greenhouse, Bellatrix was aware of very little beyond the oppressive heat that surrounded her and the pain that no longer seemed to have any single identifiable source. But she was alive. And that meant she was not finished fighting. Wrenching her arm free from where it was pinned under a bit of wall, she twisted her wand to cast a blasting charm on the rubble that was pressing her into the ground, just as Rufus's own blasting spell hit, inadvertently helping in her efforts to free herself. The streak of green light was narrowly avoided as Bellatrix gave a hard shove with her free hand against the ground to roll out of the way. And then somehow, with the strength of a woman so single-mindedly focused on destruction and vengeance, she was staggering back to her feet, moving away from the greenhouse ruins and the fiendfyre that was feasting upon it. "YOU THINK I WOULD BE DEFEATED SO EASILY AS THAT? she howled as she launched into another onslaught of curses, if a little more slowly now. The tell-tale green light of the killing curse, a flaying curse, a wave of black fire and yet another furious crucio all flew towards the two as she followed in the wake of her own magic, closing the distance between them in slow, uneven steps. "Merlin on a cracker," Rufus said in a tone of hushed awe and hatred, "this bitch will not. die." Normally he had a great deal of respect for people who liked to remain alive -- in fact, he counted himself among them -- but Bella's increasingly mad appearance and wild howls disturbed him beyond the normal 'oh this person is trying to kill me' displeasure. He wondered if she'd keep fighting until she was a walking corpse, and then he wasn't sure even that would stop her. He wondered if he could just blast a hole through to China and let them deal with the crazy bitch, but it seemed a bit beyond him at the moment. He'd just dropped a fucking building on her, for fuck's fucking sake. As Moody dragged him one way, Rufus tugged him the other way as green hit and smashed the stone wall they were using as a reverse barricade. More rubble went flying, which Rufus sent towards Bellatrix in an attempt to hinder the madwoman's charge. The flaying curse made its way through much to his dismay -- a shield charm wasn't quite enough, and he was caught upside the arm with it. Skin peeled back, and he let out a bellow of mixed disgust and pain as he dove for the dirt to avoid fire. "LOOK OUT," he yelled up at Moody, not that he needed the advice with a bloody crucio careening straight for him. Sending whatever he could think of, spell after spell flew across the field towards her -- blasting, killing, melting, anything he knew he'd bloody go through them one at a time until something slowed her down. He wasn't going to die because of a freak who couldn't accept that things were over. "Oh," Moody grumbled while doing his part to repel the curses she was sending their way. "She will die. And then we can dance in her blood." But until then, they were going to need to keep themselves alive until they could find some way to keep this bloody woman down -- permanently. The flaying curse that had made it through their shield had paved the way for the Death Eater's cursed fire, which began at Moody's already missing leg and made its way up toward the flesh of his thigh. Unfortunately, since he didn't have any feeling from the knee down, he wasn't exactly aware of the cursed flames that were attacking him -- at least not until he was already howling in pain as though his skin were not only blistering spontaneously, but being ripped off in chunks. "Finite," he screamed, pointing his wand at the leg that was now practically useless. Leaning a great deal harder on his walking stick and Rufus, Moody tried to dig up some energy from some still untapped reserve (and after a long afternoon fighting Death Eaters, there wasn't much left beyond pure adrenaline), and joined his companion in raining curses on their opponent in multi-colored flashes of light -- something had to work. It was as if she hardly noticed the barrage of spells flying straight for her in all of her mad fury. The curses from her own unceasing assault of magic crashed into theirs in mid-air, exploding in violent bursts of light and sparks that scorched and ruined the earth between them. Others were deflected and dodged. Still others crashed fully into her - a blasting curse sent her stumbling back, the sleeve of her blouse caught fire, the skin on her side dripped off her body like melting wax (and that prompted a furious scream of rage and pain to tear from her chest), but still she would not stop. She was slowed further to the point where she was moving now in laboured, staggered steps, but the curses kept flying from her wand in flashes of green and red light. A tree was ripped from the ground and thrown at the men. A wave of earth itself was ripped up and sent towards them in a wave of dirt. A thick red cloud of malevolent, uncontrolled dark magic went hurtling through the air as Bellatrix tapped into every last bit of strength and power that she possessed and every bit of magic she knew to bring the men before her to ruin. Rufus's frustration and stress level was reaching heights he didn't know were possible, and he clung to Moody to keep himself upright against the pain and blood of his torn arm, though the dirt and fuck knew what else flying all over him wasn't helping quell the agony. But when sudden death was en route, one didn't worry about infections or cleanliness, and he scooped up his dropping jaw at the ... cloud... thing, and brandished his wand as hard as he could. Fuck, he didn't even know what to cast anymore. In the desperation of the moment, he trained his energy on the ground, and closed his eyes, and, well, prayed. From the earth shot up hundred of earthy tentacles, which slapped hard and fast at the witch, some exploding beneath her barrage of curses, others collapsing on each other with the difficulty of the spell; but he held it and he gripped his friend to keep his concentration, hoping that she died before they did and thinking it a decent sacrifice, at the least. Rufus didn't want to die, but the world had to be rid of this witch. It was a task for Moody, too, to pick up his hanging jaw and try to channel the wisps of power that he had left into enough of an attack to keep the Fog of Death, as he decided to name it, from consuming them. And since he didn't know how much longer he could keep this going, something to take her head off might be nice, too. But like Rufus, he was also running out of ideas -- what did one cast, knowing that it might be the last spell ever cast from their wand (at least by its rightful owner)? It had to be something...better than a Blasting Curse. Craning his neck to look around as best he could, Moody searched their surroundings for something that he could use. After a moment, his gaze fell on a nearby tree and the hundreds of leaves that covered its branches. With a smirk, he lifted his wand and summoned a swell of wind that ripped them free. Once in air, he focused as well as he could, even as he felt the strength leaving his good leg, and transfigured the group into bats that swarmed above them, a cloud of black to face Bellatrix's cloud of red. And he sent them forward, flying down over their heads -- straight into the fray. The first tentacle of earth to smack against Bellatrix's chest was ignored, despite the pain it caused against her already injured body and she sent another killing curse from her wand even as she was sent stumbling back yet again. And even still, her thoughts were to attack rather than defend. It was a mistake. As far as her rage could carry her, as far as adrenaline and untempered fury could propel her body forward long past the point that it should have fallen to the ground by any seemingly human standard, there were limits. Even for her. No amount of refusing to acknowledge as much could change that. Another thick, solid whip of earth crashed into her back and this time she was knocked forward, still holding to her feet. If barely. But she barely had time to react now as the heavy tentacles were flying at her from every direction, slamming into her body over and over again, tossing her about between them as if she were no more than a rag doll. Furious, even panicked attempts to free herself with every bit of magic she could think of were to no avail. The bats descended upon her in a flurry of wings and teeth and she could see nothing through the thick swarm as she turned her wild, blindly cast curses to them. And then her wand was torn from her hand. Instinct told her to dive for it, even into the sea of furious, violent earth that she could not escape. But her movements were no longer her own. Her body itself was out of her control, left to the whims of Rufus's creation, and when she was finally pulled to her hands and knees, it was on its terms rather than her own. Still she fought, summoning every bit of strength that she possessed as she desperately tried to push herself free from the earth that was relentless in its assault. Fresh waves of pain tore through her body as bones cracked under the force of the attack and she let out a horrible scream that was abruptly cut short when she was dragged face first into the ground. Efforts to push herself up were to no avail. She did not have the strength anymore. Her back was shattered, ribs were crushed, bone tore into her lungs, even as the wild tentacles continued to pound away at her broken body, driving and dragging her into the very ground itself. A desperate attempt to fill her lungs brought only a mouthful of ruined earth and it was only then that Bellatrix knew, in her fractured mind, that this was the end. There would be no escape from this. As her unyielding, determined sense of purpose finally gave out, finally faltered, she was left only with the full weight and pain of every injury inflicted on her, every bit of damage that she had fought her way through. And even still, the physical agony was nothing compared to the sudden, horrible knowledge that she had failed. She had failed the Dark Lord. She had failed her husband. Her family and everything she had fought for. There would be no vengeance for everything she had lost, no victory at her hands. But it was a mercifully fleeting thought. There was only a moment and one last desperate struggle for breath before it too was gone. Iago vs Aberforth Aberforth was more than willing for this battle to be over, emotionally and physically. He'd seen the injuries among their lot though he hadn't been able to find out what had happened to Severus, Tabitha and Pepper. The healers were overrun and he hadn't wanted to take them away from their work. So when he'd seen the Death eaters emerge from their huddle for a third time, he'd turned back to the battlefield. There was part of him that admired their persistence while at the same time cursing their idiotic stubbornness. Didn't they know when a battle was lost? Still he supposed most people didn't tend to know when that point had come until it had come and gone. So he went out to fight again, determined to see this ended now once and for all. He targeted the first Death Eater he saw, levelling his wand at the man and barking, "Deprimo! After having been forced to realise that the battle was not going in their favour and ordering the majority of the Death Eaters to retreat, Iago himself was unable to do the same. He couldn't abandon this. It didn't matter that the Dark Lord was gone -- his faith in the Cause was unfaltering, and he could not bring himself to accept that he and the remaining Inner Circle should flee as well. He was, quite frankly, tired; and yet the day continued on, the battle continued on, and so that was all Iago could do as well. The spell caught him in the back and he stumbled forward before he whirled around to face Aberforth -- who was recognisable enough due to his resemblance to his deceased brother -- but Iago remained unfazed by Aberforth's appearance. A silent aguamenti was followed up quickly by a freezing charm to send shards of icicles toward the other man, but he didn't stop there: "Avada Kedavra!" Abe felt a sense of tired but determined satisfaction when he saw his spell hit though he quickly pushed that aside in favour of remaining alert when he saw the ice shards heading in his direction. He threw up a shield but he didn't want to waste all his power on that so he quickly found some of the smaller ice shards slicing their way through and cutting into him. The cuts were largely small so he ignored them as well as the pain and blood he could feel trickling from them as best as he could. They weren't life-threatening. When he saw the unpleasantly familiar green light heading towards him, he braced himself and gathered all his power. With a flick of his wand and a shouted word, he sent the Killing Curse flying back in Iago's direction. Iago dodged, the Killing Curse missing him by inches -- there have been too many close calls this battle for his liking -- and retaliated with a silent Conjunctivitus Curse at the old man's eyes. He swirled his wand over the ground, lifting up large boulders of tightly packed earth, and then he thrust his wand forward, sending the boulders flying at high velocity toward Aberforth. After the boulders were well on their way, Iago spared a second to cast a shield charm in front of him to protect himself from requital. The Conjunctivitis spell hit Abe fair and square and he did two things almost simultaneously. The first was to give a furious yell, a mix of anger and pain. The second was to crouch down and cast a shield around himself. He then immediately turned his wand on himself and cast a Finite. The spell ended and he was able to see again but there was a fair amount of residual pain and his vision was blurry, his eyes watering. He looked around and saw the blurry (to him) boulders heading towards him. "Right," he growled to himself. "Enough is enough." He rose to his feet, tears streaming from his still painful eyes, and raised his wand. He gathered himself together and with a shouted word brought the boulders to a halt, hovering in mid-air barely more than three feet from him. Another barked word reduced the boulders to dirt and rubble. He then shouted for a third time and gave a sharp flick of his wand that sent the wall of dirt and rubble flying back at Iago. He then followed it up with a powerful Incendio. Then and only then did he sag a little, breathing hard, and throw up a shield as protection. That had taken a lot of out him and he'd need a little breather. He sent a blasting curse toward the wall as it came righting toward him, blasting apart its centre and pushing away the remaining pieces still standing to his sides as the wall crumbled to the ground. Flames caught on his left arm, making quick work of burning through the fabric of his sleeve to sear across his skin with an unbidden scream of pain. The stench of burning flesh reached his nose as he waved his wand over his arm with a water spell, extinguishing the flames. Enraged, Iago took several steps closer before he cast fiendfyre with a snarl, a great, flaming dragon burst forth from his wand, leaving fire in its wake as it raged across the grass in Aberforth's direction. Abe saw the fiery dragon coming his way and shook his head with disappointment. "Idiot," he snapped. "Don't play with spells you don't know how to control." This time he didn't try and take control of the fire. He went to one knee and cast the strongest shield he knew around himself, keeping himself as small as possible so that the surface area was low and therefore the shield that was there was strong. The dragon engulfed him and his shield in a second. The heat was intense and he could see his robes smoking and the ends of his beard and hair curling up. But the shield held and while the heat was rapidly becoming painful, he didn't falter. Instead he began leaching power from the fiendfyre dragon, feeding through his shield, therefore keeping it strong without costing him too much energy, and into the ground. When he'd leeched enough power... and not so incidentally felt rested enough, if very hot and singed... he narrowed his eyes and with a wave of his wand, grabbed control of the dragon and slammed it into the ground where it dissipated into a wash of flame. He then rose to his feet, his shield growing with him and squared his shoulders. His robes were still smoking, there were singed areas in his beard and hair and he was soaked in sweat. He was also radiating with fury at the idiocy of this fool of a Death Eater and sent a flurry of strong spells at Iago. "Deprimo! Confringo! Expulso! Incendio! Incarcerous!" "You are quick to judge abilities you have not witnessed!" Iago swept his wand downward to force the dragon upon Aberforth and consume him, and the display of magic that followed was impressive as the fire was absorbed into the powerful shield spell; and while Aberforth readied himself, Iago took that moment to protect himself for whatever the other man was going to do, casting a strong shield spell in front of himself. And when Aberforth began to cast spells at him -- Iago was surprised. The first two were absorbed into his shield, and he cast another to protect himself from the exploding curse. He turned the fire spell away from himself to burn up the ropes as they short toward him, only to fall uselessly to the ground. "If you do not wish to see spells played with, Dumbledore, then I advise against using spells that my own son has mastered. Ossisverso!" Abe gave a flick of his wand that sent Iago's spell flying away. "I have not lost my soul to darkness as you and your son have," he said dismissively. "As such I prefer to make do with the common place. But if you insist, I can fight fire with fire." He paused for a moment, strengthening his shield then he raised his wand, using a spell Albus had taught him a long time ago. With a barked word, a thick rope of flames emerged from the tip of his wand. The flame rope grew rapidly, weaving it's way across the ground at pace until it surrounded Iago. Abe gave a tweak of his wand and the flames swirled around and around until Iago was encased into a tower of flames. At that point, Abe began slowly moving the tower towards the gates. It was time to rid the school of these soulless interlopers. As the flames began to close in and engulf him, Iago countered with the element's opposite -- he conjured up a column of water from the ground, swirling around him from the inside of the column of fire. Smoke rose as the water began to extinguish the fire, parts of the flames still breaking through and searing across his skin like small blades, sweating from the exertion of holding the spell and the proximity of the heat. He expanded the column of water until the fire was completely gone, the earth around him scorched and damp; with nothing to obscure his vision, Iago saw that Aberforth had gone. Coward.
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