Hogwarts: I Am an Exemplary Wizard

Where is Dumbledore... Aside from Ron, everyone else had the same question. They clearly remembered seeing Dumbledore, even talking to him—so how had he suddenly vanished?

But other than Kael, probably no one could give them an answer.

The moment the Death Eaters appeared, Kael immediately tensed up. He ignored the bickering Harry and Hermione, didn’t even spare them a glance, his expression grave as he searched through the crowd of Death Eaters.

A moment later, Kael silently let out a breath of relief.

Good, they were all wearing masks... the standard gear for Death Eaters. Since they were just Death Eaters, it meant that the most troublesome person hadn’t come.

If that was the case, there wasn’t much to worry about.

By the time Kael came back to himself, the fight had already fully broken out. Charms flashed from every direction, and under such a dense barrage, the Protective Magic around them only held for a short while before being completely torn apart.

Everyone was exposed before the Death Eaters. The sky seemed shrouded in a thick black fog; they dropped from above and, relying on sheer numbers, appeared around each and every person.

There were the most people around Harry.

Hermione had just tried to Apparate him away when she was cut off. Charms of every sort came at them from all directions, making it almost impossible for her to focus enough to Apparate.

With no other choice, Hermione decided in a split second—she shoved Harry away and threw herself in the opposite direction, narrowly dodging the Charms aimed at her.

Ron, at her side, was a step too slow and was hit in the shoulder by a Charm.

Ron clutched his shoulder with a scream. Blood gushed from the wound, soaking through his robes.

"Ron, Ron! How are you?" Hermione’s voice shook, but it was quickly drowned out by an even louder explosion.

She tried to get to Ron, but a Death Eater dropping from above blocked her path.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted, swinging his Wand.

He did manage to knock a Death Eater’s Wand away, but faced with so many enemies, that small advantage was practically useless.

"Kael!" Cedric shouted, "You go help Harry. I have to help Lupin and Tonks—they won’t last much longer!"

"No, you stay here!" Kael appeared in front of Ron in an instant, flicked his Wand, and a silver Shield rose to block all the Charms coming at them.

At the same time, the ground surged up like a wave, carrying Harry and Hermione away from the Death Eaters’ encirclement just as it had earlier.

In a single instant, the crisis facing the three of them was temporarily lifted.

"Get to Cedric." Kael shot the bedraggled trio a glance, then turned his head and shouted, "I’m leaving this to you. Protect yourselves!"

With that, Kael vanished from where he stood again.

"Apparating in the middle of a battle?!" Now that she’d come back to her senses, Hermione was startled. "That’s way too dangerous!"

"Rather than that, I think we should worry about ourselves first." Cedric moved to their side, expression grim. "You really don’t need to worry about Kael. He was already proficient with that Charm in fifth year... Protego Totalum!"

Cedric used the Iron Armor Spell to block a Charm flying in from the side, and casually sent a Stunning Spell back at the caster.

Harry and Hermione also launched their own counterattacks. The three of them formed a circle, shielding the injured Ron in the middle.

Meanwhile, Kael had appeared in the center of the battlefield—where Lupin and Tonks were.

Facing Bellatrix and seven or eight Death Eaters attacking in turn, the two of them were barely hanging on. If not for Sirius’s timely support, they probably wouldn’t have survived even the first exchange.

"Clear Water Like an Arrow!"

A jet of spring water burst from the tip of Kael’s Wand. In mid-air the spray twisted and warped into the shape of arrows, streaking toward the densest cluster of Death Eaters.

Screams erupted from the crowd, and the previously dense barrage of Charms faltered for a brief moment.

Kael immediately cast a Transfiguration Spell at the ground beneath Lupin and Tonks’s feet, using the same method he’d just used to save Harry to fling them out of the encirclement.

"You again!" Bellatrix glared at Kael, one hand clamped over the arm the "arrows" had grazed, and snarled, "How dare you ruin my fun!"

"Yeah, but what can you do about it—kill me?" Kael spread his hands.

"As you wish!" Bellatrix shrieked with manic glee, raising her Wand. A bolt of green light shot straight toward Kael.

But the next second, there was a sharp crack and Kael vanished from where he’d been standing. He not only dodged Bellatrix’s Killing Curse, he also reappeared behind her.

"Ventus Evanesco!"

The howling wind turned into the sharpest of blades, and its range was far wider than the water arrows from before.

In an instant, several Death Eaters closest to Kael toppled like harvested wheat, screaming as they hit the ground. The blood that sprayed from their bodies was whipped into a fine mist, splattering across the Death Eaters around them.

"Tsk..." Kael frowned, dissatisfied with the effect.

This was a modified version of Sectumsempra of his own making. How to put it—its area of effect was much larger, but the power was a bit underwhelming; it could only mow down one row at a time.

If there happened to be a meat shield right beside you, you could come out of it completely unscathed.

"Let’s just say there’s room for improvement." Kael shook his head.

Only now did Bellatrix come back to her senses. It was hard for her to accept that in just one exchange, she’d lost half her people.