Ethan noted critically that Kazimeriz still glided with a sense of cultivated grace despite his age, which of course had been the precise reason for starting out light. Third year nonsense? Ethan brushed that off as one of Kazimeriz' standard tactics. That belittling tone, that ingrained sense of superiority that the old man used to such devestating effects to control his students, Zan knew he had to shield as much against any verbal attacks as he did against the magical ones.

He easily shielded the spells sent back at him; he'd learned that lesson on targeted shielding at the hands of the same man that now faced him. He continued attacking with small stunners, this time throwing in a silent exploding charm, immediately followed by a blasting curse. And always the tiny non-verbal stunners.

"Sharp technique." Kazimeriz commented, noticing the way Truebridge was punctuating each of his spells with a subtle flick of wrist. He was actually enjoying himself as he felt some of the award winning show dueler he once was rising to the challenge. He blocked each of Truebridge's spells, catching the one-two of the blasting and exploding charms: the first from behind his back and the latter after a quick half-turn for show.

Time to turn things up a level. He lunged low and retaliated, releasing a sharp series of controlled lightning charms toward the younger man. Lightning and fire spells had always been his favorites, even as a lad; he adored the theatrical effect and the fact that they tended to blind your opponent momentarily didn't hurt, either.

He pulled back up to full height and raised his wand high. He ignored the sharp bolt of arthritic pain in his shoulder (ooh, he'd be paying for this later!), bringing his wand arm down with a crisp zigzag motion, casting an Impediment curse and immediately positioning to defend.

There. Let's see how he dealt with that.

Alessia had run ahead of Clifford. All she could think of was how Papa Valon would curse Poor Truebridge and Pepe would be so angry with her for not stopping the fight. But how do you stop two gentlemen who have agreed upon a duel? This was bad... Very Bad. She pushed her way through the students and got to the front. Oh no! It had already started.

Just when she thought they were going to talk each other to death she would have to say something to move them along they started dueling. And it was fantastic. her own wand movements were childish compared to theirs. She was watching with rabid attention making mental notes to practice after they were done trying to kill each other.

Ethan frowned slightly, knowing his technique was partly due to having learned from Kazimeriz in the first place. And the man was still a show of, Ethan should have expected that. And while he normally wouldn't waste movements, he shielded the lightning and extended one hand to accio his stunna shades from Bunbury, catching them on his face with a showy twist of his head, his expression not even changing for a moment and his now-covered eyes not leaving Kazimeriz for a second.

The next spell hit Zan's shield with a loud crack, causing a light show almost as bright as the lightning had been, Ethan took one step back from the force of it and hit back with a reductor curse, immediately following it up with another sneaky gouging spell. With a third, tightly controlled flick of his wrist, Ethan's shades flew off, directly towards Kazimeriz, transfiguring into a hissing, two-headed runespoor as it hurtled through the air.


Oh yeah, Ethan could be showy too.

He WAS an actor.

Kazimeriz smirked, squinting against the flash of light and instinctively casting a short-lived general shield as he couldn't see what was coming. He retreated back a step and blinked once. His vision cleared to reveal a two headed runespoor on the attack!

Kazimeriz cast quickly. "Oppugno!" he said aloud for the benefit of the students watching. First one, then a second mongoose darted forward, the razorsharp teeth of the creatures moving in to disptach Ethan's snake.

Kazimeriz strategized. The best thing to do when facing down an opponent was to use what you know of them. Get them to be hasty, sloppy. Attempt to prey on emotion. "This ought to be a blast from your past... taking a page out of your own book, so to speak..." He conjured up a stack of Truebridge's precious tomes and then Shaboom! he set them on fire with incendio. He used the hopeful distraction to burst forward with an entrail-expelling curse. Vile... But it was part of Ethan's own repertoire, after all.

Alessia began to swoon... she was feeling faint, and she grabbed onto the first student on her left, not even noticing who it was. This was getting too intense... runespoors and mongooses? or was it mongeese? Oh, she didn't care! She was feeling all breathless, and light headed.

"No..." she said breathless. "I... I don't know what to do..." She said more to herself that to the boy. "Thank you, Mr. Kettleburn." She said trying to regain composure.

She looked over as Professor Lupa seemed to faint. She didn't know what was going on there, but this duel was turning a bit nasty and Paris was loving every minute of it.

She held onto the boy's hand and didn't let go. Should she send him to get the headmaster? Would Papa Valon kill Ethan? Zan? Whatever his name was?

She giggled at the power struggle going on between Professor Lupa and Cope's hand. Not that she blamed the Professor, she would kill to hold his hand too. She tried to return her attention back to the duel.

Ethan vanished the first mongoose and transfigured the second one into an ashwinder, which slithered around on the ground between the two of them. A blast from the past? Truebridge narrowed his eyes slightly, Kazimeriz had given the very clue Ethan needed to avoid being overly startled by the burning books. He did however let out a low snarl as he flicked his wrist to shield the luridly coloured flash of the spell he recognised as the entrail-expelling curse.

The resulting collision between the curse Kazi threw and Ethan's shield made a somewhat terrifying sound not unlike a thunderclap. As the ashes of the burning books silently dispersed and the ashwinder lay eggs, Truebridge retaliated with a non-verbal confringo and followed it up with a disarming charm before levitating and hurling the newly laid ashwinder eggs at Kazimeriz with the intention of taking advantage of their magical fire.

Burning books? That was low.

Ethan jabbed his wand again, his left hand trailing behind him as he cast a finger-removing curse right on the tail of the ashwinder eggs.

She jumped when the force of their spells resulted in a loud thunderclap. "Think they will stop at first blood?" She asked.

Alessia heard the question... but had her mind not been on the duel, she's have answered better... While her mind was occupied, she said "Not Papa Valon..." she said. The man was a Slytherin, he saw the job through... but with Ethan's flare for snakes... He must have been one too... Odd... weren't they the same age? Why was it she'd never met him before... DUEL! Right! What to do...

Kazimeriz blocked the confringo and disarming charms, his shield rebounding the ashwinder eggs back at Truebridge. On a lark, he added a sticking charm to the eggs so that they would hopefully be stuck on his opponent's shirtfront before they exploded.

This bit of magic, however, was a bit more complex and he did not have time to react to the finger removing curse. It struck him squarely on the left hand, severing the fingers of his left hand and causing him to drop his wand. He smiled as it fell. "There is something you don't know. I am not left handed."

He dipped down and picked up his wand neatly in his right hand and continued the duel without missing a beat. He would not be bestest by this tyke. Not when Alessia's honor was involved.

He animated his severed fingers and they busied themselves by crawling swiftly over to Truebridge's shoes and picking up the laces to tie the shoes together. Immediately after, he shot again, "Diffindo!"

Ethan turned his head as the ashwinder eggs hit him and promptly burnt his shirt up. He shot a slightly mournful look at Bunbury and his jacket, which would have protected him quite nicely- thanks to the charms it held- but Ethan had to settle for casting aguamenti on himself to put the fire out. Blah. His shirt was ruined. He eyed the fingers in disgust as they crawled over his shoes. As he kicked them away, the diffindo caught him on the arm.

"I suppose there is something that I need to tell you." Ethan swapped his wand from his right hand to his left, "I am." He felt a crunch underfoot as he stood on one of Kazimeriz' crawling fingers, "Oh oops. My apologies, Sir."

Weaknesses. Zan began to circle, his mind selecting and discarding a few possibilities and finally settling on the only one he could see working. He shot off a gouger and a stunner in a quick one-two before following it up with a second gouging spell, now using his left hand and ignoring the scratch on his arm.

Alessia turned to THAT Bunny woman, her eyes wide open. Was she mental? "How do you suppose I do that without offending one of them, Professor Bunbury?" She wasn't going to comment on her ridiculous comment. She was the one who was ridiculous. She pulled her arm out of the other woman's.