Chapter 822 Dark Horse
When having breakfast the next day, Albert flipped through the latest issue of "Bullfighting Daily" and found that his odds had actually dropped. To be precise, the odds of winning the gold medal should have dropped to 6 times. Obviously, "Bullfighting Daily" 》Over there, they discovered that someone had placed a large sum of Galleons on it, and they were so frightened that they quickly lowered their odds.
Even if the people at Bullfighting Daily were not in their right mind, they would have realized something was wrong when they discovered that someone actually threw a large sum of galleons into it.
So far, basically no one thinks that No. 17 (Albert) will win the gold medal for Barnabus Finkley’s excellent spell casting skills. Even if there are people betting, they are all retail investors, and the amount is very limited.
However, there are actually several people betting on it now, and they are investing a large sum of galleons at once.
What does this actually mean?
No one knows this better than the people who run the gambling bureaus.
Actually, what Albert didn’t know was that his odds had been lowered three times.
The first time, Bard invested 500 Galleons in it. When the organizer saw that there were other people preparing to bet a large sum of Galleons to win the gold medal on the 17th, they were frightened and directly lowered his odds to 7 times.
Later, the "Bullfighting Daily" discovered that people had poured hundreds of galleons into it one after another, betting that Albert would win the gold medal, and had to lower the odds again.
There is no way, if something goes wrong, there must be a monster.
The odds are so high, if you really lose, you won't lose all your underwear.
“Those guys are really cowardly.” Bud put away the newspaper and said to Albert with a smile: “I’ll help you with that matter.”
"It's normal to smell something wrong. The purpose of opening a gambling bureau is to make money. Who wants to make a loss?" Albert disagreed with this and continued to read relevant reports in the "Bullfighting Daily".
The Spanish magic community has paid a lot of attention to Barnabus Finkley's excellent spell-casting competition. The most promising gold medal winner at present is actually Mr. Animagus, who is good at transformation magic.
Of course, Albert is also very popular, but he feels that the popularity is deliberately stirred up by Bullfighting Daily.
Is this considered digging a hole for yourself?
To be honest, Albert doesn't have any psychological pressure at all when it comes to collecting money in the gambling field, and there are not many such opportunities.
Once the identity of the prophet spreads, you cannot do this, otherwise it will easily attract people's hatred.
When Albert was flipping through the newspaper to check the list of sixteen players, he noticed that there were only three players under the age of thirty.
Among them, there is a player named Noe, who seems to have just graduated from Beauxbatons School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Albert still remembers that during the first round of performance, this person took out a handkerchief from his pocket and transformed it into a sky full of butterflies. Finally, he performed a trick for everyone, where the butterflies gathered on his hand and turned into a handkerchief again. That scene made everyone Many viewers were impressed.
However, this man's appearance is relatively average, and he also exudes an aura of decadence, which is really not very likable.
The other one is the mature wizard who once lined up behind Albert. It is said that he is a Spanish native and his name seems to be Anthony.
In the first round of the competition, he showed everyone the changes of the water polo through transformation and magic spells.
The difficulty is not high, but it shows off your spell-casting skills very well, so it received very good reviews.
is currently one of the most qualified people to compete for the championship.
At about ten o'clock, the bar owner Diana came over and informed the players to come to the second floor to participate in the competition.
"see you later."
When Albert got up to leave, he found that many customers were waving at him and cheering him on. Apparently many people were pressuring Albert to pass the second round.
Albert smiled and waved to them, then followed the crowd to the second floor.
"You are so popular." The decadent man named Noe suddenly said to Albert: "I heard Louise mention you. She always said you were a genius. After meeting you, I suddenly understood Louise. Why would Si reject me?"
"No, I think you are probably mistaken. I already have a girlfriend. Miss Louise also knows it and has met my girlfriend." Albert looked at the decadent man in front of him and corrected him.
He felt that Louise's rejection of the guy in front of her was entirely due to the decadent aura in him.
If Mr. Noe could be more confident, he would not be easily rejected. After all, excellent people always have their own shining points.
Noe looked a little embarrassed, and he realized that he seemed to have made something wrong.
The two of them followed the crowd into a living room, which was surrounded by more than twenty chairs in a semi-arc shape, and some of the chairs had numbers on them, apparently for them to sit according to their numbers.
The five referees have all taken their seats. After entering the living room, the players each chose their own number and took a seat. Albert also walked to the chair next to No. 17.
As soon as he sat down, he noticed the envious and jealous eyes from the next door.
“I’m afraid this person is sick.” He muttered and focused his attention on the stage in front of him, completely unaware that the famous female singer next door was looking at him curiously.
As for the middle-aged wizard who is good at Animagus, he has now stood in front of them, with a sullen face, nodded to several judges, and began to show off his best transformation magic, which is actually the same as Albert. Transforming the table into a lion is almost the same, it is just a gradual process.
The man was like a conductor. Every time he waved his magic wand, the things in front of him would undergo a transformation and continue to change into various forms. Living and dead objects would cross and deform, and finally turned into a knight's armor, slightly waving towards the judges. After bowing, he disappeared.
After Mr. Animagus's presentation, enthusiastic applause gradually erupted in the living room.
As expected, the sixteen players who can appear here are not easy.
However, the scoring session after the performance was somewhat unexpected. The score of Mr. Animagus, who was very optimistic about it, was not as high as expected.
Two are seven points, three are six points.
This is the evaluation given by the five judges: barely passed.
The players below all started whispering.
Albert guessed the reason for the low score. It was probably because he didn't show much of his spell-casting skills in the performance just now, or his level was average.
Next, it was Albert's turn.
He took a deep breath and waved his wand lightly.
Countless blue sparks were flying in the sky, and then as Albert stretched out his left hand, the sparks in the sky began to gather into a blue bellflower flame on his palm.
The water ball slowly floated into the air following Albert's fingers.
When Albert waved his wand in an elegant arc, the surface of the water ball gradually froze, and was covered with a thick layer of frost, as if it turned into an orchid ice egg, with the orchid flame inside seeming to be dancing. life.
Before anyone could react, the ice egg suddenly exploded into countless pieces of ice, and a firebird with blue bellflower flames broke out of its shell. As Albert waved, more and more flames melted into the fire. In the bird, let its body gradually expand, as if the firebird has grown up.
With the waving of Albert's wand, it rolled up blue bellflower flames and passed over everyone's heads, eventually turning into sporadic blue flames and gradually disappearing.
The surroundings suddenly became eerily quiet, and a crisp round of applause sounded. The sporadic applause increased in number, and finally became one. Even several referees raised their withered palms and applauded enthusiastically.
Everyone found that they had underestimated the player No. 17, who had high attainments in both silent spells and wandless magic.
In the end, Albert got an eight, three nines and a ten, directly crushing Mr. Animagus, who was originally favored by everyone, with a score of forty-five points, and that score was like a big mountain pressing down on everyone. heart.
Although the others have not yet shown their skills, they all realize that it is very difficult to surpass Albert in points.
Mr. Anthony, who was sitting next to Albert, looked ugly, as if someone had stuffed a bunch of **** into his mouth.
Of course, he was not the only one with the same ugly expression, there was also the special correspondent of Bullfighting Daily who was taking pictures and recording. Their faces were livid, and they obviously had not forgotten that their own newspaper was hyping up Albert. They were digging a hole to bury themselves in!
Albert is obviously qualified to compete for the final championship, but the player who was favored by people at the beginning was ruthlessly crushed by the opponent.
If he wins the championship, or even ends up with a gold medal...
The special reporter's expression became more and more ugly, and he wanted to rush out immediately to deliver the news to his newspaper, asking them to quickly lower Albert's odds, otherwise he would probably lose all his underwear this time.
“How did you do it just now?” Yanila blinked and asked. She had never seen such magic before and it was really unimaginable.
Albert smiled slightly at the other person and just made a shushing gesture, indicating that the other person was watching the performance on the stage seriously.
Yanila curled her lips, but she had to admit that she still underestimated the guy in front of her. He really might win the Barnabus Finkley Gold Medal for Excellent Spellcasting Technique.
At least, the champion cannot run away.
Yanila still remembers what happened last night. Bud took a sum of Galleons and asked her mother Diana to help place the bets, and they all beat Albert to win the gold medal.
From the drop in the odds this morning, it is easy to see that the person who was favored by Bard was obviously not just his mother, and the galleons used for the bet most likely came from the guy in front of him.
The expression on Yanila's face suddenly became very tangled, and she no longer paid attention to the game above, but stared straight at Albert's side face, not knowing what she was thinking.
It wasn’t until a contestant made a mistake on the stage that the girl turned her attention back to the stage.
Yes, the mature man Anthony made a mistake.
Because he accidentally caught a glimpse of Yanila staring at Albert's side face in a daze, and he was so angry that his mood fluctuated violently, which caused the magic to go wrong.
Anthony finally completed his performance, but the score was not much better than Mr. Animagus, and he ended up with a score of 35.
That mistake did cost him a little bit of points.
“It’s useless for you to stare at me like this, I already have a girlfriend.” Albert met Anthony’s eyes and reminded helplessly.
After speaking, he opened his pocket watch and let the other party see the engravings inside.
That is the painting and sculpture of Albert and Isobel.
The expression on Anthony's face was wonderful.
Because of Albert's move, he told him straightforwardly: I have a girlfriend myself, and she is no less good than Miss Yanila.
In fact, Albert can completely understand the other party's mood, but the guy seems to be in the wrong direction. Wouldn't it be better to work hard to get the gold medal?
Oh, I almost forgot, he won the championship and the gold medal.
However, the guy in front of me definitely doesn’t know that!
I don’t know how to work hard all day long, so I know that envy is bad. I have a very handsome face, but I don’t know how to use my own advantages.
Don’t you know that licking a dog never ends well?
Moreover, you have the nerve to take advantage of a girl who is almost half your age. Albert despises him from the bottom of his heart.
Ignoring the loser next to him, Albert continued to watch the performance on the stage. However, he found that not many wizards actually achieved high scores, and most players only hovered around thirty-five points.
Except for Albert, the current highest score is 42 points. He is a wizard in his forties, and his performance method is also very special.
He got a training doll from nowhere, and then used various magics on it in front of everyone. A bunch of simple spells fell on the unlucky doll, and the movements were quite neat. It can be seen that He has his own unique insights into casting spells, and he seems to be a very good fighter.
Albert suspected that the other party was probably an Auror-like character.
There is nothing to say about his fighting skills.
Another outstanding one is the decadent man Noe. This guy conjured up a sea of roses, then turned the petals into butterflies, rolling up a butterfly storm, giving Albert the feeling of a rainstorm pear needle.
Albert felt that turning a rose into a butterfly was purely redundant, and that this kind of attack was actually very easy to resist. As long as the protective shield was put up, the problem could be solved.
However, Albert felt that the opponent's high score should be related to his spell-casting skills. After all, this game was about spell-casting skills, not magic.
It’s just that Albert really didn’t understand the other party’s method of casting spells.
Finally, there was a middle-aged woman who passed the forty-point threshold. Her magic performance was equally mediocre, but she also received a high score of forty-one.
A total of four players were selected for the third round.
The last round of competition will start tomorrow.
After the game, Albert also got up and left, preparing to talk to Bud. This time the game made him realize that his understanding of the game seemed to be biased.
As he was about to leave with the crowd, he found several reporters coming towards him, as if they planned to interview him.
There is no way, who makes Albert the biggest dark horse in this game.
However, Albert was really not interested in the interview and did not give them a chance. He blended into the crowd and disappeared.
(End of this chapter)