Harry Potter: The Arcane Thief (Litrpg)

Chapter 108: Axel Hunt… I think he broke Quidditch

In the intense atmosphere, on the ground in the middle of the large stadium, the Team Slytherin faced against the Team Hufflepuff.

Since they were being watched by the whole Wizarding world, everyone except a certain someone was under a lot of pressure.

Standing casually with his broom in his hand, Axel looked at the solemn and nervous faces of the Hufflepuff team, who were all also looking at him.

"It's nothing personal," he told them in advance.

"What do you mean?" Asked a tall guy standing in front of him. He was radiating some sort of main character energy, and the rest of the Hufflepuff team seemed to defer to him.

"You are?"

"I'm Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff seeker."

Axel nodded as he sighed. "Well, I meant what I meant. Just try stay out of my way and you'll all be fine. Probably," he said, making the puffs more scared.

*PTWEEEEEEEEEEE*

At this moment, the whistle was blown, announcing the start of the match.

Instantly, all the players rushed at them. The snitch, while had been active and waiting to be released, instantly disappeared into thin air, the Quaffle was taken by the Hufflepuff team, and the Hufflepuff beaters quickly rush at the Bludger, sending it towards Axel, who had yet to move from his place.

*BOOM*

"And there it is again! The launching Boom! Look at how effortlessly he pulls that off!"

But, instead of stopping to show off the Snitch, Axel didn't decrease his speed at all. Taking a turn, he dumped the snitch at Madam Hooch, who had barely put the whistle away from her lips.

!

Madam Hooch was surprised when a green blur passed by her leaving a snitch on her lap along with a rush of wind.

*TWEEEE*

She blew the whistle, giving 50 points to the Slytherin team, her eyes still wide due to the surprise.

*CHEEEERS*

"AND HE'S DONE IT AGAIN! 2.3 SECONDS! HE. BROKE. HIS. OWN. RECORD!"

"INDEED! I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT WHEN I SAW THE CLIPS, BUT BY MERLIN, THIS BOY CAN REALLY DO IT!"

"Mr. Ludo, as a seeker yourself, what do you think is the difficulty of successfully pulling off what Axel just did?" Asked Lee, the Commentators were completely ignoring the rest of the players, because now that they had seen that Axel still had it, the presence of other players wouldn't really impact the game, at least if it's not the Unrestricted format.

"It's tough, near impossible tough, Jordon. There's a reason why the previous world record was miles away from Hunt's. You'd have to first be able to see the Snitch when it's at its fastest, which is an extremely difficult feat to achieve. Then you'd have to pull off the launching boom, which is a skill very few can pull off, and then you'd have to time it perfectly as well."

"Blimey! That does sound impossible to me!"

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"Isn't it? And when you do all this, you'd still have to have the reflexes allowing you to catch the snitch at that speed. If it ever happens in a game, it is usually considered a once in a lifetime coincidence. It's definitely not something you can casually pull off like the boy."

"Then, how do you think Axel does it? As you might already know, Hunt is quite elusive. We don't have any chance of getting even a single answer from him."

"Practice. An insane amount of it. Talent isn't enough to cut it. I don't know what kind of practice he has done, but I see some really hard work behind his every refined action. Though, it's still too early to tell if he can compete in the major leagues. Launching boom is good, but if he's so repetitive in using it, then it would only work on school level. He has to put in that hardwork in learning other skills as well."

"Well, that is quite new since no one has ever seen him fly at Hogwarts before the match, let alone train. Anyways, where is Hunt? I can't find him," Lee Jordon suddenly stopped commentating when he realized that he couldn't see Axel.

"Hm?" Ludo Bagman also began searching for him.

"TWEEEEEP*

At this moment, Madam Hooch whistled for the second time as the Golden Snitch had been dumped into her lap yet again, adding 50 more points to Slytherin.

"WHAT?!"

"WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?!"

The commentators were surprised and so was the audience. Looking at the time, 1 minute had already passed since the match since Axel had last caught the snitch, meaning he was allowed to catch it again. But…

"Where the hell IS he?! AND HOW DID HE CATCH IT SO QUICKLY?!"

While everyone searched for Axel, the Slytherin team actually scored a goal, taking everyone's attention back to the game.

"Oh, and while everyone is searching for Axel, the Slytherin Captain Patricia Afonso has taken the opportunity to score a goal, making the score 110 to 0! But where is Hunt?!"

At this moment, the big screen showed the Stadium from a bird's eye view in slow motion. And if you looked closely, you could see it.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

"Don't tell me he…"

If you looked closely, you could see, a green blur speeding along the boundaries!

"HE DIDN'T SLOW DOWN!" Exclaimed Bagman as he understood. "Hunt hasn't slowed down at all after the previous launching Boom! In fact, he's still speeding! Merlin's beard! Does this boy not fear death?!"

That was right. After his initial boost, Axel did not stop speeding at all, to the point that he wasn't even properly visible anymore, which was like suicide. It is very difficult to maneuver the broom at high speeds, and if you go even higher, you're just inviting death. Just one crash and you're finished.

But due to this speed, no one could even think about trying to stop him. Not unless they could use magic. No Bludger could hit him, and if anyone tried to tackle and succeeded, they would die.

And at this speed, he was catching the snitch like at an interval barely a few seconds above one minute.

"Holy Morgana... Should... should he be stopped? If a crash happened, it would be life threatening," asked Jordon.

Bagman was also stumped. "Well, he's not breaking any rules, so if we follow the rules, there's nothing we can do..."

Meanwhile, Axel, who wasn't having any difficulty pulling this off, just scoffed. 'How's this for a show?'

They wanted to increase the traction by exploiting his controversies to increase their benefits? They were trying to sell his game play?

"Well, too bad. You can't even see me," he murmured, catching the snitch yet again and dropping it in Madam Hooch's lap.

For the next 20 minutes, no one could do anything while Axel caught the snitch 19 more times, just for good measure. No one had anything to do. The game had become a one man show.

The Commentators had run out of words.

The players had stopped moving because they would be scared to death whenever they'd feel that intense burst of wind rush by them along with a sharp sound. What if they moved unnecessarily and got in his way?

Of course they didn't know Axel could still avoid them at this speed.

Even the audience had also gotten quiet, because there was nothing happening except for a whistle from Madam Hooch after every minute...

Everything had gone completely out of order, and no one could do anything.

In the stillness, Bagman let out a hollow laugh. "Axel Hunt... I think... I think he broke Quidditch," he muttered, and everyone had to agree. In this format, there's nothing anyone can do except let him run the game since they can't use magic. Even if he's playing in a major League Match, the result would be the same. Truly, he had broken the game.

Finally satisfied, Axel took out his wand for the finale. "Efficio Fumus." He chanted.

It was one of the first spells he had learnt, the spell to produce smoke. But this time, he just tweaked a little to change the colour of the smoke.

Then, in the middle of the stadium, everyone suddenly saw a giant figure made out of green smoke quickly being manifested in the air, as Axel flew in arcs, leaving smoke trails behind.

"What in Merlin's name..."

"Damn..."

Both Bagman and Lee Jordon were struck speechless after seeing what Axel had drawn.

There was a moment of silence in the crowd, in which Axel appeared on the ground.

Casually dumping the Hogwarts-provided broom, he began walking away, while the scoreboard read: 1160-0

What was there to do? The match was already as good as over, and since he had used magic, he was off the game according to rules anyway. Thus, while the dumbstruck crowd looked into the air, Axel walked out...

Leaving a Giant Middle finger drawn out of green smoke hanging in the air.

!

The crowd went into an uproar.

"Did he really...?!" Muttered Ludo as the crowd went wild.

"Yeah..." agreed Lee. "I think he just flipped us off. In every sense," he muttered while watching the staff scrambling to erase the giant green middlefinger from the pitch.

"That fucking brat!" cursed Bagman after turning off his mic as he began receiving calls on his Magi-mirror from the sponsors and broadcasters. "He can't... He can't leave the game just like that! We'll lose all the money we were going to get from the sponsors. And it's barely 25 minutes into the game! All the viewership ratings will drop without him on the pitch!"

He turned on the mic. "Madam Hooch, could you please bring him back? He can't leave like that after riling us up like that!" He said, as the crowd agreed with him.

Lee Jordon sighed, turning on his own mic. "Actually, he can. Look at the scoreboard," he said as he broke down the situation for everyone. "1160-0 in Slytherin's lead. The Hufflepuff is already finished since there's no way they can make a comeback from this. So he doesn't need to play anymore. And even if we want to bring him back, we cannot, since he used magic, meaning he's by default disqualified from the match."

He knew he should have stopped when he had seen Axel's pissed mood.

But maybe he had been too confident after having all these wealthy backers directing him and having Ludo Bagman sitting right beside him. 'What could happen?' He had thought.

No matter what, he had never imagined he would face his retribution in the very same match. First Axel spat on Ludo Bagman's face by going at top speed and making the whole game into a one man show.

'Keep your opinions to yourself,' His gameplay seemed to say. As if he was offended that a random nobody like Bagman dared to compare his worthless self with Axel, claiming Axel would face challenge at something as basic as this game of plebians.

He showed off to the point that he broke the game itself. 'Try thinking of a countermeasure for this.' he seemed to say, while catching snitches every minute. 'Try doubting me now.'

He took apart everything interesting from the game, making it look something as basic as just one guy catching snitches.

He then proceeded to prove just how wrong Bagman was to think he couldn't do anything, by walking out after winning the thing, leaving everyone hanging, along with a giant middle finger in front of their faces.

As far as vindictiveness goes, this was one of the most vindictive revenges in Quidditch history.

Bagman was now losing it. He had put in a lot of money into this thing. If Axel doesn't return then he would be losing out on a lot of money.

"How arrogant can he be? Does he think any team will take him after showing this kind of attitude?!" He said into the mic.

Actually, every single team will. And both Ludo and Lee knew it. Having Axel on their team would be like cheating. No, it would be even better than cheating. And all great players are arrogant like this. They have seen them act more snobbish with not even a 10th of Axel's skill. So, there's no denying the fact that currently every team was scrambling their brains madly to think how to recruit Axel.

But Bagman was just frustrated.

"Axel Hunt, if you can hear me, come back now. You're offending all the big sponsors who have invested in this game."

Lee Jordon gave Bagman a look that said, 'Bruh. Seriously?!'

"Mr. Bagman, he is the same guy who beat up the heir of the Mikhailov family and got away with it. I don't think these idle threats are going to work. After all, we call him Savage Axel for a reason. We should have known better than to broadcast his story to the world without his consent." he said on the mic, publicly admitting his wrong.

"I'm really sorry Axel. Mr. Bagman forced me." He said, resolutely sacrificing his idol to save himself from trouble with Axel. What kind of idol? He was nothing but a shit-stain compared to Axel.

Bagman didn't give up. If nothing, he was persistent like a cockroach. "Looks like the Hufflepuff is trying to make a comeback! What would the Slytherin's do?!" He exclaimed, and indeed, the Hufflepuffs were indeed trying to save some of their remaining trampled dignity by giving it their all. Even Cedric Diggory, their seeker who had been ignored until now, was trying his best to look for the snitch.

It truly looked like the house of Hard workers.

But it also looked a bit pathetic and overly desperate…

Though Ludo Bagman had some hope. But, the Slytherin team was not in the mood to cooperate. In Patricia's lead, they all just lined up in front of the goal posts.

There's no need to struggle when they already have the match in their bag. Let Diggory catch as many snitches as he wants. It won't change anything. Because he can't get the numbers to their level even in days, let alone in 60 minutes.

Ludo Bagman finally gave up on the match as he saw the numbers slipping. So he decided to latch back onto Axel.

"What a day! Today we got to witness some things which we never even imagined being able to witness! I'm beginning to see a pattern here. No matter where Axel Hunt goes, unbelievable spectacles follow!" He exclaimed, and the crowd cheered. Whatever losses Ludo Bagman might have faced, everyone else had had their fun at seeing Axel defying Quidditch itself, and doing something which has never been done before. They were just no longer interested to watch anymore now that Axel was gone.

"So, I'm very glad to announce that you'll be able to see him again in the Match, Slytherin Vs Ravenclaw!"

*CHEERS*

"But that's not all! There's also a twist in his next match! Because Axel's fiancee happens to be in house Ravenclaw!"

""Oooooohhhhhh"""

Bagman was back in his game. He knew he had the crowd's attention. He didn't even notice Lee Jordan putting down his headset and walking away from Bagman.

"Yes, what would Axel choose between love and Quidditch? Would he humiliate his lover's house like he did with all his other opponents?! We'll have to find out in the match! The details are on your screen! Start booking the tickets and subscriptions from now, before it's too late!" Bagman was a compulsive gambler. The more he loses, the higher he'll raise the stakes to recover his losses. And this time, he forgot just who he was dealing with.

"And... WE HAVE ANOTHER BIG NEWS! With Axel performance in this match it has been decided that Team SLYTHERIN will be representing Hogwarts in their match against Mahoutokoro! And in that match, magic is allowed! Meaning Axel would be turned into meat paste if he tried using the same tricks again! What would happen in that match?! If I were to bet, I would definitely be betting all my money of Mahoutokoro!"

Lee Jordan gave the guy one last look, like looking at a dead man talking, and walked out.

...