HP: The Magical Gamer [Chapter 142: Painful Cries! ] (Patreon)

"Are you ready?" asked Harry, standing straight with his wand ready by his side.

The three Potters were in the duelling room. It was the second day of the summer holidays and Lily had decided to stand true to her promise of providing daily practice. So, she brought her children here an hour after breakfast.

It was decided that since Harry was level 410 and way more powerful than them both, he would be handicapped.

"Remember, no system skills. You're allowed to use only your wand and the normal spells. No system help. Are we clear?" Lily warned from the other side where she was standing beside Iris.

"Yes, yes. I've heard it already, mum. Let's start." groaned Harry, impatiently waving at her to just be done with the instructions.

"Guard me, Iris. I'll take the offence." Lily whispered to her daughter.

"Beat him to pulp, mum." grinned Iris, squaring her shoulders and taking her position as the defender of the team.

Oh yes, it was also a two-on-one match.

Lily ignored her violent suggestion and yelled, "Begin!"

Harry easily dodged her first array of spells since his speed was godly compared to theirs. He returned fire immediately and sent an abundance of disarming spells at them. In just a second, he had sent almost half a dozen red jets of lights.

Iris jumped forward and used her [Energy Shield] skill, easily dissolving all his spells. She was the only one who could even come close to evading his unnaturally quick attacks with her speed of being level 240 Mage.

Lily's eyes widened at seeing Iris. She didn't even see what happened in the last microsecond. For her, it felt like Iris had just apparated right in front of her. Such was her children's speed. 

She didn't let this derail her momentum, continuing on with the spells. She would have added other branches of magic in her spell chains, but decided against it. 

This was the first day of their training, she didn't need to go all out on them just yet.

Iris kept on being her shadow, snapping around her and intercepting spells, which Lily missed, with her [Energy Shield] skill.

"Don't use system skills. And what's Iris doing? Exploiting it to a shameless degree." He grumbled under his breath on the other side, not moving too much since their spells almost came at him in slow motion.

He kept his movements short and crisp, jerking here and there, letting her spells pass by him.

He was impressed by how his sister was able to thwart his inhumanely quick attacks. He knew she wasn't able to see his strikes. 

He was way above her levels for her to be able to see that in real time. 

But she felt his attacks and used her shield to obstruct his spells. She was somehow able to guess his attack patterns, no matter how random he tried to be.

His mother though was no match for him. She was too slow and weak to trouble him. She was just a toddler compared to them, crawling around while they were flying. And she herself realised that as the minutes passed and none of her spells struck, her face showed her growing agitation and annoyance.

"Iris, switch!" Lily barked and stepped back, murmuring her special spell while her daughter tried to distract him.

Harry was more curious than scared of what his mother was going to do, so he let her be and concentrated on Iris instead.

She showed him her bare teeth in blatant challenge. He grinned back and let loose, stabbing his wand around him so quickly that even Iris could see only a blur where his hand was supposed to be.

Her eyes widened and she hid behind the shield, all her dare evaporating, as tens of spells collided against it in the next second.

She was immensely thankful to this [Energy Shield] skill, due to this very skill, she didn't even feel a little push after the collision with so many spells. 

If it was the normal shield spell, it would have broken like a glass and she would have been flung against the wall due to the impact.

She heard Harry's loud groaning and complaining about her flagrant cheating, her lips spread into an amused grin. Though it disappeared soon when a heavy presence filled the duelling room.

Both her and Harry gaped at the spot where their mother was earlier. In her place now stood an abomination.

Their beautiful mother had been turned into an ugly horrific monster. Her head which housed her pretty red curls was now the nest of slithering crimson snakes. Her soft white skin was now sickly pale blue as if she had been fed buckets of poison. 

And her eyes, her alluring kind emeralds were replaced by malicious green orbs. But the most bizarre thing about her appearance was the leathery bat-like wings sprouting from her lower back.

" Helloo, chiiiildren." She giggled in a raspy voice. A chill went down their spine as they witnessed the maniacal grin plastered on their mother's blue face.

Iris dropped down on her knees, pale and shaking, as a fear so strong which she had never felt before, enveloped her in its vice grip. Her own senses betrayed her and kept multiplying her fright and anxiety.

Iris had never seen a more horrifying creature than this one, she had never heard such a cold crazy voice or smelled something so disgusting. Her skin crawled and her heart thumped erratically inside her ribs. 

She closed her eyes and clasped her hands over her ears. And yet the demonic image refused to go away from her mind, the stench continued suffocating her.

And she could hear it still, the demonic giggle which promised nothing but torture and death.

"STOP IT! PLEASE! STOP IT! NO MORE! NO MORE!" Iris cried, curling into a ball and shivering and sweating hysterically.