Yes, this move was entirely reasonable and perfectly compliant with the rules.
After all, the rules Dumbledore had read out only said that interference and attacks between champions were forbidden. They never said anything about taking over and operating the shield on-site, right?
Of course, the rules would not forbid damaging the arena or the shield. After all, what was about to happen inside was a large-scale melee involving dozens of people. If a spell missing its target and hitting the shield counted as a violation, then how was the match supposed to proceed? Who would be able to let loose and fight without restraint?
So, since attacking the shield was completely within the rules, directly hacking the shield and then controlling it to expel the other two champions from its range was naturally perfectly reasonable as well. It was a move Avada had pulled off with his own ability, and as for poor Fleur and Krum, they had merely been caught up in a tiny bit of collateral damage.
In a melee, that was unavoidable to begin with.
Surely the judges at the table would all understand this point, right...
"Dumbledore! What is going on with your shield?!"
Unfortunately, things did not go as hoped. Karkaroff and Maxime looked as though they did not understand at all. Their fingers trembled as they pointed toward the still-shrinking shield, and then toward Fleur and Krum, who were sitting on the ground outside with utterly baffled expressions. Their eyes glared fixedly at Dumbledore.
If they had not personally seen that bizarre champion truly affect the shield, and if they did not still have a certain degree of trust in Dumbledore's character, they would have suspected that Dumbledore was openly giving his own champion an unfair advantage while shamelessly suppressing the champions of the other two schools!
But even if Dumbledore's face was probably not thick enough to do such a thing, this shield had still been constructed under his supervision. So when all was said and done, it was still his problem.
You, the mighty strongest White Wizard, spent several days building something that could be casually cracked by a fifth-year student?!
"...Sometimes, one has to admit,"
Feeling the gazes of the other three judges practically piercing straight through him, Dumbledore tugged at the corners of his mouth with difficulty and pushed up his glasses to hide the awkwardness in his smile.
"This student of mine... is indeed rather bizarre."
"However, his actions truly did not violate the rules, did they? In the rules we formulated together, we never said that modifying the magic maintaining the shield was prohibited..."
"That is because you guaranteed your shield would be absolutely safe and would not be destroyed by any external force!"
Madame Maxime could no longer bear it and exposed Dumbledore's strained sophistry.
"Hurry up and pause the match first, then send our champions back in!"
"...I'm afraid that may be somewhat difficult."
Crouch, beside them, still retained a measure of rationality. After all, none of the three champions had any connection to his personal interests. On the contrary, the one person most likely to ruin his reputation had already been taken down by the Hogwarts champion right from the start, which made him feel much more at ease.
"Look back at the battlefield. Mr. Ken seems to be preparing some kind of major move."
"Hmm?"
Maxime and Karkaroff subconsciously moved their gazes away from Dumbledore's old face, then froze where they stood.
Because they saw that the shield, which had originally covered an area the size of a stadium, had now shrunk to less than the size of a classroom. More than forty practitioners of the Dark Arts, including those who had already been knocked down and were lying on the ground, had been forcibly squeezed together. They could almost no longer move at all.
And Avada himself had actually extended a platform out of the shield. At this moment, he was standing more than ten meters up in the air, looking down at the Dark wizards below, who were crammed together into a mass. The wand in his hand was waving through the air, emitting streams of strange light...
"That champion... directly hacked the shield trapping the Dark wizards?"
At this moment, whether at the scene, in the university hall watching the broadcast, or in the other two schools, even the slowest and least magically knowledgeable people had realized exactly what had happened. They all widened their eyes and looked at the figure standing on the platform, waving his wand.
Although they did not know exactly how capable that person was, they at least believed this much: since the organizers dared to use that shield to trap dozens of dangerous Dark wizards, that meant the shield itself could not possibly have any problems!
And since there was no problem with the shield, then the one with the problem could only be the champion who had casually cracked it!
"How did he do that?!"
Even the students of Leach University could not help being shocked.
No, they were even more shocked than ordinary people. As elites of Leach University who were qualified to come to the scene as reserve personnel for maintaining order, they knew that this shield was the handiwork of their own vice chancellor, Gellert Grindelwald! It was also very likely to have been personally created by one of the most powerful wizards, Albus Dumbledore!
In other words, a fifth-year student had spent just a few seconds cracking magic jointly arranged by Grindelwald and Dumbledore?
"He'll definitely be recruited into the university, right?"
Someone stared blankly at the battlefield, not knowing whether they were asking or muttering to themselves.
"But with that kind of strength, does he still need to come to our school for further study? He's probably already qualified to become a professor..."
"I've never heard of any of our professors being able to casually crack magic constructed by Dumbledore and Grindelwald together... But Professor Belby and Professor Clarke did once crack the werewolf curse that even those two could do nothing about..."
"Right, speaking of Professor Clarke... It seems like we haven't seen him at all these past few days?"
"I heard he's ill. He didn't even participate in something as important as the university going public, and the werewolf cure surgery will only be publicly explained by Professor Belby alone..."
"You've got to be joking. He can even cure werewolves. How could an ordinary illness make him miss this? He must be carrying out some secret mission again. After all, these are troubled times..."
...
Far away inside the shield, Avada naturally could not hear how his own students were currently discussing him. While doing his best to maintain control over the shield, he felt the fatigue in his mind becoming increasingly obvious.
After all, what he was doing now was using the power of his soul to drive his mental power beyond its original limits. And his original level had only just barely reached the passing line for a novice Auror. Being able to achieve such a massive increase in strength while only receiving this slight sense of fatigue in return was already something he should be quite satisfied with...
"Let's wrap this up quickly."
Looking at the Dark wizards below, who had already been packed tightly into a space of only a dozen or so square meters and no longer had even the ability to move, Avada finally let out a relieved breath. Then, with a wave of his wand, he threw down the spell he had spent so long constructing.
From outside, people could only see a red light so dazzling that it was almost impossible to look straight at suddenly erupting within the narrow shield, burning fiercely for several full seconds.
And when that light faded and they could once again see the scene inside the shield, they discovered that the shield which had originally restrained the Dark wizards had somehow been completely shut down.
As for the Dark wizards who had just been bathed in that light, they had now collapsed into a small mountain of bodies...
(End of Chapter)