Chapter Text
Newt fires off a spell and promptly disparates from his starting position. Lovis calls up a shield spell and the stunning curse rebounds off of it, but the conjured brick Newt sends flying Lovis’ way from his new position sails right through, forcing Lovis to duck. Newt blocks a returning curse, dematerialises out of the way of a second and sends a trip jinx towards the auror from behind him. Lovis barely avoids it, and Newt has already gone by the time the next spell is thrown in his direction.
And so the duel goes - Newt dodges the spells sent his way with alarming ease and responds with charms and jinxes aimed to distract and annoy - one to coat the floor beneath Lovis’ feet in ice, another to try to knock his legs out from under him. There's a close call when Newt conjures a bedsheets to block the auror's view of the arena, and Lovis only just succeeds in raising a shield charm to block the bludgeoning hex aimed at his knees.
As the duel wears on, Newt can see the irritation building on Lovis’ face as the jinxes and curses aimed at him are either blocked or fail to find their target in the first place and he keeps watching for an opening to end the match.
Before the opportunity arises, Lovis temper snaps.
‘Will you STAND STILL so I can hit you!’ he roars.
Newt blinks, before hastily apparating out of the way of a stunning curse. Why on earth would he do such an idiotic thing?
Above them, Newt can hear Theseus lose his composure entirely and start laughing. Lovis can clearly hear it too, because his face turns even redder than previously, which Newt honestly hadn’t thought was possible. Newt wonders if he ought to suggest that the man get his heart checked by a mediwizard- he looks awfully stressed.
‘Fine. You enjoy dodging so much - I’ll make sure you’ve got nowhere to dodge to!’
Lovis drops his shield charm and sends a jet of white hot flame spurting out of the end of his wand towards Newt. Newt hastily relocates himself to the other side of the ring, but Lovis simply turns and the flames turn with him, setting three quarters of the arena on fire in one sweeping motion. Newt can’t see Lovis to try to hit him with a spell - the flames are cutting off any direct line of sight. Lovis shouts something that Newt doesn’t quite catch over the crackle of the fire and the flames surge towards Newt, rapidly consuming the safe ground.
‘Bugger.’ Newt mutters.
He’d somewhat hoped he wasn’t going to have to resort to this. He’s not entirely sure where in the arena Lovis was last standing, but Newt is fairly confident that the man isn’t daft enough to set the ground immediately around him alight. Luckily for him, Newt is very good at apparating blind.
Newt tucks his wand back into its holster and takes half a step forwards, pushing off his right leg. He disapparates mid step and reappears just to the side of Lovis, driving a roundhouse kick directly into the man’s chest. Lovis bends forwards, wheezing, but before he can bring his wand up, Newt apparates again, rematerialising in the air above his opponent. Newt slams both of the heels of his boots into the auror’s back, who pitches face first into the wooden floor. Newt turns his downwards momentum into forwards roll and comes to his feet in a smooth motion, then wandlessly summons Lovis’ wand to his hand for the second time that day. Around them, the magical fire sputters out.
He waits to see if Lovis attempts to get up, but the man appears content to lie face down on the floor of the arena, groaning slightly.
‘Yield?’ Newt asks, his voice echoing slightly due to the amplifying charms spelled into the ring.
It takes Lovis a few attempts to form the words, but eventually he manages to croak out ‘Yield.’