Draco's POV
"Plasma Bolts!" Dave shouted, casting blue-white orbs of electricity at me. I immediately countered with Protego. The bolts hit the shimmering, transparent barrier I had conjured, dissipating into harmless sparks.
Seeing him not throw another spell, a typical novice mistake, I immediately waved my hand, sending a volley of ice shards at him.
They were sharp and cold, designed not to wound but to shock. The shards struck him, encasing his arms and legs in a thin layer of ice and freezing him in place for a few seconds before I removed the spell's effect.
"Y-y-you're really g-good," he stuttered, still shivering from the lingering effects of the cold. His teeth chattered as he tried to speak, a sight that always gave me a flicker of satisfaction.
Balthazar, watching from upstairs, simply waved his hand. It was an effortless, almost lazy gesture that undid the last of my spell's residual magic and signaled the end of our seventh duel.
"Thanks, Balthazar!" Dave called out, shaking himself. I could see the cold was gone now. A nice spell, I know a similar one. It's a useful bit of magic, but Balthazar's version was clean and immediate, without the incantations. It just showed the difference between a textbook wizard and a truly skilled one.
It was Dave's idea to improve by sparring someone manageable, and Balthazar supported it. Though, so far, it has been a one-sided beating. Dave's heart was in the right place, but his spell-casting was sloppy, his defenses slow, and his strategy nonexistent.
I could see the frustration building in his eyes with each quick loss. It didn't matter, though. He had signed up for this, and I wasn't about to hold back just to spare his ego.
"David, you can't stop. Your opponents won't," Balthazar reminded him again. I really wished I had someone as patient as him to teach me.
He's a really good teacher, I praised inwardly. He taught me the air blast spell, and his explanation was great.
As I remember, they saw magic and science alike. He wasn't surprised that many people see magic as purely miraculous or mystical. Balthazar explained that Merlineans and Morganians (followers and students of Merlin and Morgana) viewed most magical acts as possible through scientific means. Some acts, they believed, are not yet understood, but perhaps the path to understanding hasn't been found. Living for so long, thousands of years, he has seen humanity achieve so many things, which only increased his faith in that philosophy.
"I am ready," Dave said, his hand already moving to conjure a shield. I didn't wait. Immediately, I sent a barrage of ice bolts at him.
His shield didn't hold for a second. It instantly broke, freezing him in place once more.
I don't know why he is "the chosen one." Perhaps Merlin is his ancestor, and that ring he's wearing can only be unlocked by a blood relative. If that's the case, then Merlin really did Balthazar dirty.
That also explains his large mana pool. I can literally sense mana three times greater than my own, a capacity already increased by the Julius template, thanks to a mana sense I gained from the Lernen template as assimilation progressed.
Sometimes I wonder what would have happened to me without these templates. I got their knowledge, their skills, and their habits. The strangest part is, though, because I didn't get Bullseye's "killing for fun" attitude, but I did get Loid's habit of reading his surroundings and lip-reading nearby people. It seems the system somehow filters what I want and what I don't.
It's good, since I don't want to lose myself like the Batman Who Laughs if I get his template.
"Do you need to rest?" I asked Dave, who was unfrozen again by Balthazar and huffing on the floor.
He shook his head, but Balthazar said while coming down, "You should. We'll be moving to find Horvath soon."
"Is your mana recovered?" Dave asked, looking up at him.
Balthazar answered, "Not fully, but enough, since his won't be either."
According to him, being sealed for years has depleted, his mana reserves and recovery speed. The same goes for his friend, so it seems they both aren't at their full capacity, which is logical, given that they haven't fought like centuries-old beings, at least not him, despite his age matching Frieren's.
I know this information is a trap, perhaps meant to test my intentions. But that's fine, because I don't have any plans for him or Dave anyway. I'm not a fool to try anything stupid.
I can tell his current mana is six times mine, maybe even more if he's not suppressing it. That's why my target is Horvath. I'll take his staff and his subordinates' rings. As for Balthazar's spell collection, I'll first win his trust by helping him defeat Horvath; that should be enough for him to share it with me.
"Hmm," Balthazar frowned suddenly, and Dave immediately asked, "What happened?"
"The mark I placed on the wizard who was with Horvath suddenly stopped working," Balthazar replied.
Hearing this, I remembered something and asked, "Does the mark work on the dead?"
He found the question weird but replied, "No, only on the living. It's actually related to a person's life force."
"Then it means either your mark was removed, sealed, or that person is dead," I stated.
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Naga/ Lamia characters (female)