From a distance, Howl saw the lights of Roland. Figures flickered in the village square, and a huge bonfire rolled thick smoke, drifting skyward.
Additionally, Howl noticed many dragons, roughly a dozen of them.
Roland Village was isolated and didn't have much commercial activity, completely unlike Hogsmeade. It usually sustained itself by providing unique magical artifacts to other Wizard shops and collaborating with dragon farms.
At the same time, many non-spellcasters in the village chose to travel to distant ordinary towns for education and then settle in the Muggle world.
Of course, most Rolanders still chose the Wizard life, even if they weren't all spellcasters.
"We also have an agreement with the Norway Ministry of Magic, responsible for Wizard security in this area," Evan explained.
"You know, the world is vast, and Wizards are few. Especially in a sparsely populated place like Norway, which is also on the edge of the world, Dark Wizards are more likely to breed.
We don't want our homeland to become a lawless place like Romania."
The Romanian forests were infamous in the Wizard World, with large gatherings of vampires and Werewolves causing trouble there.
Upon landing in the village, a crowd quickly gathered. Howl noticed another group of Viking Warriors, who were much younger, clearly young people returning home for Christmas.
They were responsible for maintaining village security after Evan's unit pursued out of the village.
Evan then introduced Howl to the villagers, followed by an overwhelming wave of thanks.
After everything was done, Howl finally remembered Harry and Klee.
"Where are those two boys?" Howl looked into the crowd and quickly found them.
At this moment, Klee was warming up by the bonfire, and also curiously asked Harry, "Have you ever dueled?"
Harry shook his head. "I've only read about it in books. You need a dueling assistant, right?"
"That's the style of Wizards who consider themselves superior," Klee shook his head, stretching his body. "Vikings just need to fight."
"I'm looking forward to it," Harry nodded.
Evan also noticed the two boys on edge and immediately stepped forward to the bonfire. The rest of the crowd also knew about Klee's challenge to the young Wizard, and all eyes focused on the two of them.
"Go, little Wizard, teach Klee a lesson!"
"Klee, don't disgrace the Vikings, hold on a little longer."
Various shouts of encouragement were endless, of course, most of them were for Harry, as he was the challenged and the guest.
"Klee Evensen! Do you confirm that you want to challenge..."
"Peter Jones," Harry added.
"Do you challenge Peter Jones to a duel?" Evan looked at Klee sternly. "Regardless of injury or death, after the duel, there shall be no resentment or jealousy."
Klee spun his hand axe once. "Hurry up, Dad, I can't wait."
Evan smiled, picked up a burning torch from the bonfire, circled Klee and Harry, then stood between them.
The surrounding Viking Warriors formed a circle, shouting war songs that Howl couldn't quite understand. The imposing atmosphere made Harry feel his blood boiling.
"When the torch falls, the duel begins!" Evan stood at the edge of the crowd, raising the torch.
After confirming that both were ready, he tossed the torch high into the air between them.
Harry was very nervous; this was his first real fight.
But he wasn't afraid.
The torch, trailing a fiery tail, flew through the air, then—bang!
"Locomotor Mortis—" Harry immediately cast a spell, and a white light shot towards Klee.
Just as it was about to hit, Klee's dragon blocked the spell. The dragon's scales had extremely high magic resistance, and Harry's spell had no effect on it.
At the same time, the dragon's tail coiled, placing Klee on the dragon saddle on its back.
Seeing his attack fail, Harry's broomstick, Meteor, flew straight towards Klee from behind him. Harry grabbed the broomstick handle, not even bothering to ride it, and charged straight at Klee.
Howl was a little surprised. Had this kid's flying proficiency reached such a level?!
Unfortunately, Klee and his dragon were clearly more experienced. While quickly flying up to avoid Harry's attack, the dragon's tail swept fiercely. Harry quickly dodged, but his arm was still hit hard, making him stumble.
Then, Harry also quickly flew high into the sky.
"Won't this be a bit unfair?!" Evan said, a little worried, then quickly added, "I don't mean anything else, it's just that Klee and Butt have been together since birth, and Butt isn't like a flying broom."
Howl shook his head indifferently. "It's quite fair. Of course... on the premise that he has truly learned something."
"He should only be in his first year, right?" Evan was a little worried. "How much magic can a first-year learn?"
"No, he hasn't even started school yet," Howl said. "Compared to so-called magic, what's more important is combat strategy.
Because of the Wizard's characteristic of long-range spellcasting, many people mistakenly equate Wizards with archers. But in reality, a Wizard's true strength in combat is—unpredictability.
As long as he has flexible combat strategies, he has a chance to win."
"Is that so?!" Evan's face showed a thoughtful expression. For these people, they might not care about math, physics, and chemistry, but if you talk about how to fight, how to brawl, they are definitely willing to use their brains.
"Many Wizards I've met mostly just wave their wands."
"A very wrong way to fight," Howl calmly nodded, watching the battle above.
Klee and Harry didn't fly too high. At this time, they maintained a distance, clearly Harry wanted to use the Wizard's unique advantage to fight.
Then, he saw Klee take a bow from the dragon saddle. He drew the bow and nocked an arrow with extreme skill; in the blink of an eye, an arrow was aimed and shot at him.
He quickly dodged, then raised his hand towards Klee.
"Impedimenta!"
A spell flew rapidly towards Klee, still blocked by Klee's dragon, Butt.
"Incendio!"
"Incendio!"
"Locomotor Mortis!"
Arrows and spells flew back and forth. While Klee was dodging, he would also use arrows to attack Harry.
After a moment, he noticed Harry gradually looking troubled. He shouted, "Close-quarters combat with me might be your only chance. The dragon's scales are still too difficult for you now."
With that, he drew his bow and nocked another arrow. Harry seized this opportunity and quickly closed in.
"Finally!" Harry's eyes held excitement. He leaned over his broomstick, his fingers moving slightly.
"Incendio—"
The incantation might be obscured by the wind, but Klee precisely caught the mouth movements. His entire focus was on Harry, looking directly at him.
However, Harry didn't release anything from his hand.
By the time he reacted, he saw flames igniting in the cloth bag behind him.
"Tricks!" Klee kicked his foot, and the burning cloth bag rapidly fell towards the ground.
However, in this moment of distraction, when he looked back, he saw Harry flying a blue steel longsword straight at him.
"Engorgement Charm!"
In an instant, the longsword suddenly grew, becoming a head taller than a person, and flew towards him, spinning at high speed.
By the time Klee narrowly dodged the longsword, he looked again, and Harry had disappeared.
Below, the onlookers let out a gasp.
As the cloth bag abandoned by Klee was about to hit the ground, a figure swooped down from the sky, grabbed the cloth bag, then narrowly kicked up dust on the ground before flying up again.
At that moment, he seemed to be no more than a foot from the ground.
Harry reached into the burning cloth bag, disregarding the pain, and pulled out—a wand!
It was the wand Klee had previously obtained from the Goblin.
"I'm not just a Wizard who only shoots spells," he slowly said, then aimed his wand at Klee.
There is an ancient naming custom in the Nordic countries where a child inherits the father's name. For example, here, Evan Markson's son is named Klee Evensen.
His surname comes from his father's given name "Evan" with "son" added, which translates to "-sen" or "-son." A daughter would have "dóttir" added after her father's name, translating to "-dottir."
This naming convention is still common in Iceland. The World Cup, for instance, features many names ending in -son or -sen.