At Oliver's provocation, Enclair turned a dark look on the crowd. "Thorin, come out and be my assistant!"
The elven mage apprentice named Thorin Morningwind stepped out of the crowd, trembling. "Um, Enclair... I... I..."
"Get over here and be my assistant!" Enclair glared viciously at him. "Don't worry, you won't have to fight!"
The timid Thorin cautiously took his place behind Enclair, then raised his head to steal a glance at Karin and Oliver opposite them.
Enclair turned back. "Then, Karin Sunfury, are we agreed on the terms of the duel?"
"Of course!" Karin nodded calmly. In truth, he was rather looking forward to his first real fight.
Enclair took a short black wand from inside his clothes. "This is my weapon. Where's yours, Karin Sunfury?"
"Weapon?" Karin froze for a moment. He had neither a staff nor a wand, not even a dagger or a shortsword.
"Karin, catch!" Oliver called from behind him.
A strange, crude staff landed in Karin's hands. He recognized it as the staff Oliver always carried when he went out.
"Karin, take it and teach that bastard Enclair a lesson!"
"A basic oak staff with a green crystal at its core. It can provide a slight boost to your current power, host, but it is barely better than nothing!" the All-Knowing Eye assessed within his mind.
"All right. Don't worry, Oliver!" Karin raised the staff and nodded solemnly.
The nearby mage apprentices voluntarily retreated dozens of paces, afraid of being caught in the duel's aftermath! Almost none of them left, though. A duel between two First Ring mages was hardly something they could see every day!
His expression grim, Enclair raised his wand. Pale yellow flames began to appear at its tip!
"Is he casting... Fireball?" Karin asked quietly.
"Yes. It seems Enclair specializes in evocation!" the All-Knowing Eye's voice sounded in his mind.
A fist-sized fireball burst from the tip of the wand and shot toward Karin, dozens of yards away.
Karin gently waved his staff. An Ice Shield appeared before him and blocked the fireball, dissipating completely in the process!
"An abjuration spell?" Enclair faltered, then a smile crept onto his lips. "Karin Sunfury, you actually specialize in abjuration? Looks like you're finished today!"
It was common knowledge that, for low-level mages, abjuration spells were somewhat harder to learn than evocation spells of the same level. After all, abjuration demanded greater mental power! More importantly, low-level mages who specialized in abjuration lacked offensive spells, leaving them passively taking hits in most situations!
"The impact was approximately 6.8 horsepower!" the All-Knowing Eye's voice sounded in Karin's mind. "Enclair's Fireball had only around seventy percent of the power of an ordinary First Ring mage's. That is quite surprising!"
"So Enclair is even weaker than you estimated earlier?" Karin asked.
"You could put it that way!"
"Die!" Enclair suddenly went berserk, firing one fireball after another from his wand.
Karin waved his staff unhurriedly, and white Frost Armor formed around him.
The fireballs struck the Frost Armor one after another, yet failed to inflict even the slightest injury on Karin.
"Even his full-power Fireballs have an impact of only 7.5 to 7.9 horsepower... Very strange. A normal First Ring mage's Fireball could not possibly be this weak." The All-Knowing Eye's puzzled voice sounded again.
After throwing roughly a dozen fireballs, Enclair began panting heavily... Clearly, all those spells had nearly exhausted his mana!
"Nicely done, Karin!" Oliver cheered loudly behind him. He had clearly realized that Karin held an overwhelming advantage in the duel.
"His mana reserves are also lower than those of a normal First Ring mage! An evocation specialist in Feyrun who had just reached the First Ring could easily throw fourteen or fifteen fireballs!" the All-Knowing Eye continued.
Enclair slipped his right hand into his pocket, pulled out a small blue vial, and drained its contents in one gulp.
"You're cheating, Enclair!" Oliver's furious voice came from behind Karin. "You're actually drinking a Mana Potion during a duel!"
"We never said Mana Potions weren't allowed!" Enclair raised his wand again. Evidently, the Lesser Mana Potion had restored a good deal of his mana!
"Can I finish him off now, All-Knowing Eye?" Karin asked quietly.
"That is entirely up to you, host!"
The white Frost Armor around Karin gradually faded away.
"Just as I thought!" Enclair's face twisted with excitement. "You specialize in abjuration. You must have used at least as much mana as I did during that exchange!"
Another fist-sized fireball formed at the tip of Enclair's wand.
An Ice Shield appeared before Karin again, blocking the fireball... Then Enclair saw a flash of green light.
Melf's Acid Arrow struck him squarely in the chest during the gap between his spells.
"Ah..." With a scream, Enclair collapsed to the ground and writhed, his face and chest covered in disgusting pale green liquid.
"Enclair..." Thorin Morningwind hurried forward.
"If I were you, I wouldn't touch him with my hands!" Karin said coldly.
"I..." Thorin instinctively drew his hands back.
"Enclair has lost. Now it's his assistant's turn-that means you!" Oliver stepped over and spoke viciously.
"I... I... I surrender!" Thorin dropped to his knees, crying out through his tears.
"That was amazing, Karin!" Oliver's cheers rang out as well!
"Are you saying the mages of Quel'Thalas are significantly weaker in every respect than normal mages of the same level?" Karin asked quietly after returning to his cottage.
The All-Knowing Eye had already raised this point back at the Apprentice Horde, but there had been too many people around for Karin to investigate further.
"Yes. With that mage Kirkland earlier, the All-Knowing Eye could clearly sense that the pressure he exerted was weaker than that of a normal Third Ring mage... At the time, the All-Knowing Eye concluded that this was due to his advanced age..."
"But it was even more obvious with your opponent in this duel, Enclair. His strength was clearly below the All-Knowing Eye's projections... Previously, the All-Knowing Eye calculated your chance of winning against him at 91.2%. In retrospect, that calculation was incorrect. The correct probability should have been 97.4%!"
"Is it because of the Sunwell's water?" Karin asked.
"That is highly likely!" the All-Knowing Eye replied. "Mana crystals are exceedingly rare in Feyrun. Almost no mage relies on them to advance through every ring, so cases like this have never been encountered... But on your plane, host, the existence of the Sunwell's water has produced entirely different results!"
"In production and research, this disparity in strength between mages of the same level would have little effect... In a battle to the death, however, it would make an enormous difference... Your world is relatively peaceful, host, so that likely plays a role as well!"
"All right... I think I understand a few things now!"
Twenty years later, when the Scourge invaded Silvermoon City, the city's many high-level mages played no crucial role in its defense! They relied entirely on the Farstriders led by Sylvanas to hold off the Scourge. Once the rangers had been almost completely annihilated, the Scourge swept through Silvermoon City with barely any resistance!
By contrast, Dalaran, another bastion of magic, mounted an extraordinarily stubborn resistance with its mage forces when the Scourge attacked... After Archmage Antonidas fell in battle, the furious counterattack of its many high-level mages nearly killed Arthas and Kel'Thuzad! Only when Archimonde intervened and crushed the entire city of Dalaran did its mages finally lose the will to fight!
That explained how things would unfold in the future!
"It looks like I made the right choice!" Karin murmured to himself.