| Introduction |
Balin「バリン」 is a fighter participating in the Annwfyn Gladiator Festival.
Appearance[]
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Balin is a tall, muscular man with spiky stone grey hair that slicks back. He wears a red coat that exposes his chest with silver metal shoulder pads, metal wrist braces, dark pants, and metal boots. He always carries his sword strapped to the left side of his waist.
Personality[]
Balin has shown himself to be a warrior proud of his strength. He does not fight seeking glory, prizes or freedom, only seeking to face increasingly powerful opponents so he can become even stronger. When Beltreipe threatened him saying that he would kill him for embarrassing him by refusing his prize, Balin invited him to try, not being afraid to face the green knight. While Balin sees friendship as an excuse for the weak to huddle together, he shows honor and respect to strong fighters he has fought and beaten. He also wishes to fight someone who can change his destiny. After his defeat against Gawain, Balin reevaluates his principles and recognizes that even he is not invincible and that there are people stronger than him, becoming more humble.
History[]
Balin won the previous Annwfyn Gladiator Festival, beating Gareth in the final. However, he refused to leave the Cauldron of Annwfyn or accept any reward from Beltreipe, since he just wanted to fight someone strong who would take him to new heights. Beltreipe threatened to execute him for embarrassing him, but then let him go when he saw how he challenged him to try it.
Balin is said to have gone on a training trip.
Plot[]
Annwfyn Gladiator Festival arc[]
Balin appears during the Gladiator Festival battle royale. He resists Gawain's spells unharmed, while provoking her to attack him, which enrages her. After making to the final 16, Balin is matched against Howzer.
As they watch the fight between Gawain and Turret, Balin tells Howzer that Gawain is finished because Turret's beasts do not give her the distance and time she requires to use her spells. Howzer says that would be true if she were a mere sorceress. After Gawain defeats Turret by transforming with her power, Balin looks impressed and tells her that he hopes to fight her.
As Howzer begins his fight, Balin manages to best him in an exchange of weapons, forcing Howzer to use his Super Cyclone. Balin however emerges and cuts through the massive tornado with a single sword slash. Howzer then fires several Whirl Shocks at him, but these also do no damage to Balin. Balin then launches himself and sends Howzer spinning into the air as he intercepts his attack. Balin jumps to evade another Whirl Shock, saying that Howzer's magic is just a trick, but Howzer warns him that he will regret making that jump. Howzer manages to land his spear on Howzer's belly, promising that he will ask his friend to heal him. However, Balin grabs his spear and sends Howzer flying, leaving him surprised that he is still unharmed. Balin returns the spear to Howzer, acknowledging that he was not fighting seriously. As a last resort, Howzer uses his most offensive technique Breakthrough to try to finish Balin off, but he again emerges unharmed from the attack, revealing the name of his magical power Invincible, where with a single powerful blow of his sword he breaks Howzer's sword, seriously injuring him and causing him to faint, resulting in his victory.
In her fight against Gawain, he showed deep admiration and interest in her for the demonstration of power she made in her previous fight, wishing to elevate himself even further with this fight. Initially, Gawain tested several types of elemental magic in search of a way to overcome her magical power, but all were ineffective. Soon, she decided to engage in physical combat against him using her strengthened form against Balin, being tied at first, but soon Balin's invulnerability gave her the advantage throughout the fight, where she needed to use 80% of her solar energy to overcome his strength, but it was ineffective. When Gawain finally understood the weakness of Balin's magic, she managed to injure him with both a magical and physical attack, which increased his admiration for her. At the end of the fight, she launched a massive magical attack against him while simultaneously teleporting herself close to him and knocking him out with a powerful flick on her forehead, while he could only nullify the damage from the magical attack, defeating him and disqualifying him from the Tournament. After his defeat he quickly regains consciousness carrying Gawain on his shoulders as he takes her to his companions to be healed where he asks to be healed there first but Percival decides to heal them both, while they talked Balin demonstrated his willingness to serve Gawain as his subordinate and stay by her side.
Abilities/Equipment[]
Balin as the former winner of the Annwfyn Gladiator Festival is a powerful warrior with impressive prowess and combat skills. In his fight against Howzer he was able to cut a tornado the size of the gladiator tournament arena in half with a single swing of his sword and send Howzer flying in a clash of swords with sheer brute force. Gareth, who faced him in the tournament previously, claims he has never seen him get hurt, and he doesn't even really know if he has a weakness.
Balin's monstrous physical power was further demonstrated when he managed to fight on equal footing with Gawain while she was empowered by the Dawn, creating powerful shockwaves from the collision of their swords that could be felt throughout the arena. Even when Gawain used Tyrant Style at 80%, she still couldn't beat Balin and his monstrous strength that was able to knock her down in a single counterattack. She even commented that even if she used 100%, she still wouldn't be able to defeat him.
Balin proved to be very resilient, even when injured by Gawain's powerful magical attack without his magical power to nullify it, he quickly regained consciousness with minimal apparent damage, showing no discomfort or after-effects from the fight, although he himself admits that he had enough strength to carry Gawain to the stands, he doubts this statement.
Abilities[]
- Invincible「
無敵 , Inbinshiburu」: A magic power that allows Balin to nullify the damaged inflicted by any attack, whether they be physical or magical. However, it can only cancel damage of one of the two types and not both simultaneously. Due to his mastery, he can switch between which type nearly instantly, creating the illusion that he is invincible. However, as demonstrated by Gawain, the weakness to this magic are attacks that deals damage using both physical and magical forces at the same time, as he can only cancel one of them while suffering the brunt of the other.
Weapons[]
- Greatsword: Balin carries with him a large double-edged sword. He wields it with great skill, employing attacks with extreme brute force and destructive power.
- Dankotsuken「
断 骨 剣 , Dankotsuken; lit. "Bone Slicer Blade"」: Balin raises his sword above his body and, concentrating all his strength in his arms, he delivers a powerful vertical slash. This attack was strong enough to cut Howzer's spear in half and seriously injure him.
- Dankotsuken「
Relationships[]
Gawain[]
Balin showed interest in Gawain since the beginning of the festival, recognizing the magician's strength. As he observed her skills, Balin began to nurture a certain admiration for her and see her as an equal until his defeat at her hands, where he found someone who surpassed him in power. He decided to become her subordinate, believing that this way he would become stronger and remain by the side of the woman he admires.
Trivia[]
- Balin is named after Balin, a character from the Arthurian legends.
- Balin is partly reminiscent of the mythical warrior Achilles from Greek mythology.
- Both are famous for being almost invulnerable, but they have a weak point.
- Both were known to be invincible but suffered a great defeat at the hands of a warrior "loved by the Sun".
- Balin's admiration for Gawain is somewhat reminiscent of Escanor's passion for Merlin.
- Both Balin and Escanor are large, arrogant warriors who consider themselves invincible.
- Both Gawain and Merlin are powerfull mages, intelligent than in their true form they are small.
References[]