The latest chapter all but confirms it.

Balin's ability is not as op as we thought.

Ever since his introduction, Balin has been a character that we looked forward to and since the leaks, there was a lot of speculation on how Balin could be considered the strongest in the verse under specific circumstances and how his magic is similar to, but possibly superior to what we saw from DK and SD where he has the magic to completely cancel out all physical and magical attacks.

However, since the release, I've been thinking about how it makes no sense. If Balin's magic "cancels out all physical and magical attacks, then why is he bothering with all of this? I mean, he's never going to find a strong enough opponent no matter what. Also, if he did have an ulterior motive, why take Howzer's attack point blank, and what did he mean by "having high expectations" of Howzer?

My theory is that Balin's magic cancels out all magical attacks that are inferior to his own magic force and all physical attacks that are inferior to his own physical capabilities. This fits perfectly with everything we've seen him doing so far.

How he's constantly trying to find a strong opponent. Why he initially defended against and even evaded Howzer while sizing him up and then let himself get hit once he saw that Howzer's abilities were inferior to himself.

And I believe that we're going to see how Balin has so much magic force that he completely outclasses Gawain herself, that is until she pulls out Sunshine.

I'd like to know your opinions on this.