"Duel?" Vlad gave Percy a questioning look at first. "Oh right? With a wand?" He shook his head in disgust. "That's not fighting. That's not how a real man fights. Look around you. You see all these empty body armors standing at attention," he gestured around the room to the many around them. "They are merely used for decor now. But once stood real men inside them. Men who lived and died by the swords they carry. They didn't have magic. They fought with their hearts and souls to defend their countries, their Kings, their people, their wives, their children." Of course Vlad had lived this himself, having meeting his mortal end on the battle field doing just that. He was in a way like a ghost attracted to those things from his past.