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Emery, his friends, including some onlookers were shocked to see Thrax's fire infused spear thrust not even make a small dent on Rowe's black uniform.

Thrax, still holding the tier two spear, trembled in anger as he once more rushed the arrogant young man from Kalios.

Contrary to Rowe's earlier action, he took out a round shield and met Thrax's once more fire infused spear! Clank! Clank! The two thrusts were ineffective, Rowe stood still, not even moving from his spot! Thrax gritted his teeth, he continued on with his relentless thrusts until he gathered all his weight, spun and swung spear. A deafening clash of shield against spear resounded as a wave of air blew onto the onlookers faces.

The dust settled, Thrax was gasping for air, but, as he looked up, Rowe was still standing on his feet, five paces away from his previous unmoveable position, showing an ugly expression as if he had stepped on dung.

Thrax, seeing his attack had somewhat rattled the young man, breathed in and charged the young man once more.

Rowe then took out a pitch-black one handed hammer. He placed the shield in front and once Thrax's spear met the shield, Rowe waved his shield to the ground, along with the spear, and smashed Thrax's spear. Everyone saw the spear issued a violent vibration as a wave threw back Thrax ten paces.

Thrax had to release his spear. He grabbed his purplish spear-arm and when he looked back at his spear on the ground, his eyes widened in disbelief for his tier two spear had been bent at a weird angle.

"That's enough!" said Rowe with a commanding tone. He leaned his pitch-black hammer on his shoulder and kicked the tier two spear to Thrax. "You cannot defeat me, wormbrain."

Thrax didn't answer, he picked up the spear with his other hand since his spear-arm seemed to be trembling so hard that it had gone numb.

Rowe then pointed the hammer to Julian and said, "Do you want to try too?"

Emery could see Julian's eyes were raging inside. He looked to be raring for a fight too, however, Julian kept silent. Emery figured Julian wouldn't fight since Julian knew it would be in vain. Julian was already at a disadvantage against Thrax in terms of physical combat, but that wasn't the only reason. The most evident reason why Julian hadn't been willing to fight this arrogant, young prick was due to the insurmountable gap between their equipment.

First, Rowe had met a full-on attack from Thrax with no visible shield or weapon on hand. That meant that Rowe most likely had an armor equipped beneath his uniform. It should be at least tier two from the look of it, while Emery and his friends all had a single piece of tier two equipment. Such advantages meant it was futile to fight against this acolyte named Rowe.

Not receiving any responses from Julian, Rowe pulled back his pitch-black hammer once more and faced Klea. He gave her a smile and said, "What about you, pretty lady? Do you want to spar?"

Everyone's eyes landed on Klea. She looked reluctant at first but went ahead anyway, replacing Thrax who had returned to Emery, Chumo and Julian with no spear on hand.

Klea stood before Rowe about ten paces away. She raised her palm and sharp crackling emerged along with lightning sparks, which seemed to be wanting to be released.

It looked like she had been expecting Rowe to fight her, however, Rowe's shield and pitch-black hammer disappeared as he said, "Wait, I'm not going to be your opponent." He beckoned for a guy with short white hair and added, "This is your opponent. Let's see who is better amongst the two of you."

The white-haired guy got into a stance and readied the same spell as Klea. The lightning sparks on his hand looked wilder as if it was begging to be set free.

"Are the two of you ready? Excellent. Begin", said Rowe, looking at Klea with great interest.

[Lightning Bolt, Tier 3 Lightning Spell]

Klea and the guy with white hair waved their hands at the same time and the blue-purplish lightnings escaped their cages meeting in the middle with a thundering crash like two beasts devouring each other! The power of the two lightning spells made all the onlookers' skins tingle as if hundreds of ants were crawling on it.

Both spells of Klea and the guy with white hair seemed equal for a moment, until the lightning from Klea's palm thinned and the guy with white hair became thicker, dispelling hers as it headed toward her! The lightning's tip was only two paces away when Julian had managed to dash in time and block it with his tier two shield.

The shield seemed to be made out of metal, and once Julian saw it creeping, Julian immediately casted [Stone Skin] and roared as he pushed the lightning away up the sky before striking the shield on ground, dispersing whatever of it remained on his body and shield in ripples.

Julian got on one knee. Klea hurried to him and checked if he was injured. Fortunately, it didn't look too bad save for the burnt arm, which held the shield. With that, it was cemented Klea's tier three spell was inferior to the guy with white hair.

Rowe clapped twice and said with a smile, "Like I have mentioned, beautiful lady. You are wasting your time with these losers. Let me introduce you to one you fought. His name is Varo, a friend we've recruited from a lower realm world, just like yours. Currently, he is our weakest member by having only a single affinity, which is lightning of course, an A spirit aptitude of rank. He was weaker than you beautiful lady. However, with our guidance, he was able to surpass your talent. What a shame."

Emery and the others were shocked hearing such a statement. If it was indeed true, being friends with them had a lot of benefits. In fact, last year, Klea had been the pride of the class due to her three elemental affinity on top of being one of the few people with rank S spirit aptitude. Now, a person of the same class they never met or heard about, who was coming from a lower realm world like them, was stronger than Klea. They just couldn't believe it.

"So, beauty," said Rowe, looking at Klea from top to bottom. "What do you say in joining us? My offer is only for you and you alone now. If you join us, like my friend Varo here, you'll be able to maximise your potential."

Klea didn't say anything. She was still checking Julian's burnt arm and after she doused it with water, she stood up, looked at Rowe, and said with a tone full of resolve: "No, my decision still stands. I want to be with my friends."

Rowe became disgruntled, he stomped the ground and shouted, "I know you've been invited to join the elite class! I really don't understand why you are wasting your time with these people!"— he turned to Julian, Chumo, Thrax and Emery — "The four of you! You should know that you are all dragging her down!"

Emery looked at Klea, wondering what Rowe meant by elite class. But, before he was able to ask, Rowe immediately said: "Fine! If that's what you want, here's my new proposal. The four of you listen to what I say! We, from Kalios, value her so much that I, personally, will offer the same privilege to you four. Give my offer a thought. We'll give you enough resources to push your spirit force to the next level and even provide you with tier three equipment."

Rowe then threw his pitch-black hammer with a loud thud before them. "Here, take this. It's a tier three hammer, consider it as my good will. If you join us, I assure you, you can have other tier three weapons like swords, shields or spears. On top of that, I'll also give you a tier two protective artifact like the one I am wearing right now. In return, we want you to pledge yourselves to our Kalios Faction".

The act of casually throwing the tier three artifact really show how resourceful they are.

"Lastly, don't even think about participating in the Magus Games. With your current condition, you won't even stand a chance to win. Almost everyone there will be rank 6 acolytes and the equipment will be tier 3 for weapons and tier 2 for protective gears. As you all have witnessed the power of these items, you won't make it without our help", declared Rowe as he turned away.

Now, Emery understood why the three Zaiueons had decided to team up with them. This was also what Cedric probably meant by saying that the Magus Games were rigged. 'People like you and me, or probably even your friends, have no place to be the academy's elite', those words kept repeating in Emery's mind. In other words, those who had come from a lower realm like them wouldn't be able to win against those from the higher realms due to a lack of support.

Emery gazed at his friends. He could tell everyone was actually considering the offer.

To be continued