"Oh, come on. They're not weak. You don't even know them," Kyle said.
"I don't care!" she shouted. "They're weak!"
Falk became a bit annoyed while Michael just furrowed his brows.
It seemed like Kyle hadn't exaggerated when he said that this new teammate would be unpleasant.
"Falk, why don't you show her?" Kyle asked. "Attack her. You can go all out."
"Are you sure?" Falk asked.
Kyle nodded. "Just stop when I tell you to."
Falk glanced at Lily.
"If you say so."
Then, without any more talk, Falk summoned his True Body and charged at Lily.
One of the golems left the group and charged right at Falk.
It was a bit slower, but it managed to intercept him.
Then, it struck forward.
Falk easily avoided-
Falk's eyes widened as the axe suddenly changed direction mid-swing.
It was coming right at him!
Falk activated his Time Slow and summoned an explosion of wind to put space between him and the golem.
Lily snorted. "That's only one of my golems. As expected, a weakling."
Falk just narrowed his eyes and charged at the golem again.
This time, he lured the golem into striking before avoiding the attack.
Then, he activated Air Drill and destroyed the golem's head with his spear.
The golem fell forward, and Falk went past-
BANG!
Falk managed to hold his spear to block the sudden swing of the falling golem.
The next moment, Falk was thrown into the distance.
The golem's physical power was higher than Falk's.
"Fool! These are golems, not animals!" Lily shouted with a laugh. "You have to hit their Core, and every golem has their Core in a different part of their body."
Falk had never fought a golem before.
As the golem charged at him again, Falk looked over at Lily, who was smirking smugly.
Falk charged forward again, and Wind Ether gathered around his spear.
Just when the golem struck, Falk suddenly thrust in the direction of Lily, and a Wind Arrow was fired right at her.
Lily's smirk didn't vanish.
The stony cat below Lily suddenly jumped up and swatted the Wind Arrow out of the air like a toy.
"What a foolish attempt," Lily laughed.
Falk kept fighting the golem.
"Is she a Swarmer?" Michael asked Kyle suddenly.
"Yep," Kyle answered.
"Those are illegal in tournaments," Michael commented.
"Yep."
"That means Falk is essentially fighting several people at the same time!" Michael said.
"Basically, yeah."
Beast Masters, and Artificers more so, were special when it came to power.
They could accumulate power before a fight.
With a lot of time, a Beast Master could capture over 50 Secondary Beasts and send them at an opponent.
Such a fight wasn't fair, obviously.
If a Beast Master were allowed to use that many beasts in a tournament, every single team would be comprised of them.
Just like Beast Masters, Artificers could create an army of minions and send them at the enemy.
Like this, it was possible to win against almost everyone at the same level and even against people a level higher.
But it needed a lot of accumulation.
Resources, planning, creating, and so on.
Lily had almost three Ether Gem's worth of golems, but she barely had any liquid funds.
If someone destroyed her golems, she would be helpless and poor.
In a way, Lily had the power of five Early Second Realm beings, but she couldn't recover in a fight.
One dead golem meant a permanent reduction in her power.
Creating golems cost a lot of money, and she needed her golems to make money.
Falk kept fighting the golem for over 30 more seconds while Lily was laughing in amusement.
BANG!
"Got it!" Falk shouted, destroying the Golem Core in the golem's abdomen.
Lily grew annoyed when she saw that.
She just lost several Ether Stones.
The next moment, the other four golems charged at Falk at the same time.
When he saw that, he immediately started retreating.
He wanted to split them up and open their formation.
Yet, the golems essentially fought as one unit.
Their formation was solid and unbreakable.
Even more, they always stayed between Lily and Falk.
For over three minutes, Lily just watched in amusement as Falk tried to get past the golems.
It was pointless.
He couldn't kill any more golems, and he couldn't hit Lily with a ranged attack due to that stony cat below her.
However, while he couldn't hit her, she also couldn't hit him.
It seemed like this would be a draw.
Then, five stone falcons flew out of the cave and flew in circles above Falk.
The next moment, Falk watched in horror as a swarm of metallic feathers shot at him.
Falk did his best to evade, but two of the feathers hit him.
They didn't bury far into his body, but they infused him with foreign Ether, making it almost impossible for him to use his Ether.
He had lost.
"I'll let you live," Lily said with confidence as the falcons landed beside her.
Falk was frustrated and angry.
He had felt helpless!
What was he supposed to do against such an army?!
At that point, he remembered how Kyle had easily avoided five of the golems at once.
Wait, how?!
How had he done that?!
Falk was faster than Kyle, and he had issues with one!
How did he avoid five at once?!
Earlier, when he had seen Kyle avoiding five golems at once with ease, he had thought that this Artificer wasn't very powerful.
Oh, how wrong he had been.
This Artificer was insanely strong!
"Good fight, Falk," Kyle shouted.
Falk looked at Lily and snorted before walking back to Kyle.
"Hey, Lily, you want to try Michael?" Kyle asked.
Michael was already casting a powerful Spell.
"No!" Lily shouted.
Michael paused his casting.
No?
Kyle snickered. "Afraid to lose some money?"
"Do you know how expensive these things are?" Lily asked.
Lily had no issues with fighting Falk since he was a Fighter, but battling a Sorcerer was never fun.
If her golems were too close to each other, one Spell could destroy a bunch of them.
Falk needed to aim precisely to kill a golem.
Michael would just need to hit them anywhere.
Fighting Michael would be like fighting Kyle for Lily.
Her golems would just explode.
Of course, she would still win against Michael since he could only get one or two Spells off before the golems killed him.
But that still represented tens of Ether Stones of damage.
"So, you want to earn some money?" Kyle asked. "If you join us, you can refine your golem's matrix by joining fights while also earning money. Even more, the chances of your golems getting destroyed are much lower."
Lily didn't seem to be a fan.
"Also," Kyle added. "Since you are part of my team, your strength represents our strength. I can give you more books."
"For free!"
A light appeared in Lily's eyes.
Then, she rode forward on her stony cat.
"Why didn't you say so earlier?" she asked, a smile suddenly on her face.
"This was funnier," Kyle said with a smirk.
Falk and Michael looked at Lily, their new teammate.
Michael wasn't sure what he should think.
But Falk was very sure.
He hated this arrogant bitch!
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