Julius chewed on his lips as he watched the others all train. He didn't know how he had gotten himself into this situation, but his friends had convinced him to go over and train with them before the tournament began. It wasn't like it was a bad thing, but they weren't the only people there.

Cyrus and Christina were also present, which made sense considering they would be participating in the tournament as well. Furthermore, Marcus and Stella were there as well. Apparently, they had been helping train the four of them after the Endless Forest incident, and the twins' parents must have believed that it would be a good idea for them to join their friends in some training before the tournament began.

Admittedly, it was a fantastic idea. Marcus and Stella were very skilled. They likely had a lot to teach the twins.

There was one more person Julius wasn't familiar with. The man's name was Cygnus, and he was someone that Aubrey's mother had sent over. Julius didn't know how he felt about the man. A part of him respected how hard he pushed his friends, but another part of him also wanted to punch the man in the face for being so rude and crass.

"What are you? A fucking snail? Move faster!" The man snapped at Lily, who was having a hard time keeping up with Edgar. She was continuously getting pushed back by Edgar's speed and couldn't find an opening to attack.

It wasn't exactly a fair matchup to begin with. Lily was heavily limited in the abilities she could use, and she was fighting Edgar in direct combat. Additionally, Edgar was very talented at close combat, which didn't make things easier when Lily had only recently started to get better at hand-to-hand combat.

The response time between her telekinesis-enforced body was slightly too large, and anyone fast enough was able to punish it. However, this was also perfect training for her. Not only would she be able to lower this time, but she would also gain valuable experience sparring a more skilled fighter like Edgar.

On the other hand, Julius had excused himself from sparring. He still didn't have perfect control over his kinetic energy at the moment and didn't want to risk hurting his friends. Especially not when he had just gotten back.

Julius sensed Marcus stroll up to him. The one-armed man still looked and felt as intimidating as ever. However, there was a teasing smile on the man's face as he stopped beside Julius.

"It's good to see that you haven't gotten yourself killed yet," Marcus said to Julius.

Julius chuckled. "I actually got pretty close recently," he admitted.

"Oh? How so?" Marcus asked interestedly.

Julius shrugged. "Got into a fight with someone stronger," he said simply.

"Sounds like you," Marcus commented with a grin of his own.

Julius chuckled again. "It does, doesn't it?"

Marcus laughed alongside him, and together they watched as Lily desperately tried to find a way to get the upper hand on Edgar.

"She has improved a lot in the time I was gone," Julius commented, genuinely proud of her.

Marcus nodded proudly. "She really has. I am not exactly sure what happened or the reason why, but ever since they got back, they all had this fire lit in their souls. Though I guess almost dying has that effect on people. That might have been the closest any of them had been to death before."

"Have you been the one primarily helping her?" Julius asked as Lily barely managed to put up her arms to block the heavy kick of Edgar. Still, the force of the blow blasted her backward, and she tumbled several times on the ground.

"Yeah, but Stella and Cygnus have been invaluable as well," Marcus pointed out.

Julius looked over at Stella, who was helping the twins with some kind of technique. From what Julius could tell, the twins weren't close combatants. They were primarily mages who used lightning magic, as one would expect from House Zenith.

Julius did think it was a shame that neither of them seemed to use lightning magic like Derek did. He always believed that Derek's speed was one of his biggest strengths.

"Is Cygnus always like that?" Julius asked Marcus.

Marcus rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but I think Ms. Crysalia told him to be that way."

"Hmm," Julius hummed non committedly and continued to watch the fight as Lily was beaten back over and over.

As Marcus and he were watching together, they were suddenly approached by the twins. Julius hadn't really talked all that much to the twins. They had met briefly during dinner last night, but that was about it. Afterward, Julius, Cain, and Freya had all gone back to the inner district.

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However, Julius had caught the two of them looking in his direction more than once during the last couple of hours he had been here. It would appear that they had finally lost their patience and the reason they were coming over to him.

"Why isn't he training with the rest of us?" Cyrus asked in a tone that made it sound like he believed it was unfair that they were forced to train while Julius didn't.

Marcus laughed. "Because his parents aren't forcing him to, like your parents are for you and your sister."

Cyrus's eye twitched in irritation and continued to press. "Then why is he here watching us? I don't see the point if all he is doing is observing. What if we fight in the tournament? Wouldn't he already have an idea how we fight? That sounds unfair."

Marcus nodded along with Cyrus's reasoning. "You're correct, he would have a slight advantage since he has seen you two train—"

Cyrus smiled victoriously.

"But you are making the mistake of believing that your other opponents wouldn't have already done their research on you beforehand. You are children of House Zenith, that title comes with a level of prestige, but it also comes with its downsides. You are quite well known, thus people are naturally going to know more about you than most other participants. You should be able to fight regardless of whether your opponent already knows your style," Marcus finished explaining.

Cyrus didn't seem to have a retort for that and looked away. However, his sister spoke up next. "I agree that we need to learn how to fight in the case that someone has strategized how to counter our skills, but I am more annoyed that this young boy is standing there so arrogantly."

Julius flinched. Arrogant? Me? What did I do? He asked himself.

Marcus looked over at her with a confused frown. "What do you mean?" He asked Christina.

"He is standing next to you, assessing our fights and exercises as if he were one of our trainers. He's not. You, Ms. Stella, and Mr. Cygnus are. I don't like that he is acting like he is better than us just because he managed to qualify for the tournament as a first-year," she said with an offended frown.

Honestly, Julius didn't blame her too much for her reaction. Looking back at the past couple of hours, it could indeed be interpreted as him being arrogant as he examined their fighting styles and spars.

Marcus, on the other hand, didn't blink and stared at Christina with calm, steady eyes. "He can judge you because he is better," the man said sedately and firmly.

Whatever response she had been expecting, this obviously wasn't it. She almost choked on her tongue at Marcus's confident response. However, Julius could see that her pride had been poked and that surprise turned to incredulousness.

Julius was also surprised at Marcus's lack of tact. He gave a warning pulse of his aura to Marcus. He didn't need to offend Derek's family unnecessarily.

"Better? Are you serious?" She asked with a slight scoff.

Julius was starting to see what Lily had meant when she said that they were decent people, but had some of the typical noble pride. What Marcus had said must have offended her, and her irritation was starting to show.

"Yes," Marcus ignored Julius's warning aura and nodded at Christina. He looked directly at the girl's eyes, and Julius noticed that she paused for a moment. Nevertheless, she continued onward.

"Really? Without seeing either of us fight? I find that hard to believe," she said dismissively.

"You are more than welcome to see it for yourself," Marcus offered and waved his hand at Julius, who gave a dark look at Marcus. He didn't know what Marcus was doing, but Julius promised to get the man back in the near future.

"Fine, let's spar then," she said immediately and stared challengingly at Julius.

Despite Julius's love for fighting, he shook his head. "Sorry, I wasn't planning to fight anyone today," he said to her with a slight bow.

"What? Scared that you might not live up to all the big talk?" She taunted. He knew that she was doing it on purpose to rile him up, so it didn't bother him.

"Just not interested," he said, but immediately regretted his choice of words. She looked as though she had taken offense, as if he had just called her uninteresting.

She laughed darkly and got a little closer. "Oh, so I am not even worth your attention then? So arrogant," she said softly.

Julius put his hands in the air apologetically. "I didn't mean it like that. I just have some other stuff I gotta figure out before I start to spar with other people." He was genuine, but it might have already been too late for that.

He looked over at Derek for help. The others had noticed something happening and were watching it unfold. To his disappointment, they all just sat back and watched. He even saw Aubrey snacking on something as if she were watching a play. However, Derek didn't say anything; he looked at Julius and simply shrugged.

Christina still looked at him with an annoyed gaze.

"Pathetic coward," he heard her brother mutter just loud enough for Julius to overhear as well as the others.

He actually felt like there was some actual malice in that statement, which is the only reason he got a little irritated himself. He looked at Marcus flatly, his eyes holding promises of retribution. Marcus surely had a reason for this, something that he didn't deem to share with Julius.

However, he realized that at this point, it would be simpler to address this issue now. He didn't want this problem to escalate, so he turned back to Christina with calm eyes.

"Fine, let's get it over with," he said with much less patience than he had been displaying. His change of tone seemed to catch her off guard, and she took a moment to compose herself before replying.

"Perfect, I really want to wipe that arrogant look from your face," she said with a sneer.

Julius didn't bother to respond and walked right past her, toward the center of the training area. If she wanted to continue to press him, then she was more than welcome to. However, if she thought that she would be able to beat him just because she had a little lightning magic and qualified for the Tier 3 Tournament as a third year, then she was very wrong.

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