The Earth After Rebirth

He didn\'t mind much, if his reputation meant Loki had a better standing at the school, that was even better.

The weekend fast approached, they hadn\'t had fresh air to breathe with all the academy work that was being thrown at them. Clearly last term was just a welcome, this time, the work was in piles, they couldn\'t even game that first week back.

"Ki, you promised!" Isla said through gritted teeth.

"Did I really? But you surely understand? Winning the guild wars must not be that important to you?" Kiro wasn\'t willing to back down.

He\'s forgotten that when nobody wanted to ally with them, he was willing to ally with Isla\'s guild. Not that anyone was lining up to partner up with them, trust hadn\'t been built yet.

"But it won\'t be as effective, we are close, so obviously I\'ll never disclose your information to others, it has to be people we don\'t even know."

"You can\'t even say she\'s your girlfriend?" Saanvi chimed in.

"Girlfriend then, my girlfriend!"

"I am?" Isla asked a bit confused.

"You\'re not?" Kiro was even more confused.

"You never asked. Good luck." She walked away from the group.

Kiro felt bad, he thought by getting her father\'s approval everything else was set in stone. He beat himself up for not thinking he should ask her before they were official. He wanted to beat Saanvi senseless, she set him up good. She walked away with a stupid grin on her face.

"Sure you don\'t want to go after her?" Hiro asked him.

"She understands, she\'ll come around. Anyway, have any of you found a perfect guild for us to exploit?"

"When you put it like that, you make us sound like villains." Nikolai shook his head.

Not a single one them could convince guild masters to hire them. They were all sceptical of this group, most didn\'t want to trust them even though their abilities spoke for themselves.

"Okay then, we game all weekend." Kiro had a feeling that, the guild wars would start then. He didn\'t want to be too sure since the game went at its own pace, different from his previous one.

After all was said and done, they entered the game. With the sole mission of convincing smaller and unknown guilds. Ensure they won the war, so nobody doubted them again.

Ding!

[World Announcement: Welcome players. Fighting monsters is important, but other things are too. Like fighting amongst ourselves to determine who the champions are. The guild wars are eminent, they\'ll be starting in 8 hours, in-game time. Prepare and good luck.]

They looked at each with awkward smiles. They couldn\'t participate on their own because they weren\'t registered under guilds.

"So it begins..." Kiro murmered to himself.

Just then, they noticed a group at their gates. They weren\'t more than 10, they looked shabby and disorganised. They opened their gates, and soon they were at their door.

"My name is Jorge, I\'m the guild master, I heard you guys are mercenaries that we can hire participating in the guild wars."

"I\'m Kiro, the leader here, I guess you could say. We are looking to be hired, but the list is long, so why should we consider you." Kiro bluffed.

Jorge was a small guy, he was clearly an assassin judging by his footsteps. He had hair that covered his eyes, he looked no older than Loki.

"As you can see, we\'re a small guild, we\'d be swallowed before it even starts. We need the manpower, of course we will pay whatever you want.

"There\'ll be payment now for taking the job, and payment later if you get us a win. I know money isn\'t all that important to guys like you, I can\'t ask that you trust us either because we just met and to be honest we\'re also taking a gamble here."

Kiro was impressed by his speech. He decided not to play with them anymore, and just accept the job. There wasn\'t an endless list after all, he just wanted to seem like they didn\'t need the job. A show of desperation wouldn\'t be a great look on them.

But before he could agree, one of the 10 was saying something to their leader, something they couldn\'t hear. But the leader smacked him from behind his head.

"Shut your mouth, we need this." Their voices were rising by the second.

"But boss, I don\'t trust them, please let me fight their leader, to ensure that they\'re the right people for the job." He said.

The guy who spoke was a sage just like Kiro. But he wasn\'t evolved like him, there were minor differences. He undermined them, especially Kiro with his robes and walking barefoot.

Jorge pinched the bridge of his nose. It was clear that, this person always opposed and he was a hot head that wanted to fight to ascertain whether to respect someone or not.

"Lyle, are you tryna get them to kick us out?"

The conversation went on for several minutes. Felix was bored out of his mind, he started to take out his scepter, wanting to attack the kid with the biggest mouth.

Kiro stopped him however, he was amused by this. Someone wanted to fight him, it was hilarious.

"Lyle, was it? I\'ll fight you."

"Kiro, you don\'t have to." Jorge intercepted.

"It\'s alright, it\'s natural to want to test others strengths. I\'ll happily oblige. Given he completely falls in line after he loses."

"After I lose? If I lose!" Lyle exclaimed.

Kiro liked his confidence, but he also thought that could be his downfall. Arrogance wasn\'t a really good trait.

"Then, let\'s go outside."

They walked to the training grounds outside. His teammates weren\'t so sure about this, they didn\'t want him to ruin the only chance they had in participating.

"Kiro, are you sure about this?" Nikolai asked him.

"Relax, I\'m not even gonna use Ryu here." He said with arrogance, that annoyed the living hell out of Lyle.

"Please use your full strength, don\'t take pity on me, don\'t go easy on me." He said with contempt.

Kiro didn\'t intend to use his full strength. This was nothing but child\'s play to him. He could tell the kid was strong, but he was ways away from contending with him.

Kiro stood still, he didn\'t intend to move where he was. Lyle gathered that quickly that pissed him off even more. He basically flew to where he stood, Kiro could see him coming, vibrations was passive now, each of his skills were, which made fighting weak people boring.

Waiting for the attack felt like an eternity. He finally reached him throwing a punch that was blocked, then a kick, that was also blocked. Kiro lightly put his palm on his chest, pushing him to where he originally was.

Lyle was now fuming, he took out his staff and raged forward. Kiro swerved, his feet remaining where he was, Lyle staggered forwards and stood behind Kiro.

"Why are you just toying with me? Fight me seriously!" He demanded.

"You\'re right, I\'m wasting precious time." He said, yawning.

Lyle hadn\'t even moved from where he was when he was attacked by an invisible force. Kiro had used bending kick, but he measured it. He didn\'t want to kill him, that would make him lose experience and levels.

They would soon be on the same side, so he didn\'t want to overdo it.

The kick sent him crashing kilometres away from where they were. When they got to him, he was in a comatose state. He had used all of his mana to protect himself from the attack.

"At least he has good sense." Kiro commended.

"Yes, he knew he could not block it entirely so using all his mana instead of dying and losing levels." Nikolai nodded in agreement.

Felix was smirking in disgust. He couldn\'t believe a mere player even had the guts to challenge a guardian, though players in general had no idea what that was.

Hiro wasn\'t all interested in this. He was already measuring them with his eyes, deciding which armours and weapons he should give them.

"Well, Mister guild master, that should about prove my strength?"

Jorge looked at him dumbfounded, he knew they were strong but he didn\'t imagine it was by this much. He felt bad that his airhead of a vice decided to pull a stunt like.

"Yes, sir Kiro sir. You\'ve more than proved yourself, I\'m so sorry for his insolence."

Kiro nodded. Hours later, Lyle woke up. At first, he was in a state of confusion then realised what had transpired.

He went on both of his knees and cried, "MASTER, PLEASE TEACH ME!"