BOOOOOOMMMM!!

An ear-piercing explosion echoed in the air. A huge 2-meter long club as thick as a tree trunk swung towards Thrax, but the gladiator champion managed to dodge it easily by side stepping, causing the downwards strike to hit the stone bridge instead.

Furious that its attack had been dodged, the ogre raised the club again and swung it at Thrax one more time. This time, it visibly exerted more force, as one could see the club moved way faster.

Unfortunately, its efforts were simply not enough. Thrax once again dodged it with ease.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the second attack the ogre did actually hit the orcs that stood around it, smashing many of them into an unrecognizable pile of bits and paste.

Seeing his subordinates die under its own attack, the ogre became even more infuriated.

Now that Thrax had seen enough of the ogre's strength, it was time for him to begin his own attack. When the third swing came sweeping towards him, Thrax didn't move away. Instead, he raised his glaive with two hands and blocked the club with all the strength his body could muster.

His feet skidded a few steps back due to the force behind the strike, but it didn't continue for long, as Thrax immediately applied more force to his glaive and resisted the ogre's might that was trying to overpower him to submission.

"Aarrggghhhh!!!" Thrax screamed out loud, as he blasted the club away, subsequently sending the ogre stumbling two steps back. Taking advantage of the opening, he immediately jumped in the air and gave his glaive a full rotation, before sending it straight down - a full-powered swing from above his head in a downward motion.

[Mighty Swing]

Swish! The air was cleaved to two by the sheer pressure this strike generated.

Splaaaatttt!

Blood briefly colored the air, before splotched the ground like rain.

ROOAAAAARRRR!!

An ear-deafening, pain-filled scream echoed through the air. The two-headed ogre dropped the club in his hand and clutched them right where Thrax struck, only to find their hands slowly getting further away from each other.

His [Heavy Smash] battle art coupled with the innate strength of the tier 4 artifact was able to cut through the skin of the ogre and tore the creature in half right in between the two heads.

BAM!

The two separated parts of the ogre fell heavily to the ground, raising a cloud of dust that briefly obstructed vision.

"Now you can finally rest in peace being finally apart, I mean."

Thrax said those words with a cheeky smile on his face, as the ogre slowly dissipated into particles.

Now that the ogre was dead, the orc horde, who were still surrounding Thrax, began to attack him again. It didn't take long for his figure to be lost within the sea of bloodthirsty creatures. However, though his situation looked bad, only the excited voice of the Thracian could be heard from that horde.

"Alright!! Now it's all of you next!!"

Julian, whose position wasn't far from Thrax, heard this and could only shake his head, as he watched the gladiator playing around with the orcs.

On the other side, Emery could barely be seen shifting and flickering around rapidly amidst the hordes of orcs, as more and more of them dissipated into particles. Then, his figure was seen dashing in between the ogre's feet. With the two swords in hand, he carved two deep wounds and made the ogre fall to its knees, before he jumped on its back and stabbed a sword right into its nape.

Following that was a short scream filled with pain before the ogre's figure dissipated, just like the one killed by Thrax. With its disappearance, Emery's feet returned to the ground. However, he still wasn't done.

The next instant, he began using [Weeping Phantom] to clean up the rest of the orcs. The orcs could only accept their fate of being helplessly slaughtered without even touching Emery's shadow.

The degree of threat in this year's first level of Magus Game was twice that of the previous game's last level. However, the fact that Emery and the others could defeat them without breaking a sweat was clear proof of their effort and progress.

Within the next ten minutes, all 400 orcs and 2 ogres that came out of the stone game were killed, dissipating into particles. The bridge was once again empty, with no enemies and only Emery's group.

"Get back here, Thrax!!" The loud shout from Julian reverberated strongly throughout the bridge.

"Alright, alright," Came the cheeky reply from the Thracian.

It only took Emery one cast of [Blink] to return to the group. As for the gladiator champion, he walked back leisurely. His demeanor looked as if he had just returned from the playground and had a great time.

[Congratulation for clearing level one]

[You are awarded with 1000 contribution points]

[Total number of acolytes: 692/692]

[Five minutes until level 2 starts]

Looking at the number of remaining acolytes, it was clear none of them had been eliminated yet, naturally, this was to be expected. After all, it would be such an embarrassment to die fighting such orcs in their third year. To be completely honest, Emery expected that those who managed to do such a thing would immediately be expelled from the academy.

"Be ready. The next wave is coming."

The stone gate creaked open once more, this time the silhouette covering the light seeping out of it wasn't just filled with a large creature, but also crowds of a slightly different kind.

The shadows were followed by the footsteps of creatures making commotions.

Thud! thud! thud!

They were certainly orcs, but instead of green, these creatures' skin was gray. Moreover, the group could still see dozens of greenskin ones among them, but their figure was exponentially bigger than their counterpart.

The gigantic build as well as muscles, coupled with the savage look that they had on their faces certainly made those orcs look much more fearsome. They were definitely not normal orcs.

Emery and the others didn't have to wait long for information regarding their upcoming enemies to be shown in front of them.

[Level two - Elite Orc]

[The Uruks, modified orcs raised specially for battle and led by their champions. Twice the size and stronger than the grunts. Evolved and bloodthirsty orcs born from the most bloody battles]

[Orc Champion - Battle power 80]

[Uruk - battle power 60]

When Julian saw the new hordes also chose to come from two sides, he quickly beckoned his friends. "Gather up guys."

At the same time, Chumo said, "300 each, one in every ten is an Orc Champion. Furthermore, they brought a weapon equivalent to tier 2 with them."

"Huh!! Easy peasy!!" Thrax scoffed.

It was clear that, although their new opponents looked much more threatening, the number of battle power these Uruks had didn't deter the gladiator champion at all.

This time, however, Julian insisted Thrax listen to his arrangement. Fortunately enough, though a little pissed, Thrax had seen enough battle to know when to be serious. Hence, he shut his mouth and perked his ears.

Julian told the whole team, especially to Thrax to not be fooled by the Battle Power shown by those Uruks. He had read about these Uruks before and thus he knew they were known to be much more difficult to fight against than the orcs.

As if proving his words, the Uruks could be seen walking in an orderly formation. In addition, they would absolutely obey the orders they received from the Orc Champions.

"Orcs with a brain!! Urrghh!!" Complained Thrax.

Julian also reminded the group about the matter of saving up as much as stamina as they could, because there were still many levels ahead of them. He told the group about his guess, that the next level would most probably be flooded with these types of orcs. Therefore, they had to take this opportunity to get used to fighting them.

In the end, Julian clapped his hand and said, "We don't have to rush this! Let's fight them beautifully this time!"

Unexpectedly, Thrax nodded his head and didn't say anything unbecoming to Julian. Afterwards, the two walked together standing shoulder to shoulder as their weapons directed towards the new wave of enemies.

"Fight!!"