Wizards of the fourth Tier

Wizardry is for the patient, and the studious, a Wizard who is impatient or not sufficiently invested in his studies will never go beyond the third tier; many won't anyway, as a certain level of intelligence, and the sacrifice of your social life is pretty much required to pass the third tier, except ajax apparently with his money, and sex life, and sleep and shit.  At the time Valstad as leaned against a tree by the road near a little village called Darneby reading a book in peace, and quiet.

(The only reason Ephraem is past the third tier is because he was taken under the tutelage of a master wizard for like a literal decade and forced to do all that stuff)

Meanwhile Ephraem is sitting in his carriage staring intensely down at one advanced set of spells, he's been trying to really focus on his studies a bit more lately. Even with his prior training and natural talent for wizardry he still has to keep a sharp edge or his skill will dull over time .

(Yeah but for most people a decade of tutelage would be like late tier 2 bordering on 3. i figure Valstad, and Ajax are about the same level of talent, but Valstad has like no life or social skills, he's obsessed. While typically ajax is just diligent in his studies)

(Oh,well i didn't know all that )

(Is that alright though?)

(Sure I guess)

A bolt of lightning collides with the carriage blasting it off of the road, from a distance alec hears t he noise, and looks up

Ephraim yelps in panic as the bolt throw his carriage off the road and sets it aflame , quickly he kicks through one of the doors and manages to escape before pulling out the driver as well.
.

Laughing nearby is a set of six bandit wizards in shabby robes thwey seem to be in their thirties, but are likely tier twos with possibly a three amang them. The leader , a man with short blonde hair steps forth still laughing he orders "Empty your pockets kid"

Ephraem remains quietly gently setting down his driver and standing to look over the group, adjusting the slick black leather gloves on his hands and turning to face the brigands. He doesn't wear the clothe of a noble, only a simply clean cut navy blue long coat and some black slacks and boots . As he looks over the group he comes to the realization he can't possibly take them all and so slowly and reluctantly takes out his wallet and tosses it to them, that is all he has.

"Is there a problem here?" Valstad asked as he walked down the road towards the scene

He glances over to the newcomer ,eyes wide in surprise and then promptly nods "As you can no doubt surmise, I'm in the process of being robbed"

"I see that Ajax, you're letting these punks rob you what are they tier twos?" Valstad asked raising an eyebrow as the bandits began to look annoyed.

"Why not? Rather not waste my time trouncing these ingrates when I could be doing literally anything else" He replies casually as he smirks at the bandits.

"Do you want to say that again kid?" the leader asked walking up to ajax

"Well I would but doing that would require breathing and i'm not sure how much longer I'll last with that breath of yours" He replies sharply as he looks the bandit in the eye.

The bandit drew a knife, and held it to Ajax's face purposely Exhaling in it "Want to say that again?"

Ajax just glares , this guy's an idiot it seems,but that's true with a lot of petty criminals , he calmly wafts the man's disgusting breath away from him and looks the ugly brute straight in the eye "You realize that if either way I'm still insulting you right? Or are you just too stupid?"

the bandit moved to stab him in the face/

Ajax sighs and creates a small force field around his palm which snaps the dagger in half on impact he then follows up with a binding spell from his other hand, restraining the bandit in burning orange bands of magic energy "Next"

The other five bandits form glphs in the air that project fireballs at Ajax

Ephraim simply expands the force field to keep the flames at bay,then as soon as the die down he forms a glyph on his right hand that transmutes their clothing into lead,forcing them all to the ground.

Valstad Watches this situation with slight disinterest "Not bad." he critiqued not overly impressed

Ajax shrug "Why waste time with the elaborate ?" He replies, he likes to think he has a pragmatic attitude but most just see it as minimalist.

"Only so much you can do with the materials i guess" He said nudging a bandit "You were master wizard Aron's apprentice if i recall, what brings you out here?"