Chapter 27 - All At Once

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nSam walked towards the other three people from the city lord mansion and broke their tokens after he dealt with Oliver. After staying there and recovering his spiritual energy for some time, Sam stood up and looked at the darkened sky. He took out a bunch of spatial rings from his pocket. These are obtained from the noble descendants he knocked unconscious. After forcefully erasing the spiritual senses of the original owners, Sam took out a large number of weapons in from them. There are normal swords, spears, Axes, Sabres and there are even some ranked weapons. There are around fifty weapons in total. Sam looked at them and looked at the surroundings. As he looked at the plain ground, he smiled as a light flashed across his eyes. He immediately moved as he took out some formation flags.

nSam placed one formation flag after another in a rapid pace. All the spectators looked at him dumbfounded as they looked at the sheer number of the flags, as far as they knew, there is no rank-1 formation which uses that many formation flags. The spectators at the viewing platforms all turned towards the formation tower head as they waited for his explanation.

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"He is laying a number of rank 1 formations at the same time. As for how many and what are they even I can't guess it from here.

" Hearing his answer all the spectators were surprised as they kept all the concentration on the projection.

nRight now, the battles in the testing ground are not taking place as everyone is waiting for a right chance. Nobody wants to be the first one to break the balance.

nSam finished laying the formation flags. He took the weapons as he kept them in various places and placed spirit stones along with them. Sam then walked towards the centre of the arrangements as he took out his bow and an arrow. He nocked the arrow and he aimed at the Sky. He spread his spiritual energy and the arrow started glowing with a golden light as a light sphere started forming at its tip. Sam released his arrow and the arrow flew towards the sky and exploded giving a brilliant flash which could be seen all across the testing grounds. Sam kept the Bow and took out a formation flag and kept it in the centre and he leapt towards a tree and stood on its branch.

nEveryone in the testing grounds saw a bright flash. As they saw it, they couldn't help but feel startled. They didn't think that someone would break the delicate balance using such a flashy method. Whoever it is responsible for that flash is definitely confident in himself or he must be a crazy person. Whoever it may be, this is a declaration of fight with them. He is asking them to come and find him if they dare.

nAll the candidates left are not pushovers. They also had some pride as they reached the top 100. So, everyone moved towards the direction. And when everyone moved towards the same point, different people will cross paths and battles are inevitable. The delicate balance was broken again. The eliminations increased as they battled against each other. The nobles and other spectators couldn't help but shake their heads as they saw various people falling in to Sam's obvious trap.

nBut there are still some people with enough brains to think what is happening. They avoided the fights and moved carefully towards Sam's direction. They are carefully looking around for any traps that were setup. Sam fired another shot towards the sky as if he was asking them to hurry up. This made the candidates who are moving slowly to turn red in anger as they felt like they are provoked.

nThere are only fifty candidates left in the testing grounds. All of them are making their way towards Sam. All the spectators looked curiously. They wanted to see what kind of trap that Sam has prepared. When finally the first person appeared, all he saw was the empty open field which is surrounded by the trees, Soon everyone made their way and all the forty nine people stayed as they stayed silent. Finally, someone broke the silence.

"Who is the one that gave the signal?

" This none other than Shawn. Nobody answered. Then somebody from the crowd shouted.

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"Whoever it is that gave the signal, come out and speak. Don't tell me you have guts to create the commotion but not admit to it.

" Someone spoke in a mocking tone. As soon as he finished, there is a whistling sound of wind as an arrow tore through the air from a dark corner. The arrow hit the formation flag which was hidden in the centre of the grass field. As soon as the arrow hit the formation flag a dazzling light appeared as it blinded everyone.

n*Whoosh* *Whoosh*

nThen suddenly all kind of whistling sounds appeared as a lot of weapons flew and hit everyone.

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"Ahh.....

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"Shit

"

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"My hand…

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"Ahhhh

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"Ahhh, it's a trap..

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"I can't see,,,,,,,,,

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nScreams of all kinds appeared as the light slowly dimmed down. By the time everyone adjusted again, there are only ten people who are left standing. The rest are groaning in pain, as they rolled on the ground with their hands clutching various wounds.

nAt the viewing platform all the spectators stared at the scene with their jaw dropped. This is the scene, they didn't expect. They thought at most a few people will fall into Sam's trap. But only ten people left.

nThe ten people who left are all not in best conditions. They used all their might to keep themselves from getting injured. They looked at each other vigilantly. As they were all thinking who is the mastermind behind the trap, a black figure suddenly appeared and stood in the middle. It is none other than Sam.

nAll the ten other people understood that this guy is the mastermind behind everything. They stared daggers at him as their eyes were filled with hatred.

nSam didn't bother with them and looked at the people on the ground and said.

"You guys better quit right no. Otherwise, you wouldn't have a chance later even if you want to.

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nThe candidates on the ground all wanted nothing but tear Sam apart. But they didn't have any energy left as they were in state of complete exhaustion. They reluctantly took their tokens one after another as they disappeared. On the screen at the viewing platforms the rankings are being fixed as people broke their tokens.

nAfter all the injured candidates left Sam finally turned his attention to the remaining people. There are a few familiar faces to Sam. They are Shawn, Jack, Harry and another person from evergreen family. He is a cousin of Philip; his name is Mathew. He is the only one left from the Evergreen family group.

nThe remaining six people are all wearing regular clothes, they don't belong to any of the noble families. Sam stood there and observed each of them. There is a total of five men and a single woman in the remaining six. He looked at them and observed them carefully.

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"What formation did you use?

" The young woman spoke directly breaking the silence, without any courtesy. She directly spoke about the point she needs and ignored all the formalities about introductions. Sam didn't reply and just stood there.

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"As far as I know, there are no formation masters at your age that are registered in the formation tower. It is impossible to use the formation discs, so you definitely laid the formation yourself. Who might you be? May I know who is your teacher?

" The young woman continued. Sam didn't reply to her questions and said.

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"I don't have any obligation to tell you. But if you still want to know, you can beat the answers out of me.

" His voice was as nonchalant as it can be. She furrowed her brows as she made her move. She immediately formed a few hand seals at a rapid pace as she formed a water sphere directly and launched it towards Sam. But the water hit nothing but a tree as Sam dodged it. She looked around to find where Sam is, but before she could react there is an arrow that came towards her throat, she immediately lunged side-wards to evade the attack, just as she was about to make hand seals for another spell. She felt a searing heat coming from her back. As soon as she turned around, she saw a fireball making her way and behind it she saw Sam looking at her with a cold smile. She gritted her teeth in hatred as she took out her bronze token and broke it. She immediately disappeared as the fire ball immediately hit a tree which burned into ashes.

nThe remaining candidates looked a little baffled as they saw the fight concluded before they could even react. They didn't even manage to catch Sam's movements much less predict his attack. They really felt surprised. They wondered if they could manage to defend the attacks of Sam. But they felt that it was nigh impossible. All of them looked at each other, then a burly guy said.

"Let us just attack him together.

" He said and waited for others to reply. The ganging up idea is alright, but the first person who did so will definitely face higher risk, that is the reason, nobody answered.

nJust as the burly guy was about to say something, someone spoke.

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"I quit.

" The person was none other than Mathew Evergreen. His cousin Philip said before that if he faced against Sam, even if in a group, he should immediately compromise as he said that Sam won't pulling his punches at all. So, he quickly took out his token and broke it. Following him Shawn and Jack also looked at Sam and nodded and then they broke their tokens at the same time. They too don't want to fight with Sam as they were already shown mercy once. They are not naïve enough to think that Sam will show them mercy again. Looking at the three people who quit, Harry also took out his token and left. Now there are only five people left. They looked at each other and simultaneously launched their attacks towards Sam.

nSam saw as various spells and weapons were launched towards him. In front of everyone's eyes, Sam disappeared leaving only an after image. The five candidates all looked around vigilantly. But suddenly an explosion came and one of the candidates flew into the air, with his skin scorched. The remaining four started feeling anxious and another arrow hit the burly guy who spoke first and he also flew with an explosion. The remaining three didn't dare to hesitate any longer and immediately broke their tokens. Finally, Sam is the only one left in the testing grounds. Then a voice came and resounded.

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"The second-round assessment is over, the candidate who left please, break your bronze token.

" The voice came and Sam took out his token and broke it.

nSam reappeared at a place and looked around. He felt quite puzzled as he was in an unexpected place. He thought that he would be out of the testing grounds, but he was in a place which looked like a cave and all the other people with in the top 100 are in it. Then the same voice which gave the announcement earlier came again and resounded.

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"Now all the top hundred candidates are selected and you will be participating in the next round assessment tomorrow. You will participate as a team and have a group battle against the senior team. The senior team only has people who joined last year. Some elders will be monitoring your battle and interfere, if there are any critical situations. You will be given new tokens and use it to escape as soon as you can if you can't handle the situation. Even though the elders can save you, it might already be late. Your life is still in your hands. Since, some of your seniors are already in late stages of Acolyte, you can use weapons up to rank 2. But the inscribed weapons and inscription scrolls and pills are still prohibited. Those who want to get healed, there will be an elder visiting you to heal you. Finally, fighting is prohibited amongst yourself.

" The voice finished the announcement in rapid pace and disappeared.

nSam then looked around the people in the cave and he felt so many sharp glares at him. He then shook his head and smiled as he walked to the corner and sat down as he stretched his body and closed his eyes. But he can still feel the hatred filled glares. The glares only stopped when the elder came to heal the injured. Sam sighed and leaned against the wall to take a nap.

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Chapter end