Chapter 28: The Third Round Starts
Sam took a nap for an hour and woke up. He saw that all the people assemble together while some people stood facing them. Sam saw them and recognised them as some of the elders of the Starwood academy. Sam slowly moved towards the group as they are still settling. After some moments, the elder in the lead spoke.
"As you all heard from the announcement earlier, this time the assessment is to compete with your seniors in the school. The seniors will be at the maximum cultivation level of the late stage Acolyte. The aim of the battle is to take away the golden sphere of the other team in their base on the other side and merge it with your silver sphere. Or you can eliminate all the other people from their team to win directly. This time you can use rank 2 weapons, but the inscribed weapons are still prohibited to bring from outside. Every thing in the testing ground is yours to use. The test will continue until the day changes and by the time the time limit is over and neither teams completed the objective, the team with the most people wins. As I already told, use your time wisely. If you are in danger you can escape by breaking the token. As the announcement said earlier, you will receive our help in critical times, but we might be late.
I have never seen or heard about the victory of the freshmen. The best outcome is that the freshmen proved themselves by eliminating as many seniors as possible. All the best."
The Elder finished and the elders beside him started distributing the tokens. This time the tokens are in silver colour. "Every candidate of the opposite team is worth one point. And the one with the most points will be ranked higher. Which will be individual ranking of the round. There will be the overall ranking which will be assessed later. There will be rewards for every rank." The Elder continued after the distribution of the tokens. Then a screen and a platform appeared. There is silver sphere on the platform and all the names of the candidates can be seen on the screen. When everyone looked at the name of the first ranker, they looked towards Sam, as they wanted to etch his name and face inside their minds.
"The third-round assessment begins." The elder said and left with the other elders.
After the elders left, all the people looked at each other as they were confused on how to proceed further. Sam just shook his head and went to the back side of the crowd and sat down as he leaned against the wall.
"We need to select a leader." Someone said from the group.
"I agree. But the question is who should be the leader?" As soon as he finished everyone looked at Sam involuntarily and then immediately rejected the idea. Then they looked at the ranking list and were thinking, who should be the leader. Then suddenly Harry walked to the front and faced the crowd as he said. "I am Harry from the city lord mansion, the city lord of the Starwood city is my father. So, I would like to take the position of the leader."
When everyone heard this, they exchanged looks for a brief moment and agreed. Even the nobles didn't have any objections, there are not many nobles left to begin with. Only the people from Evergreen family and the people from the city lord mansion were left and they both don't have any objections.
When everyone showed their approval, Harry felt satisfied with himself and gave Sam a proud look as if he defeated him. But Sam paid little attention to the whole thing, much less Harry.
Harry started giving instructions, to the people.
"Everyone, start separating yourselves into groups by the type of elements you have. Warrior mages will form two groups of main force. One to defend the silver sphere and one to obtain the other's sphere. The wood element and wind element mages along with a warrior team will act as scouts. Earth mages will divide into two groups to provide two lines of defence. Water mages are responsible for support on all the groups, with both attack and defence. Fire elements also join the main attack force and leave three people here at the cave. Archers and the rest of wind elements along with metal elemental mages will lay in ambush at this spot...….."
Harry indeed took a good command position as he instructed everyone as he showed them the directions through the map that was given by the elders. The map is the layout of the current battlefield. After Harry is done with the basic instructions, everyone started preparing for the departure. When the place near the map is somewhat cleared, Sam made his way to the map and started looking at it.
"Wait, what about him?" Someone asked as she pointed at Sam. This person is none other than the girl who challenged Sam. The one who asked about the formations. Sam looked at her with the surprised expression. He didn't expect she of all people would mention him at this point.
But Sam didn't say anything, he just stared at the map, as if he didn't care at all.
"What about him?" Harry asked from the side. Many people also started getting curious. They forgot about Sam when they are busy listening to Harry's instructions.
"You do know that he defeated all the people here single-handed right?" The girl said to Harry as if waiting for him to explain.
"He is not suitable for the team. We can do better if he doesn't get involved." Harry said as he averted his gaze. He really didn't wanted Sam to get involved in this operation as he didn't want him get any credit. So, he is using the power he had as the leader to oppress him. He waited for Sam to object him, but the one who is objected him is another person. It is none other than Shawn.
"Are you kidding me Harry? You are going to keep him out of the team, just because you got your ass beat?" Shawn didn't hold back at all, as he revealed Harry's true intentions. Shawn looked at Harry with disdain.
"He took down almost all fifty of us in a single strike and you are saying that he is not suitable for this battle." Shawn said again before Harry could reply. Harry only snorted in reply.
Then Sam suddenly turned around and walked towards the cave entrance as though the topic is not related to him. Just as he was about to leave the cave. Somebody shouted.
"Wait." Sam halted his foot steps as he turned around and saw the girl from earlier is walking towards him. She stopped in front of him and spoke.
"I am Melissa. Shall we team up for this round?" She asked Sam with a polite tone. Sam looked at her as he examined from top to bottom. Even though she is not as beautiful as the three goddesses she is still a rare beauty, she tied her long hair into a pony tail as she wore a battle attire. Sam examined her as he asked. "Why?"
"I think your skills are more helpful in this battle." She said without hesitation. But Sam's reply stunned her. "No, no. What I am asking is, why should I team up with you?" Sam's question stumped not only her but also all the other candidates.
As he saw she wasn't replying, Sam was about to leave. Then she stopped him and said. "I am the daughter of the formation tower head. Even though I am not a ranked formation master, I can assist you in laying the formations."
Sam looked at her and said. "You can come with me. But you have to follow my instructions." Sam said as if he wasn't going to accept no as an answer.
Melisa nodded an both of them started walking. But they were halted again by another person. This is none other than Shawn. Jack is standing beside him. Sam looked at Shawn with a questioning gaze filled with displeasure. His face said that, if Shawn didn't give proper explanation, he is going to beat him up.
"Well, you see. We don't like this Harry guy, so can we follow you. You don't have to worry. I am genius, and my friend here is also not bad. We won't drag you down. We will follow all your commands." Shawn said with a wide smile. Sam shook his head and said. "Suit yourself." Then the four of them left. Mathew hesitated, whether you should follow them are not, but he decided against it.
Harry gritted his teeth in anger as he saw four of them leaving. He felt that he lost a lot of face, as they rejected follow his command. "There are only four people, we don't have to care about them." Harry said to the rest of the freshmen and again started assigning the tasks to them.
At the viewing platforms, the city lord shook his head in disappointment. Right now, there are no younger generation people here as they all joined in the third round in the seniors' team. All the spectators are watching the scene.
Meanwhile in the cave similar to the one fresh were in, the seniors are discussing the plan. The one in the centre is Philip as he instructed everyone. Even though Philip is one of the lower cultivation level persons at level 5 Acolyte. He is known for his strategies and all the seniors gave him the command. He concluded arranging the tasks and then said.
"if you find anyone wearing black and doesn't have any armour and wields a bow or a staff. Don't engage unless there are three people in the group and all of you have to be at least middle-stage Acolytes. Otherwise, just turn your tail and run to meet other team mates, leave whatever task you are doing and inform others." Philip said in a solemn tone.
All the seniors felt a little puzzled and someone asked. "Philip, who is this guy, that you gave him such high evaluation? What is his cultivation level?"
"Well, we can be considered friends. As for his cultivation level, he must be at Level3 Acolyte stage." Philip said with a smile.
"Hmph, just a trash at Level 3 Acolyte. He is mine. Everyone, if you encounter him, capture him and I will trade for him with you for 1000 spirit stones." Carl said from the side as he left along with his squad. Philip only shook his head and said.
"Guys, I am not trying to exaggerate here. He killed a 'Blazing earth bull' which is at Level 2 initial stage in a single punch when he is at only 9th level of initiation stage. You can understand how great his combat prowess is. As far as I know, he is a warrior mage now and of fire attribute. I don't know his full prowess, but he has many tricks up his sleeves. If he just wants to escape and survive until the end, with his speed, nobody will be able to stop him." Philip said in a grave tone. Then he let everyone disperse and only Philip, Marvin, Paul, Freya and Haley are inside the cave looking at the map.
"Haley, who do you think the commander of the freshmen team will be?" Philip asked.
"I think Harry will take the charge." Haley said with certainty.
"Then what do you think Sam's position will be in the team." He asked again,
"According to my understanding of his character, he won't give Sam any position which will help him take more credit." Haley said.
"If he hinders Sam for at least half of the time, that would work for our advantage. If he can't even use an excellent trump card like Sam properly then he is really foolish." Philip said as he shook his head.
"If Sam's movements are restricted and dragged down by the team, we will win without much trouble." Marvin said. Rest of them also nodded.
But they didn't know that Sam is completely let loose and he didn't have to follow any orders at all. He is right now at the river which divided the territories of both the freshmen and the seniors.
Sam looked at the stone path which is the only safe way to cross the river. He observed it as he looked at from the river bank. Melisa, Shawn and Jack stood behind him as they just looked at him doing weird observations.
"Do you know what place this is?" Sam asked them as faced them.
"This is the dividing line of the territory. Harry said that there is only this one bridge to cross the river safely and the river is filled with dangerous water bound beasts." Melisa said. Sam then nodded and continued.
"Right now, both teams' scouts are making their way here slowly so that they won't leave any tracks behind, but we don't have to do that because, we are not using this to cross the river, rather, we are using this to trap them." Sam said and turned towards the bridge.
"Shawn can you destroy the path?" Sam asked nonchalantly.
The three of them furrowed their brows as they heard Sam's words. Seeing his expression, he didn't seem to be joking.
"Sam. Isn't it a bit risky." Melisa slowly asked.
"You, don't have to worry about it. I have another way to cross the bridge. Judging by the speed. The main squads won't come near the bridge until the late morning and even the scouts take few hours. Now, both the teams will use the darkness as the cover to place the traps. So, don't worry. I have my plans. Shawn make it as smooth as possible without much noise." Sam instructed.
Shawn couldn't do anything and used his earth elemental control to completely drown the stone path.
Sam then took out a few corpses of the blood hyena and dropped them in the river where the path is used to be.
Soon a large number of alligator type beast gathered near the meat. These are the 'River gators' and a water type beast. Right now, all the beasts are at level 2 middle stage, when they saw 10 something River gators coming, they slowly stepped back. Only Sam remained there as he looked at the River gators which are slowly making their way on to the land. Suddenly Sam released a peculiar aura which all the other people couldn't comprehend, but they saw all the River gators stopped in their tracks and prostrated in front of Sam as if paying respects.
Sam released his Golden Crow blood line power. Before the three could understand what is happening, Sam gave some commands which made them stupefied.
"Relay my commands to all your kin. No one should carry the river easily. Any one who dares to cross the river from this area should be stopped by you guys. You can only let them cross it, if your life is in danger. Otherwise, don't let them cross at all. One mile on both sides is your job to guard, do you understand?" Sam commanded the river gators as he is commanding his own subordinates. But even more shocking thing is that all the River gators nodded their heads excitedly. Sam then took out all the corpses of the blood hyenas and gave them to the river gators.
"This is your compensation for guarding the river. If you guys have a life-threatening danger, you can stop the duty. You don't have to keep your life on line. Now let us cross the river." Sam said and as soon as he did, the biggest of all the river gators walked forward and entered the river. Sam and others stepped on its back. Then the river gator swam across the river and left them at the other bank of the river.
Even after the beast left, Melisa and others are still in daze as they couldn't understand the situation.