Likhma didn't stand a chance at handling Sam's intimidation.

He immediately confessed. Sam got all the information he needed and he threw Likhma into the Lake with the rest. Then he went back to the small island and sat at the edge letting his legs rest in the water.

His partial fusion is gone, but he still let his vampire form stay.

After a few minutes, he noticed some extra presence in the surrounding woods. Sam knew more people had come and they might have come here to take his flag away.

"I am giving three minutes exactly. Come here and pick these guys up. They will die with death energy invasion if you leave them be and I have no qualms about letting them die. I will keep my hand for these three minutes. If you are here after those three minutes, you can also take a bath in the lake.

"

The students hesitated a bit, but they came and picked up their companions. People from almost every team came, except for the Aranya's Academy.

Sam chuckled at this and kicked his legs in the water a bit. The Aranya Academy students were kicked out of the water and fell onto the dry land. It had been a while since the fight started and Sam noticed that quite a few beasts had come over.

He aimed to the sky and shot a golden fireball.

At this moment, deep inside the forest, the Gambler Academy students are hiding in between the trees. There are a bunch of other students from different academies all searching for these nine people.

"Those mother**ers. Find them, they shouldn't have escaped. With the beast still nearby, they are bound to be nearby.

"

One of the contestants yelled. It is apparent that he is angry. While Sam made every opponent take a bath in a lake, the remaining team brought the other teams to their knees. They barely let any of the beasts go.

Their teamwork is impeccable and nine of them are actually enough to take down a beast on their own even if the beast is of a higher level. The rest of the teams couldn't spare nine people to deal with the beasts.

If they want to compete with Gambler's academy they need to team up and that is exactly what they did. But still, the Gambler's Academy students were very elusive. They are not the best when it comes to solo combat, but these people are made for this.

They just made fools out of other teams and acted like fish in the water while stealing all the spoils for themselves. They looked at the Golden flames that erupted in the sky. That was Sam's signal. They immediately came out of their hiding and ran towards their base.

The opponents followed, but after a short while, they didn't dare to do so, because news came from their bases asking them to return. They were even ordered to leave the beasts alone for the time being. The Gambler Academy team gathered at the lake. They could see the obvious signs of battle.

Sam is sitting there as if he was not the reason for such a serious battle.

They made their way towards him.

"What did you guys get?

"

"Mostly, formation flags and a couple of formation discs. The discs are most suitable for traps based on their scale.

"

Sam nodded and after counting the number of nodes, he decided to help them plan the defense now. He dove into the water and swam a few meters deep before reaching towards the lake walls. He used his earth elemental ability to extrude the earth into rods.

Then he came out of the water and stood on top of it with his eyes closed. His body turned from Vampire form to the Purplish-red Partial Water Fusion and Vampire Form combined. The water underneath his feet started glowing a bit as a weird greyish energy started condensing from it.

The greyish energy moved into the stone rod. He conjured so much that the water rippled for the next minutes and by the time he is done, the stone rod changed its color and the other teammates could feel that it turned into a storage vessel of energy.

He threw it to the team and continued on to do the same for the next thirty minutes and this time, it didn't take five minutes for each rod.

His process is faster and more efficient. Soon, he had a bunch of rods in his hands.

"Create a perimeter formation around the lake bank. It doesn't have to be complicated, it should just be enough for you to alert them. Of course, add a triggering mechanism to it as well.

"

"Triggering mechanism? What should we connect it to though?

"

"I will handle that part.

"

He took back all those highly active stone rods while some of the team members left to handle the formation on the bank. He levitated over the flag and the rods were slowly carried by the water to certain positions.

The water is not exactly a great place to put formations. Particularly when the nodes they have are normal and not of high quality. So, Sam is using the tension between the energy to let the formation balance itself.

After setting up the formation he connected it to the formation other placed at the bank.

It didn't take long.

"You guys can lay down other formations as you like. The lake bed is not accessible, so it will be hard to lay down formations on the water surface. Just keep in mind. I am sure you guys can handle the rest.

"

"What about you?

"

"I maintained the defense until now. It is time to go for the offense. I will go and collect the flags. If anyone comes for those two, just hand them over without fighting. Also don't initiate a close-range fight until they pass the perimeter formation.

Long range can be tried as long as you have a perfectly clear shot that would land a critical hit.

"

Sam then disappeared from there and went into the formation. After knowing the details from Likhma, he is a bit pissed, so he is going to blow off some steam and deal with other teams. He already picked the first target for that too.

The Hel Academy team.

He didn't have a good relationship with Hel to begin with. She is right behind the Olympians on his hit list. So he might as well deal with that Academy first.

First, he went to the two spots where the Beasts are being fought at the moment. With Gambler's academy withdrawing all of a sudden, there is a deficit in attackers and beasts accumulated. Right now, there are three beasts, and one of them just died.

Sam went to the spots of battle and checked out the candidates.

He counted three Hel Academy students. With the two people who came to fight with Sam at his base, there are only five people back at the base. Sam marked the three of them and noticed that they are going back to the base.

They successfully got the lion's share of one of the beasts and a minor share of the other. They got some resources that could strengthen their defense. They were not stupid enough to send a single person to send these supplies back, so they moved together.

Sam disappeared into the forest with wood elemental fusion.

When the trio from Hel Academy are running and are a certain distance away from the rest, they sense a threatening presence all around them. They stopped in their tracks and got ready for a fight. At that moment, a bunch of vines were shot from multiple directions.

The trio dodged, and none of them were injured.

Injuring them was not Sam's goal though. Separating them is. He attacked them continuously until there was significant distance between all three before he suddenly appeared out of a thick tree nearby.

A large number of vines appeared from behind him. He caught a hold of one of the three and the vines enveloped both of them before they disappeared back into the forest as if they weren't even there to begin with.

The remaining two closed the distance and stood with their backs to each other.

"Who the ** are you? Come out if you dare.

"

One of them yelled, trying to find some courage. They didn't notice any reaction. After some thought they agreed to make a run for their base. They didn't hesitate or turn back. They just ran straight. It would take less than two minutes for them.

They almost reached their base too, but they halted in their path as the teammate that went missing appeared in front of them. Hanging from the trees by vines. He is unconscious and his whole skin is green in color.

Both of them immediately ran to him to save him from the poison. They knew this could be a trap, but they could not let their friend die and that was a mistake.

Sam appeared from underneath the ground and both of them disappeared. Sam stood there with the hanging opponent.

By now the people from Hel Academy base noticed his presence and two of them came out of scout. Sam looked at their face straight before disappearing with the third opponent.

Three down, five more to go and it would be checkmate for the Hel Academy.