The sharp currents attacked him.

The increase in pressure made his muscles contract and joints ache. The opponent gritted her teeth, increasing the pressure. The flaming inscriptions of Sam are being effected. The richness of wind element energy is trying to suppress those flames.

The irony of the wind.

When the flame is small, wind kills it. When the flame is raging, it just rages it more.

Sam tried to control his inscriptions, but whenever he tried to focus, the pressure increased. He didn't know if he should be pissed or impressed. After all, the wind element's usage he has seen until now has always been very uncreative and monotone.

She is using the wind in a new way.

After a couple of minutes, Sam made a move. Ink swirled out of his storage and it was dragged away by the wind currents. With the level of attack she used, his current inscriptions and space are not enough.

He needs to either use his strength directly or create a new method for himself.

He did the latter, of course. The inscription ink turned the condensed wind from white to black. It is a complete black color that glowed with faint red hue.

The opponent's eyes widened. She knew something bad is about to happen.

As the wind spun, the ink followed its pattern, however with every passing second the ink seeped outwards. At last, it went out of the sphere completely.

The floating ink turned into inscriptions. The inscriptions are of two elements. Wind and fire. Both of those elements raged together. Rotating in the opposite direction of the wind sphere. The wind sphere, slowed down.

She couldn't control it anymore. She couldn't speed it up anymore. She is losing control.

Finally...

*BOOM*

The inscriptions controlling the wind sphere exploded.

Sam landed along with the golden flames surrounding him. His opponent collapsed to her knees. They are just a couple of feet away. Sam even felt surprised that they are that close at the moment.

"Three moves are over.

"

"I know....

"

She muttered slowly and looked at Sam. She slowly stood up and looked like she is about to give up.

At that moment.

*SWOOSH*

Sam's inscriptions are all activated, creating a large dome around himself, protecting him. *BOOM*

Several spears conjured of flames, ice and wind are all blocked by that one barrier. Within the barrier, both Sam and his opponent are standing.

"A student from Vinayaka academy? Dealing such a low blow? Who would have expected?

" Sam said with a sarcastic smile.

"You did.

" She muttered and this time, collapsed once again, this time for real. The whole point of declaring that she will deal with him in three moves was just a ruse. She knew Sam would be able to block all three of those attacks.

She staked it all on the fourth one. Assuming that Sam would have consumed most of his energy defending the first three, by believing that she only has three moves. Sam just stayed on guard.

"I give up.

"

She declared her loss directly. Both of them were transferred out of the tower and appeared in the open-air auditorium.

"Winner, Sam.

"

The declaration was made by the elders.

Sam looked at the audience and then at the rest of the contestants awaiting the

announcement of their rankings.

He didn't wait for them and walked away. Now, he is declared as best in two different auxiliary professions in the academy realm's second grade. More targets, more opponents, more people coming after him.

Sam took off on harbinger at the gate.

After a few minutes, he disappeared with spatial element. Completely out of the view of anyone who might want to target him. He just hid from anyone else and plotted silently.

Meanwhile, the search for him raged even more. It didn't matter if the person engaged with Sam is going to agree to lose. The academies decided to take strict measure. At the same time, the Gambler academy became a target for them.

Rashma, Chetan, Crow were all getting targeted left and right. And they targeted them just like how they targeted Sam. They swarmed them from all sides, arranged unrelated people to stay in their way to make them unable to move around freely.

All in the hopes of killing them.

They believed that they could overpower gambler academy like this, since the academy is not even known for its combat ability. They just felt that Sam is likely a black sheep.

But they soon realized how wrong they are. The combat ability of these people... this time the Gambler academy came with some serious wild cards.

The situation is not just for the second graders. Even the third graders and fourth graders are being targeted.

The fights between the fourth graders are most brutal. Almost as brutal as the second-grade fights. Because Dove being the senior has created her fair share of chaos and fair share of enemies. And the team that came along with her are all her close aides in the student council

at that time.

The other academies really wanted to target them since the start, but they didn't want to be the first offerings to the gambler academy.

With the new alliance, they grew a pair each and came after them.

With almost half of the academies targeting them, the Gambler academy basically dominated

the solo combat competition.

The Norse city has seen more fights in those few days than in the past decade.

While days passed like this, Sam just hid himself and didn't come back. There are only two more competitions that he needs to participate in. One is the weapon making and the other is

the solo combat.

There is a lot of time before the weapon making competition starts. It is the one right before

the solo combat.

So, he decided to stay put until then.

He ignored the chaos and ignored all the people that are trying to find him. Many speculated that Sam became overwhelmed by the chaos and hid. Some said, he learned his place and decided to step back from the solo combat competition.

However, no one can deny that the more time he was left unfound, the more the chaos

brewed. Because as the days passed, the alliances started collapsing. After all, until now some of the academies lost too much in pursuit of Sam, while some academies were left unscathed.

Same with the ones attacking other gambler academy students. By planning or not, some academies indeed took most losses.

Now that Sam couldn't be found, they are also thinking about their own interests. There are only a limited spots to be in the finals of the solo combat competition. But the alliance they

made has more than hundred people.

They eventually had to fight.

As days passed and the finals neared, tensions rose among them, threatening to explode at

any given moment.

And at that moment, Sam came out of hiding. He appeared at the entrance of the Thor academy on the day of the weapon making competition.