n

n

n

nEverything is happening so fast.

nThe opponent is moving at a speed that he could possibly muster. He has never been faster

nthat he is at the moment. And for some reason, even though he knew everything is fast, he felt like all of it is happening very slowly.

nHe could see every minute change in his surroundings.

nMaybe it is the shiver in his spine or the racing beat of his heart that are happening for reasons unknown.

nHe could see everything clearly.

nHowever, even if he could see, he could feel it and sense it, he was unable to gain any confidence.

nHe stopped his advance to the side as soon as the shadow appeared, the dagger moved towards his eyes.

nHe changed his movement and tried to lean back.

n*SWOOSH*

nAnother shadow appeared diagonally throwing another dagger, this time aiming at his hip.

nEven those two daggers are appearing slowly.

nHe kicked the ground and rose up.

n*SWOOSH*

nAnother shadow with another dagger, from a different direction.

nHe tried to fly higher and move to the side.

nHe managed to increase the altitude, but he wasn't able to move. He had to resist the urge to do it.

nAll of this happened in less than half a second. When he was a few feet high above the ground, he noticed all the six daggers are forming a circular spiral around him. They are still coming at him, just a couple of feet away from him.

nAt that moment, the Chain sickle that initiated the attack, came back again.

nAnd judging from its trajectory, it didnt come for him.

nInstead, it went after one of the daggers.

nThe curved blade ray hit the dagger cleanly.

n*SWISH*

nThe dagger spun in the spot and its inscription glowed. Not just for that dagger, the inscriptions on the other daggers started glowing as well.

n*KEEN*

nThe keen of the blades resounded from the daggers. Large curved blade rays akin to boomerangs were shot at him from various sides and at various heights.

nHe didn't even have time to react as all of them went through him.

nThe opponent's friend who stood on the side watched the gruesome scene. The opponent turned into a dozen pieces. Its like he was a turned into pieces by a drunken butcher with a crazy fetish.

nAll of this happened so fast that not more than one and a half second has passed. Maybe the opponent's sense of danger made him react that fast, and gave him some reaction speed. But the now staring friend only saw a flash of blade ray followed by daggers coming out of shadows and his friend turning into chunks of flesh.

nThat is all his brain registered and he collapsed to the ground.

nSam finally came out to check the scene. He went down and checked the pieces of flesh to see how it worked.

nThe chain sickle is such a thrilling weapon to use. At first, he just wanted to go on another rampage with it like he did with Katar. However, he wanted to try something new and came up with this idea.

nWith his enhanced tricks, he could easily hide himself from the opponents as long as he is not extremely close.

nWith the versatility of the chain sickle, he can even ensure that the blade ray comes from a different direction than the one he is standing in. He wanted to see how he can kill his opponents with this weapon without them being unable to acknowledge that he did it. The first variation worked well.

nThe surprise dagger attacks and a single attack from the sickle. The rest is handled by the store energy in the daggers and the resonance inscriptions.

nThe death is so gruesome. The only thing he noticed is that the cut is not as clean as he wanted. The resonance works really well with energy attacks and explosions. Even material manifestations work to an extent.

nBut it seems like the bigger problem is in the manifestation of slash rays. He needs to research this more.

nAfter getting the information he needed and collecting the spoils, he turned to looked at the other candidate. His token clearly denoted his engaged status. Sam clicked his tongue in disappointment before leaving.

nAs soon as Sam left, the candidate stood up and heaved a sigh of relief. His friend died so cruelly, but he couldn't care much about that matter now. He is just glad that he is engaged.

nThe moment that thought hit him, his token turned yellow.

nHe felt like a he is greeted by a spring breeze. He never knew his luck is this great. His opponent seemed to have withdrawn, but he did after Sam left. Which means, his life could have been lost. He was saved by hair's breath.

n*KEEN*

nHis thoughts didn't even complete when he felt a slight chill in the spring breeze he was feeling.

nThe next thing he knew, he saw the world turning upside down, including his own body and the chain sickle's blade was in the spot where his head was supposed to be.

n*THUD*

nHis head landed on the ground. Sam took the chain sickle back and took the spatial ring of the opponent as well, before he left. He is glad that he left a shadow mouse behind.

nThat day was another nightmare for the second graders. At least, previously Sam came at them directly. They knew that he was coming.

nNow, he came out of nowhere, came without giving any signs. He claimed whoever's life he wanted and he took them away like it was his in the first place. Of course, even with all the grief he caused the news that he made Hel academy go out of business in the second grade hasn't gone unnoticed.

nAt this moment, the Dean of the Hel academy is furious as one could ever be. She looked at the Elder In charge and asked.

n

"What kind of stupid strategy did you implement? All of our candidates are dead and most of them died in the hands of Sam. It is one thing to be defeated and lose the points, we even lost those genius kids as well.

nWho is going to be answerable to their parents? Three of them are our biggest supporters. If our score and ranking dips, we need their backing. Are you going to fill in the gaps they will

nleave?

"

nThe elder didn't speak. He knew better than to be a smart ass and suggest solutions now.

n

"I need to know how this escalated to this point. From what I knew, we didn't really have too much enmity with Sam.

nEven if we consider him to be the linked to the master mind behind the Hub, our academy didn't suffer too much compared to the Olympian academies and even the Sanatan academies. Even in the Norse regions, the other academies took most of the heat.

nWhy did we go so far?

nAnd don't bother pushing the blame on to Sam. I know for a fact that this issue has started from our side. We are the first ones to draw a blade at his room's doorstep on the first day.

"

nThe Elder pursed his lips and said.

n

"Its... Elder Mangus warned us that Sam is a tough opponent even before the competition

nstarted.

nHis pressure increased after Sam embarrassed him in the formation contest. However, later on we also understood that he is indeed a threat to our rankings in the auxiliary professions.

nWe tried to take him down because of it. We formed alliances as you know, but it ended up like

nthis.

"

nShe held her forehead in exasperation. She believed that Sam targeted their academy definitely because of the fuss caused by Mangus. She wondered why that old bat of a man did

nthis.

nThat day passed like that. Sam didn't go and eliminate complete academies for the rest of the

nday and just took down a few lives.

nThe next day.

nThe finals of the weapon making competition.

nSam went to the forge.

nWith only sixteen people, it looked way better and a lot less congested.

nSam is excited to see what he will get to make today.

nThe Elder soon gave the information he needed.

n

"The finals of the Competition. Even though there are sixteen people here, we are not going

nwith the tournament mode. Rather, all sixteen of you will compete to get the top sixteen

nplaces. The top ten of course has better rewards.

nThe remaining six will only get a consolation prize from the Thor academy.

nAs for what you are going to make... in the first challenge, your ability to adapt to someone

nelse's product has been tested.

nThe second challenge is to test your basics and forging technique.

nNow, the final challenge will test everything related to your weapon making. Design, forging

nskills, adaptability.

nAll you will have is a bunch of requirements which you need to fulfil with your own skills.

nFor that, we are making weapon sets.

"

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