Chapter 2272: Solo Combat is over

In the third round, Rashma won her fight without much effort and destroyed the opponent again.

Crow went after that and he fought once again tooth and nail to win his third round fight. But as soon as the fight ended, he couldn't even stand up. He just managed to stand up for three more seconds than his opponent.

Then he collapsed.

Ling Tian had to carry him to the participant area.

Sam volunteered to administer the first aid and brought him back pretty quickly. He couldn't stay still and wait too long though. Because the next fight was his.

Sam looked at his opponent. Another peak stage cultivator. However, this one didn't have unique abilities like Marron and his strength is kind of straight forward. He is a swordsman. A pure swordsman that wields a rapier.

He has a small figure and lean body type.

On one glance, no one would ever think that he is strong, if not for the aura. He is also one of the frequent visitors of the hub. He had one of the highest visits in the hub among the second graders. He is also one of the few people that improved a shit ton from the hub.

Based on the usual rankings of the academy, this guys is not exactly a competition or tournament material. He ranked well into the middle and had decent prowess. But after hub, he managed to maximize on his skills and climbed through the rankings pretty quickly.

Now, he is here in the tournament and he won he first two rounds. He is basically put in the top ten of all the second graders in the gambler academy, when it comes to combat. He wouldn't be too far off in the list even if he is placed in other academies.

Sam almost felt proud of him.

After all, his abilities are indirectly Sam's product. Sam slowly walked into the arena and looked at the young man in front of him. The young man let out of a breath and took out his rapier. He appeared tense and calm.

He didn't mouth off some unnecessary warnings, he didn't try to trash talk Sam and he certainly didn't try to put down Sam with some cliched lines about Sam's cultivation level.

He tried to stay calm and kept his mouth shut. This only made him more impressive.

After all, yapping is easy. Silence is difficult and of course more rewarding.

Sam took a deep breath and took out his two hand guns. He definitely believed that he used the full power of his guns and all the special bullets that he has at hand, they would be rejected by the formation of the arena as they would be classified as special artefacts.

Sam took a deep breath and took out his two hand guns. He definitely believed that he used the full power of his guns and all the special bullets that he has at hand, they would be rejected by the formation of the arena as they would be classified as special artefacts.

At least, that is what he believed. So, the bullet are not the most powerful, but they pack quite a punch.

*SWOOSH*

The opponent made a move. He came straight at Sam. Not levitating, not jumping. He was dashing towards Sam.

*BOOM*

Sam shot a bullet in the ground. In the straight path that the opponent was taking.

*BOOM*

A slightly muffled explosion was heard and a large pit appeared at the place it was shot. Along with that, a ripple of earth elemental energy spread from that point as the origin, towards the opponent.

Sam then tapped one of his guns a few times and a rune glowed on it.

At the same time, the opponent sensed the ripples on the ground and jumped up, trying to leap towards Sam and finish him off.

All of a sudden, he sensed something else. Two small projectiles, very small to even consider weapons, Sam's bullets came towards him. He was about to swing his sword and abruptly stopped in the middle. Because the bullets were shot in the path in which his arm was about to move along with his sword.

*BOOM*

Both of them exploded with golden flames at the same time.

The opponent absorbed the impact and moved to the side.

*BOOM*

Another explosion from the ground, but this time, the gravity reacted weirdly. He couldn't feel himself falling and was pushed up instead. He felt way too light for a moment.

16:00

*BOOM* *BOOM*

Two more bullets that exploded in his path, even before he fully entered it. On the first glance, Sam's aim seemed to be off, because he never actually fired a single shot at his opponent directly. However, every bullet he shot, successfully restricted his opponent from making any move.

It looked like he knew what the opponent is going to do in advance.

In a way, it is right. He does know what his opponent will do in advance. The opponent's style has been studied way too much by the hub and he already identified everything that he needs to know to defeat the opponent.

He knew where the sword will be, no matter what position the opponent is swinging it from.

He knew where the opponent's foot is going to be no matter what kind of move he is making.

He knew what the opponent's path is even before he fully realizes it.

Sam's regular attacks might slip up in term of speed if he tried to deal with the opponent, there is a slight chance of that happening. But with bullets, he saves a lot of time taken to charge the energy, conjuring up the attack, the thinking process, etc.

It might look like a small time frame, but it compounds and accumulates over the fight time.

Now, all he needs to think about it is where to fire, when to fire and what to fire and then pull the trigger. The bullets take care of the rest.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BOOM*

People are looking at Sam with their mouths wide open. Sam's first fight went above and beyond. He was constantly on his toes, moving around trying to dodge and block the attacks that could have sent him packing at any given moment.

Compared to that, in this fight he is basically chilling.

The fight went on, it was dragged to be longer than the first one.

But Sam didn't even sweat that much. He was tense, continuously calculating, his eyes are burning a bit because of the energy vision, but he didn't suffer any damage at all. Even when sword rays flew towards him, he managed to dodge, deflect and block easily.

The opponent on the other hand... as the time went on felt more and more nervous, insecure and afraid. The others might not know, the spectators might not have noticed. But he did.

He knew that Sam knew everything about his fighting style.

This made him feel like he was being stripped naked in front of the whole world. All of his flaws are out there in the light for everyone to see. His mental strength eroded with every passing second and he couldn't muster any of it back.

After around forty-five minutes, Sam started panting lightly, but the opponent is heavily breathing. He gritted his teeth and lost his cool.

All his energy entered his sword as he prepared his ultimate move. He noticed that even though Sam saw through everything he did and maintained perfect defense, Sam didn't attack. Maybe his body and mind got used to that pattern and didn't think much about leaving an opening.

Sam tapped the gun and the bullet changed. A special bullet entered the gun and he shot it. Not at the opponent, but at the sword. In fact, it didn't even precisely hit the sword, it hit it just a few inches away from it.

*BOOM*

The explosion was of pure divine energy. No elemental influence could be seen in it. It also exploded with void style and ripple style combined.

The explosion resulted in the energy spreading in ripples, creating more explosions and then all coming back to the origin point of the explosion creating a bigger one.

The energy that was being charged into the sword was suddenly sucked into that void, creating a slight imbalance. That was all he needed.

*BOOM*

The energy backlash hit the opponent. His arms took the burst of the explosion and then his chest and head.

He dropped the weapon and fell down unconscious.

"Sam Won."

Ling Tian announced with his 'devil may care' tone. He checked the opponent took him away and administered first aid.

The rest of the fights went on and Sam stayed a spectator.

"Semi-finals will begin now. Sam versus Rashma" Ling Tian announced.

Sam raised his hand and said.

"I forfeit."

Ling Tian shrugged and Rashma looked at him with a curious gaze. The next fight is between Crow and another man named Chetan. That guy is a pure martial artist. He doesn't even use weapons and a pure warrior, at the peak stage cultivation.

Crow didn't back down and went to fight.

He managed to hold himself for ten minutes before he was beaten down.

The final match is between Rasha and Chetan. But before that Ling Tian decided to conduct a few matches, the match between the losers in semi finals, which would be between Sam and Crow, to decide on the third and fourth places, along with a few matches between losers of the quarter finals to decide on the fifth place.

First it was to decide the fifth place. A late stage cultivator named Mathir made it. Another woman that is proficient in multiple weapons. Sam simply forfeited the next match as well, settling down at fourth place.

The finals however happened, but the outcome was decided way faster than what Sam anticipated.

Rashma won in exactly three minutes.