Chapter 70: Hawk Vs Sam.

Sam went up to the stage and said to Hawk. "I thought nobody is going to challenge me anymore. At last."

Hawk just smiled and didn't say anything.

"Begin." Elder announced. But both Sam and Hawk didn't move immediately. They just looked at each other and tried to see what is other party's intention. The stare down went on for a few seconds, they didn't move neither they looked at different directions. They just stared at each other and tension rose.

Finally, Hawk spoke. "You are more patient than what rumours mentioned." As soon as he said that he started making hand seals. Sam just stood there and didn't do anything, he just stood there and looked at Hawk as if he was watching a performance.

And soon, Sam is surrounded by wind blades, from all sides, he is observing the wind blades that are coming towards him, he can feel the sharpness of the blades and the threat they could pose.

When they were two feet away, Sam made his move, with his superior speed, the wind blades didn't pose much threat to him. He moved fluidly without making any contact with the wind blades, but before he could relax another wave of wind blades are coming towards him, but this time the density of attack increased.

The number of blades became twice the previous time. This time, Sam didn't just evade them, but he started moving forward. The spectators are watching the fight in awe. They knew about Hawk's wind blades attack. He is very proficient in its control and if his opponent gets struck in the first wave, he was almost done with it.

Even when the opponent is able to make it through the first wave, he might not make it to the second wave, if he makes it through the second wave, the third wave might take him down.

And every time the density of attacks increases such that evading is not an option anymore. But Sam is dodging and he is making his way forward.

Just when Sam was a three- feet away from Hawk, the latter floated with the cover of wind blades and went to opposite side.

"Elemental fusion." Sam muttered as he looked at Hawk, who stopped attacking. When Hawk heard Sam's word's he was surprised.

"Not bad, you can recognize the Elemental Fusion." Hawk said. Sam didn't reply. Of course, he can recognise it. He himself can do it after all. But Sam was pretty impressed with Hawk. The latter is using the Elemental fusion on his legs and is floating. Even though he can't use it directly to fly, but hovering a bit is not really a problem.

"Why are you not using your Elemental powers?" Hawk asked.

"Well, nobody is bothering to challenge me anyway. Might as well make most our battle and see what I can do?" Sam said but he still didn't attack. He is waiting for Hawk to attack and he will test himself. After all, it is not everyday that he gets to fight with a Novice level 1 fighter with this much control over his element.

Hawk formed hand seals and this time they are much faster. This time air on the stage all started circling around Sam. The image resembled a small tornado circling around him. Just as he was examining it, he felt that it is a little difficult to breath. The tornado is trying to create a vacuum.

Just when he thought that these are the only tornado's effects, he felt his feet floating and then suddenly a wind blade formed with in the tornado and attacked him from behind.

Even though the feather coat stopped the attack, he wasn't feeling happy at all. He felt that he is being a bit too passive. Sam then spread his hand towards the wind currents and his hands started conjuring fire.

He controlled the golden flames with the enormous heat and made it circle the tornado in its opposite direction, but when he tried it in the beginning the fire is being affected by the wind speed, when spectators started feeling that Sam's attempts are futile, he increased the intensity of flames. They started circulating with very high speed and the intensity also high and before he knew what's happening, Hawk felt that something is amiss, his control over wind tornado became difficult and unstable and while he tried to control it Sam already came out of the tornado.

Sam and Hawk stared at each other when Sam said. "Maybe you want to use your Dual wing slash."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, you can use it. Let's see if I can deal with it." When Sam said these words, Hawk was already almost done with his hand seals. A Hawk materialised in front of him and the two wing shaped wind blades moved towards Sam.

This time, Sam didn't just stand there, he took out his golden staff and started spinning it. The two ends of staff are directing and condensing a huge amount of fire as he spun the staff above his head.

Before the wind blades neared him, Sam threw the condensed fire towards them. Both the attacks collided and negated each other.

Sam and Hawk came into a dead lock.

"You are really good. I thought that Kelly is exaggerating." Hawk praised.

"You aren't bad yourself." Sam returned the praise.

"Maybe we should stop testing each other? Why don't you become serious?" Hawk asked as he started making hand seals.

This time neither replied nor just stood in place, instead he made his move with his staff. When he swung his staff and was about to make contact with Hawk, a wind shield formed and stopped it.

Sam took a step back and again did the same, this time the wind shield again made the contact. But Sam didn't withdraw and an explosion happened at the point of contact, pushing Hawk a step back.

Sam didn't miss the opportunity and followed with attack after. His moves are fast and precise. Hawk wasn't able to see him at all other than he could see is the after- image Sam left behind after an attack.

Soon, he wasn't able to cope with the speed and took the full force of an attack. He fell down on his back as he spewed some blood from his mouth.

Sam didn't stop. He made his move again and just as he was about to make another successful attack something unexpected happened.

Hawk is covered by a water shield and a water sphere was launched towards him at same time. Sam took the full force of attack and landed a few feet away. He coughed out some blood and stood up.

When he came to his senses, he saw Hawk covered with a water sphere on all sides.

"Oh, you are a dual elemental Mage. Didn't see that coming." Sam said with a smirk. He didn't seem discouraged at all. But he failed to see the spectators' expressions which are filled with shock.

"What Hawk is a dual elemental mage?"

"I never knew this."

"Yeah, he really hid deeply. I thought he only has one wind element. Who would have thought that he also had water element?" Even Castor and Count Falcon felt surprised, for different reason though.

"I never thought he would use water element here. He said that he might not need to use this in this tournament." Count Falcon said to Castor.

"I thought that it was his trump card." Castor spoke

"No. He said that there are no worthy opponents who forced him to use it. Now he seemed to have found someone. Maybe it is better this way." Count said as he eyed Sam with interest.

Sam again picked his staff and made his move. This time his speed his actually faster and there is a golden flash along with his after image. He swung his staff and attack hit the water shield with the same explosion. The water on the surface of the shield evaporated, but the impact of the explosion and the hit of the staff are reduced in the form of ripples on the water.

He didn't stay there and immediately moved. Then a water sphere was launched to the place where he stood a moment ago.

Sam continued to make his move with the staff and Hawk countered with same defence and attack. Even after tens of exchanges the dead lock remained. Both of them weren't able to make some damage. But the situation changed.

When Sam landed a hit on the shield, the water dispersed a bit and held the staff in place, delaying Sam's movement for a second making have a close shave with a water sphere.

But Sam didn't change the strategy. Hi speed increased. He is trying to see how much speed he needs to take down the water shield without using too much of spiritual energy.

When he found out that this method is futile, Sam landed a hit and instead of escaping, he stood there and placed his hand on the shield. Hawk was a bit startled by this sudden change of pattern and was caught off-guard. Before je realized what is happening, he saw Sam's smirk and the latter injecting a huge ball of golden flame into the water shield.

"What, he is using the fire against water?"

"Yeah. It is futile. I think he is using this as a last resort."

"Why are you calling a last resort?"

"You know that fire is weaker against the water. So, what is the point of using it that close and that too on the water shield directly. The chances are almost nil."

"Yeah, maybe you are right."

Spectators are judging Sam's actions, but Hawk who is very close to the fire realized something is not right.

The golden flame is small in size and it should have been extinguished but it is still burning like nothing happened as it continuously turned the water around him into steam. Sam smirked as he made eye contact with Hawk and immediately increased the amount of Energy, he released making the intensity and size of the golden flames higher and higher completely evaporating that side of water shield. Before Hawk could prepare himself, Sam's attack landed on his chest squarely, sending him flying.

Sam didn't follow with attack. Because, he is also panting. He scolded himself for trying so many times with staff. Even though he wanted to grind his skills, now he has to conserve his energy.

Hawk stood up with much difficulty. He is trying to guess what happened exactly. He looked at Sam with new found admiration as well as competitive spirit.

Sam is also very impressed with Hawk. He has full understanding on his capabilities and knew that he could take down a Level 2 Novice. But he wasn't able to take down Hawk who is at Level 1 Novice. That means the other's battle prowess is not be trifled with.

"I never thought that, I need to use this move in this tournament. I prepared it for a bigger stage, but Sam you have my respect for making me use this move."

Hawk spoke and released a huge amount of spiritual energy. The stage is surrounded with water bubbles. Sam observed them and saw that the bubbles which are in size of foot ball are rotating on their own axes.

Sam looked at the Bubbles and then stared at Hawk who closed his eyes and spread his hand wide open. He took the staff in his hands and swung it in the air which shot a fire ball towards Hawk.

But before the fire ball could reach the target, a water bubble collided with the fire ball and both of them disappeared. But Sam suddenly felt something was wrong and before he realized what is happening, three wind blades flew towards him from the point of collision and left a deep gash on his chest where the coat didn't cover.

Sam took a step back and he accidentally collided with another bubble. Three wind blades attacked again from behind. This time though, he only felt the impact.

Sam steadied himself and stood up properly. He looked at the bubbles and then at Hawk.

Hawk is using this time to recover the energy. Sam felt that he should deal with the situation as soon as possible. He stored the staff away and took the Golden Crescent out. When spectators saw the weird weapon with two blades, they were confused.

Sam moved the symbol and shifted it to bow mode. He took a deep breath and concentrated the spiritual energy to his legs and jumped high up in the air.

While he started falling, he moved his hands with incredible speed as he sent arrows after arrows at Hawk.

Hawk sensed the arrow with fire spiritual energy coming towards him and he started guarding with the bubbles. But the arrows became faster and faster and even more trouble is that they are negating the wind blades inside the bubbles with explosion up on the contact.

Sam didn't stop as he showered the stage with arrows all converging to a single point. Finally, Hawk wasn't able to deal with it and was hit by an explosion of a volley of arrows, but before he could fall, he sent the remaining bubbles towards Sam, who is almost down on the stage.

Both candidates were exposed to their opponent's attacks. They fell down on the stage without a least bit of energy left. Hawk has his cloths tattered and filled with injuries. But Sam's cloths are still good. His vest though got torn and there are gashes on his upper chest and torso.

"The fight is a Draw." The Elder said. Jack and Kelly came to the stage and escorted both Hawk and Sam down the stage.