The announcement was over and neither Duke or Sam didn't bother to explain themselves to the candidates.
Duke went on with the event after announcing the rankings as he addressed the candidates again.
"The names I announced are the fifty people who are promoted to the next round."
The candidates who were selected all cheered, but Duke's next words damped their excitement again.
"So, now let us discuss the next round. There would only be ten people who are going to pass the next round and the rest of the forty will also be eliminated. So, do not celebrate too early.
Because, the next round is going to be conducted today, right here, right now."
The audience became silent. They didn't expect this turn of events.
Ten minutes later, the fifty candidates were assembled in the arena within the same estate, while the 150 eliminated candidates took seats as audience.
Duke, along with the General Spark, regiment commanders and the General mercury who came later, sat down at the special viewing platform to oversee the next round.
"The last round of the competition in the southern star city will take place now and that would happen in two stages.
In the first stage, ten candidates will be selected from your fifty by a royal rumble.
The last ten candidates that are left standing will fight it out tomorrow in second stage to decide on the rankings within themselves.
So, for the first round, the whole field is your battle ground. The stage the surroundings, anything beyond the barrier separating the field and the audience is off the limits and within the field you can do anything.
The first round will end only if there are ten people left standing.
A candidate will be considered lost and eliminated, if he surrenders willingly or knocked unconscious, left the field or died."
As he spoke up to this point, his voice was still as calm as ever, but the candidates didn't feel so. Mentioning death means, killing isn't forbidden in the battle. This left them feel cold.
Only Nicholas is showing an excited expression.
He is dying for a battle.
Duke looked at the candidates with a sweeping glance and without even giving them any time to mentally prepare he said out loud.
"Begin."
The candidates were stunned a bit and then immediately came to themselves.
One person even launched the first strike on the person standing before him.
Sam is in the last row, but he didn't attack anyone immediately. And he is not the only one who did so, the top ten candidates took a step back and didn't act offensive.
As Sam was observing the surroundings, he suddenly sensed something and dodged to the side. A dagger struck the air in the spot he was previously in.
He turned around and saw a person in black looking at him coldly.
"You are the weakest of all the people here, so why bother staying? You better surrender now or you might not survive this."
Sam then looked around and saw that several people are looking at him.
All of them want to take down Sam first. They might say that he is the weakest and has no right to participate, but they just want to eliminate him first because they are jealous of his points.
They want to enjoy his misery of getting eliminated first even after obtaining so many points in the military and business phase. These guys have a disgusting quality which was hidden in almost all human beings. Schadenfreude.
Sam didn't answer the guy at all and just stood there with his hands in his pockets. His expression was calm and collected.
The person who attacked Sam was a bit pissed off due to Sam's nonchalance, he waved immediately moved as he blurred into a dark shadow.
This guy is a dark element user and that too, his dark element is of shadow kind. After all, not all dark element users are same and the pure dark element is rare. Even the pure light element is rare, but since the light element is not deemed useful in the battle by this world, they didn't research it more.
Sam saw as the guy skipped from one shadow to another with a dagger in his hands. He is using the shadows of the surrounding people and objects as transfer points as he moved from one place to another.
At the same time, he started making his move on Sam.
Within a few seconds, Sam knew this guys battle style. He is an assassin. He is not even a Warrior mage, he is only a mage, but the norms restricted his shadow element from using it with versatility and he doesn't have many attacks.
All was able to do was to sneak attack a person to kill, but if that one chance is lost, it would be difficult to attack again. Sam even guessed that this guy continuously attacked only because Sam is a Novice, he would have retreated if the opponent is a Great realm cultivator.
Some of the people near them are observing the battle, they are keen to see Sam getting eliminated but that is not happening. The assassin moved agilely and swiftly but he wasn't able to hit Sam at all.
Sam didn't even take his hands out of his pockets, but he kept on dodging. He is like wind, light and flexible. He moved agilely as he dodged each and every dagger strike and the main thing is that he didn't use a single unit of spiritual energy.
He is solely using his body. He felt that since he has to battle anyway, he can at least test the results of his new cultivation.
So, the first test is agility and endurance.
As Sam stepped from one spot to another without even taking his hands from his pockets while dodging the dagger attacks without even breaking a sweat, the surrounding candidates grew interested in his battle more and more.
They didn't expect Sam to last this long but his endurance is even better than the Great mage attacking him. They were surprised, but Sam has different thoughts.
Those are thoughts of pity and that is not for the candidates or the attacker, it is for the shadow element of the attacker. Sam felt that this guy is really a donkey who couldn't appreciate the scent of the sandalwood. The shadow element is utterly wasted on him.
So, he didn't want to entertain this guy anymore. This time, Sam didn't just dodge, he evaded an attack and gave a kick to the attacker's jaw making him unconscious.
Before the surrounding people to react, someone from the crowd shouted grabbing everyone's attention.
"Everyone, if you all fight each other from the start, the top ten candidates will gain an edge above us and we will be done. I suggest we join hands together and eliminate them first before deciding which one of us can get those ten spots."
The one who shouted was one of the noble kids who didn't make the cut into top ten.
The whole group started discussing and thinking but only for a while, within three seconds, one by one they agreed with suggestion.
The top ten candidates are a bit startled. Well, not all of them. Nicholas might be the most delighted of all people and the includes the noble kid, who came forward to propose this alliance.
The top ten candidates started making their way towards the stage so that they could stay together. If a group of people ostracizes some people within them, they would involuntarily make another group.
Sam who is nearest to the stage, was the first one to climb so that he could have more space around him to deal with the attackers. But he didn't expect that the remaining nine would follow his footsteps.
Jack and Philip are near to begin with. As all of them went up to the stage, the remaining members also started surrounding them and Sam saw that the noble kid who instigated this is slowly moving to the back of the crowd inconspicuously
This guy is a sly fox, he just wanted to wear down the top candidates. But What surprised Sam is that the two brother Zeke and Blue fire are also doing the same. In actual fact, none of them are moving back, rather the rest of the crowd are moving forward.
Beside Sam, Nicholas already took his spear out, his Level 3 Great mage aura was released to the full extent as the rest of the top ten also started making their preparations. Sam shook his head at the stupidity of the crowd surrounding them. They are just waiting to be slaughtered.
Even though, these guys are elites, this is not much of a deal for the top ten to fight one against three.
And the next moment the fight started.
Sam took out a staff and started fighting too. He only used his body strength and restricted himself from using the spiritual energy.
He is facing two people and Jack who is also at the Great mage level 1 the second lowest cultivation stage on the field also got two people.
Zeke, Blue fire and the instigator didn't even bother to make a move. They are just making some superficial spells and moves to bluff the remaining crowd.
As Sam was dealing with the two candidates, he though of somethings and immediately changed the fighting style. For his convenience the two of them are warriors and one of them is the Great realm level 1 cultivator.
Sam used his wind element and along with the forceful moves of his staff, the tail wind of each attack was quite ferocious and with the additive sharpness Sam added, it perforated the surface skin of the opponent with every move, exposing some muscle fibres.
Within the next ten moves, they are already in a bad stage and even had thoughts of retreat.
But Sam didn't let them and led them to do a mock battle as he wielded his staff with a single hand.
After ten seconds. He threw a glass capsule on to a person who is right beside Blue fire and a small blue flaming ball hit that person.
"What is wrong with you?" That guy who was hit by the blue flame turned towards the Blue fire who just conjured a fire ball.
That blue coloured fire ball made the evidence irrefutable.
Blue fire didn't know what happened and wasn't able to respond.
That guy looked at the blank expression and said in annoyance.
"Look where you hit next time."
He is an archer and is busy covering for the crowd, so he just left Blue fire alone thinking it was an accident and since the damage was low, there is no need to make a fuss.
