Sam and Arkiv finally managed to sit down for a second.
Arkiv was really confused on what happened and as he recalled what he did a few seconds, he was horrified.
When he was about to ask Sam what is this, Sam already spoke.
"No time, for explanation. Recover first, we don't when we will warped again."
He threw a bottle of wine mixed with some heavenly wine to him and both of them tried their best to recover.
As they recovered slowly, Sam briefly told Arkiv what to do.
"After killing the beasts, you will start to feel irritated slightly and whenever that feeling comes, avoid the killing and start meditating. After you calmed down, you can hunt again." Arkiv remembered all his words, but he is still a bit confused.
If only he tried to meditate a bit in the middle, he would have taken note of the anomaly and he would have already been saved from this torturous manipulation of his own mind.
Before Sam could explain anything though, he felt the warping effect and he yelled.
"Remember to meditate and keep a calm mind."
He reappeared in a different place with a lot of beasts already surrounding him.
Sam let Dia and Raiju out to deal with them.
He is already feeling a little anxious about Arkiv. He really wished they could at least move together. He knew for sure that once Arkiv is encountered with other players, he would have no way to hold back. There is at least one player that is going to die and if the luck of the winning player is bad, he would warp and appear in a place with beasts in his weakened state.
Escaping death would be almost impossible.
He didn't have special relationship with any of the players other than Arkiv. They are a bit friendly at best and that is it.
But there is one thing that held all the players together in times of need and that is they are all in the same boat.
They are all puppets being used for amusement of some gods who are so powerful beyond their belief and their imaginations.
So, they empathized with each other and that is why they tried to keep each other alive by holding back at times and having friendly spars even when the cost of it is a treasure that could cause wars within the realms.
Even if Sam got most of them, they didn't leak the news to any powerful people that could harm him. Nobody stabbed anyone in the back.
Even Donner who almost killed Sam, and is on constant fear of losing his life in Sam's hands, he still didn't do anything that would involve third parties other than players to kill Sam.
It was all a tacit understanding. No matter what happens between them, it was their problem. They don't want others to involve and they have this kind of weird bond, where they don't have any affection, friendship or any other relationship other than the faint mutual understanding about their situations in this world.
That is the main reason why this many players survived until now and in the last few Palace of inheritances, the difficulties increased so much, the only goal for the tests is to kill the players. But still with their capabilities most of them survived.
Now, this test is taking the rationality away and making them crazy so that they would put that mutual understanding aside and try to kill each other.
The gods must have realized that killing the players with just the test is not possible so they resorted to using the players against each other forcefully.
He must say that the gods have reached a new low once again.
Even if that god is the gambler who is supporting him.
He really wanted to pull their tongues out and demand them to explain why they are so twisted to torture someone who has already suffered so much and force them relive another torturous life.
At least, Sam has many other avocations by side like his research, work, business and many other things.
But he really felt pity for the rest of the players.
As he thought up to this point, he even felt surprised by his thoughts. This is the first time he is actively feeling some compassion to others instead of thinking it is their problem and they have to learn to deal with it or learn to endure it.
That was the philosophy he lived by in the past life. Maybe too many hardships and relatable people can change a person as stone cold as him.
Another few rounds of warping later.
Sam looked at the player in front of him.
It is the one player he wanted to meet the most and she seemed to be injured too.
The woman in the black, the last player and the one whose name no one knows.
She is standing there staring at Sam coldly while her arms are burning with black flames.
Sam took a deep breath and took a black whip.
When the woman in black saw that, she squinted her eyes and spoke to Sam.
"How dare you take that out? Do you think you can humiliate me with that just like this, because you barely won last time?"
Sam looked at her with a raised eye brow. Even though she is crazy, she is not as crazy as it seemed. She can still recognize him and speak with him.
Even Arkiv who is close to Sam couldn't recognize him and only focused on him as a target and it too so much effort and beating to make him recognize him.
But she is much more clear-headed.
"I don't know how, but it is good that you are clear-headed. I wouldn't want you dying in my hands without knowing how and what for."
Sam spoke and the golden flames entered the whip.
The Whip is a special fire elemental weapon.
It can enhance fire elemental attacks by a large margin and it is extremely suitable for someone like this woman whose black flames eat up others and even slightest of it can cause damage.
With this whip she doesn't have to use a lot of effort to make the flames reach others and she also doesn't have to worry about getting close.
Sam swung the whip in the air and fire serpents came out of it as they covered a large area surrounding the woman.
She threw black flames around and tried to suppress golden flames before running towards Sam.
The whip snapped in the air creating a large burst of flames in her path making her move to the side and once again another whip landed right beside her leg making her barely escape the golden flames.
She is not being as tricky as before. She is not taking advantage of her surroundings. She is not utilizing feints like she did before, She is not baiting Sam to attack and try to get one over him.
All she is thinking is to try and get a hold of Sam and burn him to death.
The mental state is really easy to take advantage of. Of course, it is only because she is already injured and she has yet to show what is her real strength and soon it was revealed.
She used her blood art.
It is not that complicated.
She got two whips made of condensed flames in her hands with a faint blood colored hue.
Sam chuckled at this. All this struggle for her only to finally get into a battle of whipping.
Sam activated fire elemental fusion as he went all over. A streak of golden flame and a streak of Black flame are throwing the flaming whips which are creating large flames in the surroundings are clashing like crazy.
The whole surrounding area started burning. The rocks started melting, the trees turned into ashes, the soil went dry while the grass was dead completely and burned with the gravel being charred and melting here and there.
The clash is so open and bold.
As the battle continued Sam got the upper hand. Clearly he has more experience in battles than her. For some reason she hid from the start of this game and she started revealing herself recently.
She kept an incredibly low profile in the desolate where it is a place which has very few rivals for the power of players to begin with.
They are the best of the best within the realms across, much less desolate. So, her lack of battle experience started showing.
And soon she was caught by the whip which was circled under her waist as Sam pulled her over and she fell in front of his feet like a ragdoll.
Sam let the whip be around her as he increased the intensity of the flames and mader scream in agony.
"I don't know why you are hidden for so long, but you told me, you knew me. But apparently not enough. Because, if you knew me enough, you would have known that I take revenge for slightest of grievances and what you did is kill a close companion of mine.
I will show you what eternal torture feels like."
With that Sam took out a knife and cut his palm as he collected blood inside a container. He then tore her cloths on some places and started marking some runes with his blood.
This is one of the soul necromancy techniques which is forbidden in many realms and in fact, even the darkest of the necromancers don't like using this.
But Sam didn't care if he is frowned up on or called a monster, but he is going to use it anyway.
This is the technique of extracting a living soul and trapping it in an inanimate object and the day that object is fully destroyed beyond repair, she would die, but whatever that object goes through, she is feel it in her soul.
If the soul is attached to a piece of iron, if it is forged, she would feel the heat, the hammer beatings and everything else and if a new piece of metal is added, she would feel her soul losing the freedom and purity and if the metal is turned into a powder and thrown away, her soul would also die along with it.
And Sam has created a new piece of alloy recently which doesn't even melt with his golden flames at maximum. He really wants to see how she would survive that.
He started making hand signs and the bloody runes started glowing.
