Chapter 2291: Trap
*SWISH* *CLUTCH* BOOM* *BAM* (A/N: And a bunch of other comic book noises)
Explosions, wind attacks, sword rays, thrown spears, fire b.a.l.l.s, projectile weapons, traps from under the ground, lightning from the clouds.
Everything was targeted at Sam as soon as he stepped off the last stair of the Thor academy. The moment both his feet hit the street, the attacks came flooding in. Sam did sense them as they came, but he made no effort to defend himself.
He let the attacks swarm him from all sides. When the dust settled and Sam came into view, he stood there like nothing happened. There is not a single scratch on his body.
It seems like all the spies that shared news about Sam"s formation expertise, didn"t seem to be aware of Sam"s current status in terms of the solo combat. He is already engaged with someone else. Even the other party doesn"t know about it.
So any attacks on him are completely futile.
But still, the attackers don"t know it. They didn"t see the token before launching the attacks. It wasn"t clearly visible for some reason. Now that they could see it, they saw it green. They just a.s.sumed that one of them engaged with Sam just now.
Whichever attack hit Sam first, is the one responsible for engaging with him.
So, they all started looking around, among themselves, trying to identify who managed to land the attack. However, all their tokens are yellow. Sam smiled at their confusion.
He didn"t even bother addressing them. He just walked like nothing happened and went past them.
"He is engaged prior to this?" One of theme exclaimed. It didn"t take a genius to figure this out. Then why did they not make this clear before they attacked?
One is that Sam has hidden his token a bit. It was not done on purpose, he just wore it on his hip and it was covered by his coat a bit.
That is not even the primary reason though. All these youngsters trusted their informants too much. They believed their informants won"t make a mistake as silly as not identifying if the target is even... killable at this moment.
"If he is engaged... then who is it? Who is he engaged with?"
Discussions emerged among the crowd.
Sam leisurely walked through the crowd and arrived at Paradise inn. He went to his newly a.s.signed room and stretched his body lazily before laying on the bed. He had a smile on his face as he took a nap.
Meanwhile, the outside is on fire.
Many academies" elders are holding a meeting along with their students. Previously, the attacks on Sam were purely based on the fact that he might be related to the hub. Everyone wants information about the Hub so that they could retrieve their shameful information that is stored in the hub.
The messenger council put a check to their movements, so this is kind of a perfect opportunity. They can kill within the rules and extract the memories.
However, after looking at Sam"s performance in the formation tests, people knew that their carefully done calculations, speculations and estimations are going to be disturbed. Their intensity increased after the first prelims.
But now... Sam is way too good with it.
He came out in just a few hours, when most people estimated that the whole second round might go on for more than half a day at least. And that is an estimate for the top seeded candidates from various academies.
But Sam overturned that and came out.
The rest of the students, including the seeds are still way too far back.
So, he became a bigger target. Now he is being targeted by so many people. They need to find
a way to disrupt his partic.i.p.ation in the final round of the formation compet.i.tion.
And as they thought through this, they did come up with some ideas on why they are unable to attack Sam at the moment
"He must have attacked someone lightly and sneakily. Just to protect himself."
This thought has come to many elders from many academies. However, there are a few elders and students of one region that immediately found more answers as soon as they thought this.
From the Xia region.
The day before, one of the students came to their seniors and the elder in charge with a trouble. That he is attacked by someone sneakily and he is now marked as engaged. But he does not know who the other party is and he is also unsure what to do now to protect himself.
After all, the other party did leave a small nick on his foot without even letting him know. So, he is not confident in defending himself.
They didn"t really care much the day before.
He is not exactly the prime candidate for winning and he was already a.s.signed a task to be the supporter of the actual seeded candidate. So, they didn"t care much and just kept an eye on him.
But now, as soon as Sam"s situation was told, they realized that this guy might be the one Sam is engaged with at the moment.
So, they decided to test it instantly.
That kid was sent to Paradise inn and he was told to attack Sam. Of course, he was sent along with some support.
Because of that, Sam who was lazily napping on his bed was woken up by the noise of his traps tripping all over the place. When he opened his eyes, he saw a bunch of Xia region members all being covered with translucent barriers as they tripped over his traps.
At the same time, he saw the guy who he was engaged with.
" *TSK* *TSK*. You guys are way too smart for your own good"
Sam clicked his tongue loudly and prepared hurriedly.
He took out his hand gun and aimed it at that guy. Since the others already suspected that they are linked, there is no point in that guy still being in the contest.
Sam just needs to finish him off just to reduce the variables.
However the other party already came prepared. Sam"s reaction gave them what they came for and that guy immediately activated a transference scroll that took him out of Sam"s shooting
range.
Sam looked at the rest of the people who are eyeing him like he is some kind of juicy prey.
He knew things are not going to go well for him.
He got on the harbinger and tried to barge through the wall.
*BAM*
The wall broke, but a barrier came up on the other side. It was not a barrier made from formation or something. If it is, according to the rules, others cannot entrap Sam at the moment and he would have slipped right through.
It was a person who was hovering right outside of that wall.
And that person seemed to have no idea about why he was hovering there. That means, Sam is
the one that attacked the person without knowing and triggered a barrier, sending Sam back.
Sam took a deep breath and looked around in his room.
This is the third time...
This is the third time the paradise inn is about to be destroyed.
Sam already destroyed two floors. Only two more floors are left with habitable conditions and
he is sure, this one will also be gone at this rate.
Sam used his blink to appear out of the room, far away from the building. However, he is already too late. He underestimated the decisiveness and preparedness of these people. They already covered the bases properly.
Because as soon as Sam appeared out of the paradise inn, he noticed that the token he wore
turned yellow once again.
His opponent, he must have quit. Or even the supervising elder in charge of that academy
might have announced the withdrawal from the compet.i.tion.
Sam was left out in the open with no protection that he had before.
*BAM*
The next moment, a flying spear came at him, which he blocked with the help of harbinger.
His token turned green again as the opponent came at him. Up in the air, the opponent leaped at Sam and tried to move down with increased speed.
Sam tried to get out of that grip, but be he couldn"t. The other party is adamant on getting him down. Then only Sam noticed that he was being dragged into a building in the area.
*BAM* *CRASH*
The other party is a late stage second grader and seemed to be purely physical type. The surprise element made it a great success, whatever he is planning anyway.
Next moment, the opponent slapped a small metallic token on Sam"s chest. It is covered in
runes and Sam felt like a dense force penetrate every fiber of his being. At the same time, the opponent activated another formation that seemed to have been pre-arranged.
The gravity of the surroundings increased by ten times at least.
Sam felt like he was being crushed by a mountain of lead.