First twist is that a person can move on to the next layer's ring as soon as he defeats his opponent.
They can just wait their until their opponent comes from their previous battles. This will let the first person rest after their fight and has more time to recover and since they defeated their opponent much faster, they might even be stronger.
So, a stronger person who has more recovery time, is going to be a big problem for an opponent that came late.
Another twist in the environmental set up.
In every ring on the fourth layer, before the fight starts, the two contestants of the ring would participate in a coin toss.
It is done by an elder and would be impossible for both contestants to interfere. The person who wins the toss would get to pick the environment of the ring from the available options.
So based on their choice, a formation will be activated that would create an energy environment.
Most of the time the contestants who won the toss will pick a formation that would benefit their elemental affinity. An ice user picking a tundra formation that would freeze the whole ring or a fire user picking a formation that would make the whole ring turn into the stomach of a volcano.
And the toss is only applicable for the fourth layer.
From the third layer onwards, whoever comes to the ring first after finishing their previous combat will get to choose.
So, the first person that gets into the ring will get more rest and a suitable environment.
Not only this is a contest of strength, this is also a contest of speed.
Whoever is stronger is going to come out on top and if they play their cards right, they can ride all the way to the championship.
The top ten of these sixteen will be awarded and their rankings are decided with a few more battles in between themselves. The first and second are of course going to be the finalists on the first layer of the arena.
Sam looked at the whole process and couldn't help but smile.
This is indeed a lot more entertaining than just a casual tournament method.
This will definitely add more fun to the game.
He walked to one of the eight rings on the fourth layer, where the elder who is supposed to the referee is waiting. The other contestant also walked to that ring just in time.
The elder was about to flip a coin, but Sam stopped him.
"I forfeit the toss. You can give the chance to pick the environment to him."
Elder wanted to say something, but he stopped last minute and turned to the other contestant.
"Choose wisely. It is a rare opportunity."
He looked at Sam meaningfully as he said that. Then only Sam noticed that the opponent also belongs to the apollo academy.
The Elder didn't try to persuade Sam about the toss as he wanted to give the chance to their own student.
Sam chuckled at this.
The opponent picked the environment and Sam was surprised.
"You really want to do that? I am pretty sure you have fire affinity, why would you do this to yourself? If the elder allows, I can let you choose another one."
Sam said in a casual tone.
As if he is indeed giving out a friendly advice t the opponent. His tone is very weird to the point it felt like the advice he is giving out is not that valuable to him, he couldn't care less about that knowledge, rather he is giving it out just because he can and it might be valuable for the recipient.
The opponent didn't react.
He just jumped on the ring and motioned Sam to come on as well.
Sam climbed through the stairs, leisurely.
The formation was activated.
The opponent grinned wildly at Sam as death energy covered the whole ring. The dark energy came out of the ring like smoke and it went after both Sam and his opponent. Sam let the energy invade him and wanted to see what it would do.
It is absorbing his vitality, just like regular death energy and it causing some corrosion to his healthy body tissue, just like normal death energy.
The only noticeable thing is, it is not taking vitality from everywhere. It is focused on the blood and it is using the circulatory system to the reach his heart.
Sam let the energy spread and he noticed that there are a bunch of black lines appearing on his body. Then he looked at his opponent. His body also has a bunch of black lines, but the next second he took out a bracelet and wore it on his wrist.
Sam could sense what it is from over there.
It is light energy and it has some sort of holy aura to it.
It is devouring the death energy within his body and in the immediate surroundings. Even the opponent looked like he is fresh off his sleep. Full of energy.
Sam looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
The opponent's grin on the other hand kept on getting wider and wider as he channeled his divine energy. He is using all of his energy for this one Divine energy attack and even merge it with the rest of his spiritual energy.
It seems like this guy just wants to do a single and simple attack and get it over with.
"If you die in the tournament, there is nothing your academy can do about it. Do you know that?"
The opponent asked as Sam just stood there letting the energy spread inside him.
"All the ruckus you caused, I am going to kill you here inside this ring. It must be my lucky day since I got a chance to kill you.
I am not going to lose this perfect opportunity even at the cost of losing the tournament."
"Oh, the tournament is the least of your worries. You might want to focus on your attack right now at this moment after all, this might be your last one."
Sam replied in a calm tone.
"Talk all you want."
The opponent activated fire elemental fusion, but the fusion form is a bit different. It is very similar to Sam's fusion when he is using the bloodline attacks.
In that state, the energy will be focused on a few specific spots or rather organs giving it a special ability. This one looked the same.
But this guy had a bunch of organs acting up. His lungs, arms, legs and heart connect all of them are burning up with this highly condensed and purified fire elemental Divine energy.
Sam looked at him and felt a little impressed, this guy is not as weak.
Maybe that is to be expected since he landed in top ten. But that is about it. That's the most reaction Sam is going to giving him.
The other guy then charged his attack's final form. All the Divine energy of fire element is being charged at his mouth and he roared.
*ROAR*
Fire shot out of his mouth like a gigantic flame thrower. White hot flames spewed out and charged at Sam and as the opponent's heart kept on beating, with every thump a wave of exploding flames are coming along with this continuous flame.
But that is not all.
From hands and legs of that guy a bunch of elemental creatures are being created. Birds from hands and wolves from legs.
They are all charging at Sam from different directions and they exploded as soon as they reached him.
Sam took the hit and skid backwards. Then he was completely enveloped with the white flames.
Everyone in the spectators looked at the scene baffled.
They honestly didn't expect such a turn of events.
Sam has been the star way before the entrance exams began. He messed with the Zeus academy as he pleased. He won a trial over their students after slapping the shit out of one of them. He messed up the entrance exams of every Olympian academy.
He made the student seats look like sour candy that he could throw away any time he wants.
Then the tower ascension, the worst of them all.
He has been anything but respectful towards them and many people wanted to kill him, but a lot more people were excited to see what he would do next and they never expected this would be the outcome.
But only the Gambler academy's students and Pearl's group are looking at Sam's opponent as if they are looking at an idiot.
Only these people know what exactly Sam is capable of. Even if their estimation on limits of his capabilities is wrong, they know for sure, this is not it.
After all, seeing how leisurely he is, they believed that he wouldn't succumb to this.
Three minutes passed and finally the flames died down.
The opponent returned back to his original form, but he is still protected from the death energy because of his bracelet.
He looked at Sam's spot, hoping to find nothing. Even the bones should be gone.
But all he saw is Sam just releasing a faint golden glow as he returned back to his original state with his hand extended forward.
The death energy black lines are gone and he stood there unfazed.
Sam looked at the opponent and smiled.
"Not too bad. But too bad its not enough."
The next moment, all the death energy in the ring riled up. It started concentrating right in front of Sam as another small sphere of death energy gathered at the tip of his own hand.
Resonance. It has been a while since Sam used it and this is the perfect time to put on a show with it.
As the small sphere turned into a semi humanoid figure that looked like a ghost, the large sphere of death energy did the same and up on Sam's command, the large ghost purely conjured of death energy leaped at the opponent and forcefully entered his body.
At first a barrier appeared around him from the glowing bracelet. But the death energy kept on flowing as if it didn't end at all.
Soon the inscription on the bracelet broke completely before the energy entered that guy's mouth and then into his whole body.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...….."
A soul searing scream reverberated throughout the arena and the spectators as Sam stood there still with just hand extended and right in front of everyone's eyes, his opponent's body withered. From a youth to an old man and then into a rotten corpse with rotten bones and finally into bone dust that was swept up by the breeze.
The whole place turned still.
Even people on other rings stopped fighting and looked at Sam.
They were shocked, not just because of how powerful the attack is, but because Sam actually used the energy of the formation to do this attack. Not the energy of his own, but the energy provided by the formation.
If one takes out the energy he used to defend the attack. Sam basically killed the prodigy of the Apollo academy in the open tournament of the apollo academy in the arena of the apollo academy with the energy directly from the formation of the apollo academy.
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