Sam made his way to the estate and when he entered the mansion, he saw the gloomy atmosphere in the hall.

Mackey, Jack, Philip and Kelly sat there in silence.

All four of them are beat up and injured. Watt stood behind Sam as he crossed his arms.

Sam walked towards Mackey and asked.

"Are your people injured?"

"Some of them, they are in that room taking rest."

Mackey pointed to a room as he said this, Sam walked towards the room and checked up on the injuries.

After confirming that they are fine, he took out some pills and potions which are part of the Black water loot and gave them so that they can recover faster.

Then he entered the hall, when Philip was about to speak, Sam halted him and said to Mackey.

"Can you leave for a moment? I will talk to you later."

Mackey nodded and left the room. As soon as he entered the room upstairs, he heard a loud bang.

In the hall, Sam kicked Philip as soon as Mackey went into his room.

"Sam, what's wrong?"

Jack yelled and ran towards Sam who is walking towards Philip to block him. But at this moment, Watt interfered and stopped Jack.

Sam looked at Philip who crashed into the wall with cold gaze.

As Philip stood up, he made his move again and sent him flying again.

Sam didn't hold back at all, he attacked as if he saw his sworn enemy. After some beating…

*CRASH*

Philip made a hole through the wall and was thrown into the backyard which was formed by clearing a large area of impact crystals.

He slowly stood up as he coughed some blood. His whole body started hurting.

"Sam, what is wrong with you, why are attacking Philip?" Jack yelled again, he knew that going through Watt is a difficult task and even if he did go, he was pretty sure he cannot stop Sam, but he still cannot stop himself from asking Sam why he is doing this.

Kelly is also quite frightened and she didn't even dare to breath harder. For some reason, she could feel that Sam is really angry and if he got annoyed by their words again, he might even make a move on them, which they absolutely cannot resist.

"Sam, let's just talk this out." Philip said weakly as he was finally able to stand up, at this moment a golden fire ball came flying towards him, blowing him away.

Sam didn't stop, he kept on hitting Philip as later kept on bouncing around the back yard.

Slowly, Philip started to lose the will to even get up. But this only made Sam even more annoyed. He took out the 'Reaper'.

His aura started exploding as he moved towards Philip in rage. He is completely disappointed in Philip. This guy is completely being a coward. What is making him so afraid? He is so afraid that he didn't even want to show his dual elements.

Sam felt that Philip would show is true colours eventually, but now he lost patience.

After all, the competitions are getting more and more troublesome and more effort is required too. Even if the tastes are easy, they need a lot of time and effort to complete.

He cannot be there for the rest of the team and keep on carrying them.

Hawk, Kelly, Drew. They have limited abilities and they cannot survive through the next phase of the competition of the Dukedom and there is a high chance that they would get eliminated.

Jack is barely passable. His only forte is battle and he gives his hundred percent.

But Philip, this guy is witty, calm, intelligent but he is not willing to show his true talent and keep on acting like a coward.

And how did Sam conclude without knowing the situation?

Because from what he could see, if the enemies or the people from who Philip is hiding are really bent on finding him and never stopped the searches, there is a high chance that he would have been captured by now.

They are already in dukedom and the enemies, if they have enough background and experience would be able to identify Philip if they are clearly bent on finding him, because they wouldn't be stupid enough to wait until Philip released his powers.

Even if Philip can think of hiding his elements to hide himself, they would be able to think so too and if they are really determined enough given the attention that this competition brought to Philip no matter how low-profile he is, he is going to be found out.

And Sam came to the conclusion that the enemies are powerful with strong background based on the fact that Philip recognised the rank 2 silver meteorite sand. No ordinary people can get their hands on them and he can say that even the emperor has a very limited amount if he had any.

But Philip identified it with a glance, that shows that he is far more knowledgeable and that knowledge cannot be gained easily unless those people have access to enough meteorite sand to let a youngster know about it and train him to identify it.

From what Sam understood, Philip is being paranoid and dragging himself down.

Many people may think that Philip is waiting for the right time to unleash his power, but that is just a load of bullshit a person who kept on avoiding a problem, will get the habit of avoiding it even after facing it.

He doesn't want Philip to be a coward.

Sam reached Philip slowly and looked at him with cold gaze full of fury.

He swung the reaper which made a superficial gash on Philip's hand which made him cry in agony.

He squatted down and whispered.

"You might think, I would leave you after some beating, but this is the last chance Philip, if you still try to hide then there would be no need to hide in the future. It would be better of ceasing to exist than to live like this.

I thought of you as a friend, the first of my friends in this world. I waited patiently for you to open up, but there is a limit to my patience and you are way beyond that. Today, you will either lose that fear or I will lose a friend forever.

You decide. What does it take for you to open up and stop being a coward? Your team being hindered is not enough, your teammates getting beaten up is not enough. Does the risk of losing a friend is not enough too?"

Sam stood up and took a step back.

He looked at Philip who is completely injured with torn clothes. His eyes were closed as his face shown a conflicted expression.

Sam lost the intent to even hit him. He stored his sword away and coldly spat with disdain.

"Coward."

Then he turned around and started to walk away.

Just as he was about to enter the mansion, he swiftly turned around and dodged a fire ball. This fire ball is dark red almost close to blood coloured.

He turned around along with the rest as they watched Philip who is a mess standing with two hands glowing with blood coloured flames at the tip.

Sam smirked and moved, soon there is a blood red flash and a golden flash clashing in the air with loud bangs.

After two minutes Sam halted as he looked at the feather coat, there is some molten metal residue on it. He looked at Philip and made his move again. Just as two of them were about to clash, Philip fainted on the spot.

After all, the beating he took before in the hands of Sam is not for nothing. He was serious on teaching a lesson.

Sam carried him and carefully brought him inside the mansion. He started healing him and after making sure that the injuries are healed, he left him to sleep and came outside.

He looked at Jack and said.

"It must have been hard on you for you to deal with the attacks alone, but from tomorrow you don't need to carry the burden all alone, he would help you and trust me from what I have seen now, the people who are attacking you guys should be the ones worrying." Sam said as he looked at the small piece of metal that stuck to his coat.

Philip's attacks are way different and unique in his own way. He used the metal element and fire element together to create molten metal at the point of impact when he punched and kicked. If not for the meteorite sand being tough and Sam's spiritual energy is highly pure and concentrated, Philip could have dealt some decent damage.

Anyway, Sam is satisfied that his goal has been reached. From what he knew of Philip, that guy would have just brushed off the topic if Sam has made him sit down and talk and Sam didn't have that much patience and glib tongue to handle a guy as sharp as Philip.

So, he just gave a beating to make his words go through that thick skull of his. In this way things resolved much easier. Those last exchange of attacks are a form of pact.

Philip would slowly open up and wouldn't run away and Sam who is responsible for this will help him if any problem arises.

Sam is okay with it. He agreed to challenge an organisation as big as Black water for the sake of some metal, for a friend he is okay to help him challenge the world if necessary.

If not, what are the friends for…

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