Tower of Heaven

"You must be a fool to come here alone." The sole woman of the four said with disdain.

In fact, it wasn't just her. All four of them were looking at him like he was an idiot, under the assumption that their combined prowess would be more than enough to subdue him.

However, Atlas didn't waste time with needless talks, opting to immediately charge toward the woman who had just spoken.

Of the group, the woman and another man were swordsmen, one was a spearman, and the last used a crossbow. Seeing this, Atlas was aware that he'd be fighting on two fronts.

He reached the woman swiftly, slicing down vertically with his sickle, but he had misjudged the distance between them. He still hadn't adapted to the difference in size between a sword and his new weapons.

This mistake allowed the woman to easily parry his strike, but he swung his second sickle in a parallel motion to prevent her from counterattacking.

Feeling danger from behind him, Atlas twisted his body to dodge. In the next second, a large arrow whizzed past him, barely grazing his face.

Before he could regain his bearings, a second sword came swinging towards him from his left while the woman in front of him also regained her momentum.

Feeling boxed in, Atlas tried to gain himself some time to think.

[Intrinsic Foresight]

The world became grey as time slowed. The swords that were swinging fast enough to cause him panic were now inching forward at a snail's pace.

Atlas raised his arms, moving only slightly faster than them, and positioned himself in a way where he could block both of their strikes.

With him being able to see through their techniques so easily in this mode, the positioning itself was easy. The only problem was doing it fast enough to counter them.

Atlas deactivated the ability, causing the grey world to crumble and both swords to crash down on him, but it didn't go as it should have.

The curved blade of his sickle hooked the man's blade, redirecting its force towards the ground. Meanwhile, Atlas whipped the chain of his left blade, causing it to wrap around the woman's sword.

Pulling hard on the chain, he forced the woman to stumble toward her teammate.

At this moment, the spearman finally made his move, he pierced through the opening between Atlas and the two swordsmen, attempting to use his reach to his advantage when suddenly, burning flames burst forth from the chain sickles.

The heat of the flames was immense enough to momentarily stun all three fighters, and as Atlas continued his attack, they accumulated burns all over their bodies.

Taking advantage of their distracted state, Atlas ducked down and cut at the heels of both swordsmen, slicing their tendons and stopping their movements.

The duo quickly felt something wrong, unable to move their feet at all. The only thing they could do was helplessly slump to the floor.

From that point forth, the battle ended much quicker. With the two main attackers immobilized, the other two weren't able to make much progress.

The spearman was honestly a disappointment. Contrary to his cultivation, which matched the rest of the ascenders present, his spearmanship was largely lacking.

The man had barely understood the basics of the art, not even being able to take advantage of his weapon choice.

His 2-meter-long spear had many advantages over the 1-foot-long blades of Atlas's sickles. If the spearman was even slightly skilled, he'd have capitalized on this range difference to put Atlas in a difficult position.

But he couldn't, and his clumsiness didn't only lead to his downfall. With Atlas moving swiftly and the spearman clumsily following, the crossbow wielder had a hard time finding a good shot.

And when he finally decided to shoot, he was sorely mistaken. He accidentally pierced the spearman's shoulder, which led to his immediate disqualification.

After all, it was explicitly stated in the success conditions that they weren't allowed to harm their own teammates.

With 3 of them down, Atlas didn't have any trouble with the spearman, quickly knocking him unconscious.

Atlas stretched lightly while taking a moment to catch his breath as he gazed upon the altar in the center of the room. On top of it, there was a glowing black crystal similar to the one in their own temple.

Walking towards it, Atlas quickly picked it up before dashing out of the temple, wanting to end this trial.

[Team B's crystal has been captured.]

***

Meanwhile, the battle in the middle of the desert was becoming much more intense.

The ranged attackers on both sides had already been eliminated while Leon and Helia were still entangled with their previous opponents.

'Shit!' Leon thought as another punch landed on his chest, causing small cracks to form in his ribs.

They were supposed to have an absolute advantage, especially since they had someone waiting to support them whenever it was necessary.

But as time passed, he realized that guy wasn't going to show up. The time when support would have been most needed had long come and gone.

Helia was the same. She heavily struck her axe into the ground, causing it to crack as a shockwave spread, pushing her two opponents away and giving her a moment of relief. And just as she was about to curse that guy as well, a notification appeared before every Ascender left in the trial.

[Team B's crystal has been captured.]

A stifling silence enveloped the battlefield as everyone attempted to take in the information before the blue-haired man's voice boomed.

"Dammit! We need to catch that rat, now!"

His thunderous yell snapped everyone out of their reverie, causing his teammates to rush towards their own temple.

Out of its East entrance, a shadowy figure dashed leaving small trails of fire in his wake. Atlas was using an old technique called [Burst Steps] which specialized in quick linear motion.

As he ran, he found his path obstructed by the 3 remaining members of the other team. Knowing that his qi reserves weren't full enough for another battle, he quickly formulated a plan.

Finding the general location of his teammates, Atlas made some adjustments before throwing his right sickle in their direction, while his left sickle charged toward the blue-haired man.

The left sickle arrived in front of the man in an instant, however, it was immediately blocked by his thick gauntlets. Nevertheless, Atlas wasn't done. He whipped his wrist and made the chain snap fiercely, sending the sickle attacking him once more.

Meanwhile, Helia and Leon were immensely confused seeing a sickle rushing towards them, but halted in their tracks when they noticed a certain glint from its chain.

When the sickle arrived in front of them, Atlas yanked the chain back, causing it to return to him while the conflicting momentum dropped the crystal in front of his teammates.

Leon wasted no time, grabbing the crystal and making a break straight back to their temple.

It all happened in only a few seconds, and by the time the blue-haired man had blocked the second strike, Leon was already halfway to the temple.

In fact, he didn't even notice anything wrong until another notification graced the eyes of all those present.

[Team A has secured the opposing crystal. Trial of Synergy has been completed.]