Tower of Heaven

Whoosh! Bang! Boom!

The sounds of endless collision rang out from that moment on. Whether it was Atlas and Artemia or the remaining geniuses, they all fought with their lives on the line.

But in the end, it was still a battle of the few versus the many. It was bound to be difficult for some to keep up.

"Ahhhh!"

A piercing cry rang through the space. A young man swung his sword wildly at the beasts in front of him as he tried to find his hearing again.

But seeing as he was covered in his own blood, it didn't seem like he would last much longer.

"Die! Die! Die!" He chanted as he moved. He slashed out ferociously, coating his weapon in qi and aiming for any beast nearby.

Unfortunately, this method didn't help him for long. These beasts weren't weak, after all, and stood on the same level of strength as him. If he didn't take his time to conserve energy and fight intelligently…

Kacha!

A feline beast emerged behind him like a ghost and opened its maw wide, biting into his body and ripping it in half horizontally.

The genius didn't even get a chance to scream before the light faded from his eyes.

"Tch. The first," Atlas muttered as his fist pummeled through another beast.

There were only twenty-odd geniuses present in the third trial, and against a horde so massive, even the loss of one would affect them greatly.

Not only in terms of fighting power, but also in morale. A situation like this required fighters with the willingness to continue regardless of the circumstance. Negative impacts on their psyche were extremely detrimental.

'Must I step up? It is best to wait first. If their morale truly drops enough to affect the battle, I must do something to fix it.'

Even if he was individualistic and a bit haughty, Atlas was well aware that he couldn't take this trial by himself. If he was required to act as a leading figure, he would take that role for survival.

Voom!

Atlas ducked down and avoided a sweeping claw strike from a nearby beast. His fist became coated in flames as he sent a furious punch into the ground!

Bang!

A wave of fire spread through the surrounding few meters. Though these flames weren't powerful enough to kill, they did perfectly in hindering the beasts' movements.

"Aria, now!" Atlas shouted.

"You don't have to tell me!" Artemia yelled back as she jumped into the air. Her leg lifted above her head and as she came crashing down, a ferocious axe kick compiled her momentum and struck the ground.

Boom!

Another wave of power spread through the surroundings. While the two could've individually killed the beasts one at a time, this method was far too impractical.

Instead, they combined their power to weaken the beasts as a group and kill them off together. This way, they could both elicit better results and conserve their qi at the same time.

Artemia's kick pushed back the beasts in the vicinity and toppled their balance. With the wounds previously wrought on them by Atlas' flames, they were perfectly primed for killing.

The duo moved immediately. Fists shot out in powerful flurries, utilizing physical strength with a bit of qi to target the beasts' vital points and kill them off quickly.

With all the planning that went into their movements, there wasn't a shred of doubt about their success. The beasts fell one after another, a group of 10 Qi Seed and Core Formation Realm beasts dying at once.

Covered in the blood of their does, the duo moved on to the next. As long as they continued this way and the others held their weight…

Defeating harrowing beast tide had the potential to become possible.

***

100 or so meters away from Atlas and Artemia, Lin Yan and Mephis Graveheart stood side by side as well, killing beasts in a frenzy.

But compared to the previous scene, this one was far more disorganized.

Boom! Bang!

A sword and a spear were slashed and thrust, throwing two beasts far into the crowd while spurting blood from their bodies.

"4!"

"5!"

The two shouted simultaneously as they moved on. Even while fighting side by side, they did everything they could to hinder the other as they fought. It wasn't strange to see a stray spear attack headed straight for Lin Yan's face, or a wild sword doing the same to Mephis.

"You two! Even if you're going to compete, stop getting in each other's way if you want to live! We're fighting in an impossible situation here. It's not the time to exercise personal grudge!" A woman yelled furiously.

Her whip flashed around, controlling the movements of the surrounding beasts and keeping them away from her. As she lashed it, other geniuses behind her ran into battle and killed the wounded beasts while they were down.

This woman's name was Gloria Hernstead, and despite the combat power she showcased, she was actually a member of Den of Mysteries.

Den of Mysteries was more of a research organization than a society. Their ranks were made up of scientists and researchers, people who put studying the world over controlling its laws. Still, that didn't mean they lacked in combat power.

They just had different means of fighting.

The gloves on Gloria's hands shone with a blue light of spiritual energy as she continued attacking and controlling the crowd. These were a personal invention of her master, a pair of gloves that drastically reduced the amount of qi she needed to showcase the same amount of power.

It was due to these that she could last so well against a dozen beasts without help. And seeing her performance, the other lesser geniuses naturally gravitated towards her and worked as a team with her.

Though, that was only on the surface.

Despite their apparent help, Gloria was pissed. While she was doing all the heavy lifting, others decided to come in and steal her kills?

She allowed it for now because the situation at hand didn't allow her much freedom to move, but her eyes were cold. She wouldn't allow their offenses to go unpunished.

"Shit! Save me!" A woman suddenly screamed.

Her sword was stuck inside a reptilian beast, its scales latching it in place and forcing her to let it go.

The beast whipped its tail at her stomach, throwing her into the air. Its head snapped up in the next second and its jaws chomped down on her head, exploding it into a mess of blood and brain fluid.

"Sylvia, no!" A man shouted painfully. His eyes turned red with fury as he charged at the reptilian beast. He jumped into the air, stomping his foot onto the sword stuck in the beast's back and using his momentum to force it deeper into the beast's body.

Roar!

The beast let out a roar of pain and lashed its tail once more, but the man was already gone. He jumped down onto the beast's head and rapidly stabbed into its eyes with his daggers.

"You! Bastard! How! Dare! You!" He roared. He couldn't believe his young and innocent junior sister had died just like that.

He couldn't cope with the change in the scenario!

"Get it together or you'll die too!" Gloria shouted. She wanted to make sure as many people lived as possible so she could more easily get through the situation, but those geniuses with blood boiling in their systems didn't listen to her command at all.

The man continued to stab the reptilian beast even after it died, so absorbed in his revenge that he didn't even notice the crowd around him getting closer, attracted by the bloody scent he carried.

If things continued this way, it wouldn't be long until he died too. And not just him, but a majority of these geniuses as well.

Their prospects of survival…weren't high at all.