Final bet
Atlas heard how the system spoke directly to his head, but right now it was the last thing he could care about. He felt like he was in the middle of a trance looking at the hexagonal barrier that had appeared in front of him.
The other pillars fell around him, but without touching him.
[2:10]
The pillars continued to spawn above him, but the barrier was able to fully support them, so the timer ticked to two minutes.
[2:00]
It was the first time that Atlas went this far facing the apostle. However, he had no margin for error, and from now on he would have to face the unknown.
But for some reason, perhaps because of the new magic he had used, Atlas felt that he was capable of not only resisting the fight against the apostle, but also defeating him.
When he blocked the pillar of light, Atlas had realized that the apostle was much more weakened than he believed. The problem is that Atlas's body was still so weak that any magical attack was deadly.
But while Atlas was weak physically, he was not so weak magically.
[1:56]
The apostle had lowered his sword and the pillars of light had stopped generating. Now, Atlas was watching for any movement.
All of his concentration was divided into reacting to the apostle and using his new magic. But then, everything around him trembled.
Atlas lost concentration slightly, as he felt the church shake, which soon became a slight but perceptible movement.
"What's going on?"
It was not a simple tremor, as Atlas could feel it slightly. The church was moving.
Quickly, and ignoring the tremor, Atlas looked at the apostle, only to find that he was still, with his head looking towards the sky and his mouth wide open, as if something was trying to come out from inside him.
The large fist at his side trembled slightly and dozens of cracks appeared on its onyx-colored skin.
Atlas didn't know if this was part of the new pattern of attacks, but before he wanted to think about it, his body was already moving towards the apostle.
[1:49]
Atlas passed the 7 meters mark, causing the large fist to react to his dare to approach, but Atlas simply raised his hand and summoned [Night Griffon Staff] from his ring.
Immediately a bullet of wind began to form in front of Atlas without him stopping, then at the same time he activated [Eye of the Mad Bird], revealing all the weak points of the great fist.
The cracks in his skin were not for show, since Atlas saw orange flashes appear over those same cracks, where one orange spot stood out more than the others.
The fist came dangerously close to Atlas, and no doubt a direct hit, no matter how fragmented the fist was, would still be dangerous. Therefore, Atlas did not hesitate when he felt that the wind bullet was fully charged and fired.
With precision, the bullet passed through one of the most pronounced cracks in the fist, causing it to stop momentarily. It wasn't enough to destroy it, but that wasn't Atlas's goal.
Atlas passed the fist taking advantage of the fact that it had stopped, then his gaze fell on the apostle who was around 4 meters in front of him.
[1:45]
The apostle was still looking at the sky with his eyes and mouth completely open, but the moment Atlas approached within 3 meters of him, he lowered his head and immediately raised his rusty sword pointing it towards Atlas.
The apostle for the first time had not adopted an offensive position, but a defensive one.
Atlas hesitated for a single moment. Going head-to-head against an enemy was not something he was used to; it was even the first time he had such a direct confrontation.
He knew that the apostle was immune to his magic, so he had no other option than physical confrontation.
He wasn't entirely sure how to attack him, but at the same time he had a slight idea. Atlas remembered when he trained alongside Claire as they headed to the dead forest.
At that time Atlas had never held a sword before, so all he knew how to do was swing mindlessly. But by the end of his brief training, he was aware of the possible ways to use a sword.
His staff wasn't exactly a sword, but he didn't need it, what he really needed was to disarm the apostle.
[1:42]
When they were 2 meters apart, enough distance to confront each other, Atlas raised his staff and swung it horizontally with all the strength he could put into his only functional arm.
The apostle turned his arms slightly, easily blocking Atlas's attack, but feeling that the staff had no weight behind the attack, the apostle felt confused.
Atlas had dropped the staff after that attack, he knew that he was not going to beat the apostle in a duel, so he decided to win in his own way.
Atlas had launched himself towards the opposite side of the attack, separating his feet from the garden grass.
From the beginning, Atlas had doubted whether the apostle was really blind. It was easy to verify, since his eyes never followed him and even if he stood in front of him, his gaze was completely empty.
That meant that the apostle detected it in some other way. The first one he came up with was through mana, but after a couple of days he discarded that too.
Atlas tried several times to use mana in front of the apostle, always entering outside the garden, but he never paid attention to him, as if his world was limited to the 10 meters radius of the garden.
Which gave him the final clue he needed.
Atlas wasn't completely sure about his bet, and if he went wrong then surely the apostle could kill him with his own sword instead of from a distance with magic.
The apostle always felt it when he entered the garden, but it took him a couple of moments to feel him completely.
Those moments were due to the fact that, although Atlas had entered the garden, he had not stepped on the ground.
That was precisely his bet. The apostle could only feel Atlas when he stepped on the ground of the garden.
Atlas took advantage of that moment he had gained by launching himself, then created a blast of wind in front of him, making it as powerful as possible and hitting the apostle's elbows from below.
His arms rose without enough strength to resist, and at the same time, he let go of his sword.