Ascension: Online

One way or another, I managed to make it through the Trial of the Sprinter. Interestingly enough, whoever was controlling this place seemed to be targeting me specifically. The crates didn't seem to drop for any of the other three, after all.

Because of that, I had a good idea who was behind all this. She had been my initial guess already, but this served to confirm my suspicions.

As an aside, when I dashed into the safe zone using Vanishing Clouds, I ended up crashing into Furuwa, who happened to be standing in the front. Payback for how she crashed into me last time, I guess. She probably hates me even more now, with all the glares she was sending me, but there was nothing I could do about that. Hell, I didn't even know why she hated me so much in the first place.

The room we found ourselves in was not much different from the previous one between the Trial of the Sprinter and the corridor of sawblades. It was small and only had one way out, but we didn't continue immediately. All of us needed a short break after that death run.

"Damn, Igarashi, that was close," Ichigo said, patting me on the back as I sat down on the ground after walking around for a couple of minutes as per Hina-nee's instructions.

"Yeah... " I muttered in response, then took a couple of deep breaths to help calm my heartbeat down further.

"You crashing into Furuwa was pretty amusing though, haha! The way she blushed in surprise was funny as hell."

Furuwa immediately sent a kick towards Ichigo... straight towards his lifeline.

"Oof!" he fell backward, clutching at his crotch in pain. "O-Oi, Furuwa! If you want it that bad, just ask! No need to kick it!"

Furuwa gritted her teeth and clenched his fists even tighter. She looked like she was about to implode from anger.

Ichigo, seeing this, quickly ran away to the other side of the room. "S-Sorry! It was a joke! A joke!"

Jim, who was watching all this with a smile on his face, chuckled. "Aha... young 'uns. I miss when I was yer age, jokin' 'round n' talkin' about love."

"Love, my ass!" Furuwa shouted, before punching the wall to let off some anger. "God, you three are so damn annoying! Especially you, Igarashi-kun!"

"W-Wha?" I looked at her in surprise at being called out. I haven't even said anything... oh well, it was probably due to me crashing into her just now. But she did the same to me earlier - she shouldn't exactly be talking.

"Alright, is everyone ready?" Ichigo asked, finally coming closer to us again after Furuwa's rage had declined somewhat.

"I should be fine now," I said, standing back up.

"I'm ready anytime," Furuwa replied with a shrug. She didn't seem to be angry anymore, though if I tried talking to her, no doubt I would receive a punch or a kick in response, possibly both.

"Yep. I'm all bloody ready too," Jim added. "But before that... yer name, Igarashi, was it?"

I nodded. "What's up?"

"That skill ya used earlier... what was it? It seemed pretty bloody strong."

"It's called 'Vanishing Clouds'," I answered honestly. "Assassin skill path."

"Ooh, I might actually go for Assassin now," Ichigo muttered. "But I already chose Tank as my main skill path, damn it..."

I shrugged. "You can still get it. It'll just cost more AP."

"There's no point to doing that," Furuwa said. "Sure, technically, you could still obtain that skill, but if you're going to be a Tank, what's the point of that? It doesn't suit your role at all."

"Grr... yeah, that's true," Ichigo sighed in defeat. "Still, you looked so cool back there, Igarashi. I'm kinda jealous, that's all."

Jim sighed as well and shook his head. "Ah.. what a shame. I've already picked a main skill path as well - Knight."

"Looks like we're both Knights then," Furuwa chuckled. "Who's the stronger one, I wonder?"

Jim laughed. "Heh. Let's just get the hell out of this bloody place first. Then we can hold a duel."

"Sure. Sounds like it'll be fun - even though the victor is already decided," Furuwa smirked deviously, swinging her sword at around dangerously.

"Ayo? I'm joining too," Ichigo said, crossing his arms. "A true man will never turn a fight down. Ain't that right, Igarashi?"

He looked over at me as if telling me to join this fight as well. However...

I shrugged. "Well, guess not I'm not a true man."

I had no intention of participating. It was just a waste of time - I wouldn't get anything out of it. But then, as if reading my mind...

"What if I told you the winner would get half the reward money of the other three, Igarashi-kun?" Furuwa smiled like a devil. "We will all receive 75,000 gold when we get back to the city. The winner of this mini-tournament will get 37,500 gold from each of the other three, for a total of 187,500 gold. That's nearly 200,000... Igarashi-kun."

She looked into my eyes, and I met her gaze. The other two also glanced at me, and eventually, the pressure became too much for me to bear.

I gave in.

"Fine. But getting out of here comes first."

"Agreed. Let's go," Ichigo said, taking the lead and heading down the ramp. This one was steeper than the last one. It seemed that we were slowly descending, heading deeper down into the ground.

Once we all descended the ramp, however, we were met with what could only be described as a 'painful' sight.

Laid out in front of us was a deep chasm, filled with corrosive green liquid down below that was sure to kill us if we fell into it. This was one of those things where you knew immediately it was dangerous just from one glance.

The other end was about twenty meters away. This wasn't a great distance under normal circumstances, but the situation we were currently in was anything but normal. To us, this short distance would feel like kilometers.

The reason for that was the moving platforms in front of us. More specifically, they were narrow metal pillars rising out of the that shifted from left to right at great speeds. They were pretty far from one another, but all four of us should be able to make it from one platform to another if we timed it perfectly and jumped with all we had. However, by the looks of it, each pillar could only fit one person standing on it at a time, so we had to wait for one person to get across before another could start.

"Well then, what's the plan 'ere?" Jim asked, scratching the back of his head.

"We go across one at a time?" Ichigo suggested. "That's the only way, isn't it? The pillars aren't big enough to fit more than one person."

"True, but... from what we've seen in the last trial, it's safe to say that there will most likely be a time limit again on this one," I said quietly. "My guess is that some kind of sawblades will come out of the ceiling above us right now, then slowly make their way over towards the other side of the chasm, thereby forcing us to move."

"I don't like agreeing with you, Igarashi-kun, but I'm afraid you have a point," Furuwa added, folding her arms and shooting me a condescending glance.

"Well, that's just a guess," I quickly corrected. "We never know for sure until we really try."

"Okay. So, who's going first this time?" Ichigo asked, looking at us.

Without any hesitation, I pointed at the lone girl in the group - Furuwa, much to her surprise.

"H-Huh? Why should I go first?"

I smiled deviously. "Weren't you the one who so happily appointed me as the scapegoat last time? Besides... you haven't gone first yet, have you now?"

"Uh, that's... but Ichigo hasn't either!" Furuwa yelled, trying to argue back. However, it was clear that the odds were against her.

"Tch... f-fine," she muttered at last, before walking over and taking the lead. The rest of us moved out of the way to make space for her.

I smirked as she sent me a glare.

You reap what you sow, after all.