Lowly Ascent

Cain was waiting in a field camp in the swamps outside the city limits. He was in the main tent, and behind him was his soon-to-be team.

They stood at attention with a teacher in front of them reviewing the rules.

"There are 15 teams; 8 will pass and go on to the rest of the tournament. This team battle is based on cooperation and following orders to take out the other teams. In a few minutes, you all will be given badges that are carved out of a stone made from an ancient recipe."

A student raised their hand. "Teacher, why do we need the stone?"

"Well, it allows you to gain an 'extra life' by setting you in stone for a set period. Your skin will become impervious and stop any heaving bleeding long enough for the instructors to get remove you out of harms way." The teacher then peered over at Cain. "The winners will be decided through multiple factors. Cain, you are the team leader, do as you must. Dismissed!"

The teacher promptly left, and Cain was left standing there. He was at a loss for words, he wasn't prepared for the teacher to just…leave.

"Alright, uh, I'm going to trust in your guys' abilities, so just follow my orders and train with a partner until we receive our badges. That's it."

Cain had never been in a leadership position. He was as unaware as one could be of what to do. He left his troops to just train as he went over the environment.

'We're in the outer reaches of the perimeter, that's a given. There are 14 other camps, and the closest one should be a good distance to the east... What should I do?'

Thirty minutes passed, and an attendant came by and gave everyone their badges. After everyone was wearing their badges, a horn was blown that echoed throughout the entire forest, starting the event.

With the signal, Cain turned to his men. He didn't know how to lead but he had to try.

"Who among you is the highest ranking or the strongest?"

Cain scanned his eyes over the lined-up troops. He was surprised to see a girl with red hair in a ponytail step forward.

She was shorter than Cain but had an energetic air about her. She sported rolled up her sleeves and seemed ready for anything.

"I'm Alex, sir! Grade 1, at your command!"

'Militaristic, good.'

Cain grew appreciative of the girl, he had a good feeling.

"Good. Make groups based on those who are comfortable with each other first and skill second, then set grade 1's as leaders. Those in year 2 will have their own groups and be led by those they choose. We set out in 10 minutes."

Alex was flustered by such a lengthy command but set out, and in ten minutes, everyone was ready.

"Alright! Let's move. We're going east to attack the nearest camp, so prepare for battle when we get close!"

...

In a camp, the Grade 2 leader was training his troops and preparing his army.

All of a sudden, loud explosions and screams resounded throughout the camp, and flames started to appear as they spread into the sky.

Narrowing his gaze, he saw in the distance a large group. At the front was a boy with green eyes, black hair, and jade skin leading, cutting his men down, watching as they turned to stone.

"Shit! It's the Emerald Butcher! Retreat!"

The leader used all the air in his lungs to project his command. Yet he didn't make sure they heard him as he had begun to flee.

Cain's nickname used to be the Emerald Scholar but ever since he killed Roy, the event spread and his nickname was changed to fit his demeanor.

Many students admired Cain for this; it showed his strength, and killing someone wasn't a big deal to the students of Nevarus, they had done worse things to their servants or slaves.

But killing a royal, now that was something terrifying.

Cain exerted his strength into his legs and bolted to the leader, who had pissed his pants seeing the butcher near.

Holding a knife, Cain swung for the enemy's neck, whose head was screaming with tears running down their face.

As soon as his knife reached their neck, their skin reacted, and a thin layer of gray began to grow and spread throughout his entire body instantaneously, encasing him in stone.

Cain had experimented a lot on his way to the commander using his minions. He found any attack that would cause fatal damage or dismembering would be met with the badge reacting and encasing the victim in stone.

He felt safe knowing this trick, he was now more prepared to make risky moves.

After the leader turned to stone, the entire camp was in chaos, all the defenders were 'killed' in under 20 minutes.

"Sir, I've come to report. All the enemies were defeated, and our losses are only 2 teams who were at the forefront, as well as a support team that was ambushed"

Cain heard Alex's report and smiled, "That's good, tell everyone to rest. Get the team leaders to meet me in the main tent"

Entering the main tent, Cain waited for Alex and some Year 2 team leaders to come in. Once everyone was present, they went over their strategy.

During this meeting, Cain could feel the admiration that was radiating from all of them, he couldn't help but become smug. They decimated one of the other camps in the first few hours after all, it may have been an abrupt attack but it counted.

After going over some stratagem, Cain and his troops rested overnight and prepared to move out in the morning.

…

When Cain exited his tent in the morning, the ground, which was littered with stone people the night before, was gone without a trace.

Nevertheless, Cain moved out with his army to head to the middle of the 'map,' where there were to be extra rewards as well as a fortified tree fort for whoever captured it.

After a short march of an hour or so, Cain's army came across a hill shadowed by a sizable tree that was as big and tall as a 5-story building.

On the hill, multiple armies were fighting.

One of these armies was Luna's. She seemed to be in a bad position. Her troops were not unified, causing chaos in their ranks.

Luna was still being treated as an outcast. With so many disliking her, even those under her didn't want to win.

If it weren't for some grade 1s who were smart and wanted to win, they would be in utter shambles. They were the ones calming the others, letting Luna's army work together for a time, but it lasted until their first battle.

It was amazing Luna hadn't been abandoned by her troops or 'killed' yet.

She was commanding her army from the back when she caught a glimpse of Cain's army.

It seemed her vision became like a hawk as she saw a girl standing beside Cain. It was then a weird emotion built up inside her. It was small at first but then flared up like a disease.

'Why am I getting jealous? It's just a girl standing beside Cain. He's still mine….he still belongs to me….'

Anxious, Luna decided to try and group up with Cain. She began to pull out her troops from the battle, letting the other groups fight it out.

While she was doing this, Cain ordered his troops to be on high alert, all the while he put force into his legs… and jumped.

He soared through the air; he thought he could jump to the tree fort. Alas, he was mistaken, he was a human after all, he could jump so high, but even then it was impressive, for a low-tier augmenter that is.

As he reached the max height of the jump, he fell right over the battle and came crashing down!

Any soldier on the field would recount the same story as they dubbed it the Emerald Prince's appearance. Cain... had landed right in front of Luna like a Prince meeting his princess; it was magical, even having the fighters surrounding them stop and stare.

Both Cain and Luna were seen turning beet red and looking away from one another.

Cain was quite embarrassed, but this turned to undirected anger at everyone looking at him, so he began slaughtering everyone around them.

This led to a collective effort of the teams teaming up to fight against one person. Unlike the 3rd division's prelims, the team battle was similar to the 2nd division's prelims, so using pathogens and such was banned, and weapons were allowed.

This, however, didn't stop Cain; he was like a god of war, slaughtering the rich snobs who couldn't even be considered newbies at fighting.

Of course, there were still a good number of skilled fighters, but they were all grade 1 or below, and un-augmented. Lambs to slaughter helplessly turned to stone like the rest.

Once the enemy lost too many, the leaders of these groups retreated and fled, leaving Cain and Luna's group.

Before Cain was allowed to catch his breath, Luna clung to his shirt and pulled him down to her eye level.

"Who's that girl that was standing beside you!?"

Luna's face was red, her nervousness took over as she pushed Cain away and began jittering with her hands and playing with her hair.

"I-I need to know j-just in case she's not a good…uh…just who is she!"

Cain responded while trying not to laugh, "She's my second in command, her job is relaying all my commands."

Exhaling in relief, Luna's troops heard their conversation and started giggling with each other.

A pact was made, both Luna and Cain's groups became allies and they headed over to take the fort.

Luna followed behind Cain with her troops, heading to the fort and settling in.

As they did, Luna, Cain, and their officers made their way to the fort's command center where there was a box at the center of the room.

Inside the box was a badge, but it was not the 'extra life' badge. When Cain picked it up, an announcement sounded.

"All teams, team 6, led by Cain, have taken the tree fort and received the prize! If no one takes the tree fort in 3 days, the teams with the least amount of soldiers will be eliminated until 8 teams remain, ending the event!"

This message spread throughout the swamp like an echo, Cain ordered the fort to be heavily fortified. Luna worked together with Cain, and they started making patrols and a perimeter.