"Now arriving: ARC. Please watch your step."
The three of them walked off the tram and onto the platform. They took a quick look at the holographic map floating in the middle of the platform. Once they figured out which corridor they needed to take, they continued on their route.
As they walked down the dirty corridors, Barton stopped and pointed at a holographic monitor depicting the scene of a juggernaut attack on the city wall.
"Old man, wasn't this when you were almost killed by that juggernaut?
Desmond grunted as he said, "The thing took my arm clean off. If it wasn't because 2 Genjis came to drive it off, I wouldn't have survived."
Desmond thought back to that life-and-death moment. He saw the reptilian visage of the juggernaut as it ripped off his arm like a chicken wing and proceeded to smack him across the head, launching him into a wall 50 feet away. As he laid there in shock, he witnessed the juggernaut bite big chunks of flesh from the ripped off arm. The monster then hurled the remaining parts of his half-eaten arm towards a group of incoming reinforcements, knocking them over like bowling pins. It then jumped three stories high to another platform landing and continued on its rampage. It wasn't long before he passed out from the blood loss.
Desmond shook his head out of that flashback and said, "You would have pissed your pants, kid."
They continued down the corridor as Barton grumbled in displeasure about being called a kid.
Kain was going to continue moving onward, but quickly stopped in his tracks when he saw that the scene on the monitor switched to the successful defense from yesterday. The familiar figure along with the floating swords was shown again, cutting down the zombies as easily as taking a walk in the park.
Kain was waiting for the camera to zoom in on the figure's face because he was dying to see how she looked. Unfortunately, the figure never turned to the camera. Based on her ability and her uniform, he could guess that she was a Genji in the military. She also had silver hair tied into a braid. From her womanly figure that couldn't be hidden by the uniform, he could only imagine the woman's stunning beauty.
"Bro, you got the hots for her? She the one that saved your ass yesterday? I gotta say, your princess seems a little…outta your league. Of course, if you bring me as your wingman next time, I'm sure…"
Before Barton could continue, Desmond smacked him across the head and said, "You'd just piss her off with your loud mouth."
Kain grinned at Barton's ugly face, and continued to move down the corridor.
Eventually, the corridor ended in a wide, open plaza that opened up to the bright morning light. A cacophony of noises submerged the group as they exited the corridor into the plaza.
Off in the distance was the infamous wall, which was now surrounded by some kind of energy shielding. The wind seemed to carry the sound of muffled explosions from mines being triggered beyond the wall.
Something new that grabbed their attention was a portal erected near a large platform. A droning sound started off quiet, but increasingly got louder in tempo before a blue color flashed into existence within the portal.
Men and women came through with several mines placed on anti-gravity plates. Near the back of the group, pylon fragments also appeared on their own plates with men in blue robes following and adjusting calibrations on hand held devices.
The portal shimmered once and the blue color faded away. The newly arrived group proceeded to a transport ship.
Although the lower district couldn't compare with the amenities of the upper district, being the warfront meant that all sorts of amazing contraptions and inventions were constantly on display.
"The Council is really upping their game. We got teleportation and shielding for the wall now. Shoot, how are we still losing? With all this new tech, we should bring the fight to those bastards."
Desmond shook his head in disagreement with Barton's words. Barton never saw the strength of the juggernaut. He might not have encountered any specially-evolved zombies. Just as new powers were appearing among humanity, so too would new types of zombies and monsters. If anything, humanity was losing terribly since they were down to their last remaining city, Bastion.
The group headed towards a large stadium-like building at the end of the plaza.
On the way, the group noticed a flash in the corner of their eyes and looked over to see a bright ray shoot towards the shielding covering the wall. The light merged with the shielding and the color of the shield became more solid. Kain noticed that the ray came from what seemed to be an erected pylon on the distant wall.
About halfway to the stadium, the group ran into a few stalls selling some goods. The stalls were ramshackle and seemed put together at the last minute. Kain and his friends slowed down to take a look at the wares for sale.
Kain saw many necessities such as ration pills, water pills, Meal ready-to-eat (MREs), tents, guns, and ammunition. He even saw a vendor selling magic rounds. Kain was tempted to shell out for some, but thought better, as he would most likely get supplies for the mission. Besides, the vendor was asking for an arm and a leg for them.
Near the end of the line of stalls, he came across a vendor selling enhance pills. He had no way to afford these, but wanted to get more information on how much the red colored pill increased strength. After waving over the vendor and asking about it, he found out that the red color pill increased strength, agility, and speed permanently by 10x. The vendor was even kind enough to tell Kain about the rare purple pill, which multiplied by 25x. Obviously, the vendor didn't have such a pill for sale.
Kain also learned a rumor that there was a new pill supposedly making the rounds, one that was capable of speeding up the awakening of one's power. Kain's eyes popped open wide when he heard about that.
Kain ultimately shook his head at ever getting the chance to even see the pill, let alone eat one.
As the group finally approached the stadium, they noticed other groups had already arrived and were slowly filtering into the stadium entrance.
Most of the men and women had resigned looks on their faces. Strangely, there was the occasional cheering heard from within the stadium as well as the occasional bang.
On the wall of the stadium, he saw a flier depicting the various power levels:
Esquire tier = 1x-5x strength, agility, speed (blue color in orb test)
Knight tier = 25-50x strength, agility, speed (green color in orb test)
Chevalier tier = 51-100x strength, agility, speed (red color in orb test)
Guardian tier = 101-300x strength, agility, speed (purple color in orb test)
Genji tier = 301x- ? strength, agility, speed (gold color in orb test)
Kain had never taken the orb test, although he did witness others taking it from a distance. Seeing the rankings for tiers and the associated colors for the first time, he did his best to memorize the information.
The three of them joined what seemed to be a line into the stadium. A woman giving out tickets to people approached Kain and said, "You are #240. When they call your number, you should choose to be tested as a meta or still developing. Place your hand on the orb to determine your power tier in either case. This will influence which group you will belong to upon deployment to the field." The woman continued down the line handing out tickets.
The mystery of the cheering was revealed to them as they finally entered. There was a large inner field which was divided in half. The right half of the field was filled with flashes of lightning, torrents of earth and fire, pillars of ice, and all sorts of other phenomenon.
Some men and women had a shimmering sheen over their skin, as they proceeded to smash their fists toward a steel bar. A few tore through the bar like paper, while others failed and cried out in pain.
Every success was accompanied with cheering from the stands as people observed the testing. The left field was noticeably more low-key with the men and women attempting to lift different sized weights above their head. Some were dashing as fast as they could down a track and others were attempting the high jump.
Kain didn't miss the gun range and knew that he would certainly excel in that area. Thinking of all the missions he went on as long-range support, he couldn't help but feel a surge of confidence. Marksmanship was his bread and butter.
"Ohh, so many girls in the audience. Time to show them what a real man looks like." said Barton as he spontaneously started flexing his biceps.
Kain and Desmond rolled their eyes. When people started giving them weird looks, the two of them threw Barton under the bus, saying, "We aren't with him."