The mountain's lower slopes offered a bewildering array of routes, each presenting different challenges and opportunities.
Most climbers were choosing paths that complemented their bloodline abilities.
Fire users heading for areas with coal deposits they could ignite for handholds, wind manipulators seeking exposed ridges where their abilities would be most effective.
Ares studied the options with tactical precision, filtering out the emotion and desperation that was driving most decisions.
The easiest routes would be crowded and slow. The most dramatic routes would attract attention and potential sabotage. The safest routes would take too long.
He needed something that played to his specific advantages: technique over power, precision over flash, calculated risk over blind ambition.
His eyes settled on a route that most climbers had dismissed as impossible; a series of overhangs and knife-edge ridges that serpentined up the mountain's face like a stone maze.
It was longer than the more direct routes, required advanced climbing skills that few possessed, and offered no opportunities to use bloodline abilities for assistance.
Perfect.
He began climbing with the fluid efficiency that had earned him the title "Teacher" back in Galley. Every movement was economical, every handhold tested before committing his weight, every step planned three moves in advance.
The rock here was different from the loose scree below. It was solid limestone worn smooth by centuries of wind and rain. It offered excellent grip for those who knew how to read stone, but punished mistakes with unforgiving hardness.
Well, Ares knew how to read stone. He was a former super soldier, after all.
His enhanced proprioception let him feel the rock's structure through his fingertips. Micro-vibrations told him which holds were solid and which might fracture under load.
The slight give of certain surfaces warned him of hidden cracks that could propagate into catastrophic failures.
He was making excellent progress when the mountain began to shake.
Above him, a group of earth-manipulation users were attempting to create handholds by fracturing the rock face.
Their combined abilities were effective but crude, each impact sent shock waves through the limestone that threatened to destabilize the entire cliff section.
Loose stones began raining down, ranging from pebbles to fist-sized chunks that could easily crack a skull. Other climbers on nearby routes were scrambling for cover or abandoning their ascents entirely.
Ares calculated the falling debris patterns, tracking multiple projectiles simultaneously while maintaining his climbing rhythm. His enhanced reaction time gave him a crucial advantage in predicting and avoiding impacts.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
A rock the size of a baseball whistled past his ear, missing by inches. Another struck the handhold he'd been reaching for, sending limestone fragments across his face.
The bombardment was intensifying as the earth-users above continued their reckless assault on the mountain.
Then he spotted the real danger.
A washing-machine-sized boulder had broken free from the cliff face above, tumbling end-over-end in a trajectory that would bring it directly through his climbing route!
There was no time to retreat, no adjacent route to escape to, and nowhere to hide!
The boulder was traveling at roughly thirty-two miles per hour, rotating at two-point-three revolutions per second.
Its irregular shape created an unpredictable wobble, but the basic physics were straightforward, it would reach his position in exactly four-point-six seconds!
Ares spotted a cave opening carved into the cliff face above and to his right. The entrance was narrow. It was only 4 feet wide, but it was his only chance to survive.
The problem? The cave was both higher up the cliff AND about 6 feet to his right. He needed to climb up and sideways at the same time to reach it.
4 seconds until the boulder hit him!
Ares looked at the route to the cave. There was a diagonal crack in the rock that led from where he was toward the cave opening.
It was not perfect handholds, but enough for someone with his skills.
He couldn't waste time being careful. Using his enhanced strength and climbing skills, he started moving diagonally up and across the cliff face toward the cave.
3 seconds!
His fingers found tiny cracks and bumps in the rock. Each handhold was barely big enough, but his training let him use holds that would be impossible for most people.
2 seconds!
The boulder bounced off a bump above him, changing its path slightly. It was still heading for where the cave was but now Ares could see the timing would be close.
1 second!
Ares reached the cave opening and threw himself inside just as the massive boulder crashed past the entrance.
The boulder's edge missed his trailing foot by less than three inches, and the wind from its passage tore at his clothes.
Then it was gone, crashing down the mountainside in a cascade of destruction that would eliminate dozens of climbers below.
Ares lay in the cave's darkness for exactly three seconds, allowing his heart rate to return to tactical levels.
If he had been even half a second slower, he would have been crushed.
The maneuver had been successful, but it had revealed something troubling, his enhanced abilities were becoming more obvious with each challenge.
Other climbers were starting to notice that his movements defied normal human limitations.
He would need to be more careful about displaying his capabilities.
But first, he needed to discover what the cave system offered. Maybe it led somewhere useful.
The boulder's impact had cleared away loose rock below, actually improving his potential climbing routes. Sometimes the greatest risks yielded the greatest rewards.
He crawled deeper into the cave, his vision adapting quickly to the low light conditions.
-----
Outside the cave, the climbing competition continued with brutal intensity. The easy routes were becoming crowded bottlenecks where climbers fought for position with increasing desperation.
Alliances were forming and dissolving as the mathematics of survival became clear; with only five hundred spots available, cooperation was a luxury that few could afford.
Ares found that the cave system was like a secret tunnel through the mountain. When he came out through a different opening, he was 100 feet higher than where he'd gone in!
The ancient caves had given him a shortcut that let him skip the most crowded areas completely.
Below him, he could see the chaos of the main competition. Climbers were spread across the mountain's face like colorful insects, some moving with purpose, others clearly struggling with the increasing difficulty.
The weak were being eliminated not through direct competition but through their own limitations; exhaustion, poor route choices, and the gradual realization that they were simply outclassed.
Ares checked his position relative to the other leaders. He could identify perhaps twenty climbers who were making exceptional progress, including two that seemed to be pulling ahead of the pack through sheer speed and ability.
One was using what appeared to be lightning-enhanced reflexes, moving in brief bursts of supernatural speed that carried him across impossible gaps and up near-vertical sections with ease.
The other seemed to bend reality around himself, handholds appeared where none should exist, gravity seemed lighter in his immediate vicinity, and obstacles shifted out of his path with impossible timing.
These were his real competition. Not the mass of ordinary climbers below, but the exceptional few who possessed the skill and power to reach the summit among the first.
They had the advantage of being able to use their own bloodline abilities, while he was stuck with a single ability that wouldn't activate no matter what he did.
He could only rely on his somewhat high stats and insane training.
Still, he would need to be careful. Both climbers were demonstrating bloodline abilities that dwarfed anything he'd seen in Galley.
If they were this powerful at the bottom of the mountain, what would they be capable of when desperation set in near the top?
Ares resumed his climb, moving with the same efficient precision that had carried him this far. The next phase would test not just his physical abilities but his tactical thinking.
The mountain was only going to get more dangerous, and his competitors were only going to get more desperate.
But he had advantages they didn't understand. His enhanced capabilities weren't bloodline-based, they were something else entirely.
He was beginning to understand that this wasn't just a climbing competition. It was a test of character, will, and the strength to succeed without relying on gifts received rather than abilities earned.
And if that was true, then he had a significant advantage over everyone else on the mountain.
Because Ares had never relied on anyone or anything but himself.
The real climb was just beginning.