Eyes on the Field
[Active Feed – Phase Two | Time Remaining: 04:55:38]
A dozen screens flickered across the observation deck of the Academy's upper command tower, each showing a different quadrant of the simulated ruin city—fights unfolding in real-time, kill logs updating by the second, and pulse signatures tracked in flowing data trails.
Strategos Datch stood at the center, arms folded behind his back, his sharp eyes moving from one monitor to the next. Around him, instructors, analysts, and senior observers watched in silence, tension thick in the air.
The feed was paused now—Emric frozen mid-lunge, mid-kill, blood-soaked and battered but standing.
Professor Halberd leaned forward in his seat, thumb tapping absently against his knee.
"That boy's kill efficiency is unnaturally high," murmured Instructor Teyrin, one of the battlefield analysts. "His pathing's too clean, he's reading terrain like a Tier 3 Cognivore."
"Yes his fighting and planning abilities are good, but I think his leadership and interpersonal relations need more work." quizzed Professor Halberd.
"Don't forget the third phase is actually to use this round to pick out those that can handle leadership positions."
"Still the failure wasn't leadership," Strategos Datch said, turning from the feed to face them. "It was the team composition. Putting a strategic mind like Vale with three under-pressure tacticians and a shaky brawler was a misalignment. He made the only good choice—leaving."
"And he's thriving for it" Teyrin admitted. "But we can't ignore this other trend…"
She tapped a control, shifting the display to a different profile:
[Subject: Malric Dane – Class: Obscurant (Hidden)]
[Status: Elite – Talent: Resonance Control]
[Current Rank: #80 | Points: 126]
A low murmur passed through the room.
"He awakened in Phase One," Teyrin said. "But masked it. Signature was completely suppressed—high-level Resonance Damping. Textbook Obscurant stealth specialization. The only tier capable of that level of suppression this early is Tier Four or above."
"Which he isn't," another instructor said. "Unless—"
Halberd folded his arms. "Unless his talent allows direct interface with the gauntlet environment. Nethra manipulation—subdermal control of ambient energy."
"In lay terms?"
"He can bend the field around him to make himself undetectable."
A beat of silence.
"Impressive," Teyrin muttered. "But his coordination's still poor. He fights like a kid with a cheat code— very predictable."
"It was pretty foolish not to tell his teammates about his ability."
"I hope he learns that here and not in a real battlefield." Strategos Datch.
-----
The hall buzzed with quiet tension, broken only by the hum of aerial feeds and operator panels. Thousands of Initiates, over a dozen cadets and a few instructors were gathered around the primary projection wall—a twenty-meter wraparound display lit with streaks of red, blue, and gold.
But everyone's eyes were locked on the center panel.
Emric Vale.
No team. No flashy powers. Just a spark knife, a half-fried drone, and a predator's rhythm that didn't match anything in his file.
On-screen, he dodged a lunging E-tier creature, flipped a shattered display into its path, and knifed it through the back of its skull in one clean upward motion.
Thump. Creature down.
"Okay, what the actual hell?" Karya's voice cut through the silence like a whip.
Lio glanced over from where he leaned on the rail. "What?"
She pointed at the screen, incredulous. "That's Emric. My Emric. I've seen him trip over doorways. He once cooked noodles in a hydration pod."
Lio smirked. "Clearly he's grown."
"No, no, no." Karya stepped forward, brows furrowed. "That's not 'grown.' That's trained. That's sniper fire, close-quarters pivots, vertical pathing, precision use of kinetic cover—where did he learn that?"
Lio shrugged, smug. "Maybe he studied."
"Don't play coy with me, Lio."
He grinned. "Alright, alright. He… might've joined a few of my instructor's advanced sessions."
She blinked. "What?"
"He never talked much. Just watched. Analyzed. Then started running simulations on his own. Sparred with training bots on silent mode. Real freak behavior."
Karya stared at the screen again as Emric used a ruined column to wall-run up and drop into a sniper perch. He took the shot. One clean kill.
"Unreal," she muttered. Then, turning back to Lio: "And you didn't think to tell me my friend had been secretly training like a psycho-ops commando?"
"I thought you knew!"
She shoved him lightly. "I'm going to kill him."
Lio laughed. "For surviving?"
"For sandbagging!" she said. "I've been stressed out for two days thinking he'd be dead in a ditch, and here he is doing spin-knifing and drop-ambushes like some mid-tier rogue savant."
"He's still not in the top ten," Lio offered.
"I don't care," she snapped, pointing. "He lied to me with his whole I'm just a clever kid with a sync band energy. He's been holding out."
Lio smirked again. "You're oddly emotional about this."
"I am going to kill him," Karya repeated, voice mock-serious. "And then I'm going to make him explain that entire museum fight frame by frame. With a pointer."
-----
Sector East | Field Safe Zone – Broken Tram Tunnel
Emric sat alone on the edge of a shattered tram rail, eating a protein square with zero enthusiasm. He had a bruised hip, a nearly shredded arm wrap, and about two hours left before the next respawn zone reshuffle.
Kestrel and her team were down the tunnel, checking equipment. The sniper she'd lent him was long gone—still smoldering back in the ruins of the museum. Emric had already marked it on his mental scoreboard:
✖ Good Rifle – 1
✖ Effective Team – …1?
✔ Not Dead – (barely)
His HUD pinged softly.
[Leaderboard Update – Phase Two | Remaining Time: 04:31:44]
Top 10 – Gauntlet Leaderboard
Sari Ken – 296 pts
Rayven Myal – 285 pts
Enzo Halder – 270 pts
Thorne Salis – 263 pts
Oza Retari – 260 pts
Kalei Dray – 245 pts
Vessa Dray – 238 pts
Dren Milar – 232 pts
Nyx Halberd – 227 pts
Jirou Flint – 225 pts...
59. Emric Vale – 153 pts
80. Malric Dane – 126 pts
Emric narrowed his eyes at the name—
Malric. From fumbling to snapping at his heels in two hours. He though of it again and realized, Malric didn't actually do anything wrong except withhold information.
"Well if we do cross paths again, i'll find out what this is all about."
He closed the HUD with a sigh and stood. His body ached. His mind buzzed. But the mission wasn't done.
Not even close.