Where the Past Bleeds

The moment the AR environment finalized, the world around Emric dissolved into something else entirely.

Heat shimmered across cracked pavement. Steel towers leaned at broken angles, their faces blackened with soot and laced with static discharges. The remains of a city—burnt out and caved in, trembling under the ghost of a catastrophe. In the sky, false clouds flickered, and the flicker reminded him: it wasn't real. But it felt real.

His wristpad pinged once.

[Scenario Confirmed: Sector Collapse | Terrain Type: Urban-Rift Aftermath | Objective: Survive & Eliminate All Opponents]

[Combatants: 100 | Time Limit: 90 Minutes | Winner: Last Standing]

[AR Suit Activated | Reinforced Sync Mesh Online]

[Weapons Access Terminal: INITIATE]

His new uniform materialized around him with a soft snap. Sleek, dark-gray armor with reinforced joints, built-in thermal dampeners, and motion-responsive targeting cues across the visor.

He moved to the armory node that shimmered into place beside him. A blue interface expanded from the console. He scanned fast, fingers sliding through options.

Primary Weapon: Vulcan-PX6 kinetic rifle. Fast-switch firing modes. Digital ammo counter. Scope optimized for urban conflict.

Secondary Weapon: Tactical pulse knife. Foldable. Edge-reactive plasma lacing. Good for close quarters and disarming.

Auxiliary Options: Flashburst orbs, shock-dart mines, two spike charges.

Emric selected all quickly, checking weight balance and movement range. The system confirmed.

[Loadout Complete | Commence Countdown]

10.

9.

8.

He crouched low, back to the partial shell of a ruined crawler bus.

7.

6.

He reviewed the map layout on his wristpad—the full zone was a triangular warframe grid. The nearest combatants would be within two blocks.

5.

He double-checked his ammo.

4.

He slowed his breathing.

3.

2.

1.

[SIMULATION START]

Five minutes of scouting and mapping his surroundings, his wrist pad flashed a ping—two initiates were walking in his direction. What were the odds that the two were friends, or did they reach a tactical alliance is such a short time?, He heard their footsteps scraping through shattered glass nearby. Without hesitation, he darted into a narrow side alley.

He could not win this by brute force.

Most initiates here were Tier 1—Early resonance. Barely trained. But even untrained, class advantages mattered. Vanguard initiates could tear doors off hinges. Arcanists could throw fire, frost, or energy surges. Kinetors were field control experts—they could redirect debris or bend structures.

Emric had none of that. Just observation, pattern and logic.

He activated the wrist-pad's scan field and let it run in the background.

The first enemy appeared two levels above, rooftop perch. A girl with flaring palms—fire-based Arcanist. Her sync aura flickered orange-red.

Too exposed, Emric thought. She'll get spotted by others easily.

He marked her position, then moved.

Gunfire lit up the edge of the plaza ahead.

He flanked, slipping through a broken market kiosk. Another target stumbled into his line of sight—a Vanguard, breathing hard, already bruised. The boy hadn't seen him.

Emric ducked behind an old car frame, primed a shock-dart mine, and tossed it underhand.

The shock web exploded upward, latching to the Vanguard's legs and detonating in a blue surge.

[ENEMY ELIMINATED - 1]

Emric sprinted forward, grabbed the boy's auxiliary rig, and yanked a flash orb from his belt.

Movement to his right.

Three initiates were closing in after that disturbance. Two with sync-pads dimly lit blue Kinetors. The third had a pulsing scarlet mark.

Obscurant? No way to know yet.

They spread out like a sweep team.

Emric fired a burst from the PX6 to scatter them. Then he vanished around a corner, slid down a drainage chute, and landed hard in the collapsed metro level.

He didn't run.

Instead, he laid a flash orb at the bottom of the stairwell, synced it to his pad, having created enough distance he triggered the street-level shock mine—a decoy sound.

Footsteps thundered above.

They fell for it.

One by one, the three dropped in with none of the three sensible enough to time their descent and be on the lookout.

Before they could adjust to their new surrounding he trigged the flash orb.

Boom!

Taking advantage of their confusion and disorientation

He leapt from the shadow, silent and fast.

His left hand snapped forward, catching the target's wrist mid-turn, twisting it down hard. In the same motion, his knife carved upward—point driving into the enemy's thigh, severing muscle with brutal precision. A strangled cry erupted.

Emric was already moving.

He pivoted low, came up under the next target's center of mass, and drove a leg straight into the knee-pit. The snap of cartilage echoed in the corner of the war-torn AR metro level.

He hit with everything he had. He couldn't afford to hold back because, all his opponents were awakened stronger than him.

Before the body hit the ground, Emric's gun—a sleek matte-gray plasma repeater— he had picked up along the way was raised and pressed against the third foe's chest, just emerging from cover.

One pull. Silent burst. Flash of blue.

[ENEMY ELIMINATED - 4]

He dropped behind a crumbling load-lifter, chest heaving, wrist-pad flashing in quick pulses. The simulation had ramped up in pace—ambient hazard rates climbing with each elimination.

His muscles burned. But his mind was sharper.

Sixty-five left. And the terrain was collapsing by the minute.

All around him, chaos unfolded. A Vanguard tore through cover across the lot, shoulder-tackling a metal crate into another opponent. His wrist-pad flared blue as his class took over—brute force and endurance made manifest. Two blows absorbed, one delivered, and his target flew six meters into a stone wall. Unmoving.

[ENEMY ELIMINATED - 3]

Near the center ring of the arena, a young Kinetor was controlling over a dozen utility knives—hovering them in deadly orbit. He moved like a conductor, each flick of his hand launching a blade with calculated velocity. One opponent raised a makeshift shield to block. It shattered on impact and forced him over the ledge of a half collapsed building. He was caught mid-air by a whipcord of collapsed rebar and yanked sideways into a wall of flame.

Across the broken rooftop beyond, an Arcanist moved with guided determination. She fired from a collapsible thermal rifle augmented by her innate elemental talent—amplifying the plasma cores with each burst. Her shots weren't just heat—they curved, seared, and melted obstacles on contact.

"She's blending kinetic accelerants into each bullet," said one cadet watching from the projection room. "That's Tier 2 control!"

A voice piped up from the console pit beside Professor Halveth.

"That's Lyra Solara, sir. Latent Arcanist, but she's already drawn attention from the Resonance Research Division."

Professor Halveth, arms crossed, nodded from the observatory.

"Vanta protocols require Tier 3 to even attempt plasma-integrated resonance. She's doing it with raw intuition. Watch her."