3RD Person's Point of View
The training chamber pulsed with the simulated light of a dying sun, casting long shadows across shattered ground and scorched foliage. Dendrite trees stood as burned husks, and false winds carried the scent of metal and ozone. It wasn't real but it felt close enough.
Nyxia moved like a phantom through the chaos, twin blades gleaming with void-light as he danced between the humanoid enemies. These weren't ordinary machines they were mockeries of life, designed to mimic both humans and Dendrites, their outer forms indistinguishable from the real thing. But their eyes betrayed them glowing red, always watching, always calculating.
With a sharp twist and a downward slash, Nyxia split the chest of one synthetic Dendrite, his footwork impeccable, his form honed. The bot sparked, convulsed, then collapsed into a heap of twitching vines and wires.
He didn't have time to breathe. Another came at him from behind, fists burning with kinetic energy its ability, "Pulse Fist," designed to punch through steel like paper. Nyxia ducked under the swing and drove a blade upward into its core.
"Too slow," he muttered, yanking the blade free.
A high-pitched warning flashed across his visor.
"Proximity Alert. Rear Approach."
Before he could turn, there was a thunderous crack and a blur of pale, serpentine muscle slammed into the robot.
It was Vennax, his bonded Orowyrm.
The creature's snowy scales shimmered with blue light as it coiled around the intruder, crushing it like a vice. Metal screamed under the pressure. With a shriek of sparks, Vennax flung the enemy into a wall with bone-breaking force.
Nyxia didn't hesitate.
He drew his sidearm and fired a trio of void rounds into the stunned bot's skull, silencing it for good. It dropped in a heap, glowing softly from the still-active core.
Vennax let out a low, rumbling trill and slithered to Nyxia's side, his head nuzzling into the man's shoulder with an affectionate chirp.
Nyxia smirked. "Good timing, partner."
Vennax hissed in satisfaction, his tail curling protectively around Nyxia as they scanned the area for more threats.
Just three left now.
Each of the remaining enemies had adapted one now cloaked in active camouflage, another launching bursts of corrosive spores, and the last a brute crackled with a localized gravity field that warped the air around it.
Nyxia narrowed his eyes.
"Alright," he said, raising both blades as Vennax coiled tighter.
"Let's finish this."
The final robot collapsed in a heap of sparking wires and shredded synthetic bark. Nyxia exhaled slowly, his stance easing as the simulation faded away, returning the chamber to a clean, steel-lined room. Vennax coiled beside him, tongue flicking curiously at the remnants.
And then
A sudden whoop echoed through the chamber.
Vidarath dressed in his usual clashing mix of fashion disasters, coat flaring with unnecessary drama came sprinting into view, nearly slipping on a leftover casing as he skidded to a stop.
"Two minutes, forty-seven seconds! That's one of the fastest completion times this quarter!" he shouted, grinning. "You're on the leaderboard now, buddy!"
Nyxia blinked, still catching his breath. "Wait... leaderboard?"
Vidarath slapped a shimmering projection into existence. "Yup! Simulation Combat Leaderboard. You're officially ranked... #500."
Nyxia raised a brow. "...Wait. Only 500?"
Vidarath grinned wider. "Yeah. Out of one nonillion participants."
Nyxia stared. "…That's not… that's not even a number people say out loud."
"Exactly!" Vidarath chuckled, dragging Nyxia along. "Come on, lemme show you the hall of shame and fame."
They walked into the next chamber lined with glowing panels and pulsing with soft ambient light. A towering holo-wall stretched to the ceiling, displaying the top three in shimmering golden font.
Combat Leaderboard
1. Zalthorion Veilstryx — Completion Time: [REDACTED]
2. Vidarath [Chaos Aspect] — Completion Time: 4 seconds
3. Dr. Dietrich Wagner — Completion Time: 7 seconds
Vidarath crossed his arms proudly. "Yup. Been in the top three for years. Zalthorion's time? Still redacted. They say it broke the timer." He smirked. "Wagner just liquefied the whole field. Literally. We had to replace the sim chamber."
Nyxia looked up at the names, quiet for a second. "Huh."
Vidarath gave him a side glance. "But y'know… things are very different on the other boards. Wanna see?"
Before Nyxia could respond, Vidarath snapped his fingers. The chamber shifted again.
This time, the glowing title read: "Stealth Leaderboard."
And beneath it:
Stealth Leaderboard
1. Corvo Attano
2. Big Boss
3. Ezio Auditore da Firenze
Vidarath nudged him. "Heeey... aren't you good at stealth? Wanna try it?"
Nyxia smirked faintly, arms crossed. "Corvo, Big Boss, and Ezio? That's steep competition."
Vidarath leaned in with a gleam in his eye. "C'mon, what's life without a little impossible challenge?"
Vennax hissed approvingly beside them, clearly in favor.
Nyxia stretched, cracking his knuckles. "Alright. Load the sim. Let's see how quiet I can get."
The simulation room darkened.
A moment later, the ground beneath Nyxia shifted. The sterile tiles gave way to cracked stone, rain-slicked rooftops, and distant bells tolling over a city cloaked in perpetual twilight.
A single word materialized above the simulation prompt:
"Stealth Trial - Maximum Difficulty"
Map: Lordran Citadel Compound [Hybrid Map – Assassin's Creed, Metal Gear, and Dishonored elements]
Nyxia stood perched on a cathedral spire, overlooking labyrinthine streets littered with traps, patrols, and sensory drones designed by the Corvo Attano AI. Even from this height, he could see the glint of guards' optics scanning in synchronized arcs.
Vidarath whistled from the control platform above. "Good luck, Shadow Cat. This one chews up egos and spits out tears."
Nyxia narrowed his eyes, blades humming faintly on his wrists. "Let's dance."
Attempt #1
Nyxia landed silently behind a Dendrite-augmented sentry then immediately stepped into a shrieking thorn-vine trap.
Failure.
Vidarath: "Fastest alert trigger on record!"
Attempt #17
He tried climbing through a stained-glass skylight. Glass shattered. An auto-turret saw everything.
Failure.
Attempt #98
He finally reached the central tower unnoticed... and sneezed.
Failure.
Attempt #213
He perfectly mimicked a human patrol path for 20 minutes, even waving to the fake guards. Forgot to disable a tripwire.
Failure.
Vidarath: "That was heartbreakingly beautiful. So close."
Attempt #347
He crawled under a sentry's vision cone, got distracted by a stray Orowyrm plush left as an Easter egg.
Failure.
Vidarath: "You got emotionally attached, didn't you?"
Attempt #499
Nyxia clung to a wall like a ghost. He made it all the way to the objective…
And bumped a dangling lantern, sending it crashing below.
The entire map lit up.
Nyxia facepalmed mid-detection.
Failure.
Nyxia: "…I swear that lantern moved."
Attempt #500
The silence was palpable.
Vennax, his Orowyrm, coiled quietly around his shoulder as Nyxia took a slow breath, rain drizzling over the high spires once more. Every move he made was deliberate. Every step accounted for. No flair. No ego. Just patience.
He bypassed the first patrol using a reflective cloak, clung to ledges and rafters, timing every movement to avoid flickering spotlights. He used a short-range EMP to disable a synthetic Dendrite guard mid-sentence and tucked the body in a moss-ridden alcove.
He missed a ledge grab but instead of panicking, dropped into a shadow well and waited for the patrols to pass. Heart thundering, he emerged and walked straight past two sensors by syncing his movement to their pulse rhythms.
It was imperfect. He almost triggered a drone when he threw a dart too high. His landing was too loud once. A motion mine nearly caught him, but Vennax flicked it away with his tail at the last second.
Sweat coated his brow.
Finally, Nyxia reached the data node in the tower's heart.
He didn't celebrate. He uploaded the intel and vanished out the window, slipping into the night.
MISSION COMPLETE – Attempt #500
Time: 43 minutes
Detected: 0 confirmed (2 near-detections)
Lethality: Minimal
Rating: "Almost Shadow"
Nyxia collapsed backward onto the floor of the simulation room, panting.
Vidarath leaned over him with a smirk. "You're officially ranked... #41,213."
Nyxia groaned. "That was brutal."
"Yup. And now you know why those top three haven't changed in years." Vidarath patted him on the shoulder. "Still hell of a run. You got grit, Nyx."
Nyxia cracked a small smile. "Tell me Corvo had to try more than 500 times too."
Vidarath's grin turned impish. "He did it blindfolded. With a wine glass in hand."
"…I hate this place."
As Nyxia finally caught his breath, he heard the unmistakable sound of leather creaking. For a brief moment, he thought his mind was playing tricks until the cold, calculated voice cut through the dim room.
"Not bad. For someone with such... obvious flaws."
Nyxia froze. He didn't need to turn around to know who it was. The voice was too familiar. Smooth. Professional. The kind of voice that made you wonder if the speaker could see through walls.
From the shadows emerged Sam Fisher, the legendary operative from the Splinter Cell program ranked #4 on the leaderboard for stealth.
Nyxia stared. "You you wait, you're real?"
Sam's eyes narrowed, his trademark night-vision goggles reflecting the dim lighting in the room. "Not a fan of people assuming their limits, huh?"
Vidarath, casually leaning against a nearby wall, couldn't help but grin. "Sam Fisher in the flesh. Didn't expect him to show up today."
Nyxia shook his head, still processing the appearance. "You're wait, you're on the leaderboard? Number four?!"
"Number four," Sam replied flatly, eyes scanning the room like a hawk. He looked over at Nyxia with a critical gaze. "You did well... but you still have a lot to improve. The trick isn't just avoiding detection. It's controlling it. Making your presence forgotten, not just invisible."
Nyxia opened his mouth to speak, but Sam raised a gloved hand to silence him.
"Keep practicing," Sam continued. "You have potential, but there's a difference between surviving and being untouchable. You're getting there, but you have a long way to go."
Vidarath chuckled under his breath. "He's not exactly a fan of flattery, is he?"
Sam didn't even look at him, his attention still on Nyxia. "Flattery's for amateurs. Get good or don't bother."
Then, without another word, Sam Fisher turned and melted back into the shadows, as if he'd never been there at all.
Nyxia blinked. "Did he…?"
"He's gone," Vidarath confirmed, looking down at his wrist as if he had been expecting this all along. "He's got other places to be. But hey, number forty thousand is solid, don't you think?"
Nyxia leaned against the wall, still processing the encounter. "I guess... number forty thousand isn't a bad start."
Vidarath grinned mischievously. "Who knows? Keep improving, and you might just make it into the top three next time. Or maybe... take down Corvo Attano."
Nyxia rolled his eyes. "One thing at a time, Vidarath. One thing at a time."
The hours stretched on, each failure more intense than the last. Nyxia's focus never wavered, even as the clock ticked away relentlessly.
Attempt #501:
He crept past a guard, almost unnoticed until his foot caught on a loose brick. The guard turned just in time to catch his silhouette in the corner of his vision.
Failure.
Attempt #648:
Nyxia took the high ground sneaking along the rooftops. But a malfunctioning light sensor triggered an alarm as his elbow brushed against a rusted chimney.
Failure.
Attempt #1,025:
He avoided all the major traps and patrols, only to miscalculate the timing on a wind gust that blew his cloak just enough to alert a sensor.
Failure.
Attempt #1,238:
This time, Nyxia thought he'd found the perfect route, skipping across rooftops like a ghost. But just as he neared the target node, a random bird flew into his path, causing a distraction that set off a chain reaction of alarms.
Failure.
Attempt #2,410:
After what seemed like an eternity of sneaking, climbing, and hiding, he finally made it to the data node. One final push only to trigger an undetectable motion-sensing mine, and the entire simulation reacted with an eruption of alarms.
Failure.
Attempt #4,987:
He learned to avoid the larger patrols, but this time, he wasn't prepared for a small sensor drone that whizzed past his head, catching a reflection of his eyes.
Failure.
Nyxia didn't get frustrated anymore. His movements were sharper, more measured, but there was a tiredness creeping in. Every single failure was an opportunity every time he missed the mark, he refined his technique.
Attempt #9,992:
He'd gotten so close too close. As he neared the exit, a guard spotted him from behind a stack of crates. A single, deadly glance.
Failure.
It had been hours. Nyxia's stamina was waning, but he couldn't stop now. The leaderboard haunted his thoughts.
Attempt #29,999:
One slip. One missed step. He nearly made it. His fingers were on the edge of the data node, but his foot brushed against a pressure plate.
Failure.
After what felt like an eternity of frustration, Nyxia crouched in the corner of the simulation room, breathing heavily. He'd failed... so many times.
Vidarath appeared beside him, glancing at the timer on the simulation screen. "You've been at it for hours, man. But hey, look at you now!"
Nyxia stood, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "Am I at least close?"
Vidarath tapped the screen. "Well, for someone who started at zero, you're not bad. You're ranked 30,000 now. You've got some distance to cover... but hey, you're climbing."
Nyxia exhaled, staring at the leaderboard. His name flashed proudly at the 30,000th spot, a solid improvement. But he knew the road ahead was still long.
"...Not bad," Nyxia muttered. "But not good enough."