The announcement came with no warning.
A synthetic voice crackled from the ceiling of the barracks, flat and cold. "Black Team: Assemble in Sector 9. Full deployment. Live simulation. Objective: Protect the King."
That was it.
No explanation. No time limit. No Drillmaster.
Just a command.
Cael's spine straightened before his mind caught up. The others reacted with the same sharpened tension. Wren was already standing, blades at her hips. Lyndra snapped on her gloves. Pax gulped down the last of his ration water with shaking fingers. Ryve grunted something wordless and rolled his shoulders.
"Sector 9?" Wren murmured. "We've never been assigned there."
"That's because Sector 9 isn't a drill floor," Cael said, voice low. "It's a quadrant simulation."
They moved fast. No one spoke. No one had to. The silence between them was tight and clear, shaped by the last two weeks of bleeding together.
The corridor twisted downward, deeper than any they'd descended before. The lights flickered into a sterile blue-white, and when the final door opened, the world beyond looked nothing like the sterile simulations they'd trained in.
It looked like war.
The arena stretched wide, mimicking the terrain of the Root Labyrinth: gnarled trees, swampy paths, rising stone clusters half-drowned in moss. But it shimmered slightly—the way light bends over heat. A simulation, yes—but no less dangerous. Every tile beneath them pulsed faintly. The terrain wasn't stable either—some vines moved subtly, twitching in the simulated wind, while half-buried roots coiled and shifted when no one was looking.
Overhead, a new interface glowed:
LIVE SIMULATION – FULL TEAM OBJECTIVE: PROTECT BLACK KING SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE TILE STATUS: ACTIVE
A faint grid flared to life across the field. A simulated segment of the real board.
The Major Pieces were already there.
Elijah stood at the center of the rear column, arms folded, his black-and-gold uniform absorbing the light. Vera stood nearby, her hands behind her back, eyes glimmering with static tension. Rune twirled one of his blades, nodding at Cael as he entered. Thorne cracked his knuckles and muttered, "Finally."
Even Elara looked... present. Her braid was tighter, her jaw set.
Sora and Dagen stood near the map interface. Sora gave a brief nod to the team. "This isn't a drill. The Board has authorized a live quadrant simulation. Tiles will be randomized. Monsters will spawn. Conditions will shift."
Dagen added, "Amplify tiles are live. So are Fortify, Scan Pulse, and Detonation. They're not marked. You find them by instinct—or luck."
A flicker of movement pulsed behind the interface wall—engineers or technicians hidden in shadow, monitoring the experiment. One of them whispered something into a comm, too quiet to make out.
"And if we fail?" Pax asked, voice thin.
Sora's stare was colder than ice. "You don't want to fail."
The horn sounded.
A low, bone-deep vibration passed through the ground. The trees twitched. The light dimmed.
Cael turned. The team had already moved into position. Vera took the left flank. Thorne and Rune the right. The Bishops remained central—support, coordination, vision. The Pawns fanned forward in a wide line—Cael, Wren, Pax, Lyndra, Ryve, and the others.
Even though they'd trained together, this felt different. There was a weight in the air, a collective breath held beneath every heartbeat. Cael exchanged a glance with Wren, and she gave a tight nod. No speeches. No plans. Just survival.
Then they came.
Drones first. Not the slow-moving kind—but new, jagged models. Teeth like steel fangs. Eyes like fireflies. They moved like they were hunting. Behind them, the simulation shimmered again—and from the fog emerged the first wave of biome monsters. Drifters from Row A. Hollowborn from Row C. Even a lumbering Titan dragging vines from its moss-plated arms.
Cael didn't wait.
He rushed forward with Wren beside him, their formation tight. Pax faltered, but Lyndra caught him with a sharp shout. Behind them, Sora unleashed a wall of flame, buying them seconds to maneuver. Rune blinked across the map, slicing through three Drifters mid-air.
"Scan Pulse!" Dagen called. He tapped the tile beneath him, and a blue ripple burst outward, revealing a cluster of hidden Detonation traps on the east quadrant.
"Reroute!" Vera snapped. "Right side—cover the King!"
Cael pivoted. He lunged across a rising stone cluster, only to land squarely on a glowing panel. The tile shimmered underfoot.
A flash. A hum through his veins.
AMPLIFY NODE ENGAGED
His breath hitched. His vision sharpened. Time seemed to slow. His heart slammed like a war drum, and in that instant, his body felt like it had no limits.
Adrenaline spiked. His muscles responded before conscious thought. The pulse from the tile reverberated through the synthetic threads of his suit, stimulating his nervous system and boosting signal transmission like a firestorm across every synapse.
A Hollowborn swung a club of twisted bone. Cael dodged, blurred, and brought his sword up in a perfect arc. The blow landed with amplified force—cleaving through the beast's arm and shoulder in a single, smoking slice.
He didn't stop. Momentum surged through him. He sprinted to the next enemy—a drone aiming for Ryve—and slammed it to the ground with a single, jarring strike.
The Amplify wore off seconds later. He staggered slightly, blinking, breath catching up. His limbs still trembled from the overload.
"More incoming!" Thorne shouted. The ground split as two Titans entered from the northern edge.
Rune and Elara moved in sync—Rune blinking behind the first and slicing its legs, Elara scaling its back with a roar. Vera mimicked the fire arc from Sora and combined it with a shockwave from Thorne—launching a hybrid blast that caved the Titan's chest inward.
But one got through.
A second Titan charged toward Elijah.
"No!" Cael screamed.
He ran. Wren ran beside him. Lyndra flanked left. Pax flung his spear—missed. Ryve tackled the Titan's leg but was swatted aside.
Elijah stood still, hands raised, eyes glowing faintly.
And when the Titan swung—
He caught it.
A pulse radiated outward. The creature froze, every inch of it trembling in place. Elijah clenched his fists, redirected the kinetic energy—
And exploded it back.
The Titan flew backward like a cannonball, smashing into the wall, denting the simulated terrain.
The lights blinked.
MATCH END.
A pause.
The silence that followed was deafening.
One by one, the drones powered down. The monsters crumbled. The field froze.
Then—
"Objective complete," the voice said. "King protected. Team survival: 100%."
The glass at the far end of the arena shimmered. Behind it stood Officials. Watching. Recording. Calculating.
The team stood where they were. Breathing. Blinking. Bloodied. But still standing.
Cael dropped to one knee, panting. His arm shook from the final blow. Wren touched his shoulder.
"That Amplify tile?" she asked.
He nodded. "Felt like lightning in my bones. Like my whole body belonged to something faster than me."
"Scary," she said.
"Yeah," Cael admitted. "But kind of incredible too."
Vera approached. Her eyes were unreadable. She stared at Cael, at Wren, at the others. Her gaze passed over Pax, then Lyndra, then Ryve, whose chest was still heaving. There was a pause.
Then she said, almost too softly: "Maybe we won't all die on this board after all."
And walked away.
The rest didn't follow immediately. They stood there a while longer, staring into the trees, where the fog had already begun to reset.