Rydel sat there for a little bit before somewhat acclimatizing to the dizzying air he is breathing. He knew it's not something that's going to go away and this only acts as an additional time constraint alongside the shrinking city size every hour. With a few controlled breathing techniques as well as calming his mind and focusing inwards, the effects of the slightly toxic atmosphere began to lessen and he finally began to see things clearly again.
Once he regained his composure, it's time to move out. He quickly got up and reached the end of the corridor, only to see an even wider corridor that's curved away on both sides shaped exactly like an arc of a circle. He couldn't hear or see anyone near by, so it's really up to him to choose a direction.
Rydel chose left for no particular reason.
As far as he can see on either sides, this wider corridor connects all the separate corridors that the recruits came in through, but not all of the corridors that were built were occupied. The widths from wall to wall is about ten meters and the height of the ceiling is about five meters, leaving everyone plenty of room to maneuver, given that they have specific maneuvering gears.
Rydel started running along the corridor towards the next smaller corridor when he suddenly went past an opening on his right that leads into a bigger room...or rather an arena. There are sounds of gun fire and fighting going on in there, and Rydel carefully leaned against the wall and peeked into the opening.
It's a low-gravity cubic lecture theater kind of space with specially made covers for the recruits to use shall they encounter each other here. From what he can tell, there is around four recruits scattered around in this area, two of the ones he could recognize by their appearance, but he hasn't had any interactions with any of them.
The two recruits taking cover behind a wide V shaped metal frame are both wearing gas masks while sharing a small gas tank. One of them is holding onto a pistol while another is reloading a rifle. There are a healthy mix of energy and physical weapons here. With nothing in his hand, Rydel couldn't really do anything about it, and exposing his position will mean certain doom as well. He turned around and let the two be as this is not a fight he can participate with two table legs and some wooden pieces.
Rydel continued on and he reached the destination corridor in a matter of seconds and turned inwards. That's when he saw another recruit walk out of the closest room to him with a gas mask on and a pistol on his hand.
'Shit!' He cursed and pointed the pistol and started firing at Rydel, but Rydel was faster to react and already charged at him with the table legs in his hand. The first shot missed Rydel by a foot as he ducked down and used this lowered position to push hard against this opponent. Before the next shot is fired, Rydel had tackled him with full force and crossed the two sticks on both hands against the pistol firing arm of his before disarming him easily. The pistol floated off from the two in a scuffle, and the other recruit tried to fight back with his bare fists.
With a few quick and precise hits at his abdominal, knee and chest, the protective clothing for the unfortunately recruit completely tightens up and prevents all movements, signifying his death in this training exercise. Rydel put the two table legs back, slapped his shoulders apologetically and took everything off him.
Apart from the energy pistol, he also had some more medical treatment packs that Rydel very gracefully took as well as a big utility jacket with lots of pockets and attachments. After making sure everything that can be scavenged are taken in, Rydel then put on gas masks and connected the tubule to the small gas tank. A gas meter illuminates on the surface, showing the number sixty, meaning each tank can support roughly an hour within the area, and Rydel can now support about two hours of it with the gas tank he just obtained and the one he had previously. He also have a few rounds of the energy pistol and some medical treatment packs for both kinds of damage as things are looking at least a little better now.
After making sure everything is packed nice and tight, he recharges the pistol and looked out into the corridor. It is as quiet as when Rydel had first come here.
Now he need to think about where he should go next, again. Things are indeed quite tricky without a map, and he can now choose to repeat what he has done before or go into the lecture theater area. If his goal is to move on from this level, then he isn't really making any sort of progress, and is just simply lingering around the outer area in a circle.
He will most likely have to expend more oxygen just by having to cover more distance, but Rydel isn't exactly confident with just a small pistol and two wooden sticks. Another weapon would be rather nice, also maybe using the micro-gravity rather than the magnetic boots could save quite a lot of energy and also make him sneak around easier...
That sounds like a plan.
The next twenty minutes involved Rydel moving around the wider corridor continuously forward, but all of the corridors he encountered have already been scavenged and cleared, and there are even more openings where he went passed small skirmishes and combats. Almost all of them involved multiple recruits teaming up against one another, and Rydel simply chose to ignore them.
Another twenty minute have passed, and the very first city shrinkage began. It started from the outer edges of the city sphere where the smaller corridors where recruits enter began to disassemble with the help of construction droids. As the construction droids began to insert new layers of walls and cut away the actual areas, Rydel was forced to abandon the left over hunting and enter into the deeper level through one of the openings and one of the many lecture theater type rooms. The moment he glides inwards, an energy blast barely missed his shoulder and left a small dent behind him.
Rydel immediately kicked the wall behind him and got close to the closest cover against him. He had no idea where the shot came from, let alone knowing if someone is actually here. He turned on his magnetic boots once again to try to get a decent footing, and looked around in all angles.
The closest cover is a metal frame that protrudes out from the wall and bends around 90 degrees. It covers the front and the sides, but left the top and bottom wide open. In three dimensional combat, Rydel might as well be wide open. He can't see anyone from above or below, however, so he is still safe as far as he knows, but he needs to move.
He reaches for his hip and grabbed one of the smaller pieces of wood and threw it straight down. It shot through the air, impacts the ground and lets out a clear 'CLANG!' upon impact. At the exact same time, Rydel switched off his boots and pulled himself upwards to another metal frame three meters above. The idea is to use the wood as a misdirection and draw away the attention of the shooter. He poked his head out of the cover for a second and tried to spot anyone, and then pushed himself straight up and flew through the air. His boots are turned on and the exact right moment and locked himself exactly where he wanted.
'You are not too bad.' A feminine voice came through and echoed in the area, 'Rold.'
'I am disappointed, Selena.' Rydel recognized that voice immediately, 'what's happening to your shot?'
'Not all of us is blessed with a gas mask.' She retorted and took a shot at the cover which Rydel is hiding behind, rocking it upon impact. It seemed like the misdirection tactic didn't work at all.
'I could say the same about a rifle.' Rydel responded nonchalantly as he started looking through all the things he had and try to find one with a reflective surface so he can at least try to see where Selena is, 'where is the rest of the crew?'
'No idea, the communication channel of the personal interface is blocked in this region, so it seems like it's just you and me here. Wanna team up?'
Rydel looked down and saw his first gas tank being on the verge of full depletion, that's something reflective. He took one last big breath and removed the gas tank and its tube and gently raised above the level of the metal cover to see the rest of the room. Selena is positioned behind two inter-crossing covers near the exit with a rifle pointing straight at Rydel.
'You know the air is messed up around here, right?' Rydel asked, and another miss shot hit his cover. He turned the gas tank at different angles and figure out the safest route to approach Selena, and returned the gas tank back into a pocket.
'I figured. It wasn't the breakfast sandwich.'
Rydel took a deep breath in,, grabbed onto his pistol, thought about the series of moves he is going to perform and gently pushed the remaining short pieces of woods upwards. Then, he took the empty gas tank and placed it right against the edge of the cover, almost making it seem like he is being careless with his position. Selena immediately bought it and started firing in that direction. At that exact moment, Rydel pushed off the walls and shot himself towards the next cover, then the next.
Selena realized her mistake the moment she saw Rydel diving out and she quickly adjusted her rifle, but Rydel disappeared behind yet another cover and is now able to take advantage of the alignment of the covers to stay out of the line of fire. That's only until the last ten meters before reaching the exit though, since Selena had painstakingly rearranged the last few metal covers to create a small fortress right in front of the exit.
She knows it, and Rydel knows it.
If he had the use of the artifact, all of this would have been incredibly easy. Rydel could maybe 'summon' one of the metal covers away from Selena and completely expose her, snatch away her rifle and take the easy victory. But everything he does is monitored and analysed, so this will have to be done by him and him alone.
When he enlisted, his left glove was listed as a sort of religious ceremony where that special metallic silver looking fabric is grafted onto his skin, which isn't exactly far from the truth. It is supposed to only be of aesthetic and spiritual purpose and not supposed to have any sort of crazy spacial manipulation powers.
The simplest thing for Rydel to do now may as well be waiting it out until Selena completely loses consciousness, as she can still hit a slow moving target at the current state.
Rydel is certain that won't be for long. But he does not want to wait.
The area is still slowly reducing, and he needs to get to the center as fast as possible. He cannot allow any delays this early in the match.
Rydel looked out to take a peek, and went back behind cover, then something came to him. If Selena can very easily rearrange the metal covers around the area, then maybe he can also do the same. Rydel held the edge of the cover he is leaning against and rocked it gently. It twists slightly, but didn't really budge a lot. That should be a really easy process. Rydel scanned around, then pulled out his pistol and shot a line along the bottom of the one meter wide cover. The heat from the energy blast charred the surface of the metal, leaving quite a few black circles and softening the connections.
Rydel pulled out one of the table legs and knocked on the bottom of the frame while activating his artifact for a split second to scrap away a small chunk of stubborn material away. The rest of the cover easily popped off from the foundation, and Rydel grabbed its edges and used it as a shield as he kicked the wall behind him, powering himself straight towards Selena.
'Shit!' Selena cursed and tried to fire into the cover to slow its movements, but it barely budged and crashed straight into the mini shelter she built. Rydel spun around the spinning metal covers and knocked the rifle Selena is holding onto, causing her to miss him completely while using the pistol to give Selena a few body shot and disabling her.
'Damn it, Rold!' Selena yelled.
'Sorry, Selena, it's all business.' Rydel squeezed her in the shoulder as he took everything from her and left the area. She had a few medical treatment packs as well as a rifle with almost full energy ammo and physical ammo. Rydel looked down at this gas tank and its at the fifty minute mark at the moment.
That's the second kill of the training practice, and Rydel is finally decently armed. He had about three rounds on the rifle and two rounds on the pistol, just enough for another skirmish or two. There is a small aisle after exiting the lecture theater type area before everything opens up again. Everything really is arranged in a stage by stage fashion. As he got closer and closer to the end of the tunnel, things begin to open up and patches of green appeared in front of him. He went all the way towards the edge and looked out.
It's almost like a forest, but not really.
In front of him are countless synthetic tree like structures with make-belief leaves and branches, while the trunks rising from the bottom surface all the way up and out to the level that they are on. Within a spherical three dimension structure, the tree trunks almost act like columns and supporting and pushing against the outer layer of the city sphere and preventing it from crashing down on the area below.
Rydel looked all around at the area from the ankle of the top of the tree, and scanned for any potential hostiles. From there is about thirty meters straight down, and from the look of it it seems like there is an area specific gravity field in place here. The branches of leaves are thick and blocks out most view except from the very top close to him where he can look around and see the other lecture hall exits dotted all around the sphere at his level.
The surface isn't exactly flat, but the curvature isn't as noticeable as one would think. Rydel looked up and out to scan for any hints, but there isn't anything. It seems like nothing can really be done before he actually enters the area. It is quite considerate of the special forces for them to put a little forest in the middle of their space combat training, but that only makes it even more fun. To the right of Rydel is a set of cable systems that will allow Rydel to be lowered slowly to the ground, so he simply hooked a loop around his gloves and dropped himself down while holding the pistol in one hand in preparation for any surprise attack.
The ten second descent was shockingly stressful as he is completely exposed and the cable system isn't exactly being quiet either. There is a gravity field around, and the familiar sense of weight returned to him. The blood flow began to rush around as he took a few deep breathes and tensed his muscles in order to get used to the feeling again and everything is mostly back to normal the moment his feet touches the ground.
There is no more need for the magnetic boots, so he turned it off in order to conserve energy.
'Let's get some navigation going.' Rydel looked around to make sure once again he is alone, and turned on his personal interface. The compass function was activated, and the localized scanning and map-making function took a little longer to get online. The dial of the compass is virtually useless as it spins around periodically with potentially in sync with the frequency of the gravity field generator, but what Rydel really wants is something that will at least alert him of what's going on in the environment surrounding him.
The main reason that he didn't use this localized scanning function earlier in the building and theatre area is simply due to the endless reflections of the radio waves from all the metallic surfaces. The interference and overlapping signals will render the readings meaningless and no better than white noise and yet another distraction. As of right now, he is alone in the 'woods', and his senses confirmed this.
There are no clear sign of direction as to where the recruits should go, so Rydel just decided to go straight ahead and see what happens. He needs to either move straight to the next stage of the city sphere or find someone else with the gas tank soon as the current amount he has will not last past the very next shrinkage.
At this current rate, he estimated that about ten to fifteen recruits would be left in this training exercise, and those that are still around will all have at least a decent amount of resources and equipment on them. As he thinks about what to expect when he bumps into the next enemy inevitably. he stepped onto a hexagonal disc on the ground and stopped dead in his tracks, keeping still in both his movements and foot pressure immediately.
SHIT.
Rydel stopped absolutely everything, made sure to maintain his center of mass exactly where it was, and slowly tilted his head down. Literally the moment he is distracted, he stepped onto a landmine. The hexagonal disc is of a wooden brown color and the waxed coating gently reflects the lights off its surface.
Rydel sincerely hoped this isn't a landmine, but there is only one way to find out.
'Seems like I still have lots of room to improve...' Rydel took a slow and steady breath, slowly squats down and jumped forward as fast as he can.
There is nothing behind him. No explosions, no frags penetrating through his shoes and armor, and he can still feel his sweaty feet grinding against the inside of the boots.
Rydel rolled up, and crawled towards the disc, it's a few centimeters thick, and is now wedged into the soil after Rydel took off from in. It's nothing but a wooden disc, and it scared the hell out of Rydel to the point that he couldn't hear anything but his heart pounding away. He cussed out loud as he picked up the disc to look more closely at the patterns on it. From a standing position, it looked like nothing but a bunch of scribbles, but upon closer inspection, the curving and non-intersecting lines began to make more sense.
The packing of the lines resembles that of a contour map. The variance is extremely small, but it's definitely workable. Rydel squats down behind a giant tree and opened the measurement function in the localized mini-map and pulled out the contour lines from his personal interface. By rotating the disc in his hand, he matched up the local contours with a section of it on the map and realigned his directions. There is a deep dent into the wood in one corner of the disc, and it seems like that's where the instructors wants the recruits to go. Just by estimation, it looks like Rydel is a few kilometers away.
It is a stretch, but there is no other way. Rydel tucked away the disc inside his jacket, and looked up.
Someone else stood in front of him. Rydel instinctively reached for his pistol, but one is already pointing at him.
'No-oh, tell me what you found out.' It's Kay, the martial artist. The hand holding onto the pistol is steady and points right at the vital area, where one shot is enough to disable the whole body.
'What's this, a team up request?' Rydel puts both hands up as he looked around.
'Maybe, depends on how much gas you have left.' Kay tilted his head and looked down at the tank attached by his hip right next to the shield generators, 'fourty minutes? Oh man do I pity you.'
'You don't look to bad yourself.' Rydel shot back as he gave Kay a quick glance, he had a couple melee weapon and one pistol. But really, that's enough for him, 'but hey, I am trying to impress the coach here, move.'
The moment Rydel finished talking, he moved. He turned his torso and one of the hands he raised by his side swung and knocked the pistol to the side. He didn't completely clear his whole body and Kay pulled the trigger as a shot went through Rydel's right shoulder. a numbness and tightness instantly began propagating along his core as well as his right arm, but that's not too bad. Rydel kicked back against the tree and tackled Kay, pushing him away and then started sprinting forward. The shield generator is finally turned on and was able to save Rydel for the last few shots taken by Kay who's chasing behind him before completely running out. As the gentle humming of the generator died down, Rydel quickly removed it from his belt and threw it towards Kay that's in pursuit not too far behind him.
This will be a race, but Rydel need to at least slow down Kay. He took the rifle into his left hand,turned around and gave Kay a good spray of shots. Kay is ready well prepared and stepped and rolled to the side to evade the shots before taking cover behind a tree. Rydel continued running and didn't look back. Now there is some distance between him and Kay, he can feel a little safer.
He checked where he is going quickly before jogging on. The gas tank is running out quickly, but he might just get there if there is enough time. Now that Kay is out of the picture, Rydel can really pace himself and prolong the use of the little gas tank as much as possible. That's when a few shots just missed him the sound of sizzling wood came from behind.
Energy shots, Rifle, five a'clock. Rydel made the judgments quickly as he sped up once again and looped the rifle in his left hand back around his shoulder so he can truly run. There are more than one group of enemy around him, and there is no time to turn around and look.
There is a certain freedom and exhilaration when one runs for their lives, and whatever feeling it is, Rydel is feeling all of it. Now he is thankful of all the extra physical training he did when preparing his body for the use of the artifacts. His endurance had finally became one of his strengths.
Time quickly flew by as the sounds of chasing footsteps also became distant. He is once again alone, but he will not slow down. The next shrinkage is going to happen in any minute now, and he is extremely close to the destination. In about fifty meters, the woods began to clear out and the brown wet soil is replaced with clean green patches of grass. It looked unnaturally green, and Rydel is fairly certain it's synthetic by the look of it. As the treeline ends, the grassland began.
In another ten meter or so, a small hill top exists, and that's where the map says Rydel need to go. He gave his surroundings a quick look around as well as checking his PI for any enemies. He is still alone, but more enemies are going to start appearing out of no where the moment the shrinkage gets closer. He can already see some of the drones working to seal away and breakdown some of the structures above him.
'Now or never.' Rydel mumbled to himself and marched ahead. He had around ten minutes in the gas tank, and roughly the same amount of energy left, in the tank.