Elijah woke with purpose. Dawn's pale light glinted off his headset. The system notification pulsed urgently on his phone:
"New Quest: Host a squad practice session within 24 hours."
He sat up, mind already racing through logistics. Yesterday they'd unlocked Coordinated Strike, but without intentional drills, it would gather dust. Today, Nightfall Trio would cement their synergy. He jotted a quick plan on a scrap of paper before swinging out of bed.
By mid-morning, Elijah rallied Kayzen and Ghostkit in their private chat.
Zero7: Squad practice in 2 hours. @Voidpix, @Ghostkit – ready?
Kayzen: I'll carve out time.
Ghostkit: What's the agenda?
He typed back:
Warm-up drills (aim, utility) Review last match replay Coordinate use of Coordinated Strike Map-specific stratplays for Tower Ruins & Ravenfall
Ghostkit responded with a thumbs-up emoji. Kayzen asked for a link to a shared whiteboard. Elijah pasted the invite.
That afternoon, he transformed his desk into mission control. A second monitor displayed the whiteboard—divided into four quadrants: Warm-Up, Replay Notes, Ability Macro, Stratplays. His laptop streamed the VOD of their Ravenfall victory. A digital clock counted down three minutes until the squad converged.
At precisely 3:00 PM, Ghostkit's avatar glowed in the lobby window, followed by Kayzen's. The HUD opened their voice channel. Elijah greeted them: "Welcome to practice. Let's start with aim drills."
He launched the training arena and queued them into a headshot gauntlet. Kayzen breezed through first, landing 50 headshots in under ninety seconds. Ghostkit edged her out with 48 in 82 seconds, claiming narrow bragging rights. Elijah finished third—45 in two minutes—but more importantly, he calibrated his mental timer for kill-to-kill pacing. He logged the results on the whiteboard:
Kayzen: HS 50 @1:30 Ghostkit: HS 48 @1:22 Zero7: HS 45 @2:00
A small win: each of them recognized their reaction-time ceilings.
Next, he shifted to utility drills. He dropped a custom map with preset smoke/flash practice. "Ghostkit, cover mid-cat with your shotgun smoke. Kayzen, flash from tower… I'll practice your lineup on plaza." He toggled a timer.
They worked through eight smoke placements and ten flashbang arc calculations. Errors were pinpointed: Kayzen's window smoke drifted too far left by half a tile, Ghostkit's shotgun-smoke bounce clipped a wall, and Elijah's flash landed on the player model rather than behind it. They paused after each trial, adjusted angles, and iterated until every throw netted a perfect effect.
The whiteboard updated:
Smoke corrections (Kayzen + Dev) Flash lineups (Zero7)
Confidence flickered across the HUD: they hovered at 8–9 bars. Elijah nodded. Warm-ups complete.
They loaded the Ravenfall VOD. Elijah guided the review: "Round three, enemy stacked A. I called a split push—Kayzen bait, Dev breach, I plant. But your smoke came a second late." He paused at the smoke animation. Kayzen admitted, "I misread the spawn." Ghostkit noted, "My shotgun blast missed two shots." Elijah sketched a revised timeline:
Ghostkit holds B flank @0:05 Kayzen throws smoke at entrance @0:07 Zero7 plants @0:10
He tagged them on the whiteboard. Kayzen and Ghostkit agreed on the new timing. The system highlighted their alignment with a subtle glow around the Timeline box—a nod to their replay-mediated growth.
Time for the new squad ability. Elijah queued a custom scrim map and explained Coordinated Strike: "Once per match, ping a zone to grant +10% movement and +5% damage for five seconds."
"We need to practice activation timing," Kayzen said.
"I'll test it on a rush," Ghostkit volunteered.
They simulated a four-man push into mid-bridge. Ghostkit pinged the choke right as Ghostkit and Kayzen breached—visibility tinted gold, their footsteps accelerated. Bullets felt sharper, bodies fell faster. They killed all four bots in three seconds.
Elijah grinned. "That window is tiny. We have to synchronize our pings exactly when we commit—no earlier, no later." They logged five more runs to hone the rhythm:
Ping @door crack: success rate 4/5 Ping @bombsite drop: success 3/5
Errors occurred when they pinged late (lost window) or too early (buff expired). The whiteboard now glowed under "Ability Macro" with annotated timings:
Mid-bridge: ping @entry (0:00) A-site drop: ping @plant (0:05)
With 45 minutes left, Elijah turned to map-specific stratplays. They focused on Tower Ruins and Ravenfall. Each member took notes:
Kayzen: improve smoke coverage on lower arches.
Ghostkit: hold waterfall choke with passive peek.
Elijah: practice mid-plaza decoy baits.
He sketched a layered diagram on the whiteboard—entry, support, lurk positions—tagging their avatars at each node. They discussed counter-strat: "If enemy rush B, Ghostkit holds main, Kayzen rotates through the tunnel, Zero7 cuts from spawn."
He set a timer for a 10-minute simulation. They practiced the rotation sequence five times, each iteration smoother than the last. At the end, the system flashed:
"Squad Practice Complete – Quest Fulfilled"
A triumphant chime heralded yellow arcs around their Teamwork and Confidence bars:
Teamwork: 8 → 9 Confidence: 8 → 9
They lingered in the post-practice lobby. Kayzen's voice softened: "That was intense. I've never drilled this deeply."
Ghostkit's tone held respect: "I'm in. Nightfall Trio just graduated."
Elijah smiled, helmet glinting on his monitor: "Tomorrow, we test this in a tournament qualifier."
He closed the whiteboard app and shut off training mode. The glow of his monitors faded, leaving his room in semi-darkness. Outside, dusk crept in; inside, he felt the pulse of momentum. They'd faced the Practice Gauntlet—and emerged calibrated, synchronized, ready.
Somewhere beyond the HUD, new challenges waited. But tonight, Nightfall Trio had proven they could learn, adapt, and conquer together.