"Ugh"
Sitting up and opening his eyes, Niko moaned again, "ugh why is my head hurting so bad".
holding his head with both hands Niko stabilized himself and stood up. Looking around the sight that greeted him was one of an empty blank space.
"What the hell"
All around Niko was nothing but blank space. Whith no walls floors or a ceiling.
An unending space with nothing or anyone just Niko.
Tentatively he took a step forward, his foot touched something solid and he walked forward. It felt weird all he could see was white. If he looked down he could see his body and he could walk around even without seeing what he was walking on.
The feeling of strangeness intensified but he couldn't do anything about it.
"Well I guess all I can do is wait".
Sitting back down crossed legged, Niko kept looking around. Soon he started tapping his foot. A bad habit he developed in the military.
Soon only that sound remained.
"Tap, tap, tap, tap"
"My perception of time is also gone"
Time passed or at least it seemed like it. Having nothing to base himself on he didn't know how long he'd been waiting for.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity something happened. Green cracks appeared a few meters in front of him. Instantly it reminded him of those he saw in the sky earlier that day. Or was it the same day? he didn't know how long he'd been out for.
Soon the green cracks formed a seemingly holographical screen in front of him. Suddenly words appeared.
Niko was not sure what language this was, it looked like a mix between runes and hieroglyphs but he could understand it almost as if the words were getting transferred directly into his brain.
"World nature energy level has reached merging threshold, world merging has begun."
"living inhabitant trial is about to begin."
"only the strong reign supreme !"
A strange expression appeared on Niko's face as the meaning appeared in his mind.
"so I should be what it calls living inhabitants"
suddenly in the blank space green cracks appeared all around Niko, shocking him. Then the words floating in front of him changed.
"challenge beginning"
suddenly the scenery around Niko changed.
All he could see around him were trees. He was standing in the middle of an ancient Forest, huge trees 20 m tall surrounded him. the floor of the forest was covered with roots and moss.
Suddenly a voice resounded in his mind.
"Choose your weapon" it said. Instantly multiple options subconsciously surfaced in his head. Thousands upon thousands of weapons some he had never even heard of before.
"F*** I don't have a clue" he thought.
"Sword" said Nico aloud.
Blue Sparks appeared around his arm then a sword materialized in his hand.
At the same time all the options in his mind disappeared, a timer counting down from 30 minutes appeared in it's stead.
All of a sudden a roar echoed through the trees of the forest. The leaves swayed in the wind, yet it almost seemed like it was caused by the Roar.
Niko gripped the sword tighter in his hand fingers clenching around the hilt.
"Why did I pick a sword I'm so stupid" he thought. "I have never even used one in my life"
The sword in his hand was about 80cm in length and 5 cm in width with a straight blade it resembled a Roman short sword from his memories.
"A gladius that's what this type of sword is called" he remembered
Although he had never used a sword before he had seen his fair share of hand to hand combat during his time in the army mostly training though.
"Let's get ready for this"
moving towards a large tree Nico slightly crouched down behind the trunk waiting.
Once more a roar echoed through the dense foilage of the forest followed by what seemed to be the sound of a large animal running and getting closer to him.
The Sounds were getting nearer then all of the sudden they stopped.
Now stressed Nico clenched up a bit and almost tripped sideways. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead and into his eye.
Standing still Nico listened attentively to the noises in the forest, then he heard it. A slow growl. He felt that the animal was probably not even 10 m away from the trunk he was standing behind.
Nico waited still for the opportune moment to strike. The noises of the animal we're getting closer and closer then approaching on his right.
"Now"
Nico sprung out from behind the trunk and slashed with all the strength he could muster.
The thing jumped back and Nico finally got a proper look at it. It's looks reminded him of a large wolf with some characteristics of a crocodile notably it's nose which was long and full of teeth.
It's fur was gray and red with powerful hind legs capable of jumping at prey. its eyes, red with a kind of unnatural madness hiding in its gaze.
A long gash dripping with blood extended from the animals right eye down all the way to its foreleg.
"Just a superficial wound, I'll have to do better".
Niko gripped The sword in his hand tighter as the Beast slowly circled to his right.
"F*** I might as well take the initiative"
Without any notice he and slashed forward with all the strength he could muster. Twisting his torso to use the maximum amount of weight and momentum he could generate.
The Beast dashed out evading most of the blow, it instantly pounced forward at Niko.
Dodging backwards,The fight continued as Niko wildly hacked and slashed at the beast. Forgoing his defense he suppressed the beast with as many strikes as possible.
After a dozen seconds of back an forth Nikos arms were already starting to tire. Suddenly the beast found an opening an a claw strike broke through Nikos flurry of attacks, landing on his left shoulder.
"Aaaah"
Niko nearly dropped the sword in his right hand from the pain.
"I can't falter here"
Redoubling his efforts Niko swung wildly with his sword.
"Push forward, there's no going back now"
Step by step Nico advanced on the animal until finally he broke through. Niko swung his sword, aiming for the beast's head but it dodged backwards. Unfortunately it didn't have enough space and Niko's sword landed cleanly on the side of it's neck. Blood spurted out from the cut as his sword stopped at three quarters of the beasts neck.
Letting go of his sword, Niko stepped backward and kneeled down on the mossy ground to catch his breath. Looking up he saw the creature leting out a few short grunting sounds then falling to the ground.
Niko finally having stabilized himself stood up and yanked his sword out of the things body.
Suddenly green sparks appeared in the air in front of him, but this time he was ready for it and wasn't surprised.
"Challenge passed score 67/100"
The text slowly disappeared, but then more followed.
"Planet wide ranking 5 045 328 /630 789 008 000"
"So my ranking is five million out of 600 billion ? " Thought Niko. " Wait 600 billion ? There's only 20 billion humans on earth, do animals also participate in this trial ?"
Suddenly the space around Niko changed once again and he found himself back in the blank area he first woke up in. Only this time a large green holographic screen was floating in the air.
"Nature energy received"
Suddenly Nico felt a strange Sensation blowing through his body. It felt as if something was slowly making its way into the pores of his skin. The sensation continued for a few minutes before slowly changing. Now something was gradually dissipating into his entire body. Making it's way gradually into his muscles and even deeper into his bones.