Thirstfall - Memory of a Returnee

[FIGHT!]

Veric advances first.

I feel the mistake before the impact.

Undertow rises in front of him, covering almost his whole body while the chain bound to his right arm follows the motion. He repeats the entry he used against me, shield forward, torso hidden behind the metal curve, heavy steps taking the center of the arena.

For another kind of team, that might work.

For this one, it’s bad.

Rhayne, Veric, and Oliver form a defensive core. They have reading, cover, and response. Their team should let the opponent spend the first intention, trap the mistake, and punish when the enemy formation opens. Veric taking initiative like that tears the other two out of their natural role and forces everyone to chase his decision.

Kellan notices before Veric notices he’s been noticed.

Veric is almost on him when the gladius appears behind Undertow. It’s new. Prettier than the last, with a worked guard and a firm glow of OXI running down the short blade. The sword I broke was good. This one looks special. Maybe a relic, maybe an expensive gift from someone tired of watching a prince lose equipment.

Kellan doesn’t wait for the blade.

He steps half a pace off the shield’s line and strikes the edge of Undertow with the biomechanical gauntlet before Veric sets his foot. The blow doesn’t beat the shield. It doesn’t need to. The force enters crooked through the arm, crosses shoulder, rib, and hip. Veric is dragged back, digging his feet into the stone until he leaves two pale marks on the floor.

The bleachers react with a short sound.

"Veric," I say. My voice crosses the barrier through the arena channel. "Look at the kind of team you have."

He turns his face just enough to show he heard.

I point at the mistake. Only that.

Freya stands at my side, arms crossed, eyes locked on the field. "Got it," she says, low.

Inside, Oliver has already moved to cover Veric’s flank. He arrives half a beat late, giving Freya’s team room to advance together. Covering a mistake is harder than clean execution. Rhayne lets the Battle Ribbon out in a low line to keep Mira from entering the open space, but Mira stops before the reach and switches the dagger to her other hand without committing, throwing it at Oliver.

For one thin instant, Oliver moves just enough for the dagger to pass flush by his ear, opening a red scratch.

"You see what he did?" I ask.

"Veric advanced with a formation that needed to wait."

"And made Oliver pay the bill."

Freya lets a short breath out through her nose. Not a laugh. Recognition.

Kellan pulls back after the blow and opens space for Zhang Xi. She doesn’t attack. She only sets a hand on his back for a moment. The soft light that passes between her fingers doesn’t heal any wound, because there’s no real wound yet. It stabilizes OXI, returns rhythm, raises stats.

A buff.

’So Zhang Xi can buff and raise stats too. Interesting.’

"You don’t have a guild," I say.

Freya doesn’t take her eyes off the arena. "No."

"By choice?"

"By sanity. Dean charges me enough already."

That fits her. Dry as dry ice.

Mira advances again, this time aiming at Rhayne. She pulls the dagger high, but her foot points outward. Clearly a feint. Rhayne reads it and doesn’t pull the ribbon too early. Instead, she spins the coil fiercely around her body, forming a three-hundred-sixty-degree wall. When Mira sees the dagger won’t get through, she tries to shift to Oliver’s flank, but it’s too late. The metallic silk hisses in the air, catches the dagger coming from a blind spot, and throws it away, forcing the archer to leap back.

"Rhayne," I say. "Good read. Don’t give up the reach without need."

She doesn’t answer. The ribbon returns near her arm, light and quiet.

’If Kellan had advanced on Rhayne, Veric wouldn’t reach in time, and her move was too wide.’

Freya looks at me for an instant. "You’re correcting with few words."

"That was the deal."

"I know. I’m saying it works. Making them think..."

Across the field, Veric breathes slower. Undertow drops a few inches, enough for him to see the field without abandoning protection.

’Good choice. In a team fight, field vision is a defender’s trump card.’

Oliver adjusts, moving behind Veric, not glued to him, leaving distance to intercept Mira if she tries to slip between them.

"Guilds tried to recruit you?" I ask.

"Several."

"And?"

"They wanted my name, my strength, or my image in a room full of rich people and politics. Sometimes all three."

The answer comes dry. No dramatized bitterness. Freya speaks of it because it’s an old fact.

Kellan tests Veric with two short advances, direct jabs at the shield. Veric accepts none of them, staying still. Oliver moves to intercept Kellan’s opening. Zhang Xi catches the shift and slides a little to the right, cutting a clean line for Mira to intercept Oliver while she herself blocks Rhayne. Their team has less raw weight, but it’s looser.

"The problem with guilds," I say, "is that a lot of people use a contract to call a collar a structure."

Freya finally looks at me. "And yours?"

"Mine is still small enough that I know who’s inside."

"That changes when it grows."

"It does. That’s why I’m choosing now."

Oliver enters on the right beat when Mira tries to intercept him. He attacks with a rising arc. The hammer meets the haft of Mira’s spear hard enough to lift it off the ground.

Rhayne predicts the block and uses the moment before it happens. With two forward handsprings, she repositions, breaking away from Zhang Xi, and casts the ribbon at Mira’s ankle while she’s still airborne. She yanks with everything, slamming Mira’s back against the cold stone.

Kellan pulls back and defends Mira, grabbing Rhayne’s metallic ribbon with both gauntlets and sliding backward. Kellan’s OXI is visibly drained the moment he grips it, but it makes Rhayne abandon Mira’s ankle, keeping herself from being reeled in.

Now it looks like a team.

"Rhayne," I say. "An attack that carries a penalty should be judged before it’s thrown."

Freya follows the exchange without blinking. "You want people for your squad?"

"A squad is a field. You enter, fight, leave. Parts come and go. It only solves momentary problems."

"Then, a guild."

"My guild pays a high wage, buys material, registers contracts, runs a business, protects people. One thing sustains the other. I don’t want politics. I want change."

She goes quiet.

The bleachers swell with every exchange. Cadets say the wrong names, point at Undertow, comment on the Battle Ribbon. The screen replays Kellan’s first blow against Veric in slow motion, the prince dragged back. Soon that becomes hallway talk.

Inside the arena, Veric pulls back for the first time without being forced. Rhayne takes the space he leaves, and Oliver closes the flank. Kellan hesitates half a second. It’s little, but in a fight, little is enough to shift the rhythm.

Freya notices. "They’re correcting."

"They’re starting."

"And you haven’t even stepped in."

"That was the point of my idea."

Mira smiles inside the arena and pulls a different weapon: a long bow, made to pierce between guards. Zhang Xi touches her shoulder before the shot, healing the impact from the fall. Mira’s posture changes. Lower. More patient.

Freya tilts her face, paying attention. "She’s going to try to pierce Oliver."

"She is."

"And Rhayne can deflect the shot if the timing’s right."

"She can."

Freya opens her mouth to shout the correction, then stops before she does.

The rule holds her voice.

I like seeing that.

"Freya Gunnulf," I say, low enough for the arena to swallow half the sound. "I’m building a guild."

She doesn’t answer right away. I’ve already told her about the future, that day in the bar. So nothing surprises her.

Mira fires the same instant. Oliver moves his left foot too late to dodge. Rhayne reads the entry, but the tip of Mira’s arrow has already passed Veric’s first line of defense and heads for Oliver.

A clean shot.

But Freya saw Mira’s mistake.

"And I want you in it."

Even so, for half a second, she looks at me with serious eyes, pulling her gaze off the fight for the first time, at the most crucial moment.

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