Thirstfall - Memory of a Returnee

"Ballerina, second exit! Bone Crusher, wreck the third!"

Veric’s order crosses the arena while Freya compresses the wings again.

The ice around her is pulled backward, exposing the line of the scythe and the tilt of her body. Deep Echo keeps the plates lit, his eyes split between me and my squad’s movement.

"Pressure in the legs," he warns. "He’s going out to the right."

This time, I don’t go.

Kraken rises to the center of my guard, but Pegasus Wrath carries too much force for one blade. My left hand finds Eventide’s grip at my belt. The black sword wakes with a low sound, and the blade forms at the same moment Freya fires.

Kraken reacts.

The weight shifts inside my hand, pulling the point toward center, trying to hold the space in front of my body alone. For an instant, both weapons fight for the same angle.

"Not now," I mutter.

’Is Kraken jealous? That’s all I needed.’

I plant my feet and cross the blades.

Freya arrives wrapped in a current of ice, the scythe aimed to run through my chest. When she enters range, I feed Eventide OXI and turn both wrists in opposite directions.

Kraken takes the blade.

Eventide catches the shaft.

Pegasus Wrath’s force enters both swords and climbs my arms. My elbows give, my shoulders shove backward, and ice spreads across the guards of both weapons. Even so, I trap the scythe between them and change its path.

Freya passes by my side.

The weapon’s point tears the air where my chest was, and the pressure wave drags my boots across the floor, but the strike doesn’t find my body this time.

[OXI: 2,291 → 2,174 / 2,500]

[Void Capacitor: 14% → 18%]

My arms burn. The fingers of my left hand nearly lose Eventide, while Kraken vibrates hard enough that it seems to be trying to shove the other sword out of my guard.

Freya lands a few meters behind me and spins the scythe to bleed off the rest of her speed.

I look at Kraken.

The weapon tips its point toward Eventide.

That isn’t a reaction to the fight. That’s irritation.

"You have got to be kidding me."

I put Eventide away before my new sword decides to start a second fight inside the first. Kraken settles into my hand at once, the balance returning to where it belongs.

’Jealous. Wonderful. Exactly the kind of problem my life was missing.’

Across the arena, Undertow crosses in front of Deep Echo without going for his body. Veric uses the shield to seal the left exit, forcing the support to give ground the other way.

Rhayne is already waiting.

The Battle Ribbon comes in low, sweeping the space on the right. Deep Echo breaks his step and retreats again.

Oliver raises Motorhead.

The hammer hits the ground behind him.

The stone bursts into an uneven ridge, erasing the third route. Deep Echo has to move up the only lane still clear, exactly the direction Veric picked.

Sequential Tide Waves is working.

Deep Echo looks at the floor, then at how the three of them are arranged.

"They aren’t trying to take me down," he says. "They’re steering me."

White Wake keeps Oliver under the point of her spear, but she catches the movement. "Then stop walking where they want and get over here, damn it. We’re running in circles!"

"I’m walking where there’s still ground."

She abandons the chase on Oliver for a moment and pushes at Rhayne, who’s closer. The spear enters a short sequence of thrusts, forcing the Battle Ribbon back to protect its owner.

"Phantom Steps!"

Split Fang takes the space and detonates his dash against Veric.

Undertow has already been thrown. Veric takes the first dagger on his gladius. The second comes along the side of his arm, hunting the elbow. Veric turns his body, pulling the initial contact point away, and accepts a shallow cut on his shoulder guard. Then he calls the shield back.

Undertow returns from behind White Wake.

She hears the chain too late. She has to break off the pressure on Rhayne and turn the spear to deflect the shield before it reaches her back.

The second exit opens again.

"Don’t chase anyone!" Veric shouts. "Keep Echo walking!"

He understood what I planned.

Freya starts moving again.

I gather OXI in my right boot and let Deep Echo see it.

The plates pulse. "Right."

I use Pressure Step in that direction. I let him watch my next step on purpose.

Freya corrects Pegasus Wrath before I even leave the ground. Kraken leaves my hand, strikes the scythe’s shaft, and turns the pass aside while my body crosses the space she left open.

The second time, I repeat it.

OXI in the right. Step to the right. Deep Echo calls it. Freya answers.

I want them both trusting the read. They know where I’ll break. What they don’t know is that I know they know, which means I can see Freya’s attack coming without a single surprise.

The capacitor climbs again.

[Void Capacitor: 21%]

Rhayne wipes away the blood starting to run from the corner of one eye. Split Fang gives her no rest. He enters, threatens the shell, and cuts off before it activates, forcing her to use the Battle Ribbon to defend her own body, pushing her closer to her limit with every pass.

Deep Echo sees the blood.

"Keep the pressure on," he orders. "The charge is rising."

"How much longer?" Split Fang asks, slipping past the metallic silk.

"I don’t know. But she’s getting to the limit."

Freya turns for another pass.

I gather OXI in both boots, feeding the right one a fraction before the left.

Deep Echo takes the bait. "Right again."

Freya opens the outer wing to close my exit.

I fire the left.

Pressure Step.

Her face changes when I pass on the opposite side. She corrects in the air, but Kraken completes the discarded defense and strikes the shaft before the blade can reach me.

Freya crosses the arena without touching my body, fully destabilized, nearly slamming into the wall of energy.

Deep Echo turns his face toward me.

He reads where the OXI gathers. His mistake is believing that every bit of energy a man gathers has to become the movement it looks like.

The problem now is keeping him convinced.

Veric seals another exit, driving Undertow high on the right. Rhayne collects the next correction when he flees left, and Oliver, finishing, misses again by inches, wrecking the floor exactly where Deep Echo was trying to set his feet.

The support retreats once more.

This time his boot lands inside the furrow Kraken opened when I stopped my slide earlier. What they don’t know is that the cut in the floor was on purpose.

I recognize the position.

The first end of the line is ready.

I pull two capsules from my inventory.

The first bursts between the formations. The second hits the center of the arena, directly over the furrow.

Dark gray smoke spreads across the floor. Permafrost’s cold keeps it from rising and dispersing, trapping the cloud in a thick layer that swallows legs, torsos, and then the whole arena.

’I didn’t plan that part, but I’ll take it. Thanks, Freya.’

Split Fang lets out a short laugh. "Smoke? Echo can still see you."

"Don’t follow any shadow without my confirmation," Deep Echo answers.

The plates light one after another.

The sensory energy expands in waves, crossing the smoke and returning to the luminous ring around his neck.

"Bone Crusher, four meters ahead of White Wake. Ballerina moved left. Soline Bandit is closing through the center."

His voice starts guiding all of them.

The smoke took the eyes from three opponents and forced the fourth to see for them. My team is blind too.

That’s exactly what I wanted.

I lower my boot until it finds the furrow in the floor.

The mark Kraken opened runs under my sole, crossing the arena to Deep Echo. I don’t need to see him. I only have to follow the crack.

I start backing along it.

Freya appears in the smoke like a shadow made of ice. Every rotation of the scythe pushes the cloud away for an instant, revealing the wings before everything closes again.

I throw Kraken. It intercepts a strike and returns. I give up two more steps, keeping the furrow under my feet the whole way.

[Void Capacitor: 27%]

At the far end, Deep Echo’s plates pulse hard.

"Uncle Den is falling back along the center line."

Freya spreads the wings.

I feed the right boot again, letting the signature grow without leaving the furrow.

Deep Echo feels it.

The smoke turns around Freya as Pegasus Wrath begins to form.

"He’s standing still," Deep Echo shouts. "Directly in front of you. Go through him!"

The wings compress.

The ring of plates glows at the other end of the arena.

I’m between him and Freya, and Kraken’s furrow draws a single path.

The line is ready.

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