Thirstfall - Memory of a Returnee

The shield crosses the smoke.

Deep Echo hears the chain and tries to give ground, but Undertow hits the floor beside his leg and tips on the return, sealing the lane. The Battle Ribbon comes in from the opposite direction and wraps his forearm before he can find another route.

Oliver enters the open space with Motorhead at his hip.

White Wake reacts to the sound of his steps. Her spear punches through the smoke toward his ribs, fast enough to reach him before the hammer finishes its arc.

Rhayne touches the left earring.

The signature locked to Veric releases.

[Moondrop Aegis — Target reassigned.]

[Assigned Target: Oliver Kaminski.]

The violet shell closes around Oliver.

The spear point meets the barrier and stops without touching his armor. The defensive surface ripples under the impact, but Oliver doesn’t even shorten his stride. Motorhead runs a short arc and lands in the center of Deep Echo’s chest.

Rahul’s support leaves the ground and drops outside the smoke, rolling among the fragments of his own plates.

[DEEP ECHO — INCAPACITATED]

Oliver has been a gentle man ever since he walked out of that subway. I felt him pull the strike before it landed. Otherwise he’d have killed the man.

Split Fang appears beside Rhayne before she can reel the Battle Ribbon in. Both daggers come at once, hunting the gaps under her arms.

She touches the other earring.

The second shell forms around her body.

Split Fang hits the barrier at full speed. It rejects him and throws his own momentum back at him. He skids across the floor while the two stones in her earrings lose their glow.

White Wake pulls the spear off Oliver’s barrier and attacks again.

Veric is alone.

He hauls Undertow in by the chain and jumps with the shield’s return, catching it midair. Then he throws himself at White Wake like a comet. The center of the shield finds the spear’s shaft, and the weight of his body shoves her into Motorhead’s range.

She spins the weapon in one continuous motion, cracks the butt end against Undertow, and goes for Veric’s knee. The shield drops to contain the strike. The spear point pulls back to her side.

Veric sees Oliver closing in behind her.

If he gives ground, White Wake recovers the room to spin and turns Motorhead aside again.

He keeps his feet where they are.

He turns his face toward me for an instant. "Wager your life. That’s what you said, right?"

"Veric—"

White Wake thrusts.

"Achilles Justice!"

She fakes a straight thrust, changes her grip, and drives the spear in like a harpoon.

Veric turns his torso to protect center mass, but takes the spear under his arm. The point goes through the outer layer of his armor and drops him onto one knee.

He doesn’t let go of the weapon.

His arm closes over the shaft, and Undertow’s chain coils around it. The shield falls on the far side, dragging the spear down and pinning White Wake in place.

She tries to tear it free. "Let go!"

Veric lets go of the shield’s chain. He has no breath left to answer her.

Oliver raises Motorhead.

White Wake uses what little travel the shaft has left to strike the side of the hammer, repeating the defense that already worked once. Oliver’s blow drives through the shaft, and the spear sinks deeper into Veric’s body.

Oliver doesn’t resist the deflection. He lets the head ride it. His lead hand loosens, his body turns with it, and Motorhead runs a full circle around his shoulders.

"Motorhead!"

The hammer’s head splits open with a burst of propulsion that wakes at the end of the rotation.

Veric rips the spear out and falls to the side.

Motorhead lands in the center of White Wake’s armor.

This time he doesn’t pull anything. She’s thrown into the barrier faster than I can measure. When she hits, she drops to her knees, plainly knocked out, her limbs bent at angles that don’t belong on a body.

[WHITE WAKE — INCAPACITATED]

Oliver runs to Veric, but the prince waves his hand off and stays down, pressing a hand over the wound in his side.

"That’s two, Bone Crusher," he says, getting his breath back.

Oliver rests Motorhead on his shoulder and looks at the two still standing. "It isn’t over yet."

Freya is already on her feet.

Ice fragments gather at her shoulders, trying to rebuild Permafrost. The new wings are still short and unstable, nowhere near enough to carry Pegasus Wrath, but the scythe keeps turning between her hands.

I pull another LDP.

[OXI: 982 / 2,500]

I drink without taking my eyes off her.

[OXI: 982 → 1,632 / 2,500]

Kraken vibrates in my hand, ready to move.

I need something else.

When I try to put it away, the greatsword goes heavy on me. The eye on the pommel turns toward where Eventide sits in storage.

"You cleared the way. Now I need the voices."

Kraken resists a moment longer before it disappears. The vibration it leaves in my fingers feels sullen.

Eventide takes its place.

The dark blade wakes, and the murmurs start before I even trigger the skill. They understand me. They’re hungry.

"Memory of Lightwaves."

Golden smoke escapes from my eyes.

The voices cross my mind. Old hands adjust my grip. Other feet find purchase through mine. Each memory watches a different part of Freya: the heel that carries the rotation, the fingers that loosen before she switches hands, the shoulder that gives away the next direction.

[Void Capacitor: 84% → 91%]

Freya attacks.

The scythe comes in low, builds speed along the floor, and rises toward my ribs. Eventide doesn’t take the impact. I slide along the inside of the arc, guided by a voice that recognized the shift in her base before it happened.

Another rotation follows.

’The back foot.’

I change my base.

’She’s switching hands.’

Eventide touches the shaft and leaves before the weight of the strike transfers.

[Void Capacitor: 96%]

The incomplete Permafrost structures grow behind Freya. She draws the scythe back for the next strike, trying to recover the force Duvilin tore out of her.

I raise Eventide above my shoulder.

Freya reads the posture and sets the weapon to receive a diagonal cut.

"You know you can’t block this, Freya. Give it up."

"I’d rather die here, Dryden."

"Then you’ve made your choice. Codex Art Number One — Hope."

I move in.

She brings the scythe into the line of the strike.

"Permafrost!" she answers.

The last voice speaks inside my head.

’Now.’

Instead of fighting for force, I flatten the cut. Eventide passes along the inside of the scythe at the exact moment Freya’s lead hand loosens to transfer the weapon. The blade goes through the layer of ice on the shaft and severs the Permafrost flow feeding the new wings.

The structures come apart behind her.

I step into the empty space before the rotation can start again. Eventide rises and stops against her neck.

[Void Capacitor: 99%]

Freya looks at the blade, then at me. Her fingers open, and the scythe falls.

"I surrender."

[FROST VALKYRIE — DEFEATED]

Split Fang picks that moment.

Rhayne is alone, down on one knee, blood marking her eyes and her lips. The earrings have lost their glow. Her eyes are fighting to stay open, maybe fighting to stay hers.

Veric is still wounded, Oliver is beside him, and I still have Eventide at Freya’s neck.

"Phantom Steps!"

The dash detonates across the floor. He vanishes for an instant.

The daggers drive toward Rhayne.

She doesn’t retreat.

The shadow under her feet opens.

"Void Monarch."

The darkness closes over Split Fang’s path. His speed disappears the instant he enters the field. The daggers stop a few centimeters from Rhayne while the OXI sustaining the dash is torn out of his body.

The Battle Ribbon moves inside the shadow and binds his arms.

[Void Capacitor: 99% → 58%]

The shell tries to grow. Rhayne closes her fingers.

The edges obey and compress over Split Fang.

[Void Capacitor: 58% → 4%]

He falls unconscious as the darkness disappears.

[SPLIT FANG — INCAPACITATED]

Rhayne stays upright one more second.

Then she goes down.

[BALLERINA — INCAPACITATED]

I get there in time to catch her before she hits the floor. The shadow doesn’t come back. Her breathing stays steady.

The judge raises his arm.

[TEAM ONE — VICTORY]

The stands erupt all at once. On the screens, the name Bone Crusher appears beside two eliminations.

I look at Oliver.

He’s kneeling next to Veric, still holding his teammate up. He doesn’t celebrate. He just finds my eyes and tips his head.

Rahul’s voice comes over the COMM.

"Mr. Sands. Stay where you are."

I look up at the tower.

He’s still standing, his hand closed around the glass cane. The hospitality is gone from his face.

The fight is over, and the barrier hasn’t come down.

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