Thirstfall - Memory of a Returnee-Chapter 39: Touch

I brace myself to move, my mind already running the brutal, unforgiving math of my survival.

Thirty seconds. That’s the absolute maximum amount of time I can keep Eventide ignited before this Rank-F body runs completely dry and my heart stops.

If I don’t synchronize this perfectly, if I miss a single step in this dance, we are all dead before the water settles.

A weak tug on the hem of my leather jacket breaks my concentration.

I glance down.

Rhayne is kneeling beside me. Her hands are shaking, hovering in the air with the agonizing reluctance of a timid child who knows she has to touch a hot stove.

I stare at her, confused and impatient. Behind us, the Reef Stalker lets out another sinister, guttural roar.

The beast is done waiting.

I look at the towering monster, then back at the girl.

I don’t have time for this.

But then, Rhayne bites her lip and slowly pulls off her thick, industrial leather gloves. She reaches up, her bare, trembling fingers reaching for my face.

I freeze. Every survival instinct forged over a decade in the Deep screams at me to pull away, to draw a blade, to not let the infamous "Leech" touch my bare skin.

But my eyes lock onto hers.

The storm-cloud gray of her irises is completely calm now, inviting and profoundly sad. I search her face for malice, for a trap, for the hunger of a parasite.

I find nothing but desperate sincerity.

The System isn’t unfair, I remind myself. It’s cruel, but it always balances the scales.

I want to understand her "curse." I need to know what she really is. So, against every rational thought in my head, I stay perfectly still and let her touch my cheek.

The moment her skin makes contact, my blood seems to vanish from my veins.

A profound, suffocating cold violently washes over me. It feels exactly as if my soul is being physically siphoned out through my pores, dragged into an endless, dark well.

I grit my teeth so hard my jaw aches, locking every muscle in my body. I refuse to flinch. I won’t give her a reaction that condemns her, and I sure as hell won’t show weakness in front of a Vanguard.

Rhayne offers a small, fragile smile.

"I understand you... somehow," she whispers, her voice barely carrying over the rushing waterfall.

A golden alert violently pulses on my HUD.

[System Alert: Link Established.]

[Void Catalyst tuned to Host Soul.]

[Void Resonance at 30%.]

I check my reserves immediately. My OXI is draining. It’s slow—about one point every three seconds—but it’s a constant, steady leak.

Why? I ask myself, the tactical side of my brain spinning. What is the point of this? A slow bleed in the middle of a warzone isn’t a buff. It’s a liability. There has to be a hidden variable.

Rhayne seems to read the heavy doubt shadowing my eyes. She drops her hand, her gaze turning fierce.

"Trust me," she urges softly. "Go..."

I look at her, really look at her, and for a fleeting second, the image overlays with the ghost of my past self. I see the same desperate, misunderstood rat who just needed one person to bet on him.

I give her a single, firm nod.

I turn my focus back to the battlefield. The veteran spirit inside me is burning with curiosity. I want to test this Link. I want to see exactly how deep this void goes.

I break into a dead sprint toward the gleaming Vanguard. I grip the unlit hilt of Eventide tight in my right hand.

"Veric! Shield on me!" I roar over the splashing water.

Veric spares me a frantic, incredulous glance. "What the hell are you going to do with that broken sword, Sands?!"

I ignore the question and launch myself directly at him.

To his credit, Veric’s combat instincts override his arrogance. He understands the play instantly. Cursing under his breath, he drops his stance, awkwardly angling the massive face of his tower shield upward like a makeshift ramp.

As my boots hit the heavy steel, Veric heaves upward with every ounce of his monstrous Rank-D strength.

"Crazy bastard!" he grunts, catapulting me into the air.

I ride the momentum, executing a tight front flip that sends me sailing clean over the Reef Stalker’s massive, shifting form.

The beast’s milky shark eyes track my trajectory, its bifurcated jaw snapping at the empty air where my legs just were.

It prepares to pivot and swat me out of the sky, but Veric doesn’t give it the chance. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

With a deafening battle cry, Veric hurls his tower shield directly at the Stalker’s head. The heavy metal slams into the beast’s skull with a sickening crunch, drawing its full, enraged aggro.

But the shield doesn’t fall to the dirt.

A thick, magically reinforced chain spools out from a mechanism mounted on Veric’s heavy gauntlet. With a sharp yank of his arm, the heavy shield snaps right back to his grip like a lethal, oversized yo-yo.

I hit the shallow pool on the other side of the monster, landing hard on my knees. The water splashes violently around me, but I don’t lose a fraction of a second. I fire off the blocks from a low crouch, my head down, delivering every ounce of power my fragile Rank-F body can muster.

I sprint straight toward the four ambushers who are still groggily trying to push themselves out of the avalanche debris.

I lock onto the closest one. He’s still dazed, shaking his head.

I thumb the ignition on my hilt.

Eventide hums to life. But it isn’t the usual suppressed hiss. The violent, deep resonance of the shadow-blade displaces the shallow pool around me, kicking up a wall of water like a jet turbine.

Instantly, the math clicks in my head. I feel the flow of energy. I understand exactly what Rhayne’s skill is.

She isn’t a leech. She’s a void capacitor. The slow drain on my OXI was her establishing a buffer—a massive, empty reservoir that absorbs and stabilizes extreme mana costs.

A cruel, predatory smile stretches across my face.

Thank you, Rhayne.

I close the distance in a second. I drop my shoulder and deliver a brutal, upward slash, carving a path from the water straight up to the sky.

The impossibly dense shadow of Eventide tears through the air, parting the waterfall spray like a curtain. It meets the cadet’s leather armor and bites through it with zero resistance. I bisect him vertically in one clean, horrifyingly fluid motion.

The moment his body splits, the escape flask on his belt shatters.

The crimson pillar of light erupts into the canopy, accompanied by the immediate, deafening wail of the weeping whale.

Live bait? I think, staring at the dissipating gore with absolute disgust.

Unforgivable.

I quickly check my HUD as I reset my stance.

[OXI: 997/1,200]

My smile widens into something truly dangerous. Eventide usually burns 30 OXI per second. Right now, it’s sipping fuel. Rhayne’s Link is eating the weapon’s catastrophic upkeep cost—a solid 21 OXI per second.

Behind me, Veric lets out a booming laugh.

"I knew it! You’re the best investment I could make, Sands!"

"If you have time to talk, you should focus on the Reef Stalker!" I bark back without looking at him.

Right on cue, the Stalker lunges at Veric with terrifying speed.

Veric triggers Azure Dividends again. Another absurd, concussive explosion rocks the ravine as the kinetic force is absorbed by his glowing armor. Veric grunts, trying to counter-attack by thrusting his sword toward the beast’s exposed mouth.

But the Stalker is too fast.

It fluidly weaves past the blade, deflecting the heavy steel with its dense, coral-plated shoulder.

The harsh red light of the beacon and the deafening noise of Veric’s clash act like a bucket of ice water on the remaining ambushers.

The three surviving cadets violently shake off their daze, scrambling to their feet in the rushing water with their weapons drawn.

I narrow my eyes, analyzing the threat board.

One swordsman. One mage. One support.

Three on one. And I finally have a blade I can afford to swing.