Thirstfall - Memory of a Returnee-Chapter 41: Pattern Break

I can’t stop running the numbers on Rhayne’s skill.

Not the tactical numbers. Those are simple, elegant, broken in my favor. It’s the other math that keeps me awake—the human cost equation I can’t balance.

A class designed to absorb the suffering of others and internalize it as physical damage.

Not a curse on others.

A curse for others.

The System gave her a skill that turns her own body into a price tag for someone else’s survival.

No wonder she snapped.

In my past life, the woman they called "Void Monarch" detonated everything around her—continents, alliances, people. I remember thinking she was a monster.

Everyone did.

But now, sitting here watching the dried blood crack on her chin while she struggles, I am forced to ask a question I never bothered to ask the first time around:

How many years did she bleed for strangers before she decided to stop?

"Oh, shit..." Focus, Dryden.

I look back at the Reef Stalker; the beast is already coiled to strike again. I shoot one last glance at Rhayne and whisper, "Just hang on a little longer."

Heavy combat boots splash hard through the water behind me. I shift into a fighting stance. I don’t need to look to know it’s Veric.

"Ready?" I ask.

Veric wipes his mouth with his forearm. He just finished choking down scales and drinking dirty water straight from the ground.

"Ready when you are," he replies.

I can’t pass up the opportunity to jab at him. "For a noble, you drink floor water like a champ..."

"Shut up," Veric snaps, moving up to draw the monster’s aggro.

I tap my comms twice. A quiet double-click answers back. Good. Lola’s still in position somewhere above the ravine.

In the next second, the beast triggers its cloak. It’s done playing around.

Shit. Now it gets serious.

We only see a blur distorting the colors behind it, like an invisible sheet of moving glass shifting in front of our eyes. The air pulls taut.

I focus on the splashes in the water, tracking the trail of green blood leaking from its injured paw.

Suddenly, the water erupts. The Reef Stalker lunges with everything it has.

Veric triggers Azure Dividends, but his body is already wrecked. He takes the charge head-on. The sound of his knees and arms giving out is sickening.

I sprint at the Stalker, drawing Eventide and preparing to strike its flank.

The blade sings furiously.

Veric coughs up blood, his arms trembling, legs buckling as he drops to his knees. The beast swats him away like trash right after the impact.

I drop into a slide tackle, aiming for the abdomen. The beast’s eel-like tail sweeps at me strong enough for a beheading, perfectly anticipating my move.

I abandon the gut shot and strike the tail instead to parry. I slide right under the monster at full speed, scrambling back onto my feet.

Blood drips from the monster’s tail.

Okay, maybe I can pull this off.

I glance at Veric. He’s down, struggling to rise, but his body just can’t take anymore.

I’m alone.

And yet, I realize my body is moving better than it should, even without an evolution.

I should have taken that tail swipe right in the teeth, even with all my past-life experience. So why didn’t I?

A groan from Rhayne, followed by the wet sound of her spitting blood, snags my attention.

I need to hurry, or we’re all dying in this puddle. What’s the play?

Then it clicks. Something I hadn’t fully grasped until now.

The stalker begins to advance toward me.

I close my eyes.

Absorbing Echoes comes with a cost. But it also comes with a perk.

[Memory of Lightwaves: Skill activated.]

My eyes snap open, burning golden-yellow. It hits my nervous system all at once. I don’t get their memories or their spells this time. I get the ghosts in my muscles.

The dead Flow Cartographer’s spatial awareness instantly maps the wet rocks under my boots.

Not a skill, just instinct.

Reflexes carved into the bones of dead swordsmen fire through my own frayed nerves, automatically correcting my grip on Eventide.

I don’t even have to think.

I launch myself at the Stalker. The beast swings a wide, sweeping paw, but my hijacked instincts pivot my body smoothly, dodging it entirely. I slash its left shoulder. The monster follows up instantly with a crushing overhead strike. I roll underneath it, slicing across its abdomen.

I see blood.

Too shallow...

The monster snaps its jaws, trying to rip my head off. I deflect it with Eventide, carving a bloody gash across the Reef Stalker’s face and nicking its eye. The stalker leaps several feet backward, letting out a deep, guttural, exhausted roar.

"Now, Lola," I say into the comms, advancing slowly, calculating the perfect safe distance.

The ravine lights up instantly. A supersonic crack whips past me, nailing the Reef Stalker dead on. An explosion erupts, throwing rocks, fire, and scalding steam everywhere.

Oh ho... Looks like she actually hit it this time.

I break into a full sprint. I can’t see through the steam, but I can feel the patterns in the wind pressure, the subtle shifts signaling an attack.

I’m just about to reach the monster when the steam suddenly clears. The stalker is hurt, but it wrapped its heavy tail around itself as a shield, drastically mitigating the damage.

My stomach drops. I’m already too close to abort the charge. A warning flashes across my vision.

[HUD: OXI 30%]

I vault off a nearby rock to boost my vertical momentum. Capitalizing on the monster’s defensive crouch, I decide to go straight for the beast’s heart, right below the trachea.

The Reef Stalker suddenly drops its guard, opening itself up while I’m still airborne. I can’t process the monster’s play. Suicide? Impossible. This thing is an Apex predator.

The Reef Stalker launches upward with everything it has left, headbutting me squarely in the chest in mid-air. I hear my ribs crack right before I’m launched backward.

The monster broke its own attack pattern. Something I’ve never seen it do before. I fly through the air and crash hard into the shallow water, barely able to feel my own body.

My vision swims. I look at Rhayne—unconscious, bleeding out. Veric is screaming words I can’t understand. And the Reef Stalker is already looming over me, jaws unhinged, ready to eat my face off.

The HUD blinks with an imminent threat warning.

[OXI: 92/1200]

[Fatal Injuries Sustained]

[Critical Trauma Detected]

[Undergoing Critical Organ Failure]