Novel Full Chapter 290: A Way
Chapter 290: A Way
Malakai focused on the blood churning through his body, feeling the rush, the peace, the quiet. Then, with the blade of vita stretching from his fist, he made a slight cut across his thumb.
Blood burst out from the wound, about to fall to the ground when it froze.
A smile appeared on Malakai’s face. The blood was out of his body, but he could still control it! His excitement peaked when he manipulated the drop away from his wound and around his body.
Just like the vita, unfortunately, he still had to maintain contact with the blood to control it. But Malakai wasn’t complaining. It meant there was a lot he could do with his blood now.
Malakai let out a deep exhale.
“Nyx.”
Nyx appeared in front of him, bowing. “Ninth vein.”
“I told you not to call me that again. Address me by my name.”
Malakai saw Nyx clench her fists. She avoided his gaze completely.
“B-but you’re my master. I can—”
“I am your master,” Malakai echoed. “Are you going to disobey my orders?”
Nyx bit her lip. “N-ninth vein—”
“Malakai.”
She finally raised her head, and her eyes met Malakai’s. He didn’t miss the storm of emotions raging in those eyes.
“I failed to protect you,” she said finally, lowering her eyes to the ground. Malakai’s silence added to the growing sadness radiating off from Nyx. It was only after some seconds that he spoke.
“Then do you want to fail again?”
His question caught Nyx off guard. She turned upward to look at him, confused.
“If this is how you’ll keep protecting me, then you’re only going to fail again. What will you do when another Bloom attacks? When you’re trapped inside another vita veil?”
Nyx couldn’t stop the water from welling up in her eyes. The words were harsh, but they were the truth.
She couldn’t think of any response. If it had been before the ambush, she would have claimed she would protect him. But after this failure, she’d lost her voice.
She had failed to protect the people she cherished in the past, and she had failed now. She was nothing but a failure. The tears streamed down her cheeks, about to drop, but Malakai’s words froze them in their tracks.
“I can tell you how never to fail again.”
Nyx’s eyes went wide. “H-how?” She almost forgot herself, taking a step toward Malakai.
“Make me stronger.”
Nyx looked confused, and Malakai decided to explain. “I’ll be blunt. As it is now, it’s impossible for you to completely protect me from my enemies. You’ll fail if you don’t change your approach.”
“Though Captain Rhett saved me in the end, the only reason I lasted until he arrived was because of my power. If I had been any weaker, I wouldn’t be here.”
Nyx’s expression had hardened. He had just reminded her how close he had been to dying. If he had died, she wasn’t sure she would be able to live with the failure.
“That’s the solution, Nyx. Make me stronger. If I’m strong, then during the brief period when you can’t protect me, I’ll be able to hold my own. It’s still protection, but in a different sense.”
“Make you stronger… how?”
Malakai’s eyes glinted. “Train with me. Teach me how to effectively manipulate blood, amongst other things.”
Malakai had always planned on involving Nyx in his training, but he hadn’t seen the use, until now. Receiving blood manipulation lessons from a Bloom… its value could not be stressed enough.
Malakai’s words seemed to have done the trick, as the gloom in Nyx’s eyes vanished, replaced by a new sense of purpose.
“Okay.” Nyx said firmly.
“Good.” Malakai nodded. “Let’s start with a light spar.”
Malakai blasted forward without warning, erasing the distance between them. His eyes flashed and his right arm rocketed forward, screaming toward Nyx. But before the attack could even near, Malakai found his world tilting.
His eyes widened as he turned and saw the ground surging toward him. He was falling! He glanced back at Nyx. She was still standing in the same spot, intense eyes focused on him.
He hadn’t even seen her move…
…
Riven was having one of the worst days of his life.
He considered himself someone oddly chilled. As long as he had his games and food, he could live forever, probably.
He didn’t need the outside world. The outside world didn’t need him. That had always been the deal.
But tonight, that philosophy had been shattered.
The man he considered even more useless than himself, Captain Rhett, had barged into his room and dragged him out of the base with barely a moment’s notice. No time to pack. No warning.
Most of his equipment had been left behind. Most importantly, his games.
Riven had nearly cried when Rhett told him they wouldn’t be returning. That the base was no longer ’safe’.
To hell with safety!
To hell with survival!
What wasn’t safe was separating him from his consoles.
He had barely formed five nodes, but he was sure he could take on a Bloom if it meant getting his things back.
All he needed was to figure out how to break the blood tether Rhett had locked onto him.
Rhett had dragged him into a club in the Kaer Thorn district. Loud. Crowded. Flashing lights.
It was everything Riven hated about existence.
Only when Rhett raised a vita veil, shutting out the noise and masking their booth, did Riven finally feel some control returning to his limbs.
“What the hell, Captain!? A club? A clu—”
In the next moment, his body froze once more. He couldn’t move an inch.
His eyes snapped toward Rhett and immediately, the rest of his words died in his throat.
The man’s expression had changed. The usual playful glint in his eyes was gone. Instead, Riven was staring into the face of a predator.
A real one.
“C-Captain?” he stammered.
Rhett didn’t answer at first. He simply leaned forward, gaze sharp, deadly serious.
“I need to know if this is possible…”
And then he began to explain everything.
The attack. The ambush. Malakai. The lifeguard system.
Riven listened in silence, which was unusual. Not because he understood everything right away, but because the dread building inside him was growing with every word Rhett spoke.
And by the time Rhett was done, only one thought echoed through Riven’s mind…
They were screwed.