Those doubts wrapped around me tighter and tighter until they strangled me, but even that didn’t stop the flow of the corruption.It felt as though only a few moments passed before the corruption slowed and stopped, all of it emptied from the cube and into me.It no longer hummed with that energy signature, telling me I’d drained it.
A low whistle had me spinning, fear beating at me after all the thoughts that had tumbled around in my skull.Instead of my past, instead of the terrors that lurked in my mind, I found only the nurse staring at me, her gaze moving between her watch and me.
“Forty-two seconds,” she said, frowning as though she couldn’t believe it.
Then again, given that the average for my rank was five minutes, I’d beat it by four minutes and some change.I hadn’t intended to show it up that far, but that didn’t change anything.
The look she gave me said she wasn’t impressed, but rather suspicious.
Yeah, great job making friends…
Chapter Thirty-Six
Shear
I closed my eyes against the pain in my head, the sharp, stabbing sensation that reached deeper than physical pain.It felt like an attack on my psyche itself, something I wanted to yank away from but knew better than to attempt.
Resistance always proved fruitless.It never got me where I wanted to go and just increased the amount I suffered.
So I didn’t try to stop that clawing sensation in my head, the one spawned from a debuffer putting up a shield to stop mentalists from fiddling around in anyone’s head.It wasn’t just a matter of not using my powers, however, it also affected my brain.It sizzled through my gray matter, causing that agony.
Ihatedwhen they pitted us against each other.
Fighting monsters or dealing with civilians was one thing.I could do that anytime without a problem.
Fighting against other espers always took me backward, reminded me of the years I spent training.All I had wanted back then wassomeoneto trust, to rely on, but Obsidian had made it clear that wasn’t a luxury afforded to espers.
It meant when this training camp pitted us against each other, it turned my stomach.They wanted us to learn to work together, but decided to make us enemies instead?
I could almost hear Carter in my ear telling me they weren’t doing that, that friendly competition would help people bond.
I knew the truth, though, because I couldhearit all in the heads of the civilians who watched over us.
They wanted to see how far they could push us, wanted to see what we could do and had a morbid fascination.
Civilians always did, in my experience.
It took me back to Obsidian, back to when I’d been nothing but a science experiment for them, too young to control my reactions, to know how to handle it.
I wasn’t a child anymore, though.
“Debuffer?”Ingram asked from beside me, all of us in a large gymnasium, the lights turned so low and a lack of windows making it nearly impossible to see anything.
I nodded.“Rank-S putting out an anti-mentalist blanket.”
Ingram glanced away, his eyes catching the stray light to make them almost glow.“Near the back.Got him.”He didn’t have to tell me what he planned to do—I never had to fear that Ingram wouldn’t handle problems.
He was difficult and broken, but loyal.
He disappeared, the darkness closing in on me, the blindness almost terrifying.It stole my most trusted and relied upon sense from me, plunged me into a void where I couldn’t understand the world around me.The lack of light mattered so much less to me than losing my abilities.
Few debuffers had the strength to put me in such a state.The fact that they’d found one unnerved me.
However, this wasourrank test, not the other squad’s, so that meant the Guild would pick the perfect people able to counter us.
I had no idea where Kenyon or Carter were within the space, unable to sense them, unable to see them.My vision was the same as a civilian’s, my other senses and skills no better than any human.
It meant I had no idea what exactly they were doing, but history had taught me they had things well in hand.If only I could get rid of this horrid pain…
