Rivers of the Night-Chapter 313: No Matter

Chapter 313: No Matter

Theron’s feet landed on the waters of his moat. He looked down at the rippling waters as though he couldn’t sense the armies approaching from a distance.

There was something particularly serene to him about the movement of the small waves, especially as they reflected the false moonlight above.

This was a Secret Realm and not the real world. Otherwise, he would have felt it even more strongly.

However… there was a shifting and changing in the moon jade in his spatial ring that he could feel quite clearly.

The world faded to him—the rumbling of the earth, the swaying of the wind, even the Mana in the air itself faded to the call of the waters beneath his feet.

One slight ripple after another began to hum, and soon it became obvious that the ripples were extending far beyond what could have been caused by Theron’s landing. Logically, the stream should have long calmed, but instead, it had entered a rhythmic trance all its own.

No… not its own.

One that followed the hollow beat of Theron’s heart, as though the two were meant to match one another, the latter forming the foundation, and the former forging the life’s blood that ran through it.

Slowly, Theron looked up, his steely blue eyes devoid of emotion. The chilliness in his gaze had vanished, and even the anger in his heart seemed to have vanished.

When he took a breath and exhaled, a cold blue came from his lips, practically causing a frost to form over their soft pink flesh.

There was a slight sway in his hair, and soon the world seemed to completely fade away. It was no longer just the sound, but even the sights.

The fake moon above was the first to go, and then the darkened skies. Then came the forests ahead and the puppets that rampaged their way through.

Finally, there were just three things remaining.

The stream beneath his feet.

The Water Mana in the air.

And Chopra.

Theron took a step forward.

He didn’t give any commands—he simply didn’t care to. He had given them more than enough to protect themselves. If they couldn’t do this now, then they wouldn’t be worthy of the moniker of genius even within the confines of a small corner of the Nightingale Empire, let alone worthy to hold that name over the entire province itself.

His palms flipped up, and his dagger and short sword vibrated in their sheaths. A Resonance was formed with them, and they unsheathed themselves, flying into Theron’s palms with a dull slap that was drowned in the silence.

All at once, Chopra felt his hair blow back. He had only just laid eyes on Theron, the darkness obscuring his vision for a moment. But the instant he did, he went from feeling nothing at all to feeling all the hairs on his body standing on end.

Every thought he had of boredom, of indifference, flew out the window, a suffocating air pressing down on him.

Instinctually, he pulled out his spear, his forearm flexing and his crimson eyes growing focused.

He didn’t even have time to register just how it was Theron had controlled his weapons like that before the latter appeared before him.

The puppets didn’t seem capable of stopping Theron for even a moment—he practically floated right by them, the swings of their weapons passing through his body as though he were nothing more than a mirage.

One blade after another rippled across his skin, and it was only Chopra alone that could tell he had already cast several spells in the time it took him to cross the distance.

No… he had already filled this region with a great amount of mist, taking advantage of the humidity of the night. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

BANG!

Theron caught the thrust of Chopra’s blade with a backhanded grip of his dagger. His arm trembled for just the slightest moment before he pressed it up, launching Chopra’s guard and polearm into the air.

Chopra managed to maintain his grip, but it hardly mattered when Theron had taken another step forward, his short sword attacking in a thrust of its own.

There wasn’t the slightest wasted movement, one flowing into the next. Every breath Theron took seemed to come with an exhale that only pooled more Water Mana into the air.

Chi.

A slash cut across Chopra’s chest. He tried to take a step back, but he was still slightly late, his robes slicing in two and a protective armor stopping his ribcage from following the same fate.

Theron felt his wrist tremble beneath the reverberating impact, but there was a slight ripple in his arm as the Water Mana in his body reacted.

[Shedding Water Skin]

Tides formed across Theron’s body, small waves and twisting cyclones playing on a miniature surface as thin as the layer of his skin. They worked and played into one another, reabsorbing the Water Mana that was reflected at Theron seamlessly.

In that instant of time, Theron got all the information about Chopra’s inner armor and the kind of protective mechanisms it came with, his steely cool gaze reading the Runes that made it up in a breath.

Soul Mancer.

He grasped Chopra’s real Mancy Path. The trouble was that the Runes that made up the inner armor were unlike any Theron had ever seen before. The good news was that…

It didn’t matter.

Theron already knew what he was up against.

Before the impact to his wrist was even dispersed, he had already set out a follow-up kick to the side of Chopra’s knee. The man’s leg buckled, but he swung down his spear with full force, his Mana churning in an attempt to gain a chance to make some distance and counter.

Theron didn’t bite, and he didn’t blink. His dagger slid up the length of the polearm for added leverage, his backhand grip on his short sword coming across in a hooking punch to Chopra’s face.

The “Sangun’s” head snapped to the side as though cosplaying a whip, teeth and blood flying out as the weight of the water coating Theron’s hand increased substantially.