Rivers of the Night - Chapter 255

Chapter 255: Coming
Theron shot forward like a stream. Nothing else in the world felt relevant to him, as though he had embodied the very same essence of carefreeness and grit that the Alpha had.

BANG!

His leg compressed the already cracked ground beneath him, the shattered shards of what had once been the ceiling sparking with hues of sparkling yellow and gold.

The lightning licked at his ankles, riding up his body, only to be dispersed by his water into whips in the air.

[Water Wrap].

Halder found himself surrounded by snaking arms of lightning. He thought he only had one opponent to deal with from the front, but suddenly he was being attacked from three sides at once.

Theron’s steps didn’t stop for a moment as Halder slammed his feet into the ground, entering a deep stance. Two walls of earth were practically ejected from the ground, a resonant hum of sound forming between them that matched the frequency of the hammers in his hands.

The Captain raised his hammers high into the air, their blunt forms trembling so viciously they turned deep shades of red as they descended from above.

They superheated the air, steam and flashing eruptions of boiling water vapor emitting from them as he swung down with all his might.

Theron’s eyes narrowed, his forefoot’s toes pressing into the ground as he launched himself upward. Just as the hammers were about to turn him to minced meat, a [Water Wrap] that had been hidden behind him pulled at his waist, launching him to the side and out of the way.

BOOM!

The Captain slammed his hammers into the ground, a pair of trenches ripping up what was left of the sullied battleground, forming an array of continuous spikes that ripped at the wind as though even the air itself wasn’t worthy of surviving before its might.

The maneuver Theron made to dodge didn’t shock the Captain at all. At least he thought he was well prepared for it.

The moment his spikes began to elongate through the ground, they curved with menace, jetting right toward Theron’s landing location. The closer they got, the sharper they seemed to get. And by this point, the resonating hue of the hammers had vanished, meaning they could have only been in one place…

Underground.

The earth was ready to explode with all that energy the moment Theron touched down.

Unfortunately, Halder had forgotten about the [Water Whips] from earlier.

He wasn’t exactly at fault. He was a Gold Mancer and [Water Whip] was a Bronze Resonance technique. The fact he had put up defenses at all was already giving Theron too much credit, and in part due to his caution toward the lightning.

But it wasn’t enough caution.

The [Water Whips] burst before they even contacted the walls of earth, raining down sparkling droplets arching with golden lightning. It was a gorgeous sight, the sort that artists dreamed of being able to recreate.

The dancing mists of blue and the almost sputtering sparks of gold played off of one another in beautiful choreography… a choreography that landed on Halder’s body and froze him in place for just a moment.

Theron landed on the ground just the instant Halder lost control of his trenches of spiked earth. They curved away from him, losing their trajectory, but he had never given them the slightest glance from the very start.

The instant the tips of his toes landed on the ground, he accelerated forward. His hair lengthened into streams of violet, blue, and pinks, each color as delicate as cotton, and as mesmerizing as a fairy tale.

Having already thrown himself to the side, the walls that Halder erected became the obstructions to the latter’s own vision. The instant Theron entered Veinsong and activated his Immortal Jellyfish Echo to the greatest extent, he seemed to have vanished within the misting rain of the accumulating Tribulation above.

Halder didn’t stand a chance.

He deployed his Third Eye on instinct, trying to track Theron’s movements. While his body was frozen, if he could just budge his Mana just the slightest bit, he might be able to delay Theron enough that he would protect his life.

Unfortunately for him, what he caught in his Third Eye wasn’t Theron, but instead a [Water Clone].

Its creation was so seamless, so perfectly timed, that Halder didn’t register the difference. He had been too distracted by the sparking lightning, and never could he have considered the fact that Theron had learned to control lightning like this long ago in a battle against a mere Silver Mancer.

And now it would become Halder’s undoing.

Theron rounded to Halder’s back as the latter managed to scrounge up the slightest sliver of Mana, raising a wall of earth to block the path of the [Water Clone].

His gaze was deathly cold, streaks of white, frosting fog emitting from their corners, only broken by the streaks of violet, blue, and pinks that seemed to fuse right into it.

Theron’s short sword blade glowed with life and vitality, with sharpness and deadly intent. The two contrasting ideals played off of one another, embodying a dance of both yin and yang that pulled on the very polarity of Theron’s Water Mana itself.

He could feel it to the depths of his soul, the truths behind deepening his Resonances, of reaching a state beyond what he had reached now.

Die.

His thought was akin to a command coming from the skies themselves. As though sensing its dignity being impugned, the clouds rumbled, but it did nothing to slow Theron’s blade.

His calves flexed, his feet becoming akin to springs as he rounded the corner of the earthen wall.

In that moment, his body seemed to become a blur of deathly intent.

Chi.

He appeared before Captain Halder, a steaming, frosty breath coming from his lips.

Suddenly seeing a back before him, the Captain didn’t know how to react. And he was even more confused as the relatively short Theron only became taller and taller in his vision…

Plop.

When… had his head hit the ground? Had he fallen?

That was Halder’s last thought as his skull rolled to a stop by the side.

Theron stood in silence, not even looking toward the Alpha as the clouds rumbled again.

Sparking gold swirled about.

It was coming…

BOOM!