Rivers of the Night - Chapter 293

Chapter 293: Best [Bonus]
[Bonus courtesy of vokayroK <3]

Theron moved with a confident grace, moving down the hallways he had only just measured with ease. A string of assassins followed after him, their figures flashing as well. This was something that they had to see.

The path that Theron was using to get to the gathering arena was novel to them, but as far as they could tell, this was, indeed, getting them closer.

Plus, Theron was someone who had never been seen in the guild before today. The fact that he would have paths to take that they weren’t used to frequenting made perfect sense.

However, what none of them expected was that while Theron was walking down a corridor, he would step on something.

It was subtle, so much so that none of them noticed until it was too late.

With a flash, Theron disappeared.

But the burly assassin was gone too.

…

The blue moon hung high and whole in the skies. Partially hidden behind long strings of clouds, it almost seemed to sway as though trapped in an optical illusion, silent but ever-present.

Theron appeared in a familiar ruin, the burly assassin at his back about three steps away. But he made no attempt to move toward him.

A chuckle came from the sweet voice.

“What? Did you come to kill me? I have to admit, you are a little clever, but how will you deal with the others? Are you even so sure that you can kill me? You’re quite confident for a little child.”

Theron didn’t respond, looking up at the moon with a calmness to him. He really did feel so much stronger beneath it, maybe almost as strong as when there was rain.

He wondered how he would feel beneath the full moonlight and a heavy rain… maybe it would be like that night he massacred so many of the nobles of the Imperial Capital.

There was a flash past Theron’s eyes as a ripple of something moved, and then he finally took a step forward, looking back at the high-tier Gold Assassin.

“This will be our Dagger Call,” Theron said calmly.

“This? How will anyone know whether you were lying or not?”

“It’ll be convenient when I bring your head back.”

The Gold Assassin paused for a moment and erupted into laughter.

“This is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard in my life—”

Theron moved, unsheathing his short sword.

The Gold Assassin’s eyes had already sharpened, paying attention to the line of attack Theron was taking and surging forward as well. However, at the last minute, Theron pivoted, and a ghastly wound was cut across the Gold Assassin’s arm.

Blood spurted as what looked like an invisible ripple of wind sliced his shoulder delt in two, tearing much of his robes to pieces and revealing him.

The Gold Assassin barely managed to dodge the same fate for his face, but Theron had already appeared to his other side, and suddenly it felt like he was being attacked from two sides at once.

Theron’s blade flashed, but as the Gold Mancer moved to meet him, he shifted again, his body becoming a stream as he slipped and dodged.

The Gold Assassin didn’t dare to pursue as easily this time and could only watch as Theron weaved in and out of attack range, dancing on the edge of life and death along with him.

The gap in power was so great that a single mistake on Theron’s part would lose him his life, but the same was unfortunately true for the Gold Assassin as well.

By the fifth exchange between the two of them, Theron’s blade lightly tapped across the twin pair of daggers the Gold Assassin had just taken out.

Every time it seemed Theron was going to go for an all-out attack, he would just pull back in the end. However, the Gold Assassin had no choice but to take every one of them seriously for fear of what might happen if he didn’t.

If Theron really did have a treasure strong enough to increase his perception of spatial tears when he wasn’t even a Space Mancer, then what other treasures might he have on hand?

To the Gold Assassin’s credit, the conclusion was correct, even if the premise wasn’t. His caution was what was saving him from losing his head to Theron’s father’s short sword.

It was just unfortunate that it didn’t matter.

Theron might not have been doing damage personally, but every attack was like another chess move.

Step by step, the Gold Assassin was suffering one wound after another, some as light as paper cuts, and others like bloody executioner blades running through his flesh.

He held on valiantly, trying to move as little as possible so he could just get a chance to deal a death blow to Theron and slowly work his way out of here…

But it was never enough.

It was never going to be enough.

**

The confusion of the Gold Assassins became serious quite quickly. They might not have been Space Mancers, but they could feel a fluctuation of it when it came. Maybe if the burly assassin had some time, given his high cultivation, he could slowly worm his way out of the trap that was the spatial storm even, but…

There was another flash, and the assassins felt their hearts constrict as a short figure appeared once again.

The sound of blood dripping to the ground echoed, a hand seemingly as large as one of Theron’s thighs being held silently in his hand.

“Alright. I think we can all be on the same page now that the annoyances are out of the way.”

Theron tossed the head to the side, letting it plop to the stony ground of the darkened hallways.

“Unless another one of you wants to enter a Dagger’s Call with me.”

They all looked at him in silence. They knew the Rules of an Assassin better than any other. One of them was written in bold: do not kill your fellow comrade-in-arms. And yet, none of them seemed to care about this in the slightest.

“Good,” Theron said calmly. “Now, as I said, the situation is apprehensive right now, and I am not my master nor a Space Mancer. I cannot shut down this field easily, and doing so will only expose us with greater ease.”

“So you do have a method of shutting it down,” the gruff voice pointed out.

“I do. I will just need a few more days.”

“And then what?”

“Then we do what we do best—kill.”