Rivers of the Night - Chapter 311

Chapter 311: Moth and Flame
Thessa looked out into the distance, her jaw clenched. She could feel the scheme in the air too, but the difference between her and Theron was how long she had taken to notice it.

Did it matter if she noticed while there were two armies on the horizon?

It wasn’t just the fact that they were 50% more than their number, or the fact they had more actual humans directing them. It was the fact they were coming from two different directions at once with a timing that was almost too perfect.

They had only just finished setting up their defenses, and because of that, they finally decided that it was right to send out scouts.

Thessa and the others could have never guessed that just as they sent out these scouts, they would be swallowed up by these armies. They didn’t even stand a chance against such numbers, and their attempts to run would have failed as well.

If they came back to the fortress, there simply wouldn’t be time to let them in, not without allowing their enemies to also exploit the downing of the defenses.

Now, their already poor numbers had dwindled even further. From eight total, they only had five geniuses left, three of which were from the military stream. That meant that in terms of actual combatants…

The only one that was left was Thessa herself.

A complete rout. They hadn’t even begun the battle yet, and yet the end result was more obvious than Thessa could bring herself to admit.

It was as though someone was pressing a palm down on her throat. She was so focused on Theron and finally gaining a victory over him that she never considered the idea of falling here before she could even lay eyes on him.

Part of her was even hoping that at least one of these armies was Theron. At least that way, she could answer to herself a small measure.

But as they closed in, she knew that this wasn’t the case.

Thessa closed her eyes, strands of fire rising out from her.

No matter what, she wouldn’t fall so easily. She would kill as many of these bastards as she could.

A sword appeared in her fair palms, her skin sparking with a golden glow that quickly overflowed into a fiery red heat.

A crown blazed into form above her head, her Fire Spirit Resonance blooming and sending out rings of flames.

“Princess… what do we do?” Sura asked softly.

Thessa took a breath and was about to answer when a laughter boomed from the distance.

“Firewings, Firewings, oh Firewings. Come down from your little perch, this scholar has come to greet your princess. I’ve heard that she is here and I must see her. I must!” Jiji Lasco’s voice boomed across the skies.

Thessa’s gaze flashed with rage. She hadn’t forgotten what this supposed scholar had said about her, but if she just rushed out, she would quickly get herself killed as well.

No… quickly wasn’t accurate. But the end result would be just the same. And if she couldn’t take his head, it would never be worth it.

“No! I need a response! It can’t be that no one is willing to answer me? No one is willing to hear my cries? No one is willing to light the flames beneath my own wings?”

Jiji’s voice echoed through the Auran army, and his exact location was hard to parse.

It was clear after a while that Jiji Lasco was actually the head commander of not just one army, but both of them. The Sangun might have sent half of them here, but their humans were mostly first- and second-years, none of them being the cream of the crop.

But they didn’t need to be. Not when the ratio of humans was five to twelve, and the ratio of puppets was a thousand to fifteen hundred.

Jiji’s aggravating voice continued to echo, one insult—each more vulgar than the last—coming out in steady waves. He always wrapped them up in such elegant language, an almost penmanship with his tongue that curled with the cursive of graceful calligraphy.

And yet the finished product was always so dark and brutish in ways that belied the way in which they were spoken.

Every phrase made Thessa take a breath and then exhale. And as she did so, she grew calmer and calmer.

“You four, you will take on the Sangun Army. I will take 200 of the puppets and do my best to take out the humans leading the Aurans as quickly as I can. So long as they lose their leadership, we have a chance. You all will take 600 and attack their 500, leaving 200 behind for emergencies.

“Cornering a wounded beast is always the most dangerous part of the hunt. I want you all to remember this feeling and steep yourselves in it. Then dig deeper and recall what being a Firewing means to you.

“Listen to his words and how he twists our name, the moniker left to us by our ancestors. The name your father gave you, and your grandfather gave him. That is the name he is spitting on right this moment.

“Do not reserve yourselves, do not hold back, and focus your minds on one task and one task alone.

“Kill.”

Thessa’s voice remained low, her Mana thrumming until it formed two enormous wings of fire at her back. As she spoke her final words, she soared up, each wing spreading over two meters.

She was burning a great amount of Mana just to do this, but right this moment, she didn’t care.

All she cared for was displaying the pride of the Firewings.

She raised her sword to the air and it doubled in size, rings of fire spreading from it as she seemed to try and pierce the clouds above.

Then she leapt out, becoming a beam of red gold that soared toward the Auran army.

Somehow, at that moment, she had somehow become both the moth and the flame.