Rivers of the Night - Chapter 347

Chapter 347: Gotcha
The forest trembled, and three puppets suddenly shot out from Theron’s left, right, and back, pincering him in with a swath of four including Vellan.

Theron reacted as though he didn’t sense the “puppets.” Though he called them as such, and he knew that they weren’t exactly living, he also knew that they were real humans—but they weren’t dead.

From what Theron could tell, they were probably stored in some sort of special way. Theron didn’t even have a particularly strong spatial ring on his person, so he had certainly never seen a spatial device capable of holding a living being before.

He had heard in passing that some Beast Masters had such capabilities, but he had never personally seen them.

Even so, his main focus was on the Mancy Paths he was sensing.

Water.

Fire.

Earth.

It was like she was trying to complete a quartet with Vellan, cycling through all four of the elements in order to force Theron into a circle.

There was no doubt in Theron’s mind that Exsaa was about the most dangerous of them all. If not for his inner armor, Vellan would already be bleeding out like a dog on the ground. But because of that, Vellan was also several times more cautious.

Even in the end there, all habits died hard. He was so confident in his abilities that he didn’t have any follow-up or contingency plans in case Theron slipped out. And yet, Theron had managed to use minimal effort to overwhelm them.

She’s still too far away… Theron thought to himself, and the ground beneath him rumbled.

The Water Mancer puppet quickly found itself useless as it faced the same troubles Saularon had. Unable to control the Mana in Theron’s vicinity, it could only send out attacks from a distance, making the strongest control abilities of the Water Mancers useless.

The Earth Mancer stomped a foot and caused the ground beneath Theron’s feet to quake, all while the Fire Mancer mimicked the Water Mancer.

Since even the Water Mancer she thought was far superior to Saularon couldn’t control the Water Mana around Theron, Exsaa chose to change her tactics. The Earth Mancer would take over the control aspects of their team, while the Water Mancer would focus on attacks.

What Theron noticed immediately was quite glaring…

None of the puppets were holding weapons. They were all pure mages, Elemental Mancers in the purest of senses.

And then there was Vellan—the elephant in the room and very clearly the largest immediate danger to Theron, even if he felt like Exsaa was number one overall.

Theron’s eyes flickered as he thought. Time seemed to slow, and his mind was churned to practical heat and sloppy sloshing flesh as he pushed it to its limits.

He had wanted to take down Vellan in a single blow, but he wasn’t used to battling against geniuses with this many treasures backing them.

Wren had certainly not had such a thing, and ironically enough, neither had Chopra, despite being a treasure-reliant Soul Mancer.

An Inner Armor in the possession of an Elemental Mancer that could so easily shatter his dagger was not just Gold Grade in Resonance, but near the peak at that. Yet it was in the possession of a Silver Mancer?

No, Gold Grade was one thing. It was the actual Resonance Grade that was the problem. It was a Manaborn Inner Armor—the rarest of the rare, and the sort of treasure you would sell kingdoms for.

If he could have, he would have attacked with his short sword, but with the side he had to spin out of and the angle of attack he was given, his dagger was the only possible choice.

He also wasn’t yet sure if he should display the true prowess of his short sword just yet, especially with Exsaa watching from afar.

However, he was also running out of time. It wouldn’t be long before Elder Black came running along, and if he was still here stuck with these two…

The attacks bore down on Theron from all sides as Vellan seemed to ready his own.

There really… didn’t seem to be much of another choice.

Theron’s mind flickered as he recalled the might of the Mandate of the Heavens. It was so arrogant, so almighty, so unfeeling. It probably didn’t care very much for tempering itself or holding back.

Now didn’t seem to be the time for plotting and scheming.

He had his enemies right in front of him in this very moment. The only path left…

Was to kill.

BOOM!

Theron was swallowed whole.

In the distance, Exsaa’s gaze flickered.

‘If you think I’ll fall for the same trick twice, you’ve got another thing coming.’

Her hands moved, and she was already quickly forming hand seals. She knew that Theron could hide within Water Mana, so she had purposely forced the Water puppet to send out a large enough stream for him to hide in, only after testing to see if it could control the Water Mana in Theron’s vicinity.

From the start, Exsaa had already known that there was no way the Water puppet would be capable of that. Theron was too strong, and his methods too mysterious.

There was no doubt—he was a talent no less freakish than any one of them, and he was probably the most talented Water Mancer she had ever seen personally. As for the ones she had heard of… there were many exaggerated stories; she didn’t know which ones to take seriously.

Clans had a propensity for overinflating their geniuses’ sense of self-worth.

However, none of that would matter, because Exsaa was already planning to use her modified [Corpse Explosion] again—this time on a living target. This would make it several times more powerful.

Theron would never guess it, because the range of the explosion would almost certainly swallow up Vellan as well. But what she had realized—and Vellan seemed to have not yet—was that against an enemy like Theron…

You had to go all in before he pushed you to the point you felt like you had to. If you reached that stage…

It would already be too late.

BOOM!

Exsaa’s eyes flashed just as a shadow appeared by her Water puppet, only barely catching it after her puppet exploded.

‘Gotcha.’