Rivers of the Night

Easton’s vision blurred, but his reaction was fast. He couldn’t see Theron clearly, but his training took over.

Water Mancers in combat were rare, but there was no cultivator worth their salt that wouldn’t understand at least the fundamentals of battling one of the four main Elements.

While Water Mancers were rare in combat, Water Mancers themselves were everywhere.

Rather than trying to find Theron’s exact location, Easton slammed his sword into the ground. A pulsing wave of Mana kicked up, and the air around bristled.

Theron appeared, his body twisting in a sideways arc. His second blade had appeared in his open hand as he twirled.

Chi. Chi.

They sliced against the forcefield of rushing Mana one after another, slicing a path through.

Easton took another step back, this time to create distance as he pulled his sword out from the ground. A pulsing Flux Mana formed through his blade, giving it a steaming white aura that made it look as though the metal was scorching hot to the touch beneath the pelting rain.

Theron landed on the other side of the rushing forcefield, steadily regaining his balance. But Easton’s attack was already coming.

What Easton had used just now was an incredibly common method of the Flux Mancers. Flux Mana was far sturdier and solid than other Mana forms, making it incredibly good at pushing and pulling on things.

But this time, Easton didn’t activate [Force Push] for the sake of completely dealing with Theron. He wanted one, to find him, and two, to delay just enough to end all of this in a single blow. But there was also a third…

Theron had only just stabilized himself on his feet, a tick later than usual. His injuries might have been suppressed by his will, but his body would be slower and less effective no matter what he did.

By the time he was ready to attack again, the length of the great sword was already right above his head.

… With [Force Push] having only just activated, for a brief instant, there was no rain to use at all.

"Die." Easton sneered.

To think that a person on this level would claim to be undefeatable beneath Silver Resonance.

His sneer was still frozen on his face when his arms collapsed to the ground, not having the slightest bit of strength to them. Sliced off at the elbows, blood spurted as Easton continued his downward stroke, but without any leverage from his body, his great sword was calmly batted away by Theron.

The pain only hit the Marquisette Clan genius several moments later. He barely had time to register that Theron, who had just been soaked through by the rain, was completely bone dry now. And even that only lasted a brief instant before the effects of [Force Push] ran out and the downpour returned.

Theron’s short sword pierced through Easton’s chest. Without forearms and hands, the young man couldn’t even begin to resist.

He just stood there, looking at the blade in his chest as though he couldn’t believe it.

BANG!

An explosion bombarded the inside of his rib cage, several [Water Bullets] booming outward as though Theron wanted to ensure that he was dead.

Pulling his sword back, Theron allowed the rain to clean the blood away.

He gave the corpse before him a look and then raised his head to the distance.

…

The crown prince stood in silence, but his eyes narrowed when he saw the direction Theron was looking in. How had he picked them out? This wasn’t something a Bronze Resonance should be able to do. Even a Silver Resonance expert would find this outside the range of their Third Eye…

"… Cuco. Moreno. You two will go next."

The two frowned, but when the crown prince looked at them, they shuddered, hiding their reaction and dissatisfaction.

They might not be from a Marquisette Clan, but in their opinion, Easton could hardly be considered as such. What was being ranked 37th at the Seventh Resonance worth, exactly? ŗ₳ℕο₿Еʂ

Asking them to go together was as good as asking them to fight together. They already didn’t want to be here. If not for the crown prince forcing their hands, they would have all ignored the talk from an ant of a branch city Imperial Academy.

Cuco was a First Year of the Main Imperial Academy, having already accumulated 17 credits. If not for being over eager, she would have had a perfect 18, but she could only blame herself. Yet, instead of making up for that lost credit, she was here instead, dealing with a boastful bastard who thought that his 48 credits were worth anything compared to hers.

Moreno was likewise a First Year, but of the academic stream. To him, it made even less sense to be here. He didn’t like to battle, and he didn’t like to cultivate…

But he was known as a madman because of an incident that took place two months ago.

Both Cuco and Moreno were from Knight Clans, technically nobles, but not truly considered so by anyone other than commoners. Yet, Moreno had killed the genius of a Duke Clan for disrespecting his favorite author, earning him a reputation not only for what he did… but the fact he somehow managed to survive.

A genius that had accumulated 36 academic stream credits in just half of their First Year.

Moreno’s expression was almost lazy, while Cuco was struggling the most with trying not to show her displeasure as the two shot out.

Behind the crown prince, only three remained. Aetherion himself, though, didn’t seem to mind what was happening at all.

…

Theron looked away, his eyes narrowing somewhat in pain before he suppressed it.

The geniuses of the capital were, indeed, something else. If these were the ones that insisted on coming now, that much would be fine, but it seemed that he would have to take a more straightforward approach.

He leapt back onto his steed, taking Malaya into his arms. Somehow… the both of them were completely dry.

The chilling light in his eyes only deepened. He could sense them coming.

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