Rivers of the Night

"A clone."

The Eighth Silver Resonance Mancer growled, half annoyed and half enraged that he had been tricked like this.

He slammed out with a palm and the clone shattered to pieces as his head whipped back. Where was the real Theron, then? And had it really just been Theron here all the while?

He was about to rush out along the road to see if he could find Theron again when danger hit him again.

'Not again.'

The academy student immediately triggered his soul pulse method again, amplifying his Third Eye.

'Real!'

Luckily, he hadn't let his guard down under the assumption that it would be another clone. With a swift pivot of his feet, he turned to meet Theron, a short sword raising along with his movement.

…

Theron closed in the distance, his cool blue eyes almost seeming to meld with the rain in the surroundings. Everything about his movements was fluid to an extreme. Even after stepping out of Veinsong, he found that his body was more rapidly adapting to the water around him as though it was more naturally accepting of it.

Water Mana almost casually poured into his body of its own accord, while it flowed out even faster as he controlled that of those in his surroundings.

A fluid process of exchange, of give and take, of push and pull. Even the process itself embodied the flow of water, and when Theron exhaled, it was like he was water and water was him.

Manaborn.

Theron's dagger caught the tip of the man's blade, gliding down its shaft until their hilts locked one another in place.

His arm suddenly became as heavy as a waterfall, activating [Pressure Burst] out from his hilt to accelerate its pace downward.

The blast almost knocked the Eighth Resonance Mancer off of his feet, but Theron dispersed it through [Shedding Water Skin] once again. Like a manmade kamikaze, he seamlessly used the bursting water to his advantage, pulling on it to add to both his speed, burst, and power.

His own short sword flowed forward in the same fluid motion, slicing toward the neck of the Flux Mancer. With the latter's blade occupied, there didn't seem to be anything he could do to block.

But Theron sensed it before it came.

An Echo.

A raging flood of Flux Mana formed, pouring into the shell of what looked like a turtle. It formed quickly, and was just as quickly given substance by what must have been a spell.

Theron's short sword clanged against it, reflecting back at him and almost shattering his wrist.

But from the expression on Theron's face, one would have never guessed that he had suffered at all.

With the hilt of his dagger still locked onto the Flux Mancer's, he pulled it toward him, driving a knee toward his sternum instead.

A knee replied to his attack in counter, a clash that should have shattered Theron's kneecap reverberating. But instead, the strength of the impact spread over his [Shedding Water Skin] as though he hadn't suffered it at all.

BANG!

The Flux Mancer's body almost fell forward. Between Theron's tug on his sword, and the feeling of his knee landing on cotton after his force was dispersed, it felt like all his momentum was being pulled forward…

Right into an elbow from Theron's dagger-wielding arm.

The dagger and short sword hilts unlatched from one another when the Flux Mancer least expected it. Without the time to react, he couldn't even use his Echo to block in that direction, having focused all his defenses on blocking Theron's sword.

Because they were so close together, he knew that Theron wouldn't have an angle to use his dagger blade, but what he expected least of all was for an Elementalist to be willing to use such close combat methods.

His nose broke, his eyes stinging. He poured more Flux Mana into his Echo, expanding it further so that he didn't get caught off guard. At the same time, he sent out another pulse from his soul, activating his soul method to an extreme so the wool didn't get pulled over his eyes again…

Only to see that Theron wasn't trying to trick him at all.

All he saw was that pair of cold, frigid blue eyes and the equally as blue moon that hung behind them. The three seemed to be linked in some odd, mysterious way, a resonance that forced all the Water Mana into obedience.

In that moment, the man couldn't even hear the rain at all.

What he could hear, though, was the silent trickle of dense waters pooling around the tip of Theron's short sword.

In those last moments, he realized that he had been fooled all his life.

Who said Water Mancers were weak in combat?

PUCHI.

Theron's sword suddenly accelerated forward, [Pressure Burst] erupting the exact instant his blade pierced into the Echo shield, ripping it to shreds.

The blade didn't stop, thrusting right through the academy student's forehead and bursting his skull into a rain of bone shards and brain matter.

Theron pulled back his sword and watched as the corpse fell to the ground.

The echoes of claps resonated to his back, but he didn't bother to look back. He knew who it was; he had timed things perfectly.

"I would have never imagined. How much of your cultivation are you hiding? The density of that Mana just now felt at least high tier. But that should be your Echo. The Blue Pufferfish? Interesting choice, but I've always said that geniuses need to march to their own tune.

"I'm just wondering if it really is your own tune, or if it's the Black Clan's tune… because your aura feels very similar to theirs, but not quite--like you're missing a little something. What are you? An illegitimate child out for revenge?"

Mason's voice echoed through the sound of the pelting rain, it having returned not long after Theron's attack finished.

Finally, Theron's head tilted back toward Mason. With a shake, the blood that coated his blade shattered and was washed away by the rush of water.

He wasn't interested in a talk. Fighting a Quasi Gold Mancer should be interesting.

Theron took a step forward, but the step was facing away from Mason.

Even so, his speed suddenly got a wild boost, his body separating into a dozen [Water Clones] all at once.

"No talk? That's fine by me. Right now, I'm quite certain that you are the one who killed my favorite girl."

A grin spread across Mason's face.

"How about I repay you by making you squeal like she used to?"

BANG!

A violent eruption of Dark Mana pooled into the region, a black hole of density ripping the Water Mana in the air apart.