Rivers of the Night-Chapter 415: One Way

It was a confusing feeling. A fish using light to suppress his Water Mana. What made it odder was that it wasn’t a general ability. Theron could feel that this was only working because he was a Water Mancer.

This was a creature that probably never left the depths of the waters it lived in. It was used to facing off against other water creatures, so it had done all of this simply for the sake of fighting against other water users...

Of which Theron was one.

This was probably the last thing Theron should have been thinking about in a life and death situation. But the oddity of it all was hitting him in waves, almost like he was close to an answer, but it was constantly slipping away from him as though he wasn’t allowed to touch it.

At that moment, Theron also remembered the same feeling he had had when he first sensed the Water Laws. He had been in the assassin’s guild, their platform shimmering beneath him. He could practically feel the moons themselves.

But what had consumed his thoughts instead?

The arrogance of the Laws.

It was like they were looking down on him arrogantly, condescendingly, not deeming him worthy of even stepping up to them in the first place.

He remembered feeling angry, disdainful of their own arrogance, and feeling the need to prove them wrong. Unfortunately, he hadn’t gotten the chance to. But maybe it was a good thing that he couldn’t. Those laws were simply far too far from him.

That was when it clicked for Theron.

Had he come to comprehend something during his previous comprehension sessions that was hindering his comprehension of the Law of Balance? Was that why something that normally came easily to him was actually feeling so difficult?

The realization almost plunged Theron into darkness.

If that was the case, where should he even start? He had comprehended so much—how could he even start to decipher what was hindering his Law of Balance comprehension?

**BANG!**

Theron blocked the charging carnivorous fish with his father’s short sword, laying it out before him with its flat acting as a shield. Gritting his teeth, he weathered the pain in his arms, raising them up as he slammed his feet down through the gap in the jagged teeth below.

The strong jaws of the no-name beast clamped down, nearly crumpling him to minced meat in a single bite. But Theron managed to react, activating \[Pressurized Burst] to fight back against the bite. He pulled hard, gathering all the Water Mana he could to fight back against it.

**BANG!**

The fish howled, a strong current of water jetting out and sending Theron flying from its maw. It likely didn’t intend to do this, but Theron took advantage nonetheless, riding the current to increase the distance between them and slipping out of the range of the light.

The moment he did, he practically felt his body exhale as though an anchor that had been on it had vanished. But at the same time, the waves of pain he had managed to ignore came back even fiercer.

Theron’s gaze became even colder, his body radiating a frigid air.

No sudden enlightenment was coming, no hand from the sky, no sudden stroke of fortune.

If he wanted to keep his life, he was going to have to do what he had always done.

Fight.

Veinsong.

The chilling effect on the air seemed to radiate to Theron’s mind too. It iced his pain over, allowing his mind to sink into a deep focus.

The world of water rotated around him and he cast [Water Prison] and [Tidal Wave]. The runes that formed both Skills clashed, fighting for supremacy over the waters around them.

Theron usually wouldn’t be able to do this. When you used a spell, it gathered the ambient Mana using your own internal Mana. Once it did, the spell would then form. There was only so much Water Mana in the air, so usually by the time one was formed, the other would take precedent already—especially since it was only possible to cast one spell at a time.

However, Theron was submerged in water right now. The Water Mana was so abundant and free here that even if one spell did form, it wouldn’t have absolute dominion over a region.

Normally, even if you could do this, it would be a foolish thing to do—almost like casting two skills that canceled one another out all on their own.

But Theron had realized he needed to think outside the box if he was going to win this.

His soul was too injured to rely on his Laws, and without them, trying to match a Gold Runebound Beast in raw power was going to get him killed.

He needed another way. So when his mind reached that absolute state of focus, and that chilling breath left his lips, he acted as though this had been his territory all along, not that of the creature across from him.

His eyes sharpened.

The rotating effects of \[Water Prison] met the violent churn of \[Tidal Wave]. The latter began to spin, while the former became less stable, gaining the same surging might.

And then, all of a sudden, it was as though they had come together to form a new spell—one that took that charging fish and spun it in a violent whirlwind of crashing, frigid waters.

Its body spun out of its control, surging past Theron as he slashed out with a blade.

**Chi.**

A deep gash cut into the no-name beast, but before it could retaliate, it continued around the carousel of churning waters.

**Chi.**

Theron slashed out again as it came by, cutting into its body again and again.

The no-name beast shone its light, only to find that the only effect was that the water became less frigid to the touch. However, its light did nothing at all to stop the wild, spinning waters.

Theron stood in the center of it all, his body seemingly unaffected by the current, but in action moving along with it.

**Chi. Chi. Chi.**

The no-name beast slapped out its tail hard, shooting out of the churning waters with all the might that it could muster. It slapped out again as powerfully as it could, almost managing to slip out.

But it had already fallen for Theron’s trap.

Theron had expected it to use its light in an attempt to leave, believing that Theron’s power came from his Laws. What it didn’t expect was that its light would actually cause the frigid cold waters to suddenly warm up, resulting in a rapid rise of the current.

The sudden temperature change and churning waters was like dropping a bomb in the middle of the ocean.

Any one of the scientists Theron had spent so much of his early life studying could have told you that fluid dynamics was probably the most difficult of the engineering fields.

And yet, all of those complex calculations, those variable derivatives and assumptions came to his mind as easily as breathing.

He didn’t care if he was facing off against a Runebound Beast of Water Mancy. If there was a King of Water to be crowned here, it would be him.

**\[Songful Blade].**

Theron’s eyes shone as bright as torches. As the churning waters went from rapidly sinking in their chill to rapidly rising, the spinning dynamics of it all completely flipped on its head, and the no-name fish was ejected in a direction completely different than the one it was expecting.

The water split in Theron’s path as though obeying the will of its overlord, power and unbridled might coming in vibrant hues of blue as he gave it everything he had.

The no-name fish was too disoriented to even understand what was happening, its head facing in the wrong direction and water flooding its bloodied gills as it tried to stop itself from swimming backward.

’Die.’

Theron slashed such, a scalding heat coming from his lips as he gave it everything he had.

**Chi.**

The world came to a stop.

Theron stood there as the waters collapsed around him, the void his blade had formed nearly sending him into a spiral of his own. But there he was nonetheless—calm, collected, breathing.

As for the no-name beast? It was behind him, slowly falling in two pieces, its blood fogging up the already murky dark region. free𝑤ebnovel.com

Without Mana lighting it up in blue anymore, it felt like all they had left was this darkness.

Theron felt his feet touch the sandy ground, his body slumping.

The good news about beating such a powerful creature was that there was certainly no other beast nearby. Beasts—especially Mana Beasts—were fiercely territorial. Theron hadn’t sensed any close by, even during a battle that caused so much commotion.

And given the power of the beast, its territory was probably quite large, making it even more unlikely for any more threats to be nearby.

Still, he would probably have to move soon enough. For now, he could rest...

But... he wanted to see that Beast Core.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺