Rivers of the Night

BANG!

Theron was like a blur across the water. Chopra barely had the time to react before he found himself flying.

There was no context, no competition, not even the slightest hint of resistance. Chopra couldn't even raise his spear in time, his armor suffering the full weight of the blow.

He flew back so fast he tore through the army behind him like a falling meteor, the puppets so weak on impact that they shattered into a rain of bits and parts before Chopra could actually physically touched them.

Chopra's eyes opened wide, the long-haired white ape to his back shifting and moving as he tried to calculate a way out of this. He felt his armor flex just now more than it ever had before. If this continued—

BOOM!

Theron's fist fell from above. At some unknown point, he had sheathed his weapons, clenching his hands so tightly that the white of his knuckles reflected the white-blue Mana that pulsed around him.

Right now, his weapons wouldn't translate his new strength properly, not when he was unwilling to display the full might of his short sword, or allow it to swallow his new Resonance to progress once again.

No… in this moment…

His hands were enough.

Chopra's back slammed into the ground, shattering it into a crater. His eyes bulged, blood flying out from his mouth.

Once again. It was the same exact location, the same exact power, the same exact Resonance. There wasn't the slightest hint of variation, as though he was facing off against a machine—a lethal, programmed mass of humanoid flesh with only one goal in mind.

Kill.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Theron landed from above, the Water Mana around his fists growing into heavy gauntlets almost like the puffing spikes of a Blue Pufferfish. He tapped into one of the defensive mechanisms of the beast, Runes beginning to appear around his body in a fluttering mass of beautiful Water Mana.

It truly didn't feel like he was just any normal man at the moment. He was one with the Heavens in a way he had never felt before.

His blood boiled, his hair fluttering through the skies.

He unleashed three fists against Chopra's body, but not a single one was any different from the last. Even when his fists became heavier, the amount of strength Chopra felt was the exact same.

The eyes of the young man seemed to widen even further. He couldn't have been more surprised even if he tried, as he realized that this was happening because Theron was expertly channeling all of the excess power into his armor.

Before Chopra could think of how to even counter this, Theron's fist suddenly became a palm.

[Water Prison].

BOOM!

A violent surge of Water Mana deepened the crater, rounding it out into a perfect, smooth sphere. Half of the churning [Water Prison] carved itself into the ground, the upper half rotating above like a gorgeous white-blue marble.

Theron's body was propelled out of the prison, the waters within sending him flying out with exceptional speed. But he didn't use the momentum to escape.

The chilling indifference in his eyes finally changed into something else.

A frigid savagery—the look of a man who wouldn't blink even if a knife hovered right before his neck.

BOOM!

He dropped a fist onto the surface of the [Water Prison]. There was a violent churning within as Chopra spun, [Pressurized Burst] activating. However, the outer shell of the [Water Prison] kept all of the concentrated power trapped within.

BOOM!

BOOM!

Chopra began to foam at the mouth, every fist making him rotate and spit out bits and pieces of flesh as though being fed through the rotating blades of a blender.

Theron was relentless, his Mana reserves seemingly endlessly vast. The momentum of his strength was such that no one else could even seem to get close to this side of the battle even if they wanted.

It didn't feel like they were watching the power of a youth at all. He was already the General he spoke of, the Emperor he alluded to.

Not a single time did there seem to be the slightest hint of hesitation in his actions. And it was only now that they seemed to feel like he had emotions at all.

That fury—the unbridled darkness deep within him. Even as he shredded a man to pieces with one fist after another, it seemed like he wanted more, like he wouldn't be satisfied even if he saw him torn to ash.

"ENOUGH."

The world had become a silent canvas to Theron. Even if he had the care to listen to who was speaking, he wouldn't have registered it at all. His body had started to heat up to the point that the steaming chill coming from him was no longer that. Instead, it had turned crimson, his white-blue Mana becoming tinged with violet instead.

The surface of the [Water Sphere] began to change, Theron's Meridians screaming as he pulled one ounce of Mana out of himself after another.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Chi.

The sound was almost drowned in the midst of all the carnage, but Theron heard it as though it was right next to his ears. He knew what it was instantly.

Chopra's armor had finally given way just the slightest bit. And when the first crack appeared, the next appeared soon afterward, and then came the next.

Theron's mouth opened, his hair whipping through the air as he unleashed a roar, veins pulsing along his body as the Blue Pufferfish armor on his body solidified. It became so dense, so real, that there didn't seem to be an ounce of falsity left to it at all.

Reaching out with a claw of Water Mana, Theron grabbed onto the surface and squeezed.

A scream that sounded like a man burning in the fiery pits of hell echoed as the [Water Prison] suddenly compressed by a half, and then another half.

Veins raced down Theron's forearm. With a flex of his arm, he threw the [Water Prison] into the air.

It compressed by another half and Chopra's armor finally shattered to pieces.

[Pressure Burst].

With the moon as its backdrop, the [Water Sphere] exploded, heavy droplets of water destroying the forest below.