Rivers of the Night

SHIIIING!

Theron's dagger and short sword cut across one another, his blue eyes radiating a deathly stillness.

Raan didn't seem to know how to react to the words for a moment before a battle intent swiftly and suddenly burst from him. His teeth bared, a golden hue coming from their canines as well as he sank into a battle stance that could only be summarized in a single word.

Wild.

All of Raan's thoughts of face, of his cultivation realm in comparison to Theron's, of the age gap or anything else of a similar ilk were thrown into the ether.

All he saw before him now was an enemy that seemed to want to test his very limits.

He didn't speak any words. Instead, a low, rumbling growl came from his lips and in an instant, he had vanished.

Fast.

It was the only word that could be used to describe him. Monet had already been great in this department, and yet this made her look like she had never cultivated a day in her life.

There had been barely much distance separating them to begin with, and all of a sudden it felt as though time was bending and space was warping beneath him, the man becoming a beam of light that cut across the forest, leaving a split in the wind and a trench in the once lush grass.

Theron could hardly cross his arms before his body before a slashing claw of gold descended from above, seemingly moving with a momentum that came with the intention of splitting him into ribbons.

CLANG!

Theron twisted his wrists just the slightest bit, deflecting the claw into a glancing blow.

He used the momentum of the attack to retreat, his steps fast, his feet moving so swiftly it looked as though he was running on the tip of the grass beneath him rather than the ground itself.

And yet, he had hardly taken a third step when Raan was already before him again, slashing down once more. The same attack, the same sharpness, the same strength.

But a vastly different result.

This time, the twist of Theron's wrist practically fell on deaf ears, as though the world had forgotten that such an action should lead to a parry.

The previous Light Mana, and the new streak of it, collided in a warp of something that hardly made any sense to Theron at all, the two attacks linking to form a new strike that shattered his dagger to pieces.

Theron was more than used to this. But the method by which it was done left him confused.

He had never seen such a thing before, and yet he was sure that Raan hadn't just cast a spell. What was that?

Accumulation? Time? A linkage of some sort?

A third attack was already coming and Theron still hadn't figured it out. Once again, it was the same attack, the same—

'Oh.'

It clicked for Theron in that instant and he seemed to realize something.

He could do that too.

Theron's stance didn't shift. He too continued back, once again crossing his arms, once again flicking his wrist in the same pattern. The only difference was that there was a new dagger in his hand.

Raan immediately felt that something was wrong, but it was too late.

Chi.

Blood flew and Raan's claws shattered, his fingers being minced almost to pieces.

Theron lightly landed on the ground, and then Raan came to a pause, staring at his hand as though he couldn't believe it was his own. One couldn't blame him at all.

Had Theron just… mimicked his Law?

'Reflection.' Theron thought calmly.

It was a Bronze Law that Light Mana and Water Mana both were capable of. It was perfect for illusions, but if applied with enough grace and control, it could be used to stack attacks.

Through the Reflection Law, mirror images across several attacks could be layered onto one another, bolstering the next attack, and the one following it.

Theron had blocked the same way three times, and Raan had attacked the same way three times.

What didn't make sense was that Raan had had the Reflection Law active from the very start, but Theron hadn't. So how had he managed to benefit from what he had done before?

And the answer was too obvious to Theron, and Raan was almost too slow to figure it out because the answer made no sense to him at all.

Theron had piggybacked off of his own Reflection Law.

No, he hadn't just piggybacked off of it, he had used his Vibration Law to increase its output several times over, enhancing the resonating echo between the layers.

A fourth Bronze Law.

When Theron said the fourth evolution of his Third Eye had put his mind on a completely different level, he hadn't been exaggerating in the slightest.

Even now, after several seconds, Raan couldn't believe what he was feeling. As for Theron, he was still rapidly digesting the new Law and wasn't moving for that reason and that reason only.

As the silence extended, Raan's battle intent-filled gaze slowly became more crimson. In the depths of his eyes, a Light Resonance was brewing until sparks of something sinister began to roll off of him in waves.

He didn't say anything, but the changes to his demeanor spoke of everything already.

If he had been holding back before, there was no longer any holding back now.

He would bury Theron with all of his power or nothing at all.

Ribbons of crimson began to radiate from him, and at that moment, his golden Mana became a red-gold instead, as though the blood of gods was pouring through it.

Theron's eyes regained their focus in that instant. Sensing Raan summon his Echo, he didn't hesitate either.

He cast [Shedding Water Skin] and an armor bloomed around him, the spikes of the Blue Pufferfish manifesting in various locations in a pristine, translucent blue.

And then the world shattered around them.