Rivers of the Night-Chapter 327: No Need

Chapter 327: No Need

Chi.

A head fell, then a second.

“There!”

Eyes widened as Theron had already somehow appeared in their midst. Fear gripped their hearts as they realized something shocking. If Theron had just gone for their Empress from the very start, would he have been able to stop them?

But Theron didn’t do this, and they were somehow in one part grateful, and in another part even more stimulated to make sure that he couldn’t.

They turned their blades toward the center of the formation, finding that Theron had placed himself right in the middle of them all, his blade flashing and pulsing with every movement.

And very soon, they understood why he dared to do such a thing.

They had never fought someone with such calculation in the midst of battle. Angles, blind spots, attacks that acted as defense, and defenses that became sweeping attacks.

Theron never seemed to be forced to fight more than just two at a time, and no matter how hard the Empress tried, she couldn’t find a clear lane to shoot at him.

She watched as one of her Imperial Guards after another fell in tragic fashion, some being impaled not even by Theron’s own weapons, but by that of their comrades, and her heart couldn’t help but release a shallow cold.

The only reason they were prepared for this was by fluke. Theron hadn’t alerted anyone on the way here, but he happened to appear just as the Empress was setting out to join the efforts to find and trap him.

She had 50 of their Empire’s most elite Lower Gold Mancers with her. They weren’t of noble birth, but each one was a talent raised up in their Main Imperial Academy, rising to become the backbone of their nation.

And yet, they fell like flies, pathetic, almost impotent in the way their blood limply pooled onto the reflective floors.

It was only after more than half of them had died that it settled in for the Empress why Theron had chosen this path. Not only did it render her bow useless… but it made it so that they couldn’t run.

So long as she was here, so long as she still breathed, not a single one of them dared to take a step back. They fought for the Imperial family, and Theron took advantage of that.

The Empress’ eyes turned a blood shade of red. She opened her red lips, her chest expanding as she unleashed a roar.

Pulsing waves of Sound Mana spread out, an echo of a screeching bird appearing above her head, illusory pairs of wings spreading out from her back.

In that moment, she made a decisive decision. Since so many of them would die if she did nothing, she had to kill Theron even if it meant taking even more of them down with him.

She raised her bow and loosed, the arrows flying through the lane of sound she had formed, accelerating so fast that the true sound barrier shattered.

And yet, what actually happened as a result left her frozen in place, her soul leaving her body.

Theron caught the tip of her first arrow with his short sword, his hips pivoting as he parried it. Yet, instead of sending it flying into the distance, he rotated his wrists and hips, diverting its flight around his back.

The arrow rebounded, tracking a curving path around him as it left the flat of Theron’s sword and collided with his dagger.

Theron twisted his dagger-wielding wrist, tilting it up the slightest bit.

Chi.

The arrow ripped through the head of an oncoming Imperial Guard.

Time seemed to slow for the Empress. Her arrows were still in the air, still rolling with a savage, unrelenting speed, and yet her soul seemed to have left her body.

And then Theron danced.

His steps elegant, his demeanor almost gentle, he was like flowing water through the Imperial Halls.

Even with the aura of the entire Sangun Line pressing down on him from above, it was like it all rolled off of his shoulders akin to the waves of the ocean passing over his feet.

One arrow after another, one gentle misdirection after the next. Smooth, flowing, perfect.

Time seemed to accelerate and all at once, every arrow of the Empress killed what remained of her Imperial Guards, not a single one having a chance to defend themselves in such close proximity.

50 bodies lay on the ground, the foul blood increasing, their stickiness and slow movement contrasting to the speed and fluidity of Theron’s own Water Mana in ways the Empress couldn’t even believe she was thinking of right now.

Her hands trembled, her bow falling.

A monster, an unfathomable monster.

There was barely fifteen meters separating herself and Theron, if that. How could he possibly read and react to those arrows in time? How could he possibly misdirect all of their power to such an extent?

She watched as Theron tossed his cracked dagger to the side, flipping his palm to reveal another. It was only now she realized that his weapons, at the very least, didn’t fully survive the exchange. But… did it matter?

With a step, Theron had already appeared before the Empress. The edge of his dagger rested on her neck, his eyes almost dull and lifeless as he stared into the fear that was in her own.

“Bring me to the Emperor.”

“I—!”

Chi.

Theron’s blade moved and a strap of her dress was undone.

“Do as I say. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how many friends of the Sangun are in your Empire right now. Any humiliation that occurs here will reverberate across the provinces, not just here.”

The Empress trembled from head to toe. The weight of her reputation and the value of her husband’s life. How could she make—.

“I don’t believe there’s a need for a young hero to bully women, now is there?”

The echo of slow steps reverberated through the hallways, a middle-aged man wearing the robes of a dragon appearing in line of sight, golden-red pauldrons arching over his shoulders.