Rivers of the Night - Chapter 690

Capítulo 690: Nineteen

When the Nightingale Ancestor Bird repeated the very words Theron had said to himself only moments before, Theron knew that his assessment was accurate.

Learning 19 new Spells sounded absolutely insane… to anyone but Theron.

It was also clear that the Nightingale Ancestor Bird would never presume to give anyone else this sort of training regimen. But based on its understanding of Theron, a single glance at any Gold Resonance Spell could give Theron a rudimentary enough understanding of it to immediately cast it.

For most other Mancers, even Primal ones, it would take a few days at the very least. But the Nightingale Ancestor Bird was extremely secure in its own eyesight.

Now, it was just a matter of picking them.

To the Ancestor’s surprise, though…

‘Pick them for me. Keep the price to within half of our budget.’

The Nightingale Ancestor Bird’s soul fluctuated. But after a moment, it nodded and began to speak.

For the two short-range Dark Mancer attacks, it picked [Shadow Dagger] and [Void Pit].

Dark Mana wasn’t known for its sharpness or hardiness, so attack spells often came with weaker physical effects but stronger bonus abilities. [Shadow Dagger], for example, was terrible at cutting flesh, but exceptional at cutting and severing connections to Mana.

It was able to disrupt Spells and techniques, and if aimed appropriately—and against an enemy that was weak enough—it could even destroy one’s ability to cast or use any Mana at all for a short time.

[Void Pit] was almost more like an area control Spell than an attack Spell. But in short range, it was able to destabilize and deconstruct the ground, causing any enemies rapidly approaching to lose control of their bodies and fall.

The reason why this was considered an attack, though, was because it was designed to release its hold the moment someone fell into it, reforming the ground and crushing whatever body part lay within in an instant.

For mid-range, it selected [Umbral Shrapnel] and [Sable Miasma]. The former was highly corrosive, designed for deconstructing heavy armors and things of the like. Flesh was actually far more resistant to it due to the existence of Life Mana, but it was an excellent method of decladding someone of their defenses.

The latter was extremely interesting—and even more complex to cast.

[Sable Miasma] took advantage of light, trapping it and pulling a scene into darkness. Once again, this seemed more like a control maneuver—but that was until the latter portion.

The Spell used the casting of darkness and the deconstructed light, forming a mass of chaos that corroded everything.

Essentially, it turned energy into its most unusable form, creating a microcosm of heat death that could shred an enemy to pieces.

The long-range attacks were [Abyssal Lance] and [Eclipse Rain].

[Abyssal Lance] was one of the few attack Spells effective against flesh. It concentrated enough Darkness that it could begin to deconstruct even Life Mana. Due to this, it took quite a while to charge, but because of the effects of Dark Mana, it was also nigh-instantaneous in reaching its target.

It was nearly unavoidable if successfully cast.

[Eclipse Rain] was much the same in its effect on flesh, but rather than being single-use, it was a perpetual cloud that hung above a target’s head, peppering them with Dark Rain as though acid rain—chewing through their skin and deconstructing them from the outside in.

The two Water Mancer Spells it chose for short range were quite curious, because one was actually more of a technique.

[Riptide Palm] formed a resonance with air, space, and the water that coated one’s palm, rippling outward from a strike to land heavily with a great amount of compressed pressure.

It essentially compressed so much Water Mana into a single area that it was all but a bomb.

The second was [Tidal Slash]. It too used a heavy concentration of water, this time in blade form. It took the compression capability of [Water Bullet] and [Water Scythe], putting them on a whole other level.

The two mid-range Spells were [Hydrosphere] and [Tidal Crush].

The former trapped an enemy in a sphere similar to [Water Prison], and ironically enough, it created a systematic roadmap to something else Theron had once done with [Water Prison]. It created a volatile bombardment of Mana, churning the trapped individual within—not only leaving them disoriented, but crushing them.

It could weed out other forms of Mana, leach energy from the individual, and even go as far as to crush them outright at the highest levels of mastery.

[Tidal Crush] was maybe the simplest concept—forming a wave of heavy water that buried an enemy in weight they simply could not fathom. It was also a wide-scale attack that could trap many enemies at once.

And then there were the two long-range Spells: [Seaglass Cannon] and [Maelstrom Anchor].

The former blasted a compressed concentration of water so solid it rivaled beams of Light Mana in power, albeit much slower. The latter had a similar long cast time, forming a whirlpool of Water Mana right beneath an enemy from a far-out distance, trapping them within the earth and ripping them to shreds.

Following this came the five defensive methods.

[Phase Slip], a Dark Mancy technique that allowed Theron to turn incorporeal and shift his body out of phase with an attack—also doubling to disrupt the Mana flow of said attack to weaken it as well.

[Surging Tide] actually bordered on the silly Spells he had been speaking of before, as it too created currents of water Theron could follow to dodge.

The difference was in how this one was deployed.

It was a continuous method, forming a cyclone of water that wrapped around your waist and elevated you from the ground. It was almost like having an extension of your limbs, and rather than creating new currents, it moved with purpose in a single defined location.

For someone who didn’t plan on running, it was the perfect method—as it required less upkeep and stamina than flight.

Then came the three reflection methods.