Rivers of the Night

Chapter 853 853: No Sign

"Stop wasting time, Kenton. You could have entered already. Jerk your sadistic boner off another time."

Kenton directly ignored Bamby, looking at Theron as though he were searching for something. But whatever it was he was looking for, he didn't find it.

"Fair enough," he said coldly. His sword flashed and he aimed to take Theron's head clean off.

To him, the matter was already long over.

But his sword never landed.

A claw of black darkness caught it.

High in the skies, Alpha was resisting against the very same restraints that had left Lyra helpless. His power had increased several times in an attempt to break them, and even Ameridia found herself frowning.

If Lyra and Alpha tried to interfere, they would just get themselves killed needlessly.

But when this… thing appeared, Alpha struggled even more.

Unfortunately for him, Ameridia was even more intent on not letting him interfere after this.

Kenton frowned, looking up at the mass of black. The thing was so slender and tall it almost looked like a treant—if that treant had flowing darkness for skin instead of bark.

It was so tall that Theron and Kenton both easily fit between its legs as it stood over them. It had hunched over, pinching Kenton's sword between two fingers.

Kenton didn't seem afraid, though. The sword was only caught because he had hardly put any strength into it at all. It was a simple matter to take control of his weapon again.

He twisted his wrist and the hand of the creature exploded, unable to maintain its form.

"Capture it," Kenton said, speaking to Bamby.

"Don't tell me what to do. This wouldn't even be happening if you could do what needed to be done from the start."

"Who exactly was stopping you from entering while I was fighting?"

"Who—…" Bamby's words paused as though he only just now realized that was true.

He coughed and cleared his throat.

"Simple lapse, simple lapse."

As he spoke, he took a step and moved just as Kenton's sword swung for Theron again. But the Demon's knee dropped down onto his body.

"What is this mindless thing doing?" Kenton growled in frustration.

Its strength wasn't very great, but they needed it alive. At first, Kenton thought that it had caught the sword out of instinct. Right now, it should be mindless, only moving based on ingrained bestial desire.

A swinging sword was something it might innately stop because of this. Though, seeing things now, Kenton realized that might have been a stretch.

It actually collapsed its body around Theron and curled around him as though to protect him.

Theron, however, was still standing there. It was like Theron had been waiting for something.

However, when Kenton squinted, blocking the falling knee above him, he realized something else.

Theron was barely conscious at all. He was standing with nothing but sheer will, looking at him only because he was the person he wanted to kill more than anything else. But Theron didn't have the strength to force the issue any more than he already had.

Yet he was still standing, his grip on his weapons just as firm as it had been at the start of the battle.

Something about it was starting to piss Kenton off.

"Here, kitty, kitty," Bamby's voice called out as he launched himself through the air and toward the creature's head.

BANG!

He shattered its head in one go.

"What are you doing?!" Kenton roared.

He was already furious with Theron, but this idiot was just ruining everything.

"Whoops," Bamby said, landing on the ground in the midst of the carnage. "How was I supposed to know it was that fragile? How useful can it be if it can't withstand a little attack?"

"You…" Kenton was so enraged he trembled. He couldn't hold back anymore. He shot forward, slashing down at Bamby.

"What are you doing?!"

"Just die!" Kenton roared.

Bamby blocked, holding his polearm across his body.

Kenton unleashed a furious assault, his tails and silky strands dancing wildly in the whipping winds.

"Hey, hey, hey! It's not my fault!" Bamby yelled out.

Kenton didn't seem to hear anything, his attacks only becoming heavier. With every one that pressed him back, Bamby's own temper seemed to flare as well.

"Do you think I'm afraid of you?! You arrogant piece of shit. Not everyone walks around with an inferiority complex. You'll never be your great, great, great, great—however many the fuck greats—granduncle. You're not even in the direct line. He doesn't know who the fuck you are!"

This seemed to trigger something in Kenton that turned his snow from white to a furious blue. The temperature plummeted and the roar of a fox beast filled the skies as his tails grew both in length and volume.

Bamby sneered, a roar coming from his own chest. Then his flames gained a black tinge. They were Legendary Flames, flames that were spoken of in the annals of history—flames that responded directly to the emotions of their user and grew stronger as a result of them…

The Rage Flames.

Lineal ability of the Fire Dragons.

"You need to give it up," Bamby said with a sneer. "You'll never hold a candle to them, and neither will I. The difference between me and you is that I know my limits. You not only don't, but you act with the arrogance of someone far better than you. I can't stand you."

The spirits of a Dragon with scales of ruby and a nine-tailed fox with fur as beautiful as falling snow faced off against one another in the skies, the duo forming their avatars far smaller and yet filling the space with their aura nonetheless.

In the far-off distance, Ameridia stood in complete silence, feeling a pressure she never had from someone so close to her in age.

These two were powerful… extremely so…

It was no wonder their Clans were ripping the world apart.

Her pupils suddenly constricted and her head snapped back toward where Theron was.

Gone. There was nothing but a shadowy mass there that seemed to have never moved, but it was certain.

There was no sign of life left in there.