In that moment, Theron felt as though his connection to the rain had been severed. The streams of blue that seemed to reflect in his mind’s eye had become motes of white-gold instead. Every time he tried to touch them, it became akin to a flashbang going off in his mind, or almost like touching a hot stove.
It reflected his attempts to control it, smothering his soul like sticky squishiness and suffocating him.
Every attempt was like another rebound against his spirit, buffeting against him and making it harder and harder to gather momentum to do anything else.
Theron barely reacted, hurriedly raising up his one remaining blade—his dagger—to block.
BANG!
Theron felt his wrist almost snap. He tried to use skill to meet raw power, sliding Beifong’s short saber to the side. But how could his technique match up to someone who had given his entire life to his blades?
Even if he was smart enough to guess what Beifong would do, Beifong was fast enough to make sure that it wouldn’t matter.
Theron’s arm was knocked to the side and a second blade was already coming for him in a swift motion. Without his short sword, there was nothing he could do but try to dodge. But because of Beifong’s earlier attack, the momentum of his body was swinging the wrong way.
He could only push off the ground as hard as he could, trying to pull his momentum further to the side and toward the outside of Beifong’s shoulder.
Theron felt his feet become heavy, all while Beifong’s blade suddenly accelerated, a twist of his wrist seemingly bending the laws of physics and shifting his saber’s momentum toward Theron.
Sensing the shift, Theron had already dropped to the ground, or rather he tried to do so as quickly as possible, his back arching toward the pavement.
The saber’s edge shot for his nose, its speed causing the falling rain to split and the wind to unleash a sharp hiss.
A [Water Wrap] barely formed in time, tugging on Theron’s waist and pulling him to the ground.
Beifong’s laughter echoed as his saber just barely missed Theron’s nose, his leg already raising into the air as he stomped down. His heel surged, aiming right for Theron’s knee.
With a quick twist of his waist and a tense of his torso, Theron rolled to the side.
His mind flashed with danger when he heard the rattling of chains.
What splashed up from the ground as Beifong’s heel collided with stone, but his chains had already moved. Like writhing snakes, a white glow jetted out from them as they seemed to wiggle independently, wrapping around Theron’s ankles just as his back turned in his roll.
The moment Theron heard the rattling, he knew that something very wrong could happen.
His decision was made in an instant. He took a risk, cancelling his roll and withstanding the pain in his chest as his palms slammed into the ground, his pecs pumping explosively out of a push-up motion.
He soared up, his elbows flaring out to where Beifong’s nose was.
Losing his wrist back then wasn’t an option; losing a foot was even more unacceptable.
The chains rattled loose around his feet as he closed the distance.
Pain erupted through his back. He had felt the odds of this were low, but he also knew that Beifong was far too fast to be caught completely off guard.
The blade ran through his gut, a flash of silver blinding his eyes for a brief instant as it exited through his stomach.
But his elbow didn’t slow.
BANG!
It collided solidly with Beifong’s nose and sent him stumbling back. But just when he wanted to claim some distance, Theron clamped down on his saber with his other hand and kicked out a leg in a strong step forward.
The chain hanging loosely around his ankles tightened once again, sending Beifong sprawling back toward him into another elbow.
The second was even more powerful than the first, Theron’s stance and foundation being set far firmer. He drove everything he had through Beifong’s nose, snapping it to pieces and forcing a rushing geyser of blood.
The Flux Mancer’s eyes watered, his vision blurring, but his grip on his blades never weakened even once.
Theron was already prepared for that eventuality.
After his step forward, the blade was almost out of him. He took another step, ignoring the pain as the last of it sliced through as it exited the wound cleanly.
He stepped clear of the chains, spinning around to face his opponent.
Theron held onto his side, Beifong grabbing onto his nose and half the hilt of his blade at the same time.
“You really are an annoying little shit,” Beifong snarled, pressing a thumb against one side of his nose and snorting out a spurt of blood.
Just now, Theron had managed to use [Water Wrap] even under his domain. It was an impotent form, and clearly wasn’t worth much outside of turning him around. But it still pissed him off.
“Just die.”
A pulse came from Beifong’s sabers, and he seemed to have had enough of toying around for a crushing victory. A white-gold glow concentrated on their edges and he slashed out.
Shuddering auras of phantom blades crossed through the air and a gravity that was easily three times what he was used to crashed down onto Theron, making him feel as though he suddenly weighed almost 400 pounds.
Theron didn’t bother to move. The distance was too close, and his body felt far too heavy now. Rolling would just give Beifong the chance to launch an even more deadly attack in this situation.
But that much was fine.
He had seen enough.
Veinsong.
Theron’s blood churned into a silent rhythm and the hold [Luminescent Rain] had on him seemed to collapse.
The rain froze once again.