Rivers of the Night-Chapter 304 - 17 Minutes [200 GT Bonus]

Chapter 304: 17 Minutes [200 GT Bonus]

Theron’s eyes darted around. He had given himself too much time. He said he would finish in three minutes, but he ended up only needing about 40 seconds over the two-minute mark.

After he was finished measuring the number of puppets, he organized the information in his mind, then landed on the command tower.

The throne room was the location from which the puppets were controlled. The puppets themselves were designed to be able to comprehend the same simple commands that any human soldier could. However, using your voice to command them would waste too much time.

The second method to control them in large numbers was through the formation of the throne room. But this required exceptional Mana control, and it was also usually something that would require the action of a Spirit Mancer, or at the very least a Soul Mancer.

Their group had two Spirit Mancers—Gengh and Shah, the Third and Second Years of their academic stream. But it wasn’t necessary in Theron’s opinion. He could do this on his own.

While it was easier for a Spirit Mancer to do this sort of thing, this was a challenge designed to be as fair as possible. There was no such thing as perfect fairness in the world of cultivation, but there were ways of balancing it out.

It was easier to control a formation with Spirit Mana or Soul Mana…

But that didn’t mean you couldn’t do it with Third Eye. It would just take more mental strength.

Mental strength Theron had in spades.

At that moment, the puppets became akin to ants in Theron’s farm. They dashed across the fortress, randomly changing places and scattering.

At first, it seemed so completely unorganized, until it began to quickly take shape and form.

Six minutes… seven… nine… eleven…

Beads of sweat fell from Theron’s brows, but his focused expression never changed a single time.

…

The outside world watched on in confusion. Elder Black found herself sitting on the edge of her seat.

It was true that Theron’s group was far ahead of everyone else by now. The rest of the teams were still trying to decide whose voice should be the loudest—with the exception of the Sangun. But even the Sangun were still working out the details of their actual plan of action.

Only the Nightingales were already moving.

But what Theron was doing right now…

At first, the puppets looked like they were in a complete mess, and then they began to organize a little bit, but right now they looked like they were in a mess again.

Large numbers of them were grouped into singular locations, and there seemed to be wide openings in the defenses that couldn’t be made up for.

It looked like Theron was running out of energy to direct them properly, and rather than making the defenses of his fortress stronger, he was actually making them far weaker.

However, the more it looked like this, the more Elder Black’s eyes narrowed.

…

Thirteen minutes… fourteen… fifteen…

Gengh, Shah, and Aliza flashed into the throne room, a three-piece mapping of the fortress set between them.

Theron swept his gaze over it.

“Perfect timing.”

At that instant, the discombobulated mess of puppets became rigid. They shot out, forming perfect streams as though they had never been confused in the first place.

This was exactly what Theron had been waiting for. The detailed schematics of the fortress would be what decided the perfect positions of the puppets.

But if he just waited around for the schematics, he would waste too much time, and what could have been done in 16 minutes would take upward of 30 minutes instead.

So instead, Theron made an educated guess. While he was running around the fortress, sweeping his Third Eye across the puppets, he was taking in basic information about the fortress.

Due to this basic information, he was able to make guesses about where it would be best to station the puppets, and then direct them toward large pathways that had direct access to these nearby locations.

Once those details were fleshed out by the academic stream students, he knew exactly where they needed to be.

What was best was that Sigil was right on time as well. When Theron understood the layout of the surrounding forest, he commanded the puppets to open up the gateways, sending out a few squads to go and man certain positions.

By the time he was finished, 17 minutes had passed on the dot.

Theron finally released his control over the throne room formation, taking deep breaths. A cooling sensation ran through his body as a large amount of Water Mana was taken in with his breath.

Now they just had to wait for Ray and Supra to return. In the meantime, though—

“Defenses,” Theron said calmly, pointing at Sigil’s map. “There’s a river that runs through here. We’ll misdirect it.”

The eyes of the group widened.

Misdirect a river? That was something you’d need a large number of Gold Mancers to do. Plus, you would need a powerful Earth Mancer. Several of them.

Right now, their only Earth Mancer was Aliza, and though she was powerful, well… she was of the academic stream, and they didn’t know the extent of her power.

Not that it mattered.

No matter how powerful she was, she was still a Silver Mancer. It was impossible to expect her to be capable of this.

“This is how we will do it…” Theron continued calmly.

As he spoke, the eyes of the group widened, their hearts beating erratically. Was this possible as well?

“… Once this river diversion is complete, we will be in an undefeatable position. Then, the real battle will begin. The Nightingale Empire will win handily and without the slightest trouble.”

Their gazes burned as they looked at Theron.

Minutes later, the fortress trembled and one of the defensive formations on the Nightingale Fortress self-destructed, all of the structural elements collapsing at once.

The earth rumbled and it felt like a meteor had fallen from the skies.