Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah trekked through the red sands. Dunes had already obscured his vision of the camp in the dead grass behind him. The night had a sharp chill to it, only staved off by the heat of Combustion within him.

Of all the things that Noah had expected to be a problem, he hadn’t even considered walking. The dunes shifted beneath his feet with every step, and his feet sank deep into the fine sand if he didn’t move them quickly.

It wasn’t quite quicksand, but it felt like he might sink into the ground if he stood still for enough time. The unsteady ground made it difficult to keep a good pace up, and Noah was soon sweating.

This is way more annoying than I had expected it would be. Maybe I could vibrate the ground beneath my feet so that it doesn’t just keep giving way beneath my feet? If I cancel out the shift that comes from my weight moving the sand, I could functionally keep it still for a moment longer and make moving easier.

Noah used Focal Quake to send a pulse of energy into the sand. He used just enough power to vibrate the sand directly beneath him, not wanting to mistakenly shake apart a dune and cause a small avalanche.

A small tremor ran up Noah’s leg as he felt the particles of sand tremble beneath him. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant feeling, but his foot didn’t sink into the ground. He repeated the process with his next step.

Certainly better than nothing, but this would be much better as an Imbuement that passively worked with a little power rather than having to intentionally activate it every time. Imbued shoes that did this would be perfect. It takes a good bit of concentration and energy to keep this going manually.

He’d yet to find a monster in the darkness, which meant one of two things. Either they were all hiding, or one was going to ambush him the moment his guard dropped.

Screw walking. I’ll just fly around and seek a monster out myself.

Noah drew his flying sword from where it rested at his side. It had been a while since he’d used it, but the desert was the perfect time to pull it out once more. He released Focal Quake to call on Howling Maelstrom’s magic in its place. He launched himself into the air, kicking up a large cloud of sand beneath him, and got the sword out beneath him. It shot forward as he sent his magic into the blade, and Noah shot off across the desert.

He kept near the dunes, not wanting to fly so high that he completely missed a target. The wind whipped through Noah’s hair and sand whirled beneath him as the sword shot above it. Noah took care to keep the sword moving as slowly as it would allow, but that wasn’t saying much.

It only seemed to have two settings - fast and neck-breakingly fast. Noah had almost forgotten how much the flying sword seemed to enjoy running him into things until he barely missed a large dune, leaning back with all his weight at the last moment as the sword abruptly changed its path.

A black hump in the sand beneath Noah caught his attention. It was so fast that he’d already passed over it by the time his mind registered it, and he was forced to turn his sword around in a tight circle to find it again.

After a few moments of searching, Noah spotted the lump again. He zipped down to the sand, jumping off the sword and rolling through the sand. He sent a vibration into the ground to keep it steady for an extra moment as he rose to his feet, then grabbed his sword as it started to sink into the dune.

The black lump hadn’t moved. It sat at the top of the dune, glistening faintly in the moonlight. Noah squinted at it, then activated his tremorsense. Almost immediately, his senses were assaulted by all the sand shifting in the wind.

Shit. I didn’t even think about how much more vibration there would be in a desert. The sand has so much more noise than the dirt and trees did. I need to tone down the sensitivity a little.

Noah reduced the power running into the Body Imbuements and his shoulders relaxed as the stream of information dropped down to a much more manageable level. Tremorsense immediately picked up on the curved form buried in the sand.

It was a scorpion. The monster shifted with every movement in the sand, keeping its position at the top of the dune. Even though Noah couldn’t make out its exact shape, the bulbous body and stinger were clear enough in his mind’s eye that he could tell exactly what it was.

That’s a Stinger all right. I could probably just kill it from where I am now, but the whole point of this is to figure out what the monsters can do. It’s time to play around a little.

Noah touched a finger to a strand of his hair and Combusted it. It went up in a flash, singing the top of his head slightly as it turned to smoke. Noah whistled and it shot off in a spike, punching through the sand and into one of the Stinger’s claws.

Sand erupted as the Stinger lurched up with a furious hiss. Its eight legs skittered in the sand as it shot out, keeping a surprisingly good purchase on the unstable surface. Beady black eyes bore into Noah, gauging him.

Interesting. It didn’t attack as soon as it spotted me. Some degree of intelligence, then.

Noah waited patiently, keeping Howling Maelstrom’s power at the ready. He needed mobility more than offense right now. The goal wasn’t to defeat the Stinger but to force it to show the full extent of its capabilities.

For several seconds, neither of them moved. Then the Stinger burst into motion, its chitinous legs pattering soundlessly across the sand as it shot for Noah. Its tail shot out, aiming straight for his heart.

Noah twisted to the side, empowering his movement with a burst of wind to increase his speed. The Stinger’s tail whipped past his chest and Noah hopped back, passing up on an opportunity to cut the monster in half with a blade of wind.

It hissed and scuttled to turn toward him again, charging once more when it realized he wasn’t attacking. Noah dodged out of the way of another attack, taking note of how the monster’s body tensed right before it struck.

Twice more, the Stinger struck at him. It was definitely intelligent. The monster was growing bolder with every attack that Noah didn’t try to counter.

That said, it’s using the exact same motion to attack every time. I’m not sure if that’s a coincidence or if it’s because its under the controlled by the Sandray. Guess I’ll find out.

Noah hopped back as the scorpion lunged at him, snapping with its pincers. The monster was fast, but it wasn’t able to keep up with Noah’s wind-empowered movements. He kept just out of its range, watching the monster warily, but it just continued trying to strike at him.

Doesn’t seem like it’s got any Runes that it can actively use. That’s good.

Noah dodged out of another tail jab. They were starting to get predictable, which was a good sign. He saw the scorpion’s body tense and he preemptively moved to the side as its pincers passed by where he’d been standing, missing him completely.

The Stinger shuffled through the sand as it turned to face him once more. Noah tilted his head to the side, then dashed to stand behind it. The scorpion chittered in anger as it rotated once more.

A grin flickered across Noah’s features.

It won’t attack unless I’m directly in front of it, even though I’m pretty sure it could reach me with its claw at this angle. Guess its intelligence is limited. That just about confirms it, but let’s be thorough.

Noah toyed with the monster for a few minutes, baiting out attacks and dodging them with increasing ease. He let it get closer with every blow, but none of them ever managed to land. By the end, he was only using his magic to send pulses into the ground and keep the sand from slipping beneath him.

Yup. This thing is under a Great Monster. It’s way too predictable.

Noah called on Howling Maelstrom and flicked his fingers, sending a drill of violent air out. It slammed into the Stinger’s carapace, tearing a deep furrow into its armor but failing to do any serious damage.

The Stinger lunged at Noah, barely even acknowledging the wound. He dodged its tail, then drew on more power and swiped his hand down. A thick blade of wind carved through the air. The Stinger’s carapace shattered as the magic ripped it apart, splitting the monster right down the middle.

It collapsed on the ground, legs still twitching. Energy rushed into Noah and he let out a satisfied sigh. Even though the monster hadn’t put up much of a fight, it had a good amount of energy in it.

That’s one. Now I need to find a Frill and a Ray to see if they’re also controlled by the Sandray.

Noah set off along the dune, this time sticking to walking. If there had been one monster, he was probably deep enough into the Red Barrens to find others. As he walked, Noah took the time to finally take a look at Weeping Storm’s powers. He’d been so caught up with other work recently that he hadn’t even had time to test it out.

Water looks like it might be one of the more powerful Runes. Emily’s Ice Runes can pull water right out of the air to make her bow. That’s a damn useful ability.

Noah extended a hand and channeled Weeping Storm. The energy coursed through him and he called to the moisture in the air above his hand. Droplets started to condense, forming into a whirling sphere of water above his palm.

It took a little more energy than he’d expected to pull the water from the air, but he was in the middle of a desert, so it didn’t surprise him too much. Noah directed the water to fly into the air, then jerked his hand down. It burst into droplets of water, pattering on the sand around him.

He attempted to gather the water once more, but most of it was out of his reach as it had sunk so deeply into the sand that his magic was no longer able to easily access it. It was much faster to just draw more moisture out of the air again than try to recollect the water.

Interesting. Pyroclastic Resonance was better at keeping control of the Ash than Weeping Storm can control water. I bet it’s because of the Resonance aspect still being active in the former, while Weeping Storm is literally just water. Pyroclastic Resonance is still actively controlling the Ash while Weeping Storm just sends it out.

Noah sent another blade of water out, but this time focused on keeping control over it. He was able to gather a portion of the water back, but a significant amount just continued onward and splattered against the sand once its momentum faded.

Benefits and drawbacks for every Rune, I guess. Interesting. Weeping Storm clearly has more association with just water, while Pyroclastic Resonance is both Ash and Vibration. I bet Weeping Storm will be much easier to combine, but that came at a slight loss in direct control. I think I’ll take it apart with Sunder and take a closer look at it before I fall asleep tonight.

Noah continued through the desert as he mused, calling on more water and testing just what he could do with it. Weeping Storm proved incredibly responsive, at least for his initial commands. He was able to summon shapes without difficulty, and as long as the water was still touching his body, he was able to control it completely.

Logically, that led him to try forming a tentacle. He kept it connected to his shoulder, then poured more water into it to see just how large it could get. The end result was a tendril about five feet long, swirling and twisting with magic.

The tendril moved perfectly in accordance to Noah’s thoughts, but it drew magic at an alarming rate and splitting his attention to both moving the water and walking proved surprisingly difficult.

Noah let it splash back to the ground, ideas of how he could use the new Rune swirling through his head.

I’ll test it out more against some more monsters. It’s been too long since I took a little while to just go hunting.

Noah turned his attention to his tremorsense as a movement caught his attention. A grin edged across his face as he felt something crawling in the ground near him, just on the other side of the dune.

His desire had been granted. A lizard-like shape was buried in the sand beside him, just waiting to let him test his magic out - and Noah wasn’t one to keep anyone waiting.

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