Return of the Runebound Professor

The Frill burst from the sand, its jaw open wide and a row of thin, rounded teeth yawned open beneath Noah. Noah launched himself into the air with a blast of wind and the Frill’s jaws snapped shut with a loud snap, failing to find purchase on their target.

Noah landed in the sand to the side of the Frill as it clawed its way out from the desert. The monster had long, webbed fingers that ended in sharp points. Bluish gray skin covered with scales covered its body, turning to a blood red around the large frills near its neck. The lizard’s eyes were sharp and black, with tiny pools of grey in their centers. They bulged out of the Frill’s head like those of a frog. Most of Noah’s attention remained on its mouth, which had been drastically under-represented in the sketch.

The Frill’s teeth were so long and numerous that they were more like hair. It couldn’t even completely close its mouth, so it was locked into a permanent snarl. Rearing back on its hind legs, the Frill sprinted straight at Noah.

If it hadn’t been so garish, Noah would have burst into laughter. Instead, he skipped back, nearly losing his footing on the sand and using a blast of wind to fly to safety as the Frill snapped at him.

Damn, this is annoying. It’s so difficult to keep my feet out from under me when the sand is constantly shifting around. The webbing around the Frill’s feet really lets it move pretty fast, though. It’s basically swimming through the sand.

By the time Noah had landed, the Frill was shuffling aggressively toward him once more. Unfortunately for its intimidation factor, it strongly resembled a man whose pants had dropped around his ankles and had just remembered that his pot on the stove was about to boil over.

That didn’t make it any less dangerous, though. Noah skipped back once more as the Frill snapped at him. Noah pursed his lips as the lizard continued to hop and skitter in his direction, managing to keep up with his Rune empowered movements but failing to actually get close enough to land a blow.

The Frill was more grotesque than anything else, but there was one thing missing that kept Noah from letting his guard down. The dossier had stated that Frills traveled in packs, but there was still only–

Noah’s tremorsense screamed a warning just as his feet landed on the sand. He sent a powerful blast of wind down, flying to safety right as two Frills shot out from where he’d been standing. Somehow, they’d been lying perfectly still throughout the fight and had gone undetected until the last moment.

As Noah landed, his tremorsense went off once more. A fourth Frill shot out, sailing through the air and flailing its stubby legs as its jaws snapped shut on air. Noah gathered water from the air, then compressed it into a thin stream.

The water carved into the back of the Frill’s neck, severing its head and killing it instantly. Energy entered his body, but he didn’t waste time appreciating it.

Get pressure washed, you little shit. I don’t need all of you alive to figure out how you work. One or two will do.

Noah darted across the sand, sending pulses of vibration out of his feet as he ran. The other three Frills darted after him, all jumping into the sand and swimming beneath its surface. Noah prepared to fire a blade of wind into the ground, but paused.

It might be better to see how they fight as a group to make sure it won’t be too much for the kids.

Pressing his lips thin, Noah released his attack and instead stood his ground. It wasn’t hard to predict what the Frills would try next.

Sure enough, two of the monsters sailed out from the sand like dolphins breaching the sea. Noah ducked, letting them sail harmlessly over his head. Another Frill moved in the ground beneath him, and Noah lunged to the side as it shot up from beneath him.

The Frills shot back into the sand as they landed, retreating before swimming back toward him. Noah’s tremorsense gave him all the advance warning he needed, and he sidestepped their joint attacks once more.

Two main moves so far. Either they come up right beneath me or they fling their ugly asses in my direction and hope something hits. I wouldn’t be surprised if their claws are nasty enough to have some poison in them.

Noah dodged out of the way as the Frills jumped at him once more. He spent a few minutes just dodging the monsters. It was surprisingly good training for his tremorsense, but he didn’t want to spend all night with the ugly lizards.

Once he was confident they weren’t going to display any other styles of attacks, Noah ripped the ground beneath him apart with a powerful blast from Focal Quake. Dozens of loud cracks filled the air as two Frills that had been unlucky enough to be swimming straight beneath him were suddenly put through a veritable blender.

A course of energy told Noah that at least one of them had died. Despite their speed, the monsters weren’t particularly durable. The Stinger had lasted much longer once he’d started fighting back.

The final Frill shot at Noah, its jaws rearing open impossibly wide. Noah stepped to the side, then drove his fist into the Frill’s soft stomach. The scales covering it shattered and blood sprayed from its mouth as a violent tremor ripped it apart, ravaging its insides.

It tumbled across the sand, limbs flailing, before falling limp. The Frill was light enough that it didn’t even start to sink. More energy entered Noah, and he paused to see if anything else was still alive.

There were no more signs of movement. Noah went around to the Frills he’d killed, pulling out a few handfuls of their teeth. Nothing else on their bodies seemed worth carrying around, so he just left the rest. He’d have done the same to the Stinger he’d killed if there was actually anything to take, but he didn’t want to lug around a massive pincer or a huge tail spike. At least the Frills had something harvestable.

Overall, they’re definitely more of a threat than the Stinger is just because of how many they are. I was able to tell what they’d do because of tremorsense, but it won’t be that easy for the kids. There are also a lot more things to worry about with Frills than there are with a single Stinger.

They’re still clearly controlled by the Sandray, though. No real originality in their moves. Perfect. That just leaves a normal Ray, then. Given its shape and how just about everything else so far has been hiding beneath the sand, Rays are probably…

Noah’s thoughts sputtered off. He squinted up into the sky, where a dark form was flitting through the air. He nearly choked on his own saliva.

What looked to be a manta ray was somehow gliding through the sky. It was roughly the size of a large horse, with a stinger trailing through the air behind it. If Noah didn’t know better, he would have thought it was just a really strange looking kite.

The Ray didn’t seem to be looking in his direction, so Noah gathered a small bolt of wind and flicked it in the Ray’s direction. An instant later, the Ray flinched, its floppy body writing in pain as it dropped from the sky like a rock.

It smashed into the dune with a crunch. Noah stared at the monster in disbelief as energy trickled into his body.

“You’re kidding me,” Noah muttered. He strode over to the crumpled Ray and knelt beside it, ignoring the sand as he started to sink into the dune.

Noah prodded at the monster. It was rubbery, without any real defining features. His nose scrunched in annoyance. Its tail was too long and slender to even bother trying to take. He couldn’t even find teeth or eyes. It was just a flying pancake with a stinger.

The desert was silent. Noah let out a heavy sigh and scanned the air. He was going to need to find another Ray to practice against, but it didn’t look like there was anything in the area. He’d gotten lucky with the first one.

Shaking his head, Noah grabbed his flying sword and hopped onto it. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t spotted any Rays the last time he’d been on his sword, but now that he knew the odd creatures flew around rather than swam in the sand, he was confident he’d find a new one.

***

Noah had no idea why the Rays were so rare, but part of him suspected it was because they were dumb enough to get killed by a mild distraction. It had been an hour, and he’d still yet to find any more Rays.

If you’re that bad at recovering from a surprise, you shouldn’t be flying around.

Something flitted through the air behind Noah. Instinct saved him as he lunged to the side, tumbling off his flying sword. Luckily, he’d still been near the tops of the dunes, so he only fell a little over a dozen feet. He slowed his plummet with a short blast of wind, landing with a painful roll instead of splatting into the sand. His sword shot off, burying itself in a dune behind him.

Noah rolled to the side cursing under his breath at the karmic justice he’d just been dealt, and looked up as a Ray shot straight for him. Noah threw himself to the side as the monster’s stinger bit into the sand where he’d been moments before. It flapped its wings – if he could even call them wings – and then took back into the air.

Scrambling to his feet and letting out an irritated breath, Noah watched the Ray make a circle around his head before diving at him again.

This time, Noah was ready for it. Instead of cutting the monster in two, he skipped out of the way and the Ray shot past him. It slapped into the dune – sliding into the sand and vanishing within it easily.

An instant later, it slipped free and shot straight at him once again. Noah fell back, letting its stinger pass over his head, and then shot back to his feet. The Ray was completely soundless as it swung back and made another swoop at him.

It didn’t take Noah long to figure out the Ray’s attack pattern. He wasn’t even sure if he could call it a pattern. The Ray was, without a doubt, the least intelligent of the monsters he’d fought so far. It just flew straight at him, tried to stab him with its tail, then swam around for another pass.

Looks like its main strength is its silence and ability to travel through both the sand and the sky. Not particularly fast or dangerous aside from that, though.

Noah let the monster take a few more passes at him. When it didn’t reveal anything else, he carved the Ray in two with a stream of water. The halves of the monster splatted to the ground. Even as energy entered Noah’s body, he set off in the direction his sword had shot off in. It wasn’t too heavy, so it would probably still be poking out of the sand somewhere.

That’s all the information I need right now. This is a good place to train. Time to get back to camp. I did my job, and now it’s time for Moxie to help me out in return. It’s about time I get one of those Lightning Runes from Dayton’s grimoire.

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