Return of the Runebound Professor

“Is this really necessary?” James asked, the exasperation clear in his tone. He and Revin stood in a cloak of darkness on a dune, overlooking the other students from Arbitage while they set up their camp. They’d been there for the better part of the hour, just… standing.

“Of course it is,” Revin snapped. “This is a vital part of our training.”

“I’m pretty sure that you’re just a pervert.”

“Pervert?” Revin spun toward James, throwing his hands up in the air. “Have you never heard of scouting out the opponent? There’s nothing perverted about it. Besides, they’ve got to be doing something to make me a pervert. All I see is them setting up camp.”

“I think the pervert part is more on the one watching than the one doing,” James said with a shake of his head. Despite his annoyance, James was more confused than anything else.

Revin was strange. The professor was egotistical, rude, borderline insane, and unbelievably lame – but he wasn’t stupid. Not this stupid, at least. For some reason, Revin was seriously interested in the group, and that probably meant that James was missing something.

Not that I’ll ever admit it. This asshole doesn’t need any more things to laugh at me about.

“You’re wondering what the point of all this is, aren’t you?” Revin asked.

James glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes. “I didn’t say that.”

“Stop with the weird mind-reading crap. Do you have a Rune for it or something?”

“No. You’re just very easy to read,” Revin replied. “And the reason that I am watching them is before you.”

Revin thrust a finger down at the camp. Even though Revin had twisted the darkness around to cloak them from view, James still winced. Every time Revin made a sudden motion, James felt like someone would spot them.

He followed the finger down to the camp, where Revin was pointing at – well, it was difficult to tell. He’d just pointed in the general direction of the camp.

“Could you just use your words?” James asked. “I’ve got no clue what you’re pointing at.”

Revin let out a heavy sigh and shook his head in disappointment. “The students, James. Don’t you notice anything about them?”

“…No? I swear, if you’re about to say something creepy, I’ll rat you out to them myself.”

“I would never. None of them are nearly cool enough to catch my eye, and I think I prefer older women myself,” Revin said. He rubbed his chin, tilting his head to the side. “You know–”

“Do not tell me whatever you’re about to,” James warned. “Just get to the damn point, Professor.”

“The short girl with silver hair is a noble.”

James’ eye twitched. “As is nearly everyone that goes to Arbitage.”

“Exactly,” Revin said. “But the other two aren’t.”

“Are you going somewhere with this? I won’t even ask how you’ve managed to figure out that the silver-haired one is a noble.”

“She’s wearing a fancy shield bracelet. I recognize its make – Torrin family. The Torrin family are rather elitist, you know,” Revin said, tapping a finger on his wrist. “All their main branch members have silver hair. Not because they get it or dye it, mind you. It’s just because they like to keep their main branch pure. Helps them make sure the kids will be talented, or some shit like that. Never bought it myself, but hardly matters. There’s only a single girl from the Torrin family main branch that’s your age.”

James stared at Revin. “You say that like you expect me to have memorized everyone in their family.”

“Emily Torrin,” Revin said. “Heir to the main branch, and in line to control the family once her old folks up and kick the bucket in a few hundred years.”

“Lovely,” James said. “And that matters how, exactly?”

“The other two don’t have shields at all,” Revin continued, unperturbed. “They aren’t nobles. Curious, isn’t it?”

“No shields?” James blinked. “That’s insane. Are they trying to get themselves killed?”

“You saw all of them fight the Stingers. They did pretty well, I’d say,” Revin said. “No, they’re being trained to fight without using shields.”

“What kind of madman does that?”

“One that can’t afford shields.” Revin stared at James like he was an idiot. “What do you think? Nobody would voluntarily choose not to use a shield.”

James threw his hands up. “Okay. I get that, but why are we stalking them? It’s cool and all, but I feel like we’re just wasting time.”

Revin chuckled. “Wasting time? Not at all. And I’ll have you know that I’m far from just sitting around here to stalk them. I’ve got ulterior motives.”

James’ eyes narrowed as a tingle ran across his neck. He’d been around Revin for long enough to know that any time Revin got happy, something generally less than ideal was about to happen.

“What would those be?”

“Well, first, I had to gather enough magic to send it deep enough into the ground,” Revin said. “I really had to dig deep for that. Been doing it for the past hour. Can’t take any half measures, you know.”

“Half measures?”

“Right. That’s what I said.” Revin stretched his arms over his head, yawning. “Should be just about time.”

“Time for what?” James demanded. “What are you–”

The ground rumbled. James stumbled as the sand shifted beneath his feet. A spray of sand shot up in the distance, heading toward the camp at an alarming rate. James’ face went pale.

“What is that?”

“The first one,” Revin replied, baring his teeth in a terrifying smile. “Go on, James. Training time. The other kids are going to need some help, and all their instructors are about to be preoccupied.”

“Revin, I don’t think this is–”

Revin clapped James on the back hard enough to launch him from the bubble of protective darkness. James let out a string of curses as he tumbled across the sand, gathering his Wind magic and launching himself away from the ground before he could break something.

James spun in the air, landing at the edge of the camp with a grunt, finding himself standing right in front of the three students that they’d just been spying on. Inwardly, James launched a tirade of curses toward Revin.

“You’re the kid that was with the wierdo professor,” Emily said, staring at him in befuddlement. “Moxie mentioned we might have stalkers, but I didn’t think she was being serious.”

“I am so sorry,” James said bowing his head in apology slightly – a motion he’d had more than enough practice doing. Revin tended to leave large messes behind for James to clean up. “My professor is an idiot of cataclysmic proportions. I think he might have done something bad.”

The ground rumbled again. James glanced over his shoulder. They were at the bottom of a dune, but he could still see the sand spraying into the air in the distance. Whatever monster Revin had summoned, it was huge.

“What in the Damned Plains is that?” the boy – Todd, if James’ memory didn’t fail him – murmured, his eyes wide. “Is the Sandray coming toward us?”

Moxie strode out of the camp, her features hard. The girl that had been unconscious the last time James had interacted with the group was clinging to Moxie’s back, staring over her shoulder with large, excited eyes.

“It’s not the only one,” Moxie said, vines writhing around her arms. Her cold gaze flicked down to James and he did his best not to quail under it. “What did your professor do?”

“I have no idea. I’m really sorry. He’s completely insane.”

Moxie pressed her lips together. “All of you, stay here. There are two of these things. I already saw Vermil heading in the direction of the other one. Keep your guards up. If that nutjob shows up, don’t let him near you or call out so I can come back.”

The sand rose up around Isabel, condensing and encasing her in a heavy set of stone armor. Cracks of blue light split through the armor as a shield formed in her hands, and Isabel gave Moxie a sharp nod. “We’ll be fine, and the three of us can handle one other student.”

Moxie didn’t stop to question them. She sprinted off, bounding across the sand at and vanishing over a dune to meet whatever monster Revin was bringing toward them.

“Are you really from Arbitage?” Todd asked.

“Yeah. My professor is a psychopath, though. I don’t know why he’s decided to cause your group problems. Again, I’m really sorry.”

“Stop apologizing,” Emily said. Her eyes – a grayish silver, just like the color of her hair – bored into James. “Are you going to try anything?”

“What? No! I have absolutely no idea what Revin was thinking,” James said. “We were just supposed to be training. I don’t know what he’s after.”

The ground rumbled. The back of James’ neck prickled and he threw himself toward Emily, increasing his speed with a concentrated blast of wind beneath his feet. Isabel lunged, but James was faster than she was.

Emily’s eyes widened and she yelped as James slammed her to the ground. A loud crack split the air as a spike of sand screamed past where Emily had been standing and slammed into one of the stone tents, shattering it.

“Sorry!” James exclaimed, rolling off Emily quickly before any of the other students could attack him. “There was–”

“We saw the spike,” Todd interrupted, his eyes scanning the sand. “How did you see it coming, and where did it even come from? I can’t tell where anything is in this desert. It’s too hot.”

“Lots of time around Revin gives you a pretty good danger sense,” James replied, launching back to his feet. A pillar of stone rose up beneath Emily, pushing her upright as well. Emily glanced at James, then inclined her head.

“Thanks.”

“It’s kind of my fault it happened in the first place,” James replied, swallowing and turning in a circle. “I have no idea what attacked, though.”

The sand rumbled again. The top of a dune bulged, sending red particles cascading down. Isabel took a step forward, moving to stand before all of them.

“I think we’re about to find out. Get ready. There’s a third one of these things, and the professors are all occupied.”

***

Noah launched himself to the side as a barrage of spikes arced toward him, slamming into the sand like gunfire. The dunes trembled as a huge, clawed hand ripped out from within them. A massive, crablike creature burst out from beneath the ground, mandibles clicking in a hissing roar.

The monster’s back was covered with long, tubular protrusions that made it easy to tell where the spikes had been coming from. It had two enormous claws, each nearly the size of several horses.

Sand twisted and swirled around the crab’s legs as it scuttled across the desert toward Noah. He ran to the side again, narrowly avoiding one of its claws as it crashed down, and threw his flying sword down.

Noah shot into the air, sparing a second to glance back at the camp. What he saw didn’t make him feel great.

There were two more crabs. Moxie and Lee stood against one of them a short distance away from the camp. It was a little smaller than the one that Noah had cut off. The third and smallest by far had somehow reached the camp, and the students were squaring off against it together with another form.

It took Noah a second glance to realize that the extra person was James. He didn’t see any signs of Revin anywhere, but Noah doubted the strange man was far.

The hell is going on? There’s no way this is a coincidence. James is standing with my students, though. Did Revin abandon him? Wouldn’t surprise me.

The crab’s back whumped and a spike whistled through the air behind Noah, missing him. He turned back to the monster, glaring at it.

I knew there was way more to this desert than I thought, but what even is this? It’s got some sort of Sand Rune for sure, and the pure force behind the spikes its shooting is pretty scary. This isn’t a weak monster.

The crab raised its back legs, aiming its back toward Noah. A barrage of sand bolts shot out and Noah swore, leaning forward into a tight dive. He dove off his sword, sliding beneath the crab and aiming his palm up.

A bolt of lightning ripped out of Noah’s palm and slammed into the creature’s underbelly. There was a loud crack and the bottom of its white shell blackened, but his magic didn’t penetrate its defenses.

Noah shot himself forward with a blast of wind as the crab dropped, smashing its heavy body to the ground in an attempt to squish him. The monster spun toward him, chittering. Noah’s eyes narrowed and he called on his magic.

This isn’t going to be a fast fight. I hope Moxie and the others hold up until I can kill this thing.

Spikes of sand shot down toward Noah. He thrust a palm up, blasting the attacks away with a violent, churning gale, then sprinted toward the crab, calling more magic to bear. Even in spite of the literally looming threat, Noah couldn’t help but feel just a little curious.

I’ve always wondered what crab tastes like.

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