Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah didn’t wait to see how strong the monster was up close. He released all the energy he’d gathered from Natural Disaster already, which was a healthy twenty or thirty percent of its full energy.

All that power shot into the ground beneath his feet and traveled out, kicking up dirt in a straight line toward the charging monster. A line of jagged stone spikes erupted from the ground, ripping up into the massive rat’s stomach. It sprinted through them, digging the points even deeper into itself.

The monster hardly seemed to notice the wounds. Noah’s eyes widened as the stone shattered and it continued its charge. Its back bristled, spines whipping around to point straight at them.

A vine whipped around his leg and yanked him out of the way. Moxie grabbed onto it, lifting herself to safety as well. Lee dashed toward the monster, blurring as she leapt into the air and brought her axe down on its back.

The blade clanged against its spines with a loud, echoing ring. She dropped back to the ground and hopped out of the way as a spine shot out of the monster’s back, slamming into the ground where she’d been standing like a javelin.

“Thanks,” Noah grunted as Moxie’s vine deposited him on the ground beside her. “What the hell is that?”

“No idea. Don’t use Sunder at full power. We already know there are other strong monsters beneath the ground. They might be close enough to feel Sunder if it puts out immense amounts of energy. We could end up with another Revin situation.” Moxie spun and raced toward the rat, flicking her hand toward the ground. An instant later, reddish brown thorned vines burst from the ground beneath her like a wave, roiling and twisting.

They shot out as Moxie brought a hand down, slamming into the monster. Noah only got an instant to see the blood spray as they ground along any exposed flesh the large rat had. Then it was gone, buried in a sea of thorns.

“Holy shit,” Noah muttered, staring at the large ball. “That’s terrifying.”

“Thanks.” Moxie flashed Noah a weary grin. “It’s the Rune you gave me, Bleeding Forest. Takes a lot of energy, but I’d say it’s pretty effective.”

Noah started to nod, but a loud crunch split the air. They all spun back toward the vines as they writhed. A large swathe of them were ripped away. The rat let out a furious screech from within them.

Vines ripped and fell away as the monster spun, severing Moxie’s energy and breaking free of it. Blood mixed with its frothing saliva as it vibrated in fury.

“Shit,” Moxie muttered, taking a step back. “I can’t do that again. I haven’t filled the Rune enough yet.”

There was absolutely no way that the rat-porcupine could understand what Moxie had said, but it definitely knew who had attacked it. It stampeded toward her, moving at a blur. Lee flashed, meeting its charge and swinging her axe.

The monster’s body rippled, and a wave of spines got in the way of her axe once more. Even though Lee was faster than it, it had far less it actually needed to move to protect itself, and the axe rang against the spines harmlessly.

Noah thrust his hands forward. The air crackled, and a bolt of thick yellow lightning roared from his palms. He couldn’t even see the monster’s face because of how fast it was moving, but that didn’t matter. He knew where it was going.

Lightning scorched the ground and screamed past Moxie, slamming into the charging monster and sending it staggering from its charge. Smoke rose from its face and it shook itself off furiously, whipping its head toward Noah.

God, this thing is a tough bastard to crack. We’ve hit it with multiple huge attacks already, and it looks like we haven’t gotten anything more than superficial flesh wounds.

“I might need to use Sunder for this,” Noah yelled. “I don’t think we can crack it open normally.”

“You might be right,” Moxie agreed grimly.

Lee vanished in a blur, slamming into the monster. It retreated into its spines, but the force of her blow still sent it sliding back a step. Lee lifted her axe and brought it down again, keeping the monster from emerging from its defenses.

“Can you flip it over?” Noah asked. “I don’t know what Rank that thing is, but there’s a chance Sunder won’t kill it if it has to cut through something that hard.”

“I can try,” Moxie said. “It’s going to take everything I’ve got left, though. That thing looks goddamn heavy.”

“Do it.” Noah raised his voice to call out to Lee. “Lee, get ready to dodge! We’re going to flip it over. Once we do, try to get a good blow on the softest exposed area that you can get to!”

Lee kept wailing on the monster, but Noah knew she’d heard him. He gave Moxie a sharp nod.

Moxie drew in a slow breath. She reached into a pouch at her side, pulling out a handful of small brown seeds and tossing them to the ground at her feet. Closing her eyes and furrowing her brow in concentration, she thrust her hands out.

The ground rumbled. A huge wave of vines, green and vibrant, burst forth from the stone. They shot up into the rat’s chest with such force that Noah could feel the shockwave from where he stood.

Screaming in fury, the porcu-rat was lifted into the air. It struggled furiously, but the spines covering its body finally proved to be a detriment rather than a boon. It was stiff and immobile, and couldn’t actually bend its head or forelegs far enough to access the vines pushing against its shoulders.

The monster pitched back, slamming onto its back and sending up a wave of dust. Lee leapt into the air and scanned over the exposed underside of its belly. They went right past the monster’s face, landing on a… considerably more vulnerable location.

Her axe raised into the air and flashed down. Noah couldn’t help but wince as a blood-curdling screech split the air – this one a considerably higher pitch than any of the other sounds the monster had made.

There was only so much time to feel sorry, though. The cat was probably still somewhere in the area, and the longer they waited, the more likely the crazed thing would show back up with another, even larger monster.

Noah launched himself into the air with a blast of wind, then reached into his mindspace and drew on Sunder. He didn’t dare pull energy cautiously. The wound that Lee had opened up on the monster was large, but it was clear that even its exposed flesh was hardened and difficult to break through.

Let’s go with seventy-five percent. That should be enough for something like this.

Noah’s veins turned black mid-flight. He slammed down on the rat’s stomach, releasing the brunt of Sunder’s might onto the exposed wound. His hair stood on end as the power rushed out of his body and wound into the rat.

A dark spear ripped into existence directly before Noah, plunging down into the bucking monster’s body. It squealed in pain as a black line carved across it from head to toe. The spear vanished as soon as it arrived, and blood sprayed up like a fountain.

He dropped to the ground, breathing heavily. A moment later, the two halves of the porcu-rat crashed to the ground, releasing a disgusting wave of blood and viscera around it. A vine snagged Noah and Lee by the waists, pulling them back before he could get soaked.

Noah was far from done, though. He could feel the monster’s soul beginning to gather. There were a lot of ways he could get energy, but he was far more interested in whatever Runes it had.

He launched himself into the air with another blast of wind. The increased power of Natural Disaster ended up sending him sailing a lot farther than he’d planned, and he nearly missed landing on top of one of the monster’s halves.

Moxie’s vine caught him before he landed right in the middle of a pile of guts. Noah didn’t have time to thank her yet. He called on Sunder once again, releasing the power into the gathering energy and splitting it apart.

White mist poured out of the air around him as seven Runes materialized. Noah breathed a sigh of relief as he examined them. He’d been fast enough to catch the monster’s soul before it had dissipated and turned to energy.

But, to Noah’s disappointment, every single one of the seven Runes was completely unintelligible to him.

“Did it have anything good?” Moxie called up to Noah. “If it did, you should probably grab it quickly. We don’t want to sit around here for too long. There’s no way we didn’t get the attention of something nasty with all the energy we just used.”

“All monster Runes,” Noah called back. “Lee, can you tell what these are?”

“Yep,” Lee replied, hopping onto the monster beside where Noah was suspended in the air by Moxie’s vine.

“Can you use any of them?”

Lee scrunched her nose, then shook her head. “I probably could, but they don’t fit me. I prefer being fast, and all of these are just things that make it harder to hurt. Most of them make you pretty slow as well.”

Noah’s lips pursed. After all the work they’d done, he was loathe to completely waste the Runes, but he still had absolutely no idea what would happen if he pulled a monster Rune into a human soul.

You’ll live, idiot. Did you forget who you share your soul with? You’ve already got monster Runes in here.

Oh, shit. I didn’t even think about that.

Just take a Rune and get out of here before you get us eaten. I do not enjoy dying. Please don’t take too many, though. You’ve seen what my Runes can do to you. The effect will much stronger if it’s actually in your own soul. I recommend grabbing one of these and sticking it onto a piece of Catchpaper immediately.

Noah didn’t question Azel any further. Their connection told him that Azel was being honest – at least about the part of wanting to leave quickly. Noah highly doubted any of the Runes before him would help Azel, so it wouldn’t hurt to grab one of them briefly.

“Can you tell me what these are?” Noah asked, holding onto the energy to keep it from fading away.

“Six Chitinous Spine Armor along with a Frothing Rabies Rune.” Lee pointed the Runes out in order. “All about the same strength, Rank 3 Runes.”

There wasn’t an actual word for Rabies in the language of the Arbalest Empire, but Noah’s mind automatically translated it to English for him – and that was more than enough to make sure that he didn’t even consider touching that last Rune.

He pulled Evergreen’s scroll out, opening it to one of the blank spaces. Closing his eyes, Noah pressed his hand against one of the Chitinous Spine Armor Runes, drawing it out in his mindspace. A few minutes and several tries later, the deed was done.

The Monster Rune was really different from the normal ones he was used to. The entire structure of it felt wilder and less constrained, with more random pieces and odd shapes. Now wasn’t the time to worry about that, though.

Noah didn’t want to find out exactly what changes having a Chitinous Spine Armor Rune would do to his body. As soon as the Rune took form, he slammed it down onto the green Catchpaper.

By the time he had finished and opened his eyes, the other six Runes had already evaporated. Noah let out a relieved sigh. He’d gotten what he wanted – or most of it, rather.

“Okay. We’re good. Thanks for the save, Moxie.” Noah said, rolling Evergreen’s scroll back up and returning it to his bag.

The vine lowered Noah back to the ground beside Moxie, and Lee hopped down beside them. Noah took a minute to carve a few of the huge monster’s quills away with Natural Disaster. It felt more like he was sawing them off, and it became clear that it would take an hour to get every single piece. Considering how large the quills were, they wouldn’t be able to bring them back anyway.

Moxie sent a vine out, tying some the quills to Lee’s axe for easier transportation. Noah gave her an appreciative nod.

“You know,” Noah said, taking his flying sword out and setting it on the ground. “I never realized you were forming vines by using seeds.”

“Seriously?” Moxie asked. “That’s what you got from this fight?”

Noah grinned back at her, and Lee handed Noah her axe. As soon as he took it, she shrank down, forming into a small crow. Noah scooped her clothes off the ground and squished them into his travel bag, leaving just enough space for Lee to squeeze in next to the blunt sides of all the claws he had.

“Ladies first,” Noah said, gesturing to the flying sword. “We should probably follow your suggestion and get out of here. I’m not in any shape to handle another big fight – or that cat.”

Moxie gave him a patented eyebrow-arch, then smirked and stepped onto the sword. Noah got on behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist to hold her steady. He sent a pulse of energy into the sword, and then they were off.

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