Return of the Runebound Professor

“You just going to hide forever?” Noah called, his tremorsense honed to try and pick up the slightest movement. Whatever the dagger-wielding man had done, he was completely invisible to Noah.

“Prey is always easier to hunt when they’re off guard.” The man’s voice came from the darkness, but Noah couldn’t place where it had come from.

“That or you’re scared to actually fight us,” Noah replied. If he couldn’t find the man, then he could always try to bait him out by pissing him off. Generally, pissing people off tended to work pretty well for him. “What’s a big strong group of criminals like this doing trying to kill girls, anyway? Don’t you have standards?”

Laughter echoed throughout the room. Noah’s hands tightened at his sides. It really sounded like he was hearing the man in every single direction. There was no way to tell where he was, and the longer they wasted, the more time the other criminals would have to gather and join together.

We could always just push forward, but that leaves this prick at our back. That’s a godawful idea.

“You got a name or something?” Noah asked, cracking his neck. “Thinking of you as ‘dagger wielding edge lord’ is getting on my nerves. Seriously, what is it with you people and acting like middle schoolers that got turned down by their crush?”

“What in the Damned Plains are you talking about?”

Noah sighed. “Nevermind. Just give me your name, asshole.”

The air behind Noah flashed. Lee shoved him out of the way as a dagger flashed past him and struck the floor, skittering through the darkness and sliding out of view. Noah spun toward the source of the attack, but there was nothing. His tremorsense hadn’t even picked up on the dagger until it was already flying.

“My name is Stigman. And you were a fool to come here, Linwick. If you’re having difficulties fighting me, then you’ll never leave here alive. I’m far from the strongest of Gentil’s assistants. The girl isn’t going to save you forever.”

Who the hell is Gentil? Sounds like an asshole, though. Also, this just about confirms it. Stigman is just trying to waste our time here. If he was actually fighting, there’s no way he wouldn’t have attacked by now. What’s his angle?

“Your name is Stinkman?” Lee asked. Her brow furrowed. “That’s a stupid name.”

“Stigman, not Stinkman,” the shadows spat, a note of genuine annoyance in them.

It was Moxie’s turn to get shoved to the side. She stumbled, and a dagger carved straight past her, drawing a thin line of blood across her arm. Noah unleashed a blade of wind in the direction of the attack, but he could tell by Stigman’s echoing laughter that the attack hadn’t hit.

How the hell is this bastard doing that? He’s fast, but the real problem is this stealth. I can’t figure out how he’s hiding himself from me. If I could just touch him, I could use Sunder and that would be that. The problem is touching him, though.

“For someone with an overwhelming advantage of perfect stealth, you’re a shit aim,” Noah called out. “That’s two misses–”

This time, his tremorsense picked up on a blade flitting for his neck. Noah dropped to the ground, spinning toward the source of the attack. Even as fast as he’d reacted, he still felt the dagger pass straight over his head, only missing him by millimeters.

By the time he was turned, the only thing he saw was Stigman’s dagger vanishing into the darkness.

“Stinkman is fast, but he’s pretty bad at aiming,” Lee said, but something about her voice was off. Her nose was in the air, and Noah could see the telltale signs of her skin rippling faintly as she shifted. Even though her form didn’t seem to be changing, it looked like she had some form of plan.

Noah rose and backed up, standing closer to Lee and waiting, trying to control his racing heartbeat as he listened intently.

“If I wanted you all dead, you’d already be dead,” Stigman hissed.

“That sounds like an excuse for not being able to hit a single one of us,” Noah called out, calling Natural Disaster’s powers to his fingertips. If he couldn’t see Stigman, he could always just start blasting huge portions of the room around them. Eventually, something would connect.

“I think he’s just a really shit assassin,” Lee said, sticking her tongue out. “He couldn’t hit the broad side of his mo–”

Lee sank into the ground in a flash, the rest of her words vanishing into the shadows. There was a startled scream, and a Stigman hurtled through the air above them. He slammed into the ground with a loud crack, a dagger spinning free from his body from the force of the impact.

Silver glinted in the dark as Lee dropped from the ceiling, her axe aimed for Stigman’s neck. He rolled to the side and vaulted backward, grabbing his dagger from the ground and raising both of the weapons, his glowing eyes narrow.

“How?” Stigman demanded.

“You talk too much,” Lee replied. She reared back and flung her axe, sending it screaming through the air like a cannonball. Stigman dropped to the ground and Lee blurred toward him.

Stigman’s daggers crossed to intercept Lee. She leapt right before she reached him, landing on the ground before him for an instant, her legs bending until she was almost sitting on the ground.

Then, like a frog, Lee vaulted straight over his head. She flashed past Stigman, grabbing the axe from its flight and whipping it toward his back. He spun, starting to fade from sight, but the attack was too fast to dodge.

He braced his daggers, catching the axe on both of their blades. Metal crashed against itself as he caught the blow, but the sheer force of it was still enough to send him stumbling back. Lee skidded to a stop, then blurred for Stigman once more.

“Nice try,” Stigman said, his chuckle fading into the dark as he disappeared – only to let out a squawk of pain a second later as Lee’s fist shot out, driving into something. Stigman shimmered into view and staggered back, clutching his nether regions. His glowing eyes were wide with confusion and pain, and he managed to force out a strangled, “how?”

“Just had to figure out what you smelled like. You all smell so similar,” Lee said as her fist slammed into his face. Bones shattered and blood sprayed as he flew a foot into the air.

Noah was pretty confident that was the end of the fight, but Stigman somehow managed to land on his feet instead of crumpling to the ground like he should have. He spat onto the ground, blood dripping from the darkness of his hood.

One of his legs whipped up, driving into Lee’s stomach. She hopped back with the blow, grunting in pain.

“Strong little shit, aren’t you?” Stigman growled, his voice slurred and nasally. “I can’t wait until Gentil takes you apart. He won’t kill you, you know. He’ll make you listen. And I’ll be there, girl. I’ve already wasted enough time. You’re all dead. I look forward to our next meeting.”

His chuckle echoed through the room as he started to fade – only to cut off with a startled gag as his body was abruptly jerked into the air. Noah could just barely see a long, ropey vine that had descended from the ceiling in the cover of the dark.

It had wound around Stigman’s neck and drawn taut, starting to strangle him. His feet kicked as he clawed desperately at the vine, but his daggers clanged off its surface like it was steel rather than plant.

Whatever curses he had left to sling at them never made it out of his throat. Noah watched in a mixture of disgust and awe as the vine continued to tighten, suffocating Stigman and stifling him completely.

The vine yanked up abruptly, and a sharp crack echoed out. Stigman slumped, falling silent. Lee grabbed her axe from the ground and strode over to him, swinging it. The bottom half of the man’s body splattered to the ground.

“Just in case,” Lee said, nudging his corpse with her foot. “He was harder to hurt than I expected.”

“You don’t say,” Noah agreed. “What were you doing back in the middle of the fight, Lee? It looked like you were shifting, but I don’t see any change.”

“I was modifying my nose to smell him better. He smelled so similar to everyone else here that it was hard to tell them apart. I got it, though.”

“Gathered that bit,” Noah said with a dry laugh. “I was trying to figure out if there was a way I could get close enough to touch him. That didn’t look like it was going to be possible, and my next best idea was to start blowing up huge portions of the room until something landed. Your method was much more effective.”

“The solution to all our problems can’t be blowing them away with overwhelming force,” Moxie said, kneeling beside Stigman’s body and rifling through his pockets. “That’s just the solution to most of them.”

Noah snorted. Moxie’s vine dropped Stigman’s upper body to the ground beside Lee and receded, slithering back into her pant leg. He considered trying to Sunder Stigman to take his Runes, but because Noah hadn’t even gotten a chance to land a hit on him, none of the energy from his death was visible – and that meant there was no soul for him to see and Sunder.

Can’t Sunder something if I don’t know where it is. Oh well. I think there will be more than enough people down here to donate their Runes. Next time, I won’t let myself sit around and watch. As long as I land even one blow, I’ll be able to use Sunder after our opponent dies. In any case, it might be smart to keep Sunder hidden for these smaller fights. I don’t know if we’re being watched, and I don’t want to give away my best move.

“I’ve never seen you use that vine before,” Noah observed as Moxie stood back up.

“I just pumped a disgusting amount of energy into it. Nothing special, but it works really well for a surprise attack. Lee had so much of his attention that I was pretty sure I’d get him on the first try. If I wasn’t, it could have been a huge waste.” Moxie shrugged. “And Stigman didn’t have anything on him. Just daggers and his cloak. Given how easily he went down once we caught him, he was a Rank 3.”

“Seemed a little strong for a Rank 3,” Lee said with a small frown. “We should probably keep moving, though. We spent more time than we should have with this guy.”

Moxie nodded. “It sounds like we’ve got bigger threats waiting for us. Not sure why they’re coming one by one instead of just doing it all at once, but that might have been the reason why they sent this idiot to stall us.”

“Think we should turn back?” Noah asked.

Moxie shook her head. “Nothing has given us a reason to believe they’ve got someone much stronger than Stigman. We’re doing the city a favor, and I’m not eager to leave people like this running around when we can purge the rest of them in one fell swoop.”

“Agreed.” Noah called on Natural Disaster, then started toward the door at the far end of the room. “Let’s get moving, then. There’s a lot more to clean up before the night is over.”

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