Return of the Runebound Professor

It was Todd who spotted the next Slasher. He pointed it out with an urgent thrust of a finger through the trees. The Slasher in question was leaning against a tree, its eyes closed and its chest rising in slow, heavy breaths.

Noah gave Todd an approving nod, then gestured for them to go after it. After all, no part of the exam said that they had to defeat a Slasher that was awake. Besides, the energy they’d gain for their new Runes would still be useful. There was no reason to make things more difficult than they had to be.

Isabel drew her sword and glanced at Todd. He gathered a small sphere of flame above his hand and they crept forward. Noah watched their approach, magic bubbling at his fingertips. Unlike the previous monster, they were upwind this time.

Noah was fairly certain that it would wake up before they grew close enough to strike, but warning them would reduce the effectiveness of the lesson. Just because the Slasher was sleeping didn’t mean it was harmless.

Sure enough, the monster’s eyes snapped open. Todd and Isabel both jumped as it launched itself to its feet and let out a furious roar, its eyes latching onto them instantly. Todd thrust his hand forward and fired a thin stream of flame out, but the movement had been too panicked and inaccurate. It shot past the Slasher’s shoulder and burned a hole through the tree behind it.

The Slasher charged. Isabel raised her sword and lowered her stance, moving to stand in front of Todd and draw its attention. The tactic worked, and the Slasher bore down on her. It slashed out at her with a hand and she dropped to the ground, rolling in the direction of the strike and lunging up to drive her sword into its knee.

Magic flared as the blade punched through the Slasher’s fur. It roared in fury and lifted its hands to bring them down on top of Isabel. She yanked on her sword, but it didn’t budge. Isabel cursed and released the blade, allowing it to dematerialize.

Throw yourself between its legs. That would be the fastest way to get to safety.

Isabel jumped back instead. Noah pressed his lips together. He didn’t blame Isabel for trying to keep her distance. It was instinct. Unfortunately, that instinct meant that the Slasher didn’t have to turn to follow Isabel, so it still had its eyes on both her and Todd.

Another stream of fire erupted from Todd’s fingers, but the Slasher ducked under it. It lunged for Isabel. If its leg hadn’t been injured, it might have reached her.

Instead, it stumbled slightly as it put weight on the injured limb. That bought Isabel just enough time to scramble backward, narrowly avoiding its grasping claws. The Slasher crashed to the ground with a scream of pain.

Todd fired another thin stream of flame. This time, it caught the Slasher in the back of the neck. It screamed in pain, thrashing and raising a hand to try and block the fire. Rancid, sickly smoke rose up from the wound.

“Isabel! Go!” Todd yelled, stepping forward and keeping the stream of fire trained on the monster to keep its hands occupied. Isabel nodded and darted over to the Slasher’s back.

Her blade shimmered back to life in her hand. The Slasher struggled even harder as she approached, nearly catching Isabel in the chest with a threshing leg. Noah shifted forward, moments from intervening, then let out a relieved sigh when he saw the attack miss.

Isabel jumped onto the Slasher’s back and drove her sword down into its neck. It bit deep into her target and she levered the blade, widening the wound. A shudder rocked the monkey and, with a final snarl, its limbs collapsed and it went still.

Todd dropped his hands, allowing the stream of fire to sputter out. He doubled over, gasping for breath and bracing himself against his knees. Sweat poured down his brow and his hands shook with exertion.

He and Isabel shivered as energy from the Slasher’s death passed into them. Noah walked up to join them, crouching to liberate the Slashers of their claws. It wasn’t like the monkeys needed them anymore.

“Fantastic. That was a huge improvement. Obviously a few things that didn’t go exactly as planned, but you’re learning.”

“It just… died,” Isabel muttered, looking down at her sword. “We did that?”

“Would have died faster if I didn’t miss a hundred times first.” Todd straightened up and wiped the sweat from his brow. Despite his words, he was grinning. “But we got the bastard. And it gave so much more energy than the smaller monkeys! Especially when the professor isn’t stealing half of it.”

“I most certainly did not steal anything. I saved your asses.”

Isabel and Todd burst into laughter, and Noah joined them. The sense of relief and excitement that his students were feeling was one that Noah knew well. If an outsider had been observing, Noah was certain they all would have looked quite odd, doubled over laughing above the corpse of a massive monster.

“How are your Runes doing?” Noah asked after they’d gathered themselves again. “Have enough energy to keep going?”

“I used more than I would have liked, but I’ve still got more than enough,” Todd said. “What about you, Isabel?”

“Barely anything. My magic doesn’t take much energy to upkeep.”

“Then let’s get a move on. There are more Slashers waiting for us,” Noah said with a grin.

***

They killed four more Slashers that day. Noah added their claws to his ever growing collection. None of the fights were perfect, and Noah had to intervene on two of them to prevent an injury. He wasn’t willing to risk either of his students getting hit when it meant there was a solid chance that they wouldn’t get back up from it, even with a healing potion.

The rest of their time in the Scorched Acres was spent killing the smaller monkeys. No Chuckers bothered them this time around, and they returned to Arbitage the following day without trouble.

Noah dismissed his students until the day after next, then returned to his room. He did find it mildly amusing that, after arriving in an entirely new world, he spent all his time either in a burnt down forest or shut inside a tiny box, but there was too much to do.

Once things settled down and he and his students weren’t in immediate danger, Noah promised himself that he’d actually spend some time exploring the world. There had to be more to it than ugly monkeys.

Noah cast his attention inward, checking on his Runes. They were filling at a steady rate, though it had slowed down a little. His Vibration Rune was finally about where his Ash Runes had been when he’d first gotten them, and maybe even a little farther.

As for the Ash Runes themselves, they were brimming with strength. They’d still grown from when he’d seen them last, and Noah instinctively knew that there was more room for them to improve, but they were likely just a week or so of continued growth away from being full.

To Noah’s delight, when he went to check on the white particles of damage at the edges of his mind, he found that a significant portion of it had healed. There were several fist sized holes left, but he was recovering.

Now that I think about it, it’s been a bit since I’ve hallucinated a monkey as well. That almost certainly proves that they were related. Good to know for the future. If that’s what happens when I’m just a little injured, I don’t want to think about the consequences of dying hundreds of times. I might actually go insane for a while.

With a blink, Noah brought himself back into his room. He stretched his arms over his head and yawned, then shook himself out. The past few days had been surprisingly tiring, but focusing on his students had been a great way to keep himself distracted.

Now that he was more comfortable with their progress, his thoughts drifted back to his own situation. The Linwick family. Combining his Runes. The giant Sunder Rune floating above his mind space that he refused to look up at until he knew more about. The poisoned healing potion. Moxie.

Noah groaned and ran a hand through his hair.

“Too much damn intrigue. I always flipped to the end of mystery novels to figure out who the bad guy was,” Noah grumbled, unhooking his gourd and tossing it from hand to hand. “I suppose I could go read about the Linwicks in the library. I bet there’s some information there, and I should really try to figure more out about my supposed family.”

Or… I could go test my Vibration Rune out in the Scorched Acres. It’s gotten a lot stronger, and all I’ve used it for thus far is shaking the hell out of monkeys. It definitely does more than that.

Noah crossed his arms and thought for a few moments. Two very viable options to do before his next meeting with his students.

He did have a pretty good understanding of what his Wind and Ash Runes could do, so it wasn’t like he couldn’t defend himself with his magic. All the monkeys he’d run into thus far in the Scorched Acres weren’t a threat. That did make one of the two options considerably lower priority.

Then again, magic was fun.

“Good argument, me. Magic it is,” Noah said with a cackle. He rubbed his hands together and strode back to find Tim for the second time that day. Learning about the Linwicks could wait until he got back.

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