Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 291: Ill omens

Noah’s grimoire was eating well. He’d fed it eighteen Poison Runes already – most Lesser, some Greater. The Sand Wylves probably already had rumors going around about him – but he suspected that if there were rumors about him, then there were nightmares of Lee and Moxie.

While he’d been focused on using Sunder to gather some Runes to feed his artifact, Moxie had been putting her all into pushing herself to her absolute limit. She was down several Runes, so Noah had expected her to be a bit weaker than she’d been before, even if her new ones were truly perfect.

He couldn’t have been more wrong. Moxie’s control over the foliage around them had intensified by what felt like a factor of two. Plants she touched instinctively moved, seemingly picking up her desires before she could even act on them.

None of the wylves could get anywhere close to her. Lee, of course, had taken that as a challenge. She’d carved a bloody path through wylf and tree alike, leaving the forest torn to bits in her wake.

In comparison, Noah’s meticulously gathered eighteen Runes almost felt disappointing. He stared at the writhing vines at Moxie’s feet as they flicked the last few monsters from the pack that had attacked her to the ground, their corpses ripped to pieces.

“What?” Moxie looked down at her hands, then wiped her face with the back of a hand. “Do I have blood on me or something?”

“No, no. That’s mostly on the ground. And the plants. And just about everything else, for that matter. I was just looking at you.”

“Creep.” Moxie smirked and flicked her hands, releasing her control of the plants around her. They slithered back up her pant legs and sleeves.

A wylf sailed over their heads, letting out a terrified yowl before it slammed into a tree with a loud crash, shattering the wood. It crumpled to the ground and the trunk fell atop it, crushing the monster.

Lee yelled something in the distance, but Noah couldn’t quite make out what she’d said. The small demon sprinted out from the forest and skidded to a stop, completely covered in blood. A huge, excited grin covered her face and she held her massive axe over a single shoulder. Noah and Moxie both stared at her.

“What? Do I have something on my face?”

“Just a bit,” Noah said. “You don’t need any of these things’ Runes, do you? All the ones I’ve seen have been poison, but I was wondering if their monster Runes would be of use.”

Lee shook her head. “Nah. I could probably use ‘em, but they don’t fit my intent. Maybe some of the other monsters in the forest will fit better.”

“Are there even others?” Moxie asked. “We’ve been fighting for an hour now, and I haven’t seen anything other than the wylves.”

“Oh, right. That’s what I was going to say,” Lee said. She thrust a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the forest she’d just come out of.

There was a loud crack. Noah and Moxie both dropped into fighting stances as a tree behind Lee shattered. A large wylf bounded into their clearing, easily two times larger than the other monsters they’d been fighting.

“I found this,” Lee said. “Can we keep it?”

Its fur was a dull yellowish-brown, and swirling sand enveloped its entire body as if there was a small hurricane centered directly on top of it. The monster yowled and lunged forward, aiming for Lee’s neck.

She brought the flat of her axe around and down onto the top of the monster’s head. It connected with a resounding clang and the large wylf staggered, stunned for an instant.

“Lee, that’s a monster that is actively trying to kill you,” Noah said.

Is that the Great Monster? No, probably not. It’s just a bit bigger than the Wylves. Maybe something equivalent to a Slasher from the Scorched Acres? But… I thought those were put there on purpose to be controlled by the Hellreaver. Isn’t this Great Monster supposed to be naturally occurring?

“It’s just playing,” Lee insisted. She stepped out of the way as the wylf snapped at her throat again. Whips of sand materialized around its tail, then flicked out for Lee. She twisted out of the way and avoided the attacks, then smacked the monster on its nose again.

It yelped and hopped back, baring its teeth in a furious, bloodthirsty growl. There didn’t seem to be very much to work with if Lee was going to try to tame it. The wylf clearly hated her.

“I’m not so sure that’s the word I’d choose,” Noah said.

The wylf leapt at Lee. Swirling blades of sand carved through the air around it in a defensive shell, likely meant to keep her axe from biting home. Unfortunately for the wylf, a thin layer of sand was nowhere near enough to stop her sheer brute force.

She swung her axe like a bat, using the flat side of the weapon to strike. A deep whump echoed out as the wylf – sand barrier and all – was launched across the ground and into a tree. It crashed through it and into another tree, crumpling to the ground.

Sand pattered to the ground around the wylf as its will to fight was extinguished along with its consciousness. The monster was still breathing, but it was out cold.

“See?” Lee asked. “I tamed it.”

“No. I think you beat the life out of it,” Noah replied, walking up to the unconscious Sand Wylf. Despite the beating Lee had given it, the monster was surprisingly uninjured. Relatively speaking, at least. Noah was pretty sure his body would have been a pulverized mess if he’d been in its spot.

“Huh. It actually put up a decent fight against you, even if you weren’t trying to kill it,” Noah said. “Is this just a normal wylf?”

“Probably a mutated one,” Moxie said as she joined him beside the monster and looked over it with a critical eye. “It had some pretty good defenses. The other wylfs seem to be around Rank 1, but this one might be a Rank 2.”

“I was thinking the same,” Noah said. He prodded the monster with a foot, keeping Natural Disaster at the ready in case it woke up. As far as he could tell, its hide wasn’t any tougher than a normal monster’s.

“But I don’t think I saw anything actually special happening with its defenses. There wasn’t any armor, there was just sand. Maybe some sort of special Sand Armor Rune?”

“That could be it, although I would have expected something like that to be much more apparent,” Noah mused. “This feels like something that could be replicated with just sand. That’s actually a pretty brilliant way to defend yourself.”

“What do you mean?” Lee asked. “It’s just reactive armor.”

“Yeah, but it was far more effective than just throwing up a rock. You would have smashed right through a rock with no problem because it’s brittle, but packing a bunch of sand tightly in one area is actually a much more effective way of blocking something. It’s denser.”

Noah called on Natural Disaster and pulled up a swirl of the sand that littered the ground around the wylf. He formed it into a thin plate, chewing his lower lip. “Moxie, can you punch this?”

Moxie shrugged. She drove her open palm into the thin plate of sand, breaking through it with a grunt. She shook her hand off. “Okay. What was that for?”

“Now this,” Noah said, releasing the sand and forming a plate from the earth. Moxie drove her palm into it and it shattered.

“The rock was definitely a lot easier to break,” Moxie said, blinking. “That’s… really interesting, actually.”

“I think it’s because all the little sand particles have friction against each other. Not to mention it can compress a lot more, while rocks are more crystalline in nature,” Noah mused. “Crystal structures are easier to break. This could be really useful for Isabel. Me too, for that matter.”

Moxie arched an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you knew that much about rocks. Where’d you pick that up?”

“I remembered a few things from school science classes, okay? I wasn’t always so adverse to studying.”

“You learned about combat techniques like this in your school? What others did you get taught?” Lee asked.

“Oh, it wasn’t a combat technique,” Noah said with a laugh. “It was like science class. In my world, our schooling wasn’t on how to fight. It was about… mostly learning, actually. I liked music the most, but I had a few basic science classes back when.”

“You say that, but this is a pretty interesting observation,” Moxie said. “Do you think you could try to remember more of what you learned in any of your classes?”

Noah rubbed the back of his head and tried to wade through ages of memory in search of his dimming life on Earth. “I could try, yeah. I honestly just got a little bit of a flashback. Most of my schooling had to do with music.”

“With formations.” Moxie’s eyebrow crept up her forehead. “One of the most dangerous ways to fight with Runes. Maybe some of the principles could be useful for us – or the students. It would be a worthwhile lesson, at the least.”

“You’ve got a point,” Noah admitted, warming to the idea almost immediately. He liked teaching, but he hadn’t thought he’d ever be teaching music again. But… why couldn’t he? “More than that, actually. That’s brilliant. I can teach music again!”

“Among other things,” Moxie said with a wry smile. “How about we go find this Great Monster and then put together a lesson plan for the beginning of the next year once we’ve handled it?”

“We should include stretching,” Lee said. “And more punching things. I don’t know if Silvertide has made sure Isabel and Todd kept their physiques up to standard, so we might have to make up for lost time.”

“That would be wise,” Noah agreed. “Good plan, Moxie. Maybe we can even try to get some Runes to use as rewards for when they figure things out. Having something to work toward is always a lot more effective than a threat.”

The wylf at their feet yawned. It blinked, its nose twitching as it slowly woke from its unconsciousness. For a moment, they all stared at it. Then it let out a furious roar and lunged, sand gathering and surging around it –

Lee’s axe slammed down on its head, sending it flopping limply to the ground once more.

“Okay, it’s not quite tamed yet,” Lee said, clearing her throat. “Soon, though. I’ll get through it eventually. Then Todd and Isabel can spar with it!”

Noah tried to suppress a laugh. “Well, we can try to keep it around while we look for the Great Monster. If you can get it tamed before we leave the forest, then we can keep it. Deal?”

“Okay!” Lee prodded the monster. “Did you hear that? Just have to play nice and you can play more. It’ll be fun.”

If it wasn’t a bloodthirsty monster trying to kill us, I’d probably feel bad.

“What direction did it come from?” Noah asked, nodding to the wylf. “It was stronger than the other wylfs, so it’s probably a good indication of where the Great Monster is.”

“Over there.” Lee pointed into the forest. “I think there were some other big dogs too, but they weren’t as fun as this one was.”

“Great. Let’s go, then. I’d like to try to find the Great Monster sometime today,” Noah said.

Lee reached down and picked the huge wylf up by the scruff of its neck, dragging the monster’s body through the dirt behind her as the lot set off. Noah sent a pitiable look back at the poor thing.

Scratch that. I definitely feel bad for it. Somehow, I don’t think Lee’s new friend is going to survive for very long.