Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 570: Yulin

Across the forest, while Isabel and Emily’s groups were fighting against Marley’s group, Alexandra was caught up in a fight of her own.

The mushrooms in a wide area around her had been carved to ribbons. Splinters of woody fungi littered the scarred earth at her feet; patches of the ground had been blackened and scorched by magic. She stood in the center of it all, a plain sword held before her in both hands.

There was the faintest scent of what was almost reminiscent of a burnt omelette in the air — likely due to all the scorched mushrooms around her.

Four students stood around her in a square formation. Magic burned between their palms, each of them holding a spell at the ready. Not one of them was willing to let their magic slip free before any of the others.

Alexandra’s lips quirked up in amusement for a split second before her expression flattened once more as concentration returned to reign supreme. “Is something wrong? You were all eager to catch me out. Now you have.”

“Where’s Ollie?” one of her pursuers asked. He was a boy from the advanced track, but she’d forgotten both his name and the family that he’d come from. Neither had been important. He’d never been a capable sparring partner.

“Who?” Alexandra tilted her head to the side. “I haven’t kept track of every single person I’ve fought, you know. Especially not the idiots that spend time yelling their names out as if they matter. The only time it’s worth introducing yourself in a fight is when you’re up against someone worthwhile. I haven’t seen anyone worthy of that during this exam.”

Angry mutters rose up from the students. They shifted, posturing for each other, but not a single one of them attacked. A flicker of annoyance built in Alexandra’s chest. This was a waste of time. There were enough opponents to actually pose her a challenge. Every one of the students around her was in the advanced track. They had relatively powerful magic — enough to give even her resilient body pause if they worked together — but they were all cowards.

All of them knew that they weren’t fast enough to take her out with a single round of spells. At least one of them would have to be willing to bear the brunt of her attention if the others wanted to have a chance to land their attacks, but not a single one of them was willing to make that sacrifice.

“You’re wasting my time,” Alexandra said. “Either attack or don’t. I came here looking to train and to find a challenge that could really push me to improve. Something tells me none of you are going to be the person I’m looking for.”

“Ollie’s pendant didn’t go off, but he’s missing,” one of the other students snarled. “Tell us where he is, or we’re all going to forget this is an exam and the gloves are coming off.”

Alexandra blew out a small sigh, then nodded up to the mushrooms at the edge of the clearing. “If Ollie is the previous one that came after me, he’ s up there. I threw him.”

One of the students turned to look in the direction Alexandra had indicated. A pair of legs extended from the top of a tall mushroom. The rest of him had been buried solidly within its head. Despite the intensity at which the legs were thrashing, it seemed they were having absolutely no luck in freeing their owner from his fungal prison.

Incredulity crossed the lead student’s face. He took a disbelieving step back and started to turn back toward Alexandra. “You threw—”

She blurred. Wind whipped past her face as she closed the distance between herself and the boy in less than the time it took to draw a breath of air. He activated his shield, panic flashing across his features as he desperately tried to defend himself.

A glowing silver dome enveloped him for a split second. Then Alexandra’s fist smashed straight through the shield. The magic wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to withstand a Rank 3 Mage who had put every scrap of their available power into the Body Runes powering her every move.

Alexandra’s fist continued on to connect with the boy’s nose with a loud crunch. Bone crumpled and his head snapped back, sending blood flying through the air in a spray of droplets. The magic at his fingertips evaporated with a hiss, and Alexandra brought the hilt of her sword down on the top of his head.

A flash of light lit the clearing as his pendant activated. A slip of paper fluttered through the air and alighted on the ground, now devoid of an owner.

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All three of the other mages let out panicked curses and released their spells— but it was too late.

When there had been four of them surrounding her, they might have had a chance to land a good blow on her. But there weren’t four of them anymore.

Alexandra’s breathing stilled. Her body flowed like a butterfly flitting through a windy day, her features as peaceful as a lake in a still summer day. She stepped to the side as a coil of fire rolled past her face, then passed between blades of silver wind that sliced through the air and ripped through the mushrooms behind her. Shadows rose from the ground and sharpened into blades. They cut at Alexandra, but she slipped past each one of them like there was nothing in her path.

Her sword flashed. A Shield shattered, and a flash of light filled the air as a pendant activated before the energy from the Shield could even finish crumbling away. Alexandra moved from one student to the next in a single fluid motion. She swung her weapon twice more, and two more students vanished in bright flashes.

When she came to a stop, the clearing was empty once more. Several more pieces of Catchpaper fluttered to rest on the ground around her feet.

Alexandra let her sword lower. Her lips thinned and she repressed the urge to shake her head in disappointment. That was just rude. There was no need to be rude — but she’d been hoping for so much more than this.

Despite her best efforts, she hadn’t found the real talents from the Advanced track. There were only two groups that she actually wanted to challenge. The first was Fiona — the agreed upon strongest member of the Advanced Track. She’d never taken part in a sparring match during training, but Alexandra was almost confident the girl was a Rank 3 at the minimum. The rest of her group was likely quite competent as well.

They would have been a worthy opponent, but Alexandra would have been equally satisfied finding Marley or Yulin, though for entirely different reasons. If Alexandra found Marley — she had no plans of letting him continue the exam.

She didn’t have particularly strong opinions of many people in the advanced track, but he was the only one that Alexandra felt absolutely no respect for. At least all the other students had taken steps to hide how scummy they might have been. Marley wore it like a badge of honor on his chest.

As for Yulin… she and Alexandra had spent quite a few nights practicing swordcraft. Yulin didn’t have much free time to herself. But every second she did have was dedicated to training. She was no match for Alexandra in a real fight, especially if Alexandra utilized her pattern, but in pure swordcraft, Yulin could more than hold her own.

Fighting her would have been a good use of time. It had been a while since they’d both pushed the limits of what they could do against each other.

But, for some reason, it almost seemed as if everyone worthwhile was avoiding her. Alexandra’s brow furrowed as she walked around the clearing, gathering the pieces of fallen Catchpaper.

Several of them already had runes upon their surfaces. That made her ears heat slightly. The point of the exam had been to hunt monsters and capture a Rune from them, but she’d yet to fight a single monster during the exam.

But, despite that, she had already gathered six Runes from defeating the students she’d come across.

I suppose they never said where I have to get the runes, just that I have to get them. It’s not my fault people keep donating them to me.

A dry piece of mushroom crunched and broke through her thoughts. Alexandra turned toward its source, and a flicker of excitement passed through her as she recognized the person approaching her.

“Alexandra,” Yulin exclaimed, sliding to a stop as she skidded into the clearing.

“Finally,” Alexandra said. “I’ve been making so much noise that it’s a miracle you didn’t find me earlier. Why are you coming out without your sword drawn, though? That’s practically asking to lose before the fight starts.”

“Because I’m not here to fight you,” Yulin replied sharply. “You need to come with me. Now.”

Her tone was deadly serious. She wasn’t joking around. Alexandra blinked in surprise. For a moment, she wondered if this was meant to be some sort of trap. It was always possible. She rather liked Yulin, but she hadn’t forgotten whose student the girl was.

She only hesitated for an instant. Perhaps she was just sentimental, but Alexandra would have liked to say she’d gotten to know the other girl fairly well after the amount of time they’d spent crossing blades. It wasn’t like Yulin to try to lie like this.

“What’s going on?” Alexandra lowered her sword and strode toward Yulin, who turned and started into the mushroom forest without wasting a moment.

“Your friends are in danger,” Yulin said. “This exam isn’t proctored because the pendants are supposed to ensure people’s safety — but Isabel’s is sabotaged. Jakob tampered with it before the exam. It’s not going to work.”

“Oh, is that all? Isabel will be fine. There isn’t any student that can take out the rest of our group. But I don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell Arbitage what you just told me?” Alexandra asked.

“I’m not suicidal, Alexandra.” Yulin sent a flat glare over her shoulder at Alexandra. “Isabel might be talented, but can she fight a professor?”

“What?” Alexandra asked. “No, of course not.”

“Then we better move faster.” Yulin accelerated, forcing Alexandra into a run to keep up. “Professor Jakob is here — and he’s going to kill Isabel if you don’t get there in time to stop him.”