Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 29: The first encounter

“You sure come here a lot,” Tim drawled as Noah stepped out of the lift and raised his hand in greeting.

“It’s faster than flying myself. Safer too.” Noah said.

“Not arguing with that. I guess it’s not my place to ask, but I’ve never seen a professor spend as much time in the Scorched Acres as you do. Is there something going on?”

Noah walked up to the turret and leaned against the wall, looking back at Tim. “Not really. Just training. There are a lot of monsters there, you know.”

“I’d reckon so. Just… that’s a whole lot of training.”

“Is that not the point?”

Tim tugged on his beard and frowned. “Yeah, I guess it is. Just makes me wonder why the other professors rarely use my services. I’d have thought that at least one more would be doing what you are.”

Noah shrugged. “I’m sure we’ve all got our own methods and strategies. As long as we get results, right?”

It was Tim’s turn to shrug. “Suppose so. Same as always?”

“Actually, I was wondering if you could lower the time I’m out? Maybe… twelve hours, if that’s possible? I just want to test some things out and it probably won’t take an entire day.”

“Sure, I could do that for you.” Tim replied. “Twelve hours it is. All ready?”

“Thanks.” Noah climbed inside the turret. It shuddered as Tim adjusted his target.

“Have a safe trip!” Tim called.

Noah didn’t get a chance to respond. Energy erupted and the cannon fired, blasting him into a world of swirling blue. Noah was so used to the sensation that he barely even noticed any discomfort. He just enjoyed the twisting shades of blue as they whipped past him.

And then, before he knew it, Noah was in the Scorched Acres. He blinked, somewhat surprised to find the world in more than one color again, then shook his head. Pulling his flying sword from its spot in his belt, he tossed it onto the ground and stepped on.

It jerked forward, nearly ramming Noah into a tree before he adjusted its direction at the last second and directed himself into the sky. He burst past the blackened canopy and righted himself, squinting as wind whipped past his face.

The forest passed quickly beneath him. Noah flew for several minutes, making sure he would be deep enough into the trees so that he wouldn’t mistakenly run into someone else that might have visited from Arbitage at an inopportune time, then shot back down to make a rough landing on the dirt, tripping over his own feet as the sword jerked to a halt and nearly face planting into a tree.

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Noah managed to catch himself at the last second, using a small blast of wind to halt his momentum. He let out a slow breath, shaking his head and picking his sword back up. The part of the forest he’d landed in looked identical to just about every other part of it, but it seemed empty.

It was warm, bordering on hot. Noah adjusted his suit, unbuttoning the front. He tilted his head to the side and listened intently for a few seconds. All that greeted him was silence. A monkey howled far in the distance, barely audible over the wind.

Nothing imminent, then. That obviously doesn’t mean much, since they aren’t always making noise, but at least there aren’t any monsters fighting each other near me.

Noah focused on his Vibration Rune. Its power gathered, waiting for command. Noah paused a moment, just enjoying the feeling of energy pumping through his veins and pulsing at his fingertips.

“What’s the best way to go about this?” Noah murmured to himself. “It vibrates monsters and people well enough. I guess the next step is the ground?”

He went to kneel, then paused. If he could cast magic through his hands, there was no logical reason he couldn’t do it through any other part of his body. Noah straightened back up and pictured the ground trembling.

Energy poured out of his leg and through his shoe, seeping into the ground beneath his feet. Noah swore as his shoes suddenly shuddered with such intensity that he lost his footing.

“Goddamn it,” Noah muttered. He shifted, and the dirt pressed against the soles of his feet. He sighed and knelt, pulling a shoe off. The seams had been ripped to shreds and the bottom had split in half. The other had suffered a similar fate.

Guess that’s a pretty good case for using my hands instead of my feet. Noted. I’ve gone this far, though. Might as well keep at it.

Noah pulled both shoes off and tossed them to the side, adding his socks to the pile before digging his feet into the dry, brittle ground. He gathered his magic once more, then repeated the command.

The earth rumbled beneath Noah. He wobbled in place as the ground shook for just a second before going still once more.

That was lackluster. Must be because I’m not being specific enough. Ground is a pretty wide, after all. If I’m trying to shake an entire tectonic plate, I’m probably not going to have much luck. Maybe just the dirt in a ten foot radius around me.

Noah started to draw on his Vibration Rune. He wasn’t sure exactly how much magic to use, but he didn’t want to overshoot things and end up either wasting the energy or calling too much attention to himself.

As he prepared to release it, Noah’s eyes caught a flicker at the edges of the trees. Had he not spent so much time in the forest these last few weeks, he would have missed it completely. Instead, Noah recognized the telltale glint of a Chucker’s bulbous eyes in the distance.

And, if he could see it, it could probably see him. Noah swore, dropping to the ground instinctively. A rock screamed past his head, smashing through the trunk of the tree behind him and sending splinters of wood flying everywhere.

Noah drew sharply on his Vibration Rune, taking in far more than he had the first time, and unleashed the magic on the ground. Dry, packed dirt cracked and trees groaned as a forest floor between Noah and the Chucker came alive.

It tore itself up in an instant, like an explosion had been set off beneath the ground. The Chucker screamed for an instant before it was caught in the blast and vanished behind a line of debris.

The spell only lasted an instant, but by the time that Noah had risen to his feet again, a straight path of destruction had carved itself out before him. All the trees that had been between him and the Chucker had been uprooted and thrown to the side.

Cracks ran throughout the ground, and several large rocks that had been in the path of the spell had been shattered into dozens of pieces. Noah stared at the damage he’d wrought, his eyes wide.

He quickly brought himself back into the present, not willing to let himself get killed for a second time while he admired his own magic. Once was more than enough. He crept past the trees toward where he’d last seen the monkey. A wave of energy seeped into his body a few moments later, even though he'd yet to locate the monster.

Noah found it after just a few seconds of searching. Or rather, he found its bottom half. The rest of the monster had been crushed beneath a large tree that had fallen in the wake of his magic. Noah winced. “Rough way to go out, bud. Sucks. I’ll leave your fingers intact as apology.”

He reached for his Vibration Rune. Nothing answered. Noah pursed his lips in annoyance. All the energy in it had been spent. Since it was a Greater Rune, it would probably be at least an hour before it completely regenerated.

That might have been a bit overkill, but it’s still good to see just how much it can do when it’s not even close to full. I’ll have to make sure to optimize how I use Vibration magic, though. I definitely could have achieved similar results without blowing through all my reserves.

A bead of sweat rolled down Noah’s forehead. He wiped it away and frowned, opening the front of his coat completely. The fight, if it could even be called that, hadn’t taken that much out of him. After all, it had just lasted a few seconds.

Why is it so damn hot?

He raised a hand, squinting up through the tree branches. Despite the time of day, it was strangely dark. It was as if the sun were obscured by clouds, but the day was completely clear as far as Noah could tell.

Noah fanned his face and drew his flying sword, hopping onto it and taking to the air to escape the heat – and he immediately spotted the answer to both of his questions. Noah’s eyes widened and he flew his sword in a circle to get a second look at it.

A thick wall of smoke rose up before him, curling away from a ring of fire surrounding a section of the forest before him. The trees were completely engulphed, but the flame didn’t show any signs of spreading.

“What in the hells is that?” Noah murmured. For an instant, he considered flying over to it, but the thought was banished.

That’s got to either be a monster I haven’t seen yet or another mage, and I don’t want them to see me flying around – not to mention I’ll lose my flying sword if I get killed by something while I’m carrying it around.

Noah dropped back below the trees and dismounted the sword. The fire was only a few minutes of walking away, by his judgment. He climbed a large tree and jabbed the flying sword into the trunk, hanging his gourd and book from the blade’s handle before hopping back to the ground.

He landed with a grunt and wiped the growing sheen of sweat from his forehead before setting off in the direction of the fire.

Gradually, the sound of crackling flame reached his ears. Just like he’d predicted, the flaming circle was just a two minute walk from where he’d been training. He quickly spotted the yellowish-orange glow of the fire through the blackened tree trunks.

Noah approached it cautiously, moving slowly and as quietly as he could. The fire wasn’t so loud that it completely muted his movements, but it went a long way in covering most of them.

The heat intensified the closer Noah got. He stripped his jacket, tucking it under an arm as he arrived directly before the fire. It was as if an invisible circle had been drawn around the flaming trees.

Glowing ash popped and floated through the air, but the moment it grew far enough away from the ring of fire, it dropped to the ground. There were thin gaps between the trees and flame, but the flame shifted so often that it was impossible to get a good look of what rested beyond them.

Noah stood in silence at the edge of the trees for nearly a minute, watching intently. Nothing emerged or changed. The fire just continued to roar, oblivious to his presence. The back of his shirt was already soaked through and his pants were well on their way to follow. Occasionally, a large chunk of the flaming wall completely vanished. Before Noah could get a good look through it, the flames burst forth once again.

He chewed his lower lip and tried to squint through a gap in the flame again. In the periodic and seemingly random absences of fire, Noah could just barely make out a large, bulky form within the ring.

Noah pulled his coat back over his shoulders. There was only one way to investigate it any further. Noah wasn’t about to let a chance to train against a more powerful monster go to waste just because of a little heat.

Okay. A lot of heat.

The adventurers that rescued me mentioned the Hellreaver. This certainly seems like it might fit the bill.

He backed several steps up, then sprinted forward, aiming for one of the periodic gaps in the fire. Noah tucked his head down and threw himself through the trees, protecting his face with his hands as best as he could. Scorching heat licked at his skin and singed his hair. Some of the ashes latched onto his coat, sparking into flame, and he smelt his hair singe and smolder. He hit the packed dirt in a painful roll.

Noah quickly shrugged out of the coat, throwing it onto the ground even as the fire started to crawl across it, and batted out the small fires that had tried to take root in his hair. Noah sat up, still batting out some stubborn motes that stung his skin. He froze.

Sitting across from him, towering at nearly two stories tall, was an enormous monkey. Its fur was pitch black and covered with roaring flames that showed absolutely no signs of hurting it. Its massive, clawed hands were crossed over a rough, nearly spherical belly. The fire wreathed the monster’s face, where four bleached fangs jutted out from its mouth, each as long as a spear and disproportionately large, even for a creature of its size. The monster’s breath rose and fell in slow, steady shudders. Its eyes were closed. It was asleep.

Noah swallowed, keeping as still as possible.

Well, I knew it was big.

Deep in Noah’s mind, something rumbled. The massive Rune that floated above all the others came alive in response to the creature sitting across from him. And, with absolute certainty, Noah knew that his guess had been correct.

The Hellreaver.

A rattling breath filled the Hellreaver’s chest. Its nose twitched.

Oh shit. My hair got burnt.

Two bloodshot eyes snapped open, instantly fixing on Noah. Seething hatred and hunger filled their depths. Worse, Noah realized that this wasn’t the first time he’d seen those eyes. They were the very same as the one that had peered through the specks of white void in his mental space.