Return of the Runebound Professor

It took a few minutes, but the entire group had soon gathered once again. Edward and Allen woke as well, but they retreated to the far end of the camp. That suited Noah just fine. The less he had to interact with either of them, the better it would be.

Brayden watched them all stretch with a furrowed brow, but he didn’t say anything. Once they’d all finished, they prepared to head out of camp to find some monsters. The sun was still just barely poking over the horizon, so there would be at least an hour until it was proper daylight.

More than enough time to practice against a few Snufflers. I’ll admit, whoever names these things managed to get a good one this time around. Snuffler. Heh.

“You hunting?” Brayden asked.

“Yeah. We’re just going to be doing a quick lesson before we head off. I trust that’s okay?” Noah asked.

“Fine with me,” Brayden said. “Yell if something goes wrong and you need help.”

“Will do.”

They headed off and, thankfully, Allen and Edward stayed behind. There was no need for secrecy this time around, so Noah took them over to a bush that was only a short walk away from the camp.

“Where’s the monster?” Todd asked, glancing around as Noah came to a stop before the bush. “You can’t tell me we’re about to beat up a plant.”

“The plant is involved, but it isn’t our main goal,” Noah replied. “The Snufflers are. Before we get started – let’s briefly discuss them. They’re blind, but can feel tremors in the ground with pretty high accuracy. Snufflers aren’t the fastest monsters I’ve seen, but they’re not particularly smart either. Kind of a mix between the small monkeys and the Slashers, but without the claws.”

“That doesn’t sound too dangerous,” Todd said. “We can just stay ahead of them then, right? What about their moves?”

“A little more varied than what we’re used to,” Noah admitted. “But varied in a different way. The only thing I’ve seen them do so far is bite, but it’s not in any specific manner or pattern that I’ve found yet. That means your goal won’t just be to predict an exact movement but to keep distance between yourself and its mouth.”

“That means Isabel’s at a disadvantage,” Todd said, glancing at Isabel.

“I’ll just go last.” Isabel chewed her lower lip in thought. “I’ll need to see how you all fight them, but I’ve got some ideas.”

“Are they smart?” Todd asked.

“No. And, more importantly, they only care about protecting these.” Noah nodded in the direction of the bush behind him. “They basically don’t care about anything else. I don’t think Snufflers should be much of a challenge for anyone, but it’s a good point to get started – especially since I took a bit of an unintended break.”

“Can I go first?” Todd asked, rubbing his hands together. “I want to test out some of the Body Imbuements I’ve been working on.”

“Sure. After I demonstrate, though. There’s no point taking unnecessary risk. Everyone back up, please. We don’t want the Snuffler getting distracted and going for the wrong person.”

They all took several steps back. Noah waited until there was enough distance between all the spectators and the bush, then walked up and prodded one of the flowers. It flinched back, curling in on itself. Noah pulled his pipe out of his pocket and packed some Flashgrass into it, combusting it and placing it between his teeth.

The ground behind Noah let out a telltale crack. Noah turned as a Snuffler burst from the ground, letting out a warning hiss.

Todd immediately burst into laughter. “That thing looks stupid.”

It kind of does.

“Stupid won’t stop it from ripping your face off if you aren’t careful,” Noah said. He scuffled a foot on the ground. The Snuffler lunged at him and Noah dodged to the side. Its jaws snapped through the air where he’d been a moment before, but it redirected itself the moment it hit the ground.

Noah had discovered that the Snufflers, while not very creative, were very persistent. As long as he was in the vicinity of the bush, it would continue chasing after him until one of them was dead.

“Notice how it moves,” Noah called, dodging to the side again to stay ahead of the tubular monster. “It doesn’t relent. You aren’t going to get a moment to sit around and charge some magic up. It isn’t very strong, but it keeps coming.”

He hopped back several times, avoiding a series of bites from the increasingly agitated Snuffler, then launched himself over its head with a burst of wind. The moment Noah’s feet touched the ground, the Snuffler rushed him once more.

“How fast can they turn?” Todd called out. “Can you run circles around it?”

“Let’s find out,” Noah called back. He skipped to the side, narrowly avoiding the monster’s snapping jaws, then sprinted toward its backside. The monster rotated, but its unwieldy body didn’t lend itself very well to keeping up with his wind-enhanced movements.

Noah had to slow himself down to avoid mistakenly running an entire lap around the Snuffler and ending back up in front of its teeth. He tried to position himself at its back, causing the mole monster to just rotate in a constant circle.

“It’s not smart enough to try moving in the other direction,” Isabel observed. “It’s pretty much only dangerous when you’re directly in front of it, then.”

“How tough is its hide?” Emily asked.

Noah drew on his Runic magic, gathering the smoke as it rose from his pipe, and let out a low hum. A hot spike of ash jutted down, piercing into the back of the Snuffler’s neck. The monster’s legs buckled instantly as the ash cut through its spinal cord.

He dismissed the spike, turning it back into smoke, then reformed it through the Snuffler’s eye to make sure it was dead. Noah stepped back, then paused. He walked up to its head, plucked the teeth from its mouth, then straightened and rejoined his audience.

“Any more questions?” Noah asked, making sure to direct the smoke coming from his pipe down to the ground and away from all of them. Just because he could keep himself from inhaling it didn’t mean it would be good for anyone else.

“If you weren’t using magic to speed yourself up, would you have been faster than it?” Todd spoke up after a moment of silence.

Noah thought for a moment, then shook his head. “No. It’s still faster than I am. Maybe if I had some Body Imbuements it would have been different, but I’m still unfortunately lacking there.”

The students exchanged glances.

“Let me at it,” Todd said, rubbing his hands together. “I want a shot.”

“Sure. Let’s go find another bush and you can help yourself,” Noah said with an encouraging nod. “Lee and I will be watching, but pretend we aren’t.”

“Gotcha.”

The group walked over a short distance to the next bush, then spread out to give Todd some room. He approached it on his own, then glanced back at Noah.

“How do I get it to come out? Just poke at the bush?”

“Yup.”

“Perfect,” Todd said. He grinned, turning to face away from the bush and reaching out for it with one hand. He waved blindly for a moment before his hand found a flower. It yanked back and, almost instantly, the ground before him started to rumble.

Flames sparked on Todd’s knuckles and raced down his arms, coursing up to his shoulders and burning brightly. They’d definitely grown stronger since the last time Noah had seen Todd using them. He raised a hand, forming a swirling marble of flame.

Before the Snuffler could even come out of the dirt and show its location, Todd fired the beam of heat. It slammed into the ground, earning Todd a shrill shriek of pain as a Snuffler clawed its way out of the earth, its namesake nose twitching aggressively. It had a large burnt patch on its forehead, but the ground had absorbed the brunt of Todd’s attack.

“I told you not to be impatient!” Isabel yelled.

“It’s called a preemptive strike!” Todd complained, but he didn’t budge from his spot. The Snuffler continued to hiss in anger as it waited to feel where Todd was, but the boy stood as still as ice.

Nice. Don’t rush things, especially against something that can’t actually see you when you don’t move.

“I should have asked this before, but how’s its hearing?” Todd called.

The Snuffler took a step in his direction, its mouth opening and letting out a low, warning hiss.

“Not the best,” Noah called back. “But not the worst either.”

Todd formed another ball of fire in his hand. Then a grin stretched across his lips and he dismissed it, deliberately raising a foot and scuffing the dirt. The monster lunged at him with a high pitched snarl. Todd bounded back, taking far higher to the air than Noah would have expected from a mere jump.

The Snuffler skidded to a stop before it could stampede over its own bush and blindly swung its head, trying to locate Todd. The moment his feet hit the ground, the monster charged him again.

A thin beam of heat leapt from between Todd’s fingertips, catching the Snuffler in the shoulder. It burned a deep hole into the monster, eliciting a screech of pain, but it didn’t stop its charge.

Todd vaulted to the side again. Once more, he moved nearly twice the distance that Noah felt a normal jump should have been able to carry him. Skidding across the dirt, Todd spun toward the Snuffler and fired another two beams of flame.

The first one barely missed the Snuffler’s head, scorching the monster’s hair but failing to do any lasting damage. The second caught it right in the side of its head. Almost immediately, the smell of burnt hair and cooked, rancid meat filled the air.

“Ha!” Todd crowed, pumping a flaming hand in the air. “How’d you like that?”

“You could have killed it much earlier,” Emily said, crossing her hands. “Mediocre performance at best. You were just showing off.”

“I was not.” Todd crossed his arms. “It’s called practicing. Just because I can catch it off guard doesn’t mean I should. This is training for other monsters. Stronger ones. If I waste it, then I get the real practice against something that kills me in one blow.”

Damn straight.

“Good job, Todd,” Noah said. “That was very well done. Isabel was right that you probably could have waited a moment longer, but why don’t you share exactly what you did so we can all learn from it?”

Todd shrugged. “I Imbued my eyes with a Heat Rune to see where the Snuffler was beneath the ground. They’re about ten to fifteen feet down, by the way. It moved a lot faster than I thought it would, though. Came at an angle toward me instead of going straight up, so I wasn’t ready to catch it quite on time. That made me miss the first spell.”

“What about the enhanced jumps?” Moxie asked. “More Body Imbuement?”

Todd’s grin grew wider. “Yeah. Both of my legs are imbued with a Fire Rune. It’s not the most comfortable, so I see why you were saying its better to wait until you have Rank 2 Runes. My legs get really, really hot when I use the Imbuements. If they were a little more optimized for energy rather than just pure fire, it would be a lot better. Still, it works.”

“You did great,” Lee said, giving Todd a thumbs-up. “Should have punched it a little, though.”

“Maybe next time,” Todd said. “Isabel, you next?”

“How about Emily goes?” Isabel suggested. “Judging by the look she’s giving you, I think she wants a chance to demonstrate her own abilities.”

“I absolutely do,” Emily said, cracking her knuckles. “I’m going to beat your–”

“Emily!” Moxie snapped. “Speak as appropriate for a Torrin.”

Emily scrunched her nose in annoyance. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Let’s do this. These things are easy. I’ll show you how it’s done, Todd.”

Ah, a little rivalry. Always good for making sure everyone pushes each other harder. Perfect.

“Well,” Noah drawled, gesturing to another bush a short way from them, “there’s no shortage of bushes, and we’ve still got some time before the sun is properly up. Let’s get to it, shall we?”