Chapter 143: Warmup

“Well,” Noah said from the cover of the trees, a large grin on his face, “I think that worked.”

“You destroyed our camp,” Moxie said flatly.

“Technically, the gorilla did that. If you really want to point fingers, then I think it’s Lee’s fault.”

“Hey!” Lee exclaimed, materializing from the shadows beside them. “You told me to do it. It’s your fault. Do you even realize how hard it was to find a monster that big and then turn it invisible while we dragged it all the way to the camp?”

“Yes. I helped you drag it, but you’re the one that turned it invisible and held it in place while we waited for the kids to work things out,” Noah said. He gave Lee a thumbs up. “That’s pretty useful, by the way. I didn’t know you could make monsters freeze like that.”

“Most things balk when they realize they’re against something strong. Half the reason it took me so long to get the monster was I had to find one that froze up instead of running away when I released my demonic presence.”

“Well, either way, it worked.” Moxie smiled and nodded in the direction of the camp, where the students were standing in a small circle, speaking. “I guess this means you were right, Noah.”

“I told you. Traumatic events are great for bonding. They should make it a mandatory part of every school’s curriculum.”

“Let’s not,” Moxie said. She paused for a moment. “Do you think this’ll actually last, though? Todd and Isabel are really close. Even if they all know they need to work together, it won’t mean Emily won’t feel left out.”

Noah shrugged in response. “It’s hard to say. I’d love it if they all became good friends, but at least they’ve learned to work together a little bit more. Only time will tell the rest. And, like you said, you can’t make friends for people. It remains to be seen how the three will act once the adrenaline wears off.”

Moxie looked at Noah out of the corner of her eye. “What’s that mean?”

“It means that, if they don’t learn, we’re in a great place to find more traumatic events. They’ll learn eventually.”

Moxie nearly laughed, then choked it off and glared at Noah. “You know, you fluctuate so aggressively between genius and absolute moron that I wonder how you manage to function.”

Noah chuckled. “If you ever find out, let me know. I think we should probably head back, though. I think the kids are about to start searching for us.”

The three professors stepped out of the forest, and Noah raised his hand in greeting, waving to draw attention.

“Hey all!” Noah called. All three of the students spun toward them, shock playing across their faces.

“Vermil!” Isabel exclaimed. “What happened? Where were you? We got attacked!”

The two groups met in the center of the clearing, and Noah looked over at the huge corpse of the gorilla lying on the ground in the center of their camp. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Huh. So you did.”

“That didn’t answer anything,” Todd said, glaring at him. “What happened? Was there another monster or something?”

“Actually, I got lost trying to use the bathroom. Moxie came to find me, but she got lost as well, so Lee had to come find both of us. It was pretty scary. Glad everything worked out over here, though.”

All three of them stared at Noah, and Todd’s eye twitched. Moxie let out a heavy sigh, and Lee just grinned.

“The gorilla fell on the fire,” Todd said. “I’m not making it again. Emily, you’re welcome to come join Isabel and I in our tent. We’ll have a fire in there, so the Prof can’t accidentally get lost and stumble into it.”

“I’ll expand the tent,” Isabel said with a nod. As one, the three students turned and stormed off.

Noah watched them leave, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

“Unexpected bonus. Bonding over mutual annoyance. Damn, I’m good.”

***

The rest of the night passed quickly. Noah, Lee, and Moxie all piled into one of the undamaged tents and slept in a pile in the corner, trading off watches through the rest of the night.

After the little trick Noah had pulled, they’d all decided that the kids deserved at least a little bit of a break and had taken over the watches for the night. Besdies, having the students spend a little more time together would help further Noah’s goals.

When the sun rose the following morning, everyone made their way out into the clearing. The smell of the dead gorilla wasn’t the most appetizing thing to wake up to, so nobody wasted any time in quickly heading out of camp and back into the forest to find a new location to set up in.

For the first few minutes, they all walked in silence, having not said a single thing since getting up. Noah was starting to think that the progress from the previous day had already come undone when Isabel finally spoke.

“Did you lure the gorilla to our camp?” Isabel looked over her shoulder at Noah.

“Why would I ever do something like that?”

Todd grunted. “We already talked about this last night, Isabel. He’s screwing with us.”

“That means Moxie would be too, though,” Emily said. She turned her gaze to Moxie. Her eyes widened as Moxie’s cheeks reddened. “You did!”

“I didn’t say that,” Moxie said.

“Yeah, right. Vermil is a bad influence on you,” Emily said with a shake of her head.

“Would you have preferred that we were traveling alone?” Moxie asked.

Emily didn’t respond. She froze as she spotted something in the bushes. “Snake!”

Her bow materialized in her hand and Isabel stepped in front of her as a snake struck from the bushes. Stone rushed to cover Isabel’s legs and the snake’s fangs cracked against the armor fruitlessly.

Isabel kicked the monster back, then stepped to the side as Emily formed an ice arrow – and Todd fried the snake with a bolt of flame. It let out a screeching hiss and flopped limply to the ground.

Emily and Isabel exchanged a glance, then looked at Todd.

“Sorry,” Todd said, clearing his throat. “Didn’t read the room.”

Emily fired the arrow, striking the snake in the head. “It was still moving.”

The group stepped over the monster’s body and set off once more. Noah hid a grin as they walked, trying not to look too smug as he caught Moxie’s eye. She just rolled her eyes at him, but he could see how pleased the other professor was.

Over the course of the next few hours, they were attacked by several more monsters. The students were still far from anything near a cohesive team, though. Several times, Isabel and Emily both moved in the same direction, which resulted in Emily being completely unable to contribute to the fight.

Todd also grabbed Emily and moved her out of the way a few times when she was completely safe, causing her to miss a few shots in the process. For that matter, Emily nearly shot Todd more than once when he was trying to distract an opponent.

But, despite all that, they were improving. The students were actually trying to work together, and while they didn’t speak all that much when they weren’t fighting, they actually tried to work together when they were.

Near midday, the group came upon another clearing in the forest. It was clearly far from natural, as many of the tree stumps still sat scattered throughout it. They were all broken and fragmented, like something had smashed through them haphazardly.

“I don’t see the monster,” Isabel said. “There was clearly one here, though.”

Noah glanced down at Lee, and she shook her head to indicate that there weren’t any strong monsters in the area. He wasn’t about to tell the kids that, though. It was better to practice being cautious than getting used to being lazy.

“I’ll walk out and see if I can draw it out. It could be hiding somewhere outside the clearing,” Isabel said. “Emily, can you–”

“I’ll cover you,” Emily said with a nod. “It’ll be faster if I keep an eye on the left side of the clearing and Todd watches the right.”

“On it,” Todd said, sparking his bracelets and pulling two swirling balls of tightly condensed flame into the air right above his palms. Emily held her arrow at the ready as Isabel stepped into the clearing.

She made her way deeper into it, arriving at the center safely. Todd and Emily stepped out, slowly walking to join Isabel to make sure they’d still be close enough to respond in time if anything happened.

The three made their way around the clearing, checking the trees, before finally returning to join the professors.

“There isn’t anything in the clearing,” Isabel said.

“Great. Looks like another good spot for a camp then,” Noah said. “Let’s do another walkaround to make sure the area is safe.”

They all repeated the process they’d done the previous day, walking circles around the camp until they were confident that the immediate area didn’t house anything too dangerous. Once they’d finished, the group returned to the clearing.

“Good spot,” Noah said approvingly. “Should be nice and comfy.”

“Only if you don’t lure a monster into it again. I still want to know why you did that.” Isabel crossed her arms.

“Yeah,” Emily said. “I do too.”

Todd nodded in agreement, but he looked a bit less confident than the other two. “I think it might just be because his brain is a bit messed up. Sorry, Teacherman. All the weird stuff about you can’t be good for your mental health.”

Noah grunted. “Fair point. And I’m sure the three of you will figure out why we did it – if we did it, rather – if you put your heads together and think enough. I’m certainly not answering that one, though.”

“Anyone that chooses to voluntarily fight without a Shield is definitely a bit insane,” Emily muttered.

“It’s not that bad, once you get used to it,” Isabel said. She cleared her throat. “I think I’d definitely like to get one at some point, though. Vermil is a lot better at it than either Todd or I could ever hope to get.”

Good way to dodge the question. Though, now that I think about it, Emily is the only one in the group that doesn’t know I can come back to life. I kind of feel bad about that, but I don’t know her as well as Moxie does. Maybe I’ll tell her one day, but it’s not relevant today – and it doesn’t matter if she doesn’t like me when she does find out.

Isabel turned and headed back into the clearing, setting about erecting several more stone tents for them. Noah grinned as he saw her make one of them considerably larger, leaving room for Emily to join her and Todd.

Todd and Emily both set out to collect some sticks, then piled it up in the center of the camp.

“So, what now?” Todd asked.

“Now we get back to actually training.” Moxie took a step forward to draw their attention to her. “I don’t know what kind of situations Arbitage will put you in during the survival exam. It could be raining, or there could be a swarm of monsters in the area – or maybe they’ll make you fight the other teams. It’s impossible to predict. They change it every year, from what I’ve heard.”

“How are we supposed to train for that?” Isabel tilted her head to the side.

“By getting ready to deal with anything,” Moxie replied with a cold smile. “Last night might have been Vermil–”

“Hey! Don’t rat me out!”

“–but that’s just a taste of what we’re going to be doing over the next few weeks,” Moxie continued, completely ignoring him. “Yesterday was just a warmup. Today, we get things stared properly.”