Chapter 27: Progress

Noah encountered five more Maulers before his twenty four hours were up. That didn’t stop him from liberating them of their teeth like a vengeful reverse-dentist. They all went into his travel bag and rattled around like a bunch of spare coins which, if Noah was lucky, he hoped they would become.

Each of the Maulers proved fairly competent in their fights, but none managed to ever land a hit on him. They were indeed cleverer than the other monkeys he’d fought, but they felt… lacking.

If Noah had to place it, he would have decided that the Maulers lacked anything unique. They didn’t have the massive size of the Slashers, the deadly aim of the Chuckers, or even the sheer stupid boldness of the small monkeys. They were right in the middle on many things, and while he was confident they’d be a significant threat to his students, he’d already seen just about all of what they could do.

By the time the day ended, Noah hadn’t been hit a single time – by monkeys. The trees, on the other hand, were considerably less kind. His flying sword threw him into them about ten times, and he was covered by smarting bruises that were quickly turning black by the time the sun started rising in the sky again.

For an instant, Noah considered finding a monster and intentionally losing the fight. It would take care of the bruises, after all. An instant after the thought passed through his head, Noah’s eyes narrowed and he vehemently shoved it away.

I will not let myself die for such a worthless reason. Learning how to fight is one thing, but death just to treat some bruises is too far. I’m doing all of this to make sure I never have to die a true death, not for convenience. I refuse to let myself get so lost.

He was still standing there, scolding himself, when he felt a yank at the back of his neck. Noah let the world flash by him, more than used to the sensation by now. Blue lights swirled and sparkled within his body as the world shimmered.

With a loud thud, he was tossed down into the transport cannon. Noah slid out of the tube and landed on the ground with a grunt. Brushing his clothes off, he rose to his feet and inclined his head to Tim.

“Thanks,” Noah said.

“Anytime. I think you use my service more than almost anyone else,” Tim said with a chuckle. “It’s too bad it’s free, or you’d be singlehandedly keeping me in business.”

“Be glad it’s free, because I couldn’t afford to keep anyone in business.”

They both chuckled.

“Well, thanks for using Travel Anywhere In No Time,” Tim said. “It still helps the numbers look good and lets me keep my job. See you tomorrow.”

Noah nodded absently. He stepped onto the lift in the center of the room and Tim waved farewell. The cage rattled beneath Noah and lowered, taking him down to the stairs below. It reached them with a thud and Noah stepped out, starting toward the ground.

He paused halfway down, tilting his head to the side. “Travel Anywhere In No Time. TAINT. Seriously?”

Noah resisted the urge to turn around and walk back up to Tim. He just shook his head, rolling his eyes before resuming his trek to his room.

***

The next day, Noah met Isabel and Todd in their classroom. He’d tucked his flying sword into his belt, but neither of them mentioned it. They both looked like they were about to burst keeping their mouths shut, but Noah held a hand up to forestall anything they were about to say. Without wasting any time, they all set off and used the transport cannon to travel to the Scorched Acres. Once they’d all arrived, Noah cocked an eyebrow.

“Okay, now we can talk. So? Ready?”

“More than.” Todd beamed. His smile faded a little. “The Greater Fire Rune is completely empty, though. I’m weaker than I was before, technically.”

“Same,” Isabel said. She patted a small gourd hanging from her hip. “A healing potion too.”

“Oh, right,” Todd said. “I’ve got one of those too. They’re so expensive, though. I wasted like two weeks of pay on it.”

“It’ll be worth it when it keeps your guts from spilling out,” Isabel said.

“Quite right,” Noah said with a nod. He patted his own gourd. After all, it had technically been a healing potion. A poisoned one, but still a healing potion. “I’ve got mine as well. Don’t go anywhere without it. Either way, it’s time to get started. There’s a Slasher waiting to meet you both.”

“Shouldn’t we kill some of the small monkeys before we move on to Slashers?” Todd nervously shifted from foot to foot. “I mean, we’ve only got six Runes to work with right now.”

Noah cocked an eyebrow. “How long do you think the fight is going to go? You shouldn’t need to use up more than two Runes, even if they’re Lesser ones. You’ve done something seriously wrong if you get all the way to six.”

Isabel swallowed. For a moment, Noah expected her to add something to aid Todd’s request for an extension, but she just shook her head.

“I think Vermil is right. I want to pass the test, and we’ve seen all the moves that the Slashers do already. I think we can do this.”

“But what if–”

“I don’t want to sit around while the other students just keep getting stronger.” Isabel set her jaw and clenched her hands at her sides. “Let’s go find a Slasher.”

Todd pressed his lips together. Then, after a moment, he nodded. Noah grinned and gestured for them to follow, setting off into the forest. The distant howls of the monkeys echoed through the trees.

Noah had gotten so used to them that he’d gotten decent at recognizing which screech belonged to what monkey. He angled toward the calls of a Slasher. A few small monkeys spotted them through the trees, but Noah dispatched them with wind slashes before they could even begin to charge.

A few minutes later, they spotted the Slasher. It was hardly trying to hide. The bulky monster was pacing around a small clearing in the forest, hooting to itself as it chewed on a furry limb.

“There it is. Ugly bastard,” Noah said. He put his hands on Isabel and Todd’s shoulders. “Alright, kids. You know what to do, right?”

Isabel gave him a firm nod. “Yes. Todd?”

“I’m ready, I guess,” Todd said, trying and failing to sound confident. Isabel and Noah both looked at him and he scrunched his nose. “I said I’m ready!”

“Fear is wisdom, but letting any emotion control you is folly. Go,” Noah said, pushing them both forward gently. “I’ll be watching to step in if you need it, but I’d prefer not to.”

Isabel and Todd exchanged a glance. They nodded, then stalked toward the Slasher. The massive monkey hadn’t noticed their approach yet, as Noah had angled them downwind of it. It wouldn’t be long, though.

Sure enough, once they grew near the edge of the clearing, the Slasher froze. It raised its head, sniffing the air and lowering the arm it had been eating. Flame sputtered to life along Todd’s arms and Isabel dashed forward.

Despite his own words, a flicker of fear sputtered in Noah’s chest. He removed the flying sword from its spot in his belt and set it on the ground, putting one foot on it but leaving the other on the dirt.

He readied Ash, prepared to kill the Slasher the moment it looked like Isabel or Todd might be in mortal danger.

Isabel took the lead, darting ahead of Todd. She drew her sword from within her chest with a battle cry. The Slasher roared and raised its hands into the air as she approached, malice glinting in its ugly, beady eyes.

Downward slash. Dodge to the side.

Isabel threw herself to her left, rolling across the ground as the monster’s massive claws carved through the dirt where she’d been standing. A bolt of fire leapt from Todd’s hands and struck the Slasher in the face.

It screamed, more in surprise than pain, and the fire sputtered off its skin, not taking hold. Isabel came up from her roll and thrust her sword into the monster’s stomach. It bit into its flesh, penetrating several inches before thudding to a stop.

The Slasher whipped a hand at her side.

“Down!” Todd screamed.

Isabel dropped, releasing her sword’s hilt and falling flat on her face. The claws passed over her head and Todd rushed forward, unleashing a torrent of fire from his outstretched palms, passing over Isabel and enveloping the Slasher. It roared, raising its hands defensively and staggering back.

Todd met Isabel’s eyes and gave her a curt nod. He clenched his hands into fists, cutting the flames off, and Isabel launched to her feet. She charged forward and drove her shoulder into the hilt of the glowing blade, pushing it deeper into the Slasher.

Its pained cry split the air. The Slasher reached down to grab Isabel. She skipped back, ripping her blade free of the monster’s stomach, and Todd sent another blast of fire into the monster’s face to keep it from pressing the advantage.

Noah watched the fight with growing pleasure. His students were doing fantastically. Far better than he’d expected. Sure, their individual attacks weren’t fantastic and Isabel wasn’t targeting any fatal areas, but they were holding their own.

He watched them with a hawk’s eye, his fingers twitching every time the Slasher readied an attack.

Isabel weaved in and out, avoiding the Slasher’s attacks and jabbing at it with her sword. She couldn’t quite reach the lumbering monster’s neck and Todd’s spells weren’t doing nearly enough damage to kill it, though he’d singed the Slasher quite badly.

After dodging another downward slash, Isabel changed her strategy. She leapt off the monster’s palm, rearing back to thrust her blade up through its chin. The Slasher’s eyes glinted and it whipped a hand at Isabel.

Cracks split the air. A spike of Ash ripped free of the nearest tree and slammed into the Slasher’s palm, pinning it to the ground. Another spike drove up from the sooty ground, passing in front of Isabel and punching through the monster’s neck.

Isabel’s momentum carried her into the already-dead Slasher, but the fight was already over. She pushed away from it, dropping to the ground and breathing heavily. She looked back at Noah with wide eyes.

“Good attempt,” Noah said, trying not to let his words show how hard his heart was beating. Energy rushed into his body, and he noticed that both Isabel and Todd paused for a moment to draw in a sharp breath at the same time that he felt the power from the kill flood him.

We must all get energy since we worked together. I wonder what regulates that. Is it how much damage we did? Now isn’t the time to ask, but I’ll have to look into that.

“Now, don’t forget that Slashers can do more than one attack in a row. Any enemy can. You aren’t taking turns here. Slashers aren’t the fastest monkeys in the forest, but they’re still faster than you are. Make sure it’s put itself in a position where it can’t attack you when you make a move.”

Isabel swallowed and nodded. “I – yeah. Thanks.”

“Now, what can we improve on?” Noah asked, clapping his hands together. “Both of you.”

“I was too hasty and got cocky after I dodged its first few attacks.” Isabel reddened slightly in embarrassment.

If you knew what I did the first time I cast magic, you wouldn’t be nearly that embarrassed.

“I wasn’t distracting it enough,” Todd said. “My magic didn’t have enough power behind it, so it wasn’t able to get through the Slasher’s defenses as well as the smaller monkeys. If I had more energy, it would have burned alive.”

“Correct, but the way you say that makes me think you believe the only solution is to use your Greater Rune, right?”

Todd tilted his head to the side. “I mean, yeah. How else would I do it?”

Noah called on his Ash magic. The spikes holding the Slasher up collapsed, dropping the corpse on the ground as a cloud of soot floated over to him and formed into a tube. Noah held it up in front of Todd.

“Do you have a water skin?”

Todd blinked, then nodded. He pulled a small flask out and handed it to Noah.

“Thank you. Let’s do a quick demonstration. I’m going to blow into this tube,” Noah said. “My breath represents the amount of energy your Rune has. I will not be changing how hard I blow.”

Noah put the tube in his mouth, grimacing at the ashy taste, then poured the water into it and blew. It trickled out of the end, somewhat unimpressively, and splattered onto the ground. Todd stared at him like he’d lost his mind.

“Now, I’m not going to change anything about how hard I blow, but I’m going to narrow the tube,” Noah said. The inner diameter of ash shrunk, turning into a thin straw. He poured some water into his mouth then put the tube in before blowing.

A thin jet of water arced out of the tube. Todd’s brows furrowed and Noah took the ash from his mouth, licking his lips in distaste. He handed Todd’s water flask back and smiled. “Pressure is force divided by area. The force is constant and you want the pressure to go up, so what do you do?”

“Area has to go down,” Todd said, a flicker of understanding appearing in his eyes. “And area is the size of my flames?”

Noah grinned.

“You’re saying that if I focus my fire from large blasts into smaller attacks, it’ll do more?”

Noah shrugged. He crouched and pried the claws off the Slasher, tucking them into his back before straightening. Noah offered some to Todd and Isabel, but they both shook their heads. He shrugged. “I’m not sure if it’ll do more, but logically, that’s the result I’d assume. You’re expending a lot of energy making big blasts, but they don’t seem to have as much strength as you’d want. So, if you were to make them more concentrated, I’d assume that they’d do more damage too.”

Todd pointed a finger at a tree. A ball of flame formed at his hand, then condensed into a pinpoint. It leapt forth and slammed into the ashy wood, burning several inches into it in an instant.

“Shit,” Todd muttered. “You’re right. I don’t think one of my fireballs would have done that. Not yet.”

“How didn’t you think of that before?” Isabel demanded, then looked back to Noah. “What about me? Do I get a secret too?”

“I’ve seen people do that before, so it’s not really a secret,” Todd said with a frown. “But I never really thought about it to be honest. I didn’t realize why they did it.”

“I still want something.”

“What happened to thinking of it on your own?” Todd glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, an excited grin on his face. Isabel ignored him.

“Nothing as interesting as Todd,” Noah admitted, rubbing the back of his head. “But try to aim for vital areas when you attack. With Slashers, you already know what they're going to do, so there's no need to try to injure them before taking them out. It's much more efficient to just go for a killing blow when they give you an opportunity. That's much easier said than done, though - so I’ll tell you what will help. Practice. So… shall we go find another Slasher?”