Chapter 294: Come along

Noah’s soul found his gourd and he materialized minutes later, flopping to the forest floor. Luckily, Lee and Moxie had noticed his revival and had stopped running to set the gourd down, saving him from returning to life and mid-step.

“That was slower than I expected, if I’m being honest,” Moxie said.

Noah sat up, pressing his hand to his forehead and grimacing. The headache was worse than most of the ones he’d had of late – for once, his killer had been someone other than himself. He’d almost forgotten how annoying the soul damage from getting killed by another creature was.

At least it didn’t eat my body before I came back, or this would be even worse.

“Did you win the fight?” Lee asked.

“Unfortunately not,” Noah replied. Moxie handed him his clothes and he tugged them on, suppressing the headache as best as he could. “But I found out how to win the next one.”

“It’s within reason to challenge, then?” Moxie helped Noah into his jacket and to his feet. “Do we need to keep running?”

“I don’t smell it coming in our direction.” Lee turned her nose to the air to confirm her words before returning her attention to them. “Yeah, it’s not following us. We’d probably hear it if it was.”

“Maybe not. I don’t believe the snake was actually anywhere near the size we believed it to be.”

“It was an illusion?” Moxie blinked. “That’s odd. It looked pretty real.”

“No, not an illusion. I managed to land a pretty good blow on it with Sunder, and I didn’t even get through all of its armor. I think the whole snake is basically one giant earth construct, and the real monster is hidden somewhere inside it. I suppose it could technically be outside it as well, but either way, there’s something going on there.”

“It did smell a bit more muted than I expected it to,” Lee mused, rubbing her chin and pausing to think for a moment. “I thought it was because the whole place smelled foresty, but maybe it was just concealed in a bunch of dirt.”

“How fast is it?” Moxie asked.

“Within reason. It’s huge, but I could match its speed without too much trouble. Lee would have no trouble at all, although I don’t think she’d be able to do much damage to it.”

“I could run inside its mouth.” Lee patted the hilt of her axe. “Then I can just swing this around until I hit the real thing.”

“Probably not the best idea. It can control its entire body,” Noah said with a shake of his head. “I got stabbed by spikes that came out of its scales, and it could turn them to quicksand as well. I would avoid getting anywhere near it.”

“You don’t want to fight it anymore?” Lee’s face fell. “It squished my pet. I want to kill it.”

“Oh, we’re definitely killing it.” Noah threw a glance over his shoulder, his brow tightening as another pang of pain rippled through his mind. “We just have to approach it a little differently. We need to get past all that armor covering the real monster.”

“Sunder it again?” Lee offered.

“It could take a while. Sunder targets a single thing, and I have absolutely no idea how big the snake is. If its just hiding in the tail or something, it could take forever to actually land a blow. The Fragment of Renewal might be much more efficient.”

“You didn’t try it?” Moxie asked.

“I’ve only got one shot with it a day, remember? I didn’t want to waste it. My headache will clear up in around twelve hours, so I’d rather just go right back after the Great Monster as soon as it clears up instead of waiting for a whole day.”

“I forgot about that.” Moxie rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “Sorry. Good thinking, then. But, based on what we saw the Fragment of Renewal do to Evergreen, I think it would probably work really well against this thing.”

“Agreed. I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of how we can handle this thing in our next fight with it. It should actually be a pretty easy fight.”

“How?” Lee asked. Her eyes promised revenge. She was really pissed about losing the poor wylf that she’d kidnapped.

“Using the Fragment of Renewal directly would probably melt away a good portion of the Great Monster’s armor, but I don’t know if it would get the whole thing. I think the best way to do this would be to use a Formation to empower it,” Noah said. “That should be able to catch a lot of the snake at once. Without all the defenses, we should be able to take it down.”

“It’s huge, though. You’ll need to keep it in one location for long enough to get all of it with the Fragment of Renewal,” Moxie pointed out as she crossed her arms. “Otherwise it’ll just run the moment it realizes what’s happening.”

“That’s where I’m thinking you come in. Can you hold it down with your vines?”

Moxie tilted her head to the side. Noah could see the gears turning in her head as she mentally calculated how much power it would take to hold down something the size of the Great Monster.

“I don’t think I could normally hold something that big, but if most of its body is just stone, that might be hindering its strength rather than helping it. Its hard to say for sure, but I think there’s probably a pretty good chance I could.”

“It wouldn’t have to be for long. The Great Monster isn’t human, so I don’t think it’s going to realize what’s going on with the Formation until it starts. And, after that, you’ll just have to keep it down for a few seconds. Once the Fragment of Renewal can cover it, we should be able to attack its real body.”

“That’s where I come in?” Lee guessed.

“You’ll have an opportunity to strike when its armor is gone, but we do need to figure out if you actually want to be the one to finish it off.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Why wouldn’t I?” Lee’s brow furrowed. “I want revenge.”

“I don’t doubt that, but this is a Great Monster. This is obviously just a guess, but I’m pretty sure its Master Rune has something to do with how it can hold all that armor around itself. It doesn’t really fit your fighting style to tank up like that.”

Lee tilted her head to the side and pursed her lips. “Damn. You’re right. You’d have to Sunder the Master Rune so I wouldn’t have to get stuck with it. It would screw my body up. Do you want it?”

“Not particularly. I’m much more partial to moving quickly and I’ve already got more than enough on my plate with all the other Runes I’ve got. I’d take it if I knew it would be useful, but it might be better served elsewhere.” Noah turned his eyes to Moxie. “What about you?”

“It depends how powerful the Rune is, but it could be worthwhile if I can keep it properly controlled,” Moxie mused. “Lee can try to weaken the Great Monster and I can finish it off when it tries to run. If the Master Rune ends up being something that isn’t too useful for me, we can always try to sell it or give it to the students later on.”

“Sounds like we have a plan. I’ve just got to make sure my Formation for the Fragment of Renewal works properly before we set back out.” Another pang of pain pulsed in Noah’s head and he grit his teeth. “But, first, I need to find somewhere to lay down and close my eyes before my head splits open. I can’t do anything else until tonight.”

***

Karina’s eye twitched. Her limbs ached and her missing leg throbbed something fierce – somehow, it hurt more than the limbs she hadn’t lost. Months of exhaustion laid on her back like an anvil that could only be removed with a night of good rest in her own bed.

The only thing that had been keeping her going was the promise of that very thing. Now that she stood on the road the Linwick Estate that led up to her house, it should have been just a few feet away from her.

Instead, there was nothing.

Her house was gone. It hadn’t been changed or renovated – it was just flat out missing. Where the mansion had once stood there was now a perfectly flat piece of land, as if someone had just plucked the entire thing up and squished whatever remained.

Karina did a double take, checking the buildings on either side of her to make sure she hadn’t somehow missed a turn in her exhaustion. There was no such luck. She was in the right spot, and her house should have been right in front of her.

“What in the Damned Plains?” Karina asked. A foot fell behind her and she spun toward the source of the noise.

A middle-aged man stood behind her, his arms crossed behind his back and an inscrutable expression on his face. He didn’t look like anything particularly special, but it only took an instant of eye contact to set Karina’s hair on end.

There was something foreign about the man. His eyes were just a little too cold, his expression slightly askew. It was as if he’d forgotten what the proper expression to make was and was doing his best to re-create it from memory.

When did he get here? I didn’t feel or hear him show up at all until that first footstep.

“Who are you?” Karina demanded.

“What a coincidence. I was about to ask you the same thing.” The man adjusted his fine clothes, then arched an eyebrow. “You wouldn’t happen to be the owner of the mansion that stood here a little while ago, would you?”

“I am. What’s it to you?” Karina’s eyes narrowed. “What branch are you with?”

“None of them,” the man replied. “I’ve been waiting for you. I come bearing ill news, I fear.”

“About my house?” Karina glanced back at the empty lot despite herself. “What happened to it?”

“It was taken.”

“I gathered that much.” Karina drew a deep breath, repressing the urge to explode in fury. An image of Vermil’s face flickered through her mind. The man reminded her of him. There was an air of danger about both of them – and it was one she wanted absolutely nothing more to do with. Angering him wouldn’t help her. “Was it moved somewhere? I’d really like to know what’s going on.”

“Polite. Interesting. Not what the reports said.”

Asshole. I’m going to shove my foot so far up your ass it comes out of your mouth.

Karina opened her mouth.

“Your parents are dead.”

She blinked. “What?”

“Both of them. Died on a mission.” The man picked his nose, then yawned. “Their wills stated to use their entire fortunes on their funerals, so your house was foreclosed.”

The world felt like it was falling apart around Karina. “What? Are you serious? But–”

“The funerals happened a day or two ago. I can’t quite remember,” the man continued. “I spent the entire budget on myself and burned their corpses before sticking them in a plain grave.”

“Who are you?” Karina asked, anger starting to seep into her words. “Is this some kind of joke?”

“Ah. I’ve been rude again.” The man straightened his back and held a hand out, his dark eyes flashing with amusement that showed he didn’t regret anything he’d said. “My name is Jalen, Head of the Linwick Family. Sorry about your parents. I’ve still got some of the cake I used their fortunes to buy in my office, if you’d like to have some.”

A ripple of energy passed out from Jalen, slamming into Karina. It wasn’t an attack – he’d allowed the pressure from his Runes to leak out for the briefest instant. She nearly crumpled under the enormous pressure that bore down on her, but she managed to remain standing. Karina’s blood ran cold.

Screw this. I don’t care what happened. I’ll sleep under a tree if it means I can be left alone.

“That’s kind of you, but I’m fine.” Karina’s throat felt like it was going to close up around her words. She’d never seen the head of the Linwicks before, but she didn’t doubt Jalen at all. He was easily the most powerful mage she’d ever stood beside. “I wouldn’t want to trouble you.”

Jalen’s smile grew wider. He took a step forward, somehow crossing nearly a dozen feet and arriving beside her in the blink of an eye. His hand fell on her shoulder in what should have been a comforting gesture – it was anything but.

“Ah, but I insist. It would be a shame not to share. The cake is to die for.” Jalen tilted his head to the side. “Is that insensitive?”

Karina swallowed. “No, Magus Jalen.”

“Lovely. Come along, then. We have much to talk about.”