29 Training

Over the course of the rest of the week, Noah died four times. Each one was to the gangly, bug-eyed monkeys that he'd dubbed Chuckers. They all lived deeper into the forest than the Slashers and small monkeys, and each death was disappointing at best. He got farther in every fight, but the monsters were just so much faster than everything else he'd fought. With that on top of their penchant for hurling rocks, they made deadly enemies.

Several times, even when he wasn't at the Scorched Acres, Noah could have sworn that he saw the cursed monsters lurking in the shadows of his room and watching him from beyond the window.

The visions didn't seem to have any rhyme or reason to them, and Noah had absolutely no idea what to do about them. As such, he did a technique he'd mastered back on Earth, when his school had cut off his health insurance: he ignored the problem and convinced himself that it would sort itself out on its own.

By the end of the week, Noah managed to claim victory over the Chuckers a single time. That didn't bother him in the slightest. Every single fight, Noah gained more understanding of the monsters. He lasted a few seconds longer and did more damage. Each fight was a learning opportunity and nothing more. After all, he didn't need to win every fight. He didn't even need to win most of them.

He just needed to win one.

When the first Chucker had finally fallen before him, Noah couldn't bring himself to do anything but laugh. The monster had given him more energy than even the Slashers had, though not by a huge margin.

There would have been a time where Noah might have considered waiting for an even fight because of honor or some other equally misguided notion, but that was before he'd been brained by a rock a few too many times in a row. The only thing he cared about now was learning more about how the monsters fought before he went down.

More than anything else, Noah had come to one conclusion. Magic was incredible. As far as he could tell, the Runes could control anything directly related to them, limited only by his creativity. The more difficult his desires were to replicate, the more energy they took.

But, even as he grew stronger, Noah found himself lacking. More often than not, Noah's death was a direct result of his inability to make his body move the way he needed it to. Magic was great, but not tripping over a log and falling face first into a monster's claws was a pretty useful advantage as well.

He'd never considered himself clumsy, but there was a difference between avoiding protruding doorframes while walking through his house and not tripping over a dozen protruding roots at ankle level while trying to keep his organs from getting aired out.

Despite his trouble with the Chuckers, Noah hammered the method of fighting Slashers down to a fine science. The once threatening monsters were now little more than cumbersome bags of energy, their movements so predictable that Noah could practically tell what they were going to do before they thought of it themselves.

When the day to regroup with Isabel and Todd came around, Noah was satisfied with his progress. All of his Runes had grown considerably in strength, and even without direct training, Noah could feel his body responding better to his mental commands. Perhaps it was just his soul getting used to piloting the meat-sack around, or perhaps it was just experience. Either way, it was working.

He set out that morning, arriving in his classroom wearing his second to last set of teacher's robes. The rest had been sacrificed at the altar of ugly monkeys.

To his delight, both Todd and Isabel were already there. Noah's grin faded a moment later. Todd and Isabel were already there.

"Crud. Am I late again?"

"No," Isabel said, spinning a small dagger between her fingers idly. "We just wanted to get this over with and didn't have anything better to do. I'm not seeing any monkey heads in your hands."

"I settled on a claw."

Noah tossed the Slasher's claw onto the table in front of him. Isabel's eyes traced it through the air, widening imperceptibly before she got control over her features again. She stepped around the desk and picked it up, squinting.

"You could have bought this from someone. I've seen them for sale. That's why we agreed on the Slasher's head."

Noah rolled his eyes. "There's still blood on it. It's fresh."

"Could have bought it fresh," Todd said.

"Well, I didn't want to lug a bloody head around, so a claw is what you get." Noah crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "I'll admit I did promise to get a head, but I really don't have that many pairs of clothes to ruin. You'll just have to take my word that I really did get that claw myself."

Neither of his students looked particularly convinced, but that was fine. They didn't look unconvinced either. Noah would settle for that. He'd set things straight soon enough.

"I don't suppose you'll decide that this was a bad idea and cancel it?" Isabel tried.

"Nope." Noah cheerfully clapped his hands together. "Enough about me. How has training been? Make any progress?"

"It's been a week, man." Todd rolled his eyes. "How quickly do you think things are going to change? Nothing will suddenly happen in just a few days."

"Not with that attitude. What about you, Isabel?"

"I won every match against Todd."

"Because your magic works better in confined spaces. It's in your favor," Todd complained, crossing his arms. "The arenas don't represent real life at all."

"Would you prefer to spar without the aid of the shield badges?" Isabel raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure you'd fare much better when I actually run you through with my sword. You'd just die even faster in a so-called real fight."

"Not if I cooked you first."

"Children. Enough," Noah said. "You can bicker with each other later. We've got some monkeys to kill today."

"You're literally the same age as us," Isabel pointed out. "You can't call us children."

"I can when you act like them. You get the big-girl tone when you act like one. Come along. We're going to go on a field trip to Tim."

Noah headed out of the classroom, pausing just long enough to wait for Todd and Isabel to fall in line behind him before continuing. He did note that, despite Isabel's reluctance to go, she'd brought a small travel bag with her. Two water skins hung from its sides, and he suspected that there was food inside.

"Who's Tim?" Todd asked.

"The old guy that operates the transport cannon. Have you never used it before? It's quite useful. Saves a lot of travel time, and I don't know about the two of you, but I can't fly."

"Don't you have Wind Runes?" Isabel asked.

"Lesser ones. Great for cutting things and ruffling hair, not so great for actually picking myself up."

Their conversation trailed off and the three headed across campus, reaching the transport cannon a short while later. The line wasn't very long, and after a quick chat with Tim, the cannon was aligned with the Scorched Acres.

Isabel and Todd's expressions had been steadily getting more nervous over the course of the past few minutes as they slowly realized that Noah was dead serious about the entire expedition. Both of them kept glancing around, as if expecting a bunch of other professors to jump out and yell 'surprise', but no such saviors arrived.

"Follow in after me, you two. Don't dally too long." Noah gave an appreciative nod to Tim before he climbed into the cannon. There was a brilliant flash, and then he too was gone