Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah returned to his room without any further incidents. He locked the door behind him and slipped out of his coat, tossing it into his closet before sliding into his desk and grabbing his notes.

The rest of the day flew by as he scratched away, jotting down his observations and plans for the future. Once everything boiled down, Noah had two main goals directly related to his Runes.

First, he wanted to replace the rest of the Lesser wind Runes with Greater ones. He was confident that Isabel would be able to outperform Edward during the exam, but it wouldn’t be right to take the Rune that she earned herself. Thus, he needed to find a way to get his hands on a Greater Wind Rune on his own.

Second, once he got his Runes replaced, he needed to fill them completely and finally get around to combining them. He had no idea if his current plan of having two Ash, two Wind, and three Vibration Runes would actually allow him to combine them into something functional, but Sunder made it so that he didn’t have to worry about an invalid combination at all. At worst, it would just be a waste of time as he got energy for a new Rune.

He could deal with that once he actually got the right Runes set up, since he still needed to replace one more Wind Rune and upgrade the other two. Noah jotted down some ideas for how the ratios might affect the combinations, but in the end, he was just guessing.

I’d love to get an example of a combination someone else has done. That would help a lot. Until then, I’ll just focus on filling my current Runes up. Something tells me the Hellreaver has a lot of energy if it’s got a Master Rune. I want to replace my Wind Runes before I kill it so I don’t waste any energy on a useless Rune.

Noah remained at his desk through the rest of the day, but he got little more accomplished. He found himself zoning off, sometimes for several hours at a time. Even after several weeks alive again, it was easy for him to just drift off whenever he wasn’t actually doing something.

The night came and Noah went to bed when he realized that no more light was coming through his dirty window – he still needed to clean it, but didn’t quite care enough to get around to doing it.

And, no more than a few hours into it, Noah jerked awake in his bed in cold sweat. His chest felt tight, like steel bands were constricting around it. A massive eye stared down at him from the ceiling, burning with malice.

It’s just a vision. Ignore it and it’ll go away.

A second passed. Two. The bands around his chest tightened. Noah hissed in pain, calling on his Runes instinctively as he tried to push back against the invisible force. To his surprise, it seemed to work. The vision of the eye above him started to fade and the bands lessened. Noah gritted his teeth and pushed back as hard as he could.

There was one final squeeze, and then the vision flashed with fury and vanished. Noah sat upright, gasping for air. It took him several moments to gather himself again.

That wasn’t a vision. The Hellreaver realized I’m alive. Shit. This isn’t good. Can it just do that whenever?

How does it even have access to my mind? Did all that soul damage somehow form a link between us, or is it all the monkeys I’ve killed? Damn. Doesn’t matter. There’s nothing I can even do about it now. The exam is too soon. I’ll just have to manage.

The Hellreaver didn’t try anything again that night, but Noah slept poorly. None of the other visions had actually affected him, and this time around, he hadn’t even had severe soul damage.

The Hellreaver is screwing with me.

When the sun rose the following morning, Noah was already out his door. Instead of setting a course for Tim, Noah stopped by the markets to buy the cheapest set of clothes he could find. They resembled his normal outfit, but with considerably less flair and quality and had been clearly made for training rather than teaching. He managed to get a deal for a set that only cost a single silver, which he happily took before turning and walking in the opposite direction until he was in the large, open gardens near the T building.

He stepped onto his flying sword and took to the skies, nearly performing a surprise trimming on a tree that rudely decided to place itself between him and the open air. Noah jerked out of the way moments before he cut through it, and then he was off.

Wind whipped past Noah’s ears and he squinted to protect his eyes as he rose higher. Before long, he could see Arbitage sprawling beneath him. He wasn’t the only person flying around on a sword, but he was certainly the fastest.

Several dozen other people also flew around the campus beneath Noah, but they were all moving at much more controlled speeds. Noah suspected that moving at a reasonable pace was probably far more ideal when you had to worry about small things like surviving the landing or mowing down bystanders.

Luckily, there weren’t any bystanders this high up – and Noah didn’t care all that much about the first point. His cheeks flapped aggressively and he shot through a cloud, weaving as the mist poured into his throat and he choked.

Okay, too high. A little lower.

Noah dipped to fly just below the clouds. The sword steadied itself and he held a hand up, blocking the wind from his eyes as he scouted the ground. Arbitage sprawled behind him, quickly shrinking in the distance.

Beyond a large field stood the Scorched Acres. Blackened trees poked up like grasping fingers, covering the horizon before him. The sword beneath his feet wobbled as Noah lost concentration for a moment.

He dropped, then slammed to a halt as he reestablished control. Noah’s stomach lurched and he grimaced, turning his focus to flying.

It didn’t take long until he was above the Scorched Acres. Unfortunately, that was the easy part. Tim always sent Noah to the exact same spot whenever he used the TAINT, and Noah wasn’t exactly sure where that was.

As such, it took him a little over three hours of zigzagging above the forest before he spotted a familiar clearing. He shot toward it, only smashing through a few jagged branches before burying his sword in the ground and rolling to a stop against a tree with a grunt of pain.

Noah laid on the dry dirt for a few moments, catching his breath, before he sat up with a groan. He tested his ribs to make sure he hadn’t broken anything, then stood up and tugged his blade free of the earth.

He wiped it off with the back of a sleeve, then tucked it into his belt and set off in search of the Skinwalker.

A Slasher found him first. The monster screeched, lunging at Noah from behind a tree – and caught a spike of ash through the eye. Noah was so used to killing the monsters that he barely noticed the energy entering his body from defeating it.

“Hello?” Noah called as he stepped over the Slasher’s corpse and continued on his way. “Where are you?”

The trees behind Noah rustled, and Noah’s body stepped out from within them, brushing some leaves out of his hair.

Noah grimaced. There was something about seeing his own corpse strolling around on its own that was just wrong. He tossed the set of clothes that he’d bought at the Skinwalker.

“There. All yours.”

“Truly generous. You have blessed me with a kingly gift,” the Skinwalker said, catching the bundle with one hand.

“Stop being a smartass. Didn’t you want to buy your own clothes? I’m not wasting a bunch of money on something you aren’t even going to use.”

And I’m not selling my collection yet. I want more. Am I a hoarder? I might be. I just really want to sell everything at once and get a bunch of money. I’ve never gotten a huge paycheck before. It’ll be nice to go on a huge shopping spree rather than constantly penny count things out.

The Skinwalker paused, tilting its head to the side and studying Noah, who shuddered at his – its – gaze.

“Please do that body changing thing. Anything would be better than watching you puppet my corpse around.”

“I am not puppeting anything,” the Skinwalker replied with an indignant scoff. “I spent weeks consuming your body and memorizing every single detail so that I could recreate it perfectly.”

“That… actually, that is better. I’m not sure why.” Noah frowned. “But seriously, new appearance. Please. Before I have to make some bullshit up for somebody else.”

I can’t shake the feeling that you’re more than just a normal Skinwalker. What happened to being barely able to hold a conversation and fairly stupid? I wonder if there are Greater Skinwalkers.

The Skinwalker let out a dramatic sigh. It stripped out of Noah’s clothes and changed into the new ones. Noah had to admit – the Skinwalker really did get every single part of his body correct.

“What kind of body do you want me to take on?”

“As long as it’s within reason, I really don’t care,” Noah said. “It’s your body. And do you have a name? If we’re going to be working together, I’d rather think of you as more than just a Skinwalker.”

The Skinwalker blinked. Its face was unreadable as they stood, watching each other.

“What?” Noah asked.

“Nothing,” the Skinwalker replied. “I do not have a name. We are solitary by nature. Typically, I would take on the name of the person who I had consumed. When someone dies, the most repeated memories are burned into their bodies and we consume them. Names are one of those memories.”

“Yeah, just like language,” Noah said with a knowing nod. “And really strong trauma or feelings.”

The Skinwalker stared at Noah. “How do you know that?”

“I reckon I’ve gone through more bodies than you have,” Noah replied, dismissing the subject with a wave of his hand. “They’re just all mine.”

Technically mine. Sorry, Vermil. You should have been less of a prick.

“You regain your own memories? How would that even work?”

“Let’s not address it,” Noah said. He wasn’t about to explain every bit of how he’d arrived in this world. “You still need a name. Do you want to make one, or should I?”

The Skinwalker considered his question for a second. “I like trees.”

“Okay,” Noah said, drawing the word out.

“I would like to be called Tree.”

“That’s… not a very human name,” Noah hedged. “What about a specific tree? That could be a bit easier to make unique.”

“Leaves. Leaves are more unique, and they are part of trees.”

Noah cleared his throat. “What about Lee? Like the first half of Leaves.”

The Skinwalker nodded. “Lee. That will work. I’m going to change my body now. If any monsters come, I’d appreciate if you keep them away. We aren’t very strong while we’re shifting forms.”

Noah nodded and the Skinwalker hunched over, pressing its hands to its face. A series of loud cracks rang out within its body and its back bulged, bubbling and churning. Noah suppressed a gag. Lee’s hair straightened and extended down past his shoulders.

There was a sharp snap, followed by a relieved sigh. Lee stood back up and arched back with a yawn.

One thing was for certain. Lee hadn’t been lying. The Skinwalker hadn’t changed its appearance just a little. It had changed everything.

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