Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah stared at the spot where Og had stood for several long seconds. His domain swept over the area around them in search of any more demons. Nothing showed up. As far as he could tell, the only ones still in the Scorched Acres were him and Lee.

A deep frown creased Noah’s face as he ran back through what the large demon had said. Og had implied that this attack wasn’t even meant to kill anyone. It had been some sort of test… and, if anything, that only made him angrier.

Someone was testing his students. And a test it may have been, but the demons and still been trying to kill them. Noah was not about to sit around and greatfully thank the crazed bastards that thought they could get away with attacking his students in the name of some cultish training.

All of them were pathetically weak, especially for demons, other than Og. I don’t have any idea how strong he was… but I’ve never seen someone just block Unstable Pandemonium like that.

And Og had done more than block it. He’d straight up toyed with the magic as if it were play-dough. And even through Noah’s anger, one thing that the large demon had said lodged in the back of his head like a splinter.

Og had called the magic uncreative.

He was right.

Noah had only recently gotten Unstable Pandemonium, but its chaos elements were so powerful that he’d been just coasting through using the rune by blowing everyone in his path apart with raw energy.

That had worked perfectly right up until Og.

His enemies were stronger than he was. Rank 6s from the heads of Noble Houses, the Apostles, and everything else that laid in wait beyond. The absolute last thing that Noah could afford right now was to waste potential he had. Whether it was using his Pattern properly or delving deeper into Unstable Pandemonium…

Noah’s jaw set.

I can’t leave anything on the table. I’ll give Og thanks for that reminder when I kill him the next time we meet. Nobody threatens my students and gets away with it.

“Well, that was weird, but if there was only one of those Og guys, then everyone else is definitely fine. None of them would lose to idiots like this,” Lee said.

She was right enough about that. All of his students were growing more competent by the day, and they had significant amounts of progress to their patterns. A few of them had a bit more than even him, which filled him with equal parts pride and embarrassment.

Noah blew out a slow breath. There was no point panicking. The Transport Cannon would reactivate soon enough, and it wasn’t like everyone had been completely unguarded. He still had powerful allies in Arbitage.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lee rear back. She adjusted her grip on the massive black axe in her hands and squinted at something. Before Noah could ask what she was doing, she then launched it into the air with a small hup!

Noah watched the massive weapon sail over the treetops, then turned a critical eye to its owner.

“Why?”

“Didn’t want to carry it around,” Lee replied. “And it worked last time! Chopped that demon right in half.”

Noah blinked. “Wait. You’re right. I was going to ask about that. What the hell is that axe, Lee? I can’t sense it. At all. It’s like there’s nothing there. Kind of like that ability Revin was having Eline use, but for an item. He didn’t teach it to you, did he?”

Lee scrunched her nose in distaste. “He smells weird. I wouldn’t want to learn anything from him. I just... I don’t know. I ate the axe, I guess.”

Noah stared at her. “What?”

“The axe,” Lee repeated. “I ate it.”

“I heard you the first time. The words you said just don’t make sense. The axe was literally in your hands a moment ago. What do you mean, ate it?”

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Lee scratched at the side of her neck as if she’d never thought about the question before. “It’s kind of hard to say. It’s kind of like I ate its presence, I guess?”

Noah continued to stare at Lee. “That does not clarify anything. Could you explain exactly how you did it?"

"Maybe it would be easier if I showed you,” Lee said. She glanced around, then scooped a burnt stick up off the ground and held it out in front of Noah. “Do you see the stick?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“And you can feel it too, right?”

Noah nodded once more. “Yeah. Not as clearly as something magical, but my domain can pick it up.”

“Right. But if I just…” Lee trailed off as she brought the stick up to her mouth. Noah half expected her to take a bite right out of it. She made as if she were about to. Her teeth bit down.

And then something strange happened.

Noah couldn’t place exactly what it was, but Lee’s fangs passed right through the stick as if nothing was there. She pulled her mouth away. A flicker of darkness peeled away from the stick.

It was a perfect copy. One made of faint, nearly invisible shadow, but a copy nonetheless. The translucent stick floated in the air before her for one brief second.

Then it vanished as Lee slurped it up like a piece of spaghetti.

Noah blinked. His domain had completely lost track of the stick. Even though he was looking right at it, his domain couldn’t feel anything in the slightest. It was as if Lee had literally eaten the stick itself.

He walked in a small circle around her, squinting the entire time with concentration, but it revealed nothing. The stick had well and truly vanished from his senses.

Noah came to a stop before Lee once more. “Huh. That’s fascinating. I really can’t feel it at all. What did you do? And how did you even figure out you could do that?”

“I kind of got hungry while I was practicing my pattern. My axe looked a little tasty, so I tried nibbling on it. One thing led to another and I ate the rest of it. I got so distracted eating that I kind of forgot to focus on practicing my pattern.”

Noah bit back a laugh. He really should have expected that answer. A thought struck him and the smile slid off his face.

“Wait. Isn’t your pattern basically consuming things?”

“I don’t know,” Lee said with a shake of her head. “I’m still trying to figure it out. I kind of just want things. Eating is nice, though. I like eating. Much more than practicing. More than stretching, too. I mostly stretch so I can fit more food inside me.”

I really don’t think that’s how it works. But if I’m understanding Lee right, then she might be a whole lot farther along in her pattern than she thinks.

“Lee, when you’ve been practicing your pattern, exactly what have you been trying to do?”

“I don’t know. That’s the problem. I try to connect to myself or whatever, but I just get hungry. I’ve tried a few different things. None of them work. Either basically nothing happens or I get distracted and eat something. Like my axe.”

Noah looked back to the stick in Lee’s hand. He still couldn’t feel it at all. And, unlike what Revin and Eline could do, this seemed pretty permanent.

“Can you un-eat the stick?”

It was Lee’s turn to stare at him. “How do you think eating works?”

“Right. Figured. Just had to ask,” Noah said. But that answer had been more than enough. Making the presence of something completely disappear was not an ability that could be associated with any normal rune or demonic ability. And that could mean only one thing. “I think you’ve already figured out your pattern.”

Lee frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You consume things. That’s always what you’ve liked doing. Not just food. You ate Decras’ runes as well, remember? A pattern isn’t something that has to be new. It just has to be something that you understand deeply.”

“But eating things doesn’t feel special. I just like doing it.”

“Patterns don’t have to feel special,” Noah said with a chuckle. “They should just feel right. You were saying you kept getting hungry while you were practicing, yeah? That’s probably just because you’re embodying your pattern.”

“Huh.” Lee looked down at the stick in her hands. “So my pattern is eating stuff?”

“That’s for you to determine. I couldn’t say. But certainly seems like your pattern is tangentially related to it at the minimum. Not that you need more encouragement to eat… but I would definitely figure out what you’re capable of doing as well as how you’re doing it. If I didn’t know better, I would have said you ate the soul of the stick or something.”

Lee scratched her chin. “Huh. Huh.”

“Just do me a favor,” Noah said as a chilling thought struck him. “Don’t go eating anyone or anything alive with your pattern. Not until you figure out exactly what it does.”

“Kay,” Lee said with a shrug. It was clear her thoughts had already drifted off to her pattern. She’d been using it properly by accident for quite some time… which begged the question of what she’d be capable of when she injected magic into it.

A small shiver ran down Noah’s back. For someone as intuitively connected to eating as Lee, he almost feared to find out. She was already menacing enough. Turning her hunger into a real weapon would take her to an entirely different level.

Noah paused as a faint tingle rolled across his skin. The Transport Cannon was re-activating.

“Earlier than it was meant to. You feel it, right?” Noah asked.

“Yeah.”

“Tim is pulling us back. Good. He wouldn’t be able to do that if they were actively under attack, but it’s better to be safe.” Noah’s eyes narrowed. “Prepare yourself. If there are any of those cult bastards still there, kill all but one.”

Lee nodded. “I’ll be ready.”

The buzz grew stronger. Energy enveloped Noah and Lee, and then they were two blurs of light streaking through the sky toward Arbitage.