Chapter 30: Shields are for chumps

Chapter 30: Shields are for chumps

An earthshaking roar ripped from the Hellreaver’s mouth with such intensity that the flames encircling them rippled. It lumbered to its feet, rolling its shoulders. Saliva dripped from its mouth, sizzling as it splattered against the dirt.

Noah sent a blade of wind whistling for its throat. The Hellreaver shifted a hand, blocking the spell. If it did any damage, Noah couldn’t tell. It looked like the blade had just vanished into its dark fur.

“Come on, then,” Noah growled, preparing wind magic to throw himself to safety if the Hellreaver was faster than he expected. It reared back and Noah tensed his legs. If he dodged too early, the monster would have time to adjust its attack.

The Hellreaver lifted its hands into the air and lunged forward. Noah empowered his dive with a surge of Wind magic, sending himself flying across the clearing. He’d recognized the attack – it was the exact same one that the Slashers had used. He hit the ground in a roll, but something was wrong.

He hadn’t heard the sound of the Hellreaver’s fists hitting the ground. His momentary triumph vanished like a candle in a rainstorm and he looked up. The Hellreaver’s eyes glinted with intelligence that he had completely missed.

The Hellreaver’s hands had never fallen. Its cheeks billowed and a wave of molten flame washed out toward Noah. Noah grabbed at his wind magic, desperately forming it into a barrier in hopes of deflecting the attack.

It blew away, completely swamped by the intensity of the Hellreaver’s magic. For an instant, Noah locked eyes with the monster. Its face was crinkled in a terrifyingly human-like expression of amusement.

Then the fire washed over him, and his world was agony.

Mercifully, it didn’t last long. The intense heat melted Noah’s body away and his fried nerves gave out long before his throat could. A few moments later, his consciousness snapped and his soul peeled away from the charred husk of his body.

Noah lifted into the air and the Hellreaver let the deluge of flame sputter out. It peered down at his corpse and huffed, lowering itself back down and leaning against the flaming trees. Noah ground his teeth together.

1 – 0, you fat beachball shaped bastard. I’m going to kill you, mark my words.

Noah willed his soul upward, flitting past the burning trees and far above the forest. He spun, searching for Arbitage’s distant shadow until he spotted it. A tug pulled at his neck, but Noah resisted it. To his surprise, it actually worked. He held himself in place for just a few moments longer, which he used to memorize the location of the forest that the Hellreaver lived in.

The pull on his neck erupted in magnitude, blowing his defenses apart. Noah whipped back down into the forest and slammed into his new body like he’d been shot from a cannonball. He bolted upright, slamming his head into the hilt of his sword with enough force to make it ring like a gong.

Noah rolled out of the tree, swearing, and fell flat on his face with a loud thud. He stayed there for several seconds, the memory of his flesh melting and bubbling away still vivid in his mind.

A headache violently mocked his defeat. Noah’s hands clenched, digging through the hard dirt. It bit under his fingernails and against the soft flesh of his palm, but that only made him squeeze harder.

“Our business isn’t done yet,” Noah swore, shoving himself upright and pushing through the headache to clamber back up into the tree, one tedious movement at a time. Every single one sent pangs of exhaustion and shooting pains throughout his body, but he ignored them until he was back next to his gourd. “Count your days, Hellreaver. For all the times your little monster lackeys have killed me, I’m going to wear your hide as a belt.”

***

Noah’s conviction was the only thing that kept him aware over the next few hours. The pain his body suffered after death never seemed to lessen, nor was his body adapting to it. He didn’t even manage to gather the energy to pull his spare set of clothes out from his bag until an hour after his revival.

I suppose that’s probably because I get a new body every single time I go kaputz. Can’t adapt to something if the body’s never experienced it before.

Regardless of the reason, all Noah could do was sit in his tree and fume. The hours spun by and, by the time the pain had finally started to abate, the world was going blue.

Noah slid back into Arbitage, his behind banging against the metal turret as he arrived. He grimaced, just barely starting to regain the ability to have rational thoughts, and slipped to the floor.

“Welcome back!” Tim said. “How did it go? Get that training in?”

“I – yeah, I suppose so. I hate those monkeys more than I can put into words.”

“I’ve heard they’re tough buggers,” Tim said, shaking his head in sympathy. “You got a grudge against them or something? Is that why you’re always out in the Scorched Acres?”

“Something like that. The Scorched Acres aren’t even that far from Arbitage. Surely someone else is fighting them?”

“Probably soldiers. Mages tend to go for monsters with the fancy Runes, you know? So they can take ‘em.”

“Do something about it. Even if you’ve got enough magic to break my shield, it’ll summon my mentor and he’ll snap your pathetic back like a twig.”

“It’s fine,” Isabel muttered. “Professor, don’t get yourself–”

“Not now, Isabel.” Noah held the boy’s gaze, unblinking. “I do believe this student has just asked me for tutelage. As such, I am obligated to shove his head so far up his ass that he never sees daylight again.”

The boy bared his teeth in a dangerous grin. “Big words for a Rank 1. Your magic literally can’t even break my Shield. Don’t you realize what these sigils represent?”

Noah gathered a blade of wind above his palm. He reared back and the obnoxious kid lowered his stance with a confident smile. It was clear that he had complete and utter faith in his shield.

And, as such, Noah took a page out of the Hellreaver’s book. He lunged forward, letting his magic dissipate in the air behind him, and drove his fist into the boy’s nose with all the force that he could muster.

It broke with an audible crunch and the boy tumbled across the ground, slamming into a shelf behind him. A book that had been teetering at the edge slipped off, falling on his head with a thunk.

“Nice Shield,” Noah said, striding over to stand above the bully.

The boy glared at him through teary, disbelieving eyes. “I camb’t belib you ‘jus did tha. Do you know who I–”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” Noah said, squatting in front of the kid and baring his teeth in a cold smile. “See, I’ve got no idea who you are. That means I can pass this whole thing off as a misunderstanding. But, if you tell me, I’m just going to kill you and get rid of the problem. Capiche?”

Terrified eyes stared back at him.

“This is the part where you run,” Noah advised.

The boy took his advice. He scrambled to his feet, still clutching the book to his chest, and sprinted in the opposite direction as fast as his legs would take him. The tension drained out of Noah’s spine and he shook his head in disgust, turning to Isabel.

“Are you okay?”

Isabel swallowed heavily. The look in her eyes was something that he’d never seen in her, a mixture of admiration, surprise, and fear.

“You’re crazy,” she muttered.

Noah extended a hand. Isabel took it and he pulled her to her feet.

“I believe I was just doing my duty as your professor. You can’t tell me that Arbitage encourages bullies. Besides, the kid asked me for a lesson. What, am I supposed to say no? Anything in the pursuit of knowledge.” Noah pressed a hand to his chest and deepened his voice, staring off into the distance as if he were giving a speech.

Isabel let out a snort of laughter. She turned, wiping a tear from her face that Noah pretended not to see.

“You’re definitely crazy. Thank you, though. But... why were you tailing me?”

“Tailing you?” Noah blinked. “I wasn’t. I came to read up on some stuff.”

Isabel cocked an eyebrow. “Really? Here? In this exact aisle?”

“The one over, actually. I just wanted to do a little light reading. Catch up on family. The usual.”

Isabel swallowed heavily. “Oh.”

“What’s with that expression?”

Isabel looked in the direction the bully had run off in. “I thought you were joking about not recognizing him. That was Edward Linwick, and he just ran off with the book on the Linwick family.”

“Oh,” Noah said, crossing his arms and chewing his lower lip. “Okay, yeah. Oh seems apt here.”