Chapter 568: Avalanche

Chapter 568: Avalanche

The exam had been meant to last a full day. It took time to hunt monsters, and even more time to hunt enough of them to get a Rune to manifest on Catchpaper. An average mage could take hours just to get something worthwhile, and that wasn’t even accounting for the quality of the rune.

Todd and the rest of Noah’s students had every rune they needed in less than four hours — though that wasn’t an entirely accurate statement. They each needed to secure themselves a Rune in order to pass the exam, which meant the group needed a total of 5 Runes — though Alexandra had gone off on her own and lowered the group’s requirement down to 4.

They currently had 20.

Only about 4 of those had come from actually hunting the monsters. The rest had come from students kindly donating their belongings to the group by trying to attack them.

“You know, I’m starting to feel like this exam is more about fighting other mages than it is about hunting monsters,” Todd said as he watched Isabel leaf through the runes they’d earned. “Maybe everyone else got the wrong memo and thought this was an exam to hunt other students.”

“I think it’s a little more targeted than that,” Isabel said. She gathered the runes back into a pile and handed half of it to Emily, who slipped the papers into a pouch on her waist. Isabel glanced around the small clearing they’d taken a break in, then stretched her arms over her head and shook herself off. “The amount of people we’ve had come after us is way higher than it should have been.”

“Verrud and Jakob are pulling strings,” Emily said. “It has to be.”

“What, with the entire Advanced Track?” Todd asked.

“To be fair, less than half the people that we’ve run into have been from the Advanced Track. I think the majority of those guys are just focused on winning. We pass the exam if we can get a rune each, but we’ve got to get the most runes to win the Advanced Track competition.” Isabel scratched the side of her neck. “Though, at this rate, we won’t even have to fight any more monsters. We can just keep taking out all the students that attack us.”

“I wonder how he paid them off.” The air beside Emily rippled as James took form at her side.

“James!” Todd exclaimed. “Where have you been, man? You went to scout thirty minutes ago!”

“Sorry. I fell asleep.”

“While scouting?”

“Yes. It was very boring.”

“I think we need a new scout,” Todd said.

“Quite possibly, yes,” Isabel agreed with a sidelong glance in James’ direction. James didn’t even have the good grace to look chagrined. He just shrugged and wiped at his nose.

“Did you find anything?” Emily asked.

“More students. There are a lot of them in the area around us,” James said. He craned his neck back to look at a mushroom looming above him. “We should probably be ready for more people to show up. It feels like everyone just decided that this area of the Mushroom Forest is the best one to be in.”

“Maybe he really did pay people off,” Emily said with a frown. “That feels like it would be painfully blatant, though. There’s no way you can do that without at least somebody going ‘huh, that’s weird’. The Advanced Track is also full of nobles. It’s not easy to buy nobles off. Verrud and Jakob aren’t that rich.”

“There’s more than one way to get people to turn against someone or hunt them,” Isabel said. “All he had to do was tell the truth. He’s probably mentioned that we have a bunch of runes, and defeating us is an instant pass for the whole exam.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Todd said. “In the end, they’ve managed to make this easier for us. We can’t be far from winning the Advanced Track competition. Maybe we should just start hunting the people hunting us instead. It’ll make things faster.”

“Now there’s an idea.” A familiar, smarmy voice echoed through the clearing.

All of them turned as one, annoyance rather than surprise crossing their features, as Marley emerged from the treeline. It was hard to miss him — the noble was practically jingling as he walked.

He was covered from head to toe in bracelets, rings, bracers, and just about every other piece of Imbued equipment that someone could fit onto themselves. Marley even wore light armor reminiscent of that of a Soldier.

Todd blinked at the vast amount of wealth Marley had on him. There was a difference between the funds of a noble and using... whatever this was. The sheer number of Imbuements he was carrying around were terrifying.

Holy shit. Somebody spent a ridiculous amount of money outfitting him... but that has to be at least partially for show. That many Imbuements running together will interfere with each other. Simple is king. This idiot just cleaned out daddy’s closet.

“What’s wrong?” Marley asked, two shimmering swords made of swirling blue energy buzzing to life in his palms. “Too scared to speak?”

“Who’s helping the moron?” Isabel asked. “I doubt he could have found the broad side of the barn in a field if he didn’t have help.”

Anger flashed across Marley’s face. He pointed his swords at Isabel. “Keep talking smart, bitch. We’ll see what happens when—”

An ice arrow screamed through the air and slammed into Marley’s chest. A shield erupted around him with an earsplitting screech. His eyes only had a moment to go wide before the force of the magic launched him off his feet and sent him hurtling through the stem of a mushroom and into the forest beyond.

“That’s a strong shield,” Emily said, lowering her bow with a frown.

“Bullshit. You aren’t controlling that yourself. Someone’s feeding you magic,” Todd said as he flung himself to safety once more.

Roots slammed into the ground one after the other in Todd’s wake. Each one shook the earth with the force of their impact. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a root hurtling straight for his head.

It didn’t look like Marley was trying to leave enough of anyone alive to get pulled out of the exam.

Todd gritted his teeth and set off an explosion from his palms. It hurled him to the side and he hit the ground in a grunt, rolling to safety and staggering back to his feet.

Marley turned toward him — but he didn’t get a chance to attack. Isabel exploded forward, clad entirely in her heavy armor. She held a huge tower shield in one hand and a glowing blue greatsword in one of her hands.

Roots crashed down toward her, but the ground exploded up around Isabel in a sea of spikes. They drove into the roots, slowing them and buying her precious seconds to arrive before Marley.

She slammed her shield down on his head. His shields flared, burning with power as they resisted her strike. Isabel’s sword flashed and Marley brought his own up. The weapons slammed together with a loud crackle.

Isabel slammed her foot into Marley’s chest and he staggered back, his shields repelling her once more. He went to stab at her but was forced to dodge back as Todd sent a streak of concentrated flame screeching past his face, just narrowly missing.

Loud crashes and the roar of magic filled the clearing all around them from Emily and James’ fight against Marley’s backup. A quick glance told Todd why the fight was still going. They were all outfitted in Imbued equipment as well. It didn’t look like the quality was as high as Marley’s, but there were three of them.

Isabel and Marley crossed blades again. Their weapons crackled — and Isabel dismissed her weapon, reforming it an instant later once it had passed by Marley’s guard.

The sword would have gone straight into his shoulder if it didn’t connect with his shield first. Magic screamed.

Isabel was thrown back several feet as a huge wave of pressure rolled out from Marley, ripping up the dirt around him.

A pillar of dirt shot up behind her and connected with her back to stop her from falling. If she lost her balance in the immensely heavy armor she wore, it was the same as a death sentence.

Marley crossed his swords and power arced down their blades, rippling across his body. Someone was pumping him full of even more magic. Curls of magic rose up from him and he bared his teeth in something between a snarl and a grin. “What’s wrong? You don’t look as confident as you did before.”

This might be bad.

“Isabel?” Todd asked.

“Yeah?” Her voice was terse.

“I think we’re going to have to use some of the things you’ve been practicing.”

“On this idiot?” Isabel asked, aghast. “Seriously?”

“It’s not just him. It’s him and however many people are powering him.”

“You really think you can do anything against me?” Marley asked through a burst of snorting laughter. The amusement left his face in an instant, replaced by cold cruelty as he shifted his stance. “You’re delusional.”

“Right. Sorry, Professor,” Isabel said. She tossed her shield to the side and grabbed her sword with both hands. She drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly.

A root crashed down toward her.

Isabel’s sword snapped out, catching it on the flat of the blade and deflecting it down into the ground with a loud crash.

There was something different in her motions as she moved toward Marley once again. Magic burned in her every step, each one slightly faster than the last, every movement like a pebble rolling down the side of a mountainside.

Roots shot toward Isabel. Her sword flashed up and down and up again, the repeated crash of its blade striking the roots filling the air.

The first was knocked to her left.

The second was deflected to her right.

The third was split in half. Every blow Isabel made came slightly faster and stronger than the previous as she continued her advance. The magic imbuing her movements and blade intensified by the second.

Her body — her blade — was becoming an avalanche manifest.

For the first time since they’d started training, Isabel was unleashing her Pattern against a real opponent.