Return of the Runebound Professor Chapter 2&3: Civil

In tormenting screams, Noah's soul tore free from his body. The defiled corpse toppled to the earth, upper portion shredded into strips. He gazed upon it from above, the suffering ebbing away since no physical form remained for him to endure it through.

“Well, shit,” Noah uttered. “That went down fast.”

An unseen force yanked at his chest, hauling him from the mortal realm. Noah let out a sigh.

Something coiled tight around his neck. Noah's ethereal eyes popped wide and he gagged—a feat he'd never imagined possible for a ghost. A dark ribbon took shape about his throat, stretching back toward the clearing.

The tug dragging him from the world ceased as the black ribbon jerked him earthward again. Fresh agony blazed through every inch of him, eyes bursting open amid a hoarse gasp while his hand clamped to his hammering heart. He inhabited flesh once more.

His skull pounded like a trapped symphony orchestra raged inside. Noah groaned, rooted in agony and unable to stir. Several minutes dragged by before he mustered strength to haul himself up.

No trace of his garments anywhere. Stark naked, he lurched to his feet. Thick mental haze clung despite the pain's slow retreat. The familiar clearing enclosed him still.

The poison gourd lay untouched where he'd abandoned it. Crunching sounds echoed dangerously near from his earlier flight direction. Gulping hard, Noah sidled to the water pool and stared into its depths.

The stolen body's original face stared back up at him. Somehow, he'd held onto it. Regrettably, apparel wasn't included in the bargain.

“I came back to life?” Noah murmured to himself. He prodded his cheek to confirm its presence. A thunderous roar shattered the forest behind him; paling in terror, he hurled himself into the lake. Down he dove to the utmost depths, gripping a submerged rock with desperate fervor.

Uncertain how long he huddled there, time's relevance had faded in the afterlife's grip. Noah refused to let go until his lungs scorched numb and dark spots swirled in his vision.

His weakened form scarcely thrust him toward the lake's surface. Gulping air frantically, he draped over the bank as lungs clawed for breath. Stifling a moan, Noah flipped onto his back and scanned the area.

Emptiness ruled the clearing. His head throbbed like ground meat, yet far preferable to literal mincemeat... once more. Noah dragged himself fully ashore and forced upright.

His gaze flicked to his hands, then lifted them before his face. The bizarre pattern's image that had hovered there burned vivid in memory. He willed it to manifest again, but mental fog thickened. Pain lanced his spine; hands fell with a wince.

A chill gust whispered past. Shivering, he cocked his head, straining to listen. The monkey's sounds had vanished. Still, its stealthy prowess lingered in his mind—no guarantee of safety.

Noah slunk into the charred woodland. His last escape had covered scant ground. Amid uprooted soil between trees lay the lower half of his old corpse. No hint of torso or beast.

Approaching his former legs, he swiftly stripped pants and belt free. Noah yanked them on, flinching at the warm blood staining them. A slim volume on the belt smacked his hip as he dressed. Legs threaded through, he stumbled onward into the trees, numb fingers fumbling the buckle while moving.

Stealth attempts—mostly futile—drew winces from every snapping twig underfoot. Constant backward glances every few steps, flinching at mere breezes.

Only after endless trekking as dusk bled into night did Noah permit relaxation. He sagged against a blackened trunk and slid to the ground.

“This is not how I saw my afterlife going,” Noah whispered lowly to himself. A frigid gust clawed icy fingers over his exposed chest, forcing a shiver. Just minutes prior, the mental haze began lifting.

Pockets rummaged through. All empty.

Noah detached the book from his waistband and cracked it open. Pages brimmed with meticulous, elegant script—each devoted to one intricate design akin to the pattern he'd traced in air hours before.

Terms floated unbidden into his thoughts. Noah scowled. 'Runes' rang perfectly true for them, yet the notion felt foreign. Host body's memories persisted in abundance, but conscious recall eluded him.

Noah leafed through the book's pages, hunting for the Rune he'd pictured in his mind during the battle with the monkey. Near the rear, an aged page rewarded his search. It featured numerous drawings of unknown plants and creatures, paired with notes on each.

Noah read, “Wind Rune,” his finger tracing the design. He lifted his hand from the tome, imagining the Rune vividly. A slender wind blade shot from his palm, slashing deeply into the fragile tree trunk before him. A subtle veil of fatigue settled upon his shoulders.

Noah jumped to his feet, scanning the area to check if the noise had drawn attention. He froze in place for long moments. No threats emerged. He approached the tree cautiously, examining the gash. The spell had gouged a profound scar into the rugged bark.

Once more, he summoned the Rune in his thoughts, directing his palm toward the soil. Yet another wind blade erupted and tore into the ground. Fatigue intensified, yet the mental haze stayed away this time.

Noah gazed upward at the starry night sky. Distant stars sparkled brilliantly, emitting a soft golden glow. Even in his dire straits, a quiet gasp of wonder escaped his lips. It was stunning—nothing like the dim, pollution-veiled specks visible from his Earth apartment window.

His gaze returned to the book, resolve hardening his expression.

“I need to get to civilization.”

***

Sleep evaded Noah that night. He pressed on, striving to hold a straight path. Any direction served, and circling back was the last thing he desired.

Only the snap of charred, lifeless undergrowth underfoot broke the night's silence. Chilly gusts wove between the trunks, but they felt eerily empty without leaves to stir.

Noah halted suddenly after navigating a cluster of burned trees, coming nose-to-nose with a sleeping monkey. His breath hitched, a small squeak escaping before he stifled it. The beast dangled inverted from a charred limb by its rear legs, eyes shut.

He gulped, retreating one careful step. This primate matched the size of those corpses he'd seen upon arriving in this realm, but its fangs and talons remained just as lethal.

A twig snapped under Noah's foot. The monkey's eyes flew open, locking onto him. It screeched, plummeting from the branch to land on all fours. Noah swore, backpedaling frantically while shoving a hand out at it.

A gust of wind surged from his fingers, a narrow white magic blade hacking into the monkey's torso. It wailed in agony as blood sprayed from the grievous injury. The creature lunged at Noah, who dove flat to the dirt.

The beast soared past his head, crashing into a tree with wood-splintering impact. He sprang up and fled the opposite way at top speed. Piercing hoots pursued him, closing in terrifyingly fast.

Noah whirled around, hands up to unleash another wind slash at the fiend. With his solid lead, there ought to have been ample space to—

Its snout hovered mere inches from his face. Noah shrieked as his magic streak grazed the monster's shoulder right before its claws tore into his neck, shredding it. Burning pain exploded from the gash; he gurgled, lungs starving for breath.

Victory screeched from the monkey. It was brief. One last wind arc burst from Noah's fading fingers, slicing the beast's head clean off. A feeble smirk tugged at Noah's mouth amid the blood frothing there.

“Serves you right,” he rasped.

A peculiar warmth surged through him. For a heartbeat, he sensed unprecedented power—but Noah had no moment to savor it.

Death claimed him anew that day. His soul detached from the flesh. He lingered above the body momentarily before an all-too-familiar tug yanked him away.

Noah squinted, committing the scene to memory as thoroughly as possible. The drag intensified, then hurled him through the woods. He concentrated, marking the blurring trees and landmarks for future navigation.

Seconds passed before reality crashed back. Damp, chill earth met his bare skin; eyes burst open. Mental fog clouded his thoughts. Parched, sticky lips twisted in disgust as Noah hauled himself upright.

Naked once more.

The clearing lay deserted, thankfully. Noah trembled in the frigid breeze. The discarded gourd sat nearby where he'd abandoned it. A faint scowl crossed his face as a notion pierced the mental murk.

“Why do I keep coming back to this clearing?”

He rotated slowly in place, scanning for whatever force was drawing him to reform in this spot instead of elsewhere across the world. Nothing stood out except the lifeless monkeys and the vacant gourd lying near his feet on the ground.

The gourd.

Noah's gaze sharpened. He lifted the gourd with caution. A faint slosh echoed from inside, hinting at the remnant liquid. He examined it briefly. Nothing about the gourd appeared extraordinary.

His eyes swept the dirt until they landed on the wax seal. He retrieved it and pressed it securely back into position. How Noah wished for pants right then to secure the gourd properly.

“Right. You’re coming with me,” Noah muttered. He glanced skyward, pinpointed his original path, and started moving again. Pants awaited him somewhere ahead.

The forest crossing on his second attempt proved swifter than before. Though he hadn't committed every detail to memory, sufficient landmarks guided him back along his route. Hours ticked by until his original body came into view, sprawled opposite a similarly slain monkey.

Despite the piercing chill, Noah flashed a grin. He hurried to his former self, stripped the clothes, donned the pants once more, and secured the gourd to his belt loop. Restored at last, he pivoted slowly. The mental haze lifted completely, allowing clear thoughts to return.

Regrettably, the barren woodland extended endlessly in all directions as far as the eye could reach. Endless lines of charred, withered trees stood frozen in rigid formation, awaiting a commander who would never arrive.

No clues emerged. Noah pressed his lips together, shrugged it off, and pressed onward. Remaining stationary only intensified the biting cold.

Noah pressed on for hours more, yet soon a greater issue arose. Hunger barely troubled him, but fatigue began creeping in. It arrived later than anticipated, yet advanced without mercy.

Just moments after acknowledging his growing exhaustion, Noah could scarcely shuffle his feet over the parched earth. He lurched toward a massive tree, scanned briefly to ensure no threats lurked nearby, then huddled into a tight ball and slipped into uneasy slumber.

Noah lost track of his sleep's duration. Upon fluttering his eyes open, the sun blazed straight overhead. He winced, rubbed away the sleep grit while blinking sluggishly, and rose to his feet. Thirst clawed at him fiercely, his belly growling in protest.

He got his bearings again, then marched forth seeking anything besides the infinite forest.

Time slipped by. Noah couldn't gauge precisely how much. The sun tracked across the sky, but whether this world's days matched Earth's length remained a mystery. The fiery void in his gut intensified with each stride, yet pressing on was his only option.

The trees merged into a monotonous haze as he trudged past. Perhaps the woods grew more identical, or exhaustion dulled his perception of their variances. So lost in his haze was Noah that he almost crashed right into a monkey dangling from a branch dead ahead.

Noah halted abruptly at the final instant. He'd approached from behind the beast, which hadn't detected him. Hands shot up immediately. A razor-sharp wind blade erupted forth, slicing clean through the creature's skull from behind. It plummeted silently from the limb, lifeless before a sound escaped.

A surge of power coursed through Noah's frame, surging from his feet upward to crown his head. Accompanying it was profound revitalization. His starvation eased, and dryness fled his lips slightly.

Noah stood motionless, savoring the sensation moments before it ebbed. He surveyed the surroundings for additional monkeys. Discovering none, uncertainty gripped him—relief or letdown?

Ere departing, Noah noticed the beast's elongated talons. He hesitated briefly, then dropped to one knee by the carcass. Delicately grasping a paw, he wielded another claw as a blade to pry loose one from the opposite hand.

The task proved gory and messy, splattering both him and the monkey with foul gore, yet after tense minutes of wary backward glances against approaching dangers, he wrenched it free.

The talon emerged bearing a finger-sized bone fragment at its base—perfect for Noah. He hefted it appraisingly, then gave a satisfied nod. In his prior existence, he'd wielded numerous blades, all for culinary arts rather than combat. Nonetheless, this claw balanced solidly and cut keenly enough. He resumed his trek through the woods, abandoning the body behind.

***

The monkey had returned. Noah flattened himself against a massive tree stump, battling to calm his panicked breaths. That enormous, spindly beast which had slain him mere moments after entering the scorched woods now stood directly ahead, and he felt certain its eyes had scanned his position.

All had been unfolding perfectly.

Precisely what qualified as perfect held little relevance. Far more pressing was the ponderous, oppressively deep panting from the colossal ape as it inched nearer. The creature drew in long, raspy inhalations, as though relishing the aroma of his dread.

Noah's gaze whipped around, hunting for any nook to conceal himself or snare the monster. Escape by flight was impossible. He'd already deduced as much. Compounding the peril, he'd carried the gourd along. Its revival time remained unknown. Should the monkey persist when he respawned...

A shiver coursed through Noah's spine. Endless cycles of death could await him – perpetually. Perishing here was no choice.

He swiftly inventoried his resources in his mind. The gourd. His book. A set of pants. One monkey claw. He narrowly stifled a wry chuckle that might have revealed him at once.

A gleeful hoot reverberated across the parched forest. Noah jerked back, but no strike followed. Strangely, the monkey held off for now. Still, it was perilously near. The foul odor of its clumped fur invaded his senses, reminiscent of cloyingly sweet dirt mixed with feces from a week prior.

Noah's fingers clenched harder on the claw. He hushed his breathing to utter stillness.

Noah dashed from behind the tree, conjuring a wind blade at his fingertips. The monkey reared up abruptly, mere trees away. It twisted toward him, mouth yawning wide in a screech.

The wind blade sliced into its chest, spraying thick blood acr