Return of the Runebound Professor Chapter 916: That ain't right

Noah’s found himself standing on the arena once more. The distant, magically-muted roar of the crowd echoed far overhead. He barely even cared. Every single part of him that wasn’t physical was still back in the room with Moxie. He could still taste her on his lis. His heart beat at twice its normal speed and an excited jitter filled his entire body.

Even now, it was only just settling in. Grim’s weight on his back was certainly helping with that. Noah couldn’t have cared less about whoever he was up against. All he had to do was clean up one fight and then go report back to Lee and the others that he’d found Moxie and discovered a way to avoid Aqua Terra’s anti-domain magic.

And then a sliver of reality wormed its way back into his thoughts.

He couldn’t use the Beyond.

Not haphazardly, at least. Vivian and her people somehow had a way to track it. He had no damn idea how, but that wasn’t something he could worry about at the moment. The only silver lining was that they seemed to think that it was Og who had used the Beyond rather than him.

For so long as that held true, he was fine. And as long as he didn’t draw on the Beyond again while he was in Aqua Terra, there probably wouldn’t be any real reason for Vivian’s cronies to come after him. Sure, the Executioner had seen him in Moxie’s room, but they hadn’t been doing anything.

As far as the creepy guy knew… that had just been his room.

Noah dismissed the thoughts. There was nothing he could do about it now.

Strangely enough, he wasn’t feeling the disorientation that he’d had the last time the badge had summoned him to the arena floor. Noah felt strikingly normal. That was a good thing. Constantly fading in and out of existence when he was one of the only two people in the arena would make it a bit hard for onlookers to miss whatever was going on with him.

For the time being, all that mattered was dealing with his opponents and then getting back to his room so he could tell everyone what had happened and get to work creating his next Rune. After all, now that he had Grim, there was nothing stopping him from hitting Rank 6.

He glanced around.

There weren’t actually that many people in the area. For that matter, there was only one.

A lone man stood on the far side of the arena. A slightly tattered red cloak hung around his shoulders, kind of like that of an old-timey gunslinger, and he held a curved sword in one of his hands in an easy grip. His dark hair hung long around his face, partially blocking out his features. The only thing Noah could make out from where he stood were two sharp, blue eyes.

Noah pursed his lips. He’d just have to assume that his opponent was probably fairly powerful. It was better to do that than the opposite.

He drew on his runes, then glanced up toward the sky in anticipation of the match’s start. Baun was already floating overhead. The man’s massive, projected mustache was already filling up a significant portion of the sky. It was joined by the rest of his face, but the mustache definitely took up a solid fifty percent of it.

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A part of Noah wondered if any rules had been explained while he’d been hunting for Moxie. If they had, he’d missed them. But something told him that no matter what the rules may have been laid out to be, they would still boil down to the same thing.

Beat his opponent. Preferably without killing them.

“Thank you all for your patience!” Baun’s voice thundered. “We’re just about ready to get the next round started! The tournament will be getting kicked back off very shortly. But first, I’ve got a brief word from our sponsors that I’d like to share with you all.”

Noah suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. Advertisements had somehow followed him here from Earth. Either that or they were universal constants. Like pizza.

He didn’t know how to feel about that.

Noah was about to look back to the arena when he felt the hair on the back of his neck start standing on end. An uneasy feeling washed over him in a sudden wave. Almost instinctively, he spun.

He found his eyes drawn to a single man in the crowd. Even though it was thick and far enough that there was no justifiable reason for picking any one of the small faces out, Noah almost couldn’t look away. The man was thin, with slightly gaunt features. The most striking thing about him was his gaze. His eyes were a dull, sunken gray. They looked completely hollow and empty. Almost as if there was nothing at all behind them.

And beyond that, there really wasn’t anything that should have been of interest at all about him. Nobody around the man seemed to care about his presence. They were all just cheering or eating or looking down at the arena eagerly. One woman noticed Noah looking in their direction and waved down to him.

He didn’t wave back.

His eyes were locked with the relatively plain-looking man’s. Even though he couldn’t make out any more details about him… there was no doubt in Noah’s mind. He was the cause of the building unease. There was something seriously off about him.

Baun’s voice droned on above Noah as he pitched some kind of new potion. It wasn’t worth listening to. Noah had no interest in an advertisement. And even if he did, his attention was entirely on the man in the crowd.

Noah’s eyes narrowed. It didn’t matter. The man might have been a powerful mage or one of the recruiters that he’d been dodging during the masquerade. He was definitely strong. But he wasn’t Noah’s opponent. And that meant it didn’t matter what he thought.

He was up in the crowd, and Noah was down here. Noah pulled his gaze away from the man and let return to the arena. This really wasn’t the time for distractions. It sounded like Baun was getting close to finished with his blathering. He’d originally been planning to try and put on at least something of a show with every fight. Something that would draw more and more attention to him so his students would have a better chance of finding him.

A swift and decisive strike would be best. Something about the man in the crowd was seriously unnerving him. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was. But Noah wasn’t about to go ignoring his instincts out of nowhere. Maybe someone was trying to cheat or had support from a more powerful mage. That was probably unlikely. He doubted anyone would be able to go flinging magic down from the stands.

Noah still had no plans of finding out. He’d just end the fight before his opponent knew what was happening. Even if this was a powerful opponent, they probably wouldn’t be prepared for Unraveling Disruption eating right through their defenses. It wouldn’t be as strong as using the Beyond, but he’d make do.

“Alright,” Baun called, his voice booming out once more. “Thank you all for your patience. I’d say its just about time to get things started once more. Wouldn’t you agree?”

The crowd roared in response. That really wasn’t too much of a surprise. Anything was better than being forced to listen to an advertisement.

Noah flexed his fingers. He sent his thoughts inward, steading himself as he let out a slow breath. Power from his runes coiled through his body.

“Then let’s get right to it,” Baun said. “Please direct your attention down to the floor of the arena! A countdown is about to begin. When it hits zero, the round will begin! And remember — this fight will not end until one of the competitors either surrenders or is rendered unable to do so for whatever reason. And competitors… please avoid killing blows if possible. You know the rules.”

A giant number 3 appeared in the air, replacing Baun’s head.

Then it ticked down to 2.

The roar of the crowd grew louder still.

The number ticked down.

1.

Noah looked back to his opponent.

He frowned.

The man’s eyes were a dull, sunken gray.

The counter hit zero.