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.

– 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.”

Noah opened his mouth to protest. The Hellreaver supposedly had a Master Rune. If that didn’t count as a fancy Rune, Noah didn’t know what did. The implication that he was wasting his time fighting in the forest was infuriating. Before the words could come out of his mouth, he caught himself.

Something tells me the average mage isn’t going around hunting monsters with Master Runes. I guess that means you can take Runes from normal monsters too. Interesting. I need to learn how.

“Guess that makes sense,” Noah said with a diplomatic smile. “Well, it’s still worth it. My greatest duty is to make sure my students pass their test, and that means understanding what they’re up against perfectly.”

And to make sure I survive as well.

Tim just shook his head and let out a disbelieving chuckle. “You’re one crazy bastard, Magus Vermil. I never would have placed you as a Rank 1, you know. You don’t act anything like one. More like a soldier.”

Silvertide’s face surfaced in the back of Noah’s mind. He’d said the exact same thing, even if he’d used slightly different words. Noah shrugged in response and stepped onto the lift in the center of the room.

“I’m just a bit of a late bloomer. I’ll catch up soon enough.”

“I’m sure you will,” Tim said, and Noah could tell that the elderly man meant it. They bid each other farewell as the platform shuddered and lowered Noah to the stairs below.

The campus was busier than Noah recalled it, and the air was taut with excited energy. Even as lost in the fading symptoms of his headache as Noah was, he still picked up on the shift in attitude.

Students spoke in energetic, hushed tones along the sides of the road. Many of the shops were closed even though it should have been peak hours for operation, and a number of men that didn’t wear Arbitage’s colors dotted the streets.

Noah’s brow furrowed and he altered his course toward the library. As curious as he was to find out what was going on, he’d already made himself a promise to try to read up about the Linwick family.

Judging by his luck so far, trying to figure out what was happening would almost certainly end up raising two questions for every one it answered.

To Noah’s delight, the path to the library was almost empty. Evidently, whatever the occasion was, it was drawing everyone on campus. He made it up the grandiose steps and strode into the library, rubbing his hands together – only to find that the students weren’t the only ones caught up in the phenomenon.

There were no librarians at the tables. Noah paused. He looked down the seemingly endless rows of books and towering floors looming far above him, all full of completely stuffed shelves. His eye twitched.

“Goddamn it.” Noah considered turning back and coming back on a different day, but the idea of admitting defeat irked him slightly more than he wanted to admit. Maybe a little too much – but his path had already been decided.

Noah wandered into the library, scanning the shelves for labels that could direct him toward family lineages. He wasn’t sure if a Greater being had been watching over him or if he was just lucky, but after a few minutes of strolling through the rows on rows of shelves, Noah spotted a directory.

His eyes lit up and he rushed over to it, scanning down the hundreds of names in the key until he spotted the line he was looking for.

“Lineages of Noble Families. Floor two, aisle thirty-nine,” Noah read. He grinned, then set off for the nearest stairwell.

He strode up the steps and headed down the second floor, his prize growing closer with every step. Noah was passing by aisle thirty-seven when voices drifted out from between the shelves, letting him catch the last half of a boy’s sentence.

“…if I catch you trying to dig on my family any more, I’m going to break both of your arms and make sure you never swing that sword of yours again.”

Whoever was speaking had the haughtiest, most arrogant lilt to their words that Noah had ever heard. It sent a shiver of annoyance down Noah’s spine, and he hadn’t even seen the voice’s owner yet. Noah stepped out into the aisle.

A boy stood across from him, a thick book tucked under his arm and a malicious scowl plastered across his sharp features. He’d tied his light blonde hair behind his head in a ponytail and had a golden earring dangling from his right earlobe. It matched his black and golden clothes, which were covered from head to toe in Runes.

Kneeling on the ground in front of him was a girl with crystal blue hair. Even without seeing her face, Noah knew for a fact that it belonged to Isabel. His eyes narrowed as he and the boy locked eyes.

“Who’s this idiot?” the boy asked. “And you told me you were alone, you little lying bitch.”

He pulled a leg back. Noah launched himself forward with a blast of wind, shooting past Isabel. Noah unleashed a second blast of wind as soon as he arrived. The boy’s clothes glittered with yellow light and he skipped back.

“Using magic on me? You’re even dumber than she is. Just wait until–” The boy cut off mid-sentence as his eyes fell on Noah’s clothes. He let out a choking snort of laughter. “Wait, you’re a teacher? At Rank 1? How desperate are you? That’s hilarious. Are you this stupid peasant’s overseer? I suppose it fits. Trash teaching trash.”

Noah tilted his head to the side. “You’re a mouthy little shit, aren’t you?”

“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.”