Noah’s eyes bore into the image rippling in between Sievan’s hands. A forest of mushrooms stretched out around Isabel as she, Todd, Emily, and James fought against Marley’s group.
Beside them, in a smaller image, Alexandra and Yulin raced in search of the others… but they weren’t there, and Noah didn’t know if they’d make it on time. And even if they did, he didn’t know if it would be enough.
Isabel and the others had no idea about the conversation that had gone down between the other group. They didn’t know they were being hunted.
Fear pounded in Noah’s heart. Everything had been working out. He’d stopped Wizen and had a way back to the mortal Plane. Sticky had the key back to the Mortal Plane and a way to use it.
He couldn’t accept that he’d gotten this far just to watch Jakob cut his students down while he did nothing but helplessly stand and watch.
“Is there any way you can open the portal faster?” Noah asked, his hands flexing at his sides.
“I’m trying,” Sticky replied tersely from the platform beside him. Her teeth were gritted in concentration and she clutched the Key with both hands. Red energy twisted around her palms and coursed down the length of the artifact, but it was still dull. “There’s just not much energy left. It’s really hard to establish the connection between the planes. Wizen’s memories are helping… but I don’t know if it’ll be enough. I’m opening the portal as fast as I can.”
“Her speed may not matter,” Sievan said. “Time is compressed when you take a portal between the planes. It is only a matter of hours, but it seems that hours will be too long.”
Noah’s throat clenched. He couldn’t take it out on Sticky. She was doing her best — but Sievan was right. He couldn’t afford to wait hours.
“Just keep trying your best,” Noah said, his fists clenching at his sides. “We’ll figure something out, or they’ll hold out until we can make it. I know they will.”
Moxie put a hand on his shoulder. Her jaw was clenched tight in stress, but she said nothing. They were thinking the same thing. Getting this far just for their students to die while they could do nothing but stand around…
It couldn’t happen. It would be too cruel.
“Did you not say your students were Rank 2?” Sievan asked. “You believe they will be able to fight back against a Rank 4 mage with reinforcements for hours?”
“They’re not just any Rank 2s. They’re my students.”
Noah’s reply did nothing to stop the thoughts from spinning in his head. He had faith in everyone, but the odds were immensely stacked against them. If Jakob was making his move, then he refused to believe that Verrud would be somewhere on the sidelines. There was more than just one Rank 4 they had to fight.
He couldn’t leave the students alone against a threat like that.
He would not fail them.
But what can I do when I’m stuck all the way in the Damned Plains waiting for a portal that’s going to get us there just a few mere hours too late?
***
Isabel’s sword slammed down into Marley’s shoulder, ringing off the armor with a resounding clang. The ground around them had been ripped to shreds. Fragments of ripped mushrooms and pieces of torn-up roots covered the earth.
Marley staggered a step back, crossing his swords before him as Isabel swung her glowing blade down once more. Brilliant blue energy crackled as their weapons collided and coils of energy arced off into the air around them.
With a roar, Marley shoved Isabel’s sword to the side. His Imbued armor flared with power, sending rivers of light rippling down the lines buried within the metal greaves covering his legs.
He drove a foot into Isabel’s chest. There was a loud thud. The blow didn’t even make her flinch. Marley was forced to jump back as her sword carved through the air where he’d been standing and she continued her advance.
Roots shot out for Isabel, rising from behind Marley and burst from beneath the ground to reach for her legs. Concentrated bolts of fire tore through several of them as Todd provided backup from the sideline, but the rest were ripped to shreds as Isabel’s sword continued to accelerate.
Each attack she made cut through multiple different segments of Marley’s magic at once, sending huge root chunks thudding to the ground all around her as she continued her advance toward Marley.
“What is this?” Marley demanded, slashing his blades at Isabel as he backpedaled. She caught the blow on the upswing of her sword, then drove it down for his shoulder in a blur. Despite her glowing blue weapons’ size, it barely seemed to have any weight to it.
The magical sword slammed into Marley’s shoulder in the same spot that Isabel had hit it previously. But, while Marley had shrugged the previous attack off, this one sent him staggering. His armor dented under her blow and one of his legs trembled.
Surprise flashed behind his eyes.
He dropped both of his swords and clapped his hands together. Roots exploded up from the ground all around Isabel and slammed into her stone armor, wrapping around her in a cocoon in an instant. A smug grin crossed Marley’s lips and he took a step back, trying to conceal how hard he was breathing.
“Finally,” Marley said. He clenched his hands, and the bundle of roots tightened against each other as they started to squeeze shut. His eyes drifted toward Todd, his smile turning into a sneer. “I’ll deal with you—”
The tip of a burning blue sword carved out of the knot of roots. It carved down and a stone-covered hand reached out from within the nest of woody growth. There were several scratches along the armor’s surface, but it was functionally undamaged.
Roots crunched and bulged before ripping at the edges, parting to reveal Isabel as she stepped out of the trap. She strode toward Marley at the same speed that she had been moving at before, barely even bothered by his attack.
“What in the Damned Plains?” Marley took a step back, his smile evaporating. “What kind of magic are you using? You’re a Rank 2! You shouldn’t be able to—”
A bolt of concentrated fire caught in the side of his head. Marley’s green shield flashed to life, protecting him from the bolt, but it still rippled from the force of the magic. His eyes shot to Todd.
Todd sent him a rude gesture.
Before Marley could respond, Isabel’s sword was carving toward him once again. Marley cursed and lunged back — but not nearly fast enough. The tip of her sword screeched across the front of his armor.
It ripped deep into the metal, sending coils of magic crackling into the air as it damaged imbuements. Marley stumbled in surprise and tripped over his own feet. He hit the ground with a grunt and a slew of even more curses.
He scrambled back to his feet, grabbing his swords from where he’d dropped them on the way up. They lit with blue energy and he crossed them before himself an instant before Isabel’s glowing blade hurtled toward him again.
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A loud clang rang out. The swords were ripped from Marley’s hands and her sword continued down, driving into the damaged armor on his shoulder. It bit deep into the metal and drove Marley down onto one knee.
“How?” Marley demanded through gritted teeth. Magic sputtered from his armor as the Imbuements tried and failed to activate.
Isabel dismissed the sword as she lifted her hands. She didn’t even bother to answer his question. It barely even looked like she’d heard his words. Her sword reformed in her hands and she brought it back down. Like every blow before it, this one was stronger than the last.
Marley’s eyes went wide and he hurled himself out of the way — but he wasn’t nearly fast enough to avoid the attack. The glowing blue sword plummeted straight for his exposed back with enough power to cut through his armor and him alike.
A clang echoed through the clearing.
Isabel’s sword had stopped just above her target, caught by a thin grey blade.
A man with a well-kept goatee and sleek, combed black hair with a faint glossy sheen stood above Marley. His features were sharp and thinned with displeasure.
Isabel’s pattern broke, her advance halted. She took a step back in surprise. The hair on her neck stood on end.
What in the Damned Plains? Why is Jakob here? This is a survival exam. There aren’t supposed to be professors present.
“Why is a professor interfering in the middle of an exam?” Todd demanded, walking up to join Isabel as she took several steps back to meet him.
“Get up, Marley,” Jakob’s voice ground out. There was a cold, deadly edge to his tone.
Marley, who had curled himself into a ball to protect his head, lowered his hands and glanced up. He spotted Jakob and scrambled to his feet. Dirt clung to his armor and magic still sputtered along the huge gouges that Isabel had left in it. A small river of blood ran down from the wound on his shoulder.
“Professor,” Marley stammered. “I—”
“Enough,” Jakob said. “You’ve done your part. I do not know how you’ve managed to fail so badly, but it doesn’t matter anymore. I will deal with this myself.”
Marley’s mouth snapped shut.
“You realize he could have just broken the pendant, right?” Emily’s voice rang out as she approached them, her ice bow still in hand. She stopped a fair distance away from them and made no moves to dismiss her weapon.
Isabel was pretty certain this had absolutely nothing to do with the exam anymore. Jakob’s gaze hadn’t left her once.
Shit. He’s here for my Master Rune. I can’t believe he’s so shameless that he’d just attack midway through the exam. There’s no way I’m giving it to him. I’ll break my pendant on purpose before I hand it over. Why would he choose now? It doesn’t make sense.
Jakob’s sword flicked. A root exploded up from the ground before Isabel, moving at a dozen times the speed of Marley’s magic. She twisted out of the way, but she wasn’t fast enough to stop it from slamming into her shoulder. It pierced clean through her stone armor and drove through her shoulder. Pain ripped into Isabel and she cried out.
An explosion ripped through the clearing. Todd blurred through the air, flame curling up from his feet as his fist slammed into Jakob’s face, but a glistening shield burst into being and absorbed the blow.
A second root shot up from behind Jakob and slammed into Todd’s chest, shattering his armor and pelting him into the ground like a ball.
Emily’s hands shot up and she fired an ice arrow. It shattered against Jakob’s shield harmlessly.
“Help!” Emily yelled, drawing another arrow. “A professor went rogue! He’s trying to kill us!”
“Oh, be silent. A former Torrin heir should have more respect for themselves,” Jakob spat. “Nobody is coming. Do you really think I would be stupid enough to make a move when there were others present?”
Todd fired a blast of fire at Jakob, then drove his fist into the vine pinning Isabel. An explosion ripped the growth to shreds and he pushed Isabel behind himself, his armor reforming around his legs.
“Thanks,” Isabel said, gritting her teeth. The wound in her shoulder was bad. She couldn’t risk ripping the vine out and causing herself to bleed out. “We need to get out of here. We can’t fight a professor.”
“No,” Jakob agreed. “You can’t. This farce is over. The other families were so convinced that you were incompetent that you managed to hide the Soul Master Rune for years, but that ends now. I’ll be taking it back.”
Ice gripped Isabel’s heart, but it was fought back by a burning fury that built in her chest. Anger that had been suppressed for years because of her own weakness, ripped to the surface by the sneering professor before her. “Take it back? You tried to steal it in the first place!”
“It belongs in the hands of someone that can use it,” Jakob said. “You and your worthless family have no claim to such a powerful weapon. Far too many problems were created by the foolish mercy of leaving you alive. That will not happen again.”
He flicked his hand.
The ground behind him exploded. A thigh-sized root covered with jagged thorn growths burst free from the ground and blurred into motion as it headed straight for Isabel.
Her heartbeat thumped in her ears.
Emily released her ice arrow. Todd leapt forward to knock the Vine off its path, the ends of his gauntlets starting to shatter as an explosion built within them. Neither of them would be enough.
The world slowed. Her Master Rune hummed in her ears as its power activated and accelerated her mind. She’d refrained from using any more than a trickle of its power for years, but it didn’t matter anymore.
Isabel had absolutely no idea what Soul was truly capable of. It could manifest her soul as a weapon and let her imbue her will into her armor — and herself. It had given her a few extra moments to think mid-fight as it infused her mind, accelerating her thoughts, but that wouldn’t be enough to stop Jakob.
What do I do?
Panic built in Isabel like a rising tide. They’d made it too far to fail like this. They’d finally started to get strong enough to get a chance to fight back. She couldn’t die here. Todd couldn’t die here.
Isabel drank from the Master Rune, desperately pulling on its strength as she activated her final trump card.
Her only normal rune shuddered as it resisted Soul’s mounting pressure. The world slowed even further.
Even 7 Flawless Rank 2s would have been unable to pull this off — but a single Rank 3 could.
The Flawless Rank 3 that she’d formed just before the Exam had started, Flowing Stone.
It would have been enough to crush any of the other students. But against Jakob… there was only one way to find out.
Isabel exploded into motion. Streaks of blue light curled off her skin as she drove a hand into Todd’s side, shoving him out of the way and twisting in the same motion.
Jakob’s vine ripped through the air, the thorns covering it slicing along her skin as it passed her by. Isabel didn’t relent. She blurred forward, a spear forming in her hand as she drove it directly for the Professor’s chest.
His shield shimmered to life.
Isabel’s spear passed straight through it, passing through his magic as if nothing was there. The shield didn’t even ripple in the weapons’ passing as it drove forward and slammed into Jakob’s chest.
The world snapped back into motion.
Jakob’s foot blurred out and slammed into Isabel’s chest. The air exploded from her lungs and she tumbled back, sliding across the ground as pain burned in the wound in her shoulder and a furious headache pounded in her skull, gripping it like the claws of a demon.
Isabel’s attack shattered against Jakob’s shield. The green energy rippled, but it didn’t break. He reached up to the wound on his chest, blinking in surprise. Hunger burned in his eyes as he looked to her.
Shit. It wasn’t enough. He must have body imbuements reinforcing himself.
“Gah! You little shit. The Soul Master Rune is this powerful, even in your hands?” Jakob asked, his voice warped with pain. Isabel’s attack had done a lot of damage, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. “Incredible. Imagine what it will do in the hands of a true mage.”
He lifted his hands into the air, his jaw tight. The ground around him shuddered. Isabel tried to call on Soul again, but her power was spent. It had taken every scrap of energy in Flowing Stone to let her access the immense strength of Soul, and now she was drained dry.
“Run!” Isabel yelled. She grabbed her pendant and snapped it.
Nothing happened.
What?
Jakob chuckled, anger and pain twisting his features. “I don’t think so.”
Three roots exploded from the ground. The air beside Isabel shimmered, and an invisible hand fell on her shoulder.
James was beside her — but it wasn’t going to be enough. He couldn’t stop Jakob’s magic.
The roots flashed for Isabel, splitting the air at an incredible speed.
“Isabel!” Todd threw himself forward, but he wasn’t fast enough to block the attack.
Shimmering disks of light appeared before Isabel as the roots advanced. They shattered like glass, falling apart beneath the power of Jakob’s spell. Then the roots were upon her. She crossed her arms before herself in an attempt to protect her vitals.
Something blurred past Isabel. The loud snick of severing plant matter filled the air and chunks of root pelted the ground around her. Isabel’s eyes widened.
Alexandra had arrived before Isabel — but she wasn’t alone.
Yulin stood beside her.