Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 887: Bird's the Word

The melee rounds, albeit slowly, came to an end.

Noah passed the time in the room with Lee, Fist, and Brayden — in which they discovered that the rope did indeed allow them to summon more food. That ended coming up quite handy. There were nine more melee rounds after Noah’s. He watched some of them, but found that the fights couldn’t really hold his attention for long. His goals were just different from those of the crowd.

As soon as he’d done his best to scan the groups in his arena for any signs of someone he knew, there was no real reason to keep a close eye on the combatants anymore. None of the really powerful mages were going to be going all out yet. Trying to catalogue everything he saw now would just be overwhelming.

Fortunately, I’ve got Mordred keeping an eye out for anyone really strong. I just hope that he’s had better luck finding anybody relevant than I have. I haven’t seen a single one of my students or the other teachers in the tournament yet. There’s a chance they’re just hiding, of course. That or I just missed them because their faces were covered. A lot of people seem to have the same idea that I did and are wearing masks or cloaks.

But I’ll find out soon enough. I’m confident that everyone will make it past these first few rounds. There are also the other arenas. I suppose I could have just gotten unlucky.

Noah suppressed a terse sigh. His fingers twitched and drummed against the table. The final round of the melees had ended a few minutes ago, and there hadn’t been any more word from Baun. Silence reigned over the arena. That wasn’t because nobody was speaking. The crowds were still there — Noah just couldn’t hear them because of the magical dampening between the audience and the observation rooms.

“What’s going on?” Noah asked. “What’s taking them so long?”

“Calm down,” Fist said with a gruff laugh. “This tournament is massive. There are multiple arenas other than the one we’re using. They’re probably just letting a few extra rounds finish up so everything moves ahead at the exact same pace. There’s nothing to worry about. You got through, you know. If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t be standing here.”

“I never had any concerns about that,” Noah said absentmindedly.

“Confident, are we?” Fist arched an eyebrow. “You came to the arguably largest tournament in Obsidia without even the slightest concern that you might lose? Anyone can go down. Even in rounds like these, you never know. A well placed attack can take out even a trained mage if the stars align just right. Surely you’re at least somewhat pleased to have made it this far.”

I’m really not. I couldn’t care less about this tournament. It’s just a means to an end. The absolute last thing I have any desire to do is get wrapped up with the Factions that control Obisidia. That’s definitely a nightmare packed into a can that I have no plans of opening. I just need to find everyone and get out of here.

There was a knock on the door that nearly shook Noah out of his skin and thoughts alike. His eyes flicked back as Lee pulled it open, snagging a tray laden to the brim with all sorts of meat and pies from a waiter. She pulled it into the room, closing the door behind her with her foot, then ambled over to the table and set it down with a loud thud.

“Sorry,” Lee said with a sheepish grin. She grabbed a chocolate-stuffed croissant half the size of her head and inserted the entire thing into her mouth, downing it in a single bite. “I forgot I ordered that.”

“Did you, now?” Fist asked. “That’s impressive.”

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“Is it?” Lee asked as she snagged an entire honeyed ham from the plate with one hand. She took a huge bite out of it as she reached out for the rope hanging to her side and gave it a sharp tug. “Why?”

“No reason,” Fist said, eyeing the rope warily as it rattled back into the ceiling, having summoned yet another service request. “Where do you put it all? If I ate like you did, I’m pretty sure I’d blow up and pop like an overfilled bladder.”

“That’s because you’re weak,” Lee said. She gave Fist a comforting pat on the shoulder before offering the other woman the remainder of her ham. “But if you practice more, you’ll get stronger.”

Fist stared at Lee. Then she let out a bark of laughter. “You’re not one to mince words, are you?”

Lee took her ham back. Not accepting an offering within a few seconds was akin to refusing it, and she wasn’t one to waste food. The ham vanished down her gullet. “No.”

“Didn’t think you were, either,” Noah observed. “You’re a lot more talkative than I thought.”

Fist grunted. “I’ve been traveling with Mordred and Ace for so long that there’s not much left to say to them. And they always say the same things back. No point talking when you’ve already had the conversation.”

“Fair enough,” Brayden said. His eyes had never left the arena floor. Out of everyone in the room, he actually seemed the most stressed. “But would you have happened to speak with Mordred yet? He should have had more than enough time to gather some information on who we’re up against in the tournament. Can we hear it yet?”

“He thinks it would be wiser to wait a bit longer so he can filter down the information into something more useful,” Fist said after a moment. “There are a lot of mages that seem strong right now. Hundreds. And not the low hundreds, either. The melees are only going to eliminate the dredges and the unlucky. And there will probably be at least one more round of eliminations before the real fights start. He’s pretty confident you should be fine up until then.”

The logic was sound enough. Noah didn’t even want to think about how many people were participating in the tournament. But he had absolutely no idea how long it would be until the next rounds, much less how long it would be until Mordred decided it was time to share the information he’d gathered.

Even if I knew for a fact that the others were participating in the tournament and in the next arena over, it’s not like I could do anything with that information yet. I don’t have a way to contact them. We can’t leave our rooms. But even still, I want to know.

“Can’t he tell us anything?” Brayden asked. His foot tapped against the ground, eyes still on the arena floor. Baun had yet to say anything else. Out of the corner of Noah’s eye, he couldn’t help but notice that the crowd seemed a little thinner than it had been a short while before.

Are they leaving? Is the tournament done for the day?

“He’s suggested just a few of the most interesting ones,” Fist said after another few moments of pause. “To save everyone’s time. Mordred doesn’t believe it worth any of our time to go too deep into this until there’s more information. But the top mages are likely to make it farther, so he’s willing to share that now.”

“Works for me,” Noah said. It was a reasonable offer. He couldn’t expect Mordred to name and describe literally every single mildly interesting mage he’d seen — and Noah really had better things to be doing than sitting around and getting a giant list.

“Particularly any mages that really stand out,” Brayden said. He coughed into his fist. “In one way or another. Especially strange ones. Very strange ones.”

“Why’d you say it like that?” Lee asked through a mouthful of food.

Fist’s eyes narrowed. “That is a good question, Lee. Because Mordred would like to know the answer as well. He said there was one mage that took him entirely off guard, and it was only partially because of her ability. She was one of the strangest mages that he’s ever seen. Is that matching any thoughts?”

Brayden blew out a small breath. Then the corners of his lips curled. “Ah. She made it in one piece. Good. I knew she would, but it’s nice to have confirmation.”

“How do you have confirmation of anything?” Lee asked, her brow furrowed. “Fist hasn’t said a single thing yet.”

“She’s said more than enough,” Brayden said. He looked to Fist. “This strange mage in question — did she start stripping at some point during the fight?”

Fist went quiet for a moment. Then her eyes went wide.

“Before it. Are you saying you’re familiar with her?”

“We traveled together for a few months before splitting off shortly before arriving at Aqua Terra. There were some things she wanted to practice in isolation,” Brayden said. He let out a bark of laughter and shook his head. “But that’s a long story. So, yes. You could say I’m familiar with her. There’s only one mage in all of Obsidia that would go stripping at any point during a fight. It looks like Mordred’s found Bird.”