Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah recovered his composure quickly. Energy trickled into his soul from the dead demon. It was a decent amount of power, but nowhere near what a Rank 5 demon would have given him. That only proved his theory even further — but now wasn’t the time to stand around like an idiot.

He couldn’t afford to look like he’d been just as surprised by his attack as Pirren had been. That would just make him look completely incompetent.

Then again, Pirren didn’t actually look too surprised. He kind of just looked dead. Bummer.

Noah looked down at the corpse, blood pooling around it at the base of the throne. The Shield had flickered out and the plain black mask rested quietly. It didn’t even take him a second of consideration before he scooped the mask straight off the dead demon’s face.

Spoils of war — or as the kids in playgrounds would say, no takesies backsies. Thanks for the gift, meathead.

Noah tucked the mask into his bag and turned to Joe. The thin-haired demon stood at the doorway of the room, his mouth askew in either terror or disbelief — or possibly both at the same time.

Joe’s glasses slid down off his nose and he shoved them back into his face. Something about his expression didn’t quite seem right with Noah. It was convincing, but it was almost too… flat. It was such a perfect image of stunned surprise that it felt out of place.

And I know people revert to their habits when they’re scared, but Joe is frozen in terror, not just scared. Who adjusts their glasses while they just saw what should have been one of the most powerful demons they know get obliterated in half a second?

Noah’s eyes narrowed. The room had been silent for just a few seconds too long. The more time passed, the more his gut picked up on the abnormalities. A Rank 5 demon would have people working for them.

At the very least, they’d have guards to keep random idiots from constantly challenging them. This complete lack of response from everyone other than Joe, who was doing nothing but stand there and catch flies with his mouth, wasn’t just a coincidence.

Ah. It turns out I was right after all. Pirren is a bullshiter. Just not the kind of bullshitter I thought they were.

“Does Pirren plan to actually speak to me anytime soon?” Noah asked, tilting his head to the side. “Or is he going to give me another idiot to kill? If we’re going with the latter, I’d be more than happy to accelerate the process and bring this entire building down on top of our heads.”

“Spider, sir, no, please,” Joe stammered, taking a step back and clutching the collar of his suit in a tight grip. “I don’t know what you’re—”

“It’s fine, Jophelus,” a sly female voice said from behind them, the words spoken like the hiss of a snake.

The fear on Joe’s face vanished in an instant as his features went flat. A woman stepped out from the stairwell that he and Noah had just come through a minute before. She wore hardened leather armor and carried two white daggers at her waist. Her entire body was covered with small, overlaid green scales and the black talons on her bare feet clicked against the stone with every step she took.

While her face was humanoid, two thin fangs jutted out the front of her mouth. The demon’s eyes were pitch black with thin slivers of molten red for irises, and she didn’t have a single speck of hair on her entire body. In its place, she wore a bronze crown with long, ropey strands that reached to her waist.

“You killed my subordinate,” the woman said, a pointed tongue flicking out of her mouth as her features tightened in displeasure.

Noah didn’t respond immediately. He extended his domain, letting it brush across the new demon. A river of tingles raced down his arms as he made contact. She was strong. Stronger than the idiot on the throne — but not stronger than him.

She’s got bad runes. Really bad ones. A Rank 5 on the lower end of the spectrum, then. I’m pretty sure some mages in Arbitage could have handled her with the quality of stuff she’s working with. Still, I can’t underestimate her. I’m confident I can take her in a normal fight, but she’s probably faster than me.

“One of them,” Noah said softly. “Have you come to thank me for not killing both, Pirren? I do not take kindly to being made a fool of.”

He gathered power from Natural Disaster. As alien as Pirren looked, something about the way she carried herself felt more than familiar. He couldn’t place what it was… but he got the feeling he knew what was coming.

Almost as if on cue, Pirren blurred forward. Noah sent a wave of energy into the floor. Pirren was fast, but Noah wasn’t trying to outrun her. The ground at his feet erupted, pillars of stone shooting out in every direction.

The snakelike demon drove into one of them stomach-first and let out a pained wheeze as she folded over it like a piece of laundry in the wind. Noah’s hand shot out and he grabbed her by the neck, even as she recovered and lifted the clawed fingers of her own hand toward his.

“Try it,” Pirren said, her thin lips pulling back in a confident smile — but there was something off with it. Her eyes didn’t quite match her grin. While her features implied she was in control, there was fear in her eyes. “See which of us is faster. See which of us is willing to risk more.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

And just like that, Noah realized exactly what it was that felt familiar about Pirren. He couldn’t help himself. He burst into laughter and released her neck. Pirren’s expression faltered as confusion passed over it.

“What?” she demanded. “What are you laughing at, Spider?”

“You’re full of shit,” Noah said through his laughter, waving his hand dismissively. It wasn’t Pirren’s actual face that he recognized. It was her expressions. They were the same ones he himself had made countless times.

“You dare insult me?” Pirren snarled. “You come into my domain and—”

Noah drew on Natural Disaster. Power gathered in his palm and a thick bolt of lightning erupted from it. It screamed across the room toward Joe and slammed into the stone just above his head, shattering and blackening it with an earsplitting roar.

“No!” Pirren screamed, spinning toward the short demon — only to find that the spell hadn’t even touched him. There was more than a foot between the crumbling wall and the top of Joe’s head.

“You need to work on your bluffing skills,” Noah said through a chuckle. “I see right through you.”

The snake demon turned back to Noah, a flicker of fear passing through her expression as she took a step back. Noah could practically see the thoughts blurring through her head.

“I’m not bluffing anything. If you try anything, I’ll rip your heart out through your ass and feed it back to you. If you want a fight, you’ll get it,” Pirren hissed. Her lips pulled back to bare her fangs even further, but it wasn’t any more intimidating to Noah than a puppy’s growl.

Noah tilted his head to the side. He lifted his hand, but not toward Pirren. He pointed at Joe. “Drop the act or I won’t miss the second time around. Choose wisely. Unlike you, I follow up on my threats.”

A second passed. Pirren’s jaw clenched. Noah let a crackle of electricity arc between his fingers. Fear flashed in the other demon’s face once more and she shifted, putting herself between Noah and Joe.

A bit odd, actually. A Rank 5 demon that cares about a low ranked subordinate this much? I wasn’t expecting that at all.

“Jophelus, leave the room,” Pirren said. Her voice was as taut as a bowstring.

“But, Mistress—”

“Now, Jophelus!”

Joe’s hands clenched at his side. He took one last look at Noah, the malice in his features so sharp that it could have cut through steel, before bowing his head. He stepped back and slammed the double doors shut behind him.

Noah and Pirren stood silently as his footsteps echoed away down the stairwell. Finally, Pirren looked back to Noah.

“You’re a Rank 5,” Pirren said. She sounded resigned now, like a prisoner with their throat in the noose looking upon the executioner holding the lever. It was a statement, not a question. “I made a mistake.”

Now I really want to know what she embodies. What kind of demon admits they screwed up? Maybe my perception of what demons do is just really skewed.

“You did,” Noah agreed, sending a look to the corpse at their feet. “You’ve dropped the act, then?”

“Not like you gave me much of a choice. You weren’t meant to be a Rank 5,” Pirren said. Her hands clenched at her sides. “You’re supposed to be a low-energy Rank 4.”

“And what gave you that idea?” Noah tilted his head to the side. He wasn’t about to correct her false assumption about his rank. “Supposed is a strong word. Did someone tell you I was weak?”

“I’ll tell you what you want to know if you agree to leave without touching any of my demons,” Pirren said.

Her people? She doesn’t seem very similar to Violet, so I don’t think she’s a Hoarder demon. She would have been way more pissed off about the dead guy behind me.

Noah studied her eyes. The fear that had been in them before was gone. She was still scared, but all that remained was determination to survive.

“The way you worded that makes it sound like I haven’t touched any of them yet.”

“You haven’t. The brute behind you wasn’t part of my family. He was hired help.”

“And you’re aware that your phrasing only protects your people, not yourself?”

“I don’t have the leverage to get that much. Just leave my people alone,” Pirren said. She flexed her claws. “I can deal with my own actions myself, but they were following orders.”

I’ll be damned. A respectable demon. Another one, actually. Aylin and his group were quite the lot as well. Now that I think about it, Pirren kind of feels a bit similar to them. What kind of emotion is so focused on protecting —

Noah blinked, then bit back a laugh. The stupid looking house wasn’t a butt plug. It was an egg.

Her feeling is being motherly, isn’t it? That’s why she was so worried about Joe.

“Relax,” Noah said. He extended a hand back toward the dead demon and drew on Natural Disaster. The stone beneath the corpse split open, swallowing it up before slamming back shut. Then Noah nodded to the throne. “Go on. Take your throne.”

Pirren swallowed. She looked from Noah to the chair, then slowly walked over to it and sat down.

“I’m not going to do anything to you or your subordinates,” Noah said. “I didn’t come here to kill you.”

A tiny flicker of hope lit in Pirren’s eyes. She hid it well, but it didn’t make it past Noah. “Do you swear?”

Noah snorted. “No. You waived the right to any promises when you tried to play a game with me. Don’t get me wrong — I respect it. You just weren’t good enough. You’ll just have to trust my normal word. So long as you or your people don’t try anything else, I won’t touch a hair on their heads.”

“Very well. I understand,” Pirren said. She hesitated for a second. “How… did you know?”

“Know what?”

“Everything. How did you know I was bluffing? My hands were at your throat. If you tried to kill me, I could have killed you as well. How’d you know I couldn’t afford to trade my life like that? It’s worked on every other demon I’ve ever met. Do you just not care if you live or die?”

“It’s not that I don’t care. You just aren’t capable of killing me, and your eyes gave your fear away,” Noah replied with a shrug. He didn’t see the harm in answering Pirren’s questions. “You aren’t bad at what you do, but you don’t have nearly enough experience to do it on me.”

The implication of that was enough to make Pirren’s scaled skin pale a shade. The older a demon was, the stronger they were likely to be. That was just logic. Noah’s face wrappings crinkled slightly as he smiled.

“You could read so much from just my eyes?”

“More than you could ever imagine, but I didn’t come all the way here just to point out your flaws,” Noah said. “Just as I suspect you wanted something from me — I want something from you.”

Pirren swallowed, but the determination didn’t leave her posture. “In exchange for your promise not to hurt my people?”

“I’m open to discussing the terms of your surrender,” Noah said in an amiable tone. He crossed his arms behind his back and leaned forward slightly. “And, in return, you’re going to get me into an auction.”

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