Noah stood as everyone delved into their mind spaces, playing a quiet song on his violin as he waited for them all to finish. There weren’t any monsters in the area and he wasn’t sure what else to do with his time.

Besides, it’s nice to be able to just play for no purpose. Having music and Formations be tied together so closely is nice, but it’s not the same as playing just for the sake of playing. I hope the others don’t take too long, though. I’m itching to test out Natural Disaster in its new form.

Unfortunately, there wouldn’t be any testing until everyone was awake again. Noah wasn’t about to just leave them sitting around undefended in an area full of monsters. And so, he played.

A little under an hour passed before Moxie opened her eyes. She glanced over at Noah, pausing to appreciate the music for a few seconds before she rose to her feet and brushed the dirt off her backside.

“Any luck?” Noah asked, pausing his song.

“I think so. It’s definitely something I’ll have to practice a lot of,” Moxie said with a frown. “Guess I can see why you blew yourself up so many times doing this, even with your pattern practice.”

“It’s not like I like blowing up. If I’m doing it, it’s for a reason.”

“Could have fooled me,” Moxie said with a snicker.

It wasn’t long before the others started to wake as well. Isabel and Emily opened their eyes shortly after Moxie did. Alexandra was next, followed by Todd and James. Lee was the last of the group to stand back up.

They all had pensive expressions on their faces that told Noah his lesson had been at least marginally effective. He waited for another minute after everyone had stood just to make sure they were all back in the present.

“Right,” Noah said. “Did anything completely not work for anyone? I’m assuming that isn’t the case because of how long you spent in your mindspaces.”

The students all exchanged glances, then shook their heads one by one.

“I’m not sure I’d say I was anywhere near good at it, but I get what I’m meant to do and I was making progress,” Todd said.

“Same.” Isabel flexed her hands as if she were holding a sword. “I still don’t really know how I can use magic in conjunction with this, but I can work on it.”

Nobody else added anything, so Noah clapped his hands together. “In that case, the first part of class today is over. No point lecturing forever or you’ll get so bored with me that your brains will leak out of your ears. We’ll be moving on to the next half.”

“Getting points for the Master Rune?” Todd asked eagerly. Judging by the looks on the other students’ faces, he’d voiced all of their thoughts. Noah chuckled. If everyone had been paying attention before, now they were laser focused on him.

“No. We won’t be doing that today – instead, you’ll be doing it on your own time. The next challenge will be to understand the pattern you’re focusing on as much as possible by our next class in two days. Whoever can demonstrate or prove their understanding the most extensively will win. The top three of you will get points.”

“What are we doing now, then?” Alexandra asked.

Noah turned to Lee. “I was actually hoping Lee could take over the second half of this class again. There’s something I need to do in the Windscorned Plateau, and I know she’s been hoping to get some physical practice in. It’s been a while since we’ve done anything of the sort, so I think it would be a good idea to stay in the habit.”

Isabel, Todd, and Emily all paled as one. James and Alexandra gave the others confused glances, but that was fine. They’d understand soon enough.

“You good with that, Lee?”

“Yep!” Lee said, though it took her a second longer than normal to answer. She seemed slightly distracted, but it wasn’t the time to press. Lee rubbed her hands together and grinned. “Stretching is good for your health.”

“Not when you’re the one leading it,” Todd muttered under his breath.

Noah suppressed a laugh. “I’ll be back in a few hours. I’m going to hunt a monster. If any big explosions happen, don’t come looking. I’ll be fine.”

Moxie gave him a small frown as Noah handed her his bag and gourd. She raised an eyebrow slightly in question, and he tapped the side of his head, mouthing the words Natural Disaster.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Understanding bloomed in Moxie’s eyes and she shrugged. Noah took his flying sword out and laid it on the ground. He sent a tendril of energy into it, lifting himself into the air while Lee had everyone sit down on the ground to get started with her stretches.

Then he was gone, zipping through the air and squinting against the nip of wind against his eyes. Noah made sure to put a decent amount of distance between himself and the others. The last thing he wanted to do was mistakenly summon something strong enough to cause them a real threat anywhere where it could go after one of the students.

And I don’t exactly know what the powerful monsters are in the Windscorned Plateaus. Just because there isn’t a Great Monster doesn’t mean I’ll have a cakewalk. Accidents can always happen, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.

He flew for just under an hour before landing on the edge of a plateau that looked largely uninhabited. It was, like all the other plateaus, covered with bulbous blue flowers. However, it looked like a herd of Fluffants had gone through at some point, as most of the flowers were withered and drained.

You know, I have to wonder how those things get from one plateau to the other. They didn’t seem particularly mobile, and I can’t picture them scaling a wall for the life of me. Ah well. It hardly matters.

Noah returned the sword to his waist and drew on Sunder. He needed to put off enough power to draw the attention of a monster, but preferably not one that was so powerful that he couldn’t fight against it.

Sure, the likelihood of doing that was probably pretty low, but it wasn’t the time to push his luck. Noah let some of Sunder’s energy trickle out from his palm and rise into the air. Chances were, any strong monsters in the area would probably be wind based and would come from the sky rather than beneath the ground.

Some time passed. Nothing came, and Noah intensified the strength of the magic he was letting pour out. It was an alarming waste of energy that would have drained his reserves dry just a few weeks ago, but the advancements he’d made in reaching Rank 4 had given him much more power to resist Sunder with.

More power swirled into the air above Noah, tiny wisps of black smoke twisting and swirling through the sky beneath the path of the sun. Part of him was starting to suspect that the fishing strategy only worked when the monsters were underground when he heard a screech in the distance.

Out of the corner of his eye, Noah saw a large shape moving through the air in his direction. It was a bird of some sort, but it looked more fluffy than feathered. It strongly resembled a storm cloud the size of a small house, but the two burning red motes in the center of its face and the jagged, black beak gave it away as a monster.

There’s my target. Something that big is definitely at least a Rank 2. Maybe even a Rank 3 or higher. I think I’ll call it a Stormwing. Seems kind of cool. Let’s find out if it deserves the name.

Noah pulled back on Sunder, lowering into a fighting stance as the Stormwing let out another screech. Its red eyes were fixed solely on Noah, having located the source of power that had drawn it out of – well, whatever it had been doing.

Natural Disaster’s magic flooded through Noah’s veins as he called upon it. A grin stretched across his lips at the tingle of magic and he rubbed his fingers together, generating the faintest amount of static electricity. That was enough to kickstart his magic.

Power poured into it, arcing between the fingers and coiling into a ball in his palm. Noah thrust his hand forward and a peal of thunder split the sky. Lightning screamed forth in a flash, slamming into the Stormwing with a brilliant crash.

The bird spun through the strike, squeaking in surprise and now thoroughly angered. It didn’t look particularly hurt. It dove straight at him, and energy crackled at its own beak. Idly, Noah noted that using lightning against a monster that clearly had some form of storm or lightning Runes to call on probably hadn’t been the best idea.

Crackles of grey electricity enveloped the Stormwing as it dove for him, aiming to run Noah through with its beak. He spun out of the way, calling on Natural Disaster to gently boost his movements with wind.

A gleeful laugh slipped out of Noah’s mouth at the ease at which his Rune responded. It was almost as if he were just using a pure Wind Rune, though it was still just a little more work to filter the magic.

The Stormwing shot past him, dragging its feet through the soil and spinning to face Noah. It charged at him like an ostrich, raising its wings above its head to loom over him. The smart move would have likely been to reposition, but Noah wasn’t feeling particularly smart at the moment.

A bolt of lightning shot from the Stormwing’s beak – and evaporated the instant it reached Noah’s domain. He didn’t even have to dodge. The monster was Rank 3 at most, and that meant it was doomed.

Wind gathered around his body and shoved him forward in a burst of motion. He let out a roar, bounding straight toward the Stormwing. The monster faltered in surprise, clearly remembering the intensity of the magic he had been putting off, but it was too little and too late.

Noah released the wind and summoned a power he hadn’t touched on in quite some time. Tremors vibrated his fist as he filled it with Vibration magic, poised to strike. Noah vaulted into the air, rearing back. The air around his hand thrummed with might an instant before his fist collided with the monster’s chest.

There was a loud crack. All the magical pressure that Noah had gathered surged forth at once, rushing out of his fist and into the Stormwing’s head. A violent shudder raced through the bird’s entire body before a series of muted snapping noises rang out from inside the monster.

The Stormwing didn’t get a chance to scream in pain. Its body shattered, bones ripped apart and internal organs shredded. It crumpled to the ground, small pieces of bone jutting out of it at odd angles.

Noah stared at the dead bird, then looked over to his hand and flexed his fingers. Natural Disaster waited within his soul, willing and eager to give more energy. He’d used a decent amount of it, but nowhere near as much as he’d thought.

“Oh, yeah. I think I might be able to get used to this.” A slow grin crept across his face. “But first, I think I need to do a little more testing.”