Declan arrived early for his shift at the armory and met Supervisor Gladson in the back. “I’m healthy and ready to learn. Ready to work, if you’re ready to teach.”

  The big man gave him a gentle pat on the back. “Good. Some people beg for reassignment after learning decon. Today we’ll practice decon once, then we’re going to pull a corrupted rune and I’ll teach you how to drain it. We have to remove the corruption from the rune. It destroys it, but allows us to capture the corrupt energy and slowly equalize it.”

  The decon test went about as well as being infected with corrupt energy could. Then, protective gear on, Gladson led Declan through the vault to a bay with triple mana barriers. They would only deactivate thirty seconds apart, slowing entrance and exit.

  “Use the tongs to select a rune. It doesn’t matter which. Shards don’t get corrupted and can’t. They don’t form a complete imprint to corrupt. Hold it with both hands, away from the body. It’s not a bomb, just move steady.” Gladson remained outside the barriers, guiding him. “Step to a barrier and wait. When it opens, move to the next, until you emerge to the work space.”

  Entering or exiting took nearly two minutes, but eventually, he exited the last barrier, gripping a corrupt rune in the metal tongs. “To the station?”

  “Indeed. Slow and smooth, it won’t fight you, just slide it into the rune holder.” Gladson moved with ease, giving Declan room to set it in place. “Well done. Put down your tongs, step back.”

  “What do I need to do?”

  “Take ten breaths for me. I know just how stressful this is. That switch activates the mana vacuum. It’s the same device that does decon, but it does so very gradually. It’s a constant force that will drain the corrupted energy once you help it.” Gladson moved beside Declan and flipped down a magnifying disk, which let Declan see the rune stone. “I don’t want you to do anything yet. Push a tiny drop of mana into the rune.”

  “But it’s corrupted!” Declan protested.

  “I didn’t say activate it. You want it to light up so you can see the Magic pattern. This is a rune station. We’ll practice manipulating the engraver next.”

  Declan put his hands in the grips. These arms ended in diamond tipped engravers, not fingers, and had no squeeze grips to close because it was missing fingers. Instead, triggers let him activate the engraver. “This is just like the Rune Forging setup I practiced with.”

  “Close enough. Now, you want to start at a corner of a stroke and gently, slowly chisel a path outward. Get it far enough and the energy will be siphoned out. Go too fast or crack the stone and the release will be explosive. The safety artifices should keep you safe.” Gladson put a hand on his arm, guiding toward a point. “Right there. Start when you’re ready. Move steady. Trust the equipment.”

  Blazing Eye: Empower your vision to reveal equal or lower tier stealth and grant heat vision. Mana Cost: moderate, continual. Tier three rune.

  Insight told him just having it orbiting would grant the base ability but actively dispelling stealth required locking and activating the rune. Such a waste. He set the tip near the corner and activated the engraver. A high piched whine rose, and his fingers tingled as the tip began to vibrate.

  Then he nudge it closer and closer.

  “It’s not going to cut if you don’t actually touch the rune,” Gladson said gently.

  Declan slowly moved the engraver down and began to carve, hesitantly at first. Then he struck a path, not pushing the engraver hard, just letting it slowly gnaw away the stone. The rune energy flooded the new path, blue with deep black and purple that swirled constantly. Three nibbles later, a thread of purple leaked from the channel Declan had carved, siphoning down into the marble base.

  “Keep going, that’s a start but it needs to be wider. Very gentle now, very slow.”

  He almost couldn’t move the engraver slower. It flashed, biting microscopic chips from the stone. Then the purple began to flow faster and faster, pooling on the marble and turning to vapors which disappeared into the stone. The rune was inert, nothing more than arcite ore.

  “Well done.” Gladson pointed to the tongs. “Take it and feed it into the crusher.”

  The crusher was a chute ten feet away that activated as the stone hit, grinding and shaking until there was nothing left.

  Declan was both energized and exhausted, his hands shaky, his forehead sweating. “How long does it take you?”

  “We’re about safety, not speed. Corrupt runes from all over the nation are brought here for safe disposal. Higher tier runes require even more care, because they hold so much more energy. Take a break. In half an hour, we’ll pull another.”

  By the end of his shift, Declan had disposed of three corrupt runes, each chiseled away in the same careful manner under the supervisor’s watch. When his shift was done, he could barely walk, let alone run. His muscles ached from tension and he wasn’t sure if he’d eaten or not, the memory wasn’t clear.

  The only thing that made it feel better was the constant rise of mana, mana that had become thick enough that soothed with every breath. Then he made the connection. Just as the largest orb of mana he’d ever seen formed. It was a halo at first. Then an outline. Then it filled in.

  Ash, it looked like—like a rune. But it didn’t fill slowly. It burst, becoming solid and then collapsing inward to form a monster. A monster the height of a small building, wide as a wagon, long as two. It looked like a hydra, a multiheaded beast, but each head was a lion’s, each with a flowing mane that rippled with mana. The body was sleek and powerful, covered in golden fur, and the tail was a dozen feet long, lashing back and forth.

  Attention Academy: Please avoid ring five west until the signature monster is slain. Three arcanists have died today. Make better choices!

  Declan swore. This was shortest path from the armory to House Ariloch. The ring-road met a wide, round patio where classes were held outside on good days, assuming they ever came. That meant there was little cover. He did the only thing he could, hiding behind a planter filled with mud and half-melted snow.

  The hydrion reared up and each head growled as it breathed in. Before it could move, three ArCore came rocketing from different directions, runes already ablaze. They set on the hydrion without fear.

  The battle wasn’t exactly fair—the monster had spawned in the road between rings, and it moved with shocking grace, bounding away from attacks and then returning. Anything less than absolute destruction caused the lion’s head to swell and then settle back as though damage had never been done. One of the ArCore drew back while the other two engaged. He locked a rune and then forced it to orbit, charging it further and further in an overcast.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Fireball. It was a simple rune, the name was the description, and no matter what rank it was, Declan liked the choice. The fireball rune shattered and a flaming orb the size of a man struck the hydrion, dead center, blossoming into a burning cloud. When the cloud cleared, a single charred stump said that was a success.

  The arcore didn’t fight alone—every arcanist for blocks tossed runes at it, but they might as well have been throwing sticks. Then the beast used a rune ability. The blue head roared, and the mane rippled. A sheen formed around the Hydrion’s body. A shield? Probably. He should have been ducking. Or running, but something about the ripple made his eyes itch.

  Ice Slide: Coat yourself and surfaces in a layer of ice to speed your movements. Duration limited by tier. Mana cost, dependent on target area, fixed.

  “That’s a speed boost!” He shouted his strategically chosen position, which was a better term than ‘hiding spot.’

  All three Arcore reacted differently. One used Wind Lift to soar straight up, the other dropped down as a pit opened beneath them, and the last locked a rune. One moment the man was standing in front of the Hydrion. The next, he was behind it.

  Gnawing Passsage, Declan thought to himself. Gods, the mana cost on that rune was ridiculous for such terrible range. The man wouldn’t be able to lock it from his arcsoul or would have to field a mana stone.

  How the hell did he know that?

  And why didn’t Insight show him more details?

  The confusion almost cost him his life, because while the Hydrion had lost three targets, it had six remaining heads and that was more than enough to spare one for Declan, who was larger than a planter due to buffet choices and also being a grown man. The sheen on its body snapped, and the beast moved like a raging river, not running but flowing across the ground, six sets of jaws probably arguing over who got to eat him.

  Deflect did nothing, though he used it out of principle.

  Then something seized his ankle and slung Declan into the sky, spinning like a wheel. He had just enough time to realize he’d stop going up and his stomach sank as he began to fall.

  But not that far—he’d been thrown up onto a roof. He slammed into it and gasped to recover his breath.

  More of the ArCore had arrived, and among them came Rohan, Tegan and Alister. Alister didn’t flee, he headed straight down the road toward the beast, runes flaring around him as one after another locked.

  The Hydrion couldn’t be distracted like that. One head—the red one—locked onto Alister, two others tracked Tegan and Rohan. Tegan had activated Destroy and while it ripped and shredded the hydrion, it didn’t do enough damaged to end a head.

  The silver head roared. Mana rippled and the beast glowed with the silver.

  Aura of Doom: Unleash an aura of mana that slows your enemies as it envelops them. Be their doom. Mana Cost: High, Fixed. Tier Five Rune

  “That’s a movement slow! Get airborn!” Declan shouted it before realizing he’d drawn the attention of one of the seven heads. This one was purple, and Declan didn’t know what purple meant and didn’t want to find out. It roared, the rune flashed. This time, he saw it, an actual sigil. Wind-inverse-life, gods that didn’t take Insight to tell. “Poison cloud coming. Maybe Breath of Death?” Knowing the name might help trigger Insight.

  His other insight, ‘fuck,’ didn’t help, so he didn’t shout it. Instead he ran along the roof from the billowing cloud of gas that spewed from the monster. Then he stopped. Blazed beasts were no different than arcanists. They could and did hurt themselves with their own powers. “Don’t kill the purple head! If it roars, it’ll breathe in its own poison.”

  “Arcore, focus fire on my target. Black head!” Rohan shouted.

  For the first time ever, Declan got to see Rohan truly fight, and he knew in seconds he could train for a life and never match the man. He didn’t use runes the way the others did, which wasn’t to say he didn’t use them. He used a two-handed sword, and his runes didn’t fully orbit before they blazed to life. And he used them at point-blank range, giving it no chance to dodge.

  A monster ten times his size was confounded by the onslaught of a man it should have ripped apart. But while Rohan’s damage added up, the cuts didn’t drip blood like the should have.

  Declan’s eyes were drawn to the six remaining heads. “The green one! It’s healing the body! It’s Healing Breath.”

  The ArCore were soldiers and they were disciplined. They didn’t switch targets, not until Rohan triggered a Wind Lift to fly backwards, narrowly dodging a pounce. He glanced up at Declan, then to the Hydrion. “Green head. Let him call targets!”

  It would have been amazing but at that moment, Declan couldn’t appreciate it. He’d finally seen the black head activate its mane power, and while Insight didn’t tell him what it was, it told him he really didn’t want to be hit. Declan dove to the ground up against the edge of the roof, where the false-front provided a lip.

  A spray of pure black blasted across the rooftop. The mana within formed images, a swarm of bats with teeth that would nibble, the death of a billion bites. It chipped stone and shattered windows one block over.

  “That’s Underworld Swarm,” Declan shouted. “Don’t get hit by it.”

  Arms wrapped around his chest, and Declan soared into the air, over the hydrion and to the other side. “You need to learn to use Wind Lift,” Tegan said. “Or run away like a sane person.”

  “If I could cast more than Deflect I would. And you would be losing this battle without—Don’t let the brown head attack! That’s Shattering Earth Wave!”

  Tegan’s Destroy remained locked on the green head, her fists clenched as it chewed through flesh. The Hydrion had more than enough hate in its heart for both of them but Declan was the man making strange noises and Tegan was the source of the grinder shredding its flesh. It spun to face the others.

  It wasn’t a mistake. Declan made the connection the moment the beast’s mana surged. There was no rune, but he knew it had done something. The slightest blur of movement, and he dove, tackling Tegan. The tail tip was razor sharp like a sword, and it had lashed out, aiming to decapitate them both.

  “Get. Off. Can’t breathe,” Tegan said.

  Declan pulled her up. “Sorry for saving you. I don’t have enough mana for Wind Lift but you probably have enough for Duck. Kill the green head or you’ll never win!”

  “On it!” Rohan shouted. He sailed through the air. The Hydrion rared up on hind legs, aiming to rip, claw and bit him to death. Then the lone rune he orbited locked. Rohan became a bullet of gold, blazing through the air. He hit the beast not on the head, but on the neck, and began to hack, sawing with his sword.

  He was cutting the head off.

  “Get the hell out of here,” Tegan said. “These things will change attacks when they’re critically wounded. If it’s not healing, I’ll turn it into hamburger but I can’t do that and keep your ass alive.”

  It was true. Declan sprinted along the rooftop, moving away. He couldn’t resist looking back, and it probably saved his life. With a rip, Rohan sliced the last of the green head loose and activated Wind Lift. He shot into the air and hurled the head. It struck the ground fifty feet past where Declan was and rolled. That head, just like him, had chosen to leave the battle.

  Delcan climbed down, ruining an awning and dropping to the street. He wasn’t far enough away yet but the more stone between him and it, the better. Then he froze. The green head was still glowing, the eyes still aware. The jaws opened and shut.

  If Declan had willing stepped into them, it would have killed him.

  It was still healing.

  He grabbed it by the mane and began to pull, dragging a monster head half his height further and further away. Then he drew his shortsword and began to stab. Insight didn’t tell him where to stab but the eyes seemed like a decent starting point and given how it tried to roar, it agreed. Ears, too, were good for stabbing, it turned out. With every cut, it healed less. With every stab, the jaws moved more feebly.

  With a final hack, the green head turned gray and lifeless, its jaws drooped open. Declan felt the draw and reached into the mouth, past razor fangs. He drew a complete rune stone. There were already people coming, and Declan was in no mood to watch someone else steal a rune.

  “Hey!” He started toward the ArCore, who still fought with the main body. “I have—”

  A wall of earth rammed Declan back.

  “If you don’t run, I’ll personally throw you!” Allister screamed. “Don’t give me a reason to do what I want to do already.”

  A shockwave of mana blasted along the road, ripping through storefronts, sending tables flying and even pelting Declan with cobblestones ripped from the ground.

  Attention Academy: Ring five west is now available. All earth rune users are required to contribute to rebuilding efforts at dawn. Thank you for helping keep the Academy safe.

  The signature monster was dead.

  Declan slipped the rune into his pocket and walked away.