57 Training VII : New Rune: LIGH

The basic necessities of life like electricity and plumbing were not allowed in the pit. As such more sophisticated technology like guns, grenades, computers and the like were also very scarce if not completely unavailable. This was a smart move on the part of the council of light as the lack of technology had veritably forced the vampires to live in a stone age kind of setting. And with the seals on their wrists, there was nothing like magic.

It effectively crippled any avenue left open for us to fight back against the guards, but along comes a guy who can make anything break, as long as he throws a couple of rune covered rocks at it. And that was just the rune word for BREAK, what if I had something like explosion. I dread to think of the kind of damage I would be able to cause with my runes.

After reading chapter three of the sword book, I had to put it down. I was still learning the basic, so it would not do me any good to jump ahead of myself and start training or creating my own personal sword style. I need to discover it for myself, and there was no rushing that. Just like my soul energy, I needed to live and grow with the sword, it was the only option available now. As soon as I'm more familiar with the sword, mastering the basics as a whole and training my current body to a point that could easily adapt and use a sword rather than relying on muscle memory...…..then I will be ready to create my own style. So far now everything I do with a sword was just a journey to discover that style.

I had drawn my short sword again, but this time I was using a two handed grip. It was rather peculiar, but this sword had a longer handle, the kind you would see on a broad sword or two handed long sword.The two handed stance or form, encompasses two basic moves. And that is Slash and Parry, it's almost impossible to pierce when you're holding a sword with two hands, and that's because it would leave you terribly unbalanced.The two hand stance is the power stance, every move made with that sword form, places it emphasis on more damage, and relies mostly on strength to attack and defend.

It should be the start of every basic sword training according to the book, as power is easier to generate and regulate than speed. I had been practicing horizontal and vertical slashes for the past two hours, my crazy vampire stamina had help me push through, but my half dead arms were aching something fierce. Half way through I had asked Teluna to start throwing stones at me at different intervals, making sure to not give off any signal or sign that he was about to. It also served as a form of training for him, as the young vampire had for the past hour been throwing tiny balls of dark energy at me, the only down side is that every one of those balls packed a punch, each carrying a weight you would never expect from their size and composition.

"SHUUUUU!!!" "CLANG"

There was a kind of melody to it, with each stroke my sword made as it cut through the air, and how hard it vibrated when it deflected those balls of darkness seemed to let of a particular brand of music that was eerily soothing. I took one step forward and slashed, drawing power from my back, up to my shoulders, and down through my arms to the sword. The sword fell down, cutting through droves of imaginary monsters as I cleaved them in two.

Next I had to widen my legs a bit, build up power from the thighs of my left leg, and have it settle in my waist, then drag them all up together to meet with force generated from the right side of my back, traveling to the left as I released them by swing the sword in a horizontal manner. I quickly raised it up, letting the flat side of the blade face the sky and I angled my elbows and flicked it up. The resounding clang and the following vibration told me I was successful in repelling another ball of darkness. Then I heard Teluna speak.

"We're here."

The sight in front of me, as terrifying as it was, took my breath away. The light of the blue district came to an abrupt stop at the edge of a cliff, and past that was what I could only call a natural underground basin or valley. With the little light that shone from where the light of the blue district came to an end, I could see an endless expanse of towers. But these towers were different from the normal ones I had grown accustomed to. Instead this massive structures of earth were pure black, and filled with cave like openings over their surface.And from within those openings, I could see movement, and hear the chitterings of the creatures that made this part of the pit their home.

"Why are the towers so different?" I heard Teluna ask.

"Because Teluna, those aren't just towers....they're dungeons."

This was not a district in the normal sense of the word, no.....this was a kingdom of monsters,a valley of tower like dungeons, each filled to the brim with monsters known and unknown.

"lets take a two hour break and set up a plan of attack. We need to know what we're dealing with."

Teluna nodded in reply to what I just suggested as we made a little camp at the edge of the valley.I took a bottle of blood from the bundle, and walked close enough that I just needed to take a single step, and I would be out of the blue district and into what I wanted to call the black district. I could see the stone rats I have heard so much about, but those things were ten to fifteen times bigger than a normal rat. They were a meter long, and had an outer shell covering of hard earth like a tortoise. The only soft spot seems to be their underbelly, but even then I couldn't be sure their defense did not also stretch to that part of their body.

A bit of observation on my part let me know that the rats made it a point of duty for themselves to keep away from what looked like a wall of glowing blue light, which was the edge of the blue district. But it also showed me an advantage that we might have over them, these creatures would be used to the darkness, so any sort of exposure to a light source of sufficient brightness would probably leave them disoriented long enough for me to cause a serious amount of damage. But how do I go about getting that light.

It was at that point that I realized that I really didn't think this expedition of mine through, there were still a lot of things missing, which meant for lack of a more sophisticated word, I was caught with my pants down due to sloppy planning. But now that I was already here, there was no way I was going all the way back empty handed.

Feeling a little tired, I laid down on my back and looked at the ceiling of the pit, to be honest, there was none. It was too far up for me to be able to make out, however what I could see what the massive rune that gave the blue district it's name. But it too was to far away for me to make out the rune language used.

But that got me thinking on my own rune language, a rune language is unique to every weaver, which was why no two runes were the same, even if they had the same meaning. However I discovered that as weavers, we could read the runes of others, but be completely incapable of replicating it's effects, or gauging the amount of power, will, or intent given to the rune.

I had instinctively called my rune language English. I had the feeling there was also a spoken language there, as it is nothing like the language I was currently speaking now.But the problem right now was that I had no idea how to use my own rune language, how can I learn the runes or create them without proper knowledge of it.

I felt the need to keep my eyes closed as I tried to listen to my soul, the silent edge of the blue district, and the ominous entrance of the black. The creation of a rune comes from the soul, I felt mine, felt it's strength and I could see it's energy clustered in my spine. I needed my soul to teach me, to tell and show me how the word light could be written. I fell into a trance, I saw a vision of darkness, of emptinessand void.

It was a darkness where nothing could exists, a darkness where nothing could grow, and it was all encompassing and suffocating. I couldn't find a way out of this vision as I felt trapped in my own mind. But then there was a tremor, it's power was so subtle but I could it feel down to the very depths of my soul. And then there was a ring of light.And as the ring appeared I could feel my fingers begin to move, tracing its edges and creases, understanding it.

And then the ring of light pulsed, and within it a word, a new rune came to life, powerful in its own right as it carried a concept of the universe that was fundamental to life. What was light, it was power, it was revelation, it was freedom, it was pure,and it was good.The concept of light is meant to encompass everything that's pure about life, the positive out of all our despair and pain, the good thing.

I open my eyes and shot up to a sitting position, my chest heaving as I gasped for breath, and my fingers aching as they bled from their tips. And on the ground, nestled in a circle of it's own, was a rune I had never seen before, but was extremely familiar with. I saw every curve and bend required for its creation, and I understood it, absorbed it, and conquered it. [LIGHT].And then the world went bright.