16 A Bit of Discipline
Winter Leaf trembled, her mind confused. She felt a burning sensation in the right part of her chest. It was like a flame was buried inside her body, sending hot pulses all around her body.
"What's happening to me?"
At the same time, Darkscale came out from the shadows and started to move towards the white pool at the other end of the structure with a haughty expression on his face.
"Hahaha, I'm the best! It really worked!" celebrated the snake with pride.
"Master, I see that you managed to impose a slave seal on this human… your rune skill is getting very good…" a plain voice resounded around the cave, shocking the quivering huntress as she didn't see anyone else there.
Darkscale stopped, looking at the ground with great emotion. Numerous black lines now decorated the blue stone around the portal to the Cave, forming a rhomboid mass of symbols.
From the main body of runes departed a single line of marks, so thin that was almost impossible to notice if you didn't know what were you looking for, that run for all the length of the cave and ended up connecting the rhomboid to the Ghost Pond.
"Perfect!" exclaimed with pride the serpent.
This was the fruit of his hard work!
A complex system of runes, constructed with great care and powered by the Ghost Pond. In particular, the array of runes that he drew allowed him to activate one of the two techniques that Spike left him: the Slave Mark Seal.
The idea of building such a complex project came to him after he realized that he was very talented in this kind of energy manipulation.
"Natural talent" called it Carelia, when she showed up again, right after he tested his first basic composite rune: an inscription that could generate a simple energy probe.
The artificial intelligence, immediately started bugging him again about the lack of energy, and how the defenses had already consumed a large part of their reserve.
In the end, Darkscale completed his basic manual on runes and started focusing on the two techniques that he had sitting in the numeric library of the Blue Cave.
The first one, Soul Agony Venom, was both a cultivation technique and a poison attack. It was divided into three layers, each one giving the user access to more lethal venoms. However, it required consuming great plectra of poisonous creatures and herbs, making it impossible for the snake to cultivate it. At least for the moment.
The second one, Slave Mark Seal, was described as a very basic binding spell, capable to force the will of common creatures. The user created a seal on the victim's body, using it to cause pain and even kill the victim if it ever disobeyed. Sadly, it had less effect on people who were half step cultivator, like the damnable human that had continuously hammered the doors of the Blue Cave for the past month.
Not being able to cultivate the first technique, Darkscale invested all his energy to study and master the second. He practiced his rune skills for weeks, creating the perfect array following the instruction on the manipulation required by the skill.
In the end, right when he ended with the more theoretic part of his work and needed to make some experiments to calibrate the runes, that stupid human that kept attacking the portal supplied him with excellent living tests in the form of numerous insects and a rabbit.
To Darkscale it was a double blessing: not only he had creatures on which he could try his runes, he had also something to eat. Even if his body could sustain itself just using the Pretorian's Breath, it was a while since he felt the taste of meat and blood in his mouth.
"Ehehehe, rabbit… exquisite taste!" recalled the reptile, drooling.
"Young Master, I suggest you to use this human to attract the others… although they're only tree souls, it's still better than nothing" continued the plain voice of the MAID, breaking the moment of reminiscence of the black serpent.
"Why? Don't you always nag me about souls? Why you want to pass this one up?" wondered suspiciously the little snake. He truly didn't plan on keeping the human as a servant: they were the creatures that he despised the most in the first place, so why the hell would he want to keep one near him the whole time?
The only reason he used the Slave Mark Seal on the human female was that it was his most powerful move. Quite literally, it was the only technique with an attack power that he could use.
Now that he had her marked, he could order her to get to the Ghost Pond and then use the seal to kill her inside the white pool, having her soul forever trapped inside the energy container.
"… she's more useful alive, master…" continued the calm voice. However before she could explain in detail what she meant by that, the human started to freak out.
"What? Using me to get to the other? Useful alive? Who are you?? " a panicked voice emerged from the weakened Winter Snow.
She could hear Carelia's voice as it reverberated across the whole Blue Cave, but not that of Darkscale who talked with the MAID directly in his head. This made her capt only a portion of the exchange, but still a very worrisome part.
The serpent, by now already arrived next to the white pool, gave a dirty look back to the terrified girl. He tapped with his tail on the surface of one the numerous runes he drew near the pool in the last month.
"Silence, human. I, Darkscale hate the most hearing your disgusting species talk."
A cold young voice echoed in the cave, while the rune under the serpent shined with silver light at each new world.
This was Darkescale's own voice! Thanks to the runes, he now had a way to communicate without relying on others. This was the work to one of the composite runes that he learned to use recently: Secret World Rune.
It was similar to the energy probe rune, only that instead of moving his senses around places that he couldn't sense normally, this rune helped him to communicate with others. Plus it wasn't more complex than the energy probe rune, so the serpent didn't have to work much to learn to use it.
The huntress, hearing the voice, fell into a state between terrified and shocked: someone was talking directly into her head! That was insane!
"Wait, he called himself Darkscale… where did I hear this name before?" thought Winter Leaf. "Ah.. I remember... that's the name that the young patriarch gave to.."
Her eyes moved towards the little serpent surrounded by a ring of marks that shined lightly.
"A snake?" exclaimed the woman, almost as she was trying to convince herself that the animal she was examining was a snake.
"Yeah, that's right. What about snakes?" answered pompously the scaled animal.
"It can talk!" said incredulity Winter Snow, almost forgetting the pain she was feeling at the moment.
"It?" the eyes of the little snake narrowed dangerously.
"You're it! Your whole family is full of it! Your whole human race is just an it" continued ragingly the serpent, slapping the rune under his body with his long black tail.
"Master, you should use the slave seal to educate her… you should really discipline her!" suggested Carelia with a strange tone, way different from her usual calm and monotone voice.
"Yeah, you're right!" considered internally the serpent. This human needed some discipline in her life.
He looked at the woman still inside the rhomboid of runes before the portal. The moment his violet eyes meet with her body, he immediately sensed something inside her that was waiting for his orders.
"The seal" thought immediately the snake. It most probably was the seal the result of the technique that he used on her. The seal could be used to cause pain and to kill. He didn't want to kill her yet, but some pain was necessary to correct her behavior.
"Here we go…"
He willed it, and a painful cry ripped the silence inside the cave, while the woman arched her back and fell down trembling even more visibly in pain.
The woman screamed in agony, while Darkscale looked at her with a wicked smile, almost as he was listening to one of the songs performed by Carelia.
"Mph, I should just kill you here and now" continued Darkscale using the runes to transmit his voice around all the Blue Cave.
