CHAPTER 48: RUNES

The last day of training with Draven came to an end and very soon, the seductive figure of Sia appeared to take the duo away.

"Wow, you two have improved quite a bit since last time." Sia said with some surprise. Although their ranks were the same since they left her, she could tell that their bodies had undergone some changes.

"They didn't get sent here to train for nothing." Draven muttered in a voice only he could hear.

"Either way, let's get going." Sia said and as usual, before the duo could react, they were engulfed in orange flames and their world became a blur. Though they were used to it at this point.

Very soon, Sia brought them back to the forest that they were in before. And strangely enough, the mountain that was shattered by their duel before was there again.

"Here we are." Sia let them down gently and looked at them for a bit before saying.

"I won't beat around the bush, for this stage of training, you two will be learning about runes." Sia said and the moment the duo heard her, they become excited.

Runes were actually pretty popular as they were actually a pretty important part of their daily lives, much less fighting. This is due to the fact that there are runes for almost anything. Some runes could help people sleep, some could help increase the sharpness of a sword, some could help in the creation of items, and so on.

"Now, this will depend on what type of runes you two want to learn. Though you could learn other types later. You can pick between attack runes, defensive runes, restrictive runes and enhancement runes." Sia laid out four options for them and the duo began to think.

'Hmm, the damage I inflict is mostly centered around me actually hurting my opponent. But then what's the point if I can't hit them.' Gideon mused.

'I think I'll need to increase my pure destructive power as my purple empress mode provides good defense and enhancement, and Gideon is better at restricting better than me. So I'll focus on my strong points.' Victoria decided.

In the end, the two of them decided to focus on their strong points. So Gideon chose restrictive runes and Victoria chose attack.

"Okay then. First, let me explain how runes work. When one wants to create a rune, they need to imbue a certain amount of astral energy into their finger, the amount depends on how effective you want the rune to be. Anyway, one has to visualize, or at least know very well the type of rune they are trying to create. They will then begin to draw the rune on their desired object and then use it for whatever. Runes can also b drawn in the air, but that's for later." Sia finished and the two nodded in understanding.

"Alright. In that case, I'll start to teach you two the basics of those two rune paths and we'll build up from there." Sia explained and the two of them nodded.

Sia then proceeded to sit down on a nearby rock and crossed her slim legs before saying.

"Gideon, we'll start with you. The basic runes you need to know of are bind, weight, and paralyze." Sia began and Gideon listened closely.

"You use poison so these should fit you well. Anyway, I guess you should start with the bind rune. Visualize what you want the rune to do and then imbue it into the ground. Your body will do the rest." Sia instructed and Gideon nodded before he knelt down on the floor.

He closed his eyes and concentrated a decent amount of astral energy into the tip of his index finger and began to visualize how he wanted the rune to work.

He imagined that the moment one stepped on or touched the rune, poison threads would come out and bind whoever stepped on it while poisoning them.

As he visualized, his finger began to move across the surface of the ground. With each stroke of his finger, a glowing line of green appeared on the ground.

Roughly a minute later, a weird looking symbol was on the floor. It resembled the letter C, but the top part curved in slightly and the inside had what looked to be numerous crisscross patterns.

"Hmm, it looks good, let's test it." Gideon said and Sia proceeded to toss a somewhat large rock on it.

The instant the rock touched the rune, numerous poison threads shot out of the rune and wrapped around the rock pulling it closely towards the ground.

"Not bad. Though, you'll need to continue practicing it so that you will eventually be able to use it in battle." Sia said and Gideon nodded with a contemplative expression.

"Alright Victoria, it's your turn." Sia started and Victoria payed close attention while Gideon started to practice the new rune.

"In your case, the basic runes you'll need to learn are break, penetrate and rip. You're a gauntlet user, so these should fit you well. Moreover, you can draw them on your fists." Sia explained.

"Oh, so for attack runes, there are runes for every weapon?" Victoria asked.

"That's right. Anyway you'll start with the break rune. For this one, just visualize something shattering or breaking the moment you fist hits it." Sia explained and Victoria nodded before taking out her gauntlets.

Both of them were golden in colour and had the ability to reshape themselves. Her father had gotten them for her when she decided that gauntlets would be her weapon.

She decided to focus on the right one. And so she, similar to Gideon, closed her eyes and imagined her fist hitting a rock and the rock immediately shattering.

She imbued her own astral energy into her fingertip and began to draw on the knuckle area of her gauntlet.

It was a bit troublesome at first as the knuckles obviously weren't smooth, but she soon got used to it and soon,her finger began to draw.

A minute or so passed and soon, a purple rune was on the knuckle of the gauntlet. The rune was a horizontal line which at both ends, a line curved into the middle, and inside each curved line were two small circles.

Victoria immediately put on the gauntlet and lightly punched the ground.

*SHATTER*

Despite the punch being light, an area of 20 inches was filled with web like cracks.

"Wow, that's really effective for a basic rune." Gideon paused and commented causing Victoria to grin.

'Sigh, I'm the only one that knows that a basic bind rune should only produce one or two strings or ropes while a basic shatter rune should only break up a small piece of something.' Sia sighed in her heart. But she was already becoming accustomed to these two little monsters.