I don't think Teluna appreciated the fact that the ground was glowing like a street light, or the fact that the light had attracted the attention of the stone rats. He glared at me, as he watched the earth born rodents crawl towards us with cursory sniffs and glances.
"You just had to go and make light didn't you." Teluna accused, with more emotion than I've ever seen from him.
"Hey! This is not my fault." I defended as I got back up to my feet.
"Then who's is it?" He asked back, glaring at me.
"...."
"We needed the light." I murmured in protest.
"Not me, I can see just fine in the dark." He explained.
I was frustrated, with Teluna it felt as if he was deliberately putting up walls to prevent people other than Nisi from getting close to him. Nisi was a sharp little gnome, and was filled with an infectious exuberance. Teluna on the other hand was emo in every sense of the word, the kid really had nothing in common with most people, unless he feels the need to talk, or something about you Interests him, Teluna would stay silent the whole time, glaring too hard at the object of his fascination.
This kid felt responsible for me, he felt like he had to look after me or protect me. Even though I was a little miffed about having to be protected by a ten year old, I had no problem with it. Only problem stems from the fact that Teluna has put up a damn wall between himself and the rest of the world, and bringing it down did not seem like something that could be done so easily.
I placed my hand on this glowing rune, and let my soul energy run over its surface and into the structure of the rune circle. Then I used my soul energy to grab a hold of every auxiliary soul energy, used to power the rune, then I pulled it out of the ground, and back into me. The rune circle on the ground became dim, before eventually fading away into darkness.
At this point in time, the rats had already reached the barrier of light, and they were watching us with tentative caution. I counted about eight of them, and each of them had fangs and claws that looked like it could pull up the earth like a rake in a garden, what that would do to my skin, I did not even want to imagine. The first rat made it to the barrier, I didn't think it was barrier, but with the way it looked, it seemed like the easier thing to call it.
As soon as the rat saw us, it did not stand on ceremony as it let out a loud screech and jumped at us. Teluna had his daggers formed In seconds, with his dark energy roiling and rolling off his body in smoky and steady waves. I pulled out my short sword, held it with a two handed grip and brought it down making sure it was pointing up at a vertical incline waiting for the monster that was coming.
All of our preparations seemed to have been for nothing as the moment the rat tried to jump from the black district into the blue district, the boundary of the blue district lit up as numerous rotating and complex rune circles of a level I could only hope to reach appeared. They were tiny, about the size of a fist, but each of them clustered together and really formed a barrier of sorts, that immediately vaporized the stone rat into bits of stone and dust.
"okay what just happened?" I asked in surprise as the next rat proceeded to also vaporize itself.
"Obviously the light is some sort of barrier that keeps the monsters out of the districts. It's why none of the district have any pest or rodent problem. It protects us." Teluna answered with a soft voice.
The kid was really intelligent as he was able to deduce the entire situation in mere seconds. With Teluna clarifying the current string of events, I got to understand that the light of the blue or any of the other districts were not just for decorative or illuminative purposes, they were protecting the prisoners and residents of the pit, from the monsters in it. When you think about it, it defeats the entire purpose of the vampires imprisonment. Why protect what you've hated and caged for thousands of years.
It made no sense to me, but I was sure my pattern of thoughts barely scratched the surface of the complexity of such a decision. In the end our jailors would probably want to benefit from their prisoners, considering there was a massive mountain rich in the most precious of ores and compounds in this place. And the vampires were more than enough to fill in the shoes of laborers. They wouldn't be able to protest anyway, after all....we had no rights.
"Do you think it would harm us too if we pass through?" Teluna asked with a little tremor in his voice.
To be honest that was the first time in this journey that Teluna truly acted like a ten year old. The wall he had put up had cracked a bit, but I didn't blame him, the rats were all still throwing themselves at the wall of blue light, and all that was left would be dust and stones. I knew the rats only had a rock like exterior, considering I could see hair on their bodies and limbs, and blood red veins in their normal looking grey eyes. But every time they touched the barrier, all that was left was dust as it seemed as if their biological material were sucked away into nothing.
Then I did something crazy, when the remaining rats saw that there was nothing they could do to get through, and that they were only killing themselves for nothing, they backed off. And as soon as they did I shoved my hand out of the barrier with my eyes closed, hoping for the worst.
But I felt nothing, there was no pain, or itch to be felt. There was not even a single sign that my hand just passed through a supernatural barrier powered by the complex energy of the soul channeled by cosmic formations of a unique existence. I pulled my hand back, and I was unharmed. To me the barrier of light was just that...….light. And not the kind that can hurt a vampire's body. And that's when I felt it, soul energy.
The soul energy of the destroyed rats were hanging around, I couldn't see it. But I could feel it. I felt them heading towards me, seeing the obvious boon and gain without even lifting my finger to do any work I smiled. I imagine that if I can lure enough of this rats to the barrier, then there would be no need to fight, and I'll be able to advance to the next realm without too much trouble.
But the universe loved to screw with me, the moment the soul energy came into contact with the barrier, it dissipated. Or I should say it was absorbed. I watched in abject fascination as the barrier pulsed subtly, the soul energy nourishing the formations of its circle and recharging its rune. No wonder this rune had stood for ages, it was relying on the soul energy of the monsters to keep itself functional. Which meant there was no other way for me to get soul energy than to go fight these things. But first things first.
I opened the bag Teluna had been carrying and pulled out a shirt. It was cleaner than any other thing I owned, and that was because Lukas had given this to me when I woke up after the attack by Uzi. Then I pulled on the shit, ripping a strip from it to the annoyed gasp of Teluna and the aching pain in my heart. 'shit, what a waste of good material.'
I wrapped the strip of clothing around my left hand, so that it would look. As if I had tapped up my hand in preparation for a fight. Then over the knuckles and a little bit on the back of my hand I weaved the standard circle, and the rune [LIGHT]. It would have been nice to weave [BREAK] there too, so that at least if I had a reason to throw a punch, it would hurt.
But I knew that past this barrier it would be hard for me to see, and since Teluna did not have any problem like that, it would make me the liability, plus I did not want to find out what might happen if I weave two runes on a piece of low grade material. So hence the reason why my left fist was now glowing.
Unlike [BREAK] which can be weaved by me with such ease that I only had to touch anything and the rune would appear, I had to take my time to weave the rune for [LIGHT], tracing every letter of the rune language with as much perfection as I could muster. After I was done, the simple circle became concentric as I infused my intent of the way I wanted the rune to work into it. I waved my hand a bit, then turned to Teluna.
"Are you ready?" I asked, placing my right hand on his shoulder.
"We're about to run into the jaws of what could be certain death, who would ever be ready for something like that." He answered back with a mutter.
"Soooo...….let's go get them?" I asked with puzzled expression as I looked at Teluna. He turned his head to look up at me with a smile and answered.
"Yes, let's."