Waking up, The man's whole body feels sluggish; as though his mind and body are failing to communicate properly.
Hand shaking, it takes him a few attempts to get up from the floor, a puddle of sweat having been formed on the jagged stone ground while he was unconscious.
Doing his best to wipe the fatigue from his face, He walks awkwardly towards the center of what used to be a mass of runes, searching for the small ring left behind.
With a grunt of frustration, He drops the ring due to his shaking hands, only managing to hold it between his thumb and index finger after another two attempts at picking it up.
"Looks fine, At least"
He says, his voice just as uncertain and shaky as his body.
Taking the ring in his hand, his grip tight, making sure not to drop the precious object, He places it in a wooden box within his bag. Placing the box to one side, He then does his best to take from his bag, a box of ammunition; as-well as a few pieces of paper, moving once again to the flat area where he made the first rune construct.
Placing only nine sheets of paper out, a stark contrast to the hundreds he had used the time before, His approach to it is less confident, Making sure to murmur each step to himself as though he would forget it the next second.
"Hmm, Mana absorption runes top here and here"
He breaks a bullet in half, before shakily creating runes on the top left and bottom right pages respectively, tossing the empty bullet casing the the side before take another out.
"Then divert some of the mana into light runes here and here"
Another bullet falls victim to the man as the top-center and bottom-center pages both end up with fairly shaky looking, small runes.
The casing clinks to the cold stone as he continues.
"Use the rest of the mana with different attribute transfer runes"
Many small, different runes fill the remaining outer pages.
"And finally, connect them all with a scrying rune"
Pulling out two pieces of ammunition, The man spends a few careful minutes creating a much larger, more intricate rune in the center, taking a step back and pulling his lighter from his left pocket as he finishes.
As the flames die down, all that's left is a circle of paper with runes scattered all over its edge, the center appearing completely blank as the man picks it up and takes it to his bag of junk, taking a few minutes to glue it to a piece of wood for structural integrity.
Stepping foot on regular soil a few hours later, The man is dressed in a beige suit and tie, with pants to match; His face obscured by a mask made of a wax-like substance, only his grey eyes visible to onlookers.
Taking a second to himself to adjust to the sunlight, He uses a shaky hand to pull out the paper rune, mounted on a small circle of wood. Running a faintly glowing finger around the edge of the runes, they light up after making contact with his finger.
Having been activated, the runes begin to shift around on the paper, spinning around the edge of the paper-rune at a reasonable pace.
"Lets see who's been using my runes"
He says, a slight tone of amusement making its way through the shaky, uncertain voice.
The sun is setting upon a rather remote town as the man, wearing his wax mask, finally looks down at the rune in his hand to find the symbols no longer moving. A pale green light emanates from some of the runes, whilst the others appear to vibrate with strange patterns.
Looking at the runes for a moment, The wax-masked man changes his walking direction abruptly, walking hastily in the intended direction.
Each few steps seems to make the runes in his hand glow a little bit more, though eventually he finds what he's been looking for: A rather excited looking man, sat down on his porch, an old looking phone placed next to him, with a crudely drawn rune on his hand, glowing a rather bright green.
The man looks fairly middle-aged, wrinkles starting to form on his face, combined with a rather tall frame, though it was hard to tell it while he remains sat down.
Approaching without pause, the masked man only stops as he reaches the steps to the older man's porch, noting a shotgun leaning against his door, though it doesn't cause him a delay. Pausing for a moment to attain a confident looking posture the man takes a breath before stealing the older man's attention from the glowing rune on his hand.
"Careful with that- Keep using your internal mana and It'll take you a while to regenerate it, even in such a remote place"
Jerking his head to look at the source of the voice, the older man sounds confused.
"Mana? Regenerate it? What're you on about?"
Maintaining an air of knowledgeably, the masked man explains.
"Mana, the energy used to fuel that rune on your hand. Did you not read through the whole guide book?"
The older man still looks confused
"What guide book? My son sent me a picture of this thing and asked me if I could try it- I thought it was some silly prank at first but-"
Lifting his hand up with excited eyes, he adds
"Its magic!"
A slight smile forming under the mask as he sees the wonder in the strangers eyes, He does his best to retain his composure
"How would you like to learn more of those- Ones with more practical uses than as a torch?"
The older man looks at the man with the wax mask as if he's stupid
"Of course I do- This ain't one of them scams is it?"
His hand slowly reaches for his gun as he finishes speaking, his eyes squinting to inspect the strange man at his doorstep.
The man with the wax mask raises his hands in a gesture of peace
"Not a scam, Simply an offer-"
Opening his palm in-front of himself and nodding towards it
"Give me your hand and I'll show you"
The older man stills looks skeptical, though with one hand on the barrel of his gun, he reaches his other hand out to the strange masked man.
The masked man flicks a pen from his pocket, causing the older man to pump slightly before he notices what it is. Giving the older man a moment to calm down, he begins to draw a rune, slightly more complex than the other one drawn on the older man, on his empty hand, before releasing his hold.
"Here- Do the same thing you did for the light rune, With this one- But be careful, it uses up your energy a fair bit faster."
Looking closely at the fresh rune with scrutiny, The older man spends a few seconds concentrating before the fresh rune before his eyes grow wide. This gets a chuckle out of the masked man.
"What do you think?"
The older mans eyes wide with amazement, He stands up from his chair, leaving his suspicions in the dirt as he jumps up and down a few times.
"I've never felt better, I feel like I could wrestle a grizzly bear!"
Another chuckle comes from the masked man as he attempts to break the older man from his amazement, trying his newfound strength.
"So, About that offer- How would you like to gain more powers like that one?"
Breaking from his wide eyed amazement at the sound of more powers, the older man quickly responds
"What do I need to do?"
A little taken-aback by the older mans eagerness now, the masked man speaking in a cautioning tone.
"Well, I only wish to pass down certain secrets to those with potential, and as such, if you can defeat me, I will give you access to a vast array of powers, the likes of which you could barely dream of- And if you lose, I'll just leave you with that strength rune, and we never see each-other again"
Seeing no refusal from the older man yet, the wax-masked man adds
"First I'll just need your name"
It doesn't even take the other man a second to respond
"Walter Newsham"
Nodding, The masked man notes the name in his head
"Walter Newsham, Potential : Apprentice, Attribute inclination : Earth"
He then looks back up at the older man and asks in the same cautionary voice
"So you accept?"
Eyes glancing back towards the gun at his door, Walter's queries, greed alight in his eyes.
"Can I use anything to fight?"
The was-masked man sees the greed in Walter's eyes and nods, speaking with a sigh
"Yes, anything"
The moment Walter reaches for the gun at his door, white runes glow dimly under the masked man's suit pants.
*Click-Clack*
Pumping the gun as fast as he can, All Walter sees as he turns to aim at the masked man is a blur of beige before the gun is torn away from him by hands aglow with pale green runes.
Falling forward as he desperately tries to hang on to his shotgun, Its too late for him to stay upright as the handle falls from his grip.
A dull thud echoes from Walter's side as a shallow kick impacts him, filling the impacted area with pain.
Scrabbling to his feet as the masked man observes him with disappointment in his eyes, Walter takes a few seconds to activate the strength rune on his hand, the pain in his side slowly dissipates as he jumps to his feet with a newfound vigor.
The last thing Walter sees before unconsciousness however, is a fist flying towards his head sending him falling to the floor with a dull thud.
"Walter Newsham, Potential: Apprentice, Attribute inclination : Earth, Result : Six seconds"
Writing it down as he speaks, the masked man places back his notepad before picking up Walter's unconscious body and carrying him inside. Laying the unconscious man on the floor, he puts his gun out of sight to discourage anyone from robbing Walter whilst he regains consciousness, then promptly leaving the house and continuing his search.
The wax-masked man looks irritated as he adds another line of text to his notepad, the notepad by now sporting many lines of ink:
"Alice smith, Potential : initiate, Attribute : Fire, Test : eleven Seconds"
"Blake Harold, potential : initiate, Attribute : Earth, Test : two seconds"
"Anna McBlythe, potential : Apprentice, attribute : Water, test : eight seconds"
And then the most recent name:
"Earnest Newsham, Potential : apprentice, Attribute : Earth : test : five seconds"
The wax-masked man laments, though continuing to walk as he mumbles to himself.
"To think that even with me using the same amount of mana as them, They'd all be this incompetent"
Furrowing his brows in frustration, He tucks his notepad away once again and begins to think whether or not there might be a better selection method.
Yes his thought process is interrupted by the sound of someone speaking into a hand-held radio.
"Suspect has been located, nearby active officers requested for backup"
Dressed in a fairly simple police uniform, the officer approaches the was-masked man slowly, one hand on his holster all the while.
"Sir- You're under arrest as a suspect for the aggravated assault of Earnest Newsham, and his father Walter Newsham"
The officer speaks in a loud tone as he continues his approach.
Hands up, The wax-masked man slowly turns around and speaks in a slow, disarming voice
"Look- Both of them agreed to the fight entirely. Lets just move on and no-one needs to get hurt"
The officer scoffs at the masked-mans thinly veiled threat, pulling his gun from his holster and pointing it at the masked man
"You can explain all that at the station, Come peacefully and no-one will get hurt here"
A sigh is be heard from behind the wax-mask, as he reaches out a hand rapidly, palm open, towards the police officer, grunting slightly in pain as he does so.
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
The sudden movement is all the officer needs to let out a few shots, though as the bullets fly from the gun, the wind cries in response; Howling winds speed past the officer alongside the bullets, slightly adjusting the courses of the hollow-points; they impact into harmlessly into the trees behind the masked man.
His face showing a tinge of pain, and his movements more shaky than prior, the mask man curses as the officer, assuming to just have missed, empties the rest of his clip at his target.
Once gain gunpowder sends lead flying towards the masked man, and once again the wind responds with anger, redirecting the bullets to other targets.
Frustrated, the officer loads another clip into his handgun, fumbling slightly with it before inserting it into the gun and aiming back at the masked man.
Though where the masked man once stood, nothing but the irritated howl of the wind remains.