Strange rune

Alex opened his eyes groggily, jumps down from his bed and staggers to the table, scooped water with his hands and rinsed his face, wiping away any trace of drowsiness. The rune light had not been lit, the only source of light in the room was the moonlight from the window, he looks around none of his friends were in the room. Moving to the other side of the table he sat down and ate his food which had gone cold, the cold food did not bother Alex whose mind was on a different case, he kept hearing the sound of deep growling and it seemed like the growl of a huge creature, its anger and hatred felt too real to be a dream, finally the name skyrax has become his nightmare, it was everywhere it's like it wanted to imprint it's name in his brain.

"What kind of story did that old man write, why can't I have a peaceful sleep for once", Alex cursed in anger.

"Argh!", he yelps when he felt a stinging pain at his lower back, he hurriedly removed his shirt and touched the area he felt the pain, maybe he had an injury, when he touched the spot there was no cut only some kind of markings.

"What is this now!, I have had enough!!", Alex yelled in frustration, he never had a marking on his back, maybe his friends drew them, but why would they do that. He was about to storm out of the room when Asher entered the room, he was relieved to see Alex awake he had been sleeping since morning, Asher was getting worried.

"Why did you draw a tattoo on my back?!", Alex said angrily. Asher was confused to see Alex so angry, what was he angry about and who drew what, he was either here with Alex or outside the door so no one entered the room.

"What tattoo, let me see", Alex said curiously, 'what could it be to make Alex this annoyed'. Alex removed his shirt which he had put on awhile ago and turned his back to Asher, Asher squinted his eyes in surprise as he looked closer, the marking was a red inverse triangle with curved sides. It had strange runes in it, but it was incomplete.

"Alex, that's a natural rune!, But it's incomplete, which is impossible, a rune cannot be incomplete especially a natural one", Alex said with both shock and confusion, he couldn't even believe his words.

"What!, A natural rune, that's impossible, I already have my first natural rune which belongs to my bloodline so where does this one come from and why my back?!", Alex questioned in panic, he has not heard of anyone awakening two natural runes at just the awakened level and this second one doesn't seem normal.

"Calm down Alex, you cannot cannot communicate with your dad from the camp, it's not allowed and I don't trust anyone about this apart from your dad, I mean no offense but everyone finds you different enough having another natural rune may not be a good thing", Asher explains to Alex while leaning on the table.

"You think I see this rune as a good thing, I don't!, I have weird dreams, I thought it's because I might have been too engrossed in the old man's stories, but after seeing this rune my thoughts have changed, having strange feelings and anger, the burns, which rune, burns and neither phantoms nor natural runes can affect our personality this negatively, cause this one does!". The more Alex spoke his panic rose higher, he sat on his bed and held his head with both hands.

Asher was also panicking, he could not calm Alex down and he was pretty sure that rune is affecting Alex's mind right now so he ran out of the room, few minutes later Asher came back with Derek, he had already explained what he could on the way as they entered the room they saw Alex punching the walls as blood dripped from his wounded hands, he's eyes were bloodshot, the rune on his back glowed and so did his phantom rune on his chest.

Asher and Derek could see red fire like throbbing veins protruding from the rune in particular to the rest of his body, Alex Aura was different, he was very angry!.

"What kind of rune is that". Derek was shocked, the Alex right now was a different person, a very angry person. Thankfully Alex still had some sanity remaining.

"Derek", Alex hoarse voice brought Derek back to the present situation"it's very angry... Argh!!", BAM!, He punched the wall again.

"Alex, calm down and try to concentrate, ignore it and listen to my voice, please Alex listen to my voice... calm down it's okay, there's nothing to angry about, Alex calm down", Derek repeated the last words with a strong but slow tone while approaching Alex. When he reached him, Alex was completely calm but his eyes were dizzy so Derek led him to his own bed, Alex's bed was at the top and he couldn't really go there with such state, when his body touched the soft bed he slept off. All the veins disappeared and the strange rune turned dull and faint.

Derek turned and stared at Asher with squinted eyes"how did Alex get such rune?". With concern written on his face. A rune that could bring Alex to such state did not seem like a good one, that's where the confusion sets in there is no good rune and bad one.

Pacing round the room while scattering his long hair in anxiety he exhaled and said"I don't know how long we can control it, Alex was never like this before, it was only after he went to that old man's place, first he stayed there for a whole day, second he sleeps for another full day and there's something you guys haven't noticed, Alex is getting paler and all these started with him going to that old man's place, I don't trust him if he was still there I would have reported to the commander".

Derek sat on the bedside and cleaned Alex bloody hands with a towel"I have met the old man a few times and he does not seem like one to harm Alex". Derek denied Asher's accusations on the old man.

"Maybe he was fooling you two, what I believe is that, this is his fault, directly or indirectly how can Alex just read one book and such drastic changes happens from nowhere", Asher persisted in his accusations.

Derek kept silent, Asher spoke again"let's hope his rune doesn't activate in awhile also the others don't need to know about this for now, it would just make them feel the same thing we are feeling now". Derek agreed and nodded.

"But where did this rune come from, it can't just be from a book!, It needs to have a source, where would that be?", Asher asked no one in particular, Derek who was cleaning Alex wounds frowned slightly when he heard the question.

••••

Arthur and William were facing each other at the training ground for a spar.

"It's been a month and we haven't had a spar, I wonder which stage you've gotten in your shield mastery". Arthur said as he got into a good stance and pointed the wooden Lance at William. William said nothing, he only smiled and brought the large round wooden shield to his eye level, the two of them stared at each other without a word as circled. Arthur burst towards William with his Lance at his back, few meters away from William he pierced towards his shin, William just stepped back calmly he pushed his shield out a little, blocking Arthur's Lance then he turns and launched a punch towards Arthur's shoulder to disable him. Arthur smirked leaning on his spear he changes his position with a fast speed and pierced at William's blind spot. The Lance blunt tip collided with the wooden shield, a dull sound rang out, Arthur was surprised he never expected William would block his perfect attack. BAM!, This time he only managed to block William's attack with his Lance and was sent flying. Arthur shook his head and stood up, he looked at William's direction what he saw was an incoming shield, his eyes widened as he fell on his knees and and bent his body till his back touched the ground, the shield swooshed past his face with speed, he stood up immediately but William had already arrived, he punched Arthur at his face and smiled, to him this battle was over, but Arthur fell backwards again This time he used his foot to hit Williams knee causing William to also fall, their eyes flashed for a moment and their runes began to shine.

"TIME OUT!",The referee they called to watch their fight shouted"we agreed on no phantoms, it's a tie, shall we continue the second round?", He asked while staring at the entangled kids, William and Arthur looked at themselves and nodded at the same time. Seeing both of them agree the referee shouted"BEGIN!".