As Edward and Caspian were running back in the direction of Agripin, Edward asked a question that was plaguing his mind since the start of the fight. “Did the time slow down when you injured that Bloodmaw? Having to stab it in slow motions is really upsetting.”

“What are you talking about?”

“From the moment I injured that monster, I felt I absorbed something from the monster, some kind of energy was flowing to me through the daggers,” Edward explained.

“Wait. Your weapons can absorb monsters’ strength while it still alive?!” Caspian exclaimed, shocked by the revelations.

“Uhh…yeah…I may have forgotten to mention that part. So, I guess that you didn’t experience those slow-down periods of time.” Edward asked awkwardly, trying to change the subject.

“Yes, you certainly forgot to mention that,” Caspian complained, insisting on the forgot part. “Normally, you can only absorb the blood of monsters when they are dead. While they are alive, their blood carries some of their will, and it will injure you instead of making you stronger. A weapon that enables you to absorb their blood while you are still fighting them is a game-changer. It means you can simply heal from their blood directly in the fight. I better understand how you managed to survive alone in the wilds now. When I saw your daggers and when you told me you found them in the ruins, I just thought they must be particularly well made, and that they would last you for your whole life. I didn’t think they would give you an ability as well.” Caspian explained without stopping his run.

“Yeah…I experienced the healing effect firsthand. I did mention those weapons saved my life.”

“And to answer your question. No, I didn’t experience anything like the slow-down time during this fight. What you told me is weird. You can get the power of a monster once per level, and only if you are lucky and kill enough of them. But from what I saw, you already have a teleportation power. It should be impossible for you to have a second power while still in the awakening stage.” He glanced at Edward strangely. “You certainly are a weird one. The second thing that is bothering me in that story, is that to absorb a power from a monster, those monsters should have this power in the first place. If that monster could slow down the time it would have easily avoided my strikes.”

“Okay…so you don’t know what happened either,” Edward asked one last time.

“No, I don’t, you will have to figure that one on your own,” Caspian answered.

They continued to run in silence for some time. While they were running, they actually heard roars coming from the distance behind them. Seems like its friends found it. I’m glad that we managed to leave in time. But this is problematic, if each time we fight one, it calls for reinforcements we won’t be able to progress towards the ruins. But we need to solve the problem at its source, if not, more will continue to come. That would be good if we could seal those ruins shut.

“That is exactly what I wanted to avoid, for a fight to draw more of them closer to the village. But I had to fight one to judge its strength, and I didn’t expect it to last that long against me.” Caspian said begrudgingly. “But what is done is done, we will need to think of a plan to prevent them from attacking the village.”

Edward nodded silently. They continued to run, each lost in his own thoughts trying to find a solution to the monsters’ invasion. They stopped running only when they reached the edge of the forest, Agripin visible in the distance.

Once they entered the village Caspian called upon Edward. “Stay with me, we need to organize a meeting with Balin. The three of us are the only awaken here, and we have to carry out our responsibilities. We will first discuss what options we have between ourselves. Then we will have to warn the rest of the villagers. There is not much that they can do, but they have to know of the danger. There is no point to lying to them, it would only lead to more panic if there is an attack.”

“As you wish,” Edward answered, his hand fumbling awkwardly behind his neck. He wasn’t used to other people actually caring about his opinion.

“Josef, could you fetch Balin? Tell him I’m waiting for him in my office.” Caspian asked one of the guards near the door.

Josef executed the order while mumbling that it was always him that had to go fetch other people. Meanwhile, Edward and Caspian went to the barrack. Balin arrived soon after them.

“Sir, you asked me to come?” Balin asked while glancing at Edward with surprise and curiosity, realizing that he had become an awaken. He had heard of his return, but he hadn’t seen him yet until now.

“Yes, we have a situation. As you know we didn’t have any news from the expedition until Edward managed to come back. The news is not good. The expedition basically got wiped out by monsters inside ancient ruins. Those monsters have henceforth left the ruins and are roaming the forest. I left this morning to assess the situation. The monsters are quite resilient and strong, you need to imbue your weapons with aura to injure them. They don’t have any other peculiarity but it is already enough to put them on par with an awaken. They are at present expanding their territory inside the forest and they are numerous. We killed one of them but it had the time to call for reinforcements before dying, forcing us to retreat. It is only a question about time until they stumbled upon the village.” Caspian explained the situation with a serious tone.

Balin visibly tensed. “What do you have in mind? The villagers are not equipped to fight monsters of this caliber.” He asked anxiously.

“As you have noticed, Edward is now an awaken. What you don’t know is that he also got a teleportation power and has managed to master aura manipulation. We three are the only people strong enough to fight those monsters. We are not enough to fight those monsters head-on, nor to chase them all away. As I see it, we only have three choices. The first choice, we try to flee, taking the villagers with us. I’m personally against this option. Not all of the villagers would accept giving up their homes, and they are not strong enough to survive in the wild. We would need to find or build a safe place quickly. The second option is to strengthen the defenses and barricade the village. There are three of us, it is enough to keep an awaken available at all times. This could work, but we will soon have a shortage of food if the monsters decide to remain near the village. However, if they grow disinterested and leave us alone after some time, it could work. The last option is to solve the problem as its source. To find a way to block any egress from the ruins, effectively burying those monsters inside. It would be the best solution, but the difficulty is how to implement that plan.” Caspian declared not losing his calm.

Wow. He certainly didn’t lose any time. He must have been thinking about it on the way back. I’m impressed. I wouldn’t have been able to analyze the situation this rationally and this quickly. I guess being the one responsible for the security of the whole village must have put pressure on him. He has experience contemplating such scenarios.

“I agree with you, evacuating the village, to roam in the wilds in hope of finding a better place is pure folly. We would be slow, have multiple weak individuals, and rapidly face food shortages. We would make ideal prey for monsters.” Balin gave his opinion. “But staying here and fortifying the village hoping for the best doesn’t appeal to me either. But I guess we don’t have any other choices, we will have to hold up in the village, improving the defenses while trying to find a better solution to stop the beasts.” He turned to Edward. “If you can teleport, you are the most suited candidate to be a scout. I don’t have any power myself, and Caspian’s power is more offensive-oriented. Are you ready to take that responsibility?”.

I don’t feel like I have much of a choice either, but this is what I wanted to do in the first place. Hunt those beasts and avenged Adrien.

“I’m ready, I can do it. I managed to traverse the ruins alone even though they are crowded by those monsters.” Edward answered.

“Good, we are all of the same opinions. Now we have to find how to seal the ruins to prevent more of them from coming our way.” Caspian declared.

“Uhm… do you have any explosives here? It would help a lot to shut the ruins.” Edward asked.

Caspian shook his head. “No, only alchemists know how to make such things. We don’t have any here, we are too small to interest an alchemist, and we wouldn’t be able to pay for it anyway.”

“I don’t think, I will be able to collapse the entrance of the ruins by myself. The ruins are ancient but the walls are still quite sturdy. Marc tried to damage them, but he only left shallows marks.” Edward announced gloomily.

“That’s bad news. Maybe Caspian could still do something about it. Or we could simply block the entry with fallen trees. The monsters could push through but they probably won’t if they don’t have any reason to.” Balin proposed another idea.

“That won’t do, I’m not able to kill one of those monsters fast enough to prevent it from calling for help. If I want to reach the ruins, I would have to sneak past all of them without getting noticed. Moreover, cutting trees, deep inside the forest is a bad idea. Things are different on the border, but deep inside I have no idea what cutting down trees could provoke.” Caspian explained.

“Is the forest self-aware?” Edward asked surprised.

“I don’t think so. But it does have its own aura. And some powerful beasts that live inside see it as their territory. They don’t mind if some small humans venture inside from time to time, but I have no idea how they would react if we began to damage their territory, and I don’t particularly want to find out.” Caspian answered.

“Then if we can’t block the exit this way, nor destroy the entrance, maybe we can seal it with magic.” Edward proposed another idea.

“I don’t know of anyone capable of practicing such magic, and we certainly don’t have any such magic in the village. Magicians are not exactly common. As you can see, even awakens are more frequent than magicians, and there are only three of us in the whole village.” Balin retorted.

“Actually, I may know where to find such magic. There is a library in the ruins with numerous tomes of different knowledge. In particular, the race who build this place seemed to be especially talented in the magic realm. I could go there and see what I can find. I’m able to read their language to some stroke of luck during the expedition.” Edward said, defending his idea.

Caspian and Balin looked at each other. “That could work, at least it is the best lead we have so far.” Caspian decided.