After according himself some rest to get back the sleep that he was direly needed, Edward dived into the tome he brought back from the ruins. He was relieved to discover that this book was from a practical and not just a theoretical standpoint. If he had found another book, like the one discoursing about the nature of auras, the trip would have been in vain. Theoretical knowledge was important to progress in a field, but that wouldn’t help someone trying to solve an immediate problem.

The first part of the volume was describing the inner working of runes, and the difficulties involved in the formation of any rune spells. Runes were representing concepts more than anything else. Each rune was the expression of an individual concept, for example, there was a rune for the concept of fire and another for the concept of movement. To create a magical artifact like a fire wand, enabling you to throw fire bolts at your enemies, one would have to inscribe and link the runes together. And that was particularly tricky, runes weren’t a real language, it was lacking coordinating conjunctions.

You couldn’t write something like moving the fire from point A to the general direction of point B. Instead, you had to link the two runes together to form another rune expressing the concept of moving fire. And the meaning of this concept could vary from person to person, so according to what you really wanted to do, there was a multitude of ways to link the two runes together. The more runes you wanted to use, the more difficult was the spell, and the more variations you had in the runes pattern.

However, that didn’t mean you could design the runes however you wanted. There were specific rules to follow for a rune to be functional. Basically, a rune was a way for the ambient mana to interact with reality, changing it in the process. The author didn’t know the specifics of why the mana was interacting with such shapes, he left that part to more experienced scholars, and instead focus on the more practical aspects of runes. By trials and errors, they had managed to isolate some general rules about runes designs.

The first part of the book was a general presentation of the runes, explaining the basics behind runes. The second part of the book, and the thickest part by far, was explaining the working of all those different rules and how to link runes together. And at last, the end of the book was describing common runes that could be used individually or together for the weaving of simple runes spells. Each rune was documented with the concept it represented. The tome also explained one of the most blatant weaknesses of runes.

Since they were the expression of concepts through interacting with ambient mana, if that mana was removed, the runes simply became useless. Mana was acting like the battery powering the runes, a rune without mana was like a computer without electricity. Paradoxically, that is also how the author was able to write those runes in the book without activating them. Some runes were engraved on the book to dissipate nearby ambient mana. If there was enough mana for runes to activate, those ones were the first to activate, and there would be no mana left for the other runes.

That’s why the author advised not to base a defense on runes alone. A barrier made with runes and left unmanned and unprotected could be slowly drained of its power by anyone with a basic knowledge of runes. Moreover, if a rune was destroyed, its effect would stop too. Runes had to be settled in secured or hidden areas.

One common aspect of runes spells was to incorporate a part to gather and store the ambient mana. However, the strength of a rune wasn’t fully dependent on the amount of mana. Other factors had to be taken into account like the concentration and quality of the mana rather than its sole quantity. Another factor was the specific design pattern chosen for the runes spell, some patterns were more effective than others. The mana reliance of runes could also vary, some runes were able to work even with a low amount of mana, their strength varying with the amount of mana, and others needed a fixed amount of mana before being able to activate.

The tome outlined that runes could be made with almost any materials. However, rune activation was deteriorating the material on which the rune was made, slowly degrading it over time. This could lead to the destruction of said rune, rendering it unfunctional. Or the rune could still be working which was ironically worst, because the shape of the rune changed and its effect changed with it, making it completely unpredictable. And nobody wanted to face unknown magic when activating a spell, spells were supposed to help you rather than explode on your face after all.

Runes weren’t invincible either, the law of conservation of energy still applied. The energy provided by ambient mana wasn’t unlimited, and so was the effect of the runes. If more damage was done to a barrier that the ambient mana could sustain, the barrier would collapse, unless of course it was fed with other sources of mana. Edward frowned when he read that part, with how complicated the rules are for linking runes together I won’t be able to design any complicated runes spell. However, I don’t know if a barrier made with singles runes will be able to hold against Bloodmaws. They certainly don’t lack in strength.

Edward skipped through the rest of the book, directly going at the end, to see what kind of runes were recorded inside. Since they are talking of barriers, for example, they should have a rune corresponding to that concept. The runes record looked like a lexicon, in the preamble, a warning was informing that this wasn’t a complete inventory of the different runes in existence, just the more common ones were present here. The runes were organized by types rather than by alphabetical order, however, it didn’t mean that runes classified in one section couldn’t be used in another.

Let’s see, elemental runes, support runes, environmental runes, barriers. Yes, this is it. Wow, a whole section is dedicated to barriers, I was expecting to find a single rune for it instead. The Block rune stops anything from passing through. Yes, that’s what I was thinking for a barrier. The Durability rune must be to reinforce a barrier. The Filtration rune, wait, what would this be something listed in the barrier section? Oh, for a selective barrier maybe. Yes, makes sense, a barrier that blocks both enemies and allies can be a double-edged sword. The Protection rune, umm it sounds a bit redundant with the durability one, but there must be a reason for it to be listed here. I will have to experience it.

Actually, now that I think about it, with the difficulty to reach the ruins increasing each time, I should test my solution before leaving. I have to be sure it will work, otherwise, we would be going into enemy territory and taking risks for nothing. As Edward was musing about the runes and their different implication, he heard a sudden ruckus outside, with several people shouting. I should better check what this is all about, maybe Balin and Caspian need me.

Edward barged out of his chamber, trying to find out the source of this commotion. The shouting was coming from the south section of the walls, facing the forest. Edward didn’t lose any time and run toward it, quickly climbing the ladder leading to the top of the wall. From there he had a good point of view to see the defenses and the forest. The villagers had managed to reinforce the defenses, deepening the trenches in front of the walls and burying wooden pikes inside. Heavy rocks had also been placed at the base of the wooden walls to reinforce them.

However, even though the defenses were very good for a village, it wouldn’t be enough to stop a horde of Bloodmaws. For that, the defenses would have needed to be transformed completely instead of simply reinforced. The villagers had neither the time nor the means for such a project.

The main weakness of the defenses was the gates. The village didn’t have any drawbridge, without that, they couldn’t dig trenches in front of the entrances without sealing themselves inside. Some barricades had been installed in front of the gates, but that would only slow down monsters and not stop them. No guards were positioned to man the barricade as that would have only led to their death. But every delay counted, the more time the Bloodmaws were contained outside, the more time it gave for awakens to deal with them.

Edward was about to ask what was going on when he saw it by himself, the Bloodmaws were attacking. A group of five Bloodmaws had left the forest and were traveling toward the village. Shit, they are here already. I didn’t even have the time to study the runes properly, otherwise, I would have been able to reinforce the gates. They won’t hold without Balin, Caspian, or me defending them. A Bloodmaw's hide is too thick, they won’t be able to injure them without using aura.

Edward noticed that Balin was already there, and he quickly joined him. “Hi, what’s the plan? the defenses won’t be able to hold them for long if they attack the gates.” He asked Balin.

“Seeing their size and speed, I agree with you. Only we can fight them but we are outnumbered. We will need the guards to distract their attention. If we split the group, each one of us can take one down. We will have to take them down quickly, to be able to deal with the rest of the group when they realized the guards can't harm them. But let’s wait for now, if we are lucky, they will only probe the village and leave it alone.”

Yet, against Balin’s wishes, the Bloodmaws were more aggressive than curious and they charged straight at the village’s gates. “Shit!! Well, we don’t have a choice now. Everybody, listen to me. You won’t be able to injure them, but we need you to get their attention. Don’t waste your ammo, you only need to kite them around the walls. Edward and I will take the two from the middle.”

The guards gave a head not with a stern look before getting in position. The preparations were over, everybody was ready, and it was time to fight.