As the Bloodmaws were charging toward the gates, the guards shot arrows aimed at the flank of the group to get their attention and separate them. They aimed right, but the arrows simply bounced back on the Bloodmaws' thick skin. That didn't harm them in the slightest but that was expected. However, that didn’t even get their attention, which mean the plan wasn’t working, the group of monsters was staying together. Balin took a bow from of the guards, under Edward's focused gaze, he used his aura, imbuing the bow and arrow with it. He extended the bow, aiming, before releasing the arrow still imbued with his aura. The arrow planted itself in the shoulder of the left-most Bloodmaw, drawing blood. The monster roared with more outrage than pain, finally giving its full attention to the guards on the walls. I didn’t even know that one could maintain one’s aura even after an object left our contact. “Nice shot.” Edward declared.

Balin gave the bow back to the guard. “Run, while you still have its attention, we must separate them. We won’t be able to fight all of them at the same time if they stay together.” He ordered the guard. The latest followed the order, the Bloodmaw leaving the group, and following the archer alongside the walls to get its vengeance. That’s one less to deal with for now.

The other Bloodmaws didn’t stop and they already reached the wooden barricades filled with spikes in front of the gates. The barricades exploded into splinters, not even managing to hurt the Bloodmaws, but they still managed to stop their charge. Edward and Balin looked at each other “Now, it is time for our part of the job.” Balin said before asking another guard to inform Caspian of the situation. “I would have preferred for us to be able to deal with this situation on our own. But we have to warn Caspian. Even if we end up exhausting him in the long run by overlapping our guard duty, it is better than letting the Bloodmaws tear the defenses and enter the village.” He explained to Edward.

“We will have to take care of two of them each. I think we should put our safety first if it gets too dangerous. We can stall them until Caspian comes if needs be.” Edward replied.

“Yes, it is not the best, but it’s what we have. Let’s do this”. Balin threw a rope around one of the wooden pole tips, before jumping and rappelling down the wall. Edward smiled when he saw that, before directly jumping from the wall without even a rope under the aghast looks of the guards. He let himself be taken by gravity, his fall accelerating, before teleporting above one of the Bloodmaws, landing on him daggers first. Both Edward and the Bloodmaws flinched from the impact, but Edward didn’t let go and used the opportunity to add some more wounds to the monster before having to teleport away as it tried to shake him off.

Balin had just climbed down the wall and was turning to face the Bloodmaws standing only a few meters in front of him. Two of them charged at him at the same time, Balin had to do a barrel roll to avoid them, the Bloodmaws pass him by and crushed him against the wall. The rampart shook from the impact, the guards on top of it having to hold on to their grip to avoid being shaken off. While they were having their backs facing him, Balin swiped at them with his sword, managing to injure both of them slightly.

Meanwhile, Edward was avoiding the only Bloodmaw who wasn’t injured yet. The two Bloodmaws were attacking him, either successively or at the same time. Edward was saving his teleportation power for emergencies, to avoid a blow, or to get on the offensive. His reach was ridiculously small compared to the monsters due to their sheer size. To wound them, he had to walk into their reach while avoiding their attacks. For that he had to be faster than them and anticipate their movement, Edward was a good boxer, but he wasn’t trained to fight against inhuman monsters. This was something that was still too hard for him to do. So instead, he was relying on his teleportation to get close to them.

His favorite trick was to teleport onto their back. When he was this close to them, their size became an inconvenience rather than a boon. They had trouble dislodging him, they had to roll on the ground to attempt to squeeze him, or they had to get help from another Bloodmaw to do so. However, Edward had also his fair share of trouble. Since there were two of them, he had difficulties landing a good strike to their head, the other Bloodmaw was always getting in the way. Moreover, his teleportation power had a slight delay between each teleportation. He had to be extra careful not to get hit while his power was unavailable. One bad hit could be enough to put him out of the fight.

Luckily for him, each time he was injuring them with his daggers, the slow down time was getting active for a short instance. With this help, he was able to analyze his surroundings and avoid being surprised by a blind hit after teleportation. He was slowly but consistently whittling them down. Even if Caspian didn’t come to his help, he would be able to kill them both as long as he stayed focused and didn’t get surprised by an attack.

On the other hand, Balin was having more difficulty. He didn’t have any power to rely on, and he was only able to hold on thanks to his experience. He had never fought Bloodmaws before, but he had his fair share of fights with dark wolves. The guard on the wall was trying to help him too, whenever they could they were fighting arrows at the monsters. This didn’t have much effect, but it could distract them for a moment. One group of guards had left to monitor the last Bloodmaw who was still running after the archer alongside the walls.

The monster was far faster than the guard, he was occasionally jumping over the trenches to reach the wall. After a jump, he was bouncing back from it or falling in the trenches on the wooden pikes. The pikes weren’t enough to injure him, but they prevented him from getting a good spot to get over the wall. The walls were four-meter high, but even from a distance, the monster was able to jump two meters high, leaving impressive claw marks on the wooden poles.

While Balin was struggling to hold on, Caspian finally came to give his assistance. He stood on the wall, assessing the situation before joining the fight. He used his power, his body surging with muscles and growing noticeably larger. He then took his sword with both hands and jumped from the wall directly to one of the Bloodmaw harassing Balin. Balin was the closest to the wall, so the monsters attacking him were within reach of Caspian from the wall, the ones attacking Edward were too far away for him to help.

He landed with a big thump directly on one aghast Bloodmaw who vomited a huge amount of purple blood. Caspian had landed in a kneeling knight pose, the sword turned toward the ground, and had impaled the monster, nailing it to the ground. He was like a hero delivering his judgment to demons from the abyss. He slowly got up, retrieving his sword in the process, while gradually increasing and blasting his aura. The severely wounded Bloodmaw collapsed in a building pool of blood, left to die from blood loss.

The different combatants had stopped the fight and were watching him, speechless from his entry. The Bloodmaws even retreated a few steps before his intimidating aura, shocked by his sudden irruption, and trying to understand how to process this new threat. This moment of silence didn’t last however, the three Bloodmaws all charged at Caspian at the same time. In the end, they decided to face the bigger threat first, dismissing their previous opponents.

Caspian side-stepped the first Bloodmaw before taking the brunt of the second one’s charge. He managed to stop the charge, but he was now pressed against the wooden wall with the weight of a Bloodmaw on him. Balin rushed to help him, preventing the last Bloodmaw from ganging up on Caspian. Edward also used the opportunity, for once that he had a clear shot he wouldn’t miss it. He teleported on the Bloodmaw holding up Caspian and managed to pierce its skull with both daggers. He enjoyed the stream of energy coursing through him from his daggers, before jumping back.

Now that the Bloodmaw was dead, and that it was only a dead weight pressing him down, Caspian used his impressive strength to push the carcass away. Only two monsters were left on the battlefield. Between the three of them, they made short work of the Bloodmaws. While Balin was occupying one, Caspian took care of the other, piercing it deeply with one stab from its blade. Edward then teleported on its back to finish it. They easily repeated the process for the last one who was quickly minced to pieces.

Just as they were releasing a breath of relief, the fifth and last Bloodmaw arrived. It was still running after the guard that it believed had injured it. The monster had already managed to run for a complete round of the village, it was now back at its starting point. The Bloodmaw slow down as it realized that the others accompanying it were dead and that it was now facing three unidentified individuals. That didn’t stop it from charging at them, the monster too dumb, or too angry to realize that he would die like the rest of them. The group avoided its charge while staying close enough to manage to injure it on the way. The monster had only the time to turn around from its charge before getting slain by the three of them.

Those monsters are really dumb. But they are outright tough, I’m having trouble just dealing with two of them at the same time. We would have been in a difficult situation if Caspian hadn’t arrived. I wouldn’t have been able to kill the Bloodmaws I was fighting before the last one comes back. And from them, we would have probably lost the fight. Facing several opponents of this kind is tough for me. My battle style is more compatible with ambushes. I can teleport while a monster hasn’t noticed me and deliver a critical strike. Even against a tough opponent, I can whittle it down slowly, but with several, at the same time I’m forced to teleport to avoid some hits, and that gives me less opportunity to go on the offensive. I will have to find a way to correct this weakness or to avoid such situations from happening in the future.