As he was surrounded, Edward run toward the Bloodmaws in front of him and teleported behind them before they could swipe him with their powerful claws. I can’t lead them back to Agripin, I have to lose them before leaving the forest. I will have to continue deeper into the forest for now. The Bloodmaws were surprised to see their prey disappears in front of their eyes. However, they reacted quickly and run back after Edward. A fast-paced chase ensued, Edward was slaloming and teleporting between the trees with the monsters on his heels.

He was able to maintain his lead, but that was pretty much it. Just like he escaped from the ruins, he tried to make the Bloodmaws lose sight of him, but there were too many of them. When one lost sight of Edward and had to slow down to find him back, the others continued to run after him. Edward noticed the problem and was thinking of a way to escape.

The group after me is too large. They are not staying in a single line so it is harder to lose them. But the situation is not dire yet, they are not gaining on me either. It’s still fine, this is more time for Balin and Caspian. If I really have to escape, I could teleport high up behind a tree in the hope they miss me. But if they do spot me, I will be in trouble and my lead will be gone.

As the chase continued, Edward and his pursuers run deeper and deeper inside the forest. The only time I went this deep into this forest was with the expedition to discover the ruins. I hope I don’t awaken another disaster like the Bloodmaws. It should be fine as long as I don’t blast my aura around. I did go quite deep into the forest near Shele Nalore and everything went fine. He then thought of the web-covered area he saw from the mountain point of view. Well, okay, maybe I didn’t go deep enough to face the most disturbing and dangerous monsters. God, I hate spiders.

The biotope was changing gradually as the chase went on. The trees were older, getting both taller and wider. But at the same time, they were more spaced out, which mean it was easier for the Bloodmaws to run after Edward. Shit, they are starting to gain on me now. I thought the environment would get more treacherous the deeper I go inside, but it is actually the reverse. What is going on here?

That’s when Edward felt something strange, he was running and yet he felt as if the soil on his left was still the same no matter how fast he run. It was as if he wasn’t running but rather staying in place. But that was clearly not the case because he was still running past the trees and this strange phenomenon didn’t happen from his right side. If the ground doesn’t seem to be moving even though I’m indeed moving... does it mean that the ground is moving at the same pace as me? Edward felt goosebumps run all over his skin and he almost slowdown in fright even with the Bloodmaws running after him.

As cold sweat was running down his back, he teleported high up behind a tree, piercing the tree’s bark with his dagger to hold himself in place before immediately suppressing his aura. He tried to be as insignificant as possible while repressing a shiver.

The Bloodmaws kept their momentum and run past him. However, they weren’t dumb enough not to realize that their prey had disappeared. They slow down and stopped, staying in the area and trying to find him. They may have managed it if they had more time, but that’s when a high pitch shriek tore apart the forest. The shriek was so close by and so loud, that the leaves on the ground were sent flying making the sound waves visible to the naked eye.

What Edward had thought as moving ground was revealing itself, a huge serpentine shape was slowly uncoiling itself, dominating the Bloodmaws in size. An impressive wyrm was confronting them, the creature was a good twenty meters long, and its scales were the same brown as the soil, with a pattern remembering of the fallen leaves blanketing the forest. Its girth was around two meters, it had followed them while Edward and the Bloodmaws were focused on each other. Its sheer size should have made it hard to miss, but its scale patterns were the best for camouflage, it was hard to distinguish from the forest ground. Moreover, as Edward had made the experience, it was hard to process something from this size moving next to you, it was so unexpected that by the time you realized what it truly was, the monster was already upon you. Its size and speed meant that you were basically finished once it managed to get close.

The wyrm eyed the Bloodmaws scornfully, it was the true apex predator in this part of the forest, the Bloodmaws were nothing more than prey for it. It had been living in this region for so long that it had actually partially shaped the local environment. If the trees were more space out in this area it was because the wyrm was smashing through any small trees that tried to grow when it was hunting for prey. The Bloodmaws did realize that they couldn’t measure up to the wyrm, as its shadow was literally covering them, but they still roared in defiance before charging at it in an effort to kill it. The Bloodmaws were obviously weaker, but there were still seven of them even though two of them were injured by Edward.

Edward felt a drop of cold sweat slid along his spine. Holy moly!! I’m not ready to face that. I’m glad I had the instinct to hide away when I realized something wasn’t right. That thing was right next to me. I’m sure that if it wanted to it could have simply swallowed me whole. I’m still alive only because I’m a lot less appetizing and smaller than Bloodmaws. Edward watched as one Bloodmaw was torn asunder by the wyrm. The wyrm had contracted itself before expanding so fast that Edward only saw a flash of brown, the Bloodmaw had no way to react, and was caught in the wyrm’s maw. The massive beast chewed a few times before gobbling down what was left of the said Bloodmaw.

The others tried to take it down, clawing at it from different sides. The wyrm was too large to avoid the attacks, but it didn’t bother it that much. The Bloodmaws’ claws prove ineffective, leaving only faint scratches on the wyrm’s scales. However, their charge did push and destabilize the wyrm, they were so heavy that the wyrm couldn’t fully ignore them. It didn’t let himself be pushed down, and he twisted himself to both push back the Bloodmaws and regain its stability.

Edward shook his head. As impressive as this fight is, I can’t stay here. I should go while they are distracting each other if I don’t want to end up as a snack on their menu. Maintaining his aura suppressed he left as quietly as possible, before accelerating once he was far away. He didn’t have any trouble finding his way back this time, as the chase with the Bloodmaws had left more than enough tracks. I finally understand what Caspian meant when he said that old monsters inhabited this forest and that they should better be left alone. The village can barely sustain a small wave of Bloodmaws, a monster like that would destroy it without a doubt. It is best not to disturb them and to let them leave their life in their territory.

As Edward was running back to the village when he wasn't far from the edge of the forest, he heard the sound of fighting mixed with the roars of Bloodmaws. Shit another group of Bloodmaws must have caught up to Balin and Edward. They are just too numerous, not all of them went after me. I must hurry. He accelerated to reach the fight as soon as possible, however, he kept his aura suppressed and he didn’t reveal himself immediately. Balin and Caspian were fighting a small group of three Bloodmaws. Caspian had set down the body he was carrying to be able to fight. The two of them seem to be able to hold their own, they were not in immediate danger, but the longer the fight lasted, the riskier it was for other Bloodmaws to be attracted by the noise.

I shouldn’t show myself just now. They are good fighters, they can hold on without me. I should stay hidden and get as close as possible until I can teleport directly to one of them. I’m not good for frontal fights, I have more of a hit-and-run fighting style. However, I can be quite dangerous if I have the occasion to settle an ambush.

Edward slowly crept closer, until he was at the right distance. Caspian was still brimming with power, slashing vigorously at any Bloodmaw that manage to get close to him. Meanwhile, Balin was dealing with one Bloodmaw only, cleverly avoiding its attacks, and retaliating when he got an opening. Just as one of the Bloodmaws was pushed back by Caspian, Edward teleported onto it and stabbed it as deep as he could before actively absorbing its power. The monster roared in surprise and pain, Caspian noticed the commotion, and before the other Bloodmaws could react, he cleaved right through the monster’s head with a powerful downward swing.

It was now, a three versus two fight in favor of Edward’s side. The latter used the same tactic, teleporting on a Bloodmaw while it was busy with Caspian, injuring it severely, and Caspian finishing it with a strong blow. The last Bloodmaw decided to ignore Balin to face what he perceived as the most dangerous threat, but even though Balin was less remarkable, he was still an experienced fighter. As the Bloodmaw diverted its attention, he skewered it with his sword with a deep stabbing attack. The monster wasn’t dead yet, but it was in no condition to fight and was killed soon after.

“You came back right in time,” Caspian told Edward.

“I was worried you would have trouble making it back. But here you are, helping us again.” Balin added.

Edward beamed with joy internally but end up muttering something along with the like of “It’s nothing, I’m just doing my duty.”

Balin and Caspian both laughed when they saw him being so embarrassed by compliments.

“Alright, good job, now let’s not waste any more time we still have to bring the body to the village,” Caspian announced, regaining his composure.

Edward paused, seeing as there were now three more Bloodmaws corpses and realizing that they weren’t that far from the village. “Actually, let me quickly add a durability rune on those corpses. We are not that far, we can make several trips quickly. It would be a waste to leave them like that.”

Caspian looked at the forest’s edge, a part of the sky was even visible through the trees. “Sounds right to me. It’s better to have more, I don’t think one would have been enough to raise someone from the quiescent to the awaken level. And seeing how much trouble we had to get a single Bloodmaw we won’t be able to hunt like that regularly. It may be better to endure another monster's wave rather than expose us like that. The problem is how to adjust the size of how the monster attack. We can’t let them gather together before attacking us. We may have to provoke them regularly so that we only have to deal with small groups. But that’s enough digression, for now, let’s get those back to the village first.”