The rest of the day and even the whole night went without any incident. Caspian had given the order to wake him up only if Bloodmaws were spotted near the village. Considering the number of those monsters they had killed, the surroundings were safe for a short period of time at least. On top of that, attacks from regular monsters had also stopped, they were too busy fighting the Bloodmaws. That let him get the rest that he direly needed. Awakens required less sleep but that didn’t mean they could go several days with no sleep without consequences. The village wasn’t safe yet, they had managed to get one more awaken, which was a good thing, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Besides, the new awakens would need to master aura before becoming fully effective against the Bloodmaws.

The next day, Balin, Caspian, Wallace, and Edward gathered together to decide their next step.

“We should initiate an attack before we let them time to gather together. Wallace and Balin, you should stay in the village. Edward and I will go into the forest to provoke a Bloodmaw. Knowing them, a single one is enough, it will roar and attract any other Bloodmaws in the area. Then we will bring it back to the village and fight all the monsters that will come with it. This way, we won’t even have to carry their corpses, they will come to us on their own.” Caspian proposed.

“Is that safe cap’tain? We don’t know how many monsters will come at us,” Wallace asked.

“Exactly, that’s why we need to do it as soon as possible. Right now, we are sure that their number in the vicinity is low thanks to our excursion yesterday. We have to decrease their number before more of them can gather. If we don’t do it now, it will be too late.” Caspian told him calmly.

“Alright. Go on then, we will wait for your return.”

“Oh, don’t think that your job will be easy just because you are staying in the village. Some Bloodmaws could attack before we come back. If that’s the case, I hope the runes added by Edward will be enough to hold the walls. Their first attack has shown us, that normal wood walls won’t hold them.”

The group got ready, Balin and Wallace keeping the village while Caspian and Edward left for the Vipin forest. “How do we proceed to find a Bloodmaw, are we just running around in hope of finding one?” asked Edward.

“Yes, unless you want to blast your aura around, which is one of the fastest ways to get yourself kill.” Caspian retorted.

“I did that once. Yeah, that’s a bad idea, agreed.”

“I’m actually surprised that you survived that. Humans only occupy a small part of the world. Some things are better left undisturbed.”

“Actually, I would have been dead if I didn’t have my teleporting power,” Edward admitted.

This time, they had to go farther in the forest, as they didn’t manage to find a Bloodmaw immediately. The further we go, the more chance we have to attract a large group of Bloodmaws. I know we made a dent in their number, but still, I don’t think that’s good for us to go that far inside. In their plan, they didn’t take into account that it would be harder to find a Bloodmaw in the vicinity since they were less numerous now.

At last, they finally managed to find a Bloodmaw when they were at a one-hour distance from the village. That’s quite a long way to run back with a monster chasing after you, especially when you are not allowed to kill the monster in question. The Bloodmaw noticed them, roared, and charged at them. Caspian and Edward left the path to use the trees as obstacles to slow down the monster. After all, it was running faster than them. However, they didn’t stay far off from the path, after what Edward had told them, they didn’t want to go deep inside the forest, as there was the risk of encountering really dangerous monsters like a wyrm.

The trees were slowing down the Bloodmaw a little, but it wasn’t enough. At one point the monster got close enough to Edward to jump at him. Thankfully, Edward was able to monitor the monster with his aura, he simply teleported to the side to avoid the monster, the teleportation not even slowing him down as he kept his momentum. However, since they were some distance away from the village, the monster had the time to repeat the process several times, gaining on them once again. Each time it was leaping at them, either Caspian was doing a barrel roll or Edward was teleporting away. They were able to avoid it without danger but it was still annoying and frustrating. After all, they could have easily killed the monster instead of allowing it to chase them.

In the end, Caspian used his power, his body strengthening with bludgeoning muscles, before he bashed the monster on the side, stunning it with surprise. He then took out his sword and aim it at the forelimb of the beast, gashing it deeply enough to slow down the beast, but not enough that it wouldn’t be able to follow them.

Once that was done, it became a stroll in the park, the monster wasn’t able to catch up to them, so they just had to run in front of it to guide it back to the village. They even slowed down a little so as not to lose it. This time, it was the monster who got increasingly frustrated, with prey prancing in front of him just out of its reach. He roared with increasing frequency and anger.

It was then that other roars answered it. Caspian and Edward looked at each other. They were still five minutes away from the village. “You go first, we won’t be able to lead several of those monsters without engaging them. I have a teleportation power, I will be fine.” Edward told Caspian who simply nodded before accelerating, leaving him behind. After what Edward had pulled, escaping from a whole seven Bloodmaws after him, Caspian wasn’t going to underestimate him.

After two minutes, the other monsters caught up to Edward, he was able to sense them with his aura. Several Bloodmaws ran both on his left and his right to tear him down. As they were getting closer and closer Edward had an idea. With a stupid grin on his face, he teleported on one of the monsters after him. Not to injure it, but rather to ride it like a rodeo. He still stabbed it with his daggers to have a handhold, but he didn’t activate his absorbing power. The monster's power was still flowing into him, but at a rather slow pace compared to active use.

The beast slowed down to shake it off, but Edward simply teleported to another Bloodmaw that was now in front of him. In this instance, the whole group slow down, and Edward had to teleport away, going back to running. He couldn’t help but laugh internally. Why bother running, when you can instead ride the monster who is after your life?

Edward and the monsters chasing him left the forest, reaching the grassland in front of the village. The monsters accelerated as there were no more trees to impede them. Edward winced, he teleported once again on one of the Bloodmaws, since it was the easiest way to reach the village without having to avoid their attacks continuously. However, for once, instead of slowing down, the monster rolled on itself as soon as it sensed Edward on his back, not even bothering to decelerate.

Fuck, my teleportation is still in cool down. Thanks to the partial slow down of time provided by the power he absorbed from the Bloodmaw, he was fast enough to jump from it before being crushed by the monster’s weight. He crashed to the ground and bounced back before landing again on the soil. This hurt…He immediately teleported away, before the other monsters could follow up with attacks of their own. It’s not promising if those monsters are learning. Until now, we always killed them when we fought them. It was the same with those Teleportcrows, those monsters may be stupid, but if they managed to learn how to become devious, it will be tricky to fight them.

Edward had no choice but to get back on his feet and to continue to run, not taking the risk anymore to teleport on top of the Bloodmaws. This meant that he had to avoid their attack regularly, he was able to monitor them with his aura, and he had his teleportation power, but it was still tricky because several of them were after him at the same time. At one point he had to do a barrel roll right after teleporting to avoid a follow-up attack from one of the monsters, they were beginning to chain attacks. Luckily, Edward was now very close to the village. He could even see Wallace, Balin, and Caspian on top of the wall.

Caspian had reached the village too and had gone up the wall to both avoid the first charge of the monsters and to get the high ground. He had arrived soon enough for the guards to have closed the gates behind him. Edward was about to reach the gate when he saw a faint shimmering in front of him. Shit, the block runes, I don’t know how to add a selective filter so that it lets me go inside. No choice, I’m a bit far but I still have to attempt to teleport beyond the gate from here. Edward projected his aura which was, luckily for him, not blocked by the runes. He was able to perceive the environment beyond the gates, his aura had never been the limiting factor for teleporting.

Edward activated his power and appeared safely inside the village. Was the distance really ten meters? It felt longer than that. Can I teleport farther now? I have to check it, but it would make sense as well. I have killed and absorbed the power of several Bloodmaws already since my escape from the ruins.

As he was thinking about the implications of his power evolving, he heard the monster crash against the runes’ barrier behind him. However, the gates didn’t even tremor, the runes had manifested a barrier in front of the gates, preserving them from the impact.

Edward quickly climbed the ladder, to join the others on top of the wall. He hadn’t taken the time to count them while they were chasing him, but now he was able to see them all in a glance. Six of them were heaped up in front of the barrier. Their charge had been stopped, halting their momentum. That didn’t make them give up though. They were now furiously clawing at the runes’ barrier, which was rippling from the attacks. It won’t hold on for long. Tche, it seems simple block runes won’t be enough to seal the ruins. It is only providing temporary protection. At least it’s enough to halt them for a moment.

He looked at Caspian and Balin who smiled back at him, they were already prepared to join the melee and deal with the Bloodmaws.