Edward was inscribing the runes as fast as he could. But at the same time, he couldn’t go too fast, each rune had to be drawn accordingly to the blueprint. If there was a mistake there was no going back, and the whole rune spell would be ruined. He was staying focused on his task, trying to ignore the incoming roars getting closer and closer.

Caspian heard the roars echoing and bouncing from the corridor’s wall before a red wave rushed towards him. Due to the corridor’s small size, only one Bloodmaw was able to charge at a time. However, there was certainly more than one Bloodmaw rushing at them. The whole corridor was filled to the brim with them, a wall of claws and teeth hustling to tear them apart.

Caspian dug his sword into the floor in front of him, hiding behind it, and using it as an anchor. The sword wasn’t able to go deep inside the ground due to its hardness, but it was better than nothing. The monster’s wave hit him. Caspian tried to hold, but his sword was flung away from its position due to the impact. Despite the forces at stake, and while being pushed away, he managed to hold his sword as it was cast away from the floor.

He was pushed back for several meters but he had managed to stop the charge. Caspian straightened his body, a trickle of blood flowing from his torso. For an instance, there was a pause, then the fight resumed with Caspian charging back at the monsters, his sword lined horizontally in front of him. He impaled the first monster but his blade wasn’t long enough to injure the ones further away.

The monsters didn’t care that one of them was critically injured, they continued to push to get to Caspian. A game of pull and push began with the injured Bloodmaw in the middle. Being sandwiched between both groups, it wasn’t long before he expired.

Caspian was slowly being pushed away, even if he put all his weight and muscles to the task, he couldn’t compete in strength with several Bloodmaws against him. Meanwhile, Balin had finished his fight on his side. However, he couldn’t leave to help Caspian as more monsters could come anytime, and he didn’t have any token to protect himself from the runes once they would be deployed. He could only watch anxiously as Caspian was pushed, feet sliding on the floor, ever closer to Edward.

As Caspian was about to reach the runes inscriptions, Edward finished the last straw. All the runes glowed blue for a second before returning to normal. As everybody was wondering if it worked, a faint barrier appeared in front of the runes. Caspian was pushed through but the Bloodmaws after him were stopped. At the same time, the drain rune activated as the monsters had entered its range of action. It was feeding off the monster’s lifeforce and sending it to the barrier’s runes, reinforcing it in the process.

They all look at each other before exploding in cheers. They had finally done it, the Bloodmaws were sealed and they only had the stragglers to deal with. Everything would soon be back to normal.

“You really scared us this time, at one point I thought you wouldn’t be able to finish the runes in time,” Balin told Edward with relief.

“It’s all thanks to Caspian, if he hadn’t been there to hold them, I would never have enough time to settle the barrier.” Edward praised Caspian heartfully.

“Those things sure pushed hard. It’s the first push competition that I was about to lose.” Caspian laughed.

While they were discussing with each other, the Bloodmaws were still trying to get to them. However, the dead monster between them and the barrier acted as a buffer, preventing them from attacking the barrier directly. The barrier was holding without any signs of distress. As the monsters were persisting in their attacks, they started to grow weaker and weaker under the effect of the drain rune. Finally, they collapsed on the floor, all their energy drained to supply the barrier blocking them. Their corpses added to the initial buffer in front of the barrier.

“Well, that was something.” Balin declared while watching the last Bloodmaw collapsing.

“Give, me sometimes, I still need to install the same barrier at the entrance of the ruins. Otherwise, any random monster would be able to destroy the barrier I just inscribed. The runes are not protected. Oh, and I have some ointment I bought from old Simon the herbalist, you should use it for your injury.” Edward told Caspian.

“Thanks. But won’t it be dangerous if you put in place a drain rune aimed toward the forest?” Caspian asked him concerned.

Edward winced. “Yes…it will be. But I have to do it, a simple barrier won’t hold against a strong monster. And I don’t want all of our hard work to fall to pieces. It was already complicated enough to reach the ruins and seal them once. I don’t want to repeat the process a second time. I will put some warning signs in case someone does trade in this area.”

Caspian and Balin guarded him while he was putting the second barrier in place. They actually stood further away, as Balin still didn’t have a token to be identified as an ally by the barrier. They only had to kill a single Bloodmaw in the time it took Edward to settle everything. Following this fight, more noise came from inside the ruins, but it seems the pile of Bloodmaw’s corpses did its job, and the monster didn’t try to go past the barrier.

Their group spend the night safely between the two barriers, the travel time was too long to do a round trip in one day, and there was no safer place than where they were right now. Even the village wasn’t as protected. The three of them alternated guard duty but nothing of interest happened during the night. They stood up refreshed after a good night of rest.

They went back to the village, pleased with themselves, knowing they had managed to contain the Bloodmaws infestation looming over their mind for several weeks already. Now that this ordeal was over, everything seemed brighter. The future was full of possibilities, with so many awakens, the guards would be able to safely organize an expedition in the forest to hunt for monsters. Agripin would never lack awakens again, the village had reached a sufficient number of experts, and it was now self-sustainable. Caspian didn’t have to worry about finding a successor, even if he retired, there would be enough capable guards to take up his role.

This abundance of experts also meant that the villagers would be able to travel safely further away from the village, thus, gathering more resources. After a forced quarantine inside the village, the villagers would be free again and the economy would bloom.

Unconsciously the group accelerated their pace to come back faster. With all the Bloodmaws they had killed the day before, they only encountered one or two of them at a time, which was far from a threat to them. Since they were having more time, they took a moment to harvest the monsters’ blood, not letting it go to waste. Edward left it to Balin and Caspian since he already had more than his share. On top of that, he wasn’t finished yet with the ruins, he planned to explore them again, at least to recover Adrien’s remains and to discover what knowledge was left in the Damkinan’s library. He would have other occasions to hunt monsters to increase his strength, so he certainly wouldn’t fight with his friends to get more.

As soon as they came back to Agripin they announced the good news to everybody. The guards keeping watch on the wall erupted in cheers, villagers walking by also heard the news, and more of them came out to see what was going on. Before long the whole village was knowing about it. It was decided by a general consensus to organize the biggest party ever.

In a record amount of time, small colorful flags and lanterns were installed above the streets. The relief and happiness could be seen everywhere, from the extra bounce in the villagers’ gait to the frequency of people smiling.

Most of the villagers gathered at the inn, which was for once, packed with people. Ishad, the bartender, wouldn’t mind such an afflux of clients. Still, the inn wasn’t large enough to house such an amount of people, so the crowd separated. Diverse groups formed here and there to merry together.

I haven’t seen such a pack crowd since I reached this world. It makes me remember proms at school. It’s nice to see everyone happy. With the impossibility of going out, a weight was pressing on the villager’s shoulders. But now the hard time is over, it’s party time.

Edward went to the counter to order a beer, he had lost Caspian and Balin in the tight crowd. “One amber beer please.” Ishad was busy with all the clients to manage at once, so Edward had to wait for a little before he got his order.

“If it isn’t our local hero! This one is on the house.” Ishad exclaimed.

“Thanks,” Edward answered a little embarrassed by the way he was addressed.

“I should be the one thanking you. Look at this place, just yesterday it was still empty, and I was alone brooding on what I would become. And now, all the problems are gone and commerce can start again.”

Another client called him for an order. “Sorry pal, as you see I’m a bit busy. But please do come another time, I need to hear the full story.” Ishad told Edward before leaving to prepare the new order.

Edward got away from the counter in order to find a less busy place to drink his beer. As he was trying to find a table, he spotted Leyla already seated at one. He walked in her direction. “Can I sit here?” He asked while showing an empty chair in front of her.

“Sure, it’s free as you can tell.” She answered slightly annoyed.

“You don’t seem that happy, did something happen?” Edward asked surprised.

“It’s nothing. It’s just…I’m seeing everybody ready to go back to business when it won’t change anything for me. It’s still the same thing, I’m lacking raw material, and the only service I can do is to repair some old tools for a farmer or two. Weren’t you suppose to get me some iron by the way?”

Edward ran his hand through his hair. “Well, with everything that has happened I didn’t find the time yet. But now that things are calming done, I should be able to get back the equipment from the expedition.”

“That’s good to hear. It must be exciting fighting all those monsters.”

Edward thought back to his first encounter with a Bloodmaw, having to hide while the others were getting mauled. But then he remembered his fight with the Teleportcrows and the exhilaration of the fight. “Well…You could say it depends on the day.”

He noticed how Leyla seemed bored with her day-to-day routine and he remembered his idea of teaching runes to a craftsman in order to get better equipment for himself. “Actually, I may have something else that could interest you besides iron.”