Balin rappelled down the wall to get into position while the rune barrier was still there. Edward and Caspian chose to do things differently, both staying on the wall to use the high ground to their advantage. Edward could teleport and use the momentum of his fall to get the upper hand and Caspian could endure the strain of falling due to his boosting power. Wallace stayed with them on the wall, but only because it was still too early for him to engage, he hadn’t mastered aura yet, and he wouldn’t be able to injure the Bloodmaws, but only to delay them.

One guard shot an arrow at one of the monsters. He wanted to see if he could distract them to loosen the burden of the awakens having to fight all the Bloodmaws together. However, the arrow was also blocked by the rune barrier. Since Edward hadn’t added a filtration rune, attacks were blocked from both sides.

Seeing Balin right in front of them, but still out of their reach, infuriated the Bloodmaws further, and they renew their attacks with aggravate ferocity. The barrier wasn’t able to hold on any longer and finally broke into pieces. Faint fragments of it could be seen shimmering in the air before dissipating. At the same time, the runes inscribed on the walls exploded into splinters of wood. The destruction of the barrier had also impacted the runes directly. The runes were graved directly on the wooden pillars, damaging them in the process.

Caspian didn’t wait for any further, not wanting for the Bloodmaws to be able to charge and gather momentum. They were close enough to the walls, so he activated his power, buffing his muscles, then jumping directly on the closest Bloodmaw. Edward followed his lead, jumping from the wall, letting the fall accelerate his speed before teleporting on another Bloodmaw. Caspian’s opponent was squashed by the impact and impaled by Caspian’s sword, he was out of the fight for good. Whereas Edward hooked on his opponent like an oversize tick, actively draining him from his power thanks to his daggers. Balin used the surprising element to impale one more monster with his sword. For monsters of this size, a piercing attack was more effective than a slashing one.

Caspian focused on the next Bloodmaw charging at him and Balin had to fall back to avoid a follow-up attack from one of the creatures, leaving his opponent severely injured, but not down yet. The one facing Edward tried to roll on the ground to squash him, but this time, Edward was ready. He didn’t use his teleporting power, but rather jumped from its back and did a barrel roll to dampen the fall. Since his teleportation power was still available, he used it to attack another Bloodmaw, stabbing it on its back and draining it.

With their initial attack, they had already killed one Bloodmaw and gravely wounded two others, the fight was a lot more balanced than the initial six monsters against three awaken. Caspian has dominated his adversary, Balin was able to avoid the two Bloodmaws after him while still injuring further the one that was already wounded. Edward was juggling between his two opponents, his draining skill actually more detrimental to them than his stabbing. He was saving his teleportation as much as he could to use it to get on the offensive. Already, the Bloodmaws after him were starting to slow down as their power was waning.

The fight continued while the awakens pushed their advantage more and more. In the end, the monsters couldn’t hold on anymore and were felled one by one. The guards had watched the whole fight unfold with admiration in their gaze. Those monsters that were supposedly so terrifying had been dealt with in an easy way.

*****

Things settled into a routine, the last attack had enabled the village to groom another guard as an awaken. Balin was in charge of teaching the newly awakens how to use and master their aura. The guards were making quick progress, as awakens they could already see auras directly with their eyes, and that helped them to control them. Wallace was already able to make his aura fluctuate to either threaten an opponent or mask his aura. However, he was still having some trouble with imbuing his aura with a weapon. It wasn’t that he was not able to do it, but rather that he wasn’t able to keep it stable enough, so his control was slipping away after a few minutes.

Edward and Caspian were setting out regularly to cull the local number of Bloodmaws. The regular excursions meant they didn’t have to fear a massive wave of attack and that they could harvest more monsters to increase the number of awakens in the village. Thanks to that, two more awakens had been added to the guards. The situation was roughly under control and Edward didn’t have to go deep into the forest to herd monsters to the village. The process was now like a well-oiled machine.

Thanks to his way of fighting, which depended a lot on his draining power, Edward was also growing stronger. He wasn’t yet ready to go to the other level, but he was now able to teleport further away. He had checked, and teleporting past the gate from beyond the rune barrier wasn’t a fluke. He was now able to teleport up to thirteen meters. Since his power had improved, he also took the time to test the rest of his capabilities.

His aura had benefited from the Bloodmaws blood, it could now extend up to seventy-five meters if there were no obstacles along the way and up to sixty meters in the forest. Even though it wasn’t an overboard improvement, it was still significant, and it helped him to discover the Bloodmaws before they could spot him.

He didn’t have ways to properly test his physical prowess, since he became an awaken he never had a situation where his endurance was lacking. He did notice that his senses got sharper, and he was now less afraid to use acrobatics, even in fights, that he would have never attempted back on earth. He felt that his speed got better too, but the Bloodmaws were still running faster than him.

In total they now had four awakens added to the original Balin, Caspian, and Edward. Seeing how the situation was progressing, even Carlson had to tone down. He could try to diminish and mock the guards’ accomplishments all he wanted, but the villagers weren’t stupid, and at this point, they could see how things were developing by themselves. He was now complaining about the containment of the villagers inside the village. This was a real problem that had to be solved, but with how he behaved before, Carlson was having trouble gathering people to his side.

Caspian had realized this problem too. Enhancing all the guards to the awaken level was excellent for the village security and would change the village dynamic for the better even passed the Bloodmaws problem. However, not everyone was destined to become a fighter, if things were kept this way, villagers would only be able to leave the village with a guard escort. That’s why he asked Edward to delve further into the runes tome he had retrieved from the ruins. They now had more time, and it could be used to improve the rune barrier design. Simple block runes had proven ineffective, but this was only the most basic of barriers, it could be reinforced until the Bloodmaws wouldn’t be able to destroy it. This was the main task assigned to Edward aside from his trips to cull the Bloodmaws.

*****

Edward was reading once again the runes tome, but this time he wasn’t skipping parts and was taking the time to read everything bit by bit even if it didn’t seem immediately relevant to the problem at hand. It took time, but time wasn’t a major problem anymore, and he had to read the tome in order if he wanted to progress in his understanding of runes. He had tested the simple solution of a single type of rune barrier, and this was insufficient, he needed something stronger. This meant he needed to complexify the barrier and add more runes.

Simple block runes are getting overpowered by the strength of the Bloodmaws. I need something stronger. The problem is that if I had more runes, I will also need more power, and the ambient mana will not be enough. The book is mentioning several types of crystals which can be used as mana reserves, but I don’t have any of those.

I’m reaching a bottleneck. Can’t I have another source of energy rather than crystal and ambient mana? Wait…The runes in Oshle Tirion’s ruins were still working. I don’t know if they are depending on ambient mana only, they might have some of those crystals stored somewhere. But it will be difficult to explore the ruins thoroughly with all those Bloodmaws, especially for something which might not be there in the first place.

I could change my approach, I could install traps instead of a barrier. The expedition encountered a draining trap in the first corridor. It got destroyed but I could try to create another. It works on regular humans but I don’t know if it would be fast enough to kill Bloodmaws rushing next to it. Maybe if they were slow down first…Yes, this could work.

A block rune barrier is not able to stop them, but it can hold them off for some time. I just have to install a drain rune next to it to kill the Bloodmaws. I could even link the two, with the draining rune feeding the Bloodmaws’ energy to the barrier. It solves the ambient mana problem. That’s awesome! I’m sealing the ruins definitely and killing the Bloodmaws at the same time. The only minus point is that is blocking the access to the ruins for us too.

The book also mentioned filtration runes. I have to read that part more attentively. It should work with the traps too, I refuse to believe the trap they installed in the main passage is targeting everyone that walks by. They must have a way to distinguish between allies and foes. If I can add that part, we would still have access to the ruins while the Bloodmaws are stuck inside. This way the monsters won’t be able to destroy the barriers, because if they keep attacking them, they will die to the draining rune. This is the perfect solution.

If I install this barrier, the Bloodmaws won’t attack the village anymore. The villagers will be free to go out as they please. The guards won’t have free monsters coming to them, so there will be fewer people becoming awakens. However, by now, there are enough awakens already, and the village can safely prepare an expedition to hunt monsters in the forest if they need more blood. I feel like this rune combination is the perfect solution. Let’s do it!!