The rest of the day and even the whole night went without any incident. It wasn`t a surprise considering the number of Bloodmaws they had killed. The surroundings were safe for a short period of time at least. What had been unexpected was for the night to be even more uneventful than normal. Attacks from regular monsters had stopped as well since they were too busy contending with the Bloodmaws.

　　Caspian had given the order to wake him up only if Bloodmaws were spotted near Agripin. This short respite in Bloodmaw activity let him have the rest that he direly needed.

　　Awakens required less sleep but that didn`t mean they could endure several days and night deprived of sleep without consequences. Agripin wasn`t safe yet, they had managed to get one more Awaken, which was a good thing, but it wasn`t nearly enough. Besides, new Awakens would need some time to master their 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 Bloodmaws time to gather together. Wallace and Balin, you should stay in Agripin. Edward and I will go inside Vipin Forest to provoke one of those monsters. Knowing them, finding a single one is enough, each one we found ended up roaring and attracting more of its ilk in the area. Then we will bait it to follow us to Agripin and we will kill 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 after 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." Balin stated.

　　"Oh, don`t think that your job will be easy just because you are staying in Agripin. 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. As their first attack has shown us, a simple wood palisade won`t hold them fro long."

　　The group got ready, Balin and Wallace guarding Agripin 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." Edward answered still remembering how he had immediately fled after he had felt that terrifying presence.

　　"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 straight away.

　　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 hadn`t taken into account that it would be harder to find a Bloodmaw in the vicinity since their number had decreased now.

　　At last, they finally managed to find a Bloodmaw when they were at a one-hour jog away from the village.

　　That`s quite a long way to run back with a monster chasing after you, especially when you are not supposed to kill the monster in question.

　　The Bloodmaw noticed them, roared, and charged at them. Caspian and Edward ran and left the path to use the trees as obstacles to slow down the monster. After all, the Bloodmaw was running slightly 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 deeper inside the forest, as there was the risk of encountering really dangerous monsters like a wyrm.

　　The trees were slowing down the Bloodmaw a bit, but it wasn`t enough. At one point the Bloodmaw got close enough to Edward to bounce at him. Thankfully, Edward was monitoring the monster with his aura, so he simply teleported to the side to avoid it, the teleportation not even slowing him down as he kept his momentum.

　　However, since they were some distance away from Agripin, 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. They could have easily killed the monster but they had to allow it to chase them.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it`s taken without the author`s consent. Report it.

　　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. It 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 Agripin.

　　"You go first, we won`t be able to lead several of those monsters without them catching up to us. I have a teleportation power, I will be fine." Edward told Caspian who simply nodded before accelerating. After what Edward had pulled, escaping from a whole seven Bloodmaws running after him, Caspian wasn`t going to underestimate him.

　　Edward teleported and hid in a tree so that the wounded Bloodmaw they had baited until now followed Caspian instead of lingering at Edward`s location. Once it left, Edward teleported on the ground waited for the other Bloodmaws to arrive.

　　After two minutes, the other Bloodmwas 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 that was running after him.

　　He didn`t want to kill the monster. No Edward wanted to ride it like in a rodeo. He stabbed the Bloodmaw with both daggers to have a good handhold, but he didn`t activate his absorbing power. The monster`s blood essence 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 out loud. Why bother running, when you can instead ride the monster coming for you?

　　Edward with the Bloodmaws still chasing him left the forest, reaching the grassland in front of Agripin. The monsters accelerated as there were no more trees to impede them. Edward winced and 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 its back, not even bothering to decelerate.

　　Fuck, my teleportation is still in cool down.

　　Thanks to the partial slowdown of time provided by the power he was absorbing from the Bloodmaw, Edward was fast enough to jump from the monster before being crushed by it.

　　Edward crashed to the ground and bounced back before landing again on the soil.

　　That hurt&The slowdown effect provided by absorbing the Bloodmaws power seems to be less and less potent lately.

　　Edward immediately teleported away, before the other monsters could follow up with attacks of their own.

　　It`s not promising if those monsters are learning and adapting to my moves. Until now, we have always killed them whenever we fought them without leaving any survivor. It was the same with those Teleportcrows, those monsters may be stupid, but if they managed to learn how to become cunning, it will get 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 with several of them running after him at the same time. As several monsters attacked him at the same time Edward had to do a barrel roll right after teleporting to avoid a follow-up swipe from one of the Bloodmaws, they were beginning to chain attacks. Luckily, Edward was now very close to Agripin. He could even see Wallace, Balin, and Caspian waiting for him on top of the wall.

　　Caspian had reached Agripin a few minutes earlier and had already killed the Bloodmaw following him. Now he had positioned himself up the wall to both avoid the first charge of the Bloodmaws and to get the high ground. He had arrived soon enough for the guards to retrieve the slain Bloodmaw and close 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 didn`t add a selective filter so that they let 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 I really only ten meters away? I thought I was a bit further than that. Can I teleport farther now? I have to check it later. It does make some sense though. I have killed and absorbed the power of several Bloodmaws already since my escape from Oshle Tirion.

　　As he was thinking about the implications of his power evolving, he heard the monsters 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 that he was able to see them all in a glance. Six of the Bloodmwas 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. Tch, 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.