Caspian stood up, angrily pacing the room. "How many of those monsters are we talking about?"

　　"In Oshle Tirion? Hundreds&But not all of them left the ruins. From what I saw, I don`t think that more than thirty monsters went into the forest after me. I can take care of them, I should be able to kill them one by one." Edward answered, ready to take responsibility for his actions.

　　"Hundreds of monsters&And just two of them are enough to force an Awaken to flee&" Caspian said downcast.

　　"Well, Marc was already injured and exhausted when he faced them, maybe it would have been different otherwise," Edward added, while Caspian was brooding over the situation.

　　"No. That won`t do. If there are indeed this many monsters, a single mistake would be enough to condemn the whole village. Are you at least sure that they didn`t follow you until there?" Caspian asked worryingly.

　　"Absolutely certain." Edward answered with confidence. "They lost me before they even managed to leave the ruins, and I avoided any confrontations when I came back. Although I saw some tracks crossing through the forest path. I think the path is not working as it should as a deterrent for them."

　　"It only keeps getting better&What you have unleashed could spell the end for all of the people living here. You think you can take care of those monsters but it`s not that simple. With so many monsters in the ruins, you could easily draw more of them in the forest and worsen the situation. And if they somehow follow you to Agripin we are all dead. You have to understand we are only three Awakens here, you included. A group of five of those monsters could be enough to overtake us." Caspian explained sternly.

　　He continued. "At the same time, if what you say is true, that means they are not behaving like ordinary monsters. They could very well roam around and discover our village one day by chance and decide to attack it. The circumstances are too dire, I`m coming with you tomorrow to assess the situation." Caspian announced sternly.

　　"Actually, I`m not sure that`s a good idea for you to accompany me in hunting those monsters." Edward retorted. "My power will help me to escape, but if anything goes wrong, I probably won`t be strong enough to save you." He warned Caspian.

　　"Don`t worry about me. I`m having my strong points too." Caspian answered without batting an eye.

　　Edward looked at him. "Ok, if you are sure about it. One more thing, the ordinary guards weren`t able to pierce their hide, only Marc was able to wound those Bloodmaws when he enhanced his sword with something. I haven`t tested it yet, but I should be able to injure those monsters as well."

　　"Can you? Have you already discovered aura manipulation? From what you are describing this is what Marc used. Awakens can draw on their aura to turn their weapons in something much more deadly than no armors can resist. It`s something only veterans Awaken like me are supposed to achieve. I must say I`m a bit surprise. Can you show me?" Caspian asked in disbelief.

　　Edward was surprised by those statements. He had already entered the path to aura perception and control when he hadn`t been an Awaken yet. When he did become an Awaken, the trickiest part had been to discover that he could also use his aura on his weapons. Imbuing his weapons with his aura had its difficulties, but he didn`t consider it as a blocking issue. Sure, it was a bit difficult at first, but nothing that a bit of practice hadn`t managed to solve.

　　Is it supposed to be that difficult? I guess those Damkinans tomes did help me a lot. If I didn`t have any technical books to introduce me to aura manipulation, I would have taken a lot more time to discover how to use it.

　　Edward complied with Caspian`s request, drawing one of his daggers and focusing his aura on it.

　　Those daggers are precious, but if I have to fight while Caspian is present, he will have to see them eventually. And I think I can trust him, he is an honest block, far more concerned by everyone`s safety than by greed.

　　Caspian watched him with rapt focus. "You weren`t lying, you are really able to imbue your weapon with your aura. This is impressive, even though your aura is still lacking a bit in strength. But this part is normal you only broke through to the Awaken stage, and you did it surprisingly fast as well."The author`s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

　　Once he was satisfied with Edward`s aura display, Caspian turned his attention to the dagger itself, noticing the glowing runes on the blade`s surface. "Where did you find that weapon?" he asked with curiosity.

　　Here we go, it`s the moment of truth, it will decide if I can trust him or not.

　　"I found it in the ruins, it saved my life in the expedition," Edward answered truthfully.

　　"I see&It looks like a mighty fine weapon. You should take good care of it. It can be considered as your trophy after all. At least one good thing came out of those damn ruins." Caspian grumbled.

　　Seems, I was right. He didn`t ask me to surrender the daggers to him, I can trust him.

　　"I have more things to ask. When he was fighting, Marc was able to throw around invisible blades of energy. Were those blades made by his aura as well, is any awaken able to do the same?" Edward asked while he was having Caspian available to answer his questions.

　　"To answer your questions, yes other Awakens who are able to control their aura can do the same. Marc may have had a power boosting his aura as well. I`ve heard that some nobles in Gob閘iard do have power enhancing their aura. Throwing one`s own aura as energy blade is particularly effective since aura can cut almost anything but it can be quite draining." Caspian answered to an attentive Edward.

　　"Okay, this is enough questions for tonight. We need a good night of rest and we are leaving at dawn tomorrow. We can`t let those monsters roam unchecked." Caspian added, closing the discussion.

　　Edward left the room, heading to the casern in the dormitory where he had previously stayed with Adrien and Bernard as a guard.

　　This went a lot better than I expected. Sure, I got scolded for releasing the Bloodmaws, but this is understandable. I was surprised, however, that he didn`t ask for any more details about the deceased. Are you considered dead in this world if you go missing in the wilds?

　　As Edward reached the dormitory, he realized that it wasn`t empty, Bertrand was waiting for him inside, looking at him without a word. The two stared at each other before Bertrand broke the moment of silence.

　　"It`s good to see you back. At least you made it alive."

　　"You&you know what happened, right? Were you waiting for me?" Edward asked hesitantly, not knowing how to initiate the subject.

　　"I was on guard duty, I met Josef, he told me you were back and he gave me the permission to leave my post. I don`t know more than that but I do get that the expedition didn`t go as planned. Did anybody else make it out alive?" Bertrand asked a glimmer of hope in his voice.

　　"I`m sorry&I`m the only one that managed to escape&" Edward answered dampening Bertrand`s expectations.

　　He shook his head. "I don`t know what I was hoping for. We thought all of you were gone when we didn`t see you coming back after more than a week. But seeing you back among us today, I was thinking that maybe others could be fine as well&Nevermind, tell me the whole story now."

　　Edward once more recounted how the expedition had grown into an utter disaster. He related how Adrien died fighting a lost battle against the Bloodmaws, while he himself managed to escape only by chance. And Edward told him, how he turned into an Awaken, and how he attended to avenge Adrien.

　　Bertrand looked at him with a sorrowful gaze. "Adrien is gone now, nothing you can do can change it. Avenging him is good, but you have to realize you won`t be able to kill hundreds of those beasts by yourself, Awaken or not. However, you are right that is your responsibility to fix this mess. What is done can`t be changed, but you have to prevent this disaster from happening again. Those ruins need to be taken care of."

　　Edward stood silently, musing about what Bertrand had told him.

　　He is right, I won`t be able to kill all of those monsters. Then the next best solution is to prevent those monsters from spreading around. But how? I don`t think they have explosives to collapse the entrance, and we are not even sure that there isn`t another entrance somewhere else. I will have to discuss about how to proceed with Caspian tomorrow.

　　But sealing the ruins also means that I will lose access to the library. I didn`t have time to pick at a single of their tomes, but if they are as useful as the ones about auras techniques it could change things completely. On the other hand, not sealing the ruins, means putting the whole village at risk, and all of that by my fault. I can`t let that happen. Arg, why is life always so difficult!?

　　"You are right, I won`t be able to kill all of them on my own. But I don`t have the solution to this problem yet. I will go back there tomorrow with Caspian." Edward finally answered Bertrand.

　　"Alright, you should get a good night of sleep, maybe youll find your answer tomorrow. There is no need to worry about it right now, each day has enough trouble of its own." With those wise words, Bertrand let Edward enter the room to take a good night of sleep.

　　***

　　Edward was woken up by loud banging on the door. "When I told you we would be leaving at dawn, I wasn`t joking. Wake up already you damn sloth!" Caspian was becoming impatient, waiting in the corridor. Edward woke up groggily, taking a few moments to regain his bearings.

　　Where I am? What is happening? Right&, I`m back at Agripin. Damn, I feel like I have just fallen asleep. It was already nighttime when I reached the village. Caspian is really heartless. For once that I have a real bed instead of some hard cold floor, I`m not allowed to keep sleeping.

　　The banging at the door intensified.

　　"I`m coming, I`m coming, no need to wake up the whole neighborhood," Edward complained while getting ready. It was time to find a solution to the Bloodmaws flowing out of the ruins.