Chapter 16: The fear revived the trauma
Matt and Isla ran to the designated location. New n0vel chapters are published on
Four groups were designated for this investigation; the other two groups came from other halls and were larger than Matt's Hall groups.
Each was sent to investigate a different section of the villages, but they had something in common: their proximity to each other.
In the first village...
Matt found numerous corpses everywhere, with no blood.
"As I suspected... It's the devouring beasts." Matt said, noticing the wounds on these vampires.
Some were partially eaten, and in others, only limbs remained.
Isla didn't feel good seeing this and was a little scared.
Although she had read about the messes that devouring beasts leave behind, witnessing it in person was much harder than just reading about it.
Still, she maintained her composure as they investigated the entire village.
There was no survivor in this village of about 300 to 400 people; this made them frown, and they soon went to the next town.
"Tsk, no survivors, and these have received injuries recently." Matt said.
There wasn't much to investigate in these villages, so Matt started looking for traces of the beasts and soon found them.
"Let's go this way." He said as he followed the tracks left by these beasts.
'They're going towards the mountains and these woods...' He thought as he walked, but just then, he stopped and jumped back as he stood before Isla.
"Be careful, there are several nearby." Matt said, and Isla immediately drew her longsword.
"Are you sure?" she asked, but Matt didn't have to answer her; as her words came out, her senses felt the presence of the beasts that showed themselves soon after.
They weren't many, and they weren't strong either, but if they were close... Maybe there were some devourers nearby.
"Stay alert, let's slay them fast." He said, and soon they were slamming into these beasts that fell dead after one hit.
The explosion caused by the latter with a single blow on the ground was enough to demonstrate its power of 3,000.
'That will be the last one.' He thought and used dimensional movement, getting behind the one who was still trying to regain air and gave him a strong blow from behind, sending him straight down to the ground with an explosion. He quickly grabbed him by the clothes while pulling him backward to give him a succession of blows to the back, breaking several bones in the process.
The other two devourers realized that Matt was quite dangerous, so they drew their weapons without hesitation.
One jumped to hit him from above, and the other moved below to close his escape route.
Matt smiled at this and prepared to use dimensional movement again, but just then, a roar reached his ears...
"ROOOOAR!" The roar came from behind him, but it was a bit strange...
For some reason, a slight fear rose in his heart when he heard it, making him turn his head.
'Ability to inflict a negative state?' Matt thought.
When he turned his face, he could confirm this, but he also noticed that Isla had fallen into a state of extreme fear at that moment and screamed, dropping to the ground, helpless in front of the devourer.
'Shit!' Matt thought and, without hesitation, used his dimensional move to get in front of Isla quickly while drawing his small sword.
His sudden movement surprised the guy in front of him, who couldn't react when Matt imbued his sword with all his power and cut him in half in a single attack.
The devourer felt shocked to see this; he hadn't expected this guy to be so strong, but it was too late to notice.
His split body was sent backward by Matt's strength. He came firmly in front of Isla and held her in his arms.
"Isla, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Matt asked quickly but noticed that Isla was shaking continuously.
'Fear revived her trauma...' He thought and sighed as he grabbed her to dodge an attack from one of the devourers coming towards him.
He looked at them and sighed, 'I'll have to fight alone.' He thought.
Still, this time, he had an advantage.
He had just killed a devourer, so without hesitation, he got there and quickly consumed the blood in large quantities.
'He consumes that much of our blood?' the devourers thought, but they didn't hesitate to pounce on him, while Matt did precisely the same while leaving Isla behind him.