As they went downhill, a tremendous explosion sounded behind them, and rocks flew everywhere.
Still, none of them stopped.
"Get those bastards! You guys, go check the cave quick!" the big guy shouted, ordering several of his subordinates to do various tasks.
He single-handedly dashed down the hill as he tried to catch up with them, and several devourers attacked from afar with magic bows.
Abilities soon began to explode from side to side as Matt, Isla, and Alice ran at full speed, taking cover in the trees.
Still, they quickly realized that running without doing anything would do no good. Devourers are experts at running through the mountains, so they could already hear the screams of the big guy behind them.
It was because of this that Matt said something to the girls softly while they were running, and suddenly he stopped, skidding down the mountain and holding tight to a rock; with his other hand, he pulled out his weapon and threw it hard towards the big guy who came running at high speed behind them.
This guy did not expect such a strange attack, so without thinking much; he raised his hand to stop this weapon that was running towards him; even so, when he did it, he realized his mistake. This weapon weighed more than he imagined and carried with it a tremendous vampiric power that destroyed his hand in one attack.
This angered him, and he quickly exerted his power in a great fist, trying to strike Matt, who was a few steps in front of him.
"Die, vampire!" he shouted hysterically, but just then, a shadow appeared before him as Alice's power exploded out of her body.
She fairly attacked the devourer's wounded arm with her weapon, using all her power.
If an attack from Matt managed to hurt him, how could an attack from Alice, who has a similar power, not?
His arm broke into pieces at that moment, and the impact sent him flying dozens of meters away.
Isla ran over this bastard, and with her eyes bloodshot from the hatred she carried, she attacked him with all her might with a punch to the stomach, whipping him to the ground at high speed.
"Buagh!" a spurt of blood shot out of his mouth, lightly splattering Isla in the process.
Still, perhaps that was all that would remain of him in the body of these three people, for immediately Matt appeared above and gave him a decisive blow to the neck, breaking it into pieces, while Alice cut off his limbs at an alarming speed.
A devourer with a power similar to Alice's died in an instant at the hands of people who should not be able to kill him easily. His confidence earned him his defeat.
Matt didn't care about this; he looked at the girls, and then they continued to run, fleeing this place at high speed while scattering this bastard's blood all over the place to avoid being easily tracked.
Minutes later, great roars were heard throughout this mountain as the devourers present were angered by the death of their leader.
Still, it was something Matt, Alice, and Isla didn't care about.
They immediately returned to where they had left the horses and started heading at full speed towards the city.
Once they were here, they could sigh.
"Devourers are really tough." Matt said when he saw that they were finally out of danger. He felt several bones in his hand had broken.
How did they break?
Easy, a blow to a devourer's neck.
That devourer's neck was harder than those reinforced iron puppets; how was that possible?
Alice smiled when she heard him say this and helped him put bandages on his hands.
"Yes, devourers evolve every so often. The first evolution is when they go from being devouring beasts to being devourers. The second evolution is the one you just saw. When they reach 5,000 power, they get extremely tough skin. But that also often becomes their weakness, as they rely too much on the toughness of their skin; that's why surprise attacks are often vital to assassinate them." She spoke.
While she doesn't fight Devourers often, she has sometimes fought them on academy missions or raids by her Clan, so she is somewhat familiar with them.
However, they still don't know where that race originated.
"Still, I'm amazed at your strength, Matt. It's the first time I've seen someone with just over 3,000 power who can so easily hurt a devourer with over 5,000." She said as she stared at him.
Isla was also surprised by this, "Matt, I feel that when you hit, your fists are heavier; is it using the weight tactic you taught us?" she asked suddenly, and Matt nodded.
"If I need to, I can increase the weight of my fist, making the attack more effective. It's tricky to do it freely, though; I haven't quite mastered it yet." Matt replied.
"That's awesome, Matt. Even if you can only use it once per battle, it gives us an overwhelming advantage when you strike." Said Alice.
They both started to praise him for this. Although they can do it halfway, it is only when they use their full power, as this tactic requires vampiric power and is very difficult to perform. The level of control it requires is very high.
Still, the words of praise stopped after a while and changed the subject.
"What's that herb we got, Alice?" Matt asked. Alice remembered the herb, so she pulled it out to look at it.
"This herb is amazing, Matt. It's a great treasure in itself, especially for us vampires, but also for devourers. What it does is consume any corpses put near it, even if they have no blood on them, and it creates a large amount of blood that can be consumed and is as effective as blood drawn from any vampire."
"You only have to give it corpses for its feeding, and it will give you blood as a reward; according to my father, if it absorbs a corpse, it can create up to two or three times as much blood as that body could hold." She replied cheerfully.
Her words shocked both of them.
"Is there such a thing? And no matter what kind of corpse it is?" Matt asked in surprise, and she nodded.
"Any kind of corpses. You can even put corpses of devouring beasts, but it will give you less blood, as it is not their favorite food." She replied.
'Holy shit, that good? It's a great treasure!' Matt thought in shock.
'If we could have a blood spring like that, we would only need to go hunting in the mountains for beast carcasses, and we would get blood to increase our power.' He thought.
It's a gift from heaven!
Even so, every stolen gift brings with it a big problem on many occasions, so Matt always kept on his toes now that he knew the usefulness of this treasure.
"Right, Matt, what's wrong with the scrolls?" Alice asked suddenly.
Matt pulled out all the scrolls that were on that stone table; just then, a small portion of one tried to fly off, but Matt quickly grabbed it.
'Oh?' He thought as he looked at this scroll.
"A map?" Alice asked doubtfully.
'Could it be similar to the one I have? The texture is very similar...' Matt thought and pulled out the piece of parchment he already had.
"They seem to be the same, although it doesn't quite match up over here... Maybe the other part of the one we already have completes it correctly..." Matt replied as he saw this and smiled.
"Well, I don't know what the map is for, but I'm already starting to feel a bit of anticipation." He said again with a smile.
After that, they started looking at the rest of the scrolls.