Devourers

These two figures in front of them were human in appearance, fangs like a chainsaw and long ears like elves. The aura around them was dark but had a strange attribute as if they were pulling the energy in the environment towards them.

Alice was deeply stunned to see these guys near the academy, but as the Heiress and strongest of the group, she immediately stood before Matt.

"Matt, be careful. Devourers are cunning and have many tricks." She said as she drew her sword, ready to fight.

Matt realized these guys were special, quite dangerous, and strange. So, he already had his short sword in his hand. He didn't need the reminder, but he knew she was saying it because she was nervous.

The devourers in front of them grinned, and without a word, one of them started running towards them while pulling out two tiny daggers from his pouch.

"Be careful!" Alice said and, without a second thought, swung her sword hard to swing it at the devourer.

The devourer raised his daggers and held the strong attack between his hands, though the attack pushed him back several feet.

Still, the smile on his face did not fade.

Just at that moment, three magical arrows shot out from the devourer, attacking from a distance, taking Alice by surprise because of the absurd speed of this attack.

'Too fast!' she thought, but just then, a shadow appeared before her sight, as Matt appeared with his dagger to knock both arrows to the side, though the impact sent him backward, hitting Alice in the recoil.

Still, Matt had no time to think. He sensed that the nearest devourer had approached him, and in one swift movement, he swung his dagger backward.

Just then, the dagger struck against the devourer's head... Though he scattered as if he were an illusion.

'Illusions too?' Matt thought.

"Watch out, Matt!" shouted Alice from behind, after realizing that the guy attacking from afar had quickly approached with a strange dagger in his hands and was ready to plunge it into Matt.

She didn't hesitate and immediately threw her sword with all her might.

"DIE BASTARD!" she shouted, and the sword flew at high speed at him.

The devourer was stunned when he felt the powerful presence heading towards him, and without hesitation, he pressed his dagger against Matt's body.

"Agh..." A slight yelp of pain came out of Matt's mouth after feeling the attack hit his side, but he took advantage of this to launch an icy spine, slamming into the devourer from behind and his dagger from the front.

Still, the devourer smiled...

'Devour.' He said in his mind, but then he felt an extreme cold enter his body that instantly froze one of his limbs.

'What the hell is this!?' He screamed in his mind in shock and felt a powerful attack stab into his side while the other one stabbed between his neck.

Blood rushed out of his mouth and scared him; he realized that these guys were stronger than they thought, so without hesitation, he looked at his partner and screamed.

"WE'RE LEAVING!" The shout was also accompanied by a mental attack, which stunned Matt for a moment, though it was only for a moment, but it was enough.

When Matt returned to himself, he noticed he had a firm grip on one hand with a dagger. The hand was still bleeding.

'Did he mutilate himself to run away?' Matt thought, enduring the pain of his wound.

Alice noticed this but didn't have time to chase after the two fleeing guys. She simply quickly approached Matt worriedly.

"Matt, lie down quickly. Let me use the healing potion my dad gave me." She said, her voice trembling a little from fear.

She couldn't bear the thought of something bad happening to Matt; he is her first friend and, just as importantly, her first subordinate. She had to protect him; that was her duty.

Therefore, she immediately took out an expensive potion and gave it to Matt.

Surprised, this one couldn't utter a word before swallowing the liquid.

Alice sighed at the sight, "I'm sure you'll recover." She said and stood up.

She looked over to where those devourers had run and snorted with her mouth.

"Hmph, you run with an Heir's weapon? You're an idiot." She said mockingly, and her hand twitched slightly as she imbued herself with power.

Suddenly, the power within her body exploded upward like a pillar of crimson fire, ready to consume everything in its path.

Matt felt choked at that moment. The enormous power increased Alice's presence to a limit he had never seen before.

Not only that, but it was a power that could put intense pressure on him just because he witnessed it.

The pressure he felt on him prevented him from breathing correctly, and when he saw Alice's murderous eyes, he even felt the need to pull away from her for a bit.

'Shit... What the hell is this absurd pressure? Is our strength so... different?' He thought, who had been thinking that his increase in strength had been decent.

He thought... Alice couldn't threaten him, so if someone of her strength was coming, he should at least be able to run away. But right now... He couldn't even move his body despite his mind being extremely steady.

'This...' Even his thoughts were interrupted, and a cold voice came from Alice's voice.

"Summon." The coldness he heard in her voice, capable of chilling the heart, was not because her voice had changed but rather because of the suppression he was feeling.

It made him look as if she was even more powerful than she appeared, or perhaps it was because her strength had increased in that instant, which frightened him to the limit.

Just then...

"AGHHHHH!" A scream of pain was heard from the distance, and soon, a sword flew at high speed through the trees to Alice's hand.

This further stunned Matt, who wondered how that was possible, but Alice's suppression hadn't been erased, so he couldn't even think.

Just seeing the bloody sword in Alice's hands made him shiver a little, startling him.

'This is... Fear? She's frightening me, her power?' he thought.

That was something that he was not going to allow.

How could he, the Ice Assassin, feel fear?

But before he could take action on his own, an icy chill moved through his body, which counteracted all the suppression Alice was putting on him.

He was surprised but didn't have time to think.

Alice turned around after this and smiled at him. Along with her smile, her power disappeared, and her calm, passive, soft, and tender appearance returned.

"I'm sorry, Matt. I couldn't protect you before. I'm sorry for causing you trouble; I promise I'll be more helpful in combat next time." She said, apologizing sincerely, and then crouched down again.

Matt was slightly stunned by her sudden words, making such a drastic change.

In his mind, one thing had been decided.

His power could not go on like this.

Now that he could think clearly, he realized what had happened.

That was a suppression of power. Only the strong could do that.

And even though she's not very strong, she's like a mountain these days in front of Matt.

Still, on the outside, he smiled, "Don't apologize for something inevitable. You're still young; you can grow and become more powerful with time. Besides, that tactic you used was wonderful; what did you do?" he asked, and Alice smiled with some embarrassment.

She felt as if Matt was talking to a young girl he met along the way, not a person of equal age.

But she showed him her sword.

"Look at this weapon; it's not like the others. Can you see the difference?" She asked, and Matt stared at the sword.

'She doesn't mean the edge, if not the type of weapon... I've never seen it before, but I can feel that there is something strange about it...' Matt thought.

In fact, he could see that the weapon had some power that mingled with Alice's, but it didn't increase her strength, if not...

'Her control?' He thought doubtfully.

"I feel like the difference is that it's very compatible with you, plus it has a strange power; maybe it increases your control over your own power." He replied though he was still hesitant about it.

She looked at him in surprise but smiled soon after.

"That's right. It's a very high-level weapon; I'll explain to you about it later. This weapon has two abilities on its own, drastically increasing my power because of that. The first is to improve control of my power, an ability many are jealous of me for."

"The other ability is because I am an Heiress. Many believe that I have no additional ability, but I have the ability to summon this sword and move it from a distance to attack; although it will only use 50% of my power, it is enough for a surprise attack." She said and looked towards the place where the weapon had come from.

"The guy who attacked you is already dead; it was thanks to that ability that I was able to destroy him easily, isn't it great?" she asked, smiling.

Matt, who listened to her intently, nodded.

'That's pretty amazing... This girl is more powerful than I thought. I seem to have underestimated this world a bit in this short period of time.' He thought, and the worry inside him intensified.

He looked up, "We've been drinking blood lately, and our power has been passively increasing, but I'd like to resume training. I don't want something like today to happen again; would you help me train?" he asked; staring at her.

She was surprised by his sudden change in attitude, but nodded at him, smiling happily.

"Of course, Matt. I'd love to." She said but shook her head quickly.

"No, rather. Please let me do it; let's train together." She repeated, smiling happily, and Matt nodded back.

He leaned back more, though, as that attack was strange and left him slightly sore.

'It felt like it could drain some of my power, though it didn't manage to do so... How strange.' Matt thought in confusion.

"Right, Matt, you want to test how strong you've gotten these days? Before you reach 2,000 power, you can't tell on your own, but I brought a vampire ball." Alice said, smiling, as she pulled it out.

Matt looked at her in surprise and smiled, "Good. I'm curious how far my power has advanced. I don't know how strong those two were, but I managed to fight them off a bit, so I guess I'm not as weak as last time." He said and, without hesitation, grabbed the vampire ball.

The ball glowed crimson red, and soon, a number floated above it, shocking them.

'1,000'.

"So much!?" shouted Matt as he shot up in a daze.

How had his strength advanced to 1,000 in such a short time?

He hadn't even been training these days and was only using vampirism with the blood Gray had given him; how was it possible that he had advanced so much in such a short time?

Alice was also stunned and tested her power to check her progress. She expected to see similar progress, as they had done the same thing, but was stunned when she noticed that she had barely made a little less than half of his progress.

'What's going on?' she thought in confusion while Matt couldn't hide the joy on his face.

'It's Dietrich's Vampirism... Certainly, it's very different from what Alice can use, but to increase that much power in such a short time? I haven't felt that breakthrough...' He thought, but seeing these numbers made him want to test his strength.

So, he looked at Alice.

But, before he could speak, they both heard screams in the distance, which startled them.

Alice had a bad feeling then...