Devouring

"What the..."

The men in the black armor were shocked to the core.

As soon as they were alone, the bloody sign on Evan's chest glowed brightly and a giant snake began to appear around his right arm.

They instantly prepared for battle. They just couldn't retreat. The goods of this merchant were too valuable to them.

Evan wasn't about to be ceremonious. He had already used his trump card to deal with them quickly. So even before the snake had fully emerged, he pounced on his enemies.

His first victim was a man with a short sword and a bow, not the one with the daggers. Since fighting someone, who had support from a long distance was stupid and impractical.

Whoosh.

He swung his sword from the bottom up, but the man was an experienced fighter, so he easily blocked Evan's attack.

Whoosh.

The moment when he thought he could attack Evan in response, trickles of blood flowed from the corners of his mouth.

The snake pierced through the man's body, slammed its mouth and swallowed his heart.

This scene sent the second man into a rage, and he attacked Evan with all his might.

His speed was incredible. The wind seemed to swirl around the green daggers, but it wasn't enough.

"Too slow." Evan blocked his opponent's lunge, and the snake got to its work.

Whoosh.

In an instant, it bit the man's arm off to the elbow, and Evan decapitated him.

Two, brutal and bloodthirsty murders had just taken place in the forest. As for the culprit of this celebration, he was calmly heading toward Rosa, who was still unconscious.

He opened her mouth and the venom from the snake's fang fell directly on her tongue. It was exactly like the last time: the giant snake disappeared without a trace, and the girl's wound began to heal quickly.

In truth, Evan could have healed the merchant as well. For he, too, had been seriously wounded by the archer, but his life was of no concern to Evan.

He really cared only one thing- what was in the wagon. It was the reason why so many people had come here.

While Rosa and the merchant were unconscious, Evan was alone, so he began to explore the wagon.

No matter how much he looked for, he couldn't find anything worthwhile. Vegetables, old cheap clothes, a few kinds of berries- that was all and nothing else.

He thought the merchant might have what he needed. So, he searched him, but the man had nothing. It looked like a common bandits` attack on a merchant for a couple of coins.

There was nothing inside the wagon or on the coachman`s seat. The horses stood peacefully, waiting for someone to pull the harness.

<It's impossible, everything is too strange, there must be something.>

After pondering the situation for a while, Evan realized that there was one place he hadn't checked yet. It was right under the seats inside the wagon. However, in order to find out what was inside Evan would have to break them down.

Crack.

As soon as that idea popped into his head, he broke the wooden panels under the seats without hesitation and smiled contentedly.

"Well, what have we got here?"

In the farthest corner, Evan saw a small pouch covered in dust.

Evan pulled it out and quickly opened. As soon as he did, he smelled a pleasant odor that instantly filled the entire wagon.

To Evan's surprise, there wasn`t some fragrant flower inside, but a strange root, dark green in color.

The young man did not know what it was or how valuable the plant was. However, he had no doubts that it was a rare and unique thing.

After such a lucky find, Evan checked everything again, but he found nothing else.

Sigh.

He sighed in frustration and thought to himself, <So, what should I do now?>

He had two options - to kill the trader and head for the Mossy Vulture or let him live.

Once he`d made his decision, Evan stuffed the pouch of root into his bag and headed for the men in black armor.

He dragged them farther into the forest so that they would be very hard to find, even if someone wanted to do so.

He did the same with all the other corpses. You could tell that Evan had covered his tracks and now it was impossible to connect him to this place.

Evan wasn't a bloodthirsty killer or some kind of madman. If there was a point and a need, he killed. If there was no need, he didn't touch anyone. It was simple.

That`s why he left the merchant to his fate. If he was lucky, even with a wound he would survive and make it to the city. Evan had his own worries.

He put on his armor, walked over to Rosa and gently lifted her. With the girl in his arms, Evan came up to one of the horses. Evan put her on the horse, saddled it himself then, cut the harness.

Evan was an excellent rider. The horse instantly galloped forward.

...

"А? Where am I?" After about twenty minutes, Rosa opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was the forest flying before her eyes.

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

"Would you mind stopping?"

Such an unexpected request surprised Evan, as they were only a short distance away from the Mossy Vulture.

"Is there no way to be patient a little? There's not much left." Evan didn't want to stop, but Rosa's answer made him change his mind.

"There's just a little bit left for me, too."

Realizing that his stubbornness might create unnecessary problems for him, he stopped the horse.

"Be quick."

Rosa didn't hear him at all, for she ran off at all speed deeper into the woods.

"How many troubles..." Evan had nothing to do but wait for her return.

A few minutes later, the girl returned and struggled to climb onto her high horse.

"Hey, Rosa, don't you know what this is?"

Evan pulled a green root out of his bag and showed it to the girl.

Rosa examined it carefully, but only shook her head in response.

Truth be told, Evan was sure Rosa knew something about this thing. However, he seemed to have underestimated the rarity of this plant.

Fortunately, he had one other person to ask about it, and that was Zak.

Evan put the root away in his bag and went on his way.

"Hmm? Where's...my wound?" Rosa didn't understand how the deep wound from the arrow had already managed to heal.

What's more, she expected to see a wide scar. But all she saw was smooth, snow-white skin. There was no mark there moreover, the skin looked even better than before.

Without waiting for the obvious question, Evan answered everything himself: "Don't be so surprised and don't ask anything, it`s a secret. Oh, and another thing. Next time I'll leave you for dead and won`t even think about saving you. Why the fuck did you run out if I didn't give the signal?"

In fact, that senseless act of defense only improved Evan's attitude toward Rosa. He liked people like that. They were rare. Few people would put their lives in danger to protect another person.

He scolded her because, aside from the fact that it was a decent deed, it was also foolish to put yourself in danger. Moreover, in that situation, it had given Evan a little trouble, so he was obliged to teach her a lesson.

In response, the girl only blushed in shame and mumbled quietly: "I'm sorry...I just wanted to help someone for once in my life."

Evan said nothing, and they just continued on their way to the city. The huge iron gates were just around the corner.