<h4>Chapter 16: The fear revived the trauma</h4>


    Matt and I ran to the designated location.


    Four groups were designated for this investigation; the other two groups came from other halls and wererger than Matt''s Hall groups.


    Each was sent to investigate a different section of the viges, but they had something inmon: their proximity to each other.


    In the first vige...


    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.


    I 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 herposure as they investigated the entire vige.


    There was no survivor in this vige 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 viges, 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 I.


    "Be careful, there are several nearby." Matt said, and I 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 y them fast." He said, and soon they were mming into these beasts that fell dead after one hit.


    But, even when they had spent several minutes dead, no one came out to face them.


    "How strange..." Matt said.


    "What''s going on?" I asked curiously as she reached him after seeing some of these beasts.


    Matt thought about it momentarily but then shook his head and simply told her that they would follow the path to track them down.


    A few minutester...


    Matt stopped and stopped I from walking on.


    "...These are not weak." He said, and I understood what he meant when she felt the power in the vicinity.


    Soon, four devourers appeared, surrounding them with malicious smiles on their faces.


    ''Their strength shouldn''t be higher than mine.'' Matt thought and looked at I, who seemed to be frightened by this.


    He felt surprised by this, especially noticing that she was shaking a little, though she knew how to calm down quickly.


    ''A trauma?'' Matt thought but turned his attention away from this.


    "I''ll fight those 3; take care of the remaining one. Don''t overexpose yourself; these guys have a lot of tricks." Matt said, and she nodded slightly, clenching the sword tightly in her hand.


    After saying this, Matt stomped his foot and lunged at one of them, striking him in the jaw.


    The blow was powerful and sent the devourer mming into several trees while destroying them in the process.


    The devourer was surprised by the strength of this vampire, but he smiled even though his face was sore.


    "Kill him, that''s the one the boss wants!" he shouted, and the other three ran towards Matt.


    I took advantage of the moment to take a hard swing at the one Matt had told her to, getting into a fight with him soon after.


    Matt forcefully grabbed the fist of one of them to punch him hard in the stomach with all his power.


    This devourer vomited blood from the impact, giving Matt a clue as to who was the weakest of the three in front of him.


    This made him smile, and after dodging the third one''s blow, he also noticed who was the strongest.


    The explosion caused by thetter with a single blow on the ground was enough to demonstrate its power of 3,000.


    ''That will be thest 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 session 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 I 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 I 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 toote to notice.


    His split body was sent backward by Matt''s strength. He came firmly in front of I and held her in his arms.


    "I, what''s wrong? Are you okay?" Matt asked quickly but noticed that I was shaking continuously.


    ''Fear revived her trauma...'' He thought and sighed as he grabbed her to dodge an attack from one of the devourersing 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 inrge 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 I behind him.