The beast did not recognize the danger approaching and simply leaped toward the nearest one, perhaps expecting to receive help from its allies soon.
But when it arrived, it began to feel its life slipping away. Behind it was a strange figure that seemed to want to devour it immediately. It saw it as a terrifying beast that had come to swallow it whole.
On the other hand, Ryan simply activates his innate abilities, which are granted to him by the Path of the Devourer: Devour.
That is, his core ability: Spiritual Devourer.
His body was continuously devouring spirituality, and no matter where his rival went now, as long as his spirituality followed him, he could track him down. Every second that passed was an additional spiritual bite.
This increasingly weakened the mutated beast. Since it had once been a human with no power whatsoever and had been mutated by the power of an alchemist specializing in forbidden tactics, what little spirituality it had was devoured too quickly.
Added to the fact that each sword strike weakened it more and more, it took only two minutes before Ryan could devour it completely, and thrust his sword into his human head.
Cecily was stunned to see this. She hadn't even attacked because of what she was witnessing. 'Devouring?' she thought, with palpable astonishment in her eyes.
But just then, numerous beasts jumped through the windows toward him. Although he was taken by surprise, he bared his white teeth in a terrifying smile.
Only three beasts weren't going to make much of a difference. He could win on his own.
He prepared to catch them off guard like the previous one, but then he saw several shadow puppets appear in the periphery of his eyes. They lunged at the beasts inside, while some strange disaster seemed to occur inside.
'Cecily?' He turned around to see Cecily sitting on a branch of a nearby tree.
"Heh, how dare you try to get in my way. I hope you're prepared to die!" she roared angrily.
Her shadows immediately struck them. They were quite powerful, so this time, more than 12 of them were able to get rid of the nuisances in a few seconds.
In addition, inside, a similar beast continued to look for trouble and fight with those trying to escape from the area where they were. Although it was not as powerful as before, its strength was still considerable thanks to the temporary spirit she had given it.
That was the strength of a Level 3 Walker like her.
Even Ryan had to tip his hat to her.
But they had no time to rejoice.
At that moment, numerous beasts appeared from the windows of every room in the hospital.
Ryan came close to her and frowned.
"More than 20," he said.
"We still have the advantage," she said, drawing her shadows closer.
He nodded.
'But strategically, we're lost,' he thought, glancing at her sideways.
"Are they all your puppets?" he asked.
"No, I have more scattered around the city, and most of them are on a mission," she said.
"You have your puppets on a mission?" He shocked.
"Yes, it's more effective that way. Why?" She looked at him, confused that he would ask her that.
But Ryan didn't know how to respond and simply remained silent, which she took as agreement, so she returned to the present.
"The thing is, I won't be able to bring them right now, maybe the ones scattered around the city, but not the rest. Still, we have a big advantage if this is all they have."
'The problem is, it's not all they have,' he thought and frowned.
Leaving aside the Kazaks, who haven't seen any so far, the ones in front of them are beasts mutated by The Butler. They have his mark, so they must also have 'it'.
Besides, they came to do some research and find that treasure, not to kill beasts that didn't even give them a decent amount of orbs.
For the power they have, it's a waste to fight them.
"I think we should leave," he said suddenly.
Cecily looked at him, a little disappointed. Although she understood his reasons for saying so, she still wanted to fight.
Still, she nodded. "Let's go then," she said, and planned their retreat.
But then, they both stopped completely and saw three figures fall from above in front of them.
"Kazaks." Cecily gripped the staff, while Ryan looked closely at one of them.
"It's about to evolve," he said.
These three Kazaks had three-digit numbers printed on their foreheads, just like the one Ryan had seen before.
Only these numbers were: 833, 801, and 700.
The digits represented their strength. The lower the number, or the closer it was to 1, the stronger they were.
A beast with 991-999 was considered a newborn beast.
The closer it was to 500-600, the closer it was to evolving into a Second Class Kazak, which dramatically increased its overall strength and evolved its strange and powerful abilities.
Finding a Kazak with the numerical code of 700 was dangerous for them, as its initial fur began to leave its body and its body slowly rose and changed. It no longer looked like a wolf, like those on its side.
His figure had begun to evolve into a human form, with his horns gradually transforming into those of a deer and his head slowly changing into that of a goat. His front legs slowly turned into enormous humanoid arms with dangerous claws.
Fortunately for both of them, the transformation was not yet complete. He was just beginning to rise, and his front legs were still legs, only they were no longer attached to the ground. His head was already that of a goat, but his deer antlers had not yet completed their evolution.
Perhaps it was in the middle stages of this evolution, but it was already more powerful than any level 2 beast.
And these were no longer children. They could use the abilities they were born with with some skill, so the disadvantage they now had was more than clear.
"We have to find a way to get out of here," Cecily whispered, recognizing the danger. Although she could hold her own against these guys even if she fought alone, Ryan was not like her.
He had only gotten his path a little over a week ago. A week of training was not enough to make up for such a difference, even with the talent he had shown.
They needed to get out of here.
That urgency increased when they saw that these beasts had every intention of tearing them apart.
"Don't worry about me. I'll hold off the Kazaks. Find a way to break through some of them and look for Sir Martin. If the Kazaks are here, that treasure is probably nearby," she said.
Ryan stared at her for a brief moment. Then he looked at the Kazaks.
His gaze swept over the distant buildings before he nodded.
"Okay," he said.