"I'll I'll send a letter to Jasmine as soon as we stop at the next city on our way," Layla said as she raised her guard and prepared to fight. "Do you think this could be a problem? Maybe these are creatures on the run or looking for something. It doesn't mean that our cities will be attacked by monsters soon."
"Anything is possible," Vicente said. "And there doesn't have to be a horde of monsters for us to be in danger. A single vampire would be enough to bring down entire provinces."
Vampires could suck the blood of their victims, absorbing their mana, understanding, elements, and even their vitality.
Vampires were not true immortals. They could be killed. But because of their powers, they were called immortal because they had no life expectancy, as their vitality could easily increase by sucking the blood of new victims.
The more blood a vampire sucked, the stronger, more talented, and more capable they became. As a result, a single one of them would be a true terror, even at a low level.
For example, Vicente's fighting ability was fantastic. But compared to vampires of the same level, he was nothing. Only his second magical form could take away some of the disadvantages he would have against a being of such a race, which was the enemy of practically everyone else in the world.
Vampires were one of the most feared of all special magical beings, but there were others that were similar in the terror they could cause.
So Vicente's concern was justified.
"You're right. If you've seen goblins near Millfall and now we have a group of ogres or giants in front of us, that could be a sign of something worrying. I'll tell Jasmine when we get to the next city."
Why couldn't she do that now? The means of long-distance communication in Polaris Realm weren't very good or efficient.
Layla's communication device had a maximum range of 50 kilometers from their position. They were already further than that from Springfalls, so she would have to use another method.
The simplest and most common method of communication on the continent was letters. In cities all over the continent, one could hire the services of organizations that agreed to deliver messages within certain areas.
In Layla's case, she had in mind using the messenger service of the Congregation of Revelation itself. That would allow Jasmine to begin investigating the situation within a few days between Layla sending the message and her receiving it.
Vicente stepped forward after alerting his companion. "Let's deal with these magical beings. Since they're in our way, there's no point in ignoring them."
The idea was simple: these beings could do nothing against them now, for they were strong. But they might move on and reach Saltstar City and perhaps harm them. So it was better to deal with those monsters now!
Vicente could sense that these creatures were only Mages, so he wasn't afraid of them, even though he knew that some monsters were much stronger than common sense would tell.
Layla followed without fear, for with her speed and the fact that very large creatures were slower than smaller ones of the same level, she had very little chance of suffering from such opponents.
To say that she could defeat beings of the same level with the characteristics of giants or ogres would be very difficult. However, it would be very easy for her to escape from such a being and avoid injury.
After a few dozen meters, the four magical beings in front of her finally noticed her and left their less attentive states to look at her with the eyes of monsters for their prey.
Vicente finally saw the contours of their bodies and realized that they were dealing with ogres.
The individuals with massive bodies in front of them looked like special types of beasts with humanoid bodies, yellowish skins, no clothes on their bodies, and cruel eyes that showed their low rationality.
Giants were very different from ogres. They were more refined, more human-like, and even had a habit of disguising themselves.
"Ogres," Layla commented to Vicente when she saw the four Mid-level Mages in front of her.
"What are you doing here, ogres?" Vicente asked, using his mana to change his voice.
Beings of the 3rd stage and higher could modify their sound waves to translate their intentions, allowing them to communicate with beings of many different races and origins.
Because of this, powerful beings in this world had no need to learn more than one language since mana could solve any linguistic problem.
"Humans, you are strong, but not strong enough to confront us like this." One of them said as he walked towards Vicente and Layla, carrying a staff that was longer than the young Fuller.
Seeing that it was carrying something that looked like a tree trunk, Vicente noticed the famous arrogance of monsters.
Monsters were famous for their audacity. They simply wouldn't act against beings that were stronger and more numerous than them. However, if they were outnumbered by opponents of equal strength, they would often not fear the problems that would follow and would act to gain an advantage.
Some monsters would simply try to kill their targets to devour their bodies and absorb some of the enemy's power. Others would simply try to take their prey's artifacts and magical resources.
"Leave all your resources, and maybe we'll let you go without further trouble." One of the other ogres said as it ran its big tongue over its huge lips.
Ogres were the kind of monsters that devoured their victims in order to grow stronger!
Their ability to grow by devouring their enemies was nothing like that of vampires. But it was a fact that ogres could grow stronger after devouring creatures of the same level or higher.
That was one of the characteristics that made such creatures so feared and usually the enemies of practically all human groups.
Vicente laughed maliciously. "Oh? Do you have the ability to say those words, you filthy ogre?"
"Fucking human!" One of them got angry and jumped at Vicente with a staff in hand.
Another characteristic of ogres was their low intellectual level, which caused them to get angry very easily. All it took was for someone to refuse to do something they said or to insult them, for one of them to lose their temper and attack.
Seeing the creature leaping toward him and the other three preparing to act, Vicente revealed his pentagrams. At the same time, Layla moved to dodge her opponents' attacks.
The first ogre to leap at Vicente stopped in mid-air as the ground around the area shook under the influence of Vicente's magnetic powers.
"If that's what you want, I'll kill you all here, monsters!"
