Chapter 48 – Vampire Hunting Plan (1)
“That magician has been staying in that broken room since he returned there this afternoon and hasn’t come out yet.”
Inside a dimly lit room, Byk Town’s mayor, Holman, lay lazily on a velvet couch, with a palm-sized crimson bat hanging off his slightly raised hand.
The bat’s mouse-like head faced Holman. As it stared at Holman with its large, pupil-less eyes, it let out a series of soft hissing.
Blood Bat Summoning, a specialty of vampires, could even allow high-ranking vampires to transform their bodies into a colony of bats. However, as a vampire recently promoted to the baron rank, Holman still couldn’t accomplish such a feat.
After Zwei had left Holman, the vampire had secretly summoned a few blood bats and had them follow the magician. Hence, every one of Zwei’s actions was within his grasp.
However, maybe because Zwei had realized he was being watched, after taking a random stroll in the afternoon, he had returned to Old Vita’s dilapidated house and hadn’t come out since. He had even closed the curtains of his room, preventing the blood bats from seeing inside.
To be honest, Holman still felt quite fearful of Zwei. Although the latter wasn’t particularly strong, Holman himself was only a recently promoted vampire baron. Even a slightly knowledgeable Basic Magician posed a threat to him.
“What a sly bastard…” A treacherous smile flashed across Holman’s battle-hardened face. “But no matter. The slier a person is, the more cautious they will be.”
Often, being cautious could be equated with timidity!
Even if this foreign magician had guessed the truth of the matter, he was unlikely to take action immediately. On the other hand, Holman would get stronger by the day. So long as he could complete the final ritual, even if Zwei were an Intermediate Magician, the magician would still be easy pickings inside his Blood Palace!
Once Holman thought up to this point, the smile on his face widened even further. He then squeezed the blood bat hanging off his hand, causing it to burst into a sticky red liquid that seeped through the gaps of his fingers.
However, the blood did not drip to the floor. Instead, the volume of the blood covering his hand gradually decreased as if his skin was absorbing it.
In less than a minute, the blood on Holman’s hand had disappeared without a trace.
“Having this thing tied to my body all day is a little uncomfortable.” After saying so, Holman removed the blood-stained bandages covering his chest, revealing pristine pectoral muscles underneath them.
There were many ways one could use Blood Manipulation. Fabricating a bleeding wound was child’s play for him.
In fact, when humans fought against vampires of the earl rank or above, if the humans didn’t possess some sort of protective magic, they would almost certainly lose. After all, the vampires could ignore the humans’ skin and muscles and directly control the blood within their bodies. At that time, all the vampires needed to do was pop a few veins to finish the battle.
Although Holman would become only a vampire viscount after his next promotion, so long as he properly nurtured the Blood Palace, a growth-type magic barrier, he could exert the strength of a vampire earl while under the barrier’s influence!
However, these matters were all for the future. Now, it was more important for him to figure out how to handle that meddlesome magician.
Just as Holman pulled his thoughts back to reality, he inadvertently glanced out the window and noticed something that startled him.
A black shadow that was slightly larger than a monkey was staring at him with bulbous eyes!
However, Holman was a vampire, a supernatural creature. Hence, he more or less was immune to ghosts. Dammit… It’s usually the vampires doing the scaring. Since when did it turn into the vampires getting scared?
After snapping out of his daze, Holman quickly noticed the other party’s peculiar aura.
It was only a shadow creature.
It was no wonder he had failed to notice such a big shadow despite having a vampire’s night vision. After all, shadow creatures didn’t have any specific appearances.
Of course, Holman’s mind wasn’t just thinking of how disrespectful the other party was. Instead, many other thoughts flashed through his mind simultaneously.
Why is there a shadow creature at my window? Is it that magician’s doing?
However, Holman immediately rejected this conjecture of his.
Although Holman couldn’t see through the depths of Zwei’s strength when he met with the latter, given how active the elementals were around Zwei, the other party was an elemental magician.
No person in this world could study elemental magic and dark magic simultaneously. Even summoning simple shadow creatures was impossible for elemental magicians.
Could there be a powerhouse residing in Byk Town that he wasn’t aware of?
In any case, Holman’s heart got goosebumps from the shadow creature staring at him. This situation also firmed his resolve to take action. If he allowed this shadow creature to escape after seeing him without his bandages, while he could still maintain his act, he would definitely encounter a lot of trouble.
Extinguishing trouble before it came knocking on his door—this had always been Holman’s way of doing things.
Perhaps sensing Holman’s killing intent, the shadow creature actually turned around and jumped off the second floor without hesitation.
This situation confirmed that the shadow creature was merely a reconnaissance tool similar to his blood bats. Moreover, compared to fighting, most shadow creatures were more adept at hiding and launching sneak attacks. This was also why Holman had failed to notice the shadow creature right off the bat.
The concealment ability of shadow creatures was incredibly strong. To make matters worse, the higher-leveled a shadow creature was, the stronger this ability.
Now that Holman had resolved to kill the shadow creature, he promptly refastened his bandages, then picked up the longsword resting beside his couch. He then activated the magic commonly used by magic swordsmen.
Enchant · Mana Blade!
Similar to Magic Bullet, Mana Blade was also a first-circle spell. However, Mana Blade had a much lower requirement for mana manipulation, as it was activated with the help of a weapon. Since this spell had a quick casting speed, good power, and relatively low mana consumption, it was a popular beginner move to learn for many magic swordsmen.
However, compared to those weak magic swordsmen, Holman’s magic standards were obviously much higher. His Mana Blade easily smashed through the window and bisected the shadow creature!
Did it get taken care of so easily?
Holman frowned when he saw the shadow creature’s body dissipating into nothingness. He thought to look around and immediately found the shadow creature sticking to the wall of his house and sneaking toward Byk Town’s central plaza.
Sure enough, it won’t be so simple! A gleam of bloodlust flashed in Holman’s eyes.
His attack before had caused a huge commotion, so it shouldn’t be long before the patrolling town guards came running over. Hence, no matter what, he had to resolve this problem in the shortest time possible.