Chapter 49 – Vampire Hunting Plan (2)
However, Holman’s plan was doomed to failure.
Due to the recent vampire rumors, more guards were patrolling the town than usual. In addition, there just so happened to be a patrol near the central plaza, so before Holman could catch up and eliminate the shadow creature, the patrol had already arrived at the other end of the plaza.
What surprised Holman even more was that the shabbily dressed, meddlesome magician was mixed in with the group of guards!
No matter how Holman looked at this situation, he had already missed the best time to get rid of the shadow creature. After all, he was someone who ostensibly had suffered a mortal injury recently. It would be unbelievable for such a human to execute a powerful move and instantly defeat his enemy.
Hence, the best course of action for him now was to rely on the guards to slay the shadow creature.
Just as Holman was about to announce that the shadow creature was related to the vampire and order the guards to kill it, someone else beat him to the punch.
“Don’t panic, Lord Mayor! I’ll help you!” Zwei shouted with a strange accent.
Immediately afterward, he launched a Magic Missile straight at the shadow creature, which was currently in front of Holman!
However, just as the Magic Bullet was about to land on the shadow creature, the latter suddenly disappeared like mist. As for the Magic Bullet, it passed unhindered through the shadow creature’s disintegrating body and landed smack on Holman’s stern face.
Although Zwei had instantly cast his Magic Bullet and did not charge it with additional mana, his version was still three times stronger than the standard Magic Bullet. When the Magic Bullet landed on Holman’s head, the sound of a watermelon cracking reverberated clearly and loudly in the plaza. The blast had also turned Holman’s face into a bloody mess, several of his teeth flying out of his mouth. Overall, the scene was painful to witness even from a bystander’s perspective.
The guards that were initially planning to rescue their mayor were inevitably stunned by this scene. They came to a halt and looked at Zwei in disbelief.
However, unlike the amiable expression Zwei wore when they met him earlier, the magician currently had a severe look on his face, and his eyes never once left Holman’s body.
Influenced by Zwei’s behavior, the guards turned to look at Mayor Holman once more, and what they saw numbed their scalps.
At this moment, Holman’s face, which had been disfigured beyond recognition by the Magic Bullet, was healing rapidly. And in less than half a minute, his face had regained its original appearance.
Rapid Regeneration was an innate talent of vampires. Unless a vampire had their head blown to smithereens or heart pierced, they could rapidly recover from these injuries at the cost of some blood or mana.
With this, it was obvious who the vampire was.
This outcome also went according to Zwei’s plan.
Zwei was indeed incapable of using shadow magic, let alone summoning magic. However, he possessed the Treasure-rank Dark Celestial Sphere!
Meanwhile, this wand had a special ability called the Land of the Dead! This skill had a certain probability of capturing the souls of the targets he killed, transforming them into shadow servants.
In his previous fight against the gnolls, Zwei had killed nearly 40 gnoll cavalry using Turbid Impact. In addition, despite his failure to conquer the Night Forest’s Heart that afternoon, he had still managed to kill a significant number of elite goblins with his spells.
Thus, the number of shadow servants he had captured had hit the upper limit of ten before he had even begun his vampire hunting plan!
Meanwhile, although these shadow servants were weaker than even ordinary goblins offensively, their proficiency in concealment was superb. Moreover, Zwei wouldn’t feel distressed over their deaths, making them the perfect candidates to lure his enemy into a trap.
For example, the shadow creature Holman had bisected with his Mana Blade hadn’t utilized some special means to escape death; it had actually gotten killed instantly. The shadow creature Holman saw afterward was merely a backup Zwei had stationed there. Fortunately, the shadow servants looked basically the same due to their shadowy figures; it was almost impossible to tell them apart.
The moment Zwei had launched his Magic Bullet at the shadow servant, he had simultaneously recalled the shadow servant with the Dark Celestial Sphere. Afterward, he had controlled his Magic Bullet to land directly on Holman.
Honestly, Zwei had initially considered simply charging a Magic Bullet to 20 or 30 times its standard power and using it to kill Holman on the spot.
However, Zwei eventually decided against doing so. Setting aside whether the other party would discover the accumulation of mana, Zwei also preferred to avoid killing the town mayor right before the town’s residents.
On the other hand, if he simply tried to prove that Holman was a vampire, he wouldn’t have such problems to worry about.
Zwei calmly distanced himself from the town guards while keeping his eyes on Holman, his actions making it seem as if the guards were spectating a duel between him and Holman.
Of course, Zwei would prefer not to fight all by himself while the guards spectated from the sidelines. However, remaining with the patrol might not necessarily be a good thing, either.
Zwei’s worries quickly became reality. The next moment, phrases such as “Brother, what’s wrong with you?” and “Crap, why did you bite me?!” and “Loft became a walking corpse! Watch out, everyone!” and “What?! Evan also became a walking corpse!” came from the guards.
Although Zwei had noticed this commotion, he didn’t turn his attention away from Holman because of it. If he did that, then Holman could easily reach him at breakneck speed and literally snap his neck.
Many of Byk Town’s guards had retired from the army with Holman. As they were veteran soldiers, they looked down on mercenaries that wandered about everywhere “seeking life.” Therefore, in order to avoid unnecessary disputes, Noeg’s Mercenary Association did not establish a branch in Byk Town. Hence, the town guards became the only armed group in Byk Town.
With this being the case, Holman would’ve naturally planted some walking corpses that were absolutely obedient to him in this armed group ahead of time.
Fortunately, the number of walking corpses in this patrol wasn’t significant. Very quickly, the humans among the guards had already begun putting up organized resistance.
However, this situation also destroyed all hopes of Zwei receiving any assistance from them. Now, he was truly alone in his fight against a vampire baron.
Yet, despite his predicament, Zwei did not show the slightest hint of fear at all. On the contrary, a faint smile even appeared on his face.
This was all according to his plan!