“There you are!”

An excited whisper blended with the chirps of birds at dawn.

Unlike the hubbub of activity in the forest, eerie silence permeated the area beneath Leonardo.

A cave lingered like an open maw, some twenty miles outside Valetta. It wasn’t wide enough to seem worth exploring, but it was precisely this innocuous cavern that Leo targeted.

Why he was out here randomly and not in his lab? — Because a vampire rested within it.

Over the past weeks, he failed to make any notable improvements with his cure. Unable to cope with doing nothing, he decided to tackle the other significant problem. Production.

The cure depended solely on the vampire he captured as a means to convert human blood into flux. That in itself limited the amount he could produce to a few dozen samples a day.

Thus, he took the risky but ingenious plan of hunting down other vampires!

Malta was an island in the middle of nowhere though, with barely a few settlements. There weren’t all that many predators it could sustain. Conversely, it became much easier to detect them.

By sampling his captive’s aura, he more or less understood that vampires stood on the opposite spectrum of life. Thus, they were rather easy to spot with magic. The absence of life force became an easy tell he could exploit.

Then, when the sun rose and the vampires crawled to sleep — he struck.

And almost died.

The first hunt proved to be far more dangerous than he could have expected. Luckily, it had been a younger fledgling, so Leonardo managed to retreat to safety after having his shield broken and his sword stolen.

When he returned the second day, the vampire was long gone. Luckily, he couldn’t pursue him in daylight, otherwise he’d be done for. The roles between hunter and prey could be reversed in an instant.

This particular vampire was likely older, and thus more powerful. He generally sent his blood thralls to do his biding, which made it harder to track him down. It was sheer coincidence that Leonardo even discovered this cove, when he stalked another vampire who had come here.

Lingering by the cove, Leonardo remained invisible for another hour or so before a man and a woman emerged from the cave. They doused their torches and then assured themselves nobody was around, before leaving for Valetta.

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Neither spoke a word as they departed, as if they were merely strangers meeting on the same road. However, Leonardo knew for sure they served the same master, and offered quite a few sacrifices to him.

That would come to an end today.

Dispelling the cloak of shadows around him, Leonardo wordlessly approached them and without warning plunged his dagger into the man’s back.

The well timed spell ensured the blade pierces directly through his heart, snuffing the man’s life in an instant.

The woman reacted with a uncanny alertness, withdrawing a blade of her own and backing away. She stared at him warily, a tinge of blood red surfacing in her eyes.

“How daring, to strike us at master’s doorstep! Who is your domitor, kid?”

Despite trying to sound brave, the woman was clearly glancing at the cave entrance, itching to flee inside.

Naturally, Leonardo blocked the path of retreat. Scoffing, he didn’t bother with her question and lunged forth, enhancing himself with swiftness while dispelling the air resistance around him.

The woman’s eyes snapped back to him, tracking his movements clearly. She met his lunge with a blow of her own.

Their blades clashed, prompting Leonardo to recoil in surprise.

‘She’s fast. Faster than me, even.’

Squinting his eyes, Leonardo was sure the woman employed a vampiric power to match his speed, ‘A tier III Blood Art? That’s concerning.’

Without giving him time to ponder, the woman struck again. Her blows were quick and lethal, making Leonardo regret he assassinated the male first. He thought he’d have no difficulty facing the unassuming woman, but she turned out to be a thorny rose.

The woman’s relentless assault kept Leonardo on the defensive, giving him no time to breathe as he channeled his magic to continuously preempt and block or dodge attacks.

‘This can’t last forever… How is she so powerful? Aren’t I a blood thrall too!?’

With a spiteful grimace, Leonardo decided to risk it and faked an erroneous step, opening himself up to an attack.

The woman didn’t disappoint, her blade soon tearing a long gash across his chest, one that would prove lethal to anyone.

Backing away to avoid the spurt of blood, the woman grinned triumphantly.

‘Hm. Something is wrong,’ she thought, but had no time to act.

A rotating blade slipped from a low angle, and before she could intercept the thrown attack or make sense of why Leonardo didn’t weaken — the flying dagger lodged itself into her skull.

“Rock skin, bitch.”

Spitting spitefully on her corpse, Leonardo retrieved his dagger and checked his chest wound.

The surface skin was cut through, and some of the muscle was torn, but none of the organs were harmed. He could mend the injury quickly, but it would waste some of his chi.

Either way, he couldn’t afford to battle while impeded, so he could only sit cross legged and mull over the fight as he regained top fighting condition.

‘If the ghouls are this powerful already, then the vampire is going to be even harder to deal with… I’m in over my head, aren’t I…’

Even as he lamented his very low odds of survival, he didn’t think to give up. The more powerful the vampire, the more potent and concentrated their blood was. If he obtained the heart’s essence of this old vampire, he could potentially cure over 300 people.

To retrieve their core flux essence, he would have to kill them, however. It’s why he opted to hunt others rather than sacrifice his lab rat. It would be difficult to capture another vampire, but it was much easier to assassinate them in broad daylight.

Basically, the curse source was strongest in the heart. But to retrieve it, one had to kill the vampire. Without it, the flux he obtained was more diluted and about ten times weaker. Furthermore, by killing them off, he ensured no one would be beholden to their Blood Geas control.