My few moments that I had gained by jumping out of the building are over, as I see the corpse that has now been possessed by the vampire lady.

There are a thousand questions running in my mind, but I supress all of them. In this case curiosity will lead to death.

"You haven't told me who you work for mutt. Whoever he is doesn't seem to hold much regard for you. Sending you half transformed like this.", a voice speaks in my head. It is a female voice, quite ordinary except for the authority that can be heard from it. This lady is some kind of a leader.

Thankfully the lady is nowhere near me. As is true with any fort, the place is a confusing mess for any outsiders. I have at the very least spent a few days in this place, so I can tell some things at the very least. The enemy cannot.

I don't reply. Right now the entirety of my focus is on escape. Possession of dead bodies is a massive problem in any place that is able to produce them. I will explain this better one day, but there are places that are put in places like this where possessed corpses are placed in, where possessing forces will not be able to enter them. These places are called the burial grounds.

These places should also be able to exorcise whatever is in seths body. Now, the only problem is that I can see the burial grounds and the many formations that power it but I do not know the route to it.

As I make my way to where I think the burial ground is, I fall to the ground as a massive pain splits my head in two. Again I hear the commanding voice, though now it is even worse.

"What an arrogant mutt, to think that it can run away from a superior. You should be thankful that this body is quite limited in its ability. Else every drop of blood that is in your body would be outside it.", the voice speaks.

I get up, force myself to keep moving. I force myself to study the ladies power. If she is a vampire, she must be some kind of nobility and one of the higher rank ones at that. The bottom three ranks of the vampires are, the grunt, the captain and the general.

The only reason I even know this bit is due to the fact that it might have been useful for my sword. The grunt are the bottom tier of the vampires, one that has been freshly converted into a vampire. Any person above him is supposed to have the ability to command him.

I think I have seen that in action today finally. Well, this ability to command seems to be distance based since I am quite steady at the moment.

That leads me to make a decision that I am certain that I will regret, but there is little I can do. I deactivate the formation on the sword and I can feel the pain. There is a pain in my arms, in every spot that has been injured. The vital mana of my victims acted as an salve completely blocking out the pain.

Well, still am running through all of this quite lost at the moment. I can feel sources of mana, all moving about though I have yet to meet one. Somehow I don't think that I am their target. Still, that does not mean that the lady is still not behind me.

She is following me, how I do not know. Some people say they have noses as sharp as a dogs. Maybe that is it. Thankfully there is not sound in my head, no splitting pain and no crushing pressure when I try to feel her mana.

All of that must be due to my transformation. Well, that won't matter until I reach the burial grounds. On that front I am making certain progress. The pathways here are certainly confusing but the formations of the burial grounds are like a beacon in the middle of a dark forest.

I have to be thankful that the place is still not particularly developed. In a prosperous city, the mana of the burial grounds would have been overshadowed by the many formations that people like to put in their houses.

And thus I run, with dread in my heart toward the goal. Every dead end, sparking the fear in my heart of my enemies position. She could literally be a few steps beyond me. At this point I cant even tell anymore with the mana emissions throughout the city.

Thankfully, the ever brighter spark of mana from the burial lands has given me hope. Well, I have reached quite close to it, though I can't be sure of the lady behind me.

I must have roused every captain, every powerhouse of the outer keep. Thankfully, I have yet to meet any of them. All of them seem to accept that the lady behind me was the true threat. They are not fighting though, which is a pity.

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I can assume that they have at the very least slowed down the lady though. For how long they would have slowed her though, I do not know. Almost as if to break my happy fantasy.

"Oh little mutt, oh little mutt. Wherever you hide I shall find you.", I hear a voice, strengthened by vital mana. "How long do you think that you can hide from me."

I do not reply as I begin to channel mana into my legs. I need to get to the burial grounds to protect myself, that surely I can tell that I still will need to be in my peak condition to fight this menance.

Wasting mana like this means that I will have lesser mana when I reach the burial ground. It still takes a minute or so with my enhanced limbs, but there were thankfully no more dead ends or my heart would have failed completely.

A burial ground looks likes any other cemetery, except if you have the sight. Every inch of the ground here has been inscribed with formations that separate the flesh from the spirit. Any person that has been buried in such a place will have a body completely devoid of spirits, protecting them from necromancy, spirit summoning and more importantly in my case possessions.

Thus fighting this enemy that has possessed a dead body, the burial grounds are my safest bet. I don't know why the lady has been chasing me for so long, but maybe the sight of the burial ground might prevent her from acting.

Well, a few minutes later my hopes are dashed completely. Steve appeared a bit worse for the wear, but I honestly can't say if that will have any real effect. For a few seconds he waits, before speaking.

"Do you think such a paltry formation will protect you mutt, this formation will take hours if not days to expel me from this putrid body.", Steve speaks, as he enters into the place.

"Why are you chasing me like this, lady of the flaming moon.", I reply, finally speaking to the lady. "It is not like I have truly harmed you in any way."

"You really are an arrogant mutt aren't you. To think you would try and question your superiors. The reason for your death is simple, mutt. You forced me to possess the body of putrid man.", the lady spoke I steves voice. She becomes a blur as my sword collides against the claws.

I am barely able to redirect her attack as I prepare to block her left hand.

"Months of preparation, wasted."

I block the left hand, but she twists her right hand right at my throat. I jump backwards, feeling the edge of her claws grazing my throat.

"You fight well for a mutt, but how many strikes can you hold against me."

This statement is followed by a flurry of claws strikes which I still not sure how I blocked. It resulted in a swipe on my right hand. The wounds keep bleeding, without stopping. I can't do much except pass my vital mana into those regions.

"Who is your master, mutt. Tell that and your death shall be painless.".

Another flurry and another swipe to the left hand. The lady is playing with me.

"Well, I have no master, my lady. He has died almost a couple of years ago.", I speak, bullshitting with such confidence that I am surprised at my words.

"Atleast lie a bit better, do you think that the death of a noble capable of creating grunts would not be noticed by me.", she replies, taking a swipe at my head. I duck to dodge it.

Fighting this lady is going to be painful. Simply put my injuries will be at the moment healing the enemies wounds quite slowly. Vital mana is not really useful to dead things after all.

That doesn't mean that the vital mana leaking from me won't debilitate me. I can already feel the vital mana that I have been using to reinforce my body dissipating through my wounds.

"I shal ask you one final time, tell me the identity of your master.", she asks again.

"Well, if I were to tell you that I have no master, would you be able to believe me.", I reply. Well, the world has begun to rotate or is that me getting dizzy. I honestly don't know.

Well, I don't even catch the ladies movement, as she charges towards me. Her movement feels as if she is in slow motion.

Well, that certainly means nothing good. I think loss of blood can cause something like this or else the lady has poison on her nails. I can't really discount that too.

You know one funny thing about combat, just how much of combat is dependent on your solidity with the basics.

I enter into stance, feeling the ladies hand aim for my heart. I take a step to the left, feeling her hand pass into my chest. This is going to hurt.

The stance that I have taken is positioned in such a way that my sword is aimed right over the enemies head. Almost as soon as I swing my sword down the lady retreats, but the thing is in a battle of fists to blades, the blade will always have better range.

No matter how fast or agile the enemy is, this fact is not something that can be changed immediately. I can feel the resistance on my sword as it enters into the steves skull splitting it.

Well, such an injury doesn't actually hurt someone who has possessed a dead body, but we are in the burial grounds. The burial ground you can say is pulling the spirit from the flesh. You can think of the body as a container. The more broken it is the more the contents of it will spill out to be pushed away by the burial ground.

There is a reason that I ended up here. Thankfully, the enemy is busy. What i have done is equivalent to me shattering the lid of the container and turned the entire thing upside down.

Well, I don't really get the chance to react to the enemies strike though. The pain of the strike hits me like an elephants charge. I can barely keep myself in a steady state as I look at the dissipating lady. The expelled spirit looks likes smoke wafting from a bonfire.

"I have remembered your mana, you half converted mutt.", she speaks. "We shall meet again in the court and then I shall show you the finest of pains. You will be screaming your masters name in the process of begging me for mercy. This is my promise."

I do not retain consciousness to see the entire process of dissipation as the world turns black.