Well it has been almost an hour since I have run away from the lodge. I have been sneaking through the city moving at random. The main purpose of this has been to leave a clear trail of my presence without actually revealing it. At least not immediately. The lady can try and follow me, but it will take her a while.

Even if vampire grunts can sense blood mana, it is not something that they can do easily. At least someone more combat oriented like that lady will not be able to do it. I have heard stories about the vampires at the court though.

Right now I am in an abandoned lodge quite far away from the enemy and the inn. The owner of this place was the very first victim of the gang. I am in the first floor, in what I have to assume is the tavern of the lodge. The place is perfect. Anyone's entry into this place will be quite obvious to me and the place won't be missed even if I were to end up demolishing the place. The owner of the place must already be dead. Not that such a intense fight will happen.

I have an ace in the hole for when such a damn thing will occur. I sit down on the floor, feeling the orb of black metal I have stashed in my shoes.

Trevor actually has got his hand on a pretty rare formation this far north. It's called as the void bomb. It is supposed to create a mist in which all the senses are blocked completely. The people stuck in it feel as if they are stuck in a endless void. It is a class eight formation, but it will easily have the cost of a class seven formation. This close to the hexmountain, it would cost even more.

I could have used it during the infiltration but that would have been a pretty poor use of such a formation. The thing with this formation is that you should be able to pick the battlefield to use it. That was the enemies homeground.

One problem is that this is a double edged sword. I can just as easily get affected by the void bomb. Another problem is the time it takes to use it. I need to charge the bomb with my mana, before throwing. Vampires are sharp enough to dodge it if they realise what I am doing.

Still if they get trapped in it, there will be little that I will need to do. Escaping the void is nearly impossible, except by accidently walking away from its edges or when the mana powering it is over. Regardless of which occurs, this will buy me at least ten minutes of time. Granted I don't get stuck in it myself.

That will be enough for me to disappear into the sewers. That is another benefit of this place. There is a opening to the sewers here from which I can make a quick escape. After all that is the backup plan that Trevor has proposed, mainly because it is going to reveal the organisations presence in the sewers.

It is quite simple, if a bit risky. Vampire clans are nearly legendary for their infighting. If a clan is doing something, you will find its opposing clan somewhere nearby trying to make it fail. I was transformed when I killed the lady.

Trevor and I assume that she thinks of me as a suicidal attacker of some clan. She did keep calling me a half converted mutt, so I have to assume that the same thought is forwarded to the bloodfire gang.

Right now I will transform using the sword, pushing out my mana like a beacon for the bloodfire gang. Fully converted grunts with control over their blood mana should be able to sense blood mana in their surroundings even if it is not their masters, though they would only be able to do it barely.

To complete the plan, I will be acting as a bait to the enemy while Trevor will sneak into the place and free the people. They certainly won't be expecting me to have an ally. (Even if they did, trevor has a bag of tricks I am starting to realise.) Right now I have fully stopped any restriction on my sword as the blood mana produced leaves me fully powered. The lady that I have just escaped from should be able to detect me quite easily.

If they knew that I was from the guard corps, they would have promptly ignored me. Because they consider me as a part of the court, they will not be able to ignore me. Such an obvious provocation from my side will need answering. If they don't come to attack me now, then it will be equivalent to damaging the reputation of their master in the court and reputation is very hard to build up in the court.

(After about fifteen minutes.)

Well here they are. The first thing that I can confirm that it is two enemies, one coming down the only set of stairs in the place, which is quite creaky. The other has just threw a rock through a window. At the very least stealth does not seem to be a skill of theirs. That is good, because stealthy vampires are the worst.

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The lady is the first to find me. She comes at me the instant that she locates me, as I block her strike. I don't allow her to maintain a momentum as I keep pressing my attack on her.

In a few moments, I hold the more dominant position. (What, the only reason my performance was so bad before was that my transformation was delayed the last time.) She does have training, but the court is more a place of intrigue than fighting. She might be physically stronger than me but my skill with the sword is greater.

I don't get to keep it up though as the second vampire comes to attack. It is a man, who is thankfully using his claws. If they had another artifact I would be screwed. I am barely able to get in a strike into the bastards side, as his claws aim for my heart. I block using my hand, while stabbing one of his legs.

I can feel a string of vital mana flowing from the man to me. If before the fusion this string was single string, now it is like four or five of those strings have merged to form a new string. The amount of lifeforce I am getting now is way more than I could before. It could also be due to the fact that a vampire has more vital mana than is normal.

I jump back taking a defensive position. We stare at each other for a while after which the lady strikes finally. I block her sword, as the man tries to sneak behind me. He is aiming for my heart, which I dodge by ducking.

For a second, I have the hope that the man would end up hitting the lady, but even she jumps to the side, barely dodging it. The two people don't know how to work together at the very least. That is good news.

(After a couple of minutes.)

I have been keeping the two bastards quite busy for a while now.

I gave up on offense completely as I danceed around the tavern blocking and dodging. I exploit every bit of the unfamiliarity that the two people have with each other and to their surroundings. Honestly speaking, it is their inability to work together rather than my skill that has left me so pristine in this fight.

I will not be able to maintain this for long though. My mana expenditure in the fight has been constant, while the two can be more conservative with their mana. As if that was not enough, I took an injury. It is a pretty inconsequential injury, but it takes a constant stream of vital mana to make sure it doesn't get worse.

I jump to the side, dodging the lady's sword. It has taken on a greyish colour by now. I assume that something quite deadly will happen if I get hit by that thing. This is going to be something other than my blood being absorbed. That is mana of the earth element. This would be a ideal time to attack, but I am forced to dodge as the man appears to my side. I use the sword to block him.

I feel a sharp pang of pain. The lady managed to sneak in an attack, in that while. The new effect of the sword seems to be petrification, as my skin begins to take on a greyish tone. I have to push mana into my wounds. The petrification is stalled temporarily. With enough time I will be able to expel that mana but you can't really meditate in a battlefield.

And thus I begin to lose. I believe I hold a pretty formidable defense but that can only be confirmed by my enemy. I block both of them as much as possible but my mana is already approaching the bottom of the tank.

On hindsight, maybe I did not really need to fight for so long. I could have used the void bomb five minutes ago and escape, but I kind of got lost in the fight. A person of the legion is supposed to be good at fighting, even if he has left it for years now. Still, The only thing that I was supposed to be doing was buy some time for Trevor to do his thing. I really should think about escape now. Well, I got an idea but it is going to be quite painful.

I jump back barely dodging a sword strike from the lady. Now is seriously not the time for complicated planning so it is a simple plan.

I jump back again, feeling my back hit the wall. Fuck, I can feel both of them charging in to take a swing. I duck down, not dodging the enemies blows, but to reach my shoes.

The lady redirects her blade right into my back. The Sword is lodged solidly in my back. I can feel my flesh beginning to petrify as I pour all of my remaining mana into the block of black metal in my hand.

I seriously hope that I have not calculated the range wrong as I throw the block at the two people, who as I expected bolted backwards away from me. Well, I had accounted for that. The black metal suddenly expands forming a sphere of pure blackness. It seems to be devouring the very light in the world. Turns out I did calculate the range wrong, the sphere has formed up right next to me, close enough that I can see the sphere eat up my nose.

Almost in fear I take a step backwards hitting the wall behind me. My nose is still there thankfully, but I still keep moving. Pulling out the ladies sword, I move away from the place. After all, knowing my luck I am sure that the two people will make their way out of the place any second, getting out of that void out of pure luck.

The petrification has not stopped completely, so I cycle my vital mana just enough to form a equilibrium (just enough to stop any further petrification). Just that takes a significant chunk of my mana.

I hope that the organisation does not make me deal with more headaches like this. Even if they do, at the very least I got a magical tool from this endeavor. A vampires sword at that. Thinking this I begin to hobble, going to the gutter entrance that is hidden in this place.

I am telling you, if after all of this trevor ends up failing at his task. I am going to personally strangle him.