Even though he had yet to come to trust Desmond, and doubted he ever would, Lucius was not too pleased to hear the change in plans that separated the man from his side. He was not afraid to admit that Desmond had great potential and for someone of the Intermediate Rank, he was a skilled fighter.
Lucius knew that his compatriot was no match for him with his Channeling, mark, and general combat prowess, but Desmond was still useful in a fight. Instead, he was stuck with a team of five Advance Rank fighters. He did not bother to learn their names, but one was a mage, one was an archer, and the other three used various one-handed weapons with a shield. Chapter Read:
For a moment, he was unsure if the six of them would be enough to figure out the source of the undead and destroy it, but he had to make due with what he was given. One thing that helped keep his sanity was knowing that Desmond would assist Rena and Natali.
There was no need for him to hope that Desmond would protect them as they were powerful in their own right. Lucius also believed with his whole heart that Natali would wipe the floor with Desmond in an all-out fight with her general attack speed as well as the way she seamlessly combined her Dagger Arts with her Mark of Recall.
"Let's go." He growled before leaping from the ruins up to the surface twelve feet above them. With channeling mana into his muscles, he was able to clear the hurdle with no effort and waited for the others to have to climb up.
While waiting for them he did his best to sniff and listen to the surroundings. He was somewhat hopeful he could pinpoint something that felt out of the ordinary, but so far no luck. While he was rather uneducated about the types of monsters in various areas, he did know a little about undead.
As part of his education for the battlefield, he learned the importance of burning bodies in a warzone. He also learned the consequences of not doing that. Over time the residual mana in the bodies would coalesce into a singular mass that would absorb the bodies and weapons.
That mass would take on a physical form that resembled a living human with pale skin and red eyes that fed on the deceased and added their flesh to its own.
"Cut the chatter, let's go." Lucius whispered angrily.
The others quickly silenced themselves and followed his lead through the forest. From what he could tell, they were very close to the vampire's location. They were so close that it took just a handful of minutes to locate the beast's lair.
In the middle of an open space similar in size and shape to the location the research camp was in, a pale skinned man stood alone. His arms were outstretched and his eyes were closed. Moonlight bathed him in an eerie glow as if he were a cat basking in the sun.
Lucius felt his heart clench as the vampire slowly put its hands down to its side and looked directly at him. He cursed under his breath and jumped down into the open space just in time to dodge a spike made of blood that had been aimed where his head used to be.
It shattered against a tree trunk like an ice spike, but the shards dug deep into the surrounding trees like shrapnel. Noticing it had missed, the vampire's face contorted in frustration and it snapped its fingers, generating a red whip in its hands. The whip was several feet long and had razor-like spines along the length of the weapon.
Vampires were incapable of human speech, but they were capable of high-level thought and planning. It was not uncommon for them to act upon complex strategies like attacking the weakest link or the healer while engaging groups. They had even been known to use party members as bait or shields, knowing that their allies would try to save them.
A scream sounded from behind Lucius as the party's mage was forcefully yanked into the hands of the vampire. It had the ability to use Dark Magic and Blood Arts. While it distracted Lucius with the whip made from its Blood Arts, it had manipulated a shadow spell to wrap around the mage and pull him into his grasp.
Lucius simply sighed. "Nice try, but that won't work."
He held out his hand and casually struck the monster and mage with a lightning bolt. Electricity wrapped itself around the creature and caused both it and the mage to twitch uncontrollably. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near enough to kill the monster, but the mage was more than dead.