The morning sun cast long shadows over the walls of the Ashfen pass.

Kai pulled the reins of his borrowed black horse, bringing the animal to a slow walk.

He did not draw his sword today and spent the entire first day just preparing.

A young local tracker named Finn rode on a brown horse right next to him.

Kai had hired the boy at the edge of the northern woods just to bounce his ideas around.

"You know what happened the last time an army marched through this specific canyon?" Finn said, pointing a finger at the grey cliffs.

"The royal guard tried to hold the line right here. They failed. The pass is just too narrow. You cannot fit more than ten men shoulder to shoulder."

"That is why I like it," Kai replied.

He looked up at the high cliff faces, mapping every shadow, every loose rock formation, and every shift in the wind direction.

His passive skill, Cartographic Memory, worked silently in the background.

Every detail of the canyon burned itself into his mind.

He could close his eyes and see the exact layout of the pass.

"You are crazy," Finn muttered, shaking his head.

"There is a vanguard of five hundred blood drinkers coming this way. You are just one guy. You cannot stop them."

"I do not need to stop five hundred soldiers. I just need to stop one."

Kai went over his mental inventory.

He knew his toolset very well.

He had Shadow Step, which gave him a silent three-meter blink, and Bloodsense, which let him detect heartbeats within a two-hundred-meter radius. He had Insight to read surface intentions. He had one Barrier Fragment that could act as a single-use shield. And he had the beginning stages of a skill called Crimson Veil.

The veil was not finished, but it was enough to dim his physical presence.

’I was not a fighter back in my old world,’ Kai thought to himself.

’I was a game designer who played this game for hundreds of hours. And a designer’s real job is to find the one path through the level that the enemy never thought to close.’

He needed Lilith isolated.

Millenia had given him the intel he needed. Lilith rotated her sleeping tents every single night using a moon cypher, but she had a very personal habit.

She always walked the perimeter of her camp alone at the third hour past midnight.

"Let me ask you something, Finn," Kai said, turning to look at the young tracker.

"If a paranoid general goes for a walk, and her twelve elite guards follow her, how far back do they stay?"

"If they are elite guards, they stay right on her heels," Finn answered quickly.

"They never leave her sight."

"Her guards are blood puppets. They are not humans. They follow a strict magical tether and stay exactly twenty meters behind her at all times to give her the illusion of privacy."

Finn frowned.

"Twenty meters is nothing. If you attack her, those guards will cover that distance in three seconds and cut you to ribbons."

"Yes, they will," Kai agreed.

He guided his horse toward a cluster of large boulders near the choke point.

"But three seconds is a very long time if you know where to stand."

He built his entire assassination plan around a twenty-second window.

That was all the time he needed if he placed himself in the perfect spot.

He would drop from the ledge, use his skills, and sever the puppet strings before the guards even drew their swords.

Kai pointed to a small dip in the canyon floor just below the cliff.

"Do you see that crater?" Kai asked.

"Yes. It is an old rockslide," Finn said.

"The wind funnels through there," Kai explained.

"It blows from north to south at night. If I stand downwind, her hounds will not smell me. I used to play a game with mechanics just like this. If you ignore the wind direction, you die."

"You play strange games," Finn noted.

"They were educational," Kai replied.

He thought about his Barrier Fragment.

It was a fragile piece of magic in his pocket that would stop one lethal blow. If the puppets moved faster than the twenty-second window allowed, he would have to use it.

’I just have to trust my Bloodsense,’ Kai thought to himself.

’Two hundred meters is plenty of warning. I will feel her heartbeat long before she sees my shadow.’

He closed his eyes and visualised the vampire general walking down the dirt path. He saw the twelve puppets marching twenty meters behind her.

[Skill Partial Unlock: Crimson Veil]

[Progression: 60%to 75%]

[Effect: Presence suppression active. Heartbeat and mana signature reduced by half.]

Kai read the text and felt a sudden chill wash over his skin.

His heartbeat slowed down. The natural magical energy in his body dimmed, tucking itself away into the shadows. He became very hard to notice.

Finn blinked and looked around, suddenly confused.

He looked right at Kai, but his eyes seemed to slide right past him.

"Where did you go?" Finn asked, his voice tight with sudden panic.

"You were just right here."

"I am still here," Kai said quietly.

Finn jumped slightly in his saddle.

He stared at Kai like he was looking at a ghost.

"That is not normal. I was looking at you, but my brain told me the space was empty."

"It is a rogue trick," Kai lied smoothly.

"It helps me stay out of sight."

’The veil is getting stronger,’ Kai thought to himself, feeling the cold magic wrapping around his shoulders.

’If I can reduce my heartbeat by half, the puppets will not hear me drop. I just need to time the Shadow Step perfectly to close the final three meters.’

"So we are done here," Kai announced.

He turned his black horse around, facing back toward the southern tree line.

"I have the map in my head. I know where the choke point is. Now we just wait for the sun to go down on the third day."

"Are you sure about this?" Finn asked, following close behind him.

"If you miss her neck, you die. The army marches over your body, and the capital burns." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"I won’t miss."