The night air was cold as Kai left his horse tied to a dead tree two miles back.

He walked the rest of the way on foot because riding any closer would alert the scouts guarding the valley entrance. He reached the edge of the Ashfen pass, where the vampire march camp spread out across the rocky floor.

He stepped past the first row of dying campfires.

Drone vampires stood in loose clusters around the flames. They were low-level grunts, pale and starving, and they barely possessed any sentient thought.

Kai walked right past them.

His partial skill, Crimson Veil, kept his mana dim enough that their basic sensory abilities slid right off his shoulders.

"Throw another log on the fire," a voice called out from the darkness.

A drone grunted in response and tossed a dry branch into the flames.

The pale creature looked right in Kai’s direction.

It blinked its red eyes, letting its gaze drift over him, and then turned away to stare at the sparking wood. They did not register him at all.

Kai moved deeper into the camp, staying in the deep shadows near the canyon walls. He activated his Bloodsense to map the path ahead.

The drones registered as weak, fluttering pulses on his mental radar. But the blood knights were entirely different.

He felt them sitting in the centre of the camp. They felt like burning coals pressed against the inside of his skull. There were twelve distinct pulses, and they felt hot and wrong.

’They are not actually alive,’ Kai thought to himself, rubbing his temple to ease the sudden headache.

’The magic is just forcing their dead hearts to beat.’

He climbed up a small incline and watched them from a high ridge.

The twelve knights stood in a rotating diamond formation.

They surrounded a large black tent in the middle of the narrow canyon. They moved in perfect, unnatural synchronisation while their armor shifted without making a single sound.

Kai slipped past the inner row of tents to find his exact position.

He arrived at the choke point of the perimeter walk he had scouted yesterday. It was a flat rock formation sitting above the dirt path.

The shadows pooled perfectly in the depression of the stone. He crouched down and pressed his back against the cold rock.

He was twenty meters from the path the general would take.

Two standard vampire guards walked past the rock formation on a casual patrol.

"The general is in a foul mood tonight," the first guard complained, kicking a loose stone down the path.

"She executed three drones just for stepping out of formation during the evening meal."

"Keep your voice down," the second guard hissed.

"If her puppets hear you, we will join those drones in the dirt. She does not tolerate complaints during a march."

"I am just saying we should be resting," the first guard muttered.

"We push the pace tomorrow. We hit the capital walls before the sun sets, and the royal guard will not just roll over."

"Then rest your mouth and keep walking," the second guard ordered. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Kai listened to their footsteps fade down the canyon. He checked his inventory while the silence returned. He had his Shadow Step ready for a silent three-meter blink.

He had his Barrier Fragment tucked into his belt for emergencies. He held the blade Millenia gave him in his right hand.

The weapon was forged from black steel, and it caught no light at all.

’She gave me this without any real explanation,’ Kai thought, staring at the metal.

’But it feels sharp enough to cut through a mountain, and I will need every advantage I can get.’

He waited in the shadows.

The camp slowly settled down, and the fires burned low. The third hour past midnight finally arrived.

Kai did not see her at first, but he heard her. His Bloodsense picked her up before she even left the tent. Her heartbeat was distinctive. It was old. It was slow and powerful. It felt like a heavy war drum being played underwater.

Boom.

A long pause followed.

Boom.

The tent flap opened, and Lilith stepped out.

She wore dark leather armour and carried a curved blade on her hip.

Her pale skin caught the faint moonlight spilling over the canyon walls.

A vampire scout hurried up to her, bowing low to the ground.

"General," the scout said quickly.

"The perimeter is secure. The forward team reports no sign of the human army."

"I did not ask for a report," Lilith replied. Her voice was sharp and commanding.

"I am walking the perimeter alone."

"Of course, General," the scout stammered, backing away. "Should I tell the knights to stay behind?"

Lilith let out a cold laugh. "They do not take orders from you. They will follow me as they always do."

She turned her gaze toward the twelve silent figures standing in the diamond formation.

"Keep your distance," Lilith ordered them. "I want quiet while I walk."

"Yes, General," a chorus of dead voices replied in perfect unison.

Lilith turned away from the scout and came around the corner of the rocky path.

She walked with the casual arrogance of a commander who believed she was untouchable. She was a boss character moving exactly according to her programmed patrol route, but she was very real, and her blade would actually kill him.

Kai looked past her.

The twelve blood puppets followed twenty meters behind her, marching in a block.

They did not speak, and they did not break their stride. T

Kai felt his heart beating fast, but his hands were perfectly steady.

He calculated the distance in his head. He had to let her walk right below his rock formation.

Then he had to drop down, use his Shadow Step to close the final gap, swing the black blade, and sever the connection before the twelve knights realised she was dead.

The drumbeat of her heart grew louder in his mind.

She stepped into the narrowest part of the choke point.

The shadows swallowed her up for a split second.

’Twenty seconds,’ Kai thought to himself, gripping the hilt of the black sword.

’Do not miss.’