I feel like running away when I finally lay my eyes on the vampire in front of me. It is the snake, by the way. The man is strolling towards me at a leisurely pace. I can't take my eyes off the man as he finally reaches the restaurant where I am sitting right now.

  I steel myself as I let go of my sword's hilt. You never show fear to a predator like that. It will just motivate it to take a bite out of you. Anyway, the goal is to buy as much time as possible.

  I can feel my heart beating as I look at the man entering the restaurant. No one in the place even notices the man. Well, he is wearing the uniform of the servants. The man might have even eaten here once in a while.

  "Well, it is a wonder that you are not running for your life already." The man replies as he looks at me. "You were already running away by this time, the last time that we had met."

  There is a condescending kind of humour to his voice that is meant to piss me off.

  "Well, I had run away because you were cheating. I wonder how it felt to stuff yourself full of that much blood." I reply, trying my best to keep my teeth from chattering. "I can see the consequences of your indulgence already. I wonder if you will dare to drink that much blood ever again."

  "Well, you should see how much blood I have to drink to sate myself at home." The man replies as he sits at my table. "That would make this look like a small snack."

  "For how much you are boasting about it, one would think that you were stronger." Is my reply. "Right now, all I see is a man who had failed to catch me and then ran away before he could have a rematch with me."

  The man reacts to this, I realise. Looks like he is not happy about that.

  "Well, this body of mine is not the strongest of vessels. I am quite limited in what I can do with it." The man replies as he puts his hand on the table. "Still, this vessel of mine is enough to show you your place."

  That action of his is not the most threatening action that I have ever seen. Still, it takes all of my will to keep my hand from my sword. I mean that I will have to end up fighting the man, but I need to buy some time before that.

  Forcing myself to stare at the man, I speak to him. I try to give my hostile stare to the man. I can't help but wonder if he can see the fear, though.

  "Well, what exactly are you trying to do in this city, vampire." I speak, staring into the man's eyes. "You can't be here just to delay us. You have some other goal here as well."

  I am asking this question genuinely, but the man looks at me like I have somehow insulted him.

  "We go where the emissary commands us to go, mutt. Don't think to understand his will." He replies, a rare bit of agitation to his voice.

  "You don't know yourself, don't you?" I speak, realisation dawning on me.

  I seem to have hit a nerve, as the man smacks my table. That earns a few stares in our direction.

  "Be careful what you speak.", the creature replies, an odd kind of force to its voice.

  As he speaks, I don't reply to the man. I instead force myself to look at the man. I don't look at his hands, nor his eyes. Instead, I look at his body.

  The man looks like he has lost weight. It is not a normal loss of weight. I can see his skeleton. That is how thin the man has become. His eyes are sunken, like he has not been sleeping for many days. At the moment, I am sure that I can fight the man on my own right now.

  Well, that is one consequence of blood mana that I don't need to worry about. Even as I look at him, I wonder why I was so scared of this man. He looks like a small breeze will cause the man to break into pieces. As I look at him, I realise that my fear was not natural.

  "Break your damn charm, man," I growl at the man. "We are having a civilised discussion here."

  What is it with vampires and their obsession with charm magic? This was meant to enhance the snake's presence to make it more terrifying to me. Otherwise, there is no way that I would have been this nervous. Already, I can think of ways of fighting the man.

  "How did you detect that?" The man replies as he looks at me.

  "Well, if you cast such an obvious charm, even a fool will catch you in the act." I reply. Even as I reply, I can see the man is getting angry now. Vampires don't like to be called weak.

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  "Why are you here, mutt?" The man replies. "You can't expect to come to our doorstep and just sit here without consequences. What I can't figure out is why you would take such a monumental risk to reveal yourself."

  As I hear this question, I wonder what I should reply to this. Right now, my goal is to distract the man for as long as possible. The problem with that is this man is not a fool. The only way that I am buying time is by putting him off balance. The question is, how am I going to do that?

  "Why are you quiet, mutt?" the creature replies. "Has fear finally taken your tongue?"

  As the man speaks, it feels like he is suddenly growing in size. Well, nothing like that is happening. It is just that this one is getting quite forceful with his charm spell. Since he could not scare me subtly, he is trying to brute force it. I will be honest, the subtle approach was more effective. This brute force approach just makes the man look like a clown.

  "I must say, the last couple of months must have been quite embarrassing for you." I reply. "After all, you did not manage to kill me even after pushing your vessel like that. Now they are sending you to greet me like a servant."

  Even as I say this, I can see that the man opposite me is getting angrier. He steels himself, though, as he speaks after a bit. He is not going to enter into action this quickly.

  "Well, we have insulted each other enough, human." The man speaks, his irritation suppressed. "Why are you here? Don't try to distract me with insults. What is your scheme?"

  "Well, I have come here to negotiate with you." I reply. "We need the location of the necromancers."

  "Do you expect us to just give something that vital to you just like that?" The man replies. "You are a naive little kid, aren't you?"

  "Well, we can negotiate for it now." I reply, holding out my sword. " The only reason that we are doing this is because this is the easier method. Otherwise, we don't have any issue torturing it out of you."

  The man's reply to this is to laugh. He laughs like I have just told him the funniest joke in the world.

  "You presume to torture us, naive human. I have seen what your torture looks like." The replies, a mad gleam in his eye. I am not ashamed to admit that my hand is on my sword right now. "You did not manage to make a fragile man like that tell you anything. You think that you will be able to make us squeal. Even if you were to capture us, the worst thing that you can do to us is a mere itch to us. We are the masters of pain and pleasure."

  "Well, I am sure that we will learn something." I reply. "I would rather not fight your kind now. We have more immediate priorities."

  "Well, you speak as if you will be able to beat us in a fight." The man replies as he smirks at me. Looks like his confidence has been restored a bit. That is weird. "You forget that the last time we fought, you had run away as if your life depended on it."

  "Well, this time I have the benefit of having more solid allies. If I am attacked, you and your gang won't live to see the day." I reply. "Anyway, have you looked at yourself? You look as if a simple tap will kill you right now."

  "As I have told you, this vessel of mine is quite fragile. It is still strong enough to rip you into pieces, though." The man replies, as his hands sharpen into claws unknowingly. That comment must have hurt the man. "Where are your fellows? Since you are so confident, they must be somewhere nearby."

  "Who knows where they are. I don't need to know their movements.", I reply. "Anyway, I realise that it is useless for me to talk to you. Clearly, you're not in command. I want to talk to this emissary."

  Even as I say this, I realise that I have touched upon a sore spot for the man.

  "The emissary is a mighty man. You can't expect to disturb such a mighty figure." He speaks as he begins to tap the table with his claws.

  His claws are sharp enough to leave a tiny hole in the table. His bloodlust is potent enough that the other people in the place are looking at us. The few people at the gate of the place have begun to edge away from the place.

  As he does so, I realise that I won't be able to hold him back for long. The others must have already entered into position. I have to hope that they did, because if things come to a fight, then I won't be able to delay him long. I can fight the man, but preventing him from escaping is going to be hard.

  "Well, why are you so hellbent on helping the necromancers?" I ask, as the question pops up in my mind. "You won't be willing to lose such hard-earned bodies without any reason."

  "There is no way that I am answering that, human." He replies, his tone becoming cooler as he stares at me. "Why are you here. You certainly have not come with the intent of negotiation. What are you humans scheming?"

  "Well, there is no way that I can answer that now, can I?" I reply, as I throw his words back at me. I am almost on the verge of drawing my sword right now.

  Just as I say this the both of us turn our heads as we both look at the servants' quarters. Neither of us is looking at the physical location itself. (The walls of the restaurant are in the way.)

  Instead, we are looking at the massive burst of mana that is being emitted in that direction. Even the vampire must be able to sense it with its mana sense.

  "What are you doing here, human?" The vampire screeches at me.

  Even as he speaks, his body becomes unnaturally pale. His eyes take on a bloody red hue. The most dramatic change to him is his body. Right now, it looks like the man is transforming into a living skeleton.

  "Well, I thought that would have been obvious by now. I am bait meant to get you out of the servant quarters." I reply in my most sarcastic tone.

  It is a bit of a risk to insult the man. Right now, the goal is to leave the man unable to think. He might still be able to interfere in our plans.

  Turns out that I am too effective. The man jumps at me like a flash of lightning. It is only instinct that I can draw my sword on his neck. This forces him to jump back. His claws barely miss by an inch.

  One look at the man and I realise that this is not going to be an easy match.

  The man's body has taken on a deathly pallor. His teeth look sharp enough to pierce through leather. His eyes are now red orbs.

  The most terrifying thing is his body, though. His entire body looks like somebody has pulled a rubber band for too long. Everything looks too long and out of proportion for it to be natural in any way.

  The damn bastard was a transformer.