I have been practicing blood echolocation ever since the meeting at the laundry. (This meeting was where we finalised all of our plans, by the way. These I have not included to protect our privacy.)

  It is a bit embarrassing to admit it, but I have gotten rusty with blood echolocation. I did not use that spell since my time with the Sentinels. (I guess that it was something that I should have expected. Even during my time with the Sentinels, I mostly used the formation.)

  Anyways, to get back to the point. I have been practicing the spell for the last couple of days. The practice itself has not been as useful as I had hoped it to be. Still, I have managed to find out in my practice that my sword is a very useful tool for blood echolocation.

  To explain this, I have to explain how blood echolocation works. At least the formation that I designed for this task works. This formation I usually need to inscribe on a source of blood mana. Normally, that would have been a blood mana stone. The spell amplifies the mana movement inside the stone. Even a tiny displacement would be enhanced to such a degree that a normal person could detect it.

  My sword is acting as the blood mana stone in this case. I can sense any tiny change that occurs in it without the need to amplify it. This is something that I never had with blood mana stones. This should increase my range by a great deal.

  Even a tiny bit of foreign blood mana is enough to cause a ripple in my blood mana. At the same time, my link with the sword allows me to sense this ripple as soon as it is formed. With the formation, it is really hard to approximate the enemy location. I could only really tell a direction we were supposed to go in. With the sword, I can pinpoint the exact area in which the enemy is present.

  Even I am surprised by how effective blood echolocation is with the sword. The only issue with using my sword is that I have to stimulate my sword to do this. That means that I am holding the sword in my hand, in a state of half-draw. That means that there is a constant drain of vital mana from the sword.

  Thankfully, the guards seem more focused on the folks coming out of the casino than on me. They might have reacted if I had unsheathed my sword and randomly begun attacking people with it.

  The guards must be taking me for one of the locals. There are quite a few weird people in this place, after all. I guess what I am doing must seem normal compared to what folks here usually get down to.

  Well, I guess that I did not need to be so worried about the guards. Even as I am recording this, I have been steadily making my way through the bazaar towards the enemy.

  I am going east right now, towards a part of the town I have never been to. Well, this was within my expectations. After all, if the vampires were here in the more wealthy parts of the town, John would have found them already.

  As for why we have never come to this part of the town? That is due to the nature of our roles here. After all, a noble and his entourage would remain in the wealthier parts of the town. Even us servants coming here would make us look odd.

  Well, I guess that I should elaborate on this a bit more. You see, ever since we have come to this place, we have been stalked by somebody. None of us has actively engaged with these people, so we have no idea who they could be. (Whether they are vampires or not.)

  The Sentinels and I think that it is most likely the vampires. At least somebody who was hired by the vampires. The Searchers believe that it could be the Navok family. That has caused a small rift in our alliance. Regardless, both of us agree that they don't need to be engaged right now.

  The way we arrived was suspicious. That is why all of us have been forced to play our roles so thoroughly. Otherwise, we would have found ourselves attacked by the Navoks in the middle of the night. Well, there is no need to think about this so much now. After all, our stalkers are going to be dealt with soon enough.

  By the way, as I have been recording all of this, we have been getting closer to our target. You can even see that in the way that everything around me has begun to steadily become worse. The buildings are more broken down, the people more beaten. Yet the most clear indicator is the powerful stink here. I can't even ignore it due to my enhanced senses.

  I would place the smell as a mixture of rotting corpses, untreated trash and vomit. Even leaving aside the smells, you can see the place is steadily getting much worse.

  Here, my half-drawn sword becomes necessary. It is enough to intimidate the folks here. I could deal with them quite easily, but it would get bloody very quickly. That would be enough to spook our stalkers into dealing with us before we can complete our work. We aren't ready for them to act yet.

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  Well, the Searchers and the Sentinels are behind me. They are keeping themselves in the back, hidden. They won't be showing themselves until the vampires attack me.

  Right now, I am the bait. If the vampires attack me at this moment, the people behind me will attack them with their full force. (After all, they might know that we are coming but they don't know our exact strength.)

  I wonder if Searcher Amelia and John managed to get out of the casino. Right now, I would say that getting out of the place is going to be pretty difficult for them. I am sure I can manage without them, but it is better if they are here. They can control their respective groups better than I can.

  As I have been moving, the blood mana that I can feel is steadily getting stronger. Right now, I don't even need to stimulate my sword to detect the reflected waves.

  We are very close to our target. It will be coming into my sight at any moment now. I guess that I should tell this to the folks who are following behind me. They are still hidden from my vision as I gesture for them to be careful. (They should be within visual range of me.) I do the same as I tighten my grip on my sword.

  It doesn't take long for us to reach the target. I guess that I should describe the place. It is basically a ruin. I think that it was supposed to be some kind of a warehouse. The place has long been abandoned. You wouldn't even be able to tell that somebody was living in the place. This is how rundown this place is.

  The place has crumbled so much that it seems closer to a magical ruin than a building. I certainly would not have expected vampires to live in such a place. This is the exact type of place that vampires cannot tolerate.

  The main reason for this is the stink coming from the place. You see, the entire place smells like a pair of rotting carcasses. I am sure that even a non-mage would struggle to be in this area for long.

  The vampires have to be in a much worse position than me. After all, the sensitivity of a vampire is many times greater than mine. Regardless of how they are living here, the vampires have to be hidden in this place. There is no other possibility right now. I don't charge into the place like a madman, though. That would be the best way for us to walk into a trap. With vampires, there is bound to be a trap somewhere. I just can't see it.

  Thus, I move to a corner of the street away from the sight of any vampire on guard. I am looking for a way to get into the place. The building has buildings to its left and right. If you could call these half-destroyed ruins buildings.

  The building to the right gives me no opportunity to sneak into the place. It looks like it will collapse on my head if I take a step into the place. Even if the building held, the place is so open that a vampire will certainly detect me.

  Then there is the building to the left. It has more opportunities for me to sneak into the place. Granted, we won't be able to hide from our enemies for long. They will be on the lookout for me. (They must have detected the blood mana from my sword already.) Still, if we manage to hide from them for at least a couple of minutes, it will be enough for us to get the drop on them.

  As I have been studying the place, I have been taking care to keep myself out of the eyeshot of the vampires. Even as I stand here, I can sense one of the Searchers pop up next to me.

  "What exactly are you waiting for, young master. Every second that we waste here, we risk discovery." Searcher Patrick speaks. There is an edge of irritation in his voice.

  "I know. Do you know any spells to suppress smells?" I ask the man.

  "Well, I do know of such spells, but they don't work against vampires. They can track people using their vital mana." Patrick replies.

  "Well, don't you think that I don't know that. I will manage that. Keep yourself hidden for now." I reply. "I have my ways of countering their senses. Just remove the scents of everybody here, along with me. By the way, have Captain John and Searcher Amelia managed to make it?"

  "No, young master." Replies the man. "They are presently stuck in the casino."

  "Well, that is bad luck then." I reply. Having them here would make certain things easier. "Get on with your work. Hold your positions for now. You can follow me ten minutes after I have entered the place."

  Listening to this, Patrick disappears from my sight. Before he leaves, he casts a spell on me. Even as he disappears, I can feel the barrier form around me. Well, it is one of these spells. There are many ways to hide your smells. The most common way to do this is to form a barrier of air around you.

  It is a pretty effective spell that can hide most smells. The problem is that it does this by accumulating all of these smells inside the barrier. Let's just say it is going to get stinky in here very quickly.

  Even as I begin to move towards the building to the left, I begin to release waves of blood mana. I hadn't stopped that for a moment. After all, the vampires can also detect these waves. If I were to suddenly stop them, it might inform them that I am here. No vampire can suddenly stop emitting blood mana like I can with the sword.

  Anyway, I am increasing the intensity of the blood mana I emit. Right now, the goal is to make the vampires focus on looking for blood mana. Even if this means that I am easier to detect.

  You see, blood mana and vital mana are completely different types of mana. It is possible to convert one into the other, but they are still different enough from one another.

  That means that if a vampire were to focus on looking for blood mana, it would be very hard for him to focus on vital mana. If these vampires are on the lookout for me, they should be trying to detect the blood mana I am releasing. Then they won't be able to detect the others that well.

  It is a bit of a gamble, but I might as well try it. After all, if I can distract them by becoming bait, then our task will become much easier. Well, now I am just wasting time. Time to set off.