We are making decent progress in our exploration of the inner keep. By the time we left our little base one last time, every single little sound had begun to startle us. We reacted like there was a vampire in the next room, about to attack us all.

  Any more time in that room, we would have begun to attack each other at the sound of our breathing. Things had gone that bad. I still don't know why we were not attacked already.

  The instant that I recovered from overusing my vital mana we began our exploration of the place. Speaking about our exploration, we are making good time.

  We had the good luck of ending up in one of the less important places in the inner keep. It is some kind of servant quarters. That means that the quality of the traps and alarms here are very bad. There should be better ones in the other parts of the fort though. They also had to seriously keep the alarms in the area less sensitive than they are usually kept. Otherwise, we would not be able to make such quick progress. Even the traps are less complex than they would usually be.

  Not that I have needed to worry about traps though. I have not yet needed to dismantle even a single trap in this entire time. Alarms yes, but no traps. All the traps here have been already set off.

  That is pretty weird if I am to be honest. Trevor thinks this is because the vampires must have set off all the traps. After they would have needed a point of entry and this is about as good as a place to infiltrate the place.

  I just can't see how they could have done it though. Any traps set off should have set off the alarms as well. All alarms are designed in such a way that they will react when they detect a mage. They will set off when a certain amount of mana is flowing in the region. I can expect a martial mage to be able to control their vital mana precisely enough that they set off the traps, but not the alarms. Precise mana control is not what pops into your head when you think of vampires.

  If anything, they are the race that least needs to worry about not having enough mana. Well, if I am honest vampires are creatures that always have a bag of tricks. I will figure out this trick of theirs soon enough. I am personally betting on some kind of an infernal summoning. An imp would be capable of pulling this type of thing.

  Well, I shouldn't waste too much time thinking about this. After all, we are in enemy territory right now. I had expected to be attacked on our first day here. Somehow our luck has held till now. Yet I can't stop the creeping suspicion that something is following us. It is like a ghost at the edge of my vision.

  Well, vampires are capable of that kind of stealth. I just don't think they would be this willing to be stealthy when they can just attack us. They hold enough strength to kill all of us right now.

  Fuck, I really should not have started recording right now. It affects my focus. I have to open this alarm without setting it off. Alarm spells are pesky little formations to deal with.

  They are built in such a way that even the lightest contact with external mana will set the entire thing off. This could be a noise, a wave of mana. Anything to inform everybody that you are here. To dismantle it you need to separate the sensitive part from the non-sensitive part. You have to do so gently. Otherwise, you risk setting off the alarm yourself revealing to everybody you are here.

  The formations themselves tend to be pretty easy to break. It is just an exercise in my mana control.

  If I failed, the vampires would attack us, regardless of if they were following us or not. Right now that is something that we cannot afford. To be honest we don't know who will come in reaction to the alarm being set off. It could be the mayfires or it could be the vampires.

  If it is the Mayfires, we don't need to worry about being revealed because ultimately that is our goal. If we manage to meet up with them then I can finally calm down a bit. It is the vampires that we don't want to stumble into.

  The alarm formation that I am dealing with is the most sensitive formation I have encountered till now. This makes me think that this door leads into one of the more important areas of the inner keep.

  That means that we have more chances of encountering the Bloodfire gang or the Mayfires. Thus, it would be wiser to be very cautious.

  (After about ten minutes.)

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  Well, there it goes.

  The minute that the spell gives away I retreat at the same instant. I jump backward keeping my sword ready. The instant after the alarm spell is shattered is the best time to ambush a person.

  The chance of that happening is pretty low. I would have detected anybody if they were there. Still, the one thing that I have learned in my life is to be as careful as possible. You can never tell what vampires can be capable of.

  I signal to the other people in my room to enter into stance. Trevor takes position to my right and Andrew takes position to my left. Jacob is just behind me.

  Jacob is the fastest of us, wielding twin daggers. His job is to warn us in case of an ambush from the back.

  Andrew, who is using a sword and shield and Trevor, who is using a sword are the reserve. They will either follow me, stay put or retreat based on the enemy's action. Finally, I am the vanguard. I will be the first to enter into the place, and based on the enemy's strength give commands through Jacob.

  With everybody taking position it is time for me to open the door. All of this preparation seems to be a bit over the top, but you never know who could be on the other side.

  Finally, the door creaks open as I quickly case the room. It is some kind of an office. The room is bare except for a table and a bookshelf. More importantly, there is no enemy here.

  I signal the soldiers to follow behind me.

  They quickly make their way into the room. Already, I can see Trevor casing the room. The places in which potential enemies might be hiding. The possible places in which we can hide.

  Well, I am supposed to be doing the same thing. Well, the room is pretty easily defensible. We can make use of the table to blockade the door. It is a good solid table. Nothing will be able to break it easily.

  Similarly, the bookshelf can be used but moving it would make way more noise. The books present on the bookshelf can be used to light a fire. Out of curiosity, I open the books to see what is on them.

  Well, it is some kind of an entry log for the servants, recording their time of entry and exit. I put the thing back quietly. I mean, it could be paranoia but I can't see beyond this room in my mana sense. I need to figure out why soon.

  "Well, Andrew would you close the door to the room behind us.", I whisper to Andrew, my voice echoing like drum beats.

  The room has two doors, the one that we just came through and the one that leads to the outside. The formations on this door are even stronger than the one that I have just broken through. Thankfully, There is no alarm formation.

  At a glance, there are three formations here. The first is the reason that my mana sense is not working beyond this room. The second records any noise in the room. The third records any mana signature in the room.

  Well, if they have a person monitoring the second and the third formations we have been discovered already. The chance of that happening is pretty low though. The enemy is in a state of active combat. I have a sneaking suspicion that they don't have enough people to attack the Mayfires. They certainly don't have enough people to monitor all the defensive formations. At least that is what I am telling myself.

  So right now I will focus on the first formation. The other two have already done all the damage it can. Give me five minutes, I don't need to be as gentle with this formation as I need to be with an alarm formation.

  (After about five minutes.)

  Well, it was good that I destroyed the formation. Right now I can sense mana in the room beyond. There are mages on the other side of the room and they are moving a lot of mana.

  Well, we do not have the option to hide anymore. The destruction of the formation would have alerted the people there. With how much they are throwing mana around they will notice this for certain. The only hope that I have is that the people on the other side are not vampires. (I can't tell if the mana on the other side is blood mana or not. If it is blood mana, they have a lot of blood bags in there.)

  Still, I keep my sword ready, not activating it though. I will do so based on the enemy we are facing. The troop has taken position behind me already, the same as the previous time.

  I open the door ready to be ambushed. The scene beyond is about as shocking as one would expect it to be. Well, I was certainly not expecting to see a genocide like this. There are corpses strewn across the hall I find myself in.

  The corpses all are wearing different uniforms, so it must be the Bloodfire gang. That would mean that the man in front of us could be an ally.

  "This is a surprise.", a voice speaks out from the other end of the hall.

  The hall is massive with four or five doors spread across it. I make a note on every door in the place as I finally look at the man. To do this I need to step over a few of the bodies. They have all been burnt black. My troop follows behind me in formation.

  The man is hiding in some kind of a barrier. I rack my head trying to think if the man is an ally or not. Logically speaking he should be an ally but something feels wrong. It is the mana that he is using in the barrier. It is not fire mana. It is also not blood mana. I have never seen such a type of mana. All I can do to describe it is that it is creepy.

  "Are you dumb, vampire.", the man speaks again, his voice more like a harsh whisper. The more he speaks the clearer it is that we are enemies.

  "I am wondering what kind of magic you are wielding. I have never seen magic like this", I reply, pretty much on an impulse.

  "You don't know do you, vampire.", the man speaks, his voice seriously creeping the fuck out of me. "Well, they did mention about you. The vampire that is killing all the vampires."

  I do not get to reply to this. Even as he speaks I feel the mana that he begins to emit. That is too much mana flowing in the room, flowing like a tidal wave of ice. Yet the thing that caused me to shiver from my bones was not this wave of mana. I can see the corpses get up in the corners of my eyes.