Chapter 59: Chapter 59: To Stop A Disaster
Millenia pulled back from his neck. She wiped a small drop of blood from her lip and offered a satisfied smile. She stood up from his lap and smoothed out the front of her crimson dress.
Kai took a steady breath to clear his head.
He felt a lingering pull toward her, a direct result of her succubus nature, but he forced his mana to push the feeling down.
’She is testing my control,’ Kai thought to himself.
’If I lose focus now, I beco just another thrall.’
He stood up from the chair and adjusted his collar to hide the new bite mark sitting right next to the bruise Mira gave him earlier in the evening.
"Follow ," Millenia said.
She walked over to a large wooden table in the centre of the room. She unrolled a wide map and placed four heavy silver cups on the corners to keep it flat.
Kai walked over and stood beside her.
He looked down at the parchnt.
It was a detailed military map of the lands north of the capital. Several red markers were placed along the main trade roads.
"Here is the situation," Millenia began.
She pointed a pale finger at a mountain range near the top edge of the map.
"The Eastern Bloodline army is moving very fast. They are exactly three days from the capital walls. Right now, they are marching straight through the Ashfen pass."
Kai studied the markers. "Who is leading them?"
"A general nad Lilith," Millenia replied.
"She is brutal, and she is very paranoid."
"Where does she sleep?" Kai asked.
He needed to know the target’s exact location within the marching formation.
"She leads from the centre of the army," Millenia said, tracing a circle around the largest red marker.
"She never stays on the edges. She is surrounded by her personal guard at all tis. Twelve blood knights. And she never sleeps in the sa tent twice to avoid assassins."
Kai leaned over the table.
"You want
to kill a vampire general surrounded by twelve blood knights."
"I want you to try," Millenia replied.
She picked up her wine glass from the small side table. The way she said it made her intentions very clear. She was not actually helping him win. If he died, she would just find another pawn.
’She thinks I am just going to charge into the centre of the camp and get slaughtered.’
Kai focused his attention on the drawn mountain range.
He ignored her amused gaze.
’I know this route,’ he thought to himself.
He ran his eyes over the ink lines marking the Ashfen pass.
He rembered the specific layout of the terrain.
The pass had one fatal weakness.
It was a narrow choke point where the main dirt road squeezed tight between two high cliff faces.
The cliffs were steep and impossible to climb quickly. When an army of five hundred soldiers tried to march through that specific point, they beca a crowded ss of ten. It was a perfect, natural bottleneck.
He tapped his finger firmly on that spot on the map.
"I am not fighting her in the centre of an open camp," Kai said. "I am going to hit her right here."
Millenia looked down at the spot he tapped. She studied the narrow choke point. Sothing shifted in her expression. It was not quite respect, but it was very close to its neighbour. She realised he actually understood military tactics.
"It is a tight squeeze," she noted. "But she still has her twelve knights around her."
"I need three things from you," Kai said. He looked up from the map and t her glowing red eyes.
"First, I need a fast horse. Second, I need a detailed layout of Lilith’s tent rotation. I need to know how she decides where to sleep before they pack up the camp each morning."
"She uses a coded cypher based on the moon phases," Millenia explained.
"I will write the key down for you. You can predict her exact location for the next three nights."
"And the third thing?" Kai asked.
"I need to know whatever you know about her specific ability. I need her weakness."
Millenia walked around the edge of the table.
She stopped right across from him. She set her glass down next to one of the silver cups.
’He knew the attacks from the ga but not how it worked.’
"Lilith’s ability is called Blood Puppetry," Millenia explained.
Her voice dropped to a serious tone.
"She controls anyone whose blood she has tasted. Her personal guard is all her loyal puppets. They are not regular soldiers. They feel no pain, they do not tire, and they follow no order but hers."
Kai thought about the combat chanics.
Fighting twelve enemies who feel no pain was a terrible idea. His stamina would run out long before theirs did.
"So here is what happened to the last assassin who tried to fight them," Millenia added with a dark smile.
"He cut off a knight’s arm, and the knight just kept swinging his sword with the other hand. Which ans killing the guards is pointless. You will just waste your energy."
"There is always a catch to puppet magic," Kai pointed out.
"Yes," Millenia agreed.
"Because they are puppets, their lives are tied directly to the master holding the strings. If you kill Lilith, the connection breaks. The twelve guards drop dead imdiately."
Kai let out a slow breath.
He processed the rules of the engagent. He was only level twenty-three; his stats were decent, but a vampire general would be at least level fifty.
A direct fight was suicide.
He had to use the environnt, his rogue skills, and stealth. He had to sever the head of the snake before the snake even knew he was there.
"Good," Kai said. He picked up his silver mask from the table and tucked it under his arm.
"Then I only need to kill one person."
A blue light sparked in the air right above the map. The system registered the accepted terms of the alliance. It recognised the established target and locked the mission paraters in place.
[System Event: Quest Acquired]
[Quest Title: Decapitate the March]
[Target: Lilith, Betrayer Commander]
[thod: Unrestricted]
[Ti Limit: 3 days]
[Kai’s Current Level: 23]
"Have the horse ready at the back gate in ten minutes," Kai ordered.
Millenia tilted her head.
She seed to enjoy his sudden shift into command.
"Of course. Try not to die, Kai. I am looking forward to our next eting."
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