"This is the warehouse of the Night Blade." Manlin Victor said to his master on the back of a flaming red horse. A group of followers surrounded a stone house in broad daylight. "They hide stuff there that's been smuggled into the country."
“Just think, I saved them from having to pay taxes, and they repaid me by killing all my food,” Winkle complained.
Their wizards and priests checked the house from the outside in case anyone inside had set a trap. The dragon smelled the air, and the warehouse smelled of spices, grave soil, and fresh blood; it reminded Winkle of a farmer's slaughterhouse.
Julius is the most experienced necromancer in the country, and he tells everyone everything about vampires. "According to Lord Victor, they are alchemical vampires, created from the elixir of blood rather than the Red Death. This means that in addition to remaining resistant to sunlight, they also lack most of the weaknesses of standard vampires , has higher attributes and has special abilities, such as turning into blood.”
"Ravelle can walk in the sun, just like the one we fought in Winterland." "We have to assume they can all resist it."
"Who?" Winkle asked, not remembering the name.
"The leader of the Night Blade."
oh. It doesn't matter. The rat queen gives him no more trouble than others of her kind. "Can vampires be burned to death?" Winkle asked an important question.
"Oh yeah." "I believe they even have Fi
e's weaknesses. They take triple damage from this. "
"So, minion, why do you use so many words to describe a problem when the solution is so obvious?"
"I'm not worried about His Majesty's killing abilities." "We have enough priests to fight them off, and I don't think they are stupid enough to fight with you. Unfortunately, they may be using Charlene as a hostage."
"Even with her scent, our werewolves couldn't find her." "That means magic."
"No one eats my Manlin minions," Winkle said. "Except for me, when I need emergency rationing."
"His Majesty's concern for our people is as heartwarming as ever." Manling Victor said in his usual strange tone. "Maybe he can take the roof off with the grace he's known for?"
Smart Check…
successful!
"Minion, the way you talk is a little strange."
Manling Victor froze in place. "What's wrong?"
"You said something, but somehow your tone suggested the opposite of what you believed," Winkle explained. "But it wasn't a lie, because you didn't really hide your intentions and you would never lie to me. It's like I could only infer the true meaning from your voice."
His attendants looked silently at their master, whose face was hidden behind his new helmet.
"But that's impossible because that means you think I'm clumsy and you love me. You love me more than anything."
His chief of staff made no reply, which made his master fearful for him. "Slave?"
"Your Majesty knows how to be sarcastic now." Manling Victor finally spoke, his tone becoming cold and distant. "Your Majesty understands sarcasm."
"What is irony, a kind of magic?" Fankel raised his head. "Can I learn it?"
"It's... it's a stress reliever that Mannings use when they're nervous."
"Does duplicity make you happier?" Vai
queue
He frowned. "Minion, I'm worried about your mental health. You should work more."
"Thanks, that really helps."
"You did it again," Winkle said. "Friend Victor, you should not be nervous. I will protect you and get your outdated breeding partner back."
His minion just looked away.
Vai
queue
tearing apart the roof of the warehouse with his hands, just as he would tear apart a farmer's barn while making groceries. This time, however, he found no cattle worth eating, not even an enemy to kill.
In fact, he found nothing but empty crates. "The pests are gone!"
The kobold rangers broke through the door and the kobolds swarmed in.
"Your Majesty, Lord Victor!" Red Ranger ran out of the warehouse quickly, holding a piece of paper in his paws. "I found this in the crate!"
"[Detect magic traps]," Jules said on the paper. "very safe."
Wenke's minister grabbed the scroll and read it. "Okay. This is great."
"Minion, you should see a doctor," Winkle said. "Or breed. Mammals feel happier when they reproduce, don't they?"
His servant sighed. "See you later, Your Majesty. They captured Charlene and wanted to meet me at a place outside the city at night to make a deal. I can bring two bodyguards."
"Oh, great," Winkle said. "My army and I are one."
"They are adamantly opposed to His Majesty coming. If they see you within a mile, they will call off the deal."
"You mean exchange?" Julius said. "Who are they looking for?"
"What," replied Manlin Victor. "They want Mott's map."
"Strange." The Necromancer clasped his hands together. "Why not the bottle? Do they know you sent it back to Bassino?"
"I can only see one reason why they would want a map," Manlin-Victor replied, without elaborating.
"It doesn't matter, I won't give the map to Fuliben's servant, he is evil and must be eliminated." "Such as the last name on the list."
"Your Majesty, not all the conspiracies against you are planned by Frippon." "In fact, he said that he has learned his lesson and let the past be bygones."
"You believe him, minion?" growled Winkle, the pain of losing the treasure still lingering in his mind. "Have you forgotten the atrocities committed by the Golden Killer as he roamed the world? He who is willing to cross this line will cross any other line, from lies to deceit!"
"Chief, this is obviously a trap!" Red Ranger protested. "They want to isolate and eat His Majesty's most precious servant!"
"My empire will not yield to the demands of lustful men and cattle rustlers!" Venkel roared, and his minions roared a battle cry in response.
Victor sighed. "I have a plan."
"Beep!"
His cries of agony echoed across the dunes under a moonless night sky.
"Vic, what's wrong?" as "Mu
mu
ia
The highest-ranking chaplain in the army, Victor chose Alliso
As his first bodyguard; she changed her usual clothes into a battle dress, a floral cloak and a black wooden staff. Thankfully, over the past few months V&V has been steadily pushing the boundaries of arable land into the desert, and her mobility has improved. "You've been cursing for hours."
"He knows how to be sarcastic now!" Victor growled angrily from behind his nightmare horse. He holds a bazooka in one hand and a scythe in the other. Allison thought it made him look ridiculous, but he didn't care. “I need a new way to de-stress!”
"You could always kill the demons first and cook them later," Alison deadpanned. "This is great for Chocolati
e worked wonders. "
"You mean she was worse before?!"
"Sir," Jules, his other bodyguard, cleared his throat. "Please remain calm."
"Yeah, you don't have to shout, Two Legs." said a third voice.
Victor frowned and squinted his eyes at the source of this sentence.
It was the horse he was riding. "Can you talk?"
"Well, yes, I can," replied the horse, who by the sound of it was clearly a mare. "For all I know now, I'm probably smarter than you."
"Nothing," Victor snorted. "My old mount could eat you."
"Vic, are you talking to your horse?" Allison asked, clearly not hearing what the creature had to say. Victor believes he only did this because his mount was considered a monster.
"You're not that mammal crybaby with a flying dragon on your back," the horse glared at her rider. "You can fly, you lazy reptile!"
"Yeah, you're so unlucky!"
"My name is Noelle, you piece of shit." The beast snorted. "Because I like intellectual conversation, we don't talk very often."
"Then just talk to yourself." Victor sighed deeply and ignored the looks of Allison and Julius. "I'm not crazy."
"Vic, I can't believe I'm saying that," his fairy friend said. "But you should be more."
Skill check successful.
Victor noticed something moving silently behind the nearby dunes, their scent masked by the wind. "They are coming," the minister warned.
His allies immediately began casting Protective Wards, while Victor used the new sorcery buff he'd learned from Jules. "[Undead Protection], [Breath of Life], [Aura of Fear]."
You gain a +4 bonus on checks against [undead] effects.
+100 temporary health.
The chance of causing [Terror] increases by 20%.
Within seconds, a dozen cloaked dark figures surrounded them; Victor's Monster Insight revealed that most of them were vampires. Two of the men forced the bound and gagged Charlene forward, stopping quite far away from their opponents.
Charisma test partially successful.
Lucy Lavelle can only read your thoughts on the surface.
not good enough. He told Allison nothing, and ghouls like Joris were immune to mind-reading, so the Nightblades shouldn't be in the dark about their two secret weapons. The fact that they chose a location close to the city means they probably intended to retreat there.
Victor noticed Saurus among the assassins, waving her claws at him. "Oh, hi Vic!"
"Oh, hello, Savi!" Victor greeted her too. "What's wrong?"
"I'm fine! I hope you're not angry at my sudden but inevitable betrayal?"
"Well, that's part of the job."
"I'm sorry, Vic. You're my friend, but they know where my family lives."
"We're all one big happy family," said a hooded figure whose voice Victor recognized as Lucy Lavery's. "Even if some of them become the black sheep."
"Sheep," Allison replied, making Victor roll his eyes.
"I understand now how you came to take over Nightblade," the minister told Ravi. "All the higher-ups have become your vampire descendants."
"It's a very sweet deal, you'll agree to it," she replied, hiding her face. "Especially after addressing vulnerability to sunlight."
"By the way, Emperor Winkel has officially rescinded your invitation to these lands," Victor said, but that didn't cheer her up.
"Dalton, we are predators. Does the fox need the rabbit's permission to hunt it?"
"Really?" Alliso
He frowned. "Then why do vampires need invitational legends?"
"Usually, because they are polite," Julius replied.
"We bleed people to survive, but we are not barbarians," said one of the undead assassins. “We are the cultural undead.”
"Yeah, you're the one who has no respect for anything now!" complained another.
"I'm surprised you showed up in person," Victor told Lavelle. "There must be a good reason why you took the risk to face Wacker."
"You have what I want," Lucy confirmed, holding out her hand to them. "Give me Mort's map and I will release your assistant."
"Afraid it has your name on it?" Victor laughed at her, and her cold silence confirmed his thoughts. "You are Destra, the fourth member of the team. That was your name when you were alive. I remember You said fighting a dragon was stupid?"
"Yes, I was the one who convinced my team not to wake Fankle or touch his treasure," the vampire confirmed, and Victor realized the irony of the situation. "This works great for me. Immortality, knowledge, power..."
This explains why she asked Savuluse to be in Mu
mu
i
A chapter was established. She doesn't care about the area, but wants to keep an eye on Winkle in case he chooses to hunt her down. Now that he's found her teammates, she takes action.
"But you can't be a good criminal mastermind when anyone can use that map to find your location," Allison surmised.
"And I doubt those exes would be happy that you lied to them," Victor added. He remembered their last discussion, when the vampire explained that it was thanks to fairy flowers that she could walk in the sun. Probably provided to her by Hamelin in exchange for her help. "You have to know you're in a no-win situation. You may be powerful, but a group of thieves and hired gunmen will never defeat Wacker."
"Fighting a dragon is foolish," Lucy replied. "That's why we won't do it. Our mission is to destroy this fragile country, and we will. We will starve your citizens, terrorize businessmen, assassinate your leaders. We will quickly retreat into the shadows and let That lumbering dragon can't get us. No one will feel safe. Your poor economic situation and existing tensions will do the rest and tear this place apart."
Ah, she was going to attack them with basic economic principles! "No way."
"You lost," Lucy said. "You just don't know it yet. So I'm going to give you and your friends a piece of advice: Either ditch the dragon, come back, or die."
"Already done," Victor replied. "The answer is: no."
"No," Ellison added, and Julius shook his head politely.
"Too bad, because I don't believe in second chances." The vampire shrugged. "But we don't have to fight tonight. Map, on the girl."
Sure.
Victor first used [Monster Insight] to check Charlene.
Shadowma
Doppelgänger (fairy/human form)
Powerful against fairies, mind control, poison, hallucinations, paralysis, sleep, and truth detection.
Weaker than Killer, Cold Iron and Silver.
A fairy who works as a spy, assassin, and occasional actress. A master of infiltration with the ability to shapeshift, read minds, and hide truths; very angry that your [Monster Insight] can discover his true nature, despite his natural immunity to magic and perks. You hurt its feelings! Besides, it's a trap.
After many trials.
"That Pe of yours
k is so annoying. said Lucy LaVey, and immediately cast a spell. "Accelerate the night scene." "
Before anyone could react, she unleashed an impenetrable darkness around herself.
The terrain is temporarily changed to [Dark Underworld].
Nocturnal creatures, demons, and wild undead have had their properties increased and will be more difficult to transform. All non-nocturnal animals will suffer from this disease. Mo
otype, non-undead creatures will become undead when killed on the battlefield.
His friends immediately cast spells, forming a defensive line, while Victor pointed his bazooka in the general direction where LaVille had been standing. Her spell shrouded the entire area in darkness, preventing him from seeing anything. Yet he pulled the trigger. His projectile was about to hit something, and the explosion was engulfed in darkness.
"Summoning-" Victor started.
Field effects are cancelled.
Before he could finish his words, the darkness disappeared, and there was only a small crater in the desert to accompany the minion. The nightblades kept their word and disappeared into the shadows rather than fight.
good.
Victor locks the door at night.
