Scout Technique

In the center of the battlefield, bats gathered, and the figure of a Vampire appeared.

Of the merchant group members still fighting the Vampire, less than half remained from the start. Those who survived were among the stronger guards, mostly at Tier 2 or Tier 3.

The weaker Practitioners within the merchant group couldn't withstand the Vampire's Bat Form transformations more than a few times and had already been killed by the Vampire.

The remaining Practitioners still intended to slowly deal with the Vampire before them by relying on their numerical advantage.

Aside from the core members of the merchant group, the other guards, who were initially gathered for profit, were clearly unwilling to engage in a head-on fight after witnessing the Vampire's power.

Even though the Vampire was being surrounded, it only sustained superficial wounds. The few deeper wounds it had were, without exception, inflicted by Mage spells. These wounds had some effect on the Vampire but were not fatal; instead, they only intensified its killing intent.

The only ones fighting the Vampire were the few Warriors positioned at the very front. The Warriors continuously struck the Vampire with their shields, trying to create opportunities for others to attack. Even when injured by the Vampire's attacks, they still held their ground.

At this moment, Rhode, who had descended from the Watchtower, saw the blue-robed Mage riding away on a horse. Rhode realized something and quickly walked towards the corpse of Yusuf, who had fallen nearby.

Upon reaching Yusuf's body, Rhode examined it and discovered that the Space Ring Yusuf had been wearing on his hand was now missing.

Rhode knew that the blue-robed Mage must have found Yusuf's body, taken the Space Ring, and then fled.

Rhode couldn't understand why the blue-robed Mage had done this. Sensing from the Mental Mark that the Vampire had already sustained some injuries, Rhode thought that even without Commander Yusuf's leadership, the blue-robed Mage, along with the experienced Practitioners around, could still defeat the Vampire if commanded properly.

Rhode could only guess that the blue-robed Mage intended to hoard all the Soul Crystals for himself.

Looking at the situation on the battlefield, the merchant group's guards were engaged in combat with the Vampire, and no one noticed Rhode emerging from the Watchtower for the moment.

Rhode's past life experience made him understand the value of these Soul Crystals. Once he obtained this batch of Soul Crystals, the Death Energy they provided would undergo a qualitative change with the accumulation of their quantity.

With the help of these Soul Crystals, Rhode would be able to create a large number of Undead Creatures when the upcoming war began.

Instead of helping the Vampire kill the merchant group members, Rhode went to a carriage, forcefully cut the ropes binding the horse, then mounted it and pursued the direction the blue-robed Mage had fled.

Since the blue-robed Mage had been riding away for a long time, and Rhode had also spent some time examining Yusuf's body, Rhode couldn't even see a silhouette of the blue-robed Mage ahead.

Although he possessed the Novice Scout Technique, Rhode could only discern the general direction the blue-robed Mage had fled by looking for subtle traces. He couldn't immediately identify the exact path and had to observe carefully, taking some time to find the precise location.

Rhode opened his status panel. After killing Yusuf, Rhode had gained a significant amount of Experience Points. Combined with the merchant group guards killed by the Vampire, he had enough to raise his character level.

"Consuming 300 Experience Points, remaining Experience Points: 365. Class Level has been raised to Tier 2 Swordsman Level 4..."

"Gained 1 Free Attribute Point, gained 1 Skill Point..."

To ensure he could accurately follow the blue-robed Mage and obtain the Soul Crystals, Rhode couldn't afford to be stingy with the Skill Points he had acquired. He used one to learn the Intermediate Scout Technique.

(Intermediate Scout Technique: Through extensive training, your scouting abilities have been further enhanced. It is difficult for anything to remain hidden under your scrutiny. You can discern enemy movements through subtle traces and sense hidden dangers from the slightest rustle of grass. Detection Range +4, Perception +2)

After learning the Intermediate Scout Technique, the subtle traces around him, whether it was the mud splashed on the grass or the slightly depressed dead branches on the ground, seemed to indicate the blue-robed Mage's movements to Rhode. What Rhode would have previously taken time to discern now appeared incredibly obvious.

Rhode immediately followed the discovered traces, riding his horse in one direction.

From the traces left by the blue-robed Mage, Rhode could even determine how long ago he had passed through there.

Rhode understood that without Mana at the moment, he might not be able to defeat the blue-robed Mage head-on with his current strength. Therefore, he didn't intend to catch up and fight directly but instead followed from behind using the traces.

As Rhode pursued into the woods, those fighting the Vampire also noticed something unusual.

When the blue-robed Mage was riding away on his horse, he was spotted by a few people. Although they sensed something was wrong, these individuals continued to fight the Vampire, harboring doubts but not showing them.

It was only when the merchant group members saw another enemy dressed in black robes pursuing the blue-robed Mage that they realized something was amiss.

Although they didn't know what had happened, these guards became hesitant while fighting the Vampire. They merely skirmished around the Vampire, avoiding being hit, and didn't focus on killing it.

At this moment, the Vampire's attacks were being held back by the Warriors in front. A Rogue nearby intended to seize the opportunity to attack, but the Vampire noticed and chose to take the Rogue's attack head-on.

As the Rogue's dagger pierced the Vampire's body, the Vampire's claws similarly slashed across the Rogue's abdomen. The Vampire could quickly pull out its dagger, but the Rogue could only fall to the ground.

From behind, a Warrior was about to strike with his sword. The Vampire didn't dodge but, seizing the opening when the Warrior attacked, lunged with a claw towards the Warrior's throat, killing him instantly. Although the Warrior's sword managed to hit the Vampire, it had completely lost its force.

On the battlefield, without the blue-robed Mage's crowd control, although the surrounding guards still suppressed the Vampire, as the duration of the weakening spells on the Vampire expired, its original strength returned. Furthermore, with the guards still unwilling to fight to the death, the Vampire began to unleash its power.

Nearby, several more guards attempted to launch an attack. Before their weapons could hit the Vampire, it seized the moment and transformed into a cloud of black mist in the center of their encirclement.

Taking advantage of the guards being too close to dodge, bats swarmed them and began to tear at them.

With the Vampire still having uses of its Bat Form ability remaining, and lacking the Mage's powerful spells, killing it was clearly incredibly difficult.

For ordinary Tier 2 Practitioners, with their stats and special skills not being particularly strong, the bats that appeared after the Vampire's Bat Form transformation were hard to deal with. Aside from a few experienced Practitioners, everyone else was struggling.

The Vampire displayed its peak Tier 3 strength. If they hadn't first depleted its Bat Form ability uses like Rhode did, and then tried to attack its weak points to heavily injure it, relying solely on numerical superiority to wear it down was clearly beyond the coordination level of this group.

As the number of fallen guards increased, the morale of the remaining merchant group guards plummeted. Without the Mage's suppression, facing the Vampire directly, they began to understand the terror of this creature.