“....You failed?”

In the place where Hachiro’s group were attacked by the red beam, four men and women were kneeling on the ground in front of a man who was around 2 meters in height.

A man whose face was young but had an aura that told he had been in countless battles.

He was the colonel.

After the General was escorted back by the colonel, he and his three subordinates who went with him to escort the General, went back to meet with the other subordinates that were left behind.

When they saw them, their bodies were riddled with some minor cuts and bruises.

They told him that they failed, something already evident from a lack of proof of subjugation and nervous expressions.

After their failure, the colonel sent the three that was with him to subjugate Hachiro and the others.

“The years must have dulled my senses. Perhaps I was too hopeful in thinking you fresh bloods could defeat those three even after the general had already weakened them for you” (Colonel)

The colonels statement suggested that it was General Buroom who had initiated the ambush on the group of humans at the start.

As the colonel stated his disappointment, the four kneeling on the ground with their heads lowered, lowered their heads in shame even more.

“But, as it was your first time fighting against opponents like those, a lenient punishment would suffice.” (Colonel)

After hearing that, the four lowered their heads again even more to show their gratitude.

“Now. Let us await good news from the others.” (Colonel)

----

Below the forest canopy, two figures moved through the night at a fast pace.

However, their feet did not touch the ground.

They were hovering a meter above ground, one was a woman, the other a man.

Flying above the canopy was another man who wore the same attire as them.

They were the three sent to pursue Hachiro’s team.

Though their appearance looked to be below the age of thirty, they were about the same age as count Buroom who was now 71.

Though the dark surroundings and peaked officers’ cap made it hard to see their face, they were without a doubt beautiful.

They were spread out this way to utilise their racial skills - heat vision.

Just like a snakes, they could see heat as a wavelength.

Having one in the air and two below allowed for both ground and aerial view.

Utilising this aided the three in tracking their targets and also fighting, if need be, in a forested area.

Another factor the vampires used to track the heroes was their magical power.

Magical power was not leaking from them, it was gushing out of them.

It was similar to the count but his was leagues above theirs and the count could also suppress that magical power from giving away his position.

Nearing the end of the forest line that lead to a meadow, the vampire far above the canopy took out a signal lamp to inform the two below that forest is ending.

The two below acknowledged also using a signal lantern.

Because they didn't have the communicating abilities of a 'Game Master', they had to resort to using signals using light.

'Rustle'

"?"

The one hovering above the canopy stopped as he noticed the shaking of leaves on the trees ahead of him.

There was shaking on one tree after another as if something was jumping on them.

He found it odd because in his visual perspective, even with his 'heat vision', the cause of the shaking could be found.

'thud'

That was when the sound of something hitting a solid reached his ears.

Something had hit the barrier he set up to protect himself.

It was a barrier that set up a repulsion sphere defending the user from physical attacks like arrows or bullets.

The radius of the sphere was two meters from the origin aka the castr.

‘So those leaves shaking earlier was a distraction…….. Too bad you didn’t account for the barrier!’

As he rotated his body mid-air to face the direction of the attack,

“Guh?!”

His vision became cloudy as extreme lethargy hit him.

The cause of his state was an invisible cloud of gas, causing his consciousness to fade.

He plummeted as his vision vanished.

Disappearing below the tree’s leaves, a loud snap, no it was multiple snaps that happened at once together, resounded in the area.

A thud was heard afterwards.

""!""

Hearing that sound, the two hovering near the ground stopped to look to the direction of the sound.

Unable to see due to the trees in the way they directed their gaze up to where their companion was supposed to be.

Unable to see him, they took out their sabres clearly on alert.

Something had happened to their comrade.

The two cautiously approached the area where the sound was heard, trying to be as silent as possible.

There they saw their dead comrade’s body.

In their visual perspective that had 'heat vision', they could see the body becoming colder.

Their eyes were wide open with clear shock.

In their state, they didn’t notice a silhouette drop down behind them without a sound.

Just as the figure touched the ground it bounced back up, out of sight.

''''thud!''''

The two crashed face first on the ground, lying besides each other.